Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	abbey_n	henry_n	reign_n	885	4	7.4283	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77137	A defence and justification of ministers maintence by tythes. And of infant-baptism, humane learning, and the sword of the magistrate; which some Anabaptists falsely call four sandy pillars, and popish foundations of our ministry and churches. In which tythes are proved to be due by divine right to the ministers of the gospel. All common objections answered, and divers cases of conscience humbly proposed: with a light to clear them. / In a reply to a paper sent by some Anabaptists to Immanuel Bourne, late pastor of the church in Asheover in the county of Derby: now preacher to the congregation at Waltham in the county of Leicester. With a short answer to Anthony Peirson's great case of tythes, &c.	Bourne, Immanuel, 1590-1672.	1659 (1659)	Wing B3851; Thomason E1907_1	92,679	184

a high estate Matth Paris 284. 684. to be Counsellor and Favorite to King Henry the Eighth and who for his Sacriledge which I here speak of did but turn Tythes out of the right channel and prospered not after lost the Kings favor whom he took care to serve more then God and lost all his estate and his life and all as most did judge poysoned himself at Leicester Martin 304 306. and died miserably lieth buried at Leicester Abby or Priory The great memory of his great Sacriledges is the most he left but what he lost before The Relator remembers divers more persons punished for Sacriledge But I pass them over onely let me not yea I cannot forget King Henry the Eighth who as the Relator speaks ingrossed Sacriledge and intailed it to his posterity For the first half of his reign whiles he was free from Sacriledge he was honored of his Allies abroad loved of his Subjects at home successful in his Actions and at peace as it were with God and man But after his Sacriledge as in disfavor with both his Subjects rebel first in Suffolk after in Lincoln Somerset York-shire and the Northern parts and now like Saul forsaken of God he falls from one sin to another I will not relate his sins nor the judgments of God that followed Speed 104. 1629. c. Sir Henry Spelman Printed 1646. 35 Hen. 8. but leave the Reader to that Preface to the Reader before mentioned in that Book of Sir Henry Spelman which is my Belator out of our own Chronicles He took divers Wives which were ●now to people a Canaan some of whom he used like a cruel Tyrant and in the end growing old entails his Crown upon his children and all successively swayed the Scepter but all died childless and his family extinct his name not mentioned but the memory of his Sacriledge and other crimes is revived to his dishonor His Sacriledge I apply to the taking away of Tythes and Impropriations from the particular Parishes and Ministers of the Gospel and not restoring them which the Pope had Sacrilegiously taken away For the Lands of Monasteries misapplied I speak not of them although it is a question if they were once given to a holy use whether it be not Sacriledge to take them from God if once they were given to God for a good end This I cannot observe but with sorrow That the Parliament then consented to King Henries Sacriledge hoping it seems that Tythes and Glebe-Lands would have been better bestowed but they being once in the Kings hands to prevent a restitution he distributes them to the Laity Speed 1086. some to Noblemen some to Gentlemen and others some he sells some he exchanges But as my Relator notes to little joy of him or his or of those that have since possessed them To many men they have been like the Ark amongst the Philistims bringing a curse instead of a blessing to the pretended owners Though they have enjoyed them by countenance and confirmation of Parliament yet I would some of them would truly lay to heart and examine and search for satisfaction in this Case of Conscience Whether they have not lost more of their estates by these late wars then ever they or their Ancestors have gained by these Impropriations and Impropriate Tythes which they possess especially in places where there is left no competent maintenance for a Minister of the Gospel to instruct poor souls in the way to Salvation and this in so many hundred Parishes where the Parsonages are Impropriate There are Parish Churches in England 9284. Cam b Brit. 162 whereof 3845 are Impropriate and in few of these places is there a sufficient maintenance for an able Godly Minister to preach to the people And who shall give account for so many Souls at the day of Judgment I pray God the Parliament and all others may lay it to heart I cannot think without grief of the Sacriledge continued and committed in the times of that good Prince Godwine 52. King Edward the Sixth and the sad and ●ore afflicting hand of God upon those that had