of Heaven and Earth who Blessed him in the name of the most High God Aod who this Melchizedek was and of whom he was so Near so Express and Immediate a Type in his PRIEST-HOOD and therein so Great a Man Abraham who saw Christ's Day and was Glad very well knew and therefore He Receiv'd Blessing from Him who Himself had the Promises which Blessing Melchisedek could not have conferr'd upon him who had the promises had he not immediately represented the Seed who was Heb. 7. 4. the True High-Priest and Blesser in whom both Melchizedek Abraham and All the Nations of the Earth were Blessed Upon all which Accounts Abraham gave him the Tenth of All. Which Tenth as to its Substantial Sense and Intention was first of the Eternal Law of Equity and Evangelical before it was Mosaickly Legal In pursuance of this Acknowledgment of God Jacob Genes 28. 22. the Third from Abraham vowing JEHOVAH should be his God that he would Build him a House Vowed also to that God the Tenth of All He should give him according to the Example of his Great Father and by the same Divine Impulse God's Acceptance of which he testified to Jacob when he said after the giving him Laban's Cattle I am the God of Bethel where thou anointedst Gen. 31. 13. the Pillar and Vowedst a Vow unto Me and at other times after that And after all this when the God of Abraham and Jacob founded a National Church in their Seed from which the High-Priest after the Order of Melchizedeck also sprang in approbation of his own Impulse He separated a Tenth part of ALL to himself for the Priesthood Num. 18 c. he ordain'd Now all this being under the Eye of our Lord and Saviour the High Priest of Our Profession He diminish'd nothing from the Right of God and of himself in the very least Particles however abused by his Hypocritical Adversaries to the neglect of Greater Things He knew ir too Awful to be violated and did it not No he establish'd it by his own Sanction even the minimum quod sic the very smallest Digits of it Thus our Saviour look'd back upon what had been before That he look'd forward upon the Future state of Things also is undoubted For at this time the Kingdom of God or the Evangelical State was already Commenced although the Mosaick Frame was allowed a Co-existence with it for a Time But that it was already entred is most certain and that some Time before 1. John the Baptists Preaching and Baptism is styl'd Mar. 1. 1. Luke 3 1. by the Evangelist Mark the Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ And the Year of it directly noted by the Evangelist Luke Our Lord calls it the Counsel of God Luke 7 30. which the Pharisees rejected against themselves being not Baptiz'd of Jâ—hn The Publicans and Harlots conversion by it he Praises as their entring into the Kingdom of Heaven before the Phaâ—â—sees who were Baptiz'd with John 's Baptism He dates the Law and the Prophets till John and that then the Kingdom of God was taken by violence and Ceremoniousness no longer attended it The Week Dan. 9. 27. our Lord 's confirming the Covenant was begun John's Baptism as an Intermedious Ministration had decreased that our Lord's might increase and out-shine it and the John 3 25 c. least in the Kingdom of Heaven became greater than He so that He himself had instructed Nicodemus concerning Baptism the Symbol of Regeneration into his Kingdom some considerable time before this For now our Lord's John 3. 3. 5 Week wax'd near its middle point that he might Cause Sacrifice to Cease as I noted even now And now it was that he gave this his Determination concerning the Exactness of Tithing These Things ought ye â—â—t to leave undone And whether this was the very Time to which the Apostle refers and which he further explains when he says the Lord ordain'd That they who preach the Gospel should Live of the Gospel even as they that Minister about Holy Things c. May be now farther examined Thus much of certainty we have attain'd that the Gospel being begun and the whole Mosaick Law of Sacrifices ready to expire He thus ordain'd as we have already all along declared These Things ought c. I come therefore now to make the Appeal of this Discourse to the Apostolical Writings and to observe from them how the Scales will turn whether to the Dissenters from Decimation or towards the Assertors of it And that the proceeding may be most equal I will first make the Objection of the Dissenters from those Apostolick Writings as strong as I am able and then apply to it its Answers first from what is most Certain and Demonstrative out of the Apostolick Writings then from what is very probable and agreable to Reason although possibly not so Demonstrative The Objection I frame thus Tithing was a proportion for the Acknowledgment of God and his Ministers adjusted to the Time of Sacrifice and the Priest-hood Attendant on Sacrifices It was indeed before Moses and was transplanted into the Mosâ—ick Law as Circumcision and commanded under the name of a Heave Offering All these three Sacrifice Circumcision and Tithes being first of the Fathers and then of Moses But the very original of Tithes was in Honour of a Priest and doubtless of a Priest that Offered Sacrifice though that part of his Office for as great Reasons conceal'd as his Genealogy and onely his Blessing in the Name of God recorded To argue then Tithes were not abrogated by