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church_n	act_v	apostle_n	elder_n	2,921	5	9.6647	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61095	Tithes too hot to be touched certain treatises, wherein is shewen that tithes are due, by the law of nature, scripture, nations, therefore neither Jewish, Popish, or inconvenient / written by Sr. Henry Spelman ... ; with an alphabeticall table.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Stephens, Jeremiah, 1591-1665.	1640 (1640)	Wing S4931; ESTC R19648	146,054	238

ceremonies and therefore ended with the Leviticall Law These men reason as if before the Leviticall Law there had been no rules of Gods honour and as though the Morall Law and the Law of nature taught us nothing therein Doth not God himself leave the precepts of the Leviticall Law and reason with the Israelites out of the Law of nature Mal. 3. when he saith will any man spoil his goddesse as if he should say that the Law of nature hath sanctified those things that are offered unto God and therefore will any man violate the Law of nature Doth not Saint Paul reason also in the same sort when he saith Despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.22 If I should apply the places of Scripture that are spoken of the great reverence of the Temple it would be said that that were Leviticall but the office of the Temple was Morall as well as Leviticall and therefore though these be ended yet the other the Morall remaineth When Christ had cast the oxen doves that were for the Leviticall service out of the Temple yet he said that it was an house of Prayer as figurating that after the ceremonies were ended and gone yet the Morall office of the Temple to be an house of Prayer still remained Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11.22 when he saith Despise yee the Church of God speaking it as if he wondred that any should be so irreligious or rather sacrilegious to despise the Church and no man I think doubteth but that this was spoken of the materiall Church for he blameth them that did use unseemly drinking in the Church See the first Treatise Note of the rights and respect due § 10. Of the three severall places and three functions of the Temple and how the last continueth holy for Prayer Doctrine and instruction of the people which therefore had in it no Ceremoniall implement at all CAP. XVIII Tithes must not be contemned because they were used by the Church of Rome IF we should reject Tithes because they were used by the Church of Rome by the same reason we must also reject our Churches but the Apostles used both the Synagogues and the Temple it self after Christs Ascension though they were polluted with the doctrine and ceremonies of the Jews and therefore we are not to reject Tithes and other things profitable to Gods service because the Papists used or misused them The Censors ordained for Gods honour were impiously abused by Corah Dathan and Abiram yet God rejected them not but commanded them to be still employed in some better course of his service namely in making plates for the Altar Numb 16.38 And by this Scripture doth Hugo and Origen reprove them that judge the works of an heretique to be burned without preserving the good things in them and the Altar to be pulled down wherear a Schismatique hath ministred Hugo in Genes 16. fol. 136. a. and Origen in Homil. 9. sup Num. fol. 104. God refused not the burnt-offering of Gedeon though he made it with the idolatrous wood of Baals grove yea himself commanded it so Judg. 6.26 and in the Gospel the offerings of the proud Pharisees were as well received into the Treasury of the Temple as the mite of the poor widow When Jericho was destroyed and accursed yet God required the gold and silver for his holy utensils Jos 6.19 For though filthy gains are forbidden to be offered unto God yet good things because they have been abused are not forbidden to be offered unto him When the pottage provided for sustenance of the children of the Prophets was infected by him that threw in the wilde gourdes or colloquintida Elisha the Prophet commanded them not to be cast away but cleansing them from their infectious venome used them still for food of the children 2 Kings 4.38 So if the pottage of the Ministers have been abused with Roman Colloquintida purge the infection but take not their pottage I mean their Tithes from them Aristophanes bringeth in Heroules laughing to see effeminate Baccbus clad in the Lions skin In Ranis but we may well lament to see a spruce Castilio and his masking mistresse trickt and trimmed up with those Church-livings that godly and grave men in times past gave for maintenance of Gods service and the Ministers thereof I can but wonder what should move Flacius Illyricus a man so conversant in the history of the Church to affirm Decimas nupeius extortas per papas Catal test ter primo impositas in Concil per Pelagium Papam Anno 588. that Tithes were lately extorted by the Popes and that they were first imposed by Pope Pelagius in the Councell Anno 588. unlesse his meaning be that in elder times they were paid at pleasure and now first commanded