Advocate for the Church of England both in word and deed by his learned Books and by his labour of love to this Church under the King being the Founder and by procured Benevolences the Maintainer of the French Church at the Savoy a goodly Pattern and Precedent for Imitation of the best Reformation Secundùm Usum Ecclesiae Anglicanae we cannot deliver it in better terms then it is expressed in his Letter to me bearing date the 7th of January 1662. Give me leave saith this worthy Author to furnish you with such an Argumentum ad Hominem as will not only confute that Party but is able to make all who have any fear of God to keep their hands from meddling with any of those Lands which the Piety of Christians hath Consecrated for the Maintenance of Christ's Ministers About four years since being with the worthy Major General of the City of London Sir Richard Brown and remembring that Doctor Brittain of Detford had told me he had seen in the hands of the said Major General a Letter of D. Cornelius Burges wherein he acquainted him that he was brought to great want and poverty and that he was eaten up with a Cancer in his Neck and Cheek I desired Sir Richard to do me the Favour to shew me D. Burges his Letter which was presently granted me And there I read these very words to the best of my remembrance I am reduced to want a piece of bread and am eaten up with a Cancer in my Neck and Cheek as this Bearer my Son may better Inform you Yet the man was not so humbled by that heavy and exemplary Judgment of God but that he added Sir mistake me not I do not beg I only acquaint you with my condition and do you what is fit 'T is known this man had a great yearly Income He was besides a Purchaser of a considerable Estate of the I. Bishop of Bath and Wells's Lands which he enjoyed long enough to reimburse himself and much more then so and how he could be reduced to that extream poverty is not easily to be guessed at unless his Sacrilegious Purchase proved as a Cancer to his other Estate to devour it up And who knows but God in his Mercy to make him sensible of his sin sent that other Cancer on his body and set him up for an Example to this Impious Age as it were with this Inscription Discite Justitiam Moniti non temnere Divos I must not omit that I am told Dr. Burges died a very penitent man frequenting with great Zeal and Devotion the Divine Service of the Church of England till his death which happened about two years ago Thus far Mr. Durel's words I must add my hearty wish that D. Burges had himself before his death by some authentick Instrument as publick as his Book for Sacriledge Retracted since he could not Restore and declared to the World this his Repentance to put all good men's Charity out of doubt Meanwhile let all that hear or read this Singular Example give God his Due as did the Emperour Mauritius Justus es Domine Rectum Judicium tuum Psal cxix 137. And Observe God's wonderful wisdom that commonly Punishment is the Anagram of Sin wherein as in Capitals every one may read That Beggary in that man's Estate was the Reward of Robbery the Sore there answerable to the Sin of Sacriledge and also the Cancer in his Body answerable to the Cancer of his Schisme For their word doth eat as doth a Canker or Gangrene saith the Apostle 11 Tim. ii 17. As if God had written upon his Forehead Sennacherib's Epitaph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let every one that looks upon me learn to be godly and a thousand more that in the Ballance of their final account have found this sad propoposition too true a Prophecy That the Interest of Sacriledge hath devoured the Principal As if all their Gains that way had been put into the Prophet's Bag with holes Hagg. i. 6. yet for all this men will not become wise 14. But we are loath to let our Sun set in a Cloud rather therefore to end all in Prayer I beseech God that this honest Work may prove a Graft of that good Tree Psalm i. 3. which bringeth forth his fruit in due season That all from the King to the Subject may find Relish in it and reap Benefit by it That all the King 's true Servants and loyal Subjects may never fail to give him as they are most bounden honest and faithful Counsels hearty and ready Obedience constant and couragious Defence to the Glory of God and the Peace Power Plenty and Prosperity of this great Nation and in order to all these Blessings That God forgiving our Sins amending our Lives uniting all our hearts and Hands will yet in Mercy hear the daily Prayer of his Church Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris Amen ERRATA I. In the Text. PAge 19. Line 4. for closs read close p. 20. l. 16. for the r. their p. 27. l. 8. for remaing r. remaining p. 28. l. 14. for live r. have lived p. 31. l. 28. for observers r. observes p. 34. l. 18. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 55. l. 21. from the word Cathedraticum to seq p. 56. l. 5. all this should have been in the Margent which being put into the Text obscures the sense p. 57. l. 11. for Ministers r. Ministery p. 116. l. 14. b for ordes r. order p. 133. l. 20. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 135. l. 29. These words and really punished also are to be within a Parenthesis thus p. 155. l. 14. after all add is II. In the Margent PAge 49. Line 12. for Alepo read Alepo p. 132. after page add 120. 123. p. 133. after pige add 69. ibid. l. 12. r. wesembec p. 165. l. 1. add Genes xlvii 22.26 p. 171. l. 32. before Majestie 's add late p. 192. l. 4. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 199. l. ult after 1626. add above p. 209. l. 14. for Ecclica r. Ecclesiae ibid. l. 16. for Lundonicae r. Lundoniae ibid. l. 27. after example of add William the Conquerour p. 228. l. 32. add Ezek. 1.16 A Wheel in the middle of a wheel ¶ Note That through a mistake from Page 113 to 120. the Pages have the same Number twice which to distinguish we have added the letter a to the first Number and the letter b to the second A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS The INTRODUCTION Page 1. CHAP. I. OF the Sacrilegious Malefactor Page 5 CHAP. II. The Description of Sacriledge Page 12 CHAP. III. The Distribution of Sacriledge Page 27 CHAP. IV. Of the Parties against whom the sin of Sacriledge is committed and here first of the Priest as God's Usufructuary onely Page 44 CHAP. V. That the Sin of Sacriledge is an offence against God himself who is the great Proprietary
to us in flaming Fire both by Sea and Land devouring us both by Plagues without example for their Rage and Ruine and also by the bloody Sword both at home and abroad Hath not God almost spent all his Arrows to warn and to reclaim us from our wickednesses when his Vocal word did not prevail because we still neglecting or abusing it Hath not God added his Real Word for God's Judgments have a Voice If we had the grace to hear it Hear ye the Rod saith the Prophet Micha vi 9. and who hath appointed it And are we grown better for all God's Mercies and Judgments What remains then but a fearful expectation of the final Judgment of God to utter destruction of which sad Catastrophe by very wise men's more than bare Conjecture Sacriledge may be thought though not the onely Sin yet the most demeriting sin if not also the efficient sin of most of our other sins and sorrows of our National Miseries So that when ever that terrible Destiny comes upon us which God in mercy prevent still mark it who will Sacriledge will prove the Leader which therefore to stop in its furious March and to incounter valiantly we have now again mustered up our Forces but with a considerable Recruit in this our New Muster-Roll 7. For though we purposely have retained much of the old Levy which may therefore represent here some passages as unseasonable albeit not at all impertinent and which we could not well leave out without some Sacriledge against the Truth it self yet we have done so partly to shew to the World we were then the same men we are now both for Judgment and also Resolution so that though Tempora mutantur nos non mutamur in illis Partly that by a wise comparison of the times past