to feed us without our industry with Manna and Quails as he did his Church in the Wilderness or by the Ravens as he did Elisha or to make the small provisions we have to abound by an inexhaustible increase as he did the Widows barrel of meal and cruse of Oyl and in the Gospel the five loaves and two fishes though he could soon introduce the Golden Age to make it a perpetual Spring and to cause the earth to bring forth all her fruits and teem her riches to us of her own accord though God could quickly do all this and more though he could translate us instantly and carry us up into a better habitation though he could perfect us out of hand and the next minute wrap us into the third Heaven and rest us in Paradise though this be in his power yet we see it is not in his will It is not his pleasure thus to dispense his favours nor to pour out his blessings all at once For though the Divine power and Goodness too be both of them infinite yet do not engage God though an Almighty Father in doing good to act like natural Agents both alwayes and all he can For the acts of his Power and Goodness are determin'd by his infinite Wisdome And he dispenseth his gifts according as there is necessity and occasion for them That the Spirit helpeth us to understand old truths already revealed in Scripture we confess and pray for his assistance therein but to pretend to such miraculous inspirations as the Apostles once had or to new revelations beyond what was discover'd to them is a horrible cheat set up at first by St. Francis and St. Bridget and some other Fanatical Friers and Nuns of the Romish Church whose steps the Quakers do now follow but the delusion and falshood of such pretences will appear if you consider 1. How highly these new revelations disparage the Holy Scripture which if it be true and may be believed declares it self to be a perfect and sufficient rule in order to salvation 2 Tim. 3. 17. and accurseth all that shall preach any other Doctrine Gal. 1. 8 9. and in the close of that holy Book a woe is denounced to all that should add any thing to it or take any thing from it So that they who would make new additions by daily inspirations make God himself a lyar in commending that to us for a perfect rule which needs continual additions and the preaching of Christ and his Apostles at this rate must be thought imperfect and that Word which should try the Spirits must submit to every new revelation Nor do the Papists more dishonour Gods Word by making their Traditions of equal value to it than the Quakers by esteeming their new revelations to be as much from the Spirit of God 2. Consider how contrary these new revelations are to Gods constant method in regard they came naked without any miracles to attest them for when did God ever send any new Doctrine into the World and did not also give the Preachers thereof a power of working miracles to confirm that it was from him Moses had this power when he was to set up the Law Jesus when he was to preach the Gospel to the Jews the Apostles when they were to convert the Gentiles But as St. Austin notes when once the World did believe this power ceased which was only given that they might believe Now if God had sent the Quakers with any new revelations how comes it to pass he hath given them no power of doing miracles or why do any believe them whenas God doth not bear witness to them as in other cases he alwayes did shall we take their own words for it or esteem their new Doctrines not confirmed with any Divine Powers as highly as we do the Holy Gospel witnessed by many thousand miracles this were to make our selves as foolish as those who dote upon them and to encourage every Cheat to impose his fancies on us as Divine Revelations who hath the confidence to say he is inspired 3. New Revelations do manifestly contradict the Faith of the primitive Christians and holy Fathers who called the Scriptures the truest rule of Doctrine the ancient measure of Faith the Divine Standard the Repository of all things necessary either to Faith or Manners they esteemed it great impudence to affirm any thing without their Authority or to expect any truths beyond what was written they desired not to be believed unless they proved their assertions by Scripture Did they not in every Councel examin all Doctrines and Opinions by the written Word of God and condemn those for Hereticks who invented new fancies not agreeing to it And when the Gnosticks Montanists and Messalians pretended to Prophecy Raptures and Inspiration they were censur'd as Impostors and Deceivers By all which it appears that if the Quakers had held forth their new Revelations in those pure and zealous dayes they had also been solemnly convicted and denounced Hereticks and why should we embrace that for a truth in these last and worst of times which the best Ages of the Church did reject as a notorious falshood 4. And yet this new Doctrine of new Revelations is not more false than it is mischievous to those who do believe it for hereby their faith is uncertain as their Teachers fancy and poor deluded souls do receive falshood and railing non-sense and blasphemy as if they came from the Spirit of God They despise the ancient and pure certain and fixed principles of Christianity received from Jesus and his Apostles sealed with the blood of Martyrs and retained by all good Christians and admire the discourse of a bold and empty man above them all they take upon them to appoint new wayes of worship and reject the old even the very