they deliver to him or send to him by their Mittimus of Excommunication nay and at their bidding to let men go free as soon as they are pleas'd I mean as soon as they are paid together with their Registers and Sumners transcends the apprehension of the Vulgar Dictum est quod in quibusdam locis Syn. Cab. 2. cap. 18. Episcopi Comites ab Incestuosis c. that is We are told that the Bishops and their Fellows take money of offenders commuting Penance and then divide the spoil among themselves which we decree shall utterly be abolished lest haply covetousnesness enter in c. And much more very excellently says that honest Synod of every ten Procurators chosen by the Clergy to constitute that Synod Eight of them were not turn'd off and not suffer'd to enter the Convocation-house I 'le warrant The 19. Chapter of the said Synod enjoyns that the Tythes should be there all paid where their Children are Baptized and the Cure serv'd The 20. Chapter is an Admonition to peace and concord And the 21. Chapter forbids all Bribes and Extortions committed by Registers Proctors Commissaries and Officials and the rest of that Motley-Tribe that like Lay-Elders are as Cleveland says Most Divine-Tick-Tack in a Pye-bald crew To serve as Table-men of divers hue She that conceiv'd an Aethiopian Heir By Picture when the Parents both were fair At sight of you had born a dappled Son You chequ'ring her Imagination Had Jacob ' s Flock but seen you sit the Dams Had brought forth speckled and ring-streaked Lambs Like Royston-Crows who are as I may say Friers of both the Orders Black and Grey Like him that wore the Dialogue of Cloaks This shoulder John-a-Stiles that John-a-Nokes Be sick and dream a little you may then Phansie these Linsie-wolsie Vestry-men But I shall tire my self as I have done already and I fear also tired my Reader with transcribing old Canons and old Verses In short in all the Synods and sacred Councils that I can consult and there 's none of them have escap'd my Inquisition and also in the Primitive times and first three Centuries Presbyters and Priests have been so far protected from proud and insolent Prelacy that care has been taken of them even in Punctilio's such as keeping on the Hat sitting c. in presence of the richest and greatest Bishop of them all Constitutum est quod Episcopus quolibet loco sedens stare Presbyterum non patiatur Conc. Carth. cap. 34 35. in Ecclesia autem consessu Presbyterorum sublimior sedeat intra domum vero collegam se Presbyterorum esse cognoscat It is decreed that the Bishop wheresoever he sit shall not suffer a Presbyter to stand before him nevertheless in the Church and at a meeting or Sessions of Priests he shall sit uppermost but in a house or at home he ought to know that he is a Fellow and Companion of the Presbyters Thus the Bishops call the Presbyter Elpidius In Council il Theodoret l. 4. c. 8. our Brother and fellow in Office Elpidius which is the very same Title that is given by the first Council of Nice to old Alexander Bishop of Alexandria and Eustathius Bishop of Antioch two of the greatest Bishops and Metropolitans in Christendom in those days And are not good and stately Mannors large Fines Rents and Incomes pertaining to Bishops and Archdeacons enough to satisfie their appetites but they must long also to pinch somewhat from every poor bare-bone Parish-Priest who with great study and pains and large expence of money and time at School and the University at long-run may perhaps especially if he or his Friends can part with more money get into a Benefice But by that time Money for Ordination the true sin of Simon Magus and the basest Symonie Money for Institution to the Bishop and his Secretary his Registers Porters and Servants Money for Induction to the Archdeacon and his Registers also First-Fruits Arrears of Tenths Dilapidations Procurations Synodals and Visitations c. are paid and many of these payments without Law some against Law Conscience Equity and Reason no wonder the Priest is a poor Priest all the days of his Life whilst some surly Dignitaries that oppress him maintain their Foot-boys and Coach-horses in better plight Let such read a Letter of my Recommendation 't is from a Pope too of Rome but before they grew so proud and high it is Epist 3. Sancti Clementis de officio Sacerdotum they know where sure to find it in print whilst poor Priests lament with St. Bernard Serm. 77. Parum est nostris vigilibus si non servant nisi perdant These big-Spiritual-men think it too little to withdraw their favour and protection from us poor Labourers except they also do us a mischief Which will certainly be my reward from them for this Naked Truth if they can discover me but God's will be done 't is the usual portion and consequence of speaking Truth and plain-dealing but God's will be done I say again Nay they will not suffer the poor Presbyter to preach and take pains in his Parish to which he is Instituted by them and of which they have as by Law bound given him the Cure according to his Presentation except he also pay Ten Shillings more for a License to preach there although he have had never so many Licenses before to preach in the same Diocess and has already given them so many ten shillings a piece for them The Great Turk is more merciful to the Grecian Slaves he gives them free leave to pray or preach Christianity not demanding one penny for the License In Popish times and Countries they us'd to say No Peny no Pater-noster in our Country we must say No Peny no Preacher no Licens'd Preacher When a Deacon is ordain'd Priest or Presbyter the Bible is given into his hands by the Bishop that ordains him saying Take thou Authority to preach the Word of God and to Minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be so Appointed Then in Institution the Bishop appoints him where one would think after all this the Priest so ordain'd might preach the Word of God in his own Cure whereto the Bishop has Instituted him and whereof the Archdeacon has given him Livery and seifin by Induction But no such matter he shall be silenc'd still for all this except the other Ten Shillings be paid for a License though he has three or four Licenses already and all paid for And if the Bishop come to Visit the week after or the day after so that he knows well enough that the Minister has good Letters of Orders and Institution for he himself gave it him the other Day yet he must pay for shewing these things again at Visitations and though he shew'd them all three years before at the former Visitation and the Bishop has them all upon Record in his Books yet he must shew them again and never
the Sheriffs c. cannot as the Law then was and now is make such Execution and give the Clerks presented Jus in Re or possession And if a Bishop or Arch-deacon for they are but men do refuse the same wantonly or through prejudice or design for a Kingsman or a Friend of his own when modestly requested by the Clerk presented and will not admit him habilem then the Law has provided a Writ called Quare Impedit to force him to shew a Lawful cause in the Kings-Courts and by them approved or otherwise to force the Bishop to make Execution according to the Patrons Presentment Thus we see in Times of greatest Popery our Ancestors did assert their own Proprieties against Arbitrary Proceedings of Men that call'd themselves the Church the Church I le give but one Instance more to show what little pretence the Clergy alone have to entitle themselves alone the Church Representative of England distinct from the Lay-Brethren and that is in making a Canon to Cringe to the East and Bow at the Name of Jesus Object How now will some say Of all instances you might have forborn this For can any good Christian do too much Reverence to the Name of Jesus We now know what you would be at Phil. 2.10 11. for does not the Apostle say that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow c. this might have been let alone Answ But I will not let it go so yet must acknowledge readily and chearfully That there is no other Name under Heaven by which we can be saved nor any other name except that of God and Jehovah that deserves more signal Reverence And yet notwithstanding Bernardus non videt omnia nor the Church the Church I mean the Clergy in her Placet's always rational much less Infallible The words in Phil. 2.10 11. are That at the Name of Jesus every knee not every head should how of things in Heaven therefore not litterally to be understood for there is no knees there to bow and things in Earth and things under the Earth there is no knees there neither except those in Graves and they are too senceless at least too stiff to bow And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Therefore such as take the words litterally ought at the same time that they bow the head or knee to use also their Tongues and confess at the same time that Jesus Christ is Lord. But I say in obedience to this Holy Scripture or rather some Clergy-men's Comment thereon Men at this day at the Name of Jesus bow their heads not their