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Testament I think is denied by none that understands the Government of that Church and that this kind of Government is repealed in the New Testament appears not for the words of Christ forbid onely an Heathenish Tyranny and not a Christianly Superiority or an over-lording and not an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
all your victories You may perchance blame my needless pains in answering so many frivolous Arguments and you may wonder too who they be who have framed such simple Objections but you will cease to wonder at this last when you consider that in these later times the man hath been accounted without zeal or to want wit that hath not something to say against Bishops whom to vilifie and slander hath passed for an evidence of holinesse and if you blame me in the former I contesse I had rather answer too much thereby if I could to satisfie you in all then to leave you unresolved in any thing though it be not material nor worth the answering Argum. 21 Which this last Argument I know you will not hold to be because it rests upon an Ordinance of the two Houses and therefore I have kept it as the Reserve and strength of the whole host of Arguments for the last Now the Ordinance thus speaketh For the abolishing of Archbishops and Bishops and providing for the payment of the just and necessary debts of the Kingdome into which the same hath been drawn by a War mainly promoted by and in favour of the said Archbishops and Bishops and other their adherents and dependents Be it Ordained that all their Lands be sold c. Resp In which Ordinance the ends wherefore these Lands must be sold are two 1. For the abolishing of Episcopacy a Government which whether it be by Divine Right besides what hath been wrote by divers godly reverend and learned men I desire you to heare from a Treatise in defence of Paedobaptisme which Mr Charles Herle President of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster by authority granted him by the two Houses of Parliament hath licenced and which is accordingly printed and published 1645. where it thus speaks Pag. 7. Christ Mat. 28. gives a charge to the Apostles which hath special reference to matters of Discipline for the right Ordering and Government of the Churches And it is evident saith he by some passages in the New Testament that some things were delivered to the Churches and particularly to the Ministers thereof which were not then committed to writing but were delivered from hand to hand called therefore Traditions And these Ordinances saith he 1 Cor. 11.2 2 Thes 2.15 2 Tim. 2.2 set up and practised by the appointment of the Apostles are equivalent in authority to what Christ himselfe hath immediately ordained Hence therefore is that 1 Cor. 14.37 and hereupon saith he the custome of the Church which is established must stand for a Law to quiet the conscience of him that is willing to be satisfied as is proved 1 Cor. 11.16 What may appear to have been ordained by the Apostles Pag 8. and used by the Churches even from the dayes of the Apostles why should it not be acknowledged to be the commandement of Christ But you will say saith he how may it appear to have been the custome of the Churches ordained by the Apostles to which himself answers It is worth our observation that the pattern and precedent from whence most if not all the customes in the Churches were taken was the custome of Israel in the Old Testament And this saith he may be one special reason why the providence of God did not take so much care for the writing of every custome and ordinance for the Government of the Church in the New Testament because the precedent from whence they were taken being at hand if any alteration did creep in it might easily be amended by reducing it to the pattern Yea who saith he can tell whether the wisdome of God did not hereby provide to uphold the credit of the Church of Israel against the frowardnesse of some to disesteeme it And that the Institutions saith he of God by Moses for the Church of Israel were the pattern for the Apostolical Traditions which were appointed for the Discipline and Order to be observed it will appear by divers particulars 1. Pag. 9. In the Old Testament there was one day of seven set apart for holy rest in imitation whereof the Apostles saith he by direction of our blessed Saviour consecrated the first day of the week called the Lords day 2. Israel had Synagogues besides their Temple and in the Apostles times saith he there were places set apart called Churches 3. The directions saith he for Censures were received from Israel and that not onely by the appointment of the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. Tit. 3. but of Christ Mat. 18.15 4. The liberty saith he which women take to come to the Table of the Lord must be acknowledged a Tradition of the Apostles taken from the pattern of the Passeover 5. The custome of the Apostles to baptize the whole housholds of them that beleeved whence saith he should they have it but from the pattern in the Old