Ichabod: or, Five groans of the church: Prudently foreseeing, and passionately bewailing her second fall: Threatened by these five dangerous, though undiscerned, miscarriages that caused her first: Viz. [bracket] 1. Undue ordination, 2. Loose prophaness, 3. Unconscionable symony, 4. Careless non-residence, 5. Encroaching pluralities. Humbly presented to her supreme head and governour, the kings most excellent majesty, and his great council, the Parliament of England.

CHAP. III. (Book 3)

The Church of England's Complaint against Jnconscionable Simony. (Book 3)

IN your other courses, O ye my Sons, fear of Authoritie may deter you, Conscience may check you, strict Lawes may restrain you, a severe over-sight may reform you: in this strange, in this sad miscarriage of Symony, I have made Laws, yet you transgresse them: I have enacted, 31 of Q. E. 6.

That if any persons, bodies Politick or Corporate, shall or do at any time for any sum of money, reward, gift, profit or benefit, directlie or indirectlie, or for or by rea∣••on of any Promise, Grant, Bond, Covenant, or other as∣surance of or for any sum of monie, reward, gift, profit,

or benefit whatsoever, directlie or indirectlie, present or collate any person to any Benefice with cure of souls, Dig∣nitie, Prebend, or Living Ecclesiastical; or give or bestow the same for or in respect of any such corrupt cause or consideration; that then everie such Presentation, Colla∣tion, Gift, &c. should be utterlie void, and of none effect in Law; and that any person accepting of any Ecclesiasti∣cal promotion upon such sordid accounts, shall be judged a disabled person in Law to have or enjoie any Benefice, Dignitie, Prebend, or Living Ecclesiasticall.

—Yet still you truck for Livings, you market for Benefices; still you buy and sell in the Temple: this abomination is still forbidden, and yet still allowed: my Cannons tie from it by an Oath, yet you venture. You swear thus:

I,* 1.1 N. N. do swear, That I have made no Simonical pay∣ment, contract or promise, directly or indirectly, by my self, or by any other to my knowledge, or with my consent, to any per∣son or persons whatsoever, for or concerning the procuring and obtaining of this Ecclesiastical Dignity, place, preferment, Office or Living, nor will at any time hereafter perform or satisfie any such kind of payment, contract or promise made by any o∣ther without my knewledge or consent So help me God through Iesus Christ.

Yet you do it. Oh you men of God, can you forswear this abominable sin, and yet commit it? Will you publicklie disown it before God and the Church, and yet own it be∣tween your selves and your Patrons? Shall not God search out this? These things you do, and God keeps silence: you think he is altogether such a one as your selves. Ah, he, he will reprove you; he will set your sins in order before you. Oh consider this, ye that in this forget God! Oh be sure, your si••s shall find you out. Shall a man take the name of God in vain, and be guiltless? Shall a man break his so∣lemn Oath, and be deliver••d? Shall he escape that doth such things? Shall he prosper? How will you look that God in the face in Prayer, whom you have blasphemed in your Oath? How can you behold that Congregation that knows you are forsworn? What preach the Word of God, and re∣gard

not the Oath of God! What, gain a P••rsonage, and loose thy soul! To attain to a Preferment, shall you hazard more then the whole world?

1. Have you never read that in A••ts 8. 18 19 20, 21, 22, 23. And when Simon saw that through ••aying on of the Apostles hands the holy Ghost was given, he offered them MONEY, say∣ing, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because that thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money: Thou hast ••either part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this wickedness; and pray God, if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquitie. You will say,

Object. You buy not any gift or grace, as Simon would have done; but some encouragement to exercise your gifts and your graces.

Sol. Alass! is it not the gift of God vou buy? are Tythes of God, or are they not? if they are not, why do you chal∣lenge them? If they are of God, why do you buy them of men? Shall a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me, even this whole Nation They say wherein have we robbed God? in Tythes and Offerings. The Lay-patron takes from God, and you take from him: he steals from God, you receive from him. Is it his? why do you say Tythe belong onely to Ministers? Is it the Ministers? why doe you pay him for it? why do you justifie his encroachment, betray Gods right, wrong me and undoe your selves? Who goeth to warfare at his own charge? You do it. Doe ye not know that they who minister about holy things, live of the things of the Temple? and that so the Lord hath ordained that they that preach the Gospell, should live of the Gospel?

