Sermon Upon Obadiah

John Rainolds wisheth grace and peace in Jesus Christ to the Christian Reader.

W Ee are commanded by a wise Prince, or rather by the Prince of Princes, not to withhold good from the owners thereof, when it is in the power of our hand to do it. The owners of any good are they called, who stand in need of it. For God hath made men stewards of his graces, not all to serve themselves, but eche to help others in whatsoever they may. Wherefore, having taken in hand the exposition of Obadiah the Prophet, and preached so on parte of him, as I thought meetest for the place and time, since the Parliament was summoned: being requested to pen and publish that Sermon, by some, who thought it needful for more then were present, I could not withhold my simple help therein from the owners of it, my leisure & notes serving me to do it. And I pray God that they for whose sakes it is chiefly done, withhold not goods neither from the owners of them. Sure, unless the world do blind thē, they will not: & what shall it avail them to win the whole world, & lose their own souls? When Amasias king of Judah had hired an army of Israel for an hundred talents of silver, to go with him against Edom: a man of God warned him not to let the army of Israel go with him; for the Lord is not with Israel. How shall we do then for the hundred talents (said Amasias) which I have given them? The man of God answered: the Lord is able to give thee more thē that. The Lord is the same now, that he was ever: as highly offended with unlawful helps which we seek to gain by; as able to give us more then they cost us, even whom they cost most. But if he would not: yet in his love is life. And better is a little with a good conscience, then the richest state of the wicked and mighty. The time will come when men shall feel it. Farewell good Christian Reader: and commend the cause of the Church (I beseech thee) to God, by thy prayers; to God's Lieuetenants, by such means as he shall bless thee with: that it may find favor in the eyes of the Parliament, and her gracious Majesty; to the glory of the highest, the salvation of the chosen, and the security of the State.

It is written in
the Prophesy of OBADIAH, the fifth and sixth verses.

T HE ruin and destruction of the Idumaeans is set forth by the spirit of God in this prophecy, for the instruction and comfort of the Israelites: to assure them, that God will execute justice, and judgment on their enemies, in the day of his visitation, when he will save them. In the former verses (as I have shown already) the Prophet declared the sentence of the Lord against the Idumaeans, that they should be destroyed; the witnesses thereof, himself, & other Prophets, who heard it from the Lord; the means, that he would work by, the warriors rising up against thē

S. Peter, advertising the Jews & the Proselytes, that they should receive the gift of the holy ghost, if they repented, & turned to Christ: for to you (saith he) is the promise made, and to your children, and to all thē that shall be long hereafter, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call: the same in like sort may I say unto you (fathers and brethren) touching this promise of bringing your enemies to utter ruin and destruction. For, God said to Abrahā, I will bless thē that bless thee, & I will curse them that curse thee: meaning, that he would make a perfect league with him, & be at peace with his friends, at war with his enemies. But the league and covenant which God made with Abraham, he made with Abraham & his seed. And the seed of Abraham are all faithful Christians. To us all therefore is that promise made, that God will bless our friends, and will curse our enemies. Moreover, his particular curse & plague ensuing it, upon y ^e Idumaeās, is a pattern of that which shall fall on such as tread in their steps. For the punishment of the Jews, who lusted after evil things▪ is threatened to the Gentiles if they lust as the Jews did: and if ye be partakers of the sins of Babylon, ye shall receive of her plagues. Now, amongst the enemies of the faithful Christians, others do more resēble the Philistines, or Ammonites, or Moabites, or Amalekites, or Canaanites, or Assyrians: there are none liker to the Idumaeans, then are the Papists, as it hath been shown. The Idumaeans borne according to the flesh of the seed of Abraham: the Papists by of spring come of Christian parents. The Idumaeans circumcised as children of the covenant: the Papists baptized in the same that we be. The Idumaeans served not the God of their fathers according to the law: neither do the Papists in spirit & truth after the Gospel. The Idumaeans persecuted the Israelites to death, & vexed thē with all cruelty: the Papists have butchered the godly with massacres, and made thenselves drūkē with y ^e blood of saints. Wherefore the spirit of the Lord assureth us that the Papists shall be consumed in his wrath, whē it shall burn sodeinly: and as they have followed the facts of the Idumaeans, so they shall feel their punishments. I speak not herein of all that are Papists: as neither did the Prophet of all Idumaeās▪ For the remnant of Edom shall inherit with Israel, and Papists with us: as many as shall seek him, whose name is called upon them. which God grant they may do by faith in his mercy, that Papists may live, and papistry may die. But I speak of all who flubbornly per sist in the Popish heresies. In whō shall be fulfilled the Apostles prophesy touching the man of sin: the Lord shall cōsum him with the breath of his mouth. And so, that which is written of Edom by the Prophet, may be said by us to the Romish An tichrist: If thieves had come unto thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou destroyed?) would they not have stollē that which were enough for them? If Grape gatherers had come unto thee, would they not have left some grapes? Howe are the things of Antichrist sought out, his secret things are searched?

