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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30253	A case concerning the buying of bishops lands with, the lawfulness thereof and the difference between the contractors for sale of those lands, and the corporation of VVells, ordered, Anno. 1650, to be reported to the then Parliament / with the necessity thereof, since fallen upon Dr. Burges.	Burges, Cornelius, 1589?-1665.	1659 (1659)	Wing B5670; ESTC R11486	85,757	85

the sin of Lucifer which shall be in the latter time to wit Antichrist the Child of Perdition whom the Lord shall destroy with the breath of His Mouth there is not nor can be any kind of sin so repugnant and contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles and holy Scriptures and to our Saviour Christ himself more hateful detestable and abominable then to destroy and kill mens Souls by defrauding them of the Ministry of the Pastoral Office Which sin by most evident places of the Scripture such men are known to commit who being put into the Pastoral Office provide for themselves of the milk and wool of Christs sheep that by his appointment were to be vivified and saved but do not administer to them their due for the not administring of the Pastoral Ministration is by the Testimony of Scripture the slaying and perdition of the Sheep 3. That not onely all their Civil Imployment in State-Affairs for which they were exalted so high is wholly taken off by special Act of Parliament with the Royal Assent c 17 Car. c. 28. but their very Function and Office as Archbishops and Bishops as themselves and theirs were pleased to distinguish them from and to set them above the rest of their Brethren in the Ministry hath been since by the same Parliament pluck'd up by the roots Therefore their Lands must needs Eschete and revert to the Commonwealth the proper Heires of the first Founders and Donors being long yea many Ages since dead and their own particular Heires and Memory perished from off the Earth The Parliament therefore had as good right to sell or alien them to any other use as the first Donors had to give them to those uses expressed in their several Donations or as that Parliament in 15 Ric. 2. which had the consent of the then Bishops in Parliament had to appoint or permit all such as had gotten any Lands without License to sell or alien them to private uses or as any particular Lord in chief by the same Act of Parliament Ric. 2. had to seize and sell any such Lands so given if fallen unto him by such Forfeiture and Eschete So that now it is no more Sacriledge or sin to buy and enjoy Bishops Lands after the final and total abolition of Bishops then it was for Joses or Barnabas the Levite to sell his Lands or for any man at this day to buy any of those Suburbical Lands of those forty eight Cities heretofore set out for the Levites This might suffice if it were not ever too true of some non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris Thou shalt never perswade me to be of thy Opinion although by Reason thou sufficiently convince me Therefore Answers must now be given to such plausible Objections as seem to carry most strength of Reason in them Object 1 First it is said by some That Bishops as such are of Divine Right or which is Equivalent of Apostolical Constitution and therefore could not by any law of man be taken away as the Levites might and ought to be when Christ himself had put a period to their Service and Office Answ To this it is Answered 1. That if a Parliament the Representative of the whole Nation shall enact an Abolition no private person or party out of Parliament may gainsay or oppose it without making himself liable to punishment 2. That if by Bishops be meant onely Ministers of the Gospel faithfully feeding the particular Flocks committed to their Charge not as Lords over Gods heritage d 1 Pet. 5.3 they could not be taken away for such are of Divine Institution not to be abrogated by man But 3. Our Bishops would none of this Nothing sounded so harsh in their Ears as a Parity This was not onely Schisme but Heresie in their Construction They claimed a Power and Dignity even by Divine Right above other Presbyters or Ministers as a distinct Order from and superiour to that of Presbyters And that in the two greatest points of Authority For they appropriated Ordination and Jurisdiction solely to themselves and to their Officers in their Right which is expresly contrary to the Testimony of Scripture both touching Ordination 1 Tim. 4.14 Act. 13.1 2 3. and Jurisdiction 1 Cor. 5.3 4 5. 2 Cor. 2.6 7 8. vers 10. And as upon this Account they looked upon themselves even in the beginning of that Parliament which after threw them out witness that Book of Episcopacy by Divine Right written by Jos Exon and published Anno 1640. and had their Lands vested in them as appears by that Statute of 25 Edw. 3. before mentioned So the Parliament taking them at their own words look'd upon them too and upon that very ground threw them out Since which time none of them have vouchsafed to assert their Title to be Jure Divino If therefore the Levites who had a clear plea for their Divine Institution justly lost their Lands and other Revenues with their Offices there can be no scruple of conscience to buy or enjoy Bishops Lands whose Title was never so good as that of the Levites after the Bishops themselves be laid aside for ever as Usurpers over the Ministry