Abbies, Priories, &c.
THE unwillingness of the Monks to part with their Land, will fall out to be just nothing, because they were yielded up to the King by a Supream Hand, (viz.) a Parliament. If a King conquer another Country, the People are loath to lose their Lands, yet no Divine will deny, but the King may give them to whom he please. If a Parliament make a Law concerning Lea∣ther, or any other Commodity, you and I for Example are Parliament-Men, per∣haps in respect to our own private In∣terest, we are against it, yet the major Part conclude it, we are then in volv’d, and the Law is good.
When the Founder of Abbies laid a Curse upon those that should take away those Lands, I would fain know what Power they had to curse me; ’Tis not the Curses that come from the Poor, or from any Body, that hurt me, because they come from them, but because I do something ill against them that deserves God should curse me for it. On the other side, ’tis not a Man’s blessing me that makes me blessed, he only de∣clares me to be so, and if I do well I shall be blessed, whether any bless me or not.
At the time of Dissolution, they were tender in taking from the Abbots and Priors their Lands and their Hou∣ses, till they surrendred them (as most of them did) indeed the Prior of St. John’s, Sir Richard Weston, being a stout Man, got into France, and stood out a whole Year, at last submitted, and the King took in that Priory also, to which the Temple belonged, and many other Houses in England, they did not then cry no Abbots, no Priors, as we do now no Bishops, no Bishops.
Henry the Fifth put away the Friars, Aliens, and seized to himself 100000 l. a Year, and therefore they were not the Protestants only that took away Church Lands.
In Queen Elizabeths time, when all the Abbies were pulled down, all good Works defaced, then the Preachers must cry up Justification by Faith, not by good Works.