CHAP. I.

TO begin with the first, The Malefactor, he is described here, first in general, by his Titles of Religion, secondly, in particu­lar, by his Titles of Office; for to all these [Page 6] in the Context, the Text hath a plaine Re­ference.

Sect. 1. First, in general he is described, by his Titles of Religion, for 'tis a Religious Malefactor; he is a Professor, nay, a forward one, a Zelot, described first positively, Behold thou art called a Jew, (verse 17.) and restest in the Law, ( [...], is the word, a full word) thou so wholly reliest upon thy bare profession of the Law, as thou art utterly carelessAret. in loc. Securè legi indormiens, de reliquo nil soli­citus. mean-while of the pra­ctice of, or obedience to the Law, (as appears by the Text and Context, v. 23.) Thou that gloriest in, or makest thy boast of God, (you may please to save me the labour of applica­tion, change but the Names and you may have here a full Character of too too many men in our Generation) Thou pretendest to know the will of God (v. 18.) thou approvest the things that are more excellent, or (as the Margin reads it, [...]. and the Original bears it.) Thou that presumest to take upon thee the Office of a Tryer, that canst try the things that differ, that canst try Religions, and in pretense chuse out the best: Here is a forward one in­deed, and that not only thus, positively a Zelot of the Law in his own Religion, (as he is tearmed, Acts 20.21.) But negatively too, a Zelot against the contrary Religion, one, that not only abstains from, but (which may seem the very Quintessence of Repentance of, and conversion from a sin) one that abhors Idola­try, that stops his Nose at the smell of an Idol, (so the Greek) [...] of [...], which signifies an ut­most stink, or the extremity of an ill sa­vour. Vorst. q. d. propter foeto­torem aversa­ris: [...], execror, Budae­us: unde [...], A­poc. 21.27. Omnis generis atrocia pec­cata. that can startle or shake with horrour at but the very sight of an Idol, [Page 7] so the German renders it,Der du ei­nen grewell hast, an den gotzen raubest heilige dinge? a Zelot indeed, and yet behold this is the man Indicted here by the Apostle, as a Malefactor, Thou that ab­horrest, &c. as if Saint Paul arguing ab ab­surdo, had said thus, How canst thou pretend to be indeed an Enemy to Idolatry, as long as thou art a friend to Sacriledge, a sin in the ap­purtenances of it, as directly destructive of the first whole Table, nay more, of both Ta­bles, (in the nature of Theft also) and therefore full out as bad as Idolatry?

2. But this is one of Satan's Deepest Rev. 2.24. Depths: when the Devil can hold men no longer in an old sin, he is then wont thus to ring Changes, or to shift his Weapon, when he perceives men through Constitution, Education, or Profession, converted and averse from an old Error, he perswades them to some other new sinful course, full out as bad as the old; causing them to mistake, such anThe Devil's converts. Hypo­critical Commutation of a new sin for and old, instead of a sound Conversion: as when men grow weary of Prodigality, he converts them to Covetousness; instead of an old carnal Lust, he perswades them to entertain a new one, as spiritual Pride, or Singularity, or Envy, and in time, to exchange this too, for Schisme, or Sedition, or Rebellion; To avoid Superstition, he perswades them to utter Prophaneness, the quite other extream, as [...], Basil. instead of Idola­try to give over themselves to Sacriledge: And as thus in the case of particular men's Conversions, so through God's just permission, yea, Judgment against National Hypocrisie, in [Page 8] the case of National changes too, or Reforma­tion of Religion, Satan doth sometimes inlarge this his Depth, and as easily as single men, mis­leads into it whole Nations, whole Churches; when they are grown weary of a stale Errour, he presents them with a fresh, full out as rank as the former, only sweetned over with some plausible pretence of Zeal, or of the Purity of Religion.

3. This was here the very Case of some of the preciser sort, in the Nation of the Jews, for the Parties here Indicted are not Heathen, or Barbarians, or Scythians, but Jews, (which is a nameVerse. 28, 29. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, &c. of profession) Professors of the then supposed old true Religion: or if you will (asSo the French, and the Italian of Diodati. some) enlarge it to the Roman Con­verts also, the Professors of the then Reformed Christian Religion: The observation will be still the same either way, That Zealous Pro­fessors may be deeply guilty of foul sins in gene­ral, of this foul sin of Sacriledge in parti­cular.

4. But ex abundanti, to reconcile both these Expositions into one, why may not the Jews and Romans here be both one? such as were those strangers of Rome, (or stranger-Romans)Acts 2.5. expresly called Jews and Pro­selytes, some of the old Jewish Dispersions (mentioned by St.Jam. 1.1. [...]. V. Orationem Agrippae in Josepho. James) then con­verted by St. Peter's Preaching, and now con­firmed by St. Paul's Epistle: for that those Roman Jews mentioned in the Acts, were but Sojourners at Jerusalem, and not Dwellers there, is plain from that Text well examined: [Page 9] so that those Roman Jews might by this time be returned Converts from Jerusalem to Rome, and be the men in part, to whom Saint Paul here directs this his Epistle: This is ve­ry probable, but whether they were or were not Jews unconverted, against whom St. Paul directs his Charge, it matters not. Dato, ne­dum concesso, that they were meer Jews, here lies the issue, Sacriledge is here made a plain parallel sin, and of the same nature with A­dultery and Idolatry, Ergo, Sacriledge is a sin still under the Gospel, as much as Adultery or Idolatry, or else St. Paul says as good as no­thing to his main drift and purpose in this whole Chapter, which is, to convince both Jew and Gentile of damnable hypocrisie, in doing as bad as others, whom yet rhey did condemn. Ergo, from the scope of the Text, it must needs follow in ordinary Logick, that as A­dultery and Idolatry are breaches of the Moral Law, which Law concerns us Christians as much as it did the Jews; even so is Sacriledge too a breach of the same Moral Law, and in some respects, as you shall hear it proved anon, a greater sin under the Gospel, than un­der the Law.

5. Then what ever the Malefactor be, the Crime is the same: so that for all their out­ward profession of being God's own People, neither the Law, nor Circumcision, neither God's Word, nor his Sacraments, nor all the External advantages of Religion (otherwise excellent and glorious, if well used) shall avail them any further, than toVerse 25.27. aggra­vate [Page 10] their just condemnation: Their pretence of Detestation of Idolatry will not serve the turn, as long as they continue in Sacriledge: what ever they be, Jews, or Christians, Lai­ty, or Clergy; (God's own express distin­ction, as old as Moses)Exod. 19.13. &c. Where the people are set down their bounds: 'Tis S. Greg. Nazi­anz. observa­tion, &c. God hath no respect of persons, for if you mark it, the Malefactor is here Indicted, not only by his Titles of Religion; But, which is our second point of Examination, by his Titles of Office too, as he is a Doctor, or a Preacher; so runs the style in the Context.

6. Behold, saith the Apostle,Verse 19.20, 21. thou art confident that thou thy self art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in dark­ness (an illuminate Generation) an Instru­cter of the Foolish, a teacher of Babes, which hast the form of Knowledge, and of the truth in the Law. Thou therefore which teachest an­other Bene doce­re & malè vi­vere, quid aliud est quàm se suâ voce damnare? Prosper. teachest thou not thy self? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, doest thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not com­mit Adultery, doest thou commit Adultery? Thou that abhorrest Idols, doest thou commit Sacriledge?

7. It seems they that should have been the Guardians, were the Robbers, yea, Ring-leaders in the spoyl of God's House, turned Bethel into Bethaven, the House of God into a Den of Thieves: Thieves indeed, who to buy the High-Priesthood it selfJoseph: & Beza ex eo. not out of any love to the Office, (for Sectaries and Hereticks, Pharises and Sadduces as they were, almost all of them, witness Annas the [Page 11] then High-Priest, a Sadducee himself, what ca­red they for the Office, so they had the Bene­cice) they did not spare to sell the Offerings, corrade the Sacrifices, rob God's Exchequer, to pay the Roman-Chapman, by whom all sacred things were then exposed to sale.

I suppose you so apprehensive as not to ex­pect an application of this, to our late Lay-Bishops, or Lay-Deans, in this one respect, still worse than the old Church-Thieves, that those did not abolish the Office, as keen as they were of the Benefice, but still had some care to preserve their Church in the old form, though very corrupt for the matter thereof.

8. The fair warning deducible from this History, may concern you all, that you may not be seduced by the smooth pretences, or false Principles of men, be their Titles never so specious, be they Doctors or Pastors, discon­tented Teachers, or popular Preachers; say they be of the Tribe of Levi, or of the Family of Chorah: yea should any of our selves for our own particular advantage, go about to mince the matter, to perswade you that Sacriledge is no Sacriledge, believe us not: for, as one hath too truly observed it; I know not how, nor by what Destiny, (but by the Devils co-ope­ration) in the spoyl of God's Demesnes, usu­ally all of all sorts, joyn heads and hands: these three Avaritia Magnatum, Ambitio Sacerdotum & Superbia Populorum, both of old and of late, go hand in hand about it, commonly the Avarice of the Grandees, is still the Beldam; the ambition Num. 16. of some gree­dy [Page 12] male-contented, and perhaps undeserving Priests, is the Midwife; and the Pride of the over-weening vulgar (forQuum ex­cellimur, & in­stamur adver­sus Clerum, tum sumus om­nes sacerdotes, quia Sacerdotes nos Deo & Pa­tri fecit: quum ad per aequatio­nem Disciplinae Sacerdotalis provocamur deponibus In­sulas, & Im­pares sumus. Tertul. de Monogamia, c. 12. every man, the simplest man would be his own Priest, his own Bishop:) hath proved the unhappy Nurse to breed and bring forth all Church-Mischief. These three are never awanting, but always ready to help one another, and the Devil above all to rob God Almighty, which is the Crime charged here by the A­postle upon this Malefactor, and the second main part of our Discourse, to wit, the exa­mination of the sin of Sacriledge, and that, as you may remember, the division three man­ner of ways, to wit,

• 1. By way of Declaration.
• 2. By way of Aggravation; and
• 3. By way of Probation.

CHAP. II.

1. TOuching the matter of Declaration, we shall deliver it first by way of Descri­ption, secondly by way of Distribution, of the sin of Sacriledge according to its several kinds and degrees.

In the Description we may consider the sin of Sacriledge, as it is set down in the Text. 1. Absolutely, in its own nature. 2. Comparatively with those other parallel-sins expressed in the Text, and Context, to wit, [Page 13]

• Adultery, a most hainous sin against the second Table.
• Idolatry a most grievous Crime against the first Table.

We begin with the first, the Consideration of the sin of Sacriledge absolutely, and in its own nature. Not to trouble you with anyHeins. ad loc. uncouth Exposition, but following the Father's Deligendus est sensus è ma­teriâ dicti: Regula Ter­tulliani, & Hilarii. Where the matter and the Context will bear it, we are to choose the most proper and literal sense. Aug. de Doctr. Christiana. sound Rule, in finding out the right sense of a Text: By Sacriledge here, is meant properly, the Abuse of Aquin. in loc. things sa­cred, or belonging to the service of God, whe­ther the Abuse be committed by way ofViolatione, vel surreptione. violation, through prophaneness, or usur­pation, through fraud, or covetousness (of which latter kind of real Sacriledge, you shall hear more anon, when we come to the mat­ter of Aggravation:) but whether by Pro­phanation, or Ʋsurpation, either way, 'tis Sa­criledge; so saith Calvin upon the place, and so Contzen the Jesuite, (witnesses enough we may have of all sorts, of all sides:) That this is the full extent or value of the word [...], to commit Sacriledge, is plain from the constant Etymology thereof, in the generalPhavorini, Lexicon, [...]. So Hesych. Suidas. Budaeus. Rober­ti Steph. The­saurus. The great Greek Concordance given by Sir Henry Savile, to the publick Library at Oxford. See there [...], 2 Mac. 13.6. and [...], 2 Mac. 4.42. So Acts 19.37. Sacrilegium est propriè rerum sacrarum furtum, Papias. Nay, so the Hebrew [...] in the Old Testament, (Gen. 49 27.) from whence directly the word [...] in the Greek of the New Testament is derived, being applied to things Sacred, is properly to spoyl, to pillage, or (for the capacity of those who are better versed in the new way of Robbing) to Plunder holy things? so the German of Rackaw renders this Text, Raubest hei­lige dinge: Rauben and Plundern, in that Language being full Sy­nonymes. Current of Authors, Ecclesiastical, or [Page 14] Classical, Greek or Latine (for the word Sa­crilegium:) And now, God be-thanked, it is clear by the letter of this Text, that there is still such a thing as Sacriledge, and that Sa­criledge is a sin under the Gospel, as much as under the Law, a sin of as hainous a nature, and of as heavy a Consequence, as either Adul­tery or Idolatry; either of which, I hope, no Christian will deny to be sins under the Go­spel, as well as under the Law. Here is a plain literal Text for both; a fair Foundation to build the rest of our discourse upon. This for the Grammatical Exposition of the Text.

2. As for the particular occasion thereof: 1. Some are of opinion, that the Apostle might, by the Holy Ghost, foresee this Error, that some Zelots (whether Jews or Romans, it matters not) under pretence of hating I­dols, might presume to rob the Idol's Temples: and from this take their Hint most Expositers ancient and modern, Chrysostom. Theoph. Calv. Estius ad loc. Greek and Latine, to paraphrase the Text thus; Thou that ab­horrest Idols, doest thou (through sacrilegious Avarice) steal away the things sacrificed to Idols? From which general Exposition we may thus argue the Case: If the Apostle, and the holy Fathers did think the Robbing of an Idol, a false God, As no Ca­suist doubts of it that a Turk may be guilty of Perjury, and for it be pu­nished by the True God, If he forswear himself, though he swear but by Mahomet a false Prophet. to be Sacriledge, (and in Dionysius, and others, though but meer Heathen, the true God hath revenged it for such) then à majori, it must needs be high Sacriledge to steal away that which belongs to the true God indeed, unless they will make h [...]m a tamer Deity in his own Right, than in the Right of an Idol.

[Page 15]3. But secondly, the Syriack Expositor is yet more literal, and renders these words thus, Doest thou commit Sacriledge directly by those? doest thou spoyl the house of the Sanctu­ary? ( [...]) that is the word:And that God Almighty hath still un­der the Gospel his Domum Sanctuarii, as well as under the Law, needs no other Text, than that plain Evangelical one, (Marc. 11.17. out of Isa. 56.7.) My house shall be called of (or to) all Nations the house of Prayer. Where 1. Even under the Gospel God doth still claim a house to himself? My house, by a plain right of ap­propriation. 2. That it must be so called, and so used too, [...], to, or of all Nations, which till the calling in of the Gentiles by the Gospel, could not be under the Law. either Exposition will serve the turn, That in the Apostle's judgment, 'tis Sacri­ledge to take away that which belongs to God, and to turn it into a prophane or com­mon use.

4. You may easily take an Estimate of the hainousness of the sin of Sacriledge in its own nature, by the worth of its opposite, the highest Vertue, the vertue of Religion, which Sacri­ledge Aquin. directly overthrows: and therefore vi contrariorum, Sacriledge must needs be the basest Vice. A Thief, any ordinary Thief is a Person infamous by the Law, I C. & Stat. concern. Ridesdale-men, &c. who yet robs but a man like himself; how base a Thief is he then that robs God, that robs his own God? for so God Indicts him expresly,Malach. 3.8. and so both the Greek and the [...], Suid. Bud. Gotts-Dieb. In Classical Authors 'tis an Epithet of highest aggravation, when a thing is called Sacrilegious, as Vipera & Sacrilega sunt convicia comica & apta in Ancillas & mulieres improbas, &c Chabot in 5. Epod. Ho­rat. Bellum Sacrilegum Cic. 7. in Verr. Sacrilegi furores Martial. Ger­man, [Page 16] and the Saxon, your old Language term him, Gods Thief, that is his Brand. Nay, one degree worse yet, for Sacriledge is a Vice op­posite to the vertue of Religion, not simply, or in any inferiour degree, but in its heroical degree of Excellency; It particularly opposeth Devotion, which is Religion in its Zenith, in its height; It being an holy promptitude to honour God with our substance, as well as with our service, one of the highest Expressions of our duty to our Maker, and of the homage we can perform to God Almighty, whilest we are upon Earth: which doth as near as may be at this distance fasten us (to use the phrase of that Divine Heathen) [...]. Hie­rocl. Knit us together with God. unto God heart and hand, and all: Then sure the quite con­trary disservice can be no Gnat, which very Pagans themselves out of meer common Notions, have ever strained at; to say nothing of all Christendom besides. And as Sacri­ledge is thus hainous in its own nature, so it will appear more horrible still, being compa­red with the Parallel-sins it is matched withal in the Context: Noscitur ex socio, is an old Say; And this is our second Point in order, to make up the full description of this sin, to wit, by way of Comparison.

5. The sins near of kin to Sacriledge, are here set down to be,

• 1. Adultery, and
• 2. Idolatry; damnable sins both of them in whomsoever, in the Christian, as well as in the Jew: so that with as much Reason may any man affirm the sins of Adultery or [Page 17] of Idolatry, to concern onely the Jews, and not us Christians, because St. Paul seems here to speak to the Jews, as to say so of Sacri­ledge, or with as much reason may any man deny Adultery or Idolatry, to be sins now under the Gospel, as deny Sacriledge to be a sin still, for the ground in this Text is the same for both; and therefore by a plain Ar­gument, à pari at least, Sacriledge must needs be a sin of the same nature, that is as dam­nable in a Christian, as in a Jew, under the Gospel, as under the Law. As for the first Adultery, that can be no Peccadillo, no sin in jest, that in earnest was dyed in the blood of 25000
  Num. 25.9.
  all at once: and for which mil­lions lie now frying in Hell. But yet, as hainous as Adultery is, 'tis the observation of some learned Interpreters
  Mendoca. in 1 Reg. 2.17.
  upon the Text; that 1. Whereas God stayed patiently a twelve-month, before he did reprove King David for his Adultery: but for the sin of Sacriledge, God did arraign and condemn too King Uzziah, [...].
  2 Chron. 26.20, 21.
  In the very act, as we say, which, Caeteris paribus, is more severe. 2. God did not deprive King David of his Royal Office for his Adultery, but for his Sacriledge, God degraded from the Throne King Uzziah. 3. God did set no personal, visible mark of his Justice upon King David himself for his Adultery; but for his Sacriledge, God did fix the mark of his wrath upon King Uzziah's Forehead, as the most visible place, for a fair warning: and so God does still generally punish sacrile­gious [Page 18] persons, even here upon Earth tempo­rally, yea, visibly: One memorable Instance for the Aggravation of the sin of Sacriledge above Adultery, our Lord and Master hath left us upon Record: for when the great Bishop and Shepheard of our Souls came to visit his Metropolis Jerusalem, and found sacrilegious Chapmen trading there: Though our Lord had waved to give any Sentence or Judgment,
  Luc. 12.14. John 8.11.
  as in the case of Inheritance, so in the case of Adultery, yet he passeth sen­tence and judgment, and himself executeth present penalty, in the very Act, against the Sacrilegious Abusers of his House. His Whip of small Cords, as St. Hierom amplifies it,
  Matth. 21.
  wrought a greater Miracle than any in the whole Gospel: Quòd unus homo, & illo tem­pore contemptibilis, &c. potuerit ad unius fla­golli verbera tantam ejicere multitudinem. Such was our supream Visitor's divine zeal and fiery indignation against Sacriledge, that he himself is both Accuser, Witness, Judge, and Executioner, which is very singular, and onely in the case of Sacriledge: And which is yet more, this penal Miracle is also re­doubled (as Pharaoh's Dream for certain­ty) and acted twice over by our Lord, for the full confirmation and ratifying of the Pe­nalty to all ensuing Ages and Generations: As both learned Grotius on John 11.14. and judicious Mr. Mede very well observe: Christ made the Correction of Sacriledge both the Alpha and the Omega of his Episcopal Care. And yet let no prophane Esau
  Heb. 2.16.
  wrest [Page 19] this Parallel to an Extenuation of that sin of Adultery, which, of all others, God hath threatned to reserve unto his own Judicato­ry; because the close Adulterer presuming to do that work of darkness in the presence of the Immortal God, which he durst not do in the presence of a mortal man, highly defies the Omni-science and Omni-presence of God: Therefore in the matter of Ʋriah's Wife, God, who hath no respect of persons, threatens Da­vid, though a King, That because he did it se­cretly, God would punish him openly before all Israel, and before the Sun, (2 Sam. 12.2.) and the Apostle confirms the Commination, saying, That Whoremongers and Aulterers God will judge:
  Heb. 13.4.
  And if so, where shall then the Church-Robber, or sacrilegious per­son appear?

6. Secondly, as for the other Parallel-sin, the sin of Idolatry, to which Sacriledge is here compared. 'Tis true, Idolatry is a hainous sin, whether in Pagan Impiety, or Popish Su­perstition, or simplicity; for aIsa. 44.19. rational Creature, to fall down to the stock of a Tree, is able to provoke the jealousie of a patient God, (and jealousie is anger in the height of fury) which therefore in the proportion of God's Justice, must needs presuppose a very high Offence: And so the Jewes conceived of it, acknowledging to this day (at their solemn Feast of Expiation) their Idolatry about the Calfe, Moses Gerundensis. and that an Ounce of it, is still an Ingredient to all their National punishments: and in this, [Page 20] the ancient Christian Church was even with the Jew for detestation of Idolatry; witness against the Religious use of Images in Churches, that rigid Fact of Epiphanius, and the rigour of the Councel of Eliberis, as also the prudent wariness of the old Catholicks in their slow admission of them: for 'tis very well known to the Learned, that Images were not received into the Church but t'other day in comparison, and that not without very great opposition neither; all this ado about Images, was, as to avoid all appearance of evil, in those Pagan times and places espe­cially, so to express their devout fear of slipping into that occasional Error, into which some Western Churches first, and, after the seducing example, some of the Eastern-Churches also are foully fallen at last by little and little: yet as bad as, by all this, Idolatty may appear, Sacriledge must needs be at least, full out as damnable a sin as Idolatry, If (y) Calvin may be Judge,Scitè Apo­stolus opponit Idololatriae Sacrilegium, tanquam rem ejusdem gene­ris. Calv. ad loc. who therefore expresly observes on the Text, the fitness of the Apostle's Comparison, in parallel­ling Idolatry with Sacriledge, as being sins ejusdem generis, of the same kind; and if of the same kind, then sure Sacriledge is still a sin as damnable now under the Gospel, as Idolatry it self.

7. And I would to God we had no cause to fear, that under the very same pretence of avoiding Idolatry and Superstition, some men have Reformed the Worship of God, the quite contrary way, and run so far towards [Page 21] the other two extreams of Sacriledge and Prophaneness, as that they may seem full out as liable to the Apostle's Indictment here, as any: Thou that abhorrest Idols, doest thou commit Sacriledge?

A sin which in some respects, may prove somewhat worse than Idolatry, to wit, if considered in its Complication, with those other grievous Crimes, that of all other sins, do usually attend upon the sin of Sa­criledge, as forerunners or followers: (for Sacriledge is one of those sins, which they callAs Calvin very well notes of the Sacri­ledge of Ana­nias, on Act. 5.1. In hac ficta oblatione plura mala suberant. 1. Contemptus Dei quem suae pravitatis con­scium non re­veretur. 2. Sacrilega fraudatio, quia partem ex eo subducit quod sacrum esse Deo profitebatur. 3. Perversa vanitas & ambitio, quia, posthabito Dei judicio hominibus se venditat. 4. Infidelitas quia hanc viam, illicitam non aggressus esset, nisi Deo diffisus. 5. Pii, sanctique instituti corruptio. 6. Ipsa quoque hypocrisis magnum per se erat malum. 7. Accessit huc quo (que) obstinata mentiendi audacia. Behold, out of one single Root of Sacriledge, seven deadly sins, as so many cursed branches spreading out themselves over a Church of the Apostle's own Plantation. Dio­dati adds one sin more expressed in the 9th Verse, to wit, Tempting of God: Di tentare, c. di fare un prophano Saggio, se egli conoscerebbe, &c. That is to make a prophane Trial, or assay, whether God could know their fraud, or knowing it, would or could punish it. Peccata aggregata.) For instance, Idolaters, as bad as they are, yet they will suffer Bishops, (and so far the Papists are right) but the late Patrons of Sacriledge in flat opposition to Christ and his Apostles, ever begin their work with the bloody Per­secution of God's chief Servants, the Bisheps and Pastors of Christ's Flock, because they are, and ever were the men, down from the Apostle's days, intrusted by the Catholick Church, as Feoffees and Guardians of the [Page 22] sacred Patrimony: 'Tis the Devil's stale Stratagem this, still to begin at theMatth. 26.31. Shep­heards, that the Sheep may the easier be scattered: The Devil in this, dealing with the Church, as Aelian reports, Anytus, one of the thirty Tyrants, to have done with A­thens. The Persecutor intending usurpation upon the State of Athens, and finding good honest Socrates to stand in his way, as being able to confute his Conclusions, never left, till first by under-hand traducing, and then by open false Accusation, he, through the hands of the Hair-brained multitude, for­ced the good man to drink off the Cup of Hemlock: Thus Socrates once voted out of the way, Anytus soon after became the Head-Master of the Athenian Crew, State and all.

8. Add to all this, that some Idolaters may be Loyal, but as for Sacriledge, you may observe, that the most usual Medium to compass it, is Rebellion and Treason still: As Anytus dealt with Socrates, so they will deal still with the Prince, if he prove a Constantine to God, and his own Soul, and therefore refuse his consent, because it is not in his own power, for the King's Prov. 21.1. heart is, and should he still in the hand of the Lord, as I may say, under God's own Lock and Key, but then, rather than miss of their sacrilegious ends, they will burst, or force open the Wards, the more need hath He then again of all good Subjects Prayers, Lord Psal. 51.12. 'tis [...] SPIRITU PRINCI­PIS fulcito, velut manibus. stablish him with thy free spirit.

For I know not how, but still these two, Sacriledge and Rebellion, do usually meet in eodem subjecto: witness Judas, as a sacri­legious Thief, so a base Traytor, set down therefore in the old Forms of the Quisquis autem hujus meae munificen­tiae Testamen­tum quovis de­inceps tempore, aliquâ occasio­ne, cujus libet etiam dignitatis, vel professionis, vel gradus pervertere vel in irritum deducere tentaverit, sciat se cum proditore Juda aeternâ confusione, edacibus ineffabilium tormentorum flammis periturum. K. Ina, Anno Dom. 725. Sir Henry Spelman. Concil. tom. 1. passim. Curses against Sacriledge, as the fittest precedent to curse by: and I would be very loath to have my part with Judas, where he is now, for all the Church-Lands in Christendom.

And so Charles Martell of France, another arrand Traytor against his Leige Lord, upon pretence of meer necessity to pay his Army for the Holy War against the Turk, did, under the Title of borrowing, seize upon the Church Revenues, with promise (as someSo they say, that a­bove a hun­dred years a­go, a King of this Land did pretend and promise too, to restore, &c. but once gone, aye gone, for that good work is to do yet, and who knows, but this is it we all smart for now? The Pa­rallels are strange for Time, Place, and Person; but that we keep within the Rule, Parcere, Personis, &c. others) of Restitution; for lack of which Charles Martell is (in good History) bran­ded with the Imputation of being the first Founder of Sacriledge in Christendom, and for it reported also by theDu Tillet, Fauchet, and other French Historians. Historians of those times, to be damned Body and Soul, more than in a bare Vision: Fides penes Authores esto.

But what need we cross over-Seas for ex­amples of this kind? since to our woe, he that runs may in Capitals, read this sad Truth in the Rubrick of this Island, where those that were deepest in the Sacriledge, were deepest in the Rebellion.

9. Let none therefore think that this Dis­course doth nothing at all concern the men of our Generation: for no doubt it doth, full as much as it did those in St. Paul's days: for is not this the very Plea of our Zelots now adays, that to avoid Idolatry, they must needs do as they do, commit Sacriledge? They abhor Popery forsooth, and the Church-lands, and Revenues, smell rank of that Weed, (and yet this only in the Clergie's hands) therefore they must be converted into their own Lay-hands, there to be sweetned, yea, sanctified, though their hands be full of blood: But as the Apostle, so may we justly bespeak these Religious men, Thou that abhorrest Popery, wilt thou commit Sacriledge? a sin, for the Ori­ginal of it, no less Popish than the other: for search and examine, who first began the sa­crilegious Invention of Appropriations; did not the Pope to gratifie the Monky? so that one of your ownCamden. Historians bears Re­cord, that in this one Country alone of 9284 Parishes, the Pope hath Impropriated no less than 3845, that is almost t'one half, and you may well suppose (for 'tis true) that the fattest Benefices might be the first that went to the Pot: yet these sound Pro­testants, thus directly treading in the Pope's [Page 25] sacrilegious steps, would make you, and all the blind World believe, they do it all this while, to avoid the Pope's Company: But in­deed, to say truth, the Pope was in compari­son, but a Novice in the gainful Trade of Sa­criledge, Antichrist as he is, in their own opinion, he never, as these, had either the wit to think of, or the boldness then to strike at Root and Branch, from the higest Prelate, to the meanest Chorister.

But in this case, the Servant may not be greater than his Master, the Priest may not fare better than the King: for do not the self same men too, Rebel against the King, (for mark it again, still Sacriledge and Rebellion are Twins) still to prevent Popery? Yea, and blame the King very much, if, when they themselves force him to it, he do presume to use a Sword of his own, if it chance to be found in a Popish hand, whilest themselves, good men are blameless, though, for Rebel­lion against their own Protestant-King, point blank to the Doctrine of Christ, Lex nova non se vindi ultore gladio Tertul. and the constant practice of the old Catholick Church, (for the compass of almost a thousand years) they, out of a zeal against Popery, for Re­bellionBucha nan. Junius. Brutus, com­pared with Bellarm. Sua­rez, &c. use all the chief Popish spiritual Swords (I am able to make good the charge) the Popish Arguments, I mean, Swords so much the more dangerous, than can be a Pa­pist's material Sword (whilest under Com­mand) because this can only wound the bo­dy, but that t'other Sword, a poysoned Wea­pon, may kill the Soul it self.

Those that know me, know I am no friend to Popery, I was bred and born in a Religion op­posite unto it, I thank God for it, and in this Religion, as it is established, and professed in the Church of England, for which (25 years at home, and 15 years abroad) I have both done, and suffered my share: I hope, and my trust in God is, that I shall live and die: I do hate real Popery, as much as any, I mean what Doctrine is by that Church Canonized as de fide, con­trary to the old Catholick Faith, for the first five hundred years after Christ. But I must needs confess I cannot, without just indigna­tion, think of the deep hypocrisie of the men of our Generation, that under the odious false im­putation of Popery, spit at the face of all sound and venerable Antiquity, yea, and that under pretence of Zeal against Popery, maintain and do the same things that the hottest Papists do, and that in such points as of all others (for de­structiveness) are the very Gunpowder, to blow up Church and State.

10. But you see, 'tis just so as we told you, rather than two such old Acquaintances as Sa­criledge and Rebellion should part, opposites in shew will shake hands indeed, and as the Zo­diack (that in some places seems further distant) they'l cross the line, and meet at both ends, when (standing the Terms, as now they do) Papists and we, that to some pore-blind Brains, may seem nearer, yet, like Parallel-lines, can never meet, but must still keep out Aequal-distance. And this discourse may suffice to make up the full Description [Page 27] of the sin of Sacriledge, according to the A­postle's own method, considering it first ab­solutely in its own Nature: next compara­tively by way of parallel, with the sins of A­dultery and Idolatry; we might have added, and of Theft too, in the fore-going Verse; all which sins of Theft, Adultery, and Ido­latry, remaining sins under the Gospel, as much as under the Law, it must needs follow, Vi Inductionis, that this Text and Indictment in it, concerns us Christians, as much as it did the Jews; Sacriledge and those other sins be­ing res ejusdem generis, as Calvin hath plain­ly told you before; sins of the same kind. Pass we now from the Description to the Distribu­tion of the Sin of Sacriledge in its full ex­tent, according to the several parts and de­grees thereof.

CHAP. III.

1. ANd they are just as many as there be subjects capable of holiness inhe­rent, or relative, all which at the most, the Schoole reduces to these five; 1. Times. 2. Places. 3. Persons. 4. Actions. And 5. Things, which may be said to be holy, as being set apart, and belonging unto God in a more peculiar and appropriate manner, and therefore to be used cum discrimine, that is, with a choice and singular respect from other [Page 28] common things of the same kind: If other­wise used, then they are really propha­ned: And that they may be so abused, [...] facto, our owne woful Experience in all these particulars, saves me a labour, o [...] Eyes and Ears are passionate Witnesses o [...] a suddain, stupendious, National Confusio [...] of all that is called Divine; and but tha [...] this sad Truth will from us descend to o [...] Posterity, sealed up with the constancy o [...] our sufferings for it, after Ages might mi­strust our Report.

As the good old Father, so may we, [...]o [...] truly cry out, Bone Deus in quae nos tempo­ra reservasti! We live to see generallyYet in the most cruel Wars of the most barba­rous Nations, Gothes, &c. The Temples, and the Priests were by the Law of Na­tions, always held Sacred, and therefore secured from the general violence; St. Augustine, l. 1. de civit Dei. See at large divers memo­rable examples of Religious Civility in this kind, in Gro­tius de Jure Belli, l. 3. cap. 6. Sect. 6. & 7. first, God's own Feasts unhallowed God's Houses demolished, God's Servants de­graded, God's Service disgraced, God's Por­tion invaded: And to plain the Highway to this horrid Chaos, Sacred Majesty it self violated, (for by all the Laws of Na­tions, Divine and Humane; the Persons of Kings, as well as their Offices were e­ver held sacred.) No doubt, all this through God's just anger against this Na­tion in general, because of their former un­thankefulness for, and wilful Abuse of all those eminent Blessings, so in particular, because too too many of our side, have been and are still too grosly guilty of a manifold prophanation, and visible abuse of all those sacred Favours even among our selves, unto this day.

