usually annexed all the Christian World over as a deadly Seal unto all Religious Donations The black forms whereof you have yet extant in your own (a) See above pag. 23. See the form of those Imprecations set down in a Manuscript compiled by the command of the great King Edgar apud Joh. Selden in Not. ad Eadmerum p. 155 156. Where they are doom'd to the same damned end with the lapsed Angels or Devils with Cain with Judas c. I once saw in the hands of a most Reverend Prelate an old Manuscript of Alcuinus Tutor to Charles the Great containing an Extract of all the most rigorous Curses scattered all over the Imprecatory Psalms such as the 69. 83. 139. c. and other direful Passages in holy Scripture as Levit. 26. Deuteron 28 c. and all as I may say compounded into one terrible Clap of Thunder darted out against this very sin of Sacriledge the Report whereof would make the hardest Ear to Tingle Read but seriously so much as we have quoted of it The Summe of them all was A sad Denunâ—iation of an Uâ—ter Total Final Eternal Separation from God and his Blessing Body Soul and Estate Posterity and all Saxon Records of your old Kings Ina and Edgar c 2. These Curses though uttered by particular men who yet if Parents or Superiors have a power from and under God to ( ) See a learned Tract of this in Ludovici Cappelli Spicilegio Diatrib de voto Jepthae Curse as well as to Bless yet were they ratified by the whole Church as well as by this whole Nation and therefore every way lawful as well as powerful 3. For although it might be once in the power of the King and Parliament or Nation by the Law of the Land to disallow of those Curses or of the Donations themselves before they were uttered and confirmed as by the Law of God it was in the power of the Superiour Father or Husband to disallow the Vow of the Daughter or Wife Numb 30. antecedenter before his Assent yet consequenter as anon more at large yet after they have once given way to them or allowed of them * See in the Book of Statutes the Sentence of Curse An. 51. Hen. tertii then de Jure and that by the express Law of God too as well as by their own Act 't is past their Power or the Power of their Successors after them to reverse or to repeal either the Curses or the Donations because God himself is then become a Party in the case and his holy Name ingaged and interessed in both which Specialty gives the Clergie's spiritual Estates one ground of Priviledge in Law beyond and above all other Lay-fees and affords the Reason why Church-Lands may not be equally disposeable or alienable as by the Law of the Land other temporal Estates may be 4. This is a Ruled Case in God's Court of Justice One memorable Instance for all you have Recorded in the Ninth Chapter of the Book of Joshuah and this it was The * Deuter. 7.1 Joshua 9.3 Gibeonites a part of the seven Devoted Pagan Nations by fraud obtain the Priviledge of Exemption confirmed by a rash Oath of the Princes of the Congregation About four hundred years after King (c) 1 Sam. 21. Saul in his zeal too saith the Text to please the humour of the People sought to slay the Gibeonites Hereupon God Almighty sends three whole years Famine and God expresly renders the cause to be a breach of the Promise made unto the Gibeonites so many years before and no way of Expiation but by hanging up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul seven of Saul's Sons to satisfie for their Fathers violation In this History besides the remarkable Circumstanstances of the Divine Talio both in the Place and Persons and the hereditariness of the Curse 'T is worth the observing the several differences betwixt that Case and ours as so many degrees of advantage in our behalf As that 1. Before the Oath and but for the Oath God's express (d) Deut. 7.1.2 Ob spreta septem Praecepta Noachi Petr. Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. lib. 2. c. 19. Command was to destroy these Gibeonites as being within the compass of God's Interdictum 2ly The Oath was rash for v. 14. the Princes would not so much as stay to ask counsel of the Lord. 3ly It was extorted by fraud and that upon a false ground too that they came from a very far Country whereas they dwelt hard by 4ly There seemed a kind of publick necessity to repeal such a rash Oath for v. 19. because of it all the Congregation murmured against the Princes yet for all that the Princes dare not to please or appease the People venture to displease God But v. 19. All the Princes said unto all the Congregation we have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel now therefore we may not touch them Sure they will not say that this example also is but Levitical or Oaths but Ceremonial unless they will shake hands with the Anabaptists and other Fanaticks 5. It needs no further Application for if in the case of a Promise made to meer Heathen to cursed Heathen God was so strict