ever paid him tithes either before or after or had then but for this accidental meeting and obligement or that els Melchisedec had demanded or exacted them or took them otherwise then as the voluntarie gift of Abram But our ministers though neither priests nor kings more then any other Christian greater in thir own esteem then Abraham and all his seed for the verbal labor of a seventh dayes preachment not bringing like Melchisedec bread or wine at thir own cost would not take only at the willing hand of liberality or gratitude but require and exact as due the tenth not of spoiles but of our whole estates and labors nor once but yearly We then it seems by the example of Abram must pay tithes to these melchisedecs but what if the person of Abram can either no way represent us or will oblige the ministers to pay tithes no less then other men Abram had not only a priest in his loines but was himself a priest and gave tithes to Melchisedec either as grandfather of Levi or as father of the faithful If as grandfather though he understood it not of Levi he oblig'd not us but Levi only the inferior priest by that homage as the apostle to the Hebrewes cleerly anough explanes to acknowledge the greater And they who by Melchisedec claim from Abram as Levi's grandfather have none to seek thir tithes of but the Levites where they can finde them If Abram as father of the faithful paid tithes to Melchisedec then certainly the ministers also if they be of that number paid in him equally with the rest Which may induce us to beleeve that as both Abram and Melchisedec so tithes also in that action typical and ceremonial signifi'd nothing els but that subjection which all the faithful both ministers and people owe to Christ our high priest and king In any literal sense from this example they never will be able to extort that the people in those dayes paid tithes to priests but this only that one priest once in his life of spoiles only and in requital partly of a liberal present partly of a benediction gave voluntary tithes not to a greater priest then himself as far as Abram could then understand but rather to a priest and king joind in one person They will reply perhaps that if one priest paid tithes to another it must needs be understood that the people did no less to the priest But I shall easily remove that necessitie by remembring them that in those dayes was no priest but the father or the first born of each familie and by consequence no people to pay him tithes but his own children and servants who had not wherewithall to pay him but of his own Yet grant that the people then paid tithes there will not yet be the like reason to enjoin us they being then under ceremonies a meer laitie we now under Christ a royal priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 9 as we are coheirs kings and priests with him a priest for ever after the order or manner of Melchisedec As therefor Abram paid tithes to Melchisedec because Levi was in him so we ought to pay none because the true Melchisedec is in us and we in him who can pay to none greater and hath freed us by our union with himself from all compulsive tributes and taxes in his church Neither doth the collateral place Heb. 7 make other use of this story then to prove Christ personated by Melchisedec a greater priest then Aaron Vers. 4. Now consider how great this man was c. and provâ— not in the least manner that tithes be of any right to ministers but the contrary first the Levites had a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law that is of thir brethren though they com out of the loines of Abraham Vers. 5. The commandment then was it seems to take tithes of the Jewes only and according to the law That law changing of necessity with the priesthood no other sort of ministers as they must needs be another sort under another priesthood can receive that tribute of tithes which fell with that law unless renu'd by another express command and according to another law no such law is extant Next Melchisedec not as a minister but as Christ himself in person blessd Abraham who had the promises Vers. 6 and in him blessd all both ministers and people both of the law and gospel that blessing declar'd him greater and better then whom he blessd Vers. 7 receiving tithes from them all not as a maintenance which Melchisedec needed not but as a signe of homage and subjection to thir king and priest wheras ministers bear not the person of Christ in his priesthood or kingship bless not as he blesses are not by their blessing greater then Abraham and all the faithful with themselves included in him cannot both give and take tithes in Abram cannot claim to themselves that signe of our allegiance due only to our eternal king and priest cannot therefor derive tithes from Melchisedec Lastly the eighth verse hath thus Here men that die receive tithes There he received them of whom it is witnesd that he liveth Which words intimate that as he offerd himself once for us so he received once of us in Abraham and in that place the typical acknowledgment of our redemption which had it bin a perpetual annuitie to Christ by him claimd as his due Levi must have paid it yearly as well as then Vers. 9. and our ministers ought still to som Melchisedec or other as well now as they did in Abraham But that Christ never claimd any such tenth as his annual due much less resign'd it to the ministers his so officious receivers without express commission or assignement will be yet cleerer as we proceed Thus much may at length assure us that this example of Abram Melchisedec though I see of late they build most upon it can so little be the ground of any law to us that it will not so much avail them as to the autoritie of an example Of like impertinence is that example of Jacob Gen. 28. 