their hand in it Sir Henry Spelman Some I hope otherwise good men I will not name them but leave the Reader to my Relator in the Book before-mentioned Nor will I mention the many examples of Gods afflicting hand at least if not fearful curse upon many others Some yea divers of whom I have known in my memory near Threescore years to have felt the smart of Gods hand in their Sacrilegious enjoyments though they had no hand in the Sacriledge but as they have come to them from their Ancestors or others who it may be bought them and it may be thought it lawful being so setled by Parliament I will say nothing of divers Sacrilegious Customs in many Parishes and places of robbing God and his Ministers of what is due to them I am sure the custom of sining in this respect hath taken away the conscience of sin I should have been glad to have read that the Reigns of King James and King Charls and the Parliaments in both their times had drawn no guilt upon them by neglecting Reformation in these as well as in other things I am sure one horrid act of Sacrilege was committed in the late Kings days by the plotting and power of the late Archbishop of Canterbury charged against him in the sixth Additional Article by the House of Commons then assembled in Parliament That whereas divers godly people who were truly accounted good old Puritans out of conscience and perswasion that Tythes were due to God for his worship and service and they were sacrilegiously taken away from the faithful Ministers of particular Parishes they endeavored by all good means the redeeming of them yea some religious Noble-minded men did freely give and restore Impropriations of great value to the Church again and others gave great sums of money towards the redeeming of them The Feoffees were Four Divines viz. Dr. Gouge Dr. Sibbs Mr. Offspring Mr. Davenport Four Lawyers Ralph Eyre Sam Brown C. Skirland John White Esqs John Geering Richard Davies George Harwood Francis Pridges Citizens See Canterbury's Doom by William Prynne Esq p. 386. This undone Feb. 13. 1632. and put the money into the hands of Honorable Feoffees in trust to buy in Impropriations and to allow a good allowance for present to a godly Minister and after a time when the money laid out was received in again by a yearly rent then to give the whole Impropriation to the Minister of that Parish and the rest of the money to go on to buy more Impropriations to be laid to the Church again And this I know was done in divers places which would in a short time have redeemed all the Impropriations in the land if it had been continued and have been a means to have setled a sufficient Maintenance and an able godly Minister in every Congregation But by the late

thought more acceptable I should not have remembred these Religious and conscientious payments of Tythes by these Heathens these Gentiles children of Japhet or Ham but to answer a proud peremptory Quaker who called me Old Jew because I justified that it was lawful for the Ministers of Christ to take Tythes and that they were justifiable by the written Word of God Jos B. when as he thought them to be onely a Jewish Ceremony But it is evident that Tythes are not onely Jewish or paid by the Jews onely For antient History tells that the Gentiles paid Tythes as well as the Jews And although these Histories are not to be received with a divine faith as well as Scripture yet they are to be credited as well as our Chronicles which testifie there was a King William the Conqueror or King Henry the Eighth that pulled down or dissolved the Abbies or a King Edward the Sixt Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth or as after ages may believe there was a King Charles and a dismal War in England upon which hath followed these sirange and wonderful changes we have seen with our eyes I might add more but who are not satisfied Dr. Carleton Tythes examined and prov'● to be due by Diviue right I leave them to those learned men who have writ and proved the Divine right of Tythes and to other Histories which record the practises of Painims This that you have read may suffice to witness that the payment of Tythes was acknowledged a due to God amongst the Gentiles to that God they did know Dr. Tillesley his Animadvers upon Seldens Hist of Tythes Dr. Slater Mr. Prynn c. and this even by the Law or light of Nature or Tradition of Gods Law acknowledged by a common consent that Tythes were due to God to that God they did know and worship and certainly this custom could not be so common amongst or in so many Nations had there not been some Divine instinct from the Law of Nature or knowledge of some divine law from their forefathers that Tythes were due to God from all nations by a divine right for his worship and service as an owning of a Divine Power Ps 40.10 11 12. who is chief Lord and owner of all we have But