De non temerandis Ecclesiis, CHURCHES NOT TO BE VIOLATED.  
A Tract of the Rights and Respects Due unto CHURCHES: Written to a Gentleman who having an appropriate Parsonage employed the Church to profane uses, and left the Parishioners uncertainly provided of Divine Service in a Parish near there adjoining.  
Written and first published thirty years since By Sir HENRY SPELMAN Knight.  
The third Edition with a new Epistle.  
OXFORD, Printed by HENRY HALL. Printer to the UNIVERSITY. 1646.   

The Printer to the READER.  
THis small Tract, now above two years past, was by me printed for that worthy Knight the Author thereof, with no intent to have it published: and being hitherto by me suppressed from reprinting here at home; I find it to be of late time printed in Scotland (contrary both to the Authors and my expectation) and Dedicated by another man to the Bishops and Clergy there, and so made more public, being of itself private, then was first intended: which (I suppose) had the Author known, or once misdoubted the sequel, instead of De non temerandis Ecclesiis, he would have studied another Title, De non temerandis Scriptis alienis: that his writings might not be imprinted, when Benefices are made proper. Wherefore finding many slips in it from his Copy, I have (as well in the right of the Author as of myself, (to whom the right of the sole Printing belonged) caused it to be reprinted. And though at the time of the putting it to the Press, I could not confer with the Author, he being then in the Country, yet hath it pleased him since his coming home to add something more unto it, as his leisure would permit him; which I have annexed to the end thereof. And thus have I attempted to make a private work public, lest the faults of other men, should unjustly be cast upon him, that deserved so well in so rare an Argument.   

To the Reader.  
ALL the vessels of the King's House are not gold, or silver, or for uses of Honour. Some be common stuff, and for mean services, yet profitable. Of the first sort, I am sure this Tract is not. Whether of the other or no, I leave that to thy judgement. To deal plainly; myself have no great opinion of it; as finding mine own imperfections, and writing it only upon a private occasion to a private friend, without curious observation of matter or method. But having also written a greater work (much of the same Argument) and intending to publish, or suppress it, as I see cause: I thought it not unfit (upon some encouragement) to send this forth (like a Pinnace or Post of Advice) to make a discovery of the Coast, before I adventure my greater Ship. If I receive good advertisement, I shall grow the bolder. Howsoever, take this I pray thee, as it is: and let my zeal to the cause, excuse me in meddling with matters beyond my strength.  
H. S.   

A Letter showing the occasion of this Treatise to the Worshipful his most loving uncle FR. SA. etc.  
MY good Uncle, the speeches that passed casually between us at our last parting, have run often since in my mind; and so (perhaps) have they done in yours. You complained (as God would have it) that you were much crossed in the building you were in hand with, upon a piece of glebe of your Appropriate Parsonage at Congham. I answered, that I thought God was not pleased with it, insomuch as it tended to the defrauding of the Church, adding (amongst some other words) that I held it utterly unlawful to keep Appropriate Parsonages from the Church. etc.  
But our talk proceeding, I perceived that as God had always his portion in your heart, so in this, though it concerned your profit, you seemed tractable. It much rejoiced me, and therefore apprehending the occasion, I will be hold to add a continuance to that happy motion: (so I trust, both you and I shall have cause to term it) and besides, to give you some tribute of the love and duty I long have ought you. Therefore (good Uncle) as your heart hath happily conceived these blessed sparks, so in the name and blessing of God, cherish and inflame them. No doubt they are kindled from heaven, like the fire of the Altar, and are sent unto you from God himself, to be a light to you in your old days (when your bodily eyes fail you) to guide your feet into the way of peace, that is, the way and place from whence they came. So always I pray for you, and rest,  
Your loving and faithful Nephew HENRY SPELMAN. Westminst. Aug. 17. 1613.   

To the READER.  
REader, this small Treatise was 30 years since written and published by my Father now deceased; his intent was to dissuade a profanation of Churches, and to persuade a restitution of Tithes and impropriations to the Church; Wherein although he was not so happy as with Saint Peter at once to convert thousands, yet was he not with him so insuccessefull, as to fish all might and catch nothing; for some were persuaded with what is written, nor can I say that others believed not; but rather think, that like the young man in the Gospel, they went heavy away, because they had too great possessions to restore.  
Mischiefs are with more ease prevented then cured, men sooner dissuaded from a reception, then persuaded to a restitution. While therefore the great dissolution of Bishoprics and Deaneries is only threatened not acted, I have caused a reimpression of this Tract, hoping that (as at first) it will find some believers, and the rather because written long since, by one, no Levite, himself and children as his Ancestors mere Laymen, not having nor hoping for any Ecclesiastical preferment, and therefore I am confident he took his motives solely from the dictates of religion and conscience, himself practising what he would persuade thee. I know thy argument for retaining impropriations, Abbeys etc. is, the Law hath made them lay-fees, thou didst legally buy them, and therefore mayest lawfully keep them.  
I confess our Statutes of Dissolution have changed the course of the fee, from a politic succession to a natural descent; and unhappily put a lay man in to the Priests place. But tell me if any Statute or humane Law doth or can take away the Dedication or the Consecration of Abbeys, Monasteries etc. discharge or annul the interest which God and his Church hath in them, and for which they were founded, as that hospitality, sick and feeble men may be maintained, Alms given, and other Charitable deeds be done, and prayers be there said, as is declared in the Statute. 35. Edw. 1. 
35: Edw: 1. ca: 1.  or can any Statute divert, and dispense with the many and heavy curses of the Church, upon the violators of Church liberties, to which the whole Kingdom hath not only cried Amen, but by Act of Parliament hath enjoined the Bishops to curse the violaters. If these be not removed, then remain they still dedicated, still consecrated to God; and then seek and satisfy thyself, whether thou having the appropriation and Tithes but as the Abbot had them, and receiving the profit as the Abbot did, art not as the Abbot, tied in Law and Conscience or one of them to perform the duties: for that he was, appears by the opinion of all Judges 18. Eliz: 
Blow. fol. 496.  where it is said by the Judges, that none is capable of an appropriation (for so the Law calls them) but only bodies politic not natural, and the reason is because he that hath the appropriation is to be perpetual incumbent, which a natural body that must dy could not be. And that body politic (to have the rectory, the glebe, and tithes) must be Spiritual not Lay. For in that he is made Parson (saith the book) he hath the cure of the souls of the parishioners, and therefore must be Spiritual, for by the same reason that a patron cannot present a Layman to his Church, by the same reason a Layman cannot be an Appropriator; For they are both Parsons of the Church, the presented Parson for life, the Appropriator for ever. And therefore Plowden saith, that the Appropriator, be he Abbot or Prior etc. is as fully incumbent Parson, as if he had been presented, instituted and inducted: and as Parson shall have his Actions, and that he that is duly made Parson is thereby made possessor of the Parsonage for the spiritual Office, 
plow. fo. 500  attracts the possessions of the things belonging to the Office, and in that he is Parson, he receives the Tithes not as granted to him, but as things annexed to the Office of a Parson. And Tithes are frequently in our Common Law termed spiritual things because annexed to the spiritual Office. By these Books and resolutions of the Judges it is clear that the appropriatour was the incumbent Parson, and had the cure of the souls of the Parishioners, 
Fol. 33, 35.  and that upon the presentation of the appropriatour or upon the dissolution of the Abbey, the Church became void, and presentative, as other Churches upon resignation or death of the incumbent.  
For appropriations (as thou now seest) were but Parsonages with cures of souls, annexed and appropriated to a particular Abbey or Religious house. For when their Fraternities became numerous, & their annual charge greater than their yearly revenue; providence to provide for their family made them think how to increase their income; And themselves being patrons of many rich parsonages, obtained severally (as occasion served) licence from the King, and consent from the ordinary to annex or appropriate that parsonage to their Abbot and his successors for ever, whereby they became perpetual incumbent parson, and anciently did duly officiate the Cure by one of their Fraternity until the Statute of Rich. 2. prohibited the appropriating any Church, 
15. Ric. 2. ca 6.  unless a Vicar be conveniently endowed by the discretion of the Ordinary to do divine service, and keep hospitality; 
4 H. 4. ca 12.  and the Statute of 4 Hen. 4. ordained that no Religious (as Monks and Friars were) should be made Vicars to any Church appropriated, but Seculars (as our Ministers now be) canonically instituted and inducted. Upon these Statutes it will concern the owners of Churches appropriated since 15 Rich. 2. to see, that out of the profits of the Church a convenient sum of money be yearly paid to the poor parishioners, 
15 Ric. 2. ca 6.4. H. 4. ca 12.  and a Vicar endowed as the Statute of the 15. of R. 2. appoints, or else the Stat. 4 H. 4. avoids the appropriation, and then the Church becomes again presentative.  
But some will object, that impropriate Churches with their oblations and Tithes (the fat of impropriations) are made Lay and Temporal, and as Lay and Temporal things disposable at the will of the owner: a doctrine which so nearly concerns the estates and livelihood of so many men in this kingdom as I shall not aver the contrary, lest some Demetrius with his fellows tumuit about it; yet give me leave to offer thee some opposite considerations, but leave them, and their result to thy judgement and conscience.  
Consider first that while God saith, that ye have rob me of my Tithes and offerings, God claims the title and interest of them to be in him, not in the Priest nor in the Levite, they being but the usufructuarii, God the owner.  
Remember too, 
27. H. 8. ca: 20. 32 H. 8. cap: 7.  that our Statutes have declared Tithes to be due to God and holy Church, and thy withdrawing thy Tithes a neglecting thy duty to Almighty God, and then consider that if the Tithes be Gods, it matters not whether his title be by Divine right (as our 
a Dier. 28. H. 8. so 43. tithes are due by the Law of God. ex debito. Co. 2. Wiochest. case. so. 45. b. tithes are due by Divine Right.  Law and Lawyers) not to press that with the resolution of Counsels and opinions of Canonists, Fathers, and Divines, quoted by the Author) have taken them to be, or by humane Constitution; for what Statute, what Law, can conclude God, or bind his right? Then weigh how the King (from whom thou claimest) had the Tithes, thou hast, and to what intent he had them.  
The Statute of 27. H. 8. gives the King the smaller Abbeys and houses of Religion with their Appropriations and Tithes. To the greater, H. 8. makes his title by grant and surrender of the Abbots, Priors: which between the 27 and 31. H. 8. had been laboured by Cromwell; with some he prevailed by entreaty and good Annuities; with others by the King's Power & Sword for the Abbots of 
b R. Whiteing.  Glassenbury, 
c Hugh Farring●on.  Reading, and 
d john Bech. Goodw. 167.  Colchester, whose innocency had made them regardless of Threats, and their piety abhor rewards to betray their Churches; were therefore (saith Goodwin) tendered the 
e There was no Oath of Supremacy, until 1. Eliz. but these that denied H. 8. to be supreme Head of the Church, were indicted upon the Statute 26. H. 8, c 12. since repealed, for that they malitiose optantes desiderantes & volentes deprivare Domin: Regem de dignitate titulo & nominee status s●● regal. Said that the King was not Supreme Head of the Church. And upon this were Fisher Bishop of Rochester, Sir Thomas More, Exmew, and divers others indicted, convicted, and executed, by virtue of a Commission of Oyer and Terminer, directed to Audley Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Suffolk, and other Lords, and all the Judges, as appears by the Reports under the hand of Sir john Spelman, who was then a Judge of the King's bench.  Oath of Supremacy, which they refusing, are, as enemies to the State, condemned and hanged, others terrified by their examples, leaves all to the dispose of the King, who not resting on that title, procures the Statute of 31. H. 8. c. 13. which reciting (how truly do thou judge) the Grants, Surrenders, etc. to have been made freely, voluntarily, and without compulsion, gives all the Religious houses, with their appurtenances and Tithes, to the King his Heirs and Successors (as the Statute 27. of H. 8. did) in as large a manner as the Abbot had the same to dispose thereof at his will and pleasure (but) to the honour and pleasure of Almighty God: nor is there any one word either in this Statute of the 31. or that of 27. H. 8. to alter or change the primative nature and use of Tithes. And therefore the Statute of the 32. H. 8. calls the withdrawing of thy Tithes, whether propriate or impropriate, a neglecting of thy duty to Almighty God, thereby inferring, that the Tithes are still due to God.  
Consider that thy impropriate Tithes are yet even in Law called Ecclesiastic, and solely recoverable in the Ecclesiastical Courts; and that the Statute of Ed. 6. 
●. Edw. 6.  gives one and the same remedy both for the presentative and impropriate Tithe, and therefore must make both, or neither, Lay and Temporal.  
Inquire too, whether the Impropriater hath the Cure of Souls, the Abbot had, (especially where no Vicar is endued) if thou dost find he hath not, know who hath, for the Sheep must not be without a Shepherd, nor he without the milk of the Flock.  
Learn by what Statute, what Law, the Impropriator, if freed of the Cure, is yet tied to repair the Chancel, as the Abbot did, and as the Abbot (where no Vicar is endued) tied to provide one to officiate divine Service and Sacraments. If impropriate Tithes be temporal things, why doth the impropriator in all Courts make his title in the Churches right? if lay and temporal, why wear they these Ecclesiastic badges?  
I cannot for my part think that Statutes which declares Tithes to be due to God and holy Church, which directs (among other things, even impropriate Tithes) to be disposed to the pleasure and honour of Almighty God, which calls the withdrawing thy impropriate Tithes, a neglecting of thy duty to Almighty God. I cannot think that these Statutes did either alter, or intended to alter the Ecclesiastic primative nature and use of Tithes, and the rather because I find that the Lawyers, who likely had the penning of them did hold Tithes due by divine Right, and annexed to the spiritual office of the Parson, & consequently not alterable. And then thou that justly condemnest this Parson, or that Vicar, for sometimes neglecting his duty, think with thyself what account will be exacted of thee that receiveth the same Salary and wages with the Parson and Vicar; yet dost totally neglect the duty and mispendest all the Church Revenue upon thy own private occasions, 
39 Canon.  while the Canon of the Apostles would not permit the Bishop to challenge aught to himself, or to dispose among his kindred or friends, but to administer them, Tanquam Deo intuente, to the poor and Fatherless. And consonant to that is that in 
f Cook. 5. Report. fol. 11.  Caudris case in the 5th Report, where the Abbot might not dispend the 
g Free alms were the rents and revenues, as appears by the Statutes. E. 1.24.14. E. 3.17.  free alms of the Abbey (much less thou Tithes) upon his secular friend, but in hospitality upon the poor, the Fatherless, the Stranger, etc. and if so, than the Abbots were but God's trusties, and as his Almners dispensed them to God's Pensioners, the poor, the Fatherless and Widow. And do thou inquire how thou havest them and 
h Sir Edward Cook, in his Mag. Charta. f. 649. in his Comment upon 2. Edw. 6. touching tithes, quotes the Text in Deut. 14. And the Levite shall come, & the stranger, the fatherless, and widow, within thy Gates shall eat thereof. Here is (saith he) the right use whereto tithes should be employed; & surely had they been lay or temporal, than they, no more than other temporal things are tied to Ecclesiastic uses. And he wrote long after our Statutes, and best knew the power & operation of them.  oughtest to dispose them. For I fear that at the last and general Audit, thou wilt find them great Clogs to thy account, and in the interim, ruins to thy Family; yet I doubt not but thou wilt find probable reasons as well as Law for retaining of Impropriations and Abbeys which thou hast bought, or thy Friends left thee: yet read this ensuing Treatise, the reasons may persuade thee, if not, with me view the insuccesse of Sacrilegious persons.  
But before thou canst judge of Sacrilegious persons, thou must know, what is Sacrilege, for such there is, else the Apostle erred, who whilst thou sayest, that thou shalt not commit Idolatry, upbraids thee with, and committest thou Sacrilege.  
Sacrilege is the diversion of holy and Ecclesiastic things to profane and secular use: as Simeon and Levi; Theft and Sacrilege, be evil Brethren, Theft robs thy Neighbour, Sacrilege thy God. Tithes are so undoubtedly God's inheritance, as though some have curiously disputed his title to them, as how due; yet none but the Impropriator denies his right to them, as not due: but Tithes and Impropriations are the subject of the ensuing Discourse, therefore I will offer thee my Conceit, how Abbeys and Monasteries are consecrated to God, and ought not to be profaned by secular use.  
It is noted that in all Ages, in all Religions, the Temples of their Gods were accounted holy, and not to be profaned by secular service: and this being so universally observed in several Ages, in differing Empires, contrary Religions, it must needs be by the Command of the universal Monarch God.  
Reason taught a Heathen to conclude, Quod ab omnibus gentibus observatum est, id non nisi a Deo sancitum est. Did God by the Law of Nations teach Heathens to keep the Temples of their false Gods as sacred; And doth he not by the same Law Command thee a Christian to preserve his own holy and unviolated?  
The Devil, that (to his greater Condemnation) best knows God, and is therefore his best Counterfeit, gets himself among the Heathen Temples, Priests, Oblations, and to these the Attributes of holy, and sacred; he knew them to belong to God and his Church, and therefore, to be like the most high, usurps them to him and his.  
The Devil knew that the Temple of God which sanctifies the gold that is upon it, must needs be holy itself, and sanctify the ground on which it stands, and therefore the Devil taught his Disciples that doctrine, 
Plin. Epist. l. 10. f. 615.  Licet aedes sacra Claudij Caesaris collepsa sit, religio tamen occupat solum. Profit could not tempt Trajan to permit public baths to be made where once Caesar's Temple stood, the holy ground must not be profaned by secular employment. Yet thou a Christian dost not spare the very Temple of God himself. Shall it not (in this point) be easier at the last day for Trajan, then for thee, for if he a Heathen thus esteemed a false God, that must come to be judged, how would he have reverenced, the true and ever living God (had he, as thou) known him? but this only argues, and doth not prove a sanctity in Temples.  
But God himself hath told us in Leviticus, 
Levit. 27.  that Lands and houses may be sanctified to the Lord, but they are redeemable at the value estimated by the Priest, and a fifth part more. But God there tells us that things devoted are most holy to the Lord, 
Vers. 28.  and not redeemable, the reason given by Divines is, because it was given with a Curse, & if that be the reason; do thou then peruse the Charters of Foundations of Monasteries and Abbeys, and tell me if they be not devoted and most holy to the Lord. And then, if not redeemable, much less I think to be taken from the Church; without any satisfaction, or consent of the Triests.  
The Charters were usually in these words, Concessi Deo & Ecclesiae &c. offero Deo etc. confirmavi Deo & Ecclesiae, and these Grants have in our Common Law been adjudged good and valid; our much reverenced Magna Charta, so oft confirmed by Parliament, beginneth with Concessimus deo quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit etc. and Sir Edward Cook in his Comment upon it, saith, What is granted for God, 
Cook. Magna Charta. fol. 2. quod datum Eccltsiae datum deo. Lib. 6. f. 176. cap. 285.  is in Law deemed to be granted to God, what is granted for his honour, what for maintenance of his service of his Religion, is granted to and for God, and that anciently these Grants were good in Law.  
The Capituler of Charles the great saith, that the Dedications were on this sort, the Founder mentioning in a writing all he intended to give, and holding it over the Altar, spoke thus to the Priest: I here give unto God all things contained in this writing, for the remission of my sins etc. and for them for whose good God will accept them, and by these to promote God's service in sacrifice in Lights, in Sustentation of the Clergy, the Poor, and in all things honourable to God, and profitable to his Church, and if any man shall take these away (which God forbidden) let him for his Sacrilege give a most strict account to God, to whom they are now dedicated, now devoted.  
