among the Thessalonians labouring night and day because he would not be chargeable to any of them when he preached unto them the Gospel of God 1 Thess 2.8 9. 2 Thess 3.8 From whence they conclude that all other Ministers ought to preach the Gospel freely and to labour with their hands day and night in some other calling to supply their necessities and maintain themselves and families that they may not be chargeable to the people To which grand argument requiring the fullest reply I answer that this general inference from Pauls particular practice in these two Churches is very lame and unsound For 1. Paul expresly resolves that all Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel have a just right power to receive a competent maintenance as wages from the people and most strongly proves it to be an ordinance of Christ himself in some of the objected Texts as I have at large demonstrated 2. He likewise declares with a salvo jure as Lawyers speak that himself had such a just right power to receive wages and maintenance from the very Corinthians and Thessalonians themselves as well as others though he made no use of his power witness 1 Cor. 9.4 11 12. where thus he expostulates Have we not power to eat and to drink and to reap your carnal things for sowing unto you spiritual things If others be partakers of this power over you Are not we rather Nevertheless we have not used this power And 2 Thess 3.8 9. Neither did we eat any mens bread for nought but wrought with labour and travel night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you Not because we have not Power but to make our selves an example for you to follow us c. We have much talk and crying up of late Have we not Power Power and present Power in most Grandees mouthes and publick Papers especially Souldiers who carrie it by their sides instead of our old Language Have we not Law Liberty Right Fréedom the things they say they fought for on the peoples behalf who pay them which words things the greater cry of Have we not Power c. hath made us not to have and quite swallowed up amongst us I wish all such Officers Souldiers Grandees who press these Texts against Ministers Tithes and most use these words Have we not Power if derived from God or the Apostle who thrice mentions it in these Texts would only use and speak them in the Apostles sense language in not assuming usurping but utterly disclaiming the real practice and abuses of their power in his self-denying words worthie to be written in Capitals that all persons of or in Power may now read and practise it Nevertheless we have not used this power but wrought with labour and travel Night and Day that we might not be chargeable to any of you to make our selves an ensample for you Ministers to follow us Then we should be no longer over-charged with endless Taxes Excises c. by for or from any who have power nor grieved with any fresh changes of Laws Civil or Church-Government or Ministers setled maintenance but be a Free State and Nation indeed as some have long promised to make us but still the quite contrarie way in direct opposition to the Apostles Nevertheless we have used and will still use this armed Army tyrannical arbitrary power that we might be chargeable yea very chargeable to every of you Therefore no wonder our Ministers in their objected sense do the like by their example in exacting their Tithes Dues which they may justly do till they disclame the use of their Iron Power in imposing levying New Taxes Excises on Ministers as well as people in strange untrodden waies to pay their own and Souldiers salaries to support their self-created lawless Power in the highest strain of Exercisse which they condemn in Ministers in a far more inferiour degree who questionless may as lawfully make use of it as Paul himself might have justly done as he resolves though he suspended its actual exercise for a time 3. Paul records 4. special reasons why he made no use of this his Evangelical power amongst the Corinthians but laboured with his hands 1. That he might not hinder the Gospel of Christ among the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9.12 they being then most of them Pagans the rest but newly converted to the Gospel by his preaching and all of them very worldly covetous as he insinuates 2 Cor. 4.12 13 14. ch 7.30 31 32 c. 11.7 8 9. 2 Cor. 12.10 to 21. 2. That he might not seem to abuse his power in the Gospel in the opinion of these covetous worldlings 1 Cor. 9.18 3. That he might adde to his glory in undergoing necessities for Christ wherein he gloried and adde to his future reward 1 Cor. 9.15 to 27. 2 Cor. 12.10 to 13. 4. And principally To cut off occasion of slander and reproach from some false Apostles and deceitfull workers and Ministers of Satan transforming themselves into Angels of Light who sought occasion to slander him accounting his preaching very contemptible and him to be none of Christs but a very reprobate 2 Cor. 10.7 10 12. c. 13.6 7. as some now esteem our Ministers seeking a proof of Christ speaking in him c. 13.3 as they doe now in our Ministers glorying as some of the same Tribe do now that they preached the Gospel freely and wrought with their own hands whereupon he addeth that wherein they gloried they might be found even as he 2 Cor. 11.12 13 14. Which false Apostles and dissembling Hypocrites for all their braggs did yet enslave take of them fleece and abuse them more than any faithfull Ministers and yet they patiently endured it as he there affirms and insinuates v. 20. For ye suffer if a man bring you into Bondage if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself if a Man smite you on the Face taxing their wisdom and pusillanimitie for this their Asinine sottish stupiditie when as neither Paul himself nor Titus nor any other of those Ministers he sent unto them did either burden or catch them with guile or make a gain of them as these false Apostles domineering Hypocrites and Ministers of Satan did 2 Cor. 12.16 17 18. These were the reasons expressed by him why he took no wages of the Corinthians and supported himself with his own labour But this is not our Ministers case after our so long enjoyment of the Gospel and their enjoying of a setled maintenance by Tithes and Glebes above 800 years space so long since setled on them by our devout Saxon Kings and continued ever since When our Ministers have the self-same reasons as Paul had amongst the Corinthians to move them to pursue his objected practice I doubt not but they will chearfully imitate it for the advancement of the Gospel and winning souls to Christ 4ly The reason why Paul exercised not this power among the Thessalonians labouring amongst them
yea by spoils won in battel by Generals Collonels Captains Souldiers is not only lawfull expedient but the most fiting rational convenient Maintenance of all others warranted by direct Presidents Precepts both before under the Law and likewise by the Gospel which doth no wayes abolish condemn but approve confirm this way of Maintenance 3. That if Tithes and other Maintenance formerly setled on our Ministers be either wilfully with-held or substracted from them by the people in part or in whole the Civil Magistrates may yea ought by coercive Laws and Penalties to enforce the payment of them in due form and time both by the Law of God and Rules of Justice without any injurie or oppression to the detainers 4. That our Ministers Tithes are really no burthen grievance oppression to the people but a charge debt dutie as well as their Landlords Rents or Merchants poundage That the abolishing of them will be no real ease gain advantage to Farmers Lâ—ssees and the poorer sort of people as is falsely pretended but only to rich Land-lords and landed men and a loss detriment to all others 5. That the present Opposition and endevoured Abolition of Tithes and all other coercive Maintenance for Ministers proceeds not from any real grounds of Pietie Conscience or any consideble real inconveniences mischiefs arising from them but meerly from base covetous carnal hearts want of Christian love charitie to and professed enmitie hatred against the Ministers of the Gospel yea from a Jesuitical Papistical Anabaptistical design to subvert ruine our Ministers Church Religion the probable if not necessary consequence of this infernal Project if it should take effect which would prove the eternal shame infamie ruine of our Nation not its glory and benefit CHAP. I. THe first of these Propositions being the foundation and corner-stone whereon all the rest depend and into which it hath a prevailing influence I shall be more copious in its Probation and in the Refutation of the Objections which are or may be raised against it That there is a just competent and comfortable Maintenance due to all lawfull painfull Preachers and Ministers of the Gospel from the people even by Divine right institution and express Texts Precepts of the Gospel is as clear as the noonday Sun by these irrefragable Gospel Testimonies I. By Matth. 10.5 6 9 10 11. where when our Lord and Saviour Christ himself first sent forth authorized commanded his 12. Apostles to preach the Gospel he gave them these instructions among other Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses nor scrip nor bread adds Mark 6.8 for your journey neither two coats nor shooes nor yet staves adding this as the reason thereof For the Labourer is worthy of his meat or his Reward Hire Wages Maintenance as the Greek word will bear and other following Scriptures render it II. By Luke 10.1 6 10. recording that when our Saviour Christ not long after his former Commission to the 12. Apostles sent forth the 70. Disciples by two and two to preach in every City and place whither himself would come he gave them almost the self-same instructions Carry neither purse nor scrip nor shoes and into whatsoever house ye enter first say Peace be to this house c. And in the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they give subjoyning this reason for it For the Labourer is worthy of his Hire Go not from house to house as Beggars use to doe for alms And into what City you enter and hey receive you eat such things as are set before you c. III. By John 6.35 36 37 38. where our Lord Jesus Christ soon after the former Commissions used these words to his Disciples Behold I say unto you Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest And He that reapeth receiveth Wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life c. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour c. Which may be aptly paralleld with and interpreted by Matth. 9.37 38. Then said he our Saviour unto his Disciples The harvest truly is plenteous but the Laborers are few pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth Laborers into his harvest Which when he did he agreed with them all for a certain stipend by the day and when the evening was come he said unto his Steward Call the Laborers and give them their hire beginning from the last unto the first Mat. 20.1 to 15. as is there parabolically expressed From which Texts words of our Lord and Saviour Christ himself it is most apparent 1. That the Apostles Preachers Ministers of the Gospel are and ought to be diligent painfull Labourers in Christs spiritual harvest not idle loiterers 2. That they were not obliged but expresly prohibited to provide gold silver brass scrips shoes clothes bread meat drink lodging and other necessaries at their own free cost when they were commissioned and sent forth to preach the Gospel as some now would enforce them to for this very reason That being Labourers in the Lords own harvest for the eternall salvation of mens soules they were worthy to receive them as hire or wages from those to whom they preached 3. That our Saviour Christ himself at the very original institution and first mission of his 12. Apostles and after of his 70 Disciples to preach the Gospel thrice one after another expresl y resolves in positive terms That they are worthy of their meat hire wages for their Labour in the Gospel and so by consequence all other lawfull Labouring Ministers who diligently preach the Gospel are worthie of the like at this day and neither of them obliged to preach the Gospell freely without any recompence wages reward as some Seducers now pretend 4. That meat drink clothes lodging and a competent maintenance are as truely justly due to the true Labouring Ministers of the Gospell from the people and that of pure common natural yea Gospell right justice not as meer arbitrary Charity or Benevolence but as merited HIRE WAGES as much as well as deserved hire wages are due to any other hired servant or labourer whatsoever by common justice and the law of God Gen. 29. 15. Exod. 2.9 Levit. 19.13 Deut. 24.14 15. Mat. 20.1 to 16. Joh. 4.36 Or as well as pay wages are justly due to the best deserving Officers soldiers Luke 3.14 Ezek. 28.18 19. and that by Christs own trebled resolution recorded by the Evangelists for their greater evidence and conviction who emphatically by way of reason applies these words only to his Apostles and Ministers For the Labourer is worthy of his meat hire wages they being the most divine excellent usefull necessary Labourers of all others and that in matters of highest concernment in relation both to God and Men Therefore of all other labourers they are most worthy of a honorable comfortable certain hire salary reward for their support and encouragement 5. Hence