Howbeit, as S. Paul▪ though he were assured that all who sailed with him sheuld escape alive: yet said, that they could not escape except the mariners abode in the ship: so, though it be certain that Antichrist and his members shall be consumed, yet cannot that be, except they be set vpō by warriors. For god doth work by means ordinarily. And this is the means that he hath ordained for the achieving of that conquest, as we saw before in the Ambassadors message, Arise & let us rise up against her to battle. The warriors, whose service the Lord doth use thereto, are all his servants in a sort; his people most willing in the day of his army: but specially Preachers and Ministers of his word. For his word is the rod of his▪ mouth, the breath, the sword, whereby he doth destroy his enemies: & ministers are soldiers, by whose hand he weeldeth it. For which cause their function is compared to warfare, in that it is written by S. Paul, Who goeth to warfare any time at his own cost? And, No man that warreth entangleth himself with affairs of life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier, And God saith of thē by the Prophet Isaiah: I have set watchmē upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which all the day, and all the night continually shall not cease. The watchmen and warriors therefore of the Lord, the keepers of his Church, the conquerors of his enemies▪ the spoilers of the Idumaeans, the consumers of Antichrist, and Antichristian imps▪ are ministers of his word, Pastors & Teachers, who to please him by whō they are chosen soldiers, should not be entangled with affairs of life; to discharge their duty, should be sent forth and kept on public cost; to preserve their flock, should watch day and▪ night continually over it. The less marvel is it, if in our English Churches Antichrist and Edom be not consumed yet; nay, if they attempt to consume us; if by Popish policies, by superstitious tokens, by blasphemous writings, by traiterous libels and conspiracies, they undermine our state; if they take crafty counsel against the people of God, and say, Let us possess his habitations by inheritance; if they look for a day when they may cry once again, rase it, rase it to the foundation thereof; in a word, if they raunge through the land like wolves, & suck the blood of sheep and lambes: since the shepherds fail, the watchmen are a sleep, the warriors do not fight, through want, somewhere of will, somewhere of ability. Of will, where they entangle themselves with such affairs as draw them from their warfare, and are not content to be watchmen in Jerusalem, but they must have a watchmanship in Cesarea too; or, if they have one flock alone, yet do not fee •… it, but take their ease in Zion. Of ability, where there is not sufficient provision for training of men to make them good soldiers; nor maintenance sufficient to find them being trained: that, setting all other cares of life apart▪ they may attend their charge wholly. To them here amongst us, who, through want of will are backwarde in this service of the Lord God of Hosts, so much hath been spoken, so often, so earnestly, both out of this and other places: that I am half ashamed again to solicit them with Precept upon precept, Precept upon Precept. Notwithstanding, as I have read, that when we had gotten Calais from the Frenchmen, there was one appointed to put them in remembrance from time to time of Calais, in all their solemn meetings for State-consultations, till they had regained it: so▪ I am persuaded, that, til the amendment of this fault be woone, it is most convenient for the Lord's remembrancers in all our Church-assemblies to wish it to be thought of.