as well as over the rest of Gods Heritage They are no otherwise cast out of their Office then Diotrephes who loved to have the pre-eminence e 3 Joh. 9 10. was by St. John himself cast out of the Church whom that proud Prelate persecuted by his prating and malitious Words Object 2 But it is pleaded That the Bishops were Ministers too although aliquid amplius somewhat more and preached as well as others and were moreover of great Vse for the good Government of the Church and support of the Truth which since their ejection hath extreamly suffered Therefore at least as Ministers they and their Means should have been continued Answ Admitting but not granting all this to be true yet what they really did might have been and still may be done as Ministers although not as such Bishops It is their Episcopal Dignity not their Ministry that is taken from them And their Lands were fixed as hath been shewn to their Episcopacy not to their Ministry to their State of Prelacy not to the Presbytery If any of them as very very few of them had had a mind to preach the Gospel as that Archbishop Dr. Vsher did so long as he was able and was therefore honoured and incouraged both living and dying they might have had liberty so to do notwithstanding the abolishing of their Episcopal Usurpation But the generality of them were so far from it that they did their utmost against it while their Power continued Was it not by their procurement that preaching was prohibited especially in the After-noons of the Lords Dayes and the Book of Sports compiled and published with Authority and countenanced by them was not strict inquiry made in their Visitations whether every Minister had published that Book in his Church and they severely punished

of Bishops to be Sacriledge To make way hereunto he premiseth these things 1. That God accepts of things given him and hath a Propriety in them as well in the New as in the Old Testament 2. That God gets this Propriety as well by acceptation of voluntary gifts as by his command for the giving of them c. Now unless he make it out that Gods Acceptation and Propriety as he phraseth it reach to Church Lands of Bishops his labour is in vain and his Arguments from those Texts are no other then a gross abusing of the Scriptures like that of those unlearned and unstable ones who wrest them to their own destruction e 2 Pet. 3.16 His first Text out of Mat. 25. neither doth nor can extend to Christs Acceptation of or Propriety in Church-Lands voluntarily given to Bishops for their Maintenance It speaks onely of Alms whereby the Hungry Naked Sick or Persecuted Members of Christ are Christianly relieved Not the accepting Lands for Bishops such especially as that Author declareth for who Lord it over God's Heritage by appropriating the sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction to themselves two of the most senseless Dreams that can be fathered upon those Scriptures which the same Authour abuseth * Page 20. to that purpose Nor is there the least hint of Christs Acceptation of Lands for any Uses whatsoever but onely of present supplies of Food Rayment and other Necessaries suitable to the instant wants of his distressed Members But saith he Doth Christ thus accept of meat and cloathing and not of those Endowments that bring these to perpetuity Will he take meat and refuse Revenues and he concludes it of both adding that it were a strange thing Christ should take those Gifts so kindly for provisions of all called His and that onely His Apostles and His seventy Disciples should be excepted from sharing therein This would not seem strange to him were he not a stranger to the Scriptures He might by further search know That though Christ accepted of Gifts for the Poor yet when they were more then there was present use of they were abused even under Christs own Nose by that thief Judas who bore the Bag f Joh. 12.6 And would it were a slander to say That most of those that since have been trusted with that Bag and with the large Revenues given to that Use are too near of Kin to that first Treasurer Under the Old Testament God made many provisions for the Poor but none in Land it self And how much the Poor get by the gift of Lands especially after one Age or two under the Gospel is too obvious and lamentable to behold That Author therefore begs the Question by way of a confident Interrogation Will He take Meat and refuse Revenues which should the Authour be kept from till he prove it he might perhaps starve to Death But as for Christs accepting of and having a Propriety in Lands given to the Church for Bishops c. he is out toto Coelo as far as the East is from the West That Christ took care for the Poor is evident and that his care was no less for his Ministers is no less a Truth For he that of old made that a Law Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn g Deut. 25.4 did he it as taking care onely or chiefly for Oxen nay for our sakes no doubt is it written yea altogether for our sakes saith St. Paul h 1 Cor. 9.10 in behalf of all Ministers that labour in the Word and Doctrine Howbeit from hence to make it good that that Text in Mat. 25. extendeth or is extendable to Christs acceptance of the gift of Lands for Himself or for His Apostles or His seventy Disciples or any of their Successors will require time till the thirtieth day of February or the Greek Kalends come about As for Christ himself although he were of the