all Jesuites and Seminary Priests as Traytors restored the exiled Ministers of the Gospel suffering for Religion rewarding them with the richest Bishopricks and Church-Preferments and planting a faithfull painfull preaching Ministry by degrees in most dark corners of her Dominions endowed them with a setled competent maintenance which our subsequent Protestant Kings continued to them and their Successors without diminution All which considered we of this Isle may with much thankfulnesse to God and honour to our Princes without flattery averr before all the world That the forecited Prophecies of Kings being Nursing-Fathers and Queens Nursing-Mothers to the Church and specially Kings and Queens of this Isle have been more really accomplished in the Kings and Queens of this our Island than in the Kings and Queens of any other Isle Kingdom or Nation whatsoever throughout the world and God grant that those who shall succeed them in any other New-modelled-form of Government may not prove such Step-Fathers and Step-Mothers to our Churches and Ministers as to demolish the one and strip the other quite naked of all that former Livelihood and remaining small Revenues which they yet enjoy by our Princes Grants Gifts Charters Laws and Favours only and thereby give all Godly Ministers and people too in our Nation just cause to cry out with wringed hands weeping eyes and bleeding hearts in the Prophets words Hosea 10.3 4. For now they shall say We have no King because we feared not the Lord What then should a King do to us or amongst us They have spoken words Swearing falsely in making a Covenant Thus Iudgement springeth up as Hemlock one of the deadliest Poysons to destroy men in the fields Or else to speak in Solomons language to the same effect Prov. 28.2 For the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof as our Land had never so many Transgressions and Princes too as now But by a Man of Vnderstanding and Knowledge and where is such a one to be found to stand up in a Gap the state thereof shall be prolonged Now the Lord raise up such a Man or Men lest God say to our Nation and all Grandees in Power as he did once to the prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day was come Ezech. 21.25 26 27. Remove the Diadem and take off the Crown this shall not be the same Exalt him that is Low and abase him that is High I will overturn overturn overturn Church State Laws and it shall be no more untill he come whose Right it is and I will give it him To prevent these treble fatal over-turnings with the wiping and turning of our Jerusalem UPSIDE DOWN like a Dish a certain Fore-runner of a Churches Nations ruine 2 Kings 21.13 Psal 146.9 I shall now in the last place present the whole Nation with a brief Catalogue of those manifold Laws Statutes which our Kings have successively made in their Great Councils and Parliaments almost from the very first establishment of Religion in our Island for the due payment of Ministers Tithes by coercive Means Forfeitures Penalties in case of willfull detaining or neglect in paying all or any part of them at the times appointed which those who please may peruse in Chronicon Johannis Brompton Mr. Lambards Archaion Sir Henry Spelmans Councils Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments John Bridges his Defence of the Government of the Church of England Book 16. p. 1350. Our Statutes at large and Mr. Rastals Abridgement of Statutes Title Tithes which Laws being well known to most learned men are therefore needlesse fully to transcribe The first of them is the forecited Law Decree of the Council of Calcuth under King Oswald and Offa An. 787. of famous King Alfred Anno 887. of King Alfred and Gutburn the Dane cap. 9. De Decimis Deo Debitis about the year 890. of King Edward the elder and Guthurn Anno 905. or 906. as some Cap. 6. in some c. 9. DE DECIMIS ET CENSU ECCLESIAE RETENTIS of King Aethelstan made in the famous Council of Gratelean An. 928. cap. 1. DE DECIMIS REDDENDIS tam ex Animalibus quam de fructibus terrae which this King himself duly paid and then enjoyned all his great Officers and People duly to render of King Edmond An. 944. c. 2. concluding Qui non solverit ANATHEMA ESTO Of famous King Edgar Anno 967. c. 3. DE DECIMIS Canon 54. of the Kings and Presbyters of Northumberland made a little after that time Lex 51. of King Aethelred An. 1012. c. 1 4. of King Knute the Dane An. 1032. c. 8. but 15. in some Copies De Decimis reddendis c. 11 17. and a Statute law against obstinate Detainers of Tithes there stiled JURA ET DEBITIONES DIVINAE of King Edward the Confessor about the year 1060 confirmed verbatim by William the Conquerour in the fourth year of his Reign c. 8 9. forecited To which may be added the Great Charters of King Henry the first and King John recorded in Matthew Paris ratified by King Henry the 3d. in his Magna Charta c. 11. made in the 9th year of his Reign confirmed by above 37 Acts of Parliament since in many successive Parliaments That the Church of England shall be free now in greater Bondage than ever and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable never so much violated diminished as now notwithstanding all Laws Covenants Declarations Protestations lately and all antient Solemn Curses and Excommunications annually made against the Infringers thereof 13 E. 1. 17 E. 3. 14. 2 H. 4. c. 4. Enacting the Cistertian Monks to pay Tithes to Ministers and Evangelists notwithstanding any Buls of Exemption from the Pope which the King and Parliament declared to be void and that the Promovers or Executors of any such Buls shall be attainted in a Praemunire It appears by the Parliament Roll of 2 H. 4. nu 40. This Act was made upon the Petition of all the Commons which because not extant in print pertinent to the present business of Tithes and unknown to most I shall here transcribe at large May it please our most gracious Lord the King to consider That whereas time out of wind the Religious men of the Order of the Cistercians of your Realm of England have paid all manner of Tithes of their lands tenements possessions let to farm or manured and occupied by other persons besides themselves and of manner of things tithable being and growing upon the same lands tenements and possessions in the same manner as your other Lieges of the said Realm Yet so it is that of late the said Religious have purchased a Bull from our Holy Father the Pope by the which our said Holy Father hath granted to the said Religious That they shall pay no Tithes of their Lands Tenements Possessions Woods Cattel or any thing whatsoever although they are or shall be leased or farmed notwithstanding any Title of Prescription or Right acquired or
abroad and at home in England The Ecclesiastical Laws of King Edgar An. 967. c. 1 2. The Council of Eauham under King Edgar An. 1010. and his Laws near that time c. 14. and the Council of London under Archbishop Hubert An. 1200. 15 years before this of Lateran All which enjoyn the people to pay their Tithes to their own Mother-Churches where they heard divine Service and received the Sacraments and not to other Churches or Chapels at their pleasures unless by consent of the Mother-Churches Hence Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bath about the year 1170. 45. years before the Council of Lateran in his 62. Epistle writes thus to the Praemonstraticatian Monks who procured an Exemption from paying Tithes out of their Lands That their Lands were obnoxious to Tithes before they became theirs and were paid hitherto not with respect of Persons sed ratione Territorii but by reason of the Territory and Parish Precincts And Pope Innocent the 3d. his Decree dated from Lateran An. 1200. mistaken for the Council of Lateran cited in Cooks 2 Instit p. 641. was but in confirmation of these precedent Authorities 2ly The abuses complained against and reformed by this Council was not the lay Parishioners giving away of their Tithes from their own Ministers and Parish-Churches at their pleasures not a word of this but a New minted practice of most covetous Monks Religious Houses and some secular Clerks to rob the Parish-Churches and Ministers of all the Tithes of the lands held of them by compelling their Tenants and Lessees by special covenants in their Leases and Bonds to pay their Tithes arising out of their Lands only to themselves and their Monasteries not to their Parish Churches as formerly which the Pope and this great General Council resolve to proceed merely from the root of Covetousness let Canne and his Comrades observe it who pretend Conscience to be the ground whereupon they condemn reform this practice null the Covenants Bonds Deformations and decreed Restitution of all profits by these Frauds to the Parish-Churches And was not this a just righteous and conscionable Decree rather than an Antichristian and Papal as Canne Magisterially censures it 3ly Admit the Parochial Right of Tithes first setled in and by this Council which is false yet being a right established at 438. years since confirmed by constant use Custom Practice ever since allowed by the Common law of England ratified by the Great Charter of England ch 1. with sundry other Sâ—atutes Acts of Parliament Canons of our Councils and Convocations and approved by all our Parliaments ever since as most just expedient necessary Yea setled on our Parish Churches by original Grants of our Ancestors for them their Heirs and Assigns for ever with general warranties against all men with special