Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	receive_v	4,013	5	5.3962	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49587	A discourse of paying of tithes by T.L. ... ; together with an appendix ...	Larkham, Thomas, 1602-1669.	1656 (1656)	Wing L441A; ESTC R41027	20,618	58

to separate betweene the precious and the vile and bemore faithful in their trust and then God will teach men to be more forward to pay them their due and to allow them at least competencies if they be not convinced of this truth of the Divine Right of paying of tythes which I wish were more searched into as all truths ought to be without partiality Object Object But it will be an act of injustice to take away from men that which is their proper right by the ancient Lawes of men and which men have bought and paid for and to give it to such as have no right thereunto whose it never was in any ones opinion for indeed if tythes be not the Lords as hath formerly beene shewed they are they must needs be theirs whom Law and possession hath setled them upon Now to take tythes from them that claim them receive them as their right by Law which determines propriety without allowing a valuable consideration may seeme to be great iniquity Sol. Sol. To which I answer that if to withhold goods from the owner be a sin and forbidden as it is in the Word of God then it can be no sinne in the Magistrate to judge the restoring of them to the rightful owner and to turne the streame into its proper channel The case is the same touching tythes whether you look upon them as due by the Moral Law to Ministers or as devoted in the elder times of the Gospel-Church though for my part I rather believe the former but we will not make more questions then need to divide the worshippers of God The scope of this Tract being to evince the duty of this present Power to take tythes away as now they are payable and to put people into a capacity of doing their duty Object Object But if the Lawes of men do not compel persons to do their duty they will be re●●isse and negligent c. Sol. Sol. To which I answer The Churches are to take cognisance of miscarriages in their proper and peculiar members and they have not the power of the Keyes committed to them in vaine it is not sword work either Military or Civil to force peoples consciences but the work of the Spirits sword as hath formerly beene hinted Quest Quest But what course then shall be taken to provide for such as are to instruct the world Answ Answ I answer Churches may send out members and the State if they see it fit may out of Gleeb-lands so called or other devoted Revenues or by Taxes and Rates allow such or any others whom they shall judge meet for that work of preaching whether Church-officers or others a convenient stipend or pay provided that Church-members be not robbed of that which they are carrying to the Lord as his portion by his owne appointment and ordinance There may be many wayes thought upon to furnish the Nation with able godly Teachers and Preachers either fixed or itinerary which may be authorized and maintained in this excellent needful imployment if they be not Church-officers and if they be Church-officers then care is taken for them already by the Ordinance of God as hath beene shewed and indeed such only are fit unlesse in case of extreme necessity for that work of publike preaching and it will tend much to the making of peace among Professors of Religion and it is very suitable to the ancient practice of the Church in the times after the Apostles Athanasius against the Messalians writeth that there were diverse Bishops in some one Church though not in that of Alexandria And D. Sutliffe de pont lib. 1. chap. 5. saith that Paul towne by towne appointed Presbyters and Bishops And Epiphanius cont haeres lib. 2. haeres 27. And Eusebius also in his Ecclesiastical story reckons both Peter and Paul for Bishops at Rome both at one time But I lay not much weight on these things Only to shew you that if in one particular Church there be divers Ministers Bishops Presbyters Elders call them by which of these names you will there may be a sparing of some of them by course to instruct the world and yet they may be ready also to preserve good order in the particular Churches to whom they do belong and to propagate the Ordination for the perpetuity of Churches respectively others to succeed them from time to time upon the election of the members of each Church of fit men so to be presented to them to receive Ordination And as Calvin lib. 4. cap. 3. sect 8 15. lib. 4. cap. 4. sect 1. affirmeth that from among the company of the Presbyters some were chosen to be Pastours and Teachers and the rest were Overseers and Censurers of the behaviours of the people so why may not these by course or some of them be chosen to preach and teach abroad and receive their livelihood from the Churches to whom they do belong out of the tythes paid in to them by the members and due unto them as Ministers of those Churches For I would not have you think that one man should scrape hundreds together from the Church as some Parsons so called now do but that tythes should be brought into Gods store-house as we read they were commanded to be Mal. 3.1 and so imployed to the service of God in maintaining Ministers and Church-officers But I am sensible of the running of my Pen. I therefore returne to the Answer to the Question viz. that men of small reach may easily finde out wayes for instructing the world that do not submit to any Church Bishops or Ministers of old had the care of both Cities in which they lived and Countries adjoyning and besides Church-members and others live promiscuously together in most places if they do not care may be taken without so much ado for teaching and instructing all Whole Cities or townes were not Churches in ancient time neither ought they to be so now We read of the Church of Smyrna one of the seven Churches of Asia where Polycarpus was Pastor as soone as he was knowne to be a Christian was martyred by the rage of the multitude and that as Eusebius Eccles hist lib. 4. cap. 15. recordeth in the sight of his owne people The whole Cities there were not Churches if they had been how could the Church of Smyrna writing to other Churches of the foresaid martyrdome entitle her selfe the Church of God which is at Smyrna And yet I will not deny but there might be some few here there in the town and hamlets thereabout which belonged to the Churches in the greater towns and cities but not as now where Tavistock town is one thing and Tavistock parish another because it is supposed all that are within the precincts of the parish must needs be members of the Church there and so hath it beene accounted formerly but I must confesse without fear it is otherwise now And why may it not be so in other places I teach all in