Christ because before Moses is no stronger then to argue Sacrifices or Circumcision were not abrogated because before Moses And if we continue Tithes we may as well continue Sacrifice or Circumcision because of the Fathers And seeing we justly reject the continuance of Sacrifices so should we also Tithes as of a Sacrifical Nature The continuance therefore of them is justly Blameable as Jewish and Anti-Christian and is of the same sort with calling the Ministers of the Gospel Priests on which account Tithes are so earnestly contented for by them a Priestly Maintenance for a Priestly minister Therefore the Apostles as in all their Writings they carefully avoid affixing any Priestlyness to the Ministers of the Gospel so do they any Subindications of a priestly maintenance and therefore though our Lord abated nothing from the Law of Tithes yet he left it to his Apostles by the Total Silence of any such Law to declare it abrogated with the Sacrifical Law The two main Hinges on which this Objection turns are these 1. Tithes were of a Sacrifical and Priestly Original and as such consign'd into Moses his Law and therefore certainly Abrogated with all things of that sort and alliance 2. They are not once mentioned by the Apostles and therefore are to be concluded abrogated though our Lord out of Honour to that Law of Moses defalked nothing from it himself yet
upon them in the Miraculous Power of Christ Luke 11. 20. And therefore the Leper was charged to tell no Man but to surprize the Preist with the Offering for his Purification that so there might be a legal Attestation to the Truth of the Miracle which was so porfect doubtless like Naamans his Flesh coming again as the Flâ—sh of a 2 Kings 5. 14. Child as to surmount any occasion for the seven Days probationership Levit. 13 6. The Appearing thus to the Priest and the Offering for Cleansing were Indisputable Ratifications of the Miracle and therefore were so carefully Commanded Now all these things laid together There will appear to any unprejudic'd Considerer a vastest Difference betwixt our Saviour's Sanction of the Duty of Tithing and the Command to the Leper as pro hac vice for that time to shew himself to the Preist and Offer c. and that for so great an End as a Testimony to them without which there had been no such necessity The second of these two last Instances and much the Greater is comprehended in those two (a) John 2. 14 c. Mar. 11. 15. 16. Zeloticisms if I may be bold so to call them of our Lord and Saviour the one at the first Pass-Over he publickly appeared at after his Baptism and the second at his last just before his Death viz. the Whipping and Ejecting the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple and which is most Remarkable prohibiting the passing of Vessels through the Temple or Sanctuary rather setting these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two Mottoes as it were by his Divine Action on the Gates or first Avenues to the Temple The first in his First Action make not my Fathers House a House of Merchandise The second in his Second Action my House shall be call'd a House of Prayer for all Nations This I account an Instance of greatest moment to the present Case 1. Because our Saviour gave this as a Sanction of his own above and beyond the Sentiment of the Jews who were in amaze at it and ask'd a Sign to be the Warranty of so great Doings and it did so enrage the Pharisees that they sought to destroy him upon it and yet the Temple of the Lord was their great Cry and their last Accusation of our Lord at his Death was for the very Temple as if Blasphem'd by him And further It is the more remarkable because Christ for the fulfilling of a double Prophecy thus Soveraignly manifested himself the first Time that of David his Type The Zeal of thy House hath â—aten me up The last Time that of the Prophet Esay My House shall be called the House of Prayer for all Nations 2. It is the more Influential on our present Discourse because Tithes and the Sanctuary had such a Correlation one to another that they may seem to have Lived and Died together 3. Because this Divine Zeal of our Lord terminated in a Temple whose Holyness and Use was much prostrated at his Death Then the Vail of the Temple that separated it from common Approach even of Eyes was by Miracle rent from the Top to tâ—e Bâ—ttom Mat 27. 51. and within less than fourty years it was burnt by Titus the Instrument of Divine Vengeance and utterly rased Here then appears as Solemn a Sanction upon the Holyness of the Temple as upon Tithes and yet how soon It was of necessity to be abrogated and that even as by a Hand from Heaven we have seen as our Mat. 24. 