from Him For says he Isai xlv 7. I make Peace and Create Evil I the Lord do all these things And Am. iij. 6. Shall ther be Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it The wicked Blaspheme God Psal x. 12 14 15. while they do say in their Heart Tush Thou God carest not for it He hideth away his Face and He will never see it Surely Thou hast seen it for Thou beholdest Vngodliness and Wrong This Thou may'st take the Matter into Thine own Hand And the Jews are Reprehended by our Saviour for Not Discerning the Signs of the Times Mat. xvi 3. It is call'd a Knowing of God to observe the Course of His Judgment and His Mercies for how otherwise can we Know Him upon Earth He Judged the Cause of the Poor and Needy Jer. xxij 16. then it was well with him Waâ— not this to know Me saith the Lord And the Consequence is That not to take Notice of these things is not to Know God it is to Belie Him to Blaspheme Him as in the Texts before Quoted and Many More that cou'd be Produc'd to the same Purpose Now to Apply this to our Present Purpose I do not Pretend to draw an Argument from the Many Instances of God's Remarkable Judgments upon both their Persons and Families who had Robb'd His Church as if those Judgments Must of Necessity have been Inflicted Purely and Solely for this Sin But if this be a Sin and of so Deep a Dye as it must be if it be any Sin at all for it can be no other than Sacrilege And if that be the most Open and Notorious Known Sin of these Persons And likewise That these Judgments are observ'd to follow the Lands Houses and Tythes Impropriate tho often Bought and Sold and Changing of Owners Not in Every Case for if God shou'd Punish Wickedness in All the World must soon be Destroy'd And He do's often suffer the Wicked to Prosper It is one of the Sharpest Scourges He uses to Chastise a Sinful Nation And having done His Work to Burn the Rod But when we see Judgments to follow such a Sin for the Most Part and in such Repeated and Remarkable Instances as Sir Henry Spelman gives Us in his History of Sacrilege And many more of the same sort which we can Gather elsewhere And some that our own Experience can furnish Us withal In such Cases it is far from Superstition to take Notice of the Hand of God in them And not to do it is that Stupidity and Blasphemy before Reprehended it is a Hardning our selves against all the Methods of Divine Providence a Denial of it and Living without God in the World Who can for Example avoid the Observation of the New-Forest in Hampshire Devouring so Many of William the Conqueror's Sons by Strange Deaths he having Destroy'd 26 Parish Churches to make Room for his Deer there as you may see in Spelman's Hist Sacril p. 119 120. Or what is observ'd in the Preface to his De non Temerand Eccl. p. 42. That within 20 years after Hen. VIII his Seizing the Revenues of the Church by the Advice and Assistance of his Nobility and Dividing her Patrimony among them Chiefly More of them and their Children were Attainted and Dy'd by the Sword of Justice than from the Conquest to that time which was about 500 years Sir Henry Spelman's Hist Sacril c. vij Computes that The great Increase of Lands and Wealth that came to the King by the Dissolution was Quadruple to the crown-Crown-Lands And takes Notice p. 226 227. how the crown-Crown-Lands were Dwindling away Most of them being then gone when he Wrote in the Reign of King Charles I. and only Fee-Farm Rents Reserv'd out of the Greatest part of them viz. 40000 l. a year out of the Crown-Lands and 60000 l. out of the Church-Lands And observes as a Continuance of the Judgment upon them That an Infraction was then begun to be Made upon the Very Fee-Farm Rents themselves And that some of them had been Alienated But if he had Liv'd another Reign he wou'd have seen them Every one Sold And the Crown Reduc'd to Live from Hand to Mouth upon the Mere Benevolence of those Whose Care it is to keep it Always so Depending and upon its Good Behaviour So much has the Crown Gain'd by the Access of Sacrilegious Wealth as from Imperial Dignity and a Propriety Paramount in all the Lands of England to become an Honourable Beggar for its Daily Bread I know not how far this has sunk with those who are Concern'd Or whether another Curse may not be Added that is Never to Consider but Go on However Sir Hen. Spelman has told Us of several Gentlemen in England who out of a Due sense of the sin of this Sacrilege have freely Given up and Restored to the Chruch as far as the Laws wou'd Permit them all their Impropriate Tythes which had Descended to them from their Ancestors That instead of them and the Curses which attended them they might Entail the Blessing of God upon the Rest of their Estates and upon their Posterities The sense of