as one of your great b LE LEY ADGRAND POLICIE EN CEO Car c. Sir Edw. Coke en L'evesque de Winchester Clerks well observes it of your own good old Law out of a wise Conjunction of the Temporal with the Spiritual Policy as to preserve Religion so by their good usage of their Clergy to procure their Prayers Gods own Ordinance to preserve both Princes and Provinces c That which the PRIESTS have need of let it be given them day by day without fail THAT THEY MAY OFFER SACRIFICES OF SWEET SAVOURS UNTO GOD AND PRAY FOR THE LIFE OF THE KING AND OF HIS SONS Ezra 6.9 10. and by them to derive the influence of the Divine Blessing upon all the other secular Estates 29. Nay in a case of such base Notorious partiality the Jews even in their worst Estate may rise up in judgment against this Generation For 't is recorded as highly commendable of the Jews in their greatest Hard-heartedness Madness and Sedition during that horrible siege straitness and famine of Jerusalem under Titus Vespasian That yet * Vsserii Annal Chronol as long as they had any Priests they were not awanting to furnish still the Temple The PRIESTS and the Altar of God with that Juge Sacrificium That daily Sacrifice of the Lamb morning and evening which God had once required Exod. xxx 38 39. till the great Sacrifice of the Messias had finished all by his own Oblation of himself once offered Heb. x. 11 12. which their blindness and unbelief would not understand But yet even in those times of utmost extremity very Jews durst not pretend necessity against duty Nay beyond all this yet Pagan Aegypt it self would out of the bottom of the Red Sea rise up in judgment against Baptized England if so Sacrilegious 'T is the Applicative note of David Pareus and of the late Assembly-men to boot upon d Rex demensum praebebat Sacerdotibus ne agros suos vendere Inopiâ â—digerentur Laudabilis Piétas Regis etsi enim isti erant falsorum Deorum Cultores ostendit tamen JUS NATURAE ET GENTIVM postulare haec duo 1. Ut publicis Dei Ministris ex publico salaria honesta tribuantur quod ex Jure Divino Veteri Novo c. 1 Cor. ix 13 14. 2. Ut iidem Immunitatibus ab oneribus gravaminibus Publicis beneficio piorum Regum donentur atque fruantur ut Officio vacent c. Sed proh dolor quantum hic peccatur pauci sunt bodie Regeâ— Josephi tam in Ecclesiam Benefici Sacerdotes ita LXX Onkeli Josephi Philonis omniumque Interpretum testatur consensus David Pareus in Genesis x. vii 22 26. This example condemnes the Irreligion of many Christians who shew little Reverence or respect if not much uncharitableness or contempt towards the Ministers of the Gospel against whom the men of Aegypt in the day of Judgment shall rise up and condemn them as Matth. xii 41 42. Annotations c. London 1645. in Genesis c. By these Notes of theirs you may see once for all that in these mens judgment those examples out of the Old Testament are in point of Equity pertinent enough to the Ministry under the New Testament the Place For in a time of as publick as general as tedious and as extream a necessity as ever did lie upon a Nation seven years unparalell'd Famine and that also from the immediate hand of God expresly so as to put bread in their Mouths all other men else were fain to sell their Cattel their Lands and all and themselves too in the end yet all this while saith the express Text and that twice for failing to inforce the Observation Only the Land of the Priests Joseph bought not for the Priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them therefore they sold not their Lands 30. In which Record you may first of all observe that the Aegyptian Priests had Lands for their standing maintenance and yet were these but Idolatrous Priests the Priests of a false God and can you be Christians and think the Priests of the true God worthy of less or of a worse kinde of Maintenance then were the Priests of Aegypt Secondly special care was taken for all the straits of publick and general necessity that whatever became of the Lay-mens Lands yet the Priests Lands should be preserved from Sale or Alienation belike because the Priests standing maintenance once gone the Priests themselves could not subsist long after it and then the God of both Priest and People would be unserved therefore as the Current of Interpreters notes upon the place N. B. there all the other Lands were morgaged only or chiefly the Priests Lands were free Thus amongst Aegyptians and must it go quite contrary amongst you Christians must all your Estates pass scot-free and only your Clergy become the sole Sacrifice 31. Must those men that for ought we know have by their Loyal constancy in well doing and suffering been the Instruments under God to preserve us a Remnant and unto this day to keep this handful of people in their Religion and Allegiance Must these men I say for this their good service unto God and the King become the whole Nations