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
contradict their Cause Always they do it by perverting the Scope which is the Soul of the Text. 10. I could abound with Instances in this kind both old and new but that there is nothing more obvious in the old Records of the Fathers and Councels and the late Pamphlets of our new Hereticks and Schismaticks against all which to forewarn you once for all now if ever take this Apostolical counsel (i) John 4.1 Beloved believe not every spirit nor every Scripture neither If once in the Devil's mouth for thence it comes out with the Devil's breath I mean the Devil 's false sense which to know from the true sense of God's word you need no more but by way of Antidote to remember to make good use of the three premised good Cautions 1. Ware their false glosses 2. Turn over the Key I mean the Coherence of the Text. 3. Mark the scope the soul of the Text according to the Analogie of Faith the Creed or the Rule of a good life the Decalogue The which if you cannot well find out Judicio discretionis of your own selves for that is all is allowed unto your lay-form then for Judicium directionis take God's own Counsel Go and (l) Hag. 2.11 12. ask the Priests concerning the Law they can best tell what is holy what is unholy Will you have God's promise and precept for it implied both in one Text (m) Malac. 2.7 The Priests lips if any should keep knowledge and the People should seek the Law at his Mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts However this Rule may fail in this or that particular Priest yet for the general it holds in the publick Ordinance animated by the publick spirit of the Church especially if the doubt be about matters fundamental and necessary to salvation about which God will never suffer an honest and humble (n) Joh. Parisiens mind seeking for the truth it self unto God by Prayer unto God's Church by obedience to erre finally Enough to discover this dangerous delusion unto you and to free you from the Epidemical contagion in this kind of Scripture-Sacriledge The last head of this Monster that concludes our Distribution of the sin of Sacriledge and our first main part of this Indictment containing matter of Declaration CHAP. IV. Of the Parties against whom the Sin of Sacriledge is committed and first of the Priest as God's Usufructuary only FOllows now the second part in order which contains Matter of Aggravation 1. And it is deduced from the consideration of the Parties against whom the offence of Sacriledge is committed and those ordine Analytico shall be first the Clergy who is God's Vsufructuary invested in God's Name as an holy Corporation in such a Right And therefore secondly God Almighty himself who is the direct Proprietary of all holy Portions 2. First as for the Clergy properly God's * Lexicon Juridic Calvin Ususfructus est jus alienis rebus utendi fruendi salvi rerum substantiâ l. 1. ff de usufr Hot. v. eodem Calv. ad vocem proprietas Usufructuary and no more to it belongeth onely the personal right use or profits for life no longer the real right or property being wholly as I may say resident in God the chief Lord to whom they are dedicated or due so that whatever Conclusions may be pretended to the contrary from the several examples of absolute Alienation publick or private through the iniquity of the Times or Persons are all of them well examined but so many meer Inconsequences à facto ad Jus concluding no more against God's usurped Property then for instance so many examples of popular and it may be for a while as of late through God's permission prosperous Rebellion can justly prescribe for lawfulness of Title against oppressed Monarchy 3. But yet say the Clergy were indeed the very Proprietaries so that the wrong done by Sacriledge did reach no further then the Clergy it self yet were the offence hainous enough seeing that of all other Estates of men the Persons and Possessions too of the Priests have always been Priviledged by all Nations by your own Nation especially till of late witness not to name particular (o) As the Charter of the Church of Carlile wherein King Henry the sixth frees all the Members of that Church from all Taxes Subsidies and Services in and towards the Wars against the Scots their next Neighbours though even then ready upon the Borders to Invade this Kingdom and all this that the Clergy there might the better attend God's Service and pray for the King c. Yet the Laiety of those Times might easily have objected That since the Church of Carlile injoyed a considerable portion of the Lands bordering upon the Enemy they ought to bear a full proportion of the Burdens with the Laity But the truth is in those days your more godly Ancestors did put more trust under God in the Prayers of the Church than in the Purses of the Church and they prospered accordingly Charters your own great Charter (p) Imprimis Concessimus Deo hac praesenti Chartâ nostrâ confirmavimus pro nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit habeat omnia Jura sua Integra libertates suas Illaesas c. These be the words of King Henry the third Anno 9o. Ch. 1. grounded upon an ancient Law found Inter leges seu Institutiones Regis H. 1. c. 1. whose Tenour is here inserted and