his father Prov. 28.24 God his mother the Church homicidae particeps is a companion so our Bible in sin and sentence with the destroyer Psal 74.10 de Leg. 10. and this kil-man is said to blaspheme God too and therein to breake the third Commandement Plate speaks it who dares doe this saith in his heart at least either there is no God or which is all one thinks him not just or not omnipotent and therefore per se as actor per aliot as author blasphemeth God D. Fulk Aretix in Act. 5 Yea some late Divines of no meane rank sticke not to say that Ananias committed the sinne not to be prayed for against the Holy Ghost and therefore was suddenly strooke dead without repentance But holy Writ wil directly indict the Sacrilegious person for breach of the eighth and of the second Precept to the first this alienating and selling Gods and the Churches lands is the sinne which by the Primitive and best reformed Divines Diodat in Act. 5 is called Sacrilege After consecration the thing is no more thine but Gods and in taking or detaining it thou hast committed Sacriledge which in Scripture language Prov. 20.25 Ezek. 48.14 Mal. 3.8 Rom. 2.22 Act. 19.37 is exprest by devouring in Ezekiel by selling exchanging alienating in Malachi by robbing God in Saint Paul by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which from the derivation of the word is to steale that which is holy and so we translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church-robbers by all if not by every of which Texts it is plain that to alienate or sell lands or goods of the Church is a sinne against the eighth Commandement which forbids all manner of taking away that from any other which is his and not thine Some learned not onely ancient but moderne Divines goe further say that it is Sacrilege to invert or turn those things to other uses which were primarily dedicated to God and his service and thus much Mr Calvin plainly affirms saying It is Sacrilege facultates Ecclesiae in alienos usus convertere Tract De neces reform Eccles Aunot in Prov. 20.25 to imploy the revenues or goods of the Church to any other uses then for the Church And the Assembly of Divines at Westminster say That to take that which was appointed to Gods use yea to goe about to do it by enquiring how the Vow may be avoided On Mal. 3.8 is to devoure holy things And they say No Heathen is so barbarous as to defraud his God and to deale deceitfully with him And they adde To keepe those things backe which belong to God On Ver. 9. and are to furnish out his service and for the maintenance of his Officers is to rob God Some ancient S. Chrys M. Calo. and later choice Divines have thought that the words of Saint Paul Rom. 2.22 were spoken of some convert Jewes new Christians who thought they might without offence robb and spoil the Temples of the Idols and yet the Apostle condemnes this as a sinne in them saying Thou that abhorrest Idols committest thou Sacrilege Which if it hold so then how much more surmounts the Sacrilege of our times that of the first convert Christians When as we sticke not to nick-name it to be pure Religion when we take away or spoil that which was offered to the true God and his Servants And may I not here take up the words of the Apostle O thou that abhorrest Idols Yea the very shadow and word Idolatry art thou become so abominable in thy hypocrisie as to robb thy God and yet would'st be held a Reformed Protestarit and lover of God Be not deceived if Saint Paul judge right which none doubts but an infidel thou art a thiefe and a robber And I could wish that Saint Paul from this Text could doom thee no further then a thiefe and transgressour of the second Table for I feare upon a review of the Text it will be found that thou hast sinned against the first Table too St Augustine affirmaes it directly which Mr Zanchie the best Reformed Schoole Divine shewes thus He grubs up the root the maintenance which gives life to the branches the Ministers which failing the fruit Gods honour must needs fall to the ground But without straying from the Text observe Saint Paul Thou that preachest a man should not steale dost thou steale Ver. 21 22. And thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery dost thou commit adultery In both which the sinnes are of the same nature and against the same Precept as stealing and stealing adultery and adultery and presently he subjoynes Thou that abhorrest Idols commatest thou Sacrilege Which shewes that as the two former so these are the breach of the same Commandement And so Mr Calvin upon the place saith The Apostle here opposeth Sacrilege to Idolatry as a sinne of the same kind and rightly so for as God where he forbids the worship of Idols there hee forbids the offering or giving lands or goods to them or to their Priests so when he commands to worship God he commands to add what we may but in no sort to take away what is given or offered for his Honour or Service for this is a breach of his divine Precept in the first Table And I cannot readily say whether or no Saint Paul in this comparative speech Thou that abhorrest Idols committest thou Sacrilege makes not Sacrilege a greater sinne then Idolatry for before in the two former comparates he reasons from the lesser sin to the greater as Thou that preachest a man should not steale or commit adultery which are sinnes in another man dost thou commit those things which must needs be a greater sinne in thee who actest what thou preachest against and condemnest And so thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou