to speak as much for his own Interest and to pursue it as eagerly as any man can do that makes not mammon his God none that knows him will ever believe he would have said so much to the prejudice of his own profit if it had not been true and such a truth as he was familiarly acquainted withall and whereof he might be convinced if he should say the contrary 2. From Others I was ready at R. upon the 19th of October 1652. the day agreed upon by the Committee our Judges and the Doctor himself and me the parties for the hearing of our differences to produce my Witnesses for proof that in Wiltshire he had Lands let for the yearly value of about 80 l and Woods upon them worth many hundreds But he knows who would not suffer them to give in their Evidence upon this pretence That the Ordinance allots the fifth part without any exception of other means or maintenance more or lesse though he were so assuredly informed That he could not but believe it that the Committee for Plundered Ministers at Westminster did by their ordinary practice clear the meaning of the Ordinance to be for the allowance of a fifth part onely where other means of necessary Subsistance was wanting and that upon good reason for if a man may have a good Estate of his own and neverthelesse without any pains may have a fifth part of his portion who bears the whole burden of Ministeriall duties in the Church of Hous-keeping and of Hospitality at home and of all Taxes and Impositions for the Publique the condition of many both pains means and charge considered will be better by putting out then theirs who are put in to possesse their places which surely cannot be according to the minde of the Parliament Besides for the Doctors wife and children she being an inheretrix of a fair Estate when her father dieth who is a weak man and well stricken in years if he be yet alive there is no fear of their want though they have neither Right nor part in the Rectory of Br. 2. For the other Reasons That if he had no means of his own he should be no sharer with him in wages who doth all the work when he doth none of it for which it is due Besides the Arguments against the fifth part in general already produced it may reasonably be pleaded in barre to his claim of the fifth part by particular application unto him That 1. If he be not invincibly wilfull against the Government which gives him Protection he may no doubt have employment for his good parts and a competent Salary for the good service he may do in the use and exercise of them 2. If he will not be taken off nor abate any whit of his rigid misconceits and disaffection to the present Government and to their publick proceedings nor forbear to do them as much disservice as he can and dare upon all occasions in private and publique they may think it a matter rather of favour then of rigour if he want to send him for supply to the known Laws of the Land so much cried up by him and his party and they will send his wife and children to the able Gentleman her Father and their Grandfather for in such a case it is thus ordered by Law The Father and Grand-father Mother and Grandmother being of sufficient ability shall relieve them in such manner as the Justices of Peace in that County where such sufficient Persons dwell at their quarter Session shall assesse Dolt Justice of Peace printed for the Society of Stationers an 1619. p 84 85. But he and his if they were in want being such as they are with such an one as his Father in Law is would finde mercy ready enough to receive them without any order of Justice of procure their entertainment SECT II. Reasons why I should not pay a fifth Part to the Doctor NOw as by what hath been said it appeareth in respect of him That it is not reasonable he should require a fifth Part of the Parish of B. So I shall now give Reasons in respect of my self which may conclude it as unreasonable that I should pay it 1. Though I acknowledge with all thankfulnesse the Parliaments benevolous intentions towards me in designing me to officiate in such places as promised me a very comfortable reward for the work of my Ministry yet such hath been my mishap through others Malignity that I have been a loser by them and so little a gainer or saver by the exercise of my calling for the best part of fourty years together that upon a just occasion though but an unjust surmize of my thriving by adherency to the Parliament I made bold to tell some of the most eminent Commonwealths-men of this Nation That if they would make mine estate as good in Lands as it was before I went to the Vniversity or in money and goods as good as before I had an Ecclesiastical benefit I would serve the Church and State with my best abilities according to my Conscience for nothing as long as I lived Or if they would but put me into as good a condition as I was possessed of before I was driven to flie from all I had because my Judgement and Conscience engaged me to be of the Parliament Party I would give up all I had of their gift without any desire of further Benefit from them Which being true I cannot but so farre confide in their wisdome and goodnesse as to believe they would not have taken a fifth Part from me to gratifie such a Doctor that so little needed it 2. I may be the more confident herein because where I was last disposed of