ea quae pertinent ad ecclesiam vel ex agris vel ex alia qualibet Ecclesiastica facultate sibimet usurpent ita ut ex hoc affligantur quidem pauperes criminationi verò blasphemiis tam sermo praedicationis quà m hi qui dispensant taliter exponantur hos oportet corrigi sancta Synodo id quod condecet approbante Prosper proceedeth further and will not suffer that a Minister able to live of himself should participate any thing of Church goods Nec illi qui sua possidentes c. For saith he They which have of their own and yet desire to have somewhat given them of that whereon the poor should live doe not receive it without great sinne The holy Ghost speaking of Clerks or Clergy-men saith They eat the sins of my people But as they which have nothing of their own receive the food they have need of and not the sins so they which have of their own receive not the food which they abound with but the sins of other men Therefore though the Councell of Antioch An. 340. Can. 25. ordained that the Bishops might distribute the Church goods yet would it not suffer them to take any portion thereof to the use of themselves or of the Priests and brethren that lived with them unlesse necessity did justly require it using the words of the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.8 habentes victum tegumentum his contenti sumus having food and raiment let us be there with contented And decreed further that if the Bishops should not be satisfied but did employ any goods of the Church to their kindred brethren or children they should answer it at the next Synod So likewise touching Priests as the words subsequent imply and as Achilles Statius expoundeth it pag. 14. for the Priests at that time had nothing but by the assignment of the Bishops and if the Bishops themselves might take no more then onely for their necessity we may easily judge what the inferiour Clergy might doe But Gregory looking upon 2 Thess 3.7 8. where it is said You ought to follow us we take no bread of any man for nought and that he which will not work should not eat applieth these to the Clergy and concludeth that though such kind of Ministers have never so much need yet they must not participate the food of their function or Church Revenues for saith he Pensemus cujus damnationis sit c. let us think with our selves how great damnation it is to receive the reward of labour without labour Behold we the Clergy live of the oblations of the faithfull but what doe we labour to get the goods and cattell of the faithfull doe we take those things for our wages which the faithfull have offered for the redemption of their sins and doe we not earnestly labour as we ought to doe against those sins by industry of prayer and preaching For the next Ages of the church Note what the Authour intended further will bee supplied by himselfe in the 20. chap. following collecting out of divers Councels severall canons touching tithes but for our owne church of England he doth abundantly expresse himself in his first Tome of our English Councels out of which see the collections here following cap. 27. and much also may be observed out of Mr Selden in his History c. 6. where he sheweth when Tithes began to be commanded by Laws and Synods and withall giveth the reason out of Agobardus a very learned Bishop of Lions as he truly saith of him why Councels did not at first make canons touching Tithes and gifts to the church which Agobardus speaketh touching generall Councels but Provinciall Councels did frequently command them as will appear by the collections following here cap. 20. Agobardus words are considerable in his Book De dispensatione contra sacrilegos p. 176. Jam verò de donandis rebus ordinandis ecclesiis nihil unquam in Synodis constitutum est nihil à sanctir patribus publicè praedicatum nulla enim compulit necessitas fervente ubique religiosa devotione amore illustrandi ecclesias ultro aestuante c. Concerning giving of goods and endowing of churches nothing hath over been decreed in Councels nothing publickly promulgated by the holy Fathers for no necessity required it the religious devotion and love of beautifying the churches every where abounding of their owne accord At first religious christians sold all their lands Acts 4.34 35. goods houses and possessions laying down the money at the Apostles feet Acts 2.45 and long after the Apostles time devotion and zeal in this kind was so fervent that there was no need of laws but when this zeal began to waxe cold in the next Ages following then laws and canons were made more carefully for Tithes and maintenance Many Kings and Princes also were so pious and carefull that the full tenth should be paid that they made severall lawes to pay a ninth part that so they might bee sure to pay more rather then lesse then a tenth Ex propensiori in Deum animo ultra decimas nonas dabant pii As this Authour proveth by very many laws alledged in his learned Glossary which shall be produced in due place and time and cap. 11. here following prudently observeth How many things in the beginning both of the Law and Gospel were admitted and omitted for the present and reformed afterward for when the Law was given the wheels thereof could not presently fall into their course and so likewise in the New Testament the Apostles themselves are compelled to many necessities and to suffer many things which were reformed afterwards To which discourse I leave the Reader who may thence receive satisfaction why laws and canons for Tithes and maintenance were not made in the first Ages so exactly and carefully as afterwards they were enacted both by Temporall and Ecclesiasticall powers But as others also observe for succeeding times Churches and Tithes were both miserably overthrown and lost in most of these Western parts of the Empire by the Invasion of the barbarous people Hunnes Goths and Vandals upon the Christian world who first invading Italy under the Emperour Justinian did miserably spoil and harrow the Countrey persecuted the Clergy pulled down Churches robbed Bishops and Colledges overthrew schools of learning and committed all sorts of wickednesse and afterwards they set their face against France where to oppose them Charles Martell would not encounter unlesse the inferiour Clergy would yeeld up their Tithes into his hands to pay his Armies and Soldiers for which sacriledge hee is infamous in the publick Histories to this day especially because he did not restore the Tithes to the Clergy according to his solemn promise after God had blessed him with good successe killing many thousands in one great battail This fact of Martell was done about the year 660. Chr. and no redresse of it till the Councel of Lateran neer five hundred years after Anno 1189. under Alexander the
not be suddainly done nor compendiously written that belonged to the government of the Church therefore the Apostles left much to the wisedome of the Church under this generall Commission Let all be done in order 1 Cor. 14.40 a few words but of great extent like that of the Dictators at Rome which being but two words providere reipub gave them authority over every thing CAP. XI That upon the reasons alledged and other here ensuing the use of tithing was omitted in Christs and the Apostles time and these reasons are drawn one ab expediente the other à necessitate THe greater matters thus quailing as aforesaid it could not bee chosen but things of lesse importance must also be neglected especially such as were outward and concerned onely the body amongst which the use of Tithing was likewise discontinued both in the Apostles time and in the first age of the Law when the great ceremonies of Circumcision Sacrifice and Oblations the Passeover c. and many other holy rites were suffered to sleep But some will say When there shall be a place which the Lord God shall chuse to cause his name to dwell there thither shall you bring all that I command you your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices your tithes and the offerings of your hands and all your speciall vows which you vow unto the Lord Deut. 12.11 these things were not respited till then but appointed that then also they must bee performed for it is also said Exod. 12.21 When yee shall come into the Land which the Lord shall give you then ye shall keep this service i. e. of the Passeover which was done Ios 4.6 but yet I take this to be discharge of it in the mean time Quaere God strictly exacted not these things till the place he had chosen was prepared for them that is till the building of the Temple as it is true in part touching the old Law so is it likewise true in the new Law and that therefore Christ and the Apostles exacted not the payment of Tithes in the first pilgrimage and warfare of the Gospel but referred them amongst some other things till the Church were established for as Solomon saith Every thing hath his time and the time was not yet come that the Church should demand her owne lest with Martha shee seemed curious about worldly things rather then as Mary to seek the spirituall When the Kindome was rent from Saul and given to David David by and by sought not the Crown but life and liberty so the Priesthood being rent from Levi and given to the Church the Church by and by required not her earthly duties but as David did life to grow up and liberty to spread abroad for love saith Saint Paul seeketh not her own 1 Cor. 13.5 and should then the mother of all love the Church be curious herein especially when her necessities were otherwise so abundantly supplied Saint Paul maketh it manifest 1 Cor. 9. throughout where he sheweth that very much liberty and great matters were due unto him in respect of his Ministry yet he concludeth I have not used this power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but on the contrary part suffered all things ibid. v. 12. and again v. 15. I have used none of all these things But why did he not use them since they were due unto him his reason is that we as though he spake in the name of all the Apostles should not hinder the Gospel of Christ ibid. v. 12. But why should the taking of that was due unto him hinder the Gospel because the malicious backbiters would thereupon report that he rather preached it for gain then of zeal and so abased his authority in the Gospel ib. 18. wheras by this course of taking nothing for his pains hee made it as he saith free ibid. and stopped their mouths Thus it is evident that the Apostles not onely neglected but absolutely refused even the things that they certainly knew to belong unto them Another reason why the Apostles received no Tithes drawn à necessitate The very condition of the Church in the time of the Apostles could not suffer them to receive Tithes for as the Levites received them not in their travell and ways but when they were setled and the Temple built so the Apostles being altogether in travel through all parts of the world and in continuall warfare with the enemies of the Gospel one while in prison another while in slight always in persecution much lesse could they look after Tithes which also were not to he paid as they needed them but at the times and places onely when and where they grow to be due and one that time came they that were to receive them were in another Countrey many hundred miles off for example the holy Ghost saith that Peter walked through all quarters Acts â— 32. one while at Lyddâ— ib. another while as Joppa ib. 〈◊〉 36. first at Jerusalem after at Antioch in Syria Gal. 2.11 then at Babylon in Aegypt * Many affirm that he was at Rome Metaphrastes and some other that he was here in Britannia Petri igitur muneris erat ut qui jam complures orientis Provincias praedicando euangelium peragrasset jam quod reliquum esse videbatur lustraret orbem accidentalem usque ad Britannos quod tradunt Metaphrastes alii Christi sidem annuncians penetraret Baron Tom. 1. f. 5 97. l. 13. Metaph. die 29. Junii 1 Pet. 5.13 Paul and Burnabas being at Antioch aforesaid or sent forth by the holy Ghost first to Seleucia in Syria then to Salamis and Paphus in the Isle of Cyprus after from thence to Berga in Bamphilia so to the other Antioch in Pisidia Acts 13. after to Iconiuâ—â— Lystria Derbe the parts of Lycaonia So again to Antioch in Syria thence to Jerusalem and presently back to the same Antioch where Paul and Barnabas breaking company Barnabas with Mark saileth to Cypras Paul taking Silas travelleth through Syria and Cilitâ—a confirming the Churches Then he commeth to the Countries of Phrygia Galatia Mysia from whence being called by the holy Ghost he leaveth Asia and passeth by Samothracia into Europe preacheth at Philippi a City of Macedonia furthest North-ward of all Greece then back again and up and down Asia to Jerusalem again and from thence at length to Rome Reade Acts 13.14 15 16. cap. I will not speak of that Theodoritus and Sâ—phroniâ—â— the Patriarch of Jerusalem affirm that after his first imprisonment at Rome he preached the Gospel to the Britaine 's our Countrymen for happily he might doe that at Rome But to come to the rest of the Apostles Bartholomew as Jerome witnesseth Catalog script Eccles Tom. 1. goeth to the Indians Thomas to the Medes Persians Hyrcanians and Bastrians Matthew up and down Aethiopia every one of them one way or other to carry one sound of the Gospel through all the world Psal 19. I ask now what these men should have done with their Tithes where
