nihilque cujuspiaâ— privatum esset sed in commune bonum That the Bishops should receive the Churches Possessions and grounds offered to the Faithful and that the profits thereof should be divided by the Clergy man by man and that nothing should be of private propriety to any one but in common amongst them all And Gratian tels us that by a decretal Epistle unto all the Bishops he decreed that none should presume to alienate ought of the Church Revenues under the pain of Excommunication And Pope Lucius the I. about twenty years after Vrban directed an Epistle to the Bishops of Spain and France to the same purpose And though the malice of Dr. Burges towards the Bishops will not suffer him to yield that King Lucius gave the Lands of the Idol-Priests unto â—ide Flor. hist ad an 186. Matth. Westm the Christian Bishops yet is it clear enough out of Antiquit. Brit. and Armachanus that Lucius endowed the Christian Church with more Lands and Revenues then the Idol-Priests injoyed And afterwards while it was permitted by the Imperial Laws for every one to Collate upon the Church whatsoever he would without exception their Donations were so great that the Kings and Emperours conceived Cod. l. 1. titulo 5. l. 1. it fit with Moses to grant a prohibition that they should not offer any more nor bestow any Lands or Goods upon the Church without some special licence and toleration from the Civil Magistrate for fear that the Church if this freedome of Donations should still continue would have sucked out all the blood from the veins and the marrow out of the bones of the poliâ—ick body and so leave the Common-Wealth deprived of their Lands like Pharaohs lean and evil-favoured Cows and the Church like those that were fat and wel-liked And therefore they enacted the Statute of Mortmain that was a sâ—persedeas against these too-liberal contributions and the Emperour Justinian enacted that no Legacy bequeathed unto the Church exceeding the value covetousness and hath advised you to give unto Caesar what is due to Caesâ—r and you know that his Wars and the affairs of the Common-wealth are very chargeable unto him and we know that your profession is not to hoord up wealth and to make account of transitory things And therefore if you be pleased to forgo those lands and riches and vessels of Gold and Silver which you have and care not for I will warrant you both safety of life and freedom to use your Religion according to your Conscience To whom the godly man answered That he desired three dayes liberty Pâ—udent Peâ—istâ—ph to return his resolution and by the third day he had gathered together a multitude of poor lame blind impotent men and women whose names he delivered up in a Schedule into the Tyrant's hands and said These are the goods of the Church for whom I am but the Steward of those goods that you desire and my Master commanded me to keep for them and for his Service A blessed man that herein shewed he feared God more than man And I would all our Bishops that have alienated and past away the lands houses and pâ—ssessions of the Church in long Leases and Fee-ferms unto their children and friends for a trifling rent only reserved unto their successors had had some part of this good mans spirit for then the Church of Christ had not been left so naked as it is But you may remember the Canon that I quoted to you before which saith If any Bishop do grant the Tythes or other possessions of the Church Caus 16. qu. 7. c. 3. Greg. 7. Si quis à modâ— Episcopus to any lay man let him be numbred among the greatest Hereticks and let his name be like Demas a lover of this world more than a lover of God And I hope that by this which I have already shewed it is apparent unto you and to all men that will not be blind having their eyes open and grope with the Sodomites for the wall at noon-day The Donations of good and holy men whether houses lands or goods which they have freely dedicated and given to God to perpetuate the Service and to promote the Religion of Jesus Christ ought not by any means to be either by the Bishop alienated or by his children or any other person received and taken away from the Church contrary to the will and intention of the Donor And I say here in the name of God That no Bishop can passe it away nor any lay person can receive it and detain it from the Church without sin and committing a most horrible Sacriledge in the sight of God And if men did but remember what the Apostle saith That a Testament or a mans last Heb. 9. 17. Will is of force and inviolable after men are dead and that the very Gentiles and Heathens thought it a Piaculum and a heynous offence to infringe and alter a mans last Will and Testament I wonder why these mens Wills that gave their own goods and it was lawful for them to do what they would with their own to God and to maintain Gods Service should not be of force and stand unalterable but that men will so fearlesly break them and so presumptuously take away the things that they bequeathed unto God especially if men considered the form and style of their Donation which I find thus expressed in sundrie Copies These things being lawfully our own Capit. Car. â— 6. cap. 285. we offer and give to God for the maintenance of his Service from whom if any man presume to take them away which we hope no man will attempt to do but if any man shall do Let his account be without favour and his judgement without mercy in the last Day when he cometh to receive his doom which is due for his Sacriledge which he hath committed against that our Lord and God unto whom we have given and dedicated the same For this form and manner of their Dedication should in my judgement make their hairs to stand on end and their hearts to tremble for fear of this judgement when they go about to take away the lands houses and possessions of the Church which were offered for the service of God and which I would not do for all the World and which I think none durst do but such as have their hearts heardened above Pharaohs heart But here I must tell you How that after I came to London to put this Treatise into the Press I lighted upon a Pamphlet not only foolish but most wicked defending the most horrible sin of Sacriledge to be no sin at all and the selling and taking away of the Church-Lands to be no offence at all which Pamphlet had I met it at Kilkenny I would have done as our Saviour did at Jerusalem made a scourge to Whip the publisher of it C. Burges out of the Church of Christ and after the detecting of his lies and errors condemn
doth cause them to leave their Parishes and charge unlooked unto and their flock untaught and then the superstitious mendicant Friar cometh to instruct and lead the silly ignorant Irish as he pleaseth And truly to say what I think though I am far enough from Popery and from all Popish errors and superstitions as I hope all the Sermons that I have Preached and the Books that I have Printed can bear witness unto the World yet as Alexander Severus told an unruly Victualler that would not suffer the Christians to erect a Church in a place which he thought more convenient and fit for him to sell Ale in it That it was better God should be served in any place and in any way then that he should have his way and God not served in any place nor any way as I shewed to you before so I conceive it better to be Superstitious then Prophane better to be a Papist then an Atheist and better to have a Popish Priest to give some light to them that sit in darkness and some knowledge of Christ to them that otherwise would know nothing then not to have any Priest at all And therefore if you would abandon Popery and suppress all popish Priests out of Ireland which is my heart's desire then I desire withal that this and all other lewd and wicked customes be taken away the lands houses â—nd possessions of the Church be restored and all impropriations reduced to their first institution that so a sufficient Ministery may be maintained here in Ireland as they are in England and that the poor ignorant Irish may have honest and able Protestant Ministers and as many as may be of And to that end the natives according to the institution of the Colledge should be placed in the Colledge at Dublin the which thing hitherto they say hath been too much neglected their own Nation to live amongst them and to instruct them and then God will blesse this Nation and the true Protestant Religion will prosper and flourish and both we and they shall live happily together which otherwise will very hardly if ever come to pass Because that now we have not our knowledge by inspiration we cannot in an instant understand and speak all Tongues and we cannot work miracles but we must buy many Books to learn Languages and to get knowledge which the Apostles had without any Book and we must spend our time in reading writing studying and praying to God to assist us and to inable us to instruct our people and all this cannot be done without maintenance and means to do it And therefore where there is no sufficient maintenance there can be no sufficient Ministery no instructing of the people no true serving of God as it ought to be And what a heap of unspeakable mischiefs and miseries do these evil customes impropriations and taking away the land houses and pâ—ssessions of the Church bring amongst us And therefore seeing the Souldiers Captains and others of the Military rank that have gotten the lands of the Irish Rebels which for their service they have justly deserved have likewise unjustly seized upon Godâ— part and the lands houses and possessions of the Church and are as fast wedded to these evils as to their wives so that we can more easily overcome Golias or pull the club out of Hercules hands than our lands out of these mens fingers It is high time and I hope no good man will be offended with us for it to implore and most humbly to beg and beseech the help and assistance of our Most gracious King to redress these intolerable abuses and to drive away this three-headed Cerberus or rather this many-headed Hidra the manifold Sacriledge and the great oppression of the Church of Christ that is used in these dayes and especially in this Kingdom of Ireland at this time For I call Heaven and Earth to witness that ever since the monstrous undutiful and unnatural murder of that Most glorious Martyâ— your Majestie 's most dear Father my Most gracious Master Charles the First until the happy Arrival of your gâ—acious Majesty I lived more quietly and contentedly when all my Ecclesiastical Preferments were taken from me and not 20 pound per annum left me in all the world to maintain me than now I do when by your gracious goodnâ—sse all the Church Rights and Inheritances are commanded unresistably to be yielded unto us for your Majesty may be well assured that they which neither for love of Gods favour nor fear of his vengeance will observe Gods Commandments will never regard to obey your commandments And therefore many of our Military men Colonels Captains and others that fought for the Long-Parliament and Crumwell do with some of your Commanders that herein imitate them divide and teare the Revenues and Garment of the Church the Spouse of Christ worse than the Souldiers of Pilate did with the Coat of Christ And therefore now in mine old age well-nigh 80. years I am forced to bestow all my labour and take pains and many journeys which an old man can hardly do and spend all my means in Law which were better bestowed upon the poor to wring the Church-means out of their hands or suffer the same through my remisness to be swallowed down into the belly of Hell and leave my self to be liable to that great account which I must render for my neglect of doing mine uttermost endeavour to recover it at the last Day the which wonderful streight that I am put to doth wonderfully discontent and trouble me continually which makes me oftentimes to think that I were better to resign my Bishoprick if I knew it were no offence to God to some younger man that could better combate with these Golias's than for me to agonize as I do to recover my right who may well cry out with the Poet Impar congressas Achilli But the nearness of the time that I must render mine account of my Stewardship unto God hath strengthned me to write this Treatise against Sacriledge and especially the Sacriledge of this Climate and more particularly of this Diocesse of Ossory where the Irish behind me the English before me the Citizens of the Corporation of Kilkeny and Crumwells Captains on the one hand and your Majestie 's faithful Souldiers and Subjects in Anno 1649. on the other hand do all seem to me to become faithless unto Christ and to fight against God to take away the Inheritance of his Church from us that are his weak servants And it hath imboldned me likewise most humbly to supplicate your Majesty to take notice of these wrongs done unto us which you do not know and to assâ—â—t me to gain that right unto the Church which I without your Majesties assistance cannot do and to pardon me for my boldness and whatsoever else I have done amisse CHAP. XX. The Autheâ—r's supplication to Jesus Christ that he would arise and maintain his own cause which we his weak servants