robb God of that which is given to his Honour and Service which must needs be a greater sinne in thee For if to give God more worship then he requires or otherwise then he commands though it be done with a good intention be Idolatry as Reformed Divines say why then may it not reasonably be conceived to be a greater sinne utterly to take away that from him which is given for his Honour then to give him some more Honour then he requireth But I leave the determination of this point to the Assembly of Divines Annot. on Rom. 2.22 who upon the words move the Question Why the Apostle changeth the word And whereas he said before steale and steale commit adultery and commit adultery Why say they doth he vary and say Why thou that abhorrest Idols committest thou Sacrilege To which Question they in their Notes thus answer The Apostle useth have an aggravation as if he should say Thou that abhorrest Idose dost thou commit a worse sinne to wit Sacrilege which robbeth God of his Honour Thus they Let me add that it is a sinne not against the positive written Law alone but against the
very Law of nature for so the Prophet argues Will a man any man Mal. 3. any Pagan Heathen natural man will he robb his God i. e. He will not for it is against the Law of nature How great then is this sinne in a Christian who hath not onely the Moral Law of Nature and the positive Moral written Law of Moses but the Law of grace to restraine him CHAP. V. That it hath been so judged by the most strict Reformers in the Protestant Churches IT were easie to give you the sayings of many Primitive Orthodox Fathers in this case but conceiving that the later Divines relish better with you I shall therefore set downe the judgement of the three Oracles as they are held by many of the first best and strictest Reformed Churches in Germany France and Scotland And for Germany Dr Luther On Gal. 6.6 when hee saw the Clergy despised and their lands taken away Preached and Printed these words The Apostle here closely toucheth the manners of our Countrey-men who most securely contemne our Ministery and especially the Nobles who make their Pasters as their base and obnoxious servants in so much that if we had not so godly a Prince as God be thanked we have and so great a lover of the truth they had ere now driven us out of the land and yet these would be accounted Gospellers After this he meets with a tacit Objection viz. That these Revenues of the Church were given in the time of Popery to which he answers in these words Gram it that these goods were by moore imposture heaped up for Papists yet God spoyling the Egyptians i. e. Papists of their goods transtated them to good uses in our Land He goes on The Devill hath but two ordinary wayes to destrey Religion the one is by the errors of Hereticks against which we had by Ordinance a day of Humiliation â—aâ—t 10. 1646. the other by depriving of Gods Ministers of their Rights and this saith he is the Devils master-piece hereby to destroy Religion without either the force of Tyrants or the subtle worke of Hereticks But know saith he that although God for a time defers to punish yet in his own time he will finde you out and plague your dog-like scorne and hate to Gods Ministers For saith he The highest of the Gentry and most covetous of the City and the basest in the Countrey when they draw neere to death shall finde that God will not be mocked but as they have sowne so shall they reap for ever Thus farre the first great publike Reformer of the Protestants Church in Germany Next to him De neces reform Eccles heare Mr Calvin thus speaking I professe saith he that I am much displeased that the Revenues of the Church are not imployed for those uses alone for which they were dedicated and that it is not so I and all good men heartily grieve For saith he it is an inexpiable Sacrilege to take the patrimony of the Church and to wast the same on profane uses and what hee meanes by profane uses and wasting he explaines in these words when he saith I assent to this as a truth that it is Sacrilege to convert or change the goods or revenues of the Church to any other use then for the Church And adds Seldome have I found but that such Alienations of Church lands have drawne some mischiefe after them and hee not onely determines this kind of Sacriledge to be such a grievous sinne and dangerous to the State but even to the persons plotting and acting in the same for so he concludes I confesse saith he that in Scripture grievous punishments are pronounced against such men as shall spoile the Church of her goods and Revenues And when you shall consider that Mr Calvin wrote this Treatise to the Emperour and Princes of Germany assembled at that time in a Diet or Parliament for the Reformation of the Church then well weigh how at this time his judgement and sentence should prevaile with you in this case who for holinesse learning and judgement is so extolled by the Protestant Churches Will you heare but one passage for many from Mr Beza successour to Mr Calvin in Geneva and it shall be that which hee wrote in his answer to Dr Saravia who touching upon the dissolution and passing away the Lands of the Religious Houses in the time of K. Henry the Eighth saith We and all good men heartily bewaile that scattering of the Church Lands accompanied with a most wicked and detestable Sacrilege And from Germany and France let us to our Polestarre in Scotland and here Mr Knox the prime principal Reformer of that Kirk who with his brethren Ministers In Book of Disc 