[Page 29]2. To point at, and if it may be, to cut of some of the heads of this Hydra, this [...]any-headed Monster of sins. Sacriledge is a sin of a large extent: for, to instance in personal Sacriledge, as I may tearm it. First of all, every Christian, by solemn De­dication at his Baptisme, is or should be mo­rally holy, suo gradu, not in Korah'sNum. 6.3. re­bellious sense, holy all alike, in Grace, and Office, and all, hand over head: but in the Apostle's sober sense, secundùm mensuram, Rom. 12.3. holy in all manner of 2 Pet. 3.11. conversation, elseQuaelibet species luxuriae secundùm quod violat aliquid pertinens ad cultum Dei, est Sacrilegium. Aquin. 22 ae. q. 154. 10. o. Luxury is, and any wilful sin com­mitted by a Christian, may be, in a large sense, tearmed Sacriledge: because every Christian, he or she, that in this or any other sin abuses his body, directly prophanes a Temple of the Holy Ghost, and, if any man 1 Cor. 3.17. Ambr. ad virginem la­psam. defile the Temple of God, (material, or moral; nay, this of the two may, in some re­spects, appear the greater sin) him will God destroy: look to it, Wantons, and Epicures, fear, and amend, for 'tis no less than spiri­tual Sacriledge this, and a perfidious viola­tion of your great Vow in Baptisme; whereby you have really dedicated your selves Body and Soule unto God in the face of Holy Church, that may one day bear witness pro, or con, for, or against you, as you stand to, or fall away from your Vow, and by it con­demn you at Dooms-day.

3. Thus every Christian is a sacred person, and ought thus far to reverence himself, as not, by committing acts contrary to, or un­worthy [Page 30] of his Consecrated condition, to un­hallow himself: Meer Pagans out of a na­tural self-respect to a reasonable Nature, and no more, could give this excellent Reason why men ought neither in company, nor alone, to commit any Turpitude, because of all o­thers (next to God) every man ought to reverence himself, so the [...]. Carm. 11. & 12. Pythag. [...] pro [...] possim [...]. Iscr. ad Demonic. [...], Xenoph. Paed. 1. Greek word bears it:) And if so, then what strong ob­ligation lies upon us Christians, 1 Thes. 4.4. To pos­sess our Vessels in holiness and honour, that have the addition of such a solemn positive Dedication? Doubtless to abuse a Nature so many ways sacred, and so highly exalted, as is our Humane Nature by its intimate conjun­ction with the Divine Nature of Christ our Head, by its sacred unction with the Holy Ghost at our Baptisme, must needs be fearful Apostasie, and in a manner with Julian, to wash off again our Christendom: The onely consideration whereof how should it subli­mate our minds, our manners, and raise up our Spirits to an holy Dedignation of all base Actions? Should such a man as I flee? said Noble Neh. 6.11. Nehemiah? So should every gal­lant Christian stand upon his spiritual Point of Honour and holily scorn to do acts under­coming so sacred a Person; If not, he shall one day finde it to amount to more than a Metaphorical Sacriledge: This by the way, may concern every Christian in ge­neral.

4. But secondly in particular, every King what ever he be is holy too by vertue of his [Page 31] Ʋnction, yea, though he were a meer Hea­then, yea, though he want the Ceremony; yet, Cyrus mine Anointed, Isa. 45.1. is God's own style: Jus Regnandi, that is, God's Power from above is, for the Reality, Ʋnction suffi­cient to make the King's Person sacred, and therefore theCod. de Crim. Sacril. Civilians both Greek and Roman, do extend the Attaindor of Sacri­ledge even to them also that do but violate the Imperial Constitutions of the Prince.

Every Rebel then that dares lift up but a Eccles. 10.20. thought against God's Anointed, violates a Person sacred, and adds to his Rebellion, Sacriledge, when either of these sins by it self is enough to damn a Soul, for, when all Rebels and Traytors (with all their specious pretences) shall be dead and rotten, still for all their Machavellian distinctions, the Thir­teenth of theVerse 2. Romans will be Scripture, Whosoever resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God, and they that resist shall RECEIVE TO THEMSELVES DAMNATION: Acquirent sibi, as the Vulgar reads it, shall purchase to them­selves, That will prove the onely purchase in the upshot of all their Projects: nay, [...], asBezae ma­jor. Not. in loc. renders it, not sibi ipsis dam­nationem ac­quirent, as are the ordinary versions, but ipsi sibi damna­tionem acqui­rent. Beza well observes it, they shall not only be damned simply so, in a passive sense, but they shall damn themselves in the active signification, become spiritual Felo's de se, in a spiritual sense, wilfully ac­cessary to their own Damnation: whether by their wilful perjury, express or implicite in [Page 32] the breach of their Allegiance natural or po­sitive, (the dismal Prologue of all Rebel­lions) or whether by their wilful Impeni­tency, the fatal Epilogue or Conclusion of all Rebels at their end, Rebellion of all other sins, being a sin of 1 Sam. 15.23. This Text is absolutely the onely best reason of the usual Devillish ob­stinacy of Re­bels: who are in this also Machia­vel's true Disciples, who bids him that hath once presumed to draw out his Sword against his Superiour, fling away the Scabberd, and never think of putting up again. Witchcraft, either way will serve one day to convince Rebels, that they, of all others, would needs damn themselves, and therefore they, of all others, must needs be damned, a sad Criticisme this, the ground whereof in God's own heavy sentence, I pray God the Rebels may yet have the grace to lay to their hearts, that they may escape so great a Damnation, the express Doom of this second kind of Sacri­ledge against the sacred Person of the Prince.

5. Thirdly, every Priest in his degree, is by his Vocation a Person sacred too, and therefore in some sense, inviolable by the Law of Nations, as well as by the Law of God, or of Holy Church, whose ancient Ca­nons were therefore so strict to preserve the respect due to the Priest, that if a man did but in disdain [...], (that is the word in one of them) look big or scornfully upon the Priest, he was for the affront severely punishable, as an Offender sacrilegious in this sense.

And for the same reason, because the Priest is a Person sacred; therefore on the [Page 33] other side, as strict, and as great was the Pri­mitive severity of the known Ecclesiastical Canons to regulate, and to Quid prodest si Ca­nonicè eligan­tur, & non Canonicè vi­vant? Bern. confine the Priest in his manner of Life and Conversa­tion, as one that, all over, ought to carry and deport himself more holily than other ordi­nary Christians, for that which, in things sa­cred, is their use, in Persons sacred is their Conversation.

'Twas figurative that under the Law, in the curious frame of God's Tabernacle; The nearer things were unto God, in relation of service, the more precious they were to be both forExod. 26. and 28. stuff and workmanship, Gold and imbroydered work: so much more under the Gospel, ought those Persons that belong to God be precious, for holy life and sacred conversation? Every Priest therefore that instead of teaching the People knowledge, opens his lips wide to folly, or vanity, is linguâ Sa­crilegus, pollutes his Priesthood, and if a Paire of holy Nugae in ore Sacerdotis sunt Blasphe­miae. Hieron. In aliis vitia, in Sacerdotibus sunt Sacrile­gia. Chrysol. de Ebrietate. Consecrâsti os tuum Evange­lio, nugis igi­tur aperire illi­citum, assues­cere sacrile­gium. Bern. Fathers may be his Judges, is guilty both at once, of Blasphemy and Sacri­ledge, a fearful sin this, more or less: (for you all know, what became of the Sons of Eli, for their personal Sacriledge, in polluting their Priesthood) since that Omne peccatum personae sacrae est Sacrilegium, materialiter at least, according to the Determination of the Aquin. 22 ae. q. 99. 3. 3m. School: because the Person is sacred.

6. And as thus many ways Sacriledge may be committed against Persons sacred, so a­gainst sacred Things, or Actions too, which are [Page 34] the Circumstances of God's service, wherein to abuse or not devoutly to use Psal. 119.8. old Trans­lation. God's Ce­remonies, hath by the Ancients been tearmed Sacriledge, whose full Definition [...]quin quo suprá. Aqui­nas extends to any Irreverence in Sacris: a­bout which, under the Law, even those that did sin through Ignorance in the holy things of the Lord, were yet toLevit. 5.15. offer for their Tres­pass; and under the Gospel, the Christian Church was no less precise in all points of Reverence, witness their frequent [...], and [...], so strictly in­joyned, and reiterated in their sacred Chrysost. Liturg. &c. Li­turgies, full of those holy And all this too without Popish super­stition, for this was the Catholick practice long before the birth of Po­pery. low Congies, de­vout Kisses, and religious Venerations, every time they did put on, or off, [...], the holy Vestments, every time they did han­dle, or but touch, [...], the holy Utensils, the holy Table, Vessels, Books, &c. The Reading and observation of which pri­mitive Devotions, I know not whether it would more ravish the godly Reader's minde with admiration, or strike it with astonishment, at the comparison of those good old devout Primitive Christians, with our loose and pro­phane Generation: Ah, holy Fathers, should you now come down again, and be but once present with the most of our ordinary Con­gregations, I doubt much, whether you would own us for your Successors, or our people for Christians! I pray God this Item may in us all, Priest and People, amend this kind of Sacriledge, and teach us all better manners in, and about the Service of our [Page 35] God. For indeed by such a respective usage, and sanctification of things Sacred, (still terminativè, in a reflection to the Owner) the Name of God himself, to whom they be­long, is sanctified, 'tis the thing we all daily pretend to in our Prayer, but seldom remem­ber to make good in our practice, which made me acquaint you with but thus much of the contrary Example of Devout Antiquity, only in a glance.

There is also another kind of Sacriledge which may be committed about the sacred Revenues of the Church, namely, If those be abused, or Dilapidated by excess, luxury,Multi Cano­nici vivunt ut Domini, mori­untur ut ser­vi. Baldus apud Tympium in speculo magno: signo 18. or a lavish vanity, under pretence of Hospi­tality; a Christian, yea, Episcopal vertue in­deed, if it be rightly applied, if wisely regu­lated after the Pattern of Primitive Anti­quity: not as though a Clergy-man must give over his Studies, and either become a common Host to all Comers, what ever they be, or else forfeit the Reputation of Hospitality: But that Ecclesiastical Persons must have a primary regard to the true poor; such as those are not, that wilfully make themselves poor, by being Unthrifts, riotous Spenders, idle Strumpets, vagabond Loiterers, Drolls, and Buffoons; for such, Correction and Labour is the best Alms, Houses of Correction are fitter to entertain such Guests, than Clergy-mens Houses: To Relieve such, remaining such, is so far from true Charity, that it is rather a kind of Impiety, a sin of Participa­tion, because by a preposterous Relief, it [Page 36] incourageth such disorderly Persons in their lewd or loose courses. But, on the contrary, 'tis high Charity to entertain, or relieve such, as by the Law are termed Miserabiles per­sonae, those that are true poor indeed: whetherSee in Speed's Chronicle, at the Reigne of K. Edw. 6, about the end, a List of the Poor. 1. By Impotency, as the stranger, the fa­therless, and the Widow, the poor Clergy-men's Widows in spe­cial, desolate Crea­tures, where no pub­lick care is taken for them:The Memory of Dr. Warner late Lord Bishop of Rochester, is precious for his Piety, in settling by his last Will and Te­stament, for perpetuity, 400 li. per annum, for the maintenance of 20 poor Minister's Widows (if they be Widows indeed, of S. Paul's Character, 1 Tim. v. 5. Trusting in God, and continuing in supplications and prayers) with an house for each of them, and 50 li. per annum for a Chaplain. the aged, the blind, the lame, and the diseased, especi­ally the incurable. Or 2ly, By casualty, through the hand of God, as overchar­ged, or decayed Housholders, (whereof no small number now since the fatal Fire of the Metropolis of London) Persons sick, or visited, Captives (in whose Redemption the Clergy of this Land have not been wanting) poor Scholars especially, are a very proper object of the Charity of Prelates and Church-men. The Munificence of that famous William Wickham Bishop of Winchester, in K. Edw. 3. time (who both founded Winchester Colledge for Grammar-Scholars, and also New Colledge in Oxford, for Students there) is fragrant to this day for his magnificent Provision for no less then an hundred Scholars maintained by it, (now 300 years after) to the eminent obligation of both Church and State, furnished still out of these noble Nurseries: T. de Walsingham Hypodigm. Neustriae. Had Church-men been Stipendiaries, or the People's Beadsmen (as some would have them) could they, out of their stinted Pittance, have raised such Monuments of Charity? To Relieve any such is true Charity, to Enter­tain [Page 37] such (especially where no publick Pro­vision is made for them) is right Christi­an Hospitality, so much practised of old by the Primitive Bishops, (who then out of their far larger Revenues could far better do it, then the present Bishops) and even at this day, in mine own experience, this Hospi­tality is practised also by the Eastern Bishops, according to their poor proportion, living for the most part under Persecution.

And God be thanked, this kind of Hospitality to the poor, is not so neglected by the godly Prelates of our Church, as to deserve the slan­der of some men in our Generation, who being troubled with that foul disease, Matth. 20.15. called by our Lord [...], the evil eye, do odiously insinuate, that our Prelates do spend their Estates in pompous worldly splen­dor; or treasure up their Revenues in their own Purses, to inrich themselves, their Wives, Children, Kindred, and Servants: &c. A Seasonable Vindication, &c. by Wil­liam Prynne, Esq 1660. 1 Tim. 5.8. As if contrary to the Apostle's Rule to Bishop Timothy, our Bishops must be the onely men (that must cast off all just care of providing honestly for their own Housholds, and (at least so far) to Deny the faith, and become worse than Infidels, unless they will incur the guilt of Real sacriledge: (a heavy Censure, but the Charge is no less then so:) As though (bating Inheritance) the Bishop's and Cler­gy-men's Estates were not by the Law of the Land, their Freeholds, as much their own, as any Lay-Lords or Gentlemen; and consequently, as if Clergy-men in their Pru­dence and Piety, might not do with their own [Page 38] what seemeth them good: But because they will not let their left hand know what their right hand doth: They desire not, as some, with a Noverint universi, every time they do a good work, to blow a Trumpet to pro­claim their works of Piety and Charity to all the World: Therefore the World must needs believe Clergy-men have no Charity, Cler­gy-men keep no Hospitality. And yet a­gain on the contrary, if Prelates and Church-men do in imitation of their noble Predeces­ors, the ancient Bi­shops ofWilliam Wickham Bishop of Winton, in Edw. 3d's time, was so famous for Epis­copal Hospitality, that upon his Monument in his Cathedral Church there, 'tis part of his Epitaph; Largus erat Dapifer, Probat hoc cum divite Pauper. England, keep decent Hospi­tality, as they are obliged according to their Degree, to sa­tisfie the Bounty of Princes, and the Magnificence of their Donors, or the last Will and Testament of their godly Predecessors (many ofS. William, so called, was Nephew to Henry Bishop of Winchester, who was King Stephen's Brother: Hugh Pudsey Bishop of Duresme, King Stephen's Nephew; William Courtney (Son to Hugh Earl of Devon­sh [...]re) Archbishop of Canterbury, and many more such, Natalium splendore illustres, in Bishop Godwin's excellent Book, de Praesulibus Angliae (which it would be an honour to the Church and Nation to continue, since for above threescore years, he wants a worthy Suc­cessor.) them of Noble blood) the lawful'Tis a vulgar Error confuted by History, That every bit of the Clergy's Revenues, and every parcel of their Church-lands is held in Frank-almoigne. (To say nothing now of Tythes, which the Clergy must hold of God in Capite) had no Clergy-men, trow we (many of them as appears above, of so Noble, and some of them of Royal blood) ever any temporal Estate of his own Patrimony, or Purchase? though much of it may be consumed aforehand in their Education, and long Studies in the Schools, to make themselves able and sufficient for that high and sacred Office: For instance, first, Walter Gray Archbi­shop of York (in H. 3d's time) did purchase the Mannor of Bishopthorp neer York, and gave the same to his Church, specie-tenus (for a very good reason) but, re ipsâ, to his Archiepiscopal See, (which to this day injoys it successively, as the Archbishop's Mansion-house.) See Bishop Godwin, quo suprá. 2ly, Lawrence Boothe Archbishop of York also (in Edw. 4th's time) did purchase the Mannor of Battersey neer London, built the House there, and gave it to his See. Ibid. 3ly, Hugh Pudsey who built the House and Church of Darlington, and founded the Priory of Fenkelo near Durham. [And now I mention Durham, I may not omit to commend to Posterity, the Magnificence of John Cosin, the present Lord Bishop of that See (our venerable Dioecesan) who, since the happy Restauration of the King and Prelates) hath repaired, and notably adorned the Episcopal Castles both of Duresme, and of Bishops-Aukland, where he hath erected a goodly Chappel, (Two other Chappels formerly belonging to that Castle, being by the late Sacrilegious Rebellion, blown up and destroyed.) The same Bishop hath also founded two Hospitals, or Alms-houses, one at Duresme, and another at Auckland.] Purchasers of some of the Lands, and Founders of the Houses of Bishops, Deans, and Chapters: then straightway our Pre­lates [Page 39] must incur the Imputation of Riot, and Excess, and be blasted with the Pride of pompous worldly splendor. Thus are our Bi­shops traduced on both sides: An hard Di­lemma! but easily dissolved, as long as our Christian Bishops have a godly Care, in the sight of God, as to satisfie their own Con­sciences, so to answer the Expectation of honest and sober men; as long as their civil Hospitality to their good Neighbours (as the Prelates are men, and great men) doth not hinder, much less exclude their Sacred Hospi­tality towards the Poor, to which also, and that chiefly, Bishops are obliged, as by the [Page 40] Apostle's Rule (Tit. 1.8.) to be [...], that is, Lovers of Hospitality in general; and, as the Original bears it, Lovers of strangers in special: So by the Canons of the Church, and their solemn Vow at their Consecration? according to which our Prelates and Church-men doing their duty, they need not much care for the talk of the Vulgus, or fear the pretended charge of this kind of Real Sacri­ledge, namely, The abuse of the Revenues of the Church.

7. One kind of Sacriledge more the holy Fathers have observed out unto us, too too seasonable, nay necessary for you in these days to take notice of; 'tis Sacriledge com­mitted against this Sacred Book of God, to wit, when the holy Senses, Words, and Phra­ses thereof, appropriated to the Expressions of Divine and Sacred Mysteries, are abused either in a prophane and scurrilous application of them (the humour now a-la-mode with the Court, or Camp-Atheist,) or in a sa­crilegious Detortion of Holy Writ to the Pa­tronage of Heresie, or Schisme, Rebellion, or Sedition, or Sacriledge, Errors in Life or Doctrine, or both.

8. This kind of Scripture Sacriledge is as old as Adam's fall, and the Devils own early Invention, or ever the word was written, he did snatch it (with reverence be it spoken) out of God's own mouth,Gen. 3.1. yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden? &c. This was his first Temptation, before he used a second, thereby to perswade the Wo­man that either God never said so, or else [Page 41] that God never meant so: Thus the first founder of all Sacriledge began berimes to tempt our first Parents, by a verbal Sacri­ledge, to a real Sacriledge, (for the first sin of mankind, for the particular species of the Fact, was Direct Sacriledge, in prophaning and usurping that which God had made holy:) This you may call Original Sacriledge, as well as Original sin: The hereditary sin of Sacriledge we all smart for ever since, from Generation to Generation. To this first grand Sacriledge, the Devil did perswade Man­kind by this other kind of Sacriledge, by steal­ing out the Sacred Letter of God's Word, and abusing it against God's own sense, to his own Devilish ends; therefore you may do well to take special notice of it, as of a main cause of Apostasie in the end.

9. With the guilt of this kind of Sacri­ledge, were charged of old the Hereticks, termed therefore by the holy Fathers [...], as Cyril of Alexandria terms them; or Literae Sacrilegi, as Arnobius trans­lates them, Thieves of the Sacred Letter, The very Patriarchs of our new Scripturists; that unstable and unlearned too 2 Pet. 3.16. as they are, yet to this day go on still treading in their Fathers black steps, by wresting the holy Scriptures unto their own destruction. In this the Devil's good Scholars, for you know the Devil Matth. 4. had his Scriptum est, even a­gainst the Son of God himself, and so have his Disciples still their Scriptum est too, for Rebellion, Sacriledge, any thing: stealing a­way the meaning of the Text, in a new way [Page 42] of Sacrilegious Appropriation thereof to their own Errors: And this they do by quoting it amiss, (which is worth your notice for a warning) one of these three by-ways: 1. Ei­ther foysting in their own false glosses, and blending these with God's own true word, to the attraction of the undiscerning hearer. 2. Or else by a plain omission of some of the most material words, which soon alter the true sense. 3. Or lastly, By a cunning con­cealment of some such main circumstances in the Context (which is Clavis Textus, the Key that opens the passage into a Text;) which citcumstances well examined, would plainly contradict their Cause: Always they do it by perverting the Scope (which is the Soul of the Text.)

10. I could abound with Instances in this kind both old and new, but that there is no­thing more obvious in the old Records of the Fathers and Councels, and the late Pamphlets of our new Hereticks and Schismaticks, a­gainst all which to forewarn you, once for all, now if ever, take this Apostolical coun­sel, John 4.1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, nor every Scripture neither, If once in the De­vil's mouth, for thence it comes out with the Devil's breath, I mean, the Devil's false sense, which to know from the true sense of God's word, you need no more, but by way of Antidote, to remember to make good use of the three premised good Cautions: 1. Ware their false glosses. 2. Turn over the Key, I mean, the Coherence of the Text. 3. Mark [Page 43] the scope, the soul of the Text, according to the Analogie of Faith, the Creed, or the Rule of a good life, the Decalogue: The which, if you cannot well find out Judicio discre­tionis, of your own selves, for that is all is allowed unto your lay-form, then for Judici­um directionis, take God's own Counsel, Go, and Hag. 2.11, 12. ask the Priests concerning the Law, they can best tell what is holy, what is unholy. Will you have God's promise and precept for it, implied both in one Text?Malac. 2.7. The Priests lips (if any) should keep knowledge, and the People should seek the Law at his Mouth, for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts. However this Rule may fail in this or that particular Priest, yet for the ge­neral, it holds in the publick Ordinance, ani­mated by the publick spirit of the Church: especially if the doubt be about matters fun­damental and necessary to salvation, about which God will never suffer an honest, and humble Joh. Pa­risiens. mind, seeking for the truth it self, unto God by Prayer, unto God's Church by obedience, to erre finally: Enough to disco­ver this dangerous delusion unto you, and to free you from the Epidemical contagion in this kind of Scripture-Sacriledge: The last head of this Monster, that concludes our Distribution of the sin of Sacriledge, and our first main part of this Indictment, containing matter of Declaration.

CHAP. IV.

FOllows now the second part in order, which contains Matter of Aggravation.

1. And it is deduced from the considera­tion of the Parties against whom the offence of Sacriledge is committed, and those or­dine Analytico, shall be first the Clergy, (who is God's Ʋsufructuary) invested in God's Name, as an holy Corporation, in such a Right: And therefore secondly, God Al­mighty himself (who is the direct Proprie­tary of all holy Portions.)

2. First, as for the Clergy, properly God'sLexicon. Ju­ridic. Calvin. Ususfructus est jus alienis re­bus utendi fruendi salvi rerum substan­tiâ, l. 1. ff. de usufr. Hot. v. eodem Calv. ad vocem, pro­prietas. Usufructuary and no more, to it be­longeth onely the personal right, use, or pro­fits for life, no longer, the real right or pro­perty being wholly (as I may say) resident in God the chief Lord, to whom they are dedicated, or due; so that whatever Con­clusions may be pretended to the contrary, from the several examples of absolute Alie­nation publick or private, through the iniquity of the Times or Persons, are all of them (well examined) but so many meer Inconsequen­ces à facto ad Jus, concluding no more a­gainst God's usurped Property, then for in­stance, so many examples of popular (and it may be for a while, (as of late through [Page 45] God's permission, prosperous) Rebellion, can justly prescribe for lawfulness of Title against oppressed Monarchy.

3. But yet, say the Clergy were indeed the very Proprietaries, so that the wrong done by Sacriledge did reach no further then the Clergy it self, yet were the offence hainous enough, seeing that of all other Estates of men the Persons and Possessions too of the Priests have always been Priviledged by all Nations, by your own Nation especially, (till of late) witness (not to name par­ticularAs the Charter of the Church of Carlile, where­in King Henry the sixth, frees all the Mem­bers of that Church from all Taxes, Subsidies, and Services in, and towards the Wars against the Scots, their next Neighbours, though even then ready upon the Borders, to Invade this Kingdom: and all this, that the Clergy there might the better attend God's Service, and pray for the King, &c. Yet the Laiety of those Times might easily have ob­jected, That since the Church of Carlile injoyed a considerable portion of the Lands, bordering upon the Enemy, they ought to bear a full proportion of the Burdens with the Laity: But the truth is, in those days your more godly Ancestors did put more trust, under God, in the Prayers of the Church, than in the Purses of the Church, and they pro­spered accordingly. Charters) your own great Char­ter, Imprimis Concessimus Deo, & hac praesenti Chartâ nostrâ confirmavimus pro nobis & haeredibus nostris in perpe­tuum, quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit, & habeat omnia Jura sua Integra, & libertates suas Illaesas, &c. These be the words of King Henry the third, Anno 9^o. Ch. 1. grounded upon an ancient Law found Inter leges, seu Institutiones Regis, H. 1. c. 1. whose Tenour is here inserted, and made a part of Magna Charta, in these words, Sanctam Dei Imprimis Ecclesiam liberam facio, ita quod nec vendam, nec ad firmam ponam, &c. Magna Charta, a fundamental Law, and one of the main Bulwarks of all your se­veral Properties and Liberties, and for that Reason Confirmed no less then Two and thirty times by your several Parliaments; and [Page 46] therefore beware, lest if you go on still to Undermine this National Foundation, only to oppress one main State of the Nation, the Clergy, you do not unawares, by such Sa­crilegious Precedents, open a Gap into your own temporal Estates, or Lay-Inheritances in after-times, for God is just: Observe there­fore how your Magna Charta begins, with an Imprimis: A Grant unto God that the Church of England shall be free, and have all its Rights entire, (words of largest extent) and all its Liberties inviolable: By vertue of which general words, the Church hath as good ground, even in Law, to demand and to de­fend her Ecclesiastical Rights and Liberties, as any of you for your Temporal Rights, or Intails whatsoever.

4. Sir Edward The second part of the In­stitutes, pag. 2. Coke's gloss upon it is well worth the notice: [Concessimus Deo;] we have granted to God: when any thing, (saith he) is granted for God, it is deemed in Law to be granted to God, and WHAT­SOEVER IS GRANTED TO HIS CHURCH FOR HIS HO­NOUR, AND THE MAINTE­NANCE OF HIS RELIGION AND SERVICE, IS GRANT­ED TO AND FOR GOD: QUOD DATUM EST ECCLE­SIAE, DATUM EST DEO: Ergo, God himself is a Party in the Grant, and the Proprietary: Here is God's Title in Law, your own Law for it: except there­fore men can produce the Counter-Title, that [Page 47] is, God's express consent for Alienation, it cannot be in the power of any man, or men, Lay, or Clergy, single or assembled, of no Civitas, or Societas, to take that from God, which is once given to God.

5. This and the like were the Forms of an­cient Acts and Grants, saith your Glossator, and those ancient Acts and Grants must be construed and taken as the Law was holden at that time, when they were made; not as the Law may be now. [Quod Ecclesia Angli­cana libera sit:] That is, That all Eccle­siastical Persons within the Realm, their Pos­sessions and Goods shall be freed from all unjust Exactions and Oppressions, &c. And purpose­ly and materially the Charter saith Ecclesia, because Ecclesia non moritur, but moriuntur Ecclesiastici. [So that this Law is not re­strained to the Persons, or Possessions, of those Times only, but that fundamental Disposi­tion must extend to succeeding Ages, as long as there remains an Ecclesia Anglicana, which (except our Sins, and Sacriledge by name, Remove the Candlestick) we may still hope,Revel. 11.5. and will pray shall still remain a Church un­to the end of the World. That eminent Lawyer goes on, Et habeat omnia sua Jura Integra:] That is, that all Ecclesiastical Persons shall injoy all their lawful Jurisdictions, and other their Rights wholly, without any Diminution, or Subtraction whatsoever, and great were their Rights, when they had the third part of the Possessions of the Realm, as it is affirmed in a Parliament Roll (Rot. Par­liam. [Page 48] 4. Rich. 2. Num. 13.) And true it is, saith he, that Ecclesiastical Persons have more and greater liberties than other of the Kings Subjects; all which to set down, would take up a whole Volume of it self: He instan­ces in some, as freedom from sundry temporal Burdens, from personal Services in the War, from Distresses, from sundry Writs, as from Levarî facias, and from Capias, &c. from some Appearances, &c. and expresly then from Pontagium,Pontagium: Pontage est un Parol mention en divers Sta­tutes come en Westm. 2. c. 25. 1 H. 8. c. 9. 39 Eliz. c. 24. & sig­nifie ascun foits le contribution collect pur le Reparation dun pont, ascun foits le tolle que est pay per Passengers a cea purpose, Tearms of Art, Pontagium,] Tributum quod exolvitur ob transitum Pontis, vel ob Pontium restaurationem, Stat. West. cap. 26. Transmarinis Pon­taticum dicitur: Indiculus Regalis inter formul. vett. Bignon. 45. Gal­lis pontage: & sic in legibus Penearnensium ut notat Bignon. H. Spelm. glossar. or Bridge-money, as they now tearm it, Contribution for Reparation of Bridges: (a majori, from those other Servile-Taxes, such as Rogue-mony, and the like, now pressed upon some of the oppressed Clergy:) Thus that great Lawyer, who was otherwise no great friend to the Church.

5. To say that those were times of Blind­ness and Popery, and that therefore whatever your Ancestors did, could be no better than Popish all over, hath as little of true Logick, as of Religion to God, or Charity to man, yea, to all Christendom besides, yea, to all Man­kind, that by the Common Instinct of Nature, did ever Honour and Reverence, and Privi­ledge their Priests: By the same Argument we shall forfeit our Creed, nay, our whole [Page 49] Religion: Nay, by the same Argument, the Opposers must forfeit the Law too, which to some men in our Generation is of more value than the Gospel, that either Creed or Religion; I mean, so much of their tempo­ral Priviledges and Liberties, as was visibly extorted by meer force in times of Licenti­ousness and Rebellion, the far greater Popery of the two: (yet they can take advantage of such times, as bad as they may be, they never examine nor dispute the times, in such a case.)

6. It may be it was in imitation of that your ancient Charter, that just so many honest As the Parliament held 3. of H. 5. c. 1. Parliaments since (as it were, for an Omen of good speed in the rest of their proceedings towards the preservation of their own temporal Liberties) usually begin them still with the Confirmation of the Rights and Liberties of the Church first of all.

7. This tender Respect of the People to­wards the Clergy, was not confined within this Island, or Christendom either, but was (as it were by the Law of Nations) observed all the World over, even amongst the worst men, Heathen men, (a Turk even at this day shews respect to a Christian I know this by Experience, having lived three years of my voluntary Banishment amongst the [...]: as at Aelepo in Syria, and in Mesopotamia, and at Con­stantinople, &c. And (that I may not seem to arrogate this thing to my self) This Respect of the Turks towards me, was not personal, but general to any Christian Priest; for when in the year 1652. I was at Je­rusalem, and (without Su­perstition) had an honest desire to enter into the Temple of Christ's Sepulchre; whereas the Turks (who receive the Tribute for that li­berty) take from every Lay-man 24 Dollers, or Pieces of Eight, (a­bout six pounds English) They did demand from me but 12 Dollers, (t'one half onely) because they understood that I was a Christian Priest: neither did the Pope's Vicar there (to whom I had ingenu­ously declared my Communion with the Church of England) oppose that Priviledge, or interpose himself to hinder it. Priest:) even in the [Page 50] worst times of Famine and War, very Aegy­ptians in time of Famine, did exempt theirGen. 47.22.26. Priests Lands from Sale, or so much as a Morgage, when they would not spare their own Lands: and very1 Sam. 10.5.10. Cretenses, nar­rat. Plutar­chus quaest. gr. cum bellis intestinis colli­derentur, om­nem noxam abstinuisse à Sacerdotibus. Grot. de Ju­re belli. Philistines in time of War, even where they kept an ho­stile Garrison, would allow the Enemie's Prophets free pass and repass, without mole­station: of which their Civility therefore the Holy Ghost is pleased to take express notice upon Record, and I wish our uncivil Genera­tion may do so too, lest civil Paynims rise up in judgment against barbarous Christians, and condemn them for their misusage of their own Clergy, though the Party, of all the three Estates, so strongly fenced about by the double Hedge of the Law of God and Man: of the Law of Nature, of Nations, of the old Laws,If any man shall offer any injury to a Priest, let all take it as an injury done unto all, and help him to redress, &c. Canone 5^o. Sub Edgaro Rege in [...], &c. v. Capitula­re Caroli Magni lib. 6 cap. 285. w [...]ere the People do in their Petition to the Prince for the Clergy, express a most tender affection towards their Priests in times of War, or publick dangers, &c. Roman, Saxon, English, Gallican, all joyntly supporting the Clergy with all mannnr of favourable Exemptions, honourable Priviledges, ample Possessions of all kinds, predial as well as personal; far beyond the necessity of a Modern Pension, (the gallant Plot, in the end, of our new Founders) for they had Estates even ad Pom­pam Ministerii, as the ancient Title of the old Church bears it; even to an honourable Magnificency, or asDe honoribus Sacerdotii, circâ fin. Philo tearms it ex­presly, even to a Royal Exchequer.

[Page 51]8. This truth of Fact is so clear in the Primitive Volumes of Church and State, the old Councels and Records, that it seems as it were (to Phrase it with Lactantius) writ­ten with Sun beams upon a Wall of Cristal. So that it were needless to prove it, but for the gross Ignorance, or wilful Impudence of some, who to make way for their Sacriledge; do wrest, and urge the Examples of theActs 20.34. 1 Cor. 4.12. Apostolical, Temporary, Occasional, and sometimes Arbitrary Poverty, to inforce a beggarly, or at the most a stipendiary Mini­stery, against all sense, or reason, as well as Religion, and point-blank to the Context:Acts 4.22. would these Apostolical men be content to sell their Lands, and freely to lay down the prices of them at the Apostle's Feet? (for that story concerns the Laity to follow, more than the Clergy:) If they say the Church was then unsetled, and Ambulatory, and so could not, during Persecution, carry their Lands up and down with them, but now in a setled Church and State the case is altered: In so saying they plead for us, and answer themselves.