Recusants and Papists and such as may be for the Glory of God and the peace of our Church which was our sole intention in the last Synod But seeing their Plot was rather to establish a new Church than to redress the defects of the old and to countenance and advance those boute-fues that schismatically rent our Church in pieces and most wickedly deâ—ile the pure Doctrine of the same by degrading and displacing the grave Governours thereof I will to give you a taste of what fruit you are like to reap from them very briefly set down the sum of these two points 1. What they have already done Two points handled 1. What they have already done in the Affairs of our Church 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. 1. Opened a gap ta all licenciousness 2. What Discipline and Doctrine are like to ensue if they should be enabled or permitted to erect their new Church for as you may find it in the Remonstrance of the Commons of England to the House of Commons 1. Under colour of Regulating the Ecclesiastical Courts Courts that have been founded by the Apostles and had alwaies their Authority and Reverence among Christians even before the Secular power when the Emperours became Christians had confirmed them they have taken away in respect of the coercive part thereof which is the life of the Law and without which the other part is fruitless all the Spiritual jurisdiction of Gods Church they have taken away Aarons rod and would have only Manna left in Gods Ark so that now the crimes inquirable and censurable by those Courts though never so heinous as Adultery Incest and the like cannot be punished Heresies and Schisms which now of late have abounded in all places can no waies be Reformed and the neglect of Gods service can as hardly be repaired when as the Ministers cannot be enforced to attend their Cures the Church-officers cannot be compelled to perform their duty and the Parishioners cannot be brought by our Law to pay their Tythes and other necessary Duties which things are all so considerable that all Christians ought to â—ear how lamentable will be the end of these sad beginnings for my self have seen the House of God most unchristianly prophaned the Church-yard and the dead bodies of the Saints so rooted and miserably abused by Hogs and Swine that it would grieve meer men that scarce ever heard of God to see such a barbarous usage of any holy place and when the Ministers have given a seven-nights warning to prepare for the blessed Eucharist and the Communicants came to partake of those holy mysteries they were fain to return home without it for want of Bread and Wine to administer it and yet now the Church Governours have not any power to redress any of these abominable abuses 2. Under shew of Reforming the Church Discipline and bettering the 2. Voted down all the Governours of Gods Church Government thereof they have voted down those very Governours the Bishops and their Assistants the Deans and Chapters whose function was constituted by the Apostles and hath from that time continued to this very day As the most Learned Arch-Bishop of Armagh Bishop Hall Master Mason Master Tayler and that worthy Gentleman Master Theyer and others have sufficiently shewed to all the World 3. Under the pretence of expunging Popery which Bishop Jewel Bishop 3. Vilified out Service-book Parry Bishop Babington Bishop Bilson Bishop Morton Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall and abundance more of the Reverend Bishops have confuted expelled and kept out of our Church more than any yea than all their schismatical Disciples whose Learning was no waies able to answer the weakest Arguments of our Adversaries the Service Book that is established by Act of Parliament and was by those holy Martyrs that lost their lives and spilt their blood in defence of the protestant Religion and defiance of Erroneous Popery so Divinely and devoutly composed as all the Reformation can bear witness and I am well assured the whole flock of these Convocants shall never be able without this to make any neer so pious must be totally cried down and hath been in many places burned used to the uncleanest use and teared all to pieces And to let you see their abomination herein I must crave patience to transcribe that it may the more generally pass the Speech of Alderman Garraway Aldâ—rman Garraway p. 7. where he saith pag. 7. Did not my Lord Maior that is Pennington first enter upon his Office with a Speech against the Book of Common Prayer Hath the Common Prayer ever been read before him Hath not Captain Ven said that his Wife could make prayers worth three of any in that Book O Masters There have been times that he which should speak against the Book of Common-Prayer in this City should not have been put to the patience of a Legal-Trial we were wont to look upon it as the greatest treasure and the Jewel of our Religion and he that should have told us he wished well to our Religion and yet would have taken away the Book of Common-Prayer would never have gotten credit I have been in all the parts of Christendome and have conversed with Christians in Turkey why in all the Reformed Churches there is not any thing of more Reverence than the English Liturgy not our Royal Exchange nor the Navy of Queen Elizabeth is so famous as this in Geneva it self I have heard it extolled to the skies I have been three months together by Sea and not a day without hearing it read twice the honest Mariners then How the Mariners esteem the Liturgy despised all the World but the King and the Common-Prayer Book he that should be suspected to wish ill to either of them should have made but an ill voyage and let me tell you they are shrewd Youths those Sea-men if they once discern that the person of the King is in danger or the Protestant professed Religion they will shew themselves mad bodies before you are aware of it I would not be a Brownist or an Anabaptist in their way for And yet these men have so basely abused and are so violent to abolish this excellent Book and Divine Liturgy that Many will not believe it though it should be told unto them I would they did but read that Act of Parliament which is prefixed unto the same to see if they regarded either the Law of God or Man the Religion of the Clergy that composed it or the Wisdom of the Parliament that confirmed it 4. Under colours to shew their hatred to Idolatry they have broken 4. Abused the images and pictures of the Saints and other holy things down the glass Windows of many Churches shot off the heads of the Images of the Blessed Virgin and of our dear Saviour represented in her lap upon the porch of Saint Maries in Oxford thrown away the Pictures of Christ and of other his Holy Apostles and Gods blessed Saints
the Papists in Ireland and to get that Act to purchase all the Lands of the Rebels had tasted too much of this bitter root of such destructive Doctrine whereby you see how the Religion of these men robbes us of our Estates keeps no faith with us and takes away our lives 7. Though among the works of God every flower cannot be a Lilly 7. They would have a party among all men both in Church and Common-wealth Gal. 5 6. Câ—l 3. 11. every beast cannot be a Lyon every bird cannot be an Eagle and every Planet cannot be a Phoebus yet in the School of these men this is the doctrine of their to be new erected Church that with God there is no respect of persons and neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but whether they be bond or free masters or servants Jew or Gentile Barbarian Scythian a country-Clown or a Court Gallant rich or poor it is all one with God because these Titles of Honour Kings Lords Knights and Gentlemen are no entities of Gods making but the creatures of mans invention to puffe him up with pride and not to bring him unto God and therefore though for the bringing of their great good work to passe they are yet contented to make the Earl of Essex their General and Warwick their Admiral and so Pym and Hampden great Officers of Stateâ— yet when the work is done their Plot perfected and their Government established then you shall find that As now they will eradicate Episcopacie and make all our Clergie equall as if all had equally but one talent and no no man worthier than another so then there should be neither King Lord Knight nor Gentleman but a parity of degrees among all these holy brethren And to give us a taste of what they mean as the Lords concurrence with them inabled them to devour the Kings poweâ— so they have since with great justice prevailed with the House of Commons to swallow up the Lords power and have most fairly invaded their priviledge when they questioned particular Members * As my Lord Duke and my Lord Digbie 8. They would have no man to pray for temporal things Matth. 33 34. Matth 6. 1â— 9. Not to say the Lords Prayer 10. Not to say God Speed you 2 John 10. 11 12 Not to pray for the Malignants 1 John 5. 16. for words spoken in that House and then the whole House when they brought up and countenanced a mutinous and seditious Petition which demanded the Names of those Lords that consented not with the House of Commons in those things which that House had twice denied 8. Because our Saviour saith Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all these things that is meat drink and cloathes and all other earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be cast unto you and again Be not carefull for to morrow they teach their Proselytes that they ought not to pray by any means for any of these things whereas Christ biddeth us to say Give us this day our daily Bread 9. They cannot endure to say the Lords Prayer for that 's a Popish superstition but their Prayers must be all tautologies and a circular repetition of their own indigested inventions 10. You must not say God speed you to any neighbour or any traveller lest he intends some evill work and then you shall be partaker of his sin 11. They will not allow any of their Disciples to pray for any of the Reprobates and therefore they do exceedingly blame us and tear our Liturgie because we say That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men 12. Because Christ saith Call no man father on earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven the child must not call him that begat him and nurseth him his father nor kneel unto him to ask him blessing nor perform many other such duties which the Lord requireth and the Church instructeth her children to do to this very day and this foolish Doctrine of calling no man Father no man master or Lord and the like in their sense because they understand not the divine meaning of our Saviour's words hath been the cause of such undutifulnesse and untowardnesse such contempts of superiours and such rebellions to Authority as is beyond expression when as by their disloyalty being thus bred up in them from their cradle they first despise their father then their Teachers then their King and then God himself CHAP. IX Sheweth three other speciall points of Doctrine which the Brownists and Anabaptists of this Kingdom do teach 13. BEcause they can find no Text in Scripture when as the Alcoran is not so impudently hellish as to justifie the action for to warrant men to absolve our consciences from any Oaths that we have voluntarily taken for the performance of any businesse I cannot say that they do professedly teach but I do hear they do usually practise this most damnable sin as that Master Marshall and Master Case did absolve the Souldiers taken at Brainceford from their Oath which they took never to bear Arms against his Majesty which is a sin destructive both to body and soul when their Perjury added to their Treason makes them two-fold more the children of hell than they were before and if they be taken again they can expect nothing but their just deserved death and therefore I do admire that any man can challenge the name of a Divine which doth either preach or practise a point so devilish 14. Because Saint Paul saith These hands have ministred to my necessities 14. They think sacriledge to be no sin Acts 20. 34. 1 Thes 2. 9. 1 Cor. 1. 12. and to them that were with me and again Labouring night and day because we would not be chargeable to any of you we preached unto you the Gospel of God and because the rest of the Apostles and Disciples were Fishermen Tradesmen or professours of some Science either liberal or mechanick as Saint Luke was a Physician Joseph a Carpenter and the like who did live by their manual crafts and were chargeable to none of their people but sought them and not theirs to win their souls to God and not their monies unto themselves therefore they think it no robbery to take away all the revenues of the Church nor sacriledge to rob the Clergy of all the means they have because they should either labour for their livings as the Apostles did or live upon the peoples Almes as many poor Ministers do to the utter undoing of many souls in many distressed and most miserable Churches But because this revenue of the Church and the Lands of the Bishops is that golden Wedge and the brave Babylonish garment which the Anabaptistical Achans of our time do most of all thirst after in this their pretended holy Reformation I must here sistere gradum stay awhile and let you know 1. That the taking away of any Lands or goods given and