The Founders of Religious houses, in the conclusion of their Deed, following the example of 
* ●●ra. 6.12. And the God that caused his name to dwell there, destroy all Kings & people that put to their hands to alter or destroy this house of God.  Darius, imprecates a most heavy Curse on them that violate or withdraw their gift 
† Apostolatus Benedictin. in Angl: Apend. secund. f. 60.13. E. 1. ca 6.  Venientibus contra haec & distruentibus ea occurrat Deus in gladio irae & furoris & vindictae & maledictionis aeternae.  
And here is to be remembered that Abbeys and Monasteries had in them Churches and Chappells which had from the Bishops and Clergy a more particular dedication and consecration, then from their Founders, the Bishop using therein much Alms, many Prayers, and some decent Ceremonies, and after, even to the Dissolution, the Sacraments, were there constantly administered, and our Ancestors had so reverend an esteem of Churches, as following the example of Christ, would not permit buying and selling in the Churchyard, but by Parliament prohibits it.  
Now consider, that if under the levitical Law, which in this was moral and not taken away, the single act of devoting thy house to the Lord, conferred such a Sanctity, such a Holiness upon it, that it could never be redeemed, but at a fifth part more than the worth, and that valued by the Priest, shall the Founder's gift, (which was the dedication in the levitical Law) the fervent Prayers and Intercessions of the Clergy and Church, the long and frequen administration of Service and Sacraments under the Gospel, shall these add nothing of Sanctity, nothing of Reverence to it; But even where thy Fathers and Grandfathers for many hundreds of years reverently on their knees received mystically the Body and Blood of Christ, there thou (to avoid superstition) dost sacrilegiously feed thy Ox, and thy Ass, and not permitting Christ, as at first, to lie between them, but more uncivil than the Jewish host, turnest him out to make room for them.  
But thou wilt say these Abbeys, these Monasteries were Founded and dedicated by Idolatrous Persons, Consecrated by Popish Bishops, and for superstitious uses, and therefore not sacred, nor acceptable to God.  
For the unworthiness of their Persons, and their act, consider Corah and his company, who as God himself saith, were sinners against their own Souls, nor canst thou think the sin small, where thou findest their punishment so great; for God smites them not as Vzziha with leprosy, nor with withered hands as Jeroboam, nor with death like Vzza, but to make their punishment answerable with their offence, God doth a new thing in Israel, fire from above consumes these, and the earth from beneath, swallows up those men; and although Moses be commanded to scatter the fire (for Civil Magistrates may quench the fire of Rebellion) yet Aaron the Ecclesiastic hand must first gather up the Censers, for they were holy, and God gives there the reason why holy, for saith he, they offered them to the Lord. And if so bad men by a single, and so bad an act, did consecrate their Censers to the Lord, needs must the Pious gift and charity of the Founders, with the often Prayers and Sacraments of the Church daily used for many years, needs must they sanctify the Church or Chapel where used.  
While God spoke once from the Bush to Moses, 
Exod. 3.  he Commands him not to draw nigh, and yet at that distance bids him put off his shoes, 
Joshua. 5.15.  for the ground was holy. And Joshua must be barefoot while he spoke with the Captain of the Lords Host, because the ground was holy.  
Consider then that if the places be holy, where God spoke once to Moses, once to the Captain of the Lords Host, needs must the Church or Chapel be holy, where God hath so often spoken to thy Fathers in Sacraments and Sermons, and where they to him so often in Prayers and Thanksgiving.  
If public holy actions do not sanctify the place where acted, David (though he would not offer to God that which cost him nought) needed not to buy that which he did not offer, the Threshing-floore of Araugna, it had been sufficient for David to pay for the Oxen and threshing instruments, that must be burnt not restored. The floor remained, but not for Araughnas' use, (saith a Learned Divine) for by David's Sacrifice, the floor was devoted and sanctified to the Lord, and might not return to worldly employment, which David knew, and therefore bought it.  
But thou wilt say, these are Dedications and Sanctions under the Law, not under the Gospel. 'Tis true these were Sanctions under the Law, and were Moral, not Cerimoniall, and therefore remain under the Gospel. Christ that sends thee from the Altar, to be reconciled to thy Brother, commands thee to leave thy Gift behind thee at the Altar, and the reason given by Divines is, because thou hast devoted it to the Lord, the gift remains holy, and might not return to the world, for though thy person be not accepted, yet thy gift by thy devoting, is holy to the Lord, as were the Censers, in the case of Corah.  
Thou seest that Christ, who would not Peter should strike to rescue him, his Master from violence, yet he himself strikes to free the Temple from Sacrolege, and thou canst not think that Christ struck this day to preserve, what he would abolish the next day, the Sanction of the Temple.  
Dee but consider that of Ananias and Saphirah, and thou wilt conclude, that the Devoting any thing to God, is under the Gospel, a sanctifying it to the Lord, and the withdrawing it, must then be Sacrilege, which was Ananias sin, agreed by all Diviner, and Junius in his notes upon it saith, predium Consecrâssent Ecclesiae, they had Consecrated it to the Lord; to conclude, thou canst not violate or irreverently use a Church or Temple, but thou must disrationate St. Paul's argument, who dissuades the pollution of thy Body, because it is the Temple of the holy Ghost.  
Thou mayst observe our Law books to have held Tithes due by divine right, our Parliaments in their Statutes too, have acknowledged Tithes due to God and holy Church and this both before & after the Statutes of Dissolution; & that at this day the Law reckons tithes of impropriate, as well as of presentative Churches to be Ecclesiastic things, and if this will not persuade a restitution of such as thou hast, yet let it dissuade a reception of more: For I know thou wouldst not buy a Title litigious between thee and thy neighbour; and why wilt thou that which (at best) is questionable between thee and thy God, that must judge the Title, and in a Court where thou canst have no advocate but his Son, whom thou wouldst disinherit.  
But the destruction of Corah persuades more with the Isralites, than the soft voyee of Moses, and such Oratory may take thee, Hell hath frighted some to Heaven; view then the insuccesse of Sacrilegious persons in all ages, that will prevail with thee, for had Corah and his Complices been visited after the visitation of other men, thou and I, nay perhaps the whole Congregation of Israel, would have believed what they said is truth, it sounded so like reason, and approved what they did as pious, it looked so like Religion, but their end otherwise informed them, and better instructed us: I will not trouble thee with precedents of foreign Nations, as Bohemia, the Palatinat, and Germany, where under colour of Reformation, the ruin of Monasteries, and Religious Houses, mightily enriched for the present both public and private Coffers, and now the Ravenous War hath both exhausted the wealth, and almost unpeopled the Country; hoc omen Deus avertat. I will therefore tie myself to our own Country, and story, unhappily plentiful in miserable examples.  
I will begin with William the Conqueror; In the first year of his reign, he fires by his normans, St 
a Holl. fol. 7.  Peter Church in York. In the 4th, he rifles the 
b Holl. fol. 8.  Monasteries, and about the 
c Speed. f. 429 Camb. But. 259.  18th year of his reign destroyed 36 Mother Churches in Hampshire, to make his New-Forrest, takes all their Plate, all their Treasure, even the Chalices. In the 
d Holl. 12. Speed. 428. Matt. Par. fol. 10.  13th year of his reign, the Son out of his own loins (Robert of Normandy) Rebels against him, and in Battle beats his Father from his Horse, wounds his Person, and (which to him is worse) his honour. About the 19th year, Richard his second (but first beloved) Son, sporting in his Father's New-Forrest, is there strangely killed by the goring of a Stag, saith 
e Speed. 429.  Speed, 
f Camb. 259.  Camden, by a pestilent Air. In the 20th of his reign, he burned the City of 
g Holl. 14. Speed. 431. Matth. Par. fol. 13.  Mannts, & Church of S. Mary's, with to Anchorites; and coming too nigh the flame, the heat of the fire and his Arms attracts a disease, and his Horse leaping with him, breaks his Rider's belly, whereof he dies, and his Body (forsaken of his Nobles and Servants) lies three days neglected, after by the courtesy of a Country gentleman, his Corpse is brought to St 
h Speed. 434.  Stephens Church in Cane in Normandy, but in the passage the Town Fires and his bearers leave him, and run to quench that, so that dead he goes not quietly to his Grave, whither brought at last is there denied Burial by one who claimed the ground as his inheritance, forced from him by the Duke, all Ceremonies stay until a composition was made, and an Annual rent (saith 
i Daniel. 48.  Daniel) paid for his Grave, in which before he could be laid, his body swelling, burst to the great annoyance of the Company, he is offensive dead and living, afterwards the town being taken by an Enemy, his Bones, as unworthy to be enshrined in a Church, are digged up and scatrered like Chaff before the wind, death denies him rest.  
His 
k Speed. 429.  Grandchild Henry the son of Robert, hunting in the New-Forrest, is struck throw the Jaws with a bough of a Tree, and like Absalon, found hanging in the thicket of an Oak. His Grandchild William (second Son to Robert Dake of Normandy) was made Earl of Flanders, and in a War against his Uncle Henry the first, received a small 
l Speed. 462. Mat. Par. 71. Milles lat. 77.  wound in his hand, and thereof died the last of the Conqueror's grandchildren by his eldest Son.  
Robert of Normandy, the Conqueror's eldest son, disinherited by his Father, is taken 
m Stow.  prisoner by his brother Henry the first, who puts out both his Eyes, and after 26 year's imprisonment, Robert 
n Ma. Par. 73. Speed. 467.  dies starved in the Goal at Cardaffe.  
William Rufus succeeded his Father in his Crown and Curse, in his first year his Nobles 
o Speed 440. Mat. Par. 14.  Rebel, in his sixth, a great Famine rageth, and such a mortality, as the quick can scarce bury the dead. About the 
p Holl. 22. Speed. 445.  19th year of his Reign, his Treasury is stored by sale of Chalices and Church-Jewells. In his 13th year, while Sir 
q Speed. 448. Mat. Par. 54. Cervus magnus cum ante eum (regem) transiret dis Rex cuidem mi liti. Wal. Tirrel. trahe Diabole. Exijt ergo telum volatile, & obstante arbore in obliquum reflexum saciens per medium cordis sauciavit qui subitò mortuus corruit.  Walter Tirret shoots at a Dear in the New-Forrest, he kills the King, (in the same place where a Church stood) who dies (beast like) not speaking a word.  
Mills saith, the Arrow glanced from the Dear, Speed, and Matthew Paris, from a Tree, and killed the King, but both agree his death to be (as his Fathers) by accident. He dead, his followers (as did his Father's) leave his body and fled; his Funerals are as his Fathers interrupted, for his 
r Mat. Par. ib. Speed 449.  Corpse were laid in a Colyers' Court drawn by one silly lean Beast, (saith the Book) in his passage the Cart broke in foul and filthy ways, leaving his body a miserable spectacle, pitifully gored, and filthily bemired, so, as his Father, he passeth not quietly to his Grave, yet at last he is brought bleeding to Winchester, and there buried unlamented. Speed saith his 
s Speed, ibid.  bones were after taken up and laid in a Coffer with Canutus his bones; but there they rest not, for in December 1642. Winchester being entered by the Parliament forces, the Organs, Windows, and Chests, wherein the bones of many our ancient Kings were preserved, were by the fury of the soldiers broken, and among others his, and as his Fathers, scattered upon the face of the Earth, as not worthy burial. And this was the third of the Conquerors Issue that was murdered in the New Forest, where the Dogs licked the blood of Naboth, there they must lick the blood of Ahab, where the sacrilege was committed, must be the place of the punishment.  
Hugh Earl of Shrewsbery 11th. Wil Rusin commanding against the Welshmen in Anglesey, kenneled his Dogs in the Church of S. Frydance, where in the morning they were found mad, the Earl shortly after fight with the enemy, was with an Arrow shot 
t Holl. 23.  dead in the eye, the rest of his body being strangely armed.  
Henry the first, the conquerors fourth Son, is his brother's Successor, he had several Children, whereof his eldest William, with his brother Richard and Sister Mary, in a calm day are 
u M. Pa f 69. Speed 459. Holl. 41.  drowned by the English shore, himself eating Lampreis dies on a surfeit, and being opened, the stink of his body and brains 
* M Par. 73. Speed 467.  poison his Physicians, one other of his Daughters mourns her virginity in a Nunnery, and dies Childless, and in the next Generation is his name forgot, Plantagenet takes the Crown.  
It is observable, that the Conqueror, all his Sons and all their Sons, died untimely deaths, (unless thou reckonest the Lamprey Surfeit of H. 2. to be natural) & what the 
x Fol. 20. in margin.  Author notes of Nabuc. and H. 8. is also true of William the Conqueror (for in the 68 after his destroying St Peter's Church at York, which was in his second year) his Name is extinct, and his Kingdom is devolved to another Nation, 
y Speed. f. 46. that the Norman time, held 69 year.  Plantagenet takes his Crown, & upon search (I fear) thou shalt find very few Families (among the many thousands) in England, who enjoy their Sacrilegious possessions of Abbeys and Impropriations beyond the 68 year, and very many that hold them not half the time, and none almost but with some notable misfortune.  
I cannot omit the Sacrilege and punishment of King John, who in the 17th year of his Reign, among other Churches, rifled the Abbeys of 
z Hol. 194. Par. f. 287.  Peterborough and Croyland; and after attempts to carry his sacrilegious wealth from Lynne to Lincoln, but passing the Washeses, the Earth in the midst of the waters opens her mouth (as for Korah and his company) and at once swallows up both Carts, Carriage, and Horses, all his Treasure, all his Regalities, all his Churchspoyle, and all the Church-spoylers, not one 
a Matt. Par fo. 287. nec pes unas evasit qui regicasam nuntiaret.  escapes to bring the King word; the King himself passes the Wash at another place, and lodges that night in Swinsteed Abbey, where the news and sickness (whereof he died) together met him, some say he was poisoned by a Monk of Swinsteed.  
William 
b Math Par. fo. 687.  Marshal Earl of Pembroke, the great Protecter both of King and Kingdom, having in the Irish war forceably taken from the Bishop of Furnes two Manors belonging to his Church, was by him much solicited to restore them; but the Earl refusing, was by the Bishop excommunicate, and so dying, was buried in the Temple Church at London. The Bishop sues to the King to return the Lands, the King requires the Bishop to absolve the Earl, and both King and Bishop goes to the Earl's grave; where the Bishop in the King's presence used these words, Oh William, which lies here snared in the bonds of Excommunication, if what thou hast injuriously taken from my Church, be with cempetent satisfaction restored either by the King, thy heirs, or friend; I then absolve thee otherwise, I ratify my sentence,  tuis semper peccatis involutus in inferno maneas condemnatus.  
The King blames the Bishop's rigour, and persuades the Sons to a restitution, but the Eldest William answered, He did not believe his Father to have got them unjustly, because possessions got in War, becomes a lawful inheritance, and therefore if the doting old Bishop hath judged falsely, upon his own head be the curse, my Father died, seized of them, and I lawful inherit them, nor will I lessen my estate.  
Which the Bishop hearing, was more grieved at the son's contumacy, than the Father's injury, and going to the King, told him, Sir, what I have said, stands immutable; the punishment of Malefactors is from the Lord. And the curse written in the Psalms, will fall heavy upon Earl William, in the next Generation shall his name be forgot, and his sons shall not share the blessing of increase and multiply, and some of them shall die miserable deaths, and the inheritance of all be dispersed and scattered, and all this my Lord, O King, you shall see even in your days.  
With what spirit the Bishop spoke it, do thou judge, for in the space of 25 years, all the five Sons of the Earl successively, according to their Birth, inherits his Earldom, and Lands, and all die Childless, the name and Family is extinct, and the Lands scattered and dispersed; and that nothing might fail of what the Bishop foretold 
c Matth. Par. 400. & 403.  Richard his second son is sore wounded, and taken Prisoner in Ireland, and there dies of his hurts.  

d Matt. Par. f. 565. Aune Dom. 1241.  Gilbert the third son just at Hertford breaks the reins of his Bridle, and falling from his Horse one foot hangs in the stirrup, and he thereby dragged about the field, till rend and torn, and so by a miserable death satisfied the Curse.  
But these examples are at too great a distance and not to be discerned, but through the perspective of Ancient History, I will therefore come nigher and view Cardinal Woolsey, who from a m ane and obscure root grew to over shadow all the subjects of England, eminent for Wit as Learning, great in the esteem and favour of his Prince, laden with home and Foreign dignities, full of wealth as years; in brief he was, while free from Sacrilege, the great and successful Counsellor of his Prince, and indeed the Catalogue of humane blessings: but about the 17th year of Henry the 8th, Woolsey by consent and licence of the King and Pope Clement the 7th, 
e Holl. f. 891. Stow. Good. f. 67.  dissolves forty small Monasteries in England, to erect two Colleges, the one in Oxford, the other in Ipswich, thou and I may think this a work of Piety, to destroy the poor Idolatrous Cells of lazy and ignorant Monks, to erect stately Cottages for learned and industrious Divines, this God must accept, and prosper both the Act and Actor. No, thou art deceived, he that would not that thou shouldest do evil, that good may come thereof, will not accept an offering commenced by Sacrilege in the ruin of 40 Religious Houses, Woolsey lays the foundation of his Colleges, but never sets up their Gates.  
About three years after the King possesseth his Palace at 
f Good f. 104. Holl. 909.  Westminster, (Whitehall,) the Great Seal is taken from him, his great wealth seized, and himself confined to a poor house at Assure, where he remained a time (saith 
g God. f. 106.  Godwin) without necessaries driven to borrow furniture for his house, money for his expenses, so as in his speech to the judges he complained, that he was driven as it were to beg his bread, from door to door: 21. Hen. 8. he is convicted in a Praemunire, all his Lands and Estate seized by the 
h Holl. 909. Good. f. 67. Good. 108.  King, his College at Ipswich, destroyed before built, that at Oxford receives some endowment and a new name from the King, but is never to be finished. In the 22. H. 8. at his Castle at Caywood, he is by the Earl of 
i Holl. 915.  Northumberland arrested of High Treason, and fent towards London, at Leicester the Lieutenant of the Tower met him, at whose sight he was much affrighted, and to prevent a public and ignominious death which he feared, he gave himself (saith 
k Mart. 304.306.  Martin) a Purge, 
* Hist. Pont. Rom. & Card. f. 1408.  Venenum recepisse, (say they that writ the lives, of the Popes & Cardinals) whereof he died, and was obscurely buried in Leicester Abbey without other memory than his Sacrilege.  
The Cardinal in dissolving his forty Monasteries had used the help of five men (besides Cromwell) whereof too afterwards 
l Good. f 67.  fought a Duel, in which one is slain, and the survivor hanged for the murder, so each died guilty of his own and the others blood; a third becomes Judas-like his own executioner, for throwing himself into a well, he is there drowned; the fourth a great Richman (to whom nothing is so terrible as poverty) lives to beg his bread from door to door; the fift, a Bishop, cruelly murdered in Ireland, by 
m Stow. abridge. f. 498.  Thomas Fitz. Garret, son to the Earl of Kildare.  
