A Censure of Simony

CHAP. I.

F Or the Definition of Simony, briefly, we may reduce it to the Authority and Testimony of two especially: to wit, the Canonists and Schoolmen ; who have been the most exact observers and Collectors of what hath been delivered by the most learned Doctors of the Church from time to time touching the nature of this matter. For the C • nonists, let Gratian speak, who saith, Simonia est studiosa cupiditas, vel volunta • emendi vel vendendi aliquid Spirituale: Simony, is an intentiue desire, or purpose to buy or sell some spiritual thing. And in another place he addeth, Simonia est, emere vel v • ndere res Corporales Ecclesia. It is Simony to buy or sell the Corporal goods of the Church. For School-men, let Thomas Aquinas speak, who succeeded about one hundred years after Gratian, he saith in effect the same: Simonia est studiosa voluntas emendi vel vendendi aliquid Spirituale, vel Spiritual • annexum. Simony is an earnest desire of buying or selling any spiritual thing, or that which is annexed to that which is spiritual. On these two Definitions (in effect One) depends the whole Law of Simony, having the testimony of the whole Church from the Primitive age thereof, till this present. Zanchi using the very same Definition concludeth. Sic definierunt Theologi. All Divines and Doctors have so defined it. And not without good reason: For in these two Definitions is concluded whatsoever may be said of Simony, whither we respect the Object, or the Subject of it; in the Object, whether we understand the Spiritual gifts, or Corporal goods of the Church▪ in the Subject (I mean not the Subject of Predication, as Logitians speak, but of Inherence) whither we vnderdend the Affection only, or the Action also; Be it Actual, or be it only Intentionall. All is Simony. As Gratian also saith, Simonia committitur & circa ordinem, & circa Beneficium; Simony is committed both in respect of Orders, and in respect of the Benefice itself. The Council of Constance hath decreed the same, That Simony is as well committed in the Title, as in the Order. But hereunto Gratian puts an objection: Non videntur Spiritus Sancti donum emere, qui non pro consecratione, sed pro electione munera large ••• tur: cum nullius spiritualis gratia aliquos faciat electio participes: that is▪ They seem not to buy the gift of the Holy Ghost, who bestow their rewards, not for the Consecration, but for the Election. But he addeth the answer: Sed ficut Ecclesiasticarum rerum •• ptores simoniaci iudicantur, quia Ecclesiasticis officijs 〈◊〉 adiunctae sunt, vt alter •• 〈◊〉 aliero ali • ui non proueniat: ita quia per electionem peruenit • r ad consecrationem, perinde simoniacus habetur, qui pro Electione praemia largitur, ac si pro consecratione munera dedisset; But (saith he) as buyers of Ecclesiastical things, are judged simonicall, because those things are so annexed to Ecclesiastical duties, as one cannot have the one without the other: so because by election a man comes to his consecration, he is accounted no less a Simonist, who bestoweth gifts for the Election, then if he had gi-his money for Consecration.

Now if the former Definitions seem too large; especially to such, as would fain pack up all Simony in the same fardell, with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, as Commodities of one and the same kind: to gratify these, we might reduce All to the same terms, and say, Simony is a Desire or Act of buying or selling the gifts of the Holy Ghost. So Master Calvin (in Act. 8.) approves this to be the most proper Definition of Simony. Only the Question is, what kinds of gifts of the holy Ghost may be here implied, the Merchandizing and Chafering whereof, either is, or may well be called either Simony, or at least a branch of it. Lyra (in Act. 8.) saith, Simon volebat emere potestatem dandi Spiritum Sanctum, intention Lucri inde recipiendi: propter quod ab ipso nominatur vitium Simoniae, quo aliquis vendit aut 〈◊〉 Spiritualia; Simon would buy the power of giving the Holy Ghost, with intention of gaining thereby: as Saint Augustine saith: Quod venderet, emere volebat. He would buy that, which he purposed to sell again.

For which respect from him is named the sin of Simony ; when any man buyeth or selleth Spiritual things. Now we may reduce all those gifts of the Holy Ghost concerning his Ministers (for these only are pertinent to our purpose in hand) to these two heads: either those gifts given by imposition of hands in Ordination, whereby Ministers receive a ministerial power to preach the Word, to administer the Sacraments, to remit and retain sins, which is the dispensation of the Keys: Or else those, whereby a Minister receiveth a particular Charge over this or that flock, which being done by canonical and orderly calling, it is a gift no less ascribed to the Holy Ghost, then that other of Ordination. So the Apostle expresseth in his charge to the Clergy of Ephesus ( Act. 20.28.) Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock of God, Whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Episcopos, or Overseers. See here, to be an Ouerseer, whether Episcopus, by a note of Excellencie, as the Superior Ouerseer, or Superintendent over all particular both flocks and Pastors in his peculiar Diocese: Or else every inferior and subordinate Minister in his several Parish, placed as an Ouerseer or Watch-man over his flock, as Lyra also understandeth. This is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now then to buy this gift, to be made a Bishop over such a See, or a Pastor, or Rector of such a flock, doth it not jump with this definition of Simony? For Simony is a trucking of the gifts of the holy Ghost: but such an Ouerseership is a gift of the Holy Ghost. Therefore to buy this gift, is Simony.

CHAP. II.

BVt for answer to our former Argument, The sophistical Simonist, or simoniacall Sophister, distinguisheth, Inter Beneficium & beneficium, between the Benefice, and the benefit ; Or more distinctly, Beneficium em • t, non officium: He buyeth the profit, not the office: Non Curam, Sed curam not the Cure of others souls, but the Cure and provision for his own body. Paschalis P. answereth this objection: Si quis obiecerit non consecrationes emi, Sed res qua ex consecratione proueniunt, penitu • desiper • probatur; Nam cum corporalis Ecclesia, aut Episcopus, &c. If any shall object that he buyeth not the Consecrations, but those things which follow and attend the Consecration, he is a manifest Do • ard. For seeing a Corps of a Church, or a Bishop, or such, cannot subsist or be maintained, without things Corporal▪ no more then the soul can live corporally without the body; whoso •• er selleth the one of these, without which the other cannot go alone, he leaves neither unsold. Whereupon Gratian saith, Quando quis promouendus est ad Ecclesiam vel ordinem, fructus proueniunt iure ordinis; & ideo non licite emit. When a man is to be promoted to a Church or Bishopric, or to the order and office of it, the fruits do follow by right of order, and therefore the purchase it not lawful. Both Pascals comparison, and Gratians reason, are apt and good. For there is such a mutual and immediate relation, yea, combination and union between the Ministry and the Maintenance, as one cannot Subsist without the Support of the other, no more the • the soul can exercise sundry faculties (especially those sensitive offices) without the instrument of the body, or the body can do her Duty, without her ordinary Diet. And as Boaz tendered to his kinsman the purchase of El ••• lechs Lands, which at first offer he was willing to buy; but told him withal, that he must purchase it of Naomi by marrying Ruth, both must go together: So he that will buy the lands or inheritance of the Church and of the Ministry, he must make account to buy Ruth ▪ with it. The maintenance & the ruthful, and careful office of the Ministry go hand in hand together; buy the one, and buy the other too. Therefore anciently Ordination did use to carry the title with it; as Council. Chal. Can. 6. So that he who would buy the Maintenance, must buy also the Ordinance. And is not as well the Maintenance, as the ordinance of the Ministry, a gift of the Holy Ghost? Doth not the Lord say, I have given the tithes to the Levites? and are not these tithes holy? And who can give a holy gift, or make a gift holy, but the Holy Ghost? Whence I infer this Conclusion: Simony is a Desire, or Act of buying or selling the gifts of the Holy Ghost: but tithes, holy tithes are a gift of the Holy Ghost: Therefore, the Desire or Act of buying or selling holy tithes (by which I understand all Church Maintenance) is Simony.

So that the Simonists former distinction serveth only to distinguish between right reason, • nd his own fond imagination, which are no way compatible, but must needs make him, vt cum ration insani • t. And truly I very easily believe, that he speaks as he thinks? For few such Merchants would be at that cost, to purchase such a Cure, were it not for the Commodity, as Chrysostom saith, I suppose no man, though never so thirsty of glory, would ever be made a Bishop, unless necessity called him thereunto ; For who is sufficient for these things? And Cardinal Poole, being charged by a Cardinal of the adverse faction, with ambion in over-hasty seeking after the Popedom, answered, That he thought not the burden of that great office to be so light, but that he was of the mind, that it was rather to be feared, then desired. But later times are so pregnant, producing such sky-soaring spirits, as now, who is not sufficient for these things? And what reason hath any man of reason to think, that these sufficient men should have such leaden heads, as once to vouchsafe to reach out their golden hands, to the end to purchase and pull upon themselves the burden of such a Cure: no more then he would think, that such would ever be content (if it were possible) to become joint-purchasers with Christ, whose Bishopric cost him the shedding of his most precious blood; no nor ever imitate Saint Paul's example, Phil. 2.17. or obey Saint John's precept, 1. John. 3.16.

CHAP. III.

BVt what is become of my Simonist? I thought I had catched him fast even now with my Syllogism. But Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nod • ? How shall I hold this shifting Proteus? with what Cords or Wyths shall I bind this Sampson -like Simon? Emit, non Emit: beneficium, non Beneficium: curam, non Curam. But at the last, he must confess (and therein he mocks not) that he hath certain Lock • , whereon never 〈◊〉 Razor; that is, certain Flocks or • leeces never yet polled from the Church, or not touched (at least in his own sleepy sense and apprehension) with the Razor of Conuiction under the name of Simony. The temporal benefit indeed he hath bought, to wit, the Glebe, the Tythe, and the like: prove this to be Simony, & then I shall be as other men. And in this his conceit, he is as strong as Sampson: yea, so confident, that he dare say, that Tythes are mere Temporalls, Lay Fees. But as Sampson, after his locks were shaven, never thought that his strength was gone, till by woeful proof he found it: So our Simon here, thinks all is well with him, so long as he strongly imagineth that his Tythes are but Temporalls; and so long, no Simonist, not as other men.

But now Sampson, the Philistines be upon thee; yea, stronger then the Philistines, A Troope of Truths doth beset thee. What? Tythes temporal? In what Grammar have you learned to join this Substantiue and Adjective together? I am sure not in God's Book? There is no such incongruitie, no Solecisme, no false construction there. There he deserves the Feruia, the Rod, a vae, that incongruously calls sower, Sweet: and Sweet, Sower; Good, Evil: and Evil, Good: And shall he escape, that calls Sacred, Secular? Tythes, Temporalls? Or he, who saith, Give unto Caesar the things that are God's? Let me but a little shake Aaron's Rod, and Christ's many-corded Whip, at our indisciplined Simon, to make him at least attentive to what the Scripture saith. Tythes, I am sure, were once Sacred; and what God hath once Sacred, call not thou Common. But when Sacred? When? Why not, when Adam was first Created? When he was endued with the ten Moralls of the Law? And is it not more then probable, that among the ten, the Lord allotted a Tythe, for the maintenance of his service: Seeing among the ten he appointed a time for his service, even the Sabbath Day, the Sanctification whereof, Tythes were properly to attend upon? Tythes then, no doubt, were sacred from the beginning of Adams creation. For else, when did Abraham learn to pay tythe of All to Melchizedek, the Priest of the most high God? Or what moved Jacob to vow the paying of Tythes? Was it only from the Example of his grandfather? Or were his Tythes only voluntary and arbitrary, till by vow made necessary? Why not then his other service, which he then vowed, which he was bound to perform, though he had not vowed it at all? His vow was but a stronger Bond to hold and help him, to the better performance of that duty, which notwithstanding was due without a vow. As our solemn vow in Baptism is but a stronger Bond to tie us to that obedience to God, which we ought most carefully to perform, no less, then if we had not vowed at all.

But if as yet you deny Tythes to be Consecrate and Sacred, by divine instinct or institution, as wanting express precept: yet at least you yourself cannot but confess they began then to be sacred, when God said ( Levite. 27.30.) All the Tythe of the Land, both of the Seed of the ground, and the fruit of the Trees, is the Lord's; it is holy to the Lord. Yea, so holy, so sacred, that (as in the next Verse) If any man shall redeem any of his Tythe, he shall add the fifth part thereto. And every Tythe of Bullock, and of Sheep, and of all that goeth under the Rod, The tenth shall be holy unto the Lord, v. 32. Yea, so holy, as v. 33. He shall not look if it be good or bad, neither shall he change it, else if he change it, both it, and that it was changed with all, shall be holy, and it shall not be redeemed. Loe then, how sacred Tythes be ratified by a double Tense, They are holy, and, They shall be holy to the Lord: As Jacob confirmed his sons blessing, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed. And where it is said, That the Tenth Is holy to the Lord, a Learned and Reverend Prelate of our Church in his Book of Tythes, hath out of the Present Tense, drawn this observation, That the Tenth began not now to be sacred, or consecrated, but only to be appropriathe for the time to the Levites, concluding the Ordinance to be morally perpetual from the Creation.

CHAP. IIII.

YEa, saith our Simon, I deny not, but that the tenth was holy and sacred during the time of the Old Testament, but it ceaseth to be so now in the New. O Heresy, worthy of Simon himself! O Folly, well beseeming the Aramites! who being already overcome in the Mountains, promised to themselves the Victory in the Vally, Saying, The Lord is the God of the Mountains, and not God of the Vallyes: And is the Lord the God of the Old Testament▪ and not God of the New? Yes, even of the New also. For Mark: The Tythes were not said to be holy to the Levites, but to the Lord ; Nor, that they were the Levites, but the Lord's? The Tythes is the Lord's, it is holy to the Lord, Levite. 27.30. Therefore the Lord rebuking the Jews for neglecting the payment of their Tythes, he takes the wrong as done to himself, saying, Ye have robbed Mee. Mal. 3.8. He saith not, Ye have spoiled the Levite, and the Priest, but, ye have spoiled Mee. If then the Lord himself, and not the Levite be intitled and interested in the proper right of Tythes, then certainly they are as sacred now in the New Testament, as ever they were in the Old. The Tythes are holy to the Lord. Levite. 27.28. and they shall be holy to the Lord, v. 32. They are holy (it was said then) to the Lord of the Old Testament, and they shall be holy to the Lord of the New Testament: And to us there is but one Lord.

And tell me, foolish self deceiving Simonist, whosoever thou art, tell me when and where Tythes ceased to be sacred? and if thou canst not tell, how darest thou call them Temporalls? But let me tell thee by the Word of the Lord, that Tythes are perpetually sacred. Search the Scriptures. Go learn what that meaneth, Abraham gave Melchizedek Tythe of all. If thou understandest it not, ask the Apostle: and it is worth the consideration, For Consider (saith he) how great this man was, unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave Tythe of the Spoyles. Abraham, the Father of all the Faithful, not of the Jews only, but of us Gentiles also, paid Tythe of All. To whom? To Melchizedek. And what was this Melchizedek? Priest of the most high God, King of Righteousness, King of Salem: in all, a perfect Type of Christ our eternal high Priest, the Lord our righteousness, Prince of Peace. Did Abraham then the Father of the Faithful, yea, the Type of God's fathfull Church, in the Loynes of whose faith (as I may say) were all the faithful, give the Tythe of all to Melchizedek, the true Type of Christ our eternal high Priest, and the Minister of a better Testament? and shall we doubt to tread in the steps of faithful Abraham, except we will be Bastards and not Sons? And if the Apostle use it as an Argument to prove Christ's Priesthood more excellent then Aaron's ▪ inasmuch as even Levi in the Loynes of Abraham paid Tythes to Melchizedek: How do we then uphold and maintain this Prerogatiue of Christ's Priesthood, while we either deny or diminish his right of Tythes in the Ministry of the New Testament. Since Aaron, who was far inferior, received Tythes in the Old; yea, rather, if the Levitical Priesthood, being inferior, received Tythes: then the Evangelical, being superior, much more. And why is Levi said in the Loynes of Abraham to have paid Tythes to Melchizedek? but plainly to give us to understand that this payment implied an acknowledgement of Christ their Souereigne Lord and true high Priest, as in whose only title and right they also received Tythes. Hence is it, that all the Levites paid the tenth of their Tenths to Aaron the high Priest, and to his Successors; He being also a Type of Christ. Le • even the spirit of contradiction it self, but note how frequently and how effectually the Apostle presseth the right of Tythes resident in Christ, as a notable proof of the eternity of his Priesthood. For in the seventh Chapter to the Hebrews, the Apostle mentioneth this argument of Tythes no less then six or seven times; as, Verse 2.4.5, 6, 8, 9. He therefore that denieth Tythes to be due to Christ in the Ministry of the New Testament: what doth he else but deny the eternity of Christ's Priesthood, the ministration whereof must continue til time shall be no more. Yea, he must also deny, that Melchizedek was a true type of Christ, by virtue of receiving tithes: if now Tythes be not really due to Christ in the New Testament, as they were typically prefigured in the Old.

Again, when began Tythes first to be paid? Was it not so long before the Law was given, or the Levites borne? Could the Levitical Law then disannul the nature of Tythes, that they should not forever continue sacred, being before the Law consecrated in Act by our Father Abraham, the Type of Christ's Church, unto Melchizedek the Type of our eternal high Priest Christ Jesus? Decimas Deo, & Sacerdotibus Dei dandas Abraham factis, & Jacob promissis insinuate; & omnes Sancti Doctors commemorant. That Tythes are to be given to God, and to the Priests of God, both Abraham by fact, and Jacob by vow doth insinuate: and all holy Doctors do avouch it. Admonemus vel praecipimus, vt Decima de omnibus Dari non negligatur quia Deus ipse sibi Dari constituit, &c. We admonish and command, that the tenth of all things be not neglected to be paid, because God himself hath ordained it to be given to himself. And the perpetuity of Christ's Ppiesthood is proved by Tything, as Heb. 7.8. There he receiveth Tythes, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. Or let the Simonist go learn what that meaneth, Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel. Who seeth not, that the Apostle there, doth parallel the Levitical maintenance, and the Lord's Ordinance, the Altar, and the Gospel together. And doth not the Apostle there challenge to himself a power in such maintenance, as well as others? Mark; a power. And whence, but from the Lord's Ordinance? And where appeareth the general practice of this Ordinance, but in the Levitical Maintenance? And where hath this Maintenance the first foundation and institution (besides the Creation) but in Christ, figured in Melchizedek, who received Tythes of Abraham, the father and figure of all the faithful, the Church of God? And shall not Tythes then be forever sacred? And if sacred, is not he a profane Simonist, that offereth to buy them? Yea moreover, are not the Ministers of the Gospel called the sons of Levi? Mal. 3.3. The text is pregnant, and plain, and Interpreters subscribe to the truth of it. Christ was to fine the sons of Levi, that they might offer to the Lord in righteousness ; that is, his Apostles and Disciples of the Gospel. These are called the sons of Levi, because they succeed Levi, in the Ministry. And if we be Leuies sons, who shall deny us Leuies inheritance ; seeing we are Levites to the same Lord, the perpetuity of whose Priesthood, the payment of Tithes to his Levites are a pregnant argument of. And if ye deny him Tithes, you must of necessity deny him the Priesthood too, & so with the Jews conspire to kill him, that the inheritance may be yours. Yea, we are Leuies sons, fined and purged from the refuse of Legal Types and Ceremonies: & shall our Tythes be less sacred?

Object. But some will say: We have no express Precept in the Gospel for paying of Tythes. I answer, There are demonstrations enow, and those most strong. But what needs any express Precept? The Precept is express enough in the Law. He that is more seen in the Law, then in the Gospel, and stands more upon Antiquities, then Verities; If the God of this world had not blinded his eyes, might acknowledge the antiquity of this Precept in the Law to be so plain, as it needs no further explication or reestabliment in the Gospel. The Tythe is the Lord's, saith the Law. And doth not the Gospel ratify the same, saying, Give unto God those things that are God's? Is not this an express Precept. Indeed Christ and his Apostles being busy in founding a new Church, suspended the practice of receiving Tythes, until the decrepit Synogogue of the Levitical Ordinance expired, and the final obsequies thereof were fully ended. But they left abundant evidence in their Gospels, to euict the right of Tithes to Christ's Ministers, in the succeeding ages of the Church.

To conclude this point, That Tythes and all Church maintenance (call it what you will) benefit, or Benefice, profits, or corporal goods, they are holy, and of a spiritual nature, because they are consecrate to a holy use: I do not say, that Res decimarum, the things whereof Tythes consist, are in their own nature spiritual: but quà Decima, as they are Tythes, consecrate to a holy end, and use, they put on a spiritual nature. For even as the bread in the Sacrament before it be consecrate, and sanctified by the Word, it is common; but after the consecration, it becomes Sacramental and spiritual bread (which is that change the ancient Fathers so usually speak of, not that bastard substantial change, which the Pontificians would falsely father upon them) in which respect the Apostle calleth the Manna, and the water of the Rock, in regard of their typical signification, spiritual meat, and spiritual drink: So those things whereof Tythes and all Church maintenance consist, in their own nature, are temporal and common, but being dedicated to God to a holy use and end, they are not to be holden any longer for temporal, but spiritual, I say in regard of their spiritual end and use, for which they are consecrated. And what is the end and use, of such consecrate things? Is it not for the maintenance of Christ's Ministers? and are not they in their persons, in their profession, by calling spiritual? and of what nature then can their maintenance be, but Spiritual? For Omne nutritur à Simili, Spiritual men, and spiritual • eat: both of a like nature, both a like consecrated to God. So then Tythes, or Church livings, coming within the Verge of the definition of Simony, as being not only annexed unto spiritual things, but spiritual things themselves: it followeth necessarily, that to buy or sell such spiritual things, is Simony. The definition then of the School-men and Canonists formerly cited, stands firm and good, having all the terms and parts of a perfect definition, accoding to the rules of Logic: which in brief may be reduced to a syllogism thus: Emptio vel venditio rei spiritualis est simonia: sed decimae sunt res spirituales: • rg • emptio vel venditi • decimarum est simonia. Emptio & venditi • , is the Genus: Simonia, is the Species: and res Spiritualis, is the Differentia. As Homo est animal rationale: is a perfect definition: having the Genus, the Species, and Differentia. Therefore according to the definition of Simony, to buy or sell any spiritual thing, is Simony. In which respect Judas in selling Christ, is said to commit Simony: Non solum plagium commisit, quod liberum hominem: sed & Simoniam, in eo quod rem sacram vendidit: He committed not only the sin of man-stealing, by selling a free-man: but also of Simony, in selling a thing sacred or spiritual.

CHAP. V.

BVt the Simonist hath yet another usual starting hole, whereinto he creeps, when he is pursued with the Hue and Cry of Simony : he confesseth indeed, because he cannot deny it, that Tithes are perpetually consecrate, and so, spiritual; and therefore to buy or sell them is Simony : but he saith, he buyeth not the Tithes, but ei • her the Gleebe, or the Temporalls annexed to his Benefice, or Bishopric. Well, to answer this, we will not take the benefit and advantage of the definition of Simony, which includeth as well those things annexed to spiritual things, as the Spiritual thing • themselves; but we say, that such Gleebe and such Temporalls are now Spiritualls, as Tithes be. For as well the Free-will offerings and Oblations, as the Tithes were called holy. If a man dedicate to the Lord any ground of his inheritance, the field shall be holy to the Lord, when it goeth out in the Jubilee, as a field separate from common uses; the possession thereof shall be the Priests. Such Gleebs therefore and Lands commonly called Temporalls, are indeed not temporal, being once freely and solemnly given by vow of our noble Predecessors unto the Lord, for the more honorable maintenance of his Church; but they are now spiritual, sanctified and separate from common use, as Tithes be, they are holy to th • Lord. Therefore, as it is a snare to devour that which is thus sanctified, and after such vows to inquire : So the Simonist doth but entangle himself in a • nare, as the Conny is in her own Burrow, when he makes this his starting h • le; that so long as he buyeth but the Temporal lands of the Church, he commits no Simony. Sed cominus res agat • r. Simoniace, quid emisti? Glebam inquis, aut (te arbitro) Temporalia. Quanti emisti? Tanti. Agedum. Permittatur i • m arbitrio calculorum, quantum inde 〈◊〉 • ucratus, & num te negoti • torem satis prudentem cautumque praestiteris. Ann •• glebae tuae reditus aestimantur forte 20. li. aut supra; ducentis vero, aut trecentis, aut quadringentis libris emisti. Nae tu, haereditatem tibi ac posteris, tandidem emere potuisses. Summa igitur, si computetur, huc recidit, quod hoc tuo mercimonio teipsum prodideris aut puerilem mercatorem, aut (quod magis suspicor) egregium veteratorem. Excute vero tuam tantae causae nimium indo • mientem conscientiam, & fatebere tandem, non te glebam tanti, nisi decimarum major fuisset ratio, emisse. Vel sicut siquis domicitium chariù • emit, bonae viciniae gratia. Eadem prorsus ratio latifundiorum Episcopalium, vulgo Temporalium, habenda est. Emit quis, non Episcopatum, sed Temporalia, non quod sacrum est, sed quod seculare. Ista aut • m Temporalia partim ex latifu • dij vtilitate, partim ex dominij dignitate aestimantur. Quanti antem constet Ecclesiasticus honor, mihi non constat. N • c quenquam arburer 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 seu 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pr • se tantum laturum, vt dicat se honorem Ecclesiasticum emere. Si vero quod reliqu •• est Temp • ralium emat, viderit Emptor, ne quantùm rem empta • pretium superat, tantum ipsum se honorem non neglexisse videatur. Nec quamquam existimo eo processurum a • daciae, vt dicat, tantundem esse, honorem Ecclesiasticum, & ciuilem emere. Nihil addo amplius. Sati • est quod hic noster mercator ex sua ipsius conscientia arguatur. Nec sibi ca • ere poterit, quin in istorum scopulorum alterum, Directe, vel Indirecte, misere impingat. But let this suffice to have shown, both by evidence of Holy Scriptures, and testimonies of Ecclesiastic Doctors, and learned Divines, that all buying and selling any Church • referments, upon what pretence soever, is gross Simony, how finely and artificially soever conveyed.

CHAP. VI.

IF God's Word were altogether silent in the Law of Tythes, leaving them as a thing indifferent to be paid or not, according to men's fancies and wills; and that the Scriptures had consequently no show of arguments to convince Simonists, as we have heard: yet even the general voice of common fame (me thinks) should be sufficient to cry down Simony, and to present it in the Spiritual Court, or to procure a Decre • e against it in the high Court of Conscience. And here before the Barre of this impartial Court, let me by Writ Summon the Simonist to appear. Thou hast bought some Benefice; or other Ecclesiastical preferment in the Church▪ but hast so carried and conuei • d the matter, as the world cannot be witness how much thou hast given: yet so, and so much thou hast given, as by some circumstance or other, general notice is taken of it (for such corruption will soon cast abroad a savor) whereupon a common fame is raised upon thee, that thou art a Simonist. So that if thou wilt be tried by God and the Country, thou art sure to be condemned for a Simonist. For vox popidi, v • x Dei, everyone saith thou art a Simonist; therefore thou art one. Even as an intemperate or incontinent person in a Parish; the one is commonly drunk, the other followeth harlots, every boy in the street points at them; There goes a Drunkard▪ There goes a Whoore-master; But yet for all this, neither will the one confess himself a Drunkard, because he keeps his feet; he wallows not in the kennel, he can use his tongue, and the like; Nor the other will be an Adulterer, because he thanks God, he meddleth not with other men's wives, but useth only for recreation to meet with merry company, although in suspected places, to see their fashions, and to learn rather to hate women, then to love them. And if he enter into more familiarity with them, it is but simple fornication at the worst, and (according to Roman-Catholic Doctrine ) a Veniall sin, which his nature is now and then necessitated unto, for his healths sake: Just so, is our common Simonist. He hath devoured pluralities of preferments, as so many full cups; he hath deflowered so many, once Virgin Churches, the Patron perhaps, or some for him being the Pandor; so that everyone can point with the finger, There goes one who paid so much for such a Benefice, such a D. such a B. Yet for all this he will be no Simonist, because, forsooth, he hath not bought the Holy Ghost ; nor by way of Lapse entered upon another's Living, as is were, another man's wife, which some flaw in this wife, not fault in the Incumbent, hath brought into the lapse, and so now free for any to sue out a Diuorce, and marry her, though so, as he commits adultery with her.