professed in Q. Elizabeth's times that was established by the Lawes justified by the paines and confirmed by the bloud of so many worthy men and faithful Martyrs but a new religion first hatched in Amsterdam then nourished in New-England and now to be transplanted into this Kingdom 3. Who are the persons that are imployed in this war he first of all that 3. Meet Members is the more disloyal because he was a person of honour that had so much honour conferred upon him by His Majesty and so much trust reposed in him and would notwithstanding prove so unthankful as to kick with his heeles against his Master and so follow whom you know passibus aequis whose example any other man that were not rob'd of his understanding would make a remora to retain him from rebellion and what are the other heads but a company either of poor needy and mean condition'd Lords and Gentlemen Who the Rebels are and what manner persons they be or discontented Peers that are misled or such factious Sectaries whose blind zeal and furious malice are able to hurry them headlong to perpetrate any mischief for their Captains and their Officers I believe they fight neither for the Anabaptists creed nor against the Romane faith nor to overthrow our Protestant Church but for their pay for which though they cannot be justified to take their hire for such ill service to rebel against their King and to murder their innocent brethren Yet are they not so bad as their grand Masters and for their common Souldiers I assure my self many of them fight against their wills many seduced by their false Prophets others inticed by their factious Masters and most of them compelled to kill their brethren against their wils and therefore in some places though their number trebled the Kings yet they had rather run away then fight and what a miserable and deplorable case is this when so many poor soules shall be driven unto the Devil by Preachers and Parliament against their wills 4. If you consider quâ authoritate by what authority they wage this war 4. The supreme authority they will answer by the Authority of Parliament and that is just none at all because the Parliament hath not the supreme authority without which the war is not publique nor can it be justified for a war is then justifiable when there is no legal way to end the controversie by prohibiting farther appeales which cannot be but onely betwixt independent States and several Princes that Albericus Gentilis de jure belli l. 1. c. 2. Subjects can never make a lawful war against their King have the supreme power in their own hands and are not liable to the censure of any Court which power the Parliament cannot challenge because they are or should be the King 's lawful Subjects and therefore cannot be his lawful enemies but they will say Master Goodwin Burroughs and all the rest of our good men zealous brethren and powerful Preachers do continually cry out in our eares it is bellum sanctum a most just and holy war a war for the Gospel and for our Lawes and Liberties wherein whosoever dies he shall be crowned a Martyr I answer that for their reward they shall be indeed as Saint Augustine saith of the like Martyres stultae Philosophiae when every one of them may Res dura ac plena pericli est regale occidisse genus be indicted at the bar of God's justice for a felo de se a Malefactour guilty of his own untimely death and for their good Oratours that perswade them to this wickednesse I pray you consider well what they are men of no worth rebellious against the Church Rebels against the King factious Schismaticks of In what condition their Preachers are and of what worth no faith of no learning that have already forfeited their estates if they have any and their lives unto the king and will any man that is wise hazard his estate his life and his soul to follow the perswasions of these men my life is as deare to me as the Earle of Essex his head is to him and my soul dearer and I dare ingage them both that if all the Doctors in both Vniversities and all the Divines within the kingdome of England were gathered together to give their judgement of this War there could not be found one of ten it may be as I beleive not one of twenty that durst upon his conscience say this war is lawful upon the Parliament side for though these Locusts that is the German Scottish It is contrary to the doctrine of all the Protestant Church for Subjects to resist their king and the English puritane agreeing with the Romane Jesuite ever since the reformation harped upon this string and retained this serpentine poison within their bosome still spitting it forth against all States as you may see by their bookes Yet I must tell you plainly this doctrine of Subjects taking up armes against their lawful King is point blanck and directly against the received doctrine of the Church of England and against the tenet of all true Protestants and therefore Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuite Paraeus in Rom. 13. Boucher l. 2. c. 2. Kecâ—erm Syst pol. c. 32. Jun. Bruâ— q. 2. p. 56. Bellar. de laic c. 6. Suar. de fid cathol c. 3. Lichfield l. 4. 19. sect 19. Field l. 5. c. 30. that cast this aspersion upon the Protestants that they jumpe with them in this doctrine of warring against and deposing kings saith that no Protestant doth maintain that damnable doctrine and that rashness of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto Juel and Bilson and all the Doctors of the Church are of the same minde and Lichfield saith no Orthodox father did by word or writing teach any resistance for the space of a thousand yeares and Doctor Field saith that all the worthy fathers and Bishops of the Church perswaded themselves that they owed all duty unto their kings though they were Hereticks and Infidels and the Homilies of the Church of England allowed by authority do plainly and peremptorily condemne all Subjects warring against their King for Rebels and Traytors that do resist the ordinance of God and procure unto themselyes damnation and truely I beleive most of their own consciences tell them so and they that thinke otherwise I would have them to consider that if they were at a banquet where twenty should aver such a dish to be full of poyson for every one that would warrant it good would'st thou venture to eate it and hazard thy life in such a case O then consider what it is to hazard thy soule upon the like termes So you see the justness of the War on the Parliament side But. 1. On the Kings side it cannot be denied but his cause is most just for his own defence for the maintenance of the
amongst the people and especially from this Kingdom of Ireland where most corruption is used and most need of Instruction unto the people p. 114. Chap. XX. The Authour's supplication to Jesus Christ that he would arise and maintain his own cause which we his weak servants cannot do against so many rich powerful and many-friended adversaries of his Church p. 117. A DECLARATION Against SACRILEDGE CHAP. I. The Declaration of the Bishop of Ossory exhibited to the High Court of Justice before Jesus Christ the righteous Judge against the most horrible sin of Sacriledge and all sacrilegious persons that detain the Tythes rob the Church and take the Lands and Houses of God into their own possessions Together with his most humble Petition to the Eternall and Almighty God his most gratious Redeemer and his most loving Master Jesus Christ that he would arise and maintain his own cause and smite all his Enemies upon their cheek-bone and put them to perpetual shame and root out their memorial from off the earth Sheweth THAT by Your most glorious Martyr the strenuous defender of the true Christian Faith and his most gratious Master Charles the I. of ever blessed memory he was called and appointed to be the Bishop of Ossory and to inable him the better to discharge his duty in the service of God the inâ—tructing of his people and the governing of that Diocess commended to his care he was invested and admitted to have and to injoy all the rights interests priviledges and prerogatives of that Bishoprick But the Irish Rebells through the perswasions of their Popish Priests and suggestions of Satan have expelled him and detained all his dues and rights from him about 19 years together And when the goodness of God was pleased to restore the gratious Son of that gloriouâ— Martyr unto his Crown and Dignity his Majestie imitating the pious steps of his most Religious Father restored all the Reverend Bishops and the rest of the Learned and Loyall Clergy unto their ancient rights and pristine dignities the malicious enemy of all goodness the Devill and Satanas still envying the Satan now deals with the Church of Christ as he did with the Church of the Jews after their captivity Ezra 4. 7. Neh. 6. 1. Honour of God and by all means striving to obscure the Glory of his Church and the happy Restauration of his service As formerly after the captivity of the children of Israel the Jews in Babylon when they were happily returned unto their own Land which the God of their Fathers had bestowed upon them and their posterities for ever and were now beginning to re-edify their Temple for the honour of their God and the place of his Worship for his people he stirred up Bishlam Mâ—thredath Tabeel Samballat Tâ—biah Geshem and the rest of their companions the enemies of Gods people to hinder all their proceedings in setting forwards the true service of their God by writing false Letters unto the King and upon their unjust informations procuring letters from the King to obstruct the building and working of Gods House to the great prejudice and grief of â—â—ose Holy men that aimed at nothing more then to promote the glory of God and the good of his people So now he stirred up many Armed men or men of Arms and Commanders of men men of Renown that in the year 49 shewed themselves very active and serviceable for their and our undubitable King his now gratious Majesty and whom his Majesty for that their faithfulness and service did most gratiously and justly according as they had deserved most Royally and like a King reward them with Cities Lands Houses Gardens and the like evidences of his Royall bounty under the pretence of this his Majesties grant and gift to labour and strive to swallow down the Lands and Houses which I am sure do of right belong unto the Church of God and am confident his Majesty is so pious that he never intended to reward his servants with any of those goods of what nature soever they are that were dedicated and set Why Lands dedicated for the service of God should not be alienated Rom. 2. 22. apart for the service of God because the alienating of any things set apart and consecrated for Gods service and dedicated to that end is no less then sacriledge and Sacriledge is a â—â—n of such a transcendent nature as is far more odious and abominable in the sight of God then most of all other sins for St. Paul demandeth If thou that abhorrest Idols wilt commit sacriledge And you all know what a horrible sin Idolatry is and how highly the Lord God was offended and how grievously he punished and plagued the Israelites for the same as when he slue 3000 men for their Idolatry Exod. 32. 28. in worshipping the golden Calfe And yet St. Paul sheweth herein that sacriledge is far more odious and Why sacriledge is more abominable and a greater sin then Idolatry a more abominable sin in the sight of God because by Idolatry we do but give the honour of God to that which is no god but by our sacriledge we rob the true God of that honour which is due unto him and we deprive him of that worship and service and thanks that he should have from many men if they were not deprived and robbed of their estates by that sacriledge which makes them unable to do that service and to bring others to do that service unto God which they ought to do And therefore most justly hath that sacriledge which is the diminution of the revenues of the Church been ever accounted the highest the boldest and the most damnable sin in the World For our Religion is the very ground of all our happiness and the chiefest of all our comforts and the riches honours and Revenues of the Church the Tythes Oblations and Donations of Religious men are as I shall fully shew unto you in this Treatise the very main outward props of our Religion and if with Sampson you take away the pillars you overthrow the House sublatis studiorum praemiis ipsa studia pereunt saith Seneca so take away the props of Religion and your Religion like a tottering wall will soon fall unto the ground and when you have supplanted our Religion you have dissolved all the tyes and associations betwixt God and men and left us all as aliens and strangers and which is worse enemies unto God And therefore when other mischiefes have their limits and so hurt but one or other and there is an end yet this sin of Sacriledge strikes at Goodness and Godliness it self it sets the world besides its hindges and sweeps away our peace and all our happiness from off the earth when as God and the King and all of us are thereby unexpressibly damnified And therefore he is no better then a savage beast and hath a heart of iron and Cyclopick breasts quae genuere ferae that can invade heaven and rob God