Execrations and Anathemaes denounced against all such who should detain or substract them from God and the Church to whom they consecrated them for ever and that as sacred Tribute reserved commanded by God himself in the Old and New Testament as a badge of his Vniversal Dominion over them and their Possessions held of him as Supream Landlord as the Council of London under Archbishop Hubert in the 2d year of King John with another Council under Archbishop Replain 3 E. 3. The Council under Archbishop Stratford with others resolve There neither is nor can be the least pretext of Iustice Reason Prudence Law or Conscience for any Grandets in present Power by force or fraud to Null Repeal Alter this Antient Right and unquestionable Title of our Ministers to them now and set every man loose to pay no Tithes at all or to dispose of them how and to whom they will at their pleasure to destroy our Churches Ministers Parishes and breed nothing but Quarrels and Confusions in every place and Parish at this present when all had now need to study to be quiet and to do their own Business and not to disturb all our Ministers and others Rights without any lawfull call from God or the Nation Which unparalleld incroachment on our Ministers and Parish-Churches Rights if once admitted countenanced all the people in the Nation by better right and reason may pull down all the Fences and Inclosures of Fields Forests or Commons made since this Council deny substract all Customs Impositions Duties Rents Payments publick or private imposed on or reserved from them since that time by publick Laws or special Contracts and pay all their Rents Customs and Tenure-Services to whom and when they please which our Grandy late Army-Purchasors of Kings Queens Princes Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands with other Opposers of Tithes may do well to consider for their own Advantage and Security their Titles to them being very puny crazy disputable in comparison of our Ministers to their Tithes Now whereas Thomas Walsingham Randal Higden a Monk of Chester in his Polichronicon and Henry Abbot of Leycester write that the general Council of Lyons in France under Pope Gregory the tenth An. 1274. Decreed what others ignorantly attribute to the Council of Lateran aforesaid An 1215. Vt nulli homini deinceps liceat decimas suas ad libitum ut antea liceat assignare sed matrici ecclesiae omnes decimas persolverent Which seems to imply that before this Council every man might give his Tithes from the Mother Church to whom he pleased notwithstanding the Council of Lateran and Innocents Decrees I answer 1. That there was no such Canon made in this Council as these ignorant Monks mistake which is undeniable by the Acts and Canons of this Council printed at large in Binius Surius and other Collectors of Councils but only one Canon against Clergy-mens alienation of the Revenues of the Church and another against the Vsurpation of the Churches Revenues by Patrons in time of their vacancy which have no affinity with that they mention which if true then that which Canne and others object that the Council of Lateran made this Inhibition and took away this Liberty of disposing Tithes at pleasure from the Parishioners is false as I have proved it Secondly That from this mistake of these Monks it was as Mr. Selden probably conjectures that William Thorp ignorantly affirmed that one Pope Gregory the tenth first ordained new Tithes first to be given to Priests now in the new Law John Canne to manifest his great Ignorance both in History and Chronologie in his Second Voice from the Temple p. 13 14. Writes thus Before the Council of Lateran which was under Innocent the third any man might have paid his Tithes to any Ecclesiastical person he pleased but by that Council it was decreed That Tithes should be paid to the Parochial Priest which I have proved a grosse Forgerie and then he addes William Thorp saith That Pope Gregory the tenth was the first that ordained Tithes to be paid to Priests in the year 1211. Fox p. 494. Wherein 1. He mis-recites Thorps words who speaks not of Tithes in
and thereby proclaim themselves the Greatest Hypocrites under heaven and therein as treacherous to their own Native Country and those who trusted them as the Mamalukes of Egypt the Pretorian Soldiers of Rome were to their Lords and Masters of Old which I hope they will disclaim 3ly It is a resolved case by the Law of Nature Nations and War it self as Grotius proves at large De Jure Belli l. 3. c. 6. sect 8 9 10 c. That things gained by Conquest in a War ought to redound not to the Officers Souldiers Generals who manage the War but to the Kingdom Nation whose servants they are and both Commission and pay them their wages as the Servants Apprentices gains redound to their Masters Coffers not to them Qui sentit Onus sentire debet Commodum being both a Principle in the Law of Nature Reason and in our Common Law too Hence all the Roman Generals and Military Officers brought all the Silver Gold Treasures Spoyls of War into the publique Treasury putting none of it into their private purses and all the Lands Countries they gat by Conquest were the Republiques only which bore the charges of the War not the victorious Conquering Generals or Souldiers Therefore the Officers and Army being Commissioned raised only for and constantly paied by the Parliament people for the ends aforesaid never warring on their own free cost what ever Treasures Lands Powers Spoyls they have gained by their victories Conquests are of Right the Parliaments Nations Peoples only not their own Therefore the Parliament Nation people cannot must not be over-awed used reputed by them as their meer Conquered Vassals but as their Soveraign Lords and true Proprietors of all the Territories Lands Treasures Powers they have gained by their Conquests 4ly That Conquest is no just or Lawful Title was long since resolved by the greatest Conqueror ever England yet bred even our famous British Conquering King Arthur in the greatest Parliamentary Councel ever yet held within this Isle whereat were present no lesse then 12. Kings besides King Arthur and an innumerable company of Princes Dukes Nobles Prelates of the British and most other Neighbor Nations as Geoffry Monmouth Hist. Regum Brit. l. 9. c. 12 13 14 15 16 18 19 20. records All these when Lucius Procurator of the Roman Republique came to demand that antient Tribute reserved by Julius Caesar from this Isle of Britain when first Conquered by him then in arrear and threatned to levy is by force of Arms if denied Meeting together in a great Councel or Parliament specially assembled for that end resolved That the said Rent pretended to be due to the Romans from the Britons because Caesar by reason of the Britons divisions being invited hither with his forces enforced them their Countrie being then shaken with domestique troubles to submit themselves to him by force and violence could not in Justice be demanded of them because this Tribute being gained in this manner was unjustly received Nihil enim quod vi violentia acquiritur Iuste ab ullo possidetur qui violentiam intulit For nothing which is gained by force and violence is justly possessed by any who hath offered and done the violence Irrationabilem igitur causam praetendit qua nos Jure sibi Tributarios esse arbitratur Therefore he pretends an Irrational cause whereby he supposeth we are of Right Tributaries unto him And because he presumes to exact from us id quod injustum est that which is unjust by the like reason let us demand a Tribute of Rome from him and he who shall prove the stronger let him carry away what he desires to have For if because Julius Caesar and other Roman Kings heretofore Conquered Britain he determines Tribute is now due unto him for this cause I now also think that Rome ought to render Tribute unto me because my Ancestors heretofore got it by Conquest Whereupon they all resolved to assist King Arthur with their Armes against this unrighteous Tribute and Title to it by Conquest and professed they would spend their lives in the quarrel Ipsa enim mors dulcis erit dum enim in vindicando Patres nostros in tuendo libertatem nostrant in exaltando Regem nostrum perpessi fuerimus Wherefore Conquest now can certainly be no Just no Lawfull Plea Title for any of our Officers or Souldiers which this Greatest Conqueror and this Great Councel so long since damned as unjust and Irrational To which I shall annex the Resolution of our Noble King Henry the 2d and of all the Bishops Abbots Peers Earls Barons of England assembled in a Parliamentary General Councel of the Realm at Westminster An. 1126. to determine a Controversie between Alfonso King of Castile and Sancho King of Navarre concerning divers Castles and Territories in Spain won by War and Conquest by Sancho King of Navarre from Alfonso whiles he was a Pupil and Orphan which they both submitted to their final determination who having heard both parties unanimously resolved that these Castles and Lands should be restored to Alfonso by King Sancho with all their bounds and appurtenances quia per Bellum violenter injuste abstulisset because he had violently and unjustly taken them away by War which resolution was confirmed under the Kings Great Seal and sent unto these Kings Therefore Conquest alone can be no just no legal Saintlike Right Title to any Lands Possessions Powers violently unjustly gotten claimed by Wars by our Swordmen now after these two antient famous Parliamentary Resolutions in point even between foreign Conquering Princes much lesse then between those Native Englishmen who raised waged our Army and Officers to defend not conquer them in a meer intestine civil War 5ly William Duke of Normandy Edward the 3 d Henry the 4 th Edward the 4 th and Henry the 7 th though they all came to the Crown by the Sword and Conquest of their Competitors yet they never claimed the Crown nor Kingdom by Conquest but Title only nor esteemed the English Irish or Welch a conquered Nation nor altered our antient Government Laws Liberties Parliaments or Ministers Tithes and Maintenance but confirmed them as all our Histories manifest in their Lives and Statutes made by them in the beginning of their respective reigns attest I have formerly proved in the case of William commonly stiled the Conqueror who ratified all our Liberties Laws Customs Franchises presented to him upon Oath without the least alteration diminution or prevarication to the peoples Great content Yea King Henry the 4th as Placita Coronae rot Parl. 1 H 4. n. 17. record did in the first Parliament held by him after his Conquest of Richard the 2d make this memorable Declaration to his people entred in that Roll. That he claimed the Realm and Crown of England with all their Members and Appurtenances as right heir thereto by Bloud by Descent and by the right God had given him through the ayd of his Parents
