TRue it is there was such a little book printed some years since; which I do own, in which I find no fault but in the Title, and some com­plementall language here & there to mitigate the ferocity of that Tyrant with whom in it I had to do, but he was sa­gacious enough to discover the hook that lay hidden under that bait which then I offerd him, 'tis true the Title was A present for Caesar: and we have no Caesar but the King. but surely in com­mon prudence, thus much you will al­low to policy, that he which had a Ty­rant to deal withall may give him good [Page 6] words. neither did the giving of him a better style then he deserv'd make him really such as that style did import, nor conclude him that gave it him (onely by way of allusion) to esteem him so. There are evidences enough to conclude the contrary in the judgment of all them that know me, for if services or suffe­rings, by sequestrations, plunderings, frequent imprisonments, menaces and threatnings reaching even to life it selfe may speak a man loyall, there are enough that speak loud enough to de­clare me such. For my zeal in his Ma­jesties Cause, and service, it is well known I forsook all to follow him through thick and thin, and did so to the very last, and being a sworn Chap­lain was one of those that did help to carry the Arke before him in the time of his greatest troubles and dangers, and was afflicted in many of those things wherein he was afflicted.

[Page 7]But to passe by these praevious consi­derations mentioned only for preven­tion of prejudice. I pass from the title of the book to the book it selfe, and of that I shal give a very brief yet a full and clear account under these two heads.

• 1. By showing what the very sum, subject, & substance of that book was.
• 2. What my aymes, ends, & reaches were in penning it at that time.

The former of these is obvious to any man at the first view, which sees or reads it, but in the latter I was more reserved they were known only to my selfe, and very few more whom I acquainted with them, Dr. Healing for one which knew more of that which lay in the bottome of that design then any other, and with whom I had frequent conference about it. All these things I shall now unrid­dle & unfold, which done & rightly un­derstood, then Apello Caesarem, Apello [Page 8] Ecclesiam, Apello Populum, Apello Omnes, I shall appeal to all the world whether that book or he that pen'd it, deserves that blame which some imagine, nay I shall rise so high in my vindication as not onely to free it from blame, but I challenge thanks for it from all England, especially the Clergy which especially blame me for it, and if his Majesty shall be pleas'd to take hold of some discove­ries that there I make, and which here in this vindication I must necessarily hint at, I hope his Majesty will think I do him no disservice in it neither.

As to the first then of these 2 heads, The very sum and substance of the book lies in these 2 proposals, and those two concerning only Churchmen & Church livings all which at that time were in the hands and possession of the intru­ding Clergy which had invaded and usurped upon the Church as their Pa­tron [Page 9] had done upon the civill State. concerning them therefore I made these two proposals.

1. First, I did propose that all those that did possesse sequestred livings, and had peaceably enjoyed them two years or above might be required to pay their first-fruits, the Tyrant having set forth a cruell Proclamation, that we should never return to our livings more, nor ex­ercise our Ministeriall Function else­where.

2. My second proposall was this, I did propose that they and all others which should hereafter be prefer'd to Ecclesiasticall dignities or promotions might pay their first-fruits according to the statute of the 26 of Henry the eighth whereby it is required that they should pay them in according to the full value of such dignities, benefices, and pro­motions, and not as they stand parti­ally [Page 10] rated in the King's book by an anci­ent inquiry made above 100 years since which gives them not in to the 5, 6, nor scarce to the 8 part of the true value throughout the land, this done, I did demonstrate what a great improvement this would make of the first-fruit Office, for the first-fruits being thus improved the tenths likewise must improve pro­portionably, according to which the tenths would come to near as much as the first-fruits now come to, and the first-fruits to 6 or 8 times as much as they now are. This is the very sum and substance of that little peice for which I am blamed, all the rest is but as the mantling to the armes, or filling to the limbs, or comment upon the Text shewing the aequity, legality, reasona­bleness, & seasonableness of such a pro­posall at that time.

But there was much more lay at the [Page 11] bottom which was not obvious to every eye, neither was it my desire that he should know them, therefore in the next place I will shew what were my ends, aymes, and reaches in those pro­posals, and they were these.

