do they expresly limit those who have Authority to deprive such offenders when and how and how far they may proceed and enter their Protestation against all Arbitrary Deprivation for so runs the Preamble before John Huss Arguments N. B. I do profess saith he That it is not my intent like as it is not the meaning of the Vniversity he means Prague to perswade That Princes or secular Lords should take away the goods from the Clergy when they would or how they would and convert them to what use they list Certainly John Huss thus protesting would never have been of Councel to turn the Church-Lands into Lay-fees and therefore to make his or John Wickliffe's case a parallel with this and to detort their Arguments as An Ancient plea in justification of the late taking away and sales of Cathedral Lands c. which Act was not passed by the King God be thanked but by a Parliament sitting against the King is a prevarication as bold as it is strange tending mainly to vilifie the just owners and to gratifie some unwary Purchasers to say no worse of them in reverence to the Law who before their hasty bargain might have minded the Rule of the Law Caveat Emptor 10. And now that by way of Ratiocination we have sufficiently confuted those pretended Arguments wrested from the sayings of John Wickliffe and John Huss for the matter of Right it will be very pertinent for the matter of Fact to make some Reflections upon the History of those times by way of inquiry what might be the motive which set on John Wickliffe to broach that controversie against the Temporalties of the Prelates and Church-men of his time Somewhat therefore must be observed 1. Concerning John Wickliffe's Person and profession 2. Somewhat concerning his Positions as they relate to this matter of the Temporalties of Prelates and Church-men the point in question And 3. Somewhat also of his chief Patron who set him on to maintain those Positions and as it were did license and authorize both the Author and his Opinions First then concerning John Wickliffes Person and profession the History tells us he was a Secular Priest Graduate and Professor in Oxford about the year 1375. and that for want of a just Title he was by Simon Sudbury Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deprived r Daniels Hist of England in Edw. the 3. Fullers Eccles Hist B. 4. Cent. 14. of the Headship of Canterbury-Colledge now incorporated into Christs Church This Deprivation bred Discontent saith your Daniel The humor that commonly breeds opposition and many times hurries discontented men into Schism as that Historian wisely observes and experience both of old and of late abundantly confirms This Censure therefore did sharpen Wickliffe's Pen Contrà Religiosos possessionates as Walsingham phrases it against Church-men who had Temporal Possessions Hereupon Wickliffe vexed with opposition Fuller which makes men reel into violence as his own zealous Advocate would excuse him in this transported with a Polemical heat when chafed with Disputation became active in his Sermons and acts in the Schools where that 17. Article so much pressed on by the Churches Adversary was first coined Here Wickliffe did mainly inveigh against Church-men endowed with Temporalties especially the Monks then not free from scandal and no doubt worthy to be taxed when found Delinquents Moreover Wickliffe stayed not there but becoming popular did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drew Disciples after him of the populace to be taken notice of and discerned by a new livery long Russet Coats and going barefooted and professing Poverty with that kinde of Novelty the more to catch the people who rather believe then judge Thus much concerning John Wickliffe's Person and Profession Secondly Concerning Wickliffe's Positions whereof the occasion you see was Deprivation Fuller adds also his Ambition because he did miss of the Bishoprick of Worcester which he aimed at The old quarrel in Church History of some male-contented Priests against their Bishops we purposely wave to charge Wickliffe with those Centuries of Articles exhibited against him by Thomas Waldensis Harpsfield and others who might be excepted against for partiality we will therefore confine our discourse chiefly to two of your own Historians Daniel and Fuller afore-cited Wickliffe's Positions placed by Walsingham at the year 1377. Daniel delivers thus Wickliffe maintained That neither the King nor Temporal Lords could give any thing to Church-men in perpetuity which certainly was an error as full of Injustice as of untruth as being opposite to the whole current of Holy Scriptures both in the Old and New Testament contrary to so many Councels Fathers Laws of all sorts Canon Civil and to the Laws of the Land and to the practice of the whole Catholick Church