I might here remember how Tope Clement the 7th, after his voluntary consent to destroy poor Religious Houses, is himself forced out of his 
n Speed. fol. 996. Hist. Pont. Rom. & Card.  stately Palace at Rome, and being besieged at his Castle of St Angelo, is there constrained to eat Ass' Flesh, and taking such conditions as a Victorious Enemy would give, is driven to plunder his own Church to pay his Enemy's Army, and at last dies wretchedly of a miserable disease: but this is Foreign, and I tied to home examples.  
Thomas Lord Audley, received the first fruits of H. 8 his Sacrilege, for in the 24th of his Reign, the King dissolved (by what means I find not) the Priory of Christ. Church in London, and gave, saith 
o Stow. 24. H. 8.  Stow, the Church Plate & Lands to Sir Thomas Audley, who upon the dissolution of Monasteries, got that of S. James in little Walden in Essex, and made it both his Seat, and Place of his Barony, and after left it to Margaret his Daughter and Heir, first married to Henry Dudley, Son to the Duke of Northumberland, slain at St quintines, and died without Issue, and after she was second Wife to Thomas Duke of Norfolk who had issue, Thomas Howard, created Lord Walden, being his Grandfather's Title, and to credit his Mother's Inheritance upon the Scite of the Monastery, he began a goodly 
p Audly Inn.  Structure (but attended with the fate of sacrilegious foundations) for that much impairs him, and he never perfects that, he met also with other misfortunes, which betiding so Noble a Family, and not yet published to the World, are fit for thy inquiry, than my Penn.  
Cardinal Woolsey being dead, his servant Cromwell succeeds him in his Court, Favour, and Fate, as their births were alike obsure, their rise, alike eminent, so alike miserable were their downfall, wonder not at the first part of their fortune, but contemplate the later; Policy in Kings, prefers able men to high places and honour, for authority, power, and esteem of the Persons, advantages their actions; of which wise Princes reap the Harvest, the Actors get but glean, while the King makes Cromwell a Baron, his Seeretary, Lord Privy Seal, his Vicegerent in Ecclesiasticis, he doth but faciliate his own great work of dissolving 
q Speed. 10.6.  Monasteries, a business wherein Cromwell was too much versed, and unhappily too successful. Report spoke him a great Stickler for the Protestant Religion, and that although the Gospel had lost a Pillar in Queen Anne Bullen, yet was another raised in 
r Speed 1016.92.  Cromwell, for he had caused the Bible to be read, the Creed, Pater Noster, and Ten Commandments, to be learned in English, and expounded in every 
s Good. f. 146.  Church, some thought that Cromwell hoped to bury Popery in the ruins of the Abbeys, and thereby give the better growth to the more pure Protestant Religion; how pious soever his intents were in reforming Religion, yet was not the manner of effecting them, it seems, acceptable to Heaven, for by Parliament in the 31 of H. 8. he perfected his Dissolutions, and in April, in the 32 of H. 8. he is made 
t Holl. 950.  Earl of Essex, and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, high in the King's favour and esteem, yet instantly, while sitting at the Council-table, he is suddenly apprehended and sent to the Tower, whence he comes not forth, until to his 
u Goodw. fol. 174.  Execution, for in Parliament he is presently accused of Treason and Heresy, and unheard, is attainted. Some do observe that he 
x Sir Edward Cook, in his jurisdiction of Courts, f. 37. saith, that Sir Tho. Gaudy, than a grave Judge of the King's Bench, after told him, that Cromwell was commanded to attend the Chief justices, to know whether a man that was forth coming (as being in Prison) might be attainted of high Treason by Parliament, and not called to answer. The Judges answered, It was a dangerous question, and they thought a Parliament would never do it. But being by the express command●ment of the King and they pressed by the said Earl (Cromwell Earl of Essex) to answer directly, said, That if he was attainted by Parliament, it could not be questioned, whether the Party was called to answer or not; but the Party, against whom this was intended, (said he) was never questioned, but that the first man that suffered by that proceeding, was the said Cromwell himself.  procured that Law of Attainting by Parliament, without hearing the Party, and that himself was the first, that by that Law died unheard, for in July following, he was thereupon beheaded.  
Next consider, that King Henry the eight, who engrossed Sacrilege, and retailed it to Posterity, what the Pope permitted Woolsey (saith Cambden) H. 8. with the assent of his Parliament, permits himself; the first to catch the Pope, pretends charity, and good works (Colleges shall be built) the later to win the Laity in Parliament was offered with the revenue of religious houses to maintain 40 
y M. Howes his Preface to Stows Annals. Sir Ed Cooks Jurisdiction of Courts. fol. 44.  Earls, 60 Barons, 300 Knights, 40000 Soldiers, and for ever ease the Subject of Taxes, and Subsidies, both obtained their desires in dissolving, neither perform the ends promised. H. 8th had first furthered Woolsey in his dissolution, and thereby found the way to ruin all the rest.  
In the 
z Vid. the several Acts. 27. H. 8.31.  27th year of his reign, by Parliament he dissolves the lesser houses & in the 
a H. 8.  31th the great ones, in the 
b 37. H. 8. c. 4.  37th all the Colleges, Hospitals, and Free-chappells, except some few, and possesseth all their lands, goods, and treasure. For the first half of his Reign, (while free from Sacrilege) he was honoured of his Allies abroad, loved of his subjects at home, successful in his actions, and at peace, as it were, with God and Man; but after his Sacrilege (as in disfavour with both) his Subject's Rebel, first in Suffolk, after in Lincoln, Somerset, Yorkshire, and the Northern parts, as also in Ireland, such dearth of Bread and Corn in England (the Grainery of Christendom) that many die starved, which hath not been since the 40 of H. 3. And now (like Saul forsaken of God) he falls from one sin to another. Queen Katherine (the Wise of his Bosom for 20 years) must now be put away, the marriage declared void, and he desirous of sons, rather than Pillars to bear his name, marries the Lady 
c Speed. fol. 1040.  Anne Bullen, and by her had the Lady Elizabeth, & in the 27th of his Reign, a son borne dead (to his great affliction) the 19 of May, 1536. The 28th of his Reign she is beheaded, and the next day he 
d Speed. 1039.  marries the Lady Jane Seymore, who being with Child by him, she (nature unwilling to give birth to the son of such a Father) wants strength to bring forth▪ the Father Commands 
e Speed. 1040.  her inseition, and the Mother the 12 of Octob. dies to give a short life to her son, and the fixed of january, in the 31th year, the King weds the Lady Anne 
f Speed. 1039. Ibid.  of Cleve, and in July after is divorced: and in August following he marries the Lady Katherine Howard, and in December in the 33 of his Reign she is attainted, and dies on the block; and in July in the 35th of his Reign, he marries the Lady Katherine Parr. Here's Wives enough to have peopled another Canaan, 
Ibid.  had he had jacob's blessing; but his three last are childless, and the Children of the two first are by Statute declared 
g 28. H. 8. c. ●●  illegitimate, and not inheritable to the Crown.  
But himself growing aged and infirm, hopeless of more Children, and not willing to venture the support of his Crown and Family, upon a single and so weak a propped, as was his Son Prince Edward. In the 
h 35. H. 8. c. 1.  35 year of his Reign he intailes the Crown upon his Children, after his death they all successively sway his Sceptre, and all die Childless, and his Family is extinct, and like Herostratus his name not mentioned, but with his Crimes. His Crown happily descends to the issue of his eldest Sister, and a Foreign Nation (like Cyrus' his) fill his Throne.  
Among the many great and active men aiding H. 8. in his dissolution of Monasteries, & receiving great reward out of his Churchspoyle, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk was the chief, he had four wives, his first the daughter of Nevile, Marquess Mounteagle, who died without issue. By His second wife he had one Daughter, married to Stanley, Lord Montague, but died without issue. His third wife was Mary Queen Dowager of France, and Sister to Henry 8th. by her he had one son, Henry, and two Daughters, Francis and Elinor. His son was created Earl of Lincoln, but died a Child; his Daughter Francis married Grace, marquis Dorset, and after Duke of Suffolk, who had one son Henry who died young, Jane Grace his eldest Daughter married to 
i Speed. 1111. Holl. 1099.  Guildford Dudley, and was with him Beheaded about 5 Mary. Katherine his second Daughter was married to Edward Lord Seymore, Eldest Son to the Duke of Somerset, Mary his third Daughter married to Martin Keys, and died without Issue. 
k God. f. 244.  Ellenor, second Daughter to Charles Brandon, married to Clifford Earl of Cumberland a gallant Family, lately extinct.  
The Queen Dowager dying, Charles Brandon Married the Daughter and Heir of the Lord Willoughby of Eresby, who enriched him with two sons, Henry and Charles: but the Duke dying about the 36. of H. 8. left his Title and Estate to his son Henry, who enjoyed it until 5. E. 6. then dying of the Sweeting sickness, left them to his brother 
l Holl. f. 1066. God. f. 244 Speed. 1100.  Charles, who only lived to be his brother's Heir, and Duke of Suffolk; and the same day, and of the same Disease which his brother died, and with him the Title, Name, and Family of Brandon.  
The Statute of H. 8. c. 13. gives the Monastery of Sibeton in Suffolk, to the Duke of Norfolk, and the Chantry of Cobham in Kent, to the Lord Cobham, since which time how heavy the hand of Justice hath fallen upon these Noble Families, inform thyself from our Annals.  
Consider next the Duke of Somerset, Protector to Edward the sixth, Godwin in his Annals saith, 
m Godwin. fo. 252.  He was a just and pious man, a zealous Reformer of Religion, a faithful preserver of the King and Commonwealth, save that with the common Error of the time, his hands were deep in sacrilege. In the first year of 
n Stat. 1. E. 6. c. 14.  Edward the 6th, he procured the Dissolution of some Chantryes, Free-Chappells, and Hospitals, left undissolved by H. 8. In the third year, he permits (if not procures) his Brother Thomas Lord Seymore, untried, (saith 
o Godwin. fo. 227.  Goodwin) to be attainted by Parliament, and shortly after, (not unblamed) signed a Warrant for his Execution, whereupon his Brother lost his Head, and he a friend.  
The same year his zeal to Reformation, adds new sacrilege to his former; for he defaces some part of St Paul's 
p Stows Aunalls.  Church, converts the Charnell-house, and a Chapel by it, into dwelling Houses, and demolishing some Monuments there, he turns out the old bones to seek new Sepulchers in the Fields: next he destroys the Steeple, and part of the Church of St john's of Jerusalem, by Smithfield, 
Ibid.  and with the stone beginneth to build his house in the 
* Somerset House.  Strand, but as the leprosy with the Jews, with us the curse of Sacrilege, cleaves to the Consecrated stone, and they become insuccessefull, so as the Builder doth not finish his House, nor doth his Son inherit it. In the fifth year of Edward the 6th, the Duke was indicted, and found guilty of Felony, which was (saith Hollinshead) upon a Statute made the third and fourth of Edward the 6th, and since repealed, whereby to attempt the death of a Privy Counsellor, is Felony, (Godwin saith) upon the Statute of 3. H. 7. but erroneously that not extending to Barons; it is observable that this Law was but the year before passed by himself, and himself the only man that ever suffered by it. The Statute being since repealed; 
q Godwin. fo. 247.  Godwin observes and wonders that he omitted to pray the benefit of his Book, as if Heavens would not that he that had spoilt his Church, should be saved by his Clergy; and it is observable that in the Reign of Edw. 6th, none of the Nobility dies under the Rod of Justice, but the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admiral, all the Vncles the King had, and their Crimes comparatively were not heinous.  
Did these men die the common death of all men, or are they visited after the manner of all men? if not, believe they provoked the Lord, and consider, that if they sinned in the first profanation, thou that continuest their act, canst not be innocent.  
Here thou mayest see God observing a Decorum in his punishment of Sacrilege, the Issue of the Conqueror are strangely (almost miraculously) slain in the New-Forrest, where their Father committed the Sacrilege. Woolsey, that by the King's licence and power, had destroyed 40 Monasteries, is by the King's power ruined, and at last driven to seek entertainment, and an obscure grave in a Monastery; his Agents that had thrust themselves into his sacrilegious employment, are themselves their own Executioners, guilty of their own Bloods.  
Pope Clement the 7th, that willingly permitted the spoil of 40 poor Monasteries, to erect two Rich Colleges, is himself necessitated to Plunder his own rich Church, to preserve his poor decayed Person.  
The Lord Cromwell, and Duke of Somerset, commit their Sacrilege by Acts of Parliament, and by Acts of Parliament they perish every one by the Sword, wherewith he strikes.  
And since in the Acts of Parliament for dissolution of Monasteries, the whole Kingdom was involved either by their Personal consent as Barons, or their implicit consent in the representative body in the House of Commons, we have just cause to fear and pray, lest God still observing his order, and turning our Artillery upon ourselves, should make use of a Parliament (whereby our Fathers rob him) to destroy us their Children.  
I have here given thee instance only of such as were the first Actors in the Violation and subversion of Monasteries, lest therefore thou shouldest think the crime and punishment endeth with them. Consider with me the condition and success both of our Commonwealth in general, and of Private Families in particular before the Dissolutions, and observe them after, and we shall find just cause to think there is a cursed thing amongst us; For while our Religious houses stood, they (employing their Revenues according to their Donors' direction) opened wide their Hospitable gates to all Comers, and without the charge of a Reckoning, welcomed all Travellers, until the Statute of 1. Edw. 1. restrained and limited them, and casting their Bread upon the Waters, they relieved the Neighbouring poor without the care of the two next Justices of Peace, or the curse of a Penal Law; while they stood, the younger Children both of Lords and Commons were provided; for without the ruin of their Father's Estate, or (almost) a charge to their Parents, and not left (as now) often to an unworthy, necessitous, and vicious course of life: we had then no new Laws, (the offspring of new Vices) to erect Houses of correction for lewd and 
r Vid. 43. Eliz. c. 3.  vagrant Persons, to provide stock to bind poor Children Prentices, or to make weekly Leavyes, to maintain the weak, lame, indigent, and impotent People, to our new charge of an Annual Subsidy at least, for these were provided for, those prevented by the charity of our Religious Houses, and then the Families and Estates of our Nobility and Gentry continued long through very many descents. But when covetous sacrilege got the upper hand of superstitious charity, and destroyed all our Monasteries, all our Religious Houses, the preservers of Learning, both Divine and Humane, by their Learned works and laborious Manuscripts, the suppressors of Vice, by their strict, regular, and exemplar life: though some, nay many among them Sons of Ely, made the offerings of the Lord to stink before the People. Then all their Houses, all their Lands, Appropriations, Tithes, and Oblations, 
〈…〉 Par. Churches 9232. Cam. Brit foe. 162. 9284. whereof impropriate. 3845.  coming into the King's hands, Policy (to prevent a restitution) distributes them among the Laity, some the King exchanges, some he sells, others he gives away; and by this means, (like the dust fling up by Moses) they presently disperse all the Kingdom over, and at once becomes curses both upon the Families and Estates of the owners; they often viciously spending on their private occasions, what was piously intended for public Devotion; insomuch that within Twenty year's next after the Dissolution, more of our Nobility and their Children have been attainted, and died under the Sword of Justice, than did from the Conquest, to the Dissolution, being almost five hundred years; so as if thou examine the List of the Barons in the Parliament of the 27. H. 8. thou shalt find very few of them, whose Son doth at this day inherit his Father's Title and Estate, and of these few, many to whom the King's favour hath restored what the rigorous Law of attainder took both Dignity, Lands, and Posterity. And doubtless the Commons have drunk deep in this Cup of deadly Wine, but they being more numerous, and less eminent, are not so obvious to observation.  
Thou hast seen the insuccesse of H. 8. and his Family, and mayest observe his sacrilegious wealth not to thrive better.  
Mr 
s Cam●den. fo. 163.  Cambden in his Britannia, saith, that in the time of H. 8. after the Dissolution of the lesser Houses, there were remaining 645 Monasteries, (Monuments of our Ancestors piety) built to the honour of God, and propagation of the Christian Faith, Learning, and the relief of the Poor, as also 96 Colleges, (besides those in the University) 110 Hospitals, and 2374 Chantryes and Free-Chappells. All which, except some few Colleges, Free-Chappells, and Chantryes, with all their Lands and Wealth, came to H. 8. the Annual value of the Lands then being very Vast, their Goods and Personal Estate exceeding great, besides the Plunder of Shrine inestimable, when the Pearl, Gold, and precious stones of one Shrine filled two 
t Godwin. fo. 159.  Chests so as each took eight strong men (saith Mr Cambden) to carry it.  
And although the dissolving of Chantryes, Colleges, and Free-Chappels, in the 37. of H. 8. his Reign did not yield him a Crop equal to the Vintage of his former Reformations; yet was his Harvest better than the Glean of Ruth, though among full sheaves. 
u Speed fol 1011.  Speed saith he had 12 Barrels filled with Gold and silver, which Cardinal Woolsey provided for the Pope, Godwin remembers 118840 he had of the Clergy for their Fine in a Praemunire, besides the great benefit of Forfeitures that accrued by the attainders of many great men, and the multitude of Lones, Taxes, and Subsidies, he received from his Subjects, being more (saith Mr Cambden, and Mr Howes) than all the Kings had in 500 years before; yet all this access of wealth, added to that Mass of 500000 left him in ready money by his Father, as appears by the Close-Roll of 3. H. 8. (saith Sir Edw. 
x Cook. Jurisdiction of Courts. fol. 198.  Cook) could not preserve him from want, (the certain attendant on sacrilegious wealth) wherewith he is so sore pressed, that about the 36 year of his Reign, of all the Kings of England, he alone, Coins not only base 
* Non tantum stanneam cuprinamque sed coreaceam pecuaiam solus omni● regum Ang procuders coactus est.  Tin and Coppar, but Leather money.  
And it is observed that since the accession of Abbeys and Impropriations to the Crown, even the Crown Lands (which formerly have been thought sufficient to support the ordinary charge of the Crown,) are now so wasted (absit invidia dictis) as they will scarce defray the ordinary charge of the King's household. And while such bitter streams flow from sacrilegious Wells, though digged by King's Subjects, that fin their Cisterns from thence, cannot expect to drink sweet Waters.  
Reynerus 
y Apostolatus Benedict. in Ang. fo. 227. & 228.  tells us, and upon good credit, that at the dissolution H. 8. divided part of the Church spoils among 260 Gent. of Families in one part of England, and at the same time Thomas Duke of Norfolk, rewards the service of Twenty of his Gentlemen, with the grant of 40 a year out of his own Inheritance, and that while not sixty of the King's Donees, had a Son owning his Father's Estate, every one of the Dukes, hath the son of his own Loins, Flourishing in his Father's Inheritance, and that he could have set down their several names had conveniency required it.  
Thou mayst here expect I should observe the ill success of particular private men, possessors and owners of Impropriations and Scites of Religious Houses, but to set down all, would make the porch much bigger than the House, a disproportion, I fear, among other Errors I am already guilty of, and to set down but a few, would displease thee, while I discover the nakedness only of thee, thy Parents or Friends. But do thou, and let every man observe, how often Impropriations and Religious houses; in a short time change and shift their owners, like the Ark not resting, either with the men of 
z Sam. ●.  Ashdod, Gath, nor Eckron, but wearies them out with emrod's, and Mice; curses upon their persons & Estates, but returned to Bethshemeth and Kiriahjearim to its own place, to the Priest and Levite, not only Obed-Edom, but even all Israel is blessed.  