of the tenth God's own part he is owner of that in a special manner as his own reserved portion for his worship and service for this the Lord challengeth in a special manner for his own portion witness God's servant Voses that great Prophet All the Tythe of the land Lev. 27.30 31. of the seed of the land and of the fruit of the tree it is the Lords Lev 27.30 He doth not say it is the Priests or the Levites or the peoples but it is the Lords And thus the Lord himself by the Prophet Malachi doth many hundred years afters challenge the Tythe as his own And when the people did not pay their Tythe as his due the Lord calleth them thieves and robbers and tells them they had robbed him Will a man rob God Mal. 3.8 9. yet ye have robbed me saith the Lord. But ye say wherein have we robbed thee And he answers In Tythes and Offerings And he concludes v. 9. Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation So that the Tythes were the Lords his own part and portion to be disposed of at his pleasure all the time of the Old Testament from Adam to Moses and from Moses to Malachi the Lord had a reserved part due to him as chief Lord of all But the Quakers and some of these Anabaptists will object Objection What is this to the Priests and Levites either before or since Christ If Tythes be the Lords portion what have the Priests and Levites to do with it or how come they to challenge any right in them or title to them The Answer is easie Answer When the first-born in the family were the Lords Priests and Prophets to offer sacrifice to God as Adam and Cain and Abel did or to teach their families Gen. 18.18 19. Gen. 20.7 Gen. 26.25 as faithful Abraham and the Patriarchs and their first-born did as we read Gen. 8.18 19. Num. 8.17 Then the Lord needed not his part of his Tenths for maintenance of his Priests and Levites but what part he had was chiefly for his sacrifices and services But when he took to him the Levites in stead of the First-born as Num 8.18 then you may read the Lords Deed of gift of his part of the Tythes to Levi for an inheritance Num. 18.20 21. Behold saith the Lord to Aaron I am thy part and thy inheritance amongst the children of Israel and behold I have given the children of Israel all the Tenth in Israel for an inheritance for the service which they serve even the service of the Tabernacle of the Congregation Lev. 18.21 And thus you may see what title the Levites and Ministers of God have to the Lords part even by a Deed of gift from the Lord himself And this is a Deed or Great Charter enrolled and recorded in sacred Scripture the written Word of God himself Object 2 I know the common Objection We will grant say they that the Lord did give part of the Tythe to Levi and his posterity that taught the people as Nehemiah Nehem. 8 7 8 9. But he did not give all to them for part was to be eaten before the Lord in the place which the Lord did choose to put his name there they the children of Israel were to bring their tythes and their sacrifices and their choise vows and to eat them before the Lord with their families they and their sons and daughters and men-servants and maid-servants and Levite within their gates yea the poor stranger and widow and fatherless as we may read Deut. 12.11 12. Deut. 14.29 Therefore the Tythes were not all given to the Levites as their portion as is said by the Ministers that plead for Tythes For Answer If you read Answ Vltra duas Decimas quas quotannis pendere jam jussi 1. Alteram Levitis 2. Alteram in sacras epulas 3. Tertia tertio quoque anno est conferenda quae in egenos vicinos pupillos distribuatur Joseph Antiq. lib. 4. cap. 8. you may find there was a threefold Tythe which the children of Israel did pay The first Tythe was the tenth of the whole increase which was first tythed and this was the Levites portion and might be eaten every where with their houshold because it is a reward unto them for their service But first they were to give the Heave-offering the tythe of that tythe to Aaron the High-Priest as you may read Numb 18.26 And this Tythe hath a Morality in it as after we shall shew Again there was a second Tythe of the Nine parts that were tythed before And this Tythe might not be eaten in any place as the first Tythe which