But thou wilt say, It is one thing to be called, and another thing to be; Though the ignorant vulgar call me so, yet it therefore followeth not, that I am so. Things are to be measured not by report, but by reason; and the vulgar can give no other reason of calling me a Simonist, but only because Simon bought the gifts of the holy Ghost, and I only buy the corporal commodities of the Church. Well, yet if there were no other respect, but this, how ought every Minister especially to be careful of preserving the credit of his holy calling and profession: As Saint Jerome writing, De vita Clericorum & Sacerdotum, saith. Caueto omnes, suspitiones, & quicquid probabiliter fingipotest, ne fingatur, ante deuita. Avoid all suspicions, and whatsoever may be probably forged, prevent it first, that it may not be forged. For as every good Christian ought not only to abhor Adultery and all unclean Acts; but also to direct his conversation so, as he may preserve his good name from the least suspicion of lightness and dishonesty: so every good Minister of Christ should so much detest the sin of Simon himself, as to decline whatsoever hath any similitude or affinity therewith. Abstain (saith the Apostle) from all appearance of evil.

And if there were no other reason to ground common fame upon, but this, that merchandizing of Church-livings is called Simony, because Simon's sin in offering to buy the gifts of the holy Ghost, is truly called Simony: it were even proof good enough. As Theopompus called a drunken murder, Cilicismus, of the barbarous manners of the Cilicians: and lascivious lust, Canobismus, of the filthy Canobites. Coelius Rhod. lect. antiq. li. 8. cap. 3.

So Judas is called a Devil, for being like him. Herod, a Fox, for his craft; The Church of Antichrist, a Whoore, for her whoorish conditions; and many a man is called a Simonist, for resembling Simon. As Saint Augustine marshalleth Simon, and all Ecclesiastical Merchants in the same rank together: Simon erat de talibus, qui in Templum intrant ad emendum & vendendum; Simon is one of those, that enter into the Temple, to buy and sell. In Ps. 130. And see what a similitude there is between Simon, and the Simonist. Simon would have bought the gifts of the Holy Ghost, this man buyeth the goods of the Holy Ghost, which are the gifts of God to his Ministers. Simon offered money, not so much for the gift, as for the gain; this Man, not only offereth, but giveth his money, not perhaps for his Ordination, not for that most careful Cure of Souls, not for that most watchful and weighty (Angelorum humeris tremendum Onu • ) office of an Antistes: I dare say; what then? if neither, to make himself the more rich & honorable in the world, and consequently the more capable of a greater preferment • all probable conjecture were at a stand. Blame not then even the common vulgar, for calling thee a Simonist after the name of Simon, whom thou dost so nearly resemble in thy manners, and which thou hast so dearly purchased with thy monies.

Again, They that have but in a mediocrity attained the grounds of their Catechism (whereof there are enow to make up a common fame) are able thus to conclude against common Simony. The Commandment saith, Thou shalt not Kill. Is therefore only the Act of Murder here forbidden? Is not also the envious, the back-bi • er, the hater of his brother, a Murderer? He that hateth his brother is a Manslayer. The Commandment saith, Thou shalt not commit Adultery ; Is only the Act forbidden? Is not also the affection? the lust? the look? He that looketh on a woman, and lusteth after her, hath committed Adultery with her a • ready in his heart. Even so, Thou shalt not commit Simony: Therefore is only the buying and selling of the most proper gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost so heinous, as to deserve that odious name of Simony: and shall not the buying and sel • ling of Church preferments (being also the Holy Ghosts gifts, but of an inferior nature) (that which Simon himself had most respect unto, when he offered his money) deserve also the name of Simony? And why should not the buying and selling of Church livings be called Simony: as well as a lustful look be called Adultery? For he that useth lustful looks, and wanton gestures, is not only an Adulterer in his heart, but the likelier and nearer to commit it in the act: So he that will not stick to buy a Benefice, be it but an Aduowson, before he have taken some Orders, is he not the likelier to buy his Orders too, especially being some rustic Pedanticke, that so he may enjoy his former bargain? For everyone that buyeth a preferment of this nature, doth vndoubtly prefer it before the honor of his Calling (for he that truly honoreth this holy Calling, is of that holy mind, as to despise all base means to advance himself in this calling) and consequently will make small conscience to buy holy Orders, which he accounts but as accessories, when as he hath made shipwreck of conscience already in purchasing the profits, which he deemeth as the Principal. And upon these reasons, not only the Common fame of this our Church, and of the present time, but of the whole Catholic Church from time to time, is grounded. So that the very fame of it being so universal, if there were no other reason, me thinks it should make any common Christian both ashamed, and afraid to oppose either his private opinion, or practice, against such a stream and cloud of witnesses.

CHAP. VII.

BEsides all the former conuictions, yea, even without them all, the same Laws which have appointed and imposed the Oath of Simony, may serve for sufficient and competent Judges in the case of Simony. And it stands with good reason, that the same Law which forbids and punisheth Simony, should be its own Interpreter, what it meaneth by Simony. And so, That is justly censured for Simony, which the Law understands to be Simony. Now the words of the Statute showing what Simony is, be these: And for the avoiding of Simony and Corruptions in Presentations, Collations, and Donations, of, and, to Benefices, Dignities, Prebends, and other livings and Promotions Ecclesiastical, and in admissions, institutions and inductions to the same: Be it further enacted, &c. See here what our Statutes call Simony. And according to the Interpretation of this Statute, doth the Oath take place. For upon this impregnable Bulwark of the Law positive, is mounted the Canon of the Church, full charged upon Simonists with powder and shot, to batter down this high towering conceit of all those, that stand out in defiance of all opposition, and in defense of their ungodly merchandise. The charge of this Canon is heavier then Lead, and harder then Iron, and so planted against the Simonist, that he m • st of force receive it into his very mouth; I mean, that most fearful Oath of Simony. But the Simonists Motto is, Iuraui lingua, mentem iniuratam gero: The Oath may well touch the tip of his tongue, but it shall not come near his heart; he hath some evasion, some reservation, or trick 〈◊〉 elude the Oath, either by giving it a false gloss, o • by looking the face of his conscience in a false glass, unless by way▪ of commutation he decline it, as other offenders do the wearing of the White Sheete; but never any by commuting, or call it what you will, is able to shift off his winding sheet: Many may avoid the mouth of the Canon, but when it comes once to the ryding of the Canon, that will be sure to pay his ryder. For to bring it home to the conscience, let me borrow an example of a Simoniacal Bishop from Rome, whereof that now step-mother Church is fruitful, and may spare enow to stand for sea-marks for our better direction. Imagine you see him entering the Chancel of Saint Peters in Rome, to receive his consecration in all his Pontificalls, and standing in the midst of such a congregation as at least themselves account most sacred: To this man let that dreadful and direful Oath (which our Church hath religiously provided as a wholesome remedy and preservative against this dangerous disease of Simony) be administered. And before he take it, let some powerful voice (such as came to Balaam, to forbid him to go to Balak for the wages of iniquity, or as came to Abimelech, to forbid him to touch Abraham's wife) summon and rouse his conscience, as on this wife. Come now, O Roman Prelate, who hast purchased a Bishopric, as the Centurion did his Burgeship, for a great sum: I dispute not now about the manner, it makes no matter a purchase it is: But now thou art come to the place of thy Consecration (take heed it prove not thy Execration:) Now thou standest in the midst of an assembly of Prelates and Priests, on a day, in a place, all sacred: the service sacred, praying, praising, preaching, communicating; expecting also the presence of the Holy Ghost, with his manifold gifts to be conferred upon thee by imposition of hands: now thou art set in the presence of Men and Angels, who stand about thee as so many eye and ear witnesses of this days deed. All these weighty circumstances considered, might be of force to put thee to a stand; and because I have known that a desperate fellow coming before a Judge in open Court, armed with a strong and obstinate resolution to take a solemn oath in the maintenance of a wrong cause, which the Judge having smelled out, first, wisely admonished him to be well advised what he would do, laying before him the fearfulness of an oath wrongfully taken: He thereupon, feeling the remorse of conscience, openly confessed the whole truth of the business: Therefore be advised before thou comest to take thine oath; first to read the Oath, that weighing the tenure of it, thou mayest rather timely prevent the danger, then afterwards repent thee when it is too late. The words of the Canon prefixed stand thus: To avoid the detestable sin of Simony, because buying and selling of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Functions, Offices, Promotions, Dignities, and Liuings, is execrable before God: Therefore the Archbishop, and all and every Bishop or Bishops, or any other person or persons, having authority to admit, institute, collate, install, or to confirm the election of any Archbishop, Bishop, or any other person or persons to any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Function, Dignity, Promotion, Title, Office, Jurisdiction, Place, or Benefice, with Cure, or without Cure, or to any Ecclesiastical Living whatsoever, shall before every such Admission, Institution, Collation, Installation, or Confirmation of election, respectively minister to every person hereafter to be admitted, instituted, collated, installed, or confirmed, in, or to, any Archbishopric, Bishopric, or other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Function, Dignity, Promotion, Title, Office, Jurisdiction, Place or Benefice, with Cure, or without Cure, or in any Ecclesiastical living whatsoever; This Oath in manner and form following, The same to be taken by everyone whom it concerneth in his own person, and not by a Proctor: The words of the Oath. I N. N. do swear, That I have made no Simoniacal payment, contract, or promise, directly or indirectly, by myself, or by any other to my knowledge, or with my consent, to any person, or persons whatsoever, for, or concerning the procuring and obtaining of this Ecclesiastical dignity (to wit, the Bishopric of, &c.) Nor will at any time hereafter perform, or satisfy any such kind of payment, contract or promise made by any other, without my knowledge or consent ; So help me God, through Jesus Christ.

Hast thou now duly and seriously weighed the substance and circumstances of this most solemn Oath? Then let it summon and assemble thy saddest thoughts in counsel together, all moving thee thus to argue with thyself. I am now in a place sacred, in the open view of Men and Angels, all Spectators, all Expecters of what I am to do: Here I come to be consecrated a Bishop, a great honor, but a greater burden, which taking upon me, I must over-top many here present, and many more absent, all deserving this honor far before me; So that I pull upon myself, and that justly, the most insupportable burden of Envy: yea more, if this Bishopric had fallen unto me by Lot, as that fell upon Mathias, or had been cast or enforced upon me, as Bishoprics were once wont to be upon good men in the time of the Churches innocence, I might better bear and brook it, yea, it would diminish all the Envy: But my conscience tells me, yea, and others also can too well witness (for ambition is not hid in a corner) how eagerly? how ambitiously, how unbeseeming the gravity and modesty of a Priest, yea, the ingenuity of any honest man, by cap and knee, by soothing and flattery, by often visiting and long attending the Court, when I should have been at my sheep-coat, have I at length attained to this reverent Dignity: Nay more, though the world perhaps know it not (as yet) my conscience fails not to charge me, what a sum of money I have and am to pay for it (that which my kindred and friends may one day rue, if the lease of my momentary lent life be not all the longer) besides the fair and goodly livings I have parted withal into the bargain: yet if this were all, it were the more tolerable. But alas? here is an Oath, a direful, a dreadful Oath (alas!) which I must take: I must, there is no evasion, no redemption, no baulking of it, I can no more escape it, then a dead man his winding sheet, and taking it upon me, it will be worse then Deianira's enchanted shirt, sitting close to my conscience, and tormenting it with the fire of hell. This will be worse unto me then the ryding of the Cannon, for it will shake and shatter my soul and conscience all to pieces. How should I then take this fearful Oath, and so sin against God, the Judge: sin against this sacred Assembly, the Grand Jury passing upon me? sin against the Church? against my profession, which is sacred, against the dignity of a Bishop, which is venerable; and lastly against my own soul, the subject of all this sin, and the object of all those inevitable judgments of that just God hanging over my head? And what shall it advantage me, thus to win a Bishopric, and lose mine own soul? What advantage? Nay what disadvantage will it bring unto me? For what joy or enjoyment can I have in my Bishopric, when my conscience shall be still dogging me at the heels, yea biting me at the heart, and upbraiding me with Simony & Periury: what honor shall the title of Lord be unto me, when my Simony and Periury (too manifest to the world) shall make me a table talk, a byword, a scornful Parable in every man's mouth, a contemptible object in every man's eyes? The Rotchet being an embl • me of the pure linen righteousness and innocence of Saints, so often as I shall put it on, what doth it but put me in mind to apply that saying to myself, being one of those false Apostles, who transform myself into the Apostle of Christ, as Satan is transformed into an Angel of Light? And what benefit shall my Bishopric be unto me, being so dearly bought, that I must lay the burden of my Simony, upon my poor Clergy, rack my rents, sell my Presentations, keep a miserable house, and all, and more then all these, to patch up a poor bargain, and to heap more burdens upon my conscience, enduring more already, then I am able to bear? were it not much better for me rather to forgo Bishopric and all, and to prevent all those matchless mischiefs, that depend and attend upon the conditions of accepting it: then by going on, to plunge my soul into infinite calamities, and wrap myself in endless and remediless miseries? For that Oath, that Oath, O that fearful Oath (alas) admitting no evasion, no mental reservation, no equivocation; that Oath, being once taken, becomes a great gulf forever set between my conscience, & comfort, between my soul, and salvation, between me and bliss: And what can I expect, but that my tongue, for being but an instrument in pronouncing this Oath, shall be tormented in a greater flame then that of poor Dives in hell fire? And then, and there, what shall it boot me to disclaim the name of Simony, when I now suffer for it? or to say, I bought the benefit, and dignity, not the Office of a Bishop, when now my false and foolish equivocation is found out? when as my conscious Agents, and all that confederate crew, the Usurer, the Scrivener, the Solicitor, and the like, shall upbraid and accuse me, for being an accessory, yea, a principal occasion of their sin? For had not I been so forward to give, they had not participated with me in my sin, and so not in my punishment; mine own conscience never ceasing her hideous and hellish clamors upon me, tormenting me for my desperate perjury, for my deep hypocrisy, for playing the Chop-Church, which my punishment shall then tell me, is either Simony, or some other crime worse then it, if worse can be imagined.

Now shall not these considerations move such a man, yea, even a Romish Simonist, to a timely prevention of Simoniacal perjury, or of becoming a perjured Simoniack? And rather then desparately proceed to take the direful Oath, be content to remain stripped of all his other promotions, and bidding adue to Bishopric and all, go vow himself to a perpetual monasticke life, there to do penance, if it were only for making such a bold attempt.

CHAP. VIII.

BVt there is a new found Well, which may well be called after that ancient River Orcus (yet far unlike that ancient Beersheba ) the Well of that Oath, between Abraham and Abimelech ; it having six porches: which at a certain time, being stirred by an Angel (called Legion ) whatsoever diseased Ecclesiastical person steppeth in first, and instead of washing, taketh a draught of this Well (it springing from the River Styx, by which, as Poets fain, the God's drinking thereof were wont to swear) he passeth forth at any of these Ports or Porches a whole and sound man. The Moral is this: this Orcus, is the Oath of Simony: the Angel, called L • gion, is easily known by his name, what metal he is of: He that first steps in upon the Angels motion, is the corrupt and diseased Simonist: This sick and ill affected person taking a draught of this black Stygian water, the Oath of Simony passeth out at six Porches, by six evasions by himself invented, perfectly cured (as he conceiveth) of two most desperate diseases; Simony, and Periurie, and all other Symptoms of the same. Now all these six Porches, tend to make a clear passage for one word in the Oath Simoniacal, wherein consists the whole power of the Oath.

First therefore, they plead Not-guilty of Simony, and so consequently, not of perjury, because they buy only the Temporalls. This, I touched before: But now I retort it upon themselves. They buy the temporal Benefit, therefore it is Simoniacal. For even Simon had a respect that way: Mercari vult, quod pluris reuendat, He would buy, to sell the dearer, saith Erasmus. So Augustine; Emere volebat, quod vendere disponebat. Calvin also confesseth the same temporal respect to be Simoniacal. For to imitate Simon in any such respect, is sufficient to prove the Act Simoniacal.

Secondly not Simoniacal (say they) because they bargain not with the Patron. Why? no more did Simon : for Peter was not the Patron of the Holy Ghost, but God; Peter prayed, and God gave. But this shift is all one, as if the Chap-man should deny he bought such a Merchants wares, because he dealt only with his Factor, and therefore no lawful bargain. Thy Solicitor in thy name and stead procureth it of the Patron, thou payest thy money to thy Solicitor. And wilt thou swear thy purchase had no relation to thy Patron? Though I could cut off all thy reasons at one blow, with Phocion Axe, to wit, Directly, or Indirectly.

Thirdly, not Simoniacal (say they) because what they gave, was but respectively to their Solicitors, for their pains employed therein. But is not his pains valued according to the preferment, as it is more or less worth? as Clients fee their Lawyers, according to the value of their suit in hand? If so, is it not Simoniacal? But attendants must live, either by their service, or by suits. So it hath been the custom of the Court of Rome, that Simony should go under the name of Subsidiary or El • emosynary pension, either for the Popes Courtiers, or Cofers; But far be it from the Court of England. What befell Gehazi? call Simony a gratuity, or what plausible name you will, yet it altereth not his nature; no more then the calling and ranking Father Garnet among the Saints & Martyrs of the Church of Rome, will alter him from a Traitor▪ or the painting of him among the Saints in Heaven, free him from the fire of Hell. And doth not such a gratuity or alms, reflect upon the Patron, as an implicit compact of Simony, when the Patron respectively pleasures his servant, and thy Solicitor, with the Collation of such a living, by means whereof he holds his servant well appaid and recompensed for his service?

Fourthly, not Simoniacal: for the preferment came not by purchase, but by wager, as it were casually, or by buying a horse, to pay for him so much at the day of marriage. But who seeth not this horse to interfer between Directly and Indirectly? who seeth not, that this Merchant laid, purposely to lose? But enough of such horse-play.

Fifthly, not Simoniacal, since he had the favor to obtain, under an implicit Faith, without explicit or express conditions; to save his Oath and honesty, Quippe qui non adeo sit plumbei tardique cerebri, vt foro vti nesciat, and as we say, Do reason. Verbum enim sapienti. O, for a Phocion, refusing Alexanders Presents (though sent him, because he was an honest man) and saying, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : Let him suffer me to be an honest man still. Pauper Fabricius quartam à Pyrrho regni partem sibi oblatam recusauit, ne fidem suam Romanam temeraret. Poor Fabricius refused the fourth part of Pyrrhus his Kingdom offered him, least he should dishonor his Roman fidelity. But this Roman fidelity was, in diebus illis, when Rome was heathen. And Damianus saith, Simoniaci sunt, non solum qui paciscuntur, sed etiam qui pecuniam non pactam postulant: more Gihezi. Simonists are they, not only that bargain, but also that require money, not of compact: as Gihez • did. For the condition, be it implicit, or be it explicit, Simoniacal it is, directly, or indirectly. Yea, this is met withal in the conclusion of the Oath, which forbids to perform any contract made by another, though without thy knowledge: how much more should a man renonce all purpose to perform an implicit contract or condition, which his own heart is conscious of, and privy to?

Sixthly, not Simoniacal, because this was obtained before it fell, as it were in the nature of an Aduowson, by promise; which differeth from an Aduowson only, as a word of mouth, from writing. And an Aduowson is no Simony. For answer: first, promise and Aduowson in common estimate and practice, differ much; for promise is expressly excepted against in the Oath; otherwise, what needed there be any Simony, when as promise might prevent it? For Aduowsons, I refer to a more proper place, yet this I will say by way of anticipation, that if buying of an Aduowson (it passing under hand and seal) be no Simony: what reason is there, why a contract made only by word of Mouth, should be accounted Simoniacal? Thus have we hunted the Simonist out of his six Meshes: and if he have or find anymore, we will set him for him Directly, or Indirectly, which will be sure to catch this Fox, and all his Cubs.

CHAP. IX.

WEe have seen what a Simonist is: Now let us see who, & of how many sorts they be. It was a wicked and impious decree of Pope Hildebrand, Gregory the seventh, to draw all Kings and Princes, and Lay-persons into the rank of Simonists, only for presenting to Bishoprics and Benefices, although they did it most freely and honestly. But the main drift of this grand founder of Antichristian usurpation over Christian Princes, was both to enrich his Coffers, and to fortify his Papal See, by obliging the whole Prelacie, and Clergy to his Pontifical Chair. But all Simonists are either buyers or sellers. The common fame indeed runs only upon the buyers, as if they only were the Simonists: but if the buyer be one, the seller must needs be another, by the Law of Relatiues. Of sellers, Esau is reckoned for the first, who sold his Birth-right, and with it the Priesthood. For the birth-right had annexed unto it Dominion; double portion, and the Priesthood. So that with his Birth-right selling the Priesthood, the most sacred Prerogatiue, he is justly called profane Esau.

Object. Some here may object, that reciprocally Jacob also in buying the Birthright, committed Simony. But Lyra answereth well, Not so; for the Birthright belonging to Jacob by God's own designment and donation ( Gen. 25.23.) Esau therefore having lost his right to it, by selling it, committed Simony: whereas Jacob, by buying that which by the best title was his own already, intended, Non emere rem Sacram, sed redimere vexationem suam, Only to buy his own peace.

Object. If Jacob in so buying committed no Simony, because he bought but his own: then why may not a Minister buy, and yet commit no Simony, since Tithes do as well appertain to the Minister, as the Birthright did to Jacob, both, by God's donation. But the case is not alike. For, although Tithes are by God's own intitling tied and entailed to his Ministry: yet this or that Minister hath no title to this or that Tythe, till he be lawfully possessed and invested in them. And when he is so, if he meet with a crafty or cruel Patron, a profane Esau, who either fraudulently usurp • h, or forcibly detaineth any part of the Tithes, then may he lawfully and laudably imitate Jacob's wise Example, Non emere rem Sacram, iam suam, sed redimere vexationem suam. Yet, if there were any such well minded Jacob's, God's Ministers, that could and would redeem Church goods to the true heir, they should draw upon themselves a Blessing, and not a Curse. Although I confess the Council of Ments saith, Decimas, quas populus dare non vult, nisi quolibet munere ab eo redimantur, ab Episcopis prohibendum est, ne fiat. Those Tythes, which the people (or any Patron) will not pay, unless they be redeemed of them by some reward, the Bishops ought to forbid such dealing. But some say, It is not lawful for a man to redeem his Spiritual right, because it is Simony. But I think few will be so forward so to redeem, as to need the Bishops prohibition. Or if they were, the mischief is, the Market is so raised, that a Messe of B • oth will not serve the turn, to satisfy hungry Esau. It is a pot, not of Red broth, but of precious Red earth, which all Edom's so much hunger after. Auri sacra fames? The time was once indeed, when our great Jacob, made a noble and gracious tender to the Church, to have redeemed her patrimony at easy and honorable conditions, if she would, which had been a most happy purchase.

Another Simoniacal seller was Gehazi, of some taken for the first Simonist in the Old Testament. Gehazi primo in veteri Testimento Simoniam inuenit. Hereupon all such sellers were wont to be called Gehezites, as buyers, Simonists. But Simon hath obtained to bear the bell, and to carry the name away for both; since the money so given and taken becomes Sin-money, bearing the image and superscription of Simon. Sin sticks so jointly between these two, the Buyer and the Seller, as a nail between the joints of the stones. And as Chrys. Qui emit & vendit, sine periurio esse non potest: He that buyeth and selleth, cannot be without perjury. Which might well be applied indifferently to both, the Merchant and Chap-man in Simony, if they did both indifferently take the Oath. Therefore our Lord whipped all out of the Temple, as well the Sellers, as Buyers ; which Gregory applying to Simony, saith, Columb •• vendere, est de Spiritu Sancto Commodum temporale percipere: To sell Doves, is to reap a temporal benefit of the Holy Ghost. Sellers therefore are as deep in Simony, as buyers.

It is the common error of many Patrons, to account the Benefices, within their Presentatiue power, as their goods and chattels, as a part and parcel of their Patrimony; whether devolved upon them by inheritance, or purchased with their money; whereupon they resolve, that being their own, they may do with them as they list; Vendere iure potest, emerat ill priu • ; He sells, but that he bought. Hence it is, that so many hunt after the purchase of Patronages▪ as being, in their estimate, none of the worst markets. But herein, such men miserably misdeeme the matter: at least if all be true, which the Canonists, and School-men, yea and the ancient Fathers, have delivered touching these things. For Aquinas saith, That right of Patronage cannot be sold, nor given in fee, but passeth with the Village; which is sold, or set over. Gratian gives the reason; Because the right of Patronage is neither simply Temporal, nor Spiritual, such a Lay-man may have it: (to wit, Ius patronatus ) and leave it to his heirs: not Temporal, because it cannot be sold. Saint Jerome to Damascus writing about a point, bordering upon our present purpose, saith, Quia Beatitudo tua quaesiuit, vtrum vsus Decimarum & oblationum secularibus prouenire possit: nouit vestra sanctitas omnino non licere: Protestantibus hoc Diuinis Authoritatibus Paternorum Canonum. Because your Blessedness demanded, whether the use of Tithes and Oblations might be derived to Lay-men: your Holiness may know, it is altogether unlawful. And divine Authorities of ancient Councils avouching the same. Gratian adds the reason: Non licere: Hoc est certum, quod Ius Decimarum Laicus possidere non potest, cum sit Spirituale: This is certain, that a Lay-man may not possess the right of Tythes, seeing it is Spiritual. Distinguishing between the right of the patronage, and the right of the personage. And for this cause, De sola gratia, &c. Only of favor, not of mere lay-right or claim, the Ius Patronatus, or right of Patronage was conferred upon the Lay-founders, or Indowers, or Builders ; according to that Verse,

Gratian, saith moreover, Sunt autem tria, &c.: There be three things which the Patron attaineth, Honor, Charge, and Profit: Honor in presenting: Charge or burden in defending the Church from Dilapidations: Profit, because if he fall into poverty, the Church shall provide for him; and that in a more ample manner and measure, then for other poor.

As olso Council. Tolet. 4. Can. 37. hath so provided.