Testament 6. The maintenance of Ministere saith he Saint Paul affirmes to be ordained of the Lord 1 Cor. 9.13 14. in conformity to the Ordinance of the Old Testament 7. So for Persons Israel had those who were set apart to the service of the Altar and Temple and accordingly saith he the Apostles ordained in several Churches Elders And whether saith he the Subordination of some in the Ministry were not likewise an Apostolical Institution appointed by Christ and this also fetched from the pattern of Moses I dispute not He saith he disputes not for what needs it any dispute confidering what he had proved before and what he allegeth from Saint Hierom the Father thus speaks That we may know Ep. 85. ad Evag. that the Traditions of the Apostles were taken from the Old Testament appears by this that what Aaron the Priests and Levites were in the Jewish Temple the same Bishops Presbyters and Deacons doe rightly challenge in the Christian Church And that there was a Superiority and Subordination among the Priests in the Old Testament is so well known to all that it needs no dispute The Author having laid down these grounds concludes in these words viz. Why this Rule should hold in so many particulars and onely faile in this point I leave for them to give a reason who know what difference is betwixt reason and absurdity especially since it is plain by the testimony of the Antients who lived in the next Ages after the Apostles that this was a custome established by the Apostles The Author answering an Argument Pag. 11 drawn from Heb. 3.26 saith The office of Moses was to settle the Common-wealth and National Church of Israel by particular Lawes and Ordinances where as the office of Christ was the reconciliation betwixt God and man and the Redemption of mankind and therefore Christ loft it to his Apostles and their successors in several ages to provide for the welfare and good of the Church in the New Testament and thereupon concludes all thus What was instituted in the Old Testament and is not repealed in the New nor
such wherein they lived under the spoilers and nobbers of the Church therefore they sold the lands and brought the whole price thereof to the Apostles the then Governours of the Church and sure it cannot be conceiued in right reason but that those Christians would as willingly and readily have given their lands which might have continued for a perpetual standing maintenance and revenne as to have sold the land for money in present to be expended And that I give but this one instance in the New Testament you will not wonder when you consider 1. that the Church so long as the Apostles dived and wrote was yet in the wildernesse but in swadling clouts and under grievous tyranny and persecution and therefore not capable of lands 2. As yet it had beene improper to have given command or counsel herein for fenre of a greater persecution to the Christians and therefore they left both the advice and the thing then to be done when the Church should by Gods mercy obtaine some settlement and this was the course which Moses observed who untill by vanquishing the enemy he had obtained peace in the Land settled not lands and a perpetual maintenance for the Priests and Levites in Gods service Object But some may happily object that those lands were not dedicated or sold onely for the Apostles behoofe and use but for other Christians likewise Resp 1 Which is as readily granted as objected yet it cannot be denied but that all was at the dispose of the Apostles and for ought can be proved to the contrary at their dispose alone for wee read that it was laid downe at the feet of none but the Apostles and this laying at the feet gives the power of interest and dispose of that which was so laid which might be confirmed by severall places both in Holy and Prophane Writ The case then I suppose is cleare that the Primitive Christians spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles dedicated their lands to God for his servants in the Church which is the joynt consent of Calvin Beza Deedaâ— and other reformed Divines although by reason of the persecution they were constrained for present use and necessity to turne those lands into money 2. It is as cleare that the right title or interest of that money being laid at the Apostles feet was in the Apostles 3. That as the money the price of the lands so should the lands likewise have beene in the Apostles power if they had been held in kind 4. From all summed up I conceive it cannot be denied but that if in a settled time the lands had continued unsold the lands themselves being dedicated to God the title and interest thereof had been in those Apostles who were Gods Vicegerents as Mr Calvin judiciously observes on that place Which interest or title is not a whit diminished by objecting that other Christians and Lay-men should have had a profit or benefit by them as well as by the money for so it is in the lands given to Church men now who although they have a title to them in fee yet they are not to be swallowed up whole or wholly by the possessours but to be