Parliamentsâ—gainst â—gainst them and their Treasonable practices that they have frequently written petitioned for their Repeal Abolition as bloody Tyrannical Laws unlawfull Oaths and procured their Repeal or Suspension at least in their favour from some late and present Powers 3ly That when some consciencious pious Stationers late in their Beacons fired discovered to those then in Power The many sorts multitudes of Jesuites Popish Books printed in England within 3. years last past in defence of the Pope and Church of Rome all Popish Doctrines Ceremonies and reviling our Church Religion as Heretical desiring them to take it into their timely considerations to suppress this growing Mischief Design to corrupt the People and reduce them back to Popery ere they were aware Kiffin with other Anabaptists in the Army headed by Colonel Pride taking an Alarum thereat subscribed and printed a Book intituled The Beacons quenched penned they know best by whom not the Subscribers of it not yet inspired with the gift of all the Tongues therein contained pleading for a free Tolleration of such Popish Books printing dispersing amongst us of publick Disputes by those of that Religion traducing accusing the Presbyterians throughout that Pamphlet and those honest zealous Stationers in particular of no lesse than a New Gunpowder-plot Mine Train then ready to be sprung to blow up those Colonel Pride and his Confederates first made and then stiled The Parliament of the Common-wealth of England and the Army too only for discovering thesâ— Popish Books and Trains to blow up our Religion Which Scandal as the Stationers then fully cleared by their satisfactory Reply to that impertinent Pamphlet so the Subscribers of it their Fellow-Souldiers of the Army better versed by far in Mines and Fireworks to blow up Parliaments and nearer related to old Guy Faux a Low-Country Souldier by reason of their Military profession than these Stationers and Presbyterians they thus falsly slandered have since cleared before all the World to be a malicious Calumny of which themselves only are guilty and given just cause of Jealousie Fear to all Presbyterians old Protestants and Pâ—ritans to apprehend that they now really joyn their Forces and Heads together with those thus pleaded for to ruine our Church Religion Ministry under the Notion and Project of suppressing Tithes and of all future compulsory Maintenance for the Ministers of England whom they intend to starve and famish such is their Charity if they can but vote Tithes down before they provide any other Maintenance which Vote once passed the next will be to vote them both out of their Rectories Glebes Churches Ministry too as Cannes Voice and the Kentish Petition against Tithes root and branch sufficiently discover to all who are not wilfully blind enough to make all men now to look about them That the Dominican Franciscan and other Popish Fryers were the first Broachers of this Opinion That Laymen were not bound to pay Tithes to their Ministers by any Divine law or right on purpose to draw the Tithes of Ministers and Curates to themselves and exempt whatever Lands or Things were given to them from payment of Tithes I have elsewhere evidenced out of Mr. Selden and others wheâ—eupon Johannes Sarisburiensis Bishop of Chartres thus censured them Miror ut fidelium pace loquar quodnam sit ut Decimas jura aliena usurpare non erubescunt Inquient sortè Religiosi sumus Planè Decimas solvere Religionis pars est Adding that their Exemptions from payment of Tithes did derogare constitutioni Divinae derogate from Divine institution And Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bath in his 82. Epistle inveighs very much against the privileges of the Cistercian Monks exemption from payment of Tithes as injuriosa immunitas contra Dei justiciam seeing Justiciae Divinae manifestè resistit qui Ministris Ecclesiae nititur jus Decimationis auserre Which these Friers not only persisted in by substracting their own Tithes from the Ministers by colour of these Exemptions but likewise the Tithes of their other Parishioners especially such who contemning and deserting their own Parish Priests and Churches resorted to these Friers Chapels and acknowledged them for their Ghostly Fathers and Confessors This is most evident by the Petition of the Parish Priests and Rectors of London to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops in a Synode about the year of our Lord 1240. against the Dominicans and Franciscans who much impaired their profit wherein they complained That their Parishioners who at leastwise on Lords daies and Festivals are bound to frequent their Parish Churches and to receive Sacraments and Sacramentals in the same and devoutly to hear Divine Service as also to offer at Solemn Masses due and accustomed Oblations did repair to the places and Houses of these Friers and scorn and forsake their Parish Churches and so confer the due Rights of the Church wherewith the Churches were antiently endowed upon the Friers Also they who confess themselves to these Friers who before were accustomed annually by the Canon-law to pay Tithes of their Tradings to their Parish Churches from the time since they submitted themselves to the Confessions of these Friers modo debito ac consueto negociationes suas decimare non curant Neglect to pay Tithes of their Tradings after the due and accustomed manner And is not this the very present Grievance Complaint of most London and other Ministers throughout England that since these disguised Romish Friers Jesuits swarming in all places under the Masks and Titles of Anabaptists Quakers and other Sects have in imitation of these their Predecessors in their Writings Preachments and Conventicles declaimed against our Ministers Tithes as not due unto them by any Divine Right to rob our Ministers of and draw the value of them to themselves and since their Parishioners who are bound to resort to their Parish Churches on Lords daies and Feastivals to hear Divine Service Sermons and receive the Sacraments in a devout manner have resorted to the Conventicles and Meetings of these Friers and Jesuites and submitted themselves to these new Ghostly Fathers and Confessors they have quite contemned deserted their own Parish Churches neglected refused to pay any personal or predial Tithes or Oblations to their Ministers after the due and formerly accustomed manner and bestowed the due Rights and ancient endowments of their parish Churches in value or substance at least though not in kind upon these Friers and Romish Locâ—sts whose very Doctrin Practice in this particular of our Ministers Tithes and Oblations and their substraction of them yea in most other Tenents now broached by them for New light are the very same in all particulars which these Friers in former ages both at home and abroad as I have evidenced in my Quakers unmasked my New Discovery of Romish Emissaries and our London Lancashire Newcastle and other Ministers have plentifully demonstrated in sundry publications with Mr. Edwards in his Gangraenaes We may then most clearly
or just as our Bibles Religion Baptism Churches were derived thence and all now living with Canne himself derived from Popish Ancestors many even from Popes Popish Priests Prelates Friars by natural generation as their surnames discover God used the Popes of Rome and their Instruments to convert the Britains and Saxons from their Paganism to the Christian not Papal or Roman Faith which through Gods mercy hath continued amongst us ever since yet mixed of later times with manifold Popish Errors and Superstitions These Errors Superstitions our godly Martyrs and by them our Kings and Parliaments discovering did thereupon by special Acts of Parliament abolish as derived from the Church of Rome together with the Popes usurped power and Gain which they served only to support retaining only the Scriptures Sacraments Soul-saving Doctrines thence derived by succession onely but authoritatively originally from God and Christ himself with such Godly Orthodox Bishops and Ministers who though first ordained in the Church of England when Popish did yet renounce all her Popish Errors Corruptions with the Popes Supremacy and all Popish additional Rites to the form of their Ordination and Baptism which made neither of them void in Substance no more than their annexing of the Apocrypha to the Canonical Scriptures made them uncanonical These afterwards ordained other Bishops Ministers without any Popish Rites in such manner as the Gospel prescribes which Mr. Mason Mr. Yates and others prove against the Papists to be a lawful Ordination though not made by the Popes Authority nor according to former Popish Ceremonies In this Sense onely they write the bare Succession not the Office and Calling of our Ministers as this woodden Canne mistakes was derived from the Church of Rome but their Ministry it self from Christs own Institution And if this makes them Popish and Antichristian then all our Protestant Kings Parliaments Magistrates Judges Officers of all sorts must be Popish too if not Paganish because their Predecessors were such and all Officers Souldiers of the Army and Anabaptistical Saints too who have purchased any Lands Rents Revenues of Abbies Priories Archbishops Bishops Deans Chapters Archdeacons must likewise be both Antichristian and Popish because their Predecessors who first enjoyed and from whom they do derive them were such at least in their and Cannes repute I hope therefore they will all now renounce these their Purchases to avoid the Guilt and high scandal of Popery and Antichristianism or disclaim this Second Loud-lying Voice against our Ministers and their Ministry as a Voice only from a prophane empty Canne not from a Sacred Temple or Gods holy Spirit But to return from this necessary digression touching the Lawfulness of our Ministers Calling unto their Tithes We have secondly in this Text 1 Cor. 9.13 14. a Gospel Ordinance for their very Tithes confirmed by the old Levitical Law and