a Revenger of the Violation then à majori betwixt Christian and Christian yea between God and Man venture who dare Eurip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though man cannot God can (e) Lev. 25.21 Command as the Blessing so the Curse to take effect for it will appear soon or late that it was God's own Curse and therefore impossible it should be either causeless or powerless 6. Causeless it is not but most just in the Nature in the Motives in the end thereof First in the Nature of it for what can be more just then to separate those Persons from God the nature of the Curse who made no Conscience of separating those holy things from God which belong unto God by the Donor's godly will Secondly in the Ends and Motives the Curses were just also for why might not those good men have in them an Eye to the glory of (f) Sanctus i. e. honoratus sit Deus eo ipso quod punit Sacrilegos scilicet de divino honore tantúm sacrilegi de trahunt ut necesse sit per eorum punitionem resarciri honorem pristinum Caiet in Levit 10.3 God their Protestations are so and Charity bids believe the best and to the good of his Church namely that God's Justice might appear in the punishment of Sacrilegious Usurpers or Violators and so the Church might be edified and all men warned by their Exemplary punishment 7. And as those Curses were not causeless so neither were they powerless how ever the Irreligious Scoffers of these latter days may blaspheme God and slight them and all God's ways of Justice or Mercy either Yet by the general woful experience of so many Men Families yea Nations as have ventured upon them it will
For 't is true we had not the leisure to cut it into such shorter Stages as might haply have rendred the Passages in the way more clear and easie and the whole Journey more pleasant But could we have had the space to put it into a fitter Form than this way wherein the Matter of it was at first delivered yet we would scarce have been shorter in the behalf of the most with whom as the old (m) Horat. de arte poetica saying is whilest Brevis esse laboro Obscurus fio Touching the Load of Marginals say some give us Reasons what need Authorities but as both does well so it should be rather an Evidence of our fair Dealing that in this Controversie we will not altogether speak our own sense but especially in a matter of Fact which calls in question the Practice of the whole Church the Margent may be as necessary as the Text and if you 'l try it it will sometimes prove as material too especially ad hominem for with some kind of men as some of those we are to Cope with If they be ingenuous men one round Testimony of Calvin or of Knox may prevail more than many Reasons or bare Scriptures either without them This for the length Now some quite contrary will think us in another sense sometimes too brief with some of them But against this Censure we have learned out one good Lesson Namely now so to speak unto men (n) Aug. Non quae volunt audire sed quae volent audisse upon a Death-bed or at Dooms-day when the (o) Tunc tacebunt linguae silebunt Argumenta solae loquentur Conscientiae Gerson voice of Conscience and of Truth shall sound lowdest especially quando agitur de salute Reip. Nay de salute ECCLESIAE In such a Case as we cannot be too plain with men So likewise we have our Warrant to shew as sometimes in a good sense (p) Prov. 26.5 For answering a Fool according to his Folly least he be wise in his own conceit So in the other good Sense too we are resolved already we will not answer a Fool according to his Folly neither to wit not with that Unreasonableness Absurdity and Uncharitableness usual with some kind of men who in their way of Arguing aim not so much ad Rem as ad Personam as if directly they intended not to perswade but to provoke their Adversary which is all the Sophisters good Logick whose Verbal or Personal Cavils shall therefore never trouble us nor we them any further than they shall pedem pedi figere about the Main Matter And now they cannot say but they know our mind aforehand As for thee good Reader we bespeak no other Conditions of thee save that one good one which honest Hierocles (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl in Carm. Pythag. 