thereof authorized by the late Parliament infallibly evidence If so John Canne with his perfidious Oath-Vow-Covenant-breaking Tithe-abjuring disciples must renounce that true and only God they say they worship in greatest truth and sincerity as a Jewish unchristian antichristian God likewise I speak it with reverence and horrour too for their fuller conviction because he alwayes hath been now is and will be a most true faithfull Oath-observing Covenant-keeping Vow-performing God who reputes his Oathes Vows Covenants Immutable things and will never violate falsifie forget or neglect them in the least degree though made to sinfull treacherous and perfidious men Psal 89.3 4 28 to 38. Psal 120.4 Neh. 1.5 cap. 9.32 Psal 111.5 9. Isa 54.10 cap. 55.3 Jer. 33.20 21. Luke 1.72 73. and 2 Chron. 21.6 7. a memorable Text 2 Cor. 1.18 whom all those who own or challenge him to be their God are peremptorily obliged to imitate herein else they shall never enter into his holy hill or dwell with him in his Tabernacle Ps 15.1 2 14. Psal 24.3 4. Rom. 1.31 32. 1 Tim. 1.10 Rev. 22.15 and that in this very case of Tithes If not then why should not Tithes Glebes Oblations which our ancestors and wee have vowed and devoted to God continue and still be paid under the Gospel without superstition sin antichristianism or Judaism as well as other Vows Oaths and the religious observation of them Upon these Considerations all or most Christian Kingdoms States Churches upon the very fiâ—st preaching and embracing of the Gospel amongst them not only edified Churches Chapels for Gods worship and publike Assemblies but likewise endowed the Ministers thereof with convenient Glebes Tithes Oblations as Eâ—sebius Socrates Scholasticus Theodoret Nicephorus Calistus the Câ—ntury Writers Baronius Spondanus with other Ecclesiastical Historians and Hospinian De Origine Templorum prove at large for forein Parts and our own antientest Annalists with Antiqu. Ecclesiae Britanicae Sir Henry Spelman Conciliorum Angl. Tom. 1. and learned Dr. Vsher in his Britanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates manifest for our own Nations and Realms Now because John Canne out of his learned ignorance hath newly published in his Second Voice from the Temple or Ale-house rather for which Cannes are more proper That Pope Gregory the tenth was the first that ordained Tithes to be paid to Priests in the year 1214. and that the Customs for paying Tithes at this day were setled upon the Kingdom by the Popes Legates in Provincial and Synodal Constitutions about the time of Henry the third and Henry the fifth Vouching Thorp and Ridley the Civilian to prove it I shall give you a brief touch concerning the Original of Churches Glebes Tithes in this our Iland About the year of our Lord 48. as our Historians record Joseph of Arimathea who interred our Saviour with XI more Disciples were sent into Britain to preach the Gospel by Philip the Apostle in the raign of Arviragus who arriving here were courteously entertained by this Pagan King and preached the Gospel to him and his people he perceiving the purity of their Doctrine and the holinâ—ssâ— of their Conversation gave them twelve Hides of land in the Isle of Avalon since called Glastenbury for to build a Church and to support them till this day called and known by the name of the twelve Hides of Glastenbury where they built the first Church erected for Gods worship in this Islâ— made of Wattle and Reed and there continued together preaching the Gospel living upon this their Glebe now of great value which was afterwards confirmed to them and the Ministers of the Gospel theâ—e succeeding them both by King Marius and Coilus next successors to Arviragus whom they instructed in the Christian Religion to which they wâ—re well affâ—cted albeit neither of them nor Arviragus himself proceeded so far as to be baptized for fear of displeasing their Pagan subjects though Harding in his Chronicle chapter 48. against the stream of our other Historians writes that King Arviragus himself was Baptized by Joseph of Arimathea After this Lucius King of Britain being converted to the Christian faith and Baptized with his Subjects and many other petty British Kings by his Example about the year of our Lord 176. by Faganus and Damianus sent to him at his earnest request by Elutherius then Bishop of Rome long before Pope or Popery were there erected or known in the world he upon the reception of the faith built and endowed Churches throughout his Dominions with Glebes and Tithes to support the Ministry whence our antient Poets thus write of him Lucius in Christum credit Christoque dicatas Ecclesias dotat distinctas ordinat Vrbes Many of our antient Historians adde that in his time there were 28 Flamins and 3 Arch-Flamins in Britain endowed with great Revenues for the service of their Idol gods to whom they had erected so many fair Temples and that Lucius after his conversion Turned these into 28 Bishopricks and three Arch-Bishopricks and purging these polluted Temples from their Idols and heathenish pollâ—tions dedicated them to the service of the true God which Sir Henry Spelman Bp. Vsher Godwin and the most judicious of our later Antiquaries justly reject as fabulous After Lucius Churches were here and in other places endowed with Glebes and Bishops with rich Lordly possessions by Constantine the great And about the year of Christ 312. the Christians being here and elswhere restored to peace and freed from persecution by Constantine began to build and repair those Churches which Dioclesian and other persecutors had rased to the ground and to endow them with maintenance for the Ministry In succeeding times the English Saxons who at their first arival being bloudy Pagans cruelly wasted the British Churches and butchered their Ministers Scholars Saints being converted to the Christian Faith by Augustine sent hither for that purpose by Pope Gregory the first who disclaimed that Papal Supremacy his Successors since challenged Aethelbert King of Kent and his Saxons being baptised by Augustine about the year of Christ 603. thereupon they began to repair the old ruinated Churches and to build new throughout his Dominions this King turning his Royal Palace at Canterbury into the Church of Christ and that City the seat of his Kingdom into a Bishops See and bestowing them on Augustine who converted him and his subjects to Christianity whom he made Archbishop of Canterbury and endowed wiih large Possessions Not long after divers other Saxon Kings and their subjects being converted and baptized built and endowed sundry other Churches both with Glebes and Possessions of good value and likewise with Tithes And in Anno 854. Aethelwolf King of the West-Saxons considering the perillous times then fallen upon him and his Realm by reason of the burnings of the Wars the Plunders of the Goods the devastations of the Territories of his Kingdom by the most cruel depredations of barbarous Enemies and Pagan Nations and the manifold Tribulations afflicting
purposely sent from Rome and the greatest sticklers against our Ministers Tithes and Calling must presently depart and none of them return into the Kingdom as many have lately done or else be executed for Traytors But why so what is their crime work imployment here and by what marks or fruits shall we know discover both them and their confederates Let the words of the Statute compared with all our late troubles changes resolve the ignorant and incredulous that there are many such amongst us and of Iohn Cannes fraternity Whereas divers persons called or professed JESUITES these Canne wittingly conceals though the first in the Bead-roll and therfore is a Felon by the law Seminary Priests and other Priests which have been and from time to time are made in parts beyond the Sea by or according to the Order and Rites of the Church of ROME and when Canne can prove that all or any of our Ministers were thus made as he hath confidently averred in print to those he calls the Higher Powers and Supream Authority of the Nation Let them be hanged for Traitors and Antichristian Ministers in good earnest else let him be hanged in their stead for this his impudent slander of them all as well Independents as Presbyterians Have of late years come and been sent into this Realm of England and were any of our Ministers such and not rather Canne himself coming hither from Amsterdam for the purposes following and other the Queens Dominions OF PURPOSE AS IT HATH APPEARED as well by some of their own examinations now out of date as by divers other Manifest means and proofs more visible of late years than ever not only to withdraw her Highness subjects from their due obedience to her Majesty but also to stir up and move Sedition Râ—bellion and open Hostility within the same her Highness Realms and Dominions to the great endangering of the safety of her most Royal Person and to the utter ruine desolation and overthrow of the whole Realm now effected as a Realm if the same be not the sooner and now pray God it be not over-late by some good means foreseen and prevented For reformation whereof be it ordained c. That All Priests and Jesuits Canne cannot spy such good friends within the Act but deletes them out of it Seminary Priests and other Priests whatsoever made and ordained out of the Realm of England c. shall depart the Realm under the penalties therein mentioned Had Canne pressed this Statute to those he dedicates his Pamphlet for the speedy execution of it against those many Jesuits and Seminary Priests now in England for their traiterous Practices and Designes therein mentioned of late and now driven on and almost compleated by them it had been a commendable zeal but not to write one word or syllable against these Romish Vermine Arch-Engineers and Janizaries of the Romish See now swarming among us to ruine our Protestant Kings Kingdoms Parliaments Laws Liberties Church Ministers Ministry Religion and foreign Protestant Kingdoms States Churches now engaged by them in bloody Warres both by Land and Sea and to omit the very name of the Jesuits the first Popish Agents mentioned and chiefly intended in this Act and presse it only against our Ministers Calling Ministry Tithes Maintenance of purpose to ruine them and theirs and by consequence our Church and Religion the Designe and scope of his whole Pamphlet is such a malicious unchristian Antichristian Practice as proclaimes him to all the world either a new converted Jesuit or Romish Factor under the Garb of an old Anabaptist or an over-grown cankered Anabaptist void