A10338:70
The prophecy of Obadiah opened and applied in sundry learned and gracious sermons preached…The prophecie of Obadiah opened and applyed in sundry learned and gracious sermons preached…
The prophecy of Obadiah opened and applied in sundry learned and gracious sermons preached at All-Hallows and St Mary's in Oxford by that famous and judicious divine John Rainolds D. of Divinity and late president of Corp. Chr. Coll. Published for the honour and use of that famous University, and for the benefit of the churches of Christ abroad in the country, by W.H.The prophecie of Obadiah opened and applyed in sundry learned and gracious sermons preached at All-Hallowes and St Maries in Oxford by that famous and iudicious divine Iohn Rainolds D. of Divinity and late president of Corp. Chr. Coll. Published for the honour and vse of that famous Vniversity, and for the benefit of the churches of Christ abroad in the country, by W.H.
Oxford: printed by Joseph Barnes, 1613
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
yet being made Protectors thereof, and of the Pastors, they follow not his fault, whose end 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 ⟨p. 45⟩of them, who purloin 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 1do we spoil thee? in tithes and offerings. Howbeit, if church livings were impoverished by none, but by Patrons: the case were not so evil, because it is against the law. But they are distressed also (beside other pensions and encumbrances) by Appropriations, as the lawyers term them; 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, and instruct the people, and keep hospitality: which yet the law 2commandeth, if it were obeyed. Josiah, in the eighth year 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 hie places, and the groves, and the graven images, and the molten; and in the eighteenth year he sent Saphan 3and 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 overgrown 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, & Masses, and Massing-altars, and superstitions. I doubt not, but our gracious Queen and sovereign Lady desireth in the steps of her Father and Brother, to add this unto them, that workmen be maintained for repairing of ⟨p. 46⟩the Church. But it lieth not in her Highness alone to bring it to effect: the Lords and the Commons have a stroke in it. Wherefore, seeing now a Parliament is summoned to be held shortly: let us desire God in hum blenes of spirit to incline their hearts, that, although it be with loss of some part of their own commodities, yet they will follow the zeal of the Israelites for