A Defence and Justification OF Ministers Maintenance BY TYTHES AND OF Infant-Baptism Humane Learning and the Sword of the Magistrate Which some ANABAPTISTS falsely call Four Sandy Pillars and Popish Foundations of our Ministry and Churches In which Tythes are proved to be due by Divine Right to the Ministers of the Gospel All common Objections Answered and divers cases of Conscience humbly proposed with a light to clear them In a REPLY to a Paper sent by some Anabaptists to IMMANUEL BOURNE Late Pastor of the Church in Asheover in the County of Derby now Preacher to the Congregation at Waltham in the County of Leicester With a short ANSWER to Anthony Peirson's Great Case of Tythes c. Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Rom. 2.22 LONDON Printed for John Allen at the Rising Sun in Paul's Church-yard 1659. To the Supream Authority of this NATION The PARLIAMENT of the Common-wealth of ENGLAND By the special Providence of God restored to their TRUST Christian Senators IT is now above twelve years since I Dedicated a larger Treatise to this Honourable Parliament then full of pious Members and full of the Favour of God and high esteem in the World the most wise and powerfull Lord of Hosts the God of all the Armies in the earth having made you hopeful Conquerors over the Adverse Party and given you power to establish the Nations upon the sure Foundation of Truth and Righteousness and not only to confirm the setled Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel by Tythes according to the Laws of the most wise God and the most ancient Law of this Nation but to have increased their Maintenance in those places where by that abominable Sacriledg of Antichrist the Tythes were appropriated to Abbies Monasteries and such superstitious uses and after most unjustly detained from the right Owners the particular Parish-Ministers by King Henry the Eighth and the Parliament that then consented to him for their alienation by occasion of which in divers thousands of Parishes even since the time of Reformation poor ignorant yea scandalous Ministers have been setled and continued to the dishonour of God our Religion and succeeding Parliaments A light from Christ leading unto Christ Printed for John VVright 1646. multitudes of Souls made ready to perish for lack of Knowledg as they are in too many places at these dayes In the Epistle Dedicatory of that Book of mine presented unto you I did complain of this miserable ignorance as a cause that such a multitude of poor blind Souls did run to the Kings Standard set up at Nottingham and joyn with that Army against the Parliament which was a sad occasion the King did not return Humble Petition presented at York although he was most humbly Petitioned by multitudes of his most faithful Subjects from several Counties in this Nation which if it had been the will of God he had done might by Gods b●essing have prevented those Rivers of Blood which have been shead in these intestine Wars and for my own particular have saved me from that most barbarous plundering of my house and Goods in which I lost with what is still owing me upon the Publick Faith in other respects above five hundred pounds which I hoped I should have received before this having the Engagement of England and Scotland in print that those who were plundered and lost their Estates for their faithfulness to the Parliament and the Cause of God and the Nation then undertaken and continued faithful should have their Estates restored and be recompenced to the full or words to that effect but when the Parliament was Dissolved I gave up my hopes as dead yet since God hath raised you from the Dead again and in his Providence brought you to sit here to perfect the good work was begun I will not despair but both I my self and others may find that Promise of both Nations made good to our comforts in time And yet Right Honourable my Spirits have not been a little troubled to hear and see a Generation of Seduced Souls Quakers Anabaptists and others cry out so bitterly against the Godly faithful Ministers of Christ in the Nation as all Antichristians to be destroyed and their maintenance by Tythes to be taken away Ye to see those inhumane I am sure most unchristian abuses are still offered to too many of us till this day I am afraid lest if the God of Heaven and Earth find it to be with England as it was with Israel when the God of their Fathers sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes 2 Chro. 36 15 16. and sending because he had compassion on his People and on his dwelling-place they mocked his Messengers and despised his words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy therefore he brought against them Forraign Enemies to their destruction the Lord pardon these our sins and prevent those Judgements if it be his will Josh 6. and I fear if Achans sin of Sacriledge the taking away of Gods reserved part be found in England as it was in Israel the punishment of Israel may befall us also that our Army as theirs should fly before our enemies and then how sad our condition may prove none but God himself knows to prevent this to the best of my power I make bold most humbly to present this little Treatise to your Honours in which to the best of my understanding Tythes are proved to be Gods Reserved part and due to the Ministers of the Gospel by Divine right and the unsetling of this antient Right may prove I fear the removing of a house built upon