only Victime Would not such a National Injustice nay impiety provoke God Almighty the God of the Priests to burst open all the Sluces of Christendom and without Hyperbole to let in upon you all that whole Deluge of Turks or Scythians your other sins call for to revenge Gods quarrel upon the whole Land by overflowing such an unworthy Nation for ever rather than such a National Injustice should go away unpunished even in this world Ah remember the fate of the seven Famous Churches of Asia and fear and amend 32. Thirdly and lastly In that Aegyptian History 't is most observable that it was principally by Pharaoh's Royal Care that the Priests Lands were kept unsold for the Priests had a Portion assigned them of Pharaoh saith the Text and would they allow a Christian King less Power or Authority to provide for Christs Ministers than was allowed to the Egyptian King or would they make My Lord the King worse than the Egyptian Tyrant worse than t'other Pharaoh the worst Pharaoh to sell and betray his own Priests to whose special defence and protection the King in his Religious respect to the Laws of God and Man knows and in Royal Duty thinks himself bound by so many multiplied Tyes as it were so many Divine Chains in all his Capacities Moral Political and Spiritual as the King is a Man as the King is a Magistrate as the King is a Christian CHAP. IX Of the Kings Solemn Oath at his Coronation which obliges the King as well in Point of Honour as he is a man as in Point of Justice as he is a Magistrate and likewise in Point of Conscience as he is a Christian constantly to
even the greatest good to save a World should we presume upon it then were our own damnation as just indeed as theirs whom we preach against 23. For sin is an action of such a Nature as that Non cadit sub Electionem it can never become the object of our Election be the the Straits of Necessity never so great this is the plain Determination of the School as well of Aristotle as of Christ 24. For else once open the gap of Necessity unto sin or vice and Uno dato absurdo upon the same ground that now may necessitate us to commit Sacriledge we may be necessitated to Rebel against our King and then what will become of our Allegiance or such a case may come again we play too fair for it by our wilful divisions as that we may be necessitated to receive the Popes Mass again and then what will become of our Religion or to receive the Turks Alcoran and then what will become of our Christendome To avoid all which dangerous Absurdities we must constantly stand to this sound Principle that there never was there never can be any Necessity to sin So that pretend what necessity you will in this sence Nemo laeditur nisi à seipso 25. Therefore in the greatest Straits or Exigences of Church or State this must be the Rule of all whom it may concern to put on and to keep the Christian Resolution to suffer not to Act. Resolve to pass no Act what ever come of it for the Act once past the sin is Naturalized and by your own Law it may then Inherit nay it must then Inherit the Curse of God I mean upon the Principals and upon all the Accessaries too But till then till you pass Acts of your own all is yet safe you may suffer indeed so did Christ suffer innocently but then you shall not sin but in both be conformable to Christ himself for thus when a man cannot mend the matter 't is not then his Crime though it may be his Cross which shall one day be his Crown if he be faithful unto Death Thus much in thesi touching the Case of Necessity in general 26. Now in hypothesi to examine our own case of Necessity in particular first of all notice would be taken what Devil hath brought the Publick Faith and us all to this Pinacle of State to this Precipice of Necessity and rather then rashly to yield to the Tempter or to his Temptation and cast our selves down headlong we should as our Saviour in the like case answer the Devil with a peremptory Scriptum est Justificabis y Deut. xxv 1. Justum condemnabis Impium It is written thou shalt justifie the Righteous and condemn the wicked If therefore Schism and Sedition Rebellion and Sacriledge be the great Malignants indeed that have brought us all into these National Distresses and Publick Debts what Justice or Equity or Reason that Religion and Loyalty or that the Church should pay for it will you have a Royal Determination upon this very case of State-Necessity Then hark how our late gracious King being dead yet speaketh * The Kings Portraicture Sect. 14. Upon the Covenant No NECESSITY saith that glorious Martyr shall ever I hope drive me or mine to invade or sell the Priests Lands which both Pharaohs Divinity and Josephs true Piety abhorred to do So unjust I think it both in the eye of Reason and Religion to deprive the most Sacred employment of all due incouragements and like that other hard-hearted Pharaoh to with-draw the