grounded on its Equity But how doth this appear By these emphatical words Even so hath the Lord Ordained in the Preterperfect Tense That they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel But where hath the Lord ordained this The Apostle thrice resolves expresly that he hath done it in the Levitical Law v. 9. For it is written in the Laws of Moses Deut. 25.4 Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn doth God take care for Oxen Or saith he it altogether for our sakes For our sakes no doubt this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope Which he again recites 1 Tim. 5.18 If this Precept concerning the meat and maintenance of Oxen only in the Letter though part of the Levitical Law was doubtless written for and really intended of the Ministers of the Gospels food and maintenance and in full force under the Gospel as the Apostle clearly resolves then a fortiori the Precepts of the Law concerning the food and livelihood of Gods Priests and Levites under the Law by Glebes and Tithes not purely Ceremonial as I have already proved must doubtlesse be intended of them and be in full force likewise in their natural equitable Sence and Proportion in relation to their Livelihood for preaching of the Gospel there being a greater Analogy Proportion between them and Preachers of the Gospel than betwixt them and Oxen. To put it out of doubt he subjoyns Do not ye know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and they which wait at the Altar are partakers with the Altar To wit by Gods expresse Ordinance in the Levitical Law which ye know and therefore I need not particularly cite the words as I did the other of not muzzling the Ox c. which were more obscure and needed my former Paraphrase on them but thus mind you of them in the general And then he inferrs and subjoyns Even so hath the Lord ordained to wit by the very natural moral Equity of the Lawes Ordinances he made for the Priests and Levites Maintenance by Tithes Glebes and Free-will-offerings for officiating in the Temple and at the Altar under the Law that the Preachers of the Gospel who now succeed and supply their places though in different services in the Churches of Christ under the Gospel should live of the Gospel even so fully comfortably and in such sort as they did under the Law Or at least by this Gospel text superadded to them by Gods Spirit To make this out more fully and clear it from the censure of Judaism take notice of these four particulars 1. That in the Holy Ghosts Gospel phrase and language there is a Temple among and for Christians under the Gospel as well as among and for the Jews under the Law else Cannes Voice from the Temple if there be no such place must be thus amended in his next Edition A Voice from the Canne or Alehouse and that this Temple is nothing else but the Church and Saints of Christ 2 Cor. 6.16 1 Cor. 3.16 17. chap. 6.19 Ephes 2.21 2 Thess 2.4 Rev. 3 12. chap. 7.15 chap. 11.1 2 19. chap. 14 15. chap. 15.5 6 8. chap. 16.1 17. compared together 2. That Christians under the Gospel have likewise an Altar as well as the Jews though different from theirs Heb. 13.14 We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle oft mentioned Rev. 6.9 chap. 8.3 5. chap. 9.13 ch 14.18 yea coupled with the Temple Rev. 11.1 Rise measure the Temple of God and the Altar 3. We have Sacrifices to be offered in this Temple on the Altar as well as the Jews in theirs 1. The Sacrifice of Prayer Rev. 8.3 4 5. 2. The Sacrifice of Praise Heb. 13.15 3. The Sacrifice of Charity alms and good works Heb. 13.16 4. Our own bodies which we must present as a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God by serving him according to his word as rational men not beasts that were both slain and sacrificed
in his new Voice from the ALEHOUSE RATHER than the TEMPLE which certainly is as Jewish and Antichristian as he would have Tithes to be with sundry late Petitions Proceedings proclaim to all the World and strip them naked of all other coercive maintenance for the future to starve them and their families bodies and the peoples souls that so a new generation of ambulatory Fryers Mendicants and Itinerary Predicants fixed to no certain Parish or Parishes selected out of those swarms of Jesuits Seminary Priests and Popish Fryers now in England under the disguises of Anabaptists Gifted Brethren Dippers Seekers Quakers New-lights Mechanicks of all Trades Gentlemen Troopers and Souldiers too Ignatius Loyola their Father and founder of their Order being a SOULDIER by his profession as diverse of his Disciples are now amongst us as many wise men believe and some on their own knowledge averre may succeed them in their Ministry to subvert our Church Religion and reduce us back to Rome The Pope now living within these few years affirmed to some English Gentlemen of quality in Rome who out of curiosity only went to see him being Protestants that he hoped before he died though he were aged to see England perfectly reduced to her former obedience to the See of Rome having sent many Jesuits Priests Fryers from all parts into England and particularly into THE ARMY as Ramsy the late detected Jesuit at New-Castle under the vizor of a converted Anabaptized Jew confessed in his printed Examination there lately taken and sent up with him to Whitehall Against whom John Canne might have done well to have pressed those to whom he dedicated his Voice from the Temple to execute the Statute of 27 Eliz. c. 2. particularly made against them as most dangerous insufferable Traytors purposely sent over TO WORKE THE RUINE DESOLATION and DESTRUCTION OF THE WHOLE REALM as well as of our Church and Religion as that Statute resolves and not to have most ignorantly and maliciously wrested it contrary both to the very letter and intention against our godly Protestant Ministers only their greatest opposites eye-sores to strip them of their Benefices Livelihood and lives together the whole scope of his Lamentable Voice without so much as uttering one word against these wilde boars and beasts of Rome with whom he and his Companions the Anabaptists are apparent Confederates both in their principles and practices against our Ministers Maintenance Tithes Callings Laws and setled Government to their eternal Infamy The sad consideration whereof hath engaged me though no Impropriator whose cause I plead not nor other Tithe-receiver but a consciencious Tithe-payer as my Ancestors were before me without any retaining fee or other Solicitation to appear publickly in the defence of this common cause of God and all his faithfull Ministers Tithes and antient setled Maintenance being through his mercy and their Prayers enlarged from my long close remote Imprisonments as I did occasionally in private whiles a close Prisoner in Pendennis Castle in Cornwall in December and January last against some Officers and Souldiers there who publickly subscribed in the Castle by sound of Drum three several mornings and promoted in the Country a Petition for abolishing all Tithes though our Ministers own by all Divine and Humane Lawes Rights which neither our Souldiers nor any mortals now living gave to them nor have any pretence of Law Power or Authority from God or our Nation to take from them and all other compulsory Maintenance in lieu of them for Ministers sent to them and to other Garisons as they then informed me by the General Councell of Officers of the Army from St. James both for their own subscriptions though few or none of them or other subscribers of such Petitions Tithe-payers and such hands of Countrymen as they could procure Upon which occasion I had some brief discourses with some of them concerning the lawfulness and antiquity of Tithes First paid by Souldiers out of the very spoyls of Battel taken in the very first War we read of to the very first Priest of God we find recorded in the Scripture and therefore admired that our Army-Officers Souldiers in this age should so far degenerate as to be the very ring-leaders and chief oppugners of them drawing up some brief Notes of this subject out of Scripture to help passe the time in defence of Tithes relating more particularly to Souldiers to silence satisfie reclaim them from this Sacrilegious design which having since enlarged with Arguments and Answers to their chief Objections drawn from their own Military professions for the better satisfaction conviction of all Sword men and others I hope neither Officers nor Souldiers nor any others truly fearing God if they consider Levit. 19.17 Mat. 18.15 16 17. Prov. 19.25 10.17 12.1 13.18 15.10 31 32. 17.10 25.12 Psal 141.5 1 Sam. 25.32 33. 1 Tim. 5.20 Luke 3.14 will or can be justly offended with me no more for writing truth than speaking it to their faces as I did upon all occasions whiles among them not to defame but to inform and reform them for their own and the publick good in what I conceive not warrantable by but repugnant to Gods word and their duties as Souldiers as Christians and to those known fundamental Laws Liberties of the Nation they were purposely raised commissioned waged engaged by Protestations Covenants and their own voluntary printed Declarations inviolably to protect but not subvert and that they will not repute it a capital crime in me not to prove a flatterer dissembler or not to act or write wittingly against my Science and Conscience when our Ministers Maintenance Calling Religion Gods glory Laws Liberties all we have or hope for are in danger of such a sad sodain destructive Convulsion concussion if not Subversion as I long since by Authority of Parliament discovered in Romes Master-piece and since that in My Speech in Parliament and Memento well worth perusal now when so many known Jesuits under a new Provincial which Hugh Peters himself reported as I have been credibly informed are now even in London it self acting as busily and sitting there in Council as duely as when the reclaimed Author of that discovery purposely sent from Rome for the purposes therein discovered was resident amongst them O that these professed Enemies of our Church Religion Nation and those Janizaries of Rome may not sow their Tares of error and seeds of ruine and desolation amongst us whiles almost our whole Nation for ought I can discern if not those who call themselves Watch-men are in a dead sleep or Lethargy and heaving at our most faithfull Ministers Maintenance and Callings too in stead of enquiring after discovering these Arch-traytots and executing the good Laws against and administring those necessary Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance and Abjuration unto them to prevent those treasonable practices destructive designes miseries and that ruine to our Protestant Religion Kings Government Governors Laws Parliaments Church and Common-wealth which the