knees yet the Text speaks not one word of that nay in all discourse as well as in the Church men that understand it in the litteral sence ought to bow the knee and not dop the head and also at the same time they ought with their Tongues confess That Jesus Christ is Lord. Thus when we hear a Common-Swearer 100 times in an hour swear by Jesus as is usual and often we ought by this Interpretation to make a Legg every time and with our Tongues Eccho to him and cry out Jesus Christ is Lord. But such was the wisedom for want of comparing the Words with the Context For by the Name of Jesus there is understood the Power and Soveraignty of Jesus to which God hath highly Exalted him not those 4. or 5. Letters but a Power above every Name that is above every Creature or above all created Powers whether in Heaven or in Earth or under the Earth that they might how the knee to him that is adore him So Prov. 18.10 The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower not the Letters Jehovah or Jah is a strong Tower or the found and noise of those words but The Power of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous run unto it and are safe not into the Letters or found of the Name Yet notwithstanding if any man will show Reverence at the Name of Jesus I am not offended so he shew as much Reverence at the Name of God and at the Name of the Holy Ghost It is a hard and harsh saying of some and borders upon Blasphemy to make distinctions in the Holy Trinity as if we were more beholden to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity than to the First or Third Person This Grates to make a difference in Reverencing The Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity But in this Instance I only show that the Clergy the Clergy much less a few of the Clergy because Higher and Taler have shown no Charter hitherto nor reason to have such a Charter granted to them to be without the Laity The Church The Churth of England The whole Oecumenical Council of Nice had erred shamefully but for one single ey'd man Paphnutius And it is pretty reading in the Council of Trent to see how at a loss the Fathers were for a Resolution 'till Post-Night till the Packet return'd from Rome one said with their Holy Ghost in a Cloak-bagg So that the next day after the Post came in People repair'd to the Counsel-House for News and to know how squares would go as men do now to a Country Coffee-house on a Post-night to know how things go above But is it not strange Impudence Atheism and Effrontery thus to take Gods holy Name and Spirit in vain by making the Holy Ghost father all our Escapes and By-blows adulterately begotten by Self-Interest Pride Passion Revenge crasty Fetches covetons designs whether the French or the Spanish Interest carry it still The stile is It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us God forgive them And this is the Church The Church that is the Clergy the Clergy or rather the Few the Few the least in number I will not say I cannot say the worst of the number nor the Idlest of the number But add to them Lay-Chancellors or Vicar-Generals Sumners Registers c. To make up this Church the Church of England And you make them worse and worse I look upon the Church of England as the greatest Bull-Work against Popery what This latter sort of men are they such a Bull-work no the Protestants of England The Protestant Laws of England embodied with the Fundamental-Laws of the Realm Ruine one and you ruine the other for they must live and die together Thus have I evidenced that the Laity in the Apostles times were the Church and as much Canon-makers and Rule-makers and had the conduct of the infallible Spirit and gifts of the Holy Ghost as well as the Apostles and therefore certainly the Christian People as well as the Clergy of England are the Church of England Nay In Hen. 3. time when the Popish Prelates were most Rampant and Othoben the Pope's Nuncio had almost Beggar'd that King keeping him poor and doing what he list with him yet when they were to be excommunicated that Infringed Magna Charta The Clergy nor the Synod did not make it but the King and
though never so high-mounted look upwards still to Heaven they 'l say with King David in all humility I am a worm and no man The Contemplation of the Vastness and Glory of Heaven as Cicero observes in Somnio Scipionis will make them best see what a pitiful Spot in comparison the whole Globe of the Earth is and the glory of it and much more with humble Eyes reflect upon their own pittiful punyships But if they are alwayes looking downwards upon the many under them their Brains usually Crawl with scorn pride and disdain and turning Giddy they forget themselves till they catch a fall if not their Ruine And though they may pride themselves and strut in their High Shoes and take delight in exposing their Inferiors whom they ought to protect to contempt and scorn or for sport suffer them to be baited by Dogs and perhaps cry Hollou 'T is ten to one but they meet at some time or other with so Rugged a Repartee as to make them sick of such Unchristian Games and sometimes to their shame expose also the knotty side of their own gay Arras and prove that all is not Gold that glisters Popery and Mahometism were born both in one and the same Century and had one and the same Midwife namely Ignorance or Barbarism Truth and the Press would stifle them both and the Turk knows it as well and therefore Politickly prohibits Printing so also doth the Pope prohibit what he can all Printing but what passes with his own Imprimatur's and some others also would have the Press at the same lock and they alone to keep the Key And thus whilst men hear but of one Ear and from one Mouth they are kept in ignorance and seldom grow wiser than the Pope and Conclave that Excommunicated Galileo I think it was for holding the Motion of the Earth For Errors and Superstition Tyranny and Oppression like Owls and all other works of darkness hate the light and cannot endure to be seen by day-light whereas the Naked Truth feeks no Corners is bare indeed but is not nor needs not to be ashamed Lording over Gods Heritage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominantes Cleris 1 Pet. 5.3 Domineering over Gods People was never the mind of Christ nor St. Peter nor had ever any Bishops any such lawful Commission even when the High-Commission-Courts were up whereby alone they had Authority and Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical to Lord it over Gods Heritage No no It is the Reliques of the Luciferian Pride of that Grand Impostor that ridiculously stiles himself The Successor of St. Peter yet imitates him in nothing but in denying his Master that sets his insulting Toe upon the Necks of Kings and Emperors enslaves mens Bodies and Estates as well as Souls wheresoever he can domineer 'T is this Prelatical Pride this Exercising Dominion Luke 22.24 like the Princes of the Gentiles which is here condemned and is but a Brat of Popery whereever the Changeling is found and which our Blessed Saviour would banish from amongst his Clergy Luke 22.25 It shall not be so amongst you But say some It shall be so though let Christ and Laws let God and Man say what they will at least some men would practise it still which is worse than saying so but Rome was not built nor cannot be destroyed in one day THE Naked Truth The Second Part. THE Bishops and Convocation held at London Anno Dom. 1552. in the Reign of King Edward VI. whereof many of them were Martyrs at their Death as well as the first Reformers in their life-time in their Articles now usually called The Articles of the Church of England the 19 20 21. I meet with very remarkable Passages to begin this Discourse ARTICLE 19. ECclesia Christi visibilis est coetus fidelium in quo verbum c. The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments be duly Administred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same Where note by the way that a Parish Church may be the right Church of Christ by this Definition As the Church of Jerusalem of Alexandria and of Antioch hath Erred so also the Church of Rome hath Erred not only in their living but also in matters of Faith ARTICLE 20. IT is not Lawful for the Church to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to Decree any thing against the same so beside the same ought not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation ARTICLE 21. GEneral Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes And when they be gathered forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all be not Governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may Err and sometimes have Erred not only in worldly matters but also in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things Ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of the holy Scripture Whence it is evident that by the Articles of the Church of England men the best of them are subject to Error which if true and very few except the Pope and Papists do deny Then with what Front can any Synod