And that thou mayst neither doubt, nor yet wonder, at the insuccesse of Sacrilegious Persons, first weighing what David prayed against those that did but say, 
a Psalm. 83.  Let us take to ourselves the houses of God into our possession; next remember, the many and grievous Curses imprecated by Founders of Religious Houses, and those seconded by their spiritual Mother the 
b 17. E. 1. c. 6.  Church, she enjoined it by the natural Parent, in several Acts of Parliament, and canst thou hope good from their blessings, and not fear evil from their Curses? If thou thinkest the Founder's Idolatrous, the Church Popish, and therefore their curses not regardable, let that in 
c Ezra. 6.  Ezra rectify thy Error, where thou shalt find Darius finishing what Cyrus began, the second Temple at Jerusalem, then restoring what Nabuchadnezzar had taken, all the Golden and Silver Vessel, than he gives Cattles, Corn, Wine, Oil, etc. for sacrifices, and adds this curse upon the violators, 
d Ezra. 6. ●  And the God that hath caused his name to dwell there, destroy all, King and People, that put to their hand, to alter and destroy this house of God, which is at Jerusalem, there thou mayst observe both an Idolater giving, and a Heathen cursing, yet is his gift acceptable, and his curse prevalent, for thou shalt find Antiochus 
e 1. Mac. 6.  Epiphanes his Armies destroyed, himself dejected and complaining even to death, of his great tribulation and misery, acknowledgeth that they befall him for his Evil done at Jerusalem, for he took thence the Golden Altar, the Table of the Shewbread, the vessels of Gold and silver, as thou mayst read in the 1. Chap. 1. 
f Mac. 1.1.11.12.  Mac. and himself dying of a most loathsome disease. And shortly after his son 
g Mac. 7.4.  Antiochus Eupater is slain, and in the same Chapter thou mayst observe Nicanor threatening to burn up the Temple, and presently he first, & after, all his Army is slain, not one escapeth, the head and right hand of Nicanor, which had been lift up against the 
h 2. Mac. 3.  Temple, is cut off & hung up towards Jerusalem. Heliodorus is sent to jerusalem by Seleucus King of Asia, to take the Treasure out of the Temple, and while in the Temple disposing the treasure, he is smitten of God, and ready to die, until Onias the Highpriest, at the entreaty of Friends, offers sacrifice for him, and obtains his life, and Heliodorus returns to the King, and declares what befell him, the King, yet thirsting for the Money of the Temple, would send another, and demanding of Heliodorus whom; he answered, thy enemy or a 
i 2. Mac. 5.  Traitor, for if he escape with life, he shall be sure to be scourged, so certain is the punishment of Sacrilege.  

k 2. Ma. 8.33.  Calisthenes' attempting to burn the Temple, set fire on the gates, and after is himself burnt by the jews.  

l 2. Mac. 4.39.  Lysimacus, called the Church-Rober, commits many 
m 2. Mac. 4.2.  saeriledges by the instigation of Menelaus; is slain by the 
n 2. Mac. 13.5678.  treasury of the Temple, and his instigator, is by Antiochus put to a strange Death. For in Berea was a Tower 50 Cubits high, full of Ashes, with a Round instrument that went down into the Ashes, wherein they put Sacrilegious persons, and Menelaus (saith the Text) having committed sins against the Altar, whose Fire and Ashes are holy, receives his Death by Ashes, not having a Burial in the Earth.  
Alcimus even in his Act of Sacrilege, while pulling down the 
o 1. Ma. 9.55.  Temple walls, is stuck with a Palsy and dies in torment.  
Jason that burned the Porch, Demetrius and other Sacrilegious persons all fall under the single Curse of one Heathen: and dost thou think to scape so many Curses of a Christian Church which twice a year (being so directed by Parliament) curses the violators of Churehes, and Church Liberties.  
But if these judgements and examples cannot fright thy covetous soul from Sacrilege, but thy desires of being rich sway thee, then let thy provident good husbandry so far prevail with thee, as not to meddle with God's and the Levites portion, the Church patrimony; but even out of Temporal and Worldly respects for the good of thee, thy Children, Neighbours, and posterity forbear (what pretences soever are made) the dissolving Bishoprics and Deaneries.  
Remember that of all the specious pretences and large promises made both by Woolsey and H 8. upon their several Dissolutions, not any one of them is performed; Woolsey neither settles his Colleges, nor H. 8. ease his Subjects of Loans, Taxes and Impropriations, maintains no Soldiers for defence of the Kingdom, nor disposes the Lands, as the Statute directs, to the honour and pleasure of Almighty God, nor indeed to the profit of the Kingdom; if thou weighest the profit and conveniency the Public had before, with what they have now, the burdens and charges that we have since groaned under, and formerly not known; but that evil is only to be lamented, not cured, may we happily prevent the like for the future.  
The Lands and Revenue of Bishoprics & Deaneries, clogged with long Leases under small Rents, can give but little help in Pay of the Vast Public Debt; and that with greater damage to the Commonwealth, than the drain of private Purses can be, for this only weakens particulars, and for the present; that ruins generally, and for ever for the Priesthood is not with us (as with the Jews) entailed upon Aaron and his Sons: but thine, mine, his, the sons of Nobles, Gentlemen, and Peasants, while all alike able, are all alike interested in the Church's preferment, which in our Nation is the sole Spure, the only reward for Learning, and happily provides for those which otherwise would be burdens to their Parent, mischiefs to the Kingdom, while Colleges, Bishoprics, and Deaneries, continue, thou and thy Neighbour continuest thy Lease at small Rents, thy Sons and Grandchild renews it at easy Fines, and by the accustomed charity of thy Ecclesiastic Landlord, thy continued Lease, not clogged with Liveries, Primer seisins, and Wardships (the curse of Tenors) equals, if not betters an Inheritance.  
But Colleges, Bishoprics, and Deaneries dissolved, their Lands, and Houses must be assigned (as were Monasteries and impropriations) to this Lord or that Courtier, or to that or this Committee-man, and then thy rent (if thou be'st continued Tenant) must be racked to the highest rate, till thou ruined by paying so great a Rent, thy Landlord, by receiving the Church-Revenue, and all we, while under the rod for the first, be guilty of a second Nationall Sacrilege; for shall we not believe this Nationall War and general ruin, to be for a general and Nationall sin, which cannot be the acts of private and partisular men though infinitely multiplied, but must proceed from the Acts of the universal Nation, and such I know none, but that Sacrilege of destroying some Churches, some Chappells, and robbing others of their Tithes and Endowments, 
27. H. 8. 31. H. 8.  which is not only connived at, but made lawful by our Acts of Parliament, to which even every one in the whole Kingdom, by our own Law, is said to be privy and consenting, and thereby guilty of the subsequent Sacrilege, and then do thou judge, whether another Act for dissolution (which God prevent) will not be a step to another Nationall Sacrilege, and that to another Scourge; therefore if Hophny and Phineas have sinned, and Eli not reproved them, let them all three die, yea in one day, for we have Text and precedent for that, but neither, that the order should perish.  
To conclude, do thou consider, that while we detain Tithes from the Church, and forbidden Aaron to counsel Moses, whether we trespass not upon the Property and Liberty of the Church, and shall not God visit for these things, when thou with thy Sword maintainest against thy Brother (If not against thy King) thy Property of Goods, and Liberty of Subject? But that God may withdraw his Visitations, and thou sheathe thy Sword, and the King receive the Allegiance and Tribute due from His Subjects, His Subjects their Protection and Liberties from the King; May King and Subject agree to return God and his Church what is due to them, and may the first Actor, in restoring God his right, be by God first restored to his own right.  
Other things (and these more perfectly) I would have observed to thee, had not London and Oxford, the Records and I been at so great a distance. Let therefore thy goodness excuse, what is either omitted or mistaken by not viewing the Records, and for my other Errors, I beg thy pardon, as I would have done for meddling with this subject, fit for a Pulpit then my Pen; but I have often heard it slighted from the Levite, as Preaching his own profit, and therefore thought it might take better (though worse delivered) from a Lay hand, no ways concerned by it, but in the general Calamity of our Commonwealth. Farewell.  
CLEM: SPELMAN.   

De non temerandis Ecclesiis. OF THE RIGHTS AND RESPECT DUE UNTO THE CHURCH.  
INsomuch as the rights and duties that belong to our Churches are in effect contained under the name of a Rectory or Parsonage: I will first define, what I conceive a Rectory or Parsonage to be, according to the usual form and manner thereof.  
A Rectory or Parsonage, is a 
a Ploughed. Comment. in Quare Impedit per Grendom, etc.  Spiritual living, 
A Rectory what it is.  composed of Land, Tithe, and other 
b Oblatio est omne quod ex. hihetur in cultu Det, Tho. Aq. 2.7. q. 85.3.3. etc. and Vrban in his epist. Tom. 1. Concil. And Lands are so termed, Ezek. 45.1. and Tithes, Num. 18.24. So also the Caronists and Civilians expound them, Concil. Aurel. cap. 7. Burcha. lib. 3. cap. 129. & 143. Et Lex. Jarid. in verb. oblatio.  Oblations of the people, 
c Levit. 27.28.  separate or dedicate to God in any Congregation, for the 
d Touching divine worship and works of charity.  service of his Church there, and for the maintenance of the Governor or Minister thereof, to whose charge the same is committed.  
By this definition it appears, that the ordinary living or revenue of a Parsonage, is of 3 sorts: the one in Land, commonly called the Glebe: another in Tithe, which is a set and regular part of our goods rendered to God. The third, in other offerings and oblations bestowed upon God and his Church, by the people, either in such arbitrable proportion as their own devotion moveth them, or as the laws or customs of particular places do require them.  
2. 
Tithes how due.  Though I invert order a little, I will first speak of Tithes, because it is Gods ancient demaine, and the nobler part of this his inheritance, founded primarily, upon the Law of nature, (as the other be also after their manner,) For the Law of Nature teacheth us that God is to be honoured: and that the honour due unto him, cannot be performed without Ministers, nor the Ministers attend their function without maintenance. And therefore seeing God is the supreme Lord and possessor of all, 
Gen. 14.19.  and giveth all things unto us that we are maintained with; it is our duty both in point of Justice and Gratuity, to render something bacl again unto him, as acknowledging this his supremacy and bounty; as honouring him for his goodness; as a testimony of the worship, love, and service we own him; and lastly, as a means whereby these duties and services may be performed to him. This, I say, the very Law of Nature teacheth us to do: and this the Law of GOD requireth also at our hands: but what the set portion of our goods should be, that thus we ought to render bacl unto God, I cannot say the Law of 
a Yet there be divers natural reasons that commend this number (for this purpose) above other.  Nature hath determined that. But the wisdom of all the Nations of the World, the practice of all Ages, the example of the patriarchs 
b Gen. 14.20.  ABRAHAM and 
c Gen. 28.22.  JACOB, the 
d Leu. 27.30. and 32. Deut. 12.6, & 11. Malachy 3.10  approbation and commandment of Almighty GOD himself, and the constant 
e Declared by the Fathers and Counsels.  resolution of his CHURCH universally, hath taught and prescribed us to render unto him the Tenth part: and that this Tenth part or Tithe, being thus assigned unto him, leaveth now to be of the nature of the other nine parts (which are given us for our worldly necessities) and becometh as a thing dedicate and appropriate unto God. For it is said, Levit. 27.30. All the tithe of the land, both of the seed of the greund, and of the fruit of the trees, is the Lords: yea more than so, It is holy unto the Lord. And again (v. 32.) Every Tithe of Bullocke, and Sheep, and of all that goeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He saith, holy unto the Lord; not that they were like the sanctified things of the Temple, which none might touch but the Anointed Priests) but Holy and separate from the use and injury of secular persons, and to be disposed only, to and for the peculiar-service and peculiar Servants of GOD. And therefore in the 28. verse, it is said, to be separate from the common use, because it is separate, and set apart unto the Lord.  
3. But some happily will say, that this use of Tithing rises out of the levitical Law, and so ended with it. 
Tithes originally not levitical   
I answer, that it was received and practised by Abraham and 
a Jacob vowet to give tithes, Gen. 28.22. And Joseph showeth he per formeth his vow. Antiquit. lib. 1. cap. 27.  Jacob divers hundred years before it came to the Levites. For it is said that Abraham gave tithe to Melchisedeck, Gen. 14.20. And that Levi himself paid tithe also in the loins of Abraham, Heb. 7.9. Melchisedeck was the image of CHRIST, and his Church; Abraham of the congregation of the Faithful. Therefore though Levi received tithes afterward, by a particular grant from GOD, for the time: yet now he paid them generally with the congregation, in the loins of Abraham unto the Priesthood of Christ, here personated by Melchisedeck: which being perpetual, and an image of this of the Gospel, may well note unto us, that this duty of Tithe, ought also to be perpetual. And therefore 
b Him 35. in Gen.  chrysostom saith, that Abraham herein was OUR tutor: not the tutor of the Jews. And insomuch as Abraham paid it not to a Priest that offered a levitical Sacrifice of Bullocks and Goats: but to him that gave the Elements of the Sacrament of the Gospel, 
c The Scripture only mentioneth Bread and wine to be given by Melchi sedeck to Abraham: But Josephus showeth, that he gave him also divers other rich gifts, Antr●●● lib. 1. cap 18.  bread and wine: it may also well intimate unto us, to what kind of Priest we are to pay our tithes: namely to him that ministereth unto us the Sacrament of bread and wine, which are only those of the Gospel, and not the levitical Priests. So that our tithe paid in this kind, cannot be said levitical: as also for that the levitical tithes, were only of things 
d Leu. 37.30, & 31.  renewing and increasing: whereas Abraham and Jacob paid them of all: as if they had followed the commandment of the Apostle; Let him that is taught in the Word, make him that hath taught him partaker of 
e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  ALL his goods Gal. 6.6.  
God also requireth this duty of tithe by his own mouth, as of old belonging unto him, before the Levites were called to the service of the Tabernacle: and before they were named in Scripture. For they are not named till Exodus. 38.21. And it is said in Exodus 22.29. Thine abundance of thy liquor shalt thou not keep bacl: meaning Tithes and first fruits, and therefore Hierome doubteth not so to translate it; Thy Tithes and first Fruits shalt thou not keep bacl. And in this manner of speech, the word Keep bacl, showeth that it was a thing formerly due unto GOD: for we cannot say, that any thing is kept bacl, or with holden that was not due before. Therefore we find no original commandment of giving tithe unto GOD: but upon the first mentioning of them in Leviticus, they are positively declared to be His, as a part of His Crown, and ancient demaine; for it is there said, Cap. 27.30. All the tithe of the Land is the Lords. And Moses commandeth not the people a new thing: but declareth the Right that of old belonged to GOD: namely, that All the tithes of the land was his.  
Other phrases of Scripture do confirm this; for afterward when tithes came to be assigned to the Levites: God doth not say, The children of Israel shall give their tithes to the Levites: but he saith, Behold I have given them to the Levites. And continuing this his claim unto them, 
Vum. 18.21, 14, & 26.  against those that many hundred years after disseised him of them: he complaineth, Malachy, 3.8. That they that withheld their tithes from the Levites, spoiled him himself.  
But having handled this argument more largely in a greater work: I will here close it up with opposing against these kinds of Adversaries, not only the reverend authority of those ancient and most honourable Pillars of the Church SS. 
a Ambros. in Serm. quadra●es.  Ambrose, 
b August. in Serm. de temp. ● 29. & alias.  Augustine, 
c Hieron in Ma●●. 3.  Hierome, and 
d Chrysost, in ●pist. ad Heb. Hom. 12. & ●om. 35. in ●●n.  chrysostom, (who though they run violently with Saint Paul, against such ceremonies, as they conceived to be levitical; yet when they come to speak of Tithes, admit, maintain, and command the use thereof:) But also the resolution of many ancient 
e Roman Con●●l. 4. Aurelian. 1. Tarracon. ●ub Horm. Me●iomatricis, toledan. Agrip●in. cap 6. His●alens. Montis. ●o●clus. 2. Va●entinum sub Leone 4. Rothomag. cap. 3. Cavallon. cap. 18. M●g●●●● cap. 20.  Counsels, and a multitude of other 
f Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian. Gregory, etc.  Fathers and Doctors of the Church in their several ages: all of them concurring in opinion, that Tithes belong justly unto GOD; and many of them commanding all men even upon peril of their souls not to withhold them: which Argument 
† See this Sermon in the end of 〈…〉.  S. Augustin himself pathetically maintaineth, in a particular Sermon of his to this purpose. And though it be a great question among the learned, whether they be due in quot a part, iure divino (which requireth a larger discourse) yet I never read of many that impugned them absolutely. 
* C●●●er Hist. lib. 2. c. 11.  Lieutardus, who lived about 1000 years after Christ, taught the payment of them to be superfluous and idle, and then growing desperate, drowned himself, as it were to give us a badge of this Doctrine.  
4. Touching 
x Oblations and offering.  oblations and offerings. The Fathers under 
g Viban. Epist. circiter Ann. 〈…〉.  this name accounted all things, that were given or dedicated to the service of God. And in the first ages of Christian religion (after the great persecutions) the Church by this means began so to abound in riches. that the good Emperors 
a Constantine and Valentinsan made laws that rich men which were able to support the charges of the Commonwealth, should not be admitted into religious houses, because their possessions and goods were thereby amortized.  themselves, were constrained to make laws (not unlike our statutes of Mortemaine) to restrain the excess thereof: for fear of impoverishing their temporal estate. In those days, many Churches had Treasuries for keeping these oblations (as the Storehouses at Jerusalem, appointed by 
b 2 Chron. 31.11.  Hezechias, for the Temple) but the succeeding Ages, contracted them into Chests: and in these later times, the Parson's pocket may well enough contain them. I shall not need, therefore, to spend many words in a small matter: for all the Oblations now in use, are in effect the twopenny Easter Offerings, and a few other such like: which because the owners of Appropriate Parsonages shall not ignorantly convert unto their own benefit: I will show them why they were paid, and why they have them.  
Saint Paul ordained in the churches of Galatia and Corinth, that every one upon the Lord's day should yield somewhat to God for the Saints. 1. Cor. 16.2.  
But this (being once a week) came too thick and too often about. Therefore in 
c Tertullian. in Apologetico.  Tertullia's time the use was to do it monthly, and (at last) at pleasure. But it was ever the ancient use of the Primitive Church (as appeareth by 
d Justinus in Apol. 21 HIst. Eccles.  Justin and Cyprian) that all that come to the holy Communion, did according to their abilities, offer something of their substance to God, for charitable uses and maintenance of the Ministers. Therefore. 
e Sermone 1. de Eleemosynis.  Cyprian sharply taxeth a rich Matron, that received the Communion, and offered nothing. Locuples & dives & dominicum celebrare te credis, quae 
f He calleth the treasury Corban, of that at the Temple of Jerusalem.  Corban omnino non respicis etc. What? (saith he) art thou able and rich? and dost thou think that thou celebratest the Lord's Supper, which bringest nothing to the Treasury? So Irenaeus saith) 
g Novi Testaments novam docuit (scil. Christus) oblationem: quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offered Deo, ei qus aelimenta nobis praestat; primitiaes suorum munerum in novo teslamento.  That it was the use of the Church through the world in his time, and received from the Apostles; to offer something of the blessings that they lived by, as the first fruits thereof, to him that gave these things unto them. Which 
h Vide Zanchium lib. 1. de cultu. Dei extern.  Zanchius understandeth to be meant of offerings at the Communion: given to holy uses, and for relief of the poor of the Church: commending it for an excellent custom, and complaining that it is now discontinued. But to this end, and in imitation hereof, are our Easter and Communion offerings (as also those, at, and for Christen, Burials, etc. which I will not now speak further of) at this day made, and therefore let Proprietaries consider with what conscience they can swallow and digest them.  