been far better for Dives to have had his punishment in this life than to be here in perpetual happiness for a short time and after that to be eternally tormented So it were far better for Murderers Oppressors and Church-robbers to have their punishment in this life tâ—an pay so deer for the use of their prosperity and the deferring of their just deserved punishment for the life to come And therefore we ought to distinguish and to put a difference as Hesiod Hesiodus l. 1. saith beâ—wixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is riches and possessions taken by violence and riches given by Gods benevolence And Alciat Erubl 128. pag. 462. as another saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is good to be rich by Gods gift that needs not fear Gods curse But it is very evil to grow great and to become rich by rapine and snatching goods and lands from God and man for that shall never escape the just deserved punishment And therefore Euripides saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is in effect Procure not to thy self any wealth by any unjust means if thou wouldst have them to continue with thee without punishment because that whatsoever thou gatherest unjustly and bringest to thy house wrongfully either from God or man Prince or peasant it can not be safe Yea though thou shouldst seem for a long time to be in peace and free from all danger for as Optatus saith against the Donatists An quia cessat talis modò vindicta ideo tibi cum tuis vindâ—cas innocentiam Are you therefore innocent because God doth not presently punish you so may I say to all Sacrilegious persons and to all other oppressors and unjust men whatsoever Do you think your selves happy and free from all blame and deserve no punishment because you do injoy your spoils and Church-goods or lands peaceably by no means Quia aliud misâ—ricorditer dat Deus aliud habere siâ—it iratus because it is one thing when God bestoweth Wealth Honours Glossa ordinar in â—ob 12. and Lands upon us in mercy and out of his love to us and it is another thing when he suffereth us to injoy them when he is angry and most wrathfuâ—ly displeased with us and though we may and ought to be glad and rejoyce for the one yet ought we to be sad and sorrowfull for the others because all the wealth in the World is not answerable to the wrath of God but I had rather be a beggar with his love then to possess the wealth of Croesus and the honours of Augustus with his anger and angry he must needs be with them that take away the Lands and Houses of his servants that serve him at his Altar whereby they are disabled either to serve him or to teach his people which must therefore perish because thou doest rob the Church and unjustly take away that which is none of thine for seeing as S. Augustine saith Hoc jure possidetur quod justè hoc justè quod bene igitur omne quod malè possidetur alienum est That is rightly possessed which is justly gotten and that is justly gotten which is well gotten without fraud without violence therefore all whatsoever is naughtily gotten that is unjustly possessed and is none of thine and whatsoever we do hold and enjoy that is none of our own though we should possess it never so long and enjoy it never so peaceably without punishment and without being once questioned for it yet at last the just God that useth to bear with offences long will require a strict account for our unjust taking Quia sâ—pe Deus hic parciâ— ut illic sâ—viat and more unjust detaining thereof and he will then recompense his long forbearance with severity of vengeance and our punishment shall be the sorer in the next life because that like Dives we have escaped all punishment in this life And for those lands and goods thus sacrilegiously gotten De male quâ—sitis vix gaudet tertius haeres and unjustly possessed we may truly say That his posterity for whose inâ—iching he underwent the wrath of God shall not likely enjoy them long But as the Ark of God when it was taken from the Levites could find no resting place among the Philistines but was removed from Asdod to Gath and from Gath to Ekron and so from one place to another till it came to its own proper place so God may deal and commonly doth use to deal with them that take away the goods lands and houses of his Church Petrus Blesensis Epist 10. Quae malignè contraxit pater pejori luxu refundet filius That which the father hath sacrilegiously snatched and most wickedly scraped together the And were it noâ— that I am â—oa â—â— to disgrace the present posterity of sacrilegious parents I could shew you many brave families in England that came to utter ruine since the time of Henry the Eighth for this very sin of Sacriledge son or at least the grand-child shall as loosely scatter it abroad and so it shall passe and repasse from one to another until it be far enough from him and his for whom it was at first collected and the sacrilegious father shall gain nothing by his wicked sacriledge but the wrath and judgement of God against himself and the curse of God to remain upon his posterity because God hath threatned to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him and I think none hates him if the sacrilegious persons love him that do both rob and as I shewed before war against him CHAP. III. The divers sorts and kinds of Sacrilegious persons And first of those that do it under colour of Law and upon the pretence of Reformation whereby they suppose their Sacriledge to be no Sacriledge at all BUt having heard of the odiousness and punishment of this horrible sin of Sacriledge we may do well to take notice of the divers kinds of sacrilegious persons and I find them specially to be of two sorts 2 Sorts of sacrilegious persons That is 1. They that do it under the colour of Law and upon pretence of Reformation of the Church and abuses crept into the Church 2. They that do it against all Law without any colour of right and to the rooting out of all Piety and Religion 1. It is reported that when Constantine became a Christian and indowed 1. Legal sacrilegious persons How thâ—y say Poison entred into the Church and how ill it is now cured the Church of Christ with large Revenues a voice was heard from Heaven saying Hodiè venenum intravit in Ecclesiam This day is poison poured out into the Church which was indeed from Hell when the envious man that holds it for a Maxim Quod non oportet Christum ditescere That Christ which was born
poor should not become rich and much less should the servants become wealthy when the Master is alwayes poor But he might have as well said This day is honey entred into the Church for as of wealth if you have too much it may prejudice you so of honey if you Prov. 25. 16. eat too much it will make you to vomit saith Solomon When as a competency of either may do much good and no hurt but his poison is alwayes bad and seldom doth any good unlesse it be very well and wisely tempered with good ingredients But howsoever so it happened to the Church and to the servants of Christ that the world and worldly men said how truly I cannot judge This wealth and promotion brought â—ase and pride and luxury amongst them which might be so to some of them but questionless not to all nor to most of them yet however as swelling waters when they are at the highest must needs fall and be scattered so say the men that either envied at the Prosperity of the Church or desired the Reformation of what they conceived amiss This poison must be purged or the honey vomited before the Church could be healed of her infective tumours or the Clergy cleansed from their pride and luxury And therefore an Antidote must be sought and a Remedy must be found to allay that evil which the Good abused had produced forth but how this should be done the Physitians either through ignorance knew not or through envy and malice to the Church and Church-men would not know what was best for the good of the Church or the Glory of God and the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but what through Pride Ambition and Covetousness they thought best and most available for themselves And therefore as the Manichees condemned all Christianity because there Vâ—strum oculâ—m malâ—vâ—lus 〈◊〉 insolam paleam inducit nam triticam ibi â—ito videretur si esse velletis Aug. contra Faust Man l. 5. c. 22. were some evil men that went under the name of Christians to whom Saint Augustine answereth that if their malice did not blind them they might have seen wheat as well as chaffe upon the floor of Gods Church so might the Reformers have seen many pious Bishops and other famous Clergy-men that had done very many good deeds erecting Colledges building Churches and Hospitals and relieving many of the members of Christ with the revenues of the Church as well as some few proud and ambitious Prelates Or else as the Donatists refused the blâ—ssed Sacraments because some of the Priests that administred them were wicked to whom also the Idem contr lit Petiliani l. 2. c. 30. same Saint Augustine answereth that they must needs erre when they will violate the Sacraments of God for the sins of men or refuse his gifâ—s because they like not the bearers for who would reject a pretious Jewel sent him from his Majesty because he liked not the messenger that brought it What the Reformers did in the Usurpers time Or rather as Lycurgus rooted up all the Vines in his Countrey because he saw many men were made drunk and mad with wine to whom Plutarch answereth that he might have seen many more good men without any offence cherished and refreshed with wine and therefore he should have rather digged some wells neer unto the Vines to mix the wine with some water and so to take away the abuse of the wine and to prevent drunkenness and not to root up the Vines to deprive the good and sober men from the use and benefit thereof Even so did the pretended Reformers of the Church imitate Lycurgus to a hair rob the Church and left her a beggar to take away as they said her pride they did not wash away the Paupertatem summis ingeniis obesse ne provehantur stains of her garment but took her cloathes quite away and left her naked unto the World in steed of pride for her former glory to be now ashamed for her present misery when she is rather scorned then respected or reverenced by all worldlings and the enemies of the Church as are also both her Ministers and her Children whereby they might say with Alciat Embl. 120. And as Juvenal saith Nil habet infoelix paupertas dâ—rius in se Quà m qâ—od ridiculos homines facit Neither 1. Gâ—d nor 2. Christ nor 3. Reason teach us to reform abuses as Sacrilegious persons do Alciat Dextra tenet lapidem manus altera sustinet alas Vt me pluma levat sic grave mergit onus Ingenio poteram superas volitare per arces Me nisi pauperâ—as invida deprimeret But to this we do answer that neither God which is the God of justice nor Christ which left his actions for our instructions nor ratio sana Reason it self which should guide all wise men in all their doings have ever taught us this preposterous course and most impious lesson For the abuse of good things especially in Gods service to take away the things themselves that should preserve and uphold the service of God For 1. When Saul abused his state and his whole Kingdom Samuel saith not the Lord will annihilate and bring to nought the Kingdom of Israel 1 Sam. 15. but he saith He hath rent thy Kingdom from thee and he hath given it to thy neighbour which is better then thou And when Eli the Priest abused his 1 Sam. 31. 35. place and neglected his office and the service of God the Lord saith not I 1. How God dealeth with things that are abused will cut off the Priest-hood from Israel or I will deface the glory and beauty of it but I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy Fathers house and I will raise me up a faithfull Priest that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind and I will build him a sure house and he shall walk before mine Anointed for ever And I would to God the reformers of abuses in Religion would have imitated the doings of God herein when they can never have a better pattern that is to remove those Bishops or Priests that do indeed neglect their duties or abuse their Offices and not take away the means and maintenances of their places and put other better and more carefull men in their rooms for here you see we are taught that God doth not as the Romans did alter the whole state of their Government for the wickedness of Tarquinius and the rest of their tyrannous Kings I say God Titus Livius l. 1. doth not for the sins either of Prince or Priest change the manner of Government or abrogate the Priviledges or lessen the demaines of either Office but he Translateth the Office with all the dignities and appurtenances to a worthier person that should bring forth more and better fruits to the glory of God and I wish King Henry the 8 th had done