Jude saith v. 9. that Michael and the Devil strove for the body of Moses yet the Old Testament noteth no such thing how then came they by these instructions Surely by books that are perished or by inspiration or by relation of others and doubtlesse the ancient Fathers came to the knowledge of many things by all these ways First by books that be perished for it is manifest by Eusebius Jerome Gennadius and others that the ancient Fathers saw many thousands which are not now extant If by inspiration the holy Ghost that was sent down upon the Apostles and passed from one to another returned not by and by to heaven but remained actually amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church and therefore what they generally taught is carefully to be kept But if they received these things by Tradition the very Tradition of those first ages of the Church are much to be received for all that time no doubt infinite speeches and actions of Christ and the Apostles whereof many were collected by Ignatius and Papias as Jerome reporteth but now lost were then fresh in the mouths of every man as not onely the Fathers of that time doe abundantly testifie but our own experience also induceth us to conceive for doe not we our selves hear and beleeve many things to be done in the time of King Hen. 8. that never yet were written nor like to be CAP. XX. Ancient Councels and Canons for payment of Tithes THe Canons attributed to the Apostles come first in rank to be mentioned yet I will not insist upon them Neither doth Bellarmine as they are now published maintain them to be the children of those Fathers Yet can it not be denyed that the first 35. of them are very ancient and neer the time of the Apostles for Dionysius Exigu that lived within 400. yeares of the Apostles translated them out of Greek as received long before in the Eastern Church The fifth of those Canons ordaineth that all other fruit should be sent as first-fruit and tithe home to the house of the Bishop and Priests and not to be offered upon the Altar adding further that it was manifest that the Bishops and Priests did divide it to the Deacons and the rest of the Clerks And though the Greek copy in this place calleth not these fruits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tithes yet the Canon seemeth to bee meant thereof for other fruit none was to be carried to the house of the Bishop or to bee divided amongst the Priests and the Deacons save offerings tithes and first-fruits therefore the old Translation of the Canons out of Zonaras expresseth it tithe and first-fruits And this fashion here received of sending these things to the house of the Bishop and his dividing of them among the Priests and Deacons sheweth the great antiquity of this Canon for it appeareth that the first usage was so and that the Ministers had menstruam sportulam every month a basket of the offerings and tithes for their maintenance whereupon they were called Clerici sportulantes i. basket Clerks Vid. Cyprian Epist 34. 66. Baron anno Ch. 57. Num. 72. 145. anno 58. Num. 89. And the people then offered accustomably to the Altar and for the maintenance of the Priests Concilium Agrippinenese cap. 6. Anno 356. first decreeth that Tithes shall be called Dei Census Gods rent and reciting that the third part thereof as was declared in the Toletan Councell belonged to the Bishops yet according to the Roman use they agreed to take but every year the fourth part which upon excommunication they commanded to be paid Burchand lib. 3. ca. 135. Concil Romanum 4. sub Damaso Damas pa. patrim adiit 367. about the year 375. amongst the Decrees thereof it is ordained ut decimae atque primitiae à fidelibus darentur qui detrectant anathemate feriantur that tithes and first fruits should be paid by the faithful Concil Aurelianense 1. sub Symmacho An. 507. Can. 17. decreeth that the Bishops shal have every year the fourth part or every fourth year the whole tithe Tom. 2. Con. Concilium Tarraconense sub Hormisda An. 517. Can. 8. juxta Burchandum 9. juxta Bin. saith that it was an Order antiquae consuetudinis that the Bishop should have the third part of all things yeerly and therefore willed it still to be kept Burchard lib. 3. Ca. 33. Bin. Tom. 2. Conc. Concilium Mediomatricis Anno willeth the Bishops to reprove prohibeant them that would not pay Tithe without some reward be given them Bur. l. 3. C. 134. Concilium Toletanum Anno 533. divideth all Church rights into two sorts of oblations one to be those that are offered i. e. given to the Parish Churches as Lands Vineyards bond-men c. and willeth that these should be wholly in the ordering of the Bishops The other to be those of the Altar whereof it commanded the third part to be carried to the Bishop and two parts to be for the Clerks And of Tithes it saith that according to some the third part yearly or every third year the whole was so paid But that they following the manner of the Roman Church decreed that the Bishops should have every year the fourth part or every fourth year the whole tithe Burchard lib. 3. C. 136. Bin. paulo aliter Tom. 1. In a collection of Canons of an uncertain Author in the Vatican Library this is attributed to Sylvester who was Bishop of Rome 315. Binnius in a note upon this Canon somewhat differeth in words Concilium Matisconense 2. sub Pelagio 2. Anno 588. affirmeth Tithes to be due by the Laws of God Hoc confirm Con. Hispalens Tom. 2. Et approbat per Gualter Hospinian de origin honorum ecclesiae ca. 3. p. 123. that the whole multitude of Christians kept those Laws very warily of long time that by little and little they were in those days almost wholly neglected And this Councell decreeth that the ancient usage of the faithfull should bee revived and that all the people should bring in their Tithes to them that ministred the ceremonies of the Church c. otherwise to bee excommunicated Tom. 2. Con. Concilium Hispalense sub Gregorio 1. Anno 590. concludeth thus That if any mantithe not all these things viz. before named he is a spoiler of God a thief and a robber and the cursings that God put upon Cain for his deceitfull dividing are cast likewise upon him Ivo p. 2. 174. Tom. 2. Concil Concil Valentinum sub Leone 4. Anno 858. ca. 10. That all faithfull men should with all readinesse offer their ninths and tithes to God of all that they possesse c. upon perill of excommunication Tom. 3. Con. Concil Rothoma cap. 3. nameth particularly what ought to be tithed and commandeth to doe it upon pain of excommunication Burchard li. 3. ca. 130. and annexeth the Councell Mogunt ca. 38. Concil Cavallon ca. 18. Anno 813. That Bishops Abbots and religious persons should pay
them to Churches out of their possessions and families where they baptized and received Burch lib. 3. ca. 132. And Concil Cavallon c. 1. decreeth that all Churches with their whole livings and tithes should bee wholly in the power of the Bishops and to be ordered and disposed by him Burchard lib. 3. ca. 146. Concil Moguntin 1. ca. 8. recited by Burchard who lived about 6â—0 years since saith that Abraham by his action and Jacob by his promise declared unto us that tithe was to be given to God The Law hath since confirmed it and all the holy Doctor are mindfull of it c. Hereof the venerable Doctor Saint Augustine saith Tithes are required as a debt What if God should say quoth he thy self a man art mine and so forth as followeth in that Sermon of his that hereafter we exhibit The Councell proceedeth further shewing reasons why Tithes should be paid That if the Jews were so carefull inexecuting this commandement as they would not omit it in the least things mint and rue c. as our Saviour testifieth how much more ought the people of the Gospel to perform it that hath a greater number of Priests and a more sincere manner of Sacraments They are therefore to be given unto God that being better pleased with this devotion he may give more liberally the things we have need of That this kind of maintenance is fittest for the Clergy that they otherwise be not troubled with worldly businesse but may attend their calling That the daily offerings of the people and that Tithes are to be divided into four parts according to the Canons The first to the Bishop another to the Minister or Priest Clericorum the third to the poor the fourth to repairing of Churches Burchard li. 3. c. 133. Concil Moguntin 1. cap. 10. tempore Appae 4. 4. Lothar Imp. Anno 847. sub Rabano Archiepiscopo qui scribit Ludovice This Councell admonisheth men to pay their Tithe carefully because God himself appointed it to be paid to himself And that it is to be feared that if any man take Gods right from him God for his sins will take things necessary from him also Tom. 3. Conc. Roman Concil 5. Anno 1078. Tom. 3. saith that Lay-men upon pain of sacriledge excommunication and damnation might not possesse Tithes and Church livings though granted by Kings and Bishops but must restore them CAP. XXI In what right tithes are due and first of the law of nature WE have said in our definition that they be due unto God now we are to shew by what right and to prove it First therefore I divide Tithes into two sorts Morall and Leviticall Morall are those which were due to God before the Law given in the time of nature Leviticall are those nine parts assigned by God himself upon giving the Law unto the Levites for their maintenance the tenth part being still reserved to himself and retained in his own hands Morall tithes were paid by man unto God absque praecepto without any commandement Leviticall tithes were paid by the Israelites unto the Levites as transacted and set over by God unto them pro tempore for the time being and that by an expresse Canon of the Ceremoniall law To speak in the phrase of Lawyers and to make a case of it God is originally seised of tithes to his own use in dominico suo ut de feodo in his own demesne as of fee-simple or as I may say Jure Coronae and being so seised by his Charter dated _____ year after the Flood he granted them over to the Levites and the issue male of their body lawfully begotten to hold of himself in Frank-Almoigne by the service of his Altar and Tabernacle rendring yearly unto him the tenth part thereof So that the Levites are meerly Tenants in tail the reversion expectant to the Donor and consequently their issue failing and the consideration and services being extinct and determined the thing granted is to revert to the Donor and then is God seised again as in his first estate of all the ten parts in fee. But we must prove the parts of the case and first the title namely that he was seised in fee of originall Tithes that is that originall Tithes doe for ever belong unto him Hear the evidence which I will divide into three parts as grounding it first upon the law of Nature secondly upon the Law of God and thirdly upon the Law of Nations CAP. XXII How far forth they be due by the Law of Nature VVHen I said by the Law of Nature my meaning is not to tie my self to that same jus naturale defined by Justinian which is common to beasts as well as to men But to nature taken in the sense that Tully after the opinion of others delivers it to be Vim rationis atque ordinis participem Denat Deo l. 2. tanquam via progredientem declarantemque quid cujusque causa res efficiat quid sequatur c. the vertue and power of reason and order that goeth before us as a guide in the way and sheweth us what it is that worketh all things the end why and what thereupon ensueth or dependeth This by some is called the Law of Nature secondary or speciall because it belongeth onely to reasonable creatures and not generally to all living things in respect whereof it is also called the law of reason and it is written in the heart of every man by the instinct of nature Quis scribit in cordibus hominum naturalem legem nisi Deus Aug. de serm Domini in monte l. 2. as Isidor faith not by any legall constitution teaching and instructing all Nations through the whole world to discern between good and evill and to affect the one as leading to the perfection of worldly felicity and to eschew the other as the opposite thereof This is that law written in the hearts of the Heathen made them to be a law unto themselves as it is said Rom. 2.14 and by the instinct of nature to doe the very works of the Law of God with admirable integrity and resolution This is that Law that led them to the knowledge of God that they had whereby they confesse him to be the Creator supporter and preserver of all things seeing all things knowing all things and doing whatsoever pleaseth himself to be omnipotent eternall infinite incomprehensible without beginning or end good perfect just hating evill and ever doing good a blessed Spirit and as Plato calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest Spirit that giveth all good things unto man that guideth his actions and blesseth his labours All this and much more did the very Heathen by this Law of Nature conceive and pronounce of God and therewithall confessed that by reason thereof they were justly tyed to yeeld him all service honour obedience praise and thanksgiving but wanting grace to direct them above nature in the right ways thereof they first swarved on one hand