this sunk so Deep with the Great Earl of Strafford that foreseeing a new Sacrilegious Deluge of Vsurpation upon the Church then coming on An. 1640 he made it his Dying In junction to his Sâ—â— under Peril of his Curse and of the Curse of God never to meddle with any church-Church-Lands or what had been once Dedicated to God This Legacy he sent him from the Scaffold where Men are past Dissembling or Courting of Favour tho this cou'd have been no Recommendation to him at that time And how Light soever some Men make of the sin of Sacrilege while they Gain by it yet when they come to Dye they may have the same sense of it which that Noble Lord then so Religiously Exprest But ther being no Repentance Accepted by God without Restitution as far as in our Power I Pray God they may think of it while it is in their Power to make that Restitution which Alone can witness the Sincerity of their Repentance 8. Ther can no Pretence be made for the Lawfulness of Impropriations when those Very Acts of Parliament which took them from the Church and Gave them to Lay-Men do acknowledge that they are God's Dues and His Right That they are Due to God and Holy Church as in 27 Hen. VIII c. 20. Nay they were always so acknowledg'd and no otherwise Insomuch that ther was no Law or Precedent for a Lay-Man to sue for Tythes it was utterly Heterogeneous and Abhorrent For which Reason when Tythes were given to Lay-Men they were forced to have a Particular Act of Parliament 32 Hen. VIII c. 7. to Enable Lay-men to sue for Tythe which before they cou'd not do In which Very Act Tythe is Nam'd as being Due to Almighty God And next to Act of Parliament the Great Oracle of our Law Sir Edw. Coke is to be heard who
still Due from us tho neither they nor we had ever Vowed them Ther is a Greater Complication of Daring and Provoking Sins in this Matter than perhaps is to be found in any other Instance now in Practise amongst Us. And which we ought not to Forget in the List of those Sins for which God is now visibly Punishing of these Nations We have Refus'd Him His Tenth And He has taken our Nine Parts from Us and scarcely left a Tenth in the Nation of what but a few years ago we did Possess And His Hand is stretched out still 6. Mr. Selden tho he bent his whole strength against the Divine Right of Tythes yet when he came to Consider the Solemn Dedication of them with Vows to God he yields upon this score that they were Vnalienable and Irrevocable I will set down some of his words in his Review p. 486. And let him that Detains them the Tythes says he and believes them not to be Jure Divino think of the Ancient Dedications of them made to Holy Vses And however they were abused to Superstition as the other Large Endowments of the Church before the Reformation yet follows it not without farther Consideration that therefor although so Dedicated they might be Prophaned to Common uses or Lay-hands Consult herein with Divines But I doubt not but that every Good Man wishes that at our Dissolution of Monasteries both the Lands and Impropriated Tythes and Churches possessed by them that is things sacred to the service of God although Abused by such as had them had been bestowed rather for the advancement of the Church to a better Maintenance of the Labouring and Deserving Ministery to the fostering of Good Arts Relief of the Poor and other such Good uses as might retain in them for the benefit of the Church or Commonwealth a Character of the wishes of those who first with Devotion Dedicated them as in some * Christoph Pinder de Bonis Ecclesiae in Ducat Wittenberg pag. 94. c. other Countrys upon the Reformation was Religiously done than confer'd with such a Prodigal Dispensation as it happened on those who stood ready to DEVOVR WHAT WAS SANCTIFY'D and have in no small Number since found Inheritances thence Derived to them but as SEJANVS his Horse or the Gold of THOLOVSE 7. This Observation of Selden's has been more Particularly Insisted upon by Sir Hen. Spelman in his Hist of Sacrilege and his Son Clem. Spelman in his Preface to his Father's Book De non temerand Eccl. Who has given Many and Remarkable Instances of the Ruin and Destruction of those Families who shar'd most of the Church Lands and Tythes in the Beginning of our Reformation and before from William the Conqueror Especially it was taken notice of That the Heirs of such Familys were taken off untimely or that they had no Heirs and their Estates and Honours went into other Familys This was chiefly Remarkable in Hen. VIII himself All of whose Children Dyed Childless and left his Crown to another Family and Nation And whereas the Addition of the Church Lands and Treasure which were Annexed to the Crown were thought so In-Exhaustable that Hen. VIII Promised to his