God neither do I believe that the laws of our Christian Kings and Princes ever intended so to do for it is an old rule in law that Praelatus ecclesiae statum possessiones meliorare potest sed deteriorare non potest nec debet But when it was alledged and manifested in Parliaments that the houses belonging to the Church being ruined or far out of reparation and the lands either wast or not well managed could not be improved to the best advantage and benefit of the Church without the Tenants and present Occâ—piers thereof had some competent time therein therefore the pious Kings enacted their laws not to force but to licence Cathedrals and Colledges to lease out their lands and possessions not to make their children Why Bishopâ— and Clergy-men were permiâ—â—ed to granâ— leâ—seâ— of the lands and revenues of the Church and friends Knights and Ladies or to fill their own â—ossers with sines to the great prejudice of their successors and the neglect and treading down of Gods serviâ—e but that the revenue and the inheriâ—ance of the Church might be improved and the best advantage made of it for the glory of God and the furtherance of Gods service by the instruction of his people and relieving his poor members for which ends it was first dedicated unto God Therefore when either Bishop or any other Clergy man from the letter of the law doth pervert the end and abuse the meaning of the law I make it a case of Conscience and demand Whether such men as do let out the lands and houses of the Church for their own private gain and not for the benefit of Gods Church and the advancement of Gods service do not commit this horrible sin of Sacriledge For my part I conceive them to be the worst and most Sacrilegious persons of all others that should know the truth and not give such ill examples both of Covetousness and Sacriledge unto their neighbours but let them lease what they will for the benefit of How the Bishops and other Clergy-men may lease their Lands without Sacriledge Gods Church the furtherance of Religion and the no-prejudice of their successors and they shall never find me to oppose them But otherwise to lease the lands of the Church that is better worth then a 100 l. per annum for less then a 100 s. for to make our children great and the Church poor to benefit our selves and to prejudice Gods service and to say We have a law that warrants us to do it We have Acts of Parliament that allow it and have the practice and presidents of other Bishops Deans and Chapters that have done it is but to say as the Jews said to Pilate We have a law and by our law he ought to die And ought he therefore to die think you because these Jews had such a law I verily think not so and I think likewise that though you have or should have a law to take away and alienate the rights of the Church yet you should not do it if you love the Church or do any waies fear God And for the practice of some other Bishops Deans and Chapters I confess heretofore many of them have done bad enough and worse in my mind then the worst of lay men for them to sell the rights of the Church and so with Judas to betray their Master Christ but Vivitur praeceptis non exemplis if the practice and presidents of others would or could excuse our faults then Drunkards Whore masters and Murderers might easily find presidents enough to excuse their wickedness and so I know the Sacrilegious persons may as easily find the like But I shall hereafter shew you how and by whose power and by what By whole power the laws for leasing and passing away the Church-lands came to be made Consider that means these our Laws and Acts of Parliament for the alienating leasing and selling of the revenues of the Church came to be made and leave it to any pious mind and conscientious man to consider Whether they ought in the strictness thereof to be observed or not and not rather commend the care and great piety of our late most gratious King and now glorious Martyr Charles the I. Who a little to curb the extravagancies and large extent of our laws by his regall Authority wrote his letters to all Bishops Deans and Chapters that they should lease out their lands for no longer term then 21 years as it appeareth by this his most gratious and pious Letter directed unto my self the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedrall Church of Bangor which for the honour and praise and our thankfulness to so pious and so Religious a King for his care and love to the Church and service of God I thought it my duty to insert it in this place To our Trusty and wel-beloved the Dean of Bangor Charles Rex TRusty and welbeloved We greet you well We have lately tâ—ken the State of our Cathedral and Collegiat Churches into our Princely Consideration that We may be the better ablâ— to preserve that livelyhood which as yet is left unto them Vpon this deliberation We find that of later times there hath not risen a greater inconvenience then by turning Leases of one and twenty years into Lives for by that means the present Dean and Chapter put great Fines into their Purses to enrich themselves their wives and children and leave their Successors of what deserts soever to Vs and the Church destitute of that growing means which else would come in to help them By which course should it continue scarce any of them could be able to live and keep house according to their Place and Callings We know the Statute makes it alike lawful for a Dean and Chapter to let their Leases for the Term of one and twenty years or three Lives but time and experience have made it apparent that there is a great deal of difference between them especially in Church-Leases where men are commonly in years before they come to those Places These are therefore to will and command you upon peril of Our utmost displeasure and what shall follow thereon that notwithstanding any Statute or any other pretence whatsoever you presume not to let any Lease belonging to your Church into Lives that is not in Lives already And further where any fair opportunity is offered you if any such be you fail not to reduce such as are in Lives into Years And We do likewise will and require that these our Letters may remain upon Record in your own Register-Books and in the Register of the Lord Bishop of that Dioces that he may take notice of these our Commands unto you and give Vs and our Royal Successors knowledge if you presume in any sort to disobey them And further whereas in Our late Instructions O that the mind and piety of this most godly King expressed in this Letter had bin observed by all our Predecessors Bishops
and commanded to be paid unto them for their pains and service of his Church We are now to examine what their means and maintenance should be that God appointed for their wages And I say that he is a most bountiful Master that takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants as King David speaketh and therefore gives them a very largâ— reward which doth chiefly The two speciall portions of the Clergy 1. Tythes 2. Donations consist in these two things 1. The Tythes or tenth part of his peoples goods 2. The Free-will-offerings Oblations and Donations of the people The 1. He commandeth to be paid them And the 2. He alloweth to be given them and being given he requireth that they should not be alienated and taken from them no not by the givers themselves therefore much less by any other 1. That Tythes or the tenth part of our goods and substance are due to 1. The tythes are due to our Ministers them that discharge the service of God by the instruction of his people to Worship God as well under the New Testament as the Old it may be manifested by these Reasons 1. Whatsoever nature and Humane Reason teacheth to be justly due to 1. Reason any man or society of men the same doth the Scripture both the Law Ante legem datam Sacrificiorum impensis rebus aliis ad externum Dei cultum conservandum pertinentibus decimae applicabanâ—ur Fran. Sylvius and Gospel teach to be due and ought to be paid unto them Nam sicut Deus est Scripturae ita Deus est Naturae for as God is the Author of the Scripture so he is the God of nature and whatsoever is true in nature I speak not of defiled nature but of pure nature the same is true in Scripture And therefore Saint Augustine saith that as Contra-Scripturas nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo Catholicus No Christian will speak against the Scripture and no Catholick will gain-say the Church so Contra rationem nemo sobrius No sober man will deny what Reason avoucheth But the law of Nature and Reason teacheth that no pension which is indifferent and tolerable ought to be denied and detained from the Common use and the good of publick weale for so Plato and Cicero and many more that knew no more but what the light of nature shewed them do say We are born on that condition not only to provide for our selves and our off-spring but also for our private friends and especially for the publick good That every man is to do his best for the publick good of our Countrey which is the common parent of us all and the examples of Theseus the Athenian Demaratus the Lacedemonian Epaminondas the Theban Curtius Decius and Coriolanus the Romans and among the Jews Moses Aaron Gideon Sampson David Zorobabel and abundance more in all Nations that underwent all charge and exposed themselves to endure all adventures for the furtherance of the common good do sufficiently confirm this truth unto us But the tenth part or portion that we have from the Fruits and commodities The tenth the most indifferent part that we receive from the earth is of the most indifferent condition competent for the receiver and tolerable for the giver as being of a middle size neither too little for the one to take nor too much for the other to pay for the publick service of God And this will easily be confirmed if we compare this tenth part with the taxes and impositions that are of other nature and are required and payable in very many Nations for the men of Cholchi beside their subsidy of money were forced to deliver a hundred male Children and as many maidens by way of task or tribute unto their Princes And Heredot us writeth of very strange distributions that do arise from the waters of Nilus to the proper use of the Inhabitants about that River and of the mighty subsidies that do grow from thence unto the Kings And the Egyptians have been forced to pay the fift part of their estate unto their Kings and Diodorus Siculus The tenth compared with the taxes imposed upon the people in divers Nations saith that a certain King of Egypt gave the yearly custome of the fishes which were taken out of the pooles of his subjects to find rayment and other Ornaments for his Queen and that the same anâ—ounted to a Talent of silver for every day in the year And Dion in the life of Augustus relateth how he levied the twentieth part of every mans estate and of such Donations Legacies and Gifts as were bequeathed at the time of their death and said that he found some Records of that custome formerly used in the Registers of Caesar and it is written that the Thuringi exceeded this payment in the â—axes that were imposed upon them For they were forced to pay yearly to the Kings of Hungary not only the tenth part of their goods but also the tenth number of their children and yet they that are under the Tyranny of the Turks must indâ—re a Heavier yoke and a far greater slavery for they pay the fourth part of all their fruits and increase of the earth and of their labours in their several trades and they pay tole-money for every servant that they keep the which if their estates be not able to do yet must they make it good or â—ell themselves for â—slavâ—s to do it And now judge you what rational man comparing the tythes with these tributes and the taxes of other Nations will not conclude that the tenth part is the most equal just and indifferent portion that can be allâ—tted and adjudged fit to be given and paid for such a publick good as is the service of God and the Ministry of the Gospel without pressing too heavy upon the giver or paying too slight a portion to the receâ—ver 2. Whatsoever things have their foundation and introduction in the 2. Reason What natural Reason sheweth 1. That publick Ministers should be by the publick State mainâ—ained Law of Nature the same things ought still to be observed and continued but natural Reason suggesteth and telleth every man that is not voyd of Reason 1. That as they which serve the Common-wealth Kings Magistrates and Governours should live upon the taxes and Contributions of the Common-wealth so they that serve the Church of God as Bishops and Priests should be maintained by the Church and the Histories of the Gentiles do bear witness that all the Nations of the World have alwayes fully and sufficiently provided maintenance for their Priests For so Mâ—ha having Judg. 17. 5. set up his Temple and made an Ephod and his Teraphim consecravit ministerium unius â— filiis suis he made one of his sons to be his Priest and implevit manum ejus which consecravit ministerium signifieth saith Tremellius in his notes upon that place that is to give him an estate and the maintenance of