straw and increase the Task So pursuing the oppressed Church as some have done to the Red Sea of a Civil War where nothing but a Miracle can save either it or him who esteems it his greatest Title to be called and his chiefest glory to be the Defender of the Church both in its true Faith and its just Fruitions equally abhorring Sacriledge and Apostacy I had rather live as my Predecessor Henry 3. sometime did on the Churches Alms than violently to take the bread out of Bishops and Ministers mouths Thus far that great Princes determination upon the case of a State-Necessity In which case were it really such to steer a course so contrary to the Judgment of such a Pilot what could it portend but a just shipwrack both of Church and State For if those who should be the Guardians of the Church should betray the Church to the Rape of Sacrilegious Usurpers would not such a base yieldance incourage Sheba to blow up his Trumpet of Rebellion once every Triennial Do we not see experimentally that such another Bargain did once again provoke some to a second Invasion because they sped so well at the first Where Poverty may extenuate the Crime of theft certainly there Plenty cannot but aggravate it as in Nathans parable of the Ewe-Lamb King David himself doth pass his Sentence 2 Sam. xii 5. 'T is again * If the Poverty of Scotland might yet the Plenty of England cannot excuse the envy and Rapine of the Churches Rights and Revenues There are ways enough to repair the Breaches of the State without the Ruines of the Church as I would be a Restorer of the one so I would not be an oppressor of the other Under the pretence of Publick Debts The occasions contracting them were bad enough but such a discharging of them would be much worse I pray God neither I nor mine may be accessary to either K. Charles the I. in the same place above our Royal Martyrs Argument against this Sacriledge under pretence of a State-necessity to discharge publick Debts 27. But secondly say that all the three Estates of the Kingdom Clergy and all have contributed their equal share to that Mass of publick sin and guilt that hath drawn down upon us all these publick necessities and miseries yet again I ask what Necessity or Conscience or but Reason imaginable that Gods special Demesne alone must pay for all must be alienated sold or morgaged or as good as utterly annihilated to clear general or common ingagements Why should Bishops Lands or the Revenues of Deans and Chapters make the National Expiation of a National Offence more than the Lands of Barons or of Knights or of Lawyers or of Physicians or of Tradesmen or of any An solus in Adamo peccavit Clerus There is far less Reason for the one and as anon you shaâ—l see more Scripture for the other 28. For say are not the possessions of the Clergy as Publick as any or is it not a Rule or somewhat like it in your z Sir Edward Coke Super Mag. Charta own Law that Jura Ecclesiae Publicis aequiparantur or will you have England alone to walk quite Antipode unto the Religious steps of all Christendom besides that as hath a See above page 50. and below p. 165. been above clearly evidenced unto you in all common Calamities would rather of all others alwayes exempt their Clergy No doubt
IS GRANTED TO AND FOR GOD QUOD DATUM EST ECCLESIAE DATUM EST DEO Ergo God himself is a Party in the Grant and the Proprietary Here is God's Title in Law your own Law for it except therefore men can produce the Counter-Title that is God's express consent for Alienation it cannot be in the power of any man or men Lay or Clergy single or assembled of no Civitas or Societas to take that from God which is once given to God 5. This and the like were the Forms of ancient Acts and Grants saith your Glossator and those ancient Acts and Grants must be construed and taken as the Law was holden at that time when they were made not as the Law may be now Quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit That is That all Ecclesiastical Persons within the Realm their Possessions and Goods shall be freed from all unjust Exactions and Oppressions c. And purposely and materially the Charter saith Ecclesia because Ecclesia non moritur but moriuntur Ecclesiastici So that this Law is not restrained to the Persons or Possessions of those Times only but that fundamental Disposition must extend to succeeding Ages as long as there remains an Ecclesia Anglicana which except our Sins and Sacriledge by name Remove the Candlestick we may still hope Revel 11.5 and will pray shall still remain a Church unto the end of the World That eminent Lawyer goes on Et habeat omnia sua Jura Integra That is that all Ecclesiastical Persons shall injoy all their lawful Jurisdictions and other their Rights wholly without any Diminution or Subtraction whatsoever and great were their Rights when they had the third part of the Possessions of the Realm as it is affirmed in a Parliament Roll Rot. Parliam 4. Rich. 2. Num. 13. And true it is saith he that Ecclesiastical Persons have more and greater liberties than other of the Kings Subjects all which to set down would take up a whole Volume of it self He instances in some as freedom from sundry temporal Burdens from personal Services in the War from Distresses from sundry Writs as from Levarî facias and from Capias c. from some Appearances c. and expresly then from Pontagium * Pontagium Pontage est un Parol mention en divers Statutes come en Westm 2. c. 25. 