to their shame that he made them Rich. 4ly They object that they that serve at the Altar should live by the Altar And Bp. Sanderson saith that since God himself has ordained Wages to him that labours in his work he may not only expect it but even exact it too from those that would unconscionably defraud him thereof I answer They that serve at the Altar should live by the Altar But can they not live without 5 or 6 hundred or a 1000 l. or 4 or 5 Thousand pounds a Year If they expect or exact more than what is enough to keep them and their Families alive they expect and exact more than God hasallowed the very Apostles themselves But to return your objection on your own heads if they that serve at the Altar should live by the Altar why are you so unresonable as to deny your Journey-men that serve for you at the Altar to live by it but are many of them forced to get their livings by teaching School or some other way I allow then that if unconscionable men will deny you your Meat and Cloathing you may exact it of them provided you Labour in the Work But I think it were better by Bp. Sandersons leave not to goe to Law with ungrateful People for a little Victualls and Drink but rather as Christ commanded the Apostles to shake of the dust from your Feet as a witness against them and so leave them By all that has been said I hope it appears plainly that it is the Duty of Christ's Ministers notwithstanding God has allowed them Food c. to execute their Office Freely without respect to that or any other reward when we have done thus we must yet confess we are unprofitable Servants we have done but what was our duty to do and woe be to us as St. Paul said of himselfe if we Preach not the Gospel and that Freely too Were this lesson well learned of us there would be no striving after Pluralities and dignities no Bribery nor Simony nor Perjury in the Church but that a righteous and gratious and learned Person that is Poor might as soon be advanced to a Bishoprick as an ignorant covetous ungratious Person that is Rich. They that seek for Rectories Vicaridges Bishopricks for the sake of gain are no better than those that followed Christ for the sake of the Loaves And are no better ahen the Heathens for after all these things do the Heathens seek When Christianity began to Flourish and Kings and Emperours to embrace the Christian Faith and out of their zeal for Religion made Laws for the support of Church-men and admitted none into Offices but Christians many wicked Persons professed themselves Christians meerly to get Offices and Preferment just as our Sea and Land Captains and Officers who living in a constant and habitual Practice of Cursing Swearing Blaspheming c. do yet take the Communion to qualifie them for the King's Service So ungodly Men screw themselves into the Ministry for the sake of Gain Vngodly men I say for no godly man desires the Office of a Bishop or Priest for the sake of filthy Lucre. I am sorry that the Liberal Arts should become servile and Divinity it self made a Slave to Mammon I am sorry that the pretended Disciples of Christ should strive to be so very much Richer than their Master and they that are not so good Teachers as the Apostles should yet desire to be so very much above them I am sorry that Covetousness has crept into the Hearts of Church-men 'T was the Covetousness of the Clergy brought in those abominable Errors into the Church of Rome as Purgatory Praying for the dead Indulgences Pardons and Intercession to Saints by which means they gull'd and fool'd the ignorant deluded vulgar and got much of their Lands from them to the Church Yet these Popish Bishops and Kings did great works of Charity with what they by their cunning Devices got from the People They Built and endow'd abundance of Colledges and Schools Hospitals and Churches But the Protestants that have these things at present in their Possession do make a worse use than those Papists did for these employ the same to the support of their own Pride and Luxury 'T is Covetousness makes the Roman party strive to bring in Popery again that so they may recover their ill gotten Lands 'T is Covetousness in the adverse Party that makes them prick up their Ears with hopes one time or another to get uppermost that they may enjoy the Riches of the Church All quarreling betwixt these Parties about Religion is but like that of Rivals contending for a Rich Lady take away her Dowry and her Covetous Rivals will soon quit their persuit Veniunt a dote sagittae None will follow her for her Beauty or Virtue Just so let the Church be made Poor and disrobed of her gorgeous Ornaments and then you shall see these false Lovers will soon forsake her He is the true Lover only that Preaches freely and loves Religion not for her Riches but for her Beauty of Holiness Great is Diana of the Ephesians Thus they cryed out not for love of the Goddesse but for fear if her Worship ceased their Gain and Proffit would cease together 'T was for the sake of Gain that they served a false Goddesse 'T is for the sake of gain that Covetous men serve the true God as the Devil falsely upbraided Job A true Church-man and every true Christian must look higher than the things below and be content to suffer for Christs sake proposing to himself Afflictions Reproaches Poverty yea and Death it self if the honour of God and the defence of his Truth require it For the true Pastor as he ought not so neither can he reasonably expect to grow rich in this World because his business is to rebuke Sin and not to please men by flattery or connivance Now 't is not reasonable to think that such a Reformer should have much favour from the World No they that tell Truth shall be fed with the bread of Affliction and the water of Affliction whilst the false Prophets shall be fed at Jezebels Table The World loves the Hireling best because the Hireling always Preaches pleasing things otherwise they know they shall forfeit their Hire Thus they have their great Livings not for declaring the whole Truth but for holding their Tongues just as a false Witness is suborn'd or hir'd to be silent when he should speak the Truth The Devil sometimes gives Church-men great Livings to stop their Mouths that they may not Preach against Popery or Rebellion or any work of Darkness that Satan the Prince of Darkness is about Just as the Thief in the Fable offered the Dog a piece of bread to bribe him to forbear Barking A true Witness will speak the Truth without being Hired to do it but a false Witness must be subborn'd and Hired and these Hirelings are the only Favourites of the World The people love the