1560. desires the Lords of the Councel for feare of the losse of their soules to make restitution of the Lands of the Church and of the Friers and in his Letter on his death-bed In the yeare 1572. he commands his Brethren to withstand the devourers of the Church Patrimony wherein if they the devourers shall persist yet communicate ye not with them by consent or by silence And in the Booke of Discipline 1569. The Patrimony of the Church is declared to be all things doted to the Church and it pronounces them to be theeves who have taken them from the Church and affirmes In second Book of Policy c. 9. to take away any thing which was given to the Church to be detestable Sacrilege before God Moreover the whole Church of Scotland in their Assembly enjoynes a publike Fast throughout all the whole Kingdome At Edenburgh 1582. To appease Gods wrathon the Land for that crying sinne of Sacrilege therein committed Now can any who have sworne to maintaine the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of Scotland know this and yet Vote the selling of Church Lands If so why may we not pray Lord have mercy on them For did ever any Protestant Church maintaine that Church lands might be taken or sold from the Church If not which I perswade my selfe they have not then why doe you not feare that you are not in the right way or not right Protestants but rather in this point that you are Papists For that these onely of all Christian Churches have allowed the practice of it and yet these doe it not but under the colourable and falsly pretended power which the Pope usurps as being Christs Vicar on earth Whereby he saith he may dispense with the Church lands as he pleaseth which title or power I hope our Parliament doth not assume or challenge to themselves although K. Henry the Eighth in the dissolution of the Abbies thus argued If the Pope and his Legate the Cardinal doe it then why not I And yet I pray note by the way that K. Henry the Eighth so decryed for a notorious Sacrilegist yet never did he take away the lands of Bishops nor Cathedrals but on the contrary he founded some and enlarged others
But why in Gods name are not the Assembly of Divines at Westminster consulted with in this point Or why doe not our conscientious Brethren read the Annotations of the Assembly who note that Egypt which would not in the greatest extremity of famine On Gen. 47. when all other mens lands were sold yet then that they would not sell the lands of the Priests shall rise up in judgement against the alienators or sellors of lands which have been dedicated to God or his Servants CHAP. VI. That this kind of Alienation is against Prudence Justice the good of the Kingdom in general and of the Tenents to such Lands in special BUt were there not so much said in Gods Book and by learned Orthodox Divines shall neither our owne Lawes nor Prudence nor Justice prevaile in this case to keep us from selling of Church Lands For what Justice is it to sell that which is not our owne And that these lands are 1. Gods I hope it is proved sufficiently by Gods words the verdict of allowed Divines and shall be further proved anon by the Lawes of our Land 2. They are the Bishops who are Gods Assignes and Usufructuaries and these lands are theirs by as good title in Law as any man can hold any land in this Kingdome 3. They are by Patronage the Kings for this is very lately professed in a good Parliament 1 Jacob. 3.3 in these words Whereas all the Lands of the Bishops in England and Dominion of Wales were given by Kings of England the full truth whereof I will not dispute whereby the King is become the lawfull and rightfull Patron of all those Lands therefore it is desired that the King would enact not that they without the King would or could no such power then knowne and what is desired not that the Bishops Lands should be sold but that they may not be leased out by the Bishops for longer terms of time then for 21. yeares or three lives no not to the Crowne And is this Justice so soone forgotten or so soone changed in so short a time that without the consent of God the Proprietary of the King the Patron and of the Bishops the Assignes the lands shall be utterly sold away And yet must we call this Justice I pray God this Justice call not for judgement from heaven And whether it can be just to sell the Bishops Lands I pray examine by that rule and touch-stone of true Moral Justice which our Lord Christ hath expressed in two short Precepts the one Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe The other Mat. 19.9 Mat. 7.12 Whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you doe you even so unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets Now by the first rule examine your selves whether in this act of selling the Bishops Lands you love the Bishops as your selves And trie this by the other whether you would yeeld your consent as to a thing just that if the Bishops had your power they might and should preserve to themselves their own lands and expose yours to sale If your hearts speake the truth I feare they would denie this to be just in the Bishops against you and if so then be assured that in this act of selling the Bishops lands you doe not that which by the verdict of your owne conscience is just And if you will as Law-makers should look forward and provide for future times stands it with civil Prudence to sell those Lands away which doe and will yeeld so much for maintenance of the King and Kingdome in Tenths First-fruits Subsidies and Taxes which for the most