Wherefore, to put you in mind even now also of our Spiritual Calais▪ I beseech you fathers and brethren (whom it toucheth) now at length to regard the state of the Souls, the precious Souls of men committed to your charge: whose blood, if they perish for lack of that attendaunce, which you ought to give them, will cry for sharper vengeance then did the blood of Abel. Or, if my persuasion cannot prevail with you: yet let his prevail, whose prayer hath prevailed for you; who died himself that you might live; who said, and all things were created; whose word the winds and seas obey. Consider the function that he hath called you to, the duty laid upon you, the reward, if you do it; the punishment, if you do it not. Who is (saith he) a faithful and wise Stewarde, whom his master maketh ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his master when he cometh shall find so doing: verily, I say unto you, he shall make him ruler over all his goods▪ But if that servant say in his heart, my master doth defer his coming, and begin to smite the servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken: that servants master will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not ware of, and will cut him in pieces, and give him his portion with the unbelievers. Our Savior the son of God, the king of kings, & Lord of Lord's, having entertained men and women of all degrees to be his household servants, is careful to feed them with convenient food, y ^t they may serve him in their vocatiō frutefully. This food is the doctrine of his holy word, which must be divided in diverse sorts unto his servants, according to their diverse states: some to be▪ fed with milk▪ some with strong meat; some humbled with y ^e law, some raised with the gospel; each to have his portion of meat most wholesome for him. Nor only must they have it, but have it too, in due season, as often̄ as they need it: which is so often̄, that y ^e holy Ghost (to show the continual necessity thereof) doth will it to be given them in season and out of season. For, as men's bodies should loose their temporal life, unless, as they decay still, so they were repaired with sustenance of meat and drink: in like sort men's souls are fainting still also, to their hazard of life eternal, unless they be refreshed with the food of God's word. Wherefore that his servants and maidens he not famished: the master of the household hath made you his stewards to minister meat unto thē. If you behave yourselves, as wise stewards, & faithful; wise, in discerning what portiō of meat they need eche, and when; faithful in giving it to them in due season: your master shall come, who now is absent as it were and gone into a far country, but he shall come again and fill you with blessedness; he shall make you rulers over all his goods and honor you as highly as Pharaoh did Joseph;, yea, he shall reward you with a crown of glory, an incorruptible crown, and ye shall shine as stars forever and ever. But if ye think his coming to be far of, and so begin to smite the servants and the maidens; nay, I would to God ye did smite them only, so that ye taught them too, for that were a benefit; but if ye famishe them, and play the good fellows yourselves with the world, & eat, & drink, & be drunken: your master will come in a day when ye look not for him, & in an hour that ye are not ware of, & will cut you in pieces, & give you your portion with the unbelievers. By the Roman laws of the 12. tables, if a man owed money unto sundry creditors, & after judgment given, did not agree with thē himself, or others for him: his creditors might (after certain days respite) cut his body in pieces, & take them ech a part thereof. Phauorinus the Philosopher reproved this law as cruel & barbarous. But Caecilius the Lawyer replied well upon him, that so great a punishment was appointed of purpose, that they might never come unto it. For now we see many (said he) laid up fast, & cast into fetters, because the pain of fetters is contemned by lewd persons. But I never read nor heard that of old time any was cut in pieces: because they could not set light by that punishment. Metius Fufetius, the Prince of the Albanes, having promised the Roman king Tullus Hostilius to succor him against his enemies, did treacherously deceive him: by whō he was therefore tied to two carts, his hands to the one, his feet to the other, & so (the horses being drivē contrary ways) he was torn in pieces. Liuie misliketh this punishment as over sharp, & saith that there was small regard of human laws had in it. But Uirgil weighing better the greatness of the fault, alloweth it with grave censure, At tu dictis Albane maneres. Traitours in our days, though they be not torn with horses as