Blood-Royal of the Lineage of David both by his Mothers side and by his supposed Fathers too i Luk. 2.4 He professeth that very Foxes and Birds were better provided then He for the one had Holes the other Nests but he had not so much as a Room or Pillow on which He might lay His Head k Mat. 8.20 And when He sent out the Twelve His charge was l Mat. 10.9.10 Provide neither Gold nor Silver nor Brass in your Purses nor Scrip for your journey neither two Coats c. Not that He meant to starve them for He took care that provision should be made for their present supply by those to whom they preached so as they wanted nothing m Luk 22.35 and that upon this account That the labourer is worthy of his hire n Mat. 10.10 May it not then upon better grounds be retorted Christ would accept of no Lands or House for Himself and forbad even Gold and Silver to His Apostles therefore he will not accept own or hold the Lands of Bishops especially of such as he never owned Not that it is unlawful now for Ministers that preach the Gospel to receive allowance but that those words of our Lord in Mat. 25. had no relation thereunto And albeit if we give credit to Platina Petrus de Natalibus and others Pope Vrban 1. about the year of Christ 233. by an Epistle Decretal ordained That the Church might enjoy praedia quorum proventibus alendos statuit Ecclesiae Ministros c. Possessions out of which Profits he appointed the Ministers of the Church to be maintained and forbad the alienating thereof under pain of Excommunication which Pope Lucius 1. afterwards o An. 255. seconded and Pius 2. long after him p An. 1459. confirmed as a Law Yet he that shall trace the best Ecclesiastical Histories shall finde that the Church was endowed with no Lands even in the greatest advancement of Bishops by Constantine the Great It is true that in the suppositious Donation of Constantine it is said That upon the Churches which he erected to the honour of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul possessionum praedia contulit he conferred the spoils of Possessions gotten by War Yet this in the Language of those times and of the Civil Law did not extend to the Lands themselves but onely to the Profits of them Before Constantine Bishops could enjoy no Lands for even in the beginning of his raign the Bishop of Rome himself Sylvester and his Associates in the Ministry were fain to hide for safety of their Lives in the Hill Saracte about twenty miles distant from Rome since called Monte di Sylvestro as by that very Donation appeareth Nor did that Emperour endow the Bishops with Lands but onely gave them large Allowances out of Lands for which a voice is said to be uttered from Heaven Hodie seminatur Virus in Ecclesia But be it as the Papalins and this Author perhaps would have it that such Decrees were made by Vrban 1.

that refused it was it not their great study and contrivance to put down Lectures not onely on those dayes but on week-dayes also was it not fully proved not by Puritans but by such as after turned head against them that one of those Bishops thanked God that he had put down all the Lectures even Mr. Crookes also which was preached gratis and at his great Cost within his Diocess were not even conformable Ministers how able soever scorned and persecuted as Praters not Preachers if they took so much paines in preaching as might justly shame the laziness and idleness of Drones and Prelatical Pluralists who held it to be an Evidence of their great Parts and deep Learning to preach but seldom was it not piacular for any Animalculum praedicabile or Preaching-Coxcomb as Dr. Lindsey stiled Bishop Vsher himself for his often preaching that is for any faithful Minister to preach twice a day being by another Bishop compared in a scoff to a bruit Animal Virgil's Cow that bis venit ad mulctram came twice a day to the Payl And as for the Bishops own preaching especially at last when they designed to gain all those Places and Offices of Trust Power and Judicature of the Commonwealth which the Popish Bishops in former Ages aspired unto it became an Offence unpardonable to mind them of their Duty in preaching when many of them had laid it aside as too mean and low a thing for their Greatness and as a thing unnecessary and incompetent with their greater and more weighty Affairs Among other Instances take this for one Anno 1635. Doctor Burges preaching a Latine Sermon to the London-Ministers in Alphage Church neer Sion Colledge pressed all possible sedulity in preaching to drive which nail to the head among other Arguments he urged what was antiently required herein even of Bishops themselves For which purpose he first minded them of the Third part of the Publick Homily against the Peril of Idolatry wherein it is said of the Primitive Bishops That they were preaching Bishops more often seen in Pulpits then in Princes Palaces more often occupied in His Legacy who said Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel then in the Embassages and Affairs of Princes After which he recited an old Canon of the sixth General Council in Trullo with Zonaras his Note upon it which Canon enjoyned Bishops To preach often at least every Lords day or to be Canonically admonished for their neglect whereupon if they reformed not they were to be excommunicated or deposed For this some of his Prelatical and dronish Auditors informed the Archbishop of Canterbury against him who forthwith complained