the publike meeting-house but do only baptize the children of such as are received and allowed members of the Church and admitted to the Lords Table And therefore this question notwithstanding I conceive taking away of tythes as now payable will no way hinder the teaching of the world but rather as I have shewed further it when Church-members shall be enabled to pay their tythes to their proper Churches CHAP. IV. In this last Chapter you have the Conclusion with humble submission to the Churches of Christ and to the Ministers of the Gospel IT is not my purpose to be either peremptory or prolix I will therefore summe up all Whether they shall read these subitaneous collections that hold that tythes are meer almes which was the opinion of those who were called the Waldenses which doubtless they were drawne to hold upon the abuse of tythes which they saw under the Church of Rome which opinion afterward came to be received and taken up by John Wickliffe and his scholars as you shall finde it to be the 18 Article amongst those against him condemned in the Councel of Constance and by John Hus a Bohemian William Thorp an Englishman as appeareth by their examinations recorded by Mr. Fox which hath also since beene taught by Anabaptists and Trinitaries as may be seene in a book de antithesibus veri falsi Christi Anno Domini 1568. Albae Juliae and is followed by many now that would have Ministers and Church-officers to have right to nothing Or whether they shall peruse what I have written that hold for a reasonable and competent maintenance as due by Divine authority which is the opinion of them of the Church of Rome as Bellarmine declareth Tom. 1 contr 5. lib. 1. and is much received among our Writers of the Reformed Churches cap. 25. Or whether they look upon these lines that hold tythes due by the expresse Word of God which is the judgement of the ancient Fathers from the beginning without contradiction untill the Supreme Authority of the Pope took them away by meanes of impropriations This is the conclusion that as now they are payed by the Lawes and usages of this Nation they cannot be warranted to be well paid which to prove I provoke any Divine Lawyer or other to make good by sound arguments out of the Word of God and therefore that they ought to be taken away notwithstanding all that hitherto I have heard to be alledged for the keeping of them on foot If tythes be due at all it must be either by the Law of God or men if of men either by Princes constitutions or by the Canon Law as I have said in chap. 2. They were paid before the Canon Law was invented and better then since And few plead Princes constitutiōs for their ancient payment in the Church for they are held due in all the Christian world over which no one Prince ruleth And for our late paying of them by Lawes and Ordinances if the Common Law were well applied it would be found to be Malus usus and therfore abolendus Wherefore seeing all that can be said for continuance of tythes is declared to be of no force seeing it is so injurious to the Churches so oppressive to the people of the Land so unwarrantable by the Word of God the taking of them away so much defired by all that are the most considerable that this is the way to have them paid regularly by such as see that truth are so judgemented or else to help them that are for a liberal maintenance for Ministers to be able to do their duty according to their light Seeing wayes may be easily found out for preventing all inconveniences that will come by their taking away I conclude as Cato did his Orations semper diruendam esse Carthaginem So that by any means tythes as now payable of all sorts root and branch are by Authority to be taken away in the judgement of T. L. An APPENDIX to the former discourse by way of Apology for the seasonablenesse of it which some do or may suppose to be otherwise I Am very sensible Christian Reader that I shall be looked upon with diverse sorts of eyes and the most I have cause to think will cast ill aspects upon these few lines I have written touching the Moral duty of giving the tenth of our estates to God the Lord Paramount of all that we enjoy as tenants at will by and under this as it were reserved rent But forasmuch as I judge it to be not only a duty as I am a Minister to bear witnesse to every truth in due time and place but especially to look after and eye Gods call to a work of the time when it should be done more eminently and universally and conceiving this to be such a one I trust I shall not be mis-judged by all nor the most of them that truly fear the Lord if in any competent measure they stand loose disingaged from private interests For otherwise truly I shall be in danger of deep censure such of snares and slurs to the drawing of them perhaps to oppose yea persecute this work of mine though intended for the relief of tender consciences and to make a beginning by breaking of the ice in this thing which taske God hath bin pleased all along my life as I could shew in many particulars to lay upon me Interests are diverse of honour some some of profit of friends othersome and ease and peaceable sleeping in a whole skin as we say will be very techy at such things as cause troubles and stirs in places and countreys as the effectual prosecuting of this truth by the hand of power in regard of the practick part is like enough to do But interests are never so dangerous as when coloured over with pretences of piety justice Religion As we read in Samuel of Saul's sparing of Agag and the best of the flock in order as he pretended to the worship and service of God or in pity to that King but this proved a cause of casheerment to Saul by God and another must take his place The Gadarens upon an interest of profit sent Christ away for they were loath to lose their pigs And Diotrephes upon the interest of honour and preeminence opposeth John and the work of Christ in his Churches Interest of friendship was a great blur and scourge to good King Jehosaphat to wit his joyning with Ahab and Ahaziah I might tell you of the interest of relations which was such a cause of folly in King Solomon who by his wives upon this account was drawn to Idolatry Also do we not see that many publike Preachers like the Pharisees oppose Christ in many of his servants because they are not made as it were little Gods as once they were thus many upon the interest of honour miscarry much that promised better when time was But yet truth at last will profligate all that stands in its way and