Object. I deal not with the Patron himself, you will say.

Sol. Oh be not deceived! God is not mocked: what you do by others, you do your selves: Simon himself went not to God, whose the holie Ghost was, but to Peter, one of the Stewards of the manifold gifts of God.

Object. I am Civil to the Steward.

Answ. How read you, 2 King 5. 20. &c. ••ehazi the ser∣vant

of Elisha the man of God said, Behold, my Master ••ath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought, but as the Lord liveth I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after him: and when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the charriot to meet him, and said, Is all well? and he said, All is well: my master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the Prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, an••two changes of gar∣ments. And Naaman said, Be content take two talents; and he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they bare them before him. And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house; and he let the men go and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his Ma∣ster: and Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Ge∣hazi? And he said ••hy servant went not whither. And he said un••o him, Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments and olive-yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men-servant, and maid-servants? The leprosie therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.

Object. Yes let Gahazi look to that.

Sol. Is it a sin in him to receive a gift, and is it not a sin in you to give it?

Object. I onely laid a wager bought a horse, married my Patrons daughter, or gave bond to resigne.

Sol. Fie, fie! Are you called to be Ministers? Doe your dutie ••ou may look for your due, and make no terms with men for what God freelie gives ••ou. Will you add a cheat to your Sacriledge? rob God, and put a trick upon the Law? ••s this, is this to obey for conscience sake?

Object I onely bought an Advowson.

Sol. If you cannot buy a Living when it is v••id, how can you buy it over another mans head when it is not? What do you aim at in the Advowson? Do you aim at the good of

souls? those souls are provided for alreadie. Do you aim at the benefit of the place? O unworthie man! What, em∣brace the present world! is the Tythe a Ministers? what need you buy it aforehand? Is it the peoples? why do you take it at all?

2. And is the Church grown so contemptible, that it may be bought and sold for money? Is Preferment rather a prize for the Richest, then a reward for the Worthiest? who will spend their daies in serious studie, and their life in weari∣some retirement, and their estates in a chargeable educati∣on, and at last must either buy their preferment, or live neg∣lected, and die unobserved? What ingenious man can en∣dure tedious allowance, unsupportable fees, intolerable baffles, and not retire to his closet, and there give himself to dispondencie and despair, cursing the day wherein he was born, and the years wherein he was bred up; saying, as E∣lijah secretly to his soul, Lord, it is enough, take away my life, since I have out-lived the glory of the Church, the ho∣nour of my Calling, the encouragements of Parts and Worth?—I cannot live usefullie; O that I might die comfortablie!

3. Have I no true Ministers, but a Generation of Demasses, that embrace the present world? Have I no Ministers called of God, that will live upon God? none that can trust God with their maintenance? Will you all crowch for the Priests office onely, that you may eat a Morsel of bread? will you all degrade your selves, and buy and sell your sacred per∣sons and employments? Justlie would the Catholick Church have degraded you, Can. ap. 10. Conc. Chalc 2. Conc. Au∣rias. 14. And will you go on making merchandize of the Word? and will you go on in the Ministrie, out of filthy lucre, and not out of a ready mind?