of Piety Honesty inspired by the very Father of Lyes For not one of our English Ministers I know or hear of except two or three Jesuits and Popish Priests crept into livings in Staffordshire and elsewhere very lately I know not by whose favour or negligence was ever ordained by any such Jurisdiction or authority as is here mentioned which all our Ministers and their Ordainers too whether Prelates or Presbyters particularly and publickly abjured both at the time of their respective Ordinations and admissions to their Benefices and likewise when they took any Degree of learning in our Vniversities by the two known famous Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance purposly made and ratified by sundry zealous Protestant Parliaments against the usurped Papal Jurisdiction and authority of the See of Rome and the Popes Jesuits Papists practices to blow up destroy our Protestant Kings Parliaments Laws Liberties Religion and subvert our Kingly Government whole State and Commonwealth and for the better discovering of them yet lately suspended abrogated as dangerous unlawful Oathes by some of Cannes good friends who would be reputed Zealots against the Popes Iurisdiction and his Creatures too Now how those Ministers of our Church who thus abjure the Iurisdiction of Rome at the time of their very Ordination and their Ordainers too before them and since have done the like in their Solemn League and Covenant can without the highest slander be said to derive their Ministry from it and that by Canne and his Iesuitical Anabaptistical Fraternity who never took one of these Oathes or the Covenant and revile repeal them as unlawful out of love to the Popes Jurisdiction Jesuits Priests their Jesuitical Treasonable Conspiracies Treasons Practices or for want of zeal against them Let the world and this slanderers own Conscience if he have any left now determine Besides who knows not but this Ignoramus that the Rites and Ceremonies of Ordination in the Church of Rome recorded at large in Ceremoniale Pontificiale Pontificum Romanorum and the ends of Ordination likewise viz. to say Masse create their Creator offer up Christ in Sacrifice at the altar to his Father Invocate Saints adore Images yield Canonical obedience to the Pope and his Supremacy c. are far different from the form and ends of our Ministers Ordination in the Church of England prescribed by the Parl. of 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 1. ratified by the Statutes of 1 Eliz. c. 1 2. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 8 Eliz. c. 1. and 39 Eliz. c. 8. made only by Protestant Parliaments which as they particularly condemn renounce the Popes Power and Jurisdiction so they declare and resolve our Ministers Ordination to be lawfull and them in very deed to be Ministers and rightly made ordained and consecrated according to Gods word without any derivative power or Ordination from the Church of Rome Therefore for this New old pander for the Whore of Rome to averre they receive their Ministry and ordination thence is a Notorious Ly. Yea but saith he Francis Mason of Consecration and Mr. Yates in his Modell of Divinity prove and confesse That the Ministry of the Church of England established by the Law of the Land is derived from the Pope and Rome True but in what sense onely by way of Succession as his own Ministry and Faith if he hath any were derived from John of Leyden
Learned Gulielmus Stuckius Antiquitatum Convivalium l. 1. c. 19. De Decimis Stipendiis atque Salariis eorum qui Ecclesiis praesunt proves from the example of Abraham and vow of Jacob Consuetudinem Decimas dandi etiam ante legem fuisse usitatam Veresimile etiam est Ethnicos ab illis commemoratis exemplis tritum illud suum et usitatum praedae spoliarum et quicquid ab hostibus captum est Decimam Jovi caeterisque Diis vovendi solvendique morem traxisse cujus multa sane illustria exempla extant apud Alexand. ab Alex. l. 3. Genial c. 22. Then he shews how God prescribed them to the Levites and Priests that the payment of them continued in Christs time and was revived by Christian Emperors and Magistrates as Constantine Charles the Great Concluding thus Ut ergo impie agunt illi Magistratus qui bona Ecclesiae dicata ad se rapiunt vel ad alios usus transferunt ita Impii et Sacrilegi sunt privati Homines qui non modo nihil pro suis facultatibus conferunt ad Ministri Ecclesiastici et Scholarum conservationem sed Decimas et Census devitos jam antea Ecclesiae dicatos vel omnino non solvunt vel non ea qua par est fide c. Itaque mirum non est multa quotidie cum privata tum publica mala annonae praesertim caritatem ingruere Cum Decime aliâ—que Census ad Ecclesiarum Scholarumque conservationem pertinentes vel negantur vel maligne persolvantur For our own Domestick Councils Parliaments and Writers Judgements herein Egbert Archbishop of York in his Excerptions about the year of Christ An 750. c. 4.99 100. The National Council of Calchuth under King Oswald and Offa ann 787. c. 17. forecited The famous Council of Grateley under King Athelstan ann 928. cap. 1. De Decimis sollicite reddendis Odo Archbishop of Canterbury in his Constitutions ann 943. c. 10. De Decimis reddendis The Canons under King Edgar about the year 967. Can. 54. The Ecclesiastical laws of King Aethelred ann 1012. cap. 4. The Ecclesiastical laws of Edward the Confessor c. 8. confirmed by William the Conqueror The Popish Schoolmen Canonists and Commentators on the Texts forecited whose names I pretermit the Convocation of England an 5 H. 6. and the Petition of the English Clergy in Parliament 50 E. 3. rot Parl. n. 199. resolve in positive terms That Tithes are due to God and his Ministers under the Gospel by Divine Right The same is asserted by divers of our Protestant Divines particularly by Dr. George Carleton in his Treatise intituled Tithes proved to be due by a Divine Right printed at London 1606. By Dr. William Sclater his Ministers Portion By Richard Eburne his Maintenance of the Ministry London 1609. By Richard Mountague in his Diatribe on the first part of the History of Tithes London 1628. by Robert Tileslee his Animadversions on Mr. Seldens History of Tithes London 1619. Mr. Samuel Purchas in his Pilgrimage l. 2. c. 7. with sundry others And though one or two English Writers are of a different opinion yet they all accord that being setled by our laws they are duely to be paid even in point of justice and conscience that they are not simply unlawfull but a just and fitting maintenance under the Gospel which Mr. Selden in his History of Tithes Review thereof doth affirm and no wayes oppose Seeing then all these with the laws of sundry other Kings Nations and Authorities of all sorts conclude them to be of Divine Right and conclude it both a grievous Sinne and Sacrilege against God to substract or abolish them and those who oppugn their Divine Right under the Gospel do affirm it is no sin but a bounden Debt and Duty to pay them as settled by humane Grants Donations Vows Laws Canons Constitutions Prescriptions time out of minde how any bearing the name of Christians can or dare with open face oppugn detain or attempt their total abrogation now as Jewish or Antichristian I referre it to their own consciences and others resolutions to determine I shall answer one grand Objection against Ministers Tithes under the Gospel and so cloze up this Chapter Neither Jesus Christ himself nor his Apostles nor the Ministers of the Primitive Church for two or three hundred years after them received Tithes for preaching the Gospel but lived onely upon the peoples alms and voluntary contributions Therefore the Ministers of the Gospel likewise after them ought to receive no Tithes of the people for preaching the Gospel but to live upon Alms and voluntary contributions as they did This was William Thorps chief Argument against Tithes Fox Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 699 700. who addes That those Priests who will challenge or take Tithes deny that Christ is come in the flesh and do the Priests Office of the Old Law for whom Tithes were granted for else Priests take now Tithes wrongfully citing this not as his own but a Doctors opinion whose name he remembred not but thought it was St. Jerome or rather St. Canne in his New Voyce p. 13 14 15. who delivers this for Orthodox Doctrine which St. Jerome directly contradicts with all other antient Doctors I have read Answ To this I reply 1. That Christ and his Apostles lived amongst the Jews who at that time were obliged by Gods own Law to pay their Tithes only to such Priests and Levites as were of the Tribe of Levi of which Tribe Christ and his Apostles were not therefore they challenged not Tithes from them Heb. 7.5 to 15. 2. They then paid their Tithes duly to their Priests and Levites mentioned John 1.19 for which Christ commended them resolving they ought not to omit it Mat. 23.23 Luke 11.42 ch 18.12 Therefore it was no reason they should pay them over again to Christ or his Apostles no more than Papists who pay Tithes in kind against their wills unto our Ministers though not to their own Priests but only voluntary Contributions whiles their Priesthood stood in force which they generally submitted to 3. The total abrogation of the Levitical Priesthood and Ceremonies by the death of Christ was not certainly known to nor resolved by the Apostles and believing Jews or Gentiles till some years space after our Saviours Ascension as is evident by Acts 15. in the great case of Circumcision about which there was a Synod assembled by Pauls circumcising Timothy after this because of the Jews Acts 16.3 his purifying himself and shaving his head after the Jewish manner many years afterward Acts 21.20 to 28. which he being a Jew was obliged even then to observe to avoid scandal but not the Gentiles Therefore Tithes amongst the Jewes upon this account were then still paid to their Levitical Priests not to the Apostles 4. Though Christ whiles on earth received no Tithes from the Jewes yet he had a just Right Title to Tithes from Abraham and all his Posterity yea from the
Jacob for ever c. Luke 1.32 33. Ezech 27.22 24. Jer 23.4 5. c. 33.14 15 16. even as all the regenerated Sons of God are by their Right of Son-ship and new-birth in like sort intituled to the Kingdom of heaven whence they are stiled HEIRS and INHERITORS OF THE KINGDOM Jam 2.5 Gal 3.27 Rom 8.17 Titus 3.17 Heb 1.14 chap 6.17 1 Pet 3.7 Mat 25.34 and this Kingdom THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS Col 1.12 Ephes 1.11 14 18. 