Tithes too hot to be Touched Certain TREATISES wherein is shewen that Tithes are Due By the law of Nature Scripture Nations therefore neither Jewish Popish or Inconvenient Written by Sr. HENRY SPELMAN Knight and others With an Alphabeticall Table MAL. iii. 10. 12. Bring ye all the Tithes into the store-house that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and poure you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it ROM ii 22. Thou that abhorrest idols dost thou commit Sacriledge LONDON Printed for Philemon Stephens at the gilded Lion in Pauls Church-yard The names of the severall Treatises are these 1. The Larger Book of Tithes 2. An Apologie of the Treatise De non temerandis Ecclesiis 3. An Epistle to Mr. Richard Carew concerning Tithes 4. A Treatise of Impropriations by Sr. Francis Bigot Knight of Yorkshire 5. An Epistle to the Church of Scotland prefixed to the second edition of the first Treatise printed at Edenburgh 6. A Resolution of a doubt touching the alienation of Tithes To the Enemies of TITHES BOoks are not written for such as making their Will and their Power the measure of their actions esteeme nothing unlawfull but what is unpossible but for those that desire to act as rational Creatures and will suffer themselves to be led by Religion and Reason And such I doubt not there be many even amongst those which now finde fault with the Ministers portion Men that drive not on their designes for private ends but conceiving Tithes to be either Jewish Antichristian or Inconvenient think they shall do God and the Church good service by seeking the abolishment of this and the establishment of some other maintenance for the Minister Let these consider that our Saviour foretold his Disciples that the time would come that whosoever should kill them would think they did God service John 16.2 and learn thence that it is possible for them also to be mistaken in their present opinion and therefore before they proceed any further let them take but this Book in hand and peruse it well without passion or prejudice and I am confident that they will find their objections answered their judgements rectified and their resolutions turned the other way and as David blessed God for sending Abigail to cool his rage and keep him from his revengefull purpose so they will blesse him for this worthy Knight that so happily met them in their Carreire and stopped them from running into that which I know they abhorre the guilt at least the suspicion of Sacriledge Such effects as ye shall * Epist to the Reader p. 21. read his learned works have wrought already yea farre greater For it is harder to perswade men to restore what they actually possess then to forbear seeking what they never had Let those that preferr a good Conscience before a great estate reade also that most judicious piece of Sr. Henry Spelman which hath here an Apologie though indeed it needed none De non temerandis Ecclesiis God in mercy blesse these and the labours of other his servants for the maintenance of his Church and the advancement of his glory Reader THat the Table may be more readily used write the the number of every page of the Preface with thy pen it being omitted by the Author which is likewise to be done in Sr. Henry Spelmans Apology His Epistle to Mr. Carew Sr. Francis Bigot's Epistle to King Henry the Eighth and and the Epistle of Mr. Knox. A Table of the Principall matters contained in the ensuing Tracts wherein St. signifieth Mr. Stephens Preface Sp. Sr. Henry Spelmans Treatise Ap. his Apologie Ep. his Epistle to Mr. Carew B. Sr. Francis Bigod's Preface to Henry the eighth Sc. The Epistles to the Scottish Clergy R. The Resolution of a doubt concerning the alienation of Tithes Introd Sr. H. Spelmans Introduction A ABingdon Abbay its Charter Sp. 185 Abuse of things taketh not away the use of them Sp. 84 Alienation of Church-means unlawfull St. 7. See Sacriledge and Appropriations Almes See Charity Offerings and Poor Alured See Kings Ambrose mistaken in the time when Jereremie lived Sp. 96. His slout and pious repulse of the Emperours demand Sp. 139 Anabaptists their wild principles and practices R. 3 4. See Tythes Anointing of Kings signifieth their spirituall jurisdiction Sp. 176 Apostles maintenance what it was Sp. 13. c. Why they resused what they knew belonged unto them Sp. 52. c. How carefull they were of the poor Sp. 13 Necessitie forced them to admit and omit what they otherwise would not Sp. 48 c. Their peregrinations Sp. 53 54 Approprietaries cannot by right grant their estate to others Sp. 160 Appropriations against the Word of God B. 3 Their originall Sp. 151 c. What difference between Appropriations and Impropriations Sp. 152. Whether Tythes and Appropriations belonged to Monasteries or not Sp. 163. In what sort they were granted to the King Sp. 164. and to what end Sp. 165. He ought not to have taken them Sp. 167 The Statute that transferred them seemeth to have been passed in hast Sp. 170 Ep. 2 c. How Bishops came to passe the Bill for them Sp. 156. Ep. 2. None properly capable of them but Spirituall men Sp. 159. The King may better hold them then any of his Lay-subiects Sp. 154 155. Though in the hands of Lay-men they continue still Spirituall livings Sp. 154 157. They that have them are bound if they will not be guiltie of the bloud of souls to restore them Sp. 169. Sr. H. Spelman's confidence that ere long they shall be restored Sp. 171. The number of Appropriations in England Ap. 16 Aristotle's iudgement concerning Tithes Sp. 120 B BAcchus gave first-fruits to Jupiter Sp. 108 Barbarous nations longer retain antient customs and naturall notions then those that are civilized Sp. 124 Battail-Abbay how largely priviledged Sp. 186 Bede commended Ap. 12 Benefactours Three things due to them Introd Benevolence of the people an unfit maintenance for the Minister Sp. 55 56. Sc. 3 Sr. Francis Bigot B. 5 Bishops when first ordained Sp. 50. What part of the Tithes was antiently allotted them Sp. 88-92 Of old Bishops were ioynt Magistrates with Earls in England Sp. 41.131 Boldness no sure signe of a good cause R. 19 C 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sp. 20 Mr. Richard Carew Ap. 5. Ep. 1 The Cartheginians smarted for neglecting to send Tithes to Hercules Sp. 124. They used to sacrifice their children to Saturn Sp. 125 Ceremonies why not all at once abolished by the Apostles Sp. 48 The Charitie of antient Christians Sp. 13 c. With what discretion we should guide our Charity Sp. 22 Christians of old how zealous in building and endowing of Churches St. 6 Christs zeal wherein especially shewen St. 16 Which his greatest miracle ibid. How frugally he maintained himself and his followers Sp. 11.
c Kings ought not to invade the peoples possessions much lesse Gods Sp. 167. See Appropriations Mr. Richard Knightley St. 22. Knowledge Tree of Knowledge Gods part Sp. 98 John Knox his letter to the Generall Assembly Sc. 5. S LAnd some portion thereof to be given to God Sp. 2 c. Origen's opinion of Clergy-mens enjoying Lands Sp. 21 Lawfull See Unlawfull Lawes Humane Lawes ever imperfect often wicked must yield to the Law of Nature and of God Sp. 172 173. They may give a man jus ad rem not jus in re Sp. 173. Law of Nations what Sp. 113. Laws of our English Kings for payment of Tithes Sp. 129 c. Law of Nature What Sp. 94. What we learn thence of Gods Nature and the duties we owe to him Sp. 95. The Law of Nature oft better observed by barbarous people then civil Sp. 124. See Leviticall Learning by whom first planted in England Sp. 177 Levites how small a part of the Jewish Nation St. 14. yet how largely maintained St. 9 c. Of the land assigned them to dwell upon Sp. 2 c. Their service about the Tabernacle Sp. 33. about the Temple Sp. 35. Their divisions and offices Sp. 35 36. Provinciall Levites received Tithes as well as the Templar Sp. 37. See Provinciall Their portion far less then the Priests Sp. 57. They stood not charged with the cure of soules as Ministers now Sp. 58 Leviticall Law how far abrogated Sp. 111 Many Morall Precepts intermingled with it ibid. The frame of Leviticall ceremonies compared to Nebuchadnezzar's image Sp. 144. Leviticall rites of two sorts Naturall Adoptive Sp. 145 The Lords day when first observed Sp. 49 M MAn how furnished for the glorifying of God Sp. Introd What duties he oweth to God for his beneficence ibid. What portion of his time Sp. 1 What of his Land Sp. 2 c. What of his goods Sp. 3 c. Charles Martell the first Christian that offered violence to Tithes Sp. 31 Melchisedech thought to have been Shem Sp. 108. His story mystically expounded Sp. 104 c. Merchants and tradesmen ought to pay Tithes out of their gains Sp. 81. 131 Middest of the garden Gods place Sp. 98 Ministers called Priests by Isaiah Sp. 143. They receive much lesse then the Priests of old St. 9 c. 14. though they deserve much more St. 12 Sp. 58 c. Whether and how they may hold temporalties Sp. 24 c. They ought to have a plentifull and certain maintenance Sp. 55 56. Sc. 3. R. 24 25. A sufficient quantity of land Sp. 4. and a convenient habitation Sp. 6. How they were maintained in the Primitive ages of the Church Sp. 16 c. Their charge and pains how great Sp. 58 59. Their portion is not to be accounted the price of their Doctrine but the reward of their travell Sp. 59. A set Ministery is necessary Ap. 15. To deprive them of their maintenance is sacriledge Ap. 15. wors then putting them to death Sc. 2. They ought to doe their work though defrauded of their hire R. 26. Whether their Livings should be equall R. 10 11. Tithes no necessary cause of distraction and trouble to them R. 14.24 See Clergy Priests and Tithes Monasteries See Statute and Appropriations Money The rate thereof how uncertain St. 18. Sp. 131.153 R. 5. N NAture See Law Ninth part over and above the Tenth paid to the Clergy St. 15. Sp. 30. 91 Numbers Great mysteries attributed to them both by Heathens and Christians Sp. 68 c. O OBlations of Primitive Christians how employed Sp. 14 c. Offerings due to God by the Law of Nature Sp. 96. P PAradise a modell of the Church Sp. 97 c. See God Parish Churches stiled Tituli Sp. 10 Parliamentary power in Theologicall matters what Sp. 156 157. See Clergy Passover and other Feasts seem to have been but rarely observed Sp. 47 St. Paul's travels Sp. â—â— Pentecost why celebrated by Christians Sp. 150 Peoples mind how variable Sp. 56 St. Peter's travels Sp. 53 Polygamy though at first forbidden yet long permitted Sp. 46 Poor how carefully relieved by Christ Sp. 11. his Apostles Sp. 13. and the Primitive Christians Sp. 14 c. What discretion is to be used in considering their necessities Sp. 22. Who of old were wont to distribute Church goods unto them Sp. 23. They are Christs Proctors Substitutes Publicans to gather up his rents Sp. 78. How dear they are to God Sp. 97 Prayer a duty that we learn from nature Sp. 95 96. Price of things See Rate Priests before the Law Sp. 10. 42. 100. 108. The originall of Priesthood Sp. 42. 100. Priests of what dignity in antient times Sp. 100. Of their maintenance before the law Sp. 101 c. Priests maintenance among the Jews far larger then among Christians St. 9 10. Their courses appointed by David Sp. 35. 38. Their part much greater then the Levites Sp. 57. Ministers of the Gospel called Priests Sp. 143. The charge and pains of Leviticall and Evangelicall Priests compared Sp. 57-60 See Ministers Provinciall Levites of what learning dignity and authority in the Jewish Common-wealth Sp. 38 c. Psalme lxxxiii expounded against sacrilegious persons Ap. 13 Q Questions of Diuinity where and by whom to be decided Sp. 156 R RAte of money and commodities how various R. 5. See Money Reformation never perfect at once but accomplished by degrees Sp. 30. 46 c. Witness that hereunder Henry viii and Edward vi Sp. 170 c. Restitution of Impropriations to the Church it an act not of bounty but duty Sp. 169 S SAbbath by whom and why changed Sp. 111. Difference between the Jewish Sabbath and ours Sp. 148. There was more ceremony in the Sabbath then in Tithes Sp. 148 Sacrifices almost wholly neglected in the wilderness Sp. 47. The ground and reason of Sacrifices Sp. 145. why they were burnt Sp. 146. Seeing they were taught by the instinct of Nature Sp. 42. 95 96. Why are they abolished by Christ Sp. 144-147 R. 23. Sacrificing in the high places unlawfull yet for a time accepted Sp. 46 Sacriledge for bidden St. 7. Christ discoverred his zeal more against this sinne then any St. 16. No sinne tendeth more to the overthrow of Religion Sc. 2. Humane Laws against it St. 25. Sp. 155. 161. Wo to them that are guilty of it Sp. 82. 134-139 168. How it cometh to abound so much in Scotland Sc. 1 2 Scotland grievously overrun with Sacriledge Sc. 1. Rollock sharply inveigheth against it Sc. 4. and so doth Knox Sc. 6 Lord Scudamere Viscount Slego St. 26 Sr. James Sempill's Book of Tithes St. 4 Servants in some places pay Tithe out of their wages Sp. 80 Seven a mysticall number Sp. 113. No Simony in Ministers to receive maintenance from the people Sp. 59. Abolishment of Tithes no prevention of Simony R. 13. Souldiers ought to pay Tithes of their spoils Sp. 81. Heathen Souldiers have oft done so Sp. 114-120 Sr. Henry Spelman's worth