22 who of his free choise not enjoind by any law vowd the tenth of all that God should give him which for aught appeers to the contrarie he vowd as a thing no less indifferent before his vow then the foregoing part thereof That the stone which he had set there for a pillar should be God's house And to whom vowd he this tenth but to God not to any priest for we read of none to him greater then himself and to God no doubt but he paid what he vowd both in the building of that Bethel with other altars els where and the expence of his continual sacrifices which none but he had right to offer However therefor he paid his tenth it could in no likelihood unless by such an occasion as befell his grandfather be to any priest But say they All the tithe of the land whether of
moral but ceremonial only That Christians therefor should take them up when Jewes have laid them down must needs be very absurd and preposterous Next it is as cleer in the same chapter that the priests and Levites had not tithes for their labor only in the tabernacle but in regard they were to have no other part nor inheritance in the land Vers. 20 24. and by that means for a tenth lost a twelfth But our levites undergoing no such law of deprivement can have no right to any such compensation nay if by this law they will have tithes can have no inheritance of land but forfeit what they have Besides this tithes were of two sorts those of every year and those of every third year of the former every one that brought his tithes was to eat his share Deut. 14. 23. Thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse to place his name there the tithe of thy corn of thy wine and of thine oyle c. Nay though he could not bring his tithe in kinde by reason of his distant dwelling from the tabernacle or temple but was thereby forc'd to turn it into monie he was to bestow that monie on whatsoever pleasd him oxen sheep wine or strong drink and to eat and drink therof there before the Lord both he and his houshold Ver. 24 25 26. As for the tithes of every third year they were not given only to the Levite but to the stranger the fatherles and the widdow Vers. 28 29. Chap. 26. 12 13. So that ours if they will have tithes must admitt of these sharers with them Nay these tithes were not paid in at all to the Levite but the Levite himself was to come with those his fellow guests and eat his share of them only at his house who provided them and this not in regard of his ministerial office but because he had no part nor inheritance in the land Lastly the priests and Levites a tribe were of a far different constitution from this of our ministers under the gospel in them were orders and degrees both by family dignity and office mainly distinguishd the high priest his brethren and his sons to whom the Levites themselves paid tithes and of the best were eminently superior Num. 18. 28 29. No Protestant I suppose will liken one of our ministers to a high priest but rather to a common Levite Unless then to keep their tithes they mean to bring back again bishops archbishops and the whole gang of prelatry to whom will they themselves pay tythes as by that law it was a sin to them if they did not v. 32. Certainly this must needs put them to a deep demurr while the desire of holding fast thir tithes without sin may tempt them to bring back again bishops as the likenes of that hierarchy that should receive tithes from them and the desire to pay none may advise them to keep out of the church all orders above them But if we have to do at present as I suppose we have with true reformed Protestants not with Papists or prelates it will not be deni'd that in the gospel there be but two ministerial degrees presbyters and deacons which if they contend to have any succession reference or conformity with those two degrees under the law priests Levites it must needs be such whereby our presbyters or ministers may be answerable to priests and our deacons to Levites by which rule of proportion it will follow that we must pay our tithes to the deacons only and they only to the ministers But if it be truer yet that the priesthood of Aaron typifi'd a better reality 1 Pet. 2. 5. signifying the Christian true and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice it follows hence that we are now justly exempt from paying tithes to any who claim from Aaron since that priesthood is in us now real which in him was but a shaddow Seeing then by all this which hath bin shewn that the law of tithes is partly ceremonial as the work was for which they were given partly judicial not of common but of particular right to the tribe of Levi nor to them alone but to the owner also and his houshold at the time of thir offering and every three year to the stranger the fatherles and the widdow thir appointed sharers and that they were a tribe of priests and deacons improperly compar'd to the constitution of our ministery and the tithes given by that people to those deacons only it follows that our ministers at this day being neither priests nor Levites nor fitly answering to either of them can have no just title or pretence to tithes by any consequence drawn from the law of Moses But they think they have yet a better plea in the example of Melchisedec who took tithes of Abram ere the law was given whence they would inferr tithes to be of moral right But they ought to know or to remember that not examples but express commands oblige our obedience to God or man next that whatsoever was don in religion before the law written is not presently to be counted moral when as so many things were then don both ceremonial and Judaically judicial that we need not doubt to conclude all times before Christ more or less under the ceremonial law To what end servd els those altars and sacrifices that distinction of clean and unclean entring into the ark circumcision and the raising up of seed to the elder brother Gen. 38. 