or Assembly of men Anathematize and Damn and by Excommunication deliver to the Devil all that obey not their Canons and Decrees except those Decrees be evident from the plain and undisputed sense of Holy Scriptures For if it be acknowledged that they may be in the wrong then others that they condemn may be in the right and owned by God though disowned by frail men The Popes whereof their own Writers say some have been Arrians and denyed the Divinity of Christ as Pope Liberius some Idolaters as Marcellinus some Atheists as Alexander VI. and Leo X. that said Hem quantum reddit nobis haec fabula Christi and Sextus IV. that built a Male Stew for Sodomy some Conjurers and Socerers Platina c vit Pap. as Martin II. Silvester II. John XIX John XX. John XXI Silvester III. Benedict VIII Sergius IV. Gregory VI. and many others which see at large in the lives of the Popes writ by one of their own Secretaries Platina But I love not to rake in this sink nor had I mentioned it here but as necessary to my design in shewing first all men are Erroneous none Infallible no not the Pope himself as the * Test Rhem. Annot. Mat. 23.2 a Enchir. Cont. cap. 3. de Sum. Pont. b Stella in Lucae cap. 9. Rhemists vainly vaunt and suppose And so says a Costerus the Jesuite and also b Didacus Stella Suarez Stapleton and many others and indeed the whole Fabrick of their
nor his Successors shall never grant them any more Repealing 1 Eliz. 1. their great Foundation So that we are come at length to an easie Resolution of the Query For if the Spiritual Courts be askt the question By what Authority they do these things and who gave them this authority Whether God or man Not God for certain because there is not the least Specimen of Chancellors Registers Sumners Officials Commissaries Advocates Notaries Surrogates c. or any ejusdem farinae in Holy Writ Nor from Man because his Majesty has by Statute Enacted never to empower them with any more Commissions to the worlds end But if they pretend they have it ab origine as was their original from that old Hierarchy of the Pope that founded them they incur a Praemunire the greatest of punishments on this side death nay any might kill a man attainted in Praemunire without being prosecuted as an Homicide till Eliz. 5.1 took away that severity but at this day they forfeit goods and liberty but not life So that if the Question I say be put to them concerning their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Spiritual Courts as in another case it was put by our Blessed Saviour to the Pharisees Is it from Heaven or from men I fear all their Learned Doctors of their Canon-Law must answer as the Pharisees did We cannot tell And if so I think they have brought their Hogs to a fine Market if after all this Cry there appear to be so little Wool who 'le give five hundred pounds for a Chancellors-place and as much or more for a Registers-place And though the Clergy or others might by the Kings Commission make Laws and Canons while 1 Eliz. 1. was in force and which lasted all her and King James his Reign and till 17 Car. 1. yet then the branch of that Statute of 1 Eliz. 1. being taken away and also Repealed by his present Majesty 13 Car. 2.12 till which time the Canons in 1603 and 1640. were in force but now that their Basis is taken away that branch 1 Eliz. 1. I cannot discern where their Authority lies more than in the said days of Queen Mary when they confest they had none But this I do not peremptorily assert but leave it to the consideration of men of greater abilities reading and leisure than my necessary Diversions and constant Employs will at present admit And I wish with all my heart if wishes would do that most of the Canons of 1603. and also some of 1640. were of more Authority than indeed they are And if the Reader knew me he would also know it is my Interest which can never Lye to have them and the Clergy and the Hierarchy too of greater and more justifiable Authority than they have at present Yet nevertheless as I have Christened this my Discourse in the Title-page The Naked Truth it shall never be said whatever be the Consequence that it derogates from the name I have no Picque no Design no Interest against Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but on the contrary I have one of my own where my Predecessors have exercised as much Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction though not so often it being but a little one as any Bishop in England and therefore if the Naked Truth did not silence Interest I would not enlarge one Syllable more And I will further add that the first Reformers whereof many of them were Martyrs do seem to be so divinely Inspired in composing the 39 Articles of the Church of England that is of the Doctrine of the Church of England that there is scarce one Fanatick in England so Foppish as to differ or deny so evenly have they cut a hair betwixt the Remonstrant and Anti-remonstrant and other diversity of opinions that though they differ toto Coelo from one another yet they all concenter and agree in those 39 Articles of the Church of England But when the said Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. gave power to the Queen and her Successors to set up a High-Commission Court They made work I 'le promise you woful work sometimes and about trifles too So that I must say of them and the Canons of 1603 and 1640. as is usually said of a great Wit viz. Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixturâ dementiae And this will appear if we further consider that even those men of the Hierarchy that most vaunt those Canons and Impose them upon others Though a burden too heavy to be born yet they themselves will not touch them with one of their Fingers when thwarting their Interest of which take a few Instances that first occur and come into my mind Who regards or observes Can. 2.4.5.7.9.11 14. of 1640 For are all Socinian-Books and also those of Brownists Separatists Anabaptists Familists and other Sects burnt Are none kept bought nor sold as Can. 2. 4. does enjoyn Is the Communion-Table every where plac'd Altar-wise and Rail'd in as recommended Can. 7 Indeed the 6th Canon with the c. Oath is too much kept and a shame it should be suffered indeed to be Imposed upon the Consciences of the Clergy being disallowed by Act of Parliament as aforesaid But pitiful is the case of young Clergy-men especially if they be put to the sad choice either to swallow the Oath of Canonical obedience with the c. to-boot and into the bargain or else starve for want of Institution to a Living Are all Conventiclers Separatists and members of gathered-Churches Excommunicated and every three Months declared to be such to put the Zealots in mind to take out a Writ de excommunicato capiendo against them and put them all in Gaol And who will lay out money to build Gaols enough to hold them all Can. 9. and 11. and Can. 65. 1603 who reads Prayers upon the Inauguration-day of King Charles 2. as enjoyned Can. 2 who furnishes all the Parishes with two Books of Common-Prayers compiled for that purpose as decreed Can. 2 Who does upon every Eve of the Festivals and Saints days in the year as well as upon all Holy-days read Prayers publickly or if they do a little in some places in the Morning how few in the Afternoons and yet enjoyn'd Can. 14 How many Spiritual Courts do take care to put into the Condition of the Bonds of Security given by the Party to be Married by Licence That the Parties or one of them have or hath been a Month commorant in the said Jurisdiction immediately before the said Licence granted look the Condition of their Printed Bonds there 's not a word of it but catch that catch may they know among themselves the weakness of their Canons and therefore every one makes his own Market and the best he can of them yet this is decreed Can. 16. 1640. Who can make the States of Venice Holland Genoa Switzerland c. believe that the most High and Sacred order of Kings if taken in opposition to Aristocracy and other modes of Government is of Divine-Right being the Ordinance of God