That he was worthy for whom he should do this And why so For he loveth our Nation and hath built us a Synagogue Whereupon Jesus went with them and healed his servant marvelling at the Centurions words and turning about and saying unto the people that followed him I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel This great Centurion and Commander was no Jew but a Gentile one who but newly heard of Christs name and same yet he had so much Piety and Bounty as out of his very Spoyls and Gains of Warre for we read of no other Lands or Gains he had to build a Synagogue for Gods worship which the Elders of the Jews and Christ too approved as a worthy act and a sufficient inducement for our Saviour to go with him and cure his servant O that all our Centurions who have Souldiers under them and exceed or equal him in command would imitate and equal this Gospel Centurion in his pious munificence in building in stead of contriving how to deface Temples Churches Synagogues to abolish Tithes ingrosse Church Lands and Livings into their own hands then should they receive as large Encomiums of the reality and transcendency of their Faith Piety Charity from men as he did from our Saviour and the Elders of the Jews for building this new Synagogue I shall only adde for our Souldiers Officers better Information that from this example of Abraham approved in the new Testament both Divines Councils Canonists and Casuists have unanimously resolved That Souldiers ought to pay personal Tithes to Ministers out of their very Militia pay and spoyls of Warr. This was St. Augustines Doctrine DE MILITIA de negotio de artificio redde Decimas recited practised and long prescribed here in England in the excerptions of Egbert Archbishop of Yorke about the year of our Lord 750. repeated confirmed by Gratian in his Decrees Causa 16. qu. 1. f. 381 382 By all the Canonists Glossers on his Text by Angelus de Clavasio in his Summa Angelica Tit. Decima by Hostiensis Summa Rosella and other Summists Casuists in their Titles of Tithes and ratifyed by the Synod of Lingon An. 1404. apud Bochellum Decret Ecclesiae Gallicanae lib. 6. Tit. 8. c. 31. p. 967. This many excellent Christian Commanders Officers Souldiers have in several ages performed as Histories record I shall for brevity instance but in one domestick example and that a memorable one King William the first whom we usually style the Conqueror though he never claimed the Crown by Conquest but only by the last Will Testament and Donation of King Edward the Confessor in his life-time with the assent of his Nobles who was educated with preserved by him during his exile and seclusion from the Crown by the Danish usurpers and as COUSIN and HEIR to Edward the Confessor as he stiled himself in the very Title of his Laws He having vanquished and slain the perjured Vsurper Harold who set the Crown upon his own head and made himself King without any Title or due Election against his solemn Oath to Duke William made to him in Normandy which he pretended to be forced in thankfulnesse to God for this his victory whereby he gained possession of the Crown out of the Spoyls and Gains of his Warr erected a Magnificent Church and Abbey to the glory of God and St. Martin which he called de Bello or Battel Abbey in that very place where Harold was slain and this battel fought which likewise he endowed with large possessions Tithes and most ample Privileges by his Charter and therein offered up to God HIS SWORD and the royal robe which he ware the day of his Coronation there reserved as a Monument as well of his Piety as Victory After which this pretended Conqueror in the fourth year of his reign by the Counsel of his Barons through all the Counties of England caused 12. men of the most Noble wise and skilfullest in the Law to be summoned out of every shire that he might learn their Laws and Customs from them and gave them this Oath That proceeding in a right path without declining to the right hand or the left to the best of their power they should make known to him the Customs and Sanctions of their Lawes pretermitting nothing adding nothing and altering nothing in them by prevarication which they accordingly performing and King William intending to alter the Law only in one particular according to the Lawes of Norway from whence he and his Normans descended all the Barons and Grand English Enquest who presented him their Laws on Oath being much grieved at it unanimously besought him that he would permit them to enjoy their proper Laws and antient Customs under which their Fathers lived and themselves had been born and educated because they deemed it very hard for them to receive unknown Lawes and to judge of those things they knew not importunately beseeching him for the soul of K. Edward WHO HAD GRANTED TO HIM THE CROWN and KINGDOM AFTER HIS DEATH and whose Lawes they were that hee would not compell them to persevere under the Lawes of any Foreiners but their own Country Laws alone Wherefore the King taking advice consented to the request of his Barons confirming all their Lawes and Customs in Parliament without any alteration or diminution as they presented them Whereof this is the very first Law concerning the preservation of the Churches rights and Scholars from rapine Every Clergy-man and likewise all Scholars and all their Goods and Possessions wheresoever they are shall enjoy the Peace of God and of holy Church free from all forfeiture and seisure and if any shall lay hands on that which Mother Church shall require LET HIM RESTORE THAT WHICH HEE SHALL TAKE AWAY and likewise one hundred shillings in the name of a forfeiture if it be from an Abbey or Church of Religion and twenty shillings if it be from a Mother Parish Church and ten shillings if it be from a Chapel After which follow 6. other Lawes concerning the Churches peace and privileges and then these two Laws concerning TITHES Of the TITHES of the Church Of all Corn the tenth Sheaf is given to God and therefore to be paid If any shall have a herd of Mares let him pay the tenth colt he who shall have only one or two let him pay a penny for every colt Likewise he who shall have many Kine let him pay the tenth calf he who shall have but one or two let him pay a penny for every calf and he who shall make cheese let him give the tenth to God and if he shall make none the milk every tenth day Likewise the tenth Lamb the tenth Fleece the tenth Butter the tenth Pig Of BEES and all lesser TITHES In like manner also of Bees the tenth of the profit and also of Wood of Meadows Waters and Mills and Ponds and Fishings and Copses and Orchards and Gardens and Negotiations wherein Souldiery
purposely sent from Rome and the greatest sticklers against our Ministers Tithes and Calling must presently depart and none of them return into the Kingdom as many have lately done or else be executed for Traytors But why so what is their crime work imployment here and by what marks or fruits shall we know discover both them and their confederates Let the words of the Statute compared with all our late troubles changes resolve the ignorant and incredulous that there are many such amongst us and of Iohn Cannes fraternity Whereas divers persons called or professed JESUITES these Canne wittingly conceals though the first in the Bead-roll and therfore is a Felon by the law Seminary Priests and other Priests which have been and from time to time are made in parts beyond the Sea by or according to the Order and Rites of the Church of ROME and when Canne can prove that all or any of our Ministers were thus made as he hath confidently averred in print to those he calls the Higher Powers and Supream Authority of the Nation Let them be hanged for Traitors and Antichristian Ministers in good earnest else let him be hanged in their stead for this his impudent slander of them all as well Independents as Presbyterians Have of late years come and been sent into this Realm of England and were any of our Ministers such and not rather Canne himself coming hither from Amsterdam for the purposes following and other the Queens Dominions OF PURPOSE