and where for my Settlement there passed an Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament though it wanted a formality of accomplishment by the great Division betwixt the Parliament City and Army which then happened I was so great a sufferer in all kindes by those who hated the Right and Reformation of the Parliament and me for their sakes that if my Cause had been seasonably throughly and truly represented unto them I doubt not but they would rather have awarded me reparations for wrongs and damages sustained then mulct me by diminution of my wages for the work which lieth wholly on me and nothing at all upon the Doctor to perform 3. As it was my losing lot to part with the last Parsonage I had too soon for it was a little before the harvest was ready for the Reaper and so to be m At Astb where upon the death of Dr. Dod the Sequestred Rector by pretence of a Writ De vi laica amovendâ I was violently and illegally put out of possession by the under-Sheriffe but upon complaint to the Committee for Plundered Ministers restored within a fortnight after by an order coming from them commanding the same under-Sheriste to put mine Antagonist out and to put me into possession again and he did so
AN ACQUITTANCE OR DISCHARGE FROM Dr E.H. his Demand of a Fifth Part of the Rectory of Br. in Barks PLEADED As in a Court of Equity and Conscience By JOHN LEY Preacher of the Word of God there And now Published AS 1. Part of an Apologie for him against the Doctors Defamations of him at Oxford and elswhere 2. As a Preparative to further Contestation with him about other Differences betwixt them The Contents whereof follow next after the Epistle Dedicatory LUK. 10.7 The Labourer is worthy of his hire JAM 5.4 Behold the hire of your Labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath ISA. 61.8 I hate Robbery for burnt Offering London Printed in the Year M.DC.LIV TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE my very good Lord Collonel Charles Fleetwood Lord Deputy of IRELAND Right Honourable THough in an Answer to two injurious Petitions put up the last year to the Parliament that then was against all set and certain Maintenance of Ministers I borrowed the Name of Theophilus Philadelphus because I was unwilling to own the many misprisions of the Printer I made bold to acknowledge You * For the military men I can say somewhat upon mine own certain knowledge at the Committee for Plundered Ministers I found more favour from one Colonel whose name I then knew not viz. Collonel Fleetwood now Câ—mmander in chief over Ireland and I thought he had not known me then from any yea or from all the rest 〈◊〉 ancient friend excepted though at that â—â—me thâ—◠〈…〉 extraordinary number So 〈…〉 the Ministers before the 〈…〉 Petitions in the last leâ—f but one by your Name as my Patron and Protector then when I knew you by none other Title then a Member of Parliament and as such an one happy it had been for this Nation if all had been such you acted on my behalf according to the uprightness of your heart and equity of my cause to bring mine adversary to better terms then otherwise I could have hoped for And when the Committee for Plundered Ministers to make me some amends for my precedent sufferings whereof I can tell a true and a strange Story and it may be shall doe when a fitter opportunity inviteth me to it sent me to officiate as Minister of Brightwell and assigned unto me the Rights and Emoluments of the Rectory sequestred from Dr. H. you were pleased to write a very respective Letter to the Governour of Wallingford Mr. Arthur Evelin for his assistance and favour to me as my just occasions should have need of it and for your sake I found him so ready to do me not only all Right but so many courtesies besides that I must humbly beseech your Honour to thank him for me and since we were well acquainted I found him for mine own sake the best Neighbour that ever I enjoyed and by his removal from these parts upon the sleighting of Wallingford-Castle not onely my self but all that are rightly principled and sincerely affected to the best Reformation of Religion and Government are apprehensive of a very great losse Dr. Owen Dean of Christ-Church Dr Stanton President of Corpus-Christi-Colledge D. Wilkins Warden of Waddam Colledge Dr. Langley Master of Pembroke-Colledge Dr. Wilkinson Principal of Magdalen-Hall Dr. Conaunt Rect. of Exeter Mr. Cornish Prebendary of Christ-Church with others of eminent note for learning and godliness in that University for he liberally and chearfully entertained a choice number of Preachers from Oxford who by turns contributed their pains to a weekly Lecture at Wallingford and hath managed both his military Authority and the Office of a Justice of Peace with such constant Prudence and Impartiality as made him both a great Comfort and Encouragement to the Good and as great a Terrour and disheartning to the wicked which I the rather now profess in publick because I cannot notwithstanding the discontinuance of entercourse betwixt us either forget or not gratefully remember the many friendly and affectionate Offices I have received from him and have not any other or not any better way at present for that purpose then this occasion of thankful acknowledgement of your Lordships favour immediate by your self