a Rock and setting it upon the Sand or a sandy Foundation which may prove the ruine of the House and of those that inhabit it Upon my studying of this Question had I found Tythes unlawful or the Wages of Unrighteousnesse as my Adversary-Anabaptists in their written paper sent to me did affirm or Theft and Robbery as the Quakers I hope the Lord would have given me such a spirit of Contentment that I should have chosen rather to have begged my Bread from door to door as old as I am now almost Threescore and Ten rather than to have lived and dyed a Thief and a Robber accursed of God and Good men But as worthy Luther professed when he contested against the Popes Indulgencies If any man can shew me a more firm and better way of Ministers maintenance than by Tythes which the Lord himself in his wisdom found out to be the fittest I shall lye down in the Dust and when my Conscience is satisfied change my mind In the mean time not cease to pray the most Wise God to guide your Counsels and prosper you in all your just and lawfull Endeavours hoping of your Protection and encouragement for my self and the rest of my Brethren the faithful Ministers of the Gospel I most humbly Subscribe my self A most unworthy Servant

ownership of the Land but Ex debito by the law of God for substraction whereof no remedy lay at the common law and therefore if a Parson let a lease of a Gleab to another with all appurtenance yet he himself shall have the tythe of it page 28. Mr. Bourn's Answer I entreat the Reader to confider here is a testimony of the claim of tythes by the law of God or divine right this in antient times It is no new doctrine then as in my Justification I have declared at large Anthony Peirson's case For his other Objections which he prevents and answers they are nothing to the claim of tythes by divine right but by humane right that Land saith he which any man hath bought or his Ancestors it was bought with this supposal that it ought to pay tythes and so bought cheaper then it should have been if the Land had been free from Tythes Mr. Bourn's answer But I answer it is true that the Land was ever charged with tythes but not that the Land is free from tythe for the Land payeth tythe Hay and tythe Corn and the tythe of Cattel is not in respect of the Cattel but in respect that they feed upon such Lands therefore Anthony Peirson is deceived and tythe neither sold nor bought therefore must be paid Peirson's Case For his last Objection that prescription is an old device Mr. Bourn's answer I answer if prescription be good in Law against a Minister for non-payment of tythes or of small composition why may it not be good for a Minister for payment of tythes whatsoever Anthony Peirson would declaim or exclaim to the contrary Anthony Peirson's case Thus Authony would affirm that because Bishops were voted down by the Parliament therefore all Parsons Vicars and Curats lost their office and so tythes belonging to their office they are lost also and so for maintenance all ends together Mr. Bourn's answer I answer this is a conceit of his own and witnesseth the malignity of his antichristian spirit against the Ministers of Christ he declareth but what he is and into what condition he would bring the Ministers of Christ Jesus certainly he is either a Quaker or possessed with the spirit of Antichrist or infefected with some Jesuite he discovers so much envy and hatred against the faithful godly Ministers of the Lord Jesus dost thou expect thanks for this at the Day of Judgement beware of your enmity Anthony fight not against Christ and his Ministers but submit to Christ and embrace him and his servants that you perish not and be wise ye Kings Psal 2.11 12. be learned ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish in the way if his wrath be kindled yea but a little Blessed are all they that put their trust in him if those shall receive that dreadful sentence at the last day Go ye cursed Mat. 25.41 who have not relieved Christ and his servants what shall be the punishment of those that seek by all means to rob and spoil the Lord Christ and his Ministers and Ambassadors the Lord pardon and change your hearts if it be his blessed will Anthony Peirson's Case You now come to the last those that claim Tythes by purchase and those say you are the Impropriators and you prevent an Objection that they bought and some paid dear for them therefore no reason they should be taken a way from them to which you answer that you have shewed before that in the root all Tythes is alike whether it be claimed by the Priest or Impropriator and both must fall together and seeing those that sold them had no good title neither can those be made good which are derived from them Mr. Bourn's answer I answer for the Impropriators I cannot defend them though some consideration is to be had of them but yet