purposely sent from Rome and the greatest sticklers against our Ministers Tithes and Calling must presently depart and none of them return into the Kingdom as many have lately done or else be executed for Traytors But why so what is their crime work imployment here and by what marks or fruits shall we know discover both them and their confederates Let the words of the Statute compared with all our late troubles changes resolve the ignorant and incredulous that there are many such amongst us and of Iohn Cannes fraternity Whereas divers persons called or professed JESUITES these Canne wittingly conceals though the first in the Bead-roll and therfore is a Felon by the law Seminary Priests and other Priests which have been and from time to time are made in parts beyond the Sea by or according to the Order and Rites of the Church of ROME and when Canne can prove that all or any of our Ministers were thus made as he hath confidently averred in print to those he calls the Higher Powers and Supream Authority of the Nation Let them be hanged for Traitors and Antichristian Ministers in good earnest else let him be hanged in their stead for this his impudent slander of them all as well Independents as Presbyterians Have of late years come and been sent into this Realm of England and were any of our Ministers such and not rather Canne himself coming hither from Amsterdam for the purposes following and other the Queens Dominions OF PURPOSE AS IT HATH APPEARED as well by some of their own examinations now out of date as by divers other Manifest means and proofs more visible of late years than ever not only to withdraw her Highness subjects from their due obedience to her Majesty but also to stir up and move Sedition Râ—bellion and open Hostility within the same her Highness Realms and Dominions to the great endangering of the safety of her most Royal Person and to the utter ruine desolation and overthrow of the whole Realm now effected as a Realm if the same be not the sooner and now pray God it be not over-late by some good means foreseen and prevented For reformation whereof be it ordained c. That All Priests and Jesuits Canne cannot spy such good friends within the Act but deletes them out of it Seminary Priests and other Priests whatsoever made and ordained out of the Realm of England c. shall depart the Realm under the penalties therein mentioned Had Canne pressed this Statute to those he dedicates his Pamphlet for the speedy execution of it against those many Jesuits and Seminary Priests now in England for their traiterous Practices and Designes therein mentioned of late and now driven on and almost compleated by them it had been a commendable zeal but not to write one word or syllable against these Romish Vermine Arch-Engineers and Janizaries of the Romish See now swarming among us to ruine our Protestant Kings Kingdoms Parliaments Laws Liberties Church Ministers Ministry Religion and foreign Protestant Kingdoms States Churches now engaged by them in bloody Warres both by Land and Sea and to omit the very name of the Jesuits the first Popish Agents mentioned and chiefly intended in this Act and presse it only against our Ministers Calling Ministry Tithes Maintenance of purpose to ruine them and theirs and by consequence our Church and Religion the Designe and scope of his whole Pamphlet is such a malicious unchristian Antichristian Practice as proclaimes him to all the world either a new converted Jesuit or Romish Factor under the Garb of an old Anabaptist or an over-grown cankered Anabaptist void of Piety Honesty inspired by the very Father of Lyes For not one of our English Ministers I know or hear of except two or three Jesuits and Popish Priests crept into livings in Staffordshire and elsewhere very lately I know not by whose favour or negligence was ever ordained by any such Jurisdiction or authority as is here mentioned which all our Ministers and their Ordainers too whether Prelates or Presbyters particularly and publickly abjured both at the time of their respective Ordinations and admissions to their Benefices and likewise when they took any Degree of learning in our Vniversities by the two known famous Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance purposly made and ratified by sundry zealous Protestant Parliaments against the usurped Papal Jurisdiction and authority of the See of Rome and the Popes Jesuits Papists practices to blow up destroy our Protestant Kings Parliaments Laws Liberties Religion and subvert our Kingly Government whole State and Commonwealth and for the better discovering of them yet lately suspended abrogated as dangerous unlawful Oathes by some of Cannes good friends who would be reputed Zealots against the Popes Iurisdiction and his Creatures too Now how those Ministers of our Church who thus abjure the Iurisdiction of Rome at the time of their very Ordination and their Ordainers too before them and since have done the like in their Solemn League and Covenant can without the highest slander be said to derive their Ministry from it and that by Canne and his Iesuitical Anabaptistical Fraternity who never took one of these Oathes or the Covenant and revile repeal them as unlawful out of love to the Popes Jurisdiction Jesuits Priests their Jesuitical Treasonable Conspiracies Treasons Practices or for want of zeal against them Let the world and this slanderers own Conscience if he have any left now determine Besides who knows not but this Ignoramus that the Rites and Ceremonies of Ordination in the Church of Rome recorded at large in Ceremoniale Pontificiale Pontificum Romanorum and the ends of Ordination likewise viz. to say Masse create their Creator offer up Christ in Sacrifice at the altar to his Father Invocate Saints adore Images yield Canonical obedience to the Pope and his Supremacy c. are far different from the form and ends of our Ministers Ordination in the Church of England prescribed by the Parl. of 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 1. ratified by the Statutes of 1 Eliz. c. 1 2. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 8 Eliz. c. 1. and 39 Eliz. c. 8. made only by Protestant Parliaments which as they particularly condemn renounce the Popes Power and Jurisdiction so they declare and resolve our Ministers Ordination to be lawfull and them in very deed to be Ministers and rightly made ordained and consecrated according to Gods word without any derivative power or Ordination from the Church of Rome Therefore for this New old pander for the Whore of Rome to averre they receive their Ministry and ordination thence is a Notorious Ly. Yea but saith he Francis Mason of Consecration and Mr. Yates in his Modell of Divinity prove and confesse That the Ministry of the Church of England established by the Law of the Land is derived from the Pope and Rome True but in what sense onely by way of Succession as his own Ministry and Faith if he hath any were derived from John of Leyden
all Jesuites and Seminary Priests as Traytors restored the exiled Ministers of the Gospel suffering for Religion rewarding them with the richest Bishopricks and Church-Preferments and planting a faithfull painfull preaching Ministry by degrees in most dark corners of her Dominions endowed them with a setled competent maintenance which our subsequent Protestant Kings continued to them and their Successors without diminution All which considered we of this Isle may with much thankfulnesse to God and honour to our Princes without flattery averr before all the world That the forecited Prophecies of Kings being Nursing-Fathers and Queens Nursing-Mothers to the Church and specially Kings and Queens of this Isle have been more really accomplished in the Kings and Queens of this our Island than in the Kings and Queens of any other Isle Kingdom or Nation whatsoever throughout the world and God grant that those who shall succeed them in any other New-modelled-form of Government may not prove such Step-Fathers and Step-Mothers to our Churches and Ministers as to demolish the one and strip the other quite naked of all that former Livelihood and remaining small Revenues which they yet enjoy by our Princes Grants Gifts Charters Laws and Favours only and thereby give all Godly Ministers and people too in our Nation just cause to cry out with wringed hands weeping eyes and bleeding hearts in the Prophets words Hosea 10.3 4. For now they shall say We have no King because we feared not the Lord What then should a King do to us or amongst us They have spoken words Swearing falsely in making a Covenant Thus Iudgement springeth up as Hemlock one of the deadliest Poysons to destroy men in the fields Or else to speak in Solomons language to the same effect Prov. 28.2 For the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof as our Land had never so many Transgressions and Princes too as now But by a Man of Vnderstanding and Knowledge and where is such a one to be found to stand up in a Gap the state thereof shall be prolonged Now the Lord raise up such a Man or Men lest God say to our Nation and all Grandees in Power as he did once to the prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day was come Ezech. 