9. For indeed this is an universal truth beyond all contradiction; That since the be­ginning of the World, God never had a set­tled Church upon Earth, but therein more or less, proportionably to the Opulency of the Temporal State thereof, he would al­ways have his Service and Servants honoura­bly maintained.

10. Let no prejudicate person therefore [Page 52] think the Analogy of the Levitical Priest­hood utterly Impertinent to the Evangelical Ministery; for Scripture, the holy Fathers, Natural Equity it self would prove the con­trary. Since Ubi par Ratio, par Lex, and we may not imagine our good God worse, or more niggardly to his Servants now under the Gospel, than under the Law, or more bounti­ful to the Ministery of the Letter (in compa­rison) than to the Ministery of the Spirit. 11 Cor. 3.6.

11. One plain Text for all,1 Cor. 9.13, 14. may serve to convince any Impartial Spirit, Do ye not know (saith St. Paul) that they which Minister about holy things, Live of the things of the Temple? And they which wait at the Altar, are partakers with the Altar. EVEN SO hath the Lord ordained, that they which Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. EVEN SO, infers more than a bare comparison, Even a good consequence of the Equity, (saith Calvin on the place) and that à majori saith Bucer onBucer, on Gal. 6.6. In veteri Testa­mento aleban­tur Ministri verbi ex Do­cimis & sacri­ficiis, & sic ex optimis bonis, QUAN­TO MA­GIS Mini­stri Evangelii ex optimis a­leudi sunt? another place. Now the nature of Equity requires, ut aequalia aequalibus, Inaequalia inaequalibus reddantur: To give less to those that deserve more, were far from Equity, but that the Mi­nistery under the Gospel, in sundry respects, is both far more painful, and also far more excel­lent than the Levitical Priesthood, is clear from2 Tim. 4.2. 2 Cor. 3.6. to 12. Scripture, Reason, and Experience; and therefore must needs deserve a Mainte­nance every way as ample, and as honourable at least, as the Legal Priesthood, which yet as may appear by God's own Book of Rates, was [Page 53] exceeding Opulent, yea, Magnificent both for the Maintenance and the Conveyance of it.

12. As for the Maintenance, besides the Natural standing Portion of Tythes of all, with how large an Addition doth God in­rich the Priesthood? Indowing it with all the first-born of all Cattle, the first-born of Men, after the Rate of five Sheckles (that is five Half-Crowns) a piece which may amount to much in that numerous Nation;11 Sam. 24.9. That could at one Muster, reckon up thirteen hundred thousand Men at Arms. 3. The First-fruits of all. 4. Add to all this, their share in the Meat-Offerings, Sin-Offerings, Wave-Offer­ings, Thank-Offerings, besides their Vowes or Free-will Offerings. 5. Their Shew-bread. 6. Their three terms of solemn Appearance, for all the Males, with a strict charge that none do appear Empty-handed. 7. They had, over and above all this, a large Glebe, con­sisting of Eight and forty whole Cities, with large Suburbs of two thousand Cubits in mea­sure every way round about, (and each Cubit was a full Yard) a great proportion of Land, for little Jury to afford unto one single Tribe, especially if we consider, (for this also is very observable) that the Tribe of Levi, though the thirteenth Tribe, yet was, for num­ber of persons, in God's own Muster-Roll far from being theNum. 1.46. All the Males of the twelve Tribes were six hundred thousand, three thousand five hundred and fifty: All the Males of the Tribe of Levi, were but two and twenty thou­sand, Num. 3.39. Yet in the numbring of the twelve Tribes, the lit­tle Ones are not reckoned, but only the Males from twenty years old and up­ward: where­as in the Muster of Levi, the little Ones are reckoned from a Moneth old and upward, which makes the odds still greater and greater. thirteenth part, (as some [Page 54] Ignorant that we say not, Impudent, Arith­meticians, do grosly mistake it) scarce the sixtieth part.

13. And if survey were taken of the Clergy in the Church of England, and of their Families, I suppose, it would not come much short of that proportion of Persons, albeit much shorter in the proportion of Revenues, and yet the Levitical Priesthood was heredi­tary also, not so the Evangelical, which must still increase the odds very much: our Chil­dren and Widows find it so, too too oft, by sad experience.

14. Now it is plain, by Joshuah'sJoshuah 16, & 17.21. Judah was se­venty six thou­sand and five hundred in number, thrice as many as Levi; except this Tribe, for any thing we read, Levi had half in half more than any Tribe else, and four times as much as some Tribes, and that by God's own wise appointment: [and surely the Sages of our Gene­ration (that not only think, but cry cut still, the Clergy hath too much) dare not presume themselves wiser than God himself.] As for example, Num. 1.31. Zebulun was seven and fifty thousand and four hundred (almost thrice as many in number as Levi) and yet had but twelve Cities, when Levi had eight and forty, four times as much, and, for ought we know, as good as theirs. Ter­rier, that all the several Tribes, but Judah, the Royal Tribe, were in proportion of Lands far inferiour to the Tribe of Levi: Thus in the Jewish Church, by God's own appoint­ment the Priests Portion, was in respect of the Quantity, very liberal.

15. And in this, as in all other good Evi­dences of true Devotion, the Christian Church was nothing behind the Jewish Synagogue. The Apostolical Charter, for the maintenance of the Evangelical Ministery, is very large,Gal. 6.6. Let him that is taught in the word com­municate [Page 55] unto him that teacheth in all good things: This is a very general tearm, it may include Unmoveables, as well as Moveables, above, or under ground, Mines as well as Mannors: It may extend to Houses, Lands, any good thing; for I hope, those that are so greedy of the Church-Lands, will not exclude them from the Number of good things: and here is as good as a Command about it, in the Ministers behalf.

16. In this sense the Primitive Church took it, as soon as it was settled; witness, all Christendom over, the multiplied Canons and Laws, for the early and ample Dotations of Churches at their very first Dedication, ho­noured by Constantine, and his fellow Empe­rors, with large Bounties; that I say nothing of those so many Magnificent Monuments of that old (but now superannated) Christian Devoti­on, allowing their Bishops those Rich Cathedra­tica, Cathedraticum est Tributum, quod Episco­pus per Dioecesim ambulans, in honorem Eccle­siae suae, ab ecelesiis colligebat. Concilio autem, Bracarensi 2. circiter Annum Dom. 672. (vel ut alii perhibent 610.) Ca. 2. & Concil. Toletano 7. Ca. 4. circà An. 684. Sta­tutum est ut 2. Solid, non excederet. (A con­siderable Revenue in those old days.) His­panis hodie EL Cathedratico nuncupatur. H. spelm. glossar.

This Cathedraticum was paid to the Bishop by the Inferiour Clergy, in argumentum sub­jectionis & ob honorem Cathedrae: Hostiens. [...]n Sum. de Censibus, Sect. ex quibus, ver. Ca­ [...]hedraticum autem. Item Duaren. de Sa­cris [Page 56] Ecclesiae Ministeriis, & Beneficiis l. 7. c. 5.

See much more of this Cathedraticum in a learned Treatise, Intituled, An Historical Dis­course of Procurations, &c. by J.S. An. 1661. (P. 78. & seq.) These Cathedratica so oft men­tioned in the old Councels were to support the Episcopal State; some of their more eminent Sees, as that of Toledo in Spain, Aldenburgh in Sclavonia, Hemoldus Chronic. Sclavor. without reproach or envy, surpassing in Sacred Revenues the Exchequer of some Kingdoms. The old Christians, by these Donations, testifying to all the World, the high esteem they had of their God, and of his Service, and of his Servants, and of their own Souls, all which are involved in the contempt of the Priest.

17. By this discourse 'tis plain enough that the Priests Portion was for the Matter very abundant. As for the Manner of conveyance it was Noble, not at all Stipendiary, tempo­rary, or dependent: (we all know by too sad experience, what some of that New kind of Clergy, as King James hath Sirnamed them,King James's In­struct. to Preachers. that New Body severed from the Ancient Clergy of England, as being neither Parson, Vicar, nor Curate, hath through popular sup­parasitation occasioned in this Church and State:) But the old way of Church-Main­tenance was never so, but every way Honora­ry, as for Magnificence, so for continuance too: It was for Perpetuity, with Indepen­dency from the People, issuing into the Priest's hands immediately from Gods hands to whom, as Philo excellently well observe [Page 57] it, The People directly brought all their Dues, (the Priest needed not interrupt his sacred Office, to seek, or fetch them, much less to sue for them:) They were to his hand solemnly brought to the Temple, as being God's own first, and from thence did the Priest as solemnly receive them (such Cere­monies sometimes become Substances;) as it were from the Invisible hands of God him­self immediately: for whom they hold, in chief, as their Ministers, so their Maintenance.

18. The excellent reason of this Honou­rable Ceremony, Philo renders to be this, [...] &c. That none of the people might have the least pretence to upbraid the Priest, as if he were any way beholding unto the People for his subsistence, Ex Charitate, no, sed ex Justitia (as the School speaks) nay, ex Religione, not out of Courtesie, but Conscience, towards God: which makes the Alienation, or but Deten­tion of those Sacred Tributes, to reach at God himself terminativè, because (and that is a singular truth worth the proving, and the marking too, in the defence of this Cause) The Clergy, to speak properly, is indeed but the Ʋsufructuary of all it injoyes, God, and none but God, is really the Proprietary, which is now our second Consideration that mainly aggravates the sin of Sacriledge, The Offence is immediately against God himself, Sacrilegium est quod pro­priè in Deum committitur. Hieron. in Text. Rom. 2.22. as will plainly appear, first, by the Light of Nature: secondly, by the Light of Scri­pture; these two ways of Revelation being sufficient Mediums to assure us both of God's [Page 58] Acceptance for our encouragement in the Case of Vowes, and of God's Vengeance too, for our warning, in case of Violations.

CHAP. V.

Sect. 1. TO begin with the first, the Light of Nature: those Jura nata, as the HeathenJurae ne­gans sibi nata, Horat. tearm them, those Natural Rights, or [...], inbred Principles: The Natural Dictates of right Reason suggest unto all Mankind; 1. That there is a God. 2. That to this God is due all Soveraigne ho­nour and service, in thought, word, and deed. 3. That therefore he cannot but be well pleased with our purpose and real intention thus to honour him, much more with our serious pro­mise, or vow so to do, most of all with our faithful and effectual performance in so doing: All this is not Scripta, but nata Lex; The summe whereof is, That God must be served in chief: For which Maxime of Nature, there is all the Reason in the World, for God is the Soveraigne Being in himself, and the Fountain of all Being to others.

2. Now this Service must be both personal, with the Powers and Faculties of our Souls, and the Members of our Bodies; and real [Page 59] too, with our Goods, or Substance: Honour the Lord with thy substance, Prov. 3.9. Religion to be compleat, requires the Contribution of all these. As for the latter of these especi­ally, though we might in reason, take that for granted, which the Practice of the Church of God in all Ages, yea, the general Consent of all Mankind from the beginning of the World, beareth witness unto, to wit, that God Almighty ever hath had such a special Homage, and such proper Sacred Tributes duely paid him, and thatLirin. Ʋbique, and that semper, and that ab omnibus; (The genuine Marks of what is truly Catholick) yet since 'tis our hard hap to live in an Age that puts us to the Necessity of proving Principles: we will be at the cost to prove all, God willing. 1. That to our Substance, God himself is Intituled two manner of ways, not onely by his General Title of Creation, as he is Lord Paramount of the whole World, but by a more peculiar Title, and proper Right to some Parcels of the whole, and for the whole.

3. These two Titles, as they are distinct, (for the first universal Right is in and from God himself. The second particular Right is our own Act of Donation, in acknowledg­ment of God's universal Right:) So may these two Titles very well stand together, so far are they, as some cavil about it, from be­ing incompatible, or excluding one the other, that the one is naturally founded upon the other, to wit, the special Title upon the uni­versal; for, because, Jure Creationis, God is Lord of all, therefore very fit it is, (since that Title is perpetual under the Gospel, as [Page 60] well as before, and under the Law) that, Jure Religionis too, we and all Mankind, should still acknowledge him to be such, and testifie this our acknowledgment, by a thank­ful Return of some part for the whole, as it were our Pepper-corn-Rent, In signum uni­versalis Dominii (as the Schools phrase it) in token of our Homage to the great Land-Lord of Heaven and Earth, and for the sup­port, with Honour and Credit, of his own pub­lick Service.

4. And that Retribution God expects at our hands still proportionable to his bounty, and our ability; be it more, be it less, in Moveables or Ʋnmoveables, in Rents or In some parts of Europe the Priest's Main­tenance lieth wholly in Lands. Selden. in Lands: For instance, when God allow­ed his People but Tents for themselves, him­self also was content to dwell in a Tent or a Tabernacle, but when he was pleased to al­low them Houses of Cedars, then common sense made up the Argument1 Chron. 17.1. in David's Heart, and Mouth, and Hand, and all: It was no longer fit the Ark of the Lord should remain under Curtains: and thereupon (un­bidden) devout David 1 Chron. 29.11. O Lord, all that is in the Heaven and in the Earth is thine. (14.) All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee: (16.) O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an House for thy holy Name, cometh of thine hands, and is all thine own: (17.) I know also my God, that thou triest the Heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness (Upright­ness is assurance enough of God's Acceptance:) In the Uprightness of my Heart, I have willingly offered all these things, and now have I seen with Joy, thy People which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee. expresly upon [Page 61] the premised grounds of, 1. Homage. 2. In thankefulness. 3. For the service of his Ma­ker, prepares that solemn Royal-Offering recorded in the Chronicles for our Imitation; (for David's fact in this particular, was no part of the Levitical Service:) And so far was God from rejecting David's Offering, as a piece of Will-worship, because not ex­presly commanded, that contrarywise (for our encouragement) God directly com­mendsGo and tell David my servant, thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house, 1 Chron. 17.4. Nevertheless whereas it was in thine heart, to build an house unto my Name, THOU DIDDEST WELL THAT IT WAS IN THINE HEART: 1 Kings 8.18. And therefore I will build thee an house, 1 Chron. 17.10. The purpose could not be unlawful so long as it was not expresly forbidden, for where no Law is there is no Trans­gression, Rom. 4.15. As there was no command for it, so there was no command against it, and that is enough to clear the Offerer from Will-worship. David's devout purpose, even then, when, for some personal causes, he forbids the performance.

5. And except they will say, that we un­der the Gospel are less obliged to God than they were under the Law, then sure this ex­ample, as far as it is Moral, and not Typical, concerns us as much, nay more than it did them, or any, the Priviledges of our Chri­stendom, as far surpassing the bare natural, or legal Advantages, as our Redemption ex­cels our Creation.

6. Behold in the Root of this discourse, the very first Original of Tythes and Offerings, the two main branches to which the whole [Page 62] Portion of Religion, God's special Demesnes, and mans Devotions in this kind are redu­cible.

7. By the first of these, Tythes, God Al­mighty himself seems to have pointed out unto us, and to all Mankind, that for the gene­ral, he well approves of, and accepts too this very way of divine Homage, or Appropria­tion: witness, 1. His own Original Reser­vation of a Part, and for the Quota it self, of a tenth part, accordingly paid unto God in his Priest Melchizedech under the Law of Nature, (an example if Typical, yet all over full of reference to the State under the Gospel, as someHeb. 7. See Sacriledge sacredly hand­led by Sir James Sempill. have at large made it good:) for this was long before the Levi­tical Law, by aboveGen. 14. Abraham paid Tythes to Melchizedeck, An. M. 2030. and the Law positive about Tythes and Offerings, (Num. 18.) was not en­acted till the year 2454. 400 years: and about 150 years after Jacob, Gen. 28.22. in his Vow pitcheth again upon the very same Quota, no doubt induced by the same Prece­dent, and upon the same grounds: which (and 'tis very strange, unless it were founded upon something more universal, yea, and per­petual too than the Jew's Ceremonial Law) was the Practice not onely then of an Abra­ham, or a Jacob men within the Pale of the Church, but long after this above 1300 years after, of a RomanPlutarchus in Camillo: Tuo ductu, Pythice Apollo, pergo ad de­lendam Urbem Veios tibique hinc Decimam partem praedae voveo: B. Brissonius, de formulis l. 1. p. 95. 96. Camillus, &c. meer Heathen themselves happen upon the self same Quota, witness those old Inscriptions [Page 63] in Brissonius, where just as Abraham to Mel­chizedeck, so the Pagan Votary devotes the Tenth of his spoyls of the Hetrurian City, unto his Apollo: just as the Israelite, so the Heathen agrees upon the matter of the Vow; as well as upon the form to do it thus volun­tarily, by way of Vow: which supervenient Tye, is so far from being superfluous, that it rather adds very much to our natural obliga­tion, we being naturally so dull and back­ward to perform what the Law requires, and so fickle too, and frail to persevere in our du­ty: we had need of all these Moral bonds, to deterre us from the violation, and toDuplex vin­culum fortiùs ligat. strengthen, and to stir us up unto Devo­tion.

8. Such holy Vows, 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 OathsGen. 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 [Page 64] of it self isRom. 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 theNum. 18.21. Quota of Tythes, as also for those ample additions of Offerings InventariedSee above pag. 29. above, calling them all ex­preslyDeut. 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,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 [Page 65] 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) 'tis 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 theExod. 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 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 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, [Page 66] 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 dothEcclesiae 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 [Page 67] 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 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.

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) 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 ownSee 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 De­nun [...]iation of an U [...]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, toSee 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 [Page 69] 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, 'tis 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, TheDeuter. 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 [Page 70] Princes of the Congregation. About four hun­dred years after, King1 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: 'Tis 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 expressDeut. 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 [Page 71] 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,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 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 [Page 72] 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 appear they were more than bare Bug-bear-words, even Fatal Predictions of God's real and visible Judgments, which without Repentance and Restitution, the Offenders could never claw off: for indeed the more immediate the of­fence is against God himself, the sorer and the closer the Curse sticks to the Offender:1 Sam. 2.25. if one man sin against another, the Judge shall judge him, but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? for finiti ad infinitum nulla proportio.

8. Enough to make it appear that the Curse rightly applied is more than a meer hu­mane Curse, that it is, for Authority, Di­vine, and therefore indeed rather an Appro­bation, or but applicative Declaration in par­ticular, of God's own Curse already denoun­ced in the general against all sacrilegious Of­fenders, than a new Curse of their own, be­ing Copied, as I may say, into their several Books of particular Donations out of the Ori­ginal in God's own Book, wherein you may read those Curses written on both sides, I [Page 73] mean in the New, as well as in the Old Testament.

9. Take one or two proofs of each: The first Curse we read of in this kind, is as old as Moses, Deut. 33.11. whom we may observe in the very Act of blessing the Tribe of Levy, suddenly to shift his foot from Mount Gerizzim, to Mount Ebal, where he fals a cursing all those that shall attempt to hinder Levi in his substance; or to impeach him in the Work of his hands, say­ing, Bless, O Lord, the Substance of Levi, and accept the Work of his hands; but smite through the LOYNES of them that rise against Levi, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again: A full and fatal Curse this, wherein you may clearly observe:

10. First of all that in the Enumeration of all the other Tribes, there is no mention of Enemies to any but to these two,Verse 7. Be thou an help to Judah from his Ene­mies. to the Royal Tribe of Judah, and to the sacred Tribe of Levi: It seems Moses and Aaron, the King and the Priest must still beLam. 3.6. Fellow Patients, (pardon the word) for so God himself joyns them in the Lamentation, and so the Devil and his Agents too match them in the Persecution also; It was against Moses and against Aaron, that seditiousNum. 16.3. Corah and his Company gathered themselves together, not against Moses alone, nor against Aaron alone, but against both at once: He very well knew what belonged to his King-craft, that said it,King James in the Confer. at H. C. NO BISHOP, NO KING: for the self same in effect was the Oracle of another wise Emperour, above [Page 74] a thousand years afore King James spake it,Maxima quidem in om­nibus sunt Do­na Dei super­na collata Cle­mentia, SA­CERDO­TIUM ET IMPERI­UM, & illud quidem Divi­nis Ministrans, hoc autem humanis praesidens. Inter haec duo Consonan­tia omne quicquid est utile humano confert generi, &c. Authent. Coll. 1. Tit. 6. Novel. 6. in praef. ad Epiphan. Archiep. & Patriarch. Constantinop. It seems those ancient Sages did conceive, That the Influence of good Success upon a Nation, Prince, and People, mainly depends upon the good Correspondence and bappy conjunction of all the Estates with the Priesthood: A Maxime very memorable, as full of Policy as of Re­ligion, and in experience, as full of Truth, as of both those: That Harmony being indeed the onely ordinary way to maintain Cor­respondence with God himself, namely, to correspond with God's Priest, because God's immediate Agent in spiritualibus, in all mat­ters 'twixt God and man. Did this Nation ever thrive, since it began to strive with the Priest? Hosee iv. 4. Justinian I mean: These two the King and the Priest, as they were of old Twins of Oyl, as the Rabbins style them, so are they still Twins of Destiny too, they stand or fall together: Therefore, and it were but in Po­licy, in point of Mutual Interest, they had need support and assist each other against the common Enemy.

11. But although Judah and Levi, the King and the Priest have both their Enemies, yet doth not Moses curse the Enemies of Ju­dah, neither so directly, nor so vehemently as he doth the Enemies of Levi, as if they were more, or more full of Animosity against the Tribe of Levi, than against any other Tribe whatsoever. That we may all prepare, my Brethren, for Nil novum sub sole, whether it be for Aaron's Rod, the Priest's Power, or for the flourishing of that Rod, the Priest's Portion, it seems 'tis an old Grudge, the mad [Page 75] World hath still to theLaici sem­per sunt Infesti Clericis, Co­varruvias. Clergy; 'Tis strange, that of1. Thrice for water, Exod. 15.24. and 17.2. Num. 20.2. 2. Twice for the way, Num. 11.1. (Sol Jarchi:) and 21.4. 3. Once for bread, Exod. 16.2. 4. Once for flesh, Num. 11.4. 5. Once at the News, Num. 14.2. 6. Twice at the Priest especially, Num. 16.11.41. ten several popular Mu­tinies in that stiff-necked Jewish Nation, (up­on six several occasions) of the Persecution, the Priest had more than his share twice over, far above his Tenth of that, to be sure, that none will grudge him.

12. Secondly, Sacriledge (whether per­sonal or real, 'tis no matter, either way 'tis the sin cursed here) must needs be an hainous Offence that moves meek Num. 12.3. The man Mo­ses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. Moses, that Mirrour of Lenity upon God's own Record; 1. To fall a Cursing: 2ly, To extend his Curse through the very Loyns of the Enemies of Levi, that is, as it were, to Intail the Curse upon their Posterity. 3ly, To aggravate this Curse with the Doom of a final Destruction, praying unto God, that such of all others may never rise again.

13. And, as if the Curse upon Sacriledge were always so fatal and final, so runs King Darius his Curse also annexed to his Charter of Donation to the Temple,Esdr. 6.12 & 1 Esdr. 6.33 The God that hath caused his Name to dwell there, de­stroy, (utterly destroy) all Kings and Peo­ple that shall put to their hands to alter, and to destroy the house of God: Here is utter de­struction again, and that to [...] To all Kings, saith our Translation, To all King­doms, [Page 76] saith the Vulgar: No respect of per­sons, for Magnitude, or Multitude, all is one with God: To whom in point of Revenge, The Nations are but as a drop of a Bucket, Isa. 40.15.17. and are counted as the small dust of the Ballance: behold, he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing, (Hear this Isle of Great Britain) All Nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

14. Goe to prophane World, and mock on, think as slightly of the Priest's Curse as you usually do of his Blessing; (To which most prophanely the Vulgar use to turn their Backs; though they should know that Judas fot de­parting before all was done, met the Devil at the Door, John 13.27.) Yet know you must at last, that God is not mocked: Though the Priest over-awed by the general Vogue, should not dare to complain against the In­croachments upon his Person, Office, Provi­sion, or Priviledges, but is forced as the Pru­dent man (Amos v. 13.) to keep silence in such a time, because it is an evil time: Yet our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; And then there shall go before him a consu­ming fire, and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him, (Psalm 50.3.) Will you hear God himself speak this out unto you in Thunder and Lightning? Then behold inMalachy iii. 7. ad fin. Malachy, God himself draws up the full Indictment, and himself also pronounces the heavy Sentence upon it, against all sacrilegi­ous Pretenders, or Purchasers.

[Page 77]1. God begins with an Emphatical Interro­gation, Will a man rob God? (intimating the Unnaturalness of this sin:) will a man, any man, Jew or Christian, or Heathen: (were not this a sin against the Law of Nature, God would not have used such a general term as this, that includes all Mankind; for were this a sin onely against the Law Levitical, it would have concerned none but the Jew.)

2ly, Will a man rob, or kick against his own God? so rhe [...]. Septuagint do render it, Will a man Supplant, or cast his own God un­der feet, as it were? To intimate what an O­racle of your LE DE­CAY DES REVE­NUES DE HOMES DE SAINT ESGLISE EN LE FI­NE SER­RA SUB­VERSI­ON DEL SERVICE DE DIEU, ET DE SON RELI­GION: Sir Edw. Coke, L'evesque de Winchester's Case: where he gives an irrefragable Reason by way of instance, in the two most grievous Persecutions, the one under Diocletian, who yet did onely by his cruelty, occidere Presbyteros, so that notwithstanding Religion did flourish: The other under Julian the Apostate, who by his Sa­criledge and subtilty did Occidere Presbyterium: and this was the far more grievous Persecution of the two, because in a little time, there did insue such neglect of God's Service, and such gross Ignorance of God's true Religion, as greatly decayed the Christian Profession. The Reason is plain, For God cannot be served without Men, nor Men be maintained without Means. Law, sadly presageth, that Sa­criledge if not prevented or remedied, will be the downfal in the end of God's Church, and of God's whole Worship and Service: A Sacrilegious, or but slovenly Religion ends commonly so in down-right Atheisme.

‘Dr. Gauden above.Consequently all the Parts of the State it self Noble and Ignoble, will in the end, be enfeebled, abased, and mortified, [Page 78] when the Ministers of the Church of Christ are obstructed, or exhausted: They being as the Arteries of the Body Politick in any Nation, State, or Kingdom, which is Chri­stian, as they who, Ex officio, are to derive and carry from the Head, which is Jesus Christ, the vital, and best (that is the Re­ligious) Spirits to all the Parts of the Body.’

3ly, Will a man rob God? his own God? this still aggravates the Offence, and the im­putation thereof appears so odious to the guilty Jews, that they straight-ways seem to deny it, even then when God directly char­ges them with it, yet ye have robbed me? They would plead not guilty, saying, [...] wherein have we robbed thee?

4ly, All along you may please to apply all this, and to observe the Impudeney of this sin, and how of all other sins 'tis hard to convince of, much more to convert a Church-Robber from his Sacriledge, he is so intrenched in it, with so many Shifts and Evasions, Distin­ctions, and Extenuations, why, and wherein, to out-face if possible, even the Charge of God himself: Yes, saith God, ye have robbed me, and if you will know wherein, In Tythes and Offerings: well, and fully the learned ItalianNelle Deci­me: c. Rite­nendo a voi quello che à di questi miei diritti, è del fornimento del mio servigio, è del so­stentamento dè miei Ministri, &c. Diodati on this place, Ye have robbed me, in Detaining those my Rights, which should sup­port my Service, and maintain my Servants: [Page 79] In as much as you have done it to one of those that belongs to me, you have done it to me, (so SaintSi enim per alios visitatur in Carcere, & aegrotus susci­pitur, & esu­riens sitiensque cibum accipit atque potatur, cur non in Mi­nistris suis ipse Decimas ac­cipiat, & si non dentur, parte suâ ipse privetur? — Subtrahendo Decimas & Primitias non dico Sacerdotibus meis & Levitis, sed mihi—frauda­stis me parte meâ, &c. Hieron. in 3. Malach. Hierom on this very place, al­luding to God's irrevocable Sentence atMat. 25. Dooms-day:) This will be as true in ma­lam, as in bonam partem: For even as God interprets our ordinary Acts of Charity, as done to himself, because done to his Servants at large: so on the contrary, and that à ma­jori too, will God take those Acts of Irre­ligious Injustice, or Sacriledge against his im­mediate Servants, as committed against him­self: whether he be Jew or Christian that commits it, whether the Fact be committed under the Law, or under the Gospel, the Sen­tence you see, is one and the same for both.

In which Sentence by the way, may be worth the observing the full value of the word GIVING, I was an hungred, and you GAVE me Meat, I was thirsty, and you GAVE me Drink, &c. where giving in its native sense and full signification, is a word of Relation, that naturally implieth Receiving, as its Correlatum: And this must needs exclude Rejection; so that here Men's Devotion, and God's Acceptance kiss each o­ther. For else, unless God did accept those Pious works, he could not properly have said, you gave me, but youIsa. 66.3. He that offereth an oblation, is as if he offered Swins blood. offered me, as in some other places wherein he rejects the Of­fering: [Page 80] This in a glance by occasion of Saint Hierom's parallel of that place of Saint Mat­thew, with this of Malachy.

5. I, but haply those Jews might plead hereditary Prescription, for what they did now detain from the Priests, they came ho­nestly to it, by Descent from their Ance­stors; yet all that is nothing, for God Non-suits that Plea also, (v. 7.) Even from the days of your Fathers, you are gone away from mine Ordinances; to wit, by continuing in your Father's Sacrilegious steps; (so SaintIn quo re­verti Juben­tur, in eo re­cesserant, &c. Hieron. quo suprá. Hierom expounds it still) so far is Age then, or Continuance in sin or injury, from ac­quiring a just Title, either by the Law of Man,Quod initio vitiosum est, non potest fra­ctu temporis convalescere: Paulus lib. 8. ad Sabinum. ff. de divers. R. J. L. quod Initio, 29. (alias 30. Sic enim Digesto Novo tit. 17. l. 50.) Ratio Regulae est, quia sicut Tempus non est modus Inducendae, vel tollendae obligationis, (L. obligationum Sect. Placet. De Action. & obligation.) Ita solum Tempus actum ab initio invalidum confirmare non potest. Hujus Regulae (saith a good Civilian, and my old Ac­quaintance) Exemplum in contractibus extat in Sect. 1. Instit. de Inutil [...]b. stipulat. Si rem SACRAM, vel publicam stipuler, non va­let stipulatio, licet postea efficiatur profana, aut privata, & in hominum Commercium perveniat. Everard. Bronchorst. in hanc legem, p. 80. If this be Law, if Jus, and aequum, then let all men judge, whether they Decree righteous Decrees, who f [...]rst rob God of his Demesnes, and then vote it a Lay-fee, as if such a Vote were Operative to command a second Transubstantiation of Natures. The truth is, but for Club-law: The Church hath all the just Law and Equity in the World of her side. or by the Law of God, that it rather aggravates the Offence by turning it through Custom into a state of final Impenitency: Else Belshazzar might have had as good a [Page 81] Plea for his Sacriledge, as some in our days, that he for his part came lawfully by the Sa­cred Vessels, for he had them by Inheritance from his Grandfather: Where notwithstand­ing ('tis very observable) it did not reachDe malè quaesitis non gaudet tertius haeres. the third Generation, but in a moment translated away with it, an Empire that had lasted above a thousand years.

This we note the rather, once for all, to warn all men never to think the better of an Error, or of a sin, as of the sin of Sacriledge or Rebellion, because hereditary: for God Alto Judicio, may suffer a sin in a kind of Li­neal succession, to descend from the Father to the Child, yea, to seem as it were intailed up­on a Family, upon a whole Nation for a while, till at last when he sees his time, Tar­ditatem supplicii gravitate compensat: and by his National, final Curse, cuts off for ever the Intail, and the Intailers too, Root and Branch indeed: For thus the Son is still under the Curse, and justly punishable, though not for the first Sacrilegious Act committed by his Father, yet for the impenitent continuance of that Sacrilegious Act of his Fathers; which brings us to the consideration of the next par­ticular, namely, God's Curse.

For sixthly, the Indictment being both re­peated, and proved, God proceeds to Sen­tence, saying, Ye are cursed with a Curse, Verse 9. be­cause ye have robbed me, even this whole Na­tion: Where observe, that as the Sin, so the Curse is for the extent National, for the kind very equal, for they did by Sacriledge famish [Page 82] the Priests of God, and the God of the Priests did famish them by Scarcity, for ordina­rily Punishment is the Anagram of Sin: So God's Justice commonly runs in a Talio, observes as it were, an exact Geometrical proportion, rendring par pari, (as S. Hierom again) If men will walk contrary unto him, Levit. xxvi. 27, 28. he will also walk contrary unto them, and inlarge his Plagues seven times more for their sins: The whole Nation was deep in the Sa­criledge, the meaner sort following herein, the bad examples of the great ones, which with the baser ignoble multitude, usually goes for Law, and so the whole Nation undergoes the Judgment too, a miserable National Famine, so extream, that (some record) they were fain to sell their own Children to buy bread abroad: Their own Heaven at home being become Iron, Levit. xxvi. 19. and their own Earth brass, (for Offenso Creatore, omnis offenditur Creatura) our own Destiny in the end of another Nati­onal War, except we repent; for, whether this fundamental sin of Sacriledge, be not be­come as National here among us, as possibly it might be amongst the Jews, judge ye: If a sin should be once decreed lawful by the Re­presentative Body of a Nation, that is, with Au­thority, if it be practised generally by the Dif­fusive Body of a Nation with Impunity, either of these two ways is enough to denominate a sin National, à Majori then, where both these do concur. This I press, that by the present National punishment, we may ap­prehend the vastness of our sin to have been [Page 83] no less than so, National also; and that the Plaister may be as broad as the Sore, so must be the Repentance and Reformation too by way of Restitution, National also, that's the next.

For behold and admire Clementiam Do­mini, Hieron. ibid. (saith the Father) that thus patiently bears with whole Generations of sin in Fa­ther and Child, and yet still invites them to repentance, Return unto me, V. 7. and I will re­turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts: Nay, as if he would meet them more than half-way, he points out unto them the onely way, they may not think of Peace, or of Plenty a­gain, or of a Pardon, If they come still emp­ty or close-handed, no, that is not the way God marks out here, but the quite contrary way,V. 10. Bring in all the Tythes into the Store­house, and prove me now herewith, if I will not open you the Windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room e­nough to receive it.