1 Pet 1.4 Acts 20.32 an unanswerable argument that Heirship and Birthright is the Best Surest Justest Honorablest Lawfullest Title of all other to Crowns Kingdoms and Possessions on earth being the very Title of Christ himself to his everlasting Kingship Kingdom and of the Saints in and by Christ to the Kingdom of heaven it self and Crown of Glory so the Seat Throne of this his Kingdom is said to be in Zion and Jerusalem most emphatically expressed Isa 24.23 The Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem before his Ancients gloriously A type of the Church of God under the Gospel first planted in Jerusalem and propagated from thence throughout the world according to the Prophecies Isa 2.3 Micah 4.2 Whence the Church under the Gospel is called the New Jerusalem c. Rev. 3.12 chap. 21.2 10. Gal 4.26 Heb 12.22 2. That the Ministers of and under the Gospel are expresly stiled in these Prophecies Priests and Levites several times 3. That their Office under the Gospel in a mystical sense is to offer Burnt-offerings to bake or kindle Meat-Offerings to do Sacrifices continually and to Minister unto God 4. That these Priests and Levites should be taken out of the converted Gentiles and Isles afar off whereof our Isle was chief 5. That these Priests and Levites should never fail cease nor want a man under the Gospel and that God would multiply them as the Host of Heaven as well as the Seed of David 6. That they should convert and bring their brethren for an offering out of all Nations and the Isles afar off to Gods Mountain and House in Jerusalem as the children of Israel used to bring their offerings thither Since therefore the Ministers of the Gospel in these prophecies are thus expresly stiled Priests and Levites and are to offer Burnt-Offerings Meat-Offerings Sacrifices and Oblations to God in his Mountain and House at Jerusalem c. under David their King in an Evangelical sence without any Judaism or denying of Christs coming in the flesh they may undoubtedly in the self-same sence and Right receive all Glebes Tithes Oblations and other dues from Christians and converted Jews under the Gospel which the Priests and Levites did at Jerusalem under King David and his Successors seeing they succeed them in their Office in an Evangelical sence according to these prophecies which as strongly confirm the Maintenance of their Priestly Function and their Tithes as their Evangelical Priesthood 7. Although Christ his Apostles and the Ministers of the Gospel in the Primitive times whiles the Church was in the Wilderness under grievous bloudy Antichristian Kings Magistrates Persecutors by reason of the present persecution neither did nor could receive Tithes and Glebes for their Maintenances from the persecuted Christians and therefore were necessitated to live by private Contribution and extraordinary wages in that case of extremity yet it no way follows that therefore all Ministers of the Gospel afterwards shall and must do so in setled Kingdoms States Nations converted to the faith where Kings Magistrates People do all generally embrace professe the Gospel where Churches are established and Ministers Glebes Tithes are or may be confirmed by setled Laws which I shall irrefragably prove by these instances 1 The Priests and Levites under the Law had no Glebes nor Tithes at all whiles the Israelites wandred 40 years together in the wildernesse though they had then a Law and right to receive them Will the Objectors thence inferre Therefore they ought to have no Tithes nor Glebes when the Israelites were possessors of and setled in the land of Canaan in peace when they enjoyed both without dispute 2. The Priests and Levites had no Tithes nor Glebes in the Realm of Israel under the Vsurper Jeroboam and his Idolatrous successors who deprived them of their possessions Cities Suburbs Tithes and Priests Office too 2 Chron. 11.13 14. c. 13.9 Therefore the Priests and Levites in the Kingdom of Iudah might not lawfully claim nor enjoy any Glebes or Tithes nor Ministers under the Gospel nor yet those in Israel under David and Solomon who were no Persecutors but Patrons of them 3. When both these Kingdoms with their Priests and Levites were carried away captives into Assyria and Babylon the Priests and Levites during the 70 years capivity enjoyed neither Glebes nor Tithes Will it thence follow Therefore they might lawfully enjoy neither after their restitution to their Country and execution of their Priestly Function and the re-edifying of the Temple as we read they did Neh 10.38 c. 12.44 c. 13.1 to 13. Whence the people were charged with robbing of God when they neglected to pay Tithes and Oblations to them Mal. 3.7 8 9 10. 4. Christ himself so soon as born was forced to fly out of his Country into Aegypt by bloudy Herod and to remain there till after his death Mat 2.13 14 15. After which he complained That Foxes had holes and Birds of the ayr nests yet he had not where to lay his head Mat 8.20 Luke 9.58 And at last he was apprehended mocked reviled crowned with thorns crucified by the malicious Iews and SOLDIERS who parted his Garments among them and cast Lots upon his Vesture The Evangelists closing up the Tragedy of his Passion with this perpetual brand upon the Domineering cruel soldiers These things therefore the Soldiers did Iohn 19.24 For which and for reporting a Lye to smother the truth of Christs Resurrection the High Priest Gave large money to the Soldiers Matt. 28.12 15. Will Canne therefore hence conclude Therefore our Soldiers now must force our Ministers to fly into Aegypt till Herods death leave them neither Rectory Personage house nor Vicarige nor yet so much as a Bed Bolster Tithe-Hay or Straw whereon to lay their heads then nail them to the Crosse peirce their sides with their spears-points revile deride them and at last part not only all their Glebes Tithes Goods but their very Garments and Gowns between them to make them like our Saviour Surely if they must and shall do so let them beware of another perpetual memento like the former These things therefore the Souldiers did So the Souldiers took the money and did as they were taught by Canne and Popish Priests and Jesuites 5. The Apostles who succeeded our Saviour in those dayes of persecution were thus handled by Pauls own relation 1 Cor. 4.9 c. We are made a spectacle unto the world unto Angles and to men we are fools for Christs sake we are weak
committitur quam in Equis Cum Dominus praecipit Decimas solvi quis contra ejus praeceptum potuit dispensare London Printed by T. Childe and L. Parry for Edward Thomas and are to be sold at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain 1659. THE REMAINDER OR SECOND PART OF A GOSPEL PLEA FOR THE Lawfullness and Continuance of the antient setled Maintenance and TITHES of the Ministers of the GOSPEL KIng David a holy Zealot after Gods own heart who fulfilled all his will records this to Posterity in sacred Writ as the most transplendent Character of his own real Saintship in a Divine Appeal to God himself Psal 69.9 The zeal of THINE HOUSE hath eaten me up And when our Saviour Christ the Son of David according to the flesh out of an enflamed zeal against the Sacrilegious Prophanation of Gods Temple in Jerusalem made a scourge of small Cords wherewith he drove all that sold Sheep and Oxen with their Cattel out of the Temple powred out the Changers Mony overthrew their Tables and said unto those that sold Doves Take these things hence Make not my Fathers House an House of Merchandize His Disciples upon this occasion remembred and applyed this very Scripture to him The zeal of thine House hath eaten me up John 2.15 16 17. But the preposterous zeal of many Iesuited Anabaptistical quaking pretended Saints Souldiers Zealots in our degenerated dayes is diametrically contrary to this of David and our Saviour Christ even to devour and eat up Gods House it self with all his faithfull Ministers remaining Tithes Rectories Glebes Maintenance at one meal which of late years and now again they have prosecuted with such eager Appetites and hungry Stomacks that they make it their very prime main only Businesse endeavouring to effect it with such Post-hast as might anticipate all new printed Pleas for their just defence and fore-judge most Ministers Patrons Peoples Rights throughout our Nation even out of Term in a long Vacation as in August 1653. and now again without any Legal Summons Process Tryal by their Peers before competent lawfull Judges meet to decide such a universal Right Title publike Interest which more or lesse concerns every particular County City Parish Minister Patron Person throughout the Realm and therefore ought not to be drawn into Question much lesse Decision without their General consent desire petition and a full deliberate hearing of all Parties interessed before a full Legal Parliamentary Tribunal duly elected entrusted by all the People according to our Laws This being an undoubted principle of Nature Law Equity common Justice and Reason Quod tangit omnes ab omnibus debet approbari Et Populi minor pars Populum non obligit This their preproperous speed and preposterous proceeding necessitated my Stationer at the importunity of some Ministers in September 1653. to thrust out and publish to the World an imperfect Piece and beginning only of my Gospel-Plea for the Lawfulnesse and Continuance of the Antient setled Maintenance and Tithes of the Ministers of the Gospel without this Remaining part then sent up together with it or any Errata to it or Notice given to the Reader if its incompleatnesse some few dayes before the great Debate of our New Legifers Septemb. 1653. concerning the future standing or down-fall of Tithes which would have been finished and quite past before the whole could possibly be printed and so have rendered the entire Plea lesse seasonable serviceable beneficial to our Church and Ministers than the publishing of a Fragment of it in that nick of time proved to them through Gods blessing on it This unexpected sodain publication thereof upon that inevitable occasion as it caused an Omission of some part of the second Chapter in confirmation of the second Proposition touching the Divine Right of Ministers Tithes and of the 3. ensuing Chapters So it hath necessitated me to publish this Subsequent Appendix to that Chapter by way of Supplement as a necessary Introduction to the Remaining Part here printed with it for the Readers better satisfaction in this publique Controversy and stopping the clamorous Mouthes of all Gain-sayers Which had been published soon after the former in the year 1653. had not my former Stationers long Infirmity Sicknesse Death retarded its progresse at the Presse and enforced me to seek out another Midwife to bring it into the world at this instant time I hope not as an Abortive out of Season the former Opposites to our Ministers and their Tithes being ever since and now again as Malicious against them as ever waiting only for a fresh oportunity to suppress them ever since their then sodain defeat in this their Impious Sacrilegious Designe when almost ripened to accomplishment in their Hopes and Votes unexpectedly dashed in a moment There being since this their disappointment a new disguised Antichristian sect of Quakers introduced by Jesuits and Franciscan friers as I have elswhere evidenced sprung up amongst us more virulently opposite to our Ministers and their Maintenance by TITHES than any other which they not only decry in all their Pamphlets but totally substract and detain from them with such wilfull obstinacy that many of them chuse rather to lye in prison upon mean Processe or Executions than set out or pay their TITHES or appear to Actions brought for their recovery and now combine with the Anabaptists and other sectaries in fresh Petitions and Prosecutions both against TITHES and Ministers endeavoring their total and final Extirpation by the power of their Confederates in the Army and Westminster Juncto sodainly called in again and owned by them as a Parliament after their former six years seclusion to accomplish this their design and root out Law and Gospel Lawyers and Ministers together as their fresh Petitions Addresses to them for that purpose clearly demonstrate beyond contradiction Which occasioned this publication after so long a suspension thereof An Appendix to the Second Chapter further clearing the Divine Right of Ministers Tithes THe Divine Right of Ministers Maintenance by TITHES asserted in the former Printed Part of my Gospel-Plea c. for the Lawfulnesse and continuance of the antient setled Maintenance and TITHES of the Ministers of the Gospel may be thus further evinced demonstrated confirmed 1. It is the Opinion of Learned Petrus Cunaeus and Dr. Griffith Williams his transcriber That Melchisedec Priest of the most high God to whom Abraham the father of the Faithful GAVE TITHES OF ALL Gen. 14.20 Hebr. 7.1 to 15. was in truth none other but Jesus Christ the Sonne of God then personally meeting him in the form of a man which he then assumed though not that very body or flesh begotten and born of the Virgin Mary which he long after took upon him when he was incarnate and conversed upon Earth That Abraham then gave him TITHES OF ALL as perceiving under that visible form an invisible Deity and everlasting Priesthood to subsist to whom Tithes originally are