1 2. Saviour also foretold A Stone not left on a Stone Now to All This these two things are said 1. That our Lords Intention was to put that Sanction upon the Holyness of the Temple as an Entail of the same Holyness upon the successive Temples of the Christians against which I shall say no more then that the very want of the Cabor and Shecinah proper only to that material Sanctuary does disprove that opination 2. The more valuable Account of the most Pious and Learned Mead takes the Place of this who puts the Emphasis of our Saviour's Action of Favour to the the Temple on that part of it which was allowed to the Gentiles which the Jews valued at that vile Rate as to make it as Common and Unclean But our Lord for the Vindication of it in preparation to the Gentiles coming into his Church did thus Exterminate All that prophane Incumbrance of it and Correspondent to this does that Prophecy especially shine out My House shall be called for All Nations the House of Prayer 3. Although this Account of our Saviour's Action can be by no means spar'd much less excluded for the very sake of that Prophecy and also the near approach of the Gentiles Conversion yet I shall be bold to give one larger and more Receptive as also more close and nearer to the purpose of this unparalell'd Comming of the Lord into his Temple And that is This was indeed our Lords Causing Sacrifice and Oblation to cease foretold by Daniel in the midst of the week his last Pass-Over or just approaching Death Consummatively as it was inchoated at the very beginning of the Week or the first Pass Over And when Saerifice was thus caused to Cease Prayer Dan 9. 27. that was at least Coeval with Sacrifice and to endure to the very end as the surviving Worship succeeded naturally to it alone as Comprehensive of all Spiritual and Intellectual Worship and God's Acceptance of it This Action then of our Lords so superlative takes away the First that he may Establish the Second And that here resided the Mind of that Heavenly Grandeur our Lord assum'd I thus argue 1. The Temple was at that time the Great Symbol of both the Divine Presence and Worship and indeed the only then in the World 2. It was from its very first Foundation a House of Prayer Solomon dedicated it as such at the first by that 1 Kings 8. 2 Chrâ—n 6. his Reyal Prayer Prayer was intermix'd with all Sacrifices as the most Learned Dr. Outram often observes in that Excellent Discourse of Sacrifices It was always Comprehensive of all Divine Worship Oh thou that hearest Prayer to thee shall all Flesh come but yet under Moses his Law Sacrifice over-shaded it and the Temples name was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primarily not a House of Prayer but a House of Sarifice 3. The Evangelical Prophet Esay foretels It should in the Gospel state of the Church receive another name It should be called the House of Prayer that is of Prayer separated from Sacrifice for else it was before the House of Prayer and although he joins Sacrifices yet it is only according to the Language of that time a prediction of Spiritual Sacrifices 4. That Merchandize our Saviour ejected and the passing of Vessels through the Bounds of the Sanctuary he prohibited was in a Sense absolutely necessary at least of High Conveniency to the
Sacrifices of the Temple and had some Countenance from God's Allowance to the Farr Dwellers of his People to bring their Money instead of their Sacrifices that they might buy nearer the Temple and on many Accounts the Vessels could very ill be interdicted to that Service so that the Cessation of one was hardly possible without the other the Cessation of the Merchandize and the Vessels without the Cessation of the Sacrifices 5. The Remark of these two Actions of our Lords is put upon this first Make not my Father's House a House of Merchandize and in the second It shall be called the House of Prayer 6. It is once by the Evangelist Mark added For all Nations which argues to us It was not principally but yet inclusively and consequentially intended that is when it should be a House of Prayer and not of Sacrifices All Nations should flow into the Chruch and it could not indeed be a House of Prayer for All Nations in a confluence to the Church of God while it was a House of Sacrifice For that state was fitted only to the Jewish Nation There are these Three Things therefore in our Lord's Intention in the Action and his Concomitant discourse 1. That there should be a Cessation of that Carnal Jewâ—sh Worship of God by Sacrifice 2. That in the place of it should succeed a Spiritual Intellectual Worship comprehended under Prayer and that represented by the Temple or House of God as the Symbol of it 3. Our Saviour with so high a Zeal thrusts out that Market that Sacrifices necessarily brought so near the Tempâ—â— not only with the Reproach of its Sordidness but of all that Fraud Injustice and other Rapines attending places of Traffick by which it was made a Den of Theives And this to prepare for that Purer Freer less Cumbersom Worship signified by Prayer and that should not be clogg'd with those Temptations of Fraudulency 4. The Christian Church Catholick as consisting of all Nations rises as it were out of this Temple when the Apostles met together when the Effusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Holy Spirit coming down as a Shecinah upon them viz. in Fiery Cloven Tongues consecrated that Church Acts 2. 