AS IT HATH APPEARED as well by some of their own examinations now out of date as by divers other Manifest means and proofs more visible of late years than ever not only to withdraw her Highness subjects from their due obedience to her Majesty but also to stir up and move Sedition Râ—bellion and open Hostility within the same her Highness Realms and Dominions to the great endangering of the safety of her most Royal Person and to the utter ruine desolation and overthrow of the whole Realm now effected as a Realm if the same be not the sooner and now pray God it be not over-late by some good means foreseen and prevented For reformation whereof be it ordained c. That All Priests and Jesuits Canne cannot spy such good friends within the Act but deletes them out of it Seminary Priests and other Priests whatsoever made and ordained out of the Realm of England c. shall depart the Realm under the penalties therein mentioned Had Canne pressed this Statute to those he dedicates his Pamphlet for the speedy execution of it against those many Jesuits and Seminary Priests now in England for their traiterous Practices and Designes therein mentioned of late and now driven on and almost compleated by them it had been a commendable zeal but not to write one word or syllable against these Romish Vermine Arch-Engineers and Janizaries of the Romish See now swarming among us to ruine our Protestant Kings Kingdoms Parliaments Laws Liberties Church Ministers Ministry Religion and foreign Protestant Kingdoms States Churches now engaged by them in bloody Warres both by Land and Sea and to omit the very name of the Jesuits the first Popish Agents mentioned and chiefly intended in this Act and presse it only against our Ministers Calling Ministry Tithes Maintenance of purpose to ruine them and theirs and by consequence our Church and Religion the Designe and scope of his whole Pamphlet is such a malicious unchristian Antichristian Practice as proclaimes him to all the world either a new converted Jesuit or Romish Factor under the Garb of an old Anabaptist or an over-grown cankered Anabaptist void of Piety Honesty inspired by the very Father of Lyes For not one of our English Ministers I know or hear of except two or three Jesuits and Popish Priests crept into livings in Staffordshire and elsewhere very lately I know not by whose favour or negligence was ever ordained by any such Jurisdiction or authority as is here mentioned which all our Ministers and their Ordainers too whether Prelates or Presbyters particularly and publickly abjured both at the time of their respective Ordinations and admissions to their Benefices and likewise when they took any Degree of learning in our Vniversities by the two known famous Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance purposly made and ratified by sundry zealous Protestant Parliaments against the usurped Papal Jurisdiction and authority of the See of Rome and the Popes Jesuits Papists practices to blow up destroy our Protestant Kings Parliaments Laws Liberties Religion and subvert our Kingly Government whole State and Commonwealth and for the better discovering of them yet lately suspended abrogated as dangerous unlawful Oathes by some of Cannes good friends who would be reputed Zealots against the Popes Iurisdiction and his Creatures too Now how those Ministers of our Church who thus abjure the Iurisdiction of Rome at the time of their very Ordination and their Ordainers too before them and since have done the like in their Solemn League and Covenant can without the highest slander be said to derive their Ministry from it and that by Canne and his Iesuitical Anabaptistical Fraternity who never took one of these Oathes or the Covenant and revile repeal them as unlawful out of love to the Popes Jurisdiction Jesuits Priests their Jesuitical Treasonable Conspiracies Treasons Practices or for want of zeal against them Let the world and this slanderers own Conscience if he have any left now determine Besides who knows not but this Ignoramus that the Rites and Ceremonies of Ordination in the Church of Rome recorded at large in Ceremoniale Pontificiale Pontificum Romanorum and the ends of Ordination likewise viz. to say Masse create their Creator offer up Christ in Sacrifice at the altar to his Father Invocate Saints adore Images yield Canonical obedience to the Pope and his Supremacy c. are far different from the form and ends of our Ministers Ordination in the Church of England prescribed by the Parl. of 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 1. ratified by the Statutes of 1 Eliz. c. 1 2. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 8 Eliz. c. 1. and 39 Eliz. c. 8. made only by Protestant Parliaments which as they particularly condemn renounce the Popes Power and Jurisdiction so they declare and resolve our Ministers Ordination to be lawfull and them in very deed to be Ministers and rightly made ordained and consecrated according to Gods word without any derivative power or Ordination from the Church of Rome Therefore for this New old pander for the Whore of Rome to averre they receive their Ministry and ordination thence is a Notorious Ly. Yea but saith he Francis Mason of Consecration and Mr. Yates in his Modell of Divinity prove and confesse That the Ministry of the Church of England established by the Law of the Land is derived from the Pope and Rome True but in what sense onely by way of Succession as his own Ministry and Faith if he hath any were derived from John of Leyden
we are despised even to this present hour we are hungry and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place we are reviled persecuted defamed we are as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things unto this day If all Ministers in times of peace and settlement must be like the Apostles in not receiving Tithes then they must be like them too even in setled Christian Kingdoms States Churches in all these their particular sufferings and have no certain dwelling place c. And if so Let Canne and his new Ministers of the Gospel as they stile themselves begin the president of whom our Ministers may now say as Paul did of the Corinthians in the precedent verse of this chapter v. 8. Now ye are full now ye are rich ye have reigned as Kings without us when as most of them were very poor and far enough from reigning as Kings or so much as Petty Constables before these unhappy Wars and in dayes of former persecution when Canne himself durst not shew his face in England for fear of a Bishops power or High commission Pursuivant nor durst reproach our Orthodox protestant pious Ministers and Parliaments as Antichristian Popish and compare their Laws for Ministers Tithes with the very Idolatrous Statutes of Omri and Ahab as he doth now p. 3. for which he might have taken a turn at Tyburn in steed of walking freely in Westminster Hall without being questioned for this his impudent high Slanders both of our Laws and Parliaments as well as Ministry 6. If the Ministers of the Gospel be bound to imitate the Apostles in all things then they must not have Gold nor Silver nor Brasse in their purses neither Scrip nor two Coats nor yet Shoes nor so much as two Staves but Sandals only on their feet Mat. 10.9 10. Mark 6.8 9. as the Capuchin-Fryars Mendicants hence conclude this being a positive Precept the objected examples of the Apostles c. only a President And if so not only all our Ministers but Canne and all his Administrators must turn Fryars Mendicants too in good earnest who ground their Vow of Voluntary poverty on this Text and the objected Presidents of Christ and his Apostles and so become no Ministers of Christ but Antichrist and as truly Antichristian as these Fryars are the Heads Ringleaders of our last sect of Quakers 7. If our Ministers must all now be like those of the Primitive times whiles under persecuting Heathen Emperours Kings Magistrates then all Saints and Christians too in our daies times must imitate and be like the Saints Christians in those dayes They must sell all their old and new purchased Lands Houses Lordships Palaces lay all the mony down at the Ministers feet and have all things in common like the real Saints and Christians in the Apostles times Acts 4.34 to the end and instead of Lording feasting it in their new acquired Royal Episcopal Palaces and Mannor Houses they must wander about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins in Dâ—sarts Mountains Dens and Caves of the earth being dâ—stitute and afflicted like the Saints of old yea and like them they must be tortured tormented not accepting deliverance have trials of cruel mockings scourgings bonds and imprisonments be stoned sawn asunder slain with the Sword instead of slaying plundering imprisoning and sawing others asunder with the Sword Heb. 11.35 to 39. And when our Army-Saints Officers Souldiers Anabaptists Quakers with other Tithe-Oppugners who presse this Objection against Ministers Tithes shall lay down all their Arms Commands Power Lands and sell all they have to become like to all these Primitive Saints and Martyrs of Christ in their sufferings in times of Persecution I doubt not but our Ministers will joyfully part both with their Glebes Rectories Tithes and setled Maintenance to sympathize with them in their Persecutions Sufferings But till such hard times of Persecutions come and they begin to follow this President of the self-denying Primitive Saints I hope they will not make all our Ministers present Martyrs in