and present if they prove better now or hereafter then heretofore we may entertain them with all thankfulness to God and the King But if they should prove as bad or worse if worse may be as our Sins and Errors make us fear worse and worse Then Experience of the time past 1 Pet. iv 4. as well as S. Peter's Caveat for the time to come having sufficiently warned us in these last and worst days especially not to think any think strange concerning the fiery Tryal we may then like true Christians arm our selves aforehand with Faith and Patience backed with an assured hope of a better World the onely Armour of Proof 8. Yet to the Considerate Reader this Book will appear most-what a New Book both for Matter and Form For first as to the Matter of it it is in a great measure augmented as by our Experience abroad so by our Inquiry and discovery at home of such Books as since the first Edition have been published for or against this Subject Two whereof especially as to the main we have taken in here namely that of Doctor Cornelius Burges (b) No Sacriledge nor Sin to alien or purchase the Lands of Bishops c. By Cornelius Burges An. 1659. If such a Book for Sacriledge had the licentiousness of a Second Edition for filthy lucres sake can any justly blame us for fairly taking the license of a Second Edition against Sacriledge for God's sake and another of Mr. William Prynne (c) A seasonable Vindication of the Jurisdiction of Christian Kings c. as well over the Possessions as Persons of Delinquent Prelates c. By William Prynne Esquire Anno 1660. which latter came not to our hands till this Book was already a good way in the Press By which several oppositions this Work is increased with many Additions so that from a transient (d) That SERMON was Preached in LENT at CHRIST's CHURCH in OXFORD Anno 1646. Before KING CHARLES the I. Of Glorious Memory Sermon at first afterwards by Royal Command Printed into a short Treatise for (e) S. Austin gives this Reason of writing Books for reading Ut sic bonae Notiones quasi virgulis limatis figantur ne ut aves evolent That so good Notions may be held as it were with Lime-twigs and not like skipping Birds fly away as they often do when a man only hears them especially if he hear them with prejudice permanency it is now become a full Book Thus to phrase it with the Poet Amphora coepit Institui currente Rota cur Vrceus exit Horat. So that I have found by little and little though with no little labour that as the Wise-man saith Eccles xxiv 31. My Book is become a River and my River become a Sea This to the Matter and also for the Length of it 9. As to the Form of it whereas it was before Composed in a continued Discourse and therefore more tedious and probably less profitable to the common Reader It is now disposed into Chapters and Sections as it were so many short Stages a better Method to give both Light and Ease to the Reader learned and unlearned 10. As for the Delay of this Second Edition hitherto for which yet we must thank Providence which hath thereby occasioned those necessary Additions 'T is true we were divers times summoned to appear again against this Common Enemy of the Church by the multiplied desires not onely of many of the Clergie and some of them the Right Reverend Fathers of the Church but even also by some of the Noble and generous Sons of the Church men of the Laity For that sowre Leaven of Sacriledge though now very far spread yet hath it not through God's Providence so utterly leavened the whole lump God be thanked for it But as before the Kings Restauration to have followed this Truth too neer at the heels it might and that without success have ding'd out our Teeth if not our Head after so many more of our betters So since the Restauration I could not though I did both intend and also indeavour it over-take the opportunity Being in the year 1661. honourably ingaged and that still with the Royal leave in the Service of that valiant Achilles of Christendome George Ragotzi the II. Prince of Transylvania my late gracious Master who for the space of seven years had honoured me with the Divinity-Chair in his University of Alba-Julia the Metropolis of that Noble Countrey and endowed me a meer stranger to him with a very ample Honorary till in that very Year that Prince dying of his Wounds received in his last Memorable Battel with the Turks at Gyalu the care of his Solemn Obsequies was committed to my Charge by his Relict Princess Sophia whereby I was kept a year longer out of England my most desired Haven that other being but my Bay pro tempore That Function I did perform at least in part to discharge my duty of Gratitude towards the Dead for the Benefits received from him when living whose Memory shall ever live precious in my Breast and to whose Sacred Manes abhorring Ingratitude I could not but Dedicate this grateful Digression if it be
grant preserve and defend the Rights of the Church 1. FOR first If you consider the King but as a Man in his meer Moral Capacity were it not an unnatural act to betray his best Friends those that to phrase it in e 1 Kings ii 26. King Solomons words have really been afflicted in all wherein the King hath been afflicted And yet this Salomon spake of such a Priest Abiathar who though Loyal in Absalom's Rebellion 2 Sam. xv 24. yet as here too many of our Tribe proved an errand Traitor in Adonijah's second Rebellion 1 Kings i. 7. But our constancy God be thanked makes our case the better For should the King deal worse with his Innocent with his Loyal Priests Nay could the King save the whole Kingdome from ruine by giving but his Consent to take away the Life or but Livelihood of but one Innocent man that we say not a Bishop or a Priest we may safely say by the rules of bare Moral Honesty the King might not do it in Point of Honour as the King is a man 2. But secondly consider the King in his Political Capacity as a Magistrate and of all other Estates or Corporations whatsoever by your own rules the King is bound in Conscience and Law both to defend and provide for the Church as his perpetual Ward in Law since as you say your selves and your own f Sir Edward Coke upon Magna Charta page 3. See the several Records to this purpose quoted by him there Records say no less Ecclesia semper est infrà aetatem in Custodia Domini Regis qui tenetur Jura haereditates suas manu tenere defendere in point of Justice as he is a Magistrate that we say nothing of the INTEREST OF STATE for no State in the whole Realm is more beneficial unto the Princes Exchequer then the Clergy if it be kept flourishing not only because they are deepest in Subsidies but because from the Clergy and so from no other Estate in the Land the King hath a considerable continual standing Revenue of Tenths besides First-fruits c. so that the King will be a loser by the bargain when all is done and * Ezra vi 22. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the King and we hold our Peace 3. But to wave that Temporal respect Thirdly and lastly how much more is the King ingag'd to the Defence of the Church besides his Royal Title of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH which is preserved in and by the Church in point of Conscience or Spiritual Interest if you consider the King in his Spiritual Capacity as a Christian man for that relation trebbles the Kings Obligation to all the premised Acts of Justice and Honesty 4. Especially if in the fourth place you adde to all these Bonds the Solemn Supervention of his Royal Oath Personally taken by the King at his Coronation and to declare his Majesties sincere and plain dealing and his Real Intention to keep his said Oath His Majesty hath therefore graciously been pleased himself thus to publish it 5. In that Oath the King Swears in a manner thrice for the Clergy particularly and so for no other Estate of the Realm besides to intimate that as your Law †8 Esiz c. 1. In the Preamble styles The Clergy a High State and one of the greatest States of this Realm so it deserves a special care and high regard proportionable Therefore as in the first Paragraph g At the Kings Coronation the Sermon being done the Arch-Bishop administreth these Questions to the King and the King Answers them severally §. 