there be any such thing should desire to hold it at this Precarious Rate they do I say not this that I grudge any Power they have but wish them more But Power though fading is so pleasant to some Men that they are loth to part with it or like frank Gamesters venture it for a better and as much more rather like drowning Men they lay hold of that that does but help to sink and drown them in conclusion And is it not worth the greatest care to give relief in this Extremity or set the Church that is the Kingdom to rights which has gone so long lame and limping on the right side But how shall this be done there 's the skill or who shall do it The Synod sure that call themselves the Representative Church of England in pain of Anathema to all that dare deny Ay but the Laity the Laity have got generally an odd opinion to see with their own Eyes and not by Spectacles especially not Spectacles of Clergy make which of old they were so long us'd to they thought it spoiled their eye-sight and so being kept blind the Clergy led them by the nose whilst the ignorant Laity pinn'd their Faith upon the Clergy-mans sleeve and Ignorance was the Mother of their Devotion Besides The naked Truth is uniform but Canons and Decrees of Clergymen do so differ and clash one with another that it is impossible they should all be truth Truth which never yet was patcht and Pye-bal'd or wore a Party-colour'd Coat But how has one Council condemn'd and curst another to the pit of Hell How usual for one Pope to dig up the Carcase of his immediate Predecessour and either hang him up in Effigie at least or throw his dead Body after it has been sufficiently abused at farewell into Tyber Again why do Clergy men only Represent in Council and not all the Brethren the Laity as of old How come Synod men to be so lickt that all others compar'd to them are but an ugly shapeless Lump of deformity Or how come they the Clergy to be the Representative Church of England when met in Synod though the Lay-people never gave any Votes in their Election nor so much as any of their Advices consulted about the chusing those Members of the Convocation And if not how come they obliged to obey their Decrees and Canons when they never gave them their Suffrages and consent Though the Clergy chuse some of them the Nether-house for so they distinguish Parliament like yet the Vpper house is made up of Bishops and the Richer Dignitaries Deans Arch-Deacons c. which make up by far the major part the Inferiour Clergy of the Kingdom have no Vote in their Election and yet must be concluded by them their Canons and Decrees as if they really had given their Suffrages to their Election and the Constituting of the Synod for it is all but umbrage As for Example In the Diocess of London there are Five Arch-deaconries namely the Arch-deaconries of London Essex Middlesex Colchester and Hartford In each of these Arch-deaconries Two of their Inferiour Clergy are chosen Procurators for the ensuing Synod Elected de novo as often as there is a new Parliament chosen And these Ten one would think should be a very fine ballance to the Hierarchy and Richer Dignitaries the Bishop Dean Five Arch-deacons the Chapter c. and almost but not altogether able to turn the Scales But I thank you when it comes to there 's no such matter for it is five to one that not one of those Synod men which with such ado are Elected shall sit For the Bishop out of these Ten chuses and culls out Two and sends the rest home again as if they never had been chosen And how then should these Synod men be called properly and in pain of Damnation so owned for the Representative Church of England since they are not at all Elected by the Laity nor any of the Vpper-house chosen by the Clergy and of the Nether house but Two of Ten that are chosen are suffered to sit Besides that said Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. on which the Convocation did once flourish being now wither'd and made of no effect what does a Convocation signifie all these things consider'd together towards a Representative Church of England and to lay Burthens and Impositions necessary or unnecessary upon the Natives without his Majesties Commission Besides since 1 Eliz. 1. is repealed whereby the High-Commission-Court had so great Power as by vertue of that Statute to dispense with the said Statute of 1 Edw. 6.2 after it was revived by 1 Jacob. 25. all the Reign of King James and part of Car. 1. so that they never did admit the King's Arms into the Seal of the Court nor yet vouchsafe to send Process and Citations c. in any other Name no not the Kings but their own only is to be attributed to the dreadful awe in which Nobles Lawyers Gentry and Commonalty were kept by the Terrors of a Star-Chamber and High Commission-Court Which being now Dissolved Quere whether they must not be accountable for the neglect of that Statute of 1 Edw. 6.2 whenever Authority shall reckon with them in good time But in other cases 't is said Forbearance is no Acquittance These Oecumenical Provincial Synodical Classical c. Assemblies and Synods with their Directories and Impositions Canons and Decrees have made a great deal of noise and bub-bub in the World Theod. lib. 1. c. 6. which brings to my mind that passage of Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia an Arrian to the Lord Paulinus Bishop of Tyrus namely Some approved one Party some another The Actions of both parts lookt not only like a Tragedy but also deserved much weeping and lamentation The case was not now as in former times for they were not Forraign Enemies that took Arms against the Church but Men of one Houshold of one Kindred yea and such as were Fellows at one Table instead of Lances they whetted their Tongues one against another Nay moreover when they were Members compacted and united into one body yet for all that they were armed to Battle within themselves Then since as must be confessed men whilst humane are subject to erre and especially in their own cases and for their own Interest to be partial cruel and passionate since one Canon contradicts another one Synod another one Assembly another and perhaps all of them repugnant to Truth Holy Scripture and the Laws of this Realm Until it please God to send us the Infallible Spirit God grant us the humble meek and milde Spirit not this bloody cruel Horse-leach Spirit of imposing upon men and making them believe in spight of their teeth and putting out their eyes because they are not so good and clearly discerning or more quicksighted than our own calling one another Heretick to the end of the Chapter which has as aforesaid caused most of the Miseries Wars Mutinies Bloodshed and Calamities in the
Visitations may be exacted of and paid by the Inferiour Clergy to the richer Dignitaries Answ Procurations are certain Impositions exacted from the Clergy by the Bishops and his Eyes called Arch-Deacons in their Visitations claiming the same by ancient Custom but no Law The original of these Procurations is pretended to be a Compact or Agreement made betwixt the Incumbent and the Visitor viz. the Bishop or Arch-Deacon whereby each Incumbent charged himself or his Benefice with such a yearly Rent to the Visitor to defray his and their Charges at some great Town fit for their reception at a publick Meeting or Visitation of the Clergy rather than be pestered with entertaining the Visitor and his Train which grew like a snow-ball the further it roll'd in their Ecclesiastick Visitations which of old were the only Visitations But he that has but a life-Estate as no Parson or Vicar has any more in his Benefice can never grant a Rent for ever out of such Benefice and bind his Successors nil dat quod non habet it is not so much as an Annuity or Rent-seck much less can the Incumbent or Termer grant a Rent-charge no not with the consent of the Patron Spiritual Livings being surely incorporeal things You see then if some do but of any fashion get in one foot it is hard getting them out again perhaps they 'l say as some have done that no Clergyman Benefic'd Rector not Vicar has any Freehold in his Living but all is the Bishop's and the Inferiour Clergy that do the great Work are but the Bishops Curates and Journey-men I 'le assure you some of them are so ignorant that they know no better and dare not value themselves nor behave themselves in his presence at a higher rate And yet this Lording over the Clergy this exercising Dominion one Clerg man over another as the Princes of the Gentiles and usually call'd Prelacy is not only absolutely forbid by our Blessed Saviour as aforesaid but as much care and provision made against the Pride and Avarice of the greater sort of Clergymen if such cob-web and net-work Laws or Canons could hold the mighty as heart can wish To instance in a few that first come to my mind at present for some men will never take warning until their Iniquities become to be hateful to all Mankind Our Blessed Saviour warns them the Apostle Peter warns them not to play the Bishop for filthy lucre but of a ready mind the ancient Councils Fathers Canons Laws and Statutes warn them and command to forbear this more than bestial rapacity but surdo fabulam for of all spoyls none are made with more ease and safety than when the Inferiour Clergy become a Prey to the great ones yet no spoils are so unchristian unhumane nor so unnatural Tygers spare their own whelps Eagles Hawks and Kites use not their sharper Talons against Birds of their own feather Dogs indeed and Swine only of all Brutes have a stomach to feed upon eat up and devour their own kind Dictum est etiam quod in plerisque locis Archidiaconi super Fresbyteros exerceant Dominatisnem ab eis censum exigant Cabilonens Synod 2. cap. 15. quod magis ad Tyrannidem quà m ad Rectitudinis ordinem pertinet Si enim Episcopi juxta Petri Apostoli sententiam non debent esse dominantes in clero sed farma facti gregis ex animo multò minùs isti boc facere debent Sed contenti sint regularibus disciplinis teneant propriam mensuram quod eis ab Episcopis jungitur