if they cannot be vvell till like the Vine-dressers in the Gospel they hate and mis-use the Lords Servants nay desire to kill the Heir that the Inheritance may be theirs vvhose blasted Posterity hath no little hopes of recruiting their scattered Estates out of the old Reserve of the Church Publick hatred being the ready vvay to make the Church-Lands their private prey For this purpose have the Lay-brethren continued the practice of their Faction in Q. Elizabeth's days in clapping silenced Ministers and Non-conformists and Lecturers on the back and follovving their Sermons setting them at the upper end of the Tables and seeking by all means to prvcure them Credit and Favor vvith the People not that they cared for them or for Religion or for Christ himself but hoping that by the violent Course vvhich they savv these men run into the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy vvould grovv so odious that it vvould in time be a small matter to dispossess them of all their Livings vvhereof some portion might come to their shares Which publick hatred of the Clergy was not a little increased upon a Jealousie occasioned by the Activeness of some Bishops and others of the Clergy in seeking by Law to recover some Church-revenue out of the Usurpers clutches otherwise mentioned in this Book that they began to argue if the Clergy should advance in the Favour of the King and the People their preaching against Sacriledge may prevail to the touching of their Copyholds and it 's the unhappiness of the Clergy that most of their Lands are occupied by Men grown too great by their Leases to be accounted Farmers and as much regreating the name of Tenants to such Landlords whom they think they may command And this bred the like hatred in London and other Incorporations and Nests of the Faction against the City-Clergy upon their suit for increase of Tithes in City-Livings which are generally of very small value and depend upon peoples Benevolence a thing of dangerous consequence in a Kingdom upon the Statute of Hen. 8. allowing two shilling nine pence per pound of the Rent of houses which Statute to evade the Lawyers and Scriveners have invented a plain Cheat by a Lease and a Lease that Houses of 50 l. Rent per Annum shall scarce pay 5 or 10 s. Tithe per Annum which so netled the Purse-proud Londoners accounting Tithes but as Gift or Alms that they would rather spend at Law or give a Lecturer of their own choice twice as much as their full Tithe came to than pay their Dues to the Parson a Word made their Scoff that Two shillings nine pence was an usual Nick name for any Divine as he walked through the Streets though the Clergy in their moderate Rates demanded not above twelve pence per pound and this seeking by Law to recover their due was call'd by the covetous World Tâ—â— covetousness of the Clergy 3. There was another sin of the Clergy as much talked of that was forsooth The Pride of the Clergy what was that Why Time having spent the old Stock of Sir John's planted into Churches in the hurly-burly days of Queen Elizabeth Illiterate Mechanicks and such who could but Write and Read and gather in Tithes for the Patron 's use with Curchees for some Wages for their Journey-work hereby villifying the Sacred Function as in these our Times and men of Worth and Learning sprung into their places Peace of the Church bringing Religion into request and Credit so that some Noblemen Gentlemen and men of Estates began to spend on their Children as much as would make them rich in another Calling only to fit them for the Priesthood besides Lands of Inheritance or money left as their Portions These were not like to betray the honour of the Church and of the Sacred Function to become the continual servants of men who especially in London thought Stipends of 40 l. per annum enough for any Clergy-man though he had Wife and Children Sir N. R. a Rich Alderman being desired to encrease his contribution to a Minister because he was a man of much Merit answered if the Minister were an Angel from Heaven he should have of him but ten shillings per Quarter And that any of the Clergy should be made Justice of the Peace or Officer of State as indeed who so fit to keep Love and Peace among Neighbours And I have heard the Officers and Retainers to the Treasury confess that they were never so well used as when a Bishop was Lard Treasurer was made such an Eye-sore in the Peoples Sight by the Faction especially the swarm of Lawyers not taken notice of though put into Commissions men of a meer Mercinary profession raising great Fortunes upon the Sins and Ruines of their Country unlike to prove Justices of Peace who live by â—â—aking Contention and Strife among Neighbours and from that small happy number of Lawyers in England Anno Domini 1555. which John Stow mentioned but two men of Law at the Kings Bench Bar and at the Common Pleas but one Serjeant yet had they nothing to do all that Michaelmas Term and yet no tempus belli have increased into an Incorporation of many thousands of rich and potent Leading men in all Corners of the Kingdom many advanced in the esteem of the People by their opposing