.5 Touching the land, glebe, 
Of Glebe Land and houses belonging to Parsonages.  and houses, belonging to Parsonages, (which I would have called Gods fixed inheritance, but that I see it is movable:) I cannot say that they are Gods ancient domains, in the same form that tithes are, and as our Clergy enjoyeth them, but the warrant and ground thereof, riseth out of the word of God; who not only gave us a precedent thereof, when he appointed Cities for the Levites to dwell in, with a convenient circuit of fields for the maintenance of their Cattle, Num. 35.2, etc. but commanded also the Children of Israel (and in them all the Nations of the world:) that in division of their land, they should offer an oblation to the Lord, an holy portion of the Land for the Priest to dwell on, and to build the house of GOD upon: Ezek. 45.1, & 4. So that the houses and lands that our Ancestors have dedicated to God in this manner, for the Churches and Ministers of this time: are now also his right and just inheritance, as well as those which the Israelites assigned for the house of God, and Levites of that time; and cometh upon the same reason and in lien thereof. But because it is uncertain when and how they were brought into the Church, I will say something touching that point.  
In the time of the Apostles the use was (as appeareth Acts 2.45. & Acts. 4.34, & 35.) to sell their lands, and bring the money only, 
How lands came to the Churches.  to the Apostles. For the Church being then in persecution, and the Apostles not to remain in any particular place, but to wander all over the world, for preaching the Gospel: they could not possess  inheritances: and therefore received only the money they were sold for, distributing it as occasion served. But after when the Church obtained a little rest, and began to be settled: 
a It appeareth by the Epistles of Pius and Vrban who lived about the year of Christ 230. that the Church of Rome had then begun to retain lands in this manner upon this reason: and it may well be, for that Origen and Eusebius show, that Churches had then possessions.  it found much casualty in pecuniary contributions, and choosed therefore rather to retain the Lands themselves, given for the maintenance of God's Priests and Ministers: then (by suffering the same to be sold) to furnish the time present with abundance, and leave the future time to hazard and uncertainty. Hereupon the Fathers in the 
b Edicta Constantine & Lucinis Impp. Eus. lib. 10. cap. 5.  Primitive Church, as well before Constantine (as appeareth by his own Edicts, and by 
c Ortgen speaketh of rents of the Church: Hom. 31. in Mar.  Origen, 
d Eusebius of an house belonging to the Church of Antiech that Paulus Saemosatenus in the time of Aurelianus the Emperor (about 30 years before Constantine) wrongfully invaded. Lib. 7. cap 24.  Eusebius, and the Epistles of 
e Read the note (a) next afore.  Pius, and 
f Read the note (a) next afore.  urban) as after: began to accept and retain the lands thus given, and to leave them over to their successors for a perpetual Dowry of the Church. And this upon experience was found to be so godly and worthy a course that it not only received the applause of all succeeding ages: But commendeth for ever unto us their temperance, in desiring no more than for present necessity, their zeal for providing for posterity, and their great wisdom, (or rather, Prophetical spirit) which foresaw so long before hand, that devotion though it were at one time hot and fervent, yet, at another it might be cold enough: and therefore when time served, they would by this means provide that the Church for ever, should have of her own, to maintain herself withal. Upon this ensued many godly provisions for endowment of Churches, and for annexing their live so unto them, as neither the variety of time, nor the impiety of man (if it were possible) should ever have divorced them; as appeareth by a multitude of ancient Counsels, Canons, Statutes, and decrees of the 
g Synod. Reman. sub Symacho. 103. Episceporun circiter An. Christ. 503. tota contra invasores Ecclesiarum. Concil. Aurelianens. 4. Ann. 543. c. 19 & 34. Conc. Meldens. cap. 5. Burch. lib. 11. cap. 16. Concil. Gangrenes. cap. 8. Bur. lib. 11. cap. 20. Concil. Mogunt. cap. 3. 6. 7. & plurima alia.  Church, 
h See the two Edicts of Constantine and Licimus Empp. Euseb. lib. 10. cap. 5. And the laws of Constant: Theodos: Justi Carel: Magn: and many other.  Emperors, and 
i To pass over foreign Princes, our own in former times have almost successively confirmed thames  Princes, to that purpose. Therefore whilst the world burned so with that sacred fire of devotion, towards the advancement of the glory of God: that every man desired to sanctify his hand, in the building of Churches, lest such holy monuments for want of due maintenance, should in process of time become, either contemptible, or unprofitable, It was at length ordained, in 
k Si quis in agro suo, aut habet, aut postulat habere diaecesim, trimùm & terras ei deputet sufficienter, & clericos: qui ibidem sua officia impleant, ut sacratu locis reverentia condigna tribuatur. Aur. Conc. c. 23. in Conc. Tom. 2. ubi nota quod dioecesis accipitur pro libertate condendi oratoria vel Ecclesias itaque in argumento hutus capituli oratorium exponitur.  Aurel. Council. 4. (An. 545.) cap. 3, And 
l Tom. Concil. 1.  Concil. Valentin, (An 855) cap. 9, That, whosoever builded a Church, should assign unto it a 
* Coloniam vestitam.  Ploughland, furnished for the maintenance of the Parson thereof. By virtue of these Counsels (as I take it) were the Founders of Churches in France first compelled to assure Live to those Churches. And it was also provided by the third Council of 
m Concil. Tolet. 3. c. 15.  Toledo in Spain, that no Bishop might consecrate any Church, till sufficient maintenance (which 
n Chrysost. hom. 18. in Acta.  chrysostom calleth the Dowry of the Bride) were assigned to it.  
But because these were foreign, and Provincial Counsels, not General: they bond not our Country, otherwise then by doctrine and example. Therefore it was here decreed afterward, to the same effect in a 
o Syn. Lond. ca 16. Antiq. Britan. ca 34.  Synod at London under Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury, Anno Domini 1105. H. 1.3. And though the laws of our Church began then first (as farre as I yet can find) to constrain our Countrymen to give Endowments to the Churches that they builded; yet we were taught before (by the Custom and Example of our precedent Ancestors, as well as by our duty, out of the Word of God) to do the same: as appeareth by many Precedents, whereof I will only allege one (but above others, that most famous) of 
* Alias Adulphus.  ETHELWULPHUS, King of West-Saxony, who (in the year of our Lord 855.) as 
p Ingulf. in Hist. Croil.  Ingulphus Saxo, and 
q Sim Dunelm. citat. Antiquit. Brit. ca 27.  Simeon Dunelmens'. report, by the advice and agreement of all his Bishops and Nobility: Gave not only the tithe of the goods, but the 
r Decimam mansionem ubi minimum sit.  tenth part of the Land through his Kingdom for ever, to God and the Churches, free from all secular services, taxations, and impositions whatsoever: In which kind of religious magnificence, as our succeeding Kings have also abounded: so have they from 
s As appeareth in their several laws, and namely 15 times in Edw. 3. reign.  time to time, as well by Parliament Laws, as by their Royal Charters, confirmed these and other the Rights of the Church, with many solemn 
t See the Stat. of 25. Edw. 1. in Rastals Abridgement tit. Confirmat. 3. And Sententia lata super Chartas.  vows and imprecations against all that should ever attempt to violate the same. Therefore if these things had not been primarily due unto God by the rule of his word, yet are they now His. and separate from us, by the voluntary gift and dedication of our ancient Kings and Predecessors: as was the 
u Nehe. 10.32.  tribute of a third part of a shekel, which Nehemiah and the Jews out of their free bounty covenanted yearly to give unto God for the service of his house. For, as Saint Peter 
x Acts 5.4.  saith to Ananias: Whilst these things remained, they appertained unto us, and were in our own power: but now, when we have not only vowed them, but delivered them over into the hands and possession of Almighty God (and that, not for superstitious and idle orders, but merely for the maintenance of his public divine worship, and the Ministers thereof, (they are not now arbitrable, nor to be revoked by us, to the detriment of the Church.  
6. 
Churches and their live dedicate to God.  Churches being erected and endowed: they and their live, were (as I say) dedicated unto God. First, by the solemn vow and oblation of the Founders: then by the solemn act of the Bishop, who to separate these things from secular and profane employments, not only ratified the vow and oblation of the Patron or Founders: but consecrated also the Church itself: using therein great devotion, many blessings, prayers, works of charity, and some Ceremony, for sanctifying the same to divine uses. Therefore also have the ancient 
a See the 6. Syn. Rom. of 103 Bishops (above 1000 years since) wholly against violaters of Churches and Church-rights. And see many to this purpose. Burchar. lib. 11.  Counsels added many fearful curses against all such as should either violate it, or the Rights thereof.  
This consecration, Master 
b Demonst. problem. tit. Templum sect. 3.  Perkins calleth a Dedication, but confesseth it to have been in use in this manner, about the year of Christ 300. (which is within the time of the Primitive Church) only he admitteth not, that it was then performed with Ceremony and the sign of the Cross; which here I will not stand upon, nor to show the greater antiquity thereof, (though I think it may well be proved.) For 
* In Epist. ad Constant Imp.  Athanasius being in those days accused by the Arians, of ministering the Communion in a Church not consecrated, excused himself to have done it upon necessity. And 
c Histor. suae lib. 1. c. 30. & Sozom. lib. 3. c. 25. Niceph l. 8. cap 50. Hist. Triper l. 3. fol. 331.  Theodoret reporteth, that Constantine (than likewise) commanded, all those that were at the Council of Tyrus, should come to 
* High asalem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. consecrare.  Aelia: and that others should be assembled from all parts, for 
* Euseb. in orat. de laudib. Constant.  Consecration of the Churches builded by him. Which showeth it to be so notorious and general an use at that time, and to have such universal approbation; as it could not, but have a root also from elder ages, though there cannot be many precedents found thereof, for that the Christians being then in persecution, might hardly build, or dedicate any Churches, but were constrained to use private houses, and solitary places for their assemblies. Yet, even those houses, had (as it seemeth) some consecration, for they were most commonly called 
* Ibidem.  aedes sacrae, Holy houses, and have left that name, (to this day) amongst us, for our Churches, as a testimony of their sanctification, whereof I shall speak more anon. 
* Ibidem.  Eusebius also saith: that insomuch as the Holy houses and Temples of that time, were thus Dedicated and Consecrated unto God, the universal Lord of all: therefore they received his name, and were called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (in Latin, Dominica) the Lords houses: Which name, saith he, was not imposed upon them by man: but by himself only, that is Lord of all. Of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cometh the Saxon word Cyric or Kyrk: and (by adding a double aspiration to it) our usual word Chyrch or Church, as it were to put us ever in mind, whose these Houses are: namely, 
Gen. 22.22.  the Lords houses: like that, which JACOB dedicating unto GOD, called (Bethel:) that is, the house of God.  
But both Church and Church-livings were thus solemnly delivered into God's possession; and therefore all ages, Counsels and Fathers (that ever I yet have met with) account them holy and inviolable things. 
Chrys. hom. 18. in Act. Concil. Mogunt. cap. 7.  And hereupon they are termed, Patrimonium Christi, Does Ecclesiae, Does sponsae Christi, and Sacrata possessio, or Praedium sanctum. For, Everything that a man doth separate unto the Lord from the common use, whether it be man, or beast, or Land of his Inheritance, it is Holy to the Lord: Levit. 27.28. And in what sort I understand the word Holy, I have before declared.  
7. 
Holy rights and Temples how respected by Heathens.  As then the Law of Nature, primarily taught all Nations in the world to give these things unto God: so the very same Law, also taught them that it was sacrilege and impiety to pull them bacl again: yea, the very heathen counted the things thus severed unto their gods, to be Sancta & inviolanda. And Saint Augustine expoundeth, Sanctum illud esse, quod violare nefas est. It is execrable wickedness, 
Gen. 47.22.  to violate that that is holy. Pharach would not abridge the Priests of their diet, or land: no not in the great famine. The very Barbarous Nations of the world, even by the instinct of nature, abhorred this impiety. 
Biblioth. hist. lib. 5.  Diodorus Siculus noteth of the Gauls, that though they were a people, above all others most covetous of gold: yet having abundance thereof, scattered in all parts of their Temples, to the honour of their gods, none was found so wicked amongst them, as to meddle with any of it. I could allege a multitude of Heathen stories to this purpose. But I will not wove the woollen yearn of the Gentiles, into the fine linen garments of the Christians; I mean, I will not mingle profane arguments, in a discourse of Christian piety. For the sheep that are of the fold of Christ, are tied only to hear his voice, 
John 10.3.  and to follow that, which if they do not, they are thereby known to be Goats, and not of his fold.  
8. 
How fearful a thing it is to violate the Church.  The cause why I touched upon this one heathen Example, is to aggravate the manifold sins of us Christians, in this point. For if they that knew not God, were so zealous of the glory of their Idols: how much more is it to our condemnation, if we that know him, do less regard him? If it go hard with Tyrus and Sydon in the day of judgement that sinned ignorantly; how much harder will it be with Corasin and Bethsaida that sin presumptuously: Especially with Capernaum that despiseth her Lord God and Master, Jesus Christ himself? What is it to despise him; if to rob him of his honour, be not to despise him? Or what is it to rob him of his honour, if to take from him the things given him for maintenance thereof, be not to rob him? Therefore when the children of Israel withheld their tithes and offerings from the Levites, he crieth out in Malachy 3.8. That himself was rob and spoiled: and was so highly offended therewith, that he cursed the whole Nation for it. And to make this sin appear the more monstrous, he convinceth the offenders therein: not only to be violaters of his Legal ordinances, but even of the very law of Nature, written in the heart of every man. For, saith he, Will any man spoil his gods? As if he should say: Can such a man be found as will, or dares commit that sin, that all the Nations of the world, even by the instinct of nature, account to be so horrible and impious? To spoil his gods: what his own gods? Some were found, that now and then adventured to spoil the gods of other Nations, (yet not without punishment) but few or none that I read of (till these latter days) that spoilt their own gods, in apparent and overt manner, as the Lawyers term it. I count it not overt and apparent, when we do as Ananias and Sapphira did: pinch and detract from God, somewhat of that we vowed to give: Nor, when we do as the children of Israel here did withhold that which we ought to pay out of our own goods, (yet both these were heinous sinners, and dreadfully punished.) But I call it overt and apparent, when we throw ourselves into a more dangerous sin, by invading openly the devotions of other men, and taking that from God and from his Church, (as Athalia did) which we never gave unto it, 
2. Chron. 24. verse 7.  even the lands and live thereof: yea, the Churches themselves. 
David's zeal for the house of God.   
9 Doubtless we have much to fear in this point: For as it is a transcendent sin; so David labouring to match it with a transcendent punishment, bestoweth a whole Psalm, (viz. the 
* This Psalm is alleged to this purpose by Lucius (who was martyred about An Chr. 255.) in his epistle to the Bishops of Galli● and Spain. Tom. Council. 1.  83.) in inveighing particularly against these kind of sinners: such (expressly) as would take to themselves the houses of God in possession; for that only is the very centre of the Psalm, and therein do all the lines and projections of the Prophet's invectives, concur. First he maketh a flat opposition between God and them: and therefore calleth them his enemies. Then he describeth the nature of these kind of enemies: namely, that they are murmuring enemies, as grudging, and envying at the prosperity of the Church: Malicious enemies: as hating or hurting the service of God. Proud enemies, as lifting up their heads against God: verse. 2. Crafty enemies; as imagining how to beguile the Church. Conspiring enemies; as taking Council together against God's secret ones (as the Prophet calleth them) that is, God's servants and Ministers: vers. 3. And lastly, Confederate enemies: as combining themselves one by example of another, to persevere in their course of wronging and violating the Church: vers. 5. Yet for all this, those against whom the Prophet thus inveigheth, did not that they desired. They discovered their malicious purpose by word of mouth, saying: Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. But they only said it, they did it not. Their will was good, but their power failed. Our will and power have both prevailed: for we have got the houses of God into our possession: His Churches, his lands, his offerings, his holy rights. We have gotten them, and led them away captive, bound in chains of iron: that is, so conveyed and assured unto us, by Deed, by Fine, by Act of Parliament, as if they never should return again unto the Church. But hear what David saith to those of his time. Mark how he prayeth for them. Mark what strange and exquisite punishments he designeth to them: and that in as many several sorts, as there are several branches in this kind of sin.  
First, he prayeth, that God would deal with them, as he did with the Madianites, vers. 9 That is, that as Gedeon by Trumpets and Lamps, strooke such a terror in the night time, into the hearts of the Madianites, that the whole army fell into confusion, drew their swords one upon another, were discomfited, and 120 thousand of them slain. So that God by his trumpets, the Preachers of his word; by his Lamps, which is, the light of the Gospel, would confound in like manner, the enemies and spoilers of his Church, that sleep in the night of their sin: And that he would make them like Oreb, and Zeb, like Zeba and Salmana: verse. 11. All which were strangely overthrown, died violent deaths, and being glorious Princes of their nations, became like the filthy and loathsome Dung of the earth: verse. 10. And Judges 7.25. and 8.21.  
But doth the Prophet stay here? no, he goeth on with them: O my God, saith he, make them like a wheel, verse. 13. that is, wavering and unstable in their actions: so as they may never bring their purposes to an end. Yea, make them abject and contemptible; like the chaff that the wind scattereth from the face of the earth: verse. 13. Well, is he now satisfied? no. All this doth but whet his spirits to sharper imprecations. He now desireth that the very floudgates of God's wrath may be broken open upon them; and that the tempest of his indignation may rage's at full against them: now he crieth out to God to consume them without mercy, yea, and that in two terrible manners. One naturally, As the fire burneth up the wood. The other miraculously, As the flame consumeth the mountains: verse. 14. Persecute them even so, (saith he) with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Make their faces ashamed. O Lord, that they may seek thy name. Let them be confounded and vexed ever more and more, let them be put to shame and perish. verse. 15, 16, 17. How should the wit of man discover and prosecute a sin in more vehement and horrible manner? Or, what shall make us to abstain from such haughty sins, if all this prevail not? Well, if to take the houses of God into possession be thus, take them that will for me.  
You see how David in this his sacred fury, 
The zeal of our Saviour to the house of God. And of the parts of the Temple.  was admirably carried against this sin. Well therefore might he say: The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, Psal. 69.9. Yet, he spoke it not of himself alone: but in the person also of our Saviour Jesus Christ; who in prosecution of David's zeal, did that in this case, that he never did at any time else in all his life. In all other cases he shown himself like the Paschall Lamb, that every body did eat and devour at pleasure; and like the sheep that was dumb before the shearer, even when his very life was taken from him. But when he saw the golden fleece to be taken from the house of God: that is, when he saw the Church his beloved spouse, deprived and spoiled of the honour, reverence, duty and ornament, that belonged to her: Then, as David did, he groweth into a sacred fury; he leaveth the mildness of the Paschall Lamb, and taketh upon him the fierceness of the Lion of Juda. Then he beginneth to bestir him, and to lay about him. He whippeth out them that profaned it; driveth out their sheep and their oxen, though they were for the sacrifice: & overthroweth the tables of the money changers: John 2.14. He would by no means endure such trumpery to be in his Father's house, 
Mat. 21.12: Mar. 11.17. Luke 19.45.  nor his Father's house to be made an house of Merchandise; but, much less then, that merchandise should be made of his Father's house itself. O fearful and most inhuman sin! horresco referens.  
