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B22780 Englands deplorable condition shewing the common-wealths malady, by [brace] sacriledge, and want of duty in the people, contention, want of charity in the ministery, perjury, and want of truth in both : and its remedy by [brace] the peoples obedience and liberality, the ministers love and unity, both their repentance and fidelity : briefly declar'd in three treatises of [brace] the ministers patrimony and peoples duty, proposals to reconcile such as are for lordly episcopacy and un-ordain'd presbytery, for popular independancy and upstart antipædobaptistry, and against perjury : also, a petition for the Jews. E. F. 1659 (1659) Wing F18 72,509 69

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in force still Therefore I humbly conceive that the Ministers of the Gospel ought to live of those things that are given and by devout men consecrated to Gods service according to the Laws of God and man and that their maintenance ought to be according to the greatness of their employment and to the number of Wife and Children in their Families which they are obliged to provide for e Acts 4. 37. 6. 2. 1 Tim. ● 8. Lev. 22. 11 12 as the Priests and Levites did of old with their Families And the Civil Magistrates if there be disorder in the dividing of the Churches Goods or ignorance and slouth in the Ministers or obstinacy and neglect in those that should pay their Tythes and Offerings may command the same to be rightly divided and see it be done as did Hezekias f 2 Chron. 31. 45 c who is said to do that which is good and right and truth before God verse 20. and they may punish or remove those Ministers that are ignorant or prophane even the chiefest of them as David and Solomon did of old g 1 King 2. 26. and 35. and C●nstantine the Great and Theodosius other Christian Princes under the New Testament h Theod Eccles Hist lib. 1. c. 20. lib. 5. c. 19 and cause the Tythes to be paid to the Ministers as Nehemiah did i Nehem 13. 10 11 c. who caused the portions of the Levites to be given and so did the pious Magistrates in our Land who made those Laws above specified requiring all sorts of persons to pay their Tythes on penalty as being due to Christs Ministers both by the Law of God and man Well they knew it was not in mans power to detain or take from God that which God required or by the motion of his Spirit was devoted to him and his Service such Houses Lands Goods under the Law was not to be sold or redeemed it was holy to the Lord k Levit. 27. 28. or as it is in the Original t was holiness of holiness that is most holy in respect of them that devoted them and therefore not to be sold detained or denied l God would not suffer them to redeem it to teach them constancy in all good purposes and words that so in them we may be unchangeable as God is Ainsw Annot. in loc no part of it may be held or kept back without theft that I say not Sacriledge the property being altered after it 's devoted as St. Peter told Ananias m Acts 5. 1 4. both before he sold 't was his own and after he had sold and received the mony 't was in his own power to dispose of it but when he had devoted the whole money to the free use and benefit of the Church to be distributed by the Apostles for him then to keep back part of it and to lay down the residue as the whole and to confirm it to be the whole with a wilful lye for this the Apostle sharply reproved him for thereby he tempted God and lyed to the Holy Ghost and therefore God made him a spectacle of divine vengeance for his detaining the truth in unrighteousness and for his Sacriledge for such a sin there is under the Gospel n Rom 2 22. as well as there was under the Law which is theft in the highest degree which St. Austin compares to Judas treachery o Ideoque Ananias Saphira in cons●etu Ecclesi●e mortui sunt ut Apostolica Atthoritas quanta esset ostenderetur quam magnum peccatum esset quod oblatum iterum ab Ecclaesia retraheretur monstraretur caeteri exemplo hujus castigarentur Aug. lib. 3. de Mirab. Sacr. Script for if he be accounted a Thief that steals goods from a private man how much more is a sacrilegious person a th●ef who dares to steal from God and his Church Qui aliquid de Ecclesia furatur Jurae perdito comparatur He which steals from the Church is to be compared with cursed Judas p Aug. in Evang John tract p. 50. the Heathens abhord this sin therefore we read that Joseph when in the Famine in Egypt he bought with Corn all the Land of the Egyptians yet the Land of the Priests he bought not for they had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh nor sold they their Land q Gen. 47. 