and displeasure of many in the world is now obstinately bent to beat down root up overthrow and destroy whatsoever the piety and wisdome of our forefathers built and contributed in the Primitive times of their faith and conversion to Christianity as if all they did were Popish and superstitious fit to be rooted up and as if themselves had a Commission as large as the great Prophet had from God and were set over the Nations and Kingdomes to root out and pull down to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant Jer. 1. 10. But if men will rest satisfied either with proof from divine authority there wants not enough here to guide their consciences or with humane Laws and Statutes confirmed and fully enacted by many Parliaments whereby they are now become ancient and fundamentall as well as any other Laws together with the constant course and practice of above a thousand years in our Common-wealth there wants not here the testimony of all our ancient Monuments Statutes Deeds and Charters of our Kingdome Princes and Noble men which this learned Knight hath more fully and compleatly published in order of time and in their originall Saxon-language in his first Tome of our English Laws and Councels for the first five hundred years before the Conquest being his last work before his death Whereunto when the second Tome which he hath also finished shall be added for the next 500. years after the Conquest together with his learned Commentary upon all difficult and ancient rites and customes there will be abundant proof from all humane Laws and the authority of our Common Law together with the practice of our Kingdome in severall ages that no man can raise a doubt or exception that shall not receive satisfaction fully and clearly As for the Laws of Israel and the Heathens also in imitation of Gods own people the Decrees and Canons of generall Councels in succeeding times here is also such abundant testimony produced that no judicious Reader can refuse to yeeld his vote thereto and approbation for continuance There is another noble and religious Knight of Scotland Sir James Sempil who hath so accurately laboured in this argument and proved the divine right of Tithes from the holy Scriptures insisting thereupon onely and no other humane Authorities or Antiquities further then he finds thē to play upon the Text pro or contra as himself saith in his Preface that much satisfaction may be received from his pious endeavours having therein cleared some Texts of Scripture from sinister interpretations and exactly considered the first Institution and Laws for Tithes delivered by God himself both in the Old and New Testaments If both these godly and learned witnesses of the truth will not serve the turn to convince the judgement of some ill-affected they being both raised up by God out of both Nations like to Eldad and Medad among the people extraordinarily to prophecy and defend the truth being moved and inspired doubtlesse by God himself besides those that belong to the Tabernacle to uphold and maintain his own cause against the adversaries of his Church yet they may well stop the mouths of worldlings and Mammonists from clamour and inveighing and perswade them to acquiesce upon the known and fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome which areas ancient and fundamentall as any other or rather more because they concern especially the upholding and maintenance of the worship of God then which nothing can be more necessary or fundamentall and therefore the pious and good King Edward the Confessor doth begin his Laws with the recitall and confirmation of the Ecclesiasticall Lawes and particularly of Tithes Church-possessions and Liberties thereof A legibus igitur sanctae matris Ecclesiae sumentes exordium quoniam per eam Rex regnum solidum habent subsistendi fundamentum leges libertates pacem ipsius concionati sunt Because thereby the King and Kingdome have their solid foundation for subsistence therefore the laws liberties and peace thereof are first proclaimed and established And thus begins also Magna Charta Nos intuitu Dei pro salute animae nostrae ad exaltationem sanctae Ecclesiae c. and so also many other Statutes successively pour le common profit de Saint Esglise del Realm c. The possessions tithes and rights of the Clergy being thus setled they may doubtlesse be enjoyed having been freely collated according as was foretold by the Prophets Esay and others by Kings Nobles and many good men fully confirmed by Law and Parliament established by the possession of many hundred years that although in the beginning perhaps things were not so commanded in particular as any man else may enjoy lands goods chattels gifts and grants whatsoever is freely collated purchased or obtained by industry or is freely given and bequeathed by Ancestors or other Benefactors although perhaps there be not divine right in speciall to prove and justifie so much land money rents or goods of any sort to be his due and right God did foretell and promise by the Prophet Esay cap. 49. 23. that he would raise up in the Church of the redeemed Kings and Queens to be nursing fathers and nursing mothers to his Church that is saith Calvin upon the Text Magni Reges ac principes non solùm Christi jugum subierunt sed etiam facultates suas contulerunt ad erigendam fovendam Christi Ecclesiam ita ut se patronos tutores ejus praestarent Kings and Princes should give much Lands Revenues and great maintenance for the worship of God and his Ministers attending thereon which promise God abundantly performed by many and great Emperours Kings and Princes in all Countries after their conversion to the faith The donations gifts and buildings of Constantine the first and great Christian Emperour born at York and Helena his mother an English Lady exceeding religious and devout are famous in History together with their buildings and endowing of many ample and beautifull Churches in severall Counties of the Empire Neither did he thus alone in his own persō but he also gave leave to his subjects to doe the like whereby the Church was greatly enriched in a short time C. L. 1. c. de sacrosanct Ecclesiis § Si quis authent de Ecclesia The gifts and buildings of divers other Emperours and Kings as Theodosius Justinian Pipin and Charles the great are endlesse to be repeated When as any doth the like now or repair old Churches formerly built he is by some ignorant people tearmed Popish or Popish affected The grants buildings and gifts of our own English Kings Noble men and Bishops ever since our first conversion are famous in our Histories especially of King Lucius and Ethelbert the two first of the British and Saxon Kings so also of Egbert Alured Ethelwolph Edgar Edward the Confessor and many others in times following after the Conquest no Princes or Nobles being more bountifull then ours in England Their
Charters and Acts of Parliament are extant in the first Tome of our Councels by this Authour and many are also mentioned by the learned Selden in his History Now when Churches are built and grants of lands tithes and oblations are freely given by great Kings confirmed by severall Acts of Parliament oftentimes renued and reiterated as by the great Charter thirty times confirmed and many other Statutes since as also by the Text and body of the Common Law which doth affirm Tithes to be due Jure divino as is asserted by that ever honourable Judge and Oracle of Law the Lord Coke in the second part of his Reports Dismes sont choses spirituels due de jure divino Being thus setled and confirmed and thereby becomming fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome they may and ought to be enjoyed peaceably without grudging