I THE DISCOURSES O F John Selden, Efq; I. Abbies, Priozies, &c. HE unwillingness of the Monks to part with their Land, will fall out to be juft nothing, because they were yielded up to the King by a fupream 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 Leather, or any other Commodity, you and A I for Example are Parliament-Men, perhaps in respect to our own private Interest, we are against it, yet the major Part conclude it, we are then involv'd, and the Law is good. 2. When the Founder of Abbies laid a Curfe upon thofe that fhould take away thofe Lands, I would fain know what Power they had to curfe me; 'Tis not the Curfes 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 deferves God fhould curfe me for it. On the other fide, 'tis not a Man's bleffing me that makes me blesfed, he only declares me to be fo, and if I do well I fhall be bleffed, whether any bless me or not. 3. At the time of Diffolution, they were tender in taking from the Abbots and Priors their Lands and their Houses, till they surrendred them (as most of them did) indeed the Prior of St. John's, Sir Richard Wefton, being a flout Man, got into France, and stood out a whole Year, at last fubmitted, and the King took in that Priory alfo, 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. 4. Henry the Fifth put away the Friers, Aliens, and feized to himself 100000l. a Year, and therefore they were not the Protestants only that took away Church Lands. 5. In Queen Elizabeth's time, when all the Abbies were pulled down, and all good Works defaced, then the Preachers must cry up Justification by Faith, not by good Works. |