you err in saying the Tythes impropriate and the Tythes which is still continued for the Ministers of Christ are alike in the root for the tythes of Impropriators were alienated by the Pope to his Abbies and Monasteries and then again by King Henry the Eight and by him sold and there was the root of Impropriate-tythes but tythes belonging to the Ministers of the Gospel whom you with a malevolent spirit call Priests as if they were Popish Priests which we are not that so you may make them more odious to the people and Parliament their tythes I have proved to have a higher Root than Proprietors even Gods own appointment even Gods reserved part for his worship and the maintenance of his Ministers who labour in the Word and Doctrine and are worthy of double honour of reverence and maintenance witness the Apostle 1 Tim. 5.17 18. whatsoever Anthony Peirson would make men believe and therefore I cannot but observe that you are so just and charitable to the Impropriators that they must have some recompence for their tythes but for the poor Ministers of Jesus Christ they must be turned off with nothing for this is the cry of many of you as if we were thieves and robbers as your Generation please to call us and not Ministers of Jesus Christ But let me speak a little further to what you say to the Impropriators you say the Root is all one I deny it as before I did the tythes of Ministers are more antient many hundred yea some thousand years before any Impropriate tythes were heard of in the world Now you would have the Impropriators to have some recompence for them so would I also but the less because they bought them of such persons as had no right nor lawful power to sell them if Anthony Pierson would remember what he saith page 18. the conclusion will be against Impropriators and all others Anthony Peirson's case If tythes be absolutely due by the Law of God saith he no custome usage prescription or Popish dispensation can acquit from payment of the utmost penny of the tenth part Mr. Bourn's answer Now I assume but tythes are absolutely due by the law of God as I have proved at full from the holy Scriptures besides multitudes of testimonies witnessing the divine right both in antient times and at this day Therefore no custome usage prescription or Popish dispensation can acquit from payment of the utmost penny of the tenth part this conclusion necessarily followeth from Anthony Peirson's premises And then first all prescriptions compositions and customs for payment of less than the tenth part are utterly unlawful and the detaining of such tythes must needs be sacriledg for to take or keep away that which is Gods and belongeth to Christ and to his Ministers and Ambassadors is a robbing of God and sacriledg against which the Prophet Malachy proclaimed a curse Mat. 3.6 7. and promiseth a blessing to the restorers of them It is a lamentable thing that Lay men should receive the tythes and the people maintain their Ministers to

teach if they will have any Again if the Tythes be Gods reserved part and belong to the Ministers of Christ who preach the Gospel to the people by Divine right as we have proved out of the Word of God sufficiently then as Anthony Peirson confesseth the Popes dispensation or acquitting of any Lands from payment of tythes was utterly unlawful and sacrilegious as was all his improper Appropriation or tythes to Abbies Monasteries or any such popish inventions sacrilegious also certainly it was and was not King Henry the Eight his taking and selling of tythes from the Church sacriledge also certainly it must needs follow it was a robbing of God and of the Ministers of Christ and so sacriledge and then is it not sacriledge in them that withhold them this God hath witnessed by many examples his wrath against such as detain them from the faithful Preachers of the Gospel as I have declared in my Justification of Ministers maintenance by tythes and as might be proved by many sad examples of Gods judgements against Sacriledge both in this and other Nations therefore it is very good all the Impropriators should part from them yea upon reasonable considerations since many bought them as Anthony Peirson intimates for little or nothing but it is not that tythes should be taken away from the faithful Ministers of Christ but restored to them as their just due both by the law of God and the most antient laws of the Land The Lord grant the Parliament may lay these things seriously to heart and provide a remedy that the danger of Gods curse may be removed from the Nation and Gods blessing be upon them and the people till Shil● the Saviour Christ our Lord come again Amen Amen I. B. I Shall add but a little concerning our Gleab-lands and haste to a Conclusion Anthony Peirson or at least many of his Society or erring way have cryed out against our Houses and Gleab lands