and mediate by him hath ministred unto me which I conceive you will not take for an unpleasing impertinency or digression because I have good reason to believe that as he much honours you so you have a good esteem of him as worthy for his Abilities and Fidelity to be accepted under the relation and with the affection and confidence of a Friend And for my self as by the Divine Providence and your own Goodness I found you a gracious Advocate in my cause when I knew you not so now I do know you I shall not doubt of your propitious Patronage in this which now I humbly present to your equitable Cognizance and Consideration and shall endeavour by my heartiest Devotions to Almighty God for your Honour to make a supply for the unwilling defects and failings of more real returns which if my Means were answerable to your Merit or mine own minde would certainly be made by Your Honours deeply obliged and sincerely devoted Servant John Ley. Brightwell in Berks Octob. 17 1654. To the Honourable Humphrey Mackworth Esquire ONE OF THE Council of his Highness the Lord PROTECTOR Honourable Sir THough you were not at leisure when I waited on you about the beginning of May last to receive a true and full Information betwixt D. H. and me I was not dismissed from you with such discouragement that I should not have hope of abetter opportunity both for Audience and Acceptance of any just motion I had to make unto you which at that time was that you would be pleased to cast your eye upon those Papers then Manuscripts which now I humbly offer in Print to your Perusal They are the same in substance which then I shewed to my Reverend Brethren M. T. G. and M. T. P. two worthy Ministers of your County and both before and since viz. the last Act at Oxford to my highly honoured Friend D. P. F. Prebendary of Christ-Church which I note as a circumstance of time to clear me from all suspition of or spirit of Presumption or contradiction against the Proviso of the late Ordinance of his Highness the Lord Protector and you of his Council of the 29. of August 1654. in the behalf of the outed Ministers Wife and Children For I could not then divine what your Wisdomes would Order or Ordain for that particular For the Ordinance it self entirely taken it is the Judgement of many wise and godly men that it will much promote the Reformation of corrupt manners which from scandalous Ministers like a pestilent contagion have spread abroad among the people as the Prophet complained of old From the Prophets of Hierusalem is prophanenesse gone into all the Land Jer. 23.15 and
parts for their Portion then a fifth only which they might have if the State have no Just Cause to be Jealous of their peaceablenes or loyalty by being admitted to other places for as to the same it is like our pious and prudent Superiours are most of them of the late Earl of Kent his mind who as I have heard him say was resolved so far as he had to do when he was one of the Lord Keepers of the Great Seal that he would send them as far as the distance betwixt East and West North and South rather then place them in the Parishes from whence they were removed But for my self I am so farre from hardning my heart against the grievances of any of my godly Brethren who suffered any hard measure under pretence of Reformation or Propagation of the Gospel that I heartily wish the Declaration lately published under the Title of Gemitus Ecclesiae Cambro-Britannicae may be seriously considered and enquired into and if the complaints therein be true that due and seasonable redress may be applied unto them And if the State had been pleased to allow any of them whom they have displaced a competent maintenance out of the Bishops or Dean and Chapters Lands to which the Offices put down no personal service is annexed c Cambd. Annal. Eliz. lib. 2. pag. 56. as Queen Elizabeth did to Abbots and other Ecclesiastical persons out of their confiscate Lands and other Revenues their charity towards them had been as I conceive not only lawful but commendable or had they made a rate for their charitable relief as for the Taxes or Impositions which are general all over the Land I should willingly have born my proportionable share with those who are bound to charity as well as my self or had they put but one or a few Delinquents upon our whole Tribe to be maintained as Solomon is supposed by some to have done by d He was not to live upon the Levites portion but was consined to his own fields in Anathoth his own not in common with others but proper and personal as his own Inheritance So Mr Gillespy in his Book called Aarons Rod Blossoming in Append added to the first Book pag. 138. For though the Tribe of Levi had not a part of the Land of Canaan separate or set apart by themselves as the other Tribes had yet upon extraordinary occasions it might and sometimes did fall out that some might have peculiar Interest in particular Lands not only since they lost the Land of Canaan as Joses surnamed Barnabas a Levite had and sold them Act. 4.36 37. but before that time as Jeremy who was of the same Tribe as Dorotheus writeth in his Book of the Proph. c. added to Euseb Socr. and Evagr. p. 527. who bought a field of Hananiel his Uncles son Jer. 32.9 Abiathar 1 Kings 2.26 though I conceive it is their mistake I should not have thought it a