part will bee swallowed up when fallen into Lay-hands 2. Stands it with civil Prudence to robb Tenents of so good penniworths as they now hold from Bishops and Church-men which they must not expect when in Lay-hands whereby they have beene enabled the better to serve the King and Kingdome in time of need 3. Stands it with Prudence and Charitr to cast so many into a state of beggery and danger of theeving who by Bishops and Church-men have been reasonably relieved by under Offices and places in the Church Upon the dissolution of the Religious Houses in the Reign of K. Henry the Eighth Chron. f. 773. Mr Speed saith that a great Rebellion was raised in Lincolnshire and the Rebels expressing the cause thereof to the King they say Wee grieve for the suppression of so many Religious Houses whereby the Pooralty of your Realme is unrelieved and many put off their livings which is a dammage to the Common-wealth Soone after another Rebellion arose in Yorkeshire where 40000. with Horse Armes and Artillery rose for Religion who had upon their sleeves the Name of the Lord the ground of their rising was saith the same Author That the King by his evill Counsellers will destroy the Ministers of the Church f. 775. which makes against the Common good 4. Stands it with a Religious and civil Prudence to robb Learning and Religion of that profit and preferment which encouraged the study and encrease both of Learning and Religion Prov. 14.4 Where no oxen are the crib is cleane And the Land soon after K. Solomon found this true 1 King 13.33 for when Jeroboam had taken away the best maintenance of the Priests what followed but that the Priests were chosen out of the lowest of the people Which I would it were not too true now in our Land and in after times the Church suffered more under Julian then Dioclesian for this tooke away the able men but that Apostate their maintenance I shall close this point with that memorable passage of Sr Edward Coke in Winchesters Case The decay of the Revenues of the Church will draw after it the downe-fall of Gods Service and Religion which God in mercy avert CHAP. VII That it is against the Lawes of this Kingdome of England which the two Houses of Parliament and Kingdome by their severall Declarations Protestations and Covenants are bound to maintaine BUt if neither Gods Word nor the Verdict of best Divines nor Justice nor Prudence can be heard yet I pray heare what our Lawes say in this case and yet before I urge these to which I am as much a stranger as to the Profession let me remember you with that which I have heard to be a Maxime in our Law That no Statute Law or Custome which are against Gods Law or Principles of Nature can be of any validity but are all null which if granted it will save me the paines to cite our Lawes as having before proved that it is against Gods Law to sell away the lands of Bishops Yet let me adde that one Statute saith 1 Edw. 3. c. 2. That the King by evil Counsellors caused the Temporalties of Bishops to be seized into his hands for a time to the great dammage of the said Bishops which from henceforth shall not be done and this Statute is not repealed and therefore
plentiful and large against it in the Old Testament 2. Considering that whilst the Apostles lived they were so far from having Lands or Tithes or setled maintenance that they had not houses nor holes to put their heads in except they were in prisons and therefore then to write against taking away the Lands and goods of the Church when they had neither would have been accounted but a labour in vain and notwithstanding all this Saint Peter and Saint Paul the one by his sound Doctrine the other by his miraculous power have taught and admonished every good Christian enough whereby to avoid and beware of Sacrilege I will begin with the Doctrinal part Rom. 2.22 which is so plainly set down as before I made appear that all the best Divines doe and cannot but confesse from that Text that alienating the Church-Lands is a sin of an high nature and therefore utterly to be abhorred Acts 5. And what judgment hath passed upon this sin is as plain in the story and case of Ananias who for detaining but part of that which he had promised to God for the Church was suddenly struck dead which visible death sayes Mr Calvin on the place was Symbolum the fore-reckoning or fore-shot of the death eternal which saith he was just 1. to punish Ananias for so hainous a sin 2. to admonish allo after him For had not Saint Peter thus severely punisht this sin many saith Mr Calvin under colour of Religion would have been forward to have robbed the Church And now for close of all will you be pleased to compare the Sacrilege now intended and begun in selling the Bishops Lands with that of Ananias Where 1. he sold onely the lands which were his own but here that is taken away and sold that is Gods 2. He had but promised those lands to God but here in these lands God and his Assignes and Servants have for his use been in real and actual possession many hundreds of years 3. He there kept back but a part but here all must be taken away both root and branch 4. There probably he might think to keep back a part whereby to maintain himself his wife and family alive in the great persecution but here the rich and wealthy take them away thereby to joyn land unto land and Gods inheritance to their own possessions 5. It may well be conceived that as this Ananias was but one private man of no great note so that he might be of no extraordinary knowledge and understanding but more then