Further, the ninth Toletan Council hath decreed, Vt quam diu, &c. That so long as the founders of Churches (as the Patrons) shall live, they should have a so • icitous care of those places; therefore let them present fit Rectors or Parsons unto the Bishop for the same Churches. Patrons then, having a power conferred upon them by the Church to present and commend a person, not simply to bestow and collate the personage, this being a distinct thing from the right of Presentation; yea, though Presentation be called sometimes a Collation, yet this Collation is not Donation, because a Donation is of free liberality, without compulsion; but Collation is joined with compulsion, when as the Collator must present within six months, else his power is then lost: Then Patrons have no power to sell that, which (to speak simply) they have no power to give. Hereupon Aquinas saith. Any act is naturally evil, when it falleth upon an undue subject. Now a spiritual thing (saith he) is an undue subject of buying and selling; and that for these three reasons. First, because a spiritual thing cannot be equalized, or made equivalent with any terrene price: Thy money perish with thee, because thou thinkest the gift of God may be obtained with money; as it was said to Simon. Secondly, because that cannot be a due matter of sale, whereof the seller is not master or owner; As a Prelate of the Church is not Lord of spiritual things, but only a dispenser or steward: 2. Cor. 4. Thirdly, because selling is opposite to the original property of spiritual things, which proceed of the free mere gift of God; freely ye have received, freely give: Talia ergo emere vel vendere est peccatum irreligiositatis: Therefore to buy or sell such things, is a sin of irreligion. So he. Wherupon Zanchi: His rationibus Luce clarius efficitur, Simoniam admitti non posse, sine maxima in spiritum sanctum, eiusque dona, adeo{que} in res omnes spirituales iniuria, & irreuerentia; eo{que} Simoniam ad 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pertinere: By these reasons (saith he) it is made more clear then the light, that Simony cannot be committed without exceeding great injury, and irreuerence towards the Holy Ghost and his gifts, and so towards all spiritual things. Therefore devout Bernard to Pope Eugenius writeth thus, concerning placing of Priests in Benefices: Sunt quaedam, &c. There be some things, which either importunity of suitors doth extort, or necessity doth merit necessarily of us; but it must be in those things which are our own: But where it is not lawful for me to do as I would, what place is left for the suitor? unless haply the suitor entreat this of me, that what himself would have, it may be lawful for me to be the more willing not to do it. Espensaeus saith: Sunt adulatores potius, quam Doctors, qui, &c. They be rather flatterers then teachers, who teach that the Pope is Lord of all Benefices: and therefore seeing as Lord, be doth by right sell that which is his own, it necessarily followeth, that Simony cannot be imputed to him. Belike the Holy Ghost, with his gifts are also his own; were they not as well Peters? Yet if he had sold, he had been a Simonist. Sed nemo potest retinere, quod vendidit; vt Judas Christum: But no man can retain that, which he hath retaild: as Judas selling Christ, lost Christ▪ Greg. Naz. Grat. We will conclude this with that of Saint Ambrose: Sunt quidem Decimae Depositum seruorum Dei in Ecclesia seruatae: Tithes are kept in the Church in trust for God's servants. Now for a man to take upon him to be a disposer of that to his own benefit, which as a pledge is committed to him of trust to be delivered to the true owner, when it should be required; what this is, let any reasonable man judge.

In the Canon Law, all Aduousons, as being contained under Ius Patronatus, The right of Patronage, were forbidden to be bought and sold: as Gregory saith ( D • cret. lib. 3. De Iure Patronatus, tit. 38. cap. 6.) calling Aduowsons, Aduocatias, Ius Patronatus, or Aduocationes, or Vice-dominatus, or Custodias, or Guardias: Quia Clerici quidam Aduocatias Ecclesiarum comparant, vel quocunque modo possunt, acquirunt, vt postmodum corum filij, vel nepotes, ad easdem Ecclesias presententur, praecipimus vt id arctius inhibeatur; eosdem aduocationibus taliter acquifitis, appellatione postposita, spoliando. So that the Canon Law forbiddes merchandizing of Adnowsons.

Now let us see in a word, upon what reason that which hath been delivered by the Canonists and School-men, and learned Divines concerning this point, is grounded: The right of Patronage (say they) may not be sold. Why? Not only in regard of the nature, and condition of such dedicate things, which are spiritual; and therefore incompetent matter of Sale: but also of the necessary effects, and inconveniences which must needs follow upon such Sale. For, grant a liberty that it be lawful to sell a Patronage: then it followeth, that it will be as lawful to sell a Presentation; and then an Aduowson: And then I would fain know, why it should not be as lawful to sell the Benefice, when it is vacant? But because men make no great question about the lawfulness of selling, either in the Vacancie, or much less before it; consider we the lawfulness or unlawfulness of buying. To buy an Aduowson passeth currant for lawful: and yet to buy the Vacancie, is judged Simony, both by our Statute Laws, and Church Canons. Well, I thus infer, and so conclude: if it be Simoniacal to buy a Benefice, when it is vacant: why then should it not be equally Simoniacal to buy the Aduowson? and so of the Presentation? and so of the Patronage? Or if it be lawful to buy the Aduowson, why should it not be as lawful every whit to buy the Benefice? yea, of the two I should think it rather lawful to buy in the Vacancie, then before. Because it may seem an injurious thing, as to take another man's Lease, so another man's Living over his head: And it is unlawful to contract for another's man's wife, before her husband be dead. But it is an infallible rule: Quod est secundum se malum ex genere, nullo modo potest esse bonum & licitum. It is Aquinas speech, which he applies to disprove the lawfulness of a lie for any respect. That which in its own nature and kind is evil, can by no means be good and lawful ; or that which is substantially evil, cannot be made good by any circumstance. To buy things of a spiritual nature, is naturally evil, as was said before: Any act is naturally evil, when it falleth upon an undue subject; if therefore it be evil to buy a Benefice in the Vacancie, then it is evil to buy the same, either in the Aduowson, or in the Presentation, or in the Patronage. And if it be evil to buy: then by the Law of Correlation, it is evil to sell in all these respects. And if the buyer be Simoniacal, the seller must be so too. Again, as it is unlawful so to buy and sell, in regard of the nature of such things, being spiritual: so also in regard of the common effects and fruits of such merchandize. For tell me: when ye buy an Aduowson, or Patronage of an Ecclesiastical Living; to what end is it? To bestow it freely and faithfully upon some worthy able Minister, for the good of God's Church, without any Temporal respect? It were to be wished, this were your end. But do you not intend to gain by such a bargain, either by placing some of your kin, or by selling it in the Vacancie to him that will be your best Chap-man? Is not this the general practice? Nor do I hereby condemn our Law, for allowing such things, as Aduowsons and Patronages to be bought and sold: Seeing it also disalloweth Simoniacal, or by respects, which being taken away, either few or none would meddle with such merchandise, or else they should not so justly incur the Censure of Simony, as so commonly they do.

Yet here I put a difference between the purchase of an Aduowson, and of the entire Patronage. And again, I put a difference between the purchasing of a Patronage by a private man, and by a College in the University. For the purchase of a single Aduowson doth too commonly aim at some temporal or carnal respect, or commodity, whereas some may happily purchase the perpetual Patronage, to leave it as an honor to his House, or posterity, while he and his heirs, according to his intention and will, become the instruments of God's glory in the judicious and ingenuous bestowing the Benefice frank and free at every Vacancie. But this being very rare, although I neither deny, nor envy the right of Patronage to be resident in private men, so it be rightly used: yet I confess I could wish (for the avoiding of that general corruption, and abuse in the collation of Benefices) that Colleges in each University were possessed of as many, Patronages in this Land, as possibly they could procure, or purchase, redeeming them out of many hucksters hands, which would be an excellent means, to increase Learned Divines, to repress Simoniacal Pedanticks, to refresh the Colleges by continual interchange of Students, to provide for many able men to be exercised in the Church, whose gifts, for want of such means, often lie buried in a College life. Yet I deny not, but sometimes corruption may creep in at the College gates, but the strict Laws of Colleges, well executed, may, as a careful Porter, either whip, or keep it out. This were (in my opinion) the likeliest way to prevent Simony, and to provide a good Ministry. And some Colleges (I know) are careful this way, both in Cambridge and Oxford, whose example I could wish all the rest would be as careful to follow. But so much of purchasing.

CHAP. X.

AS all Simonists are either Buyers or Sellers: So, out of these we may observe the sundry sorts of Simoniacal Contracts. For Simony is grown such a Trade, wherein so many great Merchants do traffic, as it may challenge as good a Charter for a Hall to make it a Corporation or Society in the Church, as the Worshipful Company of Cut-purses are said to usurp in the City. Many, well towards the trade, openly professing, that were it not for the Oath, they hold it as lawful to buy a Benefice, as a horse in Smithfield. But let us see this • edlers pack opened.

The most beaten high-way of Simonists is by Silver Cross ; Monie, or monie worth, at two or three years purchase, or by reservation of some tithes, whether by express contract, or by long concealment, or by strong hand. Whereupon Aquinas saith, Si Patronus, &c. If the Patron require of him, on whom he confers the Benefice, any of the fruits thereof, it is all one, as if he exacted some Bribe; and this is Simoniacal. Sometimes he deals by his Factor; or gives such a Benefice to his servant for a Reward and Salari • of his service, to make his best Market of it: To this purpose the said Author saith, Si aliquis, &c. If any give an Ecclesiastical Benefice to one, with this condition or intention, that thereby he may provide for his Kindred, it is manifest Simony: As for a Patron to bestow his Benefice upon his kinsman, for alliance sake, it is Simony. Nam potest, &c. For there may be Simony in the intention, if not the worthiness of the Person, but human favor be respected ; saith Aquinas. So many parents buy a Presentation or Aduowson, that in time to come it may fall to be a portion to one of their children, prove he at all adventure fit, or unfit, good, or bad, Scholar, or man, Quanquam, &c. Though according to the Decrees of Ancient Canons, children, which through the covetousness of their parents, have obtained Churches by money, are bound to forgo them again; yea, and to loose their money too. Pecunia tua, &c. Thy money perish with thee ; as Aquinas also saith, Simoniacus nullum ius habet, pecuniam suam turpiter collatam injust detentam, repetendi: A Simonist hath no right to plead the restitution of his money corruptly disbursed, and unjustly detained.

Some other Pedanticke will needs ride gallop to the Devil, by buying a horse of the Patron, and so he will come as freely by the Benefice, as he that was invited of free cost to a fat goose, paying only for the sauce. Others, Vili obsequio, aut corporali seruitio Simoniam perpetrant ; which is not the cheapest rate. Manifestum est autem, quod obsequium hominis ad aliquam vtilitatem ordinatur quae potest precio pecuniae aestimari. Ecclesiastic Doctors propound three kinds of Simony: first, manus: secondly, obsequij: thirdly, linguae: that of the hand they account inferior to the other two. D • mianus saith: Oportet Pontificem esse boni operis sectatorem. Nam bonum opus desiderat. Excute manus ab omni dono. At non excutit, sed implicasse conuincitur, qui nanciscendae dignitatis ambitu; Potestatum subl • mium castra sectant. Nam d • m in vehiculis acquirendis, diuer sorum{que} sumptuum apparatibus, non modica summa profunditur, hic proculdubio data pocamia • obnoxius inuenitur. Qui etiam, nulli dubium, quin ei & obsoqu • um prabeat, cui factus assecla, sub tanto labor • s, & itin • ris fasce desudat. Postremo, dum Domino suo blandiri, • ius{que} voluntati per omnia congruere nititur, saepe fibi quibas dam adat •• orijs fanoribus assentatur. Porro autem, quis quis in dandis accipiendisue dignitatibus Ecclesiasticis, vna d • ntaxat • arum, quae pradictae sunt, peste corrumpitur (nempe 〈◊〉 , obsequij, 〈◊〉 ) Simoniacae haereseus teneri crimine iudicatur. Veruntamen iactant se, & eo gloriantur innoxios, quia nullum Talenti summam pro suscipiendis honoribus se pe pigere daturos. Sed dic mihi ô Clerice, quisquis es, siredempto quolibet aureo vase, ve • praedio, distractor exigeret, vt retenti apud •• vice pretij huiusmodi sib • sedulitatis impendium exhiberes, nunquid non post • odum constanter assereres, te, quod acceptum est, iusto pretio comparasse? Non videlicet, quia pecuniam persolui • ti, sed quin seruitiu • praebuisti. Diceres enim, & non hoc for •• ssis impudent • r astrueres, charius emi, dum tanto me labor vexarem, dum toties facultatum mearum sumptus expenderem, quàm si semel praefixae quantitatis pecuniam numerarem. Nequaquam ergo sibi innocentiam spondeant, & à Simoniacae haerese • t macu •• s se mundos esse confidant, qui licet metalla vibrantia non appendunt, pretium tamen pro suscipiendis honoribus per subiectionis & obsequij quaedam quasi Talentae persoluunt. And in his third Epistle of the same Book he alledgeth a strange example of a Curiall Bishop of Bononia, who having got much preferment by his Cour • lie obsequiousnesse, he straight way fell dumb, and for seven years space, so long as he lived, continued a paralytick, and speechless. A fearful example, yet nowadays not found so rare, especially in Transmaritim Courts, as the Court of Rome, where preferments and Prelacies purchased by obsequiousnesse, or otherwise by indirect means, deprive the Parties promoted, of the right use of their tongue, in the prime execution of their Episcopal function.

But far be it from any to tax worthy Scholars and Preachers, entertained as Chaplains in honorable houses, which place together with any ensuing preferment, their own modesty and good merits rather found, then sought, rather accepted, then sued for; being rather humble Passiues, then ambitious Actiues in their preferment, Si quis direct habeat animum ad Beneficium, cum seruit, est Simoniacus. But all ambitious suing is of the ancient learned Divines judged and condemned for Simoniacal. Deuout Bernard to Eugenius giveth this advise: Pro quo rogaris, sit suspectus: qui ipse rogat pro se, iam indicatus est. Clericum curiam frequentantem, qui non sit de Curia, ad idem noris pertinere ambientium genus. Adulantem & ad placitum eniusque loquentem, vnum de rogantibus puta, etiamsi nihil rogauerit. Non volentes, neque Currentes assumito, sed cunctantes, & r • nuentes. Isti sunt tui socij & collaterales. Ne te dixeris sanum, dolentem latera; ne te dixeris bonum, malis innitentem. Gregory thus: Sicut is qui inuitatus renuit, quae situs refugit, sacris est altaribus admouendus: sic qui vltro ambit, vel importune se ingerit, est procul dubio repellendus, &c. Anselm. in Heb. 5.4. Nemo sibi honorem sumit, &c. Percutiuntur hac sententia, qui honores E • clesiasticos, ad quos Diuinitus non vocantur, arripere cupiunt. Qui enim se ingerit, & propriam gloriam quarit, non sumit honorem, Praelatus factus: Sed gratiae Dei rapinam facicus, ius alienum vsurpat. Et ideo non accipit benedictionem, sed maledictionem. Qui autem recte & Canonice vocatur, à Deo vocatur. Chore voluit sibi sumere honorem, & ideo Diuinam sensit vltionem. I conclude this with that of Chrysostom▪ What skills it, if thou givest not sheere money, but instead thereof dost flatter, suborn, and keep a stir? Thy money p • rish with thee, was said to Simon: and so these it shall be said, Thy ambition perish with thee, because thou hast thought the gift of God may be obtained by man's ambition. It was one of the heavy curses upon Eli's posterity, that they should crouch, and say, Put me I pray thee into one of the Priests offices, that I may eat a piece of bread. 1. Sam. 2.36.

Some commit Simony, by selling their faith and religion for preferment; when with discontent they fly out beyond Seas, expecting to be lu • ed home again with some high preferment. Of such, Cyprian in his 72. Epistle speaketh copiously and very aptly; where he adviseth that after their reurne from their Heresies, they should not by and by be admitted to place of preferment in the Church, but first be proved by long humiliation: he gives the reason; because oftentimes they prove dangerous, since they cannot easily cast up the poison of Heresy, which they have once drunk in; so that they should be content only to be pardoned, & received into the peace of the Church, and so remain till they have given sufficient trial and testimony of their sound repentance and reformation. Council. Elebert. can. 22. saith of such; Placuit huic poenitentiam non esse denegandam, eo quod cognouerit peccatum suum, qui • tiam decem annis agat poenitentiam: nisi I • fantes fuissent transducti: We are pleased not to deny penance to such a one, since he hath acknowledged his sin, who also let him do ten years penance. Unless they had been carried away in their infancy. (Though such are most incurable; as the Poet saith, Quo semel est imbuta recens seruabit odorem Testa diu. When they do cum lact • nutricis errorem surgere, suck error from the Nurse, it sticks by them. As we see the Jesuitical milk doth, whereby men coming to some growth, their nurcerie becomes a second nature.) Otherwise, as Boniface said well, Null •• precio est inuitandus ad conuersionem: None is by reward to be invited to conversion. For, as Seneca saith, Precio parata, soluitur pretio fides: Bought faith, is easily sold again.

Others are said to commit Simony, when by mutual stipulation or covenant they make an exchance of Benefices or Prebends, making their match according to the value of the things. And if this be Simony, as the Ancients have defined it to be, it were to be wished that the exchange, at least were free from stipulation, and that the main end of such permutations did aim principally at the common good of the Church. Yea, I have heard of a strange kind of Simony in fashion beyond the Seas, which they call, Sacrum-aucupium, in English, Sermon-simoni • . When the fratres praedicantes, being about to purchase, have in a readiness some exquisite master-piece, the merit whereof challenging no mean advancement, serveth only to cover and color over, or as a purse, to carry and convey the more closely the set price of the preferment, at least to take away the smell of Simony, that so the Patron may be as free from suspicion of Simony, as the adulterous woman, when she hath wiped her lips, and saith, I have not committed iniquity. So saith the P • tron, I have bestowed it upon a worthy and rare Preacher▪ so rare, as it is thought he spent more sweat in that one Sermon, about the getting, then ever he m • anes to spend again in all his Sermons he ma • es, while he keepeth his preferment. Now what should move this Frier predicaent, thus to color and gild over his Simony with such a sacred gold, is hard to say, unless some false Gloss upon the Proverbs hath made him believe, that such preaching to such ends, is to speak a word in season, which is, Like apples of gold in pictures of silver, as Solomon saith. But the Gloss is ill turned into a Glose. The Apostle forbids such merchandise of the Word for filthy lucre sake. [2. Cor. 2.17. 1. Pet. 5.2.]

What should I speak of that more then common custom of Matrimoniall Simony, no less odious then the rest, when a B • nefice, or other Ecclesiastical dignity, must become the portion of some daughter or Kinswoman, at the least, an honest woman? And so if that gloss be true, that a Bishop must be the huband of one wife, that is, of one Benefice (as the Romish Church expoundeth it, not for any zeal they bear to singularity of Benefices, but for the hatred they have against the universality of Priests marriages) then also may it be as true, that a man making such a match for a Benefice, should marry two wives at once.

I have also heard of another base kind of Simony in practice: That the Patron admits not his Incumbent, but with a stong Obligation or Bond, to tie the Incumbent to quit the Benefice at three months warning▪ whensoever the Patron shall require, or hold up his finger: as Masters use to give their servants a quarters warning, when they are weary of them. By this device the Patron holds the Incumbent in a miserable servitude, as being his Tenant at will; while in the mean time the Patron may Lord it as he list without control: for the Incumbent is bound not to reprove anything his good Master doth, or saith, but must say Amen to all, or else farewell All. The Patron hath also another d • ift in this, that wanting for the present a good Chap-man, to gain time, and a better thing, he puts in his Bond-man, till he be provided to his liking.

All unpreaching Ministers possessing any good Benefice, are by strong presumption deep Simonists. For let them tell me, for what respects, or good gifts they were so preferred: except it be that they and all their good gifts, shook hands, and parted, so soon as they and their fat Benefice met.

Some, by mental reservation commit Simony, when both the Patron expects to receive, and the Presentee purposes to give some gratuity afterwards, without any express promise or pre-contract, only upon trust, that so he may save his Oath. This is a mock-Simony, and mock-Oath. For is not this Gehezie's sin? Of which the Gloss (saith) Hoc exemplum est Argumentum contra eos, qui non exigunt, seu accipiunt, ante Collationem Beneficij. Gehazi asked but a gratuity after the healing; or say, It was his fee: For servants must l • ue. But he had his grutuitie with a vengeance. Is this a time to receive silver and gold? The leprosy therefore of Naaman clea • e unto thee, and to thy seed forever. Away with such gratuit • e. Indeed if a Benefice were a temporal benefit, it might require a temporal requital: But being of a spiritual nature, what gratuity or thankfulness should the Patron expect, or the Incumbent perform, but a painful & faithful discharge of that Cure of Souls committed to his trust? This is to give spiritual thanks, for a spiritual gift. As Gratian saith; Semper premium aliquid debet interuenire, spiritual scilicet meritū hominis: There ought always some gift to inter • ene, to wit, a man's spiritual merit. Such a spiritual gift, as the Apostle longed to bestow upon his Romans, Rom. 1.11. But of any other gift the very expectation is in danger of Simony. I have heard of Temporal men, who have refused after-gifts of their servants, whom they had preferred freely to some temporal Office, taking the very offer very indignely: How much more should this purity be preserved in spiritual preferments?

But here some may object.

Ob. But having received a temporal benefit, shall I not, or may I not in some sort recompense it with some temporal signification of thankfulness? I answer, That this benefit is not of a temporal na • ure, but spiritual, as we said before. Or allow it to be so far temporal, as it may require some temporal requital: yet it must be with certain limitations. Alexander the third, writing to the Archbishop of Strygon concerning a horse, which his brother unwitting to him gave to P. the Popes Legate, for his election after it was done, which notwithstanding was a scruple in the Archbishops conscience, resolveth him thus: In giving or receiving, three things are to be observed: first, The quality of the persons, of, and to whom it is given, whether poor or rich: secondly, The quantity of the gift: thirdly, The time of giving, whether in time of necessity, or otherwise. If therefore, saith he, we respect the conditions of the foresaid parties, the Cardinal and your brother, it was no great matter for the one to send the other a horse, which haply such a rich man as that would give to a Iester, without requesting it. But if we consider the necessity of the time, it appears it was done with no other intention, then to supply the Cardinals want at that time, when in an vnquoth place he was unprovided of a horse. And forasmuch (saith he) as it is written, Beatus qui excutit manus ab omni munere: Blessed is he, that shaketh his hands from every bribe: it is spoken of those gifts, which are went to allure and pervert the mind of the receiver. But such gifts, as without compact the elected giveth to his Patron; or so, as the quantity of them be not of force to incline or move the will of the Receiver; No • interpre • ari 〈◊〉 Eccl. Ro. accipientem, in his Delinquere, v • l d •• antem: In these things, the Roman Church doth not use to interpret the Receiver, or the giver to offend. So he. Note here the tenderness of this Archbishops conscience; his brother gave but a horse unwitting to him, without any precompact, and that after the Election, and in the Cardinals need at that time. And yet I read not that this horse was not of any extraordinary price, not worth five hundred, or a thousand pound; as Patrons horses are estimated elsewhere.

Not much unlike to this, is a kind of Simony, not vnfrequent in the world; but so fine, a • it disclaimeth and disdaineth all affinity with Simony. A man hath fairly and incorruply (at least for any money matter) obtained of the Patron a free grant of some Ecclesiastical preferment: but after the grant, before it pass the seals, the suitor must pass the pikes of much difficulty, yea and danger too, least through some neglect, or delay, some other get between him and home. As the Spider having entangled some sturdy Fly in her subtle net, be stirs her nimble joints, to make the weakest places sure, where is any danger of enuasion. But the Scholar being of an ingenuous disposition, one that cannot dance attendance at every door, and that blusheth to appear an importunate suitor, and that in such places, where all Scholars, being not in ordinary attendance, are suspected: to cut off all impatience of delay, and fear of dangers, chooseth rather, R • dimere vexationem suam quàm queat minim • ; si nequeat paul ••• , ac quantuli queat; Say it be, &c. This case was put to me by a learned man, to know what I thought of it. I told him ingenuously, that for my part, I could be content to redeem the credit of a Ministers modesty, in such attendance with any reasonable ransom. But to give such a round sum, not only to redeem impatience, but to prevent the peril of loosing the preferment for lack of provident, yea importunate pursuing: it was in my judgment like the Secundine, or after-birth of Simony. A moderate & modest diligence, and sober vigilancy (especially, vbi Viuitur ex wrapped • non hospes ab hospite tutus, &c. ) is not disallowed for such a dispa • ch, performed either by himself, or rather by his honest friend, or servant: But to come off so roundly (say it be to some Courtier) what doth it, but imply, that either the grand Patrons grant is of small validity, without it be seconded with the favor of some special servant about him, whose favor must be purchased: or that the suitor had a purpose rather to have given, then gone without: or at least, some implicit condition must be performed. For I would ask this suitor, or rather now in a manner, speeder, whether before the obtaining of the Benefice, this sum, whatsoever it is (not no • hing) were not implied, if not expressed, to be (for the shifting off of Simony) thus bestowed: without which, why should not the suitor as well have come short of his preferment, before the grant, as now for want of • aking out his arm with a silver hand, not reaching the seal, to be in danger to be over-reached by a longer arm. For so, Multa cadunt inter calicem, supremaque labra.

Another hath found out a pretty way of Simony; for the Patron, and he, are agreed for the Vacant Benefice, that it shall come gratis ; But with a proviso, That he shall buy the next Presentation, which pays for all.

I might here speak of many other B • anches of this cursed Tree; as if there should be any buying or selling, chopping and changing for College Fellowships (wherein Simony layeth her first foundation, and hatcheth her first egg; for who fitter to trade in the Church, then he that hath begun in a College) yea trucking for a Porters, a Bell-ringers place, in College or Church: For Simoniacum est emere officium ostiarij, seu pulsandi campanam: It is Simony to buy a Door-keepers, or a Bel-ringers place. But because every branch bearing the same fruit, is known to be of the same tree: therefore it shall be as superfluous to speak of more, as it would be infinite and impossible for an inexperienced Simplicitie to dive into the Mystery of this iniquity, and sound all the deeps of it.

As for Impropriations, though they were originally main brances of the Levitical Stock, and so the merchandizing of them also might claim kindred with Simony: yet because they are slips broken off, and transplanted out of the Garden and Paradise of God: the Learned Treatise of that godly Scottish knight, Sir James Semple ▪ as also that other of Sir Henry Spelman, an English Knight, both of the Lay Tribe, two noble and pregnant witnesses, doth more justly entitle it self to this Argument. Only, I would to God these two worthy Treati • es were thoroughly studied, and conscionably applied, and printed in the hearts and consciences of all Impropriators, to their eternal salua • ion; by being conscionably persuaded to shake their hands of such sacred things, restoring them to Christ, the only true Proprietary the wronging of whom in this kind will one day prove fearful sacrilege, whatsoever men think of it now.

CHAP. XI.

COncerning Simony committed in Ordination, although haply the money given for a simple Ordination be but small, unless it be for some egregious Dunce, to which, as Solomon saith of a dull-edged instrument, a man must put the more strength; and, as it were, the more weight to the lighter scale. Yet of all other kinds of Simony, this is the most pernicious and damnable: yea, the less a man giveth or receiveth in this respect, it is an argument of the less esteem he makes of so holy and excellent a Calling. As the Lord saith of Judas his selling of Christ for thirty pieces of silver: A goodly price that I was prized at of them. Now this is so properly Simony, as it is the very sin of Simon himself, which is to buy the gifts of the Holy Ghost. A sin so detestable, as that the Church of Rome it self (though now the Mother and Nurse of abominations) hath cried out against This sin. For we must put a great difference between the now Church of Rome, and that which it hath been formerly, and that even within these three or four hundred years. For in former times, as that Church hatched & fostered many enormities, both of Doctrine and Manners, which by degrees crept in, till Antichrist should come to his full stature▪ yet there was place left for reproof, devout and learned men might speak and write freely of the abuses of it. But now, within less then these hundred years, since the Council of Trent, this Church is grown to that superciliousnesse and height of pride, that no man may once mention the least spe • k or blemish of that foolish Virgin, or rather, filthy Whoore; nay those that have already in their writings left any record or Monuments of Rome's sin, and in espe • ial, of this of Simony, it must pass through the fire of their Index Expurgatorius. Take one example among other. Clau-Espencaeus, in his Commentaries upon his Epistle to Titus ; where he toucheth the corruptions of the Church of Rome in matter of Simony, there he must be purged. For the purpose, in that Impression at Paris, by Michael Sonnius, Pag. 65. Deleatur ab illis verbis, sed annon 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , us{que} ad, Id{que} adeo in confesso est. And Pag. 74. Circa medium deleantur ill • verba▪ Adeo Romanam Curiam repurgare sibi non permisit. And Pag. 76. Deleatur ab illis verbis, Vinere qui capitis, v{que} ad, Sacra sunt vaenalia Romae. & pag. 78. lin. 8. Deleatur ab illis verbis, Et cum alia venda • t alij, us{que} ad, Coelum est vaenale, Deus{que}. Which places, because they are not obvious to every Reader, and that it may appear how their Index cannot so blur the truth, or bleere men's eyes, but that the Whoores filthiness will be discovered: I have thought good to set down the former alleged places at large; saving where whole pages are expurged, too long here to be ins •• ted. In the first place those Verses out of 〈◊〉 are to be cashered.