But e'er I depart from this place of Scripture; let me note one thing more out of it, for the greater reverence of Churches: that although our Lord be here said, to have cast these things out of the Temple; yet, in truth, they were not in the Temple itself, but in the outward court or yard thereof. For within the inward parts of the Temple, (namely, the first, and second Tabernacles) did no man enter, but the Levite Priests: 
Numb. 18.5. Ebr. 9.2, 3, 4, 5, etc.  and of them also, none into the second Tabernacle, but the High Priest. Therefore, although our Saviour Christ, were a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck: yet because he was not a Priest of Levi: but of the Tribe of Juda (of which Tribe Moses spoke nothing touching the Priesthood: Heb. 7.14. I take it, that 
a Christ came to fulfil the Law, and not to break it. Therefore (doubtless) he observed the rules thereof, and the quality of his Tribe.  he never came within these parts of the Temple: nor where the sacrifice was, but frequented only 
b See the form of the Temple in Arias Montan: Antiquitat. Judaic. l. Ariel. and in the Geneva Bible, 1. King. cap. 6. and mark well both it, and the notes upon it; for I find them (above others) most agreeable to the Scriptures, and rely not upon the figure of the Temple in Adricomius without good examination; for I perceive he hath misplaced some things therein.  Atrium populi, the outward Court from the Temple. For into this only the 
c See the note (a) among the notes aforesaid.  people resorted: to worship, pray, and hear the word of God expounded, not pressing further towards the Temple: and in the midst whereof (the 
d 2. Chron. 6.13.  brazen stage which Solomon prayed upon) was erected. Yet, this very place, this court, or outward yard, would not our Saviour permit to be profaned; neither with market matters, nor with carrying so much as a burden or vessel through it, Mark 11.16. For though it were not so Levitically holy, as the Temple: yet it was dedicated to God, with the Temple: And taken often in the new Testament, for the Temple: as in the places before alleged. And Acts 3.2, 3. By which reason the very Churchyards themselves (being Dedicated with the Churches, and the principal soil thereof: 
* Stat. Ne Rectores prosternant arbores in Coemiterio.  as an old Statute witnesseth) seem also to have in them a certain kind of Sanctification: and are not therefore to be abused to secular and base employments: as not only the Ancient Fathers, by the Canons of the Church: but the present Laws of the Land, have well provided for them.  
10. But some will say, that the sanctification of the Temple was levitical, 
† More of that matter and how fare the sanctification of the Temple is abolished: or remaineth to our Churches.  and therefore abolished, and not to be applied to our Churches. I answer, the Temple was sanctified unto three functions; which also had three several places assigned to them. The first, belonged to the Divine presence; and had the custody of the Holiest Types thereof; the Oracle, the Ark, the Mercy seat, etc. And was therefore called Sanctum Sanctorum, or the Holiest of all. The second, was for ceremonial worship and atonement: namely, by sacrifice, oblations, and other levitical rites; the place thereof being the Sanctuary, (wherein were the Holy vessels) and the Court of Priests, wherein the Altar of  sacrifice did stand. The third, was for simple worship, prayer, and doctrine (without any pomp or ceremony:) and the place of this, was the outward Court, (called, 
* 1. Chr. 4.9. & 6.12.  Atrium populi, and 
* Acts 31.1.  Solomon's porch;) which therefore had in it no Ceremonial implement at all.  
The two first of these functions, with the places belonging to them; were indeed particularly appropriate to the Law. For, they were Ceremonial, Mystical, Secret, levitical, Judaical, and Temporal, Ceremonial, as celebrated with much worldly pomp. Mystical, as figurating some spiritual things. Secret; as either performed behind the Veil or Curtain: or else sequestered and remote from the people. levitical; as committed only to the administration of that Tribe. Judaical; as ordained only for the salvation of that people. And Temporal; as justituted only for a season, and not to continue. But the Sanctification, of the third function, and of the place thereto appointed, was directly contrary in all the points alleged to the former two. First (as I said before) it was for simple worship, Prayer, and Doctrine, which were there to be performed and delivered in all sincerity, without any ceremony or ceremonial implement used therein. Secondly, there was no matter of mystery therein to be seen: but whatsoever was mystical in the Law, or the Prophets, was there expounded. Thirdly, nothing there, was hidden or secret from the people, but acted wholly without the Veil, and publicly for every man. Fourthly, it was not appropriate to the Levites, but common alike to all the Tribes. Fifthly, not ordained for the Jews particularly, but for all Nations in general. And lastly, not to endure for a time, (as those other two of the Law) but to continue for ever: even after the Gentiles were called, as well as the Jews: that is, during the time of the Gospel, as well as the Law. Therefore, saith God, by Isaias the Prophet, cap. 56. 7. My house shall be called an house of Prayer, to all Nations. He said not, an House of Sacrifice to all Nations: for the Sacrifice ended before the calling of the Gentiles, and so they could have no part thereof. Nor an House of Prayer for the jews only, for than had the Gentiles (when they were called) been likewise excluded. But an House of prayer to all Nations, that is, jews and Gentiles indifferently: which therefore, must have relation to the times of the Gospel. And consequently, the sanctification of that house, and of that function, is also a sanctification of the Churches of the Gospel.  
We read not therefore, that Christ reform any thing in the other two functions of the Temple; for they were now, as at an end. But because this third function was for ever to continue to his Church: therefore he purgeth it of that that profaned it; restoreth it (as he did marriage) to the original sanctity: And that the future world (which was the time of the Gospel) might better observe it, than the precedent, and the time of the Law had done; he reporteth, & confirmeth the decree, whereby it was sanctified: It is written, saith he, (as producing the record and words of the foundation) My house shall be called an house of prayer to all people. He saith, My House, as excluding all other, from having any property therein; for, God will be joint-tenant with no man. And it shall be, An house of prayer for all people: that is, public for ever; not private, nor appropriate to any: nor a den of thiefs; that is, no place of Merchandise, or secular business, as Saint Hierome expoundeth it. It must not be an Impropriation; no man can, or may hold it in that kind.  
The time also when our Saviour pronounced these words is much to the purpose, as it seemeth to me. For it was after he had turned out the oxen and doves; that is, the things for the Sacrifice. As though he thereby taught us, that when the sacrifical function of the Temple was ended, yet the sanctification thereof, to be an house of prayer, for ever remained.  
11. 
Saint Paul maintaineth the reverence of the Church.  This doctrine of our Saviour, is continued unto us by Saint Paul: who seeing the Corinthians to profane the Church with eating and drinking in it: though much good might follow thereby, (being orderly done) as the increasing of amity, and the relief of the poor; yet because it was against the reverence of the place: he not only reproveth them for it, demanding if they had not houses to eat and drink in at home, 
1 Cor. 11.12.  but scaring them also (by showing the danger they were falling into) he speaketh to them as with admiration: Despise ye the Church of God? As if he should say, is your religion now come unto that? or is that your Religion, To despise the place that God hath sanctified unto himself; by making it, 
Comment, in 1 Cor. 11.  as Saint Hierome saith, Triclinium epularum, a banqueting house. God wondered in Malachy, that any should spoil their gods. And the Holy Ghost here wondereth, that any should despise the material Church: for so Saint Hierome expoundeth it. Thus both of them wonder at one and the same thing: that any man should be so irreligious, as to profane the reverence due unto God, and that that is his.  
12. So precise therefore were the Ancient Fathers in this point, 
The Zeal of some of the Fathers to the Church. Serm. de temp. tom. 10.234.  that, that meek Saint of God, Saint Augustine, would by no means endure that any should use clamours, or dancing within the verge of the Church. Yea, he termeth them, Miserable and wretched men that did it. And denounceth against them, that If such came Christians to the Church, they went Pagans home. But when the Church itself came to be abuse●● Oh, how Saint Ambrose taketh it, even against the Emperor himself, great Valentinian that required it for an Arian: O (saith he) let him ask that is mine, my lands, my goods, and whatsoever I possess, I will not deny them; yet are they not mine: but belong to the poor. Verùm ea quae divina sunt, 
Ad Marcellinam sororem: Epist. 33.  etc. saith he, but those things that are Gods, are not subject to the authority of the Emperor. If my lands (I say) be desired, enter them a God's name; if my body, I will carry it him; if he will have me to prison, yea unto death, it pleaseth me well, I will not defend myself with multitude of people, neither will I fly to the Altar, desiring my life; but with all my heart will die for the Altars. And after, 
In fine eiusdem Epist.  in speaking of the impious Soldiers: O that God (saith he) would turn their hands from violating the Church, and then let them turn all their weapons upon me, and take their fill of my blood. And many such excellent speeches he hath for the sanctity of the Church, and of the reverence due unto it, in his Oration, De Basilicis tradendis.  
My purpose is to be short; I will not therefore now enter any further into the authorities of the Fathers: or meddle with the Counsels and ancient Canons of the Church, which abound so in this kind of zeal, and have established it (against the Enstathians, Messalians, and Fratricelli, 
* Heretics which contemned Churches.  heretics: and all other the enemies thereof) with so many examples, admonitions, exhortations, precepts, threaten, curses, and excommunications: as it requireth a book alone to repeat them.  
13. 
Sacrilege not to be suffered in the least things. Coment. in 2 Cor. 11.22. tom. 9 Ecclus. 25.27.  It seemeth a small thing to dance in the Churchyard, or to eate and drink in the Church. But sanctification (saith Hierome, speaking on this matter) consisteth also even in the small things. Therefore Ecclesiasticus adviseth us, that we give not the water passage, no not in a little. For he that openeth the waters but a little, knoweth not how great a breach they will make at length. So is it to make an entrance into sin, or to break the reverence of holy things in trifles.  
Therefore God punisheth severely the petty offenders in this kind: not Corah only and his company, that invaded the high function of the Priesthood: but even him that gathered the sticks on the Sabbath day: Numb. 15.34. And poor Vzzah himself (whom David so much lamented) that did, as it were, but stay the Ark from shaking, (2 Sam. 6.6. and 1 Chron. 13.9.) and yet died for it, because his hand was not sanctified to that purpose.  
14. 
An admonition to them that meddle With holy things.  I conclude this point with the saying of Solomon, Prov. 20.25. (and let all men consider it:) It is a snare for a man to devour that which is sanctified, and after the Vows, to inquire. A Snare hath three properties First, to catch suddenly. Secondly, to hold surely. Thirdly, to destroy certainly. So was Vzzah taken  he was ware: he did but touch the Ark, and presently he was catched. King Vzziah did but meddle with the incense, and presently the Leprosy was on his face: 2 Chron. 26.19. Jeroboam did but stretch out his hand against the Prophet, and presently it withered: 1 King. 13.4. And as a man falleth suddenly into it: so is it as hard to get out. Vzzah died in it presently. Vzziah languished in it all his life, and then died in it also. Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, were no sooner caught in this snare, but it held them so surely, as when all Israel else fled and escaped; they, and their companions (most miserable men) were detained in it, to their notorious destruction.  
I might here take just occasion to remember what hath happened to many in this Kingdom, that became unfortunate after they meddled with Churches, and Church-livings. But I will run into no particularities, Let those men, and those families, which are unfortunate (as we term them) consider, whether themselves, their Fathers, or some of their Ancestors, have not been settered in this snare.  
And let the Proprietaries of Parsonages also well consider these things. For, if Vzzah died, that did but touch the Ark to save it: what shall become of them that stretch out their hands against Churches to destroy them? If the sticke-gatherer was stoned, for so small a profanation of the Sabbath; what shall they look for, that by destroying the Churches, destroy also the Sabbath itself, (in a manner) as taking away the place appointed to the public sanctification thereof. And if Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, offended so heinously in meddling with the things of the levitical Priesthood, though they employed them to the service of God: what have they to fear that usurp the things of the Gospel, and pervert them wholly to their own use, from the service of God? Yea, that pollute his Churches and houses of prayer to servile and base offices: leaving the Parishioners uncertainly provided of divine service, to the destruction both of the Priesthood itself, and of the service of God in general? 
A surmise answered.   
15. But they will comfort themselves with this: that though the Churches be sanctified to some purpose, yet the sanctity thereof differeth from levitical sanctification: and that God doth not now kill any from heaven, for profaning the things of the Gospel, as he did then, for profaning the things of the law. I answer: The sanctity indeed of the one, differeth from the sanctity of the other. For the levitical things were sanctified by the hand of man, to be matter of Ceremony; but the churches of the Gospel, are sanctified by our Saviour himself, to be houses of prayer. Not that prayer is to be used only in these places, but that these places are only to be used for prayer. And we must not presume that God sleepeth because he punisheth not (now as he did of old) the contemners of his worship. For as the law consisted in visible and temporal things, so the punishments therein, were for the most part visible and temporal. But the Gospel concerneth things invisible and eternal, and therefore the punishments assigned therein, are for the most part invisible and eternal.  
16. They have also another comfort, and that is, 
Another surmise answered.  that though these things were once Spiritual, now they are made temporal by the Laws of Dissolution; and especially by the Stat. of 32. H. 8. cap. 7. It is true that those Statutes apply divers Law-terms unto these things that properly belong to temporal inheritances: and that the Statute of 32. H. 8. hath made them demandable by original Writs, and hath given certain real actions, and other courses for recovering and conveying of them in Temporal Coruts: because Laymen could not in former times have sued for things of this nature in any Court of the Kingdom. But this proveth not the things themselves to be therefore temporal, 
Dissero non assero.  (no more than that an English man is a French man, because he saileth in a French bottom,) For upon the same reason the Statute giveth also other actions (for recovering of tithes and offerings withholden, etc.) in the Courts spiritual. They than that out of the one part of the Statute will have them temporal, are by the other part enforced to confess them still Spiritual, and so to make them like a Centaur, prolem biformem. It were very hard (in my understanding) to ground a point of so great consequence, upon subtlety of words, and ambiguous implications, without any express letter of Law to that purpose, especially, to make the Houses and offerings of God, temporal Inheritances. But I see it is a Law question in my Lord 
a Term. Paes. An. 7. Edw. 6. Assize fol. 83.6.  Dier whether tithes be made Lay or Temporal, by any word in those Statutes. And therefore I must leave this point to my Masters of the Law, who have the key of this knowledge only in their own custody. Yet I think I may be so bold, as to say thus much out of their own 
b Doct. & Stud. cap. 6.  books, that a Statute directly against the Law of God, is void. If then Tithes be things spiritual, and due de jure divino, as many great 
c See Aug. Ser. 219. de Temp. Hostiens. and most Canonists. Concil. Montisc. 2. cap. 50. Concil. Mogunt. cap 38. alias 10, etc.  Clerks, Doctors, Fathers, some Counsels, and (that ever honourable Judge and Oracle of Law) my Lord Coke himself in the second part of his 
d Dimes sont choses spiritual, & due de jure di vine Le Evesque de Winch. case fol. 45.  Reports affirm them to be; I cannot see how humane laws should make them Temporal. Of the same nature therefore that originally they were of, of the same nature do I still hold them to continue: for manente subjecto, manet consecratio, manet dedieatio. Time, Place, and Persons, do not change them, as I take it, in this case. 
e Nescio quo faio fit; ut eadem temporit periodo (viz. an 68) post ereptas per Nabuc. & H. 8.) res templorum: stirps ut isque regia extincta fit, imperium sublatum, & ad aliam gentem de volutum. Vlterius igitur speremus, Cyrum nostrum Jacobum regem (qui sceptra dissidentia compescuit) restitution● etiam munus aliquanda aggressurum.  Nabuchodonozor took the holy vessels of the Temple, he carried them to Babylon, he kept them there all his life, and at last left them to his son and grandchilds: but all this while, the vessels still remained holy. Yea though they were come into the hands of those that were not tied to the ceremonies of the law, and at length into the hands of them that had them by a lawful succession from their Fathers and Grandfathers: yet as soon as they began to abuse them to profane uses; that very night Balshazzar himself died for it, the line of Nabuchodonozor (that took them from the Temple) was extinct, and the Kingdom translated to another Nation: Dan, 5.2.  
17 Happily also, Lay Approprietaries comfort themselves, 
A third surmise answered.  that they may hold these things by example of Colleges, Deans and Chapters, Bishops of the land, and of divers of our late Kings and Princes. Before I speak to this point, I take it by protestation, that I have no heart to make an Apology for it. For I wish that every man might drink the water of his own well, eat the milk of his own flock, and live by the fruit of his own vineyard. I mean that every member might attract no other nutriment, but that which is proper to itself. Yet are they greatly deceived, that draw any juice of encouragement from these examples. For all these are either the Seminaries of the Church, or the Husbandmen of the Church, or the Fathers and Nurses of the Church: all de familia Ecclesiae, and consequently, belonging to the care of the Church, and aught therefore to be sustained by it: for Saint Paul saith: He that provideth not for his own, and namely for them of his household, he denieth the faith, and is worse than an Infidel: 1. Tim. 5.8. 
a All Church revenues were at first paid to Bishops, and by them distrin buted to the Priests, poor, etc. after the Bishops were to have a fourth part of all tithes. Per Concil. Aurelian. Mogunt. Tribur Hanet: etc. Et per Conc. Tarraeon. the third part.  Therefore before the statutes of suppression of Abbeys, those that were not merely Ecclesiastical persons, yet if they were mixed, or had Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, they might by the Laws of the Land, participate Ecclesiastical live, and 
b Ploughed. in Quare imper Grend. L. Coke Report. part. 5. fol. 15.  Tithes particularly. And this seemeth to take some ground out of the word of God. For the provincial Levites (as I may term them) whom 
c 1. Chr. 26.30.32.  David severed from the Temple, and placed abroad in the Country to be rulers of the People, in matters pertaining to God, and the King's business, (that is, Spiritually and Temporally:) had their portions of tithes notwithstanding, as well as the other Levites that ministered in the Temple. Now, that the King is 
d See Ploughed. in Quar. Imp. Gren. Et L. Coke de Jure Regis Eccles. part. 5.  Persona mixta, endowed as well with Ecclesiastical authority, as with temporal. Is not only a solid position of the common Law of the Land, but confirmed unto us by the continual practice of our ancient Kings, ever since, and before the Conquest, even in hottest times of Popish fervency. For this cause at their Coronations, they are not only crowned with the Diadem of the Kingdom, and girt with the sword of Justice, to signify their Temporal authority, but are anointed also with the 
c Reges sacro oleo uncti, sunt spiritualis jurisdictionis capaces 33. Ed. 3. tit. Aide de Roy 103. Ex Dom. Coke Repor. part. 5.  oil of Preisthood, and clothed, Stolâ Sacerdotali, and veste 
d Dalmatia est vestis qua modo utuntur omnes diaconi ex consuetudine in solennitatibus. ut 70 distin. de jejunto. Antiquitus tamen, sine concessione Papae, nec Epis. copis, nec Dia conis licebat uti hac veste. Distinct. 23. cap. Omnes filius, Prateus.  Dalmaticâ, to demonstrate this their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, whereby the King is said in the Law to be Supremus Ordinarius, and in regard thereof, amongst other Ecclesiastical rights, and prerogatives belonging unto him, is to have all the 
e 22. Edw. 3 lib. Assis. plac. 75. L. Coke par. 5. fol. 15. a.  Tithes (through the Kingdom) in places that are out of any Parish, for some such there be, and namely, divers 
f As Inglewood etc. ut patet an. 18. Edw. 1. inter petitiones coram domino Rege ad Parliamentum.  Forests. But for all this: O! that his Majesty would be pleased to remembet Zion in this point.  