1. Episcopus Sir will you grant and keep and by Your Oath confirm to the People of England the Laws and Customs to them granted by the Kings of England Your Lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely THE LAWS CUSTOMS AND FRANCHISES GRANTED TO THE CLERGY by the glorious King Saint Edward Your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom and agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient Customs of this Realm Rex I grant and promise to keep them §. 2. Episcopus Sir will You keep Peace and Godly agreement entirely according to Your Power both to God the Holy Church the Clergy and the People Rex I will keep it §. 3. Episcopus Sir will You to your Power cause Law Justice and Discretion in Mercy and Truth to be executed in all Your Judgments Rex I will §. 4. Episcopus Sir will you grant to hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this Your Kingdom have and will You defend and uphold them to the Honour of God so much as in you lieth Rex I grant and promise so to do Then one of the Bishops reads this Admonition to the King before the people with a loud voice §. 5. Our Lord the King we beseech You to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to our charge ALL CANONICAL PRIVILEDGES and due Law and Justice and that you will protect and defend us as every good King ought TO BE PROTECTOR AND DEFENDER OF THE BISHOPS and the Churches under their Government The King Answereth With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your Charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to Protect and defend the Bishops and the Churches under their Government Then the King ariseth and it led to the Communion Table where he makes a Solemn Oath in sight of all the people to observe the Premisses and laying his hand upon the Book saith The Oath The things that I have here Promised I shall perform and keep so help me God and the Contents of this Book This Oath is to be found in the Records of the Exchequer and is published in his Majesties Answer to a Remonstrance c. of the 26. of May 1642. The same Oath for matter you may read in an old Manuscript Book containing the Form of Coronation c. in the Publick Library at Oxon. of that Oath the King Swears in general to do Justice and Right with Mercy and Truth unto all the whole body of the People and the Clergy joyntly so afterwards more particularly in the second and fifth Paragraphs the King Swears in special for the Clergy and that He will be the Protector and Defender of the Bishops in their Priviledges that is not only or their Persons but of their Possessions also that is of their Persons in such a Condition so qualified in sensu composito with such Rights and Liberties and those Rights must needs pre-suppose their Essence and Office too and that as it was then in being according to
For 't is true we had not the leisure to cut it into such shorter Stages as might haply have rendred the Passages in the way more clear and easie and the whole Journey more pleasant But could we have had the space to put it into a fitter Form than this way wherein the Matter of it was at first delivered yet we would scarce have been shorter in the behalf of the most with whom as the old (m) Horat. de arte poetica saying is whilest Brevis esse laboro Obscurus fio Touching the Load of Marginals say some give us Reasons what need Authorities but as both does well so it should be rather an Evidence of our fair Dealing that in this Controversie we will not altogether speak our own sense but especially in a matter of Fact which calls in question the Practice of the whole Church the Margent may be as necessary as the Text and if you 'l try it it will sometimes prove as material too especially ad hominem for with some kind of men as some of those we are to Cope with If they be ingenuous men one round Testimony of Calvin or of Knox may prevail more than many Reasons or bare Scriptures either without them This for the length Now some quite contrary will think us in another sense sometimes too brief with some of them But against this Censure we have learned out one good Lesson Namely now so to speak unto men (n) Aug. Non quae volunt audire sed quae volent audisse upon a Death-bed or at Dooms-day when the (o) Tunc tacebunt linguae silebunt Argumenta solae loquentur Conscientiae Gerson voice of Conscience and of Truth shall sound lowdest especially quando agitur de salute Reip. Nay de salute ECCLESIAE In such a Case as we cannot be too plain with men So likewise we have our Warrant to shew as sometimes in a good sense (p) Prov. 26.5 For answering a Fool according to his Folly least he be wise in his own conceit So in the other good Sense too we are resolved already we will not answer a Fool according to his Folly neither to wit not with that Unreasonableness Absurdity and Uncharitableness usual with some kind of men who in their way of Arguing aim not so much ad Rem as ad Personam as if directly they intended not to perswade but to provoke their Adversary which is all the Sophisters good Logick whose Verbal or Personal Cavils shall therefore never trouble us nor we them any further than they shall pedem pedi figere about the Main Matter And now they cannot say but they know our mind aforehand As for thee good Reader we bespeak no other Conditions of thee save that one good one which honest Hierocles (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl in Carm. Pythag. 8. requires of a wise man and a true friend only the Favour of so much Patience as to wink at small Faults But as for greater Matters assure thy self thou hast met with one as willing to retract an Errour as thou or any man to refute it For if any where we have slipt any thing contrary to the true sense of any of the HOLY SCRIPTURES or to any of the general Tenents of the PRIMITIVE CATHOLICK CHURCH or to any of the Sound Articles or good Orders of our Holy Mother THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND none of all which we trust will here easily be found Behold antecedenter a man most ready to recant it And now Good Reader God speed THE PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THIS BOOK 1. SACRILEDGE being such a Publick Sin and in its Complication a Sin of as hainous a Nature and of as dangerous a Consequence both to Church and State as any it gives us sufficient ground as to Undertake again so to Justifie our constant Prosecution of it Certainly in such a Grand Case as this will appear to be here Neutrality were no better than open Hostility For if Highway-Robbers by Land and Pyrates by Sea are indeed and so ought to be accounted The common Enemies of Mankind and therefore no ways to be protected but always to be prosecuted by the Law of Nations we dare be bold to say and prove it also and that à majori all wilful Church-Robbers are no better then so Hostes humani generis open Enemies to the best Society of Mankind the Church who dare attempt to rob God of his own Demesnes 2. Must we not therefore in our own Defence be not only mindful but also fearful of our share in that Curse thundered out against Meroz Because they came not to the help of the Lord Judg. v. 13. to the help of the Lord against the mighty What have we so soon forgotten the old Proverb Amyclas silentium perdidit must we therefore be Dumb still because others will need remain both Blind and Deaf God forbid Isa lxii 1. Nay rather For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace For to speak it out in time do not all honest knowing men that are yet true to God the King and the Church plainly perceive the old Cabales a foot again Do not they hear again the confused Noise of Gebal and Ammon Psal lxxxiij 7.12 and Amaleck of the Presbyterian the Independent and the Phanatick within the Land left still as the Canaanites in Israel to be Thorns on our sides Judg. xi 22. to tempt and to try us And of the Philistines also over Seas all of them though each of them for their own several ends as it were mutually incouraging one another