Where also other most beastly stuff, such • s my Author saith, breeds horror in the very mention, all contained in the Roman Taxa Camerae, where all sorts of most horrible sins are dispensed withal, at such a rate, as Presbytericide, or Priest killing, Parricide, Matricide, or killing of ones parents, though willingly, also Simony, as deserving to be ranked among such sins, all which, and much more are not only dispensed with for so much money; but the offenders made capable of any honor or preferment in the Church: all that rabble must be expurged out of the Author; notwithstanding the Taxa Camer • remains still in force, and none of all these reformed; as the Author saith, which must also be expurged, Adeo Roma • am Curiam repurgare sibi non permisit, &c. no reformation will be endured. Again, these Verses must out: so famous in many Authors: And these also related by my Author, must out: And this which followeth: Et cum alia vendaut alij : And whereas others sell other things— vaenalia • obis

But it is labor in vain, for Rome to go about thus to purge out of men's writings, the memory of her inbred corruptions; out of which source, whatsoever Simony is now in any part of the Church, hath issued. Enough to stigmatize and bran • this sin with the greater note of infamy, if it should be found as well in Judah, where religion i • maintained in her integrity; as in that Idolatrous revolted Israel, where that grand Jeroboam of Rome, for base bribes, admits into the Priesthood the basest of the people. I love not to be an v • guis in this ulcer: yet being to speak of this sin, as it is committed in the highest degree, to wit, in Ordination, leaving it to Cham to diuulge his own Fathers nakedness, if any such nakedness were; it shall suffice to do herein, as Lycurgus of old, who to deter the Lacedaemonian lads, from that more then beastly vice of drunkenness, caused their drunken slaves to be made a spectacle unto them, by whose example they might take the deeper impression of dislike and hatred against that sin. So let us take, though a brief view of the Church of Rome's sin in this kind; omitting particular instances, and contenting our selves with generals; their good laws being occasioned by their evil manners.

Pope Leo saith: Gratia si non gratis datur, 〈◊〉 accipitur, gratia non est. Simonia • i autem non gratis accipiunt. Quid ergo dant? profecto quod habent. Quid habent? Spiritum vtiqus mendacij. Quomodo hoc probamus? Quia si spiritus veritatis (testante ipsa veritate, de qua procedit) gratis accipitur: procul dubio spiritus mendacij esse conuincitur; qui non gratis accipitur, vel datur. If grace, saith he (speaking of the grace that is conferred by imposition of hands in Ordination) be not given or received freely, it is no grace. But Simoniacks do • not receive freely. What give they 〈◊〉 ? Surely such as they 〈◊〉 . What have they? Verily the spirit of lies. How 〈…〉 this? Because if the Spirit of truth (the Truth it self being witness, from whom it proceedeth) is received freely: then doubtlesly it is convinced to be the spirit of lie • , which is not received or given freely. And Gregory, ibidem: Quic 〈◊〉 stu • et p • r protij d • tionem sacrum ordinem accipere, Sace • dos non est: sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dic • concupiscit. Whos • ever affecteth to receive holy orders by the gif • of money, be is no Priest: • ut courts only to be called by a • empty title. And a little after, Quisquis per pecuniam 〈◊〉 , ad hoc, vt fiat h • retics •• , promo • etur. Whosoever is ordained by money, is even hereunto promoted to be an heretic • . And Pope G • latius: Q •• s constiterit, &c. If it shall appear that any unworthy persons hath bought the sacred Dignity with money, being convict, let him be deprived. But what if some worthy man buy with his money? I answer, That cannot be, if he be worthy. But let him be what he will, if he buy, it argues unworthiness.

Also Saint Ambrose • is alleged: Reperiuntur quamplurimi, negotiatione muneris mer • ari ve • le gratiam Spiritus Sancti, dum illi pretium do • a • t, vt Pontificalis Ordinis sublimicatem accipiant, &c. There are found many, that by the merchandise of money would buy the grace of the Holy Ghost, while they give money, to receive the dignity of the Pontifical Order. Whereupon a fearful Anathema is decreed to such, as so give or take. Likewise it is cited out of the Council of Chalcedon: Si quis Episcopus per pecuniam Ordinationem fecerit, &c. If any Bishop shall Ordaine for money, and shall purchase the grace of the Holy Ghost at a price, which indeed cannot be sold: and shall for money ordain a Priest or Deacon, or shall promote any degree or order within the Verge of the Clergy for filthy lucre, he that shall attempt this, let him upon conviction be deprived of all. Si quis vero mediator, &c. And if any shall be a mediator or stickler, for such foul and nefarious corruption in giving and receiving; of a Clerke, let him be degraded: and if a Laic, accursed. And out of the eight Synod: Qui per pecuniam, &c. He that shall consecrate any for money, or is consecrated of another, let him be cashe • red from the Priesthood. And many other authorities are there alleged to this purpose. And Ambrose saith; Inexpiabi • is est culpa venditi Ministerij, & vindicta gratiae coelestis transit in Posteros. The sin of selling the Ministry is unpardonable, and the revenge of Divine grace passeth along to the posterity, like Gehezies leprosy.

But as it is objected, ibid. Ventum est. Simoniaci, &c. Simoniacks, though they think that the grace of the Holy Ghost is vendible, yet they profess the faith, and true religion, and consequently are no Heretics. It is answered: Simoniaci, &c. Simoniackes, although they seem to hold the faith: yet they are inthralled to the perdition of infidelity: as Gregory saith; Cum omnis auaritia, &c. Since all avarice is Idolatry, whosoever doth not carefully avoid this, and especially in bestowing of Ecclesiastical dignities, is subject to the perdition of infidelity: although he seem to hold the faith in words, which in deeds he denieth. And after; Cum omnis. Those that impose for money, are accounted more intolerable Heretics then the Macedonians, who denying the Deity of the Holy Ghost, grossly affirmed him to be only the Servant of the Father and the Son: but these make him to be their servant. And also worse then those Jews, that blasphemed the Holy Ghost, in ascribing Christ's miracles to the power of Beelzebub. And to speak truly, Iudae comparantur Proditori qui Iudaeis occisoribus Christum vendidit: They are compared to Judas the Traitor, who sold Christ to the murderous Jews. And therefore, Ex Concilio Bracharensi; Placuit. It seemeth good unto us, that for ordination of Clerks, Bishops take no rewards, and that the grace of God by imposition of hands be not sold for money, but given freely, as the Lord hath commanded. For it is an ancient Decree of the Fathers, Anathema sit danti & accipienti: Cursed be the giver and the receiver.

Ob. But some object: It was usual in times past, to bring the reward of southsaying to the Prophet: as Balak sent to Balaam: and Saul came to Samuel with a gift in his hand. Now prophe • ie is a gift of the Holy Ghost. But that in the Old Testament was wont to be sold.

Answ. We never read that the good Prophets took any reward at the hands of those that brought it. Elisha flatly refused any part of those riches which Naaman would have presented him with. It was enough for Balaam, and such wicked Prophets, to prophecy for rewards; as the Lord complaineth of such, saying, The Prophets divine for money: but we read not, that the good Prophets did receive any such rewards. Yea, instead of receiving anything, Samuel feasted Saul, and his. Sed fac eum accepisse, say he did receive it. What was it? The fourth part of a Sicle, a matter of twenty half-penies: so Saul's reward he brought to Samuel came but to five half-pennies. Which yet if Samuel did at all receive, St • pes magis sunt estimand • tabernaculi, quàm munera Propheta: They are rather to be esteemed the maintenance of the Tabernacle, then rewards of the Prophet. Et haec magis in sumptum Propheta, quàm muneri Prophetiae reputanda sunt: licet potuerunt hi, qui ariolos, &c. Though they that accustomed to go to southsayers, might out of an evil custom think that the Prophets would do so, to wit, receive gifts. But Gratian concludes upon that fourth part of a Sicle, containing five half-pennies, which Saul carried to Samuel: Nostri ergo Sacerdotes si volunt vendere prophetiam, & columbam in Cathedris suis proponere, quas Dominus flagell • subuertit: quinque tantum obolorum sint mercede contents: qui vtinam non pr • tium villarum, sed quinque obolos acciperent: Therefore our Priests (saith he) if they will sell the gift of prophecy, and set the Dove (to wit, the Holy Ghost) to sale in their Cathedrals, or Seats which the Lord overthrew with his whip, let them be content with the reward of five half-pennies only; I would they would not receive the worth of whole Villages, but only five half-pennies. In a word, Gregory speaking against Simoniacal ordination reigning in France, our next neighbor, and exhorting Theodoricke and Theobert then reigning there, to call a Synod for the reformation of such Simoniacal Heresy and corruption, saith, In Sacerdotibus fides sit eligenda, cum vita. Quae autem opera esse valeant Sacerdotis, qui honorem tanti 〈…〉 qua r • agitur, vt ipsi quo{que} qui sacros Ordines apperunt, non • etā corrigere, non 〈…〉 sacet e •• tur, sa • agant congreg •• e. Hinc fi • 〈…〉 peres à Sacris ordimbus prohibi •• , despecti{que} resili •• t. Et 〈◊〉 innocentia displicet, dubium non est, quod 〈◊〉 delicta commendet; quia vbi aur • m places, ibi & vitium. Hinc igitur non s • lū in Ordinatoris & Ordinati 〈…〉 , verum etiam excellenti • ve • trae regnam Episcoper • m culpa, quorum magis intercessionibus 〈◊〉 de • uerat, pregraua • ur. Si enim dignus is Sacerd •• i • creditor, cui non actionis • ur •• a, sed pram •• r • m copia suffragatur, restat vt nihil sibi in honores Ecclesiastico • gra • itas, 〈…〉 , sed totum 〈…〉 obtineat. Et 〈…〉 Sacerdotes non proficere, sed perire p • ti •• indicantur. Let faith with good l • f • be made choice of in Priests. But what works can a Priest 〈◊〉 , who is convicted of obtaining the honor of so great a Sacrament by rewards. By which means it comes to pass, that even they which desire holy Orders, take no care to correct their life, or to compose their manners; but labor t •• th and 〈◊〉 to gather riches, wherewith the sacred honor is purchased. And hence also it cometh, that innocent and poor men, being prohibited and despised, start back from holy Orders. And while innocence is not set by, no doubt but there a bribe doth promote vices: because where gold is in request, there also vice is entertained. And hereupon not only a deadly wound is inflicted upon the soul of the Ordainer, and Ordained, but also the Kingdom of your Excellence, is burdened and oppressed through the 〈◊〉 of Bishops, by whose intercessions rather it should be relieved. For if he be thought worthy of the Priesthood, whom not his good merits, but ample gifts promoted, it remains that gravity, that ind • stry can ple • d no right at all for it self unto Ecclesiastical dignities, but that the profane love of gold possesseth all. But while vices are recompensed with honor, well may Priests be judged no • to prosper, but to perish rather. And he conclu • es with an exhortation to the two Kings. Proinde Paterno salutantes affect •• petimu • excellentissimi Filij, vt hoc tam detestabil • 〈◊〉 de regni ve • tri stud • atis fluibus pro • i •• r • , & nulla apud vos exc • satio, nulla contra animam vestram suggestio locum inueniat: quia facientis pr • culdubi • culpam habet, qui quod potest carrigere, negligit emendare. Wherefore (saith he) greeting you with a fatherly affection, We pray you most excellent sons, that you study to banish this detestable mischief out of the coasts of your Kingdom, and latin excuse or pretence, let no suggestion find place with you against your own soul: because he is doubtless guilty of the deed it self, that having power to correct it, neglects to reform it.

Well, to conclude this point, whether this 〈◊〉 gallicus were so purged, and banished one of the coast of France as no relics remain, I know not. But if it were, I pray God, that for the nee • nesse of the neighbourhood it have not •• iled over (as many other French fashions have done) and set footing on the Albion shore, there to spread the infection. I well hope, that the Cinque Ports are so well fortified, as they will not suffer such base wares to come to be entered at the Custom-house, and so to pass vendible here: where Religion is purely plan • ed, Faith truly professed, the practice of Piety so freq • ently pr • ssed, and well charged Canons mounted. The cinque Ports are the five Senses, which Religion so guardeth, as no such Simoniacal corruption can enter at any one Port. Would it enter at the Port of sight, the Eye? That, hath learned to turn away from such vanity, or not to look with delight, or not to be dazzled, much leffe blinded with such glittering objects▪ or to be en • moured with the beauty of fair white and red earth. Or at the Port of touch, the Hand? That, hath learned (not in superstition, Touch not: but) in sincerity, Touch no unclean thing ; yea, though a gift should leap and fasten it self upon the hand, yet to shake it off into the fire, as Paul d • d the Viper, without any hurt, or swelling at all. Or at the Port of hearing, the Eare? A religious ear loves not male audire, as to be charmed with any such silver-sounding music, though for Time, Number, and Measure, it be never so complete. Or at the Port of the Smell? It, takes the Incense of any such sa • rifice in snuff and high disdain. Or at the Port of Taste? It cannot rel • sh such 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , bitter-sweets, though sweet in the mouth, yet bitter in the belly, which the stomach of Conscience can never digest, or away with all, as the Apostle said, concerning the incest committed by one among the Corinthians, that they had altogether proved themselves to be clear in that business: so, may not any man say, that the Church of England is altogether free from this kind of Simony? How many may say that truly, which Saul did feinedly, I have kept the Lord's Commandment, in this point. But some will say, as Samuel said, What m • aneth then the ble • ting of the sheep, and the bellowing of the Oxen which I bear? There • oes a rumour of I know not what. Some false fame. How? Simony committed in giving and taking holy Orders? Absit. In France indeed, our neighbor Nation: but the Sea is between, enough to drown such Simony, and so never suffer it to arrive at us. When Saint Ambrose spake of this sin, saying of a Simoniacal Bishop, Ab Archiep • scopo 〈◊〉 nuper Episcopus ordinatus, centum{que} ei solidos ded • , vt Episcopalem gratiam consequi mer •• ssem; quos si 〈◊〉 dedissem, • odi • Episcopus non essem; vnde mihi melius est aurum de saccello inuehere, quàm tantum Sacerdotium perdere, aurum ded • , & Episcopum comparau • ; qu • s tamen solidos si viuo, recepturum me illico non diffido; Ordino Presbyteros, consecro Diaconos, & accipio aurum, nam & de alijs nihilominus Ordinibus pecunia quaestum profligare confido, &c. doth any man think that this holy man ever me • nt or thought of any such Simoniacal B • shop beyond any part of the Sea from Milan? much less,

Far • e be S • int Ambrose instance from England, as we are from Mill • n, where he was then Bishop. I hope, nay I dare say that there is no Bishop in England, though of small means, who accounteth Ordination-fees among his revenues. Absit. • mo absint, qui talia somniant. We disdain to stoop to any such Lure, or base Lucre. Let no man take us for such rude Artists, as that while we teach others the way to heaven with our tongues, we should commit such a solecism, as to point to the earth with our hand. Or such shallow Divines, that, as if we had never been trained up in University studies, we should make such a gloss upon the holy Text, Let not thy left hand know, what thy right hand doth: that a man may therefore practice piety with the one hand, and Simony with the other. But if such there should chance to be, that dare sell the holy Ghost, as there was even among the twelve one Judas, that did sell his Lord & Master Christ: What then? What success had Judas? after restitution, suspension. Ecclesiastical suspension were too good for such. When Esau had sold his birth-right, wherein was included the Priesthood, he was so desperately cut off from the blessing, that he found no place for repentance to obtain so much as one blessing, though he sought it with tears: Hast thou not one blessing, my father? Not one. The blessing remained with Jacob, to whom God had promised, & given it with the Priesthood. Yet profane Esau lived, and enjoyed the fatness of the earth, and the d • awe of heaven. True. But how? He must live by his bow ; by killing and destroying. The very life of Simoniacal ordainers, and ordained: like the Thief which cl • ming up into the sheep fold another way, comes not, but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. While Jacob, he that is called by God to the Priesthood, and to be a Shepherd, keeps and feeds the flock, but kills none; insomuch as Laban missed none of all his sheep, while they were in Jacob's keeping. Gihezi for his though after-selling, purchased Naaman's leprosy to himself, and to his posterity forever; all selling ordainers are Gihezites, and therefore leapers, and so shut out by God's Law from his holy Congregation, even the communion of Saints, as unhallowed and unclean persons. Simon's do • me was, Thy money perish with thee: thou hast no part, nor lot in this business: thy heart is not right; thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Here is a hard choice for all Simonists, especially Simoniacal ordainers, that sell (quantum in se est, Spiritus Sancti, quod certe nihil est) the holy Ghost, they may choose whether they will have Esau's curse, or Naaman's leprosy, or Judas his suspension, or Simon's perdition: or rather all of these together, since such Simoniacks are of Edom's line, Gihezies posterity, successors of Judas, and Simon's own sons. But how can such a fair body, of so sound a constitution, as is this noble Church of England, ever hatch or harbor tales vomicas, such impostum • ted humors, and not vomit them out of her mouth? Impossible it is, that such weeds should grow in this Garden, the very Paradise of God. But if they should, the Lord root them out, and ever preserve this his Eden with the flaming sword of the fiery Cherubims, that never any Simoniacal Ordainer, or Ordained, may dare to set his filthy foot on this holy ground, or thrust in his foul hand, to take of the Tree of Life, to purchase to himself that power of Christ, of which he said to his Disciples, Freely you have received, freely give. I will conclude with that of Cyprian: Dominus Gihezi mercenarium lepra condemnat, & Iereboam vend • ntem Sacerdotia cum Apostatis locat. Hic Simonem gratiae Dei nundinatorem à Sanctorum consorti • exheredat, cuiu • detestabiles ausus vltrix ruina confundit & quassat. Hic Balaam ad maledicendum conducto silentium imponit; & per Asinam redargutum, colliso ad parietem pede vacuum pecunia, oneratum coutumelia, claudicantem ad propria remisit confusum: The Lord doth condemn mercenary Gihezi with the leprosy, and ranketh Iereboam, selling the Priesthood, with Apostates. He dis-inheriteth Simon from the communion of Saints for bartering of the grace of God, whose detestable darings a revengeful ruin doth confound and shake. He imposeth silence upon Balaam, being hired to curse: and being reproved by his Ass, dashing his foot against the wall, he sent him back confounded, empty of money, loaden with infamy, and returning halting home.

CHAP. XII.

AS every sin is in its own nature unreasonable, as being repugnant even to the Dictate of natural reason: So Simony, for this reason, may challenge a place and rank among other sins.

First, Simony is unreasonable, because it is sacrilege, it robs God of his right. Will a man rob his gods, to usurp upon Tithes, by buying and selling (for buying and selling Tithes is an usurping upon Tithes) is to rob God. For to buy of the Patron, is to subscribe that the right of Tithes is interested in him, and not in God, and so to ascribe the power and property of tithes to the Patron that sels them, not to God, who gave them, still retaining the propriety of them in himself. Whence we may conclude, all those to be either Simonists, or Fauourers of them, that deny Tithes to be due Iure Diuino. For why deny they this, but flattering themselves, that thus they may the more licentiously buy and sell them, and so hold the poor Ministers nose to the grindstone; whereas although they had been dedicate only by Man, yet ought they not so to be profaned.

Secondly, Simony is unreasonable, because it debaseth and vilifieth that which is honorable, as is the gift of God. And Tithes are the gift of God; therefore honorably to be esteemed. Peter said to Simon, Thy money perish with thee, because thou thinkest the gift of God may be obtained with money. He vilified God's gift, and therefore he was set light by the Apostle. Wherefore, and what was Belshazzar's punishment? He set light by the holy Vessels of God's Temple, when profanely he presumed to drink in them, He and his Concubines: and was he not well requited, when while he was drinking, he saw that hand-writing upon the wall, Thou art weighed in the balance and found too light? Dan. 5.27. He set light by God's consecrate things, and God sets light by him, he finds him too light. Let all spiritual merchants both Patrons and Parsons, be struck with terror of this example, as Belshazzar was with the hand-writing. And he must needs be culpable of this sin, that setteth any terrene price upon a spiritual thing.

A third reason, why Simony is unreasonable, is because it makes the Simonist besides himself. For he comes as a Minister to buy: but buying, he professeth and proveth himself to be no Minister of God. For as God gave the Tithes anciently to the Levites, he gave them freely, and a free gift ought not to be bought: So he hath given the same to his Ministers of the New Testament as freely; whatsoever Minister therefore shall offer to buy these Tithes, must either confess that they are not the free gift of God, or that he himself hath no interest in them, as the Minister of God, and so no Minister of God. If therefore holy Tithes belong properly and of right to Ministers, why do they buy them? And if they buy them, what right had they unto them?

Fourthly, it is against reason to commit treason; but Simony is treason. For as Judas conspiring with the Jews by buying and selling, betrayed the person of Christ: So Simonists conspiring together through buying and selling, betray the Church of Christ, yea betray the body of Christ, the members of Christ; as shall appear more at large, when we come to show the effects of Simony.

But the Simonist objecteth. I am fain to buy, because All, or Most are set a buying; So that if I buy not I am like to have nothing. This is as good a reason, as if he said, I must sin, because it is the fashion of All, or Most, so to do. This man will go to the Devil for company. But let me tell thee, if it were not for such as thou art, we should shortly have no Simonists at all. For thou buyest, because others buy; Well: Do but thou, and all such as thou art, who thus sin by others example, hold your hand a while, and in short time defluet 〈◊〉 ▪ the Brooke at last of such examples will be quite dried up, when it ceaseth to be fed and supplied with such heady Currents. For else, by following such examples, thou, and such as thou art, become examples to draw others after thee, and so each for his part both maintayneth and increaseth that wicked Trade, each striving who can run fastest to the Devil. Another saith, he buyeth of force, that he may have a place in the Church to exercise those gifts God hath bestowed upon him, for the good of his Church. And if he buy not, those gifts shall lie buried in the earth. That were great pity. But what gifts? I doubt whether any sanctified and true Priestly gifts, that will so easily be corrupted with Simony. But as the King of Gath said to David, counterfeiting madness; Have we need of mad men? So, have we need of Simonists in the Church? Or as Philip King of Macedon, seeing his son Alexander by large gifts to woo the good will of the Macedonians, writ unto him in an Epistle: Quae te malùm inquit, ratio in istam spem induxit, vt eos tibi fideles putares fore, quos pecunia corrupisses? An id agis, vt Macedones non te Regem suum, sed Ministrum & praebitorem put • nt, quo quid Sordidius Regi? So we may invert it upon our Simonist thus: Quae te malùm ratio in istam spem induxit, vt populo te fidelem putares fore Pastorem, cum tuam ipse conscientiam pecunia tua corrupisses? An id agis, vt populus Dei non te Pastorem suum, sed Depastorem, non Concionatorem sed Corruptorem putent, quo quid Sordidius Rectori? But if thou hast such a desire to exercise thy gifts, audiamus disertum: bestow them there, where is most need, where the people perish for want of prophecy, and prophecy faileth there, because the Tithes are impropriate. Sed nullus ad amissas, ibit Amicus opes. But thou wilt say: Dignus est operarius Mercede sua. True: But either bewray not thy Hypocrisy, by seeking the richest and most eminent places & preferments in the Church (for scarce any else please thee) to exercise thy gifts in: or else make proof of thy sincerity, by desiring so to employ thy gifts in God's Church, as for that end thou wilt rather content thyself with a mean Living honestly attained, then to aspire to a greater by corrupt means. For it is a question, which is the worst of the two, for the Church to want a Minister, or to be served with a Simonist.

Another objecteth: I see the Church of God in great danger, the chief places are intruded into by such as will make no conscience of their duty, as is manifest by those lesser charges and places, wherein they have been most negligent and unfaithful; and so the ship of the Church shall be in danger of casting away, being governed by careless Pilots: Therefore for the love and care I bear to the Church, being conscious of my good conscience, that I aim chiefly at the good thereof: why may I not redeem the danger of it with my money? A plausible reason, I confess; for our very lives are not too dear, much less our livings, to be spent and sacrificed for the Church of God. It was the Apostles joy and rejoicing, To be offered up upon the sacrifice and service of the Philippians faith. And this ought to be the joy of every faithful Minister of Christ, lawfully called, and canonically placed in this or that place in the Church. But in this the case is otherwise. A man as yet is not called lawfully and orderly to this or that charge in the Church. Well, the Church wants a good Pastor; Wolves seek to enter. Shall I to prevent them, climb up another way into the Sheep-fold, and not by the Door? What benefit will this be to the Flock, when the Thief and the Robber comes to prevent the Wolf? Yea, Caveat Emptor. Why was Uzzah, being no Priest, smitten? was it not for laying his hand upon the A • ke? contrary to God's Commandment, Numb. 4.15. They shall not touch any holy thing, least they die? But the Ark was shaken with the Oxen, and he did but stay it; well, he had his payment for his offic • ousnesse. So thou seest (at least in thy apprehension) instead of the true Levites, the Ark to be drawn by Oxen, the Church to be swayed by whom it ought not, and so the state of it to be shaken, and to be in jeopardy. Yet take heed thou put not forth thy hand, thy Simoniacal hand to the end to save the Church from ruin. So, to touch holy things, is death; Thy money perish with thee. If Simony be unlawful, and so condemned of all: if it be a sin, commit it not, yea, though thou couldest thereby procure the safety of the whole Church of God. For men to say, Let us do evil, that good may come thereof: their damnation is just. Shall I destroy mine own soul (for every sin slayeth the soul) to save others souls? Yea, saith Job, Will ye speak wickedly for God's defense? and talk deceitfully for his cause? Whereupon Mercerus noteth, saying, Deus hac vestra Defensione non indiget, neque ita se defends postulat cum alterius Detrimento, vt interim proximo fiat Iniuria. If God then will not have his cause defended to any man's wrong: neither will he have his Church saved by any man's destruction. It is against the order of charity, to lose my own soul for the saving of others. Let such a man rather resolve thus; If God will have me to help to preserve his Church, he will offer means lawful for me to attain this charge. Yea, in such a case the means for us to use is, Pray the Lord of the Harvest, that he would send forth Laborers into his Harvest.