18 
* The danger that Proprietaries of Parsonages stand in.  I grow too tedious, yet before I close up this discourse, let me say one thing more to the Approprietaries of Churches, that happily they hitherto have not dreamt of. And that is, that by having these Parsonages, they are charged with Cure of souls, and make themselves Subject to the Burden that lieth so heavily upon the head of every Minister: to see the service of God performed, the people instructed, and the poor relieved. For to these three ends and the maintenance of Ministers, were Parsonages instituted, as not only the Canons of the Church, but the books of the Law, and particularly the Statutes of 15, R. 2. cap. 6. And 4. H. 4. ca 12. do manifestly testify. And no man may have them but to these purposes, neither were they otherwise in the hands of Monastical persons, nor otherwise given to the King by the statute of dissolution, then 
a See the extent of these words in L. Coke part. 2. fol. 49. And note also that Parsonages appropriate, are not mentioned in that Statute of 27. H 8. and the word (tithes) there seemeth to be meant of tithes belonging to the bodies of the Monasteries; not of Parsonage tithes. Ideo quaere how the King had them before the Statute of 31. Regnesui.  in as large and ample manner as the governor's of those Religious houses had them, nor by him conveied otherwise to the Subjects. For, Nemo potest plus juris in alium transfer, quam ipse habet: No man may grant a greater right unto another, than he hath himself. And therefore go where they will, transeunt cum onere, they carry their charge with them. Upon these reasons Proprietaries are still said to be Parsons of their Churches, 
b Parsonimpersonee.  and upon the matter, are as the incumbents 
c For the Monastical persons and Prioresses themselves that could not perform the divine service, were notwithstanding the Incumbents of their Churches: and lay Approprietaries claiming under their right ought also to be subject to the same burdens.  thereof, and the Churches by reason of this their incumbency, are full and not void. For otherwise the 
d There is yet no express law made to take away the Bishop's jurisdictions over Churches appropriate, (that I can find.) Ideoquare how it extendeth.  Bishop might collate, or the King present a Clerk (as to other Churches) as it seemeth by the arguments of the Judges in the case between Grendon and the Bishop of Lincoln in Master Plowdens Coment. where it is also showed, that the incumbency is a 
* See Dier Tren. 36. H. 8. fol. 58. pl. 8.  spiritual function, and ought not to be conferred upon any but spiritual persons, and such as may themselves do the divine Service, and minister the Sacraments. Therefore, Dier, L Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, there said, that it was an horrible thing, when these Appropriations were made to Prioresses and houses of Nuns, because that (although they were religious persons, yet) they could not minister the Sacraments and divine Service. Implying by this speech of his, that it was much more horrible for Laymen to hold them, that neither could do these holy rites nor were so much as spiritual persons to give them colour for holding of spiritual things. 
* Terms of the Law in verbo Appropriation.  Therefore he that enlarged the Terms of law (first set forth by John Rastall) also termeth it a Wicked thing complaining (in his time) that it continued so long, to the Hindrance (he saith) of learning, the impoverishing of the Ministry, and to the infamy of the Gospel, and professors thereof.  
My Lord Coke also in the second part of his Reports, saith, 
Levesque de winchester's case, fol. 44, b.  that it is recorded in History, that there were (amongst other) two grievous persecutions, the one, under Dioclesian; the other under Julian, named the Apostata: for it is recorded, that the 
a Diocles. vide Euseb. hist. eccles. lib. 7. cap. 3. Niceph. l. 7. cap. 3.  one of them intending to have rooted out all the Professors and Preachers of the word of God, Occidit omnes Presbyteros. But this notwithstanding, Religion flourished, for Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae: The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church; and this was a cruel and grievous persecution, but the persecution under the 
b Juli. vide Theod. hisb. lib. 3. cap 6. & Niceph. lib. 10. cap. 5.  other, was more grievous and dangerous. Quia (as the History saith) ipse occidit presbyterium. He destroyed the very order of Preisthood. For he rob the Church, and spoiled spiritual persons of their revenues, and took all things from them whereof they should live. And upon this, in short time, ensued great ignorance of true religion, and the service of God, and thereby great decay of Christian profession. For none will apply themselves or their sons, or any other that they have in charge, to the study of Divinity, when after long and painful study, they shall have nothing whereupon to live. Thus fare my Lord Coke.  
I allege these legal authorities, and leave Divinity, because the Approprietariet of Parsonages (which shield themselves under the target of the Law) may see the opinion of the great Lawyers of our own time and Religion, and what the books of the Law have of this matter, to the end, that we should not hang our consciences upon so dangerous a pin, nor put too great confidence in the equity of Laws, which we daily see, are full of imperfection, often amended, often altered, and often repealed. O how lamentable then is the case of a poor Proprietary, that dying, thinketh of no other account, but of that touching his Lay vocation, and then coming before the judgement seat of Almighty God, must answer also for this 
c It is said in my L. Dier in the case of a common person, that the service or a cure is a spiritual administration and cannot be leased, and that the service is not issuing out of the parsonage, but annexed unto the person. 36. H. 8. fol 58. b. pla. 8.  spiritual function. First why he meddled with it, not being called unto it. Then, why (
* Proprietaries which have Vicars endowed, think themselves thereby discharged: but though the Vicar be the Parson's deputy to do the divine Service, yet a superior care thereof resteth still upon the Parson himself, and the surplusage of the profits belongeth to the poor, as appeareth by the whole body of Fathers, Doctors, Counsels etc.  meddling with it) be did not the duty that belonged unto it, in seeing the Church carefully served, the Minister thereof sufficiently maintained, and the poor of the Parish farthfully relerved. This I say, is the use whereto Parsonages were given, and of this use we had notice before we purchased them: and therefore, not only by the laws of God and the Church, but by the law of the Land, and the rules of the Chancery, at this day observed in other cases) we ought only to hold them to this use, and no other.  
19 
† That it is not benevolence but duty to restore Church livings.  It is not then a work of bounty and benevolence to restore these appropriations to the Church, but of duty and necessity so to do. It is a work of duty to give that unto God that is Gods, Matt. 32.2. And it is a work of necessity towards the obtaining remission of these sins. For Saint Augustine saith, Non remittetur peccatum, nisi restituatur ablatum cum restitui potest: The sin shall not be forgiven, without restoring of that which is taken away, if it may be restored.  
It is duty, justice, and necessity, to give them bacl unto God. For it Judae (who was the first precedent of this sin) were a thief as the holy Ghost 
d Ad Macedonium Epist. 54. tom. 2. Joh. 12.6.  termeth him, for imbeasiling that which was committed unto him for the maintenance of Christ and his Disciples, that is of the Church: by the same reason, must it also be thievery to withhold these things which were given for the maintenance of the Church and Ministers of Christ. And herein it is a degree above that sin of Judas, as robbery is above theft, for judas only detained the money (delivered unto him) closely and secretly, but we and our fathers, have invaded Church live, and taken them (as it were by assault) even from the sacred body and person of the Church.  
It is a great sin to steal from our Neighbour; much greater (even sacrilege) to steal from God. If it were so heinous a fact in Ananias to withhold part of his own goods, which he pretended he would give unto God, how much more is it in us, presumptuously to reave that from God, that others have already dedicated and delivered unto him. Solomon saith; He that robbeth his Father and his Mother, and saith it is no sin, 
Prov. 28.24.  is the companion of [a murderer, or] him that destroyeth. But he that purloineth the things of God, robbeth his Father, and he that purloineth the things of the Church, robbeth his Mother. And therefore that man is a companion of the destroyer.  
The 
* Synod. 5 Rom. 218. Episcop. An. 503. Conc. Val. An. 855. ca 9 Con. Rom. 100 Episc. An. 1063. Conc. Rom. 5. Anno 1078. Conc. Palent. An. 1388. Conc. Oxon. Gene. Aug. Anno 1222.  Fathers, the Doctors, many great Counsels, and ancient Laws of the Church, command that things taken from the Church, should be restored. And the Church by her 
a A strange change: h● 〈◊〉 realite gave their own goods so abundantly to the service of God, that Moses was forced torestraine them by proclamation: Exod. 36. 〈◊〉 but now nothing can move us to give God that which is his already.  Preachers & Ministers continually entreateth, urgeth, and requireth all men to do it. They therefore that do it not, they refuse to hear the Church: And then our Saviour Christ, by his own mouth, denounceth them 
b Qui sub ●omine fideli●m 〈◊〉 gunt opera infidelium. Hieron ibid.  to be as Heathens and Publicans, that is, excommunicate and profane persons. If he refuseth (saith our Saviour) to hear the Church also, let him be unto thee as a heathen man, and a publican. Mat. 18.17.  
It is a fearful thing not to hear the 
c We think the Church doth not command it till we make a parliament law for it, but the law is made already by Christ himself.  Church, but much more, not to hear Christ himself, Christ hath given us a perpetual law and Commandment, touching things belonging to God: That we should give them to God. If we break this Law, we break a greater Law than that of the Medes, and the 
d Dan. 6.15.  Persians: and therefore mark what the holy Ghost concludeth upon us; Every person that shall not hear this Prophet (Christ Jesus) shall be destroyed out of the people. Act. 3.23.  
20 To conclude then, 
The conclusion.  as the Philistims made haste to send home the 
e 1 Sam. 5.11.  Ark of God; and the Egyptians to rid themselves of the 
f Exod. 12.31.  people of God: so let us ply ourselves to render unto God his Lands, and Possessions with all speed. Otherwise, as he struck the Philistims with emrod's secretly, and the Egyptians with manifold scourges openly; so only himself knoweth, what he hath determined against us.  
And thus I end, 
Cypr. Ser. 5. de laps. in fine.  with the saying of the blessed Saint Cyprian, Nec teneri jam, nec amari Patrimonium debet, quo quis & deceptus & victus est. We must now neither hold that Patrimony, or living, (no) nor so much as take pleasure therein, whereby a man is entrapped and brought to destruction. 
Lib. de Her. cit. per. Isid.  And with that other of the noble Saint Augustine; With what face canst thou expect an inheritance from Christ in Heaven, that defraudest Christ in thy inheritance here on Earth? Therefore  
Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, 
Mar. 12.7.  and unto God the things that are Gods.  
FINIS.   

An Epilogue.  
PArdon me good Reader, though I have neither satisfied thee, nor myself, in this little discourse. It is hard to bring a great vessel into a small creek, an argument of many heads and branches, of much weight, variety and difficulty, into a few pages. It may be thou thinkest the volume big enough for the success that Books of this nature are like to have. I reject not thy judgement, yet would I not have others thereby discouraged from pursuing this cause: 
10 ult. vers. 3  for though Peter fished all night and got nothing, yet he made a great draught unlooked for) in the morning. He that directed that net, give a blessing to all our labours. For my own part (if I catch but one fish) I shall think mine well bestowed. Howsoever, it shall content me, and I thank God for it, that he hath girded me with so much strength as to strike one stroke (though a weak one) in his battle, and to cast one stone (though a small one) against the adversaries of his Church.  
Some will say, I have used too much salt and vinegar in this discourse; and that I have bend the great Artillery of God's judgements and threaten, Upon a piece of too light importance. I would the consciences of men were such as oil and butter might supple them. But I see they are for the most part overgrown with so hard a carnosity, as it requireth strong and potent corrosives to make an entrance into them. A Preacher may shake them now and then with a Sermon, as Paul did Felix: but when the thunder and lightning are ceased, 
Act. 24.26. 1 Tim. 4.2.  they are (like Pharaoh) still where they were. Yea some have conscientias cauteriatas, as the Apostle termeth them, consciences seared with an hot Iron: so stupefied, that dead Lazarus may be raised, before they can be moved. But God knoweth the heart of man, and bringeth water out of the hard rock; therefore though I have spoken this (as being jealous of the cause,) yet in charity I will hope better even of the hardest of them. Only let no man think it a light sin, to keep open the passage whereby the wild bore (of Barbarism) enters the Lord's vineyard, and whereby God is deprived of the honour due to his name, 
* Psal. 80.13. Psal. 96.   
Now at the parting, it may be thou desirest to know what success this my labour had with the Gentleman to whom I sent it. In truth neither that I desired, 
August 16. 1613.  nor that which I promised unto myself. For (so it pleased God) that even the very day, the messenger brought it into Norfolk, the party died. Otherwise I well hoped, not to have shot this arrow in vain. But because it then miss the mark at which it was sent, (and many thought not fit to lose it;) I have now let it fly at random with some notes and alterations, as the difference between private and public things requireth: but still desiring that I might further have showed my mind in many passages hereof, (and particularly touching tithes in quoto, and such Parsonages as have Vicarages well endowed) which without making it almost a new work I could not do; and therefore resting upon thy courteous interpretation, I leave it to thee, (for this time) as it is.   

A SERMON OF SAINT AUGUSTINE'S touching rendering of Tithes.  
The occasion of this Sermon or Homily was ministered unto him by the time of the year, it being the 12th Sunday after Trinity, that is about the beginning of Harvest. The Scripture that he fitteth unto it is the 18 of Luke. Where the Pharisee boasteth of his precise justice in payment of Tithes. It is the 219 Sermon de Tempore: extant in the tenth Tome of his works, and there entitled:  
De reddendis decimis.  
BY the mercy of Christ (most beloved brethren:) the days are now at hand, wherein we are to reap the fruits of the earth: and therefore giving thanks to God that bestoweth them, let us mindful to offer, or rather to render bacl unto him the tithes thereof. For God, 
Decret 16: Qua 1 cap. Decimae  that vouchsafeth to give us the whole, vouchsafeth also to require bacl again the tenth, not for his own, but for our benefit doubtless. 
Where you may see a great part of this Sermon cited for Augustine's.  For so hath he promised by his Prophet, saying: 
* Mala. 3.10.  Bring all the Tithe into my Barns, that there may be meat in my house; and try me, saith the Lord, in this point, if I open not the windows of heaven unto you, and give you fruit without measure. Lo, we have proved how Tithes are more profitable unto us, then to God. O foolish men! What hurt doth God command, that he should not deserve to be heard? For he saith thus: The first fruits of thy threshing floor, 
Exod. 22.29.  and of thy Wine press thou shalt not delay to offer unto me. If it be a sin, to delay the giving: how much worse is it, not to give at all? And again, he saith, 
16 Quae. 1. ca decima.  Honour thy Lord thy God with thy just labours, and offer unto him of the fruits of thy righteousness that thy barns may be filled with wheat, 
Prov. 3.9.  and thy presses abound with wine. Thou dost not this, for God ha' mercy, that by and by shalt receive it again with manifold increase. Perhaps thou wilt ask, who shall have profit by that, which God receiveth, to give presently bacl again? And also thou wilt ask who shall have profit by that which is given to the poor? If thou believest, thyself shall have profit by it; but if thou doubtest, than thou hast lost it.  
Tithes (dear Brethren) are a tribute due unto the needy souls. Give therefore this tribute unto the poor, offer this sacrifice unto the Priests, If thou hast no Tithes of earthly fruits: yet whatsoever the Husbandman hath, whatsoever Art sustaineth thee, it is Gods, and he requires Tithe, out of whatsoever thou livest by: whether it be Warfare, or Traffic, or any other Trade, give him the tithe. Some things we must pay for the ground we live on, and something for the use of our life itself. Yield it therefore unto him (O man) in regard of that which thou possessest: yield it (I say) unto him, because he hath given thee thy birth: 
Exod. 30.12.  for thus saith the Lord: Every man shall give the redemption of his soul, and there shall not be amongst them any diseases or mishaps. Behold, thou hast in the holy Scriptures the cautions of the Lord, upon which he hath promised thee, that if thou give him thy Tithe, thou shalt not only receive abundance of fruits, but health also of body. Thy barns (saith he) shall be filled with wheat, 
Prov. 3.10.  and thy presses shall abound with wine, and there shall be in them, neither diseases nor mishaps. Seeing then, by payment of Tithes, thou mayest gain to thyself, both earthly and heavenly rewards: why dost thou defraud thyself of both these blessings together? 
16. Quae. 1. ca decimae.  Hear therefore, (O thou zeal. less mortality.) Thou knowest, that all things that thou usest are the Lords, and canst thou find in thy heart, to lend him (that made all things) nothing bacl of his own? The Lord God needeth not any thing, neither demandeth he a reward of thee, but honour; he urgeth thee not to render any thing that is thine, and not his. It pleaseth him to require the first fruits, and the Tithes of thy goods, and canst thou deny them, (O covetous wretch?) What wouldst thou do, if he took all the nine parts to himself, and left thee the tenth only? And this in truth he doth, when by withholding his blessing of rain, the drought maketh thy thirsty Harvest to whither away: and when thy fruit, and thy vineyard, are strucken with hail, or blasted with frost, where now is the plenty that thou so covetously didst reckon upon? The nine parts are taken from thee, because thou wouldst not give him the Tenth. That remains only that thou refusest to give, though the Lord required it. For this is a most just course, that the Lord holdeth, If thou wilt not give him the tenth, he will turn thee to the tenth. 
16. Quae. 1. ca decimae.  For it is written, saith the Lord, Insomuch as the Tithe of your ground, the first fruits of your Land are with you: I have seen it, but you thought to deceive me: havoc and spoil shall be in your Treasury, and in your houses. Thus thou shalt give that to the unmerciful Soldier, which thou wouldst not give to the Priest.  
The Lord almighty also saith; Turn unto me, 
Mal. 3.10.  that I may open unto you the windows of Heaven, and that I may pour down my blessing upon you; and I will not destroy the fruit of your Land, neither shall the vines of your field [or the trees of your orchards] whither away, [or be blasted] and all nations shall say, that you are a blessed people. God is always ready to give his blessings. But the perverseness of man always hindereth him. For he would have God give him all things, and he will offer unto God nothing, of that whereof himself seemeth to be the owner. 
* This place is cited as out of Aug. Cons. Triburiens ca 13. An 895. and before that in council. Mogunt. pri. c. 8. An. 874.  What if God should say? The man that I made, is mine; the ground that thou tillest, is mine; the seed that thou so west, is mine; the cattle that thou weariest in thy work, are mine, the showers, the rain, and the gentle winds are mine; the heat of the Sun, is mine; and since all the Elements whereby thou livest, are mine; thou that lendest only thy hand, deservest only the tithe, or tenth part. Yet because Almighty God doth mercifully feed us, he bestoweth upon the labourer a most liberal reward for his pains, and reserving only the Tenth part unto himself, hath forgiven us all the rest.  
