The Levites Scourge, Section 10 – Section 11
SECT. X. Of the abuse of appropriations of benefices, and the necessitie of Pluralities as, the case standeth.
ENough of your preaching, whereof all men surfeit: now to the grand crime you charge our prelaticall clergie with, the defence of Pluralities, and Non-residence; in some case Pluralities is no single crime with the Brownists of a deep dye, who by their good will would have all that serve at the Lords Table their trencher-chaplains, wherein they exceed the sin of Ieroboam: for his was, that he took of the lowest of the people, and made them priests of the high places: but these take from the highest of the Clergie their deserved rewards and preferments, and endeavour to reduce them to the lowest rank of their hirelings…, that so they that wear the sacred Ephod, may be every way sutable to their apron-men. So cunning is Satan▪ when he transformeth himself into an Angell of light, that he maketh religion her self an advocate to plead for sacriledge. Forsooth▪ if the ministers of the Gospel be well provided for in their bodies & temporall estate they wil take lesse care of other mens souls: Iupiters golden cloak is too heavie for him to bear, the weight of two bene…ces is enough to break the back a Clergie-man: yet their Lecture-men can hold two Lectures; the Assemblie-men two sequestrations; and your Lay-patrons (or rather latrons) as many impropriations as they can purchase with their use-money. C. B. can keep Watford, a benefice said to be worth 200 li. per annum, with a Lecture in Pauls, for which he is to be allowed out of the revenues of the Cathedrall Church 400 li. per annum. S. M. for a long space held his benefice in Essex, and the Curates gainfull employment at Westminster, and a preachers place in the Armie, and yet he no way guiltie of the bloodie sin of Non-residence. In the Legend of Saint Francis written by Vincentius Bellovacensis there is one chapter intituled, de sanctâ ejus hypocrisi, of his holy hypocrisie: this chapter you Brownists have conned by heart▪ for there is not such holy hypocrisie and hypocriticall holinesse in any sect of the world, as in yours; save the Jesuits, whom before you followed close at heels, but now ha…e out-stripped them. You cannot be igno…ant▪ that as things now …and in the Church▪ there is a necessitie of Pluralities. Of the 9000 livings with cure in this Kingdom, there are above 4000 so castrated by sacrilegious appropriations, that in very many places in this Kingdom, that which remaineth for the incumbent is no way sufficient to support him and his family; either then his means must be pieced out with another living, or he perish for want of corporall▪ and his parishioners for want of spirituall food. In every Parliament since the reformation there hath been a bill against Pluralities pursued with all vehemencie and eagernesse, but ever stopt with a crosse bill against appropriations: ubi ille nominaverit Phaedriam, tu Pamphilam: let impropriations and Pluralities either stand together, or fall together. So long as impropriations stand, and the bounds of parishes are not altered, nor some other course taken to make single livings competent and correspondent both to the pains and parts of the incumbent, there will be a necessitie of Pluralities. Yea, but Pluralities are s…ns and there can be no necessitie of sinning; if Pluralitie be a sin, they themselves have taken an oath to maintain s…n in the Church, for they have taken an oath and made Protestation to maintain the priviledges of Parliament, and libertie of subjects: among which, the capacitie of holding more benefices with cure is one confirmed by Act of Parliament. If it be unlawfull to hold more benefices with cure within convenient distance, it is either malum quia prohibitum, or prohibitum quia malum; it is either evill because prohibited, or prohibited because evill in it self. It is not evill because prohibited, because the law of God no where sets out the limits of parishes▪ nor confineth the pains of a pastor within such narrow limits: all that the divine law requires, is, that every pastor carefully by himself, and by his fellow-labourers, which the holy Scripture expressely mentioneth, feed that flock whereof the holy Ghost hath made him over-seer: and from whence he is to receive comfortable maintenance, whether this flock be comprised within the limits of one parish or no. For parishes were first distinguished, not by Gods law, but by the Popes; and with such disproportion, that some parishes are too much for any one to supplie them; and others make not a convenient flock for a man of meanest parts to feed and attend on. Neither is Pluralitie prohibited by any law, quia malum in se, because it is evill in it self; for none of the precisest make scruple of conscience to hold any one benefice of never so great value: which notwithstanding hath divers chappells of ease annexed unto it, in which it is impossible for a man to be resident and officiate the cure in person at once. If they will say, he may discharge both by himself and his curate; so may he also do who hath two benefices: and let the parishioners both of Lambeth and Acton testifie, whether those benefices were not better supplyed by the Doctor himself, and his two learned and able curates, then now they are by those two who enjoy the sequestration of his benefices, who have been perpetually non-resident from both, and neither by themselves nor substitutes so much as once administred the Sacrament of the Lords Supper unto them, though the best of the parishioners have most earnestly desired it.
SECT. XI. That the abjuration of Episcopacie, especially in the Clergie of England, involveth them in perjurie and sacriledge.
THe Doctor excepted against the extirpation of prelacie, Brit. p. 68.Deanes, & Prebends, because he thought it not of Apostolical institution: no, there is another reason of more force with the Doctor and the prelaticall partie, they must have another kind of divinitie, and more beneficiall positions; they love not these naked truths, which are not able to maintain their sattin cassocks, nor those rigid opinions which will not allow a game at gleek after evening prayer.
Canis festinans caecos parit catulos: thou (or the Printer,Ans. Britanicus,) making more haste then good speed, hast stumbled at pons asinorum; and thou stammerest out perfect non-sense; thou sayest the Doctor excepted against the extirpation of prelacie, because he thought it not of Apostolicall institution, thou should'st have said, because he thought it to be of Apostolicall institution: for so indeed he thinketh, and will maintain his tenet against all the disciples of AErius the heretick, the first patron of paritie in the clergy; whether they be plant-animals, I mean lay-presbyters, or atomes; that is, Independents, whose arguments are like themselves, all together independent and inconsequent. But why dost thou deliver the Doctors mind by halfs? He did not only except against that clause in the new covenant, wherein Episcopacie is abjured, and the extirpation vowed of that plant, which the Apostles themselves planted, and we in our publique liturgie established by law pray to God to pour upon them the continuall dew of his blessing, because he held such an oath to be repugnant to an Apostolicall institution; but also because he conceived that horrible sacriledge was couched under it. For upon the taking away of Episcopacie, root and branch, will undoubtedly follow the confiscation of the lands of Bishops, and cathedrall Churches, or at least alienation from those holy uses, to the maintenance whereof, they were dedicated: and is it a small matter, thinkest thou Britanicus, to violate the sacred testaments, and last wills of many hundred religious christians, and to draw the guilt of sacriledge in the highest degree upon the land, which alreadie groaneth under the heavie burden of too many haynous sins, and bewayleth them in all parts of this Realm with tears of blood?