seem strange that any should dare to offer unto Masters of Reason no better Arguments for such a high attempt against God and Man and all the just Laws of both than such as very Boys are hissed for in the School or worse a Pedantical Etymology or so Forsooth the word Theft was more properly of things moveable belike because things moveable are more portative than Lands or Houses and so that kind of Theft was more easie and so more likely and so usually more in the notice and care and censure of the Law to provide against therefore to take away a Penny from a rich man is a sin indeed and a sin of Theft too but under-hand by false witness or close forgery or a packt Jury or with an high hand by oppression and open violence to rob an Orphan or a Widow or a School or an Hospital or all these of all their Lands that is no sin at all much less all at once to take away for ever from a whole National Church all their Lands and whole Livelihoods as lately 48. Good God how ill art thou requited for endowing such men with Reason that abuse it thus Sure such a Spirit of Delusion in the Patrons of Sacriledge must needs be a just judgment of God because they will not receive the Truth therefore God gives them over to such a Reprobate mind in the Active sense that is to a (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. In mentem Judicii expertem sensu activo Beza in Rom. 1.28 mind unable to prove or tast Truth from Falshood Reason from Caption Consequence from Inconsequence God gives them over to such a senseless stupefied judgment thus to reason themselves and others not only out of all Religion and common Honesty but even out of all common sense and reason too so dangerous it is once to go astray in Judgment or Practice from the Common Road of the Catholick Church 49. For not to Grammaticate it about the exact value of the word Furtum or Sacrilegium wherein yet out of Lexicons or Vocabularies they may possibly be convinced of falshood For (k) Isidor Orig. l. 5. c. 26. Sacrilegium est Sacri violatio vel ejusdem usurpatio committitur quandoque ratione rei quum res sacrata usurpatur quandoque ratione loci ut quum Ecclesia violatur c. v. Lexicon Martinii more at large Manifestum Furtum est ut ait Massurius quod deprehenditur dum fit Quod autem sit Oblatum quod Conceptum pleráque alia ad eam rem ex egregiis veterum moribus accepta qui legere volet inveniet Sabini Librum cui titulus est de Furtis in quo id quoque Scriptum est non tantum rerum Moventium quae efferri occulté surripi possunt sed Fundi quoque Aedium fieri Furtum Condemnatum quoque Furti Colonum qui Fundo quem conduxerat vendito possessione ejus Dominum intervertisset c. A. Gellii Noct. Attic. lib. XI Cap. 18. Sabinus the Lawyer in A. Gellius expresly extends the word Furtum or Theft to things moveable to Houses or Lands and instanceth in a Farmer condemned of Theft for selling away his Farm ground to the prejudice of his Earthly Landlord The more it concerns us of the Clergy as much as lies in us not to be Accessary by our Silence much less Consent to the Alienation of those Lands whose right of property in Solidum belongs unto our Heavenly Landlord Which weighty Consideration of our Conscience and Duty to God and his Church may not only justifie but magnifie to God and the World the Care and the Courage the Cost and the Pains of those valiant Priests as the Scripture Epithets them in another case 11 Chron. xxvi 17. that do by due course of Justice vindicate and recover the Churche's Patrimony from those late Sacrilegious Invasions that by a monstrous kind of Transubstantiation had turned Lease-holds for years into Freeholds of Inheritance and Tenants into Landlords Thanks be to a good God a good King and a good Parliament that by an happy Restauration hath broken the Damme which formerly obstructed the course of Justice that now according to God's Command Amos v. 24. Judgment may run down as waters and Righteousness as a mighty stream 50. But to return to our Grammar-Boys Posito that the word Furtum were properly no more but so Contrectatio rei alienae Mobilis l. furtum de obligat quae ex delicto That 's only for the word but what is all this to the matter Will it therefore follow that Robbing Naboâ—h of his * 1 King xxi Vineyard was well done of Ahab and no sin at all against the eighth Commandement Thou shalt not steal Because Naboth's Vineyard was no res Mobilis By as good Reason may they affirm Incest or Sodomy or Bestiality or any villany to be no sin or at least no sin of Lust against the seventh Commandement because not properly Adulterium according to the Grammaticality of the word 51. It is a Sin and Theft and Sacriledge and all these to steal but a Chalice Thanks yet for granting so much or to take away a Church-Book for these and no better are their own Instances and shall it be no sin at all to take away those Lands that should maintain the Service or Servants that must serve God with all these what is this if it be not to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Ridiculous Pharisaisme as well as Devilish hypocrisie 52. To commit Sacriledge is a Crime which alone is damnable per se but to teach men so to do that is the Superlative of all wickedness Sure such men do scarce believe there is an Hell or a Kingdom of Heaven or if they believe it and yet break the greatest yea all Gods Commandements in one do not they fear God when he swears that whosoever shall break one of but the least of these his Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven which as (l) Grot. in Matth. v. 18 19. Grotius well observes is not meant of the Place of Heaven for such men except they repent shall never come there but of the Time when the Kingdom of Heaven shall be fulfilled at the end of the World in the great Oecumenical Parliament of Heaven and Earth after the general Resurrection they shall be nothing esteemed of there in that World however they may be cried up here for wise men among the Fools of this World 53. Whom yet to teach more wit at least since they have no more grace Behold ad hominem one Argument more for those kind of men whom neither Scripture nor Reason can do good upon 't is Experience the Mistriss of Fools and yet full out as good and as great a Dame as Mistriss Necessity is this Mistriss Experience especially if the Experience be Universal such as the Experience of all Ages in all Places of all