1. c. to be the House of the Living God a House of Prayer for all Nations a representative of which then met Devout men of every Nation under Heaven 5 The Jews and especially the Pharisees Surmizing whither All this Action of our Lord tended were filled with so much Rage and Amazement being equally Enemies to the Cessation of Sacrifice and to the Church of God spread through all Nations And thus I have given Account of the most plausible Appearance of our Lord's Sanction upon a Branch of the Mosaick Jewish Law which yet was indeed and in true understanding the most efficacious Abrogation of it and Introduction of the Evangelical state and I have insisted the more industriously upon it because it is of difficult explication according to its true Sense and according to that Sense very different from this Case of Tithes I am now arrived to the second Point of the Argument that is that our Lord not onely blam'd nothing in this most Rigid Interpretation of the Pharisees upon the Law of Tithes given by Moses nor in the Law it self But on the contrary that he saw some unchangeable Equity in it for the sake of which he intimated not the least Iota of Abrogation in relation to it And that we may attain that I shall proceed by these several Propositions that are either evident by their own Light or proved in the former or following course of the Argument Posit 1 God hath a Sovereign Right over all things we possess being himself always the most High possessor of Heaven and Earth Posit 2 He may reserve to himself or command from us as a Tribute or Homagery-Acknowledgment whatever proportions of any thing we call ours and to what ends he pleases Posit 3 Since the Sin and Fall of Man because all the Grace and Favours of God to us are in and through his Son as our High-Priest and Mediator in whom All things now consist there hath therefore arisen together with the Colos 1. 17. aforesaid Acknowledgment of the Divine Nature an Acknowledgment of our High Priest and Mediator an Acknowlegment of the Son of God in our Nature through whom we receive All and offer All who abideth a High Priest continually without either Beginning of Days or End of Life Heb. 7. Posit 4 Because neither to God nor the Son of God in Heaven can our Goodness of this sort extend in specie therefore he hath declar'd his Pleasure It should be Deputed 1. To the outward means and conveniencies of Solemnizing his Worship 2. Because for the more Due and certain Performance of his Worship God hath separated and selected persons for the Care of and Service in it He hath therefore given to those his Immediate Servants and Ministers of his Worship in the World their just proportions of those Acknowledgments due to him out of what we possess both for an Inablement to and Recompence of their Service not as Alms but as Honour 1 Tim. 5. 17 3. After this by way of Alms to the Poor which yet is also call'd our Righteousness on this Account 2 Cor. 9. 9 10 Posit 5 By Divine Impulse the Tenth of All hath been pitch'd upon as the Quota pars or proportion of a Tribute to him to whom All is indeed Due Posit 6 In God's own peculiar Nation and Government the Tenth of All the Increase of the seed of the Land and of whatsoever passed under the Rod of the Flock or of the Herd was Holy to the Lord by his special Appointment Here then we find that which was in our Saviour's Eye that differences this Law of Tithing so much from other parts of Moses his Law Even the Everlasting Equity of Acknowledging God by the Mediator and Eternal High Priest out of what we possess deputatively deferr'd to the immediate Ministers and Servants of his Solemn Worship which Acknowledgment is most duly and justly arising from the very least Things even the Mint and Cummin that serve the uses of Life and is therefore to continue in the Substantials as long as God hath a Holy Service in the World Priests and Ministers of it even throughout All Ages and no less under the Evangelical Law then the Mosaick after Moses as it was before him As long as the Goodness of God grants us All Things to enjoy even so long does our Tribute to God through Jesus Christ oblige us out of All Things we do enjoy It is of Eternal Equity to Honour the Lord with our Substance and with the First Fruits of all our Increase Prov. 2. 9. Abraham therefore the Father of Decimation gave Genes 14. 18 19. the Tenth of All to Melchizedâ—k long before Moses and under that Character Priest of the most High God Possessor
He left it to be thus done by his Apostles To the first of these Objections I make these following Answers 1. The whole sum of all True Religion was by Divine Artifice interwoven with the Jewish Administration whatever of Natural or Revealed Truth had been derived from God was either in plain precepts or curious Types and Shades to be found in that Theocratical Frame of Laws and not onely what had been implanted or deliver'd by God to his Servants but even the whole Evangelical Frame was in apt Figures and Emblems delincated in it It is no wonder then that a Tenth devoted as a Tribute to God should be taken into the Mosaick Frame under the Symbol of a Heav-Offering which by its Exaltation as Terumah signifies to Heaven and then let down to Earth Sursum Deorsum should carry its pedigree and original in that symbol even the Acknowledgment of the most High God Possesser of Heaven and Earth And in the second Heaving by the Levites of the Best of the Tithes for the use of Aaroh the High Priest and his Successors the most lively Num. 18. 