John Canne most absurdly and impudently asserts as if Gods Precepts were repugnant to each other but likewise expressely positively eternally prescribed by our Saviour Christ himself in this peremptory Gospel-Precept recorded by three Evangelists Matth. 22. 21. Mar. 12.17 Luke 20.25 RENDER therefore to CAESAR the things that are CAESARS and UNTO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GODS Thus seconded by the Apostle Paul Rom. 13.7 8. RENDER THEREFORE TO ALL THEIR DUES c. Tithes as the premises evidence beyond contradiction have Gods own Image Impresse Superscription as visibly as legibly engraven on them by himself as any Tribute-money then shewâ—d our Saviour had Caesars by the Mint-Masters yea they were Gods own antient standing constant known Tribute at that very season when Christ uttered this precept and some thousands of years before specially reserved by and duly rendered unto God and his Priests by all Gods faithfull people many hundred years before we read of any Tribute-mony paid to Caesar or any other King or Prince Upon which ground as they were then by this direct Gospel-Commandement of Christ himself enjoyned to be as constantly duly truly paid to God and his Ministers as any Tribute Tax or Customes are unto Caesar or other Higher-Powers whatsoever So they have since our Saviours daies except only in times of greatest persecution under Pagan Emperors during which some Tithes were rendered to Gods Ministers in some places or things of greater value as I shall prove anon been still continued and universally paid to God in his Ministers in all or most Christian Churches Realms Republicks from the first publick imbracement of the Gospel amongst them to this present and more especially in this our Realm as Mr. John Selden in his History of Tithes Doctor Tillesley Tyndarus Rebuffus with others prove at large and the Author of Respublica sive Status Regni Poloniae Lugduni Bat. 1627. p. 177. thus attest for the Church and Clergy of Poland Habent etiam Decimam omnium segitum Publico Principum ac totius Poloniae consensu Iam inde ab initio susceptae Religionis Christianae attributas aliis quibusdam Pensionibus cumulatas Habent luculentos fundos Praedia Pagos Oppida arces territoria partim priscorum ibidem Principum Regum partim privatorum munificentia adjectas as they likewise had in ours and other Christian Realms yet he afterwards subjoynes and complains as we may justly do Nunc passim in alienas Donationes ac Decimas invaditur longe majore avariciae rapacitatisque infamia quam egestatis relevatione Therefore Gods and our Ministers Tithes being by our Lord Jesus Christs own Gospel precept thus positively commanded to be constantly and duly rendered unto them as well as tribute unto Caesar no consciencious Loyal Christians but professed Atheists Antiscripturists Rebels unto God and Christ can justly or by any pretext of Conscience refuse the due constant payment of them no more than of lawfull Tributes and Taxes legally imposed on them by common consent in free and lawfull Parliaments nor any Caesars Kings Princes Magistrates or Supreme Powers denie defraud or deprive them of their Tithes and Dues upon any pretext without impairing impeaching subverting their own Rights and Titles to those civil Tenths Tributes which they challenge and receive from the people as their due by this very Precept of our Saviour which couples Gods Dues and his Ministers together with their own the inviolable preservation whereof is the best and readiest means to secure their own Tenths and civil Dues Whereas these Princes Potentates Powers Grandees Legifers who are so sacrilegiouslie injurious as to invade impair diminish substract or abolish Gods and his Ministers Tithes Duties or divert them to pay their Souldiers or any other publike or private use will thereby but undermine their own interests and teach the people how to defraud substract deny their own antient Civil Tenths Customes Duties Taxes Rents and New Impositions Excises of all sorts by way of retaliation most of the Anabaptistical and levelling present Petitioners against Tithes and Glebes petitioning declaiming likewise against all Customes Imposts Taxes old or new as intollerable Grievances and hinderances to free Trade and many of them asserting all civil Supreme Powers and Magistrates whatsoever as antichristian and unlawfall as Tithes and Ministers are in their false account Lastly all Opposites to our Ministers Tithes do and must of necessity acknowledge from the Scriptures insisted on in the first Proposition and Reasons there alleged That some competent Maintenance Salary Recompence Reward or other arbitrary as they hold certain and setled as we assert belongs to the Ministers of the Gospel by a divine moral natural Right Justice and Equity as all grant a Sabbath and Government in general to be of divine Authority Institution and morally due to God Now the whole Church of God from the creatioÌ„ to this present though under various dispensations in the times of the Patriarchs Law and Gospel being but one intire Corporation or spiritual Body-Politique wherof Jesus Christ himself is the only head King Lord Law-giver High-Priest Chief Pastor Minister Advocate Saviour Foundation Corner-Stone and the successive Priests Ministers and Members thereof from the beginning to the end of the World serving worshipping adoring only one and the self-same true immutable invisible eternal Lord God according to his prescribed will and word and Jesus Christ himself the only High priest of this Church for ever receiving and God his Father prescribing Tithes for the Maintenance of his Priests and Levites both before and under the Law and no wayes abolishing but ratifying them in and by the Gospel as I have already proved There neither is nor can be any other particular kind of competent fitting standing setled Maintenance Reward or Recompence for all the Ministers of the Gospel evinced demonstrated out of Gods word which may be truly reputed moral natural divine universal perpetual and unarbitrary nor any other duly rendered from all Christians in all Ages places in Faith Conscience and sincere obedience towards God as such a maintenance but this of Tithes alone independent on the lusts wills of men It being that which the Patriarchs no doubt by Gods prescription being paid in Faith both vowed and paid to God before the Law which God himself afterwards specially reserved prescribed and all his people duly rendered under the Law annexing many promised blessings to the true payment denouncing many threats curses to the sacrilegious Substraction or detaining of them that which Christ himself and his Apostles most specially pointed at commended ratified in the Gospel that which all Christian Kings States Magistrates Churches Christians under the Gospel in all Ages places have generally fixed upon approved asserted prescribed ratified as not only sacred and divine but as such a most jâ—â—t wise equal excellent incomparable way of maintenance invented by the most wise God which cannot be matched much lesse amended exceeded by all the
naked and ye cloathed me not nay stripped me naked of all my cloathing and Livelihood and would neither relieve nor maintain me your selves nor permit others to do it in an antient legal way And then what can you answer or to whom can you resort for protection from this inevitable just Charge and Doom of Damnation for all eternity 4ly Consider seriously the exemplarie punishment executed upon Ananias and Saphyra Acts 5.1 c. with that fearfull judgement of retaliation denounced against all plundering Enemies of the Church of Christ Isay 33.1 Wo unto thee that spoylest and thou wast not spoyled and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee when thou ceasest to spoyl thou shalt be spoyled and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously they shall deal treacherously with thee Seconded by Obadiah 15. As thou hast done it shall be done unto thee thy reward shall return upon thine own head And if any fondly conceit as many do that the Swords and Power of an Army shall bear them out against the Lord of Hosts himself let them consider that of Psal 33.16 There is no King saved by the multitude of an Host themselves have seen it by late experience neither is any mighty man delivered by great strength Jeroboam the Idolatrous Usurper had an Army of no lesse than eight hundred thousand chosen men to make good his usurped Title against Abijah Davids right Heir yet when he had cast out the Priests of the Lord from their Suburbs and Possessions and made him Priests for his Calves of the lowest of the people he was vanquished by a far smaller Army and no lesse than five hundred thousand of his forces slain in one dayes battel and the Lord soon after smote him that be dyed 2 Chron. 13 Oreb Zeba and Salmunna the Princes and Generals of the Midianites when they entred into the Land of Israel to destroy it had an Army like unto Grashoppers for multitude and they and their Camels were without number Judges 6.5 6. Yet when they said Let us take to our selves the Houses of God in possession they were totally routed by Gideon and his 300. men having only Trumpets and Lamps and perished at Endor and became as dung for the earth Judg. 7. 8. Psal 83.9 10 11 12. Senacherib invaded Judah with a victorious and numerous Army above treble the Number to any Army in our daies Yet when he trusted to the strength of his Army and bid defiance to the God of Heaven as those do now who oppugn and spoil his Ministers of their inheritance God sent his avenging Angell which cut off all the mighty men of valour and the Leaders and the Captains and one hundred fourscore and five thousand of his souldiers in one night and when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corps so he returned with shame of face into his own land and when he was come into the house of his God his own Sonnes that came out of his own bowels slew him there with the sword 2 Kings 19.35 36 37. 2 Chron. 32.21 The two proud surly Captains with the fifty armed troopers at their heels who came in a violent manner but to fetch down Elijah the man of God from an hill to King Ahaziah were destroyed with fire from Heaven and the third Captain only saved who fell on his knees before him and besought him for his own and his fifties lives and used him like a man of God without any rudeness or plunder 2 Kings 1.9 10 c. To lesson all souldiers and Captains now to reverence Gods Ministers and do his Prophets no harm in their Persons Callings or Estates Else he who rebuked Kings and miraculously slew those Captains and their Troopers for their sakes will avenge their quarel now as well as in former ages And if former victories and successes have and do puff them so far up with pride or security as to think they may now reduce our Ministers like Conquered vassals to such poverty as to enforce and make them eat the very crumbs under their Tables insteed of feeding at their own let them remember that one memorable President wherewith I have quelled many usurping souldiers of the greatest Conqueror and Abuser of Kings I ever yet read off in the world and Gods retaliation upon him for his Tyranny and inhumanity after the Conquest of no less then 70. Kings and who now living hath conquered the tenth part of that number thus recorded to all Posterity Judg. 1.5 6 7. And Iudah fought against Adonibezeck in Bezeck and they slew the Canaanites and Perazites And Adonibezeck fled and they pursued after him and caught him and cut off his Thumbs and great Toes And Adonibezeck said threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and great toes cut off have gathered their meat under my Table As I have done so God hath requited me and they brought him to Ierusalem and there he died It is very dangerous for any Conquerers to make ill Presidents of Tyranny or Rapine because they have power in their hands to do it Mark what a Wo and judgement God denounceth against such Mich. 2.1 2 3 4 Wo to them that devise iniquity upon their beds when the morning is come they practise it Because it is in the power of their hand And they covet fields and they take them by violence and houses and take them away So they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage Nay Ministers now and their Heritage as well as other mens But mark what follows immediately Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold against this family do I devise an evil from whence they shall not remove their necks neither shall they be hauty for this time is evil In that day shall one take up a Parable against you and lament with a dolefull lamentation and say we be utterly spoiled He hath changed the portion of my people as some now would change our Ministers How hath he removed it from me turning away Lord It is most perilous for any by meer Arbitrary Votes will and violence to seiz on change divide any other mens lands houses inheritances especially Gods Ministers it will prove as bad as a cup of poison to them they shall vomit them up again with a vengeance And though their excellency mount up to the Heavens and their Head unto the Clouds yet their triumphing shall be but short and their joy but for a moment They shall perish for ever as their own dung They which have seen them shall say Where are they They shall fly away as a dream and shall not be found The eyes which saw them shall see them no more neither thall their place any more behold them mark the reason because they have oppressed and violently taken away an House which they builded not Job 20.4 to 20. How much more the Houses Glebes Tithes of God and his Ministers Let this sad consideration then