to encrease the portion of the Minister in the Vicarage of Pitchley in Northamptonshire belonging to his Bishoprick and so did his successor Dr Wright for the Vicarage of Torcester also in the same shire which was very piously done considering what great Lands and Manours were taken away from that Bishoprick among others and some Impropriations given in lieu of them Besides this present Parliament hath taken singular care to augment the maintenance of many poor Vicarages and other small Livings wherein they have proceeded carefully and have made many additions to severall poor benefices for the better inabling of the incumbent Ministers to be faithfull and diligent in their callings And while Six Hen. Sp. lived there came some unto him almost every Terme at London to consult with him how they might legally restore and dispose of their Impropriations to the benefit of the Church to whom he gave advice as he was best able according to their particular cases and inquiries and there wanted not others that thanked him for his book promising that they would never purchase any such appropriate Parsonages to augment their estates Whereby it appears how effectually the consciences of many men were moved with his moderate and pious perswasions and himself was much confirmed in his opinion of the right of Tithes which moved him to consign his works of this argument besides others to my care with direction to publish them as is also expressed in his last Will and Testament Whereupon I hold my self obliged in conscience and duty to God and to the memory of this excellent Knight to whom I was infinitely obliged for his instructions conferences and favours which I enjoyed in the course of my studies many years frequenting his house and company not to conceal these works any longer from the publique view but to publish them to the benefit of the Church and servants of God now especially when prophanenesse hath so licentiously overflowed and the covetous wretches and Mammonists of this world have begun to withdraw and deny their Tithes muttering that they are Popish and superstitious and therfore to be rooted out as their language is wherein yet the Parliament hath honourably discovered their zeal and care by their censure and check upon the Petition against Tithes exhibited in May 1646. and by their Ordinance providing for the true payment of all tithes rights and dues to the Church as more fully appears therein Wherein they have followed the moderne and ancient Lawes as that expression of the Act of Parliament 27 Hen. 8. cap. 20. That whereas numbers of ill disposed persons having no respect of their duty to Almighty God but against right and good conscience did withhold their Tithes due to God and holy Church as in that Statute is more at large expressed So in the 12. Tables Sacrum sacrove commendatum qui dempserit rapseritve parricida esto It being accounted sacriledge by all Laws to take away such things as have been formerly given to God for so they were given expresly to God as Magna Charta saith Concessimus Deo we have given to God for us and our heirs c. So Charles the great We know that the goods of the Church are the sacred indowments of God To the Lord our God we offer and dedicate whatsoever wee deliver to his Church Cap. Car. lib. 6. So Tully anciently Communi jure gentium sancitum est ut ne mortales quod Deorum immortalium cultui consecratum est usucapere possint So Calvin Sacrum Deo non fine insigni in eum injurin ad prosanos usus applicatur Instit li. 3. cap. 7. § 1. Tithes therefore being consecrated unto God ought carefully to be preserved in these days in regard the Church enjoyeth not the tithe of the tenth which formerly it had and hath also to this day among the Papists who doe not take away from the Church but are ready to restore as they have done in many Countries CONTENTS OF THE SEVERALL TREATISES AND CHAPTERS The larger Book of Tithes containing these particulars following The Introduction to it Cap. 1. VVHat things be due unto God first a portion of our time pag. 1 Cap. 2 The second sort of tribute that we are to render unto God that is a portion of our land pag. 2 Cap. 3 That the portion of land assigned to God must be sufficient for the habitation of the Ministers pag. 3 Cap. 4 That Christ released not the portion due to God out of our lands pag. 6 Cap. 5 What part in reason and by direction of nature might seem fittest for God pag. 8 Cap. 6 Concerning the revenue and maintenance of the Church in her infancy first in Christs time then in the Apostles in the Churches of Jerusalem Alexandria Rome and Africa pag. 11 Cap. 7 That the service of the Levites was clean altered from the first Institution yet they enjoyed their Tithes pag. 33 § 1. Of Templar Levites § 2. Of Provinciall Levites Cap. 8 The great account made of Priests in the old Law and before pag. 42 Cap. 9 When our Saviour commanded the Disciples should take nothing with them but live of the charges of the faithfull this bound not the Disciples perpetually pag. 44 Cap. 10 That many things in the beginning both of the Law and the Gospel were admitted and omitted for the present or reformed afterward pag. 46 Cap. 11 That upon the reasons alledged and others here ensuing the use of Tithing was omitted in Christs and the Apostles time and these reasons are drawn ab expediente the other à necessitate pag. 51 Cap. 12 That Ministers must have plenty pag. 55 Cap. 13 Not to give lesse then the tenth pag. 57 Cap. 14 The Etymology and definition of Tithes and why a tenth part rather then any other is due pag. 67 Cap. 15 Who shall pay Tithe pag. 76 Cap. 16 Out of what things Tithe is to be paid pag. 79 Cap. 17 That things offered unto God be holy pag. 62 Cap. 18 Tithes must not be contemned because they were used by the Church of Rome pag. 64 Cap. 19 That the Tradition of ancient Fathers and Councels is not lightly to be regarded pag. 86 Cap. 20 Ancient Canons of Councels for payment of Tithes pag. 88 Cap. 21 In what right Tithes are due and first of the Law of Nature pag. 93 Cap. 22 How far forth they be due by the Law of Nature pag. 94 Cap. 23 Tithes in the Law of Nature first considered in Paradise pag. 97 Cap. 24 The time of Nature after the fall pag. 100 Cap. 25 That they are due by the Law of God pag. 104 Cap. 26 That they are due by the Law of Nations pag. 113 Cap. 27 That they are due by the Law of the Land pag. 129 Cap. 28 Tithe is not meerly Leviticall How it is and how not and wherein Iudaicall pag. 139 § 1. An Objection touching Sacrifice First-fruits and Circumcision § 2. Touching the Sabbath day Easter and Pentecost Cap. 29
labourer is worthy of his hire Mat. 10.10 And therefore into whose house soever yow enter stay there Mat. 10.11 CAP. V. What part in reason and by direction of Nature might seeme fittest for God It being agreed that some part by the Law of Nature is due unto God out of all the time of our life and the goods that we possesse it is now to be examined how far this Law of nature or reason may lead us to the discovery of that part or portion For which purpose we must for a while lay aside Canonicall Divinity I mean the Scriptures and suppose our selves to live in the ages before the Law was given that is in the time of nature And then let us propose this question to the Sages of that world and see what answer we are like to receive from them And first touching this question What portion of our time or goods were fittest for God It is like they would have considered the matter in this manner That God hath not any need either of our time or goods and that therefore he requireth them not in tanto that is to have so much and no lesse But on our parts it is our duty to yeeld unto him as much in quanto as we can conveniently forbeare over and besides our necessary maintenance So that as Bracton saith of Hyde that tenants are to yeeld unto their Lords it must be honorarium Domine and not grave tenenti so much as the Lord may be honoured by it and the tenant not oppressed wherein if a second third or fourth part be too much so a twentieth or thirtieth seem also too little As God therefore desireth but an honourary part not a pressory so reason should direct us to give him that part wherein his own nature with the respects aforesaid is most properly expressed for the maxime or axiome which our Saviour alledged Date Deo quae Dei sunt give unto God the things that are Gods is grounded on the Morall law originally and therefore examining among numbers which of them are most proper and resembling the nature of God we shall finde that seven and ten above all other perform this mystery and that therefore they are most especially to be chosen thereunto therefore God in the Creation of the world following the light of nature chused the seventh part of the age thereof as Philo Judaeus in his Book De fabricatione mundi pag. 36. hath with singular and profound observations declared And because it may be demanded hereupon why he should not by the same reason have the seventh part of our goods also I answer that as touching the time of our life he giveth that unto us of his own bounty meerly without any industry on our part so that whether we sleep or wake labour or play the allowance thereof that he maketh unto us runneth on of its own accord and therefore we owe him the greater retribution out thereof as having it without labour or charge But as for the fruits of the earth we have them partly by our own labour though chiefly by his bounty and therefore he therein requireth his part as it were with deduction or allowance of our charges seeking another number befitting the same The first place in Scripture wherein a Priest is mentioned is Gen. 14.18 where Melchisedek is said to be the Priest of the most high God there also are tithes spoken of and paid unto him v. 20. Abraham gave him tithes of all The first place also where an House of God or Church is spoken of is Gen. 28.18 22. there also are tithes mentioned and vowed unto God even by that very name whereby Parish Churches upon their first Institution in the Primitive Church were also styled that is by the name of Tituli Gen. 28.22 Lapis iste quem pofui in titulum erit Domus Dei omne quod dederis mihi decimas prorsus dabo tibi wherein it seemeth the Primitive Church at that time followed the translation then in use for Damasus in the life of Euaristus Bishop of Rome Anno 112. saith Hic titulos in urbe Roma divisit Presbyteris Edit 1606. Tom. Concil 1. pag. 106. And speaking after of Dionysius who lived Anno 260. he saith Presbyteris Ecclesias divisit coemeteria Parochiasque Diaeceses constituit Tom. Concil 1. pag. 206. Thus Church and Tithe went together in their first Institution If there be no mention after of Tithes in the Scripture till the time of Moses that is no reason to exclude them for so also is there not of any House of God or Priest yet no man will deny but both are necessary and therefore let them also say whether they be ex Jure divino I mean Churches and Priests before the Law and Gospel CAP. VI. Concerning the Revenue and maintenance of the Church in her infancy first in Christs time then in the Apostles by a communion of all things and submitting all to the Apostles as in the Churches of Jerusalem Alexandria Rome and Africa How the Clergy had their allowance given them weekly or monethly per sportulas in baskets De jure sportularum concerning those baskets and the manner of them When Lands were first given The Church goods distributed by the Bishops and Officers under them The liberality of Constantine and other Emperors The piety and charity of the Clergy in spending their goods and means VVHilest the Church was in her foundation shee had no other maintenance then the poor private purse of our Saviour supported onely by the almes and contribution of his poor Disciples and followers for as himself had no house to live in Joh. 12.6 so had he no rents to live on being therefore often in want he was constrained sometimes to use the power of his Godhead to supply the necessities of his Manhood and to call the fish of the sea to aid him with money miraculously Mat. 17.27 while the beasts of the Land withheld their devotion from him unnaturally but whatsoever it was that his Godhead blessed his Manhood withall he divided it as appeareth in the Gospel of Saint John 13. â—9 into two parts one for the sustenance of his family the other for relief of the poor Touching the part assigned to his family it was nor curious nor superfluous no not at the great feast of Baster when others were so sumptuous and profuse his rule was then to buy the things they had need of And touching the provision of his house at other times we have twice an Inventory taken of it once in Matth. 14.17 where it was found to be but five loaves and two fishes yea Mar. 6.38 Luk. 9.13 Joh. 6.9 barly loaves another time Mat. 15.34 but seven loaves and a few little fishes for himself and his whole houshold twelve Apostles in ordinary besides some servants and a multitude of Disciples hanging upon him extraordinarily All the beasts of the forest were his and so were the cattell upon