in the old style Psal lxxiij 12. Let us take to our selves again the houses of God in possession Vt Jugulent Homines surgunt de nocte Latrones Horat. lib. Epist 1. Vt teipsum serves non expergisceris 3. Though in this New Project of Sacriledge the old Devil may seem to be grown a dull Devil for using still the same Method which he did practise in the old Plot as Venemous Tongues set on fire of Hell Jam. iij. 6. base seditious Libels penned with the Devil 's own Quill Impudent Lyes Calumniare audacter aliquid haerehit The Devil 's old Maxime like Firebrands scattered up and down among the giddy Multitude to set them on again all in a flame and all these boldly staring in the very face of Authority and Truth And all these flying furiously not upon the rascal-Deer but upon the Fairest nay upon the Shepherds the Chief Pastors of God's Flock that they being first smitten the Sheep may the sooner be scattered abroad Thus the Nimrod of Hell appears coming out again to hunt out the Church-game with the same old Pack of Hounds that at the first did but Bark to give the on-set but being suffered to go on Unmuzzled and Untied did both back-bite and bite sore and in the end did worry also both the Royal Shepherd and the scatter'd Sheep Heu Probatum est Therefore may
Dapifer Probat hoc cum divite Pauper England keep decent Hospitality as they are obliged according to their Degree to satisfie the Bounty of Princes and the Magnificence of their Donors or the last Will and Testament of their godly Predecessors many of * S. William so called was Nephew to Henry Bishop of Winchester who was King Stephen's Brother Hugh Pudsey Bishop of Duresme King Stephen's Nephew William Courtney Son to Hugh Earl of Devonshâ—re Archbishop of Canterbury and many more such Natalium splendore illustres in Bishop Godwin's excellent Book de Praesulibus Angliae which it would be an honour to the Church and Nation to continue since for above threescore years he wants a worthy Successor them of Noble blood the lawful †'T is a vulgar Error confuted by History That every bit of the Clergy's Revenues and every parcel of their Church-lands is held in Frank-almoigne To say nothing now of Tythes which the Clergy must hold of God in Capite had no Clergy-men trow we many of them as appears above of so Noble and some of them of Royal blood ever any temporal Estate of his own Patrimony or Purchase though much of it may be consumed aforehand in their Education and long Studies in the Schools to make themselves able and sufficient for that high and sacred Office For instance first Walter Gray Archbishop of York in H. 3d's time did purchase the Mannor of Bishopthorp neer York and gave the same to his Church specie-tenus for a very good reason but re ipsâ to his Archiepiscopal See which to this day injoys it successively as the Archbishop's Mansion-house See Bishop Godwin quo suprá 2ly Lawrence Boothe Archbishop of York also in Edw. 4th's time did purchase the Mannor of Battersey neer London built the House there and gave it to his See Ibid. 3ly Hugh Pudsey who built the House and Church of Darlington and founded the Priory of Fenkelo near Durham And now I mention Durham I may not omit to commend to Posterity the Magnificence of John Cosin the present Lord Bishop of that See our venerable Dioecesan who since the happy Restauration of the King and Prelates hath repaired and notably adorned the Episcopal Castles both of Duresme and of Bishops-Aukland where he hath erected a goodly Chappel Two other Chappels formerly belonging to that Castle being by the late Sacrilegious Rebellion blown up and destroyed The same Bishop hath also founded two Hospitals or Alms-houses one at Duresme and another at Auckland Purchasers of some of the Lands and Founders of the Houses of Bishops Deans and Chapters then straightway our Prelates must incur the Imputation of Riot and Excess and be blasted with the Pride of pompous worldly splendor Thus are our Bishops traduced on both sides An hard Dilemma but easily dissolved as long as our Christian Bishops have a godly Care in the sight of God as to satisfie their own Consciences so to answer the Expectation of honest and sober men as long as their civil Hospitality to their good Neighbours as the Prelates are men and great men doth not hinder much less exclude their Sacred Hospitality towards the Poor to which also and that chiefly Bishops are obliged as by the Apostle's Rule Tit. 1.8 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Lovers of Hospitality in general and as the Original bears it Lovers of strangers in special So by the Canons of the Church and their solemn Vow at their Consecration according to which our Prelates and Church-men doing their duty they need not much care for the talk of the Vulgus or fear the pretended charge of this kind of Real Sacriledge namely The abuse of the Revenues of the Church 7. One kind of Sacriledge more the holy Fathers have observed out unto us too too seasonable nay necessary for you in these days to take notice of 't is Sacriledge committed against this Sacred Book of God to wit when the holy Senses Words and Phrases thereof appropriated to the Expressions of Divine and Sacred Mysteries are abused either in a prophane and scurrilous application of them the humour now a-la-mode with the Court or Camp-Atheist or in a sacrilegious Detortion of Holy Writ to the Patronage of Heresie or Schisme Rebellion or Sedition or Sacriledge Errors in Life or Doctrine or both 8. This kind of Scripture Sacriledge is as old as Adam's fall and the Devils own early Invention or ever the word was written he did snatch it with reverence be it spoken out of God's own mouth (f) Gen. 3.1 yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden c. This was his first Temptation before he used a second thereby to perswade the Woman that either God never said so or else that God never meant so Thus the first founder of all Sacriledge began berimes to tempt our first Parents by a verbal Sacriledge to a real Sacriledge for the first sin of mankind for the particular species of the Fact was Direct Sacriledge in prophaning and usurping that which God had made holy This you may call Original Sacriledge as well as Original sin The hereditary sin of Sacriledge we all smart for ever since from Generation to Generation To this first grand Sacriledge the Devil did perswade Mankind by this other kind of Sacriledge by stealing out the Sacred Letter of God's Word and abusing it against God's own sense to his own Devilish ends therefore you may do well to take special notice of it as of a main cause of Apostasie in the end 9. With the guilt of this kind of Sacriledge were charged of old the Hereticks termed therefore by the holy Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cyril of Alexandria terms them or Literae Sacrilegi as Arnobius translates them Thieves of the Sacred Letter The very Patriarchs of our new Scripturists that unstable and unlearned too (g) 2 Pet. 3.16 as they are yet to this day go on still treading in their Fathers black steps by wresting the holy Scriptures unto their own destruction In this the Devil 's good Scholars for you know the Devil (h) Matth. 4. had his Scriptum est even against the Son of God himself and so have his Disciples still their Scriptum est too for Rebellion Sacriledge any thing stealing away the meaning of the Text in a new way of Sacrilegious Appropriation thereof to their own Errors And this they do by quoting it amiss which is worth your notice for a warning one of these three by-ways 1. Either foysting in their own false glosses and blending these with God's own true word to the attraction of the undiscerning hearer 2. Or else by a plain omission of some of the most material words which soon alter the true sense 3. Or lastly By a cunning concealment of some such main circumstances in the Context which is Clavis Textus the Key that opens the passage into a Text which citcumstances well examined would plainly