21.25 26 27. Remove the Diadem and take off the Crown this shall not be the same Exalt him that is Low and abase him that is High I will overturn overturn overturn Church State Laws and it shall be no more untill he come whose Right it is and I will give it him To prevent these treble fatal over-turnings with the wiping and turning of our Jerusalem UPSIDE DOWN like a Dish a certain Fore-runner of a Churches Nations ruine 2 Kings 21.13 Psal 146.9 I shall now in the last place present the whole Nation with a brief Catalogue of those manifold Laws Statutes which our Kings have successively made in their Great Councils and Parliaments almost from the very first establishment of Religion in our Island for the due payment of Ministers Tithes by coercive Means Forfeitures Penalties in case of willfull detaining or neglect in paying all or any part of them at the times appointed which those who please may peruse in Chronicon Johannis Brompton Mr. Lambards Archaion Sir Henry Spelmans Councils Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments John Bridges his Defence of the Government of the Church of England Book 16. p. 1350. Our Statutes at large and Mr. Rastals Abridgement of Statutes Title Tithes which Laws being well known to most learned men are therefore needlesse fully to transcribe The first of them is the forecited Law Decree of the Council of Calcuth under King Oswald and Offa An. 787. of famous King Alfred Anno 887. of King Alfred and Gutburn the Dane cap. 9. De Decimis Deo Debitis about the year 890. of King Edward the elder and Guthurn Anno 905. or 906. as some Cap. 6. in some c. 9. DE DECIMIS ET CENSU ECCLESIAE RETENTIS of King Aethelstan made in the famous Council of Gratelean An. 928. cap. 1. DE DECIMIS REDDENDIS tam ex Animalibus quam de fructibus terrae which this King himself duly paid and then enjoyned all his great Officers and People duly to render of King Edmond An. 944. c. 2. concluding Qui non solverit ANATHEMA ESTO Of famous King Edgar Anno 967. c. 3. DE DECIMIS Canon 54. of the Kings and Presbyters of Northumberland made a little after that time Lex 51. of King Aethelred An. 1012. c. 1 4. of King Knute the Dane An. 1032. c. 8. but 15. in some Copies De Decimis reddendis c. 11 17. and a Statute law against obstinate Detainers of Tithes there stiled JURA ET DEBITIONES DIVINAE of King Edward the Confessor about the year 1060 confirmed verbatim by William the Conquerour in the fourth year of his Reign c. 8 9. forecited To which may be added the Great Charters of King Henry the first and King John recorded in Matthew Paris ratified by King Henry the 3d. in his Magna Charta c. 11. made in the 9th year of his Reign confirmed by above 37 Acts of Parliament since in many successive Parliaments That the Church of England shall be free now in greater Bondage than ever and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable never so much violated diminished as now notwithstanding all Laws Covenants Declarations Protestations lately and all antient Solemn Curses and Excommunications annually made against the Infringers thereof 13 E. 1. 17 E. 3. 14. 2 H. 4. c. 4. Enacting the Cistertian Monks to pay Tithes to Ministers and Evangelists notwithstanding any Buls of Exemption from the Pope which the King and Parliament declared to be void and that the Promovers or Executors of any such Buls shall be attainted in a Praemunire It appears by the Parliament Roll of 2 H. 4. nu 40. This Act was made upon the Petition of all the Commons which because not extant in print pertinent to the present business of Tithes and unknown to most I shall here transcribe at large May it please our most gracious Lord the King to consider That whereas time out of wind the Religious men of the Order of the Cistercians of your Realm of England have paid all manner of Tithes of their lands tenements possessions let to farm or manured and occupied by other persons besides themselves and of manner of things tithable being and growing upon the same lands tenements and possessions in the same manner as your other Lieges of the said Realm Yet so it is that of late the said Religious have purchased a Bull from our Holy Father the Pope by the which our said Holy Father hath granted to the said Religious That they shall pay no Tithes of their Lands Tenements Possessions Woods Cattel or any thing whatsoever although they are or shall be leased or farmed notwithstanding any Title of Prescription or Right acquired or
which hereafter may be had or acquired to the contrary The which Pursute and Grant is apparently against the Laws and Customs of your Realm by reason that divers Compositions real and Indentures are made between many of the said Religious and others your Lieges of the prise of such Tithes and also by reason that in divers Parishes the Tithes demanded by the said Religious by colour of the said Bull exceed the fourth part of the value of the Benefices within whose limits and bounds they are and so if the said Bull should be executed much more the late Petions against all Tithes and coercive Maintenance for Ministers condescended to as well your dreadfull Majesty as your Liegeâ— Patrons of the said Benefices shall receive great losses in their Advowsons of the said Benefices and the Conusance which in this behalf appertains and in all times hath belonged to your Regality shall be discussed in Court Christian against the said Laws and Customes besides pray mark the prevailing reason the Troubles and Commotions which may arise among your people by the motion and execution of such Novelties within your Realm That hereupon by assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament you would be pleased to ordain that if the said religious or any other put or shall put the said Bull in execution shall be put out of your Protection by due Process made in this behalf and their goods forfeited to You lost and that as a work of Charity Which Petition being read and considered was answered in the words following It is accorded by the King and Lords in Parliament That the Order of the Cistertians shall be in the state they were before the time of the Bull purchased comprised in this Petition and that as well those of the said Order as all others Religious and Secular of what estate or condition soever they be who shall put the said Bull in execution or shall hereafter take advantage in any manner of any such Bulls already purchased or to be purchased shall have Process made against them and either of them by sommoning them within a moneth by a Writ of Premunire Facias And if they make default or shall be attainted that they shall be put out of the Kings Protection and incur the peines and forfeitures comprised in the Statute of Provisors made in the 13. year of King Richard And moreover for to eschue many probable mischiefs likely to arise in time to come that our said Lord the King shall send to our Holy Father the Pope for to repeal and annul the said Bulls purchased and to abstain to make any such Grant hereafter To which Answer the Commons well agreed and that it should be made into a Statute From which memorable Record I shall desire Iohn Canne and all his ignorant deluded Disciples who cry out against Tithes and the payment of them as Popish to observe 1. That all the Commons of England in this Parliament even in times of Popery together with the King and Lords resolve the quite contrary That the exemption of any order of men from payment of their due and accustomed Tithes is Popish and that the Pope was the first and only man who presumed by his Bulls to exempt men from payment of due and accustomed Tithes to their Ministers 2ly That Popish Friers of the Cistercian Order not Godly Saints abhorring Monkerie and Poperie were the first men who sued for procured and executed such Exemptions from the Pope and that merely out of Covetousness against the express word and Law of God as our John Salisbury de Nugis Curialium l. 7. c. 21. and our Arch-deacon of Bathe Petrus Blesensis observe who tax them for it And therefore the petitioning writing endeavouring to procure a like exemption from the payment of antient and accustomed Tithes to our Ministers must be Popish and Monkish likewise infused into our New-lighted Saints by some Popish Monks and Jesuits disguised under the notion of New-lights Seekers Anabaptists c. 3ly That they declare this Bull though granted by their Holy-Father the Pope whose Authority and esteem was then very great to be against the Laws and Customs of the Realm and thereupon repeal null it for the present and provide against the grant of any such Bulls for Non-payment of Tithes for the future and make the Procurers and Executioners of them subject to a Praemunire Such a transcendent Crime and Grievance did they then adjudge it to seek or procure the least exemption from payment of Tithes from any earthly Powers yea from their very Holy Father the Pope himself then in his highest Power 4ly That they resolve the exemption from Tithes though amounting but to a fourth part in every Parish would prove a great prejudice to the King and all other Patrons in their Advowsons to the Lessors and Farmers of Tithes to the incumbents and people and that the moving of such Novelties might occasion great Troubles and Commotions within the Realm And will not then the abolishing of all Tithes in every Parish to the prejudice of the Patrons Ministers yea and people too as I shall prove anon the scandal of most godly men undoing of thousands of families and confounding all Parishes and order in them now much more do it in these dangerous generally discontented times instead of setling Unity Amity Peace and propagating the Gospel as some pretend Let those whom it most concerns consider it at their leisure lest they repent too late The next printed Statute for the payment of Tithes is 27 H. 8. c. 20. which in the preface gives this true Character of and fixeth this brand of infamy upon Tithe-detainers Forasmuch as many evil disposed Persons such are they justly branded for by this Act of Parliament have attempted to withhold their Tenths as well predial as personal and have also contemned and disobeyed the Decrees of Ecclesiastical Courts of this Realm c. Therefore it enacts the Civil Magistrate and Justices shall imprison such till they pay their Tithes After which followes a special Statute for payment of Tithes in London 27 H. 8. c. 21. confirmed enlarged by a Statute and Decree too 37 H. 8 c. 7. thus prefaced as if purposely penned for these times Whereas divers and many persons inhabiting in sundry Counties and Places of this Realm and other the Kings Dominions not regarding their duties to Almighty God or to the King our Soveraign Lord but in some years past more contemptuously and commonly Presuming to infringe the good and wholsome Lawes of this Realm and Gracious Commandments of our said Soveraign Lord than in times past have been seen or known have not letted to substract and with-draw the lawfull and accustomed Tithes of Corn Hay Pasturage and other sort of Tithes and Oblations commonly due c. After which it provides a remedy by coercive means against the detainers refusers of Ministers Tithes The last and fullest Statute for payment of Tithes of all sorts and