22. whence Theodoret saith if wicked men so much reverenced ●hose gods which were not gods so that their Priests Lands given to them for the worship of those gods were not sold nor taken from them what impiety do those commit under the Gospel who will not suffer the Ministers of the living God to enjoy this liberty r Theodor. quest in Gen cap. 27. that so his service may be preserved and continue with them The Heathen to preserve their gifts devoted from the hands of prophane sacrilegious persons engraved on them these words Sunt bona Decrum ad h●c ne quis manum admoliretur s Valcrius max. lib. 1. cap. 2. and the Jews calld their devoted things chosen in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t Levit. 27. 28. Luke 21. 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wishing and judging them accursed that turnd them to any other use than to that they were devoted unto and so amongst us Christians the most of the Lands in this Island they were given to God and the Church with an execration on those to be separated from Christ and given to the Devil that should alter them or employ them to any other use than by the Donors they were at fi●st devoted unto which in general was the service of God although many in the times of Popery faild in the superstitious observing and requiring of many things which might have been Reformed and the deceased devout persons wills been observed inviolably in the general though not in that specifical service required 'T was so high a crime in the eyes of those that saw only by the light of nature that the Areopagit condemned Aelians boy for this sin u Aelian Hist lib. 5 cap 16. Var Hist God almost miraculously killd King Rufus w See Hoywoods History of the death of King Rufus by an Arrow shot by Sir Walter Tirrel at a Deer He was wont to call that got from the Church sweet-bread but it proved bitter to him at the last when he was slain in his sports in the new Forrest which for his pleasure he had made thereby depriving seventeen Churches of their Revenues and the Ministers of the Churches and also the people of dwellings depopulating those Parishes God had warned him x Prov 20 5. that it was a snare to devour that which was holy and after vows to make enquiry He had at that time also in his hand three gre●t Bishopricks viz. Canterbury Winchester Sarum and twelve Abbies in Farm his Brothers Son also was slain there y Fox Acts and Mon 1 Part
sinful men subject to the like passions and frailties with others yet they have heavenly treasure contained in them q 2 Cor. 4. 7 they being sent to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that so they may receive remission of their sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith in Christ Jesus r Acts 26. 18 they are called Angels for their power and honour ſ Rev. 1. and can do more with their Keyes than the greatest Kings of the earth with their Swords for they only can cut off men from the earth and destroy the body t Mar. 10. 28 but these can exclude men from heaven and deliver their Souls over to Satan u 1. Tim. 1. ult which even Theodosius the Emperour confest when he was Excommunicated by St. Ambrose w Theod. hist Eccles l. 5. c. 17 Mihi autem non modo ad Templum verum etiam ad Coetum ipsum accessus perclusus est c. And St. Paul exercis'd upon Hyminaeus and Alexander that they might learn not to blaspheme As the Priests pronouncing a person unclean the people were to put him out of the Congregation x Numb 5. 2 So the Ministers of Christ pronouncing a person unclean the Congregation is to put away from their Society such a person y 1 Cor. 5. 3 4 13. till the Minister doth Absolve him z 2 Cor. 2. 6 7 c. In a word Christ speaks with their tongues from Heaven a Heb. 12. 25 they are w 1 Tim. 1. 20 placed by Christ and the Holy Ghost to feed the flock Christ hath purchased with his bloud b Acts 20. 28 they are Rulers of the Churches c Heb. 13. 7 and the glory of Christ d 2 Cor. 8. 23 Now if their Calling be more laborious and perilous more profitable and honourable than all other Professions Offices and Callings there is no reason nor Conscience but that their Persons should be Reverenced then Wages and Maintenance should be proportionable in some sort thereunto that so their Doctrine may be esteemed and they themselves may have sufficiency both to keep Hospitality which they of all others are obliged to do e Tit. 1. 8 A Bishop or Elder ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they are to belovers of Hospitality and of good men and to buy Books Food and Cloathing for themselves and their Families by which means they may be the better able to perform well their Callings and with the more joy and chearfulness endure their perils and hardship and may with the more gravity reverence and honour and success preach the Word and administer the Sacraments and Censures of the Church to the glory of God and honour of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath sent them and to the greater benefit and comfort of his Churrh to whom they are sent lastly to the et●●nal salvation both of the preachers and of them that are taught by them who are free and bountiful in giving to them in the name of Prophets for they shall receive the Prophets reward f Mat 10. 