in all Ages as well as to right Reason the ground of both Precept and Practice for it as is at large demonstrated throughout this whole Treatise especially Chap. 11. Secondly he maintained saith the same Historian That Temporal Lords in their necessity might lawfully take away the Goods of Religious Persons This if true as he is charged by Historians is as contrary to Justice as to right Reason to deprive men whether they be Delinquents or no But this Doctrine as it was popular so it proved very pleasing to great men Walsingham and Daniel especially who commonly imbrace Sects either for Ambition to get or for Jealousie not to lose or for Hatred to revenge as your own Historian judiciously observes it which fell out to be John of Gaunts Case and brings us to the third consideration of John Wickliffes namesake and chief Patron John of Gaunt the Duke of Lancaster fallen out with that eminent Prelate Godwin de praesul bus Angliae Gulielmus Wickham William Wickham Bishop of Winchester Ob causam mihi non ignotam saith another good Author for a cause not unknown to me which haply will not be so expedient to record Episcopum implacabili odio prosequebatur did thereupon prosecute the Bishop with implacable hatred and did instigate King Edward the Third then decayed through Age both to take away all this Bishops Temporalties and also to except him out of the general Pardon This quarrel was aggravated by another accident when John Wickliffe being cited came to appear before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury aforenamed at a Synod in St. Pauls Church there John of Gaunt blew up the Coals saith Fuller and both by Word and Deed animated Wickliffe bidding him not to fear the Bishops saying They were all unlearned in respect of him Whereupon there happened a fierce contest between Courtney Bishop of London and John of Gaunt threatning the Bishop that he would bring down the pride not of that Bishop alone but of all the Prelates in England Like another Haman Esther iii. 6. who scorned to be revenged only on the person of Mordecai and therefore did plot the destruction of the whole Nation Though for this John of Gaunt was like to have proved
Dapifer Probat hoc cum divite Pauper England keep decent Hospitality as they are obliged according to their Degree to satisfie the Bounty of Princes and the Magnificence of their Donors or the last Will and Testament of their godly Predecessors many of * S. William so called was Nephew to Henry Bishop of Winchester who was King Stephen's Brother Hugh Pudsey Bishop of Duresme King Stephen's Nephew William Courtney Son to Hugh Earl of Devonshâ—re Archbishop of Canterbury and many more such Natalium splendore illustres in Bishop Godwin's excellent Book de Praesulibus Angliae which it would be an honour to the Church and Nation to continue since for above threescore years he wants a worthy Successor them of Noble blood the lawful †'T is a vulgar Error confuted by History That every bit of the Clergy's Revenues and every parcel of their Church-lands is held in Frank-almoigne To say nothing now of Tythes which the Clergy must hold of God in Capite had no Clergy-men trow we many of them as appears above of so Noble and some of them of Royal blood ever any temporal Estate of his own Patrimony or Purchase though much of it may be consumed aforehand in their Education and long Studies in the Schools to make themselves able and sufficient for that high and sacred Office For instance first Walter Gray Archbishop of York in H. 3d's time did purchase the Mannor of Bishopthorp neer York and gave the same to his Church specie-tenus for a very good reason but re ipsâ to his Archiepiscopal See which to this day injoys it successively as the Archbishop's Mansion-house See Bishop Godwin quo suprá 2ly Lawrence Boothe Archbishop of York also in Edw. 4th's time did purchase the Mannor of Battersey neer London built the House there and gave it to his See Ibid. 3ly Hugh Pudsey who built the House and Church of Darlington and founded the Priory of Fenkelo near Durham And now I mention Durham I may not omit to commend to Posterity the Magnificence of John Cosin the present Lord Bishop of that See our venerable Dioecesan who since the happy Restauration of the King and Prelates hath repaired and notably adorned the Episcopal Castles both of Duresme and of Bishops-Aukland where he hath erected a goodly Chappel Two other Chappels formerly belonging to that Castle being by the late Sacrilegious Rebellion blown up and destroyed The same Bishop hath also founded two Hospitals or Alms-houses one at Duresme and another at Auckland Purchasers of some of the Lands and Founders of the Houses of Bishops Deans and Chapters then straightway our Prelates must incur the Imputation of Riot and Excess and be blasted with