8. requires of a wise man and a true friend only the Favour of so much Patience as to wink at small Faults But as for greater Matters assure thy self thou hast met with one as willing to retract an Errour as thou or any man to refute it For if any where we have slipt any thing contrary to the true sense of any of the HOLY SCRIPTURES or to any of the general Tenents of the PRIMITIVE CATHOLICK CHURCH or to any of the Sound Articles or good Orders of our Holy Mother THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND none of all which we trust will here easily be found Behold antecedenter a man most ready to recant it And now Good Reader God speed THE PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THIS BOOK 1. SACRILEDGE being such a Publick Sin and in its Complication a Sin of as hainous a Nature and of as dangerous a Consequence both to Church and State as any it gives us sufficient ground as to Undertake again so to Justifie our constant Prosecution of it Certainly in such a Grand Case as this will appear to be here Neutrality were no better than open Hostility For if Highway-Robbers by Land and Pyrates by Sea are indeed and so ought to be accounted The common Enemies of Mankind and therefore no ways to be protected but always to be prosecuted by the Law of Nations we dare be bold to say and prove it also and that à majori all wilful Church-Robbers are no better then so Hostes humani generis open Enemies to the best Society of Mankind the Church who dare attempt to rob God of his own Demesnes 2. Must we not therefore in our own Defence be not only mindful but also fearful of our share in that Curse thundered out against Meroz Because they came not to the help of the Lord Judg. v. 13. to the help of the Lord against the mighty What have we so soon forgotten the old Proverb Amyclas silentium perdidit must we therefore be Dumb still because others will need remain both Blind and Deaf God forbid Isa lxii 1. Nay rather For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace For to speak it out in time do not all honest knowing men that are yet true to God the King and the Church plainly perceive the old Cabales a foot again Do not they hear again the confused Noise of Gebal and Ammon Psal lxxxiij 7.12 and Amaleck of the Presbyterian the Independent and the Phanatick within the Land left still as the Canaanites in Israel to be Thorns on our sides Judg. xi 22. to tempt and to try us And of the Philistines also over Seas all of them though each of them for their own several ends as it were mutually incouraging one another in the old style Psal lxxiij 12. Let us take to our selves again the houses of God in possession Vt Jugulent Homines surgunt de nocte Latrones Horat. lib. Epist 1. Vt teipsum serves non expergisceris 3. Though in this New Project of Sacriledge the old Devil may seem to be grown a dull Devil for using still the same Method which he did practise in the old Plot as Venemous Tongues set on fire of Hell Jam. iij. 6. base seditious Libels penned with the Devil 's own Quill Impudent Lyes Calumniare audacter aliquid haerehit The Devil 's old Maxime like Firebrands scattered up and down among the giddy Multitude to set them on again all in a flame and all these boldly staring in the very face of Authority and Truth And all these flying furiously not upon the rascal-Deer but upon the Fairest nay upon the Shepherds the Chief Pastors of God's Flock that they being first smitten the Sheep may the sooner be scattered abroad Thus the Nimrod of Hell appears coming out again to hunt out the Church-game with the same old Pack of Hounds that at the first did but Bark to give the on-set but being suffered to go on Unmuzzled and Untied did both back-bite and bite sore and in the end did worry also both the Royal Shepherd and the scatter'd Sheep Heu Probatum est Therefore may
Promises or Pacts are as the addition of a Seal to the hand in a Bond and in practice usual with the Saints who to say nothing of the Christian's Vow in Baptism are therefore for our example recorded to have ex abundanti bound themselves with Vows and Oaths * Gen. 28.20 Job 31.1 Psal 119.106 to the observance of that which otherwise they were morally obliged unto before their Vow by the Law of Nature and by the express Law of God Besides by the Law of Nature we are bound only to maintain God's service in genere but by Vow we may bind our selves to it in specie namely to maintain it in this or that particular way Thus for the general part of it you see how God himself is intitled to our substance by the light of Nature which of it self is (p) Rom. 1.19 20 21.28 enough without any further Revelation to discover many things and this truth amongst the rest 9. As for the Divine light the light of Revelation the light of Scripture No sooner do you read of a positive Law of God but behold God's express Resumption of his own Right both for the (q) Num. 18.21 Quota of Tythes as also for those ample additions of Offerings Inventaried (r) See above pag. 29. above calling them all expresly (s) Deut. 18.1 Dei possessio Selden ad Eadmer p. 155. the Lord's Inheritance and himself the Proprietary yet sure God Almighty was then as much Lord of the whole World as now and no less now then he was then How far in point of Analogy and natural Equity this Title doth concern the Ministers under the Gospel you have heard before (t) See above p. 28. 