15. From whence you may first of all ob­serve for your own direction, that the onely National Remedy left us is National Resti­tution: so far, if you intend to prosper, must you be from venturing to add new Sacriledge to the old (as some would have you) that all your care must be rather, to contrive how to make Restitution for what is past. 'Tis a duty will still lie heavy upon you, and the whole Nation else, 'till you resolve to dis­charge it; take it in the words of one of your own wise men,Sir Fran­cis Bacon in his Consider. &c. and a Lawyer also, who [Page 84] observing very well how Church-Lands pass in valuation between man and man at a lower rate than other Temporalties, thinks therefore (with all reverence be it repeated) that all PARLIAMENTS since the 27, and 31 of H. the VIII.) STAND OB­NOXIOUS (they are his own words) AND OBLIGED TO GOD IN CONSCIENCE, to do somewhat for the Church, to reduce the Patrimony there­of; And adds, That since they have debarred Christ's Wife of a great part of her DOW­RY, it were reason they made her a competent JOYNTƲRE.

16. Touching the matter, out of which to make the Restitution, as it concerns mainly the Consciences and Estates of the Usurpers, (for Caveat emptor, and the old Rule will be for ever true,Aug. Non remittetur peccatum, donec restituatur ablatum, at least2 Cor. 8.11. accord­ing to what a man hath:) If this seem du­rus Sermo, then think, that for lack of Resti­tution, Ite Maledicti, will sound far harsher: So it were a gallant opportunity to the cha­rity of publick Spirits, whom God hath bles­sed with abundance both of Grace and Wealth, to redeem the Lord's Inheritance: Less than half an Age of Peace and Plenty might do it; and who knows but such a Project as this in the Heart of this Nation, might through God's acceptance, purchase again that well-grounded Peace, which all the other fair and foul means we have already used, have missed of as yet? As for the Medium how to effect that Re­sumption [Page 85] or Redemption, that in all modesty, we must wholly leave to the Justice and Au­thority of the Higher Powers, whose Im­mortal Glory it would be once for all, to have freed this Church and State from the Plague of Sacriledge for ever.

Secondly, In that this Prophet here, and othersNehem. 10.35.37. else-where, make mention of the Priest's Storehouses, their Magazines, or as S. Hierom calls them,Inferte in horrea, i. e. in Thesauros Templi. Hieron. their Trea­suries: It is from hence evident, it was ne­ver God's meaning, that his Priests should live basely, or poorly from hand to mouth, (as they say.)

Thirdly, In that God to this duty of Re­stitution, promiseth so many Blessings of all kinds, Blessings privative, Deliverance from Incumbent Judgments, from the Devourer, &c. (verse 11.) Blessings positive, plenty and credit again, at home and abroad, (verse 10.12.) Since, I say, all these Blessings are assured upon the observation of this one Pre­cept of all others: (as if in it God had sum­med up his whole Law:) We may thence infer two things.

1. That he that makes no Conscience of the sin of Sacriledge, will make Conscience of no sin at all. The Jews have a Proverb, ThatDrus. Idolatra totam Legem abnegat, Sacriledge therefore being in St. Paul's judgment, of the same size and latitude with Idolatry, it must needs renounce the whole Law, Rom. 2.22. not onely in St. James's general sense,Jam. 2.10. but more parti­cularly, because all the Second Table depends [Page 86] upon the first, and all the Commandments upon the formost.

Secondly, When ever we miss of God' Blessings, as now, let us then remember the Cause, why all this evil is come upon us, and a­mend it:See the Ex­hortation ap­pointed for the Fast against the Plague of Pe­stilence, An. 1665. Deutr. 28.21. The publick voyce of the Church tells us plainly, That because the Portion of God is invaded, his Altars robbed of Tythes and Offerings, and holy things of all sorts pro­phanely and sacrilegiously devoured; There­fore God in his just Judgment, will cause the Pestilence to cleave unto us, until he hath con­sumed us from the Land: Have we felt it al­ready, and yet will not we believe it? nor use the Remedy, Repentance and Resti­tution?

Men may toil and moil, as they say, plot and project, and purchase too, and yet all this while put all their gains into the Prophet's bag with holes, Hag. 1.6. If God do but blow upon it: When all is done, 'tis the Prov. 0.22. blessing of the Lord that maketh rich: Decima & di­tesces, saith the Rabbin from this Text, & con­trá. Let the Modern Projectors then build their Babels never so high, if they be reared upon the Ruines of Sion, they will finde at last that Foundation, Fabrick and all, will down all at once, and sink both the Founder and his Posterity into worse than their first nothing.

Finally, for a close of this large Sermon of the Prophet Malachy against Sacriledge, let us observe the Success, (for it may be, I am preaching mine own Destiny) so far [Page 87] were some from relenting, much less resto­ring, that they were rather hardned at it, and scoffed at both the Prophet, and his God too, so God complains directly,Verse 13, 14, 15. Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord.

And yet on the other side, to the comfort of the Preacher, and the Honour of his God, some became of a better mind, took the Mat­ter into their serious Consideration, They feared God, saith the Text, (verse 16.) and God himself takes special notice of it, Regi­sters up their mutual good motions in his great Book of Remembrance, against the great day of Reckoning and Reward, (verse 17.) on which day, at furthest, shall clearly appear saith God, (verse 18.) The wide difference betwixt the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God, and him that serves him not: And thus endeth the Prophet's Sermon against Sacriledge, and (for the most of it) the Fathers Descant upon it, who there ex­presly inlarges the Application of all this, (both in respect of the Minister's Mainte­nance, and the Ʋsurpers Offence too) unto all Nations under the New Testament. And this also the Father urges fully, in a direct and express Opposition to Marcion, Valentinus, and the rest, Qui vetus non recipiunt Testa­mentum, saith the Father there, that, as the men of our Generation, (especially if the case be concerning Rebellion, or Sacriledge, or any such Cross-Theam) they'l at one dash, recuse the whole Old Testament, (as if one and the same good God were not the Author of [Page 88] both Testaments, New and Old, but some evil Spirit had been the Author of the Old) point-blank to the soundThe old Testament is not contrary to the New, Article 7. Doctrine of this Church, their own Mother: from which, in this, as in so many good things else, whilest they Apo­statise, you see they become ex Asse, the Heirs and Successors of the old Hereticks.

17. But to leave them and all others with­out Excuse, and that you, and all men may clearly see we want not in the New Testa­ment also, as full, and as memorable a Text against Sacriledge, as any we have yet pro­duced besides our own Text; what will they say to the Famous History of Ananias and Sapphira?

18. For, that they were guilty of Sacri­ledge 'tis plain, not onely by the verdict of the Holy Fathers, both Greek and Latine, asIn locum. St. Chrysostom, Serm. 9. St. Ambrose, De verbis Apostoli. St. Austin; and to name no other Writers, by a full Jury of Protestants upon the place, a­mongst the rest, Calvin, Erat Sa­crilega frau­datio, quia partem ex eo subducit, quod Sacrum esse Deo profiteba­tur. Calv. ad locum, and more largely above pag. 21. See the rest in Marlorati Ec­clesiasticâ Ex­pos. ad locum Beza, whose TestimonySee at large Beza on Acts 5.2. amounts to these five Con­cessions; 1. That there may still be a Conse­cration of things under the Gospel. 2. That this Consecration may be of Lands. 3. That this Consecration because it was offered Ec­clesiae, to the Church, therefore it was con­strued to be offered Domino too, to the Lord, as Irenaeus by and by, in Ʋsus Dominicos, so that the Lord is still a Party in this Cause. 4. That this Consecration is done Spiritus sancti impulsu, and soPer menti­re allo spirito Santo: c. In quanto quella CONSE­CRATIO­NE potera es­sere Stata un movimento des­so, à cui egli non havea sin­ceramente ub­bidito. Diodati in v. 3. c. 5. Diodati too upon the place, by the good motion of the Holy Ghost, [Page 89] (so far are this kind of Devotions from being unlawful, or unacceptable) which good Mo­tion because they had not sincerely obeyed, there­fore, saith that Italian Doctor, they did abuse the Holy Ghost. 5. and lastly, They all agree, that to alienate this from a Consecrated use, is Sacriledge. Sure these Reverend men of Ge­neva, when they writ thus, must needs be­lieve that there was still such a thing as Con­secration, or Sacriledge under the Gospel. And just so Peter Martyr, Brentius, Are­tius, and they all directly conclude, 'twas Sacriledge.

19. And should we want all these, the Context would prove it self; for clearly there, the Materiale, or circà quod, of Ananias's sin, was a thing Devoted to God, the Author of Holiness, to be a help or means to pro­pagate holiness, and therefore the thing was holy: and as for the Formale, the sacrilegi­ous Detention, that is clearer still by S. Pe­ter's Charge, and by the express Text, Thou hast kept back part of the price (v. 4.) and in so doing, Thou hast cheated God himself, (so your Margent, verse 3.) But all this will appear most evident in the more parti­cular Examination of the whole History, out of which we will draw so many Deductions or Conclusions, which well weighed, will a­mount to so many Declarations, and Con­firmations too from the New Testament, of all that which we have formerly delivered out of the Old Testament.

20. First then, Super totâ materiâ, we [Page 90] may from the Premisses fairly deduce still under the Gospel, the Continuance or Law­fulness of such Consecrations, or voluntary De­votions, witness God's Acceptance of them at the hands of those good men mentioned in the foregoing Acts 4.34. to the end. Chapter, and God's visible Vengeance, on the Violators in this Chapter: To run over these in order.

21. Touching the Continuance of Consecra­tions in the New Testament, 'tis plain the old Primitive Christians understood the Apostle's practice,Praxis Sancto­rum, Interpres Praeceptorum. and this History no otherwise, which made them even therefore, as careful ever after, to honour God with their Prov. 3.9. Substance, as ever were the Jews before them: They did not, under pretence of confining their Reli­gion within the Spirit, renounce with Ju­daisme, all manner of real, or corporal Offer­ings; They were wise men Matt. 2.11. who not con­tent with bare falling down and worshipping, (and yet many a zealous Professor's Modern Religion extends not so far now adays) would also Offer their Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrhe, such as they had: and this their Re­ligion they, and the whole Catholick Church for above fifteen hundred years, hath transmit­ted uncontrolled, unquestioned down to our own Sacrilegious Age, the great Climacterical of all Ancient Devotion.

22. And now, for an upstart Generation, to strive against such an Universal Stream, as the godly Judgment and Practice too of the whole Church, what can it be, but (in the Aug. Ex­tremae Insaniae, &c. Fathers Judgment) Extream Madness indeed.

[Page 91]23. ApostolicalNon genus Oblationum re­probatum est, Oblationes e­nim & illîc, (scil. in V. T. Oblationes au­tem & bîc, &c. (scil. in N. T.) —Species tan­tùm immutata est, quippe cùm jam non à ser­vis, sed à libe­ris offeratur. l. 4. c. 34. E­dit. Colon. & vet. Cod. S. Irenaeus (who was St. John's Scholar, but once removed, and therefore far more likely to give us the right ground, and meaning of the Apostle's Godly Practice, than these men of yesterday) assures us at large in a whole Chapter, that, As there were Oblations under the old Testament, so there were still Oblations under the New. 2ly. That those Oblations the Lord did teach, Dominus docuit. 3ly, That this was not a thing of private or particular observance, but Catholick or Universal, a Service which the whole World was to perform: Dominus do­cuit offerri in universo mundo. 4ly, That it was grateful and acceptable to God, Purum reputatum est apud Deum & acceptum: what can be more plaine? I, but was not this meant onely of the spiritual Oblations of Prayers and Praises? Expresly no. For, 5ly, For the matter first, they must be Pri­mitiae Creaturarum, the first Fruits, or the best of God's Creatures. And 2ly, For the ends, they must be in Usus Dominicos, (a large word) for the Lord's uses, as towards the Sacrament, or for the Maintenance of God's Ministers; and therefore Irenaeus expresly instanceth there in Tythes, arguing directly à Majori, that we may not give Minora, but must be more liberal under the Gospel, because Majorem spem habentes, because we have greater hopes of greater rewards.

6ly, They must be offered to God as the Maker of all, not for any need, or Indigen­cy he hath, but for the need our selves have to [Page 92] offer unto God, saith the Father, namely, that we may not be unfaithful, but thankeful, and acceptable, and capable too of his Rewards, according to that of S. Matth. 25. I was hungry, and you fed me: Thus that Apostoli­cal Father excellently all over.

24. And that in point of obligatory Imi­tation, that Apostolical Practice concerns us now adays as much as it did them; Take Calvin'sPlusquam serrea nobis viscera esse oportet, quòd non aliter hu­jus historiae le­ctione affici­mur▪ Illi sim­pliciter & bona fide suum proferebant, nos mille ex­cogitamus ob­liquas Artes, quibus omnia hinc inde frau­dulenter ad nos trahamus. ILLI AD PEDES A­POSTO­LORUM OFFERE­BANT, NOS SACRILEGA AUDACIA QUOD DEO OBLATUM ERAT PRAEDA­RI NON VEREMUR: Vendebant olim suas possessiones, nunc Insatiabilis regnat emendi Cupiditas, &c. Quare haec in pudorem, & dedecus nostrum Scripta sunt. —Testatum hac historiâ voluit Deus quantopere illi probitas Sancta, puraque Ecclesiae suae Politia probetur. Calvin. in Act. 4.35. & cap. 5.1. own words (passionate enough) as neer as I can translate them; Sure our Bowels are made of Steel (saith he) that we are no more affected with the Reading of this History, Those good old Christians honestly, and bona fide, did offer what was their own; we contrariwise study out a thousand crooked ways, by fraud to snatch of all sides what is none of our own: THEY THEN WILLING­LY OFFERED AT THE APO­STLE'S FEET, AND WE NOW IN A SACRILEGIOUS AUDA­CIOUSNESS ARE NOT AF­FRAID OF PLUNDERING THAT WHICH WAS OFFER­ED UNTO GOD. Of old, they sold their own Possessions; but now quite contrary, there reigns an Unsatiable desire of buying and [Page 93] heaping up, &c. wherefore these things are written to our shame and disgrace. This from Calvin's Mouth is somewhat plain and home: So as we were fain to name Calvin for it in our own Defence, else we might, by some of our Modern hard Judges have been impeach­ed of Popery or Malignancy at least, even for this one very strain of plainness. But his Con­clusion is no better, God saith he, in this Hi­story would, as it were, leave upon Record, how much he is pleased with the sincere Honesty and Godly Polity of his Church. Thus far Calvin: full enough, to prove the lawful Continu­ance of such Consecrations in the New Te­stament.

25. In the second place, we may observe the Alteration of the property after Consecra­tion, first in that the Object of the Deceit and Injury is here set down to be God the Holy Ghost: (For his must needs be the Right directly, whose the Injury is:) now the A­postle says not here thou hast cheated me, or the Church, or the poor Saints, though all these were concerned in it too, as God's As­signes, but God was the Principal, and there­fore the Apostle says directly, Thou hast de­ceived the Holy Ghost: so the Greek may bear it; and somePhavori­nus [...], &c. Scapul. Lexicographers do allow it, and Beza seconds it, saying, That they had to do with God himself, whose Title it was Consecrationis Obligamento, as Tertullian terms it, and the 4th verse puts it out of all doubt, saying, Whilest it remained was it not thine own, and after it was sold was [Page 94] it not in thine own power? As if the Apostle had said, as sure as before Consecration you might have called it your own; so sure after Consecration, it is no more your own, the Property is altered: whose is it then, or whose should it be, but his whom thou hast Cheated, so Diodati again,Ma dopo la Consecra­tione, non era tua, tu non V'havevi pīu ragione alcuna: era di Dio, è percio tu hai commesso Sa­crilegio: Dio­dati, in c. 5. 4. After Consecration thou hast no right in the world to it, it is now God's own, and even therefore thou hast com­mitted Sacriledge: So he; where you may see in plain terms again, Consecration, and God's Title, and Sacriledge; all these avouch­ed. And so much the lateAnnotat. London 1645. on Acts 5.3. Assembly-men gloss upon the Text (on these words, To lye to the Holy Ghost, or to deceive:) This is their Comment. When they had DEDI­CATED the possession TO GOD, for the relief of his Servants, the fraud and falshood concerned his INTEREST, &c. Here you have first, Their Vote for Dedica­ting Possessions to God under the Gospel. 2ly, That such an Act gives God an Interest in things Dedicated: Do not you therefore dream that the Presbyterian Party will allow your Lay-Sacriledge, for you shall hear the quite contrary from themselves by and by, when their Testimony comes in. 3ly, Here you may plainly observe God's own Ratifi­cation, as I may say, of the Churche's Act in all such matters, both for the Acceptance of the Devotion, and the Censure and Curse also for the Detention, or violation. And that the Apostles, the Church Representative, were God's Vicegerents for both, as Calvin ex­presly [Page 95] observes upon the place, that Deus il­lis vices suas mandaverat; and he gives the ground of their Commission to be this, be­cause though they were homines, they were but men, yet they were not privati homines, private men, but publick persons, and so God's Assignes for the whole matter.

26. For the first Act, the Acceptance of the Devotions, it may admit of a twofold Con­sideration, in a twofold Respect; 1. Of the persons that may Vow. 2ly, Of the matter of the Vow.

Concerning the first, 'Tis a ruled Case, Num. 30.5.8. That none have power to Vow irrevo­cably, but such as are sui Juris, if any under age, or Covert Baron, or Command, do make Vowes, the Superiour in the Church, or in the State, or in the Family, within his several Sphere, private or publick, as God's Vice­gerent, hath power under God, toExod. 36.6. restrain, or to reverse, to disallow the Vowes when he hears them: bur if the Superiour hold his peace at the hearing of them, and disallows not the Vowes of his Inferiour, then says God, Num. 30.11.14. he confirms them, ipso facto, and cannot afterwards make them void, having passed away his right: If he do, after he hath heard them, any ways make them void, he shall bear the Iniquity of them all; If bare si­lence imply such a Consent, and so bind the Superiour to make good the Vowes of the Inferiour, how much more then, (as in the clear case betwixt the Parliament and the People in their Devotions to the Church) will [Page 96] it bind, when the Superiour hath given his ex­press consent, yea passed it away by his own Act: This as a second Instance, added unto that mentioned above concerning the Gi­beonites fortifies still more and more the Clergie's Title, and renders it past Revoca­tion.

27. Secondly, Touching the Matter of the Vow, becauseRom. 14.23. whatsoever is not of faith is sin; Therefore it is very fit in case of Doubting, to ask the Hag. 2.11. Priests concerning the Law: But where the Case is clear, and out of all doubt, and the Vow both for Per­son and Matter lawful, and onely of private concernment; In such a case we may not lay a snare upon men's Consciences, there seems no necessity of any Vicegerent or Substitute at all, but God the Principal, being Omni­present to every man's heart, the matter may safely be concluded betwixt God and a man's self; Actu interno, or V [...]to cordis: To vow with the heart is sufficient, and we may quiet our mind in this Assurance, that God is wil­ling to accept all such our Just and prudent Vowes, without any more ado. This is clear in so many Vowes recorded in Holy Writ, for our Imitation and Confirmation too, such as wasGen. 28.20. Judg. 11.30. 1 Sam. 1.11.13. Jacob's Vow, and Jephtha's Vow, and devout Hannah's Vow, which was not so much as expressed, Actu ullo externo oris, and yet have they all the express Seal of God's Acceptance, in his gracious grant of the Con­dition of their several Vowes: Though we read not in any of them of any Deputy, or Vicegerent at all.

[Page 97]28. But Thirdly, if the Matter of the Vow be of more publick concernment, and other circumstances so require, then behold God's Vicegerents at hand, God's Apostles I mean, to whom God himself hath given both the Mat. 16.19. Keys, that of Knowledge, and this of Authority, therewith to open and to shut, to bind and to loose men's Consciences, as in the case of Absolution, so in the case of Reso­lution too, that if any, may judge both of the Power and of the Matter of the Vow, and determine the Conscience of the Votary ei­ther way, according to God's Word, whether the Vow will be acceptable, that is lawful, yea or no; and if it be lawful, they may Ac­cept it in God's Name and stead.

29. And this Office being none of the ex­traordinary Apostolical Prerogatives, (such as some reckon these to have been their [...], or Infallibility, their power of Mi­racles, and their Oecumenical Jurisdiction:) is not therefore Incommunicable, or Intran­sitive, but as successive, and permanent, and pertinent to their Successors in ordinary the Bishops and Pastors of God's Flock, (who, as well as the Priests under the Law, or the A­postles under the Gospel, are God's visible Vicegerents unto the end of the World,Heb. 5.1. in all things pertaining unto God) as to accept the Peoples Offerings in God's Name and stead, so to present The Clause in the Prayer for the Church Mili­tant [to ac­cept our Alms and Oblations. them unto God, as well as to pray to God for the People, or to bless the People in God's Name.

30. And as to Bless, so to Curse in God's [Page 98] Name also (for Ejusdem est ligare cujus est solvere:) and this is in that History, the Apostle's second Act, to assure us and all the World of the Continuance of God's own heavy Curse, and Exemplary Vengeance too, even under the New Testament, in case of Fraud or Sacriledge: And this Ecclesiastical Censure, doth here consist of two express parts, a Spi­ritual and Eternal Excommunication, as I may say,See Ghost­wyke's Anato­my of Ananias and Sapphira's Sacriledge, chap. 6. from all the means, yea from the Life of Grace it self, the sorest, severest, extreamest Vengeance that can be inflicted on a man in this World, forsaking and for­saken of God. Secondly, a Corporal, and that too a sudden and utter Deprivation of the Life of Nature also, both of them making up that fearful, total Extermination, which the Jews termDrus. qu. l. 1. qu. 9. Sammatha, or Sammathi­zatio, of [...] that signifies desolare, & ad stuporem vastare, & [...] tu: as much to say, as let such a Curse fall upon thee, as is Ultima Execratio, or God's utmost Maledi­ction: Saint Paul from another Root (Ma­ran atha) seems to allude to this very Curse, 1 Cor. 16.22.) Cursing them ad magnum diem, as the old Councels phrase it, till Dooms-day, and a day after. A Curse so terrible, that in the Book ofEum A­naniae & Sap­phirae † una stix porrigi ne † ejulantem crucians com­plectatur. Sel­den ad Ead­merum quo suprà, p. 156. Curses for­merly quoted against Sacriledge, Ananias and Sapphira, a [...]e become the Proverbial, as I may say, the Standard to Curse by.

31. Surely such a Curse, so terrible (take in all the circumstances) we read not of in all the Old Testament, as if God hereby would [Page 99] intimate as the hainousness of the sin of Sa­criledge above all sins in general, so the ag­gravation of it in particular, as it being a greater sin now under the Gospel, than under the Law, both respectu Personae, and also respe­ctu Status: because as our Oblations to all Acts of Devotion, are more, so is our know­ledge, and our hope likewise, (this isAllus. ad Decimas. Hi­lariter & li­benter danda ea, non quae sunt minora, utpote majo­rem Spem ha­bentes, Iren. l. iv. c. 34. Ire­naeus his Argument;) far greater now than it was then.

32. And because this Fact of Ananias was the first Notorious Act of Sacriledge, that ever was committed under the Gospel; therefore least any after them should presume upon their Impunity, as they gave ill example to their Generation, and to Posterity to boot, ('tis P. Martyr's note) themselves became a sad example to both; They were confounded Body and Soul.

33. And that too with a suddain Destru­ction, in an Instant, the usual Destiny of Sa­criledge: witnessDan. v. 30. 2 King. xi. 16. Belshazzar, Athaliah, and so many more slain, [...], as we say, In the very Act of Sacriledge.

34. This is an History brim-full of horrour, in all the grievous circumstances of it: To see a Man and his Wife, Children of the Church, Auditors of the Apostles, Professors of Christ's true Religion outwardly, conform­able to the Apostolical Discipline, Benefa­ctors to the Church, no apparent professed Enemies or Atheists, no Persecutors or Apo­states, or notorious evil livers, (for any thing we read of them.) Ah! I tremble to [Page 100] think it, that such persons, so qualified, should yet be liable to so Execrable an end, as (sayGostwick's Anatomy of Ananias Sa­cril. ch. 6. some) in a moment to be damned Body and Soul, (dying without repentance) should, as they were man and wife in the sin upon Earth, be still man and wife in the Torment of Hell, and all this damnable rigour, for grudging a few Pence, or Pounds at the most, to God and Holy Church. ButDeut. xxix. 29. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God: and God's judgments are past finding out: Rom. xi. 33. Our best course therefore is, to adore them with admiration! To lay them to heart with fear and trembling, and to acknowledge with all humility, that God seeth not as man seeth, how­ever Sacriledge may be extenuated in the World's deceitful Scales, yet in the Just Bal­lance of the Sanctuary, you see the heavy doom of it, weighs down to the bottom of Hell.

35. And now although this latter part of the Censure, the Corporal part, was miracu­lous, and so extraordinary, yet let none har­den himself in Sacriledge, upon the presum­ption that St. Peter and his fellows, that could kill with a breath, are now dead and gone: As long as the Lord liveth, and Ecclesia nun­quam moritur, in your own sense, and in our sense, I am sure, the Church lives too, and the Spiritual Ordinance of God, and of his Church the heavy Censure of Excommunica­tion, is permanent in the Church unto the World's end, and is, and ever will be, (cla­ve non errante) still as quick, and powerful [Page 101] to plague, and to destroy no less now, than in those days, if not always with visible external Judgments (from which we are not yet free) yet with far worse, with invisible in­ward Judgments, as Blindness of Mind, not to see our Disease nor Danger, our Duty nor Remedy; and Hardness of heart, not to re­pent, and return, and restore: for this Im­penitent State may still provoke God to pu­nish one sin with another (in his just Per­mission) a Judgment which is of all others the most grievous, the very next step to Hell it self, and therefore not inferiour for the matter, (though not so visible for the man­ner) to that dreadful Curse which befel A­nanias and Sapphira, in whose fatal Example God did purposely express such a Terrible Se­verity to countenance the just Censures of the Church, and to bring into credit Church-Authority, a maine Nerve or Sinew, in Christ's Body Mystical; the Mortification whereof in this latter Age, hath occasioned the Gangrene of the whole Body of this Christian Church and State: for we may not flatter now, but now or never, must strike at the Root of all our Mischiefs, and tell you a sad truth, that of all our swarms of Heresies and Schismes, of all our Divisions and Distra­ctions, of all our Seditions and Rebellions too, of all our Sacriledges and Prophanenesses: of all these cursed branches the Mother Root hath been the Contempt of the Church, for these four Buttresses, or Master-pillars of the Church,

• [Page 102]The Churches Apostolical Truth,
• Holy Peace,
• Just Power, and
• Due Patrimony,

stand or fall together, and likePlutarch. Scylurus his Arrows, whilest kept tied in the bundle, do render that Church and State impregnable, invincible, but one of them once sundered from the other, break but any one, and you may easily knap all the rest in sunder: This is the sad story of all our former National miseries, and till the Restitution of this Church Right also; and that cum effectu, Excommunication, (so drea­ded in other Churches, the Greek especially) being now become with the many in Eng­land, but a meer [...], or Bug-bear, unless that Brachium Seculare do corrobo­rate it, by some coercive way, as shall seem to their wisdom most suitable unto the sym­ptoms and dispositions of this Nation, yet very much out of joynt: Till then, we may in vain hope for a Respit, but never obtain the effectual Remedy, much less the real Re­covery of this Church and Nation.

36. And to bring in all this, here is a fair Hint given us by the Holy Ghost, from this very Text and History of Ananias, wherein you may for an Epilogue from Calvin, ob­serve yet this one Item more, That one main Aggravation, and always a deadly Ingredient of this sin of Sacriledge, was and is the Con­tempt of a general Godly Practice of the whole Christian Church, whose bare Custom in those honest and simple Apostolical days, St. Paul [Page 103] thought an Argument strong enough to con­fute any Irregular Schismatick, saying, upon oc­casion of a Church-Difference,1 Cor. 11.16. If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such Custom, neither the Churches of God. Of such force in those days of Discipline was the general Practice of the Church: How much more forcible then would have been the Precept of the Church, not only, or chiefly of the Church Diffusive, the whole Body at large, (for that in the matter of Exercise or Execution, was never, could never be Subjectum capax, of that Power or Jurisdiction) but, principally of the Church Representative, the Apostles and Ministers, who as you have heard, and Calvin very well observes still upon the place; Though they were but men, yet they were no meer private men, because God's Vicegerents, in which sense, the Contempt of the Church is, by a plain consequence, a Contempt of Christ himself, who according to his gra­ciousMatth. 28.20. Promise, for a Farewel to his A­postles, hath ingaged himself by his Spirit of Power and Counsel, to be present with, and in his Church unto the end of the world. In re­ference to which Divine Promise, That Pri­mitive Catholick Ceremony, of placing the Sacred Book of the Gospel on a Throne, in the midst of the Councels sitting, was till of late, Solemn, and full of Divine Mysterie, name­ly, among the rest, to intimate that in regard of Christ's Spiritual, and Invisible, but un­doubted Presence, in the midst of hisReputare de­buerat, ubi duo aut tres con­gregati sunt in Christi nomine, illic eum ad­esse Praesidem, nec secùs in eo coetu se gerere, quàm si Deum oculis cerneret. Calv. in Act. v. 4. Church, all men ought to behave themselves in, and [Page 104] toward the Church with as much Obedience, as if there they saw with their Eyes, Christ himself visibly present.

37. To draw up all our several Observa­tions upon this Apostolical History, into a narrow compass; By this time you see, That the Contempt of the Godly Precept, or but Ge­neral Practice of the Church, (such as ever was this of Consecrations, or Dedications) is, first of all, Injurious to Jesus Christ himself, the invisible Guide, and perpetual President of the Church. 2ly, Derogatory to Venerable Antiquity, and to all those that have gone before us in this devout way of well-doing. 3ly, Scandalous, yea, (in its contagious Na­ture, and bad Example) pernitious too, to the present Age, and unto Posterity to boot. 4ly, Dangerous, yea, without timely Repen­tance, Damnable unto the Contemners, what ever they be.

38. And now after all this said and pro­ved too, yea, ex abundanti, sealed also both ways with God's own actual Curse or Bene­diction, as it were his visible Image and Su­perscription, yet still to ask the question, whe­ther we shall Render this Sacred Tribute Matth. 22.20, 21. unto our Maker, or no? still for all this, to pretend a fear of God's Refusal of our De­votions, or to say we want still a particular Re­velation of Gods Acceptance, or to quarrel about the Authority of the Vicegerent, to as­sure us of all these (The Sacrilegious Ca­vils of some in our days.) What were all this, but plainly to declare we have no more mind [Page 105] to this Religious Errand, than he in theProv. xxvi. 13. Proverbs, when instead of running, he tells you of a Lion in the way, a Lion in the streets.

39. For, as touching the main of all these, Assurance of Acceptance, since that is now adays called in question, I beseech you, have we not as much Revelation for God's Acce­ptance of this, as for any other good work, as for our Prayers, or for our Alms, or for any? To affirm the contrary, were it not besides the sin of Infidelity, a Tang of Deep Hypocrisie, yea the very Cut-throat of all good works of Mercy or Piety whatsoever, private as well as publick? would not this Doctrine also bid very fair for Enthusiasme?

40. Say we had no more but some one of1 Cor. 15. ult. God's general Promises, would not that serve? Nay, may not the Nature of the work it self be instead of all Revelations, if it have all the four Essential usually requisite Condi­tions of a good work: I mean if it be done, 1. Upon God's Warrant, or according to his Word,As under the old Testa­ment. Prov. iij. 19. So under the New, Gal. vi. 5. See a­bove p. 65. 2ly, If the general intent in it, be to please and serve God.Rom. 14.6. He that eat­eth not, eateth not to the Lord, &c. 3ly, If the work be done in love to God, for no self-re­spects, or by-ends of our own, but chiefly, (as the Church praiseth him) propter magnam gloriam suam, for his own Glory, because we know that God isTo do good, and to distribute for­get not, for with such Sa­crifices God is well pleased, Heb. xiii. 16. honoured by this our Acknowledgment. 4ly, and lastly, If that our Devotion be offered in Luk. vii. 47. Faith, out of a perswasion of God's love to us in Christ, and of his general Ephes. 1.6. Acceptance both of our Persons and Performances through Christ: [Page 106] Upon such grounds as these, S. Paul doubts not, but bids the Devout Phil. iv. 18. Philippians, be confident that their Offerings sent unto him, their Apostle, were an Odour of a sweet smell, a Sacrifice ACCEPTABLE, and well-sing unto God.

41. This general Discourse you may ex­tend to all the particulars in this kind, except they will say, (for they will, and may say any thing) that God will indeed Accept the good works done to any Disciples at large, to the meanest, but to the Seventy, or to the Twelve, his own Servants in Ordinary, his Disciples in chief: In whose behalf yet (that they may see we have God's Revelation, yea, Assurance of Acceptance, yea, special Promise of Reward also: all these as particularly set down in the Clergie's behalf as may be) in the very first rank of that noted ancientGrot. in Matth. 10.40, 41, 42. Tres discipulorum gradus, supre­mus propheta­rum, secundus Justorum, infi­mus parvulo­rum: ex Textu, & ex Clem. Alex­andr. & Ori­gen. Gradation of Disciples, God placeth his Prophets foremost of all, saying, He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet: That is, as we use to say, in the quality of a Prophet, shall receive a Prophet's reward: and if you will know what kind of Prophets he there means, they were his Apostles, the then MINISTERS, pro tempore, of whom, in the Verse immedi­ately before, he had expresly said, He that receiveth you, receiveth me: and of whom al­so, in the very next Verse, he says, and in a manner swears it too, that if the Offering should amount to no more but a Cup of cold water, yet it should not go rewardless. As once theTertullian. Father upon another occasion, [Page 107] so may I say, Happy we, my Brethren, for whose sakes Christ swears, but then, Unhappy they all that will not believe Christ, no not when he swears on our behalf.