of the Doctor to the King himself Shortly after he was by Letters Missive summoned into the High Commission Court then little better then the Spanish Inquisition to answer this haynous Crime Upon his appearance Articles were exhibited against him as being dis-affected to the Book of Common Prayer the Ceremonies and Government of the Church as also for charging the Bishops with conniving at the then too palpable growth of Arminianism and Popery f Act. 12. and their too much conforming thereunto c. But chiefly For that he seemed to tax and accuse divers Prelates and Reverend Bishops of this Kingdom for neglecting to preach often and for alledging to that purpose that the ancient Bishops were frequent and diligent Preachers quoting an old Canon that every Bishop should preach every Sunday and if negligent herein he should be admonished upon which if he reformed not he was to be excommunicated or deposed without considering their many and weighty Affairs This made them spurn so furiously against him that their Party every-where gave it out that he should be both Deprived and Degraded And doubtless it had been so had he not given them enough in his Answers to their cavilling Articles and in his Protestation annexed to the Copy of that his Sermon delivered to Archbishop Land who after perusal thereof never troubled him further he having professed to stand to what he had said in that Sermon against all Opposers to the Death This was the third time wherein the Doctor was called into that Court. Once g An. 1622. he was brought thither by a potent Adversary who had made a strong Party against him for being dis-affected to Episcopal Government for permitting some to sit at receiving the Lords Supper Another time h An. 1629. he was questioned there for refusing upon a Thursday he being then requested to preach the Lecture at St. Mary Overies for the then Lecturer there to read Common Prayer in his Surplice and Hood before the Sermon On purpose to deter Godly Ministers from preaching Lectures And as they thus grew incorrigibly negligent in the duty of the Ministry here and there one or two black Swans excepted so did they as much over-lash in another extrem being too pragmatical and conversant in Civils Insomuch as by reason of some affronts put upon one or two of them as they were going to the House of Peers assembled in Parliament many of them privately drew up a Protestation which they after delivered contrary to the Priviledge of Parliament to the King not to the Parliament it self against all Acts and Proceedings in Parliament in their absence as null and voyd This high Act of theirs drew upon them the hatred and scorn not only of their supposed enemies who as yet had done them no harm but of their friends also yea so did it incense all against them it that occasioned the throwing them first out of the Parliament and then out of their Episcopal Office and dignity for ever Object 3 But admitting they were justly ejected yet so many direful Curses have been denounced against all such as should aliene sell purchase or imploy those Lands to other uses that it may justly make any man afraid to meddle with them Answ To this a short Answer may suffice Where God bids Curse as in Deut. 27. there is cause to fear Cursing If an Elijah i King 1.10 12. an Elisha k 2 Kin. 2.23 a David l Psal 109. a Peter m Act. 8.20 acted by Gods Spirit shall denounce a Curse wo to such as fall under it Such Curses shall surely take effect God himself will own them and requireth all his people to say Amen to them n Deut. 27.15 c. But as the bird by wandring and the swallow by flying escapeth the Nets and Snares set by the Fowler for them so the causless Curse shall not come o Prov. 26.2 That Providence that preserveth the sparow from falling to the ground p Mar. 10.25 till God will have it so let the Fowler do what he can to take him doth likewise so order the matter in a causless Curse that it shall never reach him against whom it is intended yea God blesseth most where wicked men or others belch out the most bitter curses Let them then

one of the Burgesses of the same City or Burrough to be our true and lawful Atturnies for us and in our names to treat contract and agree with the Honorable Committee of Contractors for the sale of all Bishops lands within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of VVales for the purchasing of the Inheritance of the Royalty of the Liberty of the City or Burrough of VVells as also of the hundred of Wells and VVells-Forum and the two Fairs of Priddy and Binegar within the said Hundred Hereby ratifying confirming and allowing all and whatsoever our said Atturnies or any two of them shall do for us in the premises In witness whereof we have set our Seal of Maioralty of the said City the fourth day of December in the 23 yeer of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord Charls by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland Kings Defender of the Faith c. And in the yeer of our Lord 1647. Thomas Salmon Maior Barthol Cox Tho. Jones VVilliam Baron VVill. VVest Richard Casbeard VVill. Smith Robert Hill Robert Thomas John Web. Hugh Merefield William Hiat Robert Hurman Robert Hole William Atwel Joseph Gallington Joseph Plummer Josias Cook This Letter of Attorny which inabled any two of the therein named Attornies to Contract being received one of them adventured single upon the work and Contracted as followeth Die Mercurii 15 Decem. 