1. The first was (clear contrary to the apprehensions of those that charge me in this matter) the very preservation of Tythes, Churches, Colledges, all which were now in a tottering condition, dan­gerously shaken, undermined, and near unto ruine. for,

1. That grand Impostor had propos'd in the House that they would consider of some way whereby a Ministry might be maintained in England without pay­ing of tithes.

2. Most of the Counties in England had petitioned against the payment of them.

3. The people did generally deny the [Page 12] payment of them, insomuch as one of the Judges returning homeward from his Circuit told me that in that circuit they had near 100 Causes came before them in the ease of non-payment of Tithes.

4. Cromwel's countrey-men, Jones and Vavasor Powell had begun an experi­ment tending hereunto in Wales, by ga­thering all the Tithes & Church-profit [...] into a common treasury, that is to say their own purses & their adhaerents, and instead of a standing Clergy to set up an itinerant Ministry.

5. That mushrum Parliament called together by Cromwel's Writ, or Letters, wherein Rowse was the Speaker had made a praevious Act in order to this de­sign, whereby they made the Ministry useles throughout the Land, for as for preaching they tolerated a liberty to preach who would, for the Sacrament [Page 13] of Baptisme, that there was no need of that till children were come to 14 or 15 years of age, and then they might make a Minister among themselves to do that office, for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, that was in a manner clear ba­nished out of the Church, for marrying that was committed to the Justices of peace, for burying let one pitt another, the dead bury the dead, not so much as the Register book but it was taken out of our hands, and the Parish was to chuse a Register to keep it, so the Ministry was made useles throughout the land, and what was this but a praevious Act proceeding from Anabaptisticall prin­ciples in order to that sacrilegious and wicked design of overthrowing the whole body of Tythes, the Churches an­cient patrimony, and with it the Mi­nistry it selfe, (for the perpetuity where­of they were first ordeyned) together [Page 14] with the Schooles of the prophets, the Churches wherein God was worshipped, and all that was sacred, if I at such a time as this stept in to stay & to support the shaking pillars of them all, by inti­tleing those that were the actors in this tragedy to a considerable revenue out of them, that for the preservation of their own interest they might protect and up­hold the whole bulke and body, out of which it did arise, forgive me this wrong, and who would think much in such a dangerous storm to throw out some of the wares & fraught to preserve the Ship and lading, and there are now living many (then Parliament men) to whom I had distributed some of those books which confess that my proposals therein were just and legall, aequall, reasonable & rationall, and that they did sway much with them in voting for the tythes, and yet for all this when it [Page 15] came to the vote, it was carried but by one voyce for the Chruch, for the House was equally divided, and it stood meerly and only upon speaker Lenthall's voyce whether tythes, or no tythes, and to his honour let me remember it in this great busines (for other matters if he did amisse let him answer for himself) he cast it for the Church. Now in this point of time when the Church and Church af­faires, Tythes, Colledges, and all lay at stake, tottering as it were upon the point of a needle, if I came in, and east in but one grain, or scruple to cast it the right way, will my brethren of the Church charge me & say I did them wrong, no I was their benefactor, I did them all good service, and I deserve thanks at their hands. this was my first aym and I car­ried it with successe.

2. My second end that I aimed at was this, wherein I cannot so well justify my [Page 16] self as in the former, because there was something of revenge in it, which (though I were never so great a sufferer, and many more with me) yet I should not have thought on, but this it was in a word, truly to punish the usurping and intruding Clergy which by the power of their Committie of plundered Ministers above, and their Country Committies here below subservient to them, and the authority of one person more (whom I will not name) invaded our livings, cast all the Orthodox Clergy out of the Churches, and put themselves into the possession of them from Dan to Beershebae throughout the land. Upon which by the help of their army they entred with such cruelty that they seised upon all, Goods in the house, Corn on the ground, Croppe in the Barns, imprisoning the Husbands, throwing out the Wives & children into the streets without all [Page 17] mercy, not one in ten of them ever allow­ing them any fifths, or any other help out of them notwithstanding a colou­rable Act made to that purpose. So then distingue tempora distinguish but the times, do but consider in whose possession the Church was when I promoted that de­sign, and made those proposals, and you will soon free me from any intention of evill to the Orthodox Church or Church-men in whose behalf I writ it, but for these cruel, usurping & intruding Harpeys, God forgive me my revenge­ful thoughts against them, I did not care what burthen I laid upon them