grounds policies hypocritically gilded over with the paint of Conscience Reformation Religion Propagation of the Gospel c. which makes the Design more detestable both to God and all good men The second sort of Tithe-Oppugners are professed Anabaptists Dippers Seekers Quakers and other blasphemous Sectaries and Heretiques lately sprung up amongst us many of which have crept into the Army for their greater security and the better accomplishment of their dangerous destructive Designs against our established Government Magistrates Laws but especially against our Religion Church Ministers Ministry their Tithes and Glebes Scarce one of a thousand of these poor Sneaks were of ability to pay any Tithes of late and those of this prevailing Faction who have crept into Sequestrations Offices Imployments of late and thereby gained any Estates for the most part have enriched themselves by sequestred Tithes Glebes Bishops Deans Chapters Lands and Revenues which these hungry Harpyes have most greedily preyed upon not out of any real grounds of Piety or Conscience as they pretend which I could yet seldom or never find in any of them but out of an unsatiable greedy HOLY HUNGER OR THIRST in the Poets sence after Gold Gain Spoyl the Revenues of our Church and an implacable bitter Enmity against our Ministers Persons Callings whether Presbyterians the chief Butt against whom their Malice is bent or Independents of a more moderate strain whose Ministry is the main Fort they level all their present power against to raze it even to the very Foundation now prosecuting the total abolition not only of their present Tithes Glebes but of all other future coercive maintenance in lieu of them only to subvert their Ministry and quite starve if they cannot violently storm them out of it This is most perspicuous not only by their manifold former libellous Pamphlets against our Ministers Calling and the late Ordinances for Tithes which I have elsewhere collected refuted but by their fresh Petitions both against their Tithes and Ministry too as Antichristian Jewish Popish c. especially by John Canne the old Amsterdam Anabaptists Second Voyce from the Temple or Synagogue of Satan rather newly dedicated to those he stiles The Supream Authority of the Nation wherein he exhorts and stimulates them by all the Art Rhetorick Motives false Arguments he can muster up to do execution and take vengeance upon Babylon to wit the National Ministry Church-worship Government of England as he explains it p. 2. till it be wholy desolate not a Stone left upon a Stone till it be thrown down To take a most effectual and certain course to starve and famish these Antichristian Idols by taking away the Food and Maintenance whereby hitherto as at this present they are nourished fed and left alive and more particularly their Tithes To repeal all Laws and Statutes formerly made whereby the Whore hath lived deliciously and proudly and keeps on to this Day her Whorish attire To make the Whore desolate and naked by making no Act or Law to stand in force which doth yield any relief to her To set themselves in array against her by the Armies power no doubt which he alludes to bend their Bow fan and empty her To set upon this work speedily in good earnest as it seems they do whiles it is to day And why so Because the Lord himself hath by a Call more than ordinarie called them to this more than ordinary Imployment if he could have proved it by Scripture or Law it had been more worth than all his Pamphlet put this fair or rather foul opportunity into their hands hath commanded his sanctified ones and called his Mighty ones the Army-Officers to fulfill his pleasure upon this great Whore the Church and Ministry of England and SION is in travel and ready to bring forth this Monster of Desolation and Confusion which if they neglect or delay then mark how he briefly menaces them with the Fates of their late Predecessors I would think you should never be sitting in that House but be thinking still on those who sate there before you and why not as well on Faux and the Gunpowder Traytoâ—s as those since there seems another Powder-plot in the Vault to blow them up intended by Canne and his Confederates if they fail in accomplishing this their desired work whom the Lord hath lade aside as despised broken Idols and Vessels wherein his Soul had no pleasure And why As they knew not their Generation-work which he excites them to neither were faithfull to the interest of Jesus Christ God is no respecter of Persons as men sow so they shall reap Ex ungue Leonem ex cauda Draconem You may see by these passages and his whole Pamphlet pursuing them what these malicious inhuman barbarous irreligious hypocritical Anabaptists aym at in their present violent prosecutions against Tithes even utterly to starve famish subvert extirpate our Ministers Ministry Church Worship Government and make our Land a mere Spoyl Desolation as their Predecessors did Munster and some parts of Germany whiles in their power But let Canne and his Anabaptistical Confederates remember what tragical ends their New King John with all his Princes Grandees Officers Prophets Followers came to in conclusion in Germany And what fatal ruine befell Jack Cade Iack Straw Wat Tyler Sharp and other levelling Companions who had the self-same Designs against our English Laws Lawyers Clergy Tithes Glebes as He and they have now animated thereto by the new-dipped Iesuites and other Romish Emissaries lately crept into their Anabaptistcal Fraternity to further this their Infernal Gunpowder-plot against our Church Religion Ministers Magistrates Government Laws and let them thereupon repent of desist from abominate this their Diabolical wicked Design lest they incur the self same punishments in conclusion by stirring up God and all the whole Nation against them as most accursed Rebels Traytors Instruments of Satan yea that very Antichrist and Whore of Rome they pretend they are blindly acting against whose designs in truth they are but accomplishing in the highest degree I must here observe and desire all others to take notice of three things First that in Cannes Voyce and in all other late Pamphlets Petitions of the Anabaptists wherein they seem to vent their most passionate zeal against Antichrist Babylon the Whore of Babylon their chief Instruments and Supporters I cannot find so much as one Clause or Syllable against Iesuites Popish Priests Papists Romish Emissaries or exciting the execution of any Laws or Statutes formerly made against them but the whole stream bent of them all is only against the Godly Ministers Ministry worship of the Church of England the Presbyterian Government and our present Church-worship the only Babylon Whore Antichrist they intend and fight against not the Pope and Church of Rome 2ly That they are so far from pleading against the Pope Popish Priests Iesuites and urging the execution of the good Oaths Laws made by late and former
then in England to advance their own power profit 2ly It is evident by Rob. Parsons and other Jesuites old Project for Reformation of England when they should get power in it To take away all Lands Manors Benefices and setled Maintenance of the Church from the English Clergy and Universities and make all Ministers and Scholars mere Pensioners and Stipendiaries at their pleasure◠set up Itinerary Preachers fixed to no particular Church like our wandring Quakers Anabaptists Sectaries of late instead of Parochial Pastors of which more anon 3ly Alfonsus de Vargas Toletanus in his Relatio ad Reges Principes Christianos De Stratagematis Politicis Societatis Jesu ad Monarchiam Orbis terrarum sibi conficiendam printed 1641. cap. 40 to 51. proves at large out of the Jesuites own printed Defence and other Writings That these new Doctors of no Conscience no Faith no honesty or shame have perswaded the Emperour and other Kings against their Oaths Trusts Duties Charters the Law of Nations and all Divine and Human Laws that it was lawfull for them upon a pretext of Necessity for the ease of the people and Maintenance of their Wars Souldiers to alienate the Lands Revenues Maintenance of Abbies Religious men and of the Church upon Souldiers for the defence of their Bodies and of the Church that so themselves might gain a share of them for the advantage of their own Societies contrary to the wills intentions of the first Donors and Founders Whereupon he thus justly jeers them cap. 46. p. 222. That the institution of the Jesuites Society peculiarly tends to this that their Colleges should be instituted and Society maintained out of the ruines of the Church and rapines of other mens Goods à quibus Societatis Institutor et Conditor Ignatius cum etiamnum ad legionem bellator esset minime alienus fuisse nec a solita Militum rapacitate quicquam demutasse sine ulla ejus