gon astray following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse These are wells without water Clouds carried with a Tempest to whom is reserved the mist of darknesse for ever 3ly That although God should miraculously preserve a faithfull able Ministry and his true Religion still amongst us through the bounty and charity of other well affected Christians yet they have done their uttermost endeavours to destroy them and the peoples souls with them both for the present and succeeding ages 4ly That this unrighteous violent act will in all probability bring in a world of Confusion Atheism Schisms Heresies Divisions Contentions Blasphemies disorders amongst us in all places a famine of the sincere preaching of Gods word a neglect and contempt of Learning and Piety a dilapidation Spoliation of all or most Parish Churches Chapels a confusion of the bounds of all Parishes and Parochial Congregations and bring all those Calamities on our Nation as it did upon the Israelites when Jeroboam thrust out the Priests and Levites from their Glebes Suburbs Ministry thus registred 2 Chron. 15. 3 5 6. Now for a long season Israel was without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without Law as some would have us now And in those days mark the consequence there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in but great vexation upon all the Inhabitants of the Country And Nation was destroyed of Nation and Citie of Citie for God did vex them withall Adversity In which condition they continued till King Asa and the people renued repaired the decayed Altar House and worship of the Lord Gathered all the people to Jerusalem to worship God and enter into a Solemn Covenant and Oath to serve the Lord God of their Fathers with all their hearts and with all their soul And that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great man or woman Offred Sacrifices to the Lord of the Spoyl they had taken from the Enemy 700 Oxén and 7000. Shéep and brought into the house of God the things that his Father had dedicated and himself had dedicated Silver and Gold and Vessels formerly taken thence and then there was no more war in divers years v. 8. to the end of the Chapter And probably our Wars Taxes Vexations will never end till we give over our late irreligious Sacrilegious Rapines Church Robberies and do the like as this pious King and his people here did 5ly That this discouraging robbing abusing despising mocking misusing of Gods Messengers Prophets sent amongst us and of all his and their words against our wicked Atheistical Sacrilegious Rapines is the High way to provoke the wrath of God to rise against us till there be no remedy yea to bring in a powerfull Foreign Nation upon us to pillage waste destroy enslave our whole Nation extirpate us out of the Land of our Nativity and carry us Captives to a Foreign Nation as it did Gods own people heretofore 2 Chron. 36. 15 to 22. Sufficient motives to deter us from such a dangerous practice 6ly I must inform our Army Officers and Souldiers that it is expresly against the very Laws and Rules of War even in a Foreign Enemies Country won by Conquest to rob destroy pillage Churches Temples or things devoted for the Maintenance of Gods publique Worship which not only the best Christian Generals and Souldiers but many Heathen and Mahometan Generals Princes Commanders made conscience not to plunder deface demolish or substract as Grotius proves at large by many instances in his Book De Jure Belli l. 3. c. 2 12. sect 6 7 8. Annotata on them How much more then is it against the Law of War and Armes it self to make a prey plunder of Churches Rectories Glebes Tithes in their own native Country against their own Consciences Covenants Commissions to defend them Yea such Generals Souldiers and whole Armies who have made no Conscience to observe it have been frequently destroyed for their Sacrilege as many Heathen Historians observe as well as Christian Herodotus in my Edition p. 7 8 44 167 168 169 170 187 349 350 460 461 568. Diodorus Siâ—ulus Bibl. Hist p. 622 781 782. Dion Cassius Rom. Hist p. 589. Justini Historia â— 8. p. 87. l. 24. p. 227 to 231 269 271 308. Caelius Rhodiginus Ant. Lect. l. 18. c. 29 Eutropius Rer. Rom. Hist p. 175 228 334. Paulus Diaconus p. 417. Nicetus Hist p. 48 50. Laurentius Begerlink Chronogra p. 137 189 263. record sundry examples of this kind both among Pagans and Christians to deter others from this dangerous destructive sin which if they neglect scorn I shall then desire them to remember that saying of Euripedes an Heathen Poet in his Troadibus that he shall receive the like exemplary punishment Homo quisquis urbes vastat Dis Manibus Sedes Sacratas Templaque haud recte sapit Nam similis ipsum Pestis Excidii manet 7ly It is the Resolution of Seneca the Philosopher Quisquis id quod Deorum est sustulerit consumpsit atque in usum suum vertit sacrilegus est and all Canonists Casuists Schoolmen Divines whatsoever accord That it is Sacrilege for any Persons or Powers whatsoever to invade or take away any thing which our Ancestors or any others have solemnly vowed dedicated for the necessary maintenance of Gods publique worship and Ministers under what specious pretext soever it be done Therefore to take away or abolish our Ministers Tithes Glebes Rectories and other Dues conferred on them by our pious Ancestors and make spoyl havock of the Churches Edifices erected by them for Gods publique worship must questionlesse be Sacrilege as God himself expresly defines Mal. 3. 