3. My third end in those proposals, was the ease of the country & Commons of England in respect of their contribu­tions, taxes & assessments, by taking off from them and laying a great part of their burthen upon those unto whom more properly it did belong, the Church [Page 18] and Church-men, whose warre this most properly was, and in whose quarrell it was begun, and this is exprest in terminis in that book, for which they so much blame me, but let them and all others look back to the beginning of these wars and troubles, the cause, the quarrell, the incendiaries and promoters of it, and will it not fall upon the turbulent dis­contented Church-men, and where were the coals of it first kindled, was it not in the Pulpit, the rigid Presbite­rian Pulpit, witnes that text in Judges the 5 ^th. so frequently preached and printed on, and agreed on in Sion Colledge by a certain number of them there met toge­ther that it should be so. Curse ye Meroz, curse him bitterly, because he came not forth to help the Lord, to help the Lord, against the mighty, and although they did since that some of them salve the matter by decla­ring against the murther of the late King, [Page 19] and since that by declaring for his Ma­jesty that now is, yet these plaisters are to narrow to heal that head which before they had so sore broken, they have great cause to be humbled under the sence of those grievious things which have fallen out as the consequence of their desperate beginnings, though they intended them not, their doctrines, and practises were then pestilentiall, turbulent, & sedi­tious, and from their Spawn have risen since al those seditious Sects of Indepen­dents, Anabaptists, Quakers, &c. which now like locusts coming out of the bot­tomles pit cover the face of the earth, and have filled every corner of this land to the greivious corruption of the truth, and interuption of the peace both of the Church and Kingdome. If then they were the principall is the quarrell, the chiefest causers & beginners of the warr, and now had their desires in sharing the [Page 20] Bishops and the Chapters lands among them for augmentations, and in putting themselves into the possession of the best livings in the land, and the revenue of the Church; was it unreasonable that I should move that they should bear the greatest burthen of them for the ease of others that were not so much concerned in the quarrell, but would willingly be at peace in the land, this was my third end and ayme in those proposals.

4. In my fourth end & ayme in those proposals I had respect unto his Majesty that now is, and then was our most gra­cious King and Soveraign, and to the augmentation of his Majesties revenue: For I did assure my selfe his Majesty would return to his Crown and King­dom with that honour which to our un­speakable joy our eyes have seen, I did perswade my self that he would not himself take the advantage of this disco­very, [Page 21] but if it were done to his hand by another, then he might, either with ho­nour and justice enough continue it (as now the Excile) and so it would be a fair augmentation to his Majesties revenue, or if not, that his Majesty might restore it to the Church again, and so gain unto himself the glory of his bounty, and engage all Church-men throughout the land the faster and closer to him, from whose gift and bounty, they should re­ceive so great a benefit:

Obj: Oh but it will be objected, how shall we know you had any such intentions toward his Majesty, and not rather toward the Usurper then in power?