appear they were more than bare Bug-bear-words even Fatal Predictions of God's real and visible Judgments which without Repentance and Restitution the Offenders could never claw off for indeed the more immediate the offence is against God himself the sorer and the closer the Curse sticks to the Offender (g) 1 Sam. 2.25 if one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him for finiti ad infinitum nulla proportio 8. Enough to make it appear that the Curse rightly applied is more than a meer humane Curse that it is for Authority Divine and therefore indeed rather an Approbation or but applicative Declaration in particular of God's own Curse already denounced in the general against all sacrilegious Offenders than a new Curse of their own being Copied as I may say into their several Books of particular Donations out of the Original in God's own Book wherein you may read those Curses written on both sides I mean in the New as well as in the Old Testament 9. Take one or two proofs of each The first Curse we read of in this kind is as old as Moses (h) Deut. 33.11 whom we may observe in the very Act of blessing the Tribe of Levy suddenly to shift his foot from Mount Gerizzim to Mount Ebal where he fals a cursing all those that shall attempt to hinder Levi in his substance or to impeach him in the Work of his hands saying Bless O Lord the Substance of Levi and accept the Work of his hands but smite through the LOYNES of them that rise against Levi and of them that hate him that they rise not again A full and fatal Curse this wherein you may clearly observe 10. First of all that in the Enumeration of all the other Tribes there is no mention of Enemies to any but to these two (i) Verse 7. Be thou an help to Judah from his Enemies to the Royal Tribe of Judah and to the sacred Tribe of Levi It seems Moses and Aaron the King and the Priest must still be (k) Lam. 3.6 Fellow Patients pardon the word for so God himself joyns them in the Lamentation and so the Devil and his Agents too match them in the Persecution also It was against Moses and against Aaron that seditious * Num. 16.3 Corah and his Company gathered themselves together not against Moses alone nor against Aaron alone but against both at once He very well knew what belonged to his King-craft that said it (l) King James in the Confer at H. C. NO BISHOP NO KING for the self same in effect was the Oracle of another wise Emperour above a thousand years afore King James spake it (m) Maxima quidem in omnibus sunt Dona Dei superna collata Clementia SACERDOTIUM ET IMPERIUM illud quidem Divinis Ministrans hoc autem humanis praesidens Inter haec duo Consonantia omne quicquid est utile humano confert generi c. Authent Coll. 1. Tit. 6. Novel 6. in praef ad Epiphan Archiep. Patriarch Constantinop It seems those ancient Sages did conceive That the Influence of good Success upon a Nation Prince and People mainly depends upon the good Correspondence and bappy conjunction of all the Estates with the Priesthood A Maxime very memorable as full of Policy as of Religion and in experience as full of Truth as of both those That Harmony being indeed the onely ordinary way to maintain Correspondence with God himself namely to correspond with God's Priest because God's immediate Agent in spiritualibus in all matters 'twixt God and man Did this Nation ever thrive since it began to strive with the Priest Hosee iv 4. Justinian I mean These two the King and the Priest as they were of old Twins of Oyl as the Rabbins style them so are they still Twins of Destiny too they stand or fall together Therefore and it were but in Policy in point of Mutual Interest they had need support and assist each other against the common Enemy 11. But although Judah and Levi the King and the Priest have both their Enemies yet doth not Moses curse the Enemies of Judah neither so directly nor so vehemently as he doth the Enemies of Levi as if they were more or more full of Animosity against the Tribe of Levi than against any other Tribe whatsoever That we may all prepare my Brethren for Nil novum sub sole whether it be for Aaron's Rod the Priest's Power or for the flourishing of that Rod the Priest's Portion it seems 't is an old Grudge the mad World hath still to the (n) Laici semper sunt Infesti Clericis Covarruvias Clergy 'T is strange that of (o) 1. Thrice for water Exod. 15.24 and 17.2 Num. 20.2 2. Twice for the way Num. 11.1 Sol Jarchi and 21.4 3. Once for bread Exod. 16.2 4. Once for flesh Num. 11.4 5. Once at the News Num. 14.2 6. Twice at the Priest especially Num. 16.11.41 ten several popular Mutinies in that stiff-necked Jewish Nation upon six several occasions of the Persecution the Priest had more than his share twice over far above his Tenth of that to be sure that none will grudge him 12. Secondly Sacriledge whether personal or real 't is no matter either way 't is the sin cursed here must needs be an hainous Offence that moves meek (p) Num. 12.3 The man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth Moses that Mirrour of Lenity upon God's own Record 1. To fall a Cursing 2ly To extend his Curse through the very Loyns of the Enemies of Levi that is as it were to Intail the Curse upon their Posterity 3ly To aggravate this Curse with the Doom of a final Destruction praying unto God that such of all others may never rise again 13. And as if the Curse upon Sacriledge were always so fatal and final so runs King Darius his Curse also annexed to his Charter of Donation to the Temple (q) Esdr 6.12 1 Esdr 6.33 The God that hath caused his Name to dwell there destroy utterly destroy all Kings and People that shall put to their hands to alter and to destroy the house of God Here is utter destruction again and that to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To all Kings saith our Translation To all Kingdoms saith the Vulgar No respect of persons for Magnitude or Multitude all is one with God To whom in point of Revenge The Nations are but as a drop of a Bucket Isa 40.15.17 and are counted as the small dust of the Ballance behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing Hear this Isle of Great Britain All Nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity 14. Goe to prophane World and mock on think as slightly of the Priest's Curse as you usually do of his Blessing To
or never must strike at the Root of all our Mischiefs and tell you a sad truth that of all our swarms of Heresies and Schismes of all our Divisions and Distractions of all our Seditions and Rebellions too of all our Sacriledges and Prophanenesses of all these cursed branches the Mother Root hath been the Contempt of the Church for these four Buttresses or Master-pillars of the Church The Churches Apostolical Truth Holy Peace Just Power and Due Patrimony stand or fall together and like * Plutarch Scylurus his Arrows whilest kept tied in the bundle do render that Church and State impregnable invincible but one of them once sundered from the other break but any one and you may easily knap all the rest in sunder This is the sad story of all our former National miseries and till the Restitution of this Church Right also and that cum effectu Excommunication so dreaded in other Churches the Greek especially being now become with the many in England but a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bug-bear unless that Brachium Seculare do corroborate it by some coercive way as shall seem to their wisdom most suitable unto the symptoms and dispositions of this Nation yet very much out of joynt Till then we may in vain hope for a Respit but never obtain the effectual Remedy much less the real Recovery of this Church and Nation 36. And to bring in all this here is a fair Hint given us by the Holy Ghost from this very Text and History of Ananias wherein you may for an Epilogue from Calvin observe yet this one Item more That one main Aggravation and always a deadly Ingredient of this sin of Sacriledge was and is the Contempt of a general Godly Practice of the whole Christian Church whose bare Custom in those honest and simple Apostolical days St. Paul thought an Argument strong enough to confute any Irregular Schismatick saying upon occasion of a Church-Difference (q) 1 Cor. 11.16 If any man seem to be contentious we have no such Custom neither the Churches of God Of such force in those days of Discipline was the general Practice of the Church How much more forcible then would have been the Precept of the Church not only or chiefly of the Church Diffusive the whole Body at large for that in the matter of Exercise or Execution was never could never be Subjectum capax of that Power or Jurisdiction but principally of the Church Representative the Apostles and Ministers who as you have heard and Calvin very well observes still upon the place Though they were but men yet they were no meer private men because God's Vicegerents in which sense the Contempt of the Church is by a plain consequence a Contempt of Christ himself who according to his gracious (r) Matth. 