24, 25. inclined towards it, and by his providence there grew unto it every day earthly possessions in more and more abundance, till the greatness thereof bred envy, which no diminutions are able to satisfy. For, as those ancient nursing Fathers thought they did never bestow enough; even so in the eye of this present age, as long as any thing remaineth, it seemeth to be too much. Our Fathers we imitate "in perversum," as Tertullian speaketh; like them we are, by being, in equal degree, the contrary unto that which they were. Unto those earthly blessings which God as then did with so great abundance pour down upon the Ecclesiastical state, we may, in regard of most near resemblance, apply the self-same words which the Prophet hath, "God blessed them exceedingly; and, by this very Psal. cv. mean, turned the hearts of their own Brethren to hate them, and to deal politicly with his servants." Computations are made, and there are huge sums set down for Princes, to see how much they may amplify and enlarge their own treasure; how many public burthens they may ease; what present means they may have to reward their servants about them, if they please but to grant their assent, and to accept of the spoil of Bishops, by whom Church-goods are but abused unto pomp and vanity. Thus albeit they deal with one whose princely virtue giveth them small hope to prevail in impious and sacrilegious motions; yet shame they not to move her Royal Majesty even with a suit not much unlike unto that wherewith the Jewish High-priest tried Judas, whom they solicited unto treason against his Master, and proposed unto him a number of silver pence in lieu of so virtuous and honest a service. But her sacred Majesty disposed to be always like herself, her heart so far estranged from willingness to gain by pillage of that estate, the only awe whereof under God she hath been unto this present hour, as of all other parts of this noble Commonwealth, whereof she hath vowed herself a protector till the end of her days on earth, which if Nature could permit, we wish, as good cause we have, endless: this her gracious inclination is more than a seven-times-sealed warrant, upon the same assurance whereof touching any action, so dishonourable as this, we are on her part most secure, not doubting but that unto all posterity it shall for ever appear, that from the first to the very last of her sovereign proceedings there hath not been one authorized Lib. x. et Ar C. de Sacros. 1. xiv. deed other than consonant with that Symmachus saith, "Fiscus bonorum Principum, non Sacerdotum damnis, sed Theodos. hostium spoliis augeatur:" consonant with that Imperial Law, chad. "Ea quæ ad beatissimæ Ecclesiæ jura pertinent, tanquam ipsam sacrosanctam et religiosam Ecclesiam, intacta conEccles. venit venerabiliter custodiri; ut sicut ipsa Religionis et Fidei Mater perpetua est, ita ejus patrimonium jugiter servetur illæsum." As for the case of public burthens, let any Politician living make it appear, that by confiscation of Bishops' Livings, and their utter dissolution at once, the Commonwealth shall ever have half that relief and ease which it receiveth by their continuance as now they are, and it shall give us some cause to think, that albeit we see they are impiously and irreligiously minded, yet we may esteem them at least to be tolerable Commonwealth's-men. But the case is too clear and manifest, the world doth but too plainly see it, that no one Order of subjects whatsoever within this Land doth bear the seventh part of that proportion which the Clergy beareth in the burthens of the Commonwealth: no revenue of the Crown like unto it, either for certainty or for greatness. Let the good which this way hath grown to the Commonwealth by the dissolution of religious-Houses, teach men what ease unto public burdens there is like to grow by the overthrow of the Clergy. My meaning is not hereby to make the state of Bishoprick and of those dissolved Companies alike, the one no less unlawful to be removed than the other. For those Religious persons were men which followed only a special kind of contemplative life in the Commonwealth, they were properly no portion of God's Clergy (only such amongst them excepted as were also Priests), their goods (that excepted which they unjustly held through the Pope's usurped power of appropriating Ecclesiastical Livings unto them) may in part seem to be of the nature of Civil possessions, held by other kinds of Corporations, such as the city of London hath divers. Wherefore, as their institution was human, and their end for the most part superstitious, they had not therein merely that holy and divine interest which belongeth unto Bishops, who being employed by Christ in the principal service of his Church, are receivers and disposers of his patrimony, as hath been showed, which whosoever shall withhold or withdraw at any time from them, he undoubtedly robbeth God himself. If they abuse the goods of the Church unto pomp and vanity, such faults we do not excuse in them. Only we wish it to be considered whether such faults be verily in them, or else but objected against them by such as gape after spoil, and therefore are no competent judges what is moderate and what excessive in them, whom under this pretence they would spoil. But the accusation may be just. In plenty and fulness it may be we are of God more forgetful than were requisite. Notwithstanding men should remember how not to the Clergy alone it was said by Moses in Deuteronomy, "Ne cum manducaveris, et bibe- [Deut. ris, et domos optimas ædificaveris." If the remedy pre- 12.] scribed for this disease be good, let it impartially be applied. "Interest Reipub. ut re sua quisque bene utatur." Let all states be put to their moderate pensions, let their Livings and Lands be taken away from them whomsoever they be, in whom such ample possessions are found to have been matters of grievous abuse: were this just? would Noble families think this reasonable? The Title which Bishops have to their Livings is as good as the title of any sort of men unto whatsoever we accompt to be most justly