the Pride of pompous worldly splendor Thus are our Bishops traduced on both sides An hard Dilemma but easily dissolved as long as our Christian Bishops have a godly Care in the sight of God as to satisfie their own Consciences so to answer the Expectation of honest and sober men as long as their civil Hospitality to their good Neighbours as the Prelates are men and great men doth not hinder much less exclude their Sacred Hospitality towards the Poor to which also and that chiefly Bishops are obliged as by the Apostle's Rule Tit. 1.8 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Lovers of Hospitality in general and as the Original bears it Lovers of strangers in special So by the Canons of the Church and their solemn Vow at their Consecration according to which our Prelates and Church-men doing their duty they need not much care for the talk of the Vulgus or fear the pretended charge of this kind of Real Sacriledge namely The abuse of the Revenues of the Church 7. One kind of Sacriledge more the holy Fathers have observed out unto us too too seasonable nay necessary for you in these days to take notice of 't is Sacriledge committed against this Sacred Book of God to wit when the holy Senses Words and Phrases thereof appropriated to the Expressions of Divine and Sacred Mysteries are abused either in a prophane and scurrilous application of them the humour now a-la-mode with the Court or Camp-Atheist or in a sacrilegious Detortion of Holy Writ to the Patronage of Heresie or Schisme Rebellion or Sedition or Sacriledge Errors in Life or Doctrine or both 8. This kind of Scripture Sacriledge is as old as Adam's fall and the Devils own early Invention or ever the word was written he did snatch it with reverence be it spoken out of God's own mouth (f) Gen. 3.1 yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden c. This was his first Temptation before he used a second thereby to perswade the Woman that either God never said so or else that God never meant so Thus the first founder of all Sacriledge began berimes to tempt our first Parents by a verbal Sacriledge to a real Sacriledge for the first sin of mankind for the particular species of the Fact was Direct Sacriledge in prophaning and usurping that which God had made holy This you may call Original Sacriledge as well as Original sin The hereditary sin of Sacriledge we all smart for ever since from Generation to Generation To this first grand Sacriledge the Devil did perswade Mankind by this other kind of Sacriledge by stealing out the Sacred Letter of God's Word and abusing it against God's own sense to his own Devilish ends therefore you may do well to take special notice of it as of a main cause of Apostasie in the end 9. With the guilt of this kind of Sacriledge were charged of old the Hereticks termed therefore by the holy Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cyril of Alexandria terms them or Literae Sacrilegi as Arnobius translates them Thieves of the Sacred Letter The very Patriarchs of our new Scripturists that unstable and unlearned too (g) 2 Pet. 3.16 as they are yet to this day go on still treading in their Fathers black steps by wresting the holy Scriptures unto their own destruction In this the Devil 's good Scholars for you know the Devil (h) Matth. 4. had his Scriptum est even against the Son of God himself and so have his Disciples still their Scriptum est too for Rebellion Sacriledge any thing stealing away the meaning of the Text in a new way of Sacrilegious Appropriation thereof to their own Errors And this they do by quoting it amiss which is worth your notice for a warning one of these three by-ways 1. Either foysting in their own false glosses and blending these with God's own true word to the attraction of the undiscerning hearer 2. Or else by a plain omission of some of the most material words which soon alter the true sense 3. Or lastly By a cunning concealment of some such main circumstances in the Context which is Clavis Textus the Key that opens the passage into a Text which citcumstances well examined would plainly
(b) Ephes 1.6 Acceptance both of our Persons and Performances through Christ Upon such grounds as these S. Paul doubts not but bids the Devout (c) Phil. iv 18. Philippians be confident that their Offerings sent unto him their Apostle were an Odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice ACCEPTABLE and well-sing unto God 41. This general Discourse you may extend to all the particulars in this kind except they will say for they will and may say any thing that God will indeed Accept the good works done to any Disciples at large to the meanest but to the Seventy or to the Twelve his own Servants in Ordinary his Disciples in chief In whose behalf yet that they may see we have God's Revelation yea Assurance of Acceptance yea special Promise of Reward also all these as particularly set down in the Clergie's behalf as may be in the very first rank of that noted ancient (d) Grot. in Matth. 