8 If these things be not moral though before the law how are tithes though in the example of Abram and Melchisedec But this instance is so far from being the just ground of a law that after all circumstances duly waighd both from Gen. 14. and Heb. 7 it will not be allowd them so much as an example Melchisedec besides his priestly benediction brought with him bread and wine sufficient to refresh Abram and his whole armie incited to do so first by the secret providence of God intending him for a type of Christ and his priesthood next by his due thankfulnes and honor to Abram who had freed his borders of Salem from a potent enemie Abram on the other side honors him with the tenth of all that is to say for he took not sure his whole estate with him to that warr of the spoiles Heb. 7. 4. Incited he also by the same secret providence to signifie as grandfather of Levi that the Levitical priesthood was excelld by the priesthood of Christ For the giving of a tenth declar'd it seems in those countreys and times him the greater who receivd it That which next incited him was partly his gratitude to requite the present partly his reverence to the person and his benediction to his person as a king and priest greater therefor then Abram who was a priest also but not a king And who unhir'd will be so hardy as to say that Abram at any other time
the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the Lords holy unto the Lord Levit. 27. 30. And this before it was given to the Levites therefor since they ceasd No question For the whole earth is the Lords and the fulnes therof Psal. 24. 1 and the light of nature shews us no less but that the tenth is his more then the rest how know I but as he so declares it He declares it so here of the land of Canaan only as by all circumstance appeers and passes by deed of gift this tenth to the Levite yet so as offerd to him first a heaveoffring and consecrated on his altar Numb. 18. all which I had as little known but by that evidence The Levites are ceasd the gift returns to the giver How then can we know that he hath given it to any other or how can these men presume to take it unofferd first to God unconsecrated without an other cleer and express donation wherof they shew no evidence or writing Besides he hath now alienated that holy land who can warrantably affirme that he hath since hallowd the tenth of this land which none but God hath power to do or can warrant Thir last prooff they cite out of the gospel which makes as little for them Matth. 23. 23 where our Saviour denouncing woe to the Scribes and Pharises who paid tithe so exactly and omitted waightier matters tels them that these they ought to have don that is to have paid tithes For our Saviour spake then to those who observd the law of Moses which was yet not fully abrogated till the destruction of the temple And by the way here we may observe out of thir own prooff that the Scribes and Pharises though then chief teachers of the people such at least as were not Levites did not take tithes but paid them So much less covetous were the Scribes and Pharises in those worst times then ours at this day This is so apparent to the reformed divines of other countreys that when any one of ours hath attempted in Latine to maintain this argument of tithes though a man would think they might suffer him without opposition in a point equally tending to the advantage of all ministers yet they forbear not to oppose him as in a doctrin not fit to pass unoppos'd under the gospel Which shews the modestie the contentednes of those forein pastors with the maintenance given them thir sinceritie also in the truth though less gainful and the avarice of ours who through the love of their old Papistical tithes consider not the weak arguments or rather conjectures and surmises which they bring to defend them On the other side although it be sufficient to have prov'd in general the abolishing of tithes as part of the Judaical or ceremonial law which is abolishd all as well that before as that after Moses yet I shall further prove them abrogated by an express ordinance of the gospel founded not on any type or that municipal law of Moses but on moral and general equitie given us instead 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. Know ye not that they who minister about holy things live of the things of the temple and they which wait at the altar are partakeâ—s with the altar so also the Lord hath ordaind that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel He saith not Should live on things which were of the temple or of the altar of which were tithes for that had given them a cleer title but abrogating that former law of Moses which determind what and how much by a later ordinance of Christ which leaves the what and how much indefinit and free so it be sufficient to live on he saith The Lord hath so ordaind that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel which hath neither temple altar nor sacrifice Heb. 7. 13. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe of which no man gave attendance at the altar his ministers therefor cannot thence have tithes And where the Lord hath so ordaind we may finde easily in more then one evangelist Luke 10. 7 8. In the same house remane eating and drinking such things as they give For the laborer is worthy of his hire c. And into whatsoever citie you enter and they receive you eat such things as are set before you To which ordinance of Christ it may seem likeliest that the apostle referrs us both here and 1 Tim. 5. 18 where he cites this as the saying of our Saviour That the laborer is worthy of his hire and both by this place of Luke and that of Matth. 10. 9 10 11 it evidently appeers that our Saviour ordaind no certain maintenance for his apostles or ministers publickly or privatly in house or citie receivd but that what ever it were which might suffice to live on and this not commanded or proportiond by Abram or by Moses whom he might easily have here cited as his manner was but declar'd only by a rule of common equitie which proportions the hire as well to the abilitie of him who gives as to the labor of him who receives and recommends him only as worthy not invests him with a legal right And mark wheron he grounds this his ordinance not on a perpetual right of tithes from Melchisedec as hirelings pretend which he never claimd either for himself or for his ministers but on the plane and common equitie of rewarding the laborer worthy somtimes of single somtimes of double honor not proportionable by tithes And the apostle in this forecited chapter to the Corinthians Vers. 11 affirms it to be no great recompence if carnal things be reapd for spiritual sown but to mention tithes neglects here the fittest occasion that could be offerd him and leaves the rest free and undetermind Certainly if Christ or his apostles had approv'd of tithes they would have either by writing or tradition recommended them to the church and that soone would have appeerd in the practise of those primitive and the next ages But for the first three hundred years and more in all the ecclesiastical storie I finde no such doctrin or example though error by that time had brought back again priests altars and oblations and in many other points of religion had miserably Judaiz'd the church So that the defenders of tithes after a long pomp and tedious preparation out of Heathen authors telling us that tithes were paid to Hercules and Apollo which perhaps was imitated from the Jewes and as it were bespeaking our expectation that they will abound much more with autorities out of Christian storie have nothing of general approbation to beginn with from the first three or four ages but that which abundantly serves to the confutation of thir tithes while they confess that churchmen in those ages livd meerly upon freewill offerings Neither can they say that tithes were not then paid for want of a civil magistrate to ordain them for
So all the land would be soone better civiliz'd and they who are taught freely at the publick cost might have thir education given them on this condition that therewith content they should not gadd for preferment out of thir own countrey but continue there thankful for what they receivd freely bestowing it as freely on thir countrey without soaring above the meannes wherin they were born But how they shall live when they are thus bred and dismissd will be still the sluggish objection To which is answerd that those publick foundations may be so instituted as the youth therin may be at once brought up to a competence of learning and to an honest trade and the hours of teaching so orderd as thir studie may be no hindrance to thir labor or other calling This was the breeding of S. Paul though born of no mean parents a free citizen of the Roman empire so little did his trade debase him that it rather enabld him to use that magnanimitie of preaching the gospel through Asia and Europe at his own charges thus those preachers among the poor Waldenses the ancient stock of our reformation without these helps which I speak of bred up themselves in trades and especially in physic and surgery as well as in the studie of scripture which is the only true theologie that they might be no burden to the church and by the example of Christ might cure both soul and bodie through industry joining that to their ministerie which he joind to his by gift of the spirit Thus relates Peter Gilles in his historie of the Waldenses in Piemont But our ministers think scorn to use a trade and count it the reproach of this age that tradesmen preach the gospel It were to be wishd they were all tradesmen they would not then so many of them for want of another trade make a trade of thir preaching and yet they clamor that tradesmen preach and yet they preach while they themselves are the worst tradesmen of all As for church-endowments and possessions I meet with none considerable before Constantine but the houses and gardens where they met and thir places of burial and I perswade me that from them the ancient Waldenses whom deservedly I cite so often held that to endow churches is an evil thing and that the church then fell off and turnd whore sitting on that beast in the Revelation when under Pope Sylvester she receivd those temporal