just occasion of complaint But that it should not be imposed upon every one severally to pay a fifth part of the Revenue belonging to his Pastoral Charge I hope I may have leave to assert upon the Reasons ensuing SECT II. The first Reason taken from the Necessity of Ministerial Service in the Sequestred Benefice and from the Parity of the Ministers Case with others on whom no Paiment of a fifth Part is imposed 1. THough they and their Abettors account such as are placed in Sequestred Livings Intruders into their Rights they may hold themselves fairly and justly possessed of them for when a place of Office is made void whether it be Civil or Ecclesiastical which necessarily requires an Incumbent upon it to officiate and the Party put out is disabled to do any Ministerial Duty in it it is lawfull for another to supply his place especially in a Pastoral Charge that Gods Sabbaths may solemnly be observed and the people spiritually provided for that their souls may be saved which must be done whether the Minister were injuriously ejected or not and Beneficium belonging to Officium the reward the whole reward is due for the whole work to him that doth it But if the party be put out for criminal miscarriage as the Sequestration is more Just so is the Entrance of another into his place more justifiable Especially if he had no hand either dirrctly or indirectly for his putting out Upon this ground such as have possessed Civil Offices as the Keepers of the Great Seal Judges Recorders of Cities and Towns corporate Heads of Colledges Halls Hospitals in the Universities and elsewhere as also Military Officers who possess the places of cashiered Commanders have never been charged with paiment of a fifth part to their predecessours wives and children though those that were put out had as much need and they that succeeded them had as much means to relieve them in their wants as Ministers have and for the most part much more and they may crave and hope also to enjoy the same immunity with them unless some colour of reason may be rendered to the contrary which they cannot answer SECT III. The second Reason taken from the Preheminence of that Authority which appointed us to be Incumbents above that of private Patrons 2. THe next consideration for Exemption from this Charge is of the preheminence of that Authority which appointed the substituted Incumbent above that of private Patrons which is the same by which setled and itinerant Justice is administred mens lives and livelihoods disposed of all matters of peace and warre ordered and managed throughout three populous Nations by whose power the people are protected for the safety of their persons and propriety of their Estates and but for which whatsoever is pretended for another Title we might come under more calamity by Anarchical and Democratical confusion then by Monarchical or Oligarchical Tyranny Taking those who have such predominant power for our Patrons we may we hope desire deserve and expect as much priviledge and protection as the Clerks of private Patrons have enjoyed who were never compelled to pay a fifth part to those that have been put out upon the death of the outed Minister though liable to no manner of Exception either of Insufficiency Negligence Scandall or Disaffection to the present Powers and it should not be forgotten and being remembred it may stop the mouths of such as are apt to clamour if the fifth part be denied them that Bishops when the Church door keys hanged on their girdles suspended ab Officio Beneficio divers of the most learned godly and conscientious non-Conformists of this Nation meerly for scrupling a superstitious Ceremony which themselves confessed at the best to be but a thing indifferent and oft times absolutely deprived them of their Benefices and instituted and inducted others into them thereby cutting from them all hope of recovery but allotting no portion at all for supply either of them or their wives and children So that the Benefit came in entire to
Allowance of the fifth Part. 6. THe allotting of the fifth part of Ecclesiastical profits as aforesaid hardens many both against the Parliament and against those whom they send to succeed the sequestred Ministers for they take this fift part as a rent whereby their right of re-entry is reserved to them and so they and their complices have made account hitherto that their Successours tenure holding what they have as yet they have done not for their own but anothers life a turn of providence which they hope for and will help forward all they can will return them into their former estate and so after a Parenthesis of Sequestration is past the whole sentence of restitution and repossession will settle them where they were in a right of perpetuity and this believing the lying reports and predictions of their News-makers their false prophets as Ahab did his they expect will speedily be brought to pass SECT VIII The seventh Reason taken from the Oppression of the Labouring Ministers by paiment of a fifth Tart with Objections against them and Answers for them 7. BEcause by the taking away of the fifth part from them they are in effect put every fifth year to serve the Cure without any wages and if the fourth years fruitfulness were but doubled as by the blessing of God every sixth year was trebled to the Jews Levit. 