Metius, yet are they rent in pieces, as Metius was, & quartered. The Papists complain thereof to foreine nations as of outrageous tyranny, when they are put unto it for traitorous facts against our prince. But it is usual and lawful for the Pope (as Leo the tenths practice in Guicc •… ardin doth witness) to quarter men for treason wrought against him. Now, this severe punishment, which hath been thought fit by mortal Judges to be laid upon unfaithful debtors, vpō treacherous persons, upon rebellious Traitours, is the same that Christ the immortal judge denounceth unto you, if ye be disloyal to God, your sovereign Lord, if ye break promise with him and his servants, if ye pay them not the debt which ye owe them, and give them their portion of meat in due season. A very grievous punishment: yet nothing to that, which Christ importeth by it. For he doth import (as the words following show) that ye shall have your portion with the unbelievers. And the unbelievers shall have their portion in the lake that burneth with fire & brimstone, which is the second death. Of Damocles a Heathen man it is recorded, that whē Dionysius the Tyrant entertained him magnificently & princely, although at the first be thought him self happy, respecting the train of men, attendant on him, the place of gold and silver, the gorgeous clothes, the sweet perfumes, the Uiands most delicate, all furniture rich and royal: yet after, seeing a sword hanging by a thread let down over his head, he could take no joy of his entertainment, nay he took grief, and desired earnestly to be dimissed from it. How much less joy should you take in your eating, your drinking, your pleasures, with which, as worldly baits, the Prince of this world doth pamper your flesh against the day of slaughter: since there hangeth over your necks an axe of vengeance, not that may perhaps, but that will assuredly; not kill your bodies only, but both bodies and souls; not with temporal death, but with everlasting into hell fit •… ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. O consider this, ye that forget God least he tear you in pieces, and there be none that can deliver you. The warrior that spoi leth the Idumaeans, shall honor him: and he, that watcheth over the Israelites to save thē shall see the salvation of God. And thus much to them, who through want of will, search not the secrete things of Esau.

As for the defect which this exploit suffereth through want of ability, because such as should do it, are either not trained or not maintained to it in sufficient sort: that is so much hurtfuller to us then the former, by how much the contagion of it spreadeth farther. For soldiers ought to learn and practice feats of war (as ^x expert men have noted) before they deal in martial affayeres with their enemies: and as ^y they should employ themselves to no business, but to their service only, so should they be allowed victuals, & other necessaries, that they need not to do it. Wherupon the Lord appointing Priests and Levites to serve him in this ^a warfare (as Moses termeth it) & ministry, allotted thē b offerings, first fruits, and tithes of all the land to live by, with ^c Cities to dwell in, and grounds annexed thereunto. And, beside the cōuentence of their abode together in Jerusalem and other Cities that they might the better betrained from their infancy to skill of the priestly and Levitical duties, to teach y ^e law of God, and offer incense, and Sacrifice: there were also ^e Colleges and companies of Prophets, wherein the younger learned under the elder (as children under fathers) to be mē of God, to praise his name, and teach his will. These orders, received by the Church of Israel, should be followed by ours: though not in all particulars, yet in the general equity. For as they who served about the holy things, did eat of the temple; they, who waited at the Altar, were partakers with the Altar: so the Lord ordained too, that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. And Timothy, who was chosen to serve in this warfare, as a soldier of Christ, did not only know the Scriptures frō his infancy: but also was brought up to the ministry by S. Paul, whose doctrine & behavior framed him unto it. In which consideration our Auncetours provided houses, Glebeland, Tithes, & other profits, for the commodious dwelling and maintenance of Pastors: and endowed Byshoprickes, Cathedral and Collegiat Churches (as we call them) with lands and revenues, that learned godly Teachers being placed there, might instruct others by their doctrine and behavior, as S. Paul did Timothy. For the fuller perfecting & finishing of whom to all the Lord's work, they founded Universities and Colleges therein also. But I would to God these nurseries