Solv: If I do not demonstrate it, let me be severely censured & interpreted at the worst you can immagine. For which purpose, First it is notoriously known I did ever with great constancy and con­fidence [Page 22] from time to time assert the cer­tainty of his Majesties return, and the necessity of it, and our certain misery & bondage till it was so, that it would be done by Parliament, not by tumult, that our distractions & miseries would be such that rather then it should not be so we should all beg on our knees that it might be so, & this not lately when things began to look this way, but 7, 8, 9, years agoe. To this I can call to witnes men of great account both friends and enemies to his Majesties return, ear witnesses of it. In the first ranke let me mention the Noble Thomas Stoner of Stoner Esquire in Oxfordshire, at whose Table I spake these words in the presence and hearing of some persons of Honour, and others of lower ranke, one of which answered me at that instant, that he durst not hear what I said without accusing me, I call to witness the Gentlemen of the ancient [Page 23] Family of the Warcupps of the Mannour of English in the same County, and amongst them one Robert Warcup Esq Lievtenant Collonel of the County un­der Mr. James Whitlock, but who was in effect Coll: and much more, for he was the very right hand of the Lord Whitlock and of his Unckle Lenthall sir­named the Speaker, and a man of a vast power and authority in those parts, he knowes well I did alwayes confidently assure him of his Majesties return, and that all their transactions would come under the examination of that power which now they did despise & oppose, & therefore that he should carry wisely & warily, with all aequity and moderation, as one that was sure to give an account, and he took my counsel. Of the adverse part I'le reckon but one, and that is one Henry Gooding a buffle-headed Baker in Henly upon Thames, who from carrying [Page 24] the Bakers basket was exalted to a Justice-ship of the peace, as a man fit to be an instrument of mischief, and sub­servient to such a Governour & Govern­ment as we were under, who by abusing his trust & power, and by cozening the Country, especially the Kings friends, instead of bread fil'd his basket with money, and with it buying a Mannour near Hyworth in Wiltshire, and having married his Maid there lives now, & sits as securely as if he were as good a subject as any of us all. I mention none but such as are living, and of such I could men­tion many more which know and can testify, and will if called, that not only now at the last but ever since his Ma­jesties exile, I did constantly & confi­dently assert his return with Honour and Applause, the very desire and ex­pectation of the body of his people, in which case it were strangely irrationall [Page 25] that I should disoblige his Majesty by doing him any disservice either this or any other way: No in the mean time it was my ayme to serve him, and to settle 100000 pounds a year to his hand, aug­mentation to his Majesties revenue, as due to him as any penny he doth receive upon any occasion whatsoever. And though I have not done it to his hand, yet I have given his Majesty, or the Par­liament, or the great Officers of his Trea­sury and Revenue light enough how to do it when they will, and for that pur­pose I wish my Lord Chauncellor with the Master of the Rolls would look over that Act of the 26 of Henry the 8. Cap: 4. repealed the 1 of Queen Mary, revived again by Queen Elizabeth, wherein they shall find that they are required from time to time to send forh Commissions and Commissioners to make inquiry either by Oath, or by any other wayes and [Page 26] means which they can in their discretion devise to find out the true value of all Spiritual or Ecclesiasticall Dignities and Promotions, that so the first-fruits and Tenths may be paid in and received ac­cordingly, that his Majesty receive no dammage.

And I would but ask, what is the mea­ning of that fourth and last Bond which we give into the first-fruit-Office, at our entrance upon our Ecclesiasticall pro­motions, call'd the Melius inquirendum, the condition whereof runs thus.

The condition of this present Obligation is such that if the Rectory of A. in the county of B. shall be hereafter proved to be of more yearly value then 20l. as it now stands rated in the Kings book, then if T. B. incumbent there shall within one month after Certificate of due proof thereof had, and made, and given in unto him,) answer his Majesty accordingly, then this present Obligation to be void and of [Page 27] none effect, or else to stand, and remain in full force and vertue.

I remember that not many months since, a Praebend in a Cathedrall Church put in to be a Residentiary among the rest, it was answered him, he could not except he had at least 100l. a year in benificiis, he told them he had so, but it was replyed to him that 100l. a year then when that Statute was made was now 300l. a year at least, & therefore he could not be admitted unles he had 300l a year at least, and so was set by: I leave▪ the application of this, or the conclusion to be deduced from it▪ for surely if this, Plea be good in the case of a Subject, it must needs be good much more in the behalf of the King on whose part all Statutes are to be interpreted, in favorem & in meliorem partem.

And now after all this I do not per­swade nor advise his Majesty to take the [Page 28] advantage of this discovery to himselfe, yet though he do not so, there is this ad­vantage in it that his Majesty shal know what is his due, and what he may doe when he will, and others shall know how much they are obliged unto his Majesty for his indulgence in forbearing it which hitherto have received the benefit of it in silence without acknowledgement.