had been Lord Paramount of all the World So the Pope in the pride of his heart conceiting that being Christ's Vicar he might dispose of all that is Christs as pleased himself destroyed the servants of Christ to make his own Parasites so that he appropriated 3845 of the fattest and largest Benefices in England either to his out-landish and Italian Harpies or others his creatures of whom nothing Church-lands not to be sold pag. 31. could be expected but that they would feed themselves like Epicures and never take care for the Church of Christ And though the godly Bishops of England that saw the mischief of that practise by the neglect of God's Service in the Parish-Churches and the abominable evils committed in those Abbies and Nunries so plentifully set down by Cornelius Agrippa and others did in the time of Henry the third Cornelius Agrippa de vanitate Scien cap. 49. direct a suite to Alexander the fourth for the restitution of those impropriations to their proper uses and primitive ordination Yet the Devil would not permit that Pope to do that service unto God as to be obedient to the Ordinance of God And though it be against all reason that the Tythes which are appointed for God's Service should be transferred to any lay person because that where Tythes are paid there must be a matter of giving and receiving as the Apostle sheweth We give unto you spiritual things and we receive your temporal things but the lay men that have the impropriations do receive the Tythes but can give no spiritual gift unto the people And therefore Damasus demandeth Qua fronte aut qua conscientia decimas oblationes Damas Decret 3. vultis accipere quum vix valetis pro vobis ipsis ne dum pro aliis Deo preces offerre With what face or conscience can the lay persons demand the Tythes and Oblations when they are scarce able to pray for themselves much lesse to offer up prayers and supplications for others Yea though their own Canons and Orders speak against the impropriating of Benefices and Tythes to lay persons as the Council of Lateran held under Pope Alexander the 3d decreed That Qui decimas laico in seculo Câ—ncil Lateran part 26. c. 8. Causa 16. q. 7. c. 3. Oreg 7. Causa 19 q 7 c. 1. Periculum animae manenti concesserit deponendus est The Priest which shall passe away the Tythes to any secular lay man is to be deposed And the Canon Si quis â— modo Episcopus c. saith That if any Bishop hereafter do passe away the Tythes and Oblations to lay men let them be numbred amongst the greatest Hereticks And the lay men that receive the Tythes as to be their own proper inheritance either from the Bishops or Kings do run into the danger of their souls saith another Canon Yet as if all these were but tela aranea a Spider's web nothing would avail with the Pope to make him to desist his wicked practice of making these impropriations to whom he pleased Therefore the wrath of God being exceedingly kindled against the abominations of these wicked houses that were thus maintained with the Revenues of the Church and upheld in their wickedness by the usurped power of the Pope the good God that could bring light out of darknesse could likewise punish and destroy wickedness by wicked men As he did prophane Saul by the uncircumcised Philistines and Idolatrous Manasses by the idolatrous Babylonians So now he stirreth up a King bad enough Henry the Eighth to be as Nebuchadnezzar was unto the Jews the Rod of his fury to whip and scourge these idle loose and lewd wantons for when the King began to be weary of the same dish and to satisfie his palate desired licence of the Pope to change meat and to be divorced from his old Wife and the Pope rather for fear of offending the King of Spain than any true fear of God as some conceive knew not how to yield to his unlawful lust the King to be revenged deviseth to overthrow the Pope's former wickedness by a greater wickedness even as Physitians sometimes do allay poyson with a stronger poyson And because wickedness can never want Counsellors and Abettors the King had a Cromwell at his elbow a name as fatal unto the Church as Tarquin was to Rome and many others to please their Master gave their Vote to the same purpose That the only way to be throughly revenged was not to stand triffling about small matters that might soon have an end but to give such a perpetual woâ—nd as might not be cured and that was utterly to destroy the delights of the Pope by taking away and rooting out all the Abbies Monasteries Nunries and Religious houses within his Dominions so far as he could possibly reach and it is strange If the Lord himself had not been on our side that the Cathedrals and Bishops had not been destroyed likewise And lest the Pope by the perswasions slights and eloquence of his Emissaries and Clergy should gain them to be reduced and restored either to these Houses or to the Church again the only sure way to keep out the Popes fingers from them is to bestow both their Lands and all these impropriations upon his Nobility and Gentry and so he shall not only perpetually be revenged upon the Pope but he shall also most infinitely oblige his friends and his servants who will be tenacious enough to detain them and keep them ad Graecas â—alendas from returning unto their proper sphere any more and this Counsel pleased the King and his Master and though Arch-Bishop Cranmer did what ever he could to get these impropriations restored unto the Church by his manifold perswasions unto the King and The Holy Table name and thing pag. 148. especially by a message purposely sent to Mr. John Calvin by one Mr. Nicholas to intreat Mr. Calvin likewise most earnestly to write to King Henry the 8th and to perswade him by all means to restore these impropriations unto the Church of God And so Mr. Bucer and all the godly Protestants of that time did their best to perswade him to restore them yet all could not prevaile to have them restored For that now 3. Covetousness and the greedy desire of wealth and love unto this present World hath seized upon the hearts and filled the souls of those Lords Knights and Gentlemen and the posterity of them likewise which had taken hold of these impropriations that they cannot endure to part with them any more But as Kites and Cormorants do seize upon a Carrion so do they engross unto themselves the portion of their God and the inheritance of the Church of Christ and such a sweet savour and pleasant taste of Tythes and Church goods hath been taken ever since the birth of this monstrous Sacriledge as that now many Noble men and almost every Knight and Gentleman of any note hath got to themselves the Tythes
benefit so he will be as graciously pleased we shall forgoe them and exchange them when we find it for our benefit and the benefit of his Church and Service which in all our bargains and commerce we ought chiefely to regard because we are but Gods Stewards for the service of his Church and so whatsoever our Religion and our Ancestors have honoured God withal we must imploy not so much for our own best advantage as for that which maketh most for Gods honor And therefore we that are instructed with the inheritance of the Church and portion of Jesus Christ must not make such bargains for our Master as Glaucus made for himself when he changed his golden Armour for brazen furniture neither must we deal with the Church of Christ as Rehoboam did with the Temple of Solomon when he took away all the shields of 1 Reg. 14. 26 27. gold and made in their steed shields of brass but what bargain or covenant soever we make without sin for the greater glory unto God and greater good unto the Church we hold it good with whomsoever the same is made CHAP. XIX That it is the duty of all Christian Kings and Princes to do their best endevours to have all the Impropriations restored to their former Institution to hinder the taking away and the alienation of the Lands Houses and other the Religious Donations of our Ancestors from the Church of Christ and to suppress and root out all the Vnjust and Covetous suttle customs and frauds that are so generally used and are so derogatory to the service of God from amongst the people and especially from this Kingdom of Ireland where most corruption is used and most need of Instruction unto the people THus you have heard how that Cathedrals and other Parochial Churches should be built and beautified for the Honor of God Godly Bishops and Preachers should be placed in them for the Service of God and then the allowance that God hath appointed should be given and yielded unto them for their maintenance And now because the Lands Houses Tythes and Hereditaments of the Church which the Lord God hath granted and the godly Emperours pious Kings and zealous Professors have given and dedicate for Gods service are in these dismal daies snatched away by the hands of Hacksters and haters of Religion and alâ—enated by the Souldiers that divide Christ his garments amongst them from the true servants and Ministers of Christ who should be very thankful unto these Souldiers as they often say that we have any thing left unto us For as the Orator â—elleth the grave Senators of Rome of an audacious fellow called Fimbria that stabbed Quintus Scaevola an honest man at the funerals of Caius Marius and then boasted of the great favour Cicerâ— in Orat pro Roscio â—merino that he shewed to him Quòd non totum telum in ejus corporâ— absconderat That he had not thrust his dagger wholly to the Hilt into his body but only gave him a slight stab that was sufficient to kill him So these brood of Fimbria having seized upon a great part of the Houses Lands and Patrimony of the Church and still detayning them Per fas nefas in their own hands do labour to get more and think the favour that they have done us deserveth no small thanks that they brought or left to us what we have and have not deprived us of all together Therefore Covetousness Injustice and the love of this World being so deeply grounded and setled in the hearts of our Demas's and this Epidemical disease of taking and detaining the Churches right being as one saith just like the Kings-evil which no Physitian but the King himself will serve to heal it Our address must be unto his Majesty to supplicate that he would be graciously pleased to interpose his Royal Command to stop the current of these intruders into Gods right and to cause the Restitution of the Church-goods to be made unto the Church And among the rest of the injuries done by these Mâ—litary * I speak of the Souldiers because either the Souldiers of that Parliament or of Crumwel oâ— his Majesty have almost all the Kingdom of Ireland and â—o fill the House of Lords and the House of Commons and are the chief men in every place So that nothing can be done either in Parliament City or Countrey but what they will have done because they are the Major Party and so can Out-vote all the rest and therefore Ireland being now Regnum Militum This my discourse cannot be Gratum opus agricolis but Ingratum miliâ—ibus which is all one to me if you consider what I say in the latter end of this book and that I fear not what they say of me Quia nec mâ—lior sum si laudaverâ—nt nec deterior si vituperaverint men to the Church of God there is one great Abuse which is generally used and practised here in Ireland by the rich proprietors and possessors of Lands and Town-ships to the abundant detriment and loss of the Ministers and to the hazard and danger if not the destruction of many I know not how many souls and that is when the Gentleman proprietor that holds all or most of the Parish in his own hands if he be offended with his Minister and cannot have the Tythes as he pleaseth himself he can make the Rectory or Vicaridge that might be well worth fifty or sixty pounds per annum to be scarce worth ten pound a year or nothing for he will leave all his ground unplowed and turne it to pasture and so bring a dearth through the scarcity of Corn in the Common-Wealth and then he will buy young Bullocks and fils his Lands with dry Cattle whereof their Religious Lawyers of whom Dr. Gardiner †Dr. Gardiner in his Scourge of Sacâ—â—ledge saith that he never heard yet at any hand of any good that they have Prophesied unto the Church tels them their custome will preserve them from the payment of any Tythes and so they bring a spiritual dearth and a famine of Gods Word unto the rest of the poor parishioners when for want of sufficient maintenance they shall want a sufficient Minister that is able to give them any Instruction because as the Poet saith Nulla illis captetur gloria quaequâ— Ovid. trist lib. 5. Ingenii stimulos subdere fama solet And the benefit that these worldlings reap by this lawless impious and wicked Custome to pay no Tythes for their dry Bullocks nor any thing to God for the fruits of their ground is one main reason why the Minister's part of six or seven Parishes doth scarce amount to twenty pounds per annum as I have formerly shewed in my Reâ—onstrance to his Majesty and I conceive it likewise to be a special Reason why the poor simple Iâ—ish Papists have so many Popish Priests amongst them for want of Protestant Priests for that want of sufficient maintenance