the King's Prerogative under pretence of Law That not the King but their Law kept every man in his Right though since the King hath been eclipsed these seven years whom hath their Law kept in their Right Therefore when Judge Cook told King James that the Law kept the Crown upon his Head the King well replied Thou lyest Traytor it is I that maintain the Law And as malicious Enemies have too many Lawyers been to the Church knowing well that if the Clergy should grow into esteem and power to be Justices of the Peace they would plant in Charity and so spoil the Trade of Lawyers whose private gain hath been stiled the flourishing of the Law that not a Lawyer in a Parish but commonly was the Parson's busie Enemy and it is still in the Lawyers hearts and mouths that the Archbishop would have hindered their Law Did not such Interests facilitate belief he that had seen the habit of the Clergy in our days would wonder wherein lay the pride of the Clergy for who wore plainest Garments were most maligned but I forget the pride of the Wives of the Clergy in their Apparrel Those that were guilty I excuse not yet I must profess I knew very few thus justly taxed but such was the pride of English Women especially the Gentry that with much scorn and envy they would look at a Clergy-man's Wife if cloathed as well as themselves though their Birth and Portions and their Husband 's temporal Estate were known able to maintain it sometimes better than the other and in London every Woman whose Husband perhaps paid but twelve pence Tyth per Quarter thought
many thousands of them can witness the sad conclusion of the woful premises of this Book yet this Tyranny and persecution of the Clergy is stiled the justice of Parliament and the power of Reformation of Religion whereof the Reader may here see a pattern in the cruel sufferings of the Clergy of London presented in a general Bill of Mortality to which these papers may serve for a short Commentary till God send better days of enlarging the story by a more full Collection the very naming of the persons in that Bill being generally men of known honest Lives and constant painful preaching that the Earl of Northumberland discoursing with Mr. Calamy for so have the engaged Nobility prostituted their honour to the Courting of each Fanatical Lecturer and Pedant of whom indeed they stand in awe about the supplying of above fifty Churches in London void of Ministers told Mr. Calamy that they must restore some of the Sequestred Clergy of London to which Mr. Calamy replying God forbid the Earl said unless they did so the Parliament could not find men of abilities to preach in London The naming I say of those men were enough to shame the Father of Lyes and his Fanatical Sons were not both past shame and to vindicate the rest of the abused Clergy of England as well sure as the Personal faults of some few and those very few be made the scandal of the whole Function and yet who so cruelly persecuted as these London-Divines will ye know the reason thereof The Fanatical design growing high pitched upon three main engines to compleat their work vid. the setting up the Militia the seising of the Navy and the planting in of Lecturers and it 's hard to say which of these three have done their new Masters best service this last being the ready way to obtain the two former whereunto much conduced the feigned fears and jealousies raised by the Faction in the City as also by several Votes and Declarations of Parliament of Forreign invasions from abroad and secret dangers at home no sooner bruited abroad than believed by a people deceiving and willing to be deceived whereby the Faction in Parliament desiring a Guard refused the Trained Bands of Middlesex profer'd by the King to satisfie their fears confiding rather in the Citizens of London purposely to engage that City to maintain them in whatsoever wickedness they should act their chiefest care being to make sure of London the head and fountain of this proud and cruel blood-thirsty Faction therefore to keep and encrease this power in the City they knew Jeroboams Calf-policy in altering Religion and the Priesthood would be necessary for their plot of a new Government to which purpose they at first invented these tricks and formalities of Justice against the Clergy till having got the power their Sword should make good the Sequestring and Removal of those especially in London who were not like to Apostatize from Religion and Loyalty in ceasing to preach to the people to fear God and the King according to the Scriptures hereby making way to plant in their own Creatures and Ministers to deifie the Calves of their own setting up this made the Faction in the House of Commons never to transmit any Bills against any particular accused Clergy-man to the House of Peers where indeed lay judiciary power to a Legal hearing but knowing well such foggy charges would soon vanish at the face of Justice these evil spirits kept on their course of casting mists before the peoples eyes to make them think that the lights of the Church burned so dimme that it was necessary to snuff them or quite put them out This is the