10.40 41 42. Tres discipulorum gradus supremus prophetarum secundus Justorum infimus parvulorum ex Textu ex Clem. Alexandr Origen Gradation of Disciples God placeth his Prophets foremost of all saying He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet That is as we use to say in the quality of a Prophet shall receive a Prophet's reward and if you will know what kind of Prophets he there means they were his Apostles the then MINISTERS pro tempore of whom in the Verse immediately before he had expresly said He that receiveth you receiveth me and of whom also in the very next Verse he says and in a manner swears it too that if the Offering should amount to no more but a Cup of cold water yet it should not go rewardless As once the (e) Tertullian Father upon another occasion so may I say Happy we my Brethren for whose sakes Christ swears but then Unhappy they all that will not believe Christ no not when he swears on our behalf 42. And now will any sober man Heathen or Christian expect a surer or more express Revelation of God's Acceptance than his own Promise of actual Reward sealed too with such a Solemn Asseveration verily verily I say unto you c. to put us out of all doubt as if Christ had here in this place directly foreseen these latter days of Indevotion and Infidelity 43. And again are we here assured that God both doth Accept and will Reward the meanest transitory Oblation a Meals-meat as we say bestowed on his Ministers and shall we raise a doubt whether he will accept these Devotions which are more Permanent which are intended and dedicated for Perpetuity Sure God Almighty now under the Gospel as well as under the Law will have Persons and Places too as well as Times consecrated to his Honour and Service and those not Planetary neither nor mutable every third year but fixed and setled too for perpetuity as we have already in part demonstrated and these Rational men cannot deny with Reason with what reason then can they deny the Lawfulness yea Necessity of such sacred permanent Portions to maintain those Sacred Persons and Places for Perpetuity 44. And can they with all their Serpentine subtlety find out a better Expedient for such a kind of standing Provision than standing Revenues or Lands Here in the Apostle's Deed we read of Lands sold and the Prices the Lands-worth given Sure had the unsetled condition of those tumultuary Times borne it we might as soon as in after times have read of Lands directly given for Lands or Lands-worth is it not all one that would have saved the labour of a Sale however there was in it an express Consecration of Lands for so Beza very well notes upon the place that Praedium Domino consecraverant 45. And the Lawfulness of it must needs stand with all the reason in the World for shall it be lawful to give Lands to maintain a Bridge or a High-way for perpetuity To which against the ancient Law * See above pag. 48. the Clergie are now angariated and shall it be unlawful to give the like to maintain a Church-man or a Church Shall Lay Donations made to secular men ex mero motu or ex Intuitu Charitatis be valid and those be decreed invalid that are made to a Clergy-man ex intuitu Religionis we may justly be afraid of offending in doing such Monsters of men the honour to confute them with so much reason that deserve no other Confutation then that of the (f) Isa 5.20 Prophet Wo be to them that call evil good and good evil that call good works sins and sins good works For unless such men were strangely possest with a Spirit of Atheisme would they reason the matter thus Or use such Arguments as in the Consequence must needs blaspheme God for what with God's Reverence and their reproach be it spoken would they make God worse than an Infidel * 1 Tim. 5.8 in purposely providing worst of all other sorts of men for those of his own Houshold Belike all other men Lawyers Physicians and all may have a command or at least a permission lawfully to possess Lands onely the Divine may not But Ubi scriptum est quomodo legis where is the Clergy excluded had such kind of Law or Reason been in force of old then how could the Bishops have conquered by fair purchase much of their own and of the Churches Lands Turn over the Records and see and you may yet read their munificent Erections and ample Endowments too not only of most of the Colledges but also of so many (g) See the L. Bishop Godwin's Catalogue of the Bishops and in it for instance the magnificent Foundations of Hugo de Puteaco or Hugh Pudsey Bishop of Duresme K. Stephen's Nephew c. An. 1153. Sir H. Spelm. Concil Cathedrals in England besides all their other large