Sacraments which Jesus himself instituted they neglect Learning themselves contemn it in others and would bring the World into an Egyptian darkness if others were of their mind and all this and much more they do for a thing that never was nor never will be proved for a dream a meer fancy and a miserable mistake which none can believe till they have first bid adieu to all sense and reason So that in meer pity to those mis-guided souls who follow this false and fantaltick light I cannot but make this digression to convince them that they adore a lie for Divine Revelation to the great hazard of their eternal damnation Par. But do you deny all Revelations Min. I own those Revelations which are upon Râ—…cord in the Holy Bible which is the Word of God wherein he hath revealed his Will to the Church but no other Revelations do I hearken after Par. But the Quakers tell us the Bible is a dead Letter but the Word of God is quick and powerful so is not the Bible Min. By such like sottish wayes of Reasoning I conceive the Speakers among them
to be the meaning of the words so as to make all Oaths unlawful Min. This objection of yours is so far from so doing that it hath in part forestall'd the explication which I was prepariâ—…g to give you of the scope of our Saviours discourse for by the relation you rightly take notice of it is evidently restrained to that abuse of the tongue in common talk and communication here particularly mentioned and so to that very prophanation whereby both Jews and Gentiles had then most licentiously corrupted their conversation yea and that by allowance from the Jewish Interpreters of the Law which therefore it was high time for our great Law-giver to correct and tell them that in ordinary communication those plain asseverations of yea and nay or yes and no which are the same or other words of the like importance either used singly or else for more vehemence sake repeated if need require are enough to give credit to what we say if we would use our selves to speak truth And that these are as much as can be safely used in such promiscuous discourses wherein passion interest transportation and too much haste or inconsiderateness do usually carry the tongue out of its bounds and therefore would provoke men to multiply words and Oaths and bring them in danger not only of rash irreverent swearing but even of perjury it self Par. But is not the explication of this place disproved by that passage in James 5. 12. where he saith But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven nor by the earth nor by any other Oath Doth not the Apostle here expresly forbid all manner of Oaths Min. The Apostle St. James do's mean only all Oaths of that kind there mentioned and then so much used by Jew and Gentile for he leaves out some of those which our Saviour had instanced in and breaks off with this clause nor by any other oath which implyes his meaning to be that as we are not to swear by heaven nor the earth so neither by any other such like Oath which our Saviour had forbidden viz. neither by Jerusalem nor by the Temple the Altar c. and consequently by no created being for if Christ has not forbidden all kinds of Oaths St. James has not for the servant is not greater than his Lord either to institute any new law or to repeal any which Christ left in force Neither can we think St. James intended any thing he said to charge St. Paul's Oaths with sin which we find in those Epistles he writ by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and which were used by him for the more solemn confirmation of those truths he wrote to several Churches And as little can we think that he accuseth the holy Angel in Revel 10. for swearing Without doubt St. James offers at a repetition of our Saviours doctrine for while he saith Let your yea be yea and your nay nay his meaning is Let your promise be performance and let your word be the truth to the end that amongst all with whom you converse you may be believed without an Oath And so he adds lest you fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some authentick Copies have it that is into hypocrisie and so into lying and perjury by occasion whether of your passions of any sort or of those frequent inadvertences which we are so subject to in our common talk Par. I thank you for the large pains you have taken in giving me the sense of this Scripture which has so much puzled me and that you may see I have not heard you without attention I thus apprehend your meaning An Oath being in it self an act of Religion towards God and of so much justice and charity towards my Neighbour in determining publick causes it remains that it is a part of that Moral Law which our Saviour came not to repeal and therefore this Text must not be interpreted to do so but hath a peculiar reference to those errours in doctrine and practice among the Jews which the words are designed to correct that is all swearing by the Creature which the Jewes falsly suppos'd to be no Oaths and so not binding and all swearing by the Name of God in our common talk because such a license might daily expose men both to rash and false swearing in place whereof our Saviour hath therefore substituted those plain asseverations of yea yea nay nay or such like but the use and lawfulness of swearing remains when I am called by lawful Authority to declare my conscience in order to the ending of any controversie wherein my evidence may be concern'd I shall give you no further disturbance in the case of an Oath