42. And now, will any sober man, Hea­then, or Christian, expect a surer, or more ex­press Revelation of God's Acceptance, than his own Promise of actual Reward, sealed too with such a Solemn Asseveration, (verily, verily, I say unto you, &c.) to put us out of all doubt, as if Christ had here in this place directly foreseen these latter days of Indevo­tion and Infidelity?

43. And again, are we here assured, that God both doth Accept, and will Reward the meanest transitory Oblation, a Meals-meat, as we say, bestowed on his Ministers, and shall we raise a doubt whether he will accept these Devotions, which are more Perma­nent, which are intended and dedicated for Perpetuity? Sure God Almighty, now under the Gospel, as well as under the Law, will have Persons, and Places too, as well as Times, consecrated to his Honour and Service, and those not Planetary neither, nor mutable eve­ry third year, but fixed and setled too for per­petuity, as we have already in part demon­strated, and these Rational men cannot de­ny with Reason: with what reason then can they deny the Lawfulness, yea Necessity of such sacred permanent Portions, to maintain those Sacred Persons and Places, for Perpetuity?

44. And can they, with all their Serpentine subtlety find out a better Expedient for such a [Page 108] kind of standing Provision, than standing Reve­nues, or Lands? Here in the Apostle's Deed we read of Lands sold, and the Prices, the Lands-worth given; Sure had the unsetled condition of those tumultuary Times borne it, we might, (as soon as in after times) have read of Lands directly given (for Lands, or Lands-worth, is it not all one?) that would have sa­ved the labour of a Sale: however, there was in it an express Consecration of Lands, for so Beza very well notes upon the place, that Praedium Domino consecraverant.

45. And the Lawfulness of it must needs stand with all the reason in the World: for, shall it be lawful to give Lands to main­tain a Bridge, or a High-way for perpe­tuity, (To which against the ancient Law,See above, pag. 48. the Clergie are now angariated) and shall it be unlawful to give the like to main­tain a Church-man, or a Church? Shall Lay Donations made to secular men ex mero motu, or ex Intuitu Charitatis, be valid, and those be decreed invalid that are made to a Cler­gy-man ex intuitu Religionis? we may justly be afraid of offending, in doing such Monsters of men, the honour to confute them with so much reason, that deserve no other Confutation then that of theIsa. 5.20. Prophet, Wo be to them that call evil good, and good evil: that call good works sins, and sins good works: For unless such men were strangely possest with a Spirit of Atheisme, would they reason the matter thus? Or use such Argu­ments as in the Consequence, must needs [Page 109] blaspheme God? for what (with God's Re­verence and their reproach be it spoken) would they make God worse than an Infidel, 1 Tim. 5.8. in purposely providing worst of all other sorts of men, for those of his own Houshold? Be­like, all other men, Lawyers, Physicians, and all may have a command, or at least a per­mission lawfully to possess Lands, onely the Divine may not? But Ubi scriptum est? quo­modo legis? where is the Clergy excluded? had such kind of Law, or Reason, been in force of old, then how could the Bishops have conquered by fair purchase much of their own, and of the Churches Lands? Turn over the Records, and see, and you may yet read their munificent Erections, and ample Endowments too, not only of most of the Colledges, but also of so manySee the L. Bishop God­win's Cata­logue of the Bishops, and in it, for in­stance, the magnificent Foundations of Hugo de Pu­teaco, or Hugh Pudsey Bishop of Duresme, K. Stephen's Ne­phew, &c. An. 1153. Sir H. Spelm. Concil. Cathedrals in England, besides all their other large Religious Dona­tions: This we must needs note, that the simple people may not proudly as well as ig­norantly, think that the Clergie's Lands are all of the Laitie's bestowings, but could the Clergy have done all those great matters without Lands, trow wee?

46. And if the Clergy may as lawfully, nay in some of the premised respects, may more deservedly, and more irrevocably too, than any of the other Estates, possess their Lands, then sure, by the Rule of Proportion, the Deprivation, or taking away of the Church Lands, must needs be an Injury far more hainous in the sight of God and Man, than to take away the Lands of Barons, of Knights, [Page 110] or Lawyers, or Physicians, or any: So far were such an Act from being either no Sa­criledge, or no sin at all, that 'tis a wonder any man, that pretends to reason, should af­firm any such thing Impunè, especially in a Christian Common-wealth, (for even in Pla­to's Common-wealth, Plato 10. de Legib. we know such a man hath his doom.)

47. But more strange it is (if in these African days any thing may seem strange;) that any should dare to offer unto Masters of Reason no better Arguments, for such a high attempt against God and Man, and all the just Laws of both, than such as very Boys are hissed for in the School, or worse, a Pe­dantical Etymology, or so; Forsooth, the word Theft was more properly of things moveable belike, because things moveable are more portative than Lands or Houses, and so that kind of Theft was more easie, and so more likely, and so usually more in the no­tice, and care, and censure of the Law to pro­vide against, therefore to take away a Penny from a rich man, is a sin indeed, and a sin of Theft too, but under-hand by false witness, or close forgery, or a packt Jury, or with an high hand, by oppression and open violence, to rob an Orphan, or a Widow, or a School, or an Hospital, or all these, of all their Lands, that is no sin at all, much less all at once to take away for ever from a whole National Church, all their Lands and whole Livelihoods, (as lately.)

48. Good God, how ill art thou requited [Page 111] for endowing such men with Reason, that a­buse it thus! Sure such a Spirit of Delusion in the Patrons of Sacriledge, must needs be a just judgment of God, because they will not receive the Truth, therefore God gives them over to such a Reprobate mind in the Active sense, that is to a [...], i. e. In mentem Ju­dicii expertem, sensu activo. Beza in Rom. 1.28. mind unable to prove or tast Truth from Falshood, Reason from Caption, Consequence from Inconsequence: God gives them over to such a senseless stu­pefied judgment, thus to reason themselves, and others, not only out of all Religion, and common Honesty, but even out of all com­mon sense and reason too: so dangerous it is once to go astray in Judgment or Practice from the Common Road of the Catholick Church.

49. For, not to Grammaticate it about the exact value of the word Furtum, or Sa­crilegium, (wherein yet out of Lexicons, or Vocabularies, they may possibly be convinced of falshood:) ForIsidor. Orig. l. 5. c. 26. Sacrilegium est Sacri violatio, vel ejusdem usurpatio, committitur quandoque rati­one rei, quum res sacrata usurpatur: quandoque ratione loci, ut quum Ecclesia violatur, &c. v. Lexicon Martinii more at large. Manifestum Furtum est, ut ait Massurius, quod deprehenditur dum fit. Quod autem sit Oblatum, quod Conceptum, & pleráque alia ad eam rem, ex e­gregiis veterum moribus accepta, qui legere volet, inveniet Sabini Li­brum, cui titulus est, de Furtis, in quo id quoque Scriptum est, non tan­tum rerum Moventium, quae efferri occulté & surripi possunt, sed Fundi quoque & Aedium fieri Furtum: Condemnatum quoque Furti Co­lonum, qui Fundo quem conduxerat, vendito, possessione ejus Domi­num intervertisset, &c. A. Gellii Noct. Attic. lib. XI. Cap. 18. Sabinus the Lawyer, in A. Gellius, expresly extends the word Fur­tum, [Page 112] or Theft, to things moveable, to Houses or Lands, and instanceth in a Farmer con­demned of Theft, for selling away his Farm ground, to the prejudice of his Earthly Land­lord: (The more it concerns us of the Clergy, as much as lies in us, not to be Accessary by our Silence, much less Consent to the Alie­nation of those Lands, whose right of proper­ty in Solidum, belongs unto our Heavenly Landlord.) Which weighty Consideration of our Conscience and Duty to God and his Church, may not only justifie but magnifie to God and the World, the Care and the Cou­rage, the Cost and the Pains of those valiant Priests (as the Scripture Epithets them in another case, 11 Chron. xxvi. 17.) that do by due course of Justice, vindicate and reco­ver the Churche's Patrimony from those late Sacrilegious Invasions, that by a mon­strous kind of Transubstantiation had turned Lease-holds for years, into Freeholds of In­heritance, and Tenants into Landlords (Thanks be to a good God, a good King, and a good Parliament that by an happy Restauration hath broken the Damme, which formerly ob­structed the course of Justice, that now (ac­cording to God's Command, Amos v. 24.) Judgment may run down as waters, and Righ­teousness as a mighty stream.)

50. But to return to our Grammar-Boys: Posito, that the word Furtum were properly no more but so, Contrectatio rei alienae Mo­bilis, (l. furtum de obligat, quae ex delicto:) That's only for the word, but what is all this [Page 113] to the matter? Will it therefore follow, that Robbing Nabo [...]h of his1 King. xxi. Vineyard, was well done of Ahab, and no sin at all against the eighth Com­mandement, Thou shalt not steal? Because Naboth's Vine­yard was no res Mobilis? By as good Reason may they affirm Incest or Sodomy, or Bestiality; or any villany, to be no sin, or at least no sin of Lust against the seventh Commandement, because not properly Adulterium, according to the Gram­maticality of the word.

51. It is a Sin, and Theft, and Sacriledge, and all these, to steal but a Chalice. (Thanks yet for granting so much) or to take away a Church-Book, (for these and no better are their own Instances) and shall it be no sin at all to take away those Lands, that should maintain the Service or Ser­vants that must serve God with all these? what is this, if it be not to strain at a Gnat, and swallow a Camel? Ridi­culous Pharisaisme, as well as Devilish hypocrisie!

52. To commit Sacriledge is a Crime which alone is damnable per se, but to teach men so to do, that is the Su­perlative of all wickedness; Sure, such men do scarce believe there is an Hell; or a Kingdom of Heaven; or if they believe it, and yet break the greatest, yea all Gods Commande­ments in one, do not they fear God? when he swears, that whosoever shall break one of but the least of these his Com­mandements, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven: which (asGrot. in Matth. v. 18, 19. Grotius well observes) is not meant of the Place of Heaven, for such men, except they repent, shall never come there, but of the Time when the Kingdom of Heaven shall be fulfilled at the end of the World, in the great Oecumenical Parliament of Heaven and Earth, after the general Resurrection, they shall be nothing esteemed of there in that World, however they may be cried up here, for wise men among the Fools of this World.

[Page 114]53. Whom yet to teach more wit at least, since they have no more grace: Behold, ad hominem, one Argument more for those kind of men, whom neither Scripture nor Reason can do good upon, 'tis Experience, the Mistriss of Fools, and yet full out as good, and as great a Dame, as Mistriss Necessity, is this Mistriss Experience, especially if the Ex­perience be Universal, such as the Experience of all Ages, in all Places, of all Persons, single and multiplied too; I mean, not only of so many several men, but of whole Families, yea of whole Nations.

54. For did you ever read, or hear of any that did Rob God, and indeed thrive of the Bargain in the end? Then what mean all those fatal Examples of God's heavy Curse upon so many as have ventured [...], as Plato phrases it, to shave this Lion? whose dismal ends recorded in all History, as well sacred as prophane represent them, as it were, hanged up in Chains, for a terrible warning unto all Posterity, like so many black Monuments of God's deadly Curse Personal, Domestical, National, all these.

1. That the Curse will be Personal, besides the Achans, the Shishak's, the Belshazzars, &c. of the Old Testament, and the Ananiasses of the New: most memorable is that fatal Curse that found out all those Persons that medled with the Temple, after it was repaired by Darius (whose Consecration and Curse too, were both of them valid, though he but a Heathen:) It was a Curse in the Form of it, of the largest extent, upon whomsoever they should butPlaut. Manum admoliri Sacro, as the phrase is, or but [...], (so1 Esdr. 6.33. Es­dras) not only upon those that shall actually destroy or alter God's Possessions: but also upon all that shall but go about to stretch forth their hand, (Jeroboam 1 King. 13.5. did no more but so, stretch forth his hand against one single Prophet, and yet, for it, did his hand wither in the very [Page 115] Act:) that is, that shall Intend, or Plot, or indeavour the Alienation, (so a good InterpreterJoh. Wolph. l. 2. Comment. in Esram. on the place) or if he do not do it him­self, if he do but help others by Counsel, or Consent, or Countenance; as that Curse of Darius, so this very Text of S. Paul will reach him home what ever he be, for it comprehends all manner of Ac­cessaries, Preparatories, Contrivances, and therefore the Spanish Translation renders it by as large a word as any is in the Spanish Tongue, El que abominas los Ydolos, hazez Sacrilegio? Thou that abhorrest Idols, doest thou commit Sacriledge?

The word Hazer, which is used for committing, being in that Language [...], multisignificant, as to deal a­bout any way, to cause any way, or to follow others evil example, also to bear, or bring forth, a full word that fits the men of our Generation, for now adays every Addle Brain is turned Church Projector, and is with child, yea Teem­ing with his own Sacrilegious Bastard-Brat, or false Con­ception, how to rob God most colourably: but God sees Hearts as we see Faces, and ha [...]h store of Curses of all sizes, able to adaequate this sin in all its Di­mensions; Zachary Zach. v. 2.3. tells you of one single flying Rowl of such Curses, twenty Cu­bits long, ten Cubits broad, expresly sent after the Thief to apprehend him where ever it find him at home or abroad. It were enough to verifie all this, if we had no more but that one memorable Instance of Da­rius his Curse, that, at the long run, overtook all those Antiochusses, and Nicanors, and H [...]liodorusses, Maccab. and Crassusses, &c. that durst venture upon it.

55. And indeed (for this Sea of Examples hath no bot­tome) the time would fail me to tell you out of Ecclesiasti­cal and Secular History, of the fatal ends of a Sacrilegious Julian, Blond. both Uncle [Page 116] and Nephew, of a Leo of Constantinople, of an I­saacius Angelus, and of so many more in the Empire of the East, of a Theodebert and his Partners (out of Aimoi­nus) in the West: That I say nothing of your own old Ru­fus, and his fatal Posterity, nor of your late Allens, and your Wolseys, and your Cromwells, and of your —I had almost spoken it out, but that, as your own several Chronicles Stow. ad An. 1536. and Godwin Lord Bishop of He­reford, ad An. 1540. save me that labour, so I remember, that Lex in sermone tenenda, especially when it con­cerns Princes that are dead and gone: (what ever Saul was, yet because once the Lord's Anointed, therefore David's Epitaph of11 Sam. 1. &c. Saul is a gallant piece.) But assuredly as the Apostle speaks1 Cor. x. 11. All these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our Admonition, that all men, high and low, one with another, may dread to meddle (of all other sins) with the sin of Sacriledge, at least be­cause of the Curse, which is not only so, Personal and no more, but commonly Domestical also; dilating it self from the Sacrilegious person to his whole Sacrilegious Family, root and branch, because all of them are usually Accessaries more or less: nay, it becomes Epidemical, as in the Sin, so in the Judgment, it spreads it self from Persons to Fami­lies, and from Families to whole Nations, if they legitimate the sin: 1. Cor. v. 6.7. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump. 'Tis Apostolical Counsel, worth the taking in time by all, whether Persons, Families, or Nations, be they o­therwise never so wise; For [...], God fulfils all his Works, as I may say, by a kind of exact Geometry,Wisd. xi. 20. In Pondere, Numero, & Mensura, Commensurating his Judgments [Page 117] to the sins:Amos vi. 11. He can smite the Great House with Breaches, and the little House with Clefts, and proportion National Sins with National Judgments. Dr. Gauden above. Some are so Super­stitious (saith a Reverend Author upon this Argument) as to imagine that Bishop's, and all Church-lands, or Revenues, properly such, (as per­taining to the support of that Order, Government, Autho­rity, Ministery, Charity and Hospitality, which ought to be in Clergie-men, are like Irishwood to Spiders and venemous Beasts, prone to burst them, so that vix gaudet tertius hares; nay, though they possess them, yet they do not en­joy them, for nothing temporal can be enjoyed without a serene mind, an unspotted Fame, and an unscrupulous Con­science; which cannot be the Lot of Sacrilegious persons.

56. We need not remember you that not Ananias a­lone, but Ananias and Sapphira together were Man and Wife in the Curse: For Zachary is plain for it, the flying Rowl of God's Curse will with all its Dimensions finde passage into the house of the Thief; nay more, it shall re­main there in the midst of his house, saith the Lord, andZach. v. 4 at last Consume it, with the Timber thereof, and the Stones thenceof: This for God's Curse upon his Material house. As for the Moral house, his Sacrilegious Posterity: Can any of you point out but any one notorious Church-Pirate, whose Fa­mily is absolutely free from its share in that sad Hereditary Curse, which (though upon another occasion) was pro­nounced against the house of Joab, so as11 Sam. iij. 29. there never fails from the house of GOD'S THIEF, one that hath either an Issue, it may be of Blood, (it may be by Duel, or by Mur­der) or else an Issue of Uncleanness, as God is wont to punish the sin of Sacriledge, with giving such men over to some other Hereditary sin, (the sorest Scourge next Hell) [Page 118] or one that is a Leper, that hath some Hereditary Disease; or one that leaneth on a Staff, that is, a Cripple, or a misha­pen, deformed thing, marked like Cain, as it were, with Gods own immediate hand: or that falleth on the Sword, that comes to an untimely End, or dies an unnatural Death; or lastly, one that lacketh Bread, that lives or dies a Beggar: This for the Curse of God upon the Sacrilegious Person's Moral house, as much as upon his Material house.

57. You of this Island, need not Saile over for Instan­ces in all these severall kinds ofVirum magnum, & summâ fami­liarum Angli­carum, hi­storiaeque an­tîquae notitiâ praeditum citare testem possumus, quem coràm aliquot viris Intelligentibus & Nobilibus, Religione Protestantibus, ipsum etiam profes­sione Protestantem narrantem audivimus, quo tempore Rex Henricus viij. opima illa Coenobiorum latifundia, ducentis Sexaginta & amplius nobili­bus viris, vel gratis, vel permutatione factâ distribuisset, etiam Thomam Norfolciae Ducem, viginti Clientibus suis, qui ei diu fideliter, liberali­terque serviissent, reditum perpetuum quadringentarum librarum Ster­lingarum ex aequo repartivisse: ex horum viginti nobilium stirpe super­esse adhuc haeredes singulorum, in ipsis haereditatibus quas à Duce, pa­tribusque suis acceperunt florentes: Ex toto autem eorum numero, qui Coenobiorum opibus fuerunt ditati, non superesse Sexaginta fami­lias, quae in bonis perseverant avitis, omnes reliquas familias penitùs eis rebus, quas sic à R. Henrico possederant hodie excidisse: Idque sibi ita notum dixit vir ille Nobilissimus, ut si opus foret, singulos illos posset enu­merare —Adeò verissimum est quod vir Ingeniosissimus Bosenus in poli­ticis dixit, Reditus Ecclesiae & Monasteriorum esse velut Aquilarum Plu­mas, quae, sialiarum avium plumis misceantur easdem velut Igne contra­ctas destruunt, usui (que) prorsùs Ineptas reddunt.—Ita si Deo dicata misce­antur Laicalibus feudis. & ad temporales applicentur causas, adeò non ap­portant ipsis quicq [...]am Incrementi, ut etiam temporales Reditus, quibus augendis addebantur non minuant tantùm, verùm & ad nihilum perdu­cant. V. Apostolatum Benedictinorum in Anglia per Clem. Reyner, &c. Tract. 1. Sect. 6. p. 227. Infausta laicis bonorum Coenobialium possessio. God's Curse upon both the Houses; He that runs may read them in the Capitals of so ma­ny Ruinated Families among your selves, who (if I misapprehend not my Author) [Page 119] can within the compass of one single County, point out the bare Names, (for that is almost all is left of them, with much ado) of above 200. quondam Noble Families, amongst whom King Henry the Eighth did di­stribute the Abbey-lands by way of Sale, or Exchange, all of them, as we may say, disinherited at this day; whereas within the same County, of twenty other Families, whose Ancestors were of the Retinue of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, and therefore rewarded by him with the Annuity of 400 li. a year equally divided amongst them, there is not one of those, but to this day, he injoys his Father's well-gotten Goods by way of In­heritance, with improvement, whilest those other Sacrilegious Estates, as if full of Quick-silver, could never yet settle, since the first Usurpa­tion, but in less than three Generations, have changed and ruined too their several Owners over and over: as if that fearful Curse of God denounced by the ProphetEzek 21, 27. Ezekiel, against the great City Jerusalem, for their breach of the Oath of Allegiance, and further Rebellion (to the King of Babylon, though a Pagan King, though an Usurper) were for ever entailed also of all o­ther Estates, upon the Sacrilegious Family, [...] I WILL OVERTVRN, OVERTVRN, OVERTVRN IT, AND IT SHALL BE NO MORE, VNTIL HE COME WHOSE RIGHT IT IS, AND I WILL GIVE IT HIM: A sad Item this, for a treble Curse upon all Sacrilegious Rebels.

58. By this you see experimentally, how God's Curse upon Sacriledge is not only Personal, but diffusive too, over the whole Family, yea Na­tion tha'ts tainted therewith.

59. Not to accumulate any more Instances out of that confounded heap of National Examples, (Pagan and Christian) who knows (we have reason to ask the question) whether the Continuance here of the old Na­tional Sacriledge, and the palpable Contrivance of some to add New Sacriledge to the Old, be not the Principal sad Ingredient in this Nati­onal Cup of God's wrath, which (do what we can) must, you see, go round all over, as that deadly Cup of God*s fury, put into the hand of the ProphetJer, xxv. 27 Jeremy, by way of Embleme, with a command to cause every one, even the holy City, and all, to drink it off; and a sad Commination too, you shall drink, saith the Lord of Hosts, and be drunken, (and so we were God knows Drunken indeed, A DEMENTATED NATION, Dead drunk with God's Poculum stuporis, Psal. lx. 3. God's Deadly Cup, till we did stagger, and too too many fell down with it, yea tumble one upon another,) and ye shall spew, and fall, and rise no more, (Lord have mercy upon us,) and wherefore all this? because of the Sword which I will send among you; That is, the deadly Cup, the [Page 120] Sword, wherewith we are cursed, even this whole NATION (remember yeMai. iij. 8. &c. See a­bove. Malachy) because we have ROBBED GOD. We have, if you mark all, too too just cause to suspect, that this is not one of the least of all our National Trangressions, the Di­vine Majesty doth almost Vocally admonish us of, in this his so long, so bloudy a Visitation. We were lately robbed of our Estates, of our Peace, of our Truth, of our Religion, of all, because we have robbed God: For this is that Retaliation mentioned byEx. xxi. 24. Moses, An Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth: So Gods Punish­ments are still the Anagrams of our sins: In the Analo [...]y of his Judgments, we may visily read our sins in kind; it was so of old,See and compare the Histories in Dan. viij. 12. with the ii, iij, & iv Chap. of the Book of Maccab. and also 11 Maccab xiij. 6.8. and whether the National overthrow of God's true Religion, and Primitive service in this whole Land, were not a sad Memento to us all, of our gross abuse of the very same by National Sacriledge and prophaneness; I leave it to judge, unto those Consciences that are not yet utterly past feeling.

60. And if so, then to march on still, yea to give fire in the very face of God himself, as it were, to charge on still in despight of God's de­stroying Angel in our way, were worse than Scythian Barbarousness, even desperate Brutishness belowNum. 22.27. Balam's Ass, that could stop, nay, stoop down at but the sight of that Sword, that hath been so deeply sheathed into our very Bowels, yea, drunk with our own best blood; spent and spilt in that Sacrilegious War.

61. For we can never find out a fitter Title for that late Unnatural War, than that of theCic. in Virrem. Orator, Bellum Sacri­legum, (the Superlative of aggravation) a Sacrilegious War, in all the Dimensions of Sacriledge, a Sin you see, as of a hainous nature, so of as heavy a consequence: The Demonstration where­of was the second main part of our Pleading, The matter of Aggravati­on. May we now, Christian Reader, in God's behalf, crave but the Fa­vour of thy Religious patience, whilest we pass thorow the third and last part, which contains the Matter of Probation, and then we have done.

CHAP. VII.

1. IT consists of these two principal School-heads, to wit, [...]; The first contains matter of Confutation, or Non-sute of the Adversaries Plea: The se­cond concludes with matter of Confirmation of our own cause.

2. Touching the first, the matter of Confutation, the Adversaries Plea for Sacri­ledge is a Compound of Pretences, drawn chiefly from the two main Heads, or Common Places of Religion, and Policy. For the first of these, The pretence of Religion, 'tis not un­usual with the Devil, to transform himself in­to an Angel of Light, in both Religions: for in the case of Alienation, the Papist pretends Plenitudinem potestatis, Canonical Dispensati­on, &c. and the like.

3. But seriously and in reason (to go upon their own Principles) will a man think that in this particular, the High Priest of the West, can de Jure, pretend to a higher Power un­der the Gospel, than was allowed under the Law, to the High-Priest of the East? But [Page 115] however in some kind of vows, (as the vowLev. 27.11.13.27, 28, &c. Ludovic. Ca­pel. Diatribe de voto Jephta. called [...] votum simplex) the votary might be allowed the liberty of Redemption, in case the thing were not fit for Oblation, (for else if it were fit, it might not at all be chang­ed:) and the High-Priest might have the power of dispensation, as it were, in the estimation of it, yea, and commutation too, but still with the Addition of a fifth: yet, in that other kinde of Compound-vows, called [...] conceived by way of Anathema with Malediction, such as are generally all our Dedications, Compounded of two distinct Acts, the one of Consecration in their use and end, the other of Execration in their Nature and Effect. In this kinde of Devotions there­fore, neither were the Votary, nor the High-Priest himself allowed any the least Liberty, either of Estimation, or Redem­ption, or Commutation, or Dispensation any wayes: but the thing so devoted, was con­cluded under the Law of an Irrevocable De­votion.

4. What was thus given to the Church, was of old said to be consigned in Manus Mortuas, the Law, by this Style, may have supposed that the Clergy had no more power to alienate them de Jure, than a dead man can de facto: otherwise, they should be no lon­ger manus mortuae, but manus mortiferae, no longer dead hands, but deadly, and as sub­ject to Gods deadly Curse too, as any Lay-mans, nay more, the quality of the person augments the gradation, and doubles the [Page 114] Sacriledge. This on the Popes, or the Or­dinaries part.

5. On the Votaries part, the sin and dan­ger is parallel; for as the Pope cannot law­fully grant me such a Dispensation, so nei­ther may I lawfully take it: for, say the Pope could dispense with my promise made to the Church, (that's the most he could do) how can he dispense with my promise made to God himself? being but Gods As­signee, or witness, he can no more free me, really, from my Obligation to God, than a Witness to a Bond can free a Debtor from the payment of the Debt. 'Tis the Creditor alone that can dispense with the Debt, not all the Witnesses in the World without him: that I am bound by my Vow, I know it from clear Scripture: That I am loosed from my Vow, let any make it appear unto me from as clear evidence, or else I may not trust to Mans dispensation against Gods right. Thus much to the Papist, a far off; and God grant we may never have any more to do with him but so, afar off indeed, God in Mercy, pre­vent the Prophecy, which by their ingrati­tude to God, and this Church, some men deserve, and provoke, Ne veniant Romani, Amen.

6. But now to lay the Axe to the root of the Tree; the Puritan (in point of Religion) pre­tends Zeal. 1. Against Idolatry, and is for utter Abolition. 2. Against an Idle Ministry, and is, (at least pretends to be) only for Commutation.

[Page 116]7. Touching the first, the Zealot against Idolatry: admit, what we deny, and they can never prove, that the Church Revenues, as they now stand by Law established, are still abused indeed to Idolatry or Superstition, must we therefore utterly down with them all Root and Branch? Can the Church Lands be worse abused, than the Censers of Corah? or will you make your Ancestors, the pious Founders, worse than Dathan and Abiram, and their Rebellious Company?

And yet behold (after the severe personal Execution of the Abusers) God expresly gives order, what? That those Censers be­cause abused, should therefore be presently beaten into Kettles, or Brass pots for the use of the Kitchin? No, but quite contrary, Ta [...] the Censers of those sinners against their own souls, saith the Lord,Numb. 16.37, 38. and let, them ma [...]e them broad plates for a covering of the Altar? whatever Mans Ordinance may be to the Contrary, Gods infallible Ordinance is directly, they must be kept still, In genere Sa [...]o, for the use of the Sanctuary: And this command God fortifies with a Reason of per­pet [...]al Consequence, as forcible now as then, For, saith he, they offered them unto the Lord, therefore they are hallowed: Behold Gods ex­press Acceptance of the Act, even then when he rejects both the Actors, and their Inten­tions.

8. Can we expect a clearer Precedent, than is this full Determination of God Al­mighty upon the Case? for what, in the [Page 117] substance of that whole History, can they say was Typical or Levitical?

Sure the Equity, yea Religion of that Di­vine sentence, the old Law-makers, the wise Founders both of the Civil and Satute-Law, were sensible of. For Jure Instituto­rum, saithInstit. l. 2. Tit. 1. § 8. Schneidwin for one) Things once given to Religious uses, which cannot now upon some emergent occasions be still so imployed, (as to maintain Masses for the Dead, or so, &c.) yet they may not revert to the Donor, or to his Heir, nor be imployed to prophane or common uses, his Reason is, because Quod semel Deo dica­tum est amplius ad prophanos usus transferri non debet, sed talia oblata & relicta ad alium pium usum converti debent. I well know, ad homi­nem, of how little authority this Law is like to be, or indeed, all the good Laws of God and man, if cross to the humour of the men I am now dealing withal. The ground there­fore why I quote this Law, and other such like Laws is for the Reason of those Laws, because, Semel Deo dicatum, &c. What was once given to God, must be Gods for ever. And this Reason is expresly grounded uponNum 16.38. See above, page 126. Scripture too.

9. And therefore the Wisdome and Religion both of your better Ancestors, had a special respect unto it, as may appear by two notable Acts of Parliament: the firstAmong the Statutes at large in the publick Library at Oxon. Sta [...]utum de Terris Templariorum. Coke l. 11. fol. 25. passed almost 400 years ago, in the 17th, of Edward the [Page 218] Second, at the Dissolution of the Templars, which was become Ordo impietatis, and there­fore voted down, not by a Private Close-Com­mittee of one single City, or Nation either, but by a general Act of all Christendom. But then what became of all their Lands? you shall finde in that EXCELLENT Statute, that for their part your godly Ancestors, made a Conscience of turning those Lands into Lay-fees, and therefore did then, and there, upon sundry Reasons of Religion and Honesty both, in that Statute excellently well delivered, to the praise of the Piety and Christian Wisdom of that Age, restore all those Lands to the Church by Act of Par­liament. Some of those reasons may be worth your notice, because they may con­cern you now at least as much as them: The first is, because however those Lands were now abused, yet originally they were giuen to the Augmentation of the Honour of God. 2. For the good of Vniversal Holy Church. There­fore 3. Those honest Common-wealths-men thought themselves bound in Conscience for the Health of their own Souls to preserve them still to godly uses: That so 4. The godly and worthy will of the Givers might be observed in genere, though it could not then in specie.

10. And this fourth Reason is in that one Statute repeated twice for failing: May their good Example be a warning to you all, that it may not rise upon in judgment against you, as against all the rest of this Genera­tion. For the good will of the Dead, the Pious [Page 119] Founders of Holy Places and Portions, is a­nother Sacred thing, and therefore ungodly to alter and to frustrate it, was alwaies amongst all good men held a hainous Crime, as being 1. Impious to the Dead. 2. Injurious to your godly Ancestors: and 3. To your own Posterity It will prove no better than fatal Sacri­ledge.

Therefore the Determination of that wise Assembly was this, That neither our Lord the King, nor any other chief Lords of the Eees, nor any Persons whatsoever should by Escheat, or by any other means have or enjoy any of those Lands, but they should be still converted, and charitably disposed of to godly uses; and there­fore they were given to the Prior of the Hos­pital of Saint John of Jerusalem, as it were, in eodem genere, though changed in specie. And yet those Templars, to whose Lands your An­cestors shewed so much Religious respect, were no Church-men neither, but Souldi­ers: How much greater then ought your Care and Conscience to be, for the preserving of those Lands which belong to the Church directly?

11. The second Act of Parliament you may have amongst your private Statutes, 2. of H. 5. upon the Dissolution of Priors Aliens: The Reason expressed in the Pre­amble, was ad Intentionem, quod divina Ser­vitia in locis praedictis possent plus debitè fieri per gentes Anglicanas, &c. so that still divina Servitia, was their main care: Therefore [Page 120] 'tis observable, that upon the same premised grounds, immediately at the dissolution of those Priors Aliens, the King kept them not in his own hands, but gave them to other religious uses: as for instance, To the Monastery of Shene, (which he Foun­ded) to the Dean and Canons of St. Stephen, &c.

12. Say again, that those were Times of Ignorance and Blindness, and that therefore in those times the Impulsive Cause might be meerly Superstitious in the particulars, yet for all that, the final Cause was right still in the general, namely, to honour God, to main­tain his Service, &c. as may be seen in all their Evidences and Donations, which ever bear this Clause, Deo & Ecclesiae; To God and the Church, before there be any mention of any Saint, or other supposed Superstiti­ous use. Now in all Reason, although the Im­pulsive Cause may cease, yet the Final Cause ceaseth not, nor the good effect flowing from it.

So that far safer it were to minde that, in a reverend respect unto, and imi­tation of those wise men your godly Ancestors, who took hold of the gene­ral Intent of the Pious Founders, how­ever after abused by the particular Suc­cessors.