a thousand hils yet read we not that he once killed so much as a Calfe for the provision of his family for flesh could not be had but for money and money going always low with him he used such kinde of victuals especially as might always be supplyed unto him by the industry of his Disciples from the common storehouse of nature the sea without being beholding or burdensome to any man In this frugality lived our Saviour touching his houshold expence that there might be the greater remanet for the poor and from this modell of the Church in his poor family was the great frame of the Universall Church first devised as well for raising as disposing of her Revenues the means of raising them from the oblations and devotion of the people the manner of employment of them for the necessity onely of the Minister and poor Thus much doth Augustine also declare upon the place alledged out of Saint John Tractat. 62. Habebat Dominus loculos â—ist 12.9.1 Habebat c. Our Lord had his treasury or bagge wherein he kept the things that were offered by the faithfull and did distribute them to his family and such other as had need then first was the form of Church government instituted The Apostles following our Saviour exactly would not be rich servants of a poor master nor owners of any thing when their Lord himself possessed nothing holding it therefore not fit for them aut in imis consistere sed nec in mediis they reached at the highest garland of perfection and because their master had said Let him that will be perfect sell all that he hath and give to the poor whatsoever was their own and whatsoever was given them by others they cast it all into the common treasury disposing it by their masters example to two uses onely Hospitality and Alms or works of charity in their hospitality they provided for the whole family of the Church then living with them at Jerusalem out of which arose the great businesse of serving the Tables spoken of in the Acts all of them jointly caring for every man in particular and every man particularly applying himself to support the generall Their alms and part assigned to them in necessity they dispersed fully and faithfully not onely to the poor of their own Town City or Countrey but wheresoever through the world the members of Christ had need And so carefull they were in employing these things to the highest benefit and honour of the church that Paul chused rather to live in want and earn his sustenance with his fingers then to diminish this blessed portion by taking his due share out of it Yea the only thing that the Apostles gave so precisely in charge one unto the other was in every passage that they should remember the poor Gal. 2.10 Act. 11.36 2 Cor. 9.3 as the bowels of Christ the darlings of the Church and those whom God especially had chosen to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdome Jam. 2.5 With this mortar I mean this blessed theologicall work of charity which S. Paul so highly extolleth above other did our Saviour lay the first stones in the foundation of his Church and with it to hold uniformity did the Apostles build the second course commending the pattern to be for ever after pursued throughout all ages for whatsoever is built without it is like stones laid without mortar which cannot therefore couple together and grow into an holy Temple in the Lord as is required Eph. 2.21 In the succeeding Church founded by Saint Mark the Disciple of Saint Peter at Alexandria in Egypt the same rule used before by the Apostles at Jerusalem was so precisely established â—ieron in vita Marci that he thereby drew all Christians to follow his example insomuch that Philo Judaeus a famous Author of that time reporteth that not onely there but in many other Provinces the Christians lived together in societies and he calleth even then their habitations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Monasteries saying that none among them possessed any thing to his private use no man was rich no man poor but all divided their substance to them in necessity disposing themselves wholly to Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. â—mperantia â—mtinentia moestia singing of Psalms to matter of doctrine and to temperance Come lower down Dionysius Corinthius in an Epistle to Soter Bishop of Rome in the year of Christ 170. congratulateth with him that the Church of Rome still continued her ancient use in dispersing her goods in works of charity It is now growne to be an ancient custome with you to bestow many benefits upon all the brethren of the Church and to send maintenance to the Churches in every City so that thereby you doe not onely relieve the necessity of the poor but of the brethren also which are condemned to the slavery of the metall Mynes and by this benevolence of yours which now you have used to send into all places even from the first Plantation of your Church your selves being Romans have diligently preserved the Romans custome instituted by the Fathers which also your Bishop the blessed Soter hath hitherto kept very diligently and by his laborious industry wonderfully advanced not onely in distributing lovingly unto the Saints the goods ordained to their maintenance but like a mercifull and milde father towards his children in exhorting the brethren which come unto him to vertue by blessed and devout perswasions I report this place at large for that this use continued exactly in the Church as Eusebius reciting it affirmeth till the great persecution under Maximinian and Dioclesian which began about the year of our Lord 304. being the age wherein Eusebius himself lived as he there also testifieth lib. 4. cap. 22. And that it was not thus in Rome onely but in Africa and other Churches it appeareth plainly by Tertullian in Apologet. cap. 39. where upbraiding the Gentiles with the piety and devotion of Christians he saith Etiam si quid arcae genus est c. whatsoever we have in the treasury of our Churches is not raised by taxation as though we put men to ransome their Religion but every man that will once a moneth or when it pleaseth himself bestoweth what he thinks good and not without he listeth for no man is compelled but left freely to his own discretion That which is given is accounted as Depositum pietatis the pledge of devotion for it is not bestowed in banqueting quaffing or gluttony but in nourishing and burying the poor and upon children destitute both of parents and maintenance aged and feeble persons men wracked by sea and such as are damned to the metall mines banished into Islands or cast into prison professing the true God and the Christian faith I might thus passe over the first 300. years of the Church but I desire to make it more apparent how the Clergy of those times lived as well for conversation as for
goods but as Abraham did also to Melchisedek present unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very top and chiefest part thereof following Abraham in offering the fat and abhorring to give the carrion things unto God like the sacrifice of Cain And that it may be no disgrace to the honourable Ministers of the Church to live thus ex sportula let me note by the way that the Kings and Princes of the world are likewise said to live ex sportula for their Exchequer or Treasury hath thereupon the name of Fiscus which word as appeareth by Ascanius is all one with sportula Strigelius in leg lib. 2. pag. 307. Fisci fiscinae fiscellae saith he sportea sunt utensilia ad majoris summae pecunias capiendas unde quia major summa est pecuniae publicae quà m privatae factum est ut fiscus pro pecunia publica inde confiscare dicatur a little before he saith Sportae sportulae sportellae munerum sunt receptacula And let me also remember that in the Easterne Empire the Master of the Store-house and Wardrobe as well Palatine as Ecclesiastical was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Codin p. 5. Suidas and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Canistro vel Sportula Touching Lands though the Churches at this time had little yet were they not altogether without any as appeareth partly by that which Eusebius reporteth of Paulus Samosatenus that under Aurelian the Emperour i. e. about the yeare 274. he wrongfully invaded an house belonging to the Church of Antioch But more amply by the edict of Licinius Apud Euseb l. 10. ca. 5. and Constantine where it is expresly commanded that all Lands and places which belonged to the Christians as well for their publique use as in their private possession that had been taken from them in the persecution of Dioclesian should be restored to them Platina saith that Vrbane Bishop of Rome anno 227. first instituted that the Church might receive Lands and possessions offered by the faithfull and then sheweth to what end she might enjoy them namely that the Revenues thereof should be distributed by portions to every man and that no man should have them to his particular benefit Vrbane himself in the Decretall Epistle attributed unto him affirmeth this usage to be more ancient saying also that the Bishops within their Diocese and other faithfull persons appointed by them both did and ought to distribute these Revenues in manner before mentioned adding further that they were called the oblations of the faithfull for that they were offered unto God and that they ought not to be otherwise employed then to Ecclesiasticall uses the relief of Christian brethren living together in common and of the poor people for that they are the vows of the faithfull the price of sin the patrimony of the poor and delivered over unto the Lord for the performance of this work Many account this Epistle Apocryphall I will therefore strengthen it with the opinion of Origen a Father of those times who in his 16. Homily upon Genesis disputeth it to be utterly unlawfull for the Ministers of the Gospel to possesse any Lands to their own use for so I understand him confessing himself not to be faultlesse herein and therefore exhorting others to joyn with him in Reformation thereof he saith Festinemus transire à sacerdotibus Pharaonis let us make haste to depart from the Priests of Pharaoh who enjoy earthly possessions to the Priests of the Lord who have no portion in earth for that the Lord is their portion fol. 26. col 3. And to shew to what end the Church enjoyeth her goods and in what manner they ought to be divided amongst her Ministers and poor children in his 31. Homily upon Matthew he saith Opus habemus ut fideles simus pariter prudentes ad dispensandos ecclesiae reditus c. It behoveth us to be faithfull in disposing the rents of the Church Faithfull that we our selves devour not those things which belong unto the widows and that we be mindfull of the poor and because it is written The Lord hath appointed that they which preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.14 should live of the Gospel that we therefore take not occasion to seek more for our selves then our simple diet and necessary apparell retaining a greater portion to our selves then that we give to the brethren that are hungry and thirsty and naked and which suffer necessity in secular affairs Discreet as to minister to every man his portion according to his rank and dignity remembring that which is said Blessed is he which considereth the poor and needy Psal 41. for it is not sufficient for us simply to give away the goods of the Church so to keep our selves clear from devouring or stealing of them but we must wisely consider every mans necessity how he falleth into it what his dignity is how he came by it how much he needeth and for what cause he needeth it We must not therefore deal alike with them which were pincht and hardly brought up in their infancy and with them who being nourished delicately and plentifully are now fallen into necessity Neither must we minister the same things to men and to women nor like quantity to old men and young men nor to sickly young men that are not able to earn their living and those which have somwhat of their own to maintain themselves withall It must also be considered whether they have many children and whether those children be idle or industrious and how far forth they are insufficient to provide for themselves to bee short there is great wisdome required in him that would well dispose the Revenues of the Church and that by being a faithfull and discreet disposer hee may become an happy man Thus far Origen to which purpose Cyprian also in his Epistle to Eucratius lib. 1. Epist 10. sheweth that the Church maintained many poor and that her own diet was frugalioribus innocentibus cibis sparing and plain and all her expence sumptibus parcioribus quidem sed salutaribus full of frugality but sufficient for health The persons by whom this distribution of Church goods was made were chiefly the Bishops as appeareth by the former Epistle of Vrbane and Deacons appointed under them as in the times of the Apostles Acts 6. Therefore Origen in his 16. Homily upon Matthew fol. 31. col 4. taxing the unfaithfull Deacons saith Diaconi autem c. But the Deacons which govern not well the tables of the Ecclesiasticall money that is the goods and Revenues of the Church but doe always purloin them not distributing that which they give according unto judgement and so become rich by that which belongeth unto the poor they are the Exchangers whose Tables Christ will overthrow For the Apostles in their Acts teach us that the Deacons are Governours of the Tables of Ecclesiasticall moneys or Revenues c. and again after unusquisque diaconorum Every one of