true reason of their cruelty towards the London-Clergy and indeed to the whole Clergy of England and this wicked policy drew on this sad story following A General Bill of the Mortality of the Clergy of London or a Brief Martyrology and Catalogue of the Learned Grave Religious and Painful Ministers of the City of London who have been Imprisoned Plundered barbarously used and deprived of all Livelihood for themselves and their Families in these last years for their constancy in the Protestant Religion establisht in this Kingdom and their Loyalty to their Soveraign THe Cathedral Church of Saint Pauls the Dean Residentiaries and other Members of that Church sequestered plundered and turned out Alhallows Woodstreet Dr. Wats sequestred plundred his Wife and Children turned out of doors himself forced to fly Alhallows Barkin Dr. Lafield pursuivanted imprisoned in Ely-house and the ships sequestred and plundred afterwards forced to fly Alhallows Breadstreet Alhallows Great Alhallows Hony-lane Alhallows Less Alhallows Lumbardstreet Mr. Weston sequestered Alhallows Staining Alhallows the Wall Alphage Dr. Halsie shamefully abused his Cap pulled off to see if he were not a shaven Priest voted out and dead with grief Andrew Hubbard Dr. Chambers sequestered Andrew Undershaft 1. Mr. Mason through vexation forced to resigne 2. Mr. Prichard after that sequestered Andrew Wardrobe Dr. Isaacson sequestered Anne Aldersgate Dr. Clewet sequestered Anne Black-friars Antholins Parish Austins Parish Mr. Udal sequestred his Bed-rid Wife turned out of doors and left in the streets Bartholmew Exchange Dr. Grant sequestered Bennet Fynck Mr. Warfield sequestered Bennet Grace-Church Mr. Quelch sequestered Bennet Pauls-wharfe Mr. Adams sequestered Bennet Sheerhog Mr. Morgan dead with grief Botolph Billingsgate Mr. King sequestered and forced to fly Christ-Church Mr. 〈◊〉 turned out and dead Christophers Mr. Hanslowe forced to resigne Clement East-cheap Mr. Stone shamefully abused sequestred sent Prisoner to Plymouth and plundered Dionys Back-Church Mr. Humes sequestered and abused Dunstans East Dr. Childerley reviled abused and dead Edmonds Lumberstreet Mr. Paget molested silenced and dead Ethelborough Mr. Clark sequestered imprisoned Faiths Dr. Browne sequestered and dead Fosters Mr. Batty sequestered plundered forced to fly and dead Gabriel Fench-Church Mr. Cooke sequestered Geo. Botolf-l Dr. Stiles forct to resign Greg. by St. P. Dr. Stiles forct to resign Hellens Mr. Miller turned out and dead James Dukes place Mr. 〈◊〉 sequestered James Garlick-hythe 1. Mr. Freeman plundered and sequestered 2. Mr. Anthony his Curate turned out John Baptist Mr. Weemsly sequestered John Evangelist John Zachary Mr. Edlyn sequestered forced to fly and plundered Katherine Coleman 1. Dr. Hill forced to resigne 2. Mr. Kibbuts sequestered Katherine Cree-church Mr. Rush turned out Laurence Jury Mr. Crane sequestered Laurence Pountney Leonard Eastcheap Mr. Calfe forced to give up to Mr. Roborow Scribe to the Assembly Leonard Foster-lane Mr. Ward forced to fly plundered sequestered and dead for want of necessaries Margaret Lothbury Mr. Tabor plundered imprisoned in the Kings-Bench his Wife and Children turned out of doors at midnight and he sequestered Margaret Moses Margaret New Fishstreet Mr. Pory forced to fly plundered and sequestered Margaret Pattons Mr. Meggs plundered imprisoned in Ely-house and sequestered Mary Abchurch Mr. Stone plundered sent Prisoner by sea to Plymouth and sequestered Mary Aldermanbury Mary Aldermary Mr. Browne forced to
Judges of Divinity When Lawyers perk into a Chair for Religion and Coblers preach both alike lawful no marvail if Religion be voted illegal and the Priests be thought to go so awry and in these times to the Lawyer must the Divine go if he will preach without fear of being made a scandalous Minister or imprisoned for every Sermon I have known some twenty shillings Fees given to a Lawyer to plead at the Committee for Religion in the behalf of some Doctrines preached in a Sermon for which the Preacher never got twenty pence no defence being left for the Priests Doctrine or officiating in sacris unless allowed by an Act of Parliament or some common Law-trick insomuch that a Learned Doctor of Divinity being accused of Popery for calling the Communion-Table an Altar alledging the Scripture in the Hebrews Habemus Altare we have an Altar of which they may not eat meant of the Christian Eucharist could not hereby be acquitted of the Popery but producing the words of an Act of Parliament of Edward the Sixth yet unrepealed calling the Eucharist the Sacrament of the Altar the Committee for Religion were fully answered And several Actions at common Law of Assault and Battery were brought against a Divine in Essex who out of zeal to Gods house as the Priests did with Vzziah thrust some people out of his Church who sending for Cakes and Ale from an Ale-house were prophanely carousing on the Lords Table in the Church yet could not this Crime be admitted a lawful plea in the Common Law to save the Minister harmless from being overthrown in the Action but consulting with a Lawyer