donations So the forecited tractate of thir doctrin testifies This also thir own traditions of that heavenly voice witnesd and som of the ancient fathers then living foresaw and deplor'd And indeed how could these endowments thrive better with the church being unjustly taken by those emperors without suffrage of the people out of the tributes and publick lands of each citie whereby the people became liable to be oppressd with other taxes Being therefor given for the most part by kings and other publick persons and so likeliest out of the publick and if without the peoples consent unjustly however to publick ends of much concernment to the good or evil of a common-wealth and in that regard made publick though given by privat persons or which is worse given as the clergie then perswaded men for thir soul's health a pious gift but as the truth was oft times a bribe to God or to Christ for absolution as they were then taught from murders adulteries and other hainous crimes what shall be found heretofore given by kings or princes out of the publick may justly by the magistrate be recalld and reappropriated to the civil revenue what by privat or publick persons out of thir own the price of blood or lust or to som such purgatorious and superstitious uses not only may but ought to be taken off from Christ as a foul dishonor laid upon him or not impiously given nor in particular to any one but in general to the churches good may be converted to that use which shall be judgd tending more directly to that general end Thus did the princes and cities of Germany in the first reformation and defended thir so doing by many reasons which are set down at large in Sleidan l. 6 an. 1526 and l. 11 an. 1537 and l. 13 an. 1540. But that the magistrate either out of that church revenue which remanes yet in his hand or establishing any other maintenance instead of tithe should take into his own power the stipendiarie maintenance of church-ministers or compell it by law can stand neither with the peoples right nor with Christian liberty but would suspend the church wholly upon the state and turn her ministers into statepensioners And for the magistrate in person of a nursing father to make the church his meer ward as alwaies in minoritie the church to whom he ought as a magistrate Esa. 49. 23 To bow down with his face toward the earth and lick up the dust of her feet her to subject to his political drifts or conceivd opinions by mastring her revenue and so by his examinant committies to circumscribe her free election of ministers is neither just nor pious no honor don to to the church but a plane dishonor and upon her whose only head is in heaven yea upon him who is her only head sets another in effect and which is most monstrous a human on a heavenly a carnal on a spiritual a political head on an ecclesiastical bodie which at length by such heterogeneal such incestuous conjunction transformes her oft-times into a beast of many heads and many horns For if the chuâ—ch be of all societies the holiest on earth and so to be reverenc'd by the magistrate not to trust her with her own belief and integritie and therefor not with the keeping at least with the disposing of what revenue shall be found justly and lawfully her own is to count the church not a holy congregation but a pack of giddy or dishonest persons to be rul'd by civil power in sacred affairs But to proceed further in the truth yet more freely seeing the Christian church is not national but consisting of many particular congregations subject to many changes as well through civil accidents as through schism and various opinions not to be decided by any outward judge being matters of conscience whereby these pretended church-revenues as they have bin ever so are like to continue endles matter of dissention both between the church and magistrate and the churches among themselves there will be found no better remedie to these evils otherwise incurable then by the incorruptest councel of those Waldenses our first reformers to remove them as a pest an apple of discord in the church for what els can be the effect of riches and the snare of monie in religion and to convert them to those more profitable uses above expressd or other such as shall be judgd most necessarie considering that the church of Christ was founded in poverty rather then in revenues stood purest and prosperd best
Melchisedec proper to Christ only not of Aaron as they themselves will confess and the third priesthood only remaining is common to all the faithful But they are ministers of our high priest True but not of his priesthood as the Levites were to Aaron for he performs that whole office himself incommunicably Yet tithes remane say they still unreleasd the due of Christ and to whom payable but to his ministers I say again that no man can so understand them unless Christ in som place or other so claim them That example of Abram argues nothing but his voluntarie act honor once only don but on what consideration whether to a priest or to a king whether due the honor arbitrarie that kinde of honor or not will after all contending be left still in meer conjecture which must not be permitted in the claim of such a needy and suttle spiritual corporation pretending by divine right to the tenth of all other mens estates nor can it be allowd by wise men or the verdit of common law And the tenth part though once declar'd holy is declar'd now to be no holier then the other nine by that command to Peter Act. 10. 