And whereas a man may pretend, yea and promise to himself, if he were promoted to such a place, to become a profitable member in the Church: let such a one examine himself by that which Gregory saith: Perhaps (saith he) he that desireth Prelacie in the Church, hath a purpose to do good. Sed cum percepti Principatus officio perfrui seculariter coepit, libenter obliuiscitur, quicquid religiose cogitauit. Quia nequaquam valet in culmine humilitatem discere, qui in imis positus non desinit superbire. Nam plerunque in occupatione regiminis, ipse quoque boni operis vsus perditur, qui in tranquillitate tenebatur: quia quieto mari recte nauem & imperitus se nauta dirigit: turbato autem tempestatis fluctibus, etiam peritus se nau • a confundit. Quid namque est potestas culminis, nisi tempestas mentis? Inter haec ita{que} quid sequendum est, quid tenendum, nisi vt virtutibus pollens, coactus ad regimen veniat, virtutibus va •• us ne coactus accedat? But when he hath begun, worldly to enjoy the office of his received principality, he willingly forgets, whatsoever • ee religiously purposed. Because he cannot learn humility when he is aloft, who while he was below ceased not to be proud. For commonly in the negotiation of Government, the very use of good works is also lost, which in the tranquility of a private life was preserved. Since in a calm sea, even at unexpert Mariner can direct and guide his ship, and himself: but in a tempestuous sea, even a skillful Pilot confounds himself. For what else is the power of regiment, but the tempest of the mind? Therefore in these cases, what is to be followed, what to be observed, but that he which excelleth in virtues, should come to place of government by compulsion, but he that is destitute of virtue • , should upon no terms, no not by compulsion be drawn unto 〈◊〉 . And he concludes: Considerandum est ei, qui curam populi electu • Praesul suscipit, quia quasi ad aegrum medicus accedit. Si ergo in eius opere passions viuunt, qua presumptione percussum mederi properat, qui in facie vulnus portat? Therefore (saith he) the elect Prelate, which takes upon him the care of the people, must consider, that he comes as a Physician to a sick Patient. If therefore passions do yet live in his practice, with what presumption doth he hasten to heal the diseased, when he carrieth his wound in his own face?

But will some say, Qui Episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus desiderat. Ergo licet mihi Episcopatum desiderare. He that desireth a Bishopric, desireth a worthy work. Therefore it is lawful for me to desire a Bishopric. Let the same Gregory make answer, upon the very same words, in his eight Chapter of the foresaid Book, which he intituleth thus: De ijs, qui praeesse concupiscunt, & ad vsum suae libidinis instrumentum Apostolici sermonis arripiunt: Ti. 3.1. Notandum (saith he) quod illo in tempore hoc dicitur▪ quo quisquis praeerat, primus ad martyrij tormenta ducebatur. Tunc ergo laudabile fuit Episcopatum quaerere, quando per hunc, quemquam dubium non erat ad supplicia grauiora per • enisse. Vnde ipsum quoque Episcopatus Officium boni operis expressione definitur, cum d • citur, si quis Episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus desiderat. Ipse ergo sibi testis est, quia Episcopatum non appetit, qui non per hunc, boni operis Ministerium, sed honoris, gloriam quaerit. Qui • repent subiungit Apostolus: Opertet autem Episcopum irreprehensibilem esse. Et fauet ergo ex desiderio, & terret ex praecepto, acsi aperte dicat, laudo quod quaeritis, sed prius discite, quid quaeratis: ne dum vosmet ipsos metiri negligitis, tanto foedior vestra reprehensibilitas appareat quanto, & à cunctis conspici in honoris arce festimatis. Sacrum quippe Officium non solum, non diligit omnino, sed nescit, qui ad culmen regiminus anhelans in occulta meditatione cogitationis coeterorum subiectione pascitur: laude propria laetatur: ad honorem coreleuat: rerum affluentium abundantia exultat. Mundi ergo lucrum quaeritur, sub eius honoris specie, quo mundi destrui lucra debuerant. Cum{que} men's humilitatis culmen arripere ad elationem cogitat: quod foris appetit, intus immutat. It is to be noted (saith he) that this was spoken at that time, when every Prelate was the first that was drawn to the torments of martyrdom. Then it was commendable to desire a Bishopric, when by it a man was sure to come to more grievous torments, &c. But that man doth not only not love, but not understand the sacred Function at all, who breathing to climb to the top of government, doth in his private thoughts feed upon the subjection of others, flatter himself in his own praise, exalt his heart unto honor, and exult in the abundandance of his wealth. Therefore the lucre of the world is sought under the show of that Honor, by which the emoluments and gainers of the world should have been destroyed.

Another objection doth here cross my way on the Patrons behalf, Sir, you need not be so rigid against giving and receiving for a Spiritual preferment: For, for my part, I have a good intent to convert such money to some charitable use, as to bestow it in Alms, &c. Indeed this hath been an old shift in the Court of Rome. But Gratian saith, Non potest fieri Eleemosyna ex pecunia Simoniace acquisita. Alms may not be given of money Simoniacally gotten. And Gregor. Epist. 110. to certain BB. doth condemn this sin thus. Nimis Declinandem est, dilectissimi fratres, sub obtentu Eleemosynae peccata Simoniacae haereseos perpetrare. Nam aliud est propter peccata Eleemosynas facere, aliud propter Eleemosynas peccata committere. We are to be exceeding careful, beloved brethren, not to commit the sins of Simoniacal h • resie, under pretence of alms. For it is one thing to do alms for sin sake, another thing to commit sin for alms sake. This is like Saul's sacrifice ; reproved and rejected by Samuel. 1. Sam. 15. Or like the high Priests Charity, who with Judas treason-money, by some called Simony, bought, forsooth, a field to bury Strangers in. But for all this charitable work, by divine Ordination (as Lyrae saith) the field got such a Name, as could never be washed off. For it is called, the field of blood to this day. Matth. 27.8. And mought such charitable works, as they are done by Simony, so forever bear the brand of Simony. As a famous Curtizan in Rome, having built a fair house, caused this Motto to be set over the front of the gate, well beseeming her own shameless front, Aedificauerunt Peccatrices: Curtizans built this house.

CHAP. XIII.

THe Apostle, 1. Tim. 3.1. saith, This is a true saying; if a man desire the Office of a Bishop (or Minister of the Gospel) he desireth a good work. Now such is the Office of a Bishop, and Minister of Christ, as if it be well weighed, a man will be well advised how he seeks or sues for such an Office, much less be at the cost to purchase it with any price. For the Office of the sacred Order of Bishops is not altogether so easy, as the world takes it to be. Origen saith, Qui defiderat Episcopy munus, ob parandam apud homines gloriam, aut ab hominibus adulationem, aut ob quastum capiendum ex his, qui accedunt verbo, dant{que} causa pietatis: talis Episcopus non desiderat bonum opus, ne{que} potest esse sine erimine, ne{que} vigilans, ne{que} sobriu • , quum sit ebrius gloria, qua se intemperanter •• gurgitanit. He that desireth the Office of a Bishop, to purchase glory and estimation with men, or to be called of men Rabbi, or to get gain of those that come to the Word, and do give for 〈◊〉 sake: such a Bishop desireth not a good work, nor can he be without crime, neither vigilant, neither sober, bring drunk with glory, wherein he hath intemperately drenched himself. And in his twenty four Tract upon Matthew: Quidam plurima machinantur vt Episcopy vocentur ab hominibus, quod est Rabbi: quum deberent intelligere, Episcopum fieri oportere irreprehensibilem, & caetera quae sequuntur, vt si non dicatur ab hominibus esse Episcopus, tamen sit apud Deum: Some do attempt many ways to be called of men Bishops, that is Rabbi: when in the mean time they should understand, that a Bishop must be unreprovable, and so forth, as followeth in the Apostles description, so as although of men he be not called a Bishop, yet with God he is a Bishop. And Cyril saith, speaking of the Office of Ministers: If so be we execute this Office aright, we shall receive a reward, yea and praise too: but if otherwise, if perversely, what flames shall be sufficient to punish us? We shall hear that voice, Thou hast destroyed mine heritage, thou hast slain my people. As for Lay-men, they shall indeed render everyone a particular account for his own life: But we who bear the burden of Sacerdotal offices, we shall answer, not only for our selves, but also for all believers in Christ. And Saint Augustine writing to Valerius, whom he calls his loving Father, saith, Ante omnia peto, vt cogitet religiosa prudentia tua, nihil esse in hac vita, & maxim hoc tempore facilius, & laetius, & hominibus acceptabilius, Episcopy, aut Presbyteri, aut Diaconi Officio, si perfunctory atque adulatorie res agatur: sed nihil apud Deum miserius, & tristius, & damnabilius. Item nihil esse in hac vita & maxim hoc tempore difficilius, laboriosius, periculosius Episcopy, aut Presbyteri, aut Diaconi Officio: sed apud Deum nihil beatius, si eo modo militetur, quo •• oster Imperator iubet. Et hinc erant Lachrymae illae, quas me fundere in ciuitate Ordinationis meae tempore nonnulli fratres animaduerterunt, nescuntes causam doloris me • , &c. Above all things I desire (saith he) that your religious prudence would consider, that there is nothing in this life, and most of all at this time, more easy, more pleasant, and more acceptable to men, then the Office of a Bishop, or a Priest, or Deacon, if the Office be carelessly, or men-pleasingly performed: but with God nothing more miserable, woeful, and damnable. Also that there is nothing in this life, and most of all at this time, more difficult, painful, and perilous, then the Office of a Bishop, Priest, or Deacon: but with God nothing more blessed, if the combat be so managed, as our Captain commandeth. And hence were those many tears, which certain brethren, not knowing the cause, saw me shed in the City, in the time of mine Ordination. And the same Father elsewhere saith: upon the words of the Apostle, Qui Episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus desiderat: Exponere voluis, quid sit Episcopatus; quia nomen est operis, non honoris: vt intelligat non se esse Episcopum qui praeesse dilexerit, non prodesse. And a little after he saith, Locus superior, sine quo regi populus non potest, et si ita teneatur, atque administretur, vt decet, tam • n indecenter appetitur. The superior place (of the B.p) without which the people cannot be governed, although it be so maintained and managed, as is meet, yet 〈◊〉 is unseemly for a man to hunt after it. So that (saith he) Ocium sanctum quaerit charitas veritatis; negotium iustum suscipit necessitas charitatis. Quam Sarcinam si nullus imponit, percipiendae atque intuendae vacandum est veritati: si autem imponitur, suscipienda est propter charitatis necessitatem: In this case, saith he, The love of truth seeks a holy retiredness: and it is the necessity of charity that vndergoeth a just employment. Which burden if no man impose it, then a man is the more vacant to exercise his private life in the study of the Truth: but if it be imposed, it must be undergone for very necessity of charity. Saint Chrysostom saith: I suppose no man, though never so thirsty of glory would ever be made a Bishop, unless necessity imposed it upon him. For who is sufficient for these things. For as that holy man further saith: If thou knewest (saith he) that the Bishop ought to bear the burden of all; that if others be angry, they are pardoned, but not he: that others sinning may have excuse, but not he: thou wouldest not so hasten, thou wouldest not so run to the Prelacy. For he (the Bishop) is exposed to all tongues, is subject to all censures, both of the wise and unwise: he is perplexed with perpetual cares, night and day. He is envied of many, he is observed of many. Do not tell me of those, who are ambitious of favor, that love to sleep, that come to their Episcopal office, as to a bed of rest. I speak not of these: but of those, which watch for your souls, which prefer the salvation of their people before their own safety. Tel me, if a man have but ten children under his government, living continually with him, he is forced without intermission to take care of them: what then shall not be suffer, that hath so many, not domestics, but such as have others also under their authority? But he is in great honor, say they. What honor? Three half-penny wretches do rail upon him in the market place. Why doth he not then stop their mouths? A proper reason. For now you are far wide of the office of a Bishop. Moreover, unless he give himself to please all, both those that live idly, and those that follow their business, he hears a thousand accusations on every side. None is afraid to accuse and traduce him. For they are afraid to speak evil of Princes, but not of Bishops, because the fear of God is of no force with them. Who can express their solicitous care in preaching and teaching? Who can tell what plunges they are put to in their elections? His mind differeth nothing from a ship tossed with waves. He is pressed on every side with his friends, and with his foes, with his own kindred, and with forreners. If he be vehement and zealous, they say, he is cruel: if not vehement, they say, he is cold. But these two contraries must concur, that so he may neither be contemned, nor hated. How is he prevented, how pressed with business? How many is he enforced to offend, volens nolens? How many must he rebuke, will he, nill he. I speak not unadvisedly, but as I am affected, and as I think. I do not think, that among Priests there are many, that shall be saved, but far more that shall perish. The reason is, because this Office requireth an high and excellent spirit. For there be many occasions to drive him from his own disposition, and he hath need of many eyes. Do ye not see how many things are behoofull for a Bishop to have, that he be apt to teach, that he be patient in suffering of evils, that he be constant and faithful in the Doctrine of the Word? What a difficulty is this? And when others sin, it is imputed to him. I need say on more (saith he) if but one depart this life, v • i • itiated, or unbaptized, is he not altogether condemned? For the destruction of one only soul is such a loss, as it cannot possibly be estimated. For if the salvation of one soul was so precious, that for this the Son of God became Man and suffered so great things: consider then what punishment the destruction of one soul will bring. Do not tell me therefore. The Priest hath sinned, or the Deacon • all their sins redound upon the head of those, that chose them. Therefore • f any shall approach to the chief Priesthood (to wit, a Bishopric) 〈◊〉 to a function full of care and trouble, no man will easily undertake it. But now we do no otherwise affect this Dignity, then as civil Magistracies, namely, that we may be magnified and honored with m • n, while we are cast out of favor with God. What gain doth this honor bring? How doth it appear to be nothing? When thou shalt desire the Priesthood, set before thee on the one side those accusations, which it necessarily must suffer; on the other side a life free from public employment, and compare the measure of the punishment. For if thou sinnest the sin of a private man, thou shalt not suffer so great punishment in comparison: but if thou sinnest in the Priesthood, thou art undone. A Bishop cannot sin privily. For it is well with him, if not offending, he-can be free from slanders, much less if he do offend, can he escape. If either he be angry, or laugh, or desire a little sleep to refresh him, there be many ready to taunt him, many that will be offended, many that will censure him, and prescribe Laws unto him, many that will renew the memory of former Bishops, and despise the present, and they do it not to praise them, but to pinch him. War is sweet to the unexpert. For we fight not against those, who by might oppress the poor, nor have we the courage to stand in defense of the flock: but after the example of those shepherds, whom Ezekiel mentioneth, We kill and devour. Which of us is so careful and solicitous for the sheep of Christ, as Jacob was for Laban • flock? Who can express what cold he suffered by night? And do not tell me of any night-watchings, or any such care taken. It is altogether contrary. Princes and Rulers 〈◊〉 not so great honor, as he that is a Prelate of the Church. If he go into the Kings Court, who hath the precedence of him? There is an universal decay and corruption. Those things I speak, not to enforce shame upon you, but to refrain your eager desires. But perhaps there is none such: God grant it▪ that so our words may vanish into the • ire, and prove 〈◊〉 words; and so may prove a • potions, which being prevented by the Patients instant recovery, are thrown away. For considering the w • ight of a Bishops office, and the weakness of many advanced to high places, I cannot imagine, saith he, that any man, though never so ambitious, unless mere necessity contstrain him, would ever be consecrated a Bishop. Thus far this holy and good Bishop Saint Chrysostom.

The same Father in another place, saith: Not only civil Magistrates, but also Prelates of the Churches must render an account of their administration: and that a more strict and mighty account, then any other. For to whom the ministry of the Word is committed there shall be a rigid examination: whether he hath neither through slothfulness, nor envy omitted to speak anything which he ought to have spoken, and hath declared by his deeds that he hath taught all good duties, and hath concealed nothing from his hearers, which might be profitable for them. Again, He that hath obtained a Bishopric, the more highly he is exalted to the top of honor, the more strict reckoning shall be required of him, not only of his doctrine, and care for the poor, but also of his examination of those that are to be ordained Ministers and of infinite other duties. And in his Commentary upon Titus: The higher the dignity is, the greater are the dangers of a Minister. To omit other things, which fall out daily▪ if at any time it happen, that either a friend, or some • there occas ••• • ee a means to promote an unworthy person to the dignity of a Bishopric, and commit unto him the weighty government of a City, into what tormenting fires doth he throw himself? For he that in his more private manner of life hath not been religious; certainly he must needs be much worse, when he comes to • ndertake the government of the Church. Therefore it is by all means to be wished, that he that hath been formerly endued with 〈◊〉 , he may remain so still, having taken upon him such a ministerial function. For now, both vain glory doth more eagerly haunt him, together with the love of m • ny, and superci • ious pride: whenas Domination it self begets a licentiousness of being offensive, and contumelious, and to give ill language, and innumerable other. And if he that offends one soul, had better have a mill-stone hanged about his neck, and be drowned in the bottom of the Sea: then he that shall scandalize so many Souls, and whole Cities, and People, Men, Women, Children, Citizens, Countr • men, his neighbors, and others further off, which are under his charge, what shall he suffer? Therefore such a man hath more need of the grace and peace of God; for unless these be the prop of his government, all must perish, and fall to the ground. For although thou beest never so expert in governing, unless in this thy government, thou hast that grace and peace which is of God: the storm will involve and drown in the deep, both thy ship, and those that sails with thee. For which cause, I am possessed with a great admiration of those men, which are so desirous of such burdens. Thou most unhappy and miserable of all men, doest thou not see what that is, which thou so desirest? If a man diligently weigh the truth of the matter, such a one is not advanced to a Lordship, but rather he is a servant to innumerable Lord's, which do continually covet, and speak contrary things. So he and much more to this purpose. And upon the Epistle to the Colossians▪ We do execute an Ambassage. But we desire not this honor for our selves, God forbid: for we know the vileness of it: but for your sakes, that those things which are uttered by us, you may the more diligently attend unto, that you may receive profit thereby, lest you hear slothfully and negligently the things which are delivered. Let no man attend to me, but to the dignity of my Ambassage. So this holy Bishop.

In a word, Erasmus in his Epistle Dedicatorie, before Saint Chrysostom's Commentary upon that Epistle to the Galatians, saith, that a Bishop sustains three persons: one, of a Father, in his Sacerdotal authority: another▪ of a Mother, in the desire of bringing forth, and bringing up her children: a third, of a Nurse, in feeding the Soul with 〈◊〉 Doctrine. And as Aaron might not enter into the Tabernacle and Sanctuary, but with his golden Bels, or else he must die: so the Minister of the Gospel must have the golden Bels of the Gospel always 〈◊〉 in his mouth, whereby the sheep of Christ may be fed.

Seeing then that the office of a Bishop is a •• ended with so many cares, exercised with so many duties, inuolued in so many dangers, exposed to so many storms, obnoxious to so heavy judgments liable to such sharp censures: who can blame Saint Chrysostom for admiring, how any man should ambitiously seek & pursue after such place • , much less be at the cost to purchase them? Yea, how many, w • ighing with themselves the insupportable burden of this Office, which would make the shoulders of Angels to stoop under it, have not only refused it being offered (and that not with a formal N • l • , 〈◊〉 ) but have hid themselves; and • unne from it as far as they could. How often did Nilamm •• , a holy man of God, seriously and really refuse a Bishopric so often urged upon him? who at length in the midst of his fervent prayer, which he offered up to God, yielded up his spirit to him that gave it. Besides, sundry of the Fathers, and those whom Claudius Espencaus mentioneth, de fuga Episcopatus, that shunned those high places, as measuring them rather by their weight, then by their height: we could produce examples at home, as of that learned Dean Nowell, of reverend memory, and that learned and godly Gilpin, who both lived within the memory of this present age, when both there was so much grace in the World, as freely to offer, and in them as constantly, as modestly to refuse.

Gaspar Contarenus, a learned Cardinal, one that lived, and was one in the Council of Trent, but who was much more honest then many of his fellows, writing of the office of a Bishop, hath these words: Episcopus medius est inter diuinos spiritus, & humanum genus. Ex quo perspicuum est, Oportere Episcopum tum Angelicae, tum humanae naturae quadam ration participem esse: quod cum de se nullus, quanquam virtutibus ornatissimus, polliceri possit: idcirco Episcopatum optare, absque arrogantiae crimine, aut auaritiae, aut ambitionis, nequit vllus. A Bishop (saith he) is a middle person between the divine Spirits, and human kind. Whence it is plain, that a Bishop in some regard ought to partake both of the Angelical, and the human Nature: which thing, seeing no man, although the most virtuous, can promise of himself: therefore for any to desire a Bishopric, he cannot do it without suspicion of arrogancy, or of avarice, or of ambition. But the want of the due consideration of the weightiness of a Bishops office, having opened a wide window in the Church for such arrogant, auaricious, and ambitious climbing spirits to enter at, that come not in by the door, gave the same Author occasion a little after in the same Book, to utter this lamentation of that present state of the Church of Rome: Non possum hoc in loco non magnopere miserari nostra tempestatis calamitatem, cum paucos admodum Christiani popul • moderatores comperias, qui degant in ciuitatibus fidei eorum commissis. Verum satis officio suo fecisse putant, si procuratori regendam vrbem tradiderint, ipsi vero reditibus potiantur; ac magni quidem cuiusdam in Romana Curia pompam comitantur, regnorum{que} tractant, ac bellorum negotia; de populo vero, cui prasunt, an in Christiana Religion proficiat, an deficiat, ne nuncium quidem accipiunt, egenos{que} gregis sui omnino negligunt & ignorant: Hoccine est Episcopum gerere? hoccine Discipulos Christi imitari, praecepta{que} Euangelica seruare? Probus ergo Episcopus operam dabit, ne alteri tradat gregem suum curandum, sed quàm breuissimo tempore ab ouili aberit, nisi aliqua ration à Pontifice euocatus alicui officio inseruiat, quod ad emolumentum Christianae Reipublicae spectet. Verum non hanc dari sibi occasionem op • et, ne{que} tale quid ambiat; sed aegre ac fere inuitus huiusmodi onus suscipiat; quo expedito non aliud procuret, sed quàm c • tissime ad gregem redeat. I cannot here (saith he) but greatly pity the calamity of our time, when you shall find very few Governors of the Christian people, that reside in those Cities committed to their charge; but think they have performed their duty sufficiently, if they shall commit the government of the City to a Proctor, while themselves enjoy the revenues; and they accompany the pomp and train of some great one in the Court of Rome, and do manage the affairs of States, and of the Wars, but of the people over whom they bear rule, whither they go forward, or backward in Christian Religion, they do not so much as hear one message; and for the poor of their flock, they are altogether negligent and ignorant of them. Is this to be a Bishop? Is this to imitate the Disciples of Christ, and to observe the Evangelical precepts? Therefore a good Bishop shall labor, not to commit his flock to another's Cure, but to be absent from the Fold as little space as may be, unless for some reason he be called away by the Pope for some special service, for the good of the Christian common-wealth. But let him not wish or desire this occasion to be given him, nor let him make suite for any such thing; but let him very hardly, and in a manner unwillingly undertake this task; which being dispatched, let him not procure another, but with all speed let him return to his flock: so he. As Cardinal Poole, being entreated by a Bishop for one months absence from his flock, notwithstanding he had admonished him formerly not to leave his flock: answered (giving him leave, but for no longer time) I shall take this comfort by your departure, that you shall be beaten the less. This Cardinal also being in election and nomination for the Pope dome, and being charged with ambition in over-hasty aspiring to that Dignity: answered, That he thought not the burden of that great office to be so light, but that he was of the mind, that it was rather to be feared, then desired. As for them, which understood not, and thought more basely of so great a place, he lamented their case, and was sorry for them.

Deuout Bernard complaining also of the course of his times, saith, among many other things, in his Ser. ad Cler. Quem dabis mihi de numero Episcoporum, qui non plus inuigilet subditorum euacuandis marsupijs, quàm vi • ijs extirpandis? Vbi est, qui flect at iram? Vbi est, qui pradicet annum pl • cabilem Domino? Propterea relinquamus istos, quia non sunt Pastores, sed traditores, & imitemur illos, qui viuentes in carne, plantauerunt Ecclesiam sanguine suo. Et quidem isti sortiti sunt Ministerij locum, sed non zelum. Successores omnes cupiunt esse, imitatores panci. Vtinam tam vigiles reperirentur ad curam, quàm alacres currunt ad Cathedram, &c. Whom wilt thou show me • among all the row of Bishops, who is not more vigilant in emptying his people's purses, then in rooting out their vices? Where is one that pacifieth wrath? Where is he, that preacheth the acceptable year of the Lord? Therefore relinquish we these, because they are no Tutors, but Traitors, and imitate we those, who while they lived in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood. These indeed have chosen the place of the Ministry, but not the zeal. All affect to be Successors, few Imitators. I would to God they were found as watchful over their Cure, as hasty to run to the Chair, &c. And again in the same Sermon, he saith: Quatuor his qui praesunt in Ecclesia Dei, necessaria esse pra omnibus reor: videlicet, vt per ostium intrent, vt in humilitate se contineant, anaritiam declinent, munditiam tam cord, quàm corpore seruare studeant. Sed quid prodest, si Canonice eligantur (quod est per ostium intrare) & non Canonice viuant? Dixit D • minus ad duodecim, Nonne ego vos duodecim elegi, & vnus ex vobis diabolus est? Domine Jesus, cum esset electio illa in manu tua, & non haberes aliquem contradicentem & reclamant •• tibi, quare elegisti diabolum Episcopum? Cur bone Jesus non elegisti bonum, & instum, & sanctum, sicut Petrus bonus, & instus, & sanctus fuit? Vel si elegisti diabolum, cur te i • ctas elegisse? Fratres, sic facit Jesus body, eligens sibi multos diab ••• s Episcopos. Vbi (proh dolor!) reperiemus Episcopos, qui post adeptam dignitatem, in humilitate se contineant? Nempe superbia eis occasio est, vt ad tantam dignitatem aspirent, vt in Ouile Christi impudenter irrumpant, cum tamen per Psalmistam Dominus dicat, Non habitabit in medio domus mea, qui facit superbiam. Vae mihi Domine Jesus, si tecum ere in d • mo tua, & non in medio domus tua; nan tu semper in medio os. At isti non sic. Sunt quidem cum Jesus, sed non in medio domus eius, quia amant, & faciunt superbiam, parents suos extollentes, paupers antem negligentes, & deprimentes. Male vinunt, & subiectos male vinere volunt, Et idcirco comparantur Apostate Angelo, qui dixit in cord suo, P • nam sedem meam ad Aquilonem &c. Quid est Diabolum ad Aquilonem sedem velle ponere, nisi superbum quempiam & impium, super suos similes, à charitatis calore, vel sapientiae, luco alienos principatum appetere, vel adeptum tenere? &c. For those (saith he) that bear rule in the Church, four things are principally necessary: to wit, That they enter in by the door, that they contain themselves in humility, that they eschew avarice, that they study to keep cleanness as well in heart, as in body. But what doth it avail to be canonically chosen (which is to enter in by the door) and not to live canonically? The Lord said to the twelve, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a Devil? Lord Jesus, seeing the election was in thine own power, and thou hadst none to contradict, or control thee, why didst thou choose a Devil? Why, good Jesus, didst thou not choose a good, a just, and a holy man, such as Peter was? Or if thou • busest a Devil, why dost thou boast of it? Brethren, so doth Jesus now, choosing many Devil-bishops. Where (alas!) shall we find Bishops, who after they have got the dignity, contain themselves in humility? For pride provokes them to aspire to so great a dignity, to make an impudent irruption into Christ's sheepfold; though notwithstanding the Lord saith by the Psalmist, The proud man shall not dwell in the midst of my house. W • e is 〈◊〉 , O Lord Jesus, if I shall be in thy house, and not in the midst of thy house: for thou art always in the midst. But those not so. They are with Jesus, but not in the midst of his house, because they love and live in pride, extolling their Parents that promoted them, but despising and depressing the poor. They live a naughty life, and would have their people to live so too. And therefore they are compared to the Apostate Angel, which said in his heart, I will plant my Seat upon the North Pole. What is this, that the Devil will pitch his Seat upon the North? But that every proud and impious man, doth either aspire or usurp principality over such as be like him, such as are remote from the heat of charity, and from the light of wisdom? This and much more this devout man.