he was advised to plead his institution and induction into the said Church where the fact was done and so by a Rule in the Law that any man may thrust another out of his House if he behave himself uncivilly therein the Minister was secured from the Actions of Assault and Battery so that would our Saviour now beat out the buyers and sellers from the Temple the Lawyers would afford an Action against him of Assault and Battery And not long before this Parliament did the Lawyers find out ways of Indicting Clergy-men at the publick Assizes for standing up at the Creed or for denying to give the Sacrament to people obstinately refusing to kneel at the receiving thereof and to come up to the Rails about the Holy Table that I have known some Sectaries in London command their servants to go to the Sacrament and to sit in the lower places of the Church to try whether the Minister would bring the Sacrament to them in their seats that so they might have an Action of Law against the Minister or else complain against him to the Parliament nor will it be too long a digression to remember a former vent of the Fanaticks malice in a Parliament at the beginning of King Charles his Reign urging strongly a motion of making Adultery death in a Clergy-man but not in any other person purposely to throw scorn on that profession and how safe any Clergy mans life should have been may the conspiracy of the Lady Laurence witness against a grave Divine which the justice of the Star-chamber found out and censured righteous judgment no doubt is to be expected when such a malitious Faction shall get power to make themselves Judges of the Clergy as now they have done Good God! have our Preachers been these Eighty years confuting the superstition of the Papists to be made the stalking horses to a Sacrilegious Superstitious and Rebellious Faction by whom themselves are at last crowed down for Papists under the same pretence of Reformation having been taught to hate Popery without discretion no marvail if such people now question their Teachers and think they have forfeited their power and knowledge to them whom they have taught no better and what use these men have made of this pretended power let their own actions testifie But that they may seem to be no usurpers of any power at first they derided at Episcopacy or Monarchy but that is not the subject of this discourse to be Jure Divino though never so plain in the 10. of St. Luke by Christs Election of 12 Apostles and 72 Disciples of an inferiour order out of which Mathias was in the first of the Acts preferred to be numbred with the 11 in the room of Judas and were there any scruple who more fitting to resolve the doubt than those who lived in the Apostles time as did Ignatius whose works as also the continued succession of Bishops in all Christian Churches for 1500 years together were argument enough to those who have not denyed their Faith forgetting their Creed I believe the holy Catholick Church And against such men a Christian ought not to dispute But now began new principles of Divinity to be broached by the new State-Chaplains vid. That the Law of nature bade the Parliament that is the House of Commons the peoples Representatives to reassume all power into their hands it being so universally complained of that the King and the Bishops had abused their trust intending to ruine the Kingdom and destroy Religion the two great bugbears wherewith the Fanatical Faction who felt the pulses of the people beating strongly after property or Religion kept the people continually affrighted and it being as generally believed for qua volumus facile credimus that all power in Church and Common-wealth was derived from the people and their Representatives and not from God immediately Aristotles Politicks is made Scripture for this new Divinity and surely an excellent Religion will nature teach Christians to justifie what they have or shall do so manifestly against the Law of God and man If this argument be not strong enough their Lecturers who were wont in former Parliaments also to attend the House of Commons door making Legs to the Members in transitu praying their Worships to remember the Gospel by which they meant their Presbytery these preach to them that their power to Reform Religion is Jure Divino why forsooth because the people called them thereunto and vox Populi est vox Dei was their beloved unquestionable Oracle indeed vox populi cried up Rebellious Absalom against his King and Father Vox populi cryed against our Saviour Crucifie him Crucifie him Vox populi called for the Golden Calf from whence to the silver-Smiths of Diana Scripture may teach us that Argumentum pessimi turba and that in Religion vox populi is rather vox Diaboli than Dei. Yet this vox populi must choose our Religion and Religion-makers but who gave the people power to choose the Kings writ for Elections then all power is not in the people nor can any Electors invest their Elected with the jus Tertii for nemo potest plus juris transferre in alium quam ipse habet the power of the Kings and of the Church being not in the peoples power to commit to their Trustees Laws