15. 28 whereby all distinction of holy and unholy is remov'd from all things Tithes therefor though claimd and holy under the law yet are now releasd and quitted both by that command to Peter and by this to all ministers above-cited Luke 10 eating and drinking such things as they give you made holy now by thir free gift only And therefor S. Paul 1 Cor. 9. 4 asserts his power indeed but of what not of tithes but to eat and drink such things as are given in reference to this command which he calls not holy things or things of the gospel as if the gospel had any consecrated things in answer to things of the temple v. 13 but he calls them your carnal things v. 11. without changing thir property And what power had he not the power of force but of conscience only whereby he might lawfully and without scruple live on the gospel receiving what was given him as the recompence of his labor For if Christ the master hath professd his kingdom to be not of this world it suits not with that profession either in him or his ministers to claim temporal right from spiritual respects He who refus'd to be the divider of an inheritance between two brethren cannot approve his ministers by pretended right from him to be dividers of tenths and free-holds out of other mens possessions making thereby the gospel but a cloak of carnal interest and to the contradiction of thir master turning his heavenly kingdom into a kingdom of this world a kingdom of force and rapin To whom it will be one day thunderd more terribly then to Gehazi for thus dishonoring a far greater master and his gospel is this a time to receive monie and to receive garments and olive-yards and vinyards and sheep and oxen The leprosie of Naaman linkd with that apostolic curse of perishing imprecated on Simon Magus may be feard will cleave to such and to thir seed for ever So that when all is don and bellie hath us'd in vain all her cunning shifts I doubt not but all true ministers considering the demonstration of what hath bin here prov'd will be wise and think it much more tolerable to hear that no maintenance of ministers whether tithes or any other can be settl'd by statute but must be given by them who receive instruction and freely given as God hath ordaind And indeed what can be a more honorable maintenance to them then such whether almes or willing oblations as these which being accounted both alike as given to God the only acceptable sacrifices now remaining must needs represent him who receives them much in the care of God and neerly related to him when not by worldly force and constraint but with religious awe and reverence what is given to God is given to him and what to him accounted as given to God This would be well anough say they but how many will so give I answer as many doubtles as shall be well taught as many as God shall so move Why are ye so distrustful both of your own doctrin and of Gods promises fulfilld in the expèrience of those disciples first sent Luke 22. 35. When I sent you without purse and scrip and shooes lackd ye anything And they said Nothing How then came ours or who sent them thus destitute thus poor and empty both of purse and faith Who stile themselves embassadors of Jesus Christ and seem to be his tithegatherers though an office of thir own setting up to his dishonor his exâ—cters his publicans rather not trusting that he will maintain them in thir embassy unless they binde him to his promise by a statute law that we shall maintain them Lay down for shame that magnific title while ye seek maintenance from the people it is not the manner of embassadors to ask maintenance of them to whom they are sent But he who is Lord of all things hath so ordaind trust him then he doubtles will command the people to make good his promises of maintenance more honorably unaskd unrak'd for This they know this they preach yet beleeve not but think it as impossible without a statute law to live of the gospel as if by those words they were bid go eat thir bibles as Ezechiel and John did thir books and such doctrins as these are as bitter to thir bellies but will serve so much the better to discover hirelings who can have nothing though but in appearance just and solid to answer for themselves against what hath bin here spoken unless perhaps this one remaning pretence which we shall quickly see to be either fals or uningenuous They pretend that thir education either at schoole or universitie hath bin very chargeable and therefor ought to be repar'd in future by a plentiful maintenance whenas it is well known that the better half of them and oft times poor and pittiful boyes of no merit or promising hopes that might intitle them to the publick provision but thir povertie and the unjust favor of friends have had the most of thir breeding both at schoole and universitie by schollarships exhibitions and fellowships at the publick cost which might ingage them the rather to give freely as they have freely receivd Or if they have missd of these helps at the latter place they have after two or three years left the cours of thir studies there if they ever well began them and undertaken though furnishd with little els but ignorance boldnes and ambition if with no worse vices a chaplainship in som gentlemans house to the frequent imbasing of his sons with illiterate and narrow principles Or if they have livd there upon thir own who knows not that seaven years charge of living there to them who fly not from the government of thir parents to the license of a