contumelia creditur etsi autem Militiam mutavit ac simul cum Sociorum ne dicam furum manipulo Christo Imperatori Sacramentum dixit non propterea rapinam omnem ejerare necesse habuit c. he remaining a PLUNDERER still after he became a SAINT Seeing the Prophe◠Isay seemeth thus to prophecy both of his Rapine and Wound in his halting Legg cap. 33. Tunc dividentur Spolia multarum praedarum Claudi diripient rapinam Therefore no wonder this Spirit of Rapine continues in his Disciples who doubtlesse have infused the self-same Spirit of Rapine into our Anabaptists and Souldiers into whose Societies they have secretly insinuated themselves somenting and intending to lengthen out our wars so long of purpose to make a prey of our remaining Church-Revenues Rectories Tithes and College lands too at last as they have done of other Church-Revenues already dissipated out of a pretext of Necessity as is most transparant to all Intelligent peoples eyes thereby to destroy our Religion by devouring our Ministers Churches Patrimonies the probable if not inevitable consequence of this Jesuitical project if effected as is most apparent by this notable passage of Roderyck Mors formerly a Grey Fryer in his Complaint and Supplication to the Parliament of England about 37 H. 8. after the Dissolution of Monasteries pertinent to my purpose and as worthy consideration now as then Ye that be Lords and Burgesses of the Parliament House writes he I require of you in the name of my poor Brethren that are Englishmen and Members of Christs Body that ye consider well as ye will answer before the face of Almighty God in the day of judgement this abuse and see it amended When Antichrist of Rome durst openly without any visor walk up and down thorowout England he had so great favour there and his Children had such crafty wits for the Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light they had not only almost gotten all the best Lands of England into their hands but also most part of the best Benefices both of Parsonages and Vicarages which were for the most part all improved to them And when they had the gifts of any not improved they gave them unto their Friends of the which alwaies some were learned for the Monks found of their Friends Children at School And though they were not learned yet they kept Hospitality and helped their poor Friends And if the Parsonages were impropred the Monks were bound to deal Almesse to the poor and to keep Hospitality as the writings of the Gifts of such Parsonages and Lands do plainly declare in these words In puram Eleemosynam And as touching the Almesse that they dealt and the Hospitality that they kept every man knoweth that many thousands were well relieved of them and might have been better if they had not had so many great Mens Horse to feed and had not been over-charged with such idle Gentlemen as were never out of the Abbies And if they had any Vicarage in their hands they set in some time some sufficient Vicar though it were but seldom to preach and to teach But now that all the Abbies with their Lands Goods and impropred Parsonages be in temporal mens hands I do not hear tell that one half peny worth of Alms or any other profit cometh unto the people of those Parishes Your pretence of putting down Abbies was to amend that was amiss in them It was far amiss that a great part of the Lands of the Abbies which were given to bring up learnned men that might be Preachers to keep Hospitality and give Alms to the poor should be spent upon a few Superstitious Monks which gave not XL. pound in Alms when they should have given CC. It was amiss that the Monks should have Parsonages in their hands and deal but the XX. part thereof to the poor and preached but once in a year to them that paid the Tithes of Parsonages It was amiss that they scarcely among XX set not one sufficient Vicar to preach for the Tithes that they received But see now how it that was amiss is amended for all the Pretence It is amended even as the Devil amended his Dams Leg as it is in the Proverb when he should have set it right he brake it quite in pieces The Monks gave too little Alms and set unable Persons many times in their Benefices But now where xx pound was yearly given to the poor in more than C. places in England is not one meals meat given This is a fair Amendment Where they had alwaies one or other Vicar that either preached or hired some to preach Now is there no Vicar at all but the Farmor is Vicar and Parson altogether and only an old cast away Monk or Frier which can scarcely say his Mattins is hired for xx or xxx shillings Meat and Drink yea in some places for Meat and Drink alone without any wages I know and not I alone but xx M. mo know more than D. we may now adde 5000. Vicarages
and Parsonages thus well Gospelly served yea not served at all but the Church Doors quite shut up after the New Gospel of England So he This doubtless will be the general sad condition of all England as it is now in most part of Wales if Tithes and Rectories be quite voted down abolished or disposed to the Souldiers or brought into a common Treasury which will hardly leave Ministers the Tenth of their Tithes as our late Sequestrators left not the Tenth nor fifth part clear gains and value of all Sequestrations generally throughout England to the State as I found by examination of their Accompts upon Oath which is now so violently prosecuted endeavoured by many And then we shall have a glorious blessed Reformation indeed according to the Popes and Jesuites hearts desires who like ravening Wolves will make a prey of all Flocks in the defect and absence of able Pastors through want of Maintenance and poverty as they have done in many places throughout the Realm seduced by them to Jesuitism Anabaptism Atheism through defect of able Ministers and ejection of former Incumbent Pastors under pretext of Scandal Insufficiency or Malignity by Arbitrary or Anabaptistical Committees Sequestrators Prosecutors without any legal Tryal by their Peers or any care at all to place better abler or any Minister at all in divers Parishes in their places Whereupon these active Jesuites with other Romish Emissacries under the Disguises of Anabaptists Seekers Dippers inspired Brethren Quakers Ranters Souldiers New Illuminates of extraordinary Endowments and Itinerary Predicants who pretend to preach the Gospel freely have seduced thousands divided the people into sundry Sects and almost ruined our Church and Religion in a short space which they will soon accomplish to their hearts content can they now but vote down Tithes Glebes and set up New Committees in all places of their own and the Anabaptistical party concurring in Design and most principles with the Jesuites as Watson in his Quodlibets and others prove at large to eject our remaining Ministers at their pleasure under pretext they are Antichristian Scandalous and no Ministers of Jesus Christ as John Canne and others have already prejudgeâ— them that they and their Agents may step into their places and at last when all their Designs against our State Church Governm are produced to maturity re-assume their Tithes Rectories with our Bishops Deans Chapters and Abby Lands too into their actual possession according to the Jesuite Parsons and his Companions long prosecuted project at large related by William Watson the Priest in his Quodlibets p. 93 94 98 288 â—89 332 333. with other plots lately prosecuted ad unguem to subvert our Religion Laws Government Monarchy and enslave us to the Iesuits Popes Spaniards Tyranny and Vassalage in conclusion first laid by Parsons and other pragmatical Jesuites then seconded by Thomas Campanella in his Treatise De Monarchia Hispanica c. 25.27 and elsewhere prosecuted of late years by the Jesuites and Spanish Agents on the one hand and Cardinal Richilieu and his Instruments on the other hand who at his death in the begining of our late Warrs which he was very instrumental to rayse recommended the prosecution of them to the French King and his Successor Cardinal Mazarin as A Noble Italian Count Conte Galliazzo Gualdo Priorato in his Historia part 3. printed at Venice in 4to Anno 1648. dedicated by him to the King of Poland and written in Italian p. 175 176 records in these words worthy all English Statesmens special notice where Writing of the affairs of the year 1642. and the death of Cardinal Richelieu in particular he records That amongst other things he caused some Papers to be delivered before his death to the King of France full of Policies and Maximes of State directing him how to carry on his Business with all Forein States His advice in relation to England was this Che Sopra c. That above all other things the King of France should endeavour to keep the Government of Great Britain divided by upholding the weakest party that the other might not make it self too powerfull Reducing the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to be divided by one of these two means or both either by nominating new Kings or by reducting them to a Common-wealth Yet with this Caution that when they are reduced to a Common-wealth So to order it that it may not be intirely one but divided For Republiques ever enemies to Potent Neighbours and Iealous of their Liberties ought to be Suspected by the State of France How punctually this advice hath been pursued by the French as well as Parsons and Campanellaes Plots of like nature by the Spaniards those who please to peruse the Lord George Digbies Cabinet Letters printed in the Collection of all the Publique Orders Ordinances and Declarations of Parliament in folio by the Commons Order 1646. p. 849 858 862 863 866 867. and my Speech in Parliament p. 118. 