Thus, thus are my worthie Sons laid aside, the unworthie are promoted: my people perish, my Religion decaies, my enemies break in upon me, and I have only here and there one to stand by me. The weak. the scandalous that came in by Symony, betray me. Oh sacred Majestie, O ye the ho∣nourable Nobilitie, O ye worthie Gentlemen, let it be your honour that you can dispose of Livings to the glory of God, the honour of the Church, and your own comfort: let it

be your shame that you make any advantage of your Livings to the dishonour of God the danger of the Church, and the ruine of souls. Oh ye ingenious Ministers, content your selves rather that you deserve Preferment, then endeavour to enjoy them in this vile, unworthie and dangerous way: never stoop to these low terms: be rather buried in an honest privacie, then appear with a publick infamie. Non si nunc & olim sic erit. Oh sacred and august Authoritie of King and Parliament, own your former Laws; vindicate your Authoritie; meet, meet this threatning mischief; set a watch upon Patrons and their Stewards; frown upon the reaching Clergie; find out the Panders of Symony that lie about town, and set up as it were an Office for abominati∣on. Take heed, Oh ye Patrons, how you lay the Childes portion in a Parsonage, and devour that which is holy, and after that make enquiry; forcing the hopeful Youth to be∣gin with Perjurie, and commence with Sacriledge. Oh! words fail me: I must leave with you the excellent Jewel's words to Queen Elizabeth, 1561.

The Livings of such as are in the Ministry, are not in their hands to whom they are due: they seldom pass now a∣daies from the Patron, if he be no better then a Gentleman, but either for the Lease or present money. Such merchants are broken into the Church of God, a great deal more into∣lerable then were they whom Christ whipt out of the Tem∣ple. Thus they who should be carefull for Gods Church; that should be Patrons to provide for the cons••iences of the people, and to place among them a learned Minister, who might be able to preach the Word to them in season and out of season and to fulfil his ministry, séek their own, and not that which is Iesus Christs; they serve not Iesus Christ, but their belly: and this is done not in one County, in one place, but throughout all England. Oh mercifull God, whi∣ther will this grow at the last? If the misery which this Plague worketh, would reach but to one Age, it were intole∣rable; it will be a Plague to Posterity; it will be the decay and desolation of Gods Church. Young men sée this, and they are weary and discouraged, they dibert their studies a∣nother way, I know your Grace heareth not of these mat∣ters;

and I hope God will work in your gracious heart some remedies against them: for otherwise the Schools will be for∣saken, the Church desolate, the People wild and dismayed, the Gosoed discre••ited; and this noble Realm, which ever was famous for the name of Learning, likely to come to such ignorance and barbary as hath not been heard of in any me∣mory before our time. Poor souls are destitute without a Guide, the afflictes in conscience have no••e to quiet them; they grow wil•• and savage as a people that hath no God; they are commanded to change their Religion, and for lack of instruction they know not whither to turn them. Oh if the Kingdom of God be not worthy to be promoted, yet the Kingdom of Satan is worthy to be overthrown.

Oh our Posterity shall rue, that ever such Fathers went before them; and Chronicles will re••••rt this miscarriage: they shall leade it written in whose time and in whose reign 〈…〉〈…〉 Or if we grow is barbarous th••t we consider not this, or be not able to draw it into Chronicle; yet for∣reign N••tions will not spare to write this, and publish it to our everlasting reproach and shame. By these means for∣reign power which by Gods mercy this Realm is delivered from, shall be brought upon us: the truth of God shall be ta∣ken away; the holy Scripture burnt and consume•• in fire; a marvellous darkness and calamity must needs ensue.

Oh that your Grace might behold the miserable disorder of Gods Church! or that you might sée the calamities that will ensue! It is a p••rt of your Kingdom, and such a part as is the prop and stay of the rest. I will say to your M••iesty as Cyrillus some••imes said to the godly Em••erours Theodo∣rus and Valentinian: Ab ea quae erga Deum est pi••tate reip, vestrae status pendet. You are our Governour, you are the Nurse of Gods Church: We must open this grief before you and God knoweth whether it may be redressed, it is let grown so long, it is gone so far: but if it may be redressed, there is no other but your Highness that can redress it.

The Definition of Symonie.

SYmonie is an intentive desire or purpose to buy or sell a spiritual Living, or any Corporal thing annexed to the Church.—Grat. dist. 1. p. 2. 91 Zanch. de inter. cultu. Concil. compl. Sect. 43. dec. cont. Nic. can. 8. 96.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Can. 40.