But certainly it deserves acknow­ledgment, and although his Majesty do not take it, as by Law he may, yet if they should at this exigent offer it up to him as a free-will offering, as at first the Church did to Henry the 8. when that Act was made, I think that therein they should but do his Majesty right, and themselves no wrong. I am sure his Ma­jesty begun to them first, he hath given them a free-will offering, such a one as the Church yet never saw, nor I hope never shall, (I mean the Cathedralls,) in [Page 29] the renewing of Leases taking of fines, gathering of arrears, all these of 20 years growth now in this one years harvest to be reap't and gathered in, which brings in such incredible sums of money into some private and particular purses, that it is beyond beliefe to relate. But if the late Parliament (to whose prudence his Majesty refer'd the consideration of these things,) had so carried between his Majesty and the Church, as that all these arrears and fines upon renewing of Leases, especially of the Vacancies might have been gathered into a treasury, after­wards to have been disposed of, and distributed as his Majesty with advice of the Church-men in wisdom and Justice should have thought fit, & the Churches and Church-Dignities might have been filled as at other times, so as to take the profits ensuing, only remitting to the persons so preferred their first-fruits, it [Page 30] would have brought into that treasury above a Million of mony, & the Church-men put into such a condition as they would have been very wel satisfied with, and thankfull for.

Whereas now neither his Majesty, nor Community, nor the late suffering Clergy banished out of those Churches, (most of them deceas't) nor theirs, have any benefit out of them at all, but all is engrost into the hands of a few Cathe­drall-men, a Bishop, a Dean, and 2 or 3 Cardinall Praebendaries, which call themselves Residentiaries, for as for the rest of the Chapter though resident as well as they, and by their instistutions have Stallum in Choro locum, & vocem in Capitulo, yet as to the Dividends they are all set by as secluded Members, in the Church of Yorke are 36 Praebends, & there are but 3 of all these that share in the di­vidend of those vast revenues: and those [Page 31] Residentiaries (methinks very impro­perly so called,) for of all other they are the greatest Non-Residents, for while they are Residentiaries in those Cathe­dralls where the harvest lies, there are few of them but have 3.4.5. or more other Dignities or Ecclesiasticall po­motions else-where which call for their residence & presence, and complain for the want of it. And if there were but an inquiry made into the several Cathedralls in the Land for Pluralists, and non-Re­sidents, what strange Smect ymniusses should we finde amongst them, Men of as many Names and Titles as the beast in the Revelations had heads, that we cannot tell how to write to them, nor of them, to give them their due Stiles but with an &c. I read in the Counsell of Trent of a Bishop there called Quinque Ecclesiensis, but amongst these you shall find many that surpasse him, by almost [Page 32] double the number, for instance do but look upon that Chappell at Windsor, for that is the style of it, the free Chapp [...]ll of St. George, and there you shall see how Windsor, and Worcester, and Glo­cester, and Eaton-Colledge, and the City and the Country, Deanaries, and Prae­bends and Parsonages, and Viccaragies, and Donatives, and all meet together in a little roome, and so in other places.