Hirelings because they flatter them but hate the true Pastors because they boldly tell the unpleasing Truth According as the Prophet Jeremiah has said cap. 5.30.31 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land The prophets prophesie falsely c. and my people love to have it so c. The Hireling sells his Sermons at as dear a rate as he can and we say in the Proverb Magis illa juvant quae pluris emuntur Things dear bought are good for Ladies those delicate people that cannot endure the severity of Gods Truth are best pleased with those temporizing fawning Chaplains that sow Pillows and daub with untempered Mortar A Hireling by corrupting the Word of God gets Preferment but a true Pastor like John the Baptist sometimes loses his Life for telling the Truth If Christ whipt out of the Temple such as Bought and Sold there What shall become of them that Buy and sell the very Temples themselves What shall become of them that Sell their very Sermons and Prayers c. What shall become of them that turn the holy Calling into a mercenary Trade for Gain I for my part am no Hireling but a Member of that pure and unspotted Church all whose Sons resemble their heavenly Father in giving Freely what he has freely given them For as God has freely given to us life and being and all things yea and his own Son Freely so does every one of his Children freely impart and communicate to each other 'T is not the Prayers nor Ceremonies nor Articles nor Homilies I Object against but the Pride and Covetousness of the present Church And therefore that Church wherein Preaching is made a Trade for gain that Church wherein Dignities are bestowed by Partiality that Church wherein there is no respect to Learning That Church which forbids Mariage that Church which Beats and Banishes her Pastors for Preaching the same sound Doctrine she pretends to maintain that Church wherein Buying and Selling of Parsonages c. are constantly practiced that Church that takes no Care of her own namely those of her own Houshold I do renounce with all the covetous Desires thereof as being fully perswaded that the nearer to this Church the farther from God Ad Concionatores Mercenarios Presbyter Argento conductus Rostra fatigat Praemia si tollas Presbyter ille silet Illum facundum fulvi spes reddidit Auri Hac dempiâ taciti Piscis ad instar erit Histrio Tibicen Cantores Causidicique Hi vocem vendunt Presbyteriq pij Unicus est Vates contemptus ridiculusque Officium tantum Praemia nulla petit Sol non conductus praebet sua lumina Mundo Et non conductus munere fungor Ego To the Mercenary Preachers In English thus By bribes of Silver Priest is Hir'd to Preach Take away those and ho'll no longer Teach Alass 't is Money makes him Eloquent His Voice is gone when golden Hopes are spent Actors and Fidlers Songsters Pleaders do Their Voices sell and so do Preachers too One Prophet vile and scorn'd yet has regard To th' Office only not to the Reward The Suns bright Flames to Mortals Freely Shine And whilst I Preach for nothing so do mine Loripedem Rectus derideat Aethiopem albus Juvenal The names of some of those Places where Jos. Perkins has Preached Freely Westminster Abbey 1 Lincolns Inn 2 Trinity Chappel 1 Oxenden Chappel 2 Knights bridge about 20 St. Fosters 1 St. Catherine Colemans 2 Wappin Chappel 1 Marabon 4 Hogidon Hospital 1 White Chappel 1 In Middlesex Teddington 1 Brentford 2 Fulham 1 Chelsea 6 In Surrey Kingston upon Thames 2 Peterson 1 Battersea 8 Tootin 6 Epsom 20 Ewill 20 Astead 3 Clannon 1 Oakwood-Chappel 9 In Kent Deptford 1 Woolwich where I was Banished 20 Eltham 1 Hampshire Winchester 1 Portsmouth 1 Kingston 1 Southhampton 5 Pear-tree 4 Abbots Ann 9 Amport 2 Wiltshire West-grimstead Essex Mersea Island Oxfordshire Coggs and other adjacent Places 3 Binsey 1 Hincksea 1 St. Bartholomews Hospital 7 Gloucestershire Wickwarr where I was Beaten for my Pains 14 Addersley 2 Newington 2 A Chappell near Newington 1 Bath Abbey 1 Bath Abbey 1 June 27 About 7 or 8 hundred times in all and yet I am not weary of well doing Ingratium dieas omnia dixeris FINIS The Author of this Book wears a white Scarfe and Girdle as the Badge of his Profession and to distinguish him from all Hirelings