41 Q●i Prophetam sua largi●ate sustentat quam vis ipse Propheti●m non habet apud Deum tamen prophetis praemium habebit August Ex. loc Ma●th 10. For hereby they shall be fellow-helpers to the truth of God g 2 John 8 and by sowing these temporal things to the Spirit they shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting h Gal 6. 8 Arguit eos qui falso paupe tatem pretendebant ne doctores suos alerent nolite inquite e●rarare novit Deus vestras facultates neque irr●detur tanquam ludibrio dcceptus haberi potest hic enim Gr●ci irrid●ri profalli sumunt Gagnes in loc Now then sith the Lands Houses Gleabs and Tythes are the Ministers of the Gospel in this Land by Donation and Gift God having given them to them by our Ancestors Wills who devoted them as they were moved by his Spirit and they being confirmed to them and their successours for so many hundreds of years for ever and Ratified by many Parliaments both in the Saxon Danish and Norman Kings Reigns and some of them in the Brittains dayes when they were Lords of the Land And sith they have as good shewings Evidences Charters Deeds and Conveyances for the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of them as any other Persons have for the enjoyment of their Manors Lordships Honours or Free-holds Lastly Sith they are theirs by the Law of Nature and Nations and by the Command and Ordinance of Christ under the Gospel whose Law is irrepealable by man he being Lord paramount sith they are theirs by the Common and Civil Law which confirms the Wills and Testaments of dead men deccased sith they are the Hire for their Labour their Wages for their Work the honour due to them from the people they teach I cannot see how any person or persons on earth without destroying Property and committing injustice and Sacriledge can sell these away from them or alienate them to any other prophane or common use or prohibit the people to pay them to those that te●ch them Hearken what the Apostle saith Be not deceived neither by thine own heart which is naturally full of self love and adict●d to covetousness yea deceitful above all things and desperately wicked i Jer. 17. 9 Tam varium est cor versipelle insidiosum quod aestus suos multis i●●olueris convolvat ac tegat ut ne homo quidem ipse fibi abunde notus esse vix unquam queat Ecol in loc nor by others who for self interests or by-ends perswades thee this is no sin out of Pride prejudice mal●ce hypocr●sie or love of the world for God is not mocked nor will he be by carnal reasons and pretences But look in th●s particular what a man soweth that shall he reap If men will impiously make void the Wills and Laws not only of men but of God they cannot free themselves from the guilt of prophanness and Sacriledge and of more than Pagan●sh injustice as the Apostle intimates k Heb. 9. 17. Gal. 3. 11 for the Heathen abhor'd to do it to their Priests though they were imploy'd in a false Worship And therefore Joseph in Egypt durst not buy the Priests Lands lest he should have been accused of Sacriledge by the Nobility or Comminalty l Gen. 47. 22 And they had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh and so had no need to sell them as others had I have heard it reported of certainty That when a Turkish Embassadour came into Spain and was by some Agents from the Pope sollicited to embrace the Christian Faith He beholding the gallantry of the Spanish Court and the rich garments and Robes they wore but withal espying the mean Habit of the Priests and how contemptible they were whom they stiled Christs Embassadours that he cryed out
that they prevailed still against them and over-came them after that Almerick King of the Holy Land the 50th after Godfry had ●roke his Faith and violated his Oath which he had made with Elha deck the Caliph and his Vicegerent after this he was soon van quished in the field the Lord forsaking the Christians and taking part with their foes so that as our famous H●storian speaks c Rawl Hist of the world lib 2 prim part c 6. sect 8. Psal 5 6 Wisd 1 11. though the Crosse of Christ on which he suffered was brought into the Field by the Christians as their last Refoge yet sith they had forsworn themselves in his Name that was cruc●fied thereon and so prophanned it they could not stand but were destroyed The Soldan Sanar being suddenly invaded by Almerick drew in the Turk Syracon to their A●d whose Nephew Sal●dine after he had made Egypt his own beat the Christians out of the Holy Land If the mouth that speaketh lies shall be destroyed how much more shall his be that swears them Very well known is the History of Vladislaus King of Hungary who having sealed and sworn a Truce with Amurath the second great Turkish d Knolls his Turkish Hist pag 297 and Rawl Hist ut supra Emperor and that as my Author saith the most advantagious for Christians that ever was yet was he by Eugenius the Pope commanded and by Cardinal Julian and other Bishops perswaded to break the same and to provoke the Turk to renew the War and though