into the Rivers taken the Ministers Surplices to make Frocks to preserve their cloathes when they dressed their Horses and in Worcester they have done what I am ashamed to speak and would loathe any modest ear to heare made the Pulpit and not far from the Town the Font their house of office as I was informed by one of the gravest Doctours and Prebends of that Church thrown down the Organs which cost above fifteen hundred pounds and taken the Pipes and Copes of the Prebends and gone round about the Streets with the Copes on their backs and the Pipes in their hands dancing the Morrice-dance So in Winscomb in Glocester-shire they brake down the Organs and made that Church their Slaughter-house when they killed certain Sheep that they had stollen and dressed the same upon the Communion Table and in Lincoln-Minster the Souldiers brought their Horses into the Quire laid their hay upon the Holy Table and made the House of God a Stable for their Horses that did now eat their hay where the Christians did use to Communicate the Body and Blood of Christ so that these men give their Saviour no better entertainment now in his glory than the Jews did when Luk. 2. 7 he came in his Humility but he shall be still kept low and a Stable shall be good enough for his Mansion yet as in Canterbury they did but little less so in Winchester they added this to their former prophanations to take the ashes of those Saxon Kings that were kept in certain Urns and threw them about the ground as if death it self could not appease their rage Saeva sed in manes manibus arma dabant It would fill a whole volume to relate all the Villanies that they did of this kind the consideration of which prophane usage of Holy places made a worthy Gentleman Pathetically to set down these servent speeches I would to God we had not cause to complain of the Horrid and barbarous attempts of divers among us Christians I can scarce call them against some the mother-Churches * Canterbury Worcester Winchester Chichester and many others who as if they had studied to affront the Almighty to his face and purposely with Manasses to anger him have not spared to prophane those goodly Structures and irreligiously and Antichristianlike to deface the Instruments there prepared and imployed in the service of the great God at the very thought whereof I tremble and stand amazed and can hardly believe the Christian World in any age Master Theyer in his Treatise of Episcopacy p. 56 57. no not under the Gothes and Vandals can parallel it with an example of like abominable and Atheistical Villanies yet to this day uncensured and I am heartily sorry that it should be told in Gath or Ascalon in any forraign Nation that our English People should have any such Sect amongst them so voyd of all humanity so destitute of all thoughts of a Deity and so full of all incredible impieties And therefore I must use the words of the Prophet Jeremy Shall I not visit for these things saith Jer. 5. 9 29. the Lord Or shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Or is it any wonder that there are such Wars such bloody Wars such barbarous rapines and that these miseries do still continue amongst us when we not onely proceed to commit but also to defend and justify these and the like abominable wickednesses and have pleasure in them that do Rom. 1. 32 Heb. 10. 31. them for It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God 5. Under the colour of advancing the true Protestant Religion they 5. Branded the true Protestants and advanced Anabaptists have branded the best Protestants even those that have most learnedly both preached and written against the Church of Rome and all her erroneous tenets and were not long since registred in the classe of Puritans and for that cause kept under water for Papists and superstitiously Popish and so Malignants and opposers of the true to be established Religion and they have encouraged and promoted to the Livings and Lively-hoods of the most Orthodox and Canonical men Anabaptists and Brownists and other Sectaries of most desperate opinions that as Saint Bernard saith of the like Multiplicati sunt super numerum As the Caterpillers overspread all the Land of Aegypt so these are multiplyed in every corner without number and these tares have almost choaked all the Wheat in Gods field and do preach most desperate Doctrines destructive both to themselves their Proselytes and all the truest Protestants throughout all this Kingdom when as Sedition and Rebellion besides their other damnable Doctrines condemned by the Church must ever be at one end of their Sermons and published in their Pamphlets As for instance you may find in the bloody books and fiery writings of the darling Secretaries of the red Dragon that warreth against the Saints Stephen Marshal Master Bridges Jo. Goodwin Burroughs and the rest of the Locusts * Quâ— glomerantur in unum Innumerâ— pestes Erebi Claud. that are sent out of the bottomlesse pit to seduce the people of God and to lead them headlong unto perdition But let me advise the Servants of Christ to remember their Saviour's words To beware of false Prophets they shall deceive many and many Matth. 7. 15. love to be deceived by them those whom God hath given up that they should believe a lye Qui infatuati seducuntur seducti judicabuntur but 2 Thess 2. 10. The Authour's advice you that desire to escape their snares may know them by their fruits which are Rebellion against their King and Rayling against their Governours Perjury against God by the breaches of those Oathes which in the face of the Church they have taken both to the King and to their Superiours Three notes by which we may know the false Apostles and a wilful perverting of the sacred Scriptures to the perdition of their Proselytes besides many other bitter fruits that worse than any Aconite are able to poyson any Christian soul that do but taste of their Philtra's or if you will believe these Apples of Sodom to be as sweet as they seem fair then remember by what marks the Prophets and Apostles tell us that we may know them 1. Such as run before they be sent as 1. Note Jer. 23. 21. Weavers Tailors and the like that never had any calling or Authority to enter upon this sacred Function 2. They went from us but are 2. Note 1 John 2. 1â— not of us such as were called but then forsook their first love and apostated from the Church and like ungracious children did throw dirt in their mothers face or like the brood of Vipers do labour to gnaw out her bowels and here let the world judge whether we went from them or they from us whether we or they apostated from that Oath and profession which all
as all were not Law-makers yet all of them preserved Religion as the onely preservation of their Lawes and the happinesse of their Kingdomes which they saw could not continue without Religion But 2. The wisedom of our grave Prelates and the learning of our religioâ—s Clergie having stopped the course of this violent stream and hindred the translation 2. In the Parliament of this right of Kings unto their new-born Presbytery and late erected Synods There sprang up another generation out of the dregs of the former that because they would be sure to be bad enough out of their envy unto Kings and malice unto the Church that the one doth not advance then unworthyness and the other doth not bear with undutifullness will needs transfer this right of ruling God's Church unto a Parliament of Lay-men the King shall be denuded of what God hath given him and the people shall be endued with what God and all good men have ever denyed them I deny not but the Parliament men as they are most noble and worthy Gentlemen so many of them may be very learned and not a few of them most religious and I honour the Parliament rightly discharging their duties as much as their modesty can desire or their merit deserve neither do I gain say but as they are pious men and the greatest Council of our King so they may propose things and request such and such Lawes to be enacted such abuses to be redressed and such a reformation to be effected as they think befitting for Gods Church but for Aaron's seed and the Tribe of Levi to be directed and commanded out of the Parliament Hugo de Sancto Vict. lâ—b 2. de sacr â—id par 2. cap 3. Laicis Christianis fidelibus terrena â—ossidere conceditur clericis verò tantùm spiritualia commiâ—tuntur quae a tem illa spiritualia sunt subjiciâ— c 5. diâ—eâ—s omnis ecclesiastica â—dministratio in trâ—bus consislit in sacramentis in ordinibus iâ— praeceptis Ergo Laâ—ci nihâ—l juris habent in leâ—ibus prâ—ceptis condendit ecclesiastâ—cis chair how to perform the service of the Tabernacle and for Lay men to determine the Articles of faith to make Canons for Church men to condemn heresies and define verities and to have the chief power for the government of Gods Church as our Faction now challengeth and their Preachers ascribe unto them is such a violation of the right of Kings such a derogation to the Clergy and so prejudicial to the Church of Christ as I never â—ound the like usurpation of this right to the eradication of the true Religion in any age for seeing that as the Proverb goeth Quod medâ—corum est promittunt medici tractant fabrilia fabri what Papist or Atheist will be ever converted to profess that religion which shall be truly what now they alleadge falsly unto us a Parliamentary religion or a religion made by Lay-men with the advice of a few that they choose â— faece Cleri I must seriously profess what I have often bewayled to see Nadab and Abihu offering strange fires upon God's Altar to see the sacred offices of the Priests so presumptuously usurped by the Laity and to see the children of the Church nay the servants of the Church to prescribe Lawes unto their Masters and â— did ever fear it to be an argument not onely of a corrupted but also of a decaying State when Moses chaire should be set in the Parliament House and the Doctours of the Church should never sit thereon therefore I wish that the Ark may be brought back from the Philistines and restored to the Priests to be placed in Shilo where it should be and that the care of the Ark which king David undertook may not be taken out of his hands by his people but that he may have the honour of that service which God hath imposed upon him For 3. As nothing is dearer to understanding righteous and religious Kings 3. Opinion Of the Orthodox Quia religio est ex potioribus reipublicae parlibus ut ait Aristoâ— Polit. l. 7 c. 8. ipsa soâ—â— custodit hominum inter se socieâ—ates ut ait Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 12. Peritura Troja perdidit primâ—m Deos. Therefore the Tyrians chayned their gods lest iâ— they fled they should be destroyed then the encrease and maintenance of true religion and the inlargement of the Church of Christ throughout all their Dominions so they have at all times imployed their studies to this end because it is an infallible maxime even among the Politicians that the prâ—sperity of any Kingdome flourisheth for no longer time then the care of Religion and the prâ—sperity of the Church is maintained by them among their people as we see Troy was soon lost when they lost their Palladium so it is the truest sâ—gn of a declining and a decaying State to see the Clergy despised and religion disgraced and therefore the provisiâ—n for the safety of the Church the publick injoying of the word of God the form of Service the manner of Government and the honour and maintenance of the Clergy are all the duties of a most Christian King which the King of Heaven hath imposed upon him for the happiness and prâ—sperity of his Kingdom and whosoever derive the authority of this charge either in a blinde obedience to the See of Rome as the Jesâ—ites do or out of their too much zeal and affection to a new Consistory as the late Presbyterians did oâ— to a Lay Parliament as our upstart Anabaptists aad Brownists do are most unjust usurpers of the Kings Right which is not onely ascribed unto him and warranted by the Word of God but is also confirmed to the Princes of this Land by several Acts of Parliament to have the supremacy in all causes and over all persons as well in the Ecclesiastical as in the Civil government which being so they â—â—â—xempted thereby from all inforcement of any domestical or forraign power and freed from the penalties of all those Laws both Ecclesiastical and civil whereunto all their Subjects Clergy and Laity and all inferiour Q Curtius de rebus Alexand. Joh. Bedâ— p. 22 23. persons and the superiour Nobility within their Kingdomes are obliged by our Laws and Statutes as hereafter I shall more fully declare Therefore it behoveth all Kings and especially our King at this time seriously to consider what prejudice they shall create unto themselves and their just authority if they should yeild themselves inferiour to their Subjects aggregativè or reprasentativè or how you will or liable to the penal Laws for so they may be soon dethroned by the unstable affection and weak judgment of discontented people or subject to the jurisdiction of Lay Elders and the excommunication of a tyrannous Consistory who denouncing him tanquam Ethnicum Matth. 18. 17. may soon add a stranger shall not raign over thee and so depose him Deut. 17. 15. from all