8 9. With all commentators thereon old and new and Gratian Caus 16. qu. â— This the famous Emperor Souldier Charles the Great and Ludovicus surnamed the Godly and most Christian joyntly resolve Capit. Caroli Ludovici l. 6. cap. 285 295 296 115 305. l. 7. c. 104. where they thus conclude Scimus res Ecclesiae Deo esse sacratas Scimus eas esse vota Fidelium pretia peccatorum Quapropter si quis eas ab Ecclesiis quibus a Fidelibus collatae Deoque Sacratae sunt auâ—ert proculdubio Sacrilegium committit Caecus enim est qui ista non videt c. Si ergo amico quippiam râ—pere furtum est Ecclesiae vero fraudari vel abstrahi indubitanter Sacrilegium est Omnes enim contra Legem facientes Resque Ecclesiae dirimentes vel Ecclesias Sacerdotesque contra Divinas Sanctiones vexantes Sacrilegi vocantur atque Indubitanter infames Sacrilegique Habendi sunt c. What Penalties have been inflicted upon such who were guilty of this sin by Christian Princes in foreign parts I shall briefly inform this Sacrilegious age Theodoricus King of the Gothes in his Edict c. 125. enacted That if any man should
Chapters and Ministers Glebes and Tithes sold or conferred on the Officers and Souldiers of the Army for their better encouragement reward and supportation to propagate defend Religion and the Common wealth A design now eagerly prosecuted by some To which let them receive this Answer before hand since I intend not any future Treatise of this nature 1. That I never read of any pious Generals Armies Officers or Souldiers in Scripture the rule of Faith and Manners that spoyled the Church or Ministers of their Lands and Tithes to maintain their wars or enrich reward themselves but we find it expresly recorded of Abraham the Father of all the Faithfull that he paid Tithes even of the Spoyls of the first Wars to the first Pâ—â—â—st we find in Scripture unto Christ himself both in the Old and New Testament for other Christian Souldiers imitation The like we read of David and all his Officers Captains of the Army with sundry others fore-cited whose Presidents are more obliging and commendable than Charles Martels 2ly That it was the Custom use and pious practice of many Pagan Warlike Nations as the Romans Graecians Cartbaginians Tyrians Saxons to do the like who consecrated the Tenths of all their Spoyls to their Idol-Gods and Priests as we may read at large in Mr. Seldens History of Tithes and Review c. 3. and in Mr Richard Mountague his Diatribe thereon ch 3. Therefore they are worse than Pagans who neglect not only to pay their Ministers the Tenth of their Spoyls but will even spoyl them of their Glebes and Tithes besides 3ly It is very observable and let our Souldiers and Officers consider it iâ— good earnest That God himself specially consecrated and devoted the future Spoyls a Sacrifice for and to himself and all the Spoyls City of Jericho the very first City taken by the Israelites in the Land of Canaan as a sacred First-fruits and kind of Tenth for the use of his Sanctuary and Priests in these memorable words Josh 6. 17 18 19. And the City shall be devoted even it and all that is therein except Rabab and her Family and House to the Lord and you in any wise keep your selves from the devoted thing lest you make your selves accursed when ye take of the devoted thing and make the Camp of Israel a curse and trouble it But all the Silver and Gold and Uessels of Brass and Iron are consecrated unto the Lord they shall come into the Treasury of the House of the Lord. Whereupon when the City was taken they burnt it and all that was in it as a Sacrifice to the Lord But the Silver and Gold and the Uessels of Brass and of Iron they put into the Treasury of the House of the Lord v. 24. But Acban a covetous plundring Souldier seeing among the rich Spoyls of the City a goodly Babylonish Garment and two hundred Shâ—kels of Silver and a wedge of Gold coveted took and hid them in the midst of his Tent which so much kindled the Anger of God against the Children of Israel for this his Trespass in these devoted things That they were presently smitten before their Enemies of Ai and fled before them Whereupon Joshua their General and chief Governour humbling himself before God and requiring the cause of this ill success God returned him this Answer Israel hath sinned and they also have transgressed my Covenant which I commanded them for they have taken of the devoted thing and have also stollen and dissembled also and they have also put it among their own stuff Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their