13. And that you may once for all, know directly what that general intent was, Take it in the very words of the [Page 121] old Form of Dedication, yet extant in the Capitular ofScimus res Ecclesiae Deo esse Sacratas, qua propter si quis eas ab Ecclesiis aufert proculdubio Sa­crilegium co­mittit. Caecus. enim est qui ista non videt. Quisquis ergo nostrûm suas res Ecclesiae tradit, Domino Deo illas offert, atque dedicat, suisque Sanctis & non alteri dicendo talia & agendo Ita, Facit enim Scripturam de ipsis rebus quas Deo dare desiderat, & ipsam Scripturam coram Altari, aut suprà tenet in manu, dicens ejusdem loci Sacerdotibus atque Custodibus, Offero Deo atque dedico omnes res, quae in hac Chartula tenentur insertae [pro remissione peccatorum meorum, ac parentum & filiorum] aut pro quocunque illas Deo deliberare voluerit ad Serviendum ex his Deo in Sacrificiis, Missarumque Solemniis, Orationibus, Luminariis, Pauperum, ac Clericorum Alimoniis, & caeteris divinis cultibus, atque illius Ec­clesiae Utilitatibus, Si quis autem eas inde, quod fieri nullatenus credo, abstulerit, sub poena Sacrilegii ex hoc Domino Deo, cui eas offero atque dedico, districtissimas reddat rationes. Ponit etiam in ea alias Conju­rationes, quas Enumerare longum est.—Absit ut rerum Ecclesia­rum cupiditate, vel oblatione Sacrilegi, aut Anathema Efficiamur, aut talibus Laqueis unquam devinciamur: quoniam scimus Anathe­matos homines, vel Sacrilegos, non solùm infames, & à Consortio fi­delium alienos esse, sed etiam à Regno Dei extorres fieri, non dubitamus. Ut ergo omnis suspicio à nobis auferatur, profitemur omnes stipulas dextris manibus tenentes easque propriis è manibus ejicientes, coram Deo & Angelis suis, ac vobis cunctisque Sacerdotibus, nec talia facere, nec facere volentibus consentire, sed magis Deo auxiliante resistere: — nec cum iis cibum Sumere, nec ad Ecclesiam, vel ad Palatium, aut in itinere pergere, nec nostros Caballos, vel reliqua pecora nostra cum eorum peccoribus, aut ad pastum ire, aut simul habitare, vel manere—ne pro eorum Iniquitatibus unâ cum eis, nos & nostri, quod absit, pereamus; Scimus enim quia perit Justus pro impio, &c. Ut ergo haec omnia à vobis, & à nobis, sive à suc­cessoribus vestris, & nostris futuris temporibus absque ulla dissimula­tione conserventur, Inter vestra Capitula inserere Jubete, Capitul, Caroli Magni Wormatiae, lib. 6. cap. 285. Charls the Great, (a man equally as far from Idolatry as he was from Sacriledge; witness against it that severe pas­sage of his in his book ofLib. 3. cap. 17. de Imag. Images.) In the Preamble of that Form, the whole genera­lity of the people, doth first of all acknow­ledge, [Page 122] that whatsoever is given to the Church, is consecrated to God. 2. That whosoever takes away such things from the Church, doth un­doubtedly commit Sacriledge: and that he must needs be stark blind that doth not see all this to be so indeed: This is therefore a far greater blindness in any now adays, to doubt either of Consecrations, or of Sacriledge, or of the Effect of the Curses, &c. than was that blind­ness they impute unto their devout An­cestors.

14. Then follows the Form; and here first of all, The Founder or Donor layes upon the Altar the Schedule, which contains an In­ventory of all his Gifts, or holds it over it in his hand, saying to the Priests and Guardians of that place, I do offer unto God, and dedicate all those things that are contained in this Paper: And these their Donations they do seal up with many a heavy Curse, and second it with the significant Ceremonies of those times, as by scattering of Straw to and fro, the old Rite of Excommunication in allusion to the Destiny of the ungodly, Psalm 1.4. who are compared to the Chaffe, which the winde driveth to and fro and the like: and those Curses they do lay upon themselves, and up­on all those that shall go about to alter or alienate, or but consent to the Alienation, vowing that they will be so far from that, that they will, by Gods help, resist all such to the utmost of their power, and renounce their company man and beast: Their reason is, lest being partakers of their sin, they should for company perish with them for ever.

[Page 123]15. But that which is most observable in the Form, is that after the Repetition of their own particular Intentions, (some of them it may be Superstitious, and some others right enough, the Corn may easily be win­nowed from the Chaffe) then they sum up all in these general terms, thus, That they Offer it all, for whatsoever shall be pleasing unto God, towards the maintenance of his Divine Service, for the sustentation of the Clergy, and all other things that may be honourable to God, and profitable to Holy Church: Which express general words, with charitable Judges, may well bear the sense of an Implicite Renouncia­tion of all contrary Idolatry or Superstition, or abuse in the particulars, which in them, living then under no better light, may be presumed to be repented of, among their sins of Ignorance. And this with the Premises may serve in Confutation of the first pretence of Zeal against Idolatry for utter Abolition.

16. Follows now the second Religious pre­tence of Zeal against an Idle Ministry, which pleads for, (at least pretends to no more but) Commutation only. For so, this Church-Patrimony which now maintains but an idle Company of Apostolical Bishops and Pastors, shall be far better imployed to maintain a powerful preaching Ministry, forsooth, that shall restore the Purity of the Gospel. This is the Plea.

To which, by the way, (to say no worse) 1. Is not this against all Reason and Equity, that the Adversary should take upon him to [Page 124] be both Party and Judg, both of the Charge and of the Change too.

17. But to the Change it self, either they intend to Change for the better, or for the worse; if they say for the better, then first the Amelioration must be made appear to be clearly such, that in it at the least, finis legis, shall be kept, and Gods Service will be bet­ter supported. 2. To do it by way of Ad­dition to it, was onceLevit. 27.10.33. Gods own express Di­rection upon the Case, not by way of Al­teration, or down-right Commutation; God in his Wisdom so ordained it, as suspecting men might change for the worse, even then when they pretend to change for the better, lest therefore a gap might thereby be ope­ned to mens Frailty, or Fraudulency, God would not suffer a man to change at all, no not a good for a bad, but rather to double his offering, if he would needs be changing. 3. They may not only pretend, but intend too to change for the better, and yet through Gods just Judgment upon Changelings, it may prove the worse for the Constitution of this Common-wealth, or other emergent causes; and if they be not sure to change for the better, as 'tis very much to be feared they cannot, then we had as good keep us as we are.

10. But say, Pretences were become very Truths, and that they wiser men then all the whole Catholick Church besides, down from Christs dayes, and upwards too, might haply change for the betrer indeed: [Page 125] yet in a very wiseLe leggi nu­ove, anchorche in qualche parte fussero migliori, man­cano di quel Rispetto, e di quella Forza, che L'antichita, e la consuetudine sogliono apportare a tutte le cose e cosi a poco a poco, debilitando si ipiu veri fon­damenti del governo, conviene facilmente cadere, urtato dall' Ambitione de pochi potenti, O dalla Licenzà del popolo, il quale, perduta una volta la Riverenza verso le leggi, suole spesso insurgere contrà di loro, con nuove e perverse Usanze; come auv enne in Roma, &c. Mario Favorito dal Po­polo contro le leggi, &c. Paruta della vita Politica libro. Terzo. Italian States-man, I finde an old Rule of State, (consonant to the Rules of Religion too) which before we change, would be vary seriously pondered.

And this is it: Ʋpon CHANGES, es­pecially of Government, follow NEW LAWS which though in part, possibly better than the Old, yet will want much of that respect and force or Authority, which custom and Anti­quity are wont to procure unto all things and thus by little and little, the very FOUNDATION of Government will undermine it self: so as in time all the whole FRAME OF STATE (we may say the same of the Church) will insensibly down to the ground, being justled out by the am­bition of a few great ones, or by the licentiousness of the many, the People, who having once forgot­ten the reverence they owed unto the old Laws, will soon make Insurrection against all manner of Laws whatsoever: The truth of all this is clear, in the Case betwixt the State of Rome, and Marius the Peoples Favourite a­gainst the old Laws, &c. Thus far the Italian States-man.

19. And this Forraign VVisdom upon this very Case too, was as I may say, natu­ralized [Page 126] here by a Royal See the Pro­clamation for the Uniformity of Common prayer before the Book of Common Prayer. Act, for the Autho­rizing an Ʋniformity of the Book of Common-Prayer, &c. Established by Act of Parliament, wherein to prevent the Temptation to, and Imputation of FICKLENESS, that GREAT SCANDAL OF STATE, the Royal Ad­monition runs thus, We do admonish all men, that hereafter they shall not expect, nor attempt any further ALTERATION in the Common and Publick Form of Gods Service, from this, which is now established, for that neither will we give way to any to presume, that our own Judg­ment having determined in a matter of this weight, shall be swayed to alteration by the fri­volous suggestions of any light Spirit: neither are we ignorant of the Inconveniences that do a­rise in GOVERNMENT, by admitting IN­NOVATION in things once setled by mature deliberation: And how necessary it is to use Constancy in the upholding of publick Determi­nations of State, for that such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some dispositions, af­fecting every year new forms of things, as if they should be followed in their unconstancy, would make all Actions of States ridiculous and con­temptible: whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advice established, is the weal of all Common-wealths. Behold a Fort-Royal, strong enough against all such Changes, if but well manned, and maintained,

20. And indeed the Platform of it was borrowed from the wisest mortal King that ever was, Solomon it is, who gives us all fair warning, saying,Prov. 24.21, 22, 23. My Son, fear thou the [Page 127] Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change: The Precept is back­ed with an ominous Prophecy, For their Ca­lamity shall rise suddenly, and who knoweth the ruine of them both, (both Changers and Med­lers: These things also belong unto the wise: as wise as some men may think themselves, were they as wise as Achitophel, they may need; and they should take this wise coun­sel betimes, lest they prove Achitophels at their latter end.

21. But if Solomon had not given us this fair warning, we may know those mens good meaning in the Change, by their In­tentions and Endeavors too, ad ultimum Potentiae, expressed in the Bill for Abolition offered at Uxbridge:A full Rela­tion of the pas­sages concern­ing the Treaty at Uxbrige, &c. p. 160. Exchange is no Robbe­ry, was once your Proverb, but our late sad Experience of those Reformers good In­tentions in the change, may have taught us more wit, then still to believe words: As once the Orator, so may we now justly cry out, Quid verba audio cùm facta videam? let their Actions speak, and they'l speak loud, and tell you what goodly Change they mean to make. Behold, Testimonia rerum, & lo­quentia signa: In two late flourishing King­doms at once, as in a two leaved broad Glass, you may clearly see, that, under pretence of Commutation, they have at last, compassed their great Project of utter Confusion, in the utter abolition of the chief Offices, and Sacrilegious Conversion of the Church Lands, and Revenues, to their own proper [Page 128] Lay Ʋses: Except it may be Offam Cerbero, here and there a bone cast, to stop the mouths of such as otherwise would bark out against their crying sin of Sacriledge. For as anNon alio censendi Elogio sunt, quos Templorum & Sa­cerdotiorum Opulentia ad fidei dogmata novanda illexit, qui suos Pseudopastorculos aliqua divitiarum particulâ asper­serunt totum ut ipsi devora­rent Impetuè. Contzen ad Rom. cap. 2.22: Author upon our Text saith too truly; They deserve no other Epithet, whom Covetousness hath allured to Innovate all in Church and Religi­on, and all out of a hope thereby to inrich themselves with the rich spoils of the old Church and Reli­gion, under pretence of sprinkling their false petty Shepherds with a few drops, that so themselves without controul, may swal­low up all. Of some of our Reformers, Pu­det haec, & dici potuisse, & non potuisse refelli.

22. But in such a case, should they, or we all hold our peace, very Heathens would open their mouth, and plead Gods Cause for us against them: would you think a [...]. Plato de legib. lib. 10 principio, [...], De Sacrilegio. Plato, by the meer light of nature could charge such a kinde of Sacriledge with flat Atheism? Whosoever (saith he, speaking there expresly of Sacriledge) wrongs the Gods any of those waies, he must of necessity be guilty of one of these three crimes, either he absolutely thinks there is no God at all: or secondly, that if there be a God, that he is a God careless of what is done here below: or thirdly, That this God is nothing so just or so terrible to offenders at [Page 129] the world is made believe, but either corrupt, one that will be bribed in his own Cause, or a very tame facile God (with all profound reve­rence, be this but repeated to the Conver­sion or Confusion of the Authors of such Atheistical Opinions and practices:) a fle­xible God, whom you may offend at pleasure, and re-appease as you please with a few good words, for many bad deeds. God deliver us from such a Childish ridiculous Religion, nay, from such damnable Atheism, in thought, word, or deed: for as theVel Deos non esse, &c. —vel illos praeter aequum & bonum Mu­neribus & precibus conci­liari: Illa enim absurda Deo attribuere, est negare Deum: Joh. Serran. in Platon. Glossator of this Text in Plato well comments by such carriage to­wards God, in attributing such absurdities unto God, what is any one, the least, of all these three wayes, but utterly to raze down the Foun­dation of all Religion, and even then, when in words we profess a GOD, in WORKS to deny HIM, as theTit. 1. ult. Apostle argues the Case?

23. And as for t' other part of the pre­tence, the powerfulness of their Ministry and the Purity of their Gospel, &c. will you take our Lords Advice? Then judge of the Tree by his Fruit, forMat. 7.16. by their Fruits ye shall know them, saith the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls; and there he speaks directly of Teachers too, and bids us judge of the Doctrine by the Fruits it brings forth, be they good or bad; and who sees not that since those powerful Preachers came up, (we speak of the generality of them) we had more Christian Blood shed, we had more Spi­rits of Error, conjured up within the Circle of this one Island, (to the credit of the Cause [Page 130] be it spoken) and within the compass of one Triennium, the span of one three years of Schism and Rebellion, than was raised in the whole Christian world besides (all circumstances considered) in thrice three hundred years.

And now having confuted their holy pre­tences drawn from colours of Religion, we pass on to examine their State-Wisdom, con­sisting of four points of Policy, as it were the four Elements that make up the whole com­pound of their Plea for Sacriledge.

CHAP. VIII.

1. THe first is a pretence of Justice upon a Delinquent Party. The second a pretence of Peace to the whole Kingdom. The third, a pretence of State-necessity. The fourth, a pretence of power Legislative to dis­pose of the Church Revenues, as they see cause. These be the Ragioni di stato of our English Machiavels.

To all which first in general, Super totâ Materiâ, we may well preface with the honest Observation (you may call it an Ora­cle) of that Noble Venetian Knight, Paulo [Page 131] Paruta, In questo corrotto seculo con certo vauo nome di RAGION DI STATO, si vanno spesso perturbando, e confondendo tutte le cose hu­mane e divine: That is, In this Corrupt Age, N. B. under pretence of a certain vain thing, called REASON OF STATE, men too too oft go on so far, till have troubled, yea confounded all humane and divine matters: Thus he. But e're we encounter them, we had need to pray, from such States-men, and from such reasons of State, as will make true Religion but a stalking Horse to false Policy: Good Lord deliver us. Once you may be sure of this, that one day you shall not be Judged by your vain Reason of State, but by your True Religion to God, and Real Reverence to Holy Church under God.

2. To the particulars: One doth well de­fine Sacriledge a coloured Theft, under pretence of Law: To begin therefore with the first Pretence, 'Tis the Pretence of Justice upon a Delinquent Party, accused of two Crimes. 1. Of old Collusion and fraud at the first ori­ginal Purchase of those Church Revenues. 2. Of another great new Crime, since, called Malignancy, which is in plain English, a compound of Religion to God, Duty to the Church, Loyalty to the King, This is that terrible Chimaera, Malignancy; the fear whereof, far more than the fear of God, or of the King, hath already Conquered, and now possesseth the Hearts of the People, the Heads of some Peers, and the Tail of the Priests.

3. To prove the first the Collusion, they'l [Page 132] tell you that of old the Priests took advan­tage of the simplicity of the times and of the men, when both were at the worst: and men [...]awned upon, or frighted, upon their death-bed were fraudulently perswaded to do they knew not well what: and clearly to prove all this, they produce strong eviden­ces, such as, for instance, the merry Case of Naples, &c. and the like. This is the Plea, coloured with the odious imputation of Co­vin, Covetousness, and Ambition in the Priest, Blindeness, and Superstition in the People.

4. I am confident men are too rational, to expect we should confute this seriously: But yet how do they evidence the Collusion? for first, a wise man would think it hard for a third Person, to tell what passes betwixt a Penitent and his Confessor; especially the Pe­nitent dying upon it. But 2. Admit there had been fraud indeed in some one odde case or other, (for to affirm this universally of all Church-Donations, were both very untrue, very Immodest, that we say not impudent and very uncharitable) although the particu­lar intent might be bad in the deceiver, yet at least for the general of it, the Intent might be good, and Religion in the party decei­ved, viz. To further the Service of God, and the salvation of his Soul, as we haveSee above page proved before. 3. Why may not we in such a case, for Gods Interest, and the Right of the Church, say as you say in your own Law, for the Right of your Client, or the Interest of [Page 133] the Common-wealth, BETTER A MIS­CHIEF, THEN AN INCONVENI­ENCE: Better suffer some such one pri­vate injury, than open a publick gap to Sa­criledge: as it was better for the Princes ofJoshua 9. See above page Israel, though circumvented by fraud on the Gibeonites part, yet to keep promise with the Deceiver, than to open a gap unto Per­jury, and the penalty attending upon per­jury. But Ex abundanti in one respect more, the ground of both those cases may be one and the same, namely, because,Semel Sacrata vero numini, per veram Ec­clesiam, propha­nari rursus, aut in fiscum redigi non possunt. Wesebec. pa­ratit. c l. 1. T. xi. § 4. Semel Deo dicatum, what is once given to God, must be Gods for ever: For was not this the very case of the Gibeonites, where, besides the Inter­position of an Oath, à parte antè, there was also the addition of a Dedication, à parte post; they were given to God, and even therefore afterwardsEzra 2.43. those Gibeonites were called Ne­thinims, from [...] which signifies to give, because they were given for the service of the Temple, To be hewers of wood, Josh. 9.27. and drawers of water for the Congregation, and for the Altar of the Lord. 'Tis true, their Office was for the matter, but vile and base, as may appear by that proverbial speech among the Jews, Deut. 29.11. From the hewer of thy wood, unto the drawer of thy water: yet bebold so many hundred years after, how severe an avenger God was of the injury done, though by a King unto his Nethinims: and if God be so tender over his water-bearers, will he not much more avenge the blood of his High-Priests? This by the way, upon occasion of [Page 134] the parallel of the Gibeonites fraud with the supposed deceit of the old Priests in the ob­tention of those Testamentary Donations.

5. But fifthly and lastly, admit the charge of Collusion be false, and the case not so indeed, (as for the general, the con­trary is most apparent;) then under pretence of Justice, what an extream Injustice is this, Invito donatore, Who being dead, yet liveth, in his last Will and Testament: for if an Apo­stle may be Judge upon the Case, a Testament is of force after men are dead, (Heb. ix. 17.) Invito donatore, I say, and Invito possessore too, and both bona fidei, in despight of God and man, feloniously, to take away the Churches Right, yea, Gods own Inheritance?Deut. xviii. 1, 2. Inter pares, so to do, were high Injustice, though but a violation of a civil contract, or stipula­tion; how much more heinous then must the usurpation be against our Superiour, yea, against the Supream Lord, the God of Heaven and Earth, whose Right, by all Laws is absolute, Irrespective, Independent. This is the very Argument of King Withred, in hisScimus & veraciter ex­tat, ut si quid s [...]mel accepe­rit homo de manu alterius in propriam potestatem, nullatenus sine Ira & ultione illud dimiserit im­punitus. Ideò horrendum est hominibus expoliare Deum vivum, & scindere Tunicam ejus, & haereditatem ejus, quotquot ex aliquo conces­sum ei fuerat de terrenis substantiis. S. H. Spelman in Concilio Magno Becanqueldensi, sub Withredo Rege Cantii, A. C. 694. Council of Becanceld, almost a thousand years ago. And thus much in answer to the Imputation of Collusion, and the first pre­tence of Justice against it.

[Page 135]6. As for the second point of Delinquen­cy, the charge of Malignancy: God forbid but offenders indeed, such as have really violated the known Laws of God or man, should have condigne punishment, and Im­primis Church-men. So the Trial be Legal, and the Triers (according to your own Law)Magna Charta, 9 H. 3. S. 29. Juries ought to be persons consider­able and know­ing, they anciently used to be twelve Knights. So sayes Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Littleton's Tenures, citing Mr. Lambert—The mean­ing of Legalis Ho­mo, to qualifie him of a Jury, is not, nor formerly was, meant to be only a man of 40s. per annum, but to be at least in some good measure, In Legi­bus peritus, as some are of opi­nion, and so as it were a kinde of assistant to the Judge. This is the observation of a wise man, Nomine & re. Sir Robert Wiseman in his learned Book of the Law of Laws. Edit. 1664. Notes touching the alte­ration of some Law [...], p. 116, 117. homines legales & pares, and therefore not parties, or enemies, against such Jurors the Law will allow of a principal challenge: Lastly, so they be tried not ad placitum, but by the old standing Rule, The known Law of Eng­land; which, to define out of that known Author, (Doctor and Student, Chap. 4.) must be grounded, 1. On the Law of Rea­son. 2. On the Law of God. 3. On the gene­ral Customs of the Realm. 4. On the Principles, or Maxims of the Law. 5. On particular Cu­stoms. 6. On the Statutes, or Acts of Parlia­ment. All which above, have put in their Plea for the Church.

But secondly, if bare Accusation may serve the turn, who can be Innocent? es­pecially, if by the Faction or Malice of a prevailing party, stilo Novo, he be called an Offender, who is most Faithful to God, most Dutiful to the Church, and most Loyal to the King. The pretended crime hath been published, and really punished also, any time these seven and twenty years, and 'tis to prove yet.

Thirdly, If some of the Clergy were guilty, yet sure not all; all are not such, and by what Law of God or Man, must the [Page 136] Righteous suffer meerly for the wicked. TheIpsa Commu­nitas non potest Excommunicari. Aquin. Suppl. 22, 5 [...]0. School determines it unlawful to Ex­communicate an whole University, or Corpo­ration, because of the possible mixture of some good with the bad, how much less to Excommunicate a whole Community to all Generations, and can it then be lawful hand over head, to deprive a whole Tribe, Gods own Tribe, with their Wives and Children, and all for ever and aye, without hope of redress, or recovery.

Fourthly. Say all this whole present Ge­neration of Clergy-men were really guilty of all the Crimes laid to their charge, and guilty every man of them, what is this to future Succession, out of all doubt innocent as yet? Personal Delinquency may forfeit the Personal Right of the present Incumbent, the Offender; but it cannot forfeit anothers Right: By the Laws of other Nations, (and as I am assured by yourThe Law is clear, if a Clergy-man commit Trea­son or any other capital offence, he for­feits not the Right of his Church, but only the pre­sent profit du­ring his own life, or Incum­bency. See Stamford's Pleas of the Crown, 187. own Law too) the forfeiture can extend no farther than the Title: Now whatsoever a Clergy-man pos­sesseth, is all in Jure Ecclesiae, and Jure Dei: is all in the Right of the Church, and in the Right of God.

7. As for the first, Jus Ecclesiae, the Per­sonal Delinquency of a Clergy-man can no more forfeit, or impeach that, than the Guardians personal offence can prejudice his Ward under age: for in this sense you say, the Church is alwayes under age, alwayes a Minor in the World: God's, the Kings, and the States Ward: God, the Supream Guar­dian [Page 137] of the Church can and will defend his Ward, let the under-Guardians look to it, as they will answer the Supream. 'Tis both the comparison and conclusion too of your ownEcclesia sem­per est infrà aetatem, & fun­gitur semper vice minoris, nec est juri consonum quòd infrá aetatem existentes per neg­ligentiam custodum suorum, exharedationem patiantur seu ab actione re­pellantur. Sir Edw. Coke, super Magna Charta, page 3. Lawyers upon the case, grounded up­on divers Records▪ best known to your own selves.

8. And as thus in respect of the Church, no Clergy-man can forfeit the Lands and Revenues which he enjoyeth only in Jure Ecclesiae: So fifthly and lastly, much less in respect of God: for a Tenant for Life or Years, can but forfeit his own Lease, for his own time; he cannot forfeit the right or property of his Tenement, that belongs to his Land-lord: How then can any mans fault forfeit Gods Right? for we have proved it before by Gods Law, and (as we are given to understand it from some of your own sages) by your own Law too, that of all Church Revenues God is really the Proprie­tary, the Clergy but the Ʋsufractuary. This is enough to tear off from the painted face of Sacriledge this first Vizard, the Pretence of Justice upon Delinquents.

9. From the premises may clearly appear, how impertinent, and unjust some men are, who maliciously mis-apply against our Pre­lates and Church men. Some vehement decla­mations, and disputes of John Wickliffe in the 17th. of his 45. Articles, and John [Page 138] Huss 43. Arguments against the Temporal­ties of the Church: without any due or just Consideration, either 1. of the Time when, or 2. Place where, or 3. the Parties against whom, or 4. the Matter about which, or 5. the manner how far, either John Wickliffe, or John Huss delivered those Positions: Any one of which single Circumstances so­berly, and ingenuously pondered, doth quite alter the Case.

For 1. As for the Time, it was when the Clergy so superabounded in their Revenues, that a Law seemed necessary to interpose, and restrain the Oblations, by Mortmain, Stat. of Mortmain, 7. of Edw. 1. When the people brought much more then enough, as in Moses Case, Exod. xxxvi. 5. when the people were so liberal of their Oblations, and Donations unto the Clergy, That, to phrase it with S. Luke, chap. vi. 38. in an higher sense, they seemed as it were, pressed down, shaken together, and running over into their bo­soms. But now the case is altered, there is no great fear, in this our Age, that the peo­ple will over-do in this kinde. The notable Subtractions from the Bishopricks, and Deans, and Chapters in the last Age, the multiplied Prescriptions through Covin, or Cowardise, the Conversion of Lease-holds into Free-holds, by incroachments, the Decayes of Church-Rents, the easie Pines of the Church­men (in comparison of Lay-Land-lords) the Aggravations by servile Taxes, never heard of before, now of late laid upon the Clergy, such as Bridge-money, Roague-money, and the [Page 139] like. These (and much more could be said) may sufficiently secure the State from the Clergies Exceedings: therefore, Distingue Tempora, is a wise rule to silence the Ob­jectors.

2. As for the place, John Huss, (Arg. 32.) fixed his Assertions in the Kingdom of Bo­hemia; whereof he affirms the Clergy had a fourth, or third part; from which proportion the Clergy of England (though very thank­ful to God and the King for what they have) are very far, perhaps upon honest compu­tation, not the thirtieth part, all Reprises duly deducted.

3. The Parties, against whom John Wick­liffe, and John Huss positions were directed, were the Popish Prelates, Abbots, &c. Shave­lings, as John Huss, Arg. 42. out of Hilde­gardis Prophecy tearms them, (i. e.) Monks. The whole scope of both John Wickliffe, and John Huss Positions is against such Clergy­men, who did both usurp, and also plead Exemption of the Clergy from the Kings Au­thority, N. B. as over their Persons, so over their Pos­sessions: Whereas the Clergy of England have better learned Christ since, (Rom. xiii. 1.) They know, and acknowledge, that Omnis Anima, Every soul must be subject to the high­er Powers. [...], ac­cording to St. Chrysostoms Loyal Gloss upon the place, Though he were an Apostle, though he be a Bishop, yet must he be subject to the Higher Powers: and therefore our Prelates and Church-men, do not only profess, but [Page 140] also swear due Subjection and Allegiance to the King, as Supream in both Respects as over their Persons, so in all Causes, and there­fore over their Possessions: Bp. Andrews, Tortura Torti. Bp. Morton's Causa Regia, &c. Our Prelates do not only practice due subjection in both these, but also to their Power, Protect the Kings Supremacy, with their Pens and Learned Writings against all Opposers on the right hand and on the left, against all, whether Anabaptists or Papists; so that to confound our Prelates and Church-men, with those Prelates and Church-men in John Wickliffe's and John Huss times, is a malicious Plot. Certainly, here, if any where, Comparisons are odious: To argue thus, from the left to the Right, what is it but Crassa ignoratio Elenchi: a fallacy explo­ded in the very Schools.

4. The matter about which both John Wickliffe and John Huss frame their Ar­guments, is the Clergy offending habitualiter, that is, as (Wickliffe explains it) which con­tinue in the custom of sin, and will not amend; and John Huss (Argument 2.) instances in Rebellion against the King, and (Arg. 24.) Treason, as in the case of Bishop Judas Iscariot (as he terms him) Heresie, as Pope Leo; Rapos and other such grievous Crimes (enu­merated also by the Author, in the title of his Appendix to John Wickliffe's Articles, &c. with which hainous Matters, Impu­dence it self cannot charge our Prelates and other Canonical Church-men, who, when tried in the fiery furnace of the late [Page 141] Rebellious, and Sacrilegious Persecution, (absit verbo invidia) proved generally the most loyal, and most constant Subjects of all, so as neither Sequestration, nor Depriva­tion, nor Banishment, nor Torment, nor Death it self could prevail upon them, to make them renounce their due Allegiance to the King: Therefore to tell the King, that to take away their Temporalties is neither Sacri­ledge nor Injustice, is such a bad office, such an high offence against the Kings Justice, as would deserve some Exemplary Correcti­on, to deter others from the like presum­ption against my Lord the King, whose Royal Generosity (so Hereditary to him, from his unparallel'd FatherNo Prince in the whole world did ever both in word and deed more abhor the Sin of Sacriledge than the late god­ly King Charles the First: Witness those Divine Lines in his Portraicture, es­pecially Sect. 14. Ʋpon the Covenant. ‘No man (saith that King) can be more forward than my self to carry on all due Reformations with mature Judgment, and a good Conscience, in what things I shall (after impartial advice) be by Gods word, and right Reason, convinced to be amiss, I have offered more than ever the fullest, freest, and wisest Parliaments did desire.’ ‘But the sequel of some mens actions makes it evident, that the main Refor­mation intended is the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery, and the Robbing the Church of its Lands, and Revenues: for no men have been more injuriously used, as to their Loyal Rights, than the Bishops, and Church-men. These as the fattest Deer must be destroyed; the other Rascal-herd of Schisms, Heresies, &c. being lean, may enjoy the benefit of a Toleration. Thus Naboth's Vineyard made him the only blasphemer of his City, and fit to dye. Still I see while the breath of Religion fills the Sails, Profit is the Compass, by which factious men steer their course in all seditious Commotions.—Whereupon the King pro­tests his detestation of such sacrilegious Reformation, in these words: "I have al­wayes had such a perfect abhorrence of it in my soul, that I never found the least Inclination to such sacrilegious Reformings: yet no man hath a greater d [...]sire to have Bishops and all Church-men so reformed, that they may best deserve, and use not only what the pious munificence of my Predecessors hath given to God,’ and the Church, but all other additions of Christian Bounty. Thus that in­comparable Prince. of Glorious Me­mory) doth scorn such unworthy Counsel, and Councellors as would perswade the King, against his gracious Genius, to do an [Page 142] Act whereby that Estate, I mean, the Cler­gy, which suffered most for the King, should now also suffer again by the King.

5. As for the manner, how far both John Wickliffe and John Huss extend, or limit their Assertions: 'Tis to be observed, first, that as they both still pre-suppose, as a ground of just deprivation. 1. The noto­rious abuse of those Revenues, or Temporal­ties of the Clergy. 2. The Clergies Contu­macy, or continuance therein, and all this not pretended, but proved: so secondly, do they expresly limit those, who have Autho­rity to deprive such offenders, when, and how, and how far they may proceed, and enter their Protestation against all Arbitrary Deprivation: for so runs the Preamble be­fore John Huss Arguments:N. B. I do profess, saith he, That it is not my intent, like as it is not the meaning of the Ʋniversity (he means Prague) to perswade, That Princes, or secular Lords should take away the goods from the Cler­gy, when they would, or how they would, and convert them to what use they list. Certainly John Huss, (thus protesting) would never have been of Councel to turn the Church-Lands into Lay-fees; and therefore to make his or John Wickliffe's case a parallel with this, and to detort their Arguments, as An Ancient plea in justification of the late taking away, and sales of Cathedral Lands, &c. (which Act was not passed by the King, God be thanked, but by a Parliament sitting against the King) is a prevarication as bold, as it is [Page 143] strange: tending mainly to vilifie the just owners, and to gratifie some unwary Purcha­sers, (to say no worse of them, in reverence to the Law) who, before their hasty bar­gain, might have minded the Rule of the Law, Caveat Emptor.

10. And now that by way of Ratiocination, we have sufficiently confuted those pre­tended Arguments, wrested from the say­ings of John Wickliffe, and John Huss, for the matter of Right, it will be very pertinent for the matter of Fact, to make some Re­flections upon the History of those times, by way of inquiry, what might be the motive, which set on John Wickliffe to broach that controversie against the Temporalties of the Prelates and Church-men of his time. Some­what therefore must be observed. 1. Con­cerning John Wickliffe's Person, and professi­on. 2. Somewhat concerning his Positions, as they relate to this matter of the Tempo­ralties of Prelates and Church-men, the point in question. And 3. Somewhat also of his chief Patron who set him on to maintain those Positions, and, as it were, did license and authorize both the Author, and his Opinions.

First then, concerning John Wickliffes Person and profession, the History tells us, he was a Secular Priest, Graduate, and Professor in Oxford about the year 1375. and that, for want of a just Title, he was by Simon Sud­bury, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, deprivedDaniels Hist. of England in Edw. the 3. Fullers Eccles. Hist. B. 4. Cent. 14. of the Headship of Canterbury-Colledge [Page 144] (now incorporated into Christs Church.) This Deprivation bred Discontent (saith your Daniel) The humor that commonly breeds opposi­tion, and many times hurries discontented men into Schism (as that Historian wisely observes, and experience both of old, and of late, abundantly confirms.) This Censure therefore did sharpen Wickliffe's Pen, Contrà Religiosos possessionates (as Walsing­ham phrases it) against Church-men, who had Temporal Possessions. Hereupon Wickliffe vexed with opposition, Fuller. which makes men reel into violence (as his own zealous Advocate would excuse him in this) transported with a Po­lemical heat, when chafed with Disputation, became active in his Sermons, and acts in the Schools, where that 17. Article (so much pressed on by the Churches Adversary) was first coined. Here Wickliffe did mainly inveigh against Church-men endowed with Temporalties, ‘especially the Monks (then not free from scandal, and no doubt, wor­thy to be taxed, when found Delinquents.’) Moreover Wickliffe stayed not there, but, becoming popular, did [...], drew Disciples after him of the populace, to be ta­ken notice of, and discerned by a new li­very, long Russet Coats, and going barefooted, and professing Poverty, with that kinde of Novelty, the more to catch the people, who rather believe then judge: Thus much concerning John Wickliffe's Person and Pro­fession.