28.20 Promise for a Farewel to his Apostles hath ingaged himself by his Spirit of Power and Counsel to be present with and in his Church unto the end of the world In reference to which Divine Promise That Primitive Catholick Ceremony of placing the Sacred Book of the Gospel on a Throne in the midst of the Councels sitting was till of late Solemn and full of Divine Mysterie namely among the rest to intimate that in regard of Christ's Spiritual and Invisible but undoubted Presence in the midst of his * Reputare debuerat ubi duo aut tres congregati sunt in Christi nomine illic eum adesse Praesidem nec secùs in eo coetu se gerere quà m si Deum oculis cerneret Calv. in Act. v. 4. Church all men ought to behave themselves in and toward the Church with as much Obedience as if there they saw with their Eyes Christ himself visibly present 37. To draw up all our several Observations upon this Apostolical History into a narrow compass By this time you see That the Contempt of the Godly Precept or but General Practice of the Church such as ever was this of Consecrations or Dedications is first of all Injurious to Jesus Christ himself the invisible Guide and perpetual President of the Church 2ly Derogatory to Venerable Antiquity and to all those that have gone before us in this devout way of well-doing 3ly Scandalous yea in its contagious Nature and bad Example pernitious too to the present Age and unto Posterity to boot 4ly Dangerous yea without timely Repentance Damnable unto the Contemners what ever they be 38. And now after all this said and proved too yea ex abundanti sealed also both ways with God's own actual Curse or Benediction as it were his visible Image and Superscription yet still to ask the question whether we shall Render this Sacred Tribute (s) Matth. 22.20 21. unto our Maker or no still for all this to pretend a fear of God's Refusal of our Devotions or to say we want still a particular Revelation of Gods Acceptance or to quarrel about the Authority of the Vicegerent to assure us of all these The Sacrilegious Cavils of some in our days What were all this but plainly to declare we have no more mind to this Religious Errand than he in the (t) Prov. xxvi 13. Proverbs when instead of running he tells you of a Lion in the way a Lion in the streets 39. For as touching the main of all these Assurance of Acceptance since that is now adays called in question I beseech you have we not as much Revelation for God's Acceptance of this as for any other good work as for our Prayers or for our Alms or for any To affirm the contrary were it not besides the sin of Infidelity a Tang of Deep Hypocrisie yea the very Cut-throat of all good works of Mercy or Piety whatsoever private as well as publick would not this Doctrine also bid very fair for Enthusiasme 40. Say we had no more but some one of (u) 1 Cor. 15. ult God's general Promises would not that serve Nay may not the Nature of the work it self be instead of all Revelations if it have all the four Essential usually requisite Conditions of a good work I mean if it be done 1. Upon God's Warrant or according to his Word (x) As under the old Testament Prov. iij. 19. So under the New Gal. vi 5. See above p. 65. 2ly If the general intent in it be to please and serve God (y) Rom. 14.6 He that eateth not eateth not to the Lord c. 3ly If the work be done in love to God for no self-respects or by-ends of our own but chiefly as the Church praiseth him propter magnam gloriam suam for his own Glory because we know that God is (z) To do good and to distribute forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased Heb. xiii 16. honoured by this our Acknowledgment 4ly and lastly If that our Devotion be offered in (a) Luk. vii 47. Faith out of a perswasion of God's love to us in Christ and of his general
another Haman also in the Destiny had not the courage as well as the Prudence of that noble Bishop restrained the zealous Londoners Walsingham and Daniel quo suprà who did then so love their Bishop that but for him they had burned John of Gaunts house the Savoy and made an end of him also had he not fled This is the very truth of Wickliffe's story concerning which as we will not affirm that all the errors imputed to him by the aforesaid Waldensis and Harpsfield were Wickliffe's Opinions Christian Charity forbids us to believe that of him Jer. xv 19. Because taking forth the precious from the vile his positions against the Popes Supremacy Purgatory superstitious Pilgrimages and the like were good Corn and so far God might make good use of John Wickliffe But on the contrary Christian Prudence forbids us to allow of Wickliffe's Chaffe for the good Corn mixt with it or to say hand over head that all his Doctrines were Gospel as his over-forward Advocate seems to Christen them Fuller We have learned a better Rule of Judgment from a better Doctor the Apostle of the Gentiles Let no man glory in men 1 Cor. iii. 21 And again from another Apostle Jude 16 not to have mens persons in admiration because of advantage To shut up this Period concerning Wickliffe's Positions in the words of his own Advocate Fuller John Wickliffe was but a man and so subject to error as much as other men especially all the premises considered to wit 1. Wickliffe's Deprivation as the cause antecedent 2. John of Gauâ—ts Instigation as the cause evident of Wickliffe's distemper against the Prelates and Church-men of his time Foelix qui potuit Rerum Cognoscere Causas And thus much may suffice both in point of Reason for the matter of Right and also in point of History for the Matter of Fact to non-suit every way that unseasonable Å¿ A seasonable Vindication of the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of Christian Kings Lords and Parliaments as well over the Poss ssions as persons of Delinquent Prelates and Church men c. bâ— Vâ—illiam Pryâ—ne Esquire 1660. Book that we say no worse of it intituled An ancient Plea in Justification of the late taking away and sales of Cathedral Lands c. and let this close up our full confutation of that first Politick Pretence for Sacriledge namely Justice upon Delinquents 11. Followeth now the second Politick Pretence which is as specious as the first 'T is the Pretence of Peace to the whole Kingdom A precious blessing indeed well worth the praying yea the paying for is the Blessing of Peace If it be consistent with true Honour with Moral Honesty with Christian Piety if compatible with the Peace of God and with the Peace of a good Conscience else without these it were no Peace call it what you will but a meer Conspiracy against God which Christians of all men ought not to venture upon no not to save a World Except Peace come hand in hand with Honesty Justice and Truth if it be purchased with the counterfeit Coin of Baseness Falshood and Wrong with Robbery yea Sacriledge it can prove no other but an Imaginary Peace a very Mock-Peace such a Peace as more then once we have already been gulled withal and still Si populus vult decipi decipiatur a Peace in Jest but the very Preparative of a bloody War in earnest or rather indeed and in truth a very sorry base sneaking temporary shift that in the end through Gods just Judgment may prove but the Exchange of one Civil War for another and in the Conclusion of all the Malum Omen of a Forraign for a Civil War to boot the