also yea would have all our Meeting-places our Churches our Steeple-houses as they call them pulled down to mend High-wayes so Churches and Parish-Ministers all must be cast away together And would not this prove Sacriledge If you read Numb 34.13 c. the Land of Canaan was commanded to be divided by Lot and Numb 35.2 3.4 the Lord commands the Children of Israel that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession Cities to dwell in and shall give also for the Levites suburbs for the Citysround about them and their Cities shall they have to dwell in and the suburbs of them shall be for their Cattel and for their Goods and for all their Beasts and the suburbs of the City which ye shall give to the Levites shall reach from the wall of the City and outward a thousand Cubits roundabout A Cubit was from the top of the point of the elbow to the top of the middle finger as learned Weames affirms Doctor VVeams his Christian Synagogue p. 192. And the Cubit of the Sanctuary was a hand-bredth more than the common Cubit was so that here it is evident the Lord had not only given the Levites Tythes but convenient Houses to dwel in and Gleab-lands for their Beasts and Cattel and our Godly and Learned Countryman Mr. Ainsworth upon that affirms that the equity of this Law both for honouring the Lord with our substance Prov. 3.9 and for maintenance of his Ministers Gal. 6.6 is perpetual Josh 21. and these Lands were set out to the Levites according to Gods command and they taught the people by office as Nehem. 8.8 and these Lands were never to be sold or alienated from the Levites and certainly the equity of this remaineth still that the faithful Preachers of the Gospel should have not only Tythes or value of them by redemption but convenient Gleab also the taking away of these what is it but Sacriledge Caveat Emptor Again you seem to be charitable to the Poor and would be profitable to the Common-wealth to pay the Souldiery and provide for the Poor and it is with our Tythes and Gleab-Lands as many of you profess You would have us robbed that others may be relieved is this your charity and piety like a Thief that steals to give Alms robs by the High way and giveth liberally to the Beggars and poor Cripples that are there waiting for an Alms certainly this charity is not Christian charity but abominable iniquity In our Honourable Army I know there are many truly religious and godly Gentlemen who would not be pay'd with that which belongs to Christ but with the Money and Estate of the Common-wealth and good reason they should For who goeth a warfare at their own charge saith that great Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 9.7 I have done with this also But a word to your word to the Parish Ministers Anthony Peirsons case Thirdly say you to the Parish Ministers With these I desire to expostulate the matter First as touching the end of their work Secondly as to the way of their maintenance c. Mr. Bourn's answer I answer to your quarrel why in Market-towns and other places where there is small Maintenance there is but a poor Vicar or poor reading Curate and the people untaught you mean why do not Ministers preach there without Maintenance or take such small places is this your meaning I answer that there is not maintenance in such places see where the fault is I am sure it is none of ours we must live of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.14 And Secondly for Preaching if your eyes be not blind or your ears deaf and refuse to hear you might hear and know that many godly Ministers do preach in Market-Towns and many other places freely witness weekly Lectures and monthly Exercises in which commonly two Ministers joyn together and preach to the great comfort of Christian souls whose hearts God moveth to attend at wisdoms gates Prov. 8.34 this is the practice in London in Derby-shire where I lived and is in Leicester-shire where I now live and in Lincoln-shire and Rutlandshire Northampton-shire and in many other places and this I have known near this fifty year and have Preached my self in many places but you would fain find some fault with the Ministers of Christ that you like other Antichristian enemies might root us out if it lay in your power But this I shall and do tell you that if Ephesus judgement fall upon England for the loss of our first love if God remove the Candlestick of the Church and Gospel then England is undone Rev. 2.3 4. as was Ephesus and those Eastern Churches I have said enough to answer your quarrel against our Tythes enough to satisfie any godly undeceived man whatsoever and spoken sufficient concerning our Gleab-Land at which it seemeth you have an evill eye Anthony Peirson's case There is a way say you page 41. which would establish the Nation upon a sure foundation of true freedom and give satisfaction to some separated