Secondly, Concerning Wickliffe's Posi­tions, [Page 145] whereof the occasion, you see, was Deprivation. Fuller adds also his Ambition, be­cause he did miss of the Bishoprick of Wor­cester, which he aimed at. (The old quar­rel in Church History of some male-conten­ted Priests against their Bishops) we purposely wave to charge Wickliffe with those Centu­ries of Articles exhibited against him by Thomas Waldensis, Harpsfield, and others, who might be excepted against for partiality: we will therefore confine our discourse chiefly to two of your own Historians, Da­niel, and Fuller, afore-cited. Wickliffe's Po­sitions (placed by Walsingham at the year 1377.) Daniel delivers thus. Wickliffe main­tained, That neither the King, nor Temporal Lords could give any thing to Church-men in perpetuity: which certainly was an error as full of Injustice, as of untruth: as being opposite to the whole current of Holy Scri­ptures, both in the Old, and New Testa­ment, contrary to so many Councels, Fathers, Laws of all sorts, Canon, Civil, and to the Laws of the Land, and to the practice of the whole Catholick Church in all Ages, as well as to right Reason, the ground of both Pre­cept and Practice for it (as is at large demon­strated throughout this whole Treatise es­pecially, Chap. 11.) Secondly, he maintain­ed, saith the same Historian, That Temporal Lords, in their necessity, might lawfully take away the Goods of Religious Persons. This, if true, (as he is charged by Historians) is as contrary to Justice, as to right Reason, to [Page 146] deprive men, whether they be Delinquents or no: But this Doctrine, as it was popular, ‘so it proved very pleasing to great men,Walsingham and Daniel. es­pecially, who commonly imbrace Sects, either for Ambition to get, or for Jealousie not to lose,’ or for Hatred to revenge (as your own Historian judiciously observes it) which fell out to be John of Gaunts Case, and brings us to the third consideration of John Wickliffes namesake, and chief Patron, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, fallen out with that eminent Prelate.Godwin, de praesul bus An­gliae, Guliel­mus Wickham. William Wickham, Bishop of Winchester, Ob causam mihi non ig­notam (saith another good Author) for a cause not unknown to me, which haply will not be so expedient to record. Episcopum implacabili odio prosequebatur, did thereupon prosecute the Bishop with implacable hatred, and did insti­gate King Edward the Third (then decayed through Age) both to take away all this Bishops Temporalties, and also to except him out of the general Pardon. This quarrel was aggrava­ted by another accident, when John Wickliffe, being cited, came to appear before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, (aforenamed) at a Synod in St. Pauls Church: there John of Gaunt blew up the Coals (saith Fuller) and both by Word and Deed, animated Wickliffe, bidding him not to fear the Bishops saying, They were all unlearned in respect of him. Whereupon there happened a fierce contest between Courtney, Bishop of London, and John of Gaunt, threatning the Bishop, that he would bring down the pride, not of that [Page 147] Bishop alone, but of all the Prelates in Eng­land: Like another Haman, Esther iii. 6. who scorned to be revenged only on the person of Mordecai; and therefore did plot the destruction of the whole Nation: Though for this, John of Gaunt was like to have proved another Haman also in the Destiny, had not the cou­rage, as well as the Prudence of that noble Bishop restrained the zealous Londoners, Walsingham and Daniel, quo suprà. who did then so love their Bishop, that, but for him, they had burned John of Gaunts house, the Savoy, and made an end of him also, had he not fled: This is the very truth of Wickliffe's story, concerning which, as we will not affirm, that all the errors im­puted to him by the aforesaid Waldensis and Harpsfield, were Wickliffe's Opinions: Chri­stian Charity forbids us to believe that of him:Jer. xv. 19. Because taking forth the precious from the vile, his positions against the Popes Su­premacy, Purgatory, superstitious Pilgrimages, and the like, were good Corn, and so far God might make good use of John Wickliffe. But on the contrary, Christian Prudence forbids us to allow of Wickliffe's Chaffe, for the good Corn mixt with it, or to say, hand over head, that all his Doctrines were Gospel, (as his over­forward Advocate seems to Christen them.Fuller.) We have learned a better Rule of Judg­ment from a better Doctor, the Apostle of the Gentiles, Let no man glory in men, (1 Cor. iii. 21) And again, from another Apostle, (Jude 16,) not to have mens persons in admi­ration, because of advantage. To shut up this [Page 148] Period concerning Wickliffe's Positions in the words of his own Advocate,Fuller. John Wick­liffe was but a man, and so subject to error, as much as other men; especially all the pre­mises considered, to wit, 1. Wickliffe's De­privation as the cause antecedent. 2. John of Gau [...]ts Instigation, as the cause evident of Wickliffe's distemper, against the Prelates and Church-men of his time: ‘Foelix qui potuit Rerum Cognoscere Causas.’ And thus much may suffice, both in point of Reason, for the matter of Right, and also in point of History, for the Matter of Fact to non-suit every way that unseasonable A seasonable Vindication of the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of Christian Kings, Lords, and Parliaments, as well over the Poss ssions, as persons of Delinquent Prelates, and Church men, &c. b [...] V [...]illiam Pry [...]ne, Esquire. 1660. Book (that we say no worse of it) intituled, An ancient Plea in Justification of the late taking away, and sales of Cathedral Lands, &c. and let this close up our full confutation of that first Politick Pretence for Sacriledge; namely, Justice upon Delinquents.

11. Followeth now the second Politick Pretence, which is as specious as the first. 'Tis the Pretence of Peace to the whole King­dom: A precious blessing indeed, well worth the praying, yea the paying for, is the Blessing of Peace: If it be consistent with true Honour, with Moral Honesty, with Christian Piety, if compatible with the Peace of God, and with the Peace of a good [Page 149] Conscience; else without these, it were no Peace, (call it what you will) but a meer Conspiracy against God, which Christians, of all men, ought not to venture upon, no not to save a World: Except Peace come hand in hand with Honesty, Justice, and Truth, if it be purchased with the counterfeit Coin of Baseness, Falshood, and Wrong, with Robbery, yea, Sacriledge, it can prove no other but an Imaginary Peace, a very Mock-Peace, such a Peace, as more then once we have already been gulled withal, (and still, Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur) a Peace in Jest, but the ve­ry Preparative of a bloody War in earnest: or rather indeed and in truth, a very sorry, base, sneaking temporary shift, that in the end, through Gods just Judgment, may prove but the Exchange of one Civil War for another, and in the Conclusion of all, the Malum Omen of a Forraign, for a Civil War to boot (the late case you know.)

12. A strange way of Cure this! For can any endowed with any spark of Right Reason (for this time, bate Religion) ima­gine to Purge a Land already sick to Death, with the Surfeit of the old Sacriledge, by Re­pletion, by a new kinde of Sacriledge, and worse? as if the Iniquity of Josh xxii. 27. Peor were too little for us, from which we are not cleansed un­til this day? If Sacriledge began the War on their part, (who, as falsly, as odiously, termed it the Church-War) can they hope to end it by Sacriledge, otherwise then in the Peoples slavery for the oppression of the [Page 150] Priest? (the event you know, proved no better then so) can we ever hope to recover our Peace, or if recovered, to retain that long, which is so ill gotten? they say that those sick folks that are recovered by the help of such as they call White Witches, fall again into the same, or worse disease: It needs no application: ‘Martial.Hic rogo non furor est ne moriare mori?’

Is this a likely way to save the Church by destroying it? Is it not time now or never, to deal plainly and faithfully with you? for say, do we thrive of the Sacriledge commit­ted in Scotland, attempted in England? In such a case to hold our Peace, what were it but cruel Ʋncharitableness towards your own Souls; damnable Ʋnfaithfulness towards our God, our Church, our King, and the whole Nation.

13. Think not therefore within your selves, that whensoever we thus speak, we are but Pleading our own private Cause all this while: for (once for all) to satisfie you all about it, the Cause is as Important, and as Publick as any Cause in the World; and therefore, saith Calvin, The Preacher may, nay, ought to be the freer with you all. And the unworthy Advocate that now pleads thisNemo mirari debet si toties Apostolus verbi Auditores ad Officium prae­standum Exhor­tari voluit. In quo fuit liberi­or, quia non ageb [...]t causam suam Privatam, sed communi Ecclesiae Utilitati consulebat. Aretius & Calvin, in Gal. 6.6. in baec verba, Communicet qui Catechizatur Sermone, ei qui se Catechizat in omnibus bonis. Publick Cause, before you all, dares in the [Page 151] name of all his Brethren, clear their Priest­ly Magnanimity, and avouch their Christian Confidence in Gods all-sufficient Providence, as­sured, (as the Holy Father St. Chrysostome being once threatned, as we are,Psal. xxiv. 1. with a Sa­crilegious Deprivation) that still, Domini Terra & plenitudo ejus: For our parts, doing our duty, we have all manner of Cause to be secure, that God will never want an Ark for his Noahs, for his Preachers of Righteous­ness, nor a Zoar for his Lots, nor a Goshen for his true Israelites. We know the worst of it: If God disperse us, he hath ingaged his Power, and his Truth both, thatEzek. xi. 16. He will be a little sanctuary unto us in all places, where we shall be scattered: This truth the unworthy Author hath to the praise of God, found by fifteen years ex­perience, ha­ving so long subsisted a­broad, without any supply out of England, and yet with honour, credit, and competency, yea, sometimes plenty, even to the relief of his dear Relations in England, so long defrauded and oppressed by the predo­minant Rebellious party. But Psal: cxv. 1. Non nobis Domine, &c. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give the praise. or if that were not, if no room on Earth, yetJohn xiiii. 2. in my Fathers house there are many Mansions; room enough there for all Gods persecuted Servants, but no room at all there for the1 Cor vi. 9, 10. Persecutor, for the Thief, the Sacrilegious Thief especially, so far is such an one from the hope of an Eternal Mansion above in Heaven, that he shall not so much as to the third Generation enjoy a settled room here on earth: for as you have heard, of all other sins, Sacriledge can turn whole Families, yea, except pre­vented, will turn this whole Kingdom and Nation into a perpetual Floating Island, till at last it be quite swallowed up in a Red Sea of her own blood, or worse, (Deus avertat omen.)

You have seen it already overflow all the Banks, and shall we with Pharaoh, wilfully march on still into it, and pursue till we ut­terly perish in it? Know ye not, that in such a case the Righteous Judge of all the Earth hath his [...]. Pindar. Magazines and varieties of Plagues, besides the Plague of Civil War, or Pestilence, or Famine? Yes God hath a thousand invisible wayes unknown unto us, and all the World, as to recover, so to ruine an Empire: and when wicked men shall cry, Peace, peace, even then to fulfil upon them his infallible Prophecy.1 Thess. v. 3. Even then to send upon them all swift de­struction, as the Throes upon a woman in Travel, so that they shall not escape it. 'Tis Gods own comparison, to note the sudden, the painful, the unavoidable destruction of such FALSE PEACE-MAKERS.

14. Say then, were it wisdom for an overhasty desire of the shadow of Peace to lose the substance: for a little base Carnal Ease, Christened over with the name of Peace, for that's it most of your vulgar sort of men, or mindes, calls Peace; for such men are most men, that desire Peace, any Peace, not Peace in the right way, to wit, in order to the Glory of God, the Honour of the Church, of the King, and Nation, and the publick good, but only to satisfie again their own private Lusts: and no doubt, this very Corruption visible in Gods sight, maybe a great Remora to our Peace, which, even in mercy, God may still keep away from us, till he see us fitter for it, and make us more thankful for it, when recovered.

Will you for a moment, to retire per fas nefas, from the edge of Mans material Sword, rush your selves for ever and ever directly upon the sharp point of Gods spiri­tual Sword, the heavy Curse of God Al­mighty upon you and yours? If you dare go on, for all this plain, this fair warning, even therefore God may retard, yea utterly re­verse that Peace, you so eagerly press for, so as you shall run your selves quite out of breath, in your own wayes, pursuing after Peace, and never overtake it; yet however alto consilio, God may dispose of us, if we should lose all, we may preserve, and carry away within our own Bosom, this comfort worth all, That by this plain dealing, Libe­ravimus animas nostras.

15. But we have cause to hope better things of you (of the chief of you at least) and therefore we rather pray for you, that God will be pleased to bless you, and (if the Decree be not yet gone forth) all the men of this Generation, from leaving upon Record, as a National stain of poor spiritedness, that base Character of Cowardise, whose nature it is through impatiency, to shift off a pre­sent evil, though with the unavoidable dan­ger of a far greater, yea of a final Misery to come in the end: For, as the wise man defines it, this (base, carnal) fear is nothing else, but the betraying of the succours which reason of­fereth (Wisd. xvii. 12.)

16. Once, be pleased to take this as a sound Maxime of State, as well as of Religion, [Page 154] which a great Master of Reason, a wise man ofDieu se cour­rouce quand nous ne luy voulons pas permettre de disposer de son Eglise comme il voult, ains le voulons prevenir par nostre sagesse: — par injustes moy­ons & par un Zele Impatient.—Il pourtoit donc bien advenir, que si nous changeons de train Dieu en changera aussy Et comme les moyens par lesquels nous avons pensê avancer nostre Religion l'ont reculee: Ainsy Dieu par les mesmes moyens per lesquels nous craignons estre en Empeschement a nostre Religion l'auancera. Car les grandes oeuvres de Dieu sont to [...]siours co [...]tre l'attente des honmes—C'est á Dieu de le faire & non pat a nous. Dieu ne benit iam [...]is les Action [...] de ceux qui le veulent prevenir par Impatiente. Examen Pacifique de la Doctrine des Huguenots. Epistre au lecteur. France) hath delivered touching the Determination of the Civil Wars in France; (Wars for Religion too:) God is very angry, saith he, when men will not permit him to dis­pose of his own Church his own way, but devise to prevent him by their own worldly wisdoms, (by unjust means, and by an impatient zeal) once for all, God never blesses those mens cour­ses, which think to anticipate his Counsels, but rather gives over such Infidels to unjustifiable practices for their impatiency: Thus he.

15. Then, a Gods name, stay Gods good leasure a little while longer, Repent, Reform, Restore every one, all at once, and then put your Life in your hands, God can work great matters by small means, contrary to means, without means: If not, yet with theDan. iii. 18. three children in the fiery furnace, let us put on the Resolution of men, never to be so base as to serve the Vulgar's Gods, or fall down and worship the mad Peoples golden Im [...]ge, or trudge after the Calves of Rebellious Jeroboam: Rather then such a Peace, rather than so, far better suffer Christianly, and dye gallantly, then do, of l [...]ve basely. O do not [Page 155] buy a short, base Peace in show, at the rate of a sin indeed, of such a sin as Sacriledge: Make no more haste than good speed, and you shall soon or late finde by comfortable Experience, that God is faithful, who there­fore, (as long as you continue in well-doing) 1 Cor. 10.13. will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Say we should be at the last cast, yet who dares say that God cannot help us? or who is of Gods Privy-Councel to know he will not help us? Is it not usual with God, when the Enemies are at the highest, and confident all their own, then to step in, and to interpose, and in an instant to quell their rage, with a Hucusque, Job 38.11. Hither shall thy proud waves come, and no further:

18. Behold, (what our selves with all our own Inventions, could never yet hit on:) God can yet Command a SƲRE, AND AN HONEST PEACE, thus many wayes. 1. Either by Constraint of the Enemies unto Peace, contrary to their nature, Amen: So he turnedGen. 33.10. Esaus heart towards Jacob. Or 2. By Diversion, finding the Enemies work enough elsewhere, so by the1 Sam. 23.27, 28. Philistines, he diverted Saul from pursuing after David. Or 3. By Division, among themselves at last, so he sent an evil Spirit betweenJudg. 9.23. Judg. 7.22. Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and made them to destroy one another. Or 4. By the self de­struction of the Ring-leaders of them, as2 Sam. 17. Achitophel hang'd himself. Or 5. By ar­ming [Page 156] the Creatures, (winde and weather, and waters)Exod. 15.9. against them, or pleading the Kings Cause with raging Pestilence, or cruel Famine. Or 6. By infatuating their Councels, and ma­king theIsa. 19.11. Princes of Zoan fools to their own Ruine. Or 7. By panick fears, by a Rumour, a meer Imagination, as the2 Kings 3.23. Moabites were overthrown by occasion of a colour of Blood, caused on the waters by the reflection of the Sun. Or 8. and Lastly, Should all these wayes fail, God can yet command Peace a thousand other wayes, byJer. 31.22. Creating a new thing in the Earth, as the Prophet phrases it: for of all other Blessings God expresly doth challenge the Blessing of Peace to be his own proper work, saying,Isa. 57.19. 'Tis I the Lord that CREATE the fruit of the Lips, PEACE, PEACE, to him that is far off, and to him that is near: If you do really intend to have a sure Peace in­deed, then to God you should turn, not from God: By good, honest, and just wayes, you should apply your selves to God every one of you; for 'tis God, and none but God can cre­ate Peace, as he did this world, out of no­thing in sight, or out of a Chaos, (such as this our present Confusion) worse then no­thing. Though Miracles in ordinary, be now ceased, yet still in extraordinary cases, God can work Marvails, so we for our part, and in the Clergies own behalf too, say still in ourAlmighty and Everlast­ing God, which alone workest GREAT MARVAILS, &c. The Collect for the Clergy. daily Prayers.

[Page 157]19. There being therefore yet so many wayes to Peace, why should any short spirited soul, out of despair, or doubting, rush head­long into the way of Sinners? That (if we keep our selves from the accursed thing) one of these wayes God will send us an honest Peace at last, we have great Cause to hope, considering not only the justness of our Cause, which God is concerned in to uphold: but also on the contrary, as the base Treachery, so the Unparalell'd Immodesty, yea, Inhumane Pride of our Enemies, in their hard hearted Rejection of all those so frequent Royal Offers of Grace and Peace; accumulated as by the Royal Father now of Glorious Memory, so in imitation, by the King, his Son, and Law­ful Successor, as in his Kingdoms, so in this Vertue of Clemency (The Crown of the Kings Crown) provided it be not abused,Jude 4. as the Grace of God, which ungodly men turn into wantonness. The obstinate refusal of all which Royal Acts of Grace, as it is a sad Symptome, of the Sons of Belial, so to all wise and Religious men, it is a shrewd Crisis, that seems to portend no less then their fatal end at hand: and if so, then what an unspea­kable comfort, and glorious will this be to all honest men, that they have had, and held out the Grace of Perseverance, thus long to hold out patiently, and all this while to keep their hearts and hands pure, as well from Sacriledge as from Rebellion; either of which hereafter may be such a1 Sam. 25.30, 31. grief of minde and offence of Heart, unto the Sacrilegious Apo­states [Page 158] as will soure, yea quite take away all the sweetness of Peace when it comes, and send them full of shame, and sorrow, mourn­ing and pining to their Graves: I pray God all may so believe these Truths, that it may be unto you, even as you will.

20. If so you do, I have a Commission from God, to assure you, however the world goes; yetSay ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doing [...], but woe unto the wicked, it shall be il [...] with him, for the Reward of his hands shall be given him, Isa. 3.10, 11. that it shall be well with you, and that, if God see it good for you, one of those many wayes, this Course of Patience, (with perseverance) will in Gods good time, and that with the inward Peace of Conscience too, without Sin, or Sacriledge, really pro­cure that outward Peace indeed, which it may be you miss all this while, even because Peace is made but the Pretence to perswade unto a necessity of Sacriledge, the third Politick Pretence now to be examined.

21. 'Tis the Pretence of State Necessity, in answer to which, first of all, use would be made of a sound Rule, by way of Distinction, delivered by one of the Holy Fathers,Bern. Ep. 7. ad Adam. mo­nach. That some things there are purè bona, such as Faith, Hope, and Charity; so purely good, as that they are alwayes obligatory, so as upon no case of N [...]cessity whatsoever to be forbidden or forborn. But on the contrary, some other things there are, purè mala, the Father instanceth ex­presly in Adultery and Sacriledge, as being sins of the same Nature, and things so purely evil, as that upon no Case of Necessity whatsoever to be commanded, or committed. The Reason is clear, because in such a case, [Page 159] betwixt the two extreams, of the Necessity, and the Sin, God still leaves us a fair Me­dium, namely, to MAKE OF NECES­SITY VERTUE, by suffering gallantly, pa­tiently, and Christianly, that Necessity, what ever it be: This is then upon the Case, Gods revealed will, which we ought quietly to submit unto, and to attend, till God himself point us out a lawful way of Deliverance, or of Escape; else violently, through impati­ency, to Rescue our selves out of our Makers hands, were, as I may say, to break the Goal, which a verySenec. Heathen would condemn as a most Capital offence, base in the Commis­sion, dangerous in the Consequence, for we can never escape this Goalers hands.

22. In such a case of Necessity therefore, 'till God himself help us out of it, we must suffer, but we may not sin to help our selves, for weRom. 3.8. may not do evil, though but the least evil, that good may come thereof, though even the greatest good, to save a World: should we presume upon it, then were our own dam­nation as just indeed, as theirs whom we preach against.

23. For sin is an action of such a Nature, as that Non cadit sub Electionem, it can never become the object of our Election; be the the Straits of Necessity never so great: this is the plain Determination of the School, as well of Aristotle, as of Christ.

24. For else, once open the gap of Ne­cessity unto sin or vice, and Uno dato absurdo, upon the same ground that now may neces­sitate [Page 160] us to commit Sacriledge, we may be necessitated to Rebel against our King, and then what will become of our Allegiance? or such a case may come again (we play too fair for it by our wilful divisions) as that we may be necessitated to receive the Popes Mass again, and then what will become of our Religion? or to receive the Turks Al­coran, and then what will become of our Christendome? To avoid all which dange­rous Absurdities, we must constantly stand to this sound Principle, that there never was, there never can be any Necessity to sin. So that pretend what necessity you will, in this sence, Nemo laeditur nisi à seipso.

25. Therefore in the greatest Straits or Exigences of Church or State, this must be the Rule of all whom it may concern, to put on and to keep the Christian Resolution to suffer, not to Act. Resolve to pass no Act, what ever come of it; for the Act once past, the sin is Naturalized, and by your own Law, it may then Inherit, nay it must then Inherit, the Curse of God, I mean, upon the Principals, and upon all the Accessaries too, But till then, till you pass Acts of your own, all is yet safe: you may suffer indeed, so did Christ suffer, innocently; but then you shall not sin, but in both be conformable to Christ himself; for thus when a man cannot mend the matter, 'tis not then his Crime, though it may be his Cross, which shall one day be his Crown, if he be faithful unto Death. Thus much, in thesi, touching the Case of Necessity in gene­ral.

[Page 161]26. Now in hypothesi, to examine our own case of Necessity in particular: first of all, notice would be taken, what Devil hath brought the Publick Faith, and us all to this Pinacle of State, to this Precipice of Neces­sity; and rather then rashly to yield to the Tempter, or to his Temptation, and cast our selves down headlong, we should (as our Sa­viour in the like case) answer the Devil with a peremptory Scriptum est, Justificabis, Deut. xxv. 1. Ju­stum & condemnabis Impium, It is written, thou shalt justifie the Righteous, and condemn the wicked: If therefore Schism and Sediti­on, Rebellion and Sacriledge be the great Ma­lignants indeed, that have brought us all into these National Distresses, and Publick Debts; what Justice or Equity, or Reason that Reli­gion and Loyalty, or that the Church should pay for it? will you have a Royal Determi­nation upon this very case of State-Necessity? Then hark how our late gracious King, be­ing dead, yet speaketh. The Kings Portraicture, Sect. 14. Up­on the Covenant. ‘No NECESSITY saith that glorious Martyr) shall ever, I hope, drive me, or mine, to invade or sell the Priests Lands, which both Pharaohs Divinity, and Josephs true Piety abhorred to do: So unjust, I think it both in the eye of Reason and Religion, to deprive the most Sacred employment of all due in­couragements, and like that other hard-hearted Pharaoh, to with-draw the straw, and increase the Task: So pursuing the oppressed Church, as some have done, to the Red Sea of a Civil War, where no­thing [Page 162] but a Miracle can save either it or him,’ who esteems it his greatest Title to be called, and his chiefest glory to be the Defender of the Church, both in its true Faith, and its just Fruitions; equally abhorring Sacri­ledge, and Apostacy.

‘I had rather live, as my Predecessor Henry 3. sometime did, on the Churches Alms, than violently to take the bread out of Bishops,’ and Ministers mouths. Thus far that great Princes determination upon the case of a State-Necessity: In which case, (were it really such) to steer a course so contrary to the Judgment of such a Pi­lot, what could it portend but a just ship­wrack both of Church and State. For if those who should be the Guardians of the Church should betray the Church to the Rape of Sacrilegious Usurpers, would not such a base yieldance incourage Sheba, to blow up his Trumpet of Rebellion once every Triennial? Do we not see experimentally, that such another Bargain did once again, provoke some to a second Invasion, because they sped so well at the first? Where Po­verty may extenuate the Crime of theft, cer­tainly there Plenty cannot but aggravate it, (as in Nathans parable of the Ewe-Lamb, King David himself doth pass his Sentence, 2 Sam. xii. 5.) 'Tis again‘If the Po­verty of Scot­land might, yet the Plen­ty of England cannot ex­cuse the envy, and Rapine of the Chur­ches Rights and Reve­nues.—There are ways enough to repair the Breaches of the State, without the Ruines of the Church: as I would be a Restorer of the one, so I would not be an oppressor of the other Under the pre­tence of Pub­lick Debts. The occasi­ons contract­ing them were bad enough, but such a dis­charging of them would be much worse: I pray God neither I nor mine may be accessary to either. K. Charles the I. in the same place above.’ our Royal Martyrs Argu­ment [Page 163] against this Sacriledge, under pretence of a State-necessity, to discharge publick Debts.

27. But secondly, say that all the three Estates of the Kingdom, Clergy and all have contributed their equal share, to that Mass of publick sin and guilt, that hath drawn down upon us, all these publick necessities and miseries, yet again, I ask, what Neces­sity or Conscience, or but Reason imaginable that Gods special Demesne alone must pay for all, must be alienated, sold, or morgaged, or as good as utterly annihilated to clear gene­ral or common ingagements? Why should Bishops Lands, or the Revenues of Deans and Chapters make the National Expiation of a Na­tional Offence, more than the Lands of Barons, or of Knights, or of Lawyers, or of Physicians, or of Tradesmen, or of any. (An solus in Adamo peccavit Clerus?) There is far less Reason for the one, and (as anon you sha [...]l see) more Scripture for the other.

28. For say, are not the possessions of the Clergy, as Publick as any? or is it not a Rule (or somewhat like it) in yourSir Edward Coke, Super Mag. Charta. own Law, that Jura Ecclesiae Publicis aequiparantur? or will you have England alone, to walk quite Antipode unto the Religious steps of all Christendom besides, that (as hathSee above, page 50. and below, p. 165. been above clearly evidenced unto you) in all common Calamities, would rather, of all others, alwayes exempt their Clergy. No doubt (as one of your greatLE LEY ADGRAND POLICIE EN CEO, Car, &c. Sir Edw. Coke, en L'evesque de Winchester. Clerks well [Page 164] observes it of your own good old Law) out of a wise Conjunction of the Temporal with the Spiritual Policy, as to preserve Religion, so by their good usage of their Clergy, to procure their Prayers, (Gods own Ordi­nance to preserve both Princes, and Pro­vinces)That which the PRIESTS have need of, let it be given them day by day, without fail, THAT THEY MAY OFFER SACRIFICES OF SWEET SAVOURS UNTO GOD, AND PRAY FOR THE LIFE OF THE KING, AND OF HIS SONS, Ezra. 6.9, 10. and by them to derive the influence of the Divine Blessing upon all the other secular Estates.

29. Nay, in a case of such base Noto­rious partiality, the Jews, even in their worst Estate, may rise up in judgment against this Generation: For, 'tis recorded, as highly commendable of the Jews in their greatest Hard-heartedness, Madness, and Se­dition, during that horrible siege, straitness, and famine of Jerusalem, under Titus Vespasian, That yet,Ʋsserii An­nal. Chronol. as long as they had any Priests, they were not awanting to furnish still the Temple, The PRIESTS, and the Altar of God with that (Juge Sacrificium) That daily Sacri­fice of the Lamb, morning and evening, which God had once required (Exod. xxx. 38, 39.) till the great Sacrifice of the Messias had finished all by his own Oblation of himself once offered (Heb. x. 11, 12.) which their blindness, and unbelief would not understand: But yet, even in those times of utmost extremity very Jews durst not pretend necessity against duty. Nay, beyond all this yet, Pagan Aegypt it [Page 165] self, would out of the bottom of the Red Sea, rise up in judgment against Baptized England, if so Sacrilegious. ('Tis the Ap­plicative note of David Pareus, and of the late Assembly-men to boot, uponRex demen­sum praebebat Sacerdotibus, ne agros suos vendere Ino­piâ [...]digeren­tur. Laudabilis Piétas Regis, et­si enim isti e­rant falsorum Deorum Culto­res ostendit ta­men JUS NATURAE ET GENTIƲM, postulare haec duo: 1. Ut publicis Dei Ministris ex publico salaria honesta tribu­antur, quod ex Jure Divino Veteri & Novo, &c. 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14.—2. Ut iidem, Immunitatibus ab oneribus & gravaminibus Publicis beneficio piorum Regum donentur, atque fruantur, ut Officio vacent, &c.—Sed proh dolor, quantum hic peccatur, pauci sunt bodie Rege [...] & Josephi tam in Ecclesiam Benefici—Sacerdotes:] ita. LXX. & Onkeli, Josephi, Phi­lonis, omniumque Interpretum testatur consensus. David Pareus in Ge­nesis x.vii. 22, 26. This example condemnes the Irreligion of many Christians who shew little Reverence or respect, if not much uncharitableness or con­tempt towards the Ministers of the Gospel, against whom the men of Aegypt in the day of Judgment shall rise up and condemn them, as Matth. xii. 41, 42. Annotations, &c. London, 1645. in Genesis, &c. By these Notes of theirs you may see, once for all, that in these mens judgment, those examples out of the Old Testament are, in point of Equity, pertinent enough to the Ministry under the New Te­stament. the Place.) For in a time of as publick, as general, as tedious, and as extream a necessity as ever did lie upon a Nation (seven years unpara­lell'd Famine) and that also from the imme­diate hand of God expresly, so as to put bread in their Mouths, all other men else were fain to sell their Cattel, their Lands and all, and themselves too in the end: yet all this while, saith the express Text, and that twice for failing to inforce the Observation: On­ly the Land of the Priests Joseph bought not, for the Priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pha­raoh gave them; therefore they sold not their Lands.

[Page 166]30. In which Record, you may first of all observe, that the Aegyptian Priests had Lands, for their standing maintenance; and yet were these but Idolatrous Priests, the Priests of a false God: and can you be Christians and think the Priests of the true God worthy of less, or of a worse kinde of Maintenance then were the Priests of Aegypt? Secondly, special care was taken, for all the straits of publick and general ne­cessity, that whatever became of the Lay­mens Lands, yet the Priests Lands should be preserved from Sale, or Alienation, belike be­cause the Priests standing maintenance once gone, the Priests themselves could not subsist long after it, and then the God of both Priest and People, would be unserved; therefore as the Current of Interpreters notes upon the place,N. B. there all the other Lands were morgaged, only or chiefly the Priests Lands were free: Thus amongst Aegyptians; and must it go quite contrary amongst you Christians, must all your Estates pass scot­free, and only your Clergy become the sole Sacrifice?

31. Must those men, that for ought we know, have by their Loyal constancy in well doing and suffering, been the Instruments under God, to preserve us a Remnant, and unto this day, to keep this handful of peo­ple in their Religion and Allegiance: Must these men, I say, for this their good service unto God and the King, become the whole Nations only Victime? Would not [Page 167] such a National Injustice, nay impiety, pro­voke God Almighty, the God of the Priests, to burst open all the Sluces of Christendom, and, without Hyperbole, to let in upon you all that whole Deluge of Turks or Scythians, your other sins call for, to revenge Gods quarrel upon the whole Land, by overflow­ing such an unworthy Nation for ever, ra­ther than such a National Injustice should go away unpunished even in this world? Ah, remember the fate of the seven Famous Churches of Asia, and fear, and amend.

32. Thirdly, and lastly. In that Aegypti­an History, 'tis most observable, that it was principally by Pharaoh's Royal Care, that the Priests Lands were kept unsold, for the Priests had a Portion assigned them of Pharaoh, saith the Text, and would they allow a Chri­stian King less Power or Authority to pro­vide for Christs Ministers, than was allowed to the Egyptian King? or would they make My Lord the King, worse than the Egyptian Tyrant, worse than t'other Pharaoh, the worst Pharaoh, to sell and betray his own Priests, to whose special defence and protection, the King in his Religious respect to the Laws of God and Man, knows, and, in Royal Du­ty, thinks himself bound by so many multi­plied Tyes, as it were so many Divine Chains, in all his Capacities, Moral, Political, and Spiritual: as the King is a Man, as the King is a Magistrate, as the King is a Christian.

CHAP. IX.

1. FOR first; If you consider the King but as a Man, in his meer Moral Capacity, were it not an unnatural act to betray his best Friends? those that, to phrase it in1 Kings ii. 26. King Solomons words, have really been afflicted in all wherein the King hath been afflicted? (And yet this Salomon spake of such a Priest, Abiathar; who, though Loyal in Absalom's Rebellion, (2 Sam. xv. 24.) yet (as here, too many of our Tribe) proved an errand Traitor, in Adoni­jah's second Rebellion (1 Kings i. 7.) But our constancy, God be thanked, makes our case the better: For, should the King deal worse with his Innocent, with his Loyal Priests? Nay, could the King save the whole Kingdome from ruine, by giving but his Consent to take away the Life, or but Live­lihood of but one Innocent man, (that we say not a Bishop, or a Priest) we may safely say, by the rules of bare Moral Honesty, the King might not do it, in Point of Honour, as the King is a man.