late case you know 12. A strange way of Cure this For can any endowed with any spark of Right Reason for this time bate Religion imagine to Purge a Land already sick to Death with the Surfeit of the old Sacriledge by Repletion by a new kinde of Sacriledge and worse as if the Iniquity of t Josh xxii 27. Peor were too little for us from which we are not cleansed until this day If Sacriledge began the War on their part who as falsly as odiously termed it the Church-War can they hope to end it by Sacriledge otherwise then in the Peoples slavery for the oppression of the Priest the event you know proved no better then so can we ever hope to recover our Peace or if recovered to retain that long which is so ill gotten they say that those sick folks that are recovered by the help of such as they call White Witches fall again into the same or worse disease It needs no application Martial Hic rogo non furor est ne moriare mori Is this a likely way to save the Church by destroying it Is it not time now or never to deal plainly and faithfully with you for say do we thrive of the Sacriledge committed in Scotland attempted in England In such a case to hold our Peace what were it but cruel Vncharitableness towards your own Souls damnable Vnfaithfulness towards our God our Church our King and the whole Nation 13. Think not therefore within your selves that whensoever we thus speak we are but Pleading our own private Cause all this while for once for all to satisfie you all about it the Cause is as Important and as Publick as any Cause in the World and therefore saith Calvin The Preacher may nay ought to be the freer with you all And the unworthy Advocate that now pleads this u Nemo mirari debet si toties Apostolus verbi Auditores ad Officium praestandum Exhortari voluit In quo fuit liberior quia non agebâ—t causam suam Privatam sed communi Ecclesiae Utilitati consulebat Aretius Calvin in Gal. 6.6 in baec verba Communicet qui Catechizatur Sermone ei qui se Catechizat in omnibus bonis Publick Cause before you all dares in the name of all his Brethren clear their Priestly Magnanimity and avouch their Christian Confidence in Gods all-sufficient Providence assured as the Holy Father St. Chrysostome being once threatned as we are Psal xxiv 1. with a Sacrilegious Deprivation that still Domini Terra plenitudo ejus For our parts doing our duty we have all manner of Cause to be secure that God will never want an Ark for his Noahs for his Preachers of Righteousness nor a Zoar for his Lots nor a Goshen for his true Israelites We know the worst of it If God disperse us he hath ingaged his Power and his Truth both that x Ezek. xi 16. He will be a little sanctuary unto us in all places where we shall be scattered * This truth the unworthy Author hath to the praise of God found by fifteen years experience having so long subsisted abroad without any supply out of England and yet with honour credit and competency yea sometimes plenty even to the relief of
the Houses and Lands dedicated for the maintenance of the Service and Servants of the true Gods whose Acceptance of such Oblations and consequently Gods Propriety in them we have clearly made out above Chap. vi p. 64. and elsewhere But this is and ever will be the true Character of our Modern Pharisees like the true off-spring of the Old Pharisees Matth. xxiii 24. To strain at a gnat and swallow a Camel To leave them therefore and by Application to turn unto you By this time we may hope that you and all good men not blinded with Schismatical Prejudice or bewitched with Sacrilegious Avarice will be really convinced of the CONCLUSION As for us That which was our Task to make good we have done God be thanked this Text is clearly our own a Divine and Direct Bar against the Sin of Sacriledge 2. And now after all this let the Fanatical Libertines of our Times in their Atheism or Ignorance say still that Sacriledge is but a Fancy with as good reason they may and rather then miss of the prey the Church-Lands haply they would if they durst say as much of Adultery that it is but a Fancy neither or of Idolatry or of Theft or of any sin that it is no more but so a Fancy also for some are grown now such proficients in the Schools of Atheism that they dare affirm Vertues and Vices to be but Opinions But we hope you have better learned Christ You see clearly that in the natural and full propriety of the word Sacriledge is here by Saint Paul expresly matched with all those Crimes As for the gain-sayers either they must admit all the premised absurdities or else which is far better let them in aserious Reflection upon their own folly and vain imaginations and a day of reckoning for them all speedily Repent and Recant these their own wilde Fancies lest if they go on in their earthly sensual devilish Wisdom these are an Apostles a Jam. 3.15 own Epithets of such Wits for so they would be called through Gods just judgment b Rom. 1.21 they become utterly vain in their own Imaginations and their foolish heart be for ever darkened And let them take heed lest by their wilful impenitency and hardness of heart they provoke a just God to pass upon them that terrible and final Sentence c 2 Thess ii 10 11 12. That because they would not receive the love of the Truth that they might be saved therefore God will send them strong delusion that they shall believe a lye that they all may be DAMNED 3. As for you whom God hath blessed with more of that true impartial wisdom which is from above let no man or men deceive you with vain words Since you have heard this truth so abundantly vouched from such undeniable Principles of all kinds from the Law of Nature from the Law of Moses which is the Law of God his Moral Law confirmed by the Law of Christ for no Text in all the whole Bible more plain against Sacriledge then this we have now treated of 4. Since this Solemn Devotion of Religiouâ— Consecrations whereby good Christians do binde themselves heart and hand and all back again unto God which is the very Nature of Religion d Religio à Religando Lact. hath been unquestionably transmitted to us down from Christ his dayes by the Practice Apostolical and Primitive by whole Juries of several Nations and indeed by the general Verdict of the Church Catholick throughout all Ages all over Christendom and sure in such an Universal sense Vox populi vox Dei one would think 5. Since by all Municipal Laws Civil and Statute Law your own Common Law it so clearly appears that the Churches Claim is no Imaginary Title but as Real as all these Laws can make it Since by them the Church is lawfully possessed of all her Demesnes Praedial as well as Personal unmoveables as well as moveables Houses and Lands as well as Tythes or Rents of Cathedral Lands as well as Glebe Lands which although now and here usually stylo novo restrained more strictly to Lands belonging to Parochial Churches and thence by too nice a distinction maliciously e Cornel. Burges chap. 1. and 4. of his Book for Sacriledge to make way for his Usurpation of the Cathedral Lands doth enter a Caution That he doth not extend his Plea to Parochial Glebes or appropriations of them which Glebes saith he cannot be taken though by his pretended Parliament these were also taken most unjustly from able and faiâ—hful Ministers by any humane Authority without bordering at least upon Sacriledge Thus he determines it without offering any the least solid proof for the Jus Divinum or for the exemption of Parochial Glebes from sale which may not be retorted in the behalf of Cathedral Lands as where he affirms Chap. 4. That the Glebes were given by men of Quality and Piety for the good of the Souls of the living so far as the Founders of those Churches were able to judge Why may not the same be said of Cathedral Lands He that reads the forms of Donations formerly cited will easily confute him And whereas he there restrains our Ministery only to the Office as he describes iâ— of truly and faithfully preaching Christ to the people of those places where such Lands were given This assertion is both a gross petitio principii a begging of the Question and also a