Vladislaus for a while prevailed in the Fight he being now far stronger in the Field than before yet as soon as Amurath had drawn out the Truce Vladislaus had sworn and sealed and spread it before heaven and invocated revenge from Christ on the Christians for prophaning his Name by this sin saying If thou art the true God as the Christians affirm shew then thy justice on these perfidious persons who say they are thy servants and loe immediately the Day was lost the Battel turned and Vladislaus Julian and 30000. perfidious Christians lost their lives and perished in their sin And if God hath thus remarkably from heaven revealed his wrath on all such as are guilty of this sin shall we think they were greater in this sin than others in this Land as Christ speaks e Luke 13 3 5 surely no there be thousands in this Land are guilty of this sin as well as they and unless we repent we shall all perish for very few of age can free themselves from it for so I find in a late Invitation to observe a solemn Fast throughout the Land f See the Invit to a Fast in the Land Mar 26 1656. that Oaths are put in among other sins of the Land provoking the Lord to wrath and surely if any Oathes are to be repented of then much more such whereby men swear falsly of which there are Three sorts As First To affirm a falshood by an Oath under which especially are comprehended all false Witnesses and Jurors and truly 't is to be feared such are most of our Talesmen and hackny Jurors at our Sessions and Assizes who swear only for hire and for gain go on either side usually perverting judgement and truth without fear 'T is a great sin to make a Lie for it ba●s from heaven g Rev 22 15 but greater to stand in a Lie and defend it as Gehezi did h ● Ki●g 5 25 26. which brought on him Naamans Leprosie but the greatest sin of the Three is to swear a Lie as those sons of Belial did to take away the life of innocent Naboth i 1 King 21 13 and those perjured persons that swore against Christ k Mat. 26 61 62. 'T is a sin against the light of Conscience derogating from all the Attributes of God when men tremble not at his sin revenging Justice nor fear his soveraign power and greatness nor are awed with his all-seeing wisdom and truth who is the searcher of the hearts and will render to every man according to his works O what desperate folly is it against all these for men to put his holy and dreadful Name to that which their own Conscience tells them is a falshood What other is it but a bold and impudent asserting of a Lie before Christ the just Judge of quick and dead 'T is a prophane and desperate invocating of God to be witness to a Lie as if he were the patron of it or approved it when he infinitely loaths and abhors it and hath oft plagued such as have presumed so to do as Anne Avery a Woman in Woodstreet in London who swearing a Lie was struck speechless in the place and cast up her excrements at her mouth with horrible stink l Bayly ●n his Pract●ce of Piety So also Earl Godwin in this Land who flew K●ng Alfreds Brother of which he being accused by the King he not only denied it but forswore it wishing the bread he was m Hollingsh Chron. in ●sie life of King Alfyed about to eat might choak him if he were guilty of the Fact but loe no sooner were the words spoken but God vindicated his honour so that the bread according to his wish choak'd him and so he perished a fearful spectacle of Gods indignation and the Sea not long after devoured his Land which to this day are called by his name Eusebius tells us of three notorious persons that conspired falsly to accuse Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem and to affirm their Lie one of them w●shed he migh● be consumed with fire if he swore not the truth n Euseb cccles Hist lib. 6. c 7 The second wished that some grievous and deadly Disease might seize on him if he swore falsly o Called by the Translator M●rbus regius And the third wished he might be strucken blind if he were perjured And ●oe for their perjury according to their imprecations God plagued each of them for the first had his Wife himself and Children with his house and all he had burnt with fire from h●●ven The second perished by a fearful and violent Disease The third was so terrified with the justice of God on his wicked Confederates that he penitently confessed the perjury and mourned so long and bitterly under the sense of this horrid sin for which he obta●ned not pardon unt●l he had wept out his eyes and so God made him as a spectacle of his justice in his blindnesse so a so a monument of his Mercy in giving him repentance to mourn so lamentably for this horrid sin which was not quite expiated till his imprecation was fulfilled upon him and his eyes expunged And woe will be to those who being Non remit●r peccatum ●isi restituatur ●blatum Aug Epist 54 guilty of this sin do not repent much and speedily making also satisfaction as much as in them lyeth for the injuries done by their perjury o. God pardons