[Page 169]2. But secondly, consider the King in his Political Capacity,, as a Magistrate, and of all other Estates or Corporations whatso­ever, by your own rules, the King is bound in Conscience and Law both, to defend and provide for the Church, as his perpetual Ward in Law: since as you say your selves, and your ownSir Edward Coke upon Magna Char­ta, page 3. See the several Re­cords (to this purpose) quo­ted by him there. Records say no less, Ecclesia semper est infrà aetatem, & in Custodia Domi­ni Regis, qui tenetur Jura & haereditates suas manu tenere & defendere, in point of Justice, as he is a Magistrate, that we say nothing of the INTEREST OF STATE, for no State in the whole Realm is more beneficial unto the Princes Exchequer, then the Clergy, (if it be kept flourishing) not only because they are deepest in Subsidies, but because from the Clergy, and so from no other Estate in the Land, the King hath a considerable continual standing Re­venue of Tenths, besides First-fruits, &c. so that the King will be a loser by the bargain when all is done, andEzra vi. 22. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the King? and we hold our Peace?

3. But to wave that Temporal respect, Thirdly, and lastly, how much more is the King ingag'd to the Defence of the Church, (besides his Royal Title of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, which is preserved in, and by the Church) in point of Conscience, or Spiritual Interest, if you consider the King in his Spiritual Capacity, as a Christian man, for that relation trebbles the Kings Obliga­tion to all the premised Acts of Justice and Honesty.

[Page 170]4. Especially if, in the fourth place you adde to all these Bonds the Solemn Super­vention of his Royal Oath, Personally taken by the King at his Coronation, and to de­clare his Majesties sincere and plain dealing, and his Real Intention to keep his said Oath; His Majesty hath therefore graciously been pleased himself thus to publish it.

5. In that Oath the King Swears in a manner, thrice for the Clergy particularly, and so for no other Estate of the Realm be­sides, to intimate that as your Law8 Esiz c. 1. In the Pre­amble. styles The Clergy a High State, and one of the grea­test States of this Realm; so it deserves a spe­cial care, and high regard proportionable. Therefore as in the first ParagraphAt the Kings Coronation, the Sermon being done, the Arch-Bishop administreth these Questions to the King, and the King Answers them severally. §. 1. Episcopus. Sir, will you grant, and keep, and by Your Oath confirm to the People of England, the Laws and Cu­stoms to them granted by the Kings of England, Your Lawful and Religious Predecessors, and namely THE LAWS, CU­STOMS, AND FRANCHISES GRANTED TO THE CLERGY by the glorious King Saint Edward Your Prede­cessor, according to the Laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom, and agreeable to the Preroga­tive of the Kings thereof, and the ancient Customs of this Realm. Rex. I grant and promise to keep them. §. 2. Episcopus. Sir, will You keep Peace, and Godly agree­ment entirely, (according to Your Power) both to God, the Holy Church, the Clergy, and the People? Rex. I will keep it. §. 3. Episcopus. Sir, will You (to your Power) cause Law, Justice, and Discretion, in Mercy and Truth, to be executed in all Your Judgments? Rex. I will. §. 4. Episcopus. Sir, will you grant to hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs, which the Commonalty of this Your Kingdom have; and will You defend and uphold them to the Honour of God, so much as in you lieth? Rex. I grant and promise so to do. Then one of the Bishops reads this Admonition to the King, before the people with a loud voice. §. 5. Our Lord the King, we beseech You to pardon, and to grant, and to preserve unto us, and to the Churches committed to our charge, ALL CANONICAL PRIVILEDGES, and due Law and Justice, and that you will protect and defend us as every good King ought TO BE PROTECTOR AND DEFENDER OF THE BISHOPS, and the Churches under their Government. The King Answereth. With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my Pardon, and that I will preserve and maintain to you, and the Churches committed to your Charge, all Canonical Priviledges, and due Law and Justice, and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power, by the assi­stance of God, as every good King in his Kingdom, in right ought to Protect and defend the Bishops and the Churches under their Government. Then the King ariseth, and it led to the Communion Table, where he makes a Solemn Oath in sight of all the people, to observe the Pre­misses; and laying his hand upon the Book, saith: The Oath. The things that I have here Promised, I shall perform and keep, so help me God, and the Contents of this Book. This Oath is to be found in the Records of the Exchequer, and is published in his Majesties Answer to a Remonstrance, &c. of the 26. of May, 1642. The same Oath, for matter, you may read in an old Manuscript Book, containing the Form of Coronation, &c. in the Publick Library at Oxon. of that [Page 171] [Page 172] Oath the King Swears in general, to do Ju­stice and Right, with Mercy and Truth unto all the whole body of the People, and the Clergy joyntly; so afterwards more parti­cularly (in the second and fifth Paragraphs) the King Swears in special for the Clergy and that He will be the Protector, and De­fender of the Bishops in their Priviledges, that is, not only or their Persons, but of their Possessions also, that is of their Persons in such a Condition, so qualified, in sensu composito, with such Rights and Liberties: and those Rights must needs pre-suppose their Essence and Office too: and that as it was then in be­ing, according to the Law, when the King took that Oath. This may be one Golden Nail more to fasten the Clergies Title, and to Rivet it more and more into your own Law.

6. For by this Juratory Obligation of the Kings special Promissory Oath unto God for the Clergy in particular, some of your own good Lawyers teach us to say, That the Cler­gies (supposed) tacite Consent in a general Act is not remissory at all of the Kings Conscience from this particular Clause of his Oath, with­out the Clergies particular Consent first obtained, and clearly expressed by a particular Body Re­presentative of their own, (of the Clergy, qua­tenus Clergy (and not involved with the general Body of the People: Their Act to free the Kings Conscience, must in Reason and Equi­ty be proportionable, and adaequate to the Kings Act, or Bond, that is, full out as particular.

7. For else this bundle of Absurdities [Page 173] would follow that the Clergy obtains no more by the Kings Special Oath in their par­ticular behalf, then if the King had Sworn only in general; which is as much to say, that in this little short draught, Oaths (that should be spared) are multiplied without Ne­cessity, or so much as Signification, or that they must pass for meer Tautologies.

8. If therefore the case be so, that the King after such a solemn particular Oath, may not consent to the Bishop's Deprivation, &c. without Injustice, nay Impiety, then sure I am, that no man ought to counsel the King so to do: for that Subject, whoever he be, that will go about to perswade the King to so im­pious an Act, perswades the King to do that which were most palpable Injury to his fellow Subjects, and most damnable wicked­ness against the Soul of the King himself: for whom contrariwise every Loyal Subject is bound in Conscience to pray, that rather then His Royal Soul should be so loose, it may for ever be 1 Sam. xxv. 29. bound in the bundle of Life, with the Lord his God, but that the souls of His, and the Churches Enemies, may for ever and ever be slung out, as out of the middle of a sling. This must be their Destiny at last, for Malum consilium consultori pessimum: you never knew it prove otherwise in the end. We say no more, but conceive this enough to con­fute one necessity with a greater, the pre­tended Necessity of State, with the real Ne­cessity of Conscience so many wayes ingaged in this publick Cause of God, and the Church: [Page 174] which Church (as it rationally, and clearly appears from the premises) the King is ob­liged to defend, in point of Conscience, as the King is a Christian.

CHAP. X.

FOllows now the Fourth and last Politick Pretence of a Legislative Power, to dis­pose of the Clergies Revenues (and conse­quently, of all mens Estates) as they see Cause.

1. This pretended Plea of a Legislative Power is mainly pressed by the chief Advo­cates both for Sacriledge and Rebellion, (for those Diabolical twins are still bred, and born, and grow up together) and the same is also made the very Basis, and Foundation of all the late Sacrilegious Ʋsurpations by that no­toriousNo Sacriledge, nor Sin to alien, or purchase the Lands of Bi­shops, &c. by Cornelius Bur­ges, D. D. This Sacrilegi­ous Book, in those Rebelli­ous times had the licentious­ness of a se­cond Edition, Anno 1659. Doctor of Sacriledge CORNELIƲS BURGES, who, not content toMatth. v. 19. break one of the greatest Commandements of God, by pra­ctising Sacriledge in his own person, (Usurp­ing, for many years, both the Mannor, and Demesnes of the Bishoprick of Wells, from the just owner, that Learned, and Venerable, and most ancient Bishop, Dr. William Pierce) but had also the impudence to teach men so, by Preaching and Printing the lawfulness of [Page 175] Sacriledge, which, at first, was but only intended, or pretended by his Rebellious Com­plices, but (as it was, ex signis, & causis, in a manner, foretold by us three years before the event, in the first Edition of this very Book) it was afterwards acted in earnestThis Torrent brake out first against the Pre­lates, the Lords Spiritual, whom having once burried out of the way, it soon over­took also the Lords Temporal, and never stopt till at last it swallowed up▪ the King him­self: There­fore, principiis obsta, is good counsel, and very season­able. and also legitimated by that Sacrilegious Act of their pretended Parliament, and, which is worst of all, aggravated by immediate Sacriledge against God himself, blasphemously making God the principal Author of their Sin; and with a complication of Blasphemies, making the late Gracious King (now a Glorious Martyr) the Instrumental Cause of it: for he (worse than cursed Cham) having begun his Libel with down-right railing at the Bi­shops and Pastors of Gods Flock (to whom this ungrateful wight owed his Ordination) over whose unjust persecution, and illegal Abo­lition, (drawing out his arrow from the Popish or Mahometan Bow. that is, arguing from their Cross against their Cause) he there doth most barbarously insult, telling the world of the sad Providence on the Cathe­dral Prelacy of England,C. B. ch. 1. (though since, an­other happy providence hath most visibly confuted him by a gracious and almost mira­culous Restauration both of King, and Bi­shop:) then he dares affirm expresly, that it was God who did put it into the hearts of the late Long Parliament, by an Ordinance of both Houses, dated Octob. 9. 1646. (after the King, (saith that Shimei) had deserted his Par­liament, Corn. Burges, chap. 1. raised his Standard against them, [Page 176] whereby he put both them and the whole King­dom out of his Protection, and none but those two Houses of Parliament remained to take care of the Publick Interest in a Legal Way) wholly to abolish the Name, Title, Style, Dignity, and Offices of all Arch-Bishops, and Bishops, within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, and to vest and settle their Lands and Possessions in Trustees, to the use of the Commonwealth, &c. and soon after he proceeds farther, avowing, that on the 13. of April, 1649. the Commons of England (being then the only per­sons remaining) [having then, after the Bi­shops, thrusted also the Temporal Lords out of doors] in Parliament Assembled were necessitated (forsooth) to sell the Lands of Deans and Chapters, whom he rails at, with a full mouth, as at the former) and so to enact an utter abolition of these also (reserved for the last to satisfie the Bulimia of those cruel and unsatiable Polyplemus's, and so to make good their so long designed extirpation of both Root and Branch.) It were a Crime of Participation to be patient or silent in this cause, which is Causa Dei, Religionis, Ecclesiae, Regis, all these at once, and Sacriledge in special being expresly excepted in the Act of Oblivion: We must therefore be mindeful to proceed against it. This pretended Le­gislative Power of that illegal Assembly, and their Sacrilegious Act,Matth. vii. 26. is the sandy Foundati­on, upon which this foolish Builder (like a down-right Sophister wilfully declining the Question of Right) doth build his house of Sacriledge.

To batter which, we could say more both ad Hominem, and also ad Rem: but that, as for the Man, we purposely blunt our Pen, because, we hear, he is dead and gone, and so past his Accounts here; and, for a terror to all surviving Usurpers (ex­cept he did Repent, and Restore also) he hath already received his sentence ac­cording to his works: God knows where he is now, and there we leave him. But, as to the matter it self, That pretended Le­gislative Power, of his counterfeit Parlia­ment, is sufficiently abolished (mark the Divine Talio of Abolition for Abolition) by the Legal Power of that Loyal Parlia­ment 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. for Re­peal of the Parliament, begun 3. Nov. 1640. See Sir Robert Wise­man's notes touching the Long Parlia­ment. that had declared all such Orders and Ordinances made by that disloyal Parliament, to be null and void; and further determined, That there is no Legislative Power in either, or both Houses of Parliament without the King? This being the main Fundamental Law of this Realm, might suffice for a full Confutation of what ever hath been said in his whole Book, by that infamous Patron of Sacri­ledge. But admitting an impossibility, that such an unlawful Assembly had been a law­ful Parliament, yet can that prove it there­fore to be infallible, but that it may do wrong? may not one be Tyrannus Exercitio, though not Titulo, if his Decrees or Or­dinances fall upon indebitam materiam: what [Page 178] else can such a manner of proceeding be, to enact a total deprivation of a whole com­munity of men (many of them innocent, as hath been shewed above in the case of pre­tended Delinquency) and afterwards to argue à facto ad jus It is the complaint of a wise man of the Law, that the meaning of that Axiome, Ex facto jus oritur, hath been extreamly rack'd: Sir Robert Wise­man's Note touching the al­teration of some Laws. our Sophisters chief Me­dium all over: This way of arguing must needs prove of a monstrous, of a danger­ous consequence: for say a man should thus Syllogize.

Ergo, That Abolition and Deprivation was lawful, and consequently, No Sacriledge, nor Sin (the presumptuous Title of the Book of this Church-Pyrate.) Now, should the sharp point of this two-edged Argument (which we have felt sufficiently through, and through) be retorted, and turn­ed upon the breast of either of those two Estates of the Kingdom, what would then become of the Lords Temporal, or of the Commons themselves, trow we? for if they grant the Major, they cannot avoid the Conclusion, and so they may be turned out of all, by the Votes of a Predominant Party, and then farewel the Property of the Subject: Beware of such Precedents, you that are wise; for 'tis an old say, Cras tibi, hodie mihi. [Page 179] Enough for the Demolition of such an absurd Power that is attended by such palpable in­justice: But yet, ex abundanti, upon this occasion of C. B.'s Book, for a fuller Con­viction, and if possible, Conversion (of which though we have but small hope, yet is it both our wish, and our main design in this troublesome work) it will be worth the pains, soberly to examine the full extent of all humane Legislative Power, granting the Hypothesis that the Power is lawful.

In prosecution whereof, first of all let this our Protestation be entered, That we intend not to question the Justice of the Law, or to examine the Power or the Wisdom of the Law-makers, or to meddle at all with the Constitu­tion of the State, or to discuss this point fur­ther then in a direct, and necessary Reference to the Ʋniversal Law, the Law of Nature, the Law of Nations, and the Law of God; to which all particular Laws, (if they be Laws indeed, and not Lawless Libertinism, or bar­barous Tyranny) must needs vail, and yield their due Subordination. If not, then, by all mens leave, the Divine may, nay must, with­out any busie-bodiness at all in States-mat­ters, taking the Law interminis, according to the common sense it bears, or should bear, carry it,TO THE LAW, AND TO THE TESTIMO­NY; If they speak not ac­cording to this word, it is be­cause there is no light in them, Isa. viii. 20. Ad Legem, & ad Testimonium, and there wisely, warily, and impartially weigh the matter of the Law, in the Ballance of the Sanctuary, or in the Scales of clear Scripture, and sound Reason, at whose Bar both all the Laws, and all the Law-Makers [Page 180] too, must one day be tryed at last, in Ultimo districtu: And if upon Aequilibration, as we may say, the Humane Law shall prove light, then that men may not stumble at it, and fall, and perish, by obeying any unjust Law of man, contrary to the just Law of God, 'tis then the proper work and direct Profession of the Divine, (as he will answer Soul for Soul) to take forth the Jer. xv. 19. Precious from the vile, and as becomes him, who is to the people as Gods mouth, to Ezek. iii. 17, 18. warn other mens Consciences from it, and so free his own. For thus, though the Law of the Land be mat­ter of Policy, yet the Peace of Conscience about the lawfulness, or unlawfulness of that Law, immediately belongs to Divinity, the Senior-Law of all, from which as we may say, all mens Junior-Laws, if just, must be derived; Divinity being indeed no other than the Original Law of God: which may suf­fice once for all, to pre-occupate an ignorant, or malicious, and yet a very ordinary Ob­jection of some, that whilst themselves take upon them at every turn to Confront Di­vinity with Colours of Law, yet blame the Di­vine very much, if, se defendendo, he dare offer to prefer Gods Law to mans Law, in case those two Laws should justle, as if the Divine in doing but his own proper duty, were ipso facto, a medlar in another mans Calling.

2. Thus much premised, the justness of such a pretended Legislative Power will be soon tryed, if but compared. 1. With some [Page 181] Undeniable Principles it destroyes. 2. With some Right Conditions of a just power, which it should have, and doth want. 3. With some gross Absurdities it involves.

3. First then, such a Legislative Power at pleasure, as they call it, to vote men, Innocent men, out of their whole Estates, and Live­lihoods, (their Lives may be next) is too ab­solute to be communicable to any Creature, and doth trench upon Gods own Prerogative, whose will is therefore a Law, and Idea Ju­stitiae (as they say in the Schools) so that whatever is just with God, is just à priori, be­cause 'tis Gods will, but contrariwise with man, this or that must be Mans will, only à posteriori, because it is just. And the Reason of all this, is founded upon a common Prin­ciple undeniable, because God, and God alone is Essentially Just, so as Gods Justice is his ve­ry Essence: 'Tis not, it cannot be so with any man, or men, single, or collective, whose justice at the most is but an Accident separa­ble, that may abesse, as soon as adesse, go and come, as men may be well or ill affected: so that 'tis as vain a Point of Popery as any, for meer Creatures to challenge an Absoluteness or Infallibility in the Distribution of Justice, as to pretend it in the Determination of Truth. This is a Divine Priviledge, reserved to the Creator, and beyond the Sphere of any Crea­ture. By these two plain Principles, such a Legislative Power, ad placitum, is quite gone; so far from being lawful, that it is made the veryProv. i. 11: Character of Sinners in grain to chal­lenge [Page 182] a power, to deprive the Innocent without cause: and therefore an Act, whose Authors are accursed upon Gods own Record, andDeut. xxvii. 25. to which Curse all Gods people are commanded to say, Amen.

4. Secondly, as such a Legislative Power is utterly incompatible with those prima Principia, so with those other Right Conditi­ons required to the good Constitution of a just Law: whose veryRatio est ani­ma legis. Soul is or should be Right Reason: without which any humane Law is dead, nay deadly as well to those that enact it, as to those whose unhappiness it is to live, or to suffer under such an Ʋnreasonable Law, or Law-makers: so Essential is Reason to Law, that therefore the Law is generally defined by it, [...]:Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 1. who there calls it [...] a good opini­on, &c. Lex est recta Ratio: But how point blank to all right Rea­son such an Act of Deprivation would be, we have at large demonstrated before: This for the Form of the Law, as we may say.

5. As for the Matter, the Law should be an [...], Clem. ibid. Suarez. de legib. l. 1. c. 1. § 1. ex Aquin. 1. 2. q. 90. Art. 1: Ʋnbended Rule equally fit and able to render to every one their Right, and to re­dress their wrongs; so that an Injurious Law, though (if not directly contrary to Gods Law) de facto, it must and doth binde the Inferiour unto Obedience, quoad effectum civilem: yet de Jure, it is no Law at all, be­cause not just. So that in such Cases, it is no Presumption at all to say, the Law cannot do this, or the Law cannot do that; If the thing be unlawful, because as the Law is, [Page 183] DD. in L. Impossibilium 185. ff. de R. J. Calv. Lexi c. Jurid. impos­sibile. S [...]hneid. in Instit lib. 3. de verbor. ob­ligat. tit. 17. Sect. sub▪ c [...]nd. num. 4. Impossibile est quod de Jure non licet: as it is impossible by Nature, for a man upon earth to touch the Skie with his Finger: (Thus the Doctors compare the two Impossibilities, natural and moral) so whatsoever is contrà bonos mores, is as impossible, de Jure, quia id demùm possumus quod honestè possumus: Lex est Ho­nestum legiti­mae potestatis Decretum, ad tuendam Reip. Pac. Wesemb. paratit. Digest. l. 11. Tit. 3. de legibus. Since therefore such a Law of Deprivation, were unto so considerable a Party in the Commonwealth, as the Clergy is in Law, such an extream injury we may safely say, and that without any just offence to God or Man, that the Law cannot do such an act. Nay, so far is such a Restraint from being any real disparagement to Princes, or Parliaments, to the Law-makers themselves, that if rightly apprehended, it rather doth greatly redound to their Honour, because it doth in a degree assimilate them unto God himself, of whom the Apostle saith to his praise, thatTit. i. ult. 2 Tim. ii. 13. God can­not lye, that God cannot deny himself, and the like.

6. But thirdly, all this will be yet plai­ner, and I hope past all just Exception, yea, or but Contradiction, when we have imparti­ally considered the poysoned Cluster of gross Absurdities growing upon it.

7. As first, The utter destruction of the property of the Subject, the great Diana so much cried up, at the beginning, by those very men, that did Vote it down in the end. Sure, one would think that the people, if they were but once again in their right minde, would not thank such Doctors, nor [Page 184] such Doctrines neither, as directly take away the property of the Subject (for it will follow by the Rule, à quatenus ad omne:) Yet some Servile Lay men stick not to acknow­ledge their own Lay-Estates, as liable as ours, to this v [...]st Law. It may be they do it only out of an intent, or colour, to open a gap into Sacriledge, and then out of a hope to make up that gap again, if they can.

8. But secondly, as such an Act of abso­lute deprivation, were the very Al renunciation of all manner of Justice Universal, Commuta­tive, Distributive, all at once: So in the fa­tal consequences of it, it would prove the Ʋtter subversion too of all the other known Laws, and Fundamental Constitutions of this King­dom, yea of the very Law of Nations. For what Nation once well settled, did ever yet claim a power de Jure, (for in this case to quote Matters of Fact (their usual, I may yet say, their chief argument) were but Petitio Principii) to deprive a man Innocent, or Untried, and Uncondemned (Lay, or Clergy) of those Rights, which by the standingMagna Char­ta, See above, page 45. Laws of that Land, he is, at least, as legally Vested in, for matter of Title, as any Ba­ron, or Knight, or any other Subject what­soever? what were this, but datâ portâ, to introduce a meer Arbitrary Government? and indeed, by such a notorious Precedent, (if once past in rem Judicatam) had you but eyes to see it, to open a wide gap into your own Lay Estates, till they had reduced you all also, to a tame politick Parity. So true [Page 185] you will then finde to your own woe, that old Maxime of Reason, Uno absurdo dato mille Sequuntur: Beware of your Levellers.

9. For deceive not your selves any lon­ger,John xv. 20. the Servant is not greater then his Ma­ster; if they dare fall upon God Almighty himself, whom we have proved before to be the great Proprietary of those Church Reve­nues, whom think you, will these doughty men spare in the end? Did ever, or can ever (we speak still de Jure) any Earthly or Hu­mane Power, take away that from God and his Church, which is theirs, which God did justly receive from those that had just power to give? yet these stout men say, they can do it, and also they are ready to justifie it, if not by the Word (for here you see they are gone) yet by the Sword (Mahomets Argument, far from Christ his Rule.) If you will try it once more, Da illis posse, & velle videbis.

10. Time was, when your more just An­cestors were so far from challenging such a Legislative Power above God Almighty, that in open At a Parlia­ment held 25. of Edw. 1. Parliament, they utterly disclaim it, and they ground their Disclaim too upon Scripturè, saying That Lay men, (and there they speak of themselves as a Parliament) have no Authority to dispose of the goods of the Church, but (as the Holy Scriptures do testifie) they are committed only to the Priests to be dispo­sed of. Thus they: but the case is altered now, our great Masters (though meer Lay­men) may dispose not only of Church Goods, but of Church Lands too, nay of [Page 186] Church men, nay of the whole Church it self, as if per omnes Casus, the Church were no more indeed, but as all other Lay Incor­porations, a meer Civil Corporation all over, that had in them nothing Spirituale, immedi­ately held of God himself: however in all other Secular, yea and Ecclesiastical matters too, for Order as, well for Conscience sake, the Church, as all other Lay Corporations in the Common-wealth, must and doth not­withstanding all this, acknowledge it self still subject to the Sovereign Jurisdiction, and ARCHITECKTONICK Power-Paramount of the Prince under God.

11. By this time, all may perceive that this fourth and last Pretence, by such a vast Legislative Power, ad Placitum, to claim a kinde of Omnipotency (which is high Sacri­ledge indeed) to dispose of mens Estates, and to deprive men, nay whole Successions of men, how innocent soever, of their whole Livelihoods, is so far of it self from deser­ving an Answer, that upon due Examination, it rather becomes an Aggravation of the Inju­stice, when men will thusPsal, xciv. 20. frame mischief by a Law, without, nay, against all manner of just Precedent for it in all Christendom, yea in all the whole world besides. The worst we wish them is, that they would speedily lay their hand upon their Consciences, and be­fore their tearm be quite expired, seriously Comment on that sad Text of the Prophet,Isa. x. 1, 2, 3. Woe unto them that Decree Unrighteous De­crees, and that write grievousness which they [Page 187] have prescribed: To turn aside the needy from Judgment, and to take away the Right from the poor of my People, that Widows may be their Prey, and that they may rob the Fatherless: (for if they should go on, at that rate, as they did once begin, some Clergy-men (a good many) may leave behinde them their Wives Widows, and their Children Fatherless, and both of them poor enough, God knows!)

But then, (mark the end of such men) what will you do in the day of Visitation, saith the Lord, and in the Desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye then flee for help, and where will ye leave your glory? and there we leave them also.

May all those who finde or feel them­selves concerned in this Arraignment of Sa­criledge lay to heart this sad Item, for an up­shot of a full Answer to all their pretences: And thus much for Matter of Confutation sufficient again to Non-sute the Adversaries whole Plea: This is the [...], or first main part in the Matter of Probation.

CHAP. XI.

FOllows now the second and last part of all, the [...], or Matter of Con­firmation of our own Cause.

1. Upon which we shall be the briefer, because as occasion was offered, and Neces­sity required, we have already by a kinde of Prolepsis, prevented the greatest part of it in the preceding passages, all along, as we were delivering Matters of Declaration, and of Aggravation.

2. But yet the better to distribute the Re­mainder of our Evidence, be pleased to take notice that of our Clients side (which you must remember is God himself) we have yet so much Clear Scripture, so much strong Rea­son, so much Law of all sorts founded on both the former, and so much Testimony of all Parties beyond Exception, such a Cloud of Wit­nesses of all ranks, from all quarters, as may leave them past all Excuse, and joyntly rise up in Judgment against them, that after all these fair Evidences brought forth against this Camel (the sin of Sacriledge) will yet [Page 189] resolve to Implead, or to Impeach God, and the Church in their Rights and Liberties.

3. As for the first kinde of proof by Scri­pture, one notable Text more against Sacri­ledge, we may not omit to acquaint you with, and thus it runs,Prov. xx. 25. It is a snare for a man to devour that which is Holy, and after Vows to make Enquiry: In which words you have both the Nature of the sin, and the Danger of it.

4. The Nature of it consists of two Acts, 1. To devour that which is Holy: That's the matter of Fact as it were: and then 2. Af­ter Vows to make Enquiry, that's the Plea, or the pretended Matter of Right.

5. Touching the first, the Matter of Fact: The Act is to devour, the Object, is that which is Holy. As for the Act, 'tis expressed in theFrom [...] à [...] The same word which is used, Psal. cxxiv. 3. They had swal­lowed us up quick, &c. Original by such a Metaphorical word, as is borrowed from Ravenous Beasts that will not admit of so much Deliberation in Eat­ing, as to choose, or to chew their meat, but for very greediness do swallow it up all raw, yea, quick, and whole too, as they light on it: (A fit Embleme, by the way, of our late ROOT AND BRANCH-MEN.)

6. 2ly. As for the Object, Translations vary, (only about the word, for they all agree upon the matter:) 1. Some as ours read it, to devour that which is Holy: That is, saith Cajetan on the place, to appropriate Holy Things, such as the Holy Tythes and Offerings, and other Sacred Tributes due to Gods Priests, (and Cajetan is counted one of the best of [Page 190] them, ad Literam;) 2. Some, as the Origi­nal, (by an usual Hebraisme, putting the Abstract for the Concrete) reads it to devour Holiness it self, to note again, as 1. The de­cay of holiness it self upon the Decay of holy means: so 2. That those who make no Conscience of violating holy things, they may pretend what they will, but really they make no Conscience indeed of holiness it self, but miscere Sacra profanis, is all one with them. 3. Some as the Vulgar reads it altogether in Concreto, it is a snare to devour Sanctos, that is, saith an Interpreter on the place,Salazar. To deprive of their Livelihoods good and godly men (the Act in hand) and sure, of all such men, the holy men of God: for so of old in all Reverence, the Primitive Nos Sanctos vocant, & Dei servos [...] &c. Aug. Chri­stian People did esteem, and as usually call the Priests of God, by this Religious Title, of the Saints of God, not, as now, hand over head, the prophane, or at least ignorant Peo­ple, call Gods Priests, their Ministers: when no where in all the whole Bible, are they so called by their great Master, God himself, the servants of men, in that general sence: And if2 Cor. iv. 5. but once in all the Bible, they do, (in a special, and voluntary case of Condescension, as St. Paul for Preaching gratis to the Corinthians) call themselves your Servants: yet, mark well what follows, 'tis for Jesus sake they do it: But else all over, Gods Ministers are styled Mens Guides, Mens Rulers, and other such like terms of Supe­riority, and then Gods Ambassadors, Gods Mi­nisters, [Page 191] or Gods Saints, [...], because they are, or should be so, and so ac­counted of by you. This in a glance only: and thus much for the Fact, and the two main Species of Sacriledge both Personal, and Real.

7. Secondly, The Plea, or the pretended Matter of Right, is after Vows to make En­quiry: That is as the sameRetractare, revocare, refel­lere, &c. Sa­lazar. interpreter glosses it aright, first to commit Sacriledge, and then to study and finde out Reasons and Colours to defend it, The Black Art of too many in our Generation: and who knows, but they may have learned this good Lesson also of the Popes themselves, who first would Impropriate, that is, devour that which is holy: and then what themselves had thus wrong­fully done de facto, they made their Friers (the receivers of the Sacriledge) use all their wits to maintain it de jure? As to name no more, your Countrey-man Alexander Hales did, who was the first that ever di­rectly maintained that Tythes were de Jure Ecclesiastico, not Divino, which Popish conceit hath yet since by divers of your ownD. Ridley, D. Carleton, D. Downh [...]m. Sir James Sem­pel, &c. and so many more as yet unanswe­red, &c. Champions been learnedly con­futed.

8. But secondly, some of the Hebrews read it thus, It is a snare for a man to Consecrate, and after vows to change for the worse: If so, then let our Changelings look to it, any of these wayes they will light on a Snare.

Thirdly, and lastly, the [...]. LXX. [...] Laqueus est homini qui devovit Sanctuario, & postea tangit eum anima ipsius. Targum. Septuagint out of the Chal­dee, are yet more strict, and read the Text thus, It is a snare for a man to consecrate a thing rashly, and afterwards to repent it. From whence observe. 1. That if Vota temerè nuncupata, Rash Vows be obligatory, and must stand, then à majori, out of all doubt, Deliberate Consecrations. 2. If it be a Snare for a man after Consecration to grudge, or but to Repent it, then à majori again, what a Snare must it needs be utterly to reverse it, and to resume it? and if but to resume, à majori, still to rob? And thus for the Nature of the sin, 'tis hainous enough.

9. Secondly, as for the Danger, it is ex­pressed here by the Metaphor of a Snare, or of a Trap, that is, Destruction, as several Translations read it: and that Snare, a double Snare too, as Cajetan well observes it, for first by his vow he is caught to one side in the Snare of Gods Law, for that bids himPsal. lxxvi. 11. Deut. xxii. 21, 24. Vow, and pay, because though vovere vo­luntatis, yet reddere necessitatis, else the Law will be a perpetual Snare to attach the Vo­tary, till he pay it. Take one notable In­stance of this in the old Patriarch Gen. xxviii. 20, 22. Jacob, who, in his extremity, fleeing from his Bro­ther Esau, vowed to build an Altar unto God at Bethel: but it seems afterwards he did for the space of thirty years, either al­together [Page 193] forget, or at least foreslow the payment of his Vow: All this while he is no sooner quit of one mischief, as it were one Snare, but he lights on another: such as Esau's Ambushment, (Gen. xxxiii.) The Deflourement of his Daughter Dinah. (Gen. xxxiiii.) The furious Massacre committed by his Sons upon the Sichemites, to the pro­vocation of all the Nations round about him: till God at last, in mercy, plainly puts him in minde of his Vow, saying,Gen. xxxv. 1. Arise go up to Bethel, and make there an Altar unto God that appeared unto thee, &c. And then did he pay his Vow, and so slipt his foot out of the snare: And as thus he that vows, is caught in the Snare of the Law, till he pay it, So 2. If he do not pay it, he is trapped on the other side with the Snare of his own Sin of Sacriledge; so that till he repent, and reform, and restore also, turn which way he will, he will light on a snare, or fall head­long into Jeremy's Labyrinth,Jer. xlviii. 43, 44. Fear, and the Pit, and the Snare will be upon him, so as when he fleeth from the fear, he shall fall into the Pit, and when he getteth up out of the Pit, he shall be taken in the Snare.

10. Now, if you will further know what that Snare is, it is no other but that which before the Prophet Malachy did directly call Gods Curse: of which enoughSee above, page before, and therefore no more of it at this Time. 'Tis such a Noli tangere, in the Nature of it, witness Jeremies Metaphor,Jer. ii. 3. Israel is as an hallowed thing unto the Lord, and as the first [Page 194] fruits of his Increase, all that devour him shall offend, evil shall come upon them: They shall be sure to light on a Snare: And get the Bird once in the Snare, and you need no Fortune-teller to tell you her destiny: so is the Case, so is the Fate of every Sacri­legious Person, Family, Nation, it needs no other Clog. And you of this Nation may well suspect such a Clog hangs about you, for your Exod xiv. 25. Chariot Wheels, have, for some years last past, driven very heavily, To any Nation then this one sin will be ILLA­QUEATION sufficient, because of all others it hath in it as much of the Devils Power and Policy, as any.

12. And that, in short, is the strong Rea­son of the hainousness of this sin, because 'tis a sin so Fundamental and Radical of al­most all other sins, that where it is enter­tained, it presently fills the Heart with the Devil and all his works: So doth God charge SacrilegiousActs v. 3. Ananias at his Arraignment, why hath Satan filled thy heart? Pride, and Envy, Fraud, and Oppression, Avarice, and Ambition, are all but the hand-maids, that wait, in ordinary, on this great Beldam-sin of Sacriledge: This for the Original Cause of Sacriledge.