Religious Donations This we must needs note that the simple people may not proudly as well as ignorantly think that the Clergie's Lands are all of the Laitie's bestowings but could the Clergy have done all those great matters without Lands trow wee 46. And if the Clergy may as lawfully nay in some of the premised respects may more deservedly and more irrevocably too than any of the other Estates possess their Lands then sure by the Rule of Proportion the Deprivation or taking away of the Church Lands must needs be an Injury far more hainous in the sight of God and Man than to take away the Lands of Barons of Knights or Lawyers or Physicians or any So far were such an Act from being either no Sacriledge or no sin at all that 't is a wonder any man that pretends to reason should affirm any such thing Impunè especially in a Christian Common-wealth for even in Plato's Common-wealth (h) Plato 10. de Legib. we know such a man hath his doom 47. But more strange it is if in these African days any thing may
the Law when the King took that Oath This may be one Golden Nail more to fasten the Clergies Title and to Rivet it more and more into your own Law 6. For by this Juratory Obligation of the Kings special Promissory Oath unto God for the Clergy in particular some of your own good Lawyers teach us to say That the Clergies supposed tacite Consent in a general Act is not remissory at all of the Kings Conscience from this particular Clause of his Oath without the Clergies particular Consent first obtained and clearly expressed by a particular Body Representative of their own of the Clergy quatenus Clergy and not involved with the general Body of the People Their Act to free the Kings Conscience must in Reason and Equity be proportionable and adaequate to the Kings Act or Bond that is full out as particular 7. For else this bundle of Absurdities would follow that the Clergy obtains no more by the Kings Special Oath in their particular behalf then if the King had Sworn only in general which is as much to say that in this little short draught Oaths that should be spared are multiplied without Necessity or so much as Signification or that they must pass for meer Tautologies 8. If therefore the case be so that the King after such a solemn particular Oath may not consent to the Bishop's Deprivation c. without Injustice nay Impiety then sure I am that no man ought to counsel the King so to do for that Subject whoever he be that will go about to perswade the King to so impious an Act perswades the King to do that which were most palpable Injury to his fellow Subjects and most damnable wickedness against the Soul of the King himself for whom contrariwise every Loyal Subject is bound in Conscience to pray that rather then His Royal Soul should be so loose it may for ever be h 1 Sam. xxv 29. bound in the bundle of Life with the Lord his God but that the souls of His and the Churches Enemies may for ever and ever be slung out as out of the middle of a sling This must be their Destiny at last for Malum consilium consultori pessimum you never knew it prove otherwise in the end We say no more but conceive this enough to confute one necessity with a greater the pretended Necessity of State with the real Necessity of Conscience so many wayes ingaged in this publick Cause of God and the Church which Church as it rationally and clearly appears from the premises the King is obliged to defend in point of Conscience as the King is a Christian CHAP. X. The Confutation of the fourth Politick Pretence of a Legislative Power FOllows now the Fourth and last Politick Pretence of a Legislative Power to dispose of the Clergies Revenues and consequently of all mens Estates as they see Cause 1. This pretended Plea of a Legislative Power is mainly pressed by the chief Advocates both for Sacriledge and Rebellion for those Diabolical twins are still bred and born and grow up together and the same is also made the very Basis and Foundation of all the late Sacrilegious Vsurpations by that notorious i No Sacriledge nor Sin to alien or purchase the Lands of Bishops c. by Cornelius Burges D. D. This Sacrilegious Book in those Rebellious times had the licentiousness of a second Edition Anno 1659. Doctor of Sacriledge CORNELIVS BURGES who not content to * Matth. v. 19. break one of the greatest Commandements of God by practising Sacriledge in his own person Usurping for many years both the Mannor and Demesnes of the Bishoprick of Wells from the just owner that Learned and Venerable and most ancient Bishop Dr. William Pierce but had also the impudence to teach men so by Preaching and Printing the lawfulness of Sacriledge which at first was but only intended or pretended by his Rebellious Complices but as it was ex signis causis in a manner foretold by us three years before