Parliament that if they wou'd settle them upon the Crown he wou'd free the Nation for ever from Taxes and Subsidies would Maintain 40 * How 's Preface to Stow's Annals Coke's Jurisdiction of Courts f. 44. Earls 60 Barons 300 Knights and 40000 Soldiers and that they shou'd always be so Maintain'd upon the Expence of the Crown Yet when these Church-Lands and Tythes Impropriated were accordingly Granted to the Crown together with the Plunder of All the Church-Plate and Jewels offer'd at their Shrines which were Inestimable All that the King had Promis'd in lieu of them was forgot And the Nation never Pay'd such Heavy Taxes as since that time Instead of being Eas'd from Taxes as they Expected and was Promis'd from that Day Taxes seem'd to be Entayl'd upon them And ever to Encrease They have already as above observ'd brought Us to a Tenth who have seis'd upon the Tenth of God And unless we Repent And as for the Crown that vast Accession of Sacrilegious Wealth and Lands Eat out themselves and all the Crown Lands with them Insomuch that at this Day several Private Gentlemen in England enjoy more to their own Estates than all the Lands which are left to the Crown do now yield And Hen. VIII himself who thought never to be Poor liv'd to see that Incredible Mass of Wealth which he had Robbed from the Churches All Melt away like Ice before the Sun And his own Vast Treasure with it insomuch that he was at last Reduc'd to Coyne Base Money The Fate of the Great Duke of Somerset is very observable He was Vncle to King Edw. VI. and Protector of England he built Somerset-House with the Stones of a Church Reform'd to Ruin And was the Great Patron and Promoter of Impropriations He was taken in the same Net he had laid for others an Act of Parliament he had Procur'd for his own safety and to Crush his Enemys by which he was Trapped himself and lost his Head for so Poor a Crime as Felony And which is more extraordinary had not the Power or Presence of Mind to Demand the Benefit of his Clergy which cou'd not have been Refus'd him As if says an Historian God wou'd not suffer him who had Robbed His Church to be saved by his Clergy Many are too Rash in Determining the Judgments of God to be sent for this or that And the Excess of this especially of late times even to Superstition among those who Cry'd out most against it and were most Superstitious but knew it not has Run others to the Contrary Extreme of Irreligion to think God wholly Vnconcern'd in the Affairs of the World and that no Notice at all is to be taken of any Events which they suppose to happen Casually and to have no Relation to either the Good or Evil that we do This is to Deny all Providence in God which is Atheism for it destroys the very Notion of a God which cannot be without His Providence suppos'd and an Universal Influence and Inspection over All things And though it is hard to make an Argument and Conclude Positively for what Particular Sin such a Judgment was sent And we often Mistake in this and make Applications according to Humour or Interest yet Sometimes Judgments are so very Legible that we may Read our Sin in our Punishment And God frequently in Scripture Reproves the Hardness of their Hearts who shut their Eyes against the Observation of this signal part of His Providence Isa v. 12. Who Regard not the Work of the Lord neither Consider the Operation of His hands They have Belied the Lord and said It is not He Jer. v. 12. neither shall Evil come upon us It is â—all'd a Belying of God to think that â—he Evils which come upon Us are not sent
Increase I have not Transgressed His Commandments Deut. xvi 16. To Appear Empty before the Lord Neither will I offer unto the Lord my God of that which doth Cost me nothing 2 Sam. xxiv 24. And O Lord that it may please thee Graciously to accept this Offering at my hands and to make it well-pleasing in thy sight O Lord Jesus Christ Heb. vij 8. the Priest who ever Liveth to Receive Tythe and to make Intercession for us Receive this our Tribute our Bounden Duty and Service 1 Pet. ij 25. O thou Bishop of our Souls in Thy Goodness and make it acceptable to Thy Father and our Father Joh. xx 17. to thy God and our God O Thou who art able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Thee Heb. vij 25. And to succour them that are Tempted Ch. ij 18. in that thou thy self wast Tempted O Thou Merciful and Faithful High-Priest 17. in things pertaining to God O do Thou make Powerful Intercession for the Sins of the People Mal. iij. 8. who have Robbed GOD in His Tythes and Offerings O Thou who did'st open the Eyes of the Blind open the Eyes of this People and smite Lord their Hearts they that may See and Consider their Horrid Sacrilege and Repent and Return And that Thou may'st Pardon all