having had all my scruples about it sufficiently answer'd I shall now only desire to know whether the Quakers tying themselves to the strict use of yea and nay in all their communication do not live in a stricter conformity to that precept of the Gospel then those who neglect the use of them Min. I wish the Quakers did as seriously consider the meaning and occcasion of these phrases as they superstitiously affect the use of them Our obedience to this command of Christs consists not in the precise use of the words yea and nay but in the truth and integrity of the speakers heart in what forms and phrases soever he expresseth himself No words being of further use than as they are the Interpreters of the heart For it is not words and phrases wherein good and evil consisteth but truth and honesty which commends us to God and the only thing commanded in his Law Par. I have no other objection concerning Oaths I pray therefore let us pass to some other subject of Controversie wherein if you can give me as much satisfaction as I have received in this beyond my expectation I hope neither will you have cause to think your pains nor I my time ill bestow'd Min. I shall readily embrace your motion and therefore let me hear what your other scruples are Par. You pretend your selves to be the Apostles successors and imitators if so how comes it to pass that you preach not as they did but single out a Text out of which you compose your Sermons What warrant have you for so doing Min. The Apostles themselves took texts out of Scripture to expound and apply them St. Peter did so in his Sermon Acts 2. and St. Paul in the Synagogue at Antioch Act. 16. And they both preached Christ out of the same text namely Psal. 16. 10. And the whole fourth Chapter to the Romans is but an enlarged discourse upon Gen. 15. 6. Again you may consider the Apostles and we act under different circumstances They might sometimes without a Book speak by the sole authority of infallible inspiration But now such extraordinary gifts being ceased we take texts to shew we have no other Doctrine to deliver but what is taken out of the written Word of God And our only work is
occasion and by that means of the true scope of them how much more difficult must they needs be to us at this distance especially to such as are wholly strangers to all those things aforemention'd that are so necessary to the making any dark Scriptures intelligible Par. This I cannot deny but then I would gladly know how to reconcile this with such passages in the Bible which contrary wise call the Gospel a Light and bid us walk in the Light Min. You are greatly mistaken in supposing that I affirm all the Scriptures hâ—…rd to be understood I only say as St. Peter sayes that some passages are so for so run the words in which are some things hard c. Par. Are then the necessary points of Religion in them hard to be understood Min. No they are not for whatsoever is necessary to salvation either to be believed or to be done are in some place or other in holy Scripture fitted to the most vulgar capacity and shallowest understanding as for example the history of Christs birth death resurrection and ascension is as necessary to be believed so plain to be understood though yet it hath been perverted by the mis-interpretation of the Quakers and some Hereticks and from plain History turn'd into meer Allegory Then the duties of the first and second Table of the Law and the Love of God and our Neighbour all the Evangelical Precepts and the Essentials of Religion are in the Gospel made such easie Doctrines that he that runs may read them being fitted to the capacity of the most unlearned And this reminds us of our duty of thankfulness to our great Law-giver in that he hath made those Doctrines most plain which are most necessary to be believed and those things least necessary which are most difficult As for example it is not necessary to salvation to be knowing in all the Circumstances of the Levitical Rites nor in all the Genealogies of the Scripture nor in all the Apocalyptical Prophesies and therefore the obscurity of them need not dismay us Par. Certainly God would never have sent his Messengers to deliver those things to the world which he did not indispensibly require every one to understand Min. I hope to convince you of this mistake and to assist your apprehension by this plain comparison Suppose a King makes a great Feast for his Subjects he prepares meats for all constitutions and different dishes for different stomachs that among all this variety every person should feed upon that which is most agreeable to his constitution just such preparations hath God made for the Church in holy Scriptures where are Vyands for all pallats For the strong there is strong meat and mysteries to exercise the greatest Wits and the most improved Understandings Heb. 5. 14. And as for those whose understanding is either clouded by an unhappy constitution or was never well open'd and improv'd by education to such there is not wanting what is necessary even milk for babes many passages especially those of the greatest concern being written in such a plain and familiar style that the weakest and most illiterate of which number a greatest part of the members of the Church are shall never be able to excuse the neglect of them the Omniscient Author of the Scriptures herein graciously condescending to the shallowest capacities to let them see that they were not forgotten nor overlook't by him who says All Souls are his Ezek. 18. 