the event in the first Edition of this very Book it was afterwards acted in earnest k This Torrent brake out first against the Prelates the Lords Spiritual whom having once burried out of the way it soon overtook also the Lords Temporal and never stopt till at last it swallowed up the King himself Therefore principiis obsta is good counsel and very seasonable and also legitimated by that Sacrilegious Act of their pretended Parliament and which is worst of all aggravated by immediate Sacriledge against God himself blasphemously making God the principal Author of their Sin and with a complication of Blasphemies making the late Gracious King now a Glorious Martyr the Instrumental Cause of it for he worse than cursed Cham having begun his Libel with down-right railing at the Bishops and Pastors of Gods Flock to whom this ungrateful wight owed his Ordination over whose unjust persecution and illegal Abolition drawing out his arrow from the Popish or Mahometan Bow that is arguing from their Cross against their Cause he there doth most barbarously insult telling the world of the sad Providence on the Cathedral Prelacy of England * C. B. ch 1. though since another happy providence hath most visibly confuted him by a gracious and almost miraculous Restauration both of King and Bishop then he dares affirm expresly that it was God who did put it into the hearts of the late Long Parliament by an Ordinance of both Houses dated Octob. 9. 1646. after the King saith that Shimei had deserted his Parliament Corn. Burges chap. 1. raised his Standard against them whereby he put both them and the whole Kingdom out of his Protection and none but those two Houses of Parliament remained to take care of the Publick Interest in a Legal Way wholly to abolish the Name Title Style Dignity and Offices of all arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and to vest and settle their Lands and Possessions in Trustees to the use of the Commonwealth c. and soon after he proceeds farther avowing that on the 13. of April 1649. the Commons of England being then the only persons remaining having then after the Bishops thrusted also the Temporal Lords out of doors in Parliament Assembled were necessitated forsooth to sell the Lands of Deans and Chapters whom he rails at with a full mouth as at the former and so to enact an utter abolition of these also reserved for the last to satisfie the Bulimia of those cruel and unsatiable Polyplemus's and so to make good their so long designed extirpation of both Root and Branch It were a Crime of Participation to be patient or silent in this cause which is Causa Dei Religionis Ecclesiae Regis all these at once and Sacriledge in special being expresly excepted in the Act of Oblivion We must therefore be mindeful to proceed against it This pretended Legislative Power of that illegal Assembly and their Sacrilegious Act
c. Liturgies full of those holy * And all this too without Popish superstition for this was the Catholick practice long before the birth of Popery low Congies devout Kisses and religious Venerations every time they did put on or off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Vestments every time they did handle or but touch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Utensils the holy Table Vessels Books c. The Reading and observation of which primitive Devotions I know not whether it would more ravish the godly Reader 's minde with admiration or strike it with astonishment at the comparison of those good old devout Primitive Christians with our loose and prophane Generation Ah holy Fathers should you now come down again and be but once present with the most of our ordinary Congregations I doubt much whether you would own us for your Successors or our people for Christians I pray God this Item may in us all Priest and People amend this kind of Sacriledge and teach us all better manners in and about the Service of our God For indeed by such a respective usage and sanctification of things Sacred still terminativè in a reflection to the Owner the Name of God himself to whom they belong is sanctified 't is the thing we all daily pretend to in our Prayer but seldom remember to make good in our practice which made me acquaint you with but thus much of the contrary Example of Devout Antiquity only in a glance There is also another kind of Sacriledge which may be committed about the sacred Revenues of the Church namely If those be abused or Dilapidated by excess luxury * Multi Canonici vivunt ut Domini moriuntur ut servi Baldus apud Tympium in speculo magno signo 18. or a lavish vanity under pretence of Hospitality a Christian yea Episcopal vertue indeed if it be rightly applied if wisely regulated after the Pattern of Primitive Antiquity not as though a Clergy-man must give over his Studies