made a part of Magna Charta in these words Sanctam Dei Imprimis Ecclesiam liberam facio ita quod nec vendam nec ad firmam ponam c. Magna Charta a fundamental Law and one of the main Bulwarks of all your several Properties and Liberties and for that Reason Confirmed no less then Two and thirty times by your several Parliaments and therefore beware lest if you go on still to Undermine this National Foundation only to oppress one main State of the Nation the Clergy you do not unawares by such Sacrilegious Precedents open a Gap into your own temporal Estates or Lay-Inheritances in after-times for God is just Observe therefore how your Magna Charta begins with an Imprimis A Grant unto God that the Church of England shall be free and have all its Rights entire words of largest extent and all its Liberties inviolable By vertue of which general words the Church hath as good ground even in Law to demand and to defend her Ecclesiastical Rights and Liberties as any of you for your Temporal Rights or Intails whatsoever 4. Sir Edward * The second part of the Institutes pag. 2. Coke's gloss upon it is well worth the notice Concessimus Deo we have granted to God when any thing saith he is granted for God it is deemed in Law to be granted to God and WHATSOEVER IS GRANTED TO HIS CHURCH FOR HIS HONOUR AND THE MAINTENANCE OF HIS RELIGION AND SERVICE
into Superstition Sacriledge then stood ready to knock at their Gates but the good Porter kept the door close And again of late did not the Sacrilegious Sects press sore upon the Universities offering violence ready to break the door Had not as I may say the Universities Provincial Angels †Dan. xi 13 21. Gen. xix 9. protected them and smitten those Sons of Belial like the men of Sodom who came to commit a Rape upon them with blindness that they could not finde the Door for there wanted nothing but opportunity and may they still want it But this we may be sure of there wants not even at this day whole Herds of brutish Schismaticks and furious Fanaticks that still cry down all manner of learning as superfluous nay as a base Badge of Antichrist Do you believe those wilde Beasts if they had full power to their mad will would count it Sacriledge to pull down the Colledges or favour the Vniversities more then the Churches which when they reigned and raged they by the Spirit turned into Stables who knows but what hath been may be except God and the King prevent it 11. Since to compass this Audacious Project you may observe that the Arguments they produce are as groundless as their Pretences are false drawn from Religion from Policy their Religious Pretencesâ— 1. Of Zeal for Purity of Religion 2. For a Powerful Ministry Their Politick Pretences 1. Of Justice upon Delinquents 2. The Publick Peace 3. State-Necessity 4. Legislative Power which duly examined have proved as you have seen either black Calumnies or else false Colours which once brought to the light of Truth and Reason do signifie just nothing for it we dare appeal to meer rational men that we say not Christians Nay I am verily perswaded that some of them in their own Consciences cannot but sometimes Doubt at least that their Distinctions and Extenuations may then want Christs Approbation when Christ himself shall charge them with Sacriledge and Rebellion at the day of Judgment and then what will become of the miserable Authors Since one day all of you single or Assembled high and low rich and poor one with another must be Judged not by your RAGION DI STATO but by your RIGHT RELIGION TO GOD TRUE ALLEGIANCE TO THE KING AND DUTIFUL OBEDIENCE TO HOLY CHURCH TOO UNDER GOD. 12. Since when these Projectors perceive the Impotency of their Arguments yet still to bring about their Injurious Ends their Practices are so violent their Machinations so Mahumetan so bloody for the Devil was a Murderer from the beginning John viii 44. and therefore will still be doing his own work his own way nothing else but a Train of Multiplied Conspiracies and Rebellions against both Church and King so lately overflowing all over three whole Christian Kingdoms with such a Deluge of Sin Schisme and Christian Blood as a Turk would blush at to see or suffer to be thus wilfully spilt among his own Mahumetans you may justly and that also i Matth. vii 20. infallibly know them by their fruits by the baseness of their Course judge of the goodness of their Cause fortified with nothing else but a new Usurped Power under-propt by a multiplication of Seditious and Schismatical Covenants for Form and Matter Authority and Ends all of them in aâ—l these point-blank to all the several National Covenants mentioned in Holy Scriptures Believe us not but search and try it your k There are but SIX NATIONAL COVENANTS mentioned in all the whole Bible and all of them 1. Both given and taken by the Kings Authority never a Covenant of them all imposed without much less against Sovereign Authority 2. They were meerly Religious Covenants not Politick no STATE-COVENANTS 3. If as in Esra's Case King Artaxerxes expresly moved by Evil Councellors such as Bishlam Tabeel and his fellowâ— did forbid the going on with it or with the publick Reformation then they accordingly left of all till God sent them another better King till a Darius gives them leave to go on with it again yet were those Kings to whom the People of God shewed so much Respect and Duty but meer Heathen nay humanitûs loquendo Usurpers also But had it been as is pretended the Nations Duty to Reform Religion without nay against the Kings leave then they ought to have suffered the utmost rather then to have sinned by the Sâ—rcease of such a Necessary duty This is all clear Scripture read it and believe it accordingly the several places are extant in Josh 24.25 2 Kings 11.4 2 Chron. 