Let me give you an instance fresh in memorie, I knew a man to whom (not many months since) his Majesty (being made acquainted with his suffe­rings and services,) had given the best Praebend in the Church of Yorke, it past the Signet and privy Seal, the fees of both were paid, it was carried to the Great Seal, and money laid down there in pledge for the charge of it, yet after all this came a Courtier, makes friends to his Majesty for the same thing, and [Page 33] carries it for another that had but six Dignities & Ecclesiasticall promotions before: I confesse he was a Worthy Person, a great sufferer, and one that deserved a better Dignity then that, and I believe might have had it as easily as he had that (if his friend had laid out his interests for it) and I wish he had. Yet let me do his Majesty this right too, although he had signed the Warrant for it, yet when they brought their Bill, his Majesty remembred he had past it to another, and refused to sign it, a signall evidence of his incomparable Goodness and justice, but the Praegrantee under­standing that they had prevailed with one of the greatest Subjects in the Kingdom to appear for them (so far as to write his Letter to Secretary Morrice to with­draw a Caveat which was entred in the Signet Office to prevent Competitors) well knew it was no contesting in such [Page 34] a case, and so was content to sit down and let it pass: well let this go for a digression. In all this I would not be so interpreted as if I did utterly condemn all Pluralities in persons rightly qualifyed for them, nor non-residence neither upon occasion, there may be necessity for it, but that which is to be dislik't in them both is, that they are so common and ordinary, privilegia sunt paucorum, priviledges be­long but to few, and those the choicest of men, and as a very learned and judi­cious Divine writ to me once in the re­solution of a case of conscience which I offer'd him. We do in nothing more juggle with our owne consciences, then in allowing our selves too much liberty in things that are not absolutley unlawfull. It was the Re­verend Dr. Sanderson, now Bishop of Lincolne, in the resolution of this very case of Non-residency, occasioned by an invitation from the right honourable [Page 35] Nicholas Lord Viscount Castleton, (Father to the Noble Lord George now living,) to leave my Parsonage in York-shire, and to come and live with his Lordship in his house, which I did civilly excuse, my conscience not al­lowing my constant absence from my charge at that distance. And there is another thing that makes these Plura­lities so unreasonable, and that is the insatiablenes of greedy men in those accumulations, that heap up mountain upon mountain, Pelion upon Ossa Dig­nity upon Dignity without either end or measure as long as mony or meanes, or interest, or friends will last to procure them, when as (God knowes) there are many hundreds of learned, Loyall, honest, Orthodoxe, suffering, sequestred Ministers unprovided for, unrestored to their livings, which to this day want bread for them and theirs. And so are [Page 36] like to doe, for what with that indul­gent Declaration of his Majesty tolle­rating so many irregularities in Church-ministrations, & so much abused, and what with that late Act (pretended to be made for the restoring of sequestred Ministers, but intended doubtlesse by some of the contrivers of it for the clear contrary, to keep us out while we are out, and to confirm those in that are in the possession of them, there they are still, and there they will be, for first it puts us upon impossibilities in order to our restoring of getting five or more Justices together, which I am sure I could not do with the expence of above twenty pound, and the riding, and s [...]nding too & fro of above three hudred miles, and yet at four meetings could never get above three Justices together, which for want of a full Quorum could not act, & then if we cannot overcome [Page 37] these difficulties, and that within a time limited, it seems to praeclude from us all other remedy of Law or otherwise for our relief, as in the eleventh page of it, and what a strange toleration is this that being in possession, there they shall be, and keep it though without institution, and orderly induction, by this meanes the Church is to this day full of those notorious, seditious, schismaticall and violent intruders, which began all these troubles at the first, and cast the Orthodoxe Clergy out, and now they stand upon better termes then ever they did, neither is there yet any one Bishop in the King­dome that hath visited his Diocesse to take cognisance of these things, either by himselfe or by his Commissioners, nor when they do, do I see what power they have yet to purge the Church of them, or to restrain them: this not [Page 38] onely is a greivous oppression (for the present) to the suffering and sequestred Ministers, the most of them very aged men, grown old in suffering, and a great advantage to those factious and seditious Usurpers to confirm the people in those seditious and Haereticall prin­ciples which before they had infused into them, but there is a greater mischief then this, the consequent of it, and that is this: That whereas his Majesty hath graciously promised that there shall be a Synod called, these Heterodoxe men (with which the Church is now filled) shall be able to over-vote the Orthodoxe Clergy three to one in the choice of our Representatives. The cure of all these things with the prevention of greater evills (which these things (if not cured) may introduce,) we must leave to the Wisedome and Justice of the Parliament at hand, and of the higher powers, it [Page 39] was enough for me to hint at them, and that I have done impartially, yet with­out any malignity to either party, Prae­laticall or Presbiterian, though an ene­my to the abuses in both, yet my selfe a friend to both, who will ever style my selfe An obedient Sonne of the Church, and an Episcopal-Presbiterian: Tho: Bradley.