hoc per parochias suas exercere studeant nihil per cupiditatem aut avaritiam prasumentes that is It is reported that in many places Arch-Deacons domineer over Parish Priests and will have Money of them which exaction borders upon Tyranny rather than right Order and Justice For if Bishops in the opinion of the Apostle Peter ought not to Lord it over the Clergy but take the oversight of the flock not by constraint but willingly much less should these Fellows do the same but be content with good Discipline and the Corps of their Arch-Deaconry keeping within their own bounds and endeavour to put the Bishops Injunctions in execution all over the Diocess not daring to do any thing through Avarice or greediness There is a like Order made in Concil Lateran sub Alexandro 3. Concil Lat. par 2. c. 3. to the Archbishop of Canterbury against Exactions of this nature and the Extortions of the Arch-Deacon of Coventry Object If it be objected that these Synods are none of the Four first General Councils Answ It is readily confest for how should they make Laws against the Exorbitances of Arch-Deacons when there was no such Creature in nature exercising any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical Anast in vit Sixt. Rom. Episc and therefore could not abuse their Authority till they had it to abuse I read indeed Anno Dom. 260. of St. Lawrence an Arch-Deacon Martyr'd in that year saith Anastasius But this Arch-Deacon had nothing of our Arch-Deacons but the Name he was indeed Arch-Deacon in English the Arch-servant or Chief Deacon to the Bishop of all the Servants or Deacons about him He was Chief Turn-key Prudent de Coronis saith Prudentius describing his Office at best but Chief Porter or Door keeper that kept the Keys of the poor mans Box and the Church-doors Claustris sacrorum praeerat to use the words of Prudentius coelestis arcanum domus fidis gubernans clavibus votasque dispensans opes The Arch-Deacon was chief Turn-key or chief Steward among the Deacons and chosen by themselves from among themselves The next Arch-Deacon I read of was one Stephen Anno 255. Arch-Deacon to Cornelius Pope of Rome St. Ambrose had got one about the year 400. Afterwards the Name by the favour of the Emperors of Constantinople became a Name of some repute for till then Mr. Arch-Deacon was not suffered to sit nor yet to be cover'd in presence of a Parish Priest But about this time as before Diocesans began to appropriate the Name of Bishops to themselves alone which in the Apostles days signified no more than Presbyter as appears by 1 Pet. 5.1 Tit. 1.5 6 7. where the Presbyter in the fifth verse is called Bishop in the seventh verse and Acts 20. the Elders or Presbyters verse seventeen are called Bishops verse twenty eight Take heed therefore unto the flock over which the Holy-Ghost hath made you Bishops also Arch-Deacons and the Bishops-Dean or Deacon was chosen though very improperly out of the Presbyters who had lost that servile name in that of Priest or Elder than which the Church never knew a greater Title of honour but as Diocesses did increase so did the profit also of being the Bishop's Deacon or Dean and what Priest or Rector that could would not strive to be the Favorite-Dean or Arch-Dean Though as we esteem in England such Men are more properly called Arch Priests And these Arch-Deacons
Bishop it for filthy lucre against the Law of the Land and Magna Charta against Sacred Councels Fathers and Canons and all this because 't is easie to prey upon their own poor gentle kind though so unnatural as aforesaid I wonder they are not afraid of these Curses and Anathema's if they themselves do believe the vertue of them and Excommunications thunder'd out against the Impugners of Magna Charta so often by the Bishops of old with Bell Book and Candle or do think all these Ceremonial Curses were only of force against the Impugners of the first clause of Magna Charta namely that Holy Church shall be free And do they keep two measures one to buy by and another to sell by But let Magna Charta and the Laws of the Land sleep at present I 'le only henceforth play my Canons against these Exactions turn their own Canons upon them their Canon-Law and the Civil Law and sure their Lay-Chancellors will herein stand by them to divert the shock for they are either good at skill in Civil and Canon Laws of which they are Professors or else what are they good for And can there be any fairer play than to fight a man with his own weapons that he is us'd to and has skill in if in any 'T is Argumentum ad hominem which I 'le make use of and which of all Arguments soonest stop the mouth out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee thou wicked Servant says the Parrable and then it soons follows He was speechless The Apostle Paul us'd such a stabbing Argument ad hominem Rom. 2. Thou that sayest by thine own Law Rom. 2.22 a man should not steal doest thou steal Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge I have instanced enough in the Canon-Law already but if those many already recited will not do I 'le stop their mouths for ever if Canons can do it For none are so frequently met with as Canons to this effect that Censum à Presbyteris Parochianis exigere Tyrannicum est Constitut Apostol l. 2. cap. 32. de Agapis Presbyteris ut qui laborant in verbo doctrina duplex seponatur pars in gratiam Apostolorum Domini cujus locum sustinent tanquam Conciliarii Episcoporum Ecclesia corona Let the Presbyters that labour in the Word and Doctrine have double maintainance for the sake of the Apostles of our Lord whose Successors they are mark that being the Bishops Counsellors and the Churches Crown And those Canons and Constitutions Apostolical in 8. Books are numbred amongst the Books of Canonical Scripture by John Damascen and by Eusebius as also Epiphanius lib. 1. adversus Haereses J. Damasc de orthodoxa fide of the same opinion is Proclus Patriarch of Constantinople and Oecumenius in Comment in Epist 1. ad Timoth. so also in Can. Apostol 84. Athanasius indeed allows them to be of good and wholesome use in the Church but not Canonical as composed by St. Clement the disciple and companion of the Apostles But there are so many things foisted in amongst them by the Pope who long had the keeping of them that though many good things are amongst them they are none of my Creed but good enough to shew against the Canon-Law men and to prove that Presbyters or Priests are not in the judgement of Antiquity such scums and pitiful fellows to stand with cap in hand like so many School-boys before the Bishop whilst he schools them catechises them lectures them and calls them to account from the beginning it was not so as I will shew anon they were his Fellows and Counsellors any where even in the Church The only difference was he sat uppermost but all sat not stood bare-head like so many Boys And can there be any greater cause of the contempt of the Clergy and their neglect amongst the Laity then when they see how the Bishop one of their own Cloth that should best understand their worth slights them good God! whither will not pride and oppression hurry frail man Jubemus Presbyterum tantùm docere Can. Apostol l. 3. cap. 20. baptizare benedicere populo Diaconum ministrare Episcopo Presbyteris We ordain That only the Priest or Presbyter shall preach baptize and bless the people and the Deacon although Arch-Deacon but that he was not then born nor baptized in the Church ought to wait upon the Bishop and the Priests or Presbyters Cavendum sanè est Cabil Synod 2. cap. 14. nè cùm Episcopi Parochias suas peragrant quandam damnosam c. which I 'le faithfully English thus Special care should be taken saith that learned Council lest the Bishops going to visit their Diocesses should play the Tyrants over their Inferiours or over their Fellows and Comrades not exacting money of them by strict and rigorous courses Then follows a Lecture to teach Bishops what they ought to do in their Visitations and what they ought not to do ' They ought to spend their time in inquirendis rebus emendatione dignis in praedicatione verbi Dei in lucris animarum potius quam depraedandis spoliandis hominibus scandalizandis fratribus operam dent in confirming men in reforming what is amiss in preaching the Word busying themselves in gaining Souls and not in spoiling and making a prey of men and giving offence to their Brethren Et si quando eis ad peragrandum ministerium suum à fratribus aut subditis aliquid accipiendum est hoc summoperè observare debent nè quem scandalizent aut gravent Tanta ergò in hâc re discretio tenenda est ut verbi Dei praedicator sumptus ubi proprli desunt à fratribus accipiat item fratres illius potentiâ non graventur exemplo Apostoli Pauli qui nè quem gravaret arte manibus victum quaerebat And if for the work of the Ministery somewhat be to be received either of their Brethren or else of their Inferiours yet let them look to 't that they neither burthen any man nor give offence Such prudence therefore is to be used in this affair that as on the one hand a Preacher of God's Word may recieve somewhat of his Brethren to bear his charges when he has mark that no proper maintenance and Revenue of his own so also his Brethren ought not to be burthen'd with his Mightiship In imitation of the Apostle Paul who chose rather to get his living with his hands and Trade then to be burthensom or chargeable to any Get living with their hands there 's no need of that blessed be God for the munificence and legal provision is enough enough if avarice can possibly have enough to glut men without being burthensom to poor Priests and Vicars Indeed if these Bishops and Arch-deacons were as poor as St. Paul and should come a begging our charity as he did hard-hearted would that man be that would not open his purse for his relief though his Family fasted for