106 to 114. may read at leisure and every mans observing experience can sufficiently attest The Lord now at last give us hearts to be deeply sensible of it and grace zeal courage to make timely use of it for the Preservation of our Kingdoms Nations Churches Ministers Religion from impendent ruine Having given the world this brief Accompt of the principal Promoters Prosecutors of the present Grand Plot against our Ministers their Tithes and Rectories I cannot upon serious consideration of it but foresee and divine that if all or any of these Projectors through Gods heavy Judgment on us for our sins and detestable violations of all Oaths Vows Covenants Trusts Protestations Promises Declarations Divine and Human Laws should by power fraud policy or armed force so far prevail with our present Legifers or Swaying Grandees as totally to take away and abolish the Rectories Tithes and present setled Maintenance of our Ministry for the Souldiers pay or other ends or else secretly to bring them all into a Common Treasury and reduce all our Ministers to set arbitrary Stipends out of them to dispossess them of the future actual possession of them and make them wholy dependent on the arbitrary discretions of new intruding Land-Lords into their Churches Patrimonies Freeholds from whom they never received them at first as it would inevitably produce a world of mischiefs and Inconveniences both to all Patrons and Parishioners throughout the Nation without the least Ease or Benefit to the People so it would certainly either totally ruine our Ministers making them all poor Fryers Mendicants neglecting their Callings Studies to get their living by begging from door to door and as Peter Martyr observes to be ventris potius quam Ecclesiae Ministros ostiatim validè Mendicare non Mendicantes sed Manducantes appellari and thereby subvert our Church and Religion with them in very few years space open such a wide door for the Pope and whole body of Popery to flow in upon us again with an impetuous irresistable Deluge
that we should no waies be able to resist their progress till they were re-estated in their former Supremacy and Prevalency amongst us And then rhose very Romish Factors who are now so violent against Tithes and Rectories of purpose to starve our Ministers out of them and their Ministry for the present will not only forthwith resume as they did in Queen Maries daies their pristine abolished Pontifical Power and set up their Ecclesiastical Consistories High Commissions and bloudy Inquisitions amongst us higher than ever they were in former ages to the utter extirpation of our Protestant Ministers and Professors too but likewise presently resume into their hands all those Rectories Tithes and antient Dues whereof they now endeavour to deprive our Ministers with all our late Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Chapters Cathedrals Lands and Revenues as Sacrilegiously alienated from the Church against the Lawes both of God and Man as well as against their Popish Canons by those who had no right to dispose of them if they proceed to resume all Abby Lands too in Protestant hands at least And then all late or antient Purchasers of such Lands now confederating with them out of Covetousness Ambition Rapine or other respects will repent too late of their inconsiderable unrighteous unchristian complyance with them against our Ministers Glebes and Tithes and have as ill a Bargain in conclusion as divers old Projectors had in the purchase of our Crown Revenues when resumed or setled in the Crown again by many special Acts of Resumption for the publick weal and ease of the people in their Taxes as being the constant standing Revenue of the whole Kingdom to defray its ordinary publick Expences which none can or ought to Alien or purchase from the Republick to enrich themselves by the publick Losse Wherefore I shall now refer it to their saddest thoughts to consider whether it will not be far safer for all such Army-Officers and others who have purchased Church Lands to joyn together with all such zealous Protestants who desire the continuance of our Ministers antient Tithes and Maintenance more aimed at than Impropriators Tithes against these Jesuites and Romish Emissaries now oppugning them and to use their utmost endeavours to detect apprehend prosecute execute all our former good Laws against them to prevent their mischievous present and future Designs against our Ministry Church Religion Nation than ignorantly or wittingly to confederate with and assist them to accomplish their present Sacrilegious Projects to ruine us and themselves with their Posterities in conclusion and thereby incur the self-same Crime Charge of High Treason which themselves and the whole Parliament of England so lately prosecuted against Canterbury in the 7 8 9 11 12 13 14. Articles of his original Charge for which he lost his head on Tower Hill To draw to a cloze of this Proposition I shall desire all truly fearing God throughout the Nation and Army too sadly to consider these particulars 1. That those who are the chiefest Sticklers against Tithes and our Ministers setled coercive Maintenance especially Jesuites and Anabaptists are the greatest professed open Adversaries to our Ministery Church Religion of all others desiring nothing but their utter ruine as their late printed Pamphlets and Petitions manifest Therefore to gratify them in their Designs herein is to ruine all at once for whose defence we have spent so much Christian Bloud Treasure pains of late years against the Common Enemy and Jesuited Popish Party 2. That many of those who in their printed Papers have decryed our Ministers Tithes and coercive Maintenance as inconsistent with the Peoples Liberties and a great Bondage to them have as earnestly declaimed against all Inclosures Coppy hold Tenures Land-Lords old Rents Services antient Customes Imposts which being not so antient nor ratified by so many Statutes Charters Muniments of all sorts as Tithes are will not be able to stand before their Opposition and Arguments against them if our Tithes and Ministers Glebes should once fall before them 3. That if our besotted Nation shall be so stupid as to admit or permit any company of persons whatsoever a sufficient Legal Power or Jurisdiction without any pretended Crime Attainder Legal Conviction or Trial by their Peers at their meer wills and arbitrary discretions to deprive all our godly Ministers throughout the Nation of their Rectories Tithes and antient Dues though ratified by the Law yea Gospel of God himself by an uninterrupted Title Prescription in their Predecessors from the very first planting of the Gospel in our Nation and more hundreds of years than the antientest Families in the Nation have enjoyed their Inheritances by more Charters of our Kings more particular Lawes Statutes of our successive Parliaments in all ages than all the Nobility Gentry Corporations Commons of the Realm are able to produce for the Rights Titles Defence of their particular Lands and Inheritances against the Rapines Intrusions Claims Seisures Confiscations Sales Alienations of any either claiming or usurping such a Power or Jurisdiction by the Sword or otherwise They will thereby both admit them and invest them in as sufficient a Legal Power and Jurisdiction without the least pretended Crime Attainder Legal Conviction or Trial by their Peers at their meer arbitrary wills and Discretions to deprive strip all the Nobility Gentry Corporations Commons of the Realm of all their Mannors Lands Inheritances Estates Chattels Privileges Franchises whatsoever being not so well fenced by the Laws of God and Men against their Rapines and Depredations as Tithes are and those who will make no conscience upon any grounds or pretences to invade the one will make no Scruple to act the other as the Histories of Jack Cade and his Complices Practices Designs at home and the Anabaptists abroad will sufficiently attest Yea it will be but just with God to engage such Arbitrary Powers to act the later to the ruine of them and their families if they shall either assist permit encourage them by their silence or cowardice to perpetrate the other to the disinheriting of the Church the ruine of their faithfull Ministers themselves and that very Religion which they pretend to profess and practice 4. That as Tithes are the fittest Maintenance for Ministers of all others as invented appointed by the very Wisdom of God himself and the best the wisest of his Saints in all ages holding the self-same proportion in relation to the Ministers and Parishioners in times of Plenty and Dearth good years or bad fair harvests or foul rising or the falling of the prices of Corn Lands and other Commodities affecting them both alike with the mercy and bounty of God in times of Plenty and the Judgments of God in times of Scarcity or unseasonable weather more easily parted with by the Country-man in kind by several small parcels as they grow due than in ready money in one or two intire sums which they are most loth to render and part from of any thing as