perswade all turbulent greedy sacrilegious spirits to follow Dr. Gamaliels advice which many of them have much pressed for a publick Toleration of all Religions though now they would extirpate all Ministers and their Tithes root and branch recorded Acts 5.48 49. Refrain from these Men and their Tithes too and let them alone for if they and their tithes be oâ— God as I have proved them ye cannot overthrow them lest haply ye be found to be fighters against God 5ly Let every of the chiefest now in Power remember those many reiterated solemn Declarations Protestations Votes and Ordinances they have formerly made for the due payment and preservation of our Ministers Tithes and Augmentation of their incompetent Livings out of the Bishops and Delinquents Impropriations and Deans and Chapters Lands for the most part other waies disposed notwithstanding And what an high violation of publick Faith Trust Promises Solemn Engagements and an eternal Infamy and Dishonour it will procure to their Persons Memories in after Annals and Posterities if all these should now conclude in a general armed Depredation Abolition Dissolution or Substraction of all their old Rectories Glebes Tithes Dues instead of new settled Augmentations out of other dissipated Church Revenues formerly Voted for them 6ly Let all Changers and Innovators of our Fundamental Lawes and Ministers Maintenance consider what prohibitions Comminations and Judgements God hath proclaimed against and inflicted upon such innovators and changers in his Word Eccles 10.5 6 7 8 9. There is an evil which I have seen under the Sun As an error which proceedeth from the Ruler folly is set in great Dignity and the Rich in low Place I have seen Servants upon Horses and Princes walking as Servants on the earth but mark the issue He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it and who so breaketh an bedge a Serpent shall bite him who so removeth stâ—nes shall be hurt thereby and he that cleaveth Wood shall be endangered thereby The meaning of which Parabolical expressions is thus more clearly explained Prov. 24.21 22. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with those who are given to change for their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both That is of the Changers their Adherents joyning with them by the revenging Justice both of God and the King My deceased Brother Burtons Sermons on this Text Nov. 5. 1636. are worth all our Innovators reading For which Sermone he and I joyntly suffered in the Star-chamber through our Innovating all-ruling Prelates malice for discovering oppugning those several Changes and Innovations they had made in the Ceremonies Doctrine of our Church and High-Commission arbitrary proceedings contrary to our Laws Little did those Prelates think in that time of their domineering Power and Greatnesse that these changes of theirs and unrighteous censures upon us for discovering and opposing them would have so soon proved the very causes of their unexpected sudden calamity and ruine according to this Text and censured Sermons and of their High-Commission and Starchamber Court too wherein they prosecuted us yet they really found they did so What proved the calamity and ruine of Strafford Canterbury and the old Council Table but their unrighteous exorbitant Innovations and New Projects against our Laws and old forms of Parliamentary Proceedings What brought sudden unexpected calamity and ruine on the late King and Parliament too even by those who were raised commissioned engaged by Oaths Protestations and Solemn Covenants to defend and preserve them but Gods Justice for some exorbitant Changes and Fundamental violent illegal Innovations whereof both were guilty especially in the Militia whereof the Houses endeavouring totally to divest the King without admitting him any share therein which bred the first fresh quarrel between them as their only security and the Kings too And now God hath made that very Militia the ruine of them both and to assume both the Regal and Parliamental Military and Civil Supreme Authority and Government of the Nation and united Kingdoms too wholly to themselves and to dash in pieces that new minted Mock Parliament Power and Government themselves at first created for those many notorious injurious Changes Oppressions Innovations of all sorts whereof they were deeply guilty And what other fatal Changes God may yet suddenly effect to the Calamity and Ruine of those who have been chief Instruments in all these Changes if they ring THE CHANGES still till they have turned all things upside down as the Potter doth his clay and our very Ministers setled maintenance with all Fundamental laws for the establishment of their and all others just Rights and Liberties I leave to their own saddest Meditations these Gospel Texts of Rom. 2.1 2 3. and c. 12.20 21. which I hope neither will nor can offend any Professors of the Gospel Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest doest the same things But we know that the judgement of God is according to truth against them who commit such things And thinkest thou this O man that judgest them who do such things and doest the same that thou shalt escape the Iudgement of God Be not High-minded but fear For if God spared not the Natural Branches take heed lest he also spare not thee being a Wilde Olive Tree And when they have meditated on these Texts I shall further importune all such of them who like the little Horn in Daniel 7.24 25 26. that should be divers from the FIRST and subdue THREE KINGS and being elevated with that successe should speak great words against the most High and wear out his Saints and think to change Times and Laws advisedly to consider what there next follows That though the Laws and Times should be given into his hand yet it will be untill a time and times and the dividing of times And the Judgement shall sit and they shall take away his Dominion to consume and destroy it unto the end And then our Ministers need not fear their Ministry Tithes Glebes nor the People their Iust Rights and Liberties which otherwise are like to be lost subverted destroyed in the long bloody costly Contests and Wars for their Defence and Preservation Now lest any should pretend matter of Conscience or Reason against the Christian Magistrates enforcing of Tithes true payment by coercive Means and Laws in these Tith-detaining sacrilegious times or for the speedy Repeal of all our fore-specified Laws and Ordinances yet in force to compel all Detainers of them to pay them duly under the several penalties therin prescribed I shall endeavour to give a full satisfactory Answer to all Arguments and Cavils of moment usually made against them which are reducible to these four Heads Object First That there is no expresse Precept in the Gospel nor any such penal Laws enforcing the payment of Tithes to be found in the Primitive and
peradventure they held the payment of Tithes to Ministers in kind a Divine Moral Duty and in some places and at some times when and where they could did voluntarily pay Tithes as a Duty for their Maintenance without any coercive Laws or Canons upon the bare demand or exhortation of their Ministers by vertue of Gods own Divine Laws as is undeniable by Irenaeus l. 4. c. 34. who records That the Christians in his time being but 180. years after Christ did not give lesse to their Ministers than the Jews did to their Priests by the Law of Moses who received the consecrated TITHES of their people but more Designing omnia quae sunt ipsorum all they had to the Lords use Hilariter ac liberaliter ea quae non sunt minera Giving chearfully and freely those things which were not lesse than Tithes as having greater hope than they And further confirmed by Origen Homil. 11 in Numeros Saint Cyprian lib. 1. Epist 9. De unitate Ecclesiae the words of Saint Augustine Hom. 48. Majores nostri ideo copiis abundabant quia Deo Decimas dabant And the second Council of Mascin An. 586. Can. 5. Leges Divinae Consulentes Sacerdotibus ac Ministris Ecclesiarum pro Haereditaria portione omni populo praeceperunt Decimas fructuum suorum locis sacris praestare ut nullo labore impediti per res illegitimas possint vacare Ministeriis Quas leges Christianorum Congeries legis temporibus custodivit iutemerata Which prove a long continued Custom and Practice of paying Tithes to Ministers as a Divine Right and Duty used amongst Christians long before St. Augustins dayes and this antient Councel And no sooner were the times of Persecution past but the Divine Right of Tithes was asserted pressed and the due payment of them inculcated by St. Hilary Nazianzen Ambrose Hierom Chrysostom Augustine Eusebius Cassian Cyril of Jerusalem Isiodore Pelusiota and Caesarius Arelatensis all flourishing within 500. years after Christ as Dr. Tillesly proves at large And the people during that space paying their Tithes freely without any compulsion in all places there needed neither Laws nor Canons to enforce their payment whence Agobardus writes thus about the year of our Lord 820. when Laws and Canons began to be made for their payment of the precedent times Nulla compulit necessitas fervente ubique religiosa devotione amore illustrandi Ecclesiae ultro aestuante That there was no need of Canons or Laws to compel the payment of Tithes whiles fervent religious Devotion and love of illustrating Churches every where abounded But in succeeding degenerating times when according to Christs prediction the love and zeal of many Christians to God Religion and Ministers began to grow lukewarm and colder than before so as they began to detain their Tithes and Ministers dues then presently Christian Kings and Bishops in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Synods and Councils began generally in all places to make Laws and Canons for the due payment of them declaring in them only the Divine Right Laws and Precepts of God to the People both in the Old and New Testament as a sufficient obligation seconded by their bare Canons and Edicts without any coercion or penalty to oblige them to their due payment The first unquestionable Canon for the payment of Tithes I find extant is that of the second Council of Mascin forecited An. 586. cap. 5. The first Law extant made by any General Council or Parliament for the payment of Tithes is that of the Council of Calcuth in England under Offa and Alfred An. 786 declaring their Divine Right and enjoyning their payment without any Penalty After which Charles the Emperour about the