4. The Scriptures being ordinarily compared to such a River wherein the Elephant may swim and the Lamb may wade But when illiterate people who commonly see no further than the outward appearance of things will venture to be guides and will be rashly passing judgment upon that which is above their understandings according to that character given of such men 1 Tim. 1. 7. Desiring to be teachers of the Law understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm and do leave the plain easie paths and confidently falling upon points too high for them no wonder if such wrest and pervert the Scriptures Par. I remember that was the second particular that the Scriptures have been wrested How do you make that good Min. This is matter of fact and known to all that are acquainted either with men or Books for we all too sadly know that there is not that opinion in Religion be it never so wild and absurd but challengeth authority from the Scriptures Though truth be the same yet every sect lays claim to it and though the Scripture be the fountain of truth yet is it by some rendred the very sink of errours Go to all the wild Sects yea Heresies in the world those of the Arrians Socinians Antinomians Ranters as well as this of the Quakers all these will with equal confidence challenge an authority from the Word of God The fault here is not in the Scriptures but in them that do abuse and wrest them to their own conceptions to make them speak their own sense as for instance Suppose a man that is troubled with a Vertigo in his head should tell you that he is confident the earth turns round 't is not the earth but a disturbed brain that is the cause of this mis-apprehension So every Fanatick will tell you that he 's confident he has the Scripture on his side in the behalf of his opinion where is now the fault in the Scripture or in the whim in his pate The Scriptures are in no fault for any irregularities in the conceptions of such men The fault is in their byass'd affections and their want of steady principles and defect both of wit and grace but the true sense of Scripture words continues one and the same though mens erroneous conceptions and interpretations of them should still abound and vary to the worlds end Par. But how then happens this strange variety in the interpretation of Scripture Min. By taking the words thereof to put what construction they please upon them while they mistake their true scope and meaning for it is not the Letter but the Sense that is the Word of God And 't is not only Quakers and other Separatists that have the words of Seripture but the Devil also as you will find Matth. 4. 6. when he tempted our Saviour He replyes there with a Text of Scripture But the Devil and these wanting the sense and design take the shell and leave the kernel It was St. Augustines saying That Hereticks and Schismaticks steal the words of Christ intimating that they may use his Name his Word and his Ordinances but then 't is only as Thieves and Robbers use their stoln goods to which they have no right nor property Par. Give me now leave to remind you of your third particular viz. the causes there exprest why the Scriptures are thus wrested Min. I am ready to gratifie your desires and begin with the first cause namely the want of learning which is derided by Hubberthorn and censur'd by those
only by the mention of Sion and the destruction approaching it in the beginning of that Chapter of Joel which signifies it to belong to Jerusalem that then was but also by two further undeceivable evidences 1. By the mention of the wonders immediately subjoyn'd in the heavens and the earth c. as forerunners of the great and terrible day of the Lord the same that had been before described in Joel v. 2. c. and applyed by Christ in the very words to this destruction of Jerusalem Matth. 24. 29 30. 2. By the occasion for which St. Peter produceth it Acis 2. 14. the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles v. 2. 4. which saith he was no effect of drunkenness in them but the very thing which was foretold by that place of Joel before that great and notable day of the Lord that was to fall upon that People to an utter destruction This being a prediction of what should come before the destruction of Jerusalem and the completion whereof was so visible and remarkable in that Age to which by the Prophet it was assigned and this as a peculiar character of those times wherein the Gospel was to be first propagated by this means and to which it had a propriety as a last act of God's miraculous and gracious oeconomy for the full conviction of this peoples sins before they were destroyed it must needs be impertinently and fallaciously applyed to any men or women old or young of this Age so distant from that to which it belonged and so well provided for by the ordinary means the setled Office of Ministry in Christ's Church as to have no such need of extraordinary So that they have no more right to charge God to perform this promise over again than a Creditor hath reason to exact a sum of money by vertue of a cancel'd Bond. The Quakers I perceive pretend to an interest in these Prophesies But then why do not these pretenders to new lights speak with new tongues heal diseases raise the dead and do other miraculous acts according to the tenor of those Prophesies Par. But they will tell you of as great acts for they gain many Proselites and thereby enlarge the Kingdom of Christ. Min. If counting numbers be the thing to establish the truth of their Religion in all probability they will renounce Christianity it self and turn Mahometans for Mahomet has more that follow him than Christ Then wo be to that little flock to whom a Kingdom is promised Par. But what do you say to the third particular in order to applying Scripture seasonably and properly Min. I say if a due regard be not had thereof there is scarce that irregularity in the World which you may not make the Scripture to patronize therefore saith the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah cap. 50. 