1 H. 8. c. 9. 39 Eliz. c. 24. signifie ascun foits le contribution collect pur le Reparation dun pont ascun foits le tolle que est pay per Passengers a cea purpose Tearms of Art Pontagium Tributum quod exolvitur ob transitum Pontis vel ob Pontium restaurationem Stat. West cap. 26. Transmarinis Pontaticum dicitur Indiculus Regalis inter formul vett Bignon 45. Gallis pontage sic in legibus Penearnensium ut notat Bignon H. Spelm. glossar or Bridge-money as they now tearm it Contribution for Reparation of Bridges a majori from those other Servile-Taxes such as Rogue-mony and the like now pressed upon some of the oppressed Clergy Thus that great Lawyer who was otherwise no great friend to the Church 5. To say that those were times of Blindness and Popery and that therefore whatever your Ancestors did could be no better than Popish all over hath as little of true Logick as of Religion to God or Charity to man yea to all Christendom besides yea to all Mankind that by the Common Instinct of Nature did ever Honour and Reverence and Priviledge their Priests By the same Argument we shall forfeit our Creed nay our whole Religion Nay by the same Argument the Opposers must forfeit the Law too which to some men in our Generation is of more value than the Gospel that either Creed or Religion I mean so much of their temporal Priviledges and Liberties as was visibly extorted by meer force in times of Licentiousness and Rebellion the far greater Popery of the two yet they can take advantage of such times as bad as they may be they never examine nor dispute the times in such a case 6. It may be it was in imitation of that your ancient Charter that just so many honest (q) As the Parliament held 3. of H. 5. c. 1. Parliaments since as it were for an Omen of good speed in the rest of their proceedings towards the preservation of their own temporal Liberties usually begin them still with the Confirmation of the Rights and Liberties of the Church first of all 7. This tender Respect of the People towards the Clergy was not confined within this Island or Christendom either but was as it were by the Law of Nations observed all the World over even amongst the worst men Heathen men a Turk even at this day shews respect to a Christian * I know this by Experience having lived three years of my voluntary Banishment amongst the 〈◊〉 as at Aelepo in Syria and in Mesopotamia and at Constantinople c. And that I may not seem to arrogate this thing to my self This Respect of the Turks towards me was not personal but general to any Christian Priest for when in the year 1652. I was at Jerusalem and without Superstition had an honest desire to enter into the Temple of Christ's Sepulchre whereas the Turks who receive the Tribute for that liberty take from every Lay-man 24 Dollers or Pieces of Eight about six pounds English They did demand from me but 12 Dollers t 'one half onely because they understood that I was a Christian Priest neither did the Pope's Vicar there to whom I had ingenuously declared my Communion with the Church of England oppose that Priviledge or interpose himself to hinder it Priest even in the worst times of Famine and War very Aegyptians in time of Famine did exempt their (r) Gen. 47.22.26 Priests Lands from Sale or so much as a Morgage when they would not spare their own Lands and very (s) 1 Sam. 10.5.10 Cretenses narrat Plutarchus quaest gr cum bellis intestinis colliderentur omnem noxam abstinuisse à Sacerdotibus Grot. de Jure belli Philistines in time of War even where they kept an hostile Garrison would allow the Enemie's Prophets free pass and repass without molestation of which their Civility therefore the Holy Ghost is pleased to take express notice upon Record and I wish our uncivil Generation may do so too lest civil Paynims rise up in judgment against barbarous Christians and condemn them for their misusage of their own Clergy though the Party of all the three Estates so strongly fenced about by the double Hedge of the Law of God and Man of the Law of Nature of Nations of the old Laws (t) If any man shall offer any injury to a Priest let all take it as an injury done unto all and help him to redress c. Canone 5o. Sub Edgaro Rege in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. v. Capitulare Caroli Magni lib. 6 cap. 285. wâ—ere the People do in their Petition