year of our Lord 813. by Canons made in sundry Councils and in his Capitulars or Laws enjoyned the payment of Tithes under pain of being enforced to render them by distresse upon complaint and some small penalties Since which time many Laws and Canons were made in our own and forein Realms till our present times for the due payment of Tithes under sundry penalties which because collected by Sir Henry Spelman in his Councils Mr. Selden in his History of Tithes Bochellus Decret Eccles Gal. l. 6. Tit. 8. De Decimis Fridericus Lindebrogus Codex Legum Antiquarum Surius Binius Crab Lindwood in their Collections of Councils and sundry others I have therefore only given the Reader a brief Catalogue of the principal Civil laws both at home and abroad for the due payment of them reciting more at large but what others for the most part have omitted and are not vulgarly known giving only brief hints upon some of the rest in my third Chapter Whither I refer the Reader for further satisfaction in this Objection and shall conclude of penal Laws as Seneca doth of Fates Fata volentes ducunt Nolentes trahunt those who will not willingly pay their Tiths must and ought to be compelled thereunto by penal Statutes The second Objection is That the payment of Tithes is against many mens Judgements and Consciences Therefore it is both Vnchristian Tyrannical and Vnjust to enforce them thereunto I answer 1. That the payment of Tithes being not only warranted but commanded in and by the Old and New Testament and the constant practice of Christians in all Ages Churches there neither is nor can be the least pretence of Conscience for the non-payment of them Therefore this pretext of Conscience is in truth nought else but most desperate Vnconscionableness Malice Obstinacy Peevishness Covetousness Impiety or secret Atheism worthy to be reformed by the severest Laws and penalties 2ly All that Conscience can pretend against their payment as Tithes is only this Anabaptistical Devise and loud Lye of Canne and others That the payment of a precise Tenth part of mens increase to their Ministers is Jewish or Antichristian and so unlawfull both which I have unanswerably refelled Therefore this can be no ground or Conscience for any to detain them But if any scrupulous Consciences be not satisfied in this point let them either pay their Ministers the Moitie or 9. parts or the 5 6 7 8 or 9. part of their annual encrease neither of which is Jewish or Antichristian or else let them sell all their old or new purchased Lands Houses Possessions Goods they have and bestow them on the Ministers and Poor as the forecited Primitive Christians did whom they pretend to imitate and then they may satisfie both their Consciences and Ministers too without the least difference coercion sute or penalty of our Laws 3ly Many of these very Objectors pretending Conscience as Souldiers or Sequestrators have made no Conscience to enforce thousands of Parishioners of late years throughout the Nation to pay their Ministers Tithes to themselves for pretended Arrears or sequestred Goods and exacted Monthly contributions out of Ministers Tithes to pay the Army without any scruple of Conscience levying them by distress and armed violence when detained If then they can enforce others thus
Augustinus c. who were brought up in all kind of Learning and became shining Stars and brought Lights in the House of God notable Defenders of Religion Over-throwers of Idols and Confounders of Hereticks Christian Princes herein have witnessed their Zeal in setting forth the Glory of God After Charles the Great had made his notable Conquests let our Conquerors remember it he erected five famous Universities one at Paris another at Tolouse another at Papia another at Padua and another at Prague to which our King Alfred founder of out famous Universitie of Oxford with the founders of all the Colleges therein and of the Universities of Cambridge Dublin and those in Scotland to omit those Universities in Germany Spain Portugall Poland Denmarke Sweden Hungary and other Parts of Italy and France mentioned by Heylen and others might be added Suidas reporteth of Leo the Emperour That when Leo on a time commanded Eulogius a Philosopher should have his Princely reward a Noble man of the Court sayd as some do now of our Universities and Colleges Lands and Revenues that that money would be better imployed for the maintenance of Souldiers Nay saith he and so all wise men now I would rather it might be brought to pass in my time that the wages which are now bestowed upon Souldiers might be given to maintain Philosophers Alexander Severus so highly esteemed that notable famous Lawyer Vlpian that when certain of his Soldiers ran feircely upon Vlpian to slay him the Emperor stept forth and set himself between the body of Vlpian and the fury of his Souldiers and covered him with his own Robes that the Souldiers might know how carefull he was for the good estate of Vlpian Let our Souldiers who hate and study to suppress Philosophers Scholars Lawyers consider these two last Stories And also for the contrary such as have practised cruelty upon learned men and have hated knowledge were worthily discommended in the Stories of all ages He instanceth in the wicked Apostates Julian and Licinius forecited examples The like is reported of Caligula Caracalla and Domitianus that either they utterly hated all manner of Learning or had some special malice against the writings of some one notable man and therefore sought to destroy them Such was the policy of Satan so thought he to get the upper hand and to restore again his wicked Jericho And were these the Practices of Heathen Princes only may not we remember the like attempts wrought in our dayes who will call to mind the time that is not far past shall find that this ignorant Iericho had many friends and hath it not now as many and the same who by all means drew men from knowledge they gave Liberty rather to do any thing than to seek understanding and yet suffered rather the use and reading of fabulous and unclean writers than of the Holy Scripture and Books which carried fruitfull instruction Good Letters to increase knowledge are not to be neglected Such as presume of Gods Spirit over-boldly that without endeavour to use the wholsome means which God hath left unto his Church they shall and doe by special inspiration understand his will do tempt God He adds much more In brief learning knowledge in Arts Tongues Histories of all sorts and in the Laws Governments of former ages are so absolutely necessary for the right understanding and interpretation of the Scriptures and good Government of all Common-wealths and Kingdoms that without them there neither will nor can be any true Religion sound Knowledge of God his word or works nor orderly Government Humanity Civility Navigation or Commerce almost in the world and men deprived of it will be little different from Beasts as appears by the brutish Sottishnesse Barbarousnesse Savagenesse ignorance of the illiterate Indians in America and of some other African and Northern Nations voyd both of Religion Government and Humanity it self because destitute of Learning as Purchas his Pilgrimage Mr. Hackluits voyages Peter Martyrs Indian History Mercator and others record Hereupon our antient Ancestors were so carefull of Learning Religion Ministers Scholars Lands Estates Tithes that they placed them in the very front of all those antient Laws Liberties Customs which they claimed enjoyed and presented to William the pretended Conqueror upon Oath in the 4 th Year of his Reign who ratified them in Parliament without the least Alteration or Diminution to his eternal Honour and the great contentment of the whole Nation whose affections else he would have lost to the endangering of his new acquired Royalty as I have proved in the 2 d. Chapter Which our New pretended Conquerors may do well to consider And so I proceed to my concluding Assertion CHAP. V. I Am now arived at the fifth and last Proposition That the present opposition and endeavoured abolition of Tithes and all other coercive maintenance for Ministers proceed not from any real grounds of Piety or Conscience or any considerable real Inconveniences or Mischiefs arising from them but merely from base covetous carnal Hearts want of Christian Love and Charity to and professed enmity and hatred against the Ministers and Ministry of the Gospel and from a Jesuitical and Anabaptistical design to subvert and ruine our Ministers Church and Religion the probable if not necessary consequence of this infernal Project if it should take effect Which would prove the eternal Shame Infamy and Ruine of our Nation not its Glory and Benefit The first part of the Proposition is sufficiently manifested by the premises wherein I have answered all Objections from pretended Grounds of Piety Conscience and surmised Inconveniences or Mischiefs made against Tithes discovering them to be mere Impostures and false Surmises and the principal Objections against them are that they are Jewish Popish And Iohn Canne in his Second Voyce from the Alehouse for surely it came from thence not from the Temple to shew his skill in Divinity most impudently asserts That payment of Tithes is a Sin two waies against the second Commandement 1. In it self as being Iewish and Superstitious giving honour to the wayes and devises of Antichrist This way of Maintenance by Tithes being a Popish Custom imposed by the Popes Authority c. 2ly As paid to an unlawfull and Antichristian Ministry c. Surely a Lyer ought to have a good Memory He confesseth p. 15. That Tithes were paid by Abraham vowed by Iacob and prescribed by God himself in the Ceremonial law Therefore neither Jewish nor Popish nor Superstitions nor a Sin against the 2d Commandement else Abraham in paying Iacob in vowing God in prescribing the Israelites in paying them should transgresse this Commandement and commit a Sin against it I would demand of this Canne how he can reconcile these his palpable Lyes and Contradictions unbecomming him who professeth himself a true Minister of the Gospel 1. How Tithes can be merely Jewish since paid by Gods direction and approbation by Abraham the Father of the Faithfull and that