of Pastors & Teachers of the Church, were husbanded in such sort to the Lord's advantage, that we need not fear his sentence of y ^t vineyard, ^m that he will let it out to other husbandmen. Then should not so many raw vntrained soldiers receive the Lord's pay, who do him small service in the day of battle. And yet there were less cause to complain hereof, if they, who be trained, were procured to serve him. But the imprest money & wages due to thē, the livings (I mean) appointed for their maintenance, are so impaired & minished: that, being not able therewith to find themselves in souldiourlike state, they refuse the calling; or if they undertake it, they are distracted from it, with cares how to supply their need. Whereby it cometh to pass that, ⁿ y ^t Levites flying ech into his land for lack of their portions, the house of God is forsaken. And to fill their rooms, others are takē, who will be hired for least: not according to the Proverb, Best is best cheap; but to the common practice, Best cheap is best. Who though not to serve the calves of Dan and Bethel, yet are made Priests, as those by Jeroboam ^o of pieces of the people, not of the sons of Levi. Who, if they had the grace, ^p should say, I am no Prophet, I am a husbandman: and return to that trade which their friends have taught them. Who are not endued with necessary gifts for the prophets duty: and therefore, howsoever men have called them to it, God hath not called them. For, whom God calleth unto any function, them endueth he with gifts to perform it: as Bezaleel, to make his taberbernacle: Jeremiah, to do his message; the Apostles, to preach the Gospel. So the flock of Christ, is desolate of shepherds; and his campe, of soldiers: while such have the places, as cannot strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken; nor destroy his enemies with the two edged sword, & defend his subjects. A great cause here-of are Patrones of benefices. For whereas the interest of choosing the Pastor belonging of old time to the Congregation, is now conveyed to them, because their predecessors did benefit the Church some way, and therefore were put in trust as Patrones of it: they, a number of them, do deal with the matter as Polymestor did with Polydore, that is, as evil gardians do with their wards, and turn their patronage into pillage. The lust of their hearts hath defiled their hands with the sacrilege of Acan: to take gold & silver, and Babylonish garments, of the spoils of Jericho consecrated to God. Or, if not with so foul sacrilege as his was, because their Predecessors gave some of it perhaps: yet w ^t the sacrilege of Ananias & Sapphira; yea, though themselves had givē it. If they think to cover their profane dealing with Acans conveyance by hyding the pray, or to wash their hands with Pilate's pretense, that they are giltlesse of it, they gave y ^• aduowsōs freely to friends or servants: they deceive thenselves. For God is not mocked. And he will find thē out in a day, when they look not for him, and in an hour that they are not ware of, & bring them to shame with more dreadful punishment, then either he did Acan, or Ananias, & Sapphira. Wherefore I heartily beseech the young Gentlemen that be here present, & all that are or shall be Patrones hereafter, in a religious reverence and fear of the Lord, to keep themselves pure frō this abomination. At least, to remember the miserable ende of Richard the usurper: who being made Protector of the King and Realm, got the realm himself, & robbed the King of it. That, if they deem their patronage to be merely civil, & the goods of benefices to be as common men's, not sacred to the Lord: yet being made Protectors thereof, & of y ^• Pastors, they follow not his fault whose ende they detest. Though, the very truth is, (which I wish they weigh too,) that the Churches goods, allotted to the maintenance of Pastors & teachers, are not profane but sacred: and therefore the sin of them who purloyne them is sacrilege, not theft: wherein God is spoiled, as himself pronounceth, Will a man spoil God▪ that ye do spoil me? And ye say, wherein do we spoil thee? in tithes & offerings. Howbeit, if church-livings were impoverished by none but by Patrones: the case were not so evil, because it is against the law. But they are distressed also (beside other pensiōs & incōbrances) by Appropriatiōs, as y ^e lawyers term thē; or, as they are named commonly, impropriations. Whereof the condition is the more grievous, for that in many parishes there is not a Vicar well & sufficiently endowed to do divine service, & instruct the people, and keep hospitality: which yet the law cōmandeath, if it were obeyed. Josiah, in thē eighth yere of his reign, began to seek the God of his father