Now to draw all that hath been said in this Chapter, by those holy and ancient men of the Church, to a corollary, or conclusion: If such be the Office of a Bishop; if (as Origen saith) it makes the ambitious drunk with vain-glory: If (as Saint Cyril) to be punished with fearful flames; if he must render a strict account for himself, and for all under his jurisdiction: If (as Saint Augustine) nothing be more easy, pleasant, contentful to men, if perfunctorily and carelessly performed; but nothing more unhappy, miserable, damnadle with God, for which that holy man wept at his Ordination; If a Bishop be a name rather of labor, then honor, and of duty, rather then dominion; If not to be sought, nor undertaken, but for mere charity sake, when necessity compelleth: If (as Saint Chrysostom) he bear the burden of all, be most inexcusable, exposed to all tongues, distracted with daily and nightly cares, subject to all censures, liable to all judgments; if others sins be imputed to his misgouernment; if the loss of each soul, so precious, shall be required of him; if to affect it, be to cast him out of God's favor; if a private life be much more sweet, more secure and safe; if it be not a bed of rest, but of break-sleep; if their preaching be most solicitous, most assiduous; if he be like a ship continually tossed with waves, and driven with contrary winds; if not many Ministers be saved, but much more do perish; if subject, even in despite oftentimes to be diverted and driven from his own disposition; if only pride in such, be enough to cause an universal decay and corruption; if their account be most severe, both for their doctrine, what, and how, with what diligence, with what devotion performed; and for their life, how answerable to their doctrine, how holy, how religious, how every way exemplary to their flock; how careful in relieving the poor, how circumspect in electing good Ministers, in rejecting the unworthy; if this Office make men rather greater, then better, hoysing up the sails of each passion to all winds of temptation, especially when it finds pride, avarice, ambition, and the like: If (as Erasmus) a Bishop put on the person of a Father, a Mother, a Nurse, all importing manifold Offices: If, as Aaron with his Bells, he must be ever sounding forth the word of Truth: if, for the multiplicity and difficulty of the duties of this calling, chained one within another, many wise and grave men of God have shrunk their shoulders from it: if (as Contarenus) a Bishop must be above a man, of an Angelical spirit; if the very desire and seeking of it, imply arrogancy, avarice, and ambition; if it be not enough to serve his Cure by a deputy; if it give him no dispensation to be a Courtier, and Negotiatour; if thus he be unlike Christ, and his Apostles: If (as Poole) it be so dangerous to be Non-resident; if a Bishopric be rather to be feared, then desired: If (as Bernard) it be usually made rather a secular merchandize, then a spiritual means to gain souls unto God; if such be to be abandoned, as betrayers, not shepherds; having the seat, not the zeal; being successors, not imitators; if any ambitious Bishop be a Judas, a Devil, an Apostate Angel, that would have all like himself to domineer over: if thus he be excluded from enjoining of Christ: if this Office be a Ministration, not a domination: then to say no more, but what so many holy, grave, learned Fathers have said already: What reason can any reasonable man pretend, to excuse not only the purchase, but the least pursuit of such a preferment, from the imputation of extreme unreasonableness?

CHAP. XIIII.

COme we now to observe the censures and penalties, which have been generally imposed upon Simony, and Simoniacks. Aquinas following his Ancients, calls Simony, Haeresi • quaedam. Gregory calls it, The prime Heresy in the Primitive Church. Altare vel Decimas, vel Spiritum Sanctum emere vel vendere, Simoniacam Haeresin esse nullus fidelium ignorat: To buy or sell the Altar (as the Sacrificer doth his Mass) or Tythes, or the Holy Ghost, there is none of all the faithful, that knoweth not this to be Simoniacal Heresy. Irenaeus calls Simon Magus, The Father of all Heretics Yea, saith Aquinas, The impious Heresy, of the Macedonians, and of those of his Sect, impugners of the Deity of the Holy Ghost, is more tolerable, then that of the Simonists: For those in their dotage, yet confessed, that the Holy Ghost was a Creature, and servant of the Father and the Son: But these do make the same Holy Ghost to be their own servant. For he that takes upon him to buy or sell anything, takes upon him also to be the master and proprietary of that, which he so buyeth or selleth. Yea, so odious is the sin of Simony, that Pope Deodate said. That no Catholic is to be refused, but, for avouching the Truth, and to make known the madness of Simony is to be exhorted with most earnest entreaty. For, saith he, none is so vile or infamous, which may not be admitted for a competent witness against a Simoniacke, as being the most vile and infamous of all men. Therefore even a bond-slave, a whore, a criminal person, may accuse a Simonist, yea, even a servant his master. And every sinful man may sing a Mass, But a Simonist may not. So he.

But some will say, This is but the Brutum Fulmen of a Pope. Yea, it ought so much the more to make us, whom the condition of so many Popes hath made to abominate the very name of Pope, to be afraid, and to startle at the very name of Simony, more then at a crack of Thunder. If Heathenish Abimelech so highly honor Marriage, and the sacred Laws thereof, as he sharply reproves Abraham, for hazarding his fair wife: how shall not faithful Abraham and Sara blush the more at such a Mans reproof?

Gregory saith: Specialiter, &c. Let both the Clergy and people, the Electors, specially and absolutely know, that that man is not only unworthy of the Priesthood, but will be found also obnox • us and culpable of other crimes, whosoever he be that p •• sumeth to buy the gift of God with money. So that the like punishment and penalty is equally due, both to the elected, and to the Electors, if they shall ass • y to violate the sincerity of Priesthood with a sacrilegious inten • . So he.

Whence we may learn, that the sin of Simony never goeth alone, whether in the Buyer, or in the Seller: but as the Master Be, it is attended with a swarm of other enormities. In the Canons of the Apostles (so called) Si quis Episcopus, &c. If any Bishop or Priest, or Deacon shall obtain this dignity by money, let both him and his Ordainers be degraded and quite cut off from the communion of Saints, as Simon Magus was by Peter. Aquinas saith; No man upon any respect ought to receive Ordination by a Bishop, whom he knoweth to have been Simoniacally promoted. And if he be ordained by him, he receiveth not the Execution of his Order, although he wist not the Bishop to be a Simoniacke, but hath need of a dispensation: Yea, saith another; He that is ae Simoniack in Order, albeit he be a Bishop, none can dispense with him, no not our Lord the Pope (vt ajunt) because such hath a cracked Character, which being notwithstanding indoleble, he cannot renounce, and so the sin cannot be purged. (Although Gratian say, that the Pope may as well dispense with i • , as with a Thief, though he restore not the theft. ) So that the case of Simony in Ordination, may seem not much unlike the Popish Transubstantiation, which stands upon such tickle points, • ffs, and Ands, as if the intention of the Priest, just at the word of their consecration, be wanting, or wandering some other way, as Baals Ghost was, while his prophets prayed unto him; or if the Bishop, that gave that Priest Ordination, had not in the time thereof a right intention; or if the Bishop, that consecrated that Bishop, wanted in the very act a right intention, and so upwards; If (as they say) any of these have failed, there is like to be no Creator created of the Creature, no Transubstantiation. So in Simony: If a man obtain a Bishopric by Simony, he receiveth not the power of the execution of his Order, and consequently he can confer no power upon any whom he shall ordain, because, Nihil Dat, quod non habet. And being so, it should follow, that all the Ministry ordained by him, & so successively downward becomes a mere nullity. Whereupon Gregory in the Gloss saith: Can a man receive Orders of him, whom he knoweth to be Simoniacally promoted to his Bishopric? Dico, quod non. Yea, although he knew it not: and by receiving Orders of him, he receiveth not withal the Execution, since the Ordinator hath none himself. And a man (saith he) ought rather to suffer Excommunication, then receive Ordination of such a one. If it be so, then what a flaw and breach doth Simony make in a Ministry? Yet Pope Urban doth somewhat mitigate the matter. Si qui, &c. If any be ordained of Simoniackes not Simoniacally, and can prove, that when they were ordained, they knew not their Ordeiners to be Simoniackes in Order; and that at that time, the Ordinations of such were holden in the Church for Canonical, we mercifully bear with them, so as they live worthily. But they that wittingly suffer themselves to be consecrated (or rather execrated) of Simoniackes, we adjudge their Consecration to be altogether void. So he. Also Nic. Junior & Alex. 2. De caetero Statuimus, &c. We do further enact, that if any hence forward shall suffer himself to be consecrated of him, whom he doubts not to be a Simoniacke (in Order) both the Consecrater, and the Consecrated shall undergo like damnation, and both of them being deposed, let them repent and do penance, and so remain deprived of their proper dignity. And again, Erga Simoniacos, &c. Towards Simoniackes we have decreed, that no mercy be extended for the retaining of their Dignity, but according to Canonical Sanctions and Decrees of Holy Fathers, We do by Apostolic Authority adjudge them to be altogether condemned and deposed. What terrible thunder claps be here. Now if the case be so, as the Disciples said about Diuorce, Then it is not good to Marry: So some man might say, Then it is not good to be a Minister. But as our Lord said upon another purpose in the s • id Chapter ( Matth. 19.) when his Disciples said, Who then can be saved? He answe • ed, With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. But everyone shall bear his own burden. I will conclude with the Conclusion of the second Canon of the Council of Calcedon: Si quis, &c. If any should mediate by any filthy and wicked giving or receiving, if he be a Clerke, Let him be degraded: If a Layicke, anathematized. Also the second Council of Orleans, Can. 4. Si quis Sacerdotium, &c. If any shall through execrable ambition, by money-market seek the Priesthood, Let him be a reprobate cast-away; because the sentence of the Apostle teacheth, That the gift of God ought not to be obtained by the balance of Money. Not a Council almost, but hath a Thunderbolt against this sin. Mediatores etiam Simoniae eadem censura Ligantur; qui à solo Papa absoluentur: The Mediators also of Simony are liable to the same censure, and they cannot be absolved, but only of the Pope. A most inexpiable and heinous sin, I wisse which only the Pope can absolve. We will shut up this, with that which is fathered upon Saint Augustine, Ser. 37. ad Fratres in Eremo (though those Sermons be confessed • o be none of his) Qui Sacramentum emit vel Ecclesiam, vel Prebendas, vel Ecclesiarum introitus, vel seculari protentia hoc pro se procurarit, sciat quod cum Gehazi & Iud • iam condemnatus est, iam Leprosus factus, iam de Templo Domini expellendu • est. He that buyeth the Sacrament, or a Church, or a Prebend, or his admission into the Church, or hath procured this for himself by secular power; let him know, that with Gehazi and Judas he is already condemned, now become a Leper, and now to be expelled out of the Lord's Temple.

And if we should go about to collect the Exemplary pun • shments inflicted by divine hand upon Simoniacal offenders, it would fill a whole Volume; yea, if we could only observe many of the judgments of God, which have remarkeably fallen upon Sacrilegious Usurpers and Simoniacal Traders, even in this our Church, how, not only Tythes improperly detained, but Patronages purchased, are posted off from man to man as God's Ark among the Philistines (for what can rest out of the proper place?) from City to City, bringing a plague with it, whithersoever it c • me: How many Patrons have been driven to sell away their own Inheritance for abusing God's Inheritance, and taking to themselves the houses of God in possession; How many Ecclesiastical Chapmen of all degrees live and die beggars, leaving their beggarly families and friends behind them, themselves cut off by untimely death, before they could recover their Simoniacal debts, to consider those many examples, no marvel if some have been of the mind to take the palnes, to make a Collection of them throughout the Land, and so compile them into one book, which would be a worthy work. And as the plague ceased not among the Philistines, until the Lord's Ark was sent back (and that not empti • , even by the advice of their own Priests and Soothsayers, but with a Sin-offering ) unto Bethshemesh: So never let any Simoniacal or Sacrilegious detayning Pa •• on expect immunity and freedom from Plagues and punishments, until the Lord's Tithes belonging to the Lord's Ark his Church, be without any Simoniacal contract freely and faithfully rend • ed unto the Church, and that with a sin-offering of repentance and restitution, they be brought home to Bethshemesh, to the house of the Sun of Righteousness, to the Church of Jesus Christ.

But to leave the common examples of Divine revenge in this kind to some others diligent collection, and in the mean time to the sad consideration of those that feel them, and to the rest, that may as justly fear them: (for God is no respect • r of persons ) and it is the Apostles admonition immediately inferred upon his exhortation to the paying of Tithes, Gal. 6.7. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap • ; suffice it to keep within the V • rg • of Scr • pture examples. Wherein, when I shall name Sacrilege for Simony, let no man marvel, or impute impertinencie to this Discourse; since all Simony is a kind of sacrilege, and they are so inuolued one within another, as they may easily be taken one for another, yet without any great mistaking, at least in those examples, which I shall allege. And so it shall not be improper to begin with the example of Cain (whom Saint Ambrose ranketh among such sacrilegious persons) who because he offered sparingly, de fructu, of the fruit, not fruit • in the plural, as Abel offered, de primoge • it is, of the firstlings: Secondly, contemptuously, of the meanest, opposite to Abel's fatlings. Thirdly, with an averse or impious mind: for Cain brought, not Cain ipse, as it is said of Abel, Abel ipse, Abel himself brought, that is, with all his heart; for animus cuins{que}▪ is est quis{que}; A man's soul is himself : Fourthly, proudly, as scorning himself to carry his Offering, therefore Cain ipse, is not expressed (as the learned note) as Abel ipse attulit : For this (I say) for offering sparingly, contemptuously, impiously, proudly, Cain was rejected, the Lord had no respect to him, and his offering. So that this impious mind of his towards God, begetting other sins, did quite cast him out from the presence of God's grace and favor, the greatest punishment in the world, as he himself confessed and complained of. Gehazi and his whole posterity, how fearfully were they branded with an hereditary leprosy, for the fathers only sin of selling his Masters gift of healing. A stupendous example, and the more, if we do but weigh the circumstances. For Gehazi received his two talents of Naaman only after the cure, and not by any pre-contract, or fore-condition: also he was not so covetous, as to take or demand All, that Naaman brought to present his Master withal; yea, more was forced upon him, then he required. Again, Naaman was a Syrian, a stranger, one whom perhaps he should never fee more, and one rich enough to spare such a small reward, as Gehazi thought he might as well take, as let him go away free: Behold (saith he to himself) my Master hath spared this Aramite Naaman: as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take something of him. But indeed he lied to Naaman, and returning lied again to his Master (and perhaps he would have most courageously taken the Oath of Simony upon it: For the sin of Simony never goes alone) yet his taking, it was, that was expressly objected unto him, and for which he was smitten with an inexpiable leprosy, that smitted and smote his whole Race. Now, if so direful were his doom, but for so doing: what shall become of all those Patrons, who stand not upon a bare promise or intimation of gratuity, but make their bargain sure upon the Naile, or upon the Seal; as Judas would not sell and betray Christ, before he saw and felt the money: that take all that comme • h, and more too, if they can compass it, and suffer their servants also to make their best advantage, so it be not to their own hindrance? That respect not whether the Chapman be rich or poor, Syrian or Christian, good or bad, All is fish that cometh to his Net? Or this example of Gehazi may terrify all such servants of the Prophet, or of any Patron, who, howsoever their Master make a conscience of receiving ought at the hands of Ministers, yet these, forsooth, must have a feeling in the business, else it shall go but slowly forward. To omit Achan's example, as being only sacrilegious, not Simoniacal, but his punishment was fearful. What a general judgment of dearth was upon all the Land of the Jews, for only defrauding God of his Tithes? And is not selling a Benefice, or Ecclesiastical preferment equivalent to sacrilegious detayning of Tithes, and so a defrauding of God? For it is a snare to devour that which is sanctified, and after the vows to inquire. Ye • are cursed with a curse, even this whole Nation. Why? Ye have spoiled me, saith the Lord. Wherein? In Tithes and Offerings: therefore I have cursed your blessings. O fearful curse! But bring ye all the Tithes into the storehouse: Mark, all the Tithes ; abate none, either by way of Fine, or of Rent, either by manual payment in gross, or by annual deduction. Else the curse will not away. Yea I will curse your blessings, saith God. What is this to us? Surely when I consider, how like Tantalus we are perplexed amidst prosperity, how pinched in the midst of plenty; How our Farmers (the staffes of State) never complained more of want and penury, then now, when their Barns be most full, and their Fields most fruitful; Yea more, when in such abundance of that celestial Bread, that bread of Life, the blessed Word of God, yet the souls of men in general are so hunger-starved, so ill thriuen, like Pharaohs lean Kine; when in such plenty of preaching and teaching I see so little, little or no practice: May we not see, and may we not say, that this curse is befallen Vs, I have cursed your blessings? What might be the cause? Is there any other cause, but one? No other cause, but one, can we read of, for which, the Lord saith, I have cursed your blessings ; or, I have cursed you with a curse. If Sacrilege and Simony on all sides may be the cause: Hath not God cause enough to deal thus with us? The Lord amend us, that so he may both lighten his heavy hand upon us, which we cannot but feel for the present, and stay his heaued-up hand, which we cannot but see threatening us with greater judgments (if greater judgments can be, then the cursing of our blessings) except we repent. And repent we do not, unless we obey the Lord's voice, who saith there, Bring ye all the Tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord, if I will not open the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing without measure. A Blessing without a Cursing. This the good King Hezekiah and his whole Kingdom proved, when upon the bringing in of all their Tithes and Offerings faithfully, they found such abundance, as Hezekiah marvelled at the heaps: And Azarias the Priest answered him, that since the People brought their Tithes and Offerings, the Lord hath blessed his people, and this abundance is left. What should I here insert Baltasars profane drinking in the sacred Bowles, who in the midst of his jollity saw that fearful hand-writing upon the wall? Dan. 5. And shall our Sacrilegists, or Simonists so securely carowse not only in sacred bowles, but even the blood of men's souls, by either their Sacrilegious detayning in gross, or their Simoniacal purloining by piece-meal the maintenance of the Ministry, which God hath ordained for the salvation of the souls of his people?

Come we to the examples of the New Testament. With what a divine zeal and fiery indignation was that meek Lamb of God inflamed, when he whipped those Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple, calling them Thieves, and cutting them off from partaking with his Temple? For as Nazianzen saith: Quos Christus eiecit de Templo, nunqu • m Spiritus Christi sibi faciet Templ •• . Those whom Christ cast out of the Temple the Spirit of Christ will never make his Temple ; as being destitute and void of the grace of the holy Ghost. As Saint Jerome saith: In Simoniacis nulla spiritualis gratia operatur: In Simonists no spiritual grace hath any operation. Non enim operatur Spiritus Sanctus spiritualiter in perfidis morcimonijs a • aritiae: For the holy Spirit doth not spiritually work in the perfidious merchandise of covetousness. And Innocentius hath a sentence no less fearful: Simoniaci etsi fidem tenere videantur, infidelitatis tamen perditioni subijciuntur: Simoniacks, although they seem to be of the true Faith, yet they lie under the perdition of Infidelity. And Saint Ambrose: Simoniaci integritatem, & conscientiam puram fidei non habent: Simonists have not the integrity, and pure conscience of Faith.

What shall I speak of Ananias and Sapphira? How scarfully and dreadfully were they struck, for detayning part of that, which they had dedicated and devoted to God, and to his Congregation, yea to the maintenance of the Apostles? And what should I speak of Simon's curse, exemplary indeed, but such as rather the Conscience, then the Sense apprehendeth, as being rather spiritual, then temporal; and yet both: For such Ecclesiastical Chapmen pull upon themselves an universal curse, upon their souls, by a deprivation even of common grace, and ministerial abilities: upon their bodies and goods, by a diminution of strength and stay, health and wealth, life and livelihood; nothing thriueth with them, all contained in this, Thy money perish with thee, Thou hast 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , neither part, nor lot in this matter. A Simonist is no Min • ster, by Saint Peters Doctrine.

And if we add hereunto the example of Heliadorus in the third Chapter of the second of Maccabees, let none blame it, because it is Apocryphal. For as Saint Jerome instructing the Lady Le • a about the education of her daughter Paula, saith, Caveat omnia Apocrypha, quae non ad dogmatum veritatem, sed ad signorum re • erentiam legat: Let her beware of all Apocryphal books, which yet she may read, not for truth of Doctrines, but for the reverence of the examples in the story: So of the truth of this example, let no man doubt. Saint Ambrose also mentioneth it upon the like occasion. This Heliodorus being sent by King Soleucus to rob the Temple, when no humble entreaties of the Priests & people would dissuade him from his impious enterprise, he was miraculously assaulted by a man on horse-back in gilt armor; yea moreover, he was fiercely set upon, whipt, and scourged by two (in show) young men; So that with much difficulty recovering from a deadly stound, & at the Priests prayers escaping with his life, He returns home with this answer to his King, that if the King had any Enemies or Traitors, whom he would have well punished, he should but send them thither where he had been. Josephus reports, how Marcus Crassus having spoiled the Temple at Jerusalem of all that mass of treasure, which pious Pompey had forborne once to touch, was therefore himself and his whole Army utterly overthrown at the passage of Euphrates. And in his sixth book of the same, and sixteenth Chapter, he showeth in the example of John, one of the Seditions, that sacrilege committed by him in robbing the Temple of the Priests maintenance, was one of those forerunning sins, which hastened the final and fatal ruin of the holy City. I might add to these, many examples in profane stories, religiously observed of Heathens themselves, inflicted by Divine revenge upon their sacrilegious persons. But Esop may serve to sum them all up in his Apologue of the Eagle, which snatching away the Sacrifice from off the Altar, catched withal a coal, which, carried with the Sacrifice to her Nest, set both her Nest and self on fire. The moral applies it self. And I pray God all sacrilegious Simonists may so apply it, and lay it to their hearts, that they may prevent hell fire prepared for the Devil, and his angels, for Simon and all his Angels.

Now all th • se exemplary punishments and judgments that we may prevent in our selves, let us hearken to that which Saint Augustine saith: Decima tributa sunt egentium animaru • . Quod si Decimam dederis (he saith not, Si vendideris) non solum abundantiam fructuum recipies, sed etiam sanitatem corporis & animae consequeris. Non igitur Dominus Deus pramium postulat, sed honorem. Deus enim noster, qui dignatus est totum dare, Decimam à nobis dignatus est recipere, non sibi, sed nobis sine dubio profuturam. Sed si tardiùs dare peccatum est, quanto magis peius est peccatum non dedisse? De militia, de negot • o, & de artificio redd • Decimas. Cum enim Decimas dando, & terrena, & coelestia possis praemia promereri: quare pro auaritia duplice benedictione fraudaris? Haec est enim Dei iustissima consuetudo, vt si tu ills Decimam non dederis, tu ad Decimam reuoceris: dabis impio militi, quod non vis dare Sacerdoti. Benefacere Deus semper paratus est, sed hominum malitis prohibetur. Decimae enim ex debito requiruntur, & qui ease dare noluerint, res alienas inuadunt. Et quot paupers in loci • suis, vbi ipse habitat, illo Decimas non dante, same mortui fuerint, tot homicidiorum reus ante aeternum Iudicis Tribunal apparebit, quia rem à Deo pauperibus delegatam suis vsibus reseruauit. Qui igitur sibi, aut pramium comparare, aut peccatorum desiderat indulgentiam promereri, reddat Decimam; etiam de nouem partibus studeat eleemozynam dare pauperibus. Tithes (saith he) are the tributes of poor souls: If thou givest thy Tithe (he saith not, if thou sellest it) thou shalt not only receive abundance of fruits, but also shalt obtain health of body and soul. Nor doth the Lord God require a reward, but honor. For our God who hath vouchsafed to give us the whole, hath also vouchsafed to receive of us a Tenth, not for his own profit, but without question for ours. But if it be a sin to give slowly, how much more grievous a sin is it not to give at all, or not to give all the Tithes of thy warfare, of thy trade, of thy craft. For when as thou mayest by paying thy Tithes obtain both earthly and heavenly rewards, why art thou defrauded of this double blessing through thy covetousness? For this is a most just and common Law with God, that if thou bringest not thy Tenths, thou shouldest be brought to a Tenth; thou shalt give to the impious Soldier, that which thou wilt not give to the Priest. God is always ready to bless, but he is hindered by the malice of men. For Tithes are required of du • : and they who will not pay them, do invade others goods. And look how many poor souls in that Parish, where he dwelleth that payeth not his Tithes, shall perish for hunger, of so many murders shall be stand guilty, before the Tribunal of the eternal Judge: because that which God hath allotted for the poor, he hath reserved to his own uses. He therefore who desireth either to purchase to himself a reward, or to procure the pardon of his sins, let him pay his Tithes: Also let him not be negligent to give alms of the Nine parts to the poor. Thus this holy Father.

Now for a Corollary or Conclusion of this point touching the Censures of sacrilegious Simonists, I will make a brief relation of those observations which Rebuffus hath collected in his last question of his Tract of Tithes. I omit to set down his Authors quoted by him, referring that to the Reader at his pleasure, or leisure. He that payeth not his Tithes, but either selleth them or detayneth any part of them, he fighteth against God. Secondly, He shall be always poor. In times past when four kinds of Tithes were duly paid, men grew rich; Now when one is not well paid, men are brought to a Tenth, And the Lord doth not remove their plagues. Thirdly, They are cursed of God with penury, with pestilence, with sudden death, and with a perishing name. Fourthly, They shall want necessaries, that deny God their duties. Fifthly, They are the heirs of eternal death. Sixthly, They shall be subject to bodily infirmities and diseases. Seventhly, They shall be associated with the Devils, which (as some say) are the Tenth part of the Angels. Eighthly, He that will not give his due to God, shall give that to the profane Soldier, which he will not give to the Priest. Ninthly, Such is a Thief, and infamous person. Tenthly, Such shall be guilty before God's Tribunal, of murthering so many poor souls, as have perished for want of not paying the Minister maintenance. Eleventhly, Such are sacrilegious persons, & consequently liable to eternal damnation, and ought every Lord's day to be denounced by the Minister, excommunicate. Twelfthly, defrauders of Tithes ought to want Christian burial. Thirteene, If such cannot be compelled by Ecclesiastical Censures, the Secular sword is to be implored. Fourteene, He that oweth his Tithes, cannot deny them upon pretext of any debt due unto Him; because Tithes admit no such compensation, nor any appeal. In a word, all Detayners or Defrauders of Tithes, in what manner soever, whether it be Sacrilegious, or Ser • oniacall, are the sons of perdition, notwithstanding any custom, usurpation, or violent occupation; They are in the state of damnation, and all that partake with them, either by counsel, aide, consent, or defense, directly or indirectly; They are all of them thieves, and robbers of God's goods, Pillers and Pollers of the Saints, Church-robbers, and excommunicate persons, excluded from the benefit of Prayer, remission of sins, and all benefit of the Church: and without restitution before death, no receiving of the Sacrament, no Confession of sins, no absolution of the Priest, will do them any good: But with Judas they are traitors and robbers of God's treasure. They are Infidels, and ungracious ungrateful persons, and shall be eternally damned in hell. And as the Philistines were punished with Mico and Locusts, with Emrods and manifold miseries, so long as they detained the Lord's Ark: So shall the Defrauders of Tithes be continually exercised with punishments, and wax old in miseries, until they make a full restitution. For such are well worthy to be smitten with Divine revenge, to be punished with God's own judging hands, as either to be punished with wicked children, or to die a sudden death, or to be slain, or to have their house and goods consumed with fire from heaven. Such is the reward of sacrilegious Simony, or simoniacall Sacrilege. But he that shall use no fraud or couen in his Tithes, shall be rewarded of God with eternal life, which the Father, Son, and holy Ghost vouchsafe to grant unto us. Amen. So he. Whence we may observe how detestable the sin of Sacrilege and Simony is; although otherwise, I do not approve of every particular passage cited by my Author, as some of them smelling of the Romish Caske. But let it suffice to make such sins the more odious to all lovers of the Truth.