4. The Lord hath given me the tongue of the Learned to speak in due season And so Prov. 15. 23. A word spoken in season is like Apples of gold in pictures of silver A good thing improperly applyed may be made instead of good the occasion of evil for good things do loose the grace of their goodness when they are not in a good and convenient manner performed Suppose a Carpenter frames a building with great Art and Skill and makes a proper mortise for every tenon as the terms are when this building comes to be set up if you place not the joynts aright the whole building will be in disorder So God Almighty the wise Architect has framed his Word to proper times occasions and emergencies Now if you do not suit the Text to the occasion to which it was originally framed and to the season proper to it you spoil all Though the words be good yet if the application be wrong they will prove like salt which hath lost its savour Suppose a Physician prepares a great many excellent remedies there must be a due application otherwise an antidote may prove a poyson So the great Physician of Souls has prepar'd for all maladies their proper remedies and if we expect any benefit by them we must make a seasonable application of them And to make this more plain you may consult Psalm 91. 11 12. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone Should I say that in this Scripture is represented to us Gods especial providence over his servants and whilst that I am performing my duty to God either in his immediate service or in an honest attendance on my lawful Calling I may expect the Divine protection in this sense I apply the Text seasonably and properly But should I get upon the top of a Pinacle and cast my self down upon confidence of this promise that the Angels shall bear me up then I wrest and misapply the Scripture which no where gives incouragement to a desperate attempt For it is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God that is thou shalt not tempt him to work a miracle by casting thy self down from a desperate Precipice when the ordinary means of his Providence may effect thy preservation Par. What rule have you to prevent mistakes in this kind Min. Take this for one when any Text hath a relation to a particular case that Text must not stand for a general rule but must be applyed to a like occasion for it's a most grand fallacy to draw an universal conclusion from particular premisses take an instance of my meaning from 2 Cor. 9. 22. I am made all things to all men Make this a general rule and Christianity which is the most pure Religion in the World will from this Text be a sanctuary for all villany and impurity For if I may be all things to all men then may I lawfully comply with all the irregularities of whatsoever company I come in But suit the Text to its proper occasion and it imports only this That all customs and constitutions of an indifferent nature for the peace of the Church ought to be conformed unto As for the Holy Scriptures they are the lively Oracles of God and contain in them the words of eternal life but in the Quakers impertinent application of them they look like so many Jewels in a Swines snout or like good liquor that is lost by the badness of the vessel that contains it Having thus shewed you at large the first cause of the Scriptures being wrested viz. the want of Learning I need say but little upon the other the instability of mens minds Par. However let me hear what you can say upon that subject Min. Little need be said for 't is no wonder if those who are unlearned especially if they be bold and confident be unstable for it 's the empty cloud which is carried away with every wind Old truths ought to be most loved but commonly they have the same fate with the Manna in the Wilderness
How so Min. The Gospel you hear commands a Maintenance be provided for the Ministry and the Civil Powers and Nursing Fathers of the Church have set out Tithes for that Maintenance so that if Tithes were not due by a Divine Appointment they are now due by a voluntary dedication of them Par. How does any such voluntary dedication appear Min. You need not scruple this point would you but give your self the pains of consulting Antiquaries or Church Histories especially that famous Charter of King Ethelwolf set down at large by Ingulf where you will find the whole History of the thing to the full satisfaction of any whose prejudices do not obstruct the free use of their Reason Par. I am apt to believe what you say without any further inquisition into the thing but then I suppose they were given in a blind and superstitious zeal which makes all void to us Min. This is another mistake For Tithes being given to God for the Maintenance of his Ministry no blemish in the dedication of them can alter their Property To make my assertion good a parallel case in Scripture shall be produced That which comes most near it is the case of the Two hundred and fifty men who offered Incense Yet there was a vast difference between them The Two hundred and fifty offered in a stubborn rebellious manner and these in an ignorant zeal as some suppose but we do not grant But that which will give us most light into our present case are the Censers which were so offer'd which you will find notwithstanding that damnable sin committed in the consecration of them yet because they were offer'd to God they were not to be alienated to common uses Numb 16. 37. Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the Priest that he take up the Censers out of the burning c. for they are hallowed From hence you may learn how dangerous a thing it is to meddle with any thing that hath been given to God For you see the reason given why the Censers were not alienable was because they were hallowed by being offered before the Lord. Therefore saith a Learned Rabbi they were unlawful for a common use because they had made them Vessels of Ministry Par. I have often heard that Tithes were given at the first by the Pope and therefore not to be endured in a Nation that hath renounced all communion with him Min. This I know is one of the popular Arguments of the Quakers to cast a mist before the eyes of their ignorant Followers but suppose it had been so they would not have been less hallowed than the Two hundred and fifty Censers were and so consequently the alienation of them no less impious yet I deny your assertion that Tithes had their institution from Popery And I have good grounds for what I say for Tithes were setled upon the Church before Popery had made her encroachments in it For Popery is not of that antiquity as some do vainly and falsly boast Though they shew their old shooes and mouldy bread yet upon a strict enquiry they will be found to be but so many Gibeonitish Cheats and that their tenents and corruptions are not of that antiquity as is pretended by them However that you may have a distinct answer to your Question give me first your notion of Popery Par. I call all such Doctrines and Practises Popery as are held in the Church of Rome Min. That this is a wrong notion of Popery will be very evident if you consider that the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity the Incarnation Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord is believed in the Church of Rome Par. I cannot but confess all this to be true Then I pray do you tell me what is Popery Min. I cannot give you a more brief and true account of Popery than this That it is such Doctrines and Superstitious practises which by the corruption of time have prevailed in the Church of Rome contrary to the true ancient Catholick and Apostolick Church Where we agree in any points of Religion there is no more reason to call us Papists than there is to call them Protestants The Socinians maintain the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures the Church of England doth the same shall we therefore be branded with Socinianism By which instance you may see the Quakers folly in their charging Tithes with Popery But to make it more clear do you think that Cranmer Hooper Ridley Latimer Tayler and Bradford were inclinable to Popery Par. I suspect them not in the least for they sealed their detestation of it with their blood and were eminent Martyrs for the Protestant Cause in the bloody dayes of Queen Mary Min. Then I hope you will have a better opinion of Tithes since these in their time were receivers of them As also of the Common-Prayer-Book since some of those good men did assist in the compiling of it Par. Hereafter for their sakes Tithes shall never be reputed Popish by me yet methinks you have not proved yet the Divine institution of them Min. Is it not sufficient that I have proved Maintenance in general a Divine institution and that Tithes have been set out for that Maintenance but that you may be eased in this scruple let me tell you a story There happen'd to be a publick disputation in Germany before the Elector of Saxony concerning Tithes one side vigorously maintaining that they were due by the Laws of God arguing that Tithes were paid to the Priesthood of Melchisedec and so consequently that Tithes were still in force with the Priesthood further arguing that no Law is abolished whilst the reason of it continues still in force now there is as much reason for Tithes in the times of the Gospel as there was in the times of the Law And lastly they argued from that Analogy which the Apostle makes between the Levites Maintenance under the Law and the Ministers Maintenance under the Gospel even so hath the Lord ordained c. The other side as briskly maintaining that Tithes were due only by the Laws of the Land When they had all spent their Arguments the Elector himself gave the determination thus One party I perceive saith he is for the Divine another for the Human right of Tithes yet both sides agree and acknowledge them to be a right therefore according to my duty to maintain right I am bound to justifie and uphold Tithes After all this out-cry against Tithes do the Quakers think the paying and receiving of them to be a sin Par. Do you think that all this stir could have been if they thought it not a sin to demand and receive Tithes Min. What is sin Par. The transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. Min. Now shew me a Law against Tithes If it be the transgression of a Divine Law shew the Text if of an Human Law shew the Statute 'T is the Opponents part to prove and if we be faulty you must shew