David; & in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the hye places, and the groves, and the graven images, and the molten; and in the eyghteenth year he sent Saphan and others, to repair the house of the Lord his God. Reformations of disorders cannot be made all at once: chiefly, when the Church hath of long time been ouergrowen with them, as then it had under idolatry, and hath with us under Popery. King Henry the eight, a Prince of noble memory, began to set forth the holy word of God. And his son, (another Josiah, had he lived) began to purge England from Images, and Masses, and Massing-altars, and superstitions. I doubt not but our gracious Queen and sovereign Lady desireth in the steppes of her father and brother, to add this unto them, that workmen be maintained for repairing of the Church. But it lieth not in her Highnes alone to bring it to effect▪ the Lord's and the Commons have a stroke in it. Wherefore, seeing now a Parliament is sūmoned to be held shortly: let us desire God in humbleness of spirit to incline their hearts, that, although it be with loss of some part of their own commodities, yet they will follow ^k the zeal of the Israelites for the tabernacle of assembly. And as the religious professors of the truth have shown that Churchliuinges appropriated to others, should in conscience find the Pastors of the Church: so God grant that they who have the authority may see it with a single eye, and bring it to pass with an upright hand. Martin Bucer (in his godly requests and aduises presented to King Edward ) treating of skillful Pastors to be ordained throughout the realm, saith; that their maintenance ought to be required of them who receive the profits of the parishes by appropriation, or any other way. Bishop Pilkinton (upon Aggaeus ) complaing that the Pope robbed parishes to feed his moonkes, wisheth, that the Gospel may restore that justly: which he took wrongfully away, and gave them yet a right name of impropriations, because they be taken away improperly, & properly belong to the parishes. But what should I mention Bishops and Divines (of whom there have many declared the same mind,) whē as Master Lambard, a gentleman and Lawyer, speaking of a Kentish Benefice converted to an appropriation, doth censure it with these words: One (amongst many) of those monstrous births of covetousness, begotten by the man of Rome in the dark night of superstition, and yet suffered to live in this day light of the gospel, to the great hinderance of learning, the impouerishment of the ministry, and the infamy of our profession. Hard may this seem to such as have the lyuings: & some peradventure will say of these speeches, The land cannot bear them. But it is harder to suffer the land to stand in those terms, in which God saith to Judah: Ye are cursed with a curse for that ye spoil me, evē the whole natiō. And if heathen men Philaeni, Codrus, Curtius, have givē their lives to benefit their country with a temporal blessing, and that uncertain too: what should Christians do to draw that blessing on it, which he, who cannot lie, doth promise, Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and p •… oue me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not opē the windows of heavē unto you, & pour you out a blessing without measure: & I will re buke the devourer for your sakes, that he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, neither shall your vine be barren in the field, saith the Lord of hosts: & all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a pleasant land, saith the Lord of hosts. Wherefore let us (beloved) of the University, get our country this blessing, as much as lieth in us, by providing that Pastors, where we have appropriations, may be maintained with their tithes, that there may be meat in the house of God. I mean not hereby that we should give away that by which our schools and scholars be maintained. For God hath ordained Ecclesiastical goods to find, not only Priests and Levites, but their offspring; even them, who are brought up to be Priests and Levites, and them who bring thē up; the children of the Prophets, & the Prophets themselves. That, if there be enough in our appropriatiōs for y ^e Pastors maintenance, beside y ^t which we have for the nursery of Pastors, as commonly there is: we may with good conscience receive our own revenue. My meaning is therefore, that, the rents reserved, we should allow the rest of the livings to Pastors: which I speak not so much for those that publicly our University hath, to be let by Conuocation, whereof the greater part hath shown well already them selves to be of this mind: as for those that privately belong to our Colleges, to be lett by the heads thereof and the fellows.