held by them; yea, in this one thing the claim of Bishops hath pre-eminence above all secular titles of right, in that God's own interest is the tenure whereby they hold, even as also it was to the Priests of the Law an assurance of their spiritual goods and possessions, whereupon though they many times abused greatly the goods of the Church, yet was not God's patrimony therefore taken away from them, and made saleable unto other tribes. To rob God, to ransack the Church, to overthrow the whole Order of Christian Bishops, and to turn them out of land and living, out of house and home, what man of common honesty can think it for any manner of abuse to be a remedy lawful or just? We must confess that God is righteous in taking away that which men abuse: but doth that excuse the violence of thieves and robbers? Complain we will not with St. Jerome, "That the hands of men are so straitly tied, and their liberal minds so much bridled and held back from doing good by augmentation of the Church- patrimony."* viii. 11, * "Pudet dicere, Sacerdotes idolorum, auriga, mimi et scorta hæreditates capiunt, solis Clericis et Monachis id lege prohibetur, et prohibetur non a persecutoribus sed Principibus Christianis. Nec de lege conqueror, sed doleo quod meruerimus hanc Legem." Ad Nepot. 2. xxxvi. 5.] Obad. ver. 5. For we confess that herein mediocrity may be and hath been sometime exceeded. There did want heretofore a Moses to temper men's liberality, to say unto them who [Exod. enriched the Church, Sufficit, Stay your hands, lest fervour of zeal do cause you to empty yourselves too far. It may be the largeness of men's hearts being then more moderate, had been after more durable; and one state by too much overgrowing the rest, had not given occasion unto the rest to undermine it. That evil is now sufficiently cured: the Church-treasury, if then it were over full, hath since been reasonably well emptied. That which Moses spake unto givers, we must now inculcate unto takers away from the Church, Let there be some stay, some stint in spoiling. If "grape-gatherers came unto them (saith the Prophet), would they not leave some remnant behind?" But it hath fared with the wealth of the Church as with a tower, which being built at the first with the highest, overthroweth itself after by its own greatness; neither doth the ruin thereof cease with the only fall of that which hath exceeded mediocrity, but one part beareth down another, till the whole be laid prostrate. For although the State Ecclesiastical, both others and even Bishops themselves, be now fallen to so low an ebb, as all the world at this day doth see; yet, because there remaineth still somewhat which unsatiable minds can thirst for, therefore we seem not to have been hitherto sufficiently wronged. Touching that which hath been taken from the Church in appropriations known to amount to the value of one hundred twenty-six thousand pounds yearly, we rest contentedly and quietly without it, till it shall please God to touch the hearts of men, of their own voluntary accord, to restore it to him again; * judging thereof no otherwise than some others did of those goods which were by Sylla taken away from the citizens of Rome, that albeit they were in truth male capta, unconscionably taken away from the right owners at the first, nevertheless, seeing that such as were after possessed of them held them not without some title, which Law did after a sort make good," repetitio eorum proculdubio labefactabat compositam Civitatem.' What hath been taken away as dedicated unto uses superstitious, and consequently not given unto God, or at the leastwise not so rightly given, we Flor. lib. iii. c. 13. * [See Vol. II. p. 408.] repine not thereat. That which hath gone by means secret and indirect, through corrupt compositions or compacts, we cannot help. What the hardness of men's hearts doth make them loth to have exacted, though being due by Law, even thereof the want we do also bear. Out of that which after all these deductions cometh clearly unto our hands, I hope it will not be said that towards the public charge we disburse nothing. And doth the residue seem yet excessive? The ways whereby temporal men provide for themselves and their Families are fore-closed unto us. All that we have to sustain our miserable life with, is but a remnant of God's own treasure, so far already diminished and clipt, that if there were any sense of common humanity left in this hard-hearted world, the impoverished estate of the Clergy of God would at the length even of very commiseration be spared. The mean Gentleman that hath but an hundred pound land to live on, would not be hasty to change his worldly estate and condition with many of these so over-abounding Prelates; a common artisan or tradesman of the city, with ordinary Pastors of the Church. It is our hard and heavy lot, that no other sort of men being grudged at, how little benefit soever the public-weal reap by them, no state complained of for holding that which hath grown unto them by lawful means; only the governors of our souls, they that study day and night so to guide us, that both in this world we may have comfort, and in the world to come endless felicity and joy (for even such is the very scope of all their endeavours; this they wish, for this they labour, how hardly soever we use to construe of their intents); hard, that only they should be thus continually lifted at for possessing but that whereunto they have, by Law both of God and Man, most just Title. If there should be no other remedy, but that the violence of men in the end must needs bereave them of all succour, further than the inclination of others shall vouchsafe to cast upon them, as it were by way of alms, for their relief but from hour to hour; better they are not than their fathers, which have been contented with as hard a portion at the world's hands: let the light of the sun and moon, the common benefit of heaven and earth, be taken from Bishops, if the question were, Whether God should lose his glory, and the safety of his Church be hazarded, or they relinquish the |