probable that he being a New Convert from Judaism or Paganism was but a novioe in the Law of God or at least of Christ whereas they who take and sell these Lands are many selected and chosen as the wisest ablest most just in this great Kingdom and then how far this Sacrilege doth exceed that of Ananias in respect of the persons the matter the manner and almost all circumstances judge you And yet I may adde one circumstance more which doth heighten this fin as much if not more then any other for in the late Covenant you have sworn to extirpate Episcopacy which is the main and leading cause in the Ordinance wherefore the Lands of Bishops must be sold and not onely have you sworn this your selves but by threats and forfeits have urged even the Bishops themselves to take the same so that they who are to be spoiled and undone are urged contrary to Law Justice and Nature to swear their own extirpation O heavens O earth I had almost said O hell Did you ever hear the like In the Preface to the Covenant it is said that this Covenant is made according to the commendable practice of this Kingdom and the example of Gods people and I doubt not but it hath been Preached as it hath been Printed that this Covenant is warranted as agreeable to the Covenants in holy Writ and in the best Reformed Churches how truly this is spoken and printed I refer to that which Mr Nye Cov. with narrative p. 12. one of the Assembly hath printed where he saith It is such an Oath the like hath not been in any age or Oath we read of in sacred or humane Stories And I say that when this shall be proved by the Word of God by the example of Gods people and the commendable practice of this Kingdom that a few of the people without their Head did first covenant themselves and then by threats fears and punishments did compel all both head and tail to extirpate the Religion long setled by Law and confirmed by the bloud of many holy Martyrs against which nothing is brought in proof that it is repugnant to Gods Word and thereupon to take and sell away what was lawfully given to God for the maintenance of his Servants in the Church I say when this shall be proved I will take the Covenant both which will be ad Graecas Calendas that is as we say the morrow after Doomesday or never I have proved that alienating of these Lands in Gods Law is Theft and I have shewed Gods threats and judgments against this sin we have a proverb what need a rich man be a Theef for few but such cast in their lots for Christs garment and thereby to hazard the wrath of God and their own fatal execution The Philistims a people out of the Covenant of God 1 Chron. 6. yet for detaining but a while the Ark wherein the Law was kept were shamefully punished in their hinder parts and some with death which caused the living to restore what was unjustly taken with interest of much gold And when Moab and Ammon had consulted covenanted and voted utterly to take away Gods inheritance it so came to passe Psal 83. that after all the Church flourished and kept her own when Moab and Ammon were utterly extinct and laid in the dust which like consideration hath moved some as wise as pious never to mingle their other lands wlth the Churches inheritance and others as pious as wise never in Parliament to give assent to any Bils for the Alienation of Church-Lands It is conceived by many holy and learned Divines that the 74. Psalm was penned upon the robbing of the Temple at Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes which if so then read and consider the sorrow confession and death of that Antiochus Now saith he 1 Macc. 6.12 I remember the evils that I did at Jerusalem that I took away all the vessels of gold and silver that were therein I perceive therefore that for this cause troubles are come upon me and behold I perish through great grief It is time you will say to conclude and I pray let it be with Prayer and such as Mr Calvin used in his Comment on Acts 5. Lord grant that as upon the sudden fearful punishment of Ananias his Sacrilege Acts 5.11 Fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things so the same or the like fear may strike all our hearts that so out of a true love and due honor to God and that we may escape the dreadful curses and punishments threatned and inflicted on this sin we may in time while it is called to day repent us of this and all other our sins and so obtain mercy and eternal life in Christ Jesus our only Lord and Saviour Be wise now therefore O ye Kings Psal 2.10 be instructed ye Judges of the earth Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Ver. 11. Kisse the Son lest he be angry and ye perish Ver. 12. The end Errata TItle Pag. And what is given to God is holy Ezek. 48. add in the Margin p. 5. l. 19. Matth. 10.1 40 41 42. Mark 9.41 John 13.20 p. 6. l. 17. dele Lev. 27.32 p. 9. l. 29. d. Ibid. p. 53. in mar p. 17. l. 7. for here r. hear p. 19. l. 14. Mat. 19.19 p. 32. l. 30. d. Exod. 23.2 r. Num. 16.38 p. 33. l. 33. Pro. for 25.20 r. 20.25 in mar p. 34. l. 31. for Ball. Catoples r. Bell. Staplet in marg p. 41. l. 11. for 3. r. 4. in mar p. 42.12 r. Gal. 4.15 p. 43. l. 29. r. abased p. 48. l. penul r. 47. in mar p. 52. l. 20. r. 25 Hen. 8. c. 20. in mar p. 55. l. 25. for Covenant r. Government p. 60. l. 4. r. Christ and S. Peter p. 61. l. penult r. Rom. 3.8 in marg p. 64. l. 33. r. 1 Sam. 22.18 p. 69. l. 33. r. Mat. 4.17 in mar p. 75. l. 26. for 5. r. 4. l. 29. for 8. r. 7. l. 32. for 9. r. 8. l. 36. for 9. r. 4. p. 76. l. 4. for 11. r. 12. p. 80 for 1 Chro. 6 r. 1 Sam. 6. n mar