erogated by the grants or Lawes of the land to the reliefe of the poore for hospitality in pious uses and for the behoofe of the King and Kingdome both in time of peace and warre If nothing hitherto satisfie yet I hope that of our most blessed Saviour will doe it fully where he saith Is it not lawfull for out to doe what I will with mine owne Mat. 20.25 Where the Interrogation hath the force of an undoubted affirmation as if he had said questionlesse in a just right lawful way it is lawful for me or any man to doe what I or hee wil with mine or his owne and this I hope comes home to the Proposition or Assertion premised that lands may be given to the Church for Gods service and servants Hitherto I have but barely kept word with you that wee have from Gods word a Charter whereby we are enabled to hold lands if any wil give them now wil you be pleased to consider whether God in the Old or Christ in the New Testament have not given if not a command yet a counsell or strong perswasion so to dedicate or give That in the Old Testament which sure hath the power of a Precept is Prov. 3.9 Honour the Lord with thy substance whereby substance is more especially meant our temporal and worldly substance and why not lands here included and by the Lord there is meant the immediate honour and maintenance of the Prieste and Servants of the Lord God And when our Saviour tells it to the worlds end Mat. 25.40 that what ever good any Christian or other shall shew to his Apostles and Disciples he takes it as done unto himselfe and he will reward them doth he not herein vehemently perswade all true Beleevers at least to be good and bountifull unto them And can we conceive that Christ straitened the Christians bounty onely to a competent maintenance because he there speakes but of feeding and cloathing No surely this were too narrow it can intend no lesse then this that who shall in my name give unto my Disciples and Apostles my servants and Ministers present or perpetuall maintenance in diet lands or otherwise hee shall not loose his reward And if Christians be counselled or perswaded by Christ thus to give to his Apostles Disciples and their Successours in his Name and as for him sure it cannot be denied but that those Apostles Disciples and Successours may receive and hold such gifts as in the right of their Lord Christ And that this proposition the Ministers of the Gospel may have lands for their maintenance in Gods service may be rightly asserted from the Old and New Testament I doubt not but to be the opinion of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and of all learned Orthodox Divine in Christendome CHAP. II. That Lands so given and accepted become holy to the Lord. THe next point is that lands so given for the service and to the servants of God change their common quality or nature and are by dedication and Gods acceptation become Gods and therefore holy for there are in holy Writ foure kinds of holy things 1. Holy manners 2. Holy meanes leading thereunto as the holy Word holy Sacraments holy Prayer Deut. 33.8 Lev. 27.9 Jer. 2.3 and holy Censures 3. Holy men as the Priest is called Gods holy One For there is sanctitas vitae or conversationals for all men and sanctitas Officii or Functionis for the Priests 4. Holy maintenance all that any man giveth unto the Lord shall be holy And Lev. 27.22 If a man sanctifie to the Lord a field which he hath bought Ver. 23. it shall be an holy thing unto the Lord. Prov. 20.25 Ezek. 48.15 V. 10. V. 12. And of such Solomon speaks It is a snare to devoure holy things
and by the divine acceptation of God in Christ which is sufficient in this case Argum. 11 But why then had not the Apostles or their immediate successors such lands as well as these Bishops Resp The answer is plaine and easie the reason why the Apostles had not such lands was not because the Apostles or that God would not have accepted them for sure that God that accepted of the feeding and cloathing them would not have denied them a perpetual certain maintenance nor was it because the Christians to their abilities Act. 4. Gal. 1.15 would not have given them lands as it may appeare by that story in the Acts and by that of Saint Paul I bear you record that you would have plucked out your eyes to have given them to me But one reason Saint Chrysostoâ—e gives that in the first planting of the Gospel the Jewes or Gentiles might perchance have supposed that the Apostles had preached rather for the gaine of their wealth then for the salvation of their soules and who knowes but that Saint Paul to that end spake that sentence 2 Cor. 12.14 I seeke not yours but you But because the Fathers of the Primitive Church are not heard in these times I desire you to heare Saint Paul who for himselfe and the other Apostles gives a more full answer hereunto 1 Cor. 9.11 Ver. 12. when he thus speaks If we have sewen unto you spiritual â—â—â—â—gs is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things And then If others be partakers of this power over you are not we rather Neverthelesse we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the