He that pretends he aims at both the saving of Souls and his own gain seems to me as strange a Prodigie as Janus having two Faces that look East and West at the same time For who can look at two objects so directly opposite as God and the World T is the intention that has the greatest force to render an action good or evil If in our Sermons we aim at Profit or applause or any thing save the glory of God and the benefit of Soul's then are our affections insincere and will prove as unacceptable to God as unprofitable to men If thine Eye be evil thy whole body is full of darkness If the intention be naught all is naught They that follow Christ and Preach for the sake of gain and to grow Rich by the Church revenews are like Judas who followed Christ that he might get something by him The other Apostles forsook all to follow Christ but Judas followed him for the sake of gain First he got to be Purser and to carry the Poors bagg the Treasure of the Church from whence he was wont sacrilegiously to filch and steal and at last sold his master outright for ready money Just so do all covetous Church men creep into the Church on purpose to inrich themselves by the Churches revenews and when they can get nothing any longer by defending the truth you may observe them to fly from the truth and deny their own Principles When they are like to come to any loss for Christ's sake they will readily betray his truth either by silence or contradiction But he that Preaches Freely is safe from being tempted to be a Turn-coat or a time-server or man-pleaser He that Preaches Freely in this sence may also Preach Freely in another sence that is to say with greater freedom and Liberty of Speech than the hireling who is affraid to speak the whole truth for fear of displeasing men and so losing his Hire Brave and noble was the intention of Hannah in dedicating her young Son Samuel to the Lord not to get his living by his service at the Altar Base and ignoble are the intentions of all those parents who breed up their Sons at Schools and Universities on purpose to provide for them in the World and to raise their Fortunes by the treasure of the Church by bestowing on them such livings as they have in their own gift by which means those that are far fitter for the Office are shut out As for Simony falsly so called who knows not that it is a common practice in the present Church Can it be imagined by any thinking man that a Patrone who gives a great summe of money for the advowson of a Living will be so simple as to give a Presentation for nothing No He that buyes the Devil as we say in the proverb must sell the Devil too And then the worst man must have it For no good man will be guilty of Simony and Perjury withall for the sake of the best Living in the world We all justly condemne that Cardinall who gave himself to the Devil to be Pope But he is a worse fool that gives his money to the Patrone and his Soul to the Devil by Perjury for the sake of a Parsonage or Vicaridge And when we observe that meer Ignoramus's are in great Livings and wiser men shut out every one of sence may well imagin that not their vertue but their money advanced them to the same and then the Church is like to be served well when he that should Preach against covetousness Perjury and simony is himself a covetous Perjur'd simonist and deserves rather to stand in a Pillory than a Pulpit Alas 'T is not the holy spirit of God calls these men to the Ministry but Covetousness the root of all evil Wherefore to avoid all these grievous Sins we must shun Covetousness for they that will be rich fall into Temptation and Preach Freely and when we have so done we must still say we are unprofitable Servants we have done what was our Duty to doe They that Preach for reward Christ will say unto them as he did to the Pharises they have their reward and all the reward they are like to have in this Life But he that is content with his allowance of meat and livery in the mean time shall in the end when he has done his Days work receive an unmeasurable reward even Eternal Life And as he did the work Freely not for the sake of reward so shall God Freely give him a reward not of Merit but of Grace I shall now answer some few objections that may be made and then conclude 1st They will object That this Preaching for nothing will make us Poor and thereby Contemptible I answer the Apostles were Poor yet very honourable But by your own objection you tacitely confess that 't is not your Vertue or Worth but your Riches that renders you honourable and then the respect and honour you have is not given to you but to your money When an Ass went through the City with a golden Image on his back the superstitious People fell on their knees and worship'd The silly Ass thought they had worship'd him whereas they worship'd only the golden Image on his back Just so the common People do honour and worship Rich Church men for the sake of their God their Mammon their Silver and golden Images Conscisum Argentum in titulos faciesa minutas Juvenal 2ly they object That the Apostles where Rich-men Had they not more then any of our Church-men For did not many men sell their whose Estates and bring the price thereof and laid it at the Apostles feet Acts. 4. v. 37. Very true But the Apostles were not much the Richer for it For they were not so good Husbands as to Pocket it up as our Priests c. do but distribution was made for the relief and necessity of the Poor Christians according as they had need v. 35. Let them look to it that appropriate to themselves the Revenews of the Church which were given by Religious Papists and put into the hands of Church-men not that they should like Judas convert it to their own Private use but imploy it to the relief of the Poor 3ly They object that they have not received their talent Freely as the Apostles did but that they gave money for their Learning for their Degrees for their Orders Licences Institution Induction and I believe they may truly say for their Presentation too And how do we receive Freely then I answer They are very ungrateful to God who deny him to be the Author and giver of every good thing we lawfully enjoy He gave us all things Freely and we are ungratefull if we do not Freely give to him what he has so Freely given us If they get into the Church by Bribery Simony Perjury or any other unlawful way they may not thank God but the Devil for it and he will upbraid them with it afterwards