that is Past all their Neglect of Paying their Tythe Hitherto all Mine O God who smite upon my Breast this Day and turning my self I mourn for this great Offence and Bless Thy Name with the Vtmost Powers of my Soul That Thou hast Graciously and Wonderfully had Mercy on me and now tho Late hast shewn to me Thy Glory and Thy Truth O Preserve and Bless me in it And bring more and more into it even this whole People Hos ix 4. That his their Bread for their Soul may never Hereafter cease to come into the House of the Lord Mal. iij. 10. that ther may be Meat in Thine House and that Thou may'st open the Windows of Heaven and Pour us out a Blessing till ther shall not be Room enough to receive it 11. That thou may'st Rebuke the Destroyer for our sakes that he may not Destroy the Fruits of our Ground nor our Corn cast her Fruit before the time in the Field 12. That all Nations may call us Blessed That we may be a Delightsome Land unto the Lord of Hosts Look down from Thy Holy Habitation Deut. xxvi 15. from Heaven and Bless thy People Israel and the Land which Thou hast Given us Bless Thy Holy Catholick Church and Every Land and Country where she Dwells This in an especial Manner O Lord our God Her Governours the Bishops with the Inferior Priests and Deacons And all Thy Faithful committed to their Charge their Kings their Princes and Temporal Government Isa xlx 23. Make them faithful Nourishers to Thy Church and to Bow down their Ear to her Instruction and submit themselves to her Discipline That Thy Worship may be set up amongst us in its Purity and Fulness That Thou may'st Delight to Bless us Deut. viij 16. and to do us good at our Latter End And now O Lord and my God let me Return unto Thee for a Blessing upon my self a most Miserable and wretched Sinner who am less than the least of all the Mercies which Thou dost daily Renew unto Me and for my and Whom Thou hast Graciously given unto Thy Servant And all my Family Friends Relations Benefactors and Well-wishers Feed us O Lord with Food convenient for us Gen. xxviij 22. And of all that Thou givest us Grant that we may surely give the Tenth unto Thee 21. that the Lord may be our God And may Bless the Fruit of our Body Deut. xxviij 4. c. and the Fruit of our Ground the Fruit of our Cattel and the Increase of our Kine and the Flocks of our Sheep that the Lord may Command a Blessing upon us in our Store-Houses and in all that we set our hand unto When we come in and when we go out That we may be Blessed in our Basket and Blessed in our Store Blessed in the City and Blessed in the Field That the Lord may open unto us His Good Treasure the Heaven to give the Rain unto our Land in his season and to Bless all the work of our hand And that we may Lend un-Many but not Borrow That the Lord may make us the Head and not the Tail and to be Above only and not to be Beneath when we shall hearken unto the Commandments of the Lord our God And therefor we do now Honour and Hallow and Worship Thy Holy Name in Rendring our Bounden Tribute and Service Thy Tenth of all our Increase which we offer with Thankful and Joyful Hearts Adoring Thy Goodness and Praising Thy Mercy in Giving us All that we have Blessed be thou 1 Chr. xxix 10. Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty for all that is in the Heaven and in the Earth is Thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and Thou art Exalted as Head above All. Now therfor Our God we Thank Thee and Praise Thy Glorious Name But who am I and what are we that we shou'd be able to Offer so willingly after this sort For All things come of Thee and of Thine own have we given Thee For we are Strangers before Thee and Sojourners as were all our Fathers our Days on the Earth are as a Shadow and ther is none Abiding O Lord our God All that we have cometh of Thine Hand and All is Thine own I know also My God that Thou triest the Heart and hast Pleasure in Vprightness As for me in the Vprightness of mine Heart I have willingly Offered the Tenth unto Thee And Pray God that I may yet see with Joy All Thy People offer the same willingly unto Thee And O Lord God keep this for ever in the Imagination of the Thoughts of the Heart of Thy People Lord Psal x. 19. Prepare their Heart and let Thine Ear hearken thereto Redeem Israel O God 25.21 out of All his Troubles Our Father c. A Blessing to be Pronounced by the Priest BLessed be Thou of the most High God Gen. xiv 19 20. Possessor of Heaven and Earth And Blessed be the Most High God who hath given Thee a Heart to Fear before Him and to fulfil His Law 1 Sam. i. 17. And the God of Israel grant Thee thy Petition that thou hast asked of Him though Jesus Christ who Dyed for Thee To whom be Glory with the Father and the Holy-Ghost for ever and ever Amen FINIS