and either become a common Host to all Comers what ever they be or else forfeit the Reputation of Hospitality But that Ecclesiastical Persons must have a primary regard to the true poor such as those are not that wilfully make themselves poor by being Unthrifts riotous Spenders idle Strumpets vagabond Loiterers Drolls and Buffoons for such Correction and Labour is the best Alms Houses of Correction are fitter to entertain such Guests than Clergy-mens Houses To Relieve such remaining such is so far from true Charity that it is rather a kind of Impiety a sin of Participation because by a preposterous Relief it incourageth such disorderly Persons in their lewd or loose courses But on the contrary 't is high Charity to entertain or relieve such as by the Law are termed Miserabiles personae those that are true poor indeed whether * See in Speed's Chronicle at the Reigne of K. Edw. 6 about the end a List of the Poor 1. By Impotency as the stranger the fatherless and the Widow the poor Clergy-men's Widows in special desolate Creatures where no publick care is taken for them †The Memory of Dr. Warner late Lord Bishop of Rochester is precious for his Piety in settling by his last Will and Testament for perpetuity 400 li. per annum for the maintenance of 20 poor Minister's Widows if they be Widows indeed of S. Paul's Character 1 Tim. v. 5. Trusting in God and continuing in supplications and prayers with an house for each of them and 50 li. per annum for a Chaplain the aged the blind the lame and the diseased especially the incurable Or 2ly By casualty through the hand of God as overcharged or decayed Housholders whereof no small number now since the fatal Fire of the Metropolis of London Persons sick or visited Captives in whose Redemption the Clergy of this Land have not been wanting poor Scholars especially are a very proper object of the Charity of Prelates and Church-men * The Munificence of that famous William Wickham Bishop of Winchester in K. Edw. 3. time who both founded Winchester Colledge for Grammar-Scholars and also New Colledge in Oxford for Students there is fragrant to this day for his magnificent Provision for no less then an hundred Scholars maintained by it now 300 years after to the eminent obligation of both Church and State furnished still out of these noble Nurseries T. de Walsingham Hypodigm Neustriae Had Church-men been Stipendiaries or the People's Beadsmen as some would have them could they out of their stinted Pittance have raised such Monuments of Charity To Relieve any such is true Charity to Entertain such especially where no publick Provision is made for them is right Christian Hospitality so much practised of old by the Primitive Bishops who then out of their far larger Revenues could far better do it then the present Bishops and even at this day in mine own experience this Hospitality is practised also by the Eastern Bishops according to their poor proportion living for the most part under Persecution And God be thanked this kind of Hospitality to the poor is not so neglected by the godly Prelates of our Church as to deserve the slander of some men in our Generation who being troubled with that foul disease Matth. 20.15 called by our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evil eye do odiously insinuate that our Prelates do spend their Estates in pompous worldly splendor or treasure up their Revenues in their own Purses to inrich themselves their Wives Children Kindred and Servants c. * A Seasonable Vindication c. by William Prynne Esq 1660. 1 Tim. 5.8 As if contrary to the Apostle's Rule to Bishop Timothy our Bishops must be the onely men that must cast off all just care of providing honestly for their own Housholds and at least so far to Deny the faith and become worse than Infidels unless they will incur the guilt of Real sacriledge a heavy Censure but the Charge is no less then so As though bating Inheritance the Bishop's and Clergy-men's Estates were not by the Law of the Land their Freeholds as much their own as any Lay-Lords or Gentlemen and consequently as if Clergy-men in their Prudence and Piety might not do with their own what seemeth them good But because they will not let their left hand know what their right hand doth They desire not as some with a Noverint universi every time they do a good work to blow a Trumpet to proclaim their works of Piety and Charity to all the World Therefore the World must needs believe Clergy-men have no Charity Clergy-men keep no Hospitality And yet again on the contrary if Prelates and Church-men do in imitation of their noble Predecesors the ancient Bishops of †William Wickham Bishop of Winton in Edw. 3d's time was so famous for Episcopal Hospitality that upon his Monument in his Cathedral Church there 't is part of his Epitaph Largus erat