the Deacons which gather wealth to themselves by defrauding the poor let them now so understand this Scripture that they gather no more lest the Lord commeth upon them and overthrow the Tables of their distribution Thus much touching the use of Church goods in the first age of the Church or first 300. yeers of Christ whereby it plainly appeareth that no Ecclesiasticall person enjoyed any thing belonging to the Church to his own benefit but that the Church-men had out of the Revenues and goods of the Church so much onely as sufficed for their necessary maintenance in meat drink cloth and such like the surplusage being faithfully employed to the relief of the poor the needy the widows persons banished for Religion or imprisoned Captives and Christians any way distressed So that the Church exposing all this while the dugs of her piety unto others did live her self on thistles and thorns that is in want necessity and professed poverty When the flood of persecution had prevailed as many years against the Church in the time of the Gospel as that of waters did days against the wicked in the time of Noah and that Constantine like the Dove of the Ark had brought the olive branch of peace unto the people of God the Church then began to smell the sweet savour of rest and changing presently her disposition with her fortune changed also the very policy of her government before in poverty now in riches before a servant now a Mistresse before a Captive now a Conquerour For the noble Constantine being miraculously converted to the faith did not onely free her from persecution but setled her also in the very bosome of peace raised her to honours endowed her with possessions established her with immunities and to be short poured upon her the fulnesse of his regall munificence Insomuch that many prudent Fathers foreseeing then another evill likely to proceed from hence as namely that her plenty might make her wanton and forgetfull of her duty began now to dispute whether it were lawfull for her to accept lands and Temporalties or not Some alledged that the examples of our Saviour and his Apostles bound them to contemn the world and to live in a strict and Stoick kind of poverty Others conceived that course to be but temporall and like a medicinall diet prescribed by Physitians to their patients in sicknesse onely not in health affirming the time to be now come when it pleased God to crown the long-suffering of his Church with the blessings promised in the tenth of Mark v. 29.31 That since they had forsaken house and brethren and sisters and father and mother and wife and children and lands for Christs sake and the Gospel they should receive un hundred fold now at this present with their persecutions and in the world to come eternall life I will not argue this point but letting passe the School-men will rest my self upon the determination of many ancient Councels Fathers and Doctors of the Church who with one consent conclude affirmatively that the Church may hold them And I think their opinion to be of God for that it hath prevailed these 1500. years against all the enemies thereof though the Kytes of Satan have pulled many a plume from it To return to Constantine though he and others by his example did abundantly enrich the Church yet did not the Church-men take these riches to the benefit of themselves and their families but employed them as before to workes of charity Yea Silvester himselfe though the sea of these things flowed into his bosome and were at his pleasure yet took he as sparingly of them as if he had been but a little pitcher suffering the whole streams thereof to run abundantly amongst the children of the church and poor people as did also the other Fathers Priests and Clergy of that time who reckoned not otherwise of riches then as dung which being spread and scattered in the fields of God might make them the more fertile For the resolution then was as in the age before that no Church-man might take Lands to his private use nor the Church her self otherwise then for works of charity and the necessary sustenance of her Ministers not to make stocks or portions for them in earth whose inheritance was in heaven and that had God himself for their portion Therefore Prosper a godly Father of that time Lib. 21. de vita Contemplativa whose authority is often used in the Councel of Aquisgrane disputing the point concludeth it thus If every Minister of the Church have not a Living the Church doth not provide one for him in this world but helpeth him with things necessary that he may receive the reward of his labour in the world to come resting in this life upon the promise of our Saviour To which purpose he applieth the place in the 1 Cor. 9.14 What is it to live of the Gospel but that the labourer should receive his necessaries from the place wherein he laboureth And a little before him Hierome also in his Book De vita Monach Cler. instituenda saith Epist ad Nepotianum If I be the Lords part and the lot of his inheritance not having a part amongst the rest of the Tribes but as a Levite and Priest doe live of tithes and serving at the Altar am sustained by the offerings of the Altar having victuals and cloathing I will be contented herewith and being otherwise naked will follow the naked crosse So in his Book De Co. virginitatis having reproved the curiosity of some Clerks of that time he saith also Habentes victum vestitum his contenti sumus for as Ambrose saith upon Esay 1. Tom. 2. In officio clericatus lucrum non pecuniarum sed acquiritur animarum In the function of a Clegy-man the gain of mony is not to be sought but the gain of souls All these are but particular opinions of some Western Fathers hear now therefore the determination of the Eastern church assembled in the Councell of Antioch Anno 340. cap. 25. Episcopus Ecclesiasticarum rerum habeat potestatem ad dispensandum erga omnes qui indigent cum summa reverentia timore Dei participet autem ipse quibus indiget tam in suis quà m in fratrum qui ab eo suscipiuntur necessariis usibus profuturis ita ut in nullo qualibet occasione fraudentur juxta sanctum Apostolum sic dicentem Habentes victum tegumentum his contenti sumus Quòd si contentus istis minime fuerit convertat autem res ecclesiae in suos usus domesticos ejus commoda vel agrorum fructus non cum Presbyterorum conscientia diaconorumque pertractet sed horum potestatem domesticis suis aut propinquis aut fratribus filiisque committat ut per hujusmodi personas occultè caeterae laedantur ecclesiae Synodo provinciae poenas iste persolvat Si autem aliter accusetur Episcopus aut Presbyteri qui cum ipso sunt quòd
ceremonies and therefore ended with the Leviticall Law These men reason as if before the Leviticall Law there had been no rules of Gods honour and as though the Morall Law and the Law of nature taught us nothing therein Doth not God himself leave the precepts of the Leviticall Law and reason with the Israelites out of the Law of nature Mal. 3. when he saith will any man spoil his goddesse as if he should say that the Law of nature hath sanctified those things that are offered unto God and therefore will any man violate the Law of nature Doth not Saint Paul reason also in the same sort when he saith Despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.22 If I should apply the places of Scripture that are spoken of the great reverence of the Temple it would be said that that were Leviticall but the office of the Temple was Morall as well as Leviticall and therefore though these be ended yet the other the Morall remaineth When Christ had cast the oxen doves that were for the Leviticall service out of the Temple yet he said that it was an house of Prayer as figurating that after the ceremonies were ended and gone yet the Morall office of the Temple to be an house of Prayer still remained Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11.22 when he saith Despise yee the Church of God speaking it as if he wondred that any should be so irreligious or rather sacrilegious to despise the Church and no man I think doubteth but that this was spoken of the materiall Church for he blameth them that did use unseemly drinking in the Church See the first Treatise Note of the rights and respect due § 10. Of the three severall places and three functions of the Temple and how the last continueth holy for Prayer Doctrine and instruction of the people which therefore had in it no Ceremoniall implement at all CAP. XVIII Tithes must not be contemned because they were used by the Church of Rome IF we should reject Tithes because they were used by the Church of Rome by the same reason we must also reject our Churches but the Apostles used both the Synagogues and the Temple it self after Christs Ascension though they were polluted with the doctrine and ceremonies of the Jews and therefore we are not to reject Tithes and other things profitable to Gods service because the Papists used or misused them The Censors ordained for Gods honour were impiously abused by Corah Dathan and Abiram yet God rejected them not but commanded them to be still employed in some better course of his service namely in making plates for the Altar Numb 16.38 And by this Scripture doth Hugo and Origen reprove them that judge the works of an heretique to be burned without preserving the good things in them and the Altar to be pulled down wherear a Schismatique hath ministred Hugo in Genes 16. fol. 136. a. and Origen in Homil. 9. sup Num. fol. 104. God refused not the burnt-offering of Gedeon though he made it with the idolatrous wood of Baals grove yea himself commanded it so Judg. 6.26 and in the Gospel the offerings of the proud Pharisees were as well received into the Treasury of the Temple as the mite of the poor widow When Jericho was destroyed and accursed yet God required the gold and silver for his holy utensils Jos 6.19 For though filthy gains are forbidden to be offered unto God yet good things because they have been abused are not forbidden to be offered unto him When the pottage provided for sustenance of the children of the Prophets was infected by him that threw in the wilde gourdes or colloquintida Elisha the Prophet commanded them not to be cast away but cleansing them from their infectious venome used them still for food of the children 2 Kings 4.38 So if the pottage of the Ministers have been abused with Roman Colloquintida purge the infection but take not their pottage I mean their Tithes from them Aristophanes bringeth in Heroules laughing to see effeminate Baccbus clad in the Lions skin In Ranis but we may well lament to see a spruce Castilio and his masking mistresse trickt and trimmed up with those Church-livings that godly and grave men in times past gave for maintenance of Gods service and the Ministers thereof I can but wonder what should move Flacius Illyricus a man so conversant in the history of the Church to affirm Decimas nupeius extortas per papas Catal test ter primo impositas in Concil per Pelagium Papam Anno 588. that Tithes were lately extorted by the Popes and that they were first imposed by Pope Pelagius in the Councell Anno 588. unlesse his meaning be that in elder times they were paid at pleasure and now first commanded to be paid of duty which construction though contrary to the understanding of a common Reader if we doe allow him yet is it untrue also for that Councell reciteth that they had been paid before of long time and that by the whole multitude of Christians and as due by the Word of God and consequently not at pleasure Concil Matisconense 2. c. 5. Anno 588. Tom. 2. So that this Councell did but revive and quicken the cold devotion of that time and not inferre new matters unheard of before CAP. XIX That the Tradition of ancient Fathers and Councels is not lightly to be regarded IT appeareth by divers ancient Fathers and Councels that Tithes were paid long before their times in the Primitive Church and were unto the age of the Apostles though little memory thereof remaineth in the Authors of those times And shall we not beleeve the Fathers received such instruction from their elders Doth not God bid us ask after the days of old and the years of so many generations saying Ask thy father and he will shew thee thine elders and they will tell thee Deut. 32.7 If we shall not beleeve them why should we ask them and why did the children of Israel complain that their Fathers heard not the words of the book of the Law 2 Kings 22.13 but because they therefore could not report it to them their children Shall we think nothing to be done but what is written doth not the Evangelist tell us that if all were written that Christ did he supposed the world could not contain the books Joh. 21.25 are not many actions of elder time alledged in latter Scriptures and yet no testimony of them in the former it is said 1 Chro. 26.18 that Samuel Abner and Joab dedicated many things unto God yet their story reporteth no such matter Solomon is noted 1 Chron. 10. to have kept a famous Passeover yet is there not a word of it in the history of his time Fasting was brought into the Church before Christ and the use also of building of Synagogues but it appeareth not when or how Paul alledgeth that our Saviour said It is better to give then to take Act. 20.35 yet no Evangelist doth mention it