Gospel of Christ In which words the Apostle evidently sheweth that the reaping or maintenance out of their carnal things should be according to that which was sowed viz. spiritual things and what proportion of carnal things can compensate for things spiritual let the spiritual and not the carnal man judge Now the full Answer to this Objection which S. Chrysestome might happily collect out of this Text is this though we the Apostles have power to require all this as due not of Almes but morally as the seventh Verse of that Chapter shewes it yet we use it not lest we should hinder the Gospel of Christ thereby And yet a second reason that the Apostles had not lands for their maintenance lay in the time wherein the Apostles lived who at that time had not onely no continuing city or certaine place of abode but wandred about Heb. 11.37 being afflicted and tormented Againe the Romans the chief lords of all were so far from letting them enjoy any lands at that time that they hardly afforded them the aire wherein to breath and live distinguish therefore of times for it holds both in Church and State aliter in constitutâ vivitur aliter in constituendâ At first planting of either Church or State there is neither the same Privilege nor the same wealth but each grow by Gods blessing in time And what is here spoken of the maintenance may in part hold for the Government of the Church that is that when Saint Paul wrote from whom the most is gathered both for the Presbyterian and Independent the Church was not then divided into Parishes and Provinces no nor into publikely known Congregations and therefore it being under bloudy Persecution it could not have the face of a visible Church Whereupon though then the Apostle and Apostolical men ordained by him exercised Episcopal authority yet it could not nor indeed ought it to have been in that height of visible power as no doubt Saint Paul himself would and those Apostolical men did use it so soon as God had added greater numbers to the Church and given them favour with the Civil Magistrate the Apostle both for that and all succeeding times leaving this one general Rule 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order And can any indifferent man hold it just and reasonable that when all other men grow in state and wealth the Church-men alone should decrease and be abused What if I should urge to any Gentleman or others Your Predecessors two or three hundred years since had not such estates therefore neither should you but be content with that which your Forefathers enjoyed would you hold this Argument to be of force I doe not in your cases and I pray be you as just to us But that I be not too tedious and irksome in this arguing let me make an indifferent motion which may well serve for this Objection be you now Christians as they were in the times of the Apostles and the Bishops will be very well content with such maintenance as the Apostles had in the times of those Christians for then the Christians sold their lands and goods and laid the price thereof at the Apostles feet which if you hold unfit now to be done as I doe then I pray conceive it as unreasonable to reduce them now to the indigency of the Apostles when all the land besides God be praised enjoyes plenty which the two Houses have found both in City and Countrey Argum. 12 But other Reformed Churches have not such Lands and why this in England rather then they Resp Neither have they perchance Bels or Chancels c. what then Must these downe in England therefore 2. Perchance they had lands but as they complaine they are taken away by Church-robbers 3. The time and state wherein they live haply will not so well bear it But 4. would not those Churches accept of Lands if time the State and Benefactors would afford it And is thine eye evil in Scotland because God is good to us in England The Commons in Germany and France live like Boors and Peasants and the Nobles in Russia and Turkie like slaves and vassals Hold you this a good Argument therefore it should be no otherwise in England We are no more bound in England to live without Lands because other Churches have none then other Churches are bound to live upon lands because we have them every Church or State are in these cases to be governed and live by their owne Laws and Customes 1 Cor. 11.16 and hitherto God be praised We have no such Custome no nor all the Churches of God Argum. 13 Some have argued that the Lands given to Bishops in England are held per Baroniam which Baronies with their Votes in Parliament being taken away by an Act the lands are or may likewise be taken away Resp That they may likewise be taken away as their Votes were in Parliament or that by power they can be taken away is not my dispute but whether they may justly and lawfully be taken and sold and then to your Argument though it be out of my sphere so far as it is a title in Law I submit this Answer First if that learned Antiquary and diligent searcher of Historie and Records Gâ—â—ssar ad
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.