soberly and ingenuously pondered doth quite alter the Case For 1. As for the Time it was when the Clergy so superabounded in their Revenues that a Law seemed necessary to interpose and restrain the Oblations by Mortmain p Stat. of Mortmain 7. of Edw. 1. When the people brought much more then enough as in Moses Case Exod. xxxvi 5. when the people were so liberal of their Oblations and Donations unto the Clergy That to phrase it with S. Luke chap. vi 38. in an higher sense they seemed as it were pressed down shaken together and running over into their bosoms But now the case is altered there is no great fear in this our Age that the people will over-do in this kinde The notable Subtractions from the Bishopricks and Deans and Chapters in the last Age the multiplied Prescriptions through Covin or Cowardise the Conversion of Lease-holds into Free-holds by incroachments the Decayes of Church-Rents the easie Pines of the Church-men in comparison of Lay-Land-lords the Aggravations by servile Taxes never heard of before now of late laid upon the Clergy such as Bridge-money Roague-money and the like These and much more could be said may sufficiently secure the State from the Clergies Exceedings therefore Distingue Tempora is a wise rule to silence the Objectors 2. As for the place John Huss Arg. 32. fixed his Assertions in the Kingdom of Bohemia whereof he affirms the Clergy had a fourth or third part from which proportion the Clergy of England though very thankful to God and the King for what they have are very far perhaps upon honest computation not the thirtieth part all Reprises duly deducted 3. The Parties against whom John Wickliffe and John Huss positions were directed were the Popish Prelates Abbots c. Shavelings as John Huss Arg. 42. out of Hildegardis Prophecy tearms them i. e. Monks The whole scope of both John Wickliffe and John Huss Positions is against such Clergy-men who did both usurp and also plead Exemption of the Clergy from the Kings Authority N. B. as over their Persons so over their Possessions Whereas the Clergy of England have better learned Christ since Rom. xiii 1. They know and acknowledge that Omnis Anima Every soul must be subject to the higher Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to St. Chrysostoms Loyal Gloss upon the place Though he were an Apostle though he be a Bishop yet must he be subject to the Higher Powers and therefore our Prelates and Church-men do not only profess but also swear due Subjection and Allegiance to the King as Supream in both Respects as over their Persons so in all Causes and therefore over their Possessions Bp. Andrews Tortura Torti Bp. Morton's Causa Regia c. Our Prelates do not only practice due subjection in both these but also to their Power Protect the Kings Supremacy with their Pens and Learned Writings against all Opposers on the right hand and on the left against all whether Anabaptists or Papists so that to confound our Prelates and Church-men with those Prelates and Church-men in John Wickliffe's and John Huss times is a malicious Plot. Certainly here if any where Comparisons are odious To argue thus from the left to the Right what is it but Crassa ignoratio Elenchi a fallacy exploded in the very Schools 4. The matter about which both John Wickliffe and John Huss frame their Arguments is the Clergy offending habitualiter that is as Wickliffe explains it which continue in the custom of sin and will not amend and John Huss Argument 2. instances in Rebellion against the King and Arg. 24. Treason as in the case of Bishop Judas Iscariot as he terms him Heresie as Pope Leo Rapos and other such grievous Crimes enumerated also by the Author in the title of his Appendix to John Wickliffe's Articles c. with which hainous Matters Impudence it self cannot charge our Prelates and other Canonical Church-men who when tried in the fiery furnace of the late Rebellious and Sacrilegious Persecution absit verbo invidia proved generally the most loyal and most constant Subjects of all so as neither Sequestration nor Deprivation nor Banishment nor Torment nor Death it self could prevail upon them to make them renounce their due Allegiance to the King Therefore to tell the King that to take away their Temporalties is neither Sacriledge nor Injustice is such a bad office such an high offence against the Kings Justice as would deserve some Exemplary Correction to deter others from the like presumption against my Lord the King whose Royal Generosity so Hereditary to him from his unparallel'd Father q No Prince in the whole world did ever both in word and deed more abhor the Sin of Sacriledge than the late godly King Charles the First Witness those Divine Lines in his Portraicture especially Sect. 14. Vpon the Covenant No man saith that King can be more forward than my self to carry on all due Reformations with mature Judgment and a good Conscience in what things I shall after impartial advice be by Gods word and right Reason convinced to be amiss I have offered more than ever the fullest freest and wisest Parliaments did desire But the sequel of some mens actions makes it evident that the main Reformation intended is the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery and the Robbing the Church of its Lands and Revenues for no men have been more injuriously used as to their Loyal Rights than the Bishops and Church-men These as the fattest Deer must be destroyed the other Rascal-herd of Schisms Heresies c. being lean may enjoy the benefit of a Toleration Thus Naboth's Vineyard made him the only blasphemer of his City and fit to dye Still I see while the breath of Religion fills the Sails Profit is the Compass by which factious men steer their course in all seditious Commotions Whereupon the King protests his detestation of such sacrilegious Reformation in these words I have alwayes had such a perfect abhorrence of it in my soul that I never found the least Inclination to such sacrilegious Reformings yet no man hath a greater dâ—sire to have Bishops and all Church-men so reformed that they may best deserve and use not only what the pious munificence of my Predecessors hath given to God and the Church but all other additions of Christian Bounty Thus that incomparable Prince of Glorious Memory doth scorn such unworthy Counsel and Councellors as would perswade the King against his gracious Genius to do an Act whereby that Estate I mean the Clergy which suffered most for the King should now also suffer again by the King 5. As for the manner how far both John Wickliffe and John Huss extend or limit their Assertions 'T is to be observed first that as they both still pre-suppose as a ground of just deprivation 1. The notorious abuse of those Revenues or Temporalties of the Clergy 2. The Clergies Contumacy or continuance therein and all this not pretended but proved so secondly
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
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