their Tithes and setled Maintenance nor enjoyn them alone but not themselves to follow the Primitive Ministers of the Gospel in those times of persecution and prove greater persecutors to them in these pretended times of Christian Liberty Law Justice than the late Oppressing Prelates and High Commissioners who suffered many of them though Non-Conformists to enjoy their Tithes Glebes Offrings and not eject disinherit them and their Successors for ever of their antient Glebes Tithes and other setled Maintenance without any Legal Trial by their Peers or Conviction of any Treasonable crimes against our known Laws for which they deserve to forfeit them and all under the false petence that Tithes are Jewish and Antichristian under the Gospel Which I hope I have sufficiently refuted being established on them by Christian Kings States Parliaments immediately after the Primitive persecutions generally throughout Christendome as the fittest Maintenance of all other and particularly in our Realm when as the abolishing of them will be really such in the Judgement of all Godly Protestants Patrons of Religion both at home and throughout the World FINIS ERRATA PAge 68. l. 11. r. luent p. 141. l. 31. Solemanum r. Salmurum Rothingue r. Rothomag p. 142. l. 20. Trovomala The REMAINDER or SECOND PART of A GOSPEL PLEA Interwoven with a RATIONAL and LEGAL FOR THE LAWFULNESS CONTINUANCE Of the Antient Setled MAINTENANCE and TITHES Of the Ministers of the Gospel WHEREIN The DIVINE RIGHT OF OUR MINISTERS TITHES is further asserted The Magistrates Inforcement of the DUE PAYMENT OF THEM BY COERCIVE PENAL LAWS when substracted or detained vindicated That they are no REAL BURDEN or GRIEVANCE to the People the abolishing them no Ease Benefit to Farmers Tenants or Poor-People but a Prejudice rather and a gain to None but Rich Land-Lords cleared That the present Opposition against them proceeds not from any true Grounds of Conscience or Real Inconveniences in Tithes themselves but only from base Covetousness carnal Policy want of Christian Love Charity to and professed Enmity against the Ministers of the Gospel Yea from a JESUITICAL and ANABAPTISTICAL DESIGN to subvert ruine our Church Ministry Religion and bring a Perpetual Infamie on our Nation and the Reformed Religion here professed By William Prynne of Swainswick Esq a Bencher of Lincolns Inne 1 Cor. 9 14. Even so hath THE LORD ORDAINED that those who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel Cyprian de unitate Ecclesiae Domos tunc Fundos venundabant thesauros sibi in Coelo reponentes at nunc de Patrimonio nec Decimas damus cum Vendere jubeat Dominus Emimus pötius augemus Petrus Blesensis Epist 82. Per Prophetam praecepit Dominus Decimas inferri in horreum suum vos ab ejus horreo jubetis auferri c. Quid interest Equos rapiatis an Decimas Nisi quia Decima res spiritualis est ideo enormius SACRILEGIVM in Decimis
or to Confiscation of Goods or to Imprisonment And lest any should deem this a Tyrannical Oppressing Edict Ezra himself subjoyns in the very next words v. 27. Blessed be the Lord of our Fathers who hath put such a thing as this is in the Kings heart Which Law if now put into due execution would send Canne and most of his Confederates here packing back again to Amsterdam or some Gibbet or Prison and strip them of the Goods they have got by the warres and troubles of the time 4ly We have King Darius his Decree for repairing Gods House and furnishing the Priests there with all necessaries they required which thus concludes with a most severe penaltie against the wilfull Disobeyers of it Ezra 6.11 Also I have made a Dâ—cree That whosoever shall alter this word â—et Timber be pulled down from his House and being set up Let him be hanged thereon and his House be made a Dunghill for this Hâ—w many now Giâ—beâ—s should we now have throughout England and how many new-purchased Houses by those who had noâ—e of lâ—te would be made Dungheaps if this rigid Law were now put in are Which may stop the clamorous mouths of such who cry out against Laws and Ordinances for Tithes prescribing more moderate penalties Object But all this is but Old Testament will many now object what can you allege for your Propositions pâ—â—â—f out of the Gospel Answ To stop their mouths I answer 1. That the Gospel expresly commands all living under it To render to all their Dues Therefore to Ministers to whom I have proved Tithes and other setled maintenance to be a just Due and Debt to owe nothing to any Man Rom. 13.7 8. Therefore not to Ministers But what if bold atheistical obstinate or covetous Wretches will not pay these Dues to their Ministers doth the Gospel allow Magistrates and higher Powers to compel them to it Yes in the very antecedent words v. 4 5. If thou do that which is evil as the defrauding denying detaining of the Ministers as well as the Magistrates or any others Due Debts and Salaries is a doing of evil prohibited by the forecited words and many other Texts elsewhere insisted on be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain as he should do might he compell none by it to their duties For he is the Minister of God even a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Wherefore ye must needs be subject in yielding to their commanding Laws and Ordinances for Tithes and Ministers Dues as well as others edged with coercive Penalties not only for wrath that is for fear of the Penalties which else fall upon you for your disobedience exasperate the Higher Powers and Civil Magistrate to execute wrath upon you but even for conscience sake which should more prevail with men than wrath and Penalties though our Tithe-detainers now are grown so atheistically impudent as to alledge conscience for not rendring them and robbing God himself of them Mal. 3.8 as well as his Ministers 2ly The Holy Ghost by the Apostle Peter thus seconds his former precept by Paul 1 Pet. 2.13 14. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as Supream or unto Governours who have made many Lawes and Ordinances for payment of our Ministers Tithes and Duties Yea but say our sturdy armed and unarmed Tithe-detainers now What if we will not do it as we are resolved notwithstanding all such Laws and Ordinances What Are you resolved to disobey and contemn Gods Gospel Laws and Ordinances as well as Mans Where is your Religion your Saintship you so much boast of Will you provoke the Lord himself to wrath are you stronger than he I presume not Therefore the Apostle subjoins That these Kings and Governours are sent by him for the Punishment of Evil doers And such are all those who detain the Ministers established Dues who are not only Theeves and Robbers of God in the Old Testaments language Mal. 3 8. but committers of Sacrilege Rom. 2.20 Thou that abhorrest Idols as many Tithe-oppugners pretend they do Dost thou commit Sacrilege and Church Robberie Acts 19.37 in the New Testaments and meer Heathens Dialect who fall under the just punishment of Kings and Governours whom God will bear out in the just punishment of such evil doers or else punish them himself in a more severe manner if the Armed sonnes of Zerviah be too hard for David and It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who even under the Gospel is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 and hath proved so to many Tithe-oppugners very lately both in consuming their Houses and personal Estate as well by real fire as by inflicting Spiritual judgements on their souls 3ly Our Saviours own words recorded in the Gospel are direct in point Luke 12.57 58 59. Mat. 5.25 And why even of your selves judge ye not what is right in paying your just Dues and Debts to all you owe them without sute or coercion as the next words literally import When thou goest with thine adversary to the Magistrate as thou art in the way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him lest he hale thee to the judge and the Iudge deliver thee to the Officer and the Officer cast thee into prison Verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing or very last mite Here is a Gospel resolution of our Saviour in two Evangelists ratified with a verily I say unto thee That all those who will not pay their Ministers Tithes and Dues as well as other mens Debts may be lawfully brought and haled perforce before the Magistrate and by the Magistrate and Judge condemned in double Dammages cast into Prison and not suffered to come out thence till he have paid the utmost farthing not only of his detained Tithes and Dues but of his sine forfeiture and costs of sute prescribed by our Laws And let all our Swordmen and other oppugners of our coercive Laws against detainers of Ministers Tithes and Dues give our Saviour himself the Title of a Tyrant and Oppressor a Lyar if they dare and that such proceedings are not sufferable under the Gospel 4ly There is nothing so free and voluntary in the world that I know as Almes and Charity to poor distressed Saints and Christians Yet the Gospel accompts this a due Debt and all able to give them Debtors Rom. 15.27 And if any refuse to render them out of their Hard-heartedness and want of Charity the Christian Magistrates under the Gospel may not only rate and assesse them according to their Estates towards the Poors relief as they do in all Christian Republicks and Realms but by Distresses sale of Goods and other coercive wayes compel them to render them and that both by the Common law of England and the Statutes of 22 H. 8. c. 12. 27 H. 8. c. 25. 1 Edw.