and Friends for to recover the said Realm which Realm was upon the point to be undone for want of Government and abrogating of the Laws and Customs of the Realm And that it was not his will that any should think that he would by way of Conquest disinherit any one of his Heritage Franchise or other Right which he ought to have nor to out or deprive any man of that he had or should have by the good Laws or Customes of the Realm all which he confirmed by a special Act before 1 H. 4. c. 1. but only those who were against his good purpose and the common profit of the Realm and were guilty of all the evil come upon the Realm and were adjudged guilty thereof in that Parliament as Sir William Le Scroop Sir Henry Green and Sir John Bassy whose Lands only he would have by Conquest as forfeited by their Treasons Whereupon the Commons thanked the King and praysed God that he had sent them such a King and Governour Upon all which Considerations and the Resolution of learned Grotius with others quoted by him That by the very Laws of War even those who are conquered by foreign Enemies ought to enjoy by permission of the Conquerors their own Laws Liberties Magistrates Religion and a share in their Government much more in such a Civil War as ours where the Souldiers Generals can pretend no Conquest over those who raised waged them for their just defence against Conquest and Invasion of their Laws Liberties Government Magistrates Rights Privileges I hope those vaporing Officers Souldiers who have formerly cried up pleaded practised this pretended Title of Conquest amongst us and used many of their former Masters Raisers and the whole Nation more like to conquered enslaved People than their fellow Christian Brethren and Freeborn Englishmen who have paid them so well for all those Services they imployed them in wiâ—l henceforth totally renounce this their false usurped Injurious Plea Title and no more persist under pretext thereof to deprive our Ministers Church Peers Parliaments Nation of their very Native Freedomes Liberties Franchises Rights Laws Government Lands Possessions which they were purposely commissioned waged and by all Sacred all Civil Obligations Trusts Oaths Vowes Protestations perpetually engaged to defend against the least violation or Innovation without their free and full consents in a due and lawfull Parliament freely elected by them not forcibly obtruded on them without their choise or privity Yea I trust they will be so just so righteous towards me so great a Sufferer by under them only for discharging my Conscience and bounden duty towards my God our Church and Native Country of England as no waies to be angry with me or Injurious towards me for this my New Gospel Plea interwoven with a Legal and Rational for the Lawfulness and Continuance of the antient setled Maintenance and Tithes of the Ministers of the Gospel and the good old Fundamental Laws and Liberties of the Nation which their present busie Endeavours to abolish alter subvert beyond yea against their Trusts Commissions Callings have necessitated me now to publish to the world to preserve our Church State Ministry from new Combustions and Impendent ruine but rather found a Retreat from these their Heady Proceedings which I fear the Jesuites with their Confederates the Anabaptists have engaged them so deeply in to work as well their own as the publick speedy ruine both of our Church Religion State Ministry Nation and excite them to use the self-same deportment words to me who have no private design nor interest of my own or other mens in this my voluntary undertaking but only the publique Safety and Weal as enraged David did once to Abigail when she diverted him from his rash bloody resolution to destroy Nabal and his family for a Churlish Answer returned to him for his Kindness 1 Sam. 25.32 33. Now blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me this day from coming to shed bloud and to avenge my self with my own hand But if they shall by Gods permission cast me again bound hand and foot into another fiery Fornace for this my faithfull Service or not falling down and worshipping that Golden or rather Wooden Image which they have or would now set up I doubt not but that Gracious God who hath so miraculously preserved me in delivered me out of so many fiery Trials and Fornaces heretofore will do the like again hereafter and that in such a visible eminent manner as shall enforce them at last to use those words unto me as Nebuchadnezzar did unto Shadrac Meshac and Abednego after their miraculous preservation in the midst of the fiery Fornace into which the most valiant men of his Army cast them bound by his unrighteous Command to their own immediat destruction by the flame without the least hurt to them Dan. 3.28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said Blessed be the God of Shadrac Meshac and Abednego who hath sent his Angel and delivered his Servants that trusted in him and have changed the Kings word and have yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God or Idol except their own God This being an undoubted Truth which I have ever hitherto found experimentally true from and in my former causelesse Oppressors whose Erronious Practices vices I have reproved recorded by God himself and the wisest of all Mortals Prov. 28.23 He that rebuketh a man for his faults plainly shall afterwards find more favour than he that flattereth him in them with the Tongue And that saying of the truth it self in such cases of difficulty and concernment to the reprover will ever prove an experimental verity wherewith I shall conclude my Plea which I desire may be deeply engraven in the Hearts Spirits of all timorous base unworthy Christians who dare neither speak nor write their Consciences nor Discharge their Duties in these times of danger and will wrong both their Consciences Country Posterity yea shame their God Nation Religion to save their Estates Lives as they fondly conceit when they will lose all with their souls to boot by their base carnal fears Math. 16. 24 25 26. Luke 17.33 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Crosse and follow me For whosoever will Save or shall seek to Save his life so Luke records it shall Lose it and his Tithes Lands Liberties with it and whosoever will Lose his Life for my sake shall find it For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and Lose his own Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul I shall cloze up all with this notable Passage of our own learned Writer John Sarisbury against such Religious Hypocritical Cistersian Monks who in his age sought exemption from payment of Tithes and seised upon the Ministers Dues about the year 1170.
in his life Camdens Britannia Oxford Universitie and Cambridge b Suidas in Leone c Charion Chron. l. 3. Alexander Severus Note b Hoveden Annal. pars post p. 601. Mr. Seldeâ— ad Eadmerum Notae p. 173. * See Peter Martyr in lib. 2. Regum Commenâ— c. 5. p. 240. a See Mr. Seldens History of Tithes * See John Cannes Voyce p. 27. Mr. Edwards Gangrenaes and Lillyes Ephemeris 1650. a Quid nor Mortalia pecâ—ora cogit AURI SACRA FAMES a In my fresh Discovery of New lights b Rev. 3.9 c Is this Christian Gospel Charity consistent with Mat. 5.43 to 48. c. 10.9 10. Rom. 12.9 10 13 20 21. c. 13.7 8 9 10. Ephes 5.2 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 c. 1 John 3.10 to 20. c. 2.9.10 11. c. 4.20 21. a Sleidenâ— Commentaries l. 9 10. See my sword of Christian Magistracy supported p. 46 47 c. b See Speeds History of Great Briâ—ain Stow Holmshed and the Survey of London a Speeds History of Great Britain The Arraignment of Traytors 3 Jac. c. 1 2 3 4. a Hâ—story of Tithes p. 14 166 167 170 to 175 1â—7 128. b De Nugis Cuâ—ialium l. 7. c. 21. a Ms. and Dr. Tillesley his Anmadversions upon Mr. Seldens Preface Animadv 9. d Mat. â— 15 to 15. a Since the Army-Officers in 1649. declared in print against Ministers Tithes these Prognosticators guided by these All-ruling Martial earthly Planets not the heavenly stars have predicted their Downfall every year but not before a For the year 1651. b Since that in 1653 and 1654. he continues in the same strain a Matth. 28.20 b Rev. 21.1 Iohn 10.28 29. c Epistle to the Reader p. 4. and Astrological Discourse in it towards the end a In the Epistle Astrological Predictions and Monthly Observations a Epistle to the Reader in his Ephemeris 1650 and 1649. a Cap. 25 2â— worthy our most setious perusal b Ibid. p. 204 185 186 234 235 236. which Art Lilly much promotes See his Ephemeris 1649 1650. a Surius Concil Tom. 4. p. 992. b A Manifestation of the folly and bad Spirit of certain in England calling themselves Secular Priests p. 56. c Rastals Abridgement of Statutes Tit. Durham a See Watsons Quodâ—ibets p. 93 94 281. Parsons his Manifestation fol. 61. William Watsons Reply to Parsons Libel fol. 74. a The Impropriations held by them were much more than the 3d. part of all the Parish Churches of England divided into 3 parts and of greater value than the other 2 parts in Priests and Ministers hands a Page 26 to 31 169 186. a In. 2 lib. Regum c. 5. f. 240. b See 1. 2. Phil. Mar. c. 8. 1 Mar. Sess 2. c. 3. Fox Acts and Monuments vol. 3. b Gratian Caus 16. qu. 1 7. c See 1 R. 2. rot Parl. n. 148. 1 H. 4 n. 48 100 141. 6 H. 4. n 14 15. 8 H. 4. n. 52. 28 H. 6. n. 53. 33 H. 6. n. 47. â— Edw. 4. â— n. 39.12 1.4 n. 6. 1 H. 5. c. 9. 31 H. 6. c. 7. with those Resumptions in former Ages recorded in Daniels History and others d See Canterburies Doom n. 26 27 c. b The Levellers late printed Fundamental Lawes and Liberties n. 15 16 25 27. a Speeds Hist p. 733 c. 836 849 850 851. Sleidens Comment l. 7. c. 10. b 1 Tim. 6.10 Eccles 5.10 a See Nicephorus Eccles Hist l. 10. Gent. Magd. 4. c. 3.14 b Amos 8.11 c Ante haec sâ—c existimatum est speciosa struere sapientum esse civilis vitae scientium structa demolire stultorum vecordis animi signa ad posteros transmittere non erubescentiam Procopius Gothicoâ—ii l. 3. Grotius de Jure Belli p. 522. d De Beneficiis p. 121. e Gratian Caus 16. qu. 4. summa Angelica Rosella Tit. Sacrilegium f Fredericus Lindebrogus Codex LeguÌ„ Antiquarum p. 257 a Fredericus Lindebrogus Codex Legum Antiquarum p. 508 702. b Fredericus Lindebrogus Ibid. p. 997 998. Bochellus Decret Eccles Gal. l. 8. Tit. 61. p. 1308. a Sr. James Semple Sacrilege sacredâ—y handled Sir Henry Spelman de non Temerandis Ecclesiis Mr. Seldens Review Dr. Sclaters Ministers Portion Summa Angelica Rosella Tho. Zerula Tit. Sacrilegium with many more b See We is Presidents Indictments and Offences Sect 196 197. p. 127 128. 1 E. 6. c. 12 c Articuli Cleri 9 E. 2. c. 12. Object d Grotius De Jure Belli l. 3. c. 5. Answ e Exact Collection p. 617.631 f Exact Collection p. 730. a Purchas Pilgrimage l. 6 c. 5 6. Heylins Microcosm p. 146 147 613 614 756 757. b Lipsius de Triumphis Heylins Cosmography and others a Hoveden Annal pars posterior p. 561 to 566. Math. Paris Hist Angl. p. 127. ** See Sr. John Davis Reports f. 40 41 42. a Page 75 76. Hoveden Annal pars posterior p. 600 601 c. b De Jure Belli l. 3. c. 14. sect 10 11 12. Annotata p. 538 539 540. (a) 1 Pet. 4.12 * Descriptio Daniae 1629. p. 141. Historia compendiosa Daniae p. 185 186. Saxogrammaticus Pontanus and others in the life of Canutus and Olavus * Jude 12.