verse 6. Saint Paul having premised that in the Ministerie there are divers gifts he subjoyns Let him that teacheth wait on teaching Ver. 7. and he that ruleth let him doe it with diligence And from that 1 Tim. 3. in the 1. Verse having spoke of the office of a Bishop he adds Ver. 4. He must be one that ruleth well For saith he Ver. 5. If he know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God Which phrase taking care of the Church both in this place and that Acts 20.28 must signifie a ruling or governing of the Church and flock of God I say from these several Texts it will plainly appear that the office of the Bishop consists not alone in preaching to but in governing the Church And here I may conceive that the office or work of a Bishop in this differs not much from that which is practised among Souldiers Sea men and others who after much time and pains spent in the inferior places at last partly as a reward of their former service but especially for their great experience and authority gained are advanced to higher places wherein they rather stand sit or ride to direct guide and govern others under them then to work and labour as they did before And seeing the Levites Souldiers and almost all professions have a time when having spent their best strength and arriving to the age of fifty or fixty years they are emeriti and freed from their former kind of labour yet must the Bishop only of all others be deprived of this so just a grace and benefit But sithence that no compassion can be shewed to the Bishops from men let us see whether from the holy Text some indulgence may not be found and to this purpose let us examine what it is in Scripture-understanding to Preach Now the word in the holy Gospel which we translate to preach is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is spoken of Christ himself Jesus began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach Mat. 4.7 Mat. 10.7 And when Jesus had sent abroad his twelve Apostles his Commission is in the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach and the same word Saint Paul useth most frequently and seldome any other to this sense And that Teaching and Preaching are and signifie the same thing see Mat. 11.1 where it is said that Jesus departed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to teach and to preach and from the several Texts where this word is found it will easily appear that to preach the Word in the Gospels and Epistles sense is to declare and make known the Doctrine the means and the way to faith and salvation whether by word or by writing whether privately or publikely though the Preacher never goe up into a pulpit or desk there to expound some place of Scripture for if Preaching consisted in this and not in that how can we prove that Christ or the Apostles did so frequently preach And now that the Bishops in England since the Reformation have according to the right sense of the word been Preachers I appeal to a learned Judge and unpartial witnesse Doctor Moulin the famous Presbyterian in the Church of France who in his third Epistle to that pious and most learned Bishop Andrewes thus writes I very well know that the Reformation of the Church in England and the ejection of Popery next to God and your Prinees is chiefly to be ascribed to the learning and industry of your Bishops And have we not beside our own knowledg if envy or malice will suffer us to speak what we know the testimony of forain godly and learned men who have openly avouched the Sermons and writings of our late and present Bishops in England to be answerable in worth if not preferred before the most of any in other Countries And can it be denied that the most of the present living Bishops in England did often preach even in that sense as you take Preaching untill they were as of late either directly hindered or else not suffered to preach unlesse they would take the new Covenant which if they should do they might truly use the words of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 While we preach unto others we our selves are become cast-awayes i. e. doubt of our salvation or to be rejected But if the Bishops case be such that they must be cast away because they doe not write or preach as is objected then I pray let me ask how many Sermons have some of the Assembly of Divines in England preached within these four or five years last past And I dare affirm they are not so many as most of the Bishops usually did preach before the time of their suspension or persecution And though the number of the Assembly of those Divines three times exceeds this of the Bishops living yet have there so many of them wrote and confuted him whom in their Covenant they stile the common Enemy as there be of the Bishops yet living who have Lastly have these Divines in the Assembly preached or wrote much except it were to destroy what was lawfully established and thereby to raise themselves into power maintenance and authority But to end this Answer If the Bishops Lands must be sold because they preach not then either this is but a pretence and excuse of iniquity or else none but Preachers must have and enjoy them and if none but Preachers must have them and yet they must be sold for a great price then I fay either the Presbyterian Preacher is grown very rich in these later times or else none but the Lay-Independent can purchase and have them For the Independent in Orders professeth himself like some Orders of Friers to live on alms or the charity of others and therefore he is not able to make such a purchase whereby it must come to passe that the Lay-Independent must prove the Chapman being that he alone hath money enough and hath withall obtained the Grace to be a Preacher And if these can gain so much by their preaching I cannot but commend their wit while in the mean time I smile at the Presbyterians folly who hath so many years been beating the bush till another as it were out of a bush doth catch the bird For a close I pray keep this in mind that if the Bishops must lose their Lands because they are not constant Preachers then by the same reason none but constant Preachers ought to hold those Lands CHAP. X. The Curses and punishments which are set down and executed in Holy Writ against Sacrilegious Alienations are held forth and opened IF your patience would suffer it I could by way of an additional fill much paper with the direful curses and sad consequents if not effects thereof upon the several Invaders of Church-Lands within this Kingdom who might have used the like Escutchion and Motto which Julian that Apostate Persecutor and Enemy of our Lord Christ had which was an Eagle struck
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
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