It is of an human and honest affection, that we sometimes would pleasure other mē therewith, our friends, suing for them. But if Job said to Sophar & his partners Should you speak wickedly for God's defense? how much less ought we to do unrighteously for the favor of men? And may we not look for the plague that fell on Eli, if, as he did honor his children above God, so we do our friends▪ Levi is commended by the holy Ghost for saying of his father and of his mother, I look not on him; neither doth he acknowledge his brethren, nor know his children: but they observe the word of God, and keep his covenant All Christians are bound herein to be Levites, regarding neither father, nor mother, son, nor daughter, in respect of God, when his word and covenant cometh into question. Wherefore, since this is a special point thereof, that all the tithes be brought into the storehouse, that in his house there may be meat: we should observe and keep it, though with the disfauour of friends whatsoever. And as it behooveth us to do it our selves: so, to wish that others enjoy the blessing with us. In which case, the duty that we owe to Kings and all in authority, doth bind us to pray for the high court of Parliament, y ^t by their ordinance the Church may be repaired, and we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness & honesty. Whē Eliasibthe Priest (the high priest of the Jews ) had made for his kinseman Tobias a great chamber, where they afore time did lay the meat offering, the incense and the vessels and the tithes & offerings, appointed for the Levites and Priests: as soon as Nehemiah's (the Priuce of the people) understood thereof, it grieved him sore. Therefore he cast out the household-vessels of Tobias out of the chamber: and brought thither again the vessels of the house of God, the meatoffering, and the incense. And perceiving further, that the portions of the Levites were not given them, who therefore were fled eche into his land: he reproved the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? and assembling them, he set thē in their place again: and all the Jews brought the tithes into the storehouse▪ to be divided to them. The Pope in the iniquity of his high usurped Priest-hood over Christians, endowed his kinsmen the moonks with tithes and livings, by which aforetime the Pastors were maintained. Whereof it hath ensued, that many a Tobias doth hold them until this day. O that it might grieve, that it might grieve sore, our Nehemiah's; the Parliament, that they might dispossess Tobias thereof, & again apply them to maintain Pastors. The Antichristian council assembled at Trent, took order for ^a restoring of the goods of benefices, and setting learned Priests in them, with disannulling of aduowsons, and erecting lectures, and maintaining teachers, and seminaries of scholars in all Cathedral Churches▪ to set Popery forward, and build up the houses of Idumaean Idols. The childrē of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of light▪ and Baalites more zealous for their superstition, then Israelites for the truth. But thou canst▪ O Lord, & wilt (unless our sins provoke thy wrath against us) cause the light of thy countenance so to shine upon us, that the Christian Court of our English Parliament shall be as careful to build up thy house, & advance religion: that the vessels of thy temple, which Nebuchadnezzar took away, & Baltasar did drink in, be restored by Cyrus, to whom they are befa •• en, that Elizabeth thy handmaid command the people too give the portion of the Priests and Levites, that they may be strong in the law of the Lord, as did thy •… eruant Hezekiah, that pastors may be set again in their places, and all the Tithes be brought into the storehouse to be divided to them, that none of them want, as Nehemiah's provided▪ and thou commaundest by thy prophet. So shall they by whom this noble work is wrought, be remembered in it, & the kindness, that they▪ show on the house of god & the offices thereof, shall not be wiped out. So shall the windows of heaven be opened to us, and a blessing poured on us without measure, a temporal and eternal blessing: for godliness hath promise of them both. So shall the devourer be rebuked for our sakes: & the Locusts (the Jesuits & Seminary-Priests ) shall not destroy our fruit, neither shall our vine (our Christian vine) be bar̄. So shall we be called blessed by all nations: for we shall be a pleasant land: a lande that shall flow with the word of God, more to be desired then gold, more sweet then honey. Finally, so shall Israel triumph over his enemies, and the things of Esau shall be sought out, his secrete things shall be searched: that is, Christ shall reign, and Antichrist shall be confounded. Which GOD grant for his mercy sake in Jesus Christ▪ through the operation of his holy spirit▪ to whom, three persons, and one God, be all praise, and honor, and glory, and power, forever and ever.

Imprinted at London by Thomas Dawson. 1584.