recover them till he pay for them again In Portugal I have known in their Visitations the Bishops make every Parish-priest pay for a License to keep a Concubine And if a Man be old c. and have no Stomaeh to a Wench yet still he must pay a Millroy or two for a License So that now they proverbially say Visitationes morum are become Visitationes nummorum St. Paul indeed went to visit the Brethren and to see how they do but these go to visit their Brethren and to see how their Pockets do And all they have to say for themselves is It us'd to be so in Popish times and formerly practic'd by others that were no Papists But the Civil-laws also provide against such foppish Pleas. Error Justinian Inst l. 2. tit 6. falsae causae usucapionem non parit nam usucapio non competit istis qui mala fide possident And many such Laws can I cite if I list and if I did not think I have done their business already If Statute-Law Common-Law Civil-Law or their Masterpiece the Canon-Law Reason Equity Justice or Conscience nay humane Nature and Compassion to their own kind will work upon them in despight of their Interest and Money Money And I hope all these Laws of God and Man Reason Honesty and good Conscience will over-vote their Interest and Money and Money and that they will ask God forgiveness and that every Offender of them from the highest to the lowest will make restitution or at least say with repenting Job Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my Mouth Once have I spoken but I will not answer Yea twice but I will proceed no further Thus they will do if this work kindly as it is intended upon their Consciences but if instead thereof being gawl'd they do nothing but kick and wince and instead of thanking me for my great pains here frankly bestowed upon them for their cure in much Charity shall rather joyn their Heads together first to find who I am that thus is kindly liberal to them and then secondly get a Club of Criticks and cunning Lawyers to lie at catch for every Expression here to improve it that is to mis-improve it to Revenge then I shall be forry that I have vouchsaft so much pains and care towards them to so little Fruit and Reformation and so little thanks from them from whom it is most especially due That in their Visitations at least may cease that Dialect better becoming the Mouths of Hectors and Padders than Registers and Secretaries of Holy Bishops namely Come Clergy-man deliver your Purse your Purse for Visitations Synodals shewing of Holy-Orders and Procurations Archdeacons have all good fat Corps so they call the Lands and Tenements a kind of Glebe annex'd for ever to their Archdeaconries they need not pinch the poor Parson that every body pinches Pharaoh's Lean-kine indeed did eat up the Fat ones but for the Fat ones to devour the Lean is a Prodigy not to be dreamt of or imagin'd Visitations made by Bishops and Archdeacons have for their Warrant as some alledge the Practice and Example of St. Paul and Barnabas Acts 15.36 42. Acts 15. who went to visit the Brethren in every City where they had Preached the Word of the Lord and to see how they do And Paul went through Syria and Silicia confirming mark that the Churches So that the work of a Visitation was to confirm or strengthen the Converts by preaching again the Word of the Lord to them Not by a perfunctory-mumbling over a few canting Words over Childrens heads as Popish-Bishops do mimically in pretence of imitating St. Paul who went to confirm men to the Faith whereby no flesh alive can possibly be enlightened instructed or confirmed or strengthened in the Faith Nor did St. Paul send his Sumner before him commanding the Disciples or Brethren to come and meet him at such a great Town where there is a great Church and a great Tavern and be sure to bring their Purses with them too or if they could not both come that then of the two they should be sure to send their Purses however by some Neighbour though they could not come in person that so the Attonement and Peace might the better be made If Cross-grain will not come then let him stay Let him but send his Purse still keep away 'T is an unpardonable sin to come to a Visitation and forget your Purse nay or to bring it empty You may with empty Purse part with your Letters of Ordination Institution Induction c. but there is no redeeming them without Money never Man yet in all my Intelligence found any other Redeemer of them save Money Money And yet the first Archbishop Rog. Hoveden Annal pars post 807. in his first Visitation after the Conquest namely Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury in the Council of London Anno 1200. did ordain that no Procurations or other Money Toll or Exactions should be paid in Visitations in these very Words Prohibemus né subditos suos Talliis exactionibus Episcopi gravare presumant Cùm cnim dicit Apostolus non debent Filii Thesaurizare Parentibus sed Parentes Filiis multò longè a pietate paterna videtur si praepositi subditis suis graves existant quos in cunctis necessitatibus Pastoris more debent fovere Archidiaconi aut sui Decani nullas exactiones vel Tallias in Presbyteros seu Clericos exercere praesumant c. He that likes may read more of these Decrees two and twenty years after namely Spelman Concil Tom. 2. p. 156 220 221 265 380 381 48 489 576. 1222. Council Oxford by Stephen Langeton Archbishop of Canterbury and four years after confirmed by Otho the Popes Legate Concilio Londini Anno 1226. and by Othobon the Popes Legate and the Council under him Anno 1248. and before that by the Diocesan Synod held at Salisbury Anno 1217. Is it not strange that a Bishop and a poor Bishop too should call a Synod to cry down these oppressions and yet it was done in the year aforesaid by Robert Poor Bp. of Sarum And An. 1287. by Peter Quivil Bp. of Exeter And by Walter Raynolds Archbp. of Canterbury and Conc. Lond. in the Reign of K. Edward II. And by John Stratford Archbp. of Canterbury An. 1342. De visitatione procuratione Archidiuconorum aliorum ordinariorum But all the Visitations of old made by Bishops or Archdeacons were Ecclesiastim like that of St. Paul's and Barnabas For to send out Citations to Ministers Church-wardens and Sinners and little Children to come to be Confirm'd c. at such a great Town They rather go to visit the Bishop than the Bishop to visit his Brethren as St. Paul did Ecclesiastim from Church to Church Thus Topsy Turvy can Visitations now become as if the Minister that is enjoyn'd to visit the Sick in the Common-Prayer-Book should send out his Apparitor and
command the Sick person to come and visit him or at least give him a meeting at such a Church and such a Tavern and then he shall hear what Prayers he will say over him St. James says Jam. 1.27 pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widdows c. What to do To pill them and poll them No surely that would not be a very pure Religion except of such a pure Religion as is made up of pure Money the Fatherless I suppose like not the visits of such kind of Fathers they had rather they would keep away and not help to make them poorer and add Affliction to the Afflicted of such Visiters better have their Room than their Company Is this your Kindness to your Friends when you come to visit them Hah Indeed I find that Allowance is taken care for in Visitations of old but what Not Money but Food and Drink such as the poor Vicar and his Family makes shift with but never never any Money in ancient time For which let him that lists consult Wil. Lindewood in his Provincial Constit l. 3. de Censubus Procurationibus f. 159 160. Johannes de Aten in his Glosses on Otho's and Othobon's Constitutions f. 43 89. Angelus de Clavasio in his Summa Angelica Tit. Visitatio also Gratian. Distinct 42. cap. non opertet Also Concil Lateran sub Innocent 3 Pap. An. 1215. cap. 33 34. Also Concil apud Castrum Gunter An. 1251. Concil Surius Con. Tom. 3. p. 746. apud Salmar An. 1253. Synod Andegavensis An. 1263. Concil Provincial apud Langres An. 1264. Concil Burdegal An. 1582 c. collected by Laurentius Bochellus Decret Eccles. Gallican lib. 5. Tit. 15. Devisitatione Procuratione personis quibus commissa est potestas visitandi Also Concil Coloniens An. 1549. Concil Trident Sess 24. de Reformatione cap. 