29. out of St. Paul's own mouth 10. This second sort of Devotions Offerings I mean become God's due under the Gospel as well as under the Law by a two-fold Act 1. By a voluntary Dedication on the Offerers part by whom as they are separated from all prophane and common use so are they appropriated to a Divine and Sacred use which act ipso facto alters the Property and actually transfers the full Right from the Owner the Donor unto God the Creatour that daigns to become the Donee or Receiver from his Creature and this Divine Condescension * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl in carm Pythag. holy men yea very Heathen have accounted no small favour in that it renders us in a manner worthy to receive from him again As for the Acceptance of all this of which more hereafter 't is testified by a second Act on the Officer's part the Priest I mean who by an Invocative sanctification or Benediction usually called Consecration as God's Vicegerent allows of the Oblations and receives them in God's Name and stead for God's use and service This latter Act of Consecration though it may seem but an Ecclesiastical Ceremony yet is it as the publick Solemnity of Marriage de benè esse to legitimate the substance 11. And thus Times Places Persons and Things of common become holy relatively and so proper unto God that ever after God expresly calls all such holy things his and by his Name in the perpetual language of the (u) Exod. 13. 1 King 8.43 Jerem. 7.10 Matth. 21.13 Scripture to intimate that he claims as full and as real a Propriety in those things as he doth in Die Dominicâ the (x) Rev. 1.10 On which day therefore Theodoric in his Edict make it Sacriledge to sue or convent a man before a Judge Lord's Day or in Domo Dominicâ the Lord's House for so of old in the Primitive Records of Christian Councils were all sacred things termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no less the Lord's things Nay so your own Law and (y) H. de Bract. de legibus consuetudin Angliae Sir Edw. Coke above p. 46. Lawyers too call them Divinum Tenementum God's own Tenure and they say your Law keeps as precisely close to the Letter as any Till therefore it be proved either that they were things so relinquished as none owned them before or had never been in any one 's rightful possession and so fell to those who first could seize on them by the Rule Quae nullius sunt fiunt occupantis or that God himself the Proprietary hath derelinquish'd his own Right or demised it to another it can neither revert to the Donor nor be converted to any other prophane or common use without high Sacriledge Excellently well to our purpose doth * Ecclesiae Anglicanae Suspiria B. 4. ch 26. Dr. Gauden late Lord bishop of Worcester Reason this Case thus God's mind must be known that he is willing to be deprived either of that Service and Honour he and his Son Jesus Christ had or of those means for the Maintenance of it which were Devoted to him Nor can any Power that I know but onely God's Omnipotence absolve the living and Survivors from that Right which the Donors had when yet living and that Bond which from them though dead yet still lies on the Consciences of those Survivors who for ever stand bound to discharge their trust by observing as sacred the Will of the Dead which if once lawful is not to be made void wilfully and presumptuously If at any time publick Necessities do drive men to some temporary dispensations and seisures yet these must be so recompensed afterward in quiet times as may keep them from being made beyond inconveniences intentional and eternal Injuries to God and his Church that it may be but a Borrowing and not a Robbing of God and his Church but must remain for ever the Lord 's proper Demesne and as I may say his Sacred Inclosure fenced about therefore with the double Hedge of a solemn Consecration and of a severe Commination too 12. Both which are the Off-springs of one and the same original (z) Mr. Mede's Diatrib on Matth. 6.9 Root to wit INCOMMUNICABLENESS which derives a Shadow and Resemblance upon all those Things Places Times Persons or Actions which have God's Name stamped upon them and renders them Incommunicable exalting them into a State of Appropriateness and singularity because Divine so that still all this Respect and Reverence exhibited to all sacred things terminates finally in God himself so far is outward Devotion if rightly pitched for the Object from becoming a Bridge unto Idolatry or Superstition that to a Considerative Soul it rather prompts the clean contrary if we would but take the pains to understand or to heed the right Reason of our Reverence towards sacred things namely their Relation unto God which Derives unto all such whether persons or things though not an inherent yet a relative Holiness CHAP. VI. Of God's Heavy Curses against Sacrilegious both Persons and Nations Sect. 1 THis Divine respect is the more observable because it is the fandamental ground of all those heavy Curses temporal and Eternal without Repentance unavoidable