called and wakened as he did in the ship with Peter but as he is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Multo post futurum Domini sacramentum ante signavit ac sacrificio panis vini mysterium corporis sanguinis expressit p. To. 4.14 c. he will come forth of himself and meet them and give them bread and wine as Melchisedek did to strengthen and confirm them that is the other sacrament of the body and bloud Then as a perpetuall high Priest and Mediator he doth blesse them and make intercession for them as Melchisedek did Abraham and his spirituall posterity in the person of Abraham as well Jews as Gentiles for in the person of Abraham Melchisedek blessed both the Jews as his children by Circumcision and the Gentiles as his children by faith Then must wee doe as Abraham did in his own and our person give tithe of all to Melchisedek and his Substitutes Melchisedek gave bread and wine really and we must also as Abraham did give him the tithe really And this tithe was not given to Melchisedek as a Leviticall duty but as a duty belonging to God both before the Law Ministravitist◠Melchisedek Abrahamo exercitui xenia multam abundantiam rerum optimarum simul exhibuit super epulas eum collaudare coepit benedicere Deum qui ei subdiderat inimicos Jos Antiquit. l. 1. c. 18. and in the time of the Gospel for Melchisedek met not Abraham with oblations and sacrifice like a Priest of the Law but with bread and wine the elements of the sacrament of the Gospel which in figure thereof are onely remembred in this place by the holy Ghost though Josephus mentioneth many other rich gifts at this very time plentifully given by Melchisedek to Abraham So that if Melchisedek in the person of Christ received tithe then doubtlesse is tithe due unto Christ and consequently to his Ministers This is the first place in Scripture wherein tithes be mentioned therefore some may think it the first time they were paid but that is no argument for so it is the first place where a Priest is mentioned yet no doubt Priests were before Noah performed the Priests office when he built an Altar No fish as though the curse extended not to the sea and offered of every cleane beast and fowl upon it Gen. 8.20 And it is very likely that Melchisedek himself had borne the office of a Priest many hundred years before he met Abraham though the Scripture doth not mention him till the meeting for if it be lawfull to enquire of that the holy Ghost revealeth not many great Divines are of opinion that he was Sem the son of Noah whom the Salemites had made their King and it may well be for it appeareth in Gen. 11. that Sem lived 600. years whereof 502. after the Floud and of them 209. in the life of Abraham So that to those of that new world that Abraham lived in I mean after the Floud he might well seem without father or mother or any beginning being born almost 100. years before the Floud and to have been a Priest for ever And then in like consequence he might have received tithes of divers other before he thus met Abraham for that use was common long before among the Heathen and likely it is that the Heathen rather learned it of the children of God then that the children of God should learn it of them as Hemmingius would have it who saith that Abraham gave these tithes of his own accord following therein without all doubt the manner of Conquerors which were wont to consecrate the tithe of the spoil unto their gods or to bestow it upon their Priests I read in Ovid that Bacchus who lived before this time having conquered the Indians and other Nations sent the first-fruits of the spoile magno Jovi to great Jupiter but whether Abraham either heard of it or took it for a Precedent that cannot I tell Te memor ant Gange totoque oriente subacto Primitial magno supposuisse Jovi Cinnama tu primus captivaque thura dedisti Deque triumphate viscera tosta bove Fastor li. 3. The next place of Scripture mentioning tithes is the 28. Gen. ver the last Jacob going upon his adventure voweth that if God will be with him in his journey and give him meat and cloth and so that he return safe then saith he the Lord shall be my God and this stone which I here set up as a pillar shall be Gods house and of all that thou shalt give me will I give the tenth unto thee Liv. l. 1. Romulus made the like vow for building the Temple to Jupiter Feretrius upon Mount Palatine Tatius and Tarquinius upon Tarpeius William the Conquerour for Battail Abbey But Hemmingius cannot say that Jacob did it by their example for they lived too too long after him I think rather that the law of nature and reason taught all Nations to render honour thanks and service unto God and that the children of God being more illuminate in the true course thereof then the Heathen by the light of reason could be first began the precedent and that then the Heathen dwelling round about them apprehended and dispersed it for the use of paying tithes even in those first ages of the world was generall as hereafter shall appear But Iacob doth not here bargain and condition with God that if God will doe thus and thus that then he shall be his God and that he will build him an house and pay him tithe and otherwise not but he alledgeth it as shewing by this means he shall bee the better enabled to perform those debts and duties that he oweth unto God and will therefore doe it the more readily The actions and answers of the Sages are in all Laws a law to their posterity Iustinian the Emperour doth therefore make them a part of the Civill Law The common Lawyers doe so alledge them and the Law of the holy Church hath always so received allowed them Non ideonobis proponi exempla justorum ut ab eis justificemur sed ut eos imitantes ab eorum justificatore nos quoque justificari sciamus Aug. lib. de Catechisand udibus Tom. 4. f. 218. And though Saint Augustine saith that the examples of the righteous are not set forth unto us that thereby we should be justified yet he addeth further that they are set forth to the end that we by imitating them may know our selves to be justified by him that justifieth them Why then should we now call tithes in question since we find them to be paid and confirmed by two such great Sages and Patriarchs Abraham Iacob Yea their payment practised generally by all the Nations of the world for 3000. years at least never abrogated by any Law but confirmed also by all the Fathers and Doctors of the Church and not impugned by a single Author as far as I can find during all the
time I speak of Well It will be said that all this is nothing if the Word of God commandeth it not for every thing must be weighed and valued by the shekel of the Sanctuary Lev. 27.25 They may by the same reason take away our Churches for I finde not in all the Bible any Text wherein it is commanded that we should build us Churches Perkins dem Problem 9. neither did the Christians either in the Apostles time nor 100. yeares after build themselves Churches like these of ours but contented themselves at first to meet in houses which thereupon were called ades sacrae And to shew that they were commanded by the Levitical Law will not serve our turn for it will be said the Statute of repeal even the two words spoken by our Saviour upon the Crosse Consummatum est Iohn 19.30 clearly abrogated that Law but it is to be well examined how far this repeal extendeth for though the letter of it be taken away yet the spirituall sense thereof remaineth for Ierome saith Singulae paene syllabae c. spirant coelestia sacramenta Tom. 3. Paulino Epist that almost every syllable thereof breatheth forth an heavenly sacrament Saint Augustine saith the Christians doe keep it spiritually so that if tithe be not given in the tenth according to the Leviticall Institution yet the spirituall meaning of providing for the Clergy our Levites remaineth But with the precepts of the Leviticall and Ceremoniall Laws divers rules of the Morall Law are also mingled as the Laws against Witches Not to reap every corner of our field nor to gather our fruit clean not to keep the pledge that belongeth to the person of our brother Userers Oppressors c. the Laws that command us to lend to our brother without interest and to sanctifie the Sabbath for though the Institution of the Sabbath be changed yet the spirituall observation remaineth and that not onely in the manner of sanctifying it but as touching the time also even the seventh day Notwithstanding I find not that the Apostles commanded us to change it but because they did change it we take their practice to be as a Law unto us yet though they changed the time they altered not the number that is the seventh day I will then reason that God hath as good right to our goods of the world as to the days of our life and that a part of them belong unto him as well as the other And the action of Abraham and Jacob may as well be a precedent to us for the one in what proportion we are to render them as that of the Apostles in the other for both of them were out of the Law the one after it the other before it And why may not the limitation of the day appointed to the Lord for his Sabbath be altered and changed as well as the portion appointed to him for the tenth You will say the seventh day was not due to him by the law of nature for then Abraham and the Fathers should have kept it before the Law given but it held the fittest analogy to that naturall duty that we owe to the service of God and therefore when that portion of time was once particularly chosen by God for his service by reason himself had commanded it under the Law the Apostles after the Law was abolished retained it in the Gospel And so since the number of the tenth was both given to God before the Law and required by him in the time of the Law being also most consonant to all other respects great reason it is to hold it in the age of the Gospel Yet with this difference that in the old Law the Sabbath was the last part of the seven days and in the Gospel it is the first because our Saviour rose from the dead the first day of the week and not the seventh God is our Lord and we owe him both rent and service our service is appointed to bee due every seventh day our rent to be the tenth part of our encrease He dealeth not like the hard Landlords that will have their rent though their Tenants bee losers by their Land but he requireth nothing save out of their gain and but the tenth part thereof onely These two retributions of rendring him the seventh day of our life and the tenth part of our goods are a plain demonstration to us of our spirituall and temporall duty towards God Spiritually in keeping the Sabbath and temporally in payment of tithes that is in providing for his Ministery and them in necessity the one being the image of our faith the other of our works for seven is the number of spirituall sanctification ten the number of legall justification Therefore to pay all the nine parts was nothing if we failed in the tenth for the tenth is the number of perfection and therefore required above all other as the type of legall justification And as our faith is nothing without works so neither is the Sabbath without tithes for they that minister to us the spirituall blessings of the Sabbath must receive from us the temporall gratuities of Tithing CAP. XXVI That they are due by the Law of Nations THe Law of Nations is that which groundeth it self upon such manifest rules of reason as all the Nations of the world perceive them to be just and do therefore admit them as effectually by the instinct of nature as if they had been concluded of by an universall Parliament Therefore in truth this is no other but that which the Philosophers call the law of Nature Oratours the law of Reason Divines the Morall law and Civilians the Law of Nations As far then as Tithe is due by one of these so far likewise it is due by all the rest and consequently the reasons that prove it in the one doe in like manner prove it in all the other I will not therefore insist here upon arguments but remit you to that hath been formerly said touching the law of Nature and demonstrate unto you by the practice of all Nations what the resolution of the world hath been herein through all ages So ancient it is among the Heathens that good Divines are of opinion that Abraham took example thereof from the Heathen but others with more reason conceive it to be practised even by the children of Adam as well as sacrificing and the offering of first-fruits as by the opinion of Hugo Cardinalis I have shewed in another place Besides I find not any mention of Tithe paid by the Gentiles before the time of Dionysius commonly called Bacchus who having conquered the Indians sent a Present of the spoil Magno Jovi as Ovid witnesseth and this was about 600. after that Abraham tithed to Melchisedek Cyrus having collected a great sum of mony amongst his captives caused it to be divided delivered the tithe thereof to the Praetors to be consecrated to Apollo and Diana of Ephesus as he had vowed Xenophon in