3. Thomas Zerula in his Praxis Episcopal par 1. Tit. visitatio They all concur Vt nullus Procurationem recipiat nisi in Locis visitatis duntaxat tum Tantum victuallibus à locis quae visitantur That Meat and Drink when the Visiters are athirst or hungry shall be given them but not one Farthing of Money For says the said Council of London Anno 1200. The Children ought not to lay up for the Parents but Parents for their Children How far is it then from the Piety of Fathers if rich Prelates that ought like good Pastors to provide for the wants of their poor Flocks under them should be burthensom to their Inferiours And therefore the said John de Aton in his Gloss on that clause of Othobon's Constitution f. 89. hath these Words viz. Nos tam Ecclesiarum indemnitati quam Praelatorum saluti consultius provedentes districtius inhibemus nè quis eorum Procurationem quae ratione visitationis debeter ab Ecclesia quacunque recipiat nisi cum eidem visitationis officium impendit qui vero receperit donec restituerit ab Ingressu Ecclesiae sit suspensus By this Law then the Bishops and Archdeacons must make restitution of all the Moneys they received for Procurations or else be Suspended and not suffered to enter into the Church until they restore those ill-gotten Goods Et haec ratio fortè movet Episcopos hujus Regni qui in Visitationibus suis Procurationes ab Ecclesia communiter non exigunt quia ad singulas Ecclesias ob causam Visitationis non declinant lecet plenè personas visitent tà m Clerum quam populum ob hanc causam nunc ad unum locum nunc ad alium congruum convocando cumtamen Procurationem debeant recipere tantum modo de locis visitatis In short Visitations of old were to a good end like that of Paul and Barnabas by preaching the Word again to them to confirm them or strengthen and corroborate them in the Faith Afterwards this Godly usage became a Trade but never till there was Money to be got by it a nusance that Pride and Covetousness invented and continues in spight of the Laws and Canons of God and man For which cause the learned French Bishop Claudius Espencaeus complains in these words Comment in Epist ad Titum c. 1. Minores non tantum Episcopi sed ut Archidiaconi eorumque male officiosit absit verbo invidia nam de malis loquor Officiales Vicarii dum Diocaeses Parochias obequitant non tam facinorosos criminum reos poenis correctionibus à vitiis deterrent quo fine Peregrinationes hujusmodi olim jam fucrint jure canonico ordinatae quam pecuniâ praesenti numeratâ titulo Procurationis nè dicam fictitiae Jurisdictionis emungunt exigunt tum Clericos tum Laicos First they bring their printed Articles for the Church-wardens of every Parish to buy and though they have half a score of them which the Parish has bought ten years together yet still they must buy a new Book every year or lay down the money for it and then you may chuse whether you will take it with you or no Then also the Church-wardens must swear to keep and observe those Articles And are not all that do so forsworn Then they must give money a grant for being sworn then they must swear to Present and if they do not make a Presentment they are Excommunicated if they do put in a Presentment usually written in Court and very brief with an omnia benè for which they pay a shilling then also for putting in the Presentment a shilling more For three shillings and six pence or three shillings and eight pence a Church-warden may escape cleverly But saith the said French Bishop the Minor Bishops and Arch-deacons and their wickedly-officious pardon the Word for I speak only of the wicked Officials and Vicar-generals in their Visitations do not so much deterr men from sin by punishing the criminals as to drain their Purses by exacting ready monies of the Clergy and Laity by the name of Procurations and I know not what feigned Jurisdiction Thus the said good Bishop Espencaeus And therefore in the greatest height of Popery in England the Kings Judges and Justices in his Temporal Courts have usually decreed that Excommunicate persons shall be absolved clave errante when the Judges disallowed the cause for which a man was Excommunicated And many Actions of the Case have been brought against the Arch-deacons c. for Excommunicating men for things out of their cognizance and exceeding the limits of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions namely when they meddle with the right of Patronage exempt Churches being Lay-Fees c. and have made them pay sawce for being so sawcy and pragmatical I 'le instance in one Pat. 18 Edw. 1. m. 26. De libertatibus liberarum Capellarum Regis Rex omnibus c. salutem Inspeximus literas celebri memoriae Domini H. Regis Angliae patris nostri patentes in hec verba Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae
were the 12th part of Israel Except this be proved a Parity of maintainance cannot hence be argued by paying the Tenth or Tithes unless a Parity of numbers of the Clergy of England bore the like proportion to England that the Tribe of Levi did to Israel that is a 12th part And therefore it is an Idle Dream and a Bug-Bear to call detaining of Tithes Sacriledge except it can be prov'd that God or Christ or the Apostles ever took or commanded to be taken the Tenth to Gospel-Ministers as God expresly commanded the Tythes of all Israel to the Levites That bear no proportion in number to the Tribe of Levi nor are the Tenth part nor scarce the hundreth part of most Parishes and yet shall lick up the whole Tenth part of the Parish But though detaining of Tythes from Ministers is not Sacriledge yet detaining of Tithes from Ministers is as great a Sin as and no greater sin than detaining Tithes from Impropriators namely as other frauds and wrongs A transgression of the Laws of the Land Which the wily Priests never cared to trust to if they could help it nor to be beholden to though to the Law of the Land alone and Acts of Parliament they are beholden for any Tithes or portion of Tithes that they do enjoy and therefore they secure their Tithes with this same frightful word Sacriledge and also Jure Divino A Vicar has not the great Tithes no nor a poor man has not the great Mannors and Lordships that others have but the poor and poor Vicars have all that is their due and allowed them as their Propriety and let them be thankful to God and the Laws for that though not so great as other men's and perhaps neither do they deserve so much as other men howsoever it is their Lot and therefore poor Vicar Sorte tuâ contentus abi though I wish thee well and more For it is not Sacriledge for a Gentleman to have the great Tithes or Abbey-Lands disposed of by Acts of Parliament if he honestly purchas'd them of the Crown But 't is Robbery at least in heart for thee poor Vicar thus to covet thy Neighbours Goods thy Neighbours great Tithes that never never no not in the days of Popery never were thine nor thy Predecessors but belong'd to the said Abbots and Nun's from whom by the Law of the Land they as being got by a Cheat Escheated to the King and never were God's Propriety or Gods Purchase for if this could be prov'd All the Kings and Parliaments in the World cannot take them away and Alienate them But fair and softly Though the said Whores Extortioners Usurers and Murderers c. being deluded and Cheated with an Imaginary Purgatory and Paradise over the Gates whereof the Pope writes in Capital Letters This House is to be Let Enquire of St. Peter's Successor for the Key The silly Purchasers like those of old that bartred their Silver-Spoons Bodkins and Tankards for the Publique-Faith were Fob'd of their Moneys Goods and Lands Nay Deat 23.18 though the Moneys and Lands be tendred to God and by deed of Gift fairly engros'd Sealed and deliver'd in the presence of Witnesses and super altare too as Bishop Andrews notably observes who can prove that God Accepts this Tender and strikes up the Bargain because there ought to go always two Words to a bargain namely as both buyer and seller can agree And when and where did God say that he Accepted these cheating Purchases these fruits of Sin for Deodates Nay I know that God has said to the contrary that he will not accept of any such Gift Offering Bargain or Sale in Deut. 23.18 Thou shalt not bring the Hire of a Whore or the Price of a Dogg into the House of the Lord thy God for any vow for even both these are an abomination unto the Lord thy God It was Politickly done tho' to fence in the Abbey-Lands with a Jure Divino and yet even in the days of Popery The noyse the wyly Priests made eccho'd by the silly Priests Sacriledge Sacriledge did not Affright our Kings and Parliaments from making many Statutes of Mortmayn to stop the Current of this Cheating Deluge of Charity to the Church almost ready to drown the Common-wealth And yet like Pharaoh's Lean-kine the greedy-Priests that had Eat up the Fat of the Land look'd as Hungry and Sharp as if they had really kept and observ'd their Vow of Poverty and yet were the richest Cormorants in the Land which Vow notwithstanding some think they kept as