CHAP. XV.

THe effects and fruits of Simony are no less miserable, then the Censures are grievous, and the punishments thereof intolerable. For as Simon is the Father of all Simonists: So Simony is the Mother of all Mischiefes in the Church. For Simony doth usually poison and corrupt two Well-heads, whence the streams of good life do generally flow unto all the people; that is, the Parson, and the Patron. These be, as the two great Lights in the Firmament of the Church, from whom the sublunary and subordinate people receive the direction and conduct of their life.

Now for the Parson or Minister, he is the Salt of the earth, the Light of the world, the Guide of the simple. But whom Simony maketh unsavory, darkeneth, blindeth: Wherefore as Saint Chrysostom saith, When the Candle is extinguished, when the Pilot is drowned, when the Captain is captived, what remains for the remnant? Let no man despise thy youth, said the Apostle to Timothy. Why? Because nothing doth more impeach and disadvantage a Ministers labors, and frustrate all the fruit of his calling, then contempt justly contracted upon his person. And nothing makes him more contemptible, then Simony. And what so captiuates their spiritual Captains, what makes them so mute in God's cause? what doth so euirate their masculine profession, that they dare not do their duty, when necessity commands it? If not Simony? For as Saint Cyril saith, A good Pastor, entering into the Fold, by the Authority of the Holy Ghost, as of the Porter, the Sheep hear his voice, and willingly obey him, as knowing and acknowledging the goodness and integrity of their Shepherd: But when they find that their Pastor came not in by the door, but climbed up another way: Neither do they so much esteem of his exhortations to virtue, nor so readily obey his precepts, because his violent intrusion into the Sheepefold diminisheth much of his Reverence and Dignity, and causeth them less to love him, and more lightly to set by him. So he. And Gregory, Epist. 113. Ad Brunichildam: Hinc igitur agitur, vt Sacerdotij dignitas in despectu, & Sanctus sit honor in crimine. Perit vti{que} reuerentia, ad • mitur disciplina; quia qui culpas debuit em • ndare, committit: & nefaria ambitione honorabilis Sacerdotij ducitur in deprauatione censura. Nam quis denuo veneretur, quod venditur? aut quis non vile putet esse, quod emitur? So that Simony is as the dead Flye corrupting the box of ointment: it marreth not only the good nature, but the good name of a Minister, which should be as a precious ointment poured forth, perfuming the whole house of God, and causing others to run after the sweet smell of it. Saint Ambrose compareth the Minister to the head, saying, Sicut validioribus morbis capite vitiato, reliquum necesse est corpus inundatione superioris morbi let aliter irrigari: ita & ii, qui caput videntur Ecclesiae, morb • pestifero frateruum vitiant corpus, vt nihil ex totius corporis compage insanciatum possit euadere, quod negligentium Sacerdotum vitiositatis mortal infecerit virus, ita vt videas in Ecclesia passim, quos non merita, sed pecuniae ad Episcopatus Ordinem prouexerunt: nugacem populum & indoctum, qui talem sibi asciuerunt Sacerdotem: quos si percontari fideliter velis, quis eos praefecerit Sacerdotes, respondent mex, & dicunt, ab Archiepiscope sum nuper Episcopus ordinatus: centum{que} ei solidos dedi, vt Episcopa • em gratiam consequi meruissem: quos si minime dedissem, hodie Episcopus non essem. Vnde mihi melius est aurum de saccello inuehere, quàm tantum Sacerdotium perdere. Aurum dedi, & Episcopatum comparaui. Quos tamen solidos, si vino, recepturum me illico non diffido. Ordino Presbyteros, consecro Diaconos, & accipio aurum. Nam & de alijs nihilominus Ordinibus pecuniae quaestum profligare confido. Ecce & aurum, quod dedi in meo saccello recepi & Episcopatum gratis accepi. Et nescij homines & indocti in Ordinationibus eorum clamant & dicunt, Dignus es, & iustus es: & conscientia misera, Indignus es, & iniustus es, dicit. Pronunciat enim Episcopus huiusmodi ad p • pulum, dic •• s: Pax vobis▪ Oculis quidem carnalibus videtur quasi Episcopus magnus, & diuin • s obt • tibus, inspicitur lepresus magnus. Per pecuniam acquisiuit indebitum Ordinem, &, Deum perdidit in interiore homine. Caro suscepit dignitatem, & anima perdidit honestatem. Caro ancilla Domina facta est animae; & anima, quae erat Domina, facta est famula carni. Caro dominatur populis, & anima seruit Daemoni. Carni Sacerdotium comparauit, & animae detrimentum parauit. Quod dedit, cum ordinaretur, aurum fuit: & quod perdidit, anima fuit. Cum alium Ordinaret, quod accepit, pecunia fuit, & quod dedit, lepra fuit. Haec sunt mercimonia iniquorum, in pernitiem corum. And the same holy Father, in his sixth Chapter of the same Book, prosecutes this argument thus: Ecce ad quae mala voluitur Deificus Ordo! Ecce ad quae probra sunt prolapsi Sacerdotes, qui audire meruerunt à Iudice Mundi, Vos estis sal terrae. Ergo si lux est Ecclesiae Episcopus à Domino Ordinatus, ita vt imperitiae tenebras praedicationis suae eloquio rutilante, conscientiarum latebras illuminet: cur ipse palpabilibus tenebris tenetur obstrictus? Et non solum, quiae ipse, dum male agit, digne perit, in super & alios secum indign perdit. Si enim meruisti salis possidere saporem, vt insipientium possis arua condire: cur infatuatus tali vitio, immundis te porcorum conculcandum pedibus praebuisti, ita vt nec alios, nec teipsum possis condire? Oculorum etiam in corpore officium, id est, in Ecelesia, voluntarius appetisti, vt reliquum per te corpus ducatum lucis haberet: & nunc quadam lippitudine, & caligine vitiorum obtenebratu • , nec teipsum luci idoneum praebes, & alijs adimis lumen. De quibus oculis in Euangelio dicitur: fi oculus tuus simplex fuerit, totum corpus tuum lucidum erit: id est, si Episcopus, qui lumen promeruit praeesse in corpore, simplicitate est Sancta, & innocentia decoratus, omnis Ecclesia splendore luminis radiatur. Si autem oculus tuus nequam est, totum corpus tuum tenebrosum est, id est, si Episcopus, qui videbatur corpori subdito lucem praebere, obnubiletur nequitiae c • citate, quid caetera facient membra, quibus lux adempta est oculorum? Id est, quid secularis factura est multitudo, cum voluptatibus illicitis, & actionibus vetitis, ad similem facinorum voraginem Episcopus multitudinem populi prouocauerit, vt nulli iam iam{que} illicitum esse videatur, quod ab Episcopo quasi licitum perpetratur. Sed ipsum magis credunt homines esse laudabile, quicquid Episcopus habuerit delectabile. Nec quisquam, quod agere Pontifex non dubitat, se indubitanter agere dicat. Episcopus enim à cunctis indubitanter vocaris, presertim cum ipso nomine censeris, si tamen actio concordet nomini, & nomen se societ actioni. Nam quid aliud interpretor Episcopus, nisi superinspector? Maxim cum solio in Ecclesia editiore resideat, & ita cunctos respiciat, vt & cunctorum oculi in ipsum respiciant. Ergo quia ita est, cur te velut tetrum speculum vniuersorum oculis demonstras, ita vt non possint obscuritate tua se comptius exornare? So this holy Bishop. Quid referam plura? Si Rex Jeroboam, veris exclusis Leuitis, ex intima plebe vnumquemque iuuenculam suam, & septem arietes secum afferentem, sibi in Sacerdotem consecret: quid mirum si solus vniuersam gentem Israeliticam fecerit peccatricem? Ecqu • aut • m isti infimi plebei, ex faece populi in sacrum Ordinem cooptat • ? Nempe quos David viles appellate, quippe timore Domini destitutos. In tali igitur Sacerdotio Israelitico, si nemo inueniatur Sanctus ac probus, si inter tot Reges ne vnus quidem faedissimae idololatriae, adeoque omnium vitiorum lab • non fuerit notatus: quis iure miretur? Vt enim Totus componitur orbis Regis ad exemplum: sic qualis Pastor, talis grex. In Sacerdotio Simoniae corruptela vitiato, frustra quaeris pium probum{que} populum. Et si Simoniacus Sanctus esse possit, etiam furi competet nomen sanctitatis. Qui enim non per ostium intrat, sed alià in ouile scandit, fur est ac latro, inquit Pastor ill Magnus. Vnde Lyra: Atque hoc faciunt omnes infidels, & etiam mali fideles (hoc est, qui fidem profitentur) statum Praelatione indebite assequentes. But (saith he) he that entereth in by the door, that is, by the faith and humility of Christ, and by his other virtues, to him the Porter openeth, that is, the Holy Ghost revealeth his truth, that he may feed his sheep: but the thief cometh not, but to kill. So Lyra. Damianus tells of a certain Simoniacal Bishop, who by no means could name the holy Ghost; although he could name the Father, and the Son; but when he came to name the holy Ghost, his tongue did stammer, and became stiff. Merito enim, Spiritum Sanctum, dum emit, amisit: Vt qui exclusus erat ab anima, procul etiam esset consequenter à lingua. Hac igitur difficultate conuictus, Episcopale decarc • raeuit Officium, qui per Simoniacam haeresin ad Episcopatus culmen irrepserat. For buying the Holy Ghost, he deservedly lost it; that it being shut out of his soul, should be also far off from his tongue. So that being by this impediment convicted, he abando • ed his Episcopal Function, having cropped to that top of his Episcopalitie by Simoniacal heresy. So he.

Gratian also relates a saying of Gregory to this purpose: Vulnerato Pastore, qui • curandis ouibus adhibet medicinam? Aut quomodo populum orationis clypeo tucatur, qui iaculis hostium sese feriendum exponit? aut qualem fructum de se producturus est, cui graui peste radix infecta est? Major ergo metuenda est locis illis calamitas, vbi tales intercessores ad locum regimines adducuntur, qui Dei magis in se iracundiam pr • uocant, quam per semetips • s placare debuerant. To this purpose Bernard saith to such, Soli non potesti • perire, qui praire debetis docendo & operando. Mul • i sunt Catholici praedicando, qui Haeretici sunt operando. Quod Haeretici faciunt per praua dogmata, hoc faciunt plures hodie per mala exempla: Et tanto grauiores sunt Haereticis, quanto praeualent opera verbis. So Bernard. Simoniaci autem haeretici sunt, in quibus quid impedit, quo minus omne genus peccat • dominetur. For as Senectus est omnis Morbus ; So Simonia est omne malum. It is the Mare Mortuum, wherein are buried, yea bred more then all the sins of Sodom, and her confederate Cities. From whence come all those sins of Bribery in the Common-wealth, but from this stinking lake? from whence, all that Lay-Simony in buying and selling all sort of Offices, great and small, of public Justice, and private service, but from the authentic precedent, yea the spawn and sperme of Simony? Thus the Virgin Dinah, the Virgin Church being ravished, what followeth, but that these two, Simeon and Levi, the Simoniacal Patron and Parson, brethren in evil, will be the Instruments of cruelty to destroy the whole City, or Parish where they dwell; and so make the whole profession of true religion to stink in the nostrils even of the enemies of the truth. These two being like the two main pillars, whereon the whole house leaned: if Simony like Sampson shake these down, tell me how the whole Parish cannot but perish with them? We have a memorable and deplored example hereof in Herod and Caiaphas, the one, the Patron selling, the other, the Priest purchasing. For it is well observed by Ferus, that Annas and Caiaphas did purchase to themselves the yearly vicissitude of succession in the Office of the High Priest, which is noted by the Evangelist, saying, That Caiaphas was the High Priest for that year. So that Annas and Caiaphas, the father and son in law, had their yearly turns in the High-Priests Office, yielding to Herod a yearly return for the same, to keep his fingers in use and ure. Vnde facile conijci potest quàm nihil pietatis habuerint, multum autem arrogantiae & vanae gloriae: Whence it may easily be conjectured, how little or no piety they had, and how much pride and vain-glory ; saith Ferus. And who so fit as these grand Simoniackes, to be the betrayers and murderers of the Lord Jesus Christ? whereupon ensued the fatal ruin of that most ancient and renowned Church and Nation of the Jews. So when the Lord had denounced that fat • ll and final destruction to Jerusalem, and that Church; doth he not immediately thereupon go into the Temple and purge it from those profane Merchants? Intimating, that such like profanation of the Church by buyers and sellers, should be one principal cause of the ruin thereof, Luke 19.44.45. Saint Augustine reported, that the holy fire of the Sacrifice, which during the seventy years captivity in Babylon lived under water, was extinguished, when Antiochus sold the Priesthood to Jason. And what marvel then, if the fire of godly zeal, and the very life and light of religion be in danger to be wholly extinguished in that Church, where Simony is predominant • ? In Pope Gregory the ninths time, a Grecian Archbishop elect, coming to Rome to be confirmed, and not speeding without a large sum, thereupon returned, re infecta, which gave the first occasion to the Greek Church to revolt and rent it self from the Latin, as Matthew Paris saith. But this by the way, to show how odious, and how pernicious Simony is.

Cyprian de Lapsis, saith. Non in Sacerdotibus religio deuota, non in Ministris fides integra, non in operibus misericordia, non in moribus disciplina. Episcopy plurimi, quos & hortamento esse oportet cateris & exemplo, diuina procuratione contempta. Procuratores rerum saecularium fieri, derelicta Cathedra, plebe deserta, negotiationis quastuosa nundinas ancupari; esurientibus in Ecclesia fratribus non subuenire, habere argentum largiter velle, &c. Quid non perpeti tales pro peccatis eiusmodi mereremur? Adeo traditam nobis diuinitus Disciplinam pax longa corrupit &c. And de ieiunio & tent. 6. Simon Apostolorum temporibus vaenalem putans Spiritum Sanctum, Petrum donis aggreditur, & tentat emere potestatem, per quam plura lucretur. Haec sacrilegij forma per omnia Officia, gradus{que} discurrit, & nihil intentatum ambitio praetermittit. Nec dubitet quisquam Diaboli esse negotia, & nundinatores eius, quicun{que} haec exercent commercia nec quicquam hu • usmodi abeo, nisi praemissa Apostasia, donari. So that Simony and Apostasy go together.

What should I speak here of the infinite and insupportable discouragements, which both learning and honesty jointly suffer by reason of Simony? when as an honest Scholar seeth before his eyes, an impossibility of coming to any place in the Church, his honesty being in this respect so lame, as it cannot stir either hand or foot to climb, or clamber to any such place by by-paths.

That reverend and learned Bishop Jewel, in one of his Sermons before the late Queen Elizabeth of famous memory: among many other excellent observations to the like purpose, saith thus: Loth I am to speak, quoth he, yet the case so requireth. Maintenance of Learning, whereby an able and sufficient Ministry may grow and be established in all the Churches of this Realm, is to be wished for. The good estate of this noble Kingdom, the comfort of posterity, the stay of religion, the continuing of the Gospel, the removing of darkness, hangeth upon it. One asked sometimes how it was, that in Athens, so goodly and great a City, there were no Physicians. To whom this answer was made, because there are no rewards appointed for them that practice physic. The same answer may be made for our times; the cause why the Church of God is so forsaken, is the want of zeal to them, that should either for their courtesy, or for their ability, be fosterers of learning, and increase the livings, where occasion is, and give hope and comfort to learned men. What said I? Increase? Nay the livings and provision, which heretofore were given to this use, are taken away. Have patience, if any such be here (as I well know there are) whom these things touch. Suffer me to speak the truth, it is God's cause. The livings of such, as are in the Ministry, are not in their hands, to whom they are due. All other Laborers and Artificers have their hyer increased double as much, as it was wont to be: only the poor man that laboreth and sweateth in the Vineyard of the Lord of hosts, hath his hire abridged and abated. I speak not of the Curates, but of the Parsonages and Vicarages, that is of the places, which are the Castles and Towers of fence for the Lord's Temple. They seldom pass nowadays from the Patron, if he be no better then a Gentleman, but either for the Lease, or for present money. Such Merchants are broken into the Church of God, a great deal more intolerable, then were they, whom Christ whipped and chased out of the Temple. Thus they that should be careful for God's Church, that should be Patrons to provide for the consciences of the people, and to place among them a learned Minister, who might be able to preach the Word unto them out of season, and in season, and to fulfill his Ministry, seek their own, and not that which is Jesus Christ's. They serve not Jesus Christ, but their belly. And this is done not in one place, or in one Country, but throughout England. A Gentleman cannot keep his house, unless he have a Parsonage or two in farm for his provision.

O merciful God, whereto will this grow at last? If the misery, which this plague worketh, would reach but to one age, it were the more tolerable. But it will be a plague to the posterity, it will be the decay and desolation of God's Church. Young men, which are toward, and learned, se • this. They see, that he which feedeth the flock, hath least part of the milk: he which goeth a warfare, hath not half his wages. Therefore they are weary and discouraged, they change their studies, some become Prentises, some turn to Physic, some to Law: all shun and flee the Ministry. And besides the hindrance that thus groweth by wicked dealing of Patrons, by reason of the Impropriations, the Vicarages in many places, and in the properest Market towns, are so simple, that no man can live upon them, and therefore no man will take them. They were wont to say, Beneficia sine Cura, Benefices without charge: but now may be said, Cura sine Beneficio, Charge or Cure without Benefice. Thus and much more to this purpose said that peerless Jewel. And he concludes with a grave Exhortation to her Majesty, as followeth: O that your Grace did behold the miserable disorder of God's Church, or that you might foresee the calamities, which will follow. It is a part of your Kingdom and such a part, as is the principal prop and stay of the rest. I will say to your Majesty, as Cyrillus sometimes said to the godly Emperors, Theodosius, and Valentinian, Ab ea, quae erga Deum est, pietate, reipub. vestrae status pendet: The good estate and welfare of your Common-weal hangeth upon true godliness. You are our Governor, you are the Nurse of God's Church. We must open this grief before you. God knoweth if it may be redressed, it is run so far. But if it may be redressed, there is no other besides your Highness, that can redress it. I hope I speak truly, that which I speak without flattery, that God hath endued your Grace with such measure of learning and knowledge, as no other Christian Prince. He hath given you peace, happiness, the love, and the hearts of your Subjects. Oh, turn and employ these to the glory of God: that God may confirm in your Grace the thing, which he hath begun. To this end hath God placed Kings and Princes in their state, as David saith, that they serve the Lord, that they may see, and cause others to see to the furniture of the Church. The good Emperor Justinian cared for this as much, as for his life. Constantine, Theodosius, and Valentinian, and other godly Princes, called themselves Vassallos, the Subjects and Bond-servants of God. They remembered that God furnished them in their houses, and were not unmindful to furnish his House.

To this purpose also a grave and learned now Prelate of this Church in his sermon at Paul's Cross, thus said: We that are bred up in learning, and destinated by our Parents to this end. We suffer our child-hood in the Grammar School, which Augustine calls, Magnam tyrannidem, & grave malum, and compares it to the torments of Martyrdom; when we come to the University, if we live of the College allowance▪ as Phalaris objected to the Leontines, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , needy of all things, but hunger and fear; or if we be maintained but partly by our Parents cost, do expend in University maintenance, books and degrees, before we come to any perfection, five hundred pounds, or a thousand marks; if by this price of the expense of our time, our bodies and spirits, our substance and patrimonies, we cannot purchase those small rewards, which are ours by Law, and the right of inheritance, a poor Parsonage or a Vicarage of fifty pounds, per annum, but we must pay to the Patron for the lease of a life (a spent and out-worn life) either in annual pension, or above the rate of a Copy-hold, and that with the hazard and loss of our souls, by Simony and Periurie, and the forfeiture of all our spiritual preferment in esse and posse, both present and to come: What father after awhile will be so improvident, to bring up his son, to his great charge, to this necessary beggary? What Christian will be so irreligious, to bring up his son in that course of life, which by all probability and necessity, Cogit ad turpia, enforcing to sin, will entangle him in Simony and Periurie? whereas the Poet saith, Inuitatus ad haec aliquis de ponte negabit; A beggars brat taken from the bridge, where he fits a begging, if he knew the inconvenience, had cause to refuse it. So he. Let me conclude it with the words of our Democritus: This being thus, saith he, have we not fished fair all this while, that are initiated Divines to find no better fruits of our labor? Hoc est cur palles? cur quis non prandeat, hoc est? Do we macerate our selves for this? If this be all the respect, reward, and honor we shall have, Frange leues calamos, & scinde Thalia libellos; Let us give over our books, and betake our selves to some other course of life. To what end shall we study? Quid me literulas stulti docuere parents? What did our parents mean, to make us Scholars? to be as far to seek for preferment, after twenty years study, as we were at first? Why do we take such pains? Quid tantum insanis iuvat impallescere chartis? So he. Honos alit Arts, Honor and reward is the maintayner of Arts. But the Ministry is the Art of Arts. And that which God and Man hath appointed for the maintenance of the Ministry, shall we call it the reward of a Minister? Alas: God help us, if this were our reward, which at the most hath no correspondency to the work of a Minister. For if we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter • f we reap your carnal things? yea, Non magnum, sed minimum, saith Anselm, A very small matter. But shall the work of our Ministry so infinitely exceed that, which in no proportion can be reputed a reward: and yet can we not have this poor recompense of our labor, though not of our function, to sustain our poor bodies and studies, but we must pay as dear for it, as he that never saw School may pay for this, or any temporal commodity? If so, then frange leues calamos, & scinde Thalia libellos. Away with learning, and consequently away with the Ministry, yea farewell all good Ministers. For every Minister should be an honest man, and no honest man will be a corrupt Minister: and consequently, no honest Minister will be a Simonist: and doth not Simony tend then to the utter abolition of the Ministry? And what other Ministry can be expected in a Church, where Simony reigneth, then such as was under Jeroboam? to whom Abiah King of Judah said, Have ye not driven away the Priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, & have made you Priests like the people of other Countries? whosoever cometh to consecrate with a young Bullock and seven Rammes, the same may be a Priest. So Simony driveth away all good men, and admitteth into the Church those that be corrupt, of the basest of the people. Master Perkins that Reverend man of God allegeth this, as one of the main reasons of the rareness and scarcity of good Ministers, namely, want of maintenance and preferment for men that labor in this Calling. And what difference is there (I pray you) between want of maintenance or preferment, and the buying and purchasing of them? For so, preferment becomes a recompense of my money, not of my Ministry. I will relate the words of that good man. Men (saith he) are flesh and blood, and in that respect must he allured and won to embrace this Vocation, by some Arguments which may persuade flesh and blood. The world hath in all ages been negligent therein, and therefore God in his Law, took such strict order for the maintenance of the Levites: but especially now under the Gospel, this Calling is unprovided for, when it deserves best of all to be rewarded; certainly (if God's Law did not bind us) it were a worthy Christian policy to propound good preferments to this Calling, that thereby men of the worthiest gifts might be won unto it, and the want thereof is the cause, why so many young men, of special parts, and greatest hope, turn to other Vocations, and especially to the Laws, wherein at this day the greatest part of the finest wits of our Kingdom are employed; And why? But because they have all the means to rise, wherea • the Ministry for the most part yieldeth nothing, but a plain way to beggary. This is a great blemish in our Church; and surely I wish, the Papists, those children of this world were not wiser in their kind (in this point) then the Church of God: the reformation hereof is a work worthy the labor of a Prince and people; and special care is to be had in it, else it will not be reformed. For doubtless had not God himself in the Old Testament taken such strict Orders for the livings of the Levites, they had been put to no less extremities, then is the Ministry of this age. And this reason added to the other makes them perfect, and all put together makes a reason infallible: For who will undergo so v • le contempt, and so great a charge for no reward? And where there is so great contempt, and so mean a reward, what marvel if a good Minister be one of a thousand? So this holy man. By all which we may both see the misery of the Ministry of a Church, where not only the one moitie of Church-maintenance is impropriate. But the other for the most part is in Hucksters handling, the property of it, as of a pr • ferment and reward of a faithful Minister, being altered by Simony, and as it were made impropriate too: and consequently, we cannot but feel, and more yet fear the ruefull effects thereof, both in Church and Commonwealth.

Again, for as much as Simonists are the most doughtie Non-residents, making use of their Benefices, as Fishers do of their lesser fishes, as baits to catch the greater fish, and so leave the sweet fresh Rivers at home, to go fish abroad in the main Sea (because, No fishing to the Sea, nor service to a King ) whereas they might wisely with the Vine and Fig-tree, and Olive-tree, enjoy their sweet private life in God's Vineyard, feeding their harmless flock, and not with the Bramble Abimelech, aspire to become, as Saint Peter saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : not examples to the flock. Doing so, what else can come of it, but ruthful ruin, as to themselves, so to the flock of God? For Simony doth necessarily imply Non-residency. For first, a Simonist, after the payment of his first purchase, is commonly enforced to live privately, to let out his Parsonage to farm, defrauding the poor of their hospital relief, and go sculke in some corner of the City or other, and there thrust himself into some Lecture: there he gathers up his crumbs again. And after some miserable difficulty recovering himself, doth he then retire home to feed his flock? Nothing less: But as Issachar, he is like a strong Ass, couching down between two burdens, he seeth that rest is good, and the land pleasant, and now begins he tooth and nail to gather another stock, to purchase another preferment: and that done, after awhile another, and so the tide at last comes in so fast upon him, as it bears up his Bark now ready rigged for any Port of preferment or Prelacy, like some travailing heads, who for gain will hazard their life in some far and dangerous voyage: but herein unlike: Those, go with a mind and hope to return home: These, seldom or never so much as once look back toward • their more homely home on the Playne, fearing belike the punishment of Lots wife, So eager they be with the wing • of Ambition to fly to the highest Mount of preferment, a • if there were no safety but there: Those again, lay out one to receive three or four at their return: These, will give three for one, if they never return. Whence, what mischief to the Church? What decay of Religion? What coldness of devotion? What contempt of the sacred Calling? What scandal to the Gospel? What ignorance, the mother of Popish devotion, indeed of all impiety and profaneness, of all heresy and superstition? All threatening imminent and inevitable danger (if it be not the sooner prevented by a happy reformation) both to Church and Common-wealth. It were endless to muster up all the mischiefs, which follow this one General, Simony. A worthy Minister once of this Church, said: A Simonist is a perpetual ear-bored bond-slave to his Patron. He hath no warrant to teach the people, and commonly less success. Whereas if a man be sent of God to govern a people never so ignorant and fierce, God will put his hand between, and tame them. According to that of the Prophet, Ierem. 23.32. I sent not those Prophets, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.