Schismatical plot with tke pretence of preaching to justle out the publick Prayers of the Church as if the Solemn Office of the daily publick Prayers duly and daily celebrated in our Cathedrals including also Parish-Churches were not worth the naming which Office is by all sorts of Christians East and West all but the Puritans constantly practised and which indeed where through decay of the Primitive Devotion the daily use of the Eucharist is neglected is the only Juge Sacrificium left to the Christians instead of the Jews m rning and evening Lamb Ex. xxix 39. The daily Sacrifice of Prayers and Praises intimated by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews chap. xiii 15. and so understood by the Ancients which daily publick Office of Prayers and Praises as it is profitable not to one single Parish only as the Office of Preaching but in a diffusive Charity to the whole Catholick Church and therefore for the good of the Souls of the Living so is it not at all as he maliciously would insinuate exclusive of the other Holy Office of Preaching that is Soberly and soundly Expounding the Holy Word of God and that also according to the Ancients whose streams may run clearer as they were nearer the fountain and Applying the Divine Word to the right Information of the Christian Faith and the wholesome Instruction of a Godly Life which to do aright is to Preach indeed an Office frequently practised also in our Cathedral Churches wrested to the exclusion of Cathedral Lands thereby the more plausibly
of men and Devils against this one poor Church as if the Church of Britain were indeed as of old it was called n BRITANNIA PRIMOGENITA ECCLESIAE Sabellicus Ennead 7. Lib. 5. The Eldest Daughter of the whole Catholick Church you may see the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it but as yet it subsists like Moses burning Bush thus long preserved from utter Consumption in the very midst of all that great fire of Persecution you may visibly perceive Gods Admirable Prevention Gods especial hand of Restraint over the late King of Glorious Memory who although tempted by all the Devils Methods by all the Arts of Fraud or Force yet could never be so much as inclined to yield his Royal Consent or but Countenance or Connivance any wayes towards the Demolition of this Church Because as he told the Parricides first and last he could neither in Conscience nor Honour do such an Act Therefore that Great Prince did rather chuse Christianly to dye a Glorious Martyr then ignominiously to live a Perjured Prince by wilfully betraying the Churches Rights and the Peoples Laws and Liberties for that nothing but * Cornel Burges No Sacriledge c. ch 2. black malice can cast the Odium of that Rebellious War or of the Kings Death upon the Churches Cause only is evident both by the Kings own Protestations in his Declarations and †Numb ii upon the 19. Propositions c. especially by that incomparable we might say inspired Book of his Royal Portraicture and by the Rebel 's own Proceedings all which abundantly testifie that the King dyed for the Liberties of the People as well as for the Rights of the Church To defend both which Church and People according to his Royal Oath at his Coronation the King did use his Sword as long as he could and when he could do it no longer that way the Sword of God being by a Prodigious Rebellion wrested out of his Sacred hand he did seal it with his Blood An act of Heroical Magnanimity that hath no Parallel but that of the King of Kings who came not to destroy Luke xix 10. but to save and therefore gave his Life for his Sheep a Precedent worthy the Admiration of all Christian Princes John x. 15. if not of their Imitation 14. But to return to Gods Providence over this Church what can such a miraculous Restraint of the Father and no less Miraculous Restauration of the Son Stupente orbe to the Admiration yea astonishment of all the world Pagan and Christian what can all these Marvails all these mysterious Wheels of the Divine Providence over this Church signifie but that as yet God hath and if our Sins and National Ingratitude do not reverse it God will have still I trust a special hand of Providence for the preservation of this Church Considering how the destruction thereof was so long since Plotted so notoriously Proclaimed so violently yea so sanguinarily Prosecuted and yet that still for all that the Divine Counsel hath from time to time put off as yet the Period of it under God in whose only hand is and ought to be the Kings Heart as the rivers of water Prov. xxi 1. to turn it whithersoever he will We are all bound to thank the King both the Father and the Son for that Royal Faithfulness and Christian Constancy that yet in chief upholds this persecuted Church And under God and the King thank a Loyal Parliament also We had need to pray to God earnestly to confirm the King that he may conserve the Church for 't is no less then the Kings own Conscience the Assault of Sacriledge aims at to storm and then to Conquer that so the Rebels may once again Reign without him God in mercy to this Church and Nation avert still that final Judgment to the Rebels Conversion or Confusion Amen 15. In this good hope all the Premises duly and sadly considered let us all arm our selves with Christian Patience and Gallant Resolution praying for Perseverance and if Sinners puft up with their late seeming advantages and Penal prosperity because God in his unsearchable wayes to our Trial but to their greater Dementation and Obduration did of late curse them with good successes If by the Representation of these Favours in shew should as 't is too much to be feared and therefore may wisely be presumed they are plotting still to strike at the King himself * Camb. Q. Eliz. through the Churches sides If they should intice you to joyn with them p Prov. 1.10 19. to swallow up Gods own precious substance to fill your houses with the Church spoils to cast in your lot among them bearing you in hand that you shall be all made by it you shall all have one purse with them q Psal 62.10 O trust not in wrong and robbery Take the wise mans good Counsel for all their goodly pretences of Religion or Policy Consent you not but rather refrain your foot from their Path for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood Nay in the upshot you shall see yea themselves and all their partners shall find it and feel it that they do but all this while lay wait for their own blood lurking privily for their own lives posting away insensibly to their own destruction in the end like Shimei 1 Kings xi 44. digging their own Graves as so many of them have done lately by their Relapses even after a general Pardon 16. If all this cannot move you as it comes from us Then to draw all towards an end for a sad Farewel-Truth Imagine what is but too true in the Moral that you now see THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND it self YOUR own Dear MOTHER groveling here at your feet all discheveled and discomposed as she lately was all over rent and torn with so many Fractions and Factions with so many Thorns and Bryars of dangerous Sects and scandalous Schisms all over yet stained and gore with the mutual Blood of her own Unnatural Children that like a brood of cursed Vipers did dilacerate their own Mothers Womb a most ruful Spectacle to a right Christian Spirit In this sad habit and posture the late ruful Dress of your Mother-Church Think you hear still your miserable Parent thus feelingly bespeaking you all for a last warning Ah my Sons Ah the Sons of my Vows let me now if ever once for all beseech you all by this Womb that bare you all and brought you forth unto Christ by those breasts that gave you suck even by Gods holy Word and Sacraments by those Arms that have so long enclosed you all That Holy Doctrine and Godly Discipline that hath as yet kept you safe from the Fangs of so many Heresies and Schisms that have over-spread almost all the Churches of Christ over all Christendom by all these and by more then all these by your hope and share in all the mercies of God in all the merits and sufferings