peradventure they held the payment of Tithes to Ministers in kind a Divine Moral Duty and in some places and at some times when and where they could did voluntarily pay Tithes as a Duty for their Maintenance without any coercive Laws or Canons upon the bare demand or exhortation of their Ministers by vertue of Gods own Divine Laws as is undeniable by Irenaeus l. 4. c. 34. who records That the Christians in his time being but 180. years after Christ did not give lesse to their Ministers than the Jews did to their Priests by the Law of Moses who received the consecrated TITHES of their people but more Designing omnia quae sunt ipsorum all they had to the Lords use Hilariter ac liberaliter ea quae non sunt minera Giving chearfully and freely those things which were not lesse than Tithes as having greater hope than they And further confirmed by Origen Homil. 11 in Numeros Saint Cyprian lib. 1. Epist 9. De unitate Ecclesiae the words of Saint Augustine Hom. 48. Majores nostri ideo copiis abundabant quia Deo Decimas dabant And the second Council of Mascin An. 586. Can. 5. Leges Divinae Consulentes Sacerdotibus ac Ministris Ecclesiarum pro Haereditaria portione omni populo praeceperunt Decimas fructuum suorum locis sacris praestare ut nullo labore impediti per res illegitimas possint vacare Ministeriis Quas leges Christianorum Congeries legis temporibus custodivit iutemerata Which prove a long continued Custom and Practice of paying Tithes to Ministers as a Divine Right and Duty used amongst Christians long before St. Augustins dayes and this antient Councel And no sooner were the times of Persecution past but the Divine Right of Tithes was asserted pressed and the due payment of them inculcated by St. Hilary Nazianzen Ambrose Hierom Chrysostom Augustine Eusebius Cassian Cyril of Jerusalem Isiodore Pelusiota and Caesarius Arelatensis all flourishing within 500. years after Christ as Dr. Tillesly proves at large And the people during that space paying their Tithes freely without any compulsion in all places there needed neither Laws nor Canons to enforce their payment whence Agobardus writes thus about the year of our Lord 820. when Laws and Canons began to be made for their payment of the precedent times Nulla compulit necessitas fervente ubique religiosa devotione amore illustrandi Ecclesiae ultro aestuante That there was no need of Canons or Laws to compel the payment of Tithes whiles fervent religious Devotion and love of illustrating Churches every where abounded But in succeeding degenerating times when according to Christs prediction the love and zeal of many Christians to God Religion and Ministers began to grow lukewarm and colder than before so as they began to detain their Tithes and Ministers dues then presently Christian Kings and Bishops in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Synods and Councils began generally in all places to make Laws and Canons for the due payment of them declaring in them only the Divine Right Laws and Precepts of God to the People both in the Old and New Testament as a sufficient obligation seconded by their bare Canons and Edicts without any coercion or penalty to oblige them to their due payment The first unquestionable Canon for the payment of Tithes I find extant is that of the second Council of Mascin forecited An. 586. cap. 5. The first Law extant made by any General Council or Parliament for the payment of Tithes is that of the Council of Calcuth in England under Offa and Alfred An. 786 declaring their Divine Right and enjoyning their payment without any Penalty After which Charles the Emperour about the year of our Lord 813. by Canons made in sundry Councils and in his Capitulars or Laws enjoyned the payment of Tithes under pain of being enforced to render them by distresse upon complaint and some small penalties Since which time many Laws and Canons were made in our own and forein Realms till our present times for the due payment of Tithes under sundry penalties which because collected by Sir Henry Spelman in his Councils Mr. Selden in his History of Tithes Bochellus Decret Eccles Gal. l. 6. Tit. 8. De Decimis Fridericus Lindebrogus Codex Legum Antiquarum Surius Binius Crab Lindwood in their Collections of Councils and sundry others I have therefore only given the Reader a brief Catalogue of the principal Civil laws both at home and abroad for the due payment of them reciting more at large but what others for the most part have omitted and are not vulgarly known giving only brief hints upon some of the rest in my third Chapter Whither I refer the Reader for further satisfaction in this Objection and shall conclude of penal Laws as Seneca doth of Fates Fata volentes ducunt Nolentes trahunt those who will not willingly pay their Tiths must and ought to be compelled thereunto by penal Statutes The second Objection is That the payment of Tithes is against many mens Judgements and Consciences Therefore it is both Vnchristian Tyrannical and Vnjust to enforce them thereunto I answer 1. That the payment of Tithes being not only warranted but commanded in and by the Old and New Testament and the constant practice of Christians in all Ages Churches there neither is nor can be the least pretence of Conscience for the non-payment of them Therefore this pretext of Conscience is in truth nought else but most desperate Vnconscionableness Malice Obstinacy Peevishness Covetousness Impiety or secret Atheism worthy to be reformed by the severest Laws and penalties 2ly All that Conscience can pretend against their payment as Tithes is only this Anabaptistical Devise and loud Lye of Canne and others That the payment of a precise Tenth part of mens increase to their Ministers is Jewish or Antichristian and so unlawfull both which I have unanswerably refelled Therefore this can be no ground or Conscience for any to detain them But if any scrupulous Consciences be not satisfied in this point let them either pay their Ministers the Moitie or 9. parts or the 5 6 7 8 or 9. part of their annual encrease neither of which is Jewish or Antichristian or else let them sell all their old or new purchased Lands Houses Possessions Goods they have and bestow them on the Ministers and Poor as the forecited Primitive Christians did whom they pretend to imitate and then they may satisfie both their Consciences and Ministers too without the least difference coercion sute or penalty of our Laws 3ly Many of these very Objectors pretending Conscience as Souldiers or Sequestrators have made no Conscience to enforce thousands of Parishioners of late years throughout the Nation to pay their Ministers Tithes to themselves for pretended Arrears or sequestred Goods and exacted Monthly contributions out of Ministers Tithes to pay the Army without any scruple of Conscience levying them by distress and armed violence when detained If then they can enforce others thus
grounds policies hypocritically gilded over with the paint of Conscience Reformation Religion Propagation of the Gospel c. which makes the Design more detestable both to God and all good men The second sort of Tithe-Oppugners are professed Anabaptists Dippers Seekers Quakers and other blasphemous Sectaries and Heretiques lately sprung up amongst us many of which have crept into the Army for their greater security and the better accomplishment of their dangerous destructive Designs against our established Government Magistrates Laws but especially against our Religion Church Ministers Ministry their Tithes and Glebes Scarce one of a thousand of these poor Sneaks were of ability to pay any Tithes of late and those of this prevailing Faction who have crept into Sequestrations Offices Imployments of late and thereby gained any Estates for the most part have enriched themselves by sequestred Tithes Glebes Bishops Deans Chapters Lands and Revenues which these hungry Harpyes have most greedily preyed upon not out of any real grounds of Piety or Conscience as they pretend which I could yet seldom or never find in any of them but out of an unsatiable greedy HOLY HUNGER OR THIRST in the Poets sence after Gold Gain Spoyl the Revenues of our Church and an implacable bitter Enmity against our Ministers Persons Callings whether Presbyterians the chief Butt against whom their Malice is bent or Independents of a more moderate strain whose Ministry is the main Fort they level all their present power against to raze it even to the very Foundation now prosecuting the total abolition not only of their present Tithes Glebes but of all other future coercive maintenance in lieu of them only to subvert their Ministry and quite starve if they cannot violently storm them out of it This is most perspicuous not only by their manifold former libellous Pamphlets against our Ministers Calling and the late Ordinances for Tithes which I have elsewhere collected refuted but by their fresh Petitions both against their Tithes and Ministry too as Antichristian Jewish Popish c. especially by John Canne the old Amsterdam Anabaptists Second Voyce from the Temple or Synagogue of Satan rather newly dedicated to those he stiles The Supream Authority of the Nation wherein he exhorts and stimulates them by all the Art Rhetorick Motives false Arguments he can muster up to do execution and take vengeance upon Babylon to wit the National Ministry Church-worship Government of England as he explains it p. 2. till it be wholy desolate not a Stone left upon a Stone till it be thrown down To take a most effectual and certain course to starve and famish these Antichristian Idols by taking away the Food and Maintenance whereby hitherto as at this present they are nourished fed and left alive and more particularly their Tithes To repeal all Laws and Statutes formerly made whereby the Whore hath lived deliciously and proudly and keeps on to this Day her Whorish attire To make the Whore desolate and naked by making no Act or Law to stand in force which doth yield any relief to her To set themselves in array against her by the Armies power no doubt which he alludes to bend their Bow fan and empty her To set upon this work speedily in good earnest as it seems they do whiles it is to day And why so Because the Lord himself hath by a Call more than ordinarie called them to this more