1647. AGreed with the Contractors for the Purchase of the Royalties of Wells and Wells forum in the County of Somerset Welby Contract mentioned in the Particular thereof delivered in under the hand of the Register and also for the Bayliff-wick of the Town and Forum of Wells aforesaid with all and singular the Fairs Markets Clerkship of the Market and Profits thereof and all other things to the said Bayliff-wick pertaining And also for the Office of Stewardship for the Town of Wells aforesaid and all Profits and Advantages thereunto belonging mentioned also in the said Particular at the rate of Twenty Years Purchase for the present improved yearly values of all the said premises amounting in toto to the sum of nineteen pounds and ten shillings in Possession And for an improvement of value upon the said Bayliff-wick after the determination of three Lives in being at the rate of four yeers Purchase for the said increase of value being five pounds thirteen shillings and four pence in Reversion I say agreed accordingly on the behalf of the Corporation of Wells Per me John Casbeard This Contract so refers to the first Particular that without sight of that no man can say punctually what was purchased but rather what not was purchased till that particular be produced And whereas the Contract mentions the Bayliff-wick to be but 5 l. 13 s. 4 d. improvement after three Lives in being it agreeth not with the Survey which saith it is 40 l. per annum This Contract lay as the Contractors thought sleeping from the 15 of December till the 15 of March following In which time the Agents of Wells slept not for they being told by somebody that if they could but get the first Particular out of the Registers hands and draw up and return another in the room they might get much more into their Purchase and Conveyance then they had indeed Contracted for Which some imployed in this Purchase accordingly did And in room of the first Particular the Particular here following without any new Contract or warrant from the Contractors was thrust in and brought to the Contractors March 15. to signe The Contractors being by Ordinance of Parliament to look no further then to the Registers hand affixed to the Particular for their Warrant to signe the Contract made thereupon they then used not to have the whole read again but onely the sums for the Purchase to be paid how much in Possession and how much in Reversion and how many yeers Purchase for both Which done they signed it and gave their Warrant to the Trustees for passing a Conveyance accordingly The last Particular which the Contractors signed in March 1647. ran thus Parcel of the Possessions of the late Bishoprick of Bath and Wells Com. Somers The last partilar for the Corporation THe Royaltie of the City or Burrough of Wells and of the forraine Fee Bayliff-wick or Hundred of Wells commonly called Wells and Wells Forum with the Rights Members and Appurtenances thereof in the County of Somerset together with the said Hundred And also the Courts and Courts of Record or Court and Courts of Pleas Hundred Courts Views of Frank-Pledge and whatsoever to view of Frank-Pledge appertaineth Court Leets Courts Baron and other Courts to be holden from three weeks to three weeks or otherwise holden or to be holden from time to time within the City or Burrough of Wells and the Liberties thereof or within the Hundred of Wells and Wells Forum aforesaid Together with the Guild Hall and the ground and soil thereof wherein the said Courts are usually holden And the prison or prison House thereunto adjoyning And all Fines Issues and amercements requisites and profits as well at the said Courts and every of them as at the Sessions of the Peace holden from time to time at the City or Burrough of Wells aforesaid And also all Fines for License of Alienation and post-Fines and all other Fines Forfeitures Issues and Amercements at the Assizes or elsewhere before whatsoever Judge or Justices either in the High Court of Chancery the Court of Kings Bench or Common Pleas or of Exchequer due and payable or happening from time to time to be due and payable by any person or persons within the County of Somerset aforesaid And also the Bayliwick and Office of Bayliff of Wells and of the Hundred of Wells and Wells-Forum aforesaid And of the said Liberty of the said Bishop of Bath and Wells within the said County of Somerset And also full Power and Authority to keep the aforesaid Courts and every of them and the accustomed Writs and Process of the aforesaid Courts and Courts of Record to be from time to time issued and awarded To bear Test in the name of the Maior of the said City or Burrough for the time being successively And to be kept by the Maior or Recorder or by the Steward of the said Maior Masters and Burgesses of the said City or Burrough and their successors for the time being and such other Officers of the said Maior Masters and Burgesses and their successors for ever to be from time to time attendant upon the said Courts and to serve and execute the Writs and Processes of the said Courts and other matters and things in the said Courts as were usually attendant in and upon the said Courts in the time of the late Bishops there And also power to distrain for all sums of mony due and payable for or by reason of the said premises And all other remedies and means for the having receiving levying or enjoying the premises or any