I will conclude therefore with two or three zealous and pithy Admonitions of Gregory to this purpose, in his 64. Epistle to Queen Bruni • hilda ; he instantly exhorteth her to root out of her Kingdom this heresy of Simony, saying, Prouidete animae vestrae, &c. Have a care of your soul, have a care of your posterity, to whom you wish a happy reign, have a care of your Provinces, and before our Creator put forth his hand to smite, bethink you most carefully of the correction of this sin. And in his 51. Epistle to Virgilius Bishop of A • les, Constat &c. It is reported that in the provinces of France and Germany, none is admitted to holy Orders, without giving a bribe; if it be so, I speak it with tears, I denounce it with grief, that the Priestly order being decayed inwardly▪ the outward state of it cannot stand. And Epist. 54. He exhorteth Theodorick the French King, to assemble a Synod, V • 〈◊〉 &c. That all evil conversation of the Priests, and S • m • niacall heresy, which first arose in the Church by impious ambition▪ may by the definitive Sentence of the Council, • acked with the censure of your authority, be taken away; and rent up by the ro •• es: Lest if gold be mor • set by, the • God, He whose gentleness is now despised in his precepts, may afterwards cause • ee wrath to be felt in revenge. And Epist. 57. to Queen Brunichilda. Synodum &c. Call a Synod, and amongst other things, carefully cause the heresy of Simony to be abandoned out of your Kingdom. For believe me, as we have learned by manifold experience, That is to be reckoned among our losses, whatsoever is gained by sin. If therefore you would be defrauded of nothing unjustly, be careful to possess nothing unjustly. For in earthly things always the cause of damage is originally from sin. If therefore you would out-strip your adverse Nations, if by God's assistance you desire the conquest of them, entertain with reverence the Commandments of the same Almighty Lord, that he may vouchsafe to fight for you against your foes, who • ath in his holy Oracle promised, saying, The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. So this last good Bishop of Rome. Now the Almighty Lord God, give grace to this Church and Common-wealth, that for the still flourishing of his glorious Gospel amongst us, the good of our souls, the welfare of our estates, the settling of our peace, the securing of our posterity, and the subduing of all our enemies, there may be stirred up in us all a godly care and conscience, to join hearts and hands together, to the utter extirpation (if possible) of this mother sin of Simony.

CHAP. XVI.

ALthough, when the Article of Simony (among other enormities) came to be considered of in the Council of Trent, for reformation, it was cautelously proposed, that the abuse occurring in the collation of Benefices should not be mentioned, as being an infirmity, not to be cured with any remedy, but death: Yet since this M • rbus Roman • -Catholicu • , is not yet grown so epidemical, or inveterate in the main branches of the true Catholic Church, but that there is some hope left of staying the further spreading, and of allaying the fury of it: My conclusion shall be an humble supplication to the Almighty (to whom nothing is impossible) through the mediation of the great Shepherd, to persuade and move his Vice-gerent, our gracious King, and the most honorable and high Court of Parliament now assembled: That for as much as Simony is the very Mass of all mischief and misdemeanure both in Church and Common-wealth: It would therefore please his Royal Majesty, and this Noble Assembly, to add some more cords to the whip of former Laws, and to make, and take order, that it be more surely and severely inflicted upon the transgressors in this kind.

True it is, that we Ministers, for our parts, need not desire any other Laws, for the restraint of Simony, then the Oath it self; which alone is sufficient, if there were no other reason, to make us decline all the ways of Simony. For how many thousands doth this Oath alone prevail with? Loth we are in the most opposite sense, to become a spectacle to the world, and to Angels, and to men. We will choose rather with the Apostles of Christ, to become spectacles for our poverty, and contempt, which our very Calling suffereth of the ungrateful world. Therefore, as Ezra the Priest was ashamed to require of the King a Guard for his safe conduct, having professed to the King, and promised to himself, that God would guard and defend them that seek him in goodness: So I confess (and that in the name of all my reverend Brethren.) I cannot, but be ashamed to request of my Sovereign any other stronger guard to keep off this dangerous way-laying enemy, from assaulting God's Ezraes, his Priests and Ministers▪ as they are going towards Jerusalem, to the repairing of the Temple, to the reedifying of the ruins of God's Church, in these last loosest times, seeing we, of all other, profess our selves precedents of Virtue, patters and patrons of the practice of Piety, of faith towards God, of pure conscience amongst men, and whom not direful Oaths, invented by man's wit should contstrain, but the lively Oracles of God's Word should sweetly and graciously move, to come with pure hearts, and clean hands to bear, yea to be the holy vessels of the Lord in his Sanctuary. But forasmuch as many do take their first degree of Simony, before their commencement in the University, and perhaps before they have taken Orders in the Church, as some pretty pregnant Pedant, that hath learned to distinguish, per se, aut per alium, to contract by precontract, but ignorant of the nature of such bargains, falls unwittingly into the snare: and seeing also, that if there were no sellers, there would be no buyers at all: therefore for the prevention of much Simony, either between the Patron and his School-master, or between the Patron & his neighbor, too provident for his sons preferment: it were to be wished that the Oath of Simony might be ministered to the Patron presenting, that so the wicket being stopped up, the path in time would be so overgrown, as men would be diverted from ever seeking to enter at the bro • d gates. Though if some wily Chapman can with his Logic, or rather self-deceiving sophistry find out evasions, even beyond Hercules pillars, Directly and Indirectly, beyond which there cannot be plus vltrae: will not the Merchant▪ trow we, by some trick or quillet in Law, as easily waft himself out of that narrow mouthed strait? Notwithstanding (I say) it were to be wished, that as well the Presenter ; as the Presente • , might take the Oath. Howsoever I would to God that a severe penalty might be indifferently imposed upon both the Simoniacal parties, and that the Patron peccant might not only be dispossessed of all present title of presentation, but for • uer af • er deprived, and disabled of being capable of any presentative power. And this stands with good reason and equity, seeing the sin of the Seller (except the condition of his person may somewhat extenuate it, in comparison of the buyer, if he be sacred) is not inferior to that of the buyer. For as Gelasiu • saith, Dantem parit • r & accipientem damnatio Simony • i • u • lui • : The giver, together with the receiver is in • olued in the same damnation of Simon. And the buyer (we know) the Relatiue peccant, is by ancient Canons deprived and dispossessed of all spiritual promotion, and Ministerial function, both for the present and the future. And if either shall be found perjured, let them undergo the penalty of Periury. Paulus Ven • tus p. 2. to restrain the sin of Simony saith: Cum detestabile Scelu • Simoniac • prauitatis tam Diuinorum, quàm Sacrorum Canonum authoritas abhorreat at{que} damnet: nos considerantes, quod plures poenarum grauitas, quam Dei Timor arc • re solet à voluntate peccandi, ac sum • is defid • rijs affectantes, vt horum p • steferum vitium non ex vsusolum, sed etiam mentibus hominum, saltem propter poenarum metum pe • itus euellatur, &c. Seeing the authority, as well of divine, as sacred Canons, doth abhor and condemn the detestable sin of Simoniacal pravity: we considering that the greatness of punishments, is commonly of more force to restrain most men from pr • nenesse unto sin, then the fear of God; and earnestly desiring, that the pestiferous vice of these men, at least for the fear of penalties, may be altogether rooted out, not only from the use, but also from the minds of men, &c. He includes and inuolues all, of what degree or • ignitie soever, whether Civil or Ecclesiastical, give • s or receivers, principals or accessories, in the same penalty of Simony, and that is, suspension from the execution of their pla •• and function, and excommunication, not to be absolved, but by the Pope himself, except in the very point of death. Extrau. qo • . li. 3. de Sim. ca. 2.

And here let me crave leave to relate a passage in the Council of Trent concerning this purpose: which whether it may be thought a good rule and law to us, for the better pre • ention of Simony, I refer to graver judgments. The Church of Rome being desperately and deadly sick with infinite enormious diseases, especially of her Clergy, in whom that of Simony might challenge the precedency: This Council pretending, but never in • ending (as the sequel proveth) a reformation; after much ado, and long debatemen • about the Care of such an inveterate and epidemical disease; at length the Romish Doctors, having beaten their brains about it, set down their Recipe, as an Antidote against Simony: at length I say, after sore travel, posting to Rome, and again, this Catholic Mother, brings for • h a fair and well featured Child to see to, which if it had not proved abortive in the birth, might have lived to have wrought wonders in the conjuring down of the spirit of Simony, which Simon the Sorcerer first conjured up. Wherefore finding this Infant lying all along dead, and exposed in the eighteenth Chapter, of the twenty four Session of that Council: Let me, not with Gehezies staff, but with Elisha his spirit, prove if any life may be fetched again out of it. Thus it lieth: Expedit maxim animaerum saluti à dignis at{que} idoneis Parochis gubernari: id vt diligentius, ac rectius perficiatur, statuit Sancta Synodu • , &c. (Loe, what a fair and well-favored face is here:) It is most behooveful, for the salvation of souls, to be governed by worthy and fit Pastors: which that it may the more diligently and duly be effected, the holy Synod doth decree, that upon the vacuation of any Benefice, the Bishop should presently, upon the notice of it, take order for a fit Incumbent Rector; for which purpose, the Bishop and the Patron within ten days, or such a time limited by the Bishop, shall nominate some fit Clerks to govern the Church, before the Examiners that are to be deputed and appointed. Yea, let it also be free for others, who shall k • ow any to be fit for that function, to bring their names, that a diligent inquiry may thereupon be • made of every ones age, manners, and sufficiency. And if it seem good to the Bishop, or Provincial Synod, let them also be called by public Edict, as many as are willing to be examined. And to the end, a fit choice may be made, let there be appointed at every years Diocesan Synod of the Bishop, or his Deputy, at the Visitation, six Examiners approved of the whole Synod: that at the Vacancy of any Church in the Diocese, the Bishop may choose three of those Examiners, which he will, to join with him in the Examination of a fit succeeding Incumbent. And these examiners, being men of quality, shall swear by the holy Evangelist; that setting aside all human affection, they shall faithfully execute their Office. And let them take heed, that upon the occasion of their Examination, neither afore, nor after, they finger any fee: least otherwise, as well they the receivers, as their givers, incur the sin of Simony, from which they cannot be absolved; unless they forgo all their Benefices, upon what condition soever formerly obtained, and become incapable of any afterwards. And at every Provincial Synod, they may be called to account, and if they be found faulty, to be punished, as the Synod shall appoint. N • w upon every such foresaid Examination, those whom the Examiners approve of most for their sufficiency, shall be commended to the Bishop; and of those, let the Bishop choose him, whom he shall judge most fit, and upon him, and none else, shall the Patron confer the Benefice. All other forms of institution, let them be holden for surreptitious, notwithstanding any exemption or privilege heretofore to the cantrary whatsoever, or to whomsoever.

Thus this Council. And although, I confess, this Chapter (as also the whole Council, containing the whole Mystery of iniquity) is very perplexedly compiled, as if the Council meant no such matter, though so speciously pretended (as the judicious Reader may easily discern, when he reads the Chapter it self, being full of reservations and equivocations) yet the reading of this Riddle may open a way to stop and stay this fretting Gangrene: the Pearls gathered out of this mud, may serve to hold our Simoniacal Merchant from dealing in other merchandize; A sword framed out of this Forge, may cut off the head of Simony; and a line drawn from the windings of this Circle, may regulate and confine all irregular and Simoniacal persons.

Yet after all these ways, which haply may prove either irksome to him, that hath not gone them before, as for the Patron to be put to the; Oathor wearisome, to make them passable; there is a shorter cut (I confess) to a more speedy reformation, but that it is very hard to hit upon. It cannot better be described, then by setting down an example or two of those that have gone this way. And here we have a noble Precedent in the Emperor, Henry the Fourth. It is recorded by the late reverend Bishop of Winchester, in his Book of Christian subjection, and Antichristian rebellion, the third part, and taken out of Lambertus Scafn. in Anno 1075. that this Henry the Fourth, in the vacancy of the Abby of Fuld, being solicited very ambitiously by sundry Monks and Friars, competitors for the place, on the sudden, as led by a divine spirit, chose one Ruzelin, a good honest poor Monk, that dreamt of no such matter. The like also this Emperor did upon the vacancy of the Abby of Loressan.

For conclusion, it were to be wished, that, for the more careful cure of this cursed cankered sin, all, not only professed Recusants, but Church-Papists, such as will come to the Chu • ch but once a month at most, may be by Act actually and potentially deprived & dispossessed of all presentative power whatsoever, in disposing of any Church-living: And that for the better discovery, every Patron presenting, shall presently take oath, not only of Allegeance, but of Supremacy, this being the Lidius Lapis, or touchstone to discern a true Christian, from a counterfeit Catholic, and a good Patron, from a crafty Romish Latron. For can the flock be in safety, when the dog is of the wolves providing? And will not such a wolf, be sure to provide such a dog, as the Holy Ghost speaketh of by his Prophet ( Esa. 56.10, 11.) either some dumb dog, or lazy and sleepy mongrel, or ranging spaniell, or ravenous hound? Such as are muzzled, either ignorant, and cannot; or can, and will not; or would, but dare not bark at sin and sinners? Or whose mangie manners are enough to infect his whole flock? or whose rangeing Non-residence, gives the wolf leave to prey the more securely? or whose rapatious and ravenous avarice devoureth no less, then doth the wolf? or in one word, all of these, of necessity some grand Simoniacke, so deeply drenched and bemudded with Simony, that he is forever after (so vnspongiable is this pitchy sin) both a laughing stock to the wolf, and a stumbling block to his own flock. For a Simonist he must needs be, and that some unlettered Capito, whom Popish Patrons amongst us prefer to their Benefices, accounting such money well got, which they bestow in tam pios vsus, upon such pious uses, as the maintenance of their Mass-Priests. So that by this means the wolf must be maintained by the Simoniacal Pastor.

The Corollary: directed especially to all Lay-Patrons, and Lay-Purchasers of the Sacred Portion.

N Ow before I shut up my little Treatise, I entreat all Lay-persons, especially Patrons of Benefices, and also all such Fathers, as make no difference between the purchase of a Benefice, and of a Farm, to leave as a portion for their children: that they would patiently peruse, and wisely weigh these few lines; which, as they proceed from a heart inflamed with the zeal of God's glory, of the propagation of his Church, and of the Soul-salvation of all those whom it especially concerneth: So I desire they may be affectuously embraced, and effectually followed of all. For, since I speak unto wise men, let me speak the more freely in few words; but they are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: What shall it profit a man, if he win the whole world, and lose his own soul? Hereby the Lord implies, that a man's soul is infinitely of more value, then the whole world. Now if it be so in the whole, what is it in every little part? What shall it profit a man, if he win a little piece of the world, and lose his own soul? What gained Esau, for selling his birthright, and typically his soul, for a mess of broth? or Achan, for a wedge of gold? or Judas, for selling both his soul and his Savior for thirty pence? or Gihezi, for selling his Masters gift for two talents? or Ananias and Sapphira, for detaining what was vowed and consecrate? Now God is the same jealous God still, that he was from the beginning. And the Apostle saith concerning sacrilegious persons; Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, the same shall he also reap. But wherefore all this? First, this concerneth all Patrons to look unto it; such as account it no less lawful to sell a Benefice, or to usurp by strong hand, or cunning, either the whole, or a part, to his own proper improper use, then to sell his horse, or house.

Now to all Patrons is my speech chiefly addressed. The Benefices in your Patronage, are but a gage committed to you of trust. And it is no small trust. The souls of God's people are engaged in it. Your first and chief care should be to make choice of a worthy Minister; next, to collate it on him freely, without either exacting, or expecting of him less or more. Much less should you set a rate upon it, or make portsale of it to him that will give most; or to reserve your own Tithes, or the glebe, or such a portion to m • intaine your house with bread-corn, or drink-corn, or some other commodities. The Eagle snatching the sacrifice from the Altar, carried withal a coal that clave unto it, which proved enough to set her nest, and self on fire. O look unto it, if ever you look for God's blessing upon you, and your posterity. Gihezies curse was fearful, it clave also to his posterity. How many such Merchants have been outed of all, if we did but observe the examples? Nor is it sufficient that you shake your own hands from Simony, but see that your family, your wife, your son, or daughter, or servant, be free from it. In vain did Pilate w • sh his hands, from the guilt of that innocent blood of the Lamb of God, while he suffered himself to be overcome with the malicious importunities of those murderous Jews, himself passing the sentence, though it were perhaps as much against his will, as against his conscience. When you bestow a Benefice at the earnest suit of any of yours, when you cannot be ignorant of some base corruption, you give your consent to the betraying of the lambes of Christ into the wolves power. And where doth Simony begin, but at this source? At this gate is let in some Alphabetical homebred Pedant, the very fry of Simony. Such a one will be content to change his Ferula, for a broken shortened Sheep-hook, and to accept, not what the Church may challenge, but what the Patron will leave, and perhaps will cite authority out of the Grammar School for it, if he have so much Greek, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Dimidium plus toto. Halfe a loaf is better then no bread, nay then a whole loaf which he cannot come by. For it cannot be, that an ingenuous Scholar, of liberal education, will ever seek to enter into Christ's fold, upon any base and unworthy terms. If there be any Simoniacal Ministers in the Church (as I charitably hope there may be none) that go about to pur • hase dignities, it is most probable they learned first to chafer in this market. O shut your gates against such pedling Merchants. The way to keep the coasts clear, is for you to be no less careful in providing a worthy Incumbent beforehand, then the illiterate Pedant is watchful to catch the preferment before it fall. But your giving way to such, opens a wide gate to every Farmer, teaching him by this means to provide a sufficient maintenance, perhaps for the most untowardly, and most deformed of all his sons, by laying out his money for the next vacancy, which lay in your power to prevent. Haply you will say, You bought the perpetual Presentation or Patronage at a great rate; or, if not yourself, your father or predecessors. If your predecessors bought, & left it freely to you, you may the more freely bestow it. If you bought it for your money, and not with a purpose to bestow it freely for the glory of God, & good of his Church; but to make a ga • ne of it, your sin is so much the greater, & not to be pardoned, without speedy and hearty repentance, nor that repentance ever true, or pleasing to God, unless you bestow even that you dearly bought, both freely, and worthily. You sinned in the buying of it, with respect to gain: but your sin is doubled, and sealed up in a bag, if you sell it again. Therefore in the fear of God take heed to yourselves. The Living is God's, not yours. You keep it but in trust. Discharge your trust faithfully. So, God will reward it. Otherwise, he will require it.

And you Fathers, let me use a word of advice to you. You desire to leave your children portions for this life. I commend i • . For he that doth not provide for his family, hath denied the faith, and is worse then an Infidel. But let your provision (as I say) be honest. Prouide honest things aforehand, saith the Apostle, and that honestly. First, let your monies be lawfully gotten. Next, if you will disburse a piece of money for the settling of your sons Patrimony, bestow it, where you may lawfully. Take heed of purchasing that, which is God's own Patrimony, God's Tithes, or a Benefice. Much less, for one of your most unlikely sons, for him, that you know not, or rather may suspect whether he will prove Scholar, or no; or if Scholar sufficient, whether an honest man: or if both, whether he may be fit for that holy calling, apt to teach, wise and faithful to go in and out before God's people, family, and flock. Who is a faithful steward and wise, whom his Master may set over his family, to give them their portion in due season? For, who is sufficient for these things, saith the Apostle? Take heed, least while you seek to purchase your son a fathers blessing, you procure unto him an inevitable, an inheritable curse. Besides, though you are the principal Simonist in the purchase, yet he is the accessory, in one degree, or other; either he knows, or suspects at least, and that strongly, that he comes in by purchase, and so by an implicit faith he becomes a perjured Simonist. But if you will needs make your son a Minister, let him be one of the best and towardliest; and if you will needs purchase for him, let it be of such things as are common merchandise, not God's inheritance. Tithes are Sacred, not to be bought and sold, no more then the Cure of Souls, or the Calling of the Ministry, upon which Tithes attend, as their ordinary maintenance. Meddle not you with that, for fear of Christ's whip. He cannot endure bu • ers and sellers in his Temple. And doth it not stand with good reason, why Lai-men should not meddle with purchasing of B • nefices, since you have by a strict Law provided, that Minis • ers shall not meddle in purchasing your Farms? And shall not God's Law be as powerful to restrain you from laying profane hands upon that which is sanctified: as man's Laws are to inhibit • Ministers to purchase a poor Lease of a Farm or Tenement? Nay, rather let God's Law stand forever inviolable, and consider with yourselves, how reasonable your own Law is, that upon any terms, without any express limitation, prohibits to a Minister the laying out of a little money (if perhaps he have it) upon a poor Lease, that may be at least some stay for his poor wife and children, when he is gone. H • ply the first hint of this Law, was some abuse. If so, as Saint Jerome said upon the like purpose, I am not so sory for the Law, as for the occasion of it. Yet if some men abuse wine, you do not presently make a law to forbid all men to drink any wine at all. But the way is to make a law against drunkenness: If we could as readily define what drunkenness is, as we are sharp sighted to condemn a Minister for base covetousness, in case he had a Farm in possession. Indeed, if a Minister should turn Farmer, and Negotiator, relinquishing, or neglecting his calling, let the Law forbid that in any case. For as Saint Jerome saith, Negotiatorem Clericum, ex inopi diuitem, ex ignobili gloriosum, quasi quandam pestem fuge. This were for Ministers to turn Impropriators (the worst of all other) to impropriate their Sacred Calling, by bemudding t • eir hands, but more, their minds, by leaving to be the Lord • s husband-men, to become the worlds drudges. But howsoever, remove the abuse by law, and that even of the Medes and Persians, that altereth not. In the mean while be pleased to take into your consideration, what equality there is (and consequently, what equity) between your restraining Ministers from the lawful purchase of your Farms, and your vnlimitted purchasing of our proper Free-holds, the purchase whereof howsoever Human Law makes it currant, yet Divine Law hath proclaimed the contrary. Besides, if God's Law were silent, or of no force, yet herein human and carnal reason might sway you. For consider, I pray you, & consult but with flesh and blood; in restraining Ministers from that liberty, what do you, but bring an old house upon your own heads? For do not Ministers come out of your loins? Do you not make interchangeable & reciprocal marriages with them? (except where any of the Lay-tribe (as too many there be) do disdain to match with a Priest, as they term us) Are not their children your grand-children, do not their sons match with your daughters, and their daughters with your sons? We are not, as once the Levites, a Tribe so select, and so separate from the rest of our brethren, but that in all natural respects we communicate with you. We that are now Ministers, were once (if you remember) your sons. And your sons may be (if you consider) Ministers as we. To whom then do you deny this liberty? Is it not to your own sons and daughters, and grand children? Even to your own flesh and blood? Say, a Minister, your son-in-law dieth poor, leaving a poor widow, and so many small helpless orphans behind him; is she not now your daughter still, and are not her babes your grand-children, flesh of your flesh, and bone of your bone? Well; you that cannot be content to give Ministers liberty so much as to purchase a Farm, if they be able in their life time (& haply they were able; had money; but for want of such occasion to lay it out, spent it, now it is gone; and no sign of • t, but perhaps a few books, which now at the Book-binders rate will not purchase the fourth part of a Farm) yet no doubt (such are the bowels of natural love, yea and compassion in you, that you will not deny your daughter and grand-children, harbor and maintenance, in this their distressed calamity. But now if you find a yearning in your bowels, upon better reason to repeal this law, then haply whereon it was first grounded: yet for all that, you must not think to claim the like liberty in purchasing God's own patrimony, which is holy. Your doing God's Ministers right and reason, gives you no warrant or privilege to wrong God. Do God right, and deny his Ministers, your own bowels, no reason. But this by the way, to show that in no case sacred Tithes are to be bought and sold.

No? In no case? Yes, in some case. There is a way of purchasing the sacred Tithes, which would be both acceptable to God, profitable to his Church, and comfortable to the soul and conscience of the purchaser himself. How is that? But alas! where shall we find one Purchaser? Yet we are not altogether hopeless. There be very many charitable and well disposed Christian men and women in this our Church, whom God hath enabled as well with a large hand, as a gracious heart, to leave goodly Legacies to charitable uses, as Hospitals, and the like: and no doubt more would be, if they could find Executors or Feffees in trust, who could but live to see the will of the bequeather duly executed. Now to all such well disposed Christians, that desire to make them friends of the unrighteous mammon, and to lay up in store for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may inherit eternal life: to such let me address my speech. How many have money to lay out upon land, or so, and cannot light of a fit purchase? I will be your intelligencer to discover unto you a fair purchase; so fair, as I cannot but marvel, that never yet any hath traded in it. Shall I tell you? The purchase of Tithes. Why, that is no news. They are bought and sold everywhere. But I mean here the purchase of Tithes impropriate. These also are commonly bought and sold. But I mean, the purchasing of them, and redeeming of them, to restore them to God again, for the maintenance of his Ministry. O noble purchase! so rare as unheard of. A worthy object, indeed, for every rich good man to pitch the eye of his charity upon, a worthy subject to deal in. Would ye erect a new Hospital? Sa •• your labor. You have all re • die at your hand in an impropriate Parsonage; both house, and d • maines. Plant your hospital there. A hospital not only for poor bodies, but for poor souls too; poor st • rued souls. For a Parsonage being rightily used, is a very hospital for the poor, in both these kinds, O, lay out your money here. Christ made one invaluable and incomparable purchase, redeeming our souls with his most precious blood. That is indeed without parallel. All the merits of Saint Francis, or Saint Dominic, wherewith the golden Legend is stuffed, or the virtue of our Lad •• s Milk, as they call it, are not to be compared unto That. But if any purchase may be named after That, in any relation, surely this purchase, of all other is nearest a kin unto it; not by way of merit, in no sort that; for it cost more to redeem their souls, but by way of means to save men's souls. To purchase an Impropriation, and to restore it to the Church, whose it is, and where it ought to be, is to purchase the means of saving so many souls, which for lack of that means do perish. For where the maintenance faileth, the Ministry faileth (for Ministers are men, and cannot live by the air) and consequently the people perisheth, for whom Christ died. O then, you Christian hearted ones, whom the Lord hath blessed with abundance, make your purchase here. O, how happy you, that thus may be the Instruments of saving so many poor souls, by pulling them out of the fire, as Inde speaketh! But you will say, How shall this be done? I will tell you, do but entertain such a purpose in your heart, and God tha • put it in your heart to will, will also direct and enable you to do it, of his good pleasure. The ready way is, as one saith, Sapere aude, Incipe, &c. Resolue to be wise betime; begin. He that dela • es the time of doing good, is as he that observes the River, while it run all out. Men use to put off their doing of good until their death. A dangerous adventure. For either they may be prevented by untimely death unexpected: or after death, their Will may either be neglected by, or between the Executors, or made frustrate by some little flaw in the conveyance, if it be no bigger, then haply some nimble Attorney may put in his little finger, or but look through the narrow crany of it, be it no wider then the space of one word, or one small letter. But this commonly happeneth unto such Legacies, as extend no farther then to temporal ends, as to bodily relief. Although I could wish men would see it done in their life time. But this, which concerneth men's souls, would be done now while we live. We need not distrust God's providence, as fearing to lack it our selves, ere we die: no, we may rather expect a greater blessing of God even in this life. For as our Savior saith, He that forsaketh house or land, for my sake, and for the Gospels, shall receive an hundred fold now in this life. Now the money we part wi • hall for such a purchase, is for Christ's sake, and for the Gospels. But if you cannot come to see it performed in your life time; then consider upon what assurance you may best trust it to be done after your death. If I were either able or worthy to give advice in this matter, I should think, that the Legacy, so to be bestowed, were best to be put into the hands of some College in Cambridge, or Oxford, and they, both to lay out the money upon the purchase, and so to have the perpetual Patronage, for the placing of some worthy member of their house in the Pastoral charge so redeemed. But they that are so well disposed and inclined to so worthy a work, cannot want the best advice, for the wise and well managing of such a business. The Lord God strengthen the hands, and stir up the hearts of all true Christians, to put their helping hands to this great work. No doubt, but many Impropriators themselves well considering and weighing the nature of such a business, will be content to meet the Purchaser half way, or at least be content to stoop and condescend to some reasonable composition.