than ordinary Imployment if he could have proved it by Scripture or Law it had been more worth than all his Pamphlet put this fair or rather foul opportunity into their hands hath commanded his sanctified ones and called his Mighty ones the Army-Officers to fulfill his pleasure upon this great Whore the Church and Ministry of England and SION is in travel and ready to bring forth this Monster of Desolation and Confusion which if they neglect or delay then mark how he briefly menaces them with the Fates of their late Predecessors I would think you should never be sitting in that House but be thinking still on those who sate there before you and why not as well on Faux and the Gunpowder Traytoâ—s as those since there seems another Powder-plot in the Vault to blow them up intended by Canne and his Confederates if they fail in accomplishing this their desired work whom the Lord hath lade aside as despised broken Idols and Vessels wherein his Soul had no pleasure And why As they knew not their Generation-work which he excites them to neither were faithfull to the interest of Jesus Christ God is no respecter of Persons as men sow so they shall reap Ex ungue Leonem ex cauda Draconem You may see by these passages and his whole Pamphlet pursuing them what these malicious inhuman barbarous irreligious hypocritical Anabaptists aym at in their present violent prosecutions against Tithes even utterly to starve famish subvert extirpate our Ministers Ministry Church Worship Government and make our Land a mere Spoyl Desolation as their Predecessors did Munster and some parts of Germany whiles in their power But let Canne and his Anabaptistical Confederates remember what tragical ends their New King John with all his Princes Grandees Officers Prophets Followers came to in conclusion in Germany And what fatal ruine befell Jack Cade Iack Straw Wat Tyler Sharp and other levelling Companions who had the self-same Designs against our English Laws Lawyers Clergy Tithes Glebes as He and they have now animated thereto by the new-dipped Iesuites and other Romish Emissaries lately crept into their Anabaptistcal Fraternity to further this their Infernal Gunpowder-plot against our Church Religion Ministers Magistrates Government Laws and let them thereupon repent of desist from abominate this their Diabolical wicked Design lest they incur the self same punishments in conclusion by stirring up God and all the whole Nation against them as most accursed Rebels Traytors Instruments of Satan yea that very Antichrist and Whore of Rome they pretend they are blindly acting against whose designs in truth they are but accomplishing in the highest degree I must here observe and desire all others to take notice of three things First that in Cannes Voyce and in all other late Pamphlets Petitions of the Anabaptists wherein they seem to vent their most passionate zeal against Antichrist Babylon the Whore of Babylon their chief Instruments and Supporters I cannot find so much as one Clause or Syllable against Iesuites Popish Priests Papists Romish Emissaries or exciting the execution of any Laws or Statutes formerly made against them but the whole stream bent of them all is only against the Godly Ministers Ministry worship of the Church of England the Presbyterian Government and our present Church-worship the only Babylon Whore Antichrist they intend and fight against not the Pope and Church of Rome 2ly That they are so far from pleading against the Pope Popish Priests Iesuites and urging the execution of the good Oaths Laws made by late and former
and Friends for to recover the said Realm which Realm was upon the point to be undone for want of Government and abrogating of the Laws and Customs of the Realm And that it was not his will that any should think that he would by way of Conquest disinherit any one of his Heritage Franchise or other Right which he ought to have nor to out or deprive any man of that he had or should have by the good Laws or Customes of the Realm all which he confirmed by a special Act before 1 H. 4. c. 1. but only those who were against his good purpose and the common profit of the Realm and were guilty of all the evil come upon the Realm and were adjudged guilty thereof in that Parliament as Sir William Le Scroop Sir Henry Green and Sir John Bassy whose Lands only he would have by Conquest as forfeited by their Treasons Whereupon the Commons thanked the King and praysed God that he had sent them such a King and Governour Upon all which Considerations and the Resolution of learned Grotius with others quoted by him That by the very Laws of War even those who are conquered by foreign Enemies ought to enjoy by permission of the Conquerors their own Laws Liberties Magistrates Religion and a share in their Government much more in such a Civil War as ours where the Souldiers Generals can pretend no Conquest over those who raised waged them for their just defence against Conquest and Invasion of their Laws Liberties Government Magistrates Rights Privileges I hope those vaporing Officers Souldiers who have formerly cried up pleaded practised this pretended Title of Conquest amongst us and used many of their former Masters Raisers and the whole Nation more like to conquered enslaved People than their fellow Christian Brethren and Freeborn Englishmen who have paid them so well for all those Services they imployed them in wiâ—l henceforth totally renounce this their false usurped Injurious Plea Title and no more persist under pretext thereof to deprive our Ministers Church Peers Parliaments Nation of their very Native Freedomes Liberties Franchises Rights Laws Government Lands Possessions which they were purposely commissioned waged and by all Sacred all Civil Obligations Trusts Oaths Vowes Protestations perpetually engaged to defend against the least violation or Innovation without their free and full consents in a due and lawfull Parliament freely elected by them not forcibly obtruded on them without their choise or privity Yea I trust they will be so just so righteous towards me so great a Sufferer by under them only for discharging my Conscience and bounden duty towards my God our Church and Native Country of England as no waies to be angry with me or Injurious towards me for this my New Gospel Plea interwoven with a Legal and Rational for the Lawfulness and Continuance of the antient setled Maintenance and Tithes of the Ministers of the Gospel and the good old Fundamental Laws and Liberties of the Nation which their present busie Endeavours to abolish alter subvert beyond yea against their Trusts Commissions Callings have necessitated me now to publish to the world to preserve our Church State Ministry from new Combustions and Impendent ruine but rather found a Retreat from these their Heady Proceedings which I fear the Jesuites with their Confederates the Anabaptists have engaged them so deeply in to work as well their own as the publick speedy ruine both of our Church Religion State Ministry Nation and excite them to use the self-same deportment words to me who have no private design nor interest of my own or other mens in this my voluntary undertaking but only the publique Safety and Weal as enraged David did once to Abigail when she diverted him from his rash bloody resolution to destroy Nabal and his family for a Churlish Answer returned to him for his Kindness 1 Sam. 25.32 33. Now blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me this day from coming to shed bloud and to avenge my self with my own hand But if they shall by Gods permission cast me again bound hand and foot into another fiery Fornace for this my faithfull Service or not falling down and worshipping that Golden or rather Wooden Image which they have or would now set up I doubt not but that Gracious God who hath so miraculously preserved me in delivered me out of so many fiery Trials and Fornaces heretofore will do the like again hereafter and that in such a visible eminent manner as shall enforce them at last to use those words unto me as Nebuchadnezzar did unto Shadrac Meshac and Abednego after their miraculous preservation in the midst of the fiery Fornace into which the most valiant men of his Army cast them bound by his unrighteous Command to their own immediat destruction by the flame without the least hurt to them Dan. 3.28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said Blessed be the God of Shadrac Meshac and Abednego who hath sent his Angel and delivered his Servants that trusted in him and have changed the Kings word and have yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God or Idol except their own God This being an undoubted Truth which I have ever hitherto found experimentally true from and in my former causelesse Oppressors whose Erronious Practices vices I have reproved recorded by God himself and the wisest of all Mortals Prov. 28.23 He that rebuketh a man for his faults plainly shall afterwards find more favour than he that flattereth him in them with the Tongue And that saying of the truth it self in such cases of difficulty and concernment to the reprover will ever prove an experimental verity wherewith I shall conclude my Plea which I desire may be deeply engraven in the Hearts Spirits of all timorous base unworthy Christians who dare neither speak nor write their Consciences nor Discharge their Duties in these times of danger and will wrong both their Consciences Country Posterity yea shame their God Nation Religion to save their Estates Lives as they fondly conceit when they will lose all with their souls to boot by their base carnal fears Math. 16. 24 25 26. Luke 17.33 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Crosse and follow me For whosoever will Save or shall seek to Save his life so Luke records it shall Lose it and his Tithes Lands Liberties with it and whosoever will Lose his Life for my sake shall find it For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and Lose his own Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul I shall cloze up all with this notable Passage of our own learned Writer John Sarisbury against such Religious Hypocritical Cistersian Monks who in his age sought exemption from payment of Tithes and seised upon the Ministers Dues about the year 1170.