15.12 and 29.10 and 34.30 and Ezra 10 3. and 4.23 24. selves Sealed with so many Execrable Counter Oaths Positive Ngative inforced upon all men within their Line of Communication as I may call it This is LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE indeed when no man may buy or sell except he have THE MARK OF THE BEAST Rev. 13 1â— one or other in his right hand or in his forehead Sure as it argues that Building must needs be very weak or else very rotten that needs so many more then ordinary Props to keep it from falling So likewise it declares plainly that Scelus Pavidum est it is a Malignant sign this that they sore suspect the Honesty or Strength in the end of their own Cause which makes them for very fear use so many sinister means to harden their miserable Complices in a brazen obstinacy against God against the King against the Church and against all those other good things that belong unto their Peace that so as much as in them lies they may save the Devil himself the labour and Cauterize the Consciences of their poor deluded Proselytes for what is all this if it be not to Seal men under utter Impenitency against all possible Touches of Remorse lest any of those whom they have so inveigled or ingaged or indeed directly compelled into their Inhumane Conjuration perceiving by the Event God Almighties sore displeasure at these hellish Confusions and being at the last it may be touched in Conscience with the horrors of so many National Mischiefs in Church and State so much Christian Blood streaming of all sides of them in all Quarters and crying aloud for Gods Vengeance upon themselves and the whole Land might as in Conscience they are bound under pain of Damnation notwithstanding all their Unjust Oaths which being ill taken are m In malis promissis réscinde fidem in turpi voto mâ—ta Decretum Isidor hispalâ— Illicitum praestare tenetur nemo Herods keeping of his Oath and cutting off John Baptists head was far worse than the taking it Mark 6.26 far worse kept give over at last their Damnable Rebellion and so by their Repentance never to be repented of hazard the further Prosecution and utterly prevent the Perfection of the Devils great Master-Plot in some respects far beyond the horror of the Gun-Powder-Plot it self or any Plot new or old 13. And yet since for all these Furious Attempts
of Christ my Dear Husband the Saviour of your souls Eph. iv 3 4 5 6. By all the Seven Unities of the Holy Ghost one Body one Spirit one Hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all By the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity three Persons and one God Ah my Sons I adjure you by all these most Holy Tyes and Interests Reverence my gray hairs Do not by one for ever fatal Bargain sell away for nothing Isa ix 5. but Garments rolled in Blood all that Sacred Truth all that Solemn Devotion Ancient Dignity and Religious Decency all that Beauty of Holiness all that Christian Glory which I through so great Opposition of whole Legions of Hereticks and Schismaticks through so much Persecution by the old and new Tyrants through so many Martyrdomes have been laying up for your these full sixteen r That 't is so long since Christian Religion as it here now stands by Law Established both for Matter of Doctrine and for Form of Government also was first planted here in Britain there needâ— no witness more authentical then old Gildas de Excidio Britanniae who there expresly affirms that he knows it so to be true placing the age of it Summo Tibeâ—ii Caesaris tempore about the xxxv year of Christ as Baronius reckons it For Tiberius dyed in the 37. year of our Lord So Eusebius Pamphili in Chronico hundred years Betray not now at last your Old Mother to the scorn and spoil of Sacrilegious and seditious men your own Consciences know they were at their best estate no better then FORTUNATE REBELS that will lay yours and the whole Nations and all your Mothers Honour in the dust Is this all your thanks to me for my Religious care and holy cost in your gracious Education Is this all the Respect you shew to the Memory of your pious ANCESTORS Is this all the Regard you have of the eternal welfare of your tender POSTERITY will you now in a manner Unchristen your selves and them all will you wilfully venture your selves and your Successors upon the sharp Swords-point of so many Ancient Execrations Authentick Curses not causless nor powerless as Sacrilegious Purchasers blinded with their great god Mammon may prophanely fancy but Curses deserved curses effectual also just Imprecations zealously denounced against all unjust Violators of the Wills and Testaments of the Religious Donors Ah rather turn again my Sons and save the blazing Candlestick