be slack to be pay it Eccles also 5.3 4. for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee and so it should be sin unto thee Deut. 23.20 Therefore S. Peter reasoning the matter with Ananias telleth him That whilest his land remained in his hands it appertained unto him and when it was sold the money was his own Act. 5.4 he might have chosen whether he would give them God or not but when his heart had vowed his hands were tied to perform them he vowed all and all was due not by the Levitical law which now was ended but by the Morall law which lasteth for ever for Job being an Heathen man and not a Jew saith also Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee and thou shalt render him thy vows Job 22.27 If the King give a gift of his inheritance to his son his son shall have it if he give it to his servant his servant shall have it Ezek. 46.16 If the King then give a gift to his Father that is to God Almighty shall not God have it or the servant to his Master and Maker shall not he enjoy it Who hath power to take that from God which was given unto him according to his Word can the Bishops can the Clergy give this away no they are but Vsufructuarii they have but the use of it the thing it self is Gods for the words of the grant be Concedimus Deo we give it to God not to the Bishops Therefore when Valentinian the Emperor required the Church of Milan of that noble Bishop S. Ambrose O saith he if any thing were required of me that were mine as my land my house Orat. de basilie tradend p. 2.38 my gold or my silver whatsoever were mine I would willingly offer it but saith he I can take nothing from the Church nor deliver that to others which I my self received but to keep and not to deliver CAP. XXVIII Tithe is not meerly Leviticall How it is and how not and wherein Judiciall TIthe is not simply a Leviticall duty but respectively not the naturall childe of Moses Law but the adoptive Consider first the action and then the end the action in payment of them the end in the employment or disposing of them The action of payment of them cannot be said to be properly Leviticall for divers reasons First it is much more ancient then the Leviticall Law as is already declared and cannot therefore bee said to begin by it or to be meerly Leviticall Secondly the manner of establishing of it in the Leviticall Law seemeth rather to be an annexion of a thing formerly in use then the creating or erecting of a new custome for in all the Leviticall Law there is no originall commandement to pay Tithe but in the place where first it is mentioned Lev. 27.30 it is positively declared to be the Lords without any commandement precedent to yeeld it to him Some happily will affirm the commandement in the 22. Exod. that thou shalt not keep back thy Tithe doth belong to the Leviticall Law though it were given before the Levites were ascribed to the Tabernacle Yet if it were so that is no fundamentall Law whereupon to ground the first erection of paying Tithe but rather as a Law of revive and confirmation as of a thing formerly in esse for detaining and keeping back doe apparently imply a former right and therefore Tithe was still the Lords ex antiquiore jure and not ex novitio praecepto by a precedent right and not by a new commandement Thirdly it containeth no matter of ceremony for if it did then must it be a type and figure of some future thing and by the passion of our Saviour Christ bee converted from a carnall rite into some spirituall observation for so saith Jerome of the legall ceremonies but no such thing appeareth in it and therefore it cannot be said to be a ceremony The whole body of the Fathers doe confirm this who in all their works doe confidently affirm the doctrine that S. Paul so much beateth upon that all legall ceremonies be abolished and yet as many of them as speak of Tithes doe without all controversie both conclude and teach that still they ought to be paid and therefore plainly not to be a ceremony Fourthly the Tithing now used is not after the manner of the Leviticall Law for by the Leviticall Law nothing was tithed but such things as renued and encreased out of the profits of the earth but our manner of tithing is after that of Abrahams Heb. 7.2 who gave tithe of all And this is a thing well to be confidered for therein as Abraham tithed to Melchisedek not being of the Tribe of Levi so our Tithing is now to Christ being of Melchisedeks order and not of the Tribe of Levi but of that of Juda whereunto the Tribe of Levi is also to pay their Tithe Fifthly and lastly the end whereunto Tithe was ordained is plainly Morall and that in three main points Piety Justice and Gratitude 1. Piety as for the worship of God 2. Justice as for the wages and remuneration of his Ministers 3. Gratitude And to encourage them in the service of God 2 Chron. 31.4 as sacrificium laudis an offering of thankfulnesse for his benefits received All which were apparent in the use of Tithes before they were assigned over to the Levites both in the examples of Abraham and Jacob and by the practice of all Nations For God was to be worshipped before in and after the Law and though the Law had never been given but his worship could not be without Ministers nor his Ministers without maintenance and therefore the maintenance of his Ministers was the maintenance of his worship and consequently the tithes applied to the one extended to both God himself doth so expound it Mal. 3.8 where he tearmeth the not-payment of Tithes to bee his spoil and wherein his spoil but in his worship and how in his worship but by taking from him the service of his Ministers the Priests and Levites who being deprived thereof could neither perform his holy rites in matter of charge nor give their attendance for want of maintenance So that herein the children of Israel were not onely guilty of that great sinne committed against piety in hindering the worship of God but of the crying sin also committed against equity in withholding the wages of the labourer his Ministers and consequently of that monstrous and foul sin of Ingratitude which Jacob in vowing of his Tithes so carefully avoided To come to the other point before spoken of the disposing or employment of the Tithes after they were paid that is when they were out of the power of them that paid them and at the ordering of the Levites that received them it cannot be denied but therein were many ceremonies as namely in the sanctifying of them in the eating them in the Tabernacle the eating of them by the
as the body of sin and corruption with the deserved torment of fire and sending the other that is the fume and vapour as the purer part to carry their prayers and invocations up into heaven before the Throne of God First how corruptible they were that is even like the great body of a bullock suddainly consumed Secondly the punishment in justice due unto them even the torment of fire Thirdly the place and person from whence they hoped for redemption Heaven and Almighty God And lastly the means whereby they were to attain it taken from two of the proprieties of fire light and heat that is first the light of faith whereby they long foresaw the promised seed and secondly the heat of zeal and hearty prayer breathed and sent forth from the altar of a fervent heart whereby they hoped to obtain remission of their sins After all this they yet considering further that the corruption and wrath fallen upon them was perpetuall and that these oblations and sacrifices were but temporall and momentary they thought in reason being onely under the law of Reason that the one could not countervail the other and that therefore it was necessary by continuall reiteration and multiplying of sacrifices to sollicite and importune God from day to day untill the time came that a perpetuall sacrifice might be offered up to make sinalem concordiam in the high Court of heaven a full atonement betweene God and man which being once accomplished by our Saviour Christ both the institution and the end of sacrificing were wholly accomplished and so no cause for ever after to use that ceremony any more For with one offering saith the Apostle to the Hebrews hath he consecrated for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Touching Circumcision though it were before the Leviticall Law yet it rise not out of the Law of Nature or Morall Law but was instituted by a positive constitution made by God himself and not as a part of his worship but as a seal of his Covenant with Abraham which by this ceremony of cutting away the impurer part of the flesh did put the children of Israel ever in mind to cast away carnall affections and to hope for the promised Messias that should cleanse them from the impurity of sin and restore them again to the favour of God which being performed by our Saviour the Covenant was fulfilled and the seal of Circumcision presently thereby defaced § 2. Of the Sabbath day Easter and Pentecost The Institution of the Sabbath day had in it much more Levitical ceremony then the matter of tithing for no man ought to kindle a fire on that day nor dresse the meat he should eat Exod. 35.3.16.24 Jer. 17.11 nor carry any burden take a journey or stir out of the place he was in Tarry every man in his place let no man goe out of his place the seventh day Exod. 16.29 It was besides a day appointed for divers particular ceremonies sacrifices and offerings as yee may read Num. 28.9 10. and amongst other significations to be a memoriall of the great deliverance out of Aegypt a thing peculiar to the Jews Neither have we any commandement but only a precedent for the keeping of it from the Apostles Acts 20.9 1 Cor. 16.2 Rev. 1.10 Yet durst never any man say that the Sabbath was therefore to be abolished but the temporall and ceremoniall parts thereof being taken away the morall use of the commandement which is that the seventh part of our time must be dedicate to the generall service of God remaineth for ever to the worlds end for otherwise our Sabbath is so remote from the Sabbath commanded in the Decalogue that the one holdeth almost no affinity with the other as appeareth in the points aforesaid and for that their Sabbath was the last day of the week ours is the first their 's was in celebration of the end of his workes ours in celebration of the beginning thereof for in the first day were the Elements the Angels c. made August Tom. 10. fol. 250. Theirs in memory of the Creation of the world ours of the Redemption that Christ rise from the dead the first day of the week And though the Apostles taught us by example to exchange the Jewish Sabbath for this of ours as touching the publique meeting on the first day of the week for setting forth the glory of God yet they gave us no commandement to abstain from work on that day but the Church decreed saith S. Augustine that all the honour of the Jewish Sabbath should be transferred to the Christian loco dicto and is done upon the Morall reason of the commandement not the Leviticall So likewise in tithing cut off those parts that were temporall and ceremoniall which as I have shewed were neither in the payment nor in the receiving of them but in the manner of sanctifying and employment of part of them after the Levites were possessed of them and then that which remaineth namely the payment and receiving of them for maintenance of the service of God remaineth for ever as a part of the Morall Law and common equity So touching Easter Christ our Passeover was sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 and thereby the end of Institution accomplished how come we then to continue it especially having neither commandement nor precedent thereof from the Apostles The Ceremoniall part of the Paschall feast viz. the Leviticall Lamb the Purification precedent c. are abolished with the Law yet in that Christ came in the room of that Leviticall Lamb and was sacrificed at the same time and gave his body to be broken and eaten by all as the Paschall Lamb was for a satisfaction for our sins as S. John Baptist saith Ecce Agnus Dei therefore is that Feast continued as it was formerly used without changing either the number of the days or season of the year or the solemn estimation that was anciently had thereof yet note that Easter is kept according to the Leviticall manner for the time after the full Moon and is therefore moveable whereas the day that Christ suffered is otherwise fixed as that of the Nativity So likewise Pentecost being the 50. day from the first Passeover eaten by the children of Israel and the day also whereon the Law was given in Mount Sinai and therefore hallowed as one of the three greatest feasts the Law then being ended the celebration of the birth-day thereof must in all reason also be ended yet because the fulnesse of grace that holdeth always an Antithesis with the Law that is the holy Ghost in shape of cloven tongues was at the end of 50. days after Christs first Passeover sent down upon the Apostles therefore is that Feast also continued at the same time and number of days that the Jews used it although in all the New Testament we have neither commandement nor example for keeping either of these Feasts for though it be said Acts 2.1 that when Pentecost was