well as their Vow of Chastity And yet they were the Archest Fellows in nature at a Wench Insomuch as one of their own Popes and the Learnedest of them all Aeneas Sylvius used to say that Marriage of Priests had Ruin'd many But a Single Life had Damn'd many more For which Causes amongst other the King and Parliament made those Nunneries those Abbey-Lands a just forfeiture to the Crown And though the said old Charm Jure Divino and Sacriledge Sacriledge have lost their wonted vigour as being now disoover'd to be meer Stalking-Horses under whose shaddow crafty Men catch their Prey yet still it is in use amongst us Protestants on many such Accounts And does feats still amongst the simple and unwary Nay some of the Learned whether affectedly and colourably only or no or that Interest the great Sollicitor and best Advocate but the worst Judge bribes their Judgments I cannot tell but sure I am many of them seem to pin their Faith upon it Thus a Learned Bishop of our own in his Book of the Collection of the Canons A.S. Bishop o Norwich quotes another Learned Bishop deceased In his Title-Page concerning the form of Consecration of a Church or Chappel c. In these very words namely Bishop Andrews Notes upon the Liturgy It is not to be forgotten though It be forgotten that whoever gave any Lands or Endowments to the Service of God gave it in a formal Writing as now-adays betwixt Man and Man Sealed and Witnessed and the Tender of the Gift was super altare by the Donor on his Knees And why And why why a Deed in Writing Sealed and Witnessed and Delivered And why had not God the keeping of it then So he had as near as they could come to him super altare where they suppos'd he stood Metamorphos'd from a Wafer and Transubst antiated Inclosed also in the Pix Or else I guess the Bargain and Sale had been as effectual to all Intents and Purposes though the said formal Writing had been Seal'd and deliver'd in the Belfrey the Body of the Church or in the Church-Yard or Moot-Hall But why I wonder is not all this Ceremony to be forgotten now that the days of Transubstantiation are at an End with English Bishops And why must this formal Story be filed up amongst the Memorandums of those odd Reliques and Canons And together also with the form of Consecrating a Church or Chappel and of the place of
Christian Burial And all this exemplified by the R.R. Father in God Lancelot Andrews late Lord Bishop of Winchester But above all those Admirable Collections the greatest wonder is how any Man durst Print and revive as he does the Proclamation of King Charles I. wherein the Proceedings of His Majesties Ecclesiastical Courts and Ministers are Proclaimed to be according to the Laws of this Realm Indeed when that Proclamation was put out They were so The Star-Chamber and High-Commission Court being then in being and 1 Eliz. 1. not repealed but in force But now the Case is alter'd and these Courts and that Law that founded them is taken away sure the structure then built upon it must follow the same fate and the Church left but with just the same Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical they had in the days of Queen Mary a little before the 1 Elizabeth 1. which by their own Confession was taken away from them as aforesaid And therefore It is high time surely That these Doubts were clear'd and resolv'd that both the Bishop's Jurisdiction might not be so precarious as it is And also that the People might know at length How much of the Canon-Law and How many Canons or whether any Canons be in force at this Day and when and for what Ecclesiastical matters they are lyable to be Excommunicated and Goaled or whether the Wisdom and Piety of the Realm does not think it most fit to make the same use of this same two-edged Sword as the Ancient Jews did of Goliah's Sword which was carefully preserved in the Temple and laid up behind the Ephod and never to be made use of but by David himself and not by every Whipster that knows not how to wield it no nor by David neither but in Cases of Vrgent Necessity The Apostle Paul that had the Gift of Discerning of Spirits and therefore never drew this Sword in a wrong cause as now adays but against the Enemy of Christ onely never drew it neither but Twice and that against Horrible Sinners An Incestuous Person and Blafphemers And therefore though Excommunication was in use in the Church whilst the said Gifts of Discerning of Spirits were frequent and onely against Notorious Offenders and Offences yet Quaere Whether every Commissary and Lay-Vicar-General though he has a Priest by him sometimes for fashion-sake did ever wield this sharp-Weapon or draw it upon every Occasion as when the Register's Fees and Sumner's Fees are not paid especially in these Days when Men may justly scruple whether they ought to obey their Processes as not being in the King's Name and under the King's Seal as the Law enjoyns 'T is sad thus to send Men to Satan because they do not pay the Knave a Groat especially when the Sumner does not Cite Men according to Law and to make Appearance before a Court too that does not pretend to Sit by His Majesties Commission nor by Vertue of their Original Constitution and ordinary Jurisdiction from the Pope This to Assert would make them incurr a Proemunire what can they say for themselves The Apostle Paul did many things that we cannot do our Blessed Saviour did many things which would be sin in us to Attempt to do He walk't upon the Waters he Fasted 40 Days and 40 Nights he commanded his Servants to take away a Man's Ass and Colt tyed we may not Attempt these things they are above our Skill And so I fear it is beyond our Skill and Abilities to wield and draw sheath and unsheath that Goliah's Sword of Excommunication Especially when Men offend onely our Interests and not the Law of the Land and yet it is often brandished against this sin of Sacriledge Sacriledge and by those many times that do not or will not know what Sacriledge is Nay I have heard some Men speak great Words against the King and Parliament in Hen. 8. time and against all Parliaments ever since that Alienated or consent to Alienate these Abbey-Lands and Nunneries as if they would smite them with this Thunder-bolt of Excommunication as guilty of Sacriledge if they durst It was as safe for Naboth and his Vineyard to lye conveniently and next Hedge to Ahab's as sometimes to have had Lands bordering upon St. Petèr's Patrimony why so what can't St. Peter or his Pretended Successors do Oh! this Religion this Engine of pretended Religion this Dart of Excommunication when 't is out of the Magistrates keeping shall wound and mawl them wonderfully Ask the Excommunicated Venetians when Dandalus their Ambassador came with a Rope about his Neck to beg their Peace ask the poor Duke of Ferrara if this be true Let the King Command a Becket or a Woolsey to his Allegiance They will be his Humble Servants with a Salvo honore Dei And say others in omnibus nisi rebus Christi so that these kind of Religious Bigots always keep in Reserve a Starting-Hole a Loop-Hole a Sally-Port always ready and open when their Forces and occasion calls to Attempt against the King's Supremacy especially when their Humours are cros't or their Pride Affronted or their Revenge unappeas'd or their Covetousness unglutted And 't is a hard matter to Glut it The Popish Religious Houses had once a third part of the Land and were they Glutted Bishops and Arch-Deacons have enough to live on without sharing with and pareing every Benefice in the Diocess yet though they know not how they came honestly and lawfully by their Procurations Synodals and Visitations though it be against Law Conscience and Compassion for the Rich thus to pinch the Poor yet take it from them And 't is a hundred to one if they do not plead Jure Divino for the Tenure and cry out Sacriledge Sacriledge Of the Church of England Quaere What it is THere 's nothing more ordinary than for People to say in these days of Part-taking and distinguishing who Men are for I am for the Church of England Whereas there is not one of a Thousand understands what he means or who he means in saying so In the Days of Popish Prelacy Men were Taught to believe as the Church believes meaning as the Clergy believes So that for Salvation they needed no further Knowledge or Insight than a blind Implicite Faith in the Church that is in the Clergy To see with Clergy-mens Eyes to believe as they pleas'd to prescribe to be led thus by the Nose to Heaven was the Divinity of Old And so a Man did but follow his Nose in the dark no matter for Eyes The Arch-Deacons those oculi Episcoporum together with the Bishops they could see and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Oversee for us all 'till at last the Church had no other Members but Head and Eyes a monstrous Church sure And though the Holy Apostles and Elders had as good Eyes one would think as these Pretenders and pretended Successors yet they never had the Forehead that those Men put on who confine and Monopolize the Church of Christ to themselves alone