that is even now upon going out from Utter Removal Except you will leave all your Successors after you for ever in utter darkness Vindicate the Ancient glory of your slaunder-beaten Å¿ Tollite hoc Ingens Scandalum toti Orbi Christiano objectum Eluite illam maculam aspersam Professioni purloris Evangelii adversari illam arcano quodam odio Regnis Potestalibus V. D. Deodati Genevens Responsum ad Conventum Ecclesiasticum Londini Religion never till now guilty of such Doctrines of Devils Redeem the Credit of your Justly Defamed-Nation for the dire Parracides of a Rebellious party yet reaking with the Sacred Blood of your own King the Holy Blood of your own Patriarch Oh shew your selves once more Christians indeed and Right Englishmen like true Patriots rescue your turmoyled Country from Ingruent Captivity for else in the ordinary course of Gods Judgements that must be the next To foretel which fatal and final destiny needs no new Spirit of Prophecy the great Prophet so long before pointed at by Moses t Deut. xviii 18. hath told it you long ago u Mat. xii 25. Regnum divisum desolabitur a Kingdom divided against it self as yours is now so many wayes both in Church and State must needs come to Desolation open your eyes therefore and behold if yet you can the usual and infallible prognostick of it DEMENTATION Quos vult perdere Jupiter hos DEMENTAT 17. If you wish to see once more within this once so fortunate Island Christs Religion in its purity the Church your Mother at Unity the King your Father in his Beauty the People your Brethren in their Duty O do not you any of you whom it may concerns through Impatiency or Unbelief do that one Act that at once may undo all these and your selves eternally 18. If you be wise u Acts 5.38 39 Refrain from these men for they are the men of God lest you be found in the end really to fight even against God Refrain from those means they are the Demesnes of God 'T is a clear case 't will be no sin to let them alone but it may be a sin nay it must be a sin sure enough to meddle with them for they are the Means hallowed to maintain his Service and his Servants and indeed to preserve your own souls in Christs true Religion But if in despight of Father and Mother King and Church and God and all you should go on desperately and touch either the men or the means know that it will prove an Achan an accursed thing unto you and to the whole Nation and make you fall worse and worse before your Enemies till you fall quite down never to rise up again according to the Curse of Moses Deut. xxxiii 11. how will you answer one day for you must one day answer for all these the Dead and the Living the Church and the State the present and future age God and your own Consciences For to all your other National Sins and those not a few new and old and those no Moats or Gnats can you adde a greater sin than this to fill up the full measure of your sins What will ye in earnest put God Almighty to it will you try Masteries with your God who shall carry it Did ever any Person or Nation contend with God and prosper saith Holy Job will you thus requite God to take away his own Job ix 34. who hath hitherto so freely given you all that you can call your own yea who hath made you all yea who hath with his own precious Blood bought you all yea as you regard or dis-regard his Cause even this Cause the Cause of his Service and Servants who except such of you as are concerned speedily prevent it by Repentance and Restitution also to some Satisfaction hath absolute Power indeed Eternally to destroy you all Body and Soul 19. From such Total Final and Eternal Destruction that God Almighty may deliver this so lately desolate Church King and Kingdom may we all now at last turn our fierce Disputes of all sides into fervent Devotions each for other for * Nunc nil nisi vota supersunt Praesidiis omnibus terrestribus cessantibus divina sunt aggredienda quae nunquam incassum cessere Haec ratio efficere posset quod à bello Civili utcunqueres cadat neutiquam sperari possit ut voluntariâ animorum flexione plenè
which most prophanely the Vulgar use to turn their Backs though they should know that Judas fot departing before all was done met the Devil at the Door John 13.27 Yet know you must at last that God is not mocked Though the Priest over-awed by the general Vogue should not dare to complain against the Incroachments upon his Person Office Provision or Priviledges but is forced as the Prudent man Amos v. 13. to keep silence in such a time because it is an evil time Yet our God shall come and shall not keep silence And then there shall go before him a consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him Psalm 50.3 Will you hear God himself speak this out unto you in Thunder and Lightning Then behold in (r) Malachy iii. 7. ad fin Malachy God himself draws up the full Indictment and himself also pronounces the heavy Sentence upon it against all sacrilegious Pretenders or Purchasers 1. God begins with an Emphatical Interrogation Will a man rob God intimating the Unnaturalness of this sin will a man any man Jew or Christian or Heathen were not this a sin against the Law of Nature God would not have used such a general term as this that includes all Mankind for