to Christ himself in the shape of Melchisedec and prescribed by Gods own special Precept 2ly How any thing commanded by God even when the 2d Commandement was given recorded in the same Canonical Books of Scripture with it practised by Gods special command by all his true Saints under the Law and generally in all Christian Churches under the Gospel as I have proved can possibly be a Sin against the 2 d. Commandement in it self and whether it be not direct Blasphemy in him thus confidently to aver it in making Gods very Commandements to fight one against another and to command one thing as a Duty in some Texts and condemn it as a Sin and damnable Superstition in another 3ly How Tithes if truly and orignally Iewish can yet be truly and originally Antichristian Popish and the Popes device many thousand years after Tithes first Institution and customary payment Till he can satisfactorily reconcile these apparent contradictory Assertions or publickly recant them if he cannot all the world must accompt him for an Antichristian Minister and Lying Impostor his Voyce the Voyce of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth both God and Men Psal 44.16 and confess there is no ground at all in Piety or Conscience against Tithes or their payment but grounds both of Piety and Conscience for them as I have proved especially for our Godly Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel for whom I only plead whose Calling being of unquestionable Divine Institution notwithstanding all Cannes Alehouse Arguments against them not worth a Canne and to continue in the world to the very end thereof and the consummation of all things by Christs own resolution Matth. 28.20 Ephes 4.10 11 12 13. they may and ought by Divine and Human Laws to enjoy their Glebes and Tithes so long continued maugre all the malice power of their violent Oppugners and will do so when they and their Posterities shall not have so much as a Name or Being upon Earth or in Heaven unless they repent notwithstanding they were justly taken from Popish Fryers Abbots Priors Lordly Prelates of mere popish Antichristian Institution not Divine when their very Orders were suppressed as mere Vsurpers Encroachers of the Ministers Rights Rewards alone for their pains in preaching exercising their Ministerial Function in their respective Parishes not in Abbies Cathedrals no Parish-Churches for the people to resort unto to which by the Popes Bulls they were unjustly appropriated heretofore To clear this Proposition more fully in all its branches I have observed that there are five sorts of persons of late very busie active both against our Ministers tiths and callings too The first are Souldiers The 2d Anabaptists Dippers Quakers with other late blasphemous Sectaries and Hereticks The 3d. prophane covetous Earthworms and Atheistical Wretches who say in their Hearts and sometimes boldly profess not only by their Lives but with their Tongues in this lawless Age There is no GOD. The 4th prophane ignorant cheating Prognosticators and Astronomers The 5th Jesuites popish Priests and Romish Emissaries sent from all parts to ruine our Ministers and Religion For the first they are either Officers and Common Souldiers and those either such who have gained or purchased Lands since the Wars lyable to Tithes for such who have no Lands at all and so not of present Ability Capacity to pay Tithes Those who have any purchased Lands lyable to Tithes are now so fierce against them for ought I can discern not out of any grounds of piety or Conscience but either out of an unworthy covetous degenerous sordid disposition to ease themselves and their Heirs from this just antient Debt yea a charge of Tithes upon their New cheap Purchases and gain them as an Over-plus into their Bargains to improve their Purchases to an higher value the case of such of them who approve of our Ministers our publick Ordinances and are no Speakers Anabaptists Sectaries Or else a like avaritious Disposition mixed with and heightned by a professed Enmity Malignity against the very Persons Calling of our Ministers whom they usually revile by the names of Baals Priests Black Coats Antichristian Locusts rotten corrupt Clergy-men Seditious Factious Varlets and all other rayling Epithites which Lilly in his late Almanacks and Scurrilous Pamphlets hath furnished them with which they much magnifie This is the Case of such Sword men who are above or against all Ordinances Duties publick or private or Antiscripturists Antitrinitarians Anabaptists Seekers Quakers Asserters of the Souls mortality as rising from and dying with the body of all their ordinary unordained Speakers Preachers infected with any other erronious heretical or blasphemous opinions of all disguised Jesuites Priests Papists under the Profession and Name of Souldiers Those who have no Lands liable to Tithes petition and speak against them either meerly to please their Superior Landed-Officers for fear of being cashiered by them or because they are infected with Anabaptism Jesuitism Errors Blasphemy Schism Arianism Atheism contempt of all publique Ordinances Duties and a bitter Emnity against our Ministers Persons Callings or Intruders into their Office as well as into most other Professions without any Lawfull call These in my Observation and I appeal to every of their own Consciences in the presence of the Searcher of all hearts for the truth of it are the only true Grounds Motives of any Officers or Souldiers present stickling opposition against Tithes and Ministers arising from within them as they are private persons And these unchristian Grounds seconded with the open or under-hand sollicitations of their Anabaptistical Heretical Schismatical Jesuitical Astromatical Friends and acquaintance out of the Army backed with a most impious wretched Sacrilegious Policy to please the simple oppressed deluded Country people in discharging them at present from the payment of Tithes to their Ministers that so they may augment their Taxes to the full value of their abolished Tithes to support themselves and the Army the longer in a body to uphold their Supream enchroached Powers preserve encrease their New Purchases Estates depending wholly upon the New Law and Title of the longest Sword are in my apprehension the only true causes why the General Council of Officers of the Army with the Souldiers under them by their directions as a New created All-swaying Military Corporation have so oft appeared publickly against our Ministers Tithes to abolish them and their Ministry by necessary consequence with them which all other Opponents being inconsiderable were never able to effect but by their armed power These are all the real principles of Piety Conscience if they deserve the Title I could ever yet find amongst them engaging the Army-Officers and Souldiers against Tithes which how inconsistent they are with the real profession or grounds of Christianity Piety Conscience Justice Saintship let their own Consciences and the world resolve and what Censures Execrations Judgements they may in Justice expect from God for such a Sacrilegious Rapine as they intend upon these carnal impious atheistical
carry us Captives to a Foreign Nation as it did Gods own people heretofore 2 Chron. 36.15 to 22. Sufficient motives to deter us from such a dangerous practice 6ly I must inform our Army-Officers and Souldiers that it is expresly against the very Laws and Rules of War even in a Foreign Enemies Country won by Conquest to rob destroy pillage Churches Temples or things devoted for the Maintenance of Gods publique Worship which not only the best Christian Generals and Souldiers but many Heathen and Mahometan Generals Princes Commanders made conscience not to plunder deface demolish or substract as Grotius proves at large by many instances in his Book De Jure Belli l. 3. c. 2 12. sect 6 7 8. Annotata on them How much more then is it against the Law of War and Armes it self to make a prey plunder of Churches Rectories Glebes Tithes in their own native Country against their own Consciences Covenants Commissions to defend them Yea such Generals Souldiers and whole Armies who have made no Conscience to observe it have been frequently destroyed for their Sacrilege as many Heathen Historians observe as well as Christian Herodotus in my Edition p. 7 8 44 167 168 169 170 187 349 350 460 461 568. Diodorus Siculus Bibl. Hist p. 622 781 782. Dion Cassius Rom. Hist p. 589. Justini Historia l. 8. p. 87. l. 24. p. 227 to 231 269 271 308. Caelius Rhodiginus Ant. Lect. l. 18. c. 29 Eutropius Rer. Rom. Hist p. 175 228 334. Paulus Diaconus p. 417. Nicetus Hist p. 48 50. Laurentius Begerlink Chronogra p. 137 189 263. record sundry examples of this kind both among Pagans and Christians to deter others from this dangerous destructive sin which if they neglect scorn I shall then desire them to remember that saying of Euripedes an Heathen Poet in his Troadibus that he shall receive the like exemplary punishment Homo quisquis urbes vastat Dis Manibus Sedes Sacratas Templaque haud recte sapit Nam similis ipsum Pestis Excidii manet 7ly It is the Resolution of Seneca the Philosopher Quisquis id quod Deorum est sustulerit consumpsit atquâ— in usum suum vertit sacrilegus est and all Canonists Casuists Schoolmen Divines whatsoever accord That it is Sacrilege for any Persons or Powers whatsoever to invade or take away any thing which our Ancestors or any others have solemnly vowed dedicated for the necessary maintenance of Gods publique worship and Ministers under what specious pretext soever it be done Therefore to take away or abolish our Ministers Tithes Glebes Rectories and other Dues conferred on them by our pious Ancestors and make spoyl havock of the Churches Edifices erected by them for Gods publique worship must questionlesse be Sacrilege as God himself expresly defines Mal. 3.8 9. With all commentators thereon old and new and Gratian Caus 16. qu. 1. This the famous Emperor Souldier Charles the Great and Ludovicus surnamed the Godly and most Christian joyntly resolve Capit. Caroli Ludovici l. 6. cap. 285 295 296 115 305. l. 7. c. 104. where they thus conclude Scimus res Ecclesiae Deo esse sacratas Scimus eas esse vota Fidelium pretia peccatorum Quapropter si quis eas ab Ecclesiis quibus a Fidelibus collatae Deoque Sacratae sunt aufert proculdubio Sacrilegium committit Caecus enim est qui ista non videt c. Si ergo amico quippiam rapere furtum est Ecclesiae vero fraudari vel abstrahi indubitanter Sacrilegium est Omnes enim contra Legem facientes Resque Ecclesiae dirimentes vel Ecclesias Sacerdotesque contra Divinas Sanctiones vexantes Sacrilegi vocantur atque Indubitanter infames Sacrilegique Habendi sunt c. What Penalties have been inflicted upon such who were guilty of this sin by Christian Princes in foreign parts I shall briefly inform this Sacrilegious age Theodoricus King of the Gothes in his Edict c. 125. enacted That if any man should violently take any thing from Churches he should lose his head And Alaricus the Gothish King though an Arrian when he took Rome by force of Armes and his Souldiers had taken the Sacred Vessels out of St. Peters Church there and brought them to him commanded them to carry them back again to the Church with their own hands which took them thence ut cupiditas quae depraedationis ambitu admiserat scelus devotione largissima deleret excessum as Cassiodor relates l. 12. Epist 20. Among the Friseans Laws made by their wisemen Tit. 12. De Honore Templorum this is one He who shall break a Church and take away the holy things thence let him be carried to the Sea and in the Sand which the Tide is wont to cover let his cares be slit and he be gelt and then let him be sacrificed to the Gods whose Temples he hath violated The Neopolitan Laws l. 1. Tit. 5. enact That whosoever shall violently break open a Church and take away any Gifts or consecrated Vessels thence shall be punished as a Capital Offâ—nder and lose his life Charles the Great and Lewes the Godly enacted That if any person violently took from any Church Priest or Minister any thing belonging to them and were convicted thereof or confessed the same he should have sentence of death given against him as guilty of Sacrilege and that it should be not only lawfull but commendable to prosecute and avenge this Sacrilege and Injury done to the Church Priests and Ministers as a publique Crime deserving punishment and that if any did Sacrilegiously invade or molest the Possessions and Lands of the Church he should be perpetually banished for it Capit. Caroli Ludovici l. 6. Tit. 113 125. And Tit. 305. they thus determine All things that are offered to the Lord are without all doubt consecrated to the Lord and not only the Sacrifices which by the Priests are consecrated upon the Altar to the Lord are called the Oblations of the faithfull but what things soever are offred to him by the faithfull whether in Sacrifices or in Fields Vineyards Woods Medowes Waters Water-streams Artifices Books Utensils Stones Buildings Vestments Wools Garments Cattel Parchments Moveables and Immoveables or whatsoever which of these things are made to the praise of God or the Supplement of the holy Church of God and his Priests and which may give ornament unto them whether they be freely offered by any one to the Lord and his Church are undoubtedly consecrated to the Lord and belong to the Priests Right And because we truly acknowledge the Lord and his Church to be one person what ever things are the Churches are Christs and whatsoever is offered to the Church either in the aforesaid things or in any other Kinds or by promises or pledges or writings or in corporal things are offered unto Christ and what thinâ—s by any devise are alienated or taken from his Church either by alienating or by wasting or invading or