and Mr. Nettles Ibidem Dr. Solaters Ministers portion p. 17. a P. 299 304 306 312 314 315 316 317 331 333 336 337 341 345 346 371. and elsewhere Dr. Tillesley his Animadversions on Mr. Selden c. 11 12 13. Littleton chap. 6. Fâ—ankalmoign and Cooks Institutes thereon Petrus Damianus l. 2. Epist 14. Vt copiosiora in paupereâ— alimenta perficiant dantur in Monasteriis Eremitis DECIMAE Quorumcumque proventuum c. a See Mr. Seldens History of Tithes c. 7. sect 4. p. 165 166 c b Innocent 3. Epist Decret l. 1. p. 203. l. 2. p. 410. Extrav Tit. De Decimis c. 3. Ex multis a Ad Extr. Tiâ— de Parach c. ult Mr. Seldens History of Tithes p. 166 168. b Doctrinal Fidei Tom. 1. l. 2. Artic. 3. c. 64 65. a Epist 240. Object 4. b 7 E. 3. f. 5. 44 E. 3. f. 5. 10 H. 7. f. 18.7 6 Dyer 84.8 Cook 2 Report f. 44. b. c Voyce p. 13. d Surius Concil Tom. 3. p. 751. a See Rastals Abridgement Title Tithes and the Ordinances for Tithes Lindwood provinc Constit l. 3. Tit. De Decimis Mr. Seldens History of Tithes ch 8. b See Mr. Seldens History of Tithes p. 320 322 338 346 350. c Hoveden Annal. pars posterior p. 828. Lindwood Provinc Constit l. 3. Tit. De Decimis d 1 Thess 4.11 a Hist Angl. p. 4. b History of Tithes ch 7. p. 147 148. a Hist l. 16 17. Dr. Usher Annales Eccles Veteris Testam p. 516 525. b Voyce from the Temple Epist Ded. p. 23. If they were razed to the Ground IT WOVLD DO WELL. c Psal 137.7 8. a As is evident by compaâ—ing it with Isay 56.6 7 8. c. 61.1 to 11. c. 66.18 to 24. Jer. 33.15 to the end Proposition 4. a The Kentish Petition against Tithes John Canne Voyce from the Temple and others b Mal. 3.8 9. a Matthew Westm Florentius Wigorniensis An. 983. See my Humble Remonstrance against ship-money p. 19 20 21. b Spelman Concil 610. a Cooks 2d Report The Bishop of Winchesters case Summa Angelica Tit. Decima a For which there is suffient Allowance given in case of mere Heath and Baren grounds by the Stat. or 2 E. 6. c. 13. b See Augustine Serm. 219. Mal. 3.8 9 10 11. a Cottoni â—osthuma p. 174 179. The Acts of Resumption 6 H. 3.5 9.10 E. 2.1 2 R. 2.6 6 H. 4 1.2 H. 5.28 29. 33 H. 6.2.1 H. 7.4 5.12 E. 4. a Britan. p. 161 162. Purchas Pilgrimage p. 133. a 1 Tim. 3.2 b Sermo 219. Tom. 10. c Causa 16. qu. 7. d Decret Eccles Gall. l. 6. Tâ—â— 3. c. 19 3â— a Suidas in Leone b A thing formerly proposed by them in their Agreement of the People presented to the Commons House Jan. 20. 1649. p. 24. a Deut. 12.17 18. Neh. 13.12 19. 2 Chro. 31.5 6 7 8 9. Purchase Pilgrimage l. 2. c. 7. p. 130 131. Object a This Objection I finde recited in the Council of Lingon Anno 1404. there Answered Bochellus Decret Eccles Gall. p. 963. Answ a See the Levelers New Printed paper intituled Englands Fundamentall Laws and Liberties claimed c. and many Petitions of late b See all Acts for Tonnage Poundage and Impositions Mr. Hackwels argument against Impositions Cooks 2. Instit p. 58 59 to 64. b Mal. 3.5 10 11 12. See Augustine Sermo 219. a Gul. Malmesburiensis De Gestis Regum Angl. l. 1. c. 4. Juocus Chron. in Carolo Simplici Cent. Magd. 8. c. 7. 9. Dr. Tillesly in his Animadversions on Mr. Seldens History of Tithes p. 64 to 69. b Tom. 3. p. 648. c Review p. 466. a Extravag De Decimis c. 10. Joannes Sarisbur De Nugis Curialium l. 7. c. 21. Mr. Seldens History of Tithes c. 6. p. 120 121. b Cannes 2d voyce from the Temple p. 24 c. c 1 Pet. 2.5 9. d Rev. 1.5 a Gal. 6.16 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3. b Gen. 14.20 Hebr. 7.2 4 c. c 1 Chron. 26.26 27 28. a Herodotus l. 5. c. 25. Valerius Maximus l. 5. c. 3. Diodorus An. 4. Olymp. 98. Dr. Vsher Annales Veteris Testamenti p. 260. b See Holinshed Speed and others 10 11 R. 2. Mr. St. Johns Speech against the Shipmony-Judges a Gul. Malmesburi De Gestis Regum l. 1. c. 4. Vita Eucherii apud Surium Tom. 1.10 F. Gratian Caus 16. qu. 1. Edit Gregoriana Flodourdus Rhem. Hist l. 2. c. 12. Juonis Chron. Mr. Seldens History of Tithes p. 51.465 Dr. Tillesley p. 67. * Mat. 〈…〉 Flores 〈…〉 An. 853. â— 306. * Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 9. pars 1. p. 600 601. a Aventinus Annal. Boyorum l. 3. p. 179. Centur. Magd. 8. c. 7 9. Goldastus Constit Imp. Tom. 1. p. 15. Dr. Tillesley Animadversions on Mr. Selden p. 64 to 75. a Exact Collection p. 340 342 376 572 631 632 641 743. A Collection p. 428 8 13 41 43 44 49 51 61 64 96 99 623 696 879. Appendix p. 15. and elsewhere a Luke 3.14 a Ambros Orat. in Julianum Grotius de Jure Belli p. 35 88. b Grotius de Jure Belli l. 1. c. 2. sect 3. p. 35 36 88. Crantzius Saxonitorum l. 7. c. 16. a Exttavag De Decimis c. 10 Mr. Seldens History p. 120 121. b See the Book of Judges Kings Chron. Maccabes Josephus Paul Eber and others c Antiqu. Ecclesiae Brit. p. 209 to 220 282 284 299 300. Thomas Walsingham Hist Angl p. 348. See the Acts for the Clergies Subsidies in all our Kings reigns granted only by themselves in Convocation d Xenophon Helien l. 4. Mountague Diatriba p. 500 501. e Lib. 4. Epist 38. f In his Exposition on 2 Thess 2. p. 116. a 2 Thess 2.4 b See Dr. Abbot Dr. Beard Dr. Squire of Antichrist and Dr. Sclater on that place c Luke 3.14 d Luke 7.2 to 11. b Matth. c. 26 27 28. Mar. 14 15. Luk. 22 22. John 18 19. a Acts 12.1 to 12. b Acts 21.31 32 33 c. c. 22.24 c. c. 23.23 c. to 35. c. 27 28. c Matth. 12.33 Luk. 6 43 44. d 2 Tim. 2.3 e Hebr. 6.6 a Rev. 1.5 1 Pet. 2.5 9. a See Col. Prides Beacon quenched a Titus 1.16 b 2 Pet. 2.1 2. Acts 26.13 c 2 Thess 2. a Mat. 15.14 b Eutropius Grimston in his Life Theodoret Nicephorus l. 10. c. 3 4 5 24 25 32 33. Mr. Fox Baronius Spondanus and others Centur. Magd. 4. c. 3 14. Col. 114 to 120 1438 1439. Nazianzen Orat. 2. in Julianum Ambros Epist l. 5. Ep. 29. zozomen l. 5. c. 22. Rushamus l. 1. c. 28. c Eusebius Eccles Hist l. 8. c. 13. l. 10. c. 8. Eutropius and Grimston in his Life Fox Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 113. Bishop Jewels Sermons p. d See Eusebius in vita Constantini Bacons Advancement of Learning Mr. Edward Waterhouse his Apology for Learning and Learned men a Asser Menevensis