25.21 when the seventh was to rest and so to bring forth none encrease or that they might out of all the former years not by scandalous nigardice but by ingenuous Providence lay up a portion which might make a competent supply for that annual diminution they might be very well content with the one or with patience and silence endure the other But as the case is with them by paiment of publick impositions rated by those who to spare themselves and sometimes to spight us aggravate our charge without either Mercy or Justice by the tax of this g I call it an Egyptian Tribute in regard of the proportion the fifth part which was paid to Pharaoh by his people Gen. 41.34 though otherwise contrary to that which many of us have cause to complain of for the Egyptian fifth part was laid up as provision for prevention of famine to those that paid it our paiment of a fifth part is our present oppression without the expectation of any good for hereafter Egyptian Tribute by the open and wilfull defraudings of some of them as if it were rather their right then any wrong to us to rob us of the tenth by many accidental expences which come upon divers of us after the proportion of the common report of the value of our livings exceedingly one rated sometimes of purpose to advance the fifth part to the greater advantage of those that require it wherein they expect no less liberality from us then when all came in without such paiments and went out at the market upon farre more profitable prizes then now they do receipts and disbursments rightly reckoned together the allowance will be little for the subsistence of the Ministers in service and their Families nothing at all to be saved to pay debts contracted partly by precedent plunderings partly by the charge of enforced removals from place to place which draw in damage at both ends a termino a quo ad quem from the place whence they come and whither they go nor to raise any reasonable portions for their children nor to make any competent provision for their wives in case of widowhood when they survive them For mine own part and I doubt not but there are others of my Brethren of my minde though the R. of Br. if duly payed and not unduly charged would be as Beneficial as I would desire yet as it is to me with all the defalcations and burdens incident unto it if my conscience could be discharged from obligation to the Pastorall Charge of it and would allow me to reap where I sowe not I should be contented to give it up and to be confined to a fifth part only especially if I had D. H. his either present means or future hopes Obj. If any object That the Ordinance of Parliament alloweth a fifth part of the Sequestred Benefice to the outed Ministers and if we like not to take upon us the Incumbency upon these tearms we may give up the work and wages both or rather at the first we should have refused to undertake the one and to take the other I answer Answ First That the Ordinance for ejecting of scandalous Ministers would not have passed in the House of Peers without the allowance of a fift part to their wives and children and therefore there was at the first a kinde of necessity to allot them such a portion though otherwise many godly and worthy Members of the House of Commons were against it as before hath been observed Secondly Though some Countrey Committee men have against all equity and ingenuity urged the letter of the Ordinance as if like the Rule of Ignatius Loiola h Ad literam ad literam fine glossa sine glossa Reg. Societ Jesu To the Letter to the Letter without a Glosse without a Glosse it were punctually to be observed in all cases without Exception or Limitation The Committee for Plundred Ministers at Westminster have by their usuall practice expounded it otherwise allowing sometimes no fifth part at all and that they might very justly do in divers cases As 1. Where the Benefice will not bear it and leave a competent Subsistence for the Incumbent 2. Where the outed Minister hath means of Subsistence of his own or by his wife 3. Where the Father or Grandfather is rich enough to maintain the wife and children in which case the i For this see Mich. Doltons Justice of Peace p. 84. fine and p. 85. princip printed for the Company of Stationers au 1619. Law the charge upon them 4. Where the Party put out continueth scandalous and disaffected to the Government and contumaciously opposeth the Reformation either of Church or State For it seems just and reasonable that he should thereby forfeit the fifth parts as well as the four parts before for his former miscarriage And for such as were scandalous the * See the quotation of Mr. Prinne at the beginning of the first Section late King though tender to his party required none allowance and sometimes they allowed lesse then a fifth part as if the Delinquent had any means at all that was to be reckoned to make up a fifth part as if the fifth part were 40 l and he had 20 l of his own he was to receive but another 20 l of the Incumbent Minister Thirdly The Ministers acceptance of a Pastoral Charge with the burden of priment of a fifth part should be no prejudice either to their suing or speeding for deliverance from it because it was then imposed when they were driven from their own places and plundered by the Malignant party of