Enemies but turned their backs before Enemies Because they were accursed neither will I go with you any more O Israel thou canst not stand before thine Enemies untill thou hast taken away the accursed devoted thing from among you Whereupon this Sacrilegious Robbery of Achan being discovered by Lot and his own Confession and hid stoln Plunder devoted to God taken forth of his Tent and powred out before the Lord in the presence of Joshua and all the Children of Israel Joshua passed this Judgement against him for his Sacrilege Why hast thou troubled Israel the Lord shall trouble thee this day and all Israel stoned him with Stones and they burned them with fire as a devoted Sacrifice to God after they had stoned him with stones And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day So the Lord turned from the fiercenesse of his Anger Wherefore the place is called the Valley of Achor that is Trouble to this day And when Hiel many hundred years after in Idolatrous Ahabs daies would needs seize upon the devoted Spoyl of Jericho and build it again for his own habitation he laid the Foundation thereof in his first-born Abiram and set up the Gates thereof in his youngest Son Segub that is God destroyed and cut off all his Posterity before the Gates were set up and the Building finished according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Joshua the Son of Nun as we read at large Josh 7. throughout 1 Kings 16. 34. and Josh 6. 16. I read of Aâ—axerxes that in imitation of Cambyses before him he caused some Judges betraying their Trusts like Tresylian of old and too many of late to be excoriated alive and their Skins to be hanged up round about the Tribunals that the other Judges sitting upon them might have an example hanging before their eyes what punishment the pravity of Iudges did demerit I desire all Souldiers Officers and Sacrilegious Anabaptists would hang up these Skins and Examples of Achan and Hiel before their eyes recorded in sacred Writ and then make this use and application to themselves of them If Achan for stealing away only a Babylonish Garment and a few Shekles of Silver and Gold of the very Spoyls of Iericho devoted to the service or Treasury of the House of the Lord brought so much wrath misery upon the whole Nation and Camps of Israel and such a fatal death and exemplary punishment upon himself and Hiel only for building upon the ruines of the Soyl of this devoted City drew down sudden Death and Destruction upon all his Sons and Posterity O what strange exemplary wrath vengeance and judgements shall we then draw upon the whole Nation Army our Souls Bodies and Posterities to their utter extirpation if instead of rendring unto God and his Ministers the Tenth of our warlike Spoyls belonging of right unto them we shall sacrilegiously rob them not only of these Tenthes and all other issuing out of our Lands and Estates but even of all their other Glebes Rectories Tithes Revenues demolish the very Churches Houses dedicated to Gods worship oâ— turn them into Houses for us and our Posterities to inhabit and obstinately yea atheistically refuse to take warning by their and other sacrilegious Persons tragical examples 4ly Let those who will imitate Charles Martels President remember 1. his punishment
lesse is due still by them to God and his publike worship Thus much for the divine Right of our Ministers to their Tithes omitted in the former part but here supplyed for the Readers fuller satisfaction in these Sacrilegious times which so violently and impiously decry it without Scripture Reason Antiquity Authority out of malice and design The succeeding Chapters more concern their Legal Rational Right and Equity depending on their Divine CHAPT III. HAving dispatched the two principal Propositions of greatest concernment wherein I have been larger than I at first intended to satisfie all mens Consciences and stop the mouths of all Gain-sayers I now proceed to the third Proposition That if Tithes and other maintenance by Glebes Oblations Pensions formerly setled on our Ministers be either wilfully withheld or substracted from them by the people in part or in whole the Civil Magistrates may and ought by coercive Laws Penalties to inforce the payment of them in due form and time both by the Law of God and Rules of Iustice without any Injury or Oppression to the people This Proposition necessarily follows from the former two for if there be a just competent comfortable Maintenance due to all lawfull painfull Preachers and Ministers of the Gospel even by divine Right institution expresse Precepts both of the Gospel and Law of God and that as a just Debt hire wages salary right not as a mere voluntary Gift Alms Benevolence and the setled maintenance of our Ministers by Tithes Glebes Oblations Pensions and other Duties be such as I have already demonstrated then the Civil Magistrates may and ought by coercive Laws and Penalties to enforce the payment of them in due form and time as our very Officers