Ingrateful and perfidious deceiver, I speak to thee in the word of the Lord. Behold the year is now ended: give unto the Lord (that giveth the rain) his reward. Redeem thyself, O Man, whilst thou livest. Redeem thou thyself whilst thou mayest. Redeem thyself (I say) whilst thou hast wherewith in thy hands. Redeem thyself, lest if greedy death prevent thee, thou then lose both life and reward together. Thou hast no reason, to commit this matter over to thy wife, who happily will have another husband. Neither hast thou (O woman) any reason to leave this to thy husband, for his mind is on another wife. It is in vain, to tie thy Parents, or thy kinsfolk, to have care hereof: no man after thy death, surely shall redeem thee, because in thy life, thou wouldst not redeem thyself. Now then, cast the burden of covetousness from thy shoulders, despise that cruel Lady, who pressing thee down with her intolerable yoke, suffereth thee not to receive the yoke of Christ. For as the yoke of covetousness, presseth men down unto hell, so the yoke of Christ raiseth men up unto heaven. For tithes are required as a debt, 
16. Quae 1. ca decimae.  and he that will not give them, invadeth another man's goods. And let him look to it, for how many men soever die for hunger in the place where he liveth (not paying his Tithes) of the murdering of so many men shall he appear guilty before the triounall seat of the eternal Judge, because he kept that back to his own use, that was committed to him by the Lord for the Poor.  
He therefore that either desireth to gain a reward, or to 
* Promereri.  obtain a remission of his sins, let him pay his tithe, and be careful to give alms to the poor, out of the other nine parts: but so notwithstanding, that whatsoever remaineth over and above moderate diet, and convenient apparel, be not bestowed in riot and carnal pleasure, but laid up in the treasury of Heaven, by way of Alms to the poor. For whatsoever God hath given unto us more than we have need of, he hath not given it unto us particularly, but hath committed it over unto us to be distributed unto others: which if we dispose not accordingly, we spoil and rob them thereof. Thus fare Saint Augustine.  
ERasmus in a general censure of these Sermons de Tempore, noteth many of them not to be Saint Augustine's: so also doth Master Perkins, and divers other learned men, who having examined them all particularly, and with great advisement, rejecting those that appeared to be adulterate or suspected, admit this notwithstanding as undoubted. And although Bellarmine seemeth to make a little question of it, yet he concludeth it to be, without doubt, an excellent work: and either 
* 
Forte non est Augustimiste sermot, amen insignis est sine du, bio, & antiqui alicujus Patris, zam inde tanquam ex Augustine multa sunt adscripta in Decret. 16. q 1.  
Bellarm. lib. de clericis cap. 25.   Saint Augustine's own, or some other ancient Fathers. But he saith, that many things are cited out of it as out of Augustine in Decret. 16. q. 1. And to clear the matter further, I find that some parts hereof are alleged under the name of Augustine, in Concil. Triburiens. (which was in the year of our Lord, 895) cap. 13. And twenty year before that also, in Concil. Moguntin. 1. cap. 8. So that Antiquity itself, and divers Counsels, accept it for Augustine's.  
I will not recite a great discourse to the effect of this Sermon amongst the works of Augustine in the Treatise, De rectitudine Christianae religionis; because Erasmus judgeth that Treatise not to be Augustine's. Yet seemeth it likewise to be some excellent man's, and of great antiquity. But if thou wouldst hear more what Augustine saith unto thee of this matter, take this for a farewell; 
Homil. 48. ex lib. 50.  Majores nostri ideo copiis omnibus abundabant, quia Deo decima dabant, 
Ham. come. 10.  &. Caesari censum reddebant: modo autem quia discessit devotio Dei, accessit indictio fisci. Noluimus partiri cum Deo decimas, modò autem totum tollitur. Hoc tollit fiscus, quod non accipit Christus.   

An Appendix by the Author.  

I Have been often solicited within these two years, both to reimprint this little Treatise, and also to publish a greater work much of the same Argument. Some especial reasons have made me unwilling to do either. Not that I do, aut clypeum abjicere, aut causam deserere: But I find my arm too feeble for so great an attempt: and in matters of such weight and consequence, a better opportunity is to be expected, then is yet afforded. I desire therefore not to be hastened herein, though he that published my Book in Scotland (out of his zeal to the cause) taketh that for one of his 
* In his Epist. Dedicatory,  Motives. When I did first let it go forth: I did it only in covert manner: not thinking it worthy of the bread eye of the World, nor holding it fit to have that which was done in a corner, preached upon the house top: or that which passed privately between me and my friend, to fly (in this sort, at once) to both the Poles of the Monarchy. Hereupon I hitherto by entreaty withheld it from a reimpression. But I being in the Country, and it being now to me as filius emancipatus, and out of my power: the Printer hath taken advantage of his liberty, and in my absence printed it again with the former infirmities.  
I wish, since it must needs be thus: that I had overrun it with a new hand: aswell to explain it in some things, as to help and fortify it in other. For the Argument hath many adversaries, not of the Laity only: but amongst the Churchmen themselves. All are not pleased with this form of 
* Tithes  Maintenance: others are not satisfied how it is due. Some also conceive Scriptures in this manner, some in that: and where one is best pleased, there another findeth most exception. Thus he that cometh upon the Stage, is the Object and Subject of every man's opinion. Yet must I herein confess myself beholding unto many: for I understand that this small Essay hath given them good liking.  
To satisfy all I labour not: but to the worthier sort I would perform what I could. Being therefore informed (about a year almost since) that some particular Divines of learning and judgement, (conceiveing well of my Book, supposed that I had departed from the ancient and modern interpreters in applying the 12. verse of the 83. Ps. only to the sanctified things of the Jews, which (they said) was spoken of all their houses and Cities in general. I did then unto them (as I thought is fit) reddere rationem & fidei & facti. And in like manner (because the book goeth forth again upon a new adventure, and may encounter with the like objections,) I held it now as necessary to add something unto it in that point being so material. Yet must I signify unto you, that they which took that exception, accounted both my argument and whole discourse the stronger (notwithstanding) Ex consequent: as namely, that if it were so heinous a sin to invade the temporal things of the Jews, much more must it needs be to invade the spiritual. So that no man is either freed or cased by this suggestion, but rather the more ensnared and overwhelmed. Nevertheless (I understand) that which followeth, hath cleared this point unto them: and I hope so shall it also do unto others (which separate not themselves from our Church) if cause require.   

I Am not ignorant that many modern and some Ancient Interpreters understand the body of the 83 Psal. of the taking of the houses and Cities of the Jews in general, not only of the Temple and Synagogues, nor only of the Cities of the Levites: for the very historical texture of the Psalm discovers as much. But that branch of it, whereon I fastened my anchor, and where I chiefly insisted, namely the 12 verse, touching the taking of the houses of God in possession, (which indeed is the centre of the Psalm: what interpretation soever it receiveth) most of them interpret it primarily and positively for the Temple and Holy things, then per transiationem for Jerusalem, and by consequence, for all Judea, (and the people of God) in respect that they were there planted.  
For though we following Genebrard, Calvin and Arias Montanus, translate it literally, Take the houses of God in possession; yet the Septuagint and Greeks interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And Hierom in the Latin Vulgar accordingly, Sanctuarium Dei: in his other translation called Hebraica veritas, (which also agreeth with that elder, cited by Lucius in the primer ages of the Church) Pulchritudinem Dei: Pelican, electissima: all of them by such denominations, as are most proper to the Temple and holy things. And therefore the Church in all former ages and for the most part yet also beyond the Seas, even in the reformed parts of Germany, retaineth that interpretation of Sanctuarium Dei, as best agreeing with the intent of the Hebrew, which Hierom in the Preface to his translation professeth confidently (by many witnesses) that he hath changed in nothing.  
I allege all this, but to show, that by what variety of words soever, the translators express the original Hebrew, yet they all concur with this as the Fountain and standard; that primâ intention, it aimeth at the holy things, though in secunda it be carried unto temporal.  
Ourselves also in our own English translation, understand the houses of God, for places dedicated to the service of God. And therefore in the 9 verse of the 74. Psalm, where our Church Psalter saith, burnt up all the houses of God in the Land: the Geneva and the King's Edition report it, burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land. So likewise in the 1 verse of the 84. Psal. The dwellings of God are expressly spoken of his Tabernacles, and holy habitations, not of his Temporal.  
Yet do I not deny; but (as I say) Secundâ intention, the words Sanctuarium, or Houses of God, in the 83. Psalm are truly carried to all Judaea and the people of God, howbeit Hierome noteth expressly no such matter upon it: neither could Augustine find it in the literal or historical sense of the text: and therefore he deduceth it to the people of God by way of Tropology, using the metaphor of Saint Paul. 1. Cor. 3. Sanctuarium: (saith he) Templum dei sanctum est, quod estis vos. And Lyra accordingly, Sanctuarium, id est (saith he) Jerusalem, in quae erat Templum Dei: & per consequens, terram Judaeae, cujus metropolis erat Jerusalem.  
Arnobius likewise of the Ancients taketh it first for the Temple and the holy vessel: then extensively, for the people & Land of Israel. As for Cyprian, Origen, Tertullian, Ambrose, chrysostom, Gregory, they meddle not with it, that I can find, nor Hierome otherwise then as I have mentioned.  
But admit that at this day most do expound it for the Temporalities of the Jews, as well as for their levitical and Sanctified things; What doth this contradict my application of this Psalm against Spoilers of Churches? or wherein is my erreur? I affirm the Genus of one of the membra dividentia, and they upon both. I upon one not exclusive, and they upon both copulative. Do not they than themselves affirm my assertion? Let Schoolmen be Judges. Yea do they not justify and enforce it? For if God loveth the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob, Psal. 87.2. that is, the outward and petty things of his Church, more than all the stately temporalties of his Lay people, yea, if he loveth Jacob but for Zion, that is, the People but for the Church, then Ex necessario consequent, when the Prophet denounceth such heavy things against them, that menaced Gods Lay people, and their possessions, how much the rather, doth he it against such as with great fury and impiety afflict his more peculiar and chosen servants, his Clergy, his Levites, his first borne? Against those I say, that forbear not to violate the things more dear unto him: His Temple, his Oracle, his holy mysteries, that is, things belonging to his honour and divine service, things & means, ordained to the propagation of his blessed word? For this is the consequence of destroying our Churches: this killeth the bird in the shell: & to a person offending in this nature, wrote I my Book  
By like reason, it may also be said; that this Psalm was framed against Heathens and Infidels, (which in open hostility assailed the Church and people of God with fire and sword) not against such as be our own brethren, and of the family of the Church, though (in some sort) they do injury unto it. I answer that the Ammonites and Moabites were also of the kindred of Israel: yea, the Edomites, and Ismaelites, of the lineage of Abraham, as well as the Israelites themselves: yet when they joined with them that sought the destruction of the Church; the curses of the Prophet went as freely and as fiercely against them, as the rest. So if our Church be spoiled by her brethren, her children, or kindred, the sentence is all one against them, as against Heathens and Infidels, yea, and that also more justly and deservedly by the judgement of the Prophet, who accounteth the treachery of a familiar friend much more intolerable, than the violence of an open Enemy. Psal. 55.12.  
But say I have erred (which indeed is too common with me, though it be humanum) and doth the more easily befall me, having saluted the Shoole of Divinity, only a longè and a limine: I am therefore ready with Augustine to put it amongst my retractations, if there be cause why. yet (as he said of Romulus) Sed tamen errorem quo tueatur habet. For I am not the Author of this exposition, neither is it my own weapon, but borrowed, and put into my hand by others of elder time. I confess that as they which go to battle, whet their swords, and bend their bows: so I sharpened both the edge and the point of it to my purpose. For all spirits are not cast out by ordinary power, nor all humours persuaded by ordinary reason. Knowing therefore what was necessary in particular for the party to whom I wrote, I applied myself, & my pen to that particular necessity: yet, not with Zidkiah to seduce him by untruths, 
1 R. 22.17.  but as a faithful Michaiah to leave nothing untold that belonged to his danger.  
See then what I have to defend myself withal, both of Ancient and later Fathers and Doctors of the Church: the first application (as I take it) that ever was made of this Psalm, was (only to the purpose I allege it) by Lucius a devout Bishop of Rome, in the bloody age of the Primitive Church, about 225. years after Christ; of whom (to let pass Cyprian) Bale, a man of our own, 
Epist. l. 3. Epist. 1.  giveth this testimony; That he was a faithful servant in the Lord's house,— and enriched his Church with healthful doctrine, and afterward being purified in the Lamb's blood, he peirsed the heavenly Paradise, being put to death at Valentinian's commandment, Anno 255. This Lucius (as I noted in the margin of my Book, pag. 39) in an Epistle of his to the Bishops of Gallia and Spain: 
See bear p. 60.  having determined many things touching the Church, and somewhat also against spoilers and defrauders thereof (concluding them by the example of Judas to be thiefs and sacrilegious persons) he proceedeth with them in this manner: De talibus, id est (saith he) qui facultates Ecclesiae rapiunt, fraudant, & auferunt: Dominus comminans omnibus per prophetam loquitur, dicens: Deus ne taceas tibi: ne sileas, etc. Reciteing the whole 83 Psalm every word, as you may see, Tom. 1. Concil. of Binius edition. pa. 180. col. 2.  
I took this reverend Father and great Doctor of the Church; living in the purity of religion, in the times of persecution, and so near the ages of the Apostles, to be a faithful direction to my pen. Yet, lest he should seem like a Sparrow alone on the house top, I will show you the opinion of others in the after ages.  
Petrus Damianus a Cardinal, whilst that title was rather a name of Ministry then of Dignity, and long before it became mounted and purpurate, a star of his time, now almost 600. years old, understandeth this Psalm also of Church possessions, and dignities, and out of it doth vehemently confute the Chaplains, of Duke Gothifred, which held it no simony to buy Bishoprics and Priests places, so they paid nothing for the imposition of hands (an opinion too common at this day) and he applieth against them the interpretation of the names of the Heathen Princes there mentioned, and concludeth them to be haereditario quodam jure Sanctuarii possessores, as you may see in his Specula Mor. l. 5. Ep. 13. ad Capellan. Gothif.  
Rupertus who flourished about 500 years since; expoundeth it contra omnes Ecclesiae hosts, falses Christianos, haereticos, etc.  
Great Hugo Cardinalis, the first Postillator of the Bible, (who flourished Anno 1240. a little also, before that order was distinguished with the Horse and Red Hat, and a man to whom all the Preachers of Christendom are more beholden, than many of them are ware: for much of that good juice that sweeteneth the expositions they read, dropped from his pen, though now like rivers falling into other channels, it hath lost his name) in his worthy Comment upon the Psalter, applieth the words, haereditate possideamus sanctuarium Dei, against those that ambitiously seek Church livings and dignities, despising the curses of this Psalm, as well among the great men of the Clergy as them of the Laity, which by threatening or favour obtain Ecclesiastical promotions: and particularly against such men of the Church, as confer prebend's and Dignities upon their Nephews and kindred, building (as he saith) Zion in (their blond, and Jerusalem in iniquity. Neither spareth he the Popes themselves, but chargeth them also that they possess God's Sanctuary, by way of inheritance, in that they keep the succession of the Papacy among such as be only of the Roman nation. And much more to this purpose, which were here too long to recite: but (concluding that the Prophet hath leveled at them all in this Psalm) he saith, De omnibus istis sequitur: Deus meus pone eos ut rotam, etc.  
Joannes Vitalis, (who lived above 300. years since, and for his fame and learning, was also called to be a Cardinal, ere that this dignity was yet at the highest pitch) vehemently enforceth this Psalm against the great men that prey upon the Church, applying the interpretation of the names therein mentioned very bitterly unto them. And saith further, that they possess the Sanctuary of God by inheritance, which enter into it unworthlly, or in succession to their uncle's, nephews, and parents, and they also which give Benefices in that manner, wasting thereby as it were Christ's hereditary patrimony; with much more to this effect, Speculo morale tit. Principes saeculares. fol. 229. d.  
Nicolaus de Lyra, who flourished about the same time, our own countryman, (though of Jewish Parents) a star also in that age of the first magnitude, for his learning; and exquisite above all in the Hebrew, (it being his mother tongue, and elaborate by him) whose judgement I the rather esteem, for that Luther loved him and preferred him above all interpreters, as Luther himself testifieth in the 2 and 9 chap. of Genests. He (I say, as before I have noted) expoundeth it: first, and properly for the Temple (under which I understand all things dedicated unto God) then for Jerusalem, because (saith he) the Temple was there: and lastly by consequence (for that is his own word) for the Land of Judaea, whose chief City Jerusalem was. So that he maketh the Temple and things belonging to God, to be the main part whereat the Prophet aimeth, and the City and Country to follow but by inferance and implication.  
Come to the later Writers, Genebrard noteth upon Sanctuarium Dei; that the Hebrew word is, Habitacula, and for the postil saith; Generaliter de divinis omnibus templis, urbibus, locis, & oppidis populi Dei. So that if he had been questioned further; how he understood Habitacula, specialiter, it is then like he would have answered, de divinis omnibus templis tantùm: that is, only of Churches. But be it as it is, he setteth them in the first place, as the proper signification, and the rest in consequence, as analogical, according to Augustine and our Countryman Lyranus.  
As for Luther, he expoundeth not this Psalm himself, that I can find; but you see what he attributeth to Lyra's judgement.  
Pelican a great Hebritian, translateth it Possideamus nobis electissima Dei, and expoundeth it in like manner as before, Templum, eivitatem, vasa, populum Dei.  
Pomeranus interpreteth it of them that did seek to make themselves Lords and heirs of the Temple.  
To conclude, because the newest things are most acceptable with many. The last man that hath written upon the Psalter, Lorinus a Jesuit, (and therefore I will not press his authority) yet to do him right, very well esteemed amongst great Clerks of our own Church for much good learning (though in matters of controversy, full enough of Romish leaven) reciteth somewhat more briefly the former interpretations of Petrus Damianus, Hugo Cardinalis, and John Vitalis, and approving those their applications, putteth them still on into the world, as truly consonant to the tenor of the Psalm, which notwithstanding I doubt not hath also many other expositions, as herbs have usually divers virtues and operations. But thus the eldest and newest expositors are wholly for me, many also (and of the best of them) of the middle ages, none that I know against me. For although Musculus, Bucer, Calvin, Marlorat, Mollerus, expoundeth this Psalm historically of the Country and Nation of the Jews, yet when they apply it to the Church of Christ (as otherwise there were no use of it) they make that application by way of figure and analogy; And then is there no cause to raise an antithesis, or contrariety between them and me. For to reconcile the matter, Saint Jerome in his entrance into the exposition of this Psalm, telleth us, that we may expound it figuratively of the Church (which I understand in matters of action, government, doctrine,) or historically of the people of the Jews and nations about them. And though Calvin himself pursueth for the most part the historical interpretation, yet when he cometh to the 12. verse, he saith; Iterum accusat profanos homines sacrilegij, quòd praedatoriâ licentiâ involant in ipsam Dei haereditatem.  
Thus much, and too much touching this point. As it is said in the end of the Macchabees: If I have done well, and as the story required, it is the thing that I desired: but if I have spoken slenderly and barely, it is that I could. Let no man therefore rely upon me, but learn of them that are bound to teach; For the Priests lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. Mal. 2.7.  
Other things there be, wherein I would willingly have enlarged myself a little: but as Papilius in Livy describing a circle about Antiochus enforced him to answer before he stepped out of it. So the Printer (having printed all to the last Sheet before I knew it) restraineth me, ad articulum temporis, within which accordingly I must needs end.  
FINIS.