were this a sin onely against the Law Levitical it would have concerned none but the Jew 2ly Will a man rob or kick against his own God so rhe (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuagint do render it Will a man Supplant or cast his own God under feet as it were To intimate what an Oracle of your (t) LE DECAY DES REVENUES DE HOMES DE SAINT ESGLISE EN LE FINE SERRA SUBVERSION DEL SERVICE DE DIEU ET DE SON RELIGION Sir Edw. Coke L'evesque de Winchester's Case where he gives an irrefragable Reason by way of instance in the two most grievous Persecutions the one under Diocletian who yet did onely by his cruelty occidere Presbyteros so that notwithstanding Religion did flourish The other under Julian the Apostate who by his Sacriledge and subtilty did Occidere Presbyterium and this was the far more grievous Persecution of the two because in a little time there did insue such neglect of God's Service and such gross Ignorance of God's true Religion as greatly decayed the Christian Profession The Reason is plain For God cannot be served without Men nor Men be maintained without Means Law sadly presageth that Sacriledge if not prevented or remedied will be the downfal in the end of God's Church and of God's whole Worship and Service A Sacrilegious or but slovenly Religion ends commonly so in down-right Atheisme †Dr. Gauden above Consequently all the Parts of the State it self Noble and Ignoble will in the end be enfeebled abased and mortified when the Ministers of the Church of Christ are obstructed or exhausted They being as the Arteries of the Body Politick in any Nation State or Kingdom which is Christian as they who Ex officio are to derive and carry from the Head which is Jesus Christ the vital and best that is the Religious Spirits to all the Parts of the Body 3ly Will a man rob God his own God this still aggravates the Offence and the imputation thereof appears so odious to the guilty Jews that they straight-ways seem to deny it even then when God directly charges them with it yet ye have robbed me They would plead not guilty saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein have we robbed thee 4ly All along you may please to apply all this and to observe the Impudeney of this sin and how of all other sins 't is hard to convince of much more to convert a Church-Robber from his Sacriledge he is so intrenched in it with so many Shifts and Evasions Distinctions and Extenuations why and wherein to out-face if possible even the Charge of God himself Yes saith God ye have robbed me and if you will know wherein In Tythes and Offerings well and fully the learned Italian * Nelle Decime c. Ritenendo a voi quello che à di questi miei diritti è del fornimento del mio servigio è del sostentamento dè miei Ministri c. Diodati on this place Ye have robbed me in Detaining those my Rights which should support my Service and maintain my Servants In as much as you have done it to one of those that belongs to me you have done it to me so Saint (u) Si enim per alios visitatur in Carcere aegrotus suscipitur esuriens sitiensque cibum accipit atque potatur cur non in Ministris suis ipse Decimas accipiat si non dentur parte suâ ipse privetur Subtrahendo Decimas Primitias non dico Sacerdotibus meis Levitis sed mihi fraudastis me parte meâ c. Hieron in 3. Malach. Hierom on this very place alluding to God's irrevocable Sentence at * Mat. 25. Dooms-day This will be as true in malam as in bonam partem For even as God interprets our ordinary Acts of Charity as done to himself because done to his Servants at large so on the contrary and that à majori too will God take those Acts of Irreligious Injustice or Sacriledge against his immediate Servants as committed against himself whether he be Jew or Christian that commits it whether the Fact be committed under the Law or under the Gospel the Sentence you see is one and the same for both In which Sentence by the way may be worth the observing the full value of the word GIVING I was an hungred and you GAVE me Meat I was thirsty and you GAVE me Drink c. where giving in its native sense and full signification is a word of Relation that naturally implieth Receiving as its Correlatum And this must needs exclude Rejection so that here Men's Devotion and God's Acceptance kiss each other For else unless God did accept those Pious works he could not properly have said you gave me but you (x) Isa 66.3 He that offereth an oblation is as if he offered Swins blood offered me as in some other places wherein he rejects the Offering This in a glance by occasion of Saint Hierom's parallel of that place of Saint Matthew with this of Malachy 5. I but haply those Jews might plead hereditary Prescription for what they did now detain from the Priests they came honestly to it by Descent from their Ancestors yet all that is nothing for God Non-suits that Plea also v. 7. Even from the days of your Fathers you are gone away from mine Ordinances to wit by continuing in your Father's Sacrilegious steps so Saint (y) In quo reverti Jubentur in eo recesserant c. Hieron quo suprá Hierom expounds it still so far is Age then or Continuance in sin or injury from acquiring a just Title either by the Law of Man * Quod initio vitiosum est non potest