by such means enforce their Souldiers Parents their Children and Servants Schoolmasters their Scholars yea our Troopers their very Horses held in with Bits and Bridles when unruly and quickned with Spurs when lazy and Shepheards their very Sheep with their Dogs and hooks when there is cause to do their duties and reform their Errors without the least guilt or colour of Injury or Oppression to the wilfull obstinate or negligent detainers of them and that by the self-same Laws rules of Justice Reason Conscience as all Tith-Opponents yet grant they may enforce obstinate or negligent Tenants Creditors Masters Publick or private Accomptants Trespassers Disseisors and the like to pay their just Rents and Services to their Landlords their due Debts to their Creditors their contracted wages to their hired Labourers or menial Servants their audited Arrears to the publick Treasury or others to whom they are indebted upon Account their ascertained dammages to such as they have injured and to restore the Goods or Lands unjustly taken or detained to those they have plundered or disseâ—sed of them yea as justly as they may by any coercive Laws and means enforce and constrain any obstinate Persoâ—â— oâ— Merchants to pay all Tenths Fifteens Subsidies Aydâ— Cuâ—toms Tonnage Poundage for defence of the Realâ—â—y and or sea when publickly and legally granted in and by a full free and lawfull Parliament duly summoned and elected by the people according to the manifold Laws and Statutes enacted for that purpose the want of which indubital Ingredients only how fatal they have been to Parliaments in former Ages to make them and all their Acts Iudgements Orders Ordinances mere Nullities and what a prejudice they have been to the People and Republick too those who please may read at leasure in the Statutes of 39 H. 6. c. 1. Rot. parl n. 3. 17. c. 7. And the Act for repealing the Parliament of 21 R. 2. in the Parliament oâ— 1 H. 4. c. 3. The reason of which Repeal is thus recorded by Mr. Oliver Saint Iohn in his Declaration in Parliament against the Shipmony Iudges Anno 1640. printed by the Commons command p. 33. That Parliament of 21 R. â— of Revocation was held by force as is declared in the Parliament Roll of 1 H. 4. n. 21 22. That it was held Viris armatis et Sagitariis immensis The Knights of Parliaments were not elected by the Commons Prout mos â—xegit Sed per Regiam voluntatem And so the Lords Rex omnes Dominos Sibi adhaerentes summonare fecit Whereupon Nu. 48. These judgements of Revocation and that of the whole Parliaments proceedings too are declared to be Erronea Iniqua et omni juri et rationi repugnaâ—tia Erroneous wicked and contrary to all Right and Reason So Mr Saint John Numb 37. This was one grand Article of Impeachment of King Richard the 2 â— for which he was then deposed from his Government by a forced Resignation Heu licet quod eo Statuto Consuetudine Regni sui in Convocatione â—ujuâ—libeâ— Parliamenti sui populus suus in singulis Comitatilus Regni DEBEAâ— ESSE Lâ—BER ad eligend depuâ—aâ—d Milites pro hujusmodi Comitatibus ad interesseâ—d Parliamento ad exponend eorum gravaminâ— ad prosequend pro remediis superinde prâ—uâ— eis videbaâ—ur expeâ—ire Tamen praefaâ—us Rex ut in Parliamentis suis ut liberius consequi valeat suae temerariae voluntatis effectare dirâ—xit mandata sua frequentius Viceâ—omiâ—ibas suis ut certas Personas per ipsum Regem nominatas ut Milites Comitatus venire faciat ad Parliamenta sua Quos quidem Milites eidem Regi faventes indulgere poterat prout frequenter fecit quandoque per minas varias et terrores quandoque per munera ad consentiend illis quae Regno praejudicialia fuerant et Populo quamplumum onerosa et specialiter ad concedendum eidem Regi Subsidium ad certos Annos suum Populum nimium opprimendo Which I leave to John Canne to English for those who understand not Latin or our Laws and would strip our learned Ministers of their Tithes and setled maintenance by colour of an extraordinary call as he terms it to such an extraordinary Sacrilegious work as this Quest But what ground is there in Scripture may some demand for compelling People to pay their Tithes and other Duties to their Ministers Answ I answer 1. We have the President Law and Commandement of Godly Hezekiah recorded in the 2 â—hron 31. 4 5 6 7 8. with the good effect it wrought already recited 2ly The Examples of zealous Nehemiah and the Religious Nobles and People under him who entred into a solemn Covenant curse oath and made Ordinances to charge themselves yearly with the third part of a Shekle for the service of the House of God and that they would bring in all their First-fruits and Offerings and the Tithes of their ground unto the Levites that the same Levites might have their Tithes in all the Cities of their Tillage Neh. 9. 38 c. 10. 1. throughout specially v. 29 32 37 38 39. ch 12. 44 45. which when afterwards neglected by the people Nehemiah contended with the Rulers for their negligence in not enforcing the people to pay them whereupon this