without Religion and in brief a most dangerous and malicious hypocrite and were therefore banished from amongst us in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth but now deserve it far better being more dangerous because far more numerous * Huc usque Our factious Puritans bitterer against Kings then the Jesuâ—tes and therefore I cannot say with Saint Bernard Aut corrigendi nè pereant aut coercendi nè perimant for in my judgement they are incorrigible and in their own opinion they are invincible having by lyes and frauds gathered so much wealth and united such strength together that except the Lord himself had been on our side and made our very enemies the Papists to become our friends and to hazard their lives and fortunes according to their duty to preserve the Crown and Dignity of their king as God most wisely disposeth of things when he produceth light out of darkness and against their wills support our true Protestant Religion from being quite defaced by these mercilesse enemies we might well fear what destruction would have come upon us And therefore considering the bitter writings of their Prophets old and new being fuller of gall and venome against Christian Kings then can be found in the bookes of the Jesuites and considering the wicked practices and this unparallel'd rebellion of these new Proselytes and the loyalty of those that heretofore received least favour from the Church and not much from the State Tell me I pray you which of these deserve best to be suffered in a Protestant Church they that maliciously seeke her ruine or they that unwillingly support her from falling for my self I will ever be of the true Protestant faith yet for this loyalty of the Papists unto their King I will ever be in charity and rest in hope though not in â—â—e same faith with them and I doubt not but His Majesty will thinke well of their fidelity But as Saint Bernard saith Non est meae humilitatis dictitare vobis it is not for me to prescribe who are most capable of Grace or who best deserveth the Kings favour when his Princely Grace presupposeth a sufficient merit but in humility to set down mine own opinion in this point of toleration with submission to the judgement of this Church wherein also I humbly desire my reader not to mistake me as if I meant such a publick and legal toleration as might breed a greater distraction in a kingdome then the wisedome of the State could well master and raise more spirits then they could lay down but such as I have exprest in my Grand Rebellion p. 5 6. Grand Rebellion that is a favourable connivence to enjoy their own consciences so long as they live in peace and amity with their neighbours but without any publick exercise of their Religion which can produce nothing else but discord distraction and destruction to that Kingdome where two religions are profest in Aequilibrio with the same priviledges and authority These and many more are the rights of Kings granted them by God for the Government of his Church which they are to looke unto and to protect in all her rights service maintenance ordinances governours and the like if they looke that God should bless and protect them in their ways dignities and dues because it is their duties and the first charge that God layeth upon them to be nursing Fathers unto his Church for God knew the Church should have many enemies intus est equus Trojanus and they are the worst that are nearest unto kings and do with Judas kiss with fair words and Machiavilian counsels betray both Church and King and in the end destroy themselves foâ— who deceived Absolen though rightly but his own Counsellour who betrayed Ahab and that most wickedly but his lying Parasites and who overthrew Râ—heboam and that foolishly but his young favourites Which thing is purposely set down in the holy Scripture to be a caveat for all Kings not to rely too much upon young Counsellors not that wisedome and prudence are intailed to old age and inseperable from gray-haires or divorced from green heads but because commonly experience is the fruitfull mother of these faire issues and the multitude of yeares teacheth wisdom for otherwise there may be delirium senectutis the dotage of old age as well as vanitas juventutis the folly of youth and as Elihu saith Great men are not alwayes wise neither do the aged understand judgement but as Solomon saith wisdom even in youth is the gray haires and an undefiled life is the old age as we see young Ioseph was the wisest in all Egypt Solomon Daniel and Titus how wise how learned and how religious were they in their younger yeares So Alexander Hanniball Scipio in the feates of war Lucan Mirandula Keckerman and abundance more in all humane learning that were but Neophyti annis yet were egregii virtutibus young in years yet very admirable for their worth And Princes do most wisely when they make such election especially when they are inforced to call men to places of labour and industry they must have some regard to the bodies as well as to the mindes of their servants and chuse men of younger yeares though not to be their favourites but their confidenâ—s according to the French distinction as His Majesty hath lately made choice of one noble servant who is as Nazianzen speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gray in the minde though yellow in the head and supplying in all manner of excellent parts what may be conceived wanting in years whose name so much already catched at by envy I shall ever reverence though now I purposely passe it over in silence and whom may the Church fear most of all but her dissembling friends that are in most favour with Kings and therefore seduce them soonest insensibly to wound the Care and neglect the Charge that is laid upon them because as St. Bernard saith Longè plus nocet falsus Catholicus quà m si apertus appareret haereticus those eare-wigs are most pernicious whose counsels seeme to be most specious when they are but as the spirit of darkness appearing like an Angel of light when they say God indeed must be served and the Word must be preached but whether Bishop or no Bishop whether in a sumptuous Church or private house whether by an esteemed Clergy or a poore meane Ministrie in this manner or in another fashion it skilleth not much Kings may well enough give way to spare that cost to lessen that Revenue and to pull down these Cathedrals especially to give content unto the People and to defray the expensive charge of the Common-wealth But these counsels will not excuse Kings in the day of their account therefore let them take heed of such Counsellors and when they hear them begin to speak against the Church though they be-guild their beginnings never so slily let them either stop their eares with the Cockatrice that will not heare the Psal 58.
of the affaires of Ireland to the Parliament of England then they took that course to root out all the Papists Irish English Brittish and indeed all the Inhabitants of Ireland except their own brotherhood for they could have soon descried the marke of the beast in all the rest which they â—hought would be most effectual to further their designe and to bring the whole Kingdom of Ireland to be inherited by their own faction that is to sell all the Lands of the Rebels to themselves for they knew none else would buy it at that time and in that manner as they determined and when they had thus locked the dooreâ— and stopped the way of all relief unto the distressed Protestants of that Kingdom they might sing Dimidium toti qui benè coepit habet For they had setled Scotland and they had now grasped Ireland and held it fast in Vulcans net and therefore now it might stay till they could reduce England to make a perfect work in all the three Kingdomes to the same forme of government both in Church and State as they projected for the other and because they would have some places of entrance into Ireland and hinder the Rebels to How they blinded the people by their proceedings possesse the whole Kingdome and also blind the eyes of the ignorant not to perceive their plot but to keep them still in some hope of redresse they sent such a party over and the Scots must be the most considerable part as might keep their own design on foot and yet yield not an inch of any comfort to the spoyled and expelled Protestant for they left that party which they sent thither rather as a prey to their enemies as having neither cloathes meat nor money then inabled by these accoâ—trements to subdue the Rebels as it is better and more fully declared by the Letter of the State of Ireland to the House of Commons then I can relate unto you And I being in Ireland seeing the deplorable state of that Kingdome the What the Author saw in Ireland miserable distress of the mangled starved and naked Protestants the little children calling and crying for bread and none to give it them many worthy Ministeâ—s begging or dying for want in the streets and the poore bare footed and hunger bitten Souldier lamenting his hard fortune to be transplanted out of Gods blessing into the warme sun from plenty and prosperity to be left as the Traveller betwixt Hierusalem and Hicrico halfe dead beâ—wixt merciless Rebells and more unmercifull friends neither wholly to be destroyed nor yet to be releived was much troubled and perplexed at these sad aspects and being intrusted by the Bishops my Brethren of that Kingdome to agitate the cause of the Church for our reliefe here in England and to that end having a Letter unto his Majesty and a Remonstrance of our distressed condition though with the great hazard of my life at Sea yet I arrived by Gods great blessing How used as soon as ever he came to his House in England and before I had been two dayes at home my house was surrounded with a Troope of Armed Souldiers they entred in seized upon my person searched every roome and every corner with a candle not leaving the bedstraw whereon my children lay unsearched they took all my papers and all the money they found in my house even my servants money to the summ of 40 and carried all with me their poor Prisoner to Northhampton and now I thought it was but an ill exchange to escape the Sea and to fall into the fire to shun the How a precise Church warden would have hindred a Bishop to preach Lion and to meeet a Beare to eschew the Rebels in Ireland and to fall into the hands of Traytors in England and I knew not why but onely that I had often Preached at Towâ—â—ster where being requested by Master Lockwood to supply the place the preâ—isâ— Church-wardens very peremptorily told me â— should not do it because I was a royalist and spake against the Parliament to whom I replyed that he had no such authority to hinder a Bishop to Preach and bad him look to mend his glasse-windowes that were all full of holes where the faces of the pictures were plucked out and in other Churches thereabouts that they should so honour and obey their King as God commandeth us for which refusal to be admonished I believe they are now and perhaps will be more hereafter sufficiently punished But the Committee there finding in me no cause worthy of death or of bonds Gods providence so mercifully watching over me that it stopped their eyes that they looked not on my Grand Rebellion which they had in their hands and would no doubt have utterly undone me had they but espied the Capitall title that I was dismissed and I confesse courteously used by Sir John Norwich Then afterwards when time served I repaired to His Majesty and having delivered my Letters I spake to Him and drew a Petition and I think I was the first that petitioned in this kind I do not repent it neither am I ashamed to confesse it and got some hands unto it as that worthy and noble Gentleman Colonel Onâ—ale can beare witnesse the sum whereof was that the Parliament having betrayed the trust that was reposed in them wholly deserted our relief and giving us none other comfort then what I expressed in my Discovery of Mysteries His c. 12. p. 24. Majesty would be pleased to consider that we were his Loyall Subjects and that the care of us was committed by God to him not to his Parliament who had left us in a worse condition then the Rebels had made us and therefore as he justly required our faith and alleageance so we humbly besought him that he would graciously vouchsafe unto us his princely care and assistance some waies to relieve us otherwise then by leaving us still in their hands till we and our families in the languishing expectation of our redresse should finally and irrecoverably perish while these crafty Merchants thus bought and sold us and under the pretence of reformation used all their endeavours to bring both Kingdomes to destruction CHAP. XIX Sheweth how the Rebellious faction have transgressed all the ten Commandments of the Law and the new Commandment of the Gospel how they have committed the seven deadly sins and the foure crying sins and the three most destructive sins to the soul of man and how their Ordinances are made against all Lawes Equity and Conscience 22. THey have in no small measure transgressed all the Commandments of 1. They adore and put their trust in that creature Ps 74. v. 4. 7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quis tibi in mentem dolorem imposuit ut haec perficias magni Dei ore relicto 2. How they have abused Gods house God the ten Commandments of the Law and the new Commandment of the Gospel For 1. The factious Rebels