2â— Type the Jewish Priest-hood had of our Lord's Priesthood there were the Lineaments of the first Decimation to Melchisedeck the more lively Type of Jesus our High-Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek 2. As all True Religion was by God's own Infinite Wisdom deposited in the Jewish Types so in them were the most unchangeable and eternal Moral Duties perform'd by all True Worshippers In the Sacrifices were close Applications to the Infinite Mercy of God in Christ under the Type Confessions Supplications Thanksgivings Acknowledgments of JEHOVAH the Onely True God filling Heaven and Earth with his presence of which the Tenupha or Wave-Offering was a Symbol turning the Worshipper to all parts of the World â—rorsum Retrorsum Dextrorsum sinistrorsum to Adore God to whom the Sacrifice was Wav'd 3. When therefore under the Gospel the Shaddows flew away and the Types were stripp'd off whatever was substance still remain'd Nor did the Holy Spirit of God so desert it s formerly Instituted Organs of Divine Worship but that it still delighted to make use of them as lively Expressions of those Duties the Things themselves had formerly been the Shades of Prayers are call'd â—dâ—urs and Praise is still a Sacrifice and True Christians call'd Priests The Offering up the Body in Holiness is a Living and Acceptable Sacrifice The Apostles Conversion of the Gentiles was a Priestly Rom. 15. 16. or Hierurgical service And more close to our purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Things the Philippians sent to the Apostles supply were an Odour of a sweet smelling savour and would abound Phil 4. 17 18. to their Account of what they possessed under the most High possessor of Heaven and Earth To do good and to Communicate a Phrase proper to the support of Gospel Ministry as is to be observed are Sacrifices with which God is well pleased Thus we see these Moral Duties remain and continne a Memory of the Divine Law by Moses by being expressed to us in the Gospel under such Tralations as were proper to that Law If therefore we shall find Great Moralities under Tithing as a Tribute to God in his Ministers If we shall find in a Tenth Part more then Typical and Ceremonial and in such Expressions as resemble such a Dedication to God as Decimation was why should we reject it as meerly Sacrifical For it is Evident Sacrifice hath a plain and undoubted Ceremonialness in its Nature for the sake of which onely can it by any Law of Nature or Equity be once supposed an Acceptable Acknowledgment of God or Worship of him and when-ever a Ceremonial Worship vanishes that must needs Evanish also But setting out a Tenth part to God and in honour of the Priest-hood of Christ for so Great and Real an Use as the upholding the Worship of God in the World in his Ministers Set apart to that Work is of so True a Morality in the Substance as not to be denied and the Omission of it is a Robbing of God And for the Tenthliness of it It is the Determining so far a settled proportion to such a purpose as which beyond all Reversal God did once accept and approve and therefore could not be Inequitable in it self and which also after so many Ages Christ on an occasion of Severity Review'd and Blamed nothing in both which Characters of honor can never be raz'd out But now what was Shaddowy Mosaick and Typical viz. the Tenth being accounted above other parts Holy to the Lord the Bringing the Tithes to Jerusalem Any Ceremony of Heaving them first to the Leviteâ— then to Aaron the Affixing them to Sacrificing Priests These are all vanished For in no such Sense do the Ministers of the Gospel claim them nor call themselves a PRIEST-HOOD but Rom. 15. 16. as they offer up by their Ministry Souls Converted to GOD who are thereby as the Apostle in allusion speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and He Himself as before a Priestly Administrator And as they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seniors or Elders in the Family of God offering up the Sacrifices of Prayer and Praise as the Apostle James instructs us Jam 5. 14. Heb. 13. 10. And lastly as they attend on that Altar of which they have no right to eat that serve the Tabernacle viz. The continual publication of the Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus who suffered for his people without the Gate as a Malefactor by Preaching and Administration of the Lords Supper which is a setting forth of Jesus Christ evidently before Heb. 6. 6. Men's Eyes crucified among them and a shewing forth his Death till he come as Apostacy and Denying of Christ is in a contrary sense Crucifying the Son of God afresh putting Heb. 10. 29. him to an open shame counting the Blood of the Covenant a Common or Unclean Thing In any other Sense we are all of the same Mind with that Eminent Servant of God and Minister of the Dr. Outram de Sacrificiis p. 222. Gospel â—ow with Christ It is of great Remark That none of the Ministers of Christ in whatsoever order they are constituted are any where in the Holy Scripture call'd Priests or Chief-Priests And a little after Not the Gospel Ministry but the Priest-Hood of Christ was in Succession to the Jewish Priest-hood so that there is no one by Divine Authority either Priest or High-Priest surviving except Christ alone viz. An Advocate with God for Men. Thus the whole Objection from the Connexion between Tithes and Sacrifices is clearly removed and therein whatever concerns the first part of the Objection I come now to the second part of the Objection There is no mention of Tithing in the Apostles Writings with Reference to the Ministers of the Gospel but such a Deep Silence as argues it a very Unevangelical Practice to Require or Receive such a