to be paid of duty which construction though contrary to the understanding of a common Reader if we doe allow him yet is it untrue also for that Councell reciteth that they had been paid before of long time and that by the whole multitude of Christians and as due by the Word of God and consequently not at pleasure Concil Matisconense 2. c. 5. Anno 588. Tom. 2. So that this Councell did but revive and quicken the cold devotion of that time and not inferre new matters unheard of before CAP. XIX That the Tradition of ancient Fathers and Councels is not lightly to be regarded IT appeareth by divers ancient Fathers and Councels that Tithes were paid long before their times in the Primitive Church and were unto the age of the Apostles though little memory thereof remaineth in the Authors of those times And shall we not beleeve the Fathers received such instruction from their elders Doth not God bid us ask after the days of old and the years of so many generations saying Ask thy father and he will shew thee thine elders and they will tell thee Deut. 32.7 If we shall not beleeve them why should we ask them and why did the children of Israel complain that their Fathers heard not the words of the book of the Law 2 Kings 22.13 but because they therefore could not report it to them their children Shall we think nothing to be done but what is written doth not the Evangelist tell us that if all were written that Christ did he supposed the world could not contain the books Joh. 21.25 are not many actions of elder time alledged in latter Scriptures and yet no testimony of them in the former it is said 1 Chro. 26.18 that Samuel Abner and Joab dedicated many things unto God yet their story reporteth no such matter Solomon is noted 1 Chron. 10. to have kept a famous Passeover yet is there not a word of it in the history of his time Fasting was brought into the Church before Christ and the use also of building of Synagogues but it appeareth not when or how Paul alledgeth that our Saviour said It is better to give then to take Act. 20.35 yet no Evangelist doth mention it

not be suddainly done nor compendiously written that belonged to the government of the Church therefore the Apostles left much to the wisedome of the Church under this generall Commission Let all be done in order 1 Cor. 14.40 a few words but of great extent like that of the Dictators at Rome which being but two words providere reipub gave them authority over every thing CAP. XI That upon the reasons alledged and other here ensuing the use of tithing was omitted in Christs and the Apostles time and these reasons are drawn one ab expediente the other à necessitate THe greater matters thus quailing as aforesaid it could not bee chosen but things of lesse importance must also be neglected especially such as were outward and concerned onely the body amongst which the use of Tithing was likewise discontinued both in the Apostles time and in the first age of the Law when the great ceremonies of Circumcision Sacrifice and Oblations the Passeover c. and many other holy rites were suffered to sleep But some will say When there shall be a place which the Lord God shall chuse to cause his name to dwell there thither shall you bring all that I command you your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices your tithes and the offerings of your hands and all your speciall vows which you vow unto the Lord Deut. 12.11 these things were not respited till then but appointed that then also they must bee performed for it is also said Exod. 12.21 When yee shall come into the Land which the Lord shall give you then ye shall keep this service i. e. of the Passeover which was done Ios 4.6 but yet I take this to be discharge of it in the mean time Quaere God strictly exacted not these things till the place he had chosen was prepared for them that is till the building of the Temple as it is true in part touching the old Law so is it likewise true in the new Law and that therefore Christ and the Apostles exacted not the payment of Tithes in the first pilgrimage and warfare of the Gospel but referred them amongst some other things till the Church were established for as Solomon saith Every thing hath his time and the time was not yet come that the Church should demand her owne lest with Martha shee seemed curious about worldly things rather then as Mary to seek the spirituall When the Kindome was rent from Saul and given to David David by and by sought not the Crown but life and liberty so the Priesthood being rent from Levi and given to the Church the Church by and by required not her earthly duties but as David did life to grow up and liberty to spread abroad for love saith Saint Paul seeketh not her own 1 Cor. 13.5 and should then the mother of all love the Church be curious herein especially when her necessities were otherwise so abundantly supplied Saint Paul maketh it manifest 1 Cor. 9. throughout where he sheweth that very much liberty and great matters were due unto him in respect of his Ministry yet he concludeth I have not used this power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but on the contrary part suffered all things ibid. v. 12. and again v. 15. I have used none of all these things But why did he not use them since they were due unto him his reason is that we as though he spake in the name of all the Apostles should not hinder the Gospel of Christ ibid. v. 12. But why should the taking of that was due unto him hinder the Gospel because the malicious backbiters would thereupon report that he rather preached it for gain then of zeal and so abased his authority in the Gospel ib. 18. wheras by this course of taking nothing for his pains hee made it as he saith free ibid. and stopped their mouths Thus it is evident that the Apostles not onely neglected but absolutely refused even the things that they certainly knew to belong unto them Another reason why the Apostles received no Tithes drawn à necessitate The very condition of the Church in the time of the Apostles could not suffer them to receive Tithes for as the Levites received them not in their travell and ways but when they were setled and the Temple built so the Apostles being altogether in travel through all parts of the world and in continuall warfare with the enemies of the Gospel one while in prison another while in slight always in persecution much lesse could they look after Tithes which also were not to he paid as they needed them but at the times and places onely when and where they grow to be due and one that time came they that were to receive them were in another Countrey many hundred miles off for example the holy Ghost saith that Peter walked through all quarters Acts ● 32. one while at Lydd● ib. another while as Joppa ib. 〈◊〉 36. first at Jerusalem after at Antioch in Syria Gal. 2.11 then at Babylon in Aegypt * Many affirm that he was at Rome Metaphrastes and some other that he was here in Britannia Petri igitur muneris erat ut qui jam complures orientis Provincias praedicando euangelium peragrasset jam quod reliquum esse videbatur lustraret orbem accidentalem usque ad Britannos quod tradunt Metaphrastes alii Christi sidem annuncians penetraret Baron Tom. 1. f. 5 97. l. 13. Metaph. die 29. Junii 1 Pet. 5.13 Paul and Burnabas being at Antioch aforesaid or sent forth by the holy Ghost first to Seleucia in Syria then to Salamis and Paphus in the Isle of Cyprus after from thence to Berga in Bamphilia so to the other Antioch in Pisidia Acts 13. after to Iconiu●● Lystria Derbe the parts of Lycaonia So again to Antioch in Syria thence to Jerusalem and presently back to the same Antioch where Paul and Barnabas breaking company Barnabas with Mark saileth to Cypras Paul taking Silas travelleth through Syria and Cilit●a confirming the Churches Then he commeth to the Countries of Phrygia Galatia Mysia from whence being called by the holy Ghost he leaveth Asia and passeth by Samothracia into Europe preacheth at Philippi a City of Macedonia furthest North-ward of all Greece then back again and up and down Asia to Jerusalem again and from thence at length to Rome Reade Acts 13.14 15 16. cap. I will not speak of that Theodoritus and S●phroni●● the Patriarch of Jerusalem affirm that after his first imprisonment at Rome he preached the Gospel to the Britaine 's our Countrymen for happily he might doe that at Rome But to come to the rest of the Apostles Bartholomew as Jerome witnesseth Catalog script Eccles Tom. 1. goeth to the Indians Thomas to the Medes Persians Hyrcanians and Bastrians Matthew up and down Aethiopia every one of them one way or other to carry one sound of the Gospel through all the world Psal 19. I ask now what these men should have done with their Tithes where

not one Altar breathed unto the Lord in 40 years Amos 5.26 Even Moses himself was buried in this sleep How the Passeover and other Feasts were celebrated appeareth not they are seldome mentioned and may seem therefore seldome kept One Passeover at the going out of Aegypt Exod. 12.11 Another in the wilderness of Sinai God then reviving that commandment Numb 9.1 c. After by Joshua at Gilgal beyond Jordan Jos 3.10 and from that day till the 18. year of Josias that is above 800. years all are passed over as obscure except one in the time of Solomon 2 Chron. 35.13 and 2 Kings 23.2 But I must not conceal that Moses omitteth the History of 36. years travail in the wildernesse reporting onely the punishment of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day Numb 15.32 and therefore in that time whether it were kept or not we can conclude nothing but it is plain that before Ezekias his days it was so utterly lost that when he came to renue it it seemed meerly a new thing 2 Chron. 29. and all this time also was both the Temple forlorn and shut up and all the holy rites almost extinguished till he renued them ib. For the point of Reformation the Levites were by Moses assigned to the Tabernacle the Priests to the Altar but both of them confusedly without distinction and yet so they continued till the time of David who to reform this confusion divided them into ranks allotted a part of the service to every rank and assigned to them of the ranks times of attendance and intermission 1 Chron. 23 24 25 26. cap. upon which it is said that Zacharias was of the course or rank of Abia and executed the Priests office as his course or turn came in order Luke 1.5 8. Some things also that were never commanded were brought into the old Law afterward and well accepted as the act of fasting and the habit thereof sackcloth and ashes The brazen Serpent was set up by Gods own commandement Numb 21.6 yet when the people burnt incense to it Ezekias brake it in pieces 2 Kings 18.4 without any commandement None might slay the burnt-offerings but the Priests but when they were too few and till more were sanctified the Levites did it 2 Chron. 29.34 Likewise in the New Testament the wheels of the Gospel were not by and by in their course The Apostles themselves are compelled to the same necessities First to admit many ceremonies abolished for if they struck at them all at once they drive all the Jews from the doctrine at once again if they imposed them upon the Gentiles the Gentiles repined at the burden to carry the matter therefore as even as they might they call a Councell and consulting upon it they write to the Gentiles that they purposed not to burden them but with these necessary things viz. to abstain from things offered unto idols and bloud and that that is strangled and from fornication Acts 15.29 by which the Gentiles could not complain of being burdened with ceremonies nor the Jews that their ceremonies were contemned In like sort Saint James and the Elders at Jerusalem seeing many thousand Jews to beleeve and yet to be zealous of the Law Act. 21.20 they not onely tolerated it for the present but perswaded Saint Paul comming thither to doe the like and further to make a shew also that himself observed the law whereupon as before he had circumcised Timothy in shew of keeping the law Acts 16.3 so now he also personateth a Nazarite Numb 6.8 he is purified and he is shaven as one already at Censhrea Act. 21.26 and 18.18 Thus the Apostles applied themselves to the necessity of the time the place and the persons thus Paul becommeth a Proteus a Jew to the Iews a Gentile to the Gentiles weak to the weak all to all and all this to gain all them to Christ 1 Cor 9.22 In the mean while many things required to the establishing of the Church must needs be omitted the main matters they uphold unto death but the secondary and remote dependances they refer to opportunity therefore they by and by pressed no man with keeping the Lords day and though themselves began by little and little to sanctifie it with breaking of bread and preaching Acts 20.9 1 Cor. 16.2 yet the first mention of it is above 22. years after the Passion of Christ in Acts 20.7 and I suppose it to be begun about that time because I finde that till that time the Apostles used the Iudaicall Sabbath but never after through all the New Testament and the reason why they then used it was for that the greatest Assemblies being on that day in the Temple and Synagogues of the Iews therefore they resorted thither there they preached the Gospel there they taught the people as if themselves had celebrated that Sabbath And as it was long ere they brought in the Lords day so in matters more remote and outward matters belonging to the body they were lesse curious therefore though they laboured hard in the Lords Vineyard yet they required no wages of any man And though Paul prescribed that Bishops should be good housekeepers yet few or none of them were owners of houses but rather as fugitives to escape persecution or as pilgrims to preach the Gospel If the law that was given in a solitary place to a people sequestred from all other and at union amongst themselves and having no publique nor potent adversary to hinder the course thereof if they I say could not preserve it in the originall integrity much more of necessity must the establishment of the Gospel be impeached and turned out of the course thereof it rising in the midst of the enemies in the flame of persecution and with the opposition of the greatest Potentates in every Region It must therefore have the greater need of sundry Reformations some of the first lineaments must be wiped out some altered some as occasion served must be added or amended the Iudaicall ceremonies that for many years together were permitted in the cradle time of the Church must be taken away Paul that then suffered them now suppresseth them Col. 3. Gal. 3. ca. 4. c. 5. and the holy Ghost throughout all the Epistle to the Hebrews beateth them down for ever Thus as old branches be cut off so some new be ingraffed the Lords day the Feasts of Easter and Whitsontide not spoken of in the beginning are brought in at length Deacons are ordained presently after Christ Act. 6.2 but no Bishops in 20. years after nor were they then particularly ascribed every one to his limit but many together over one City as at Ephesus Act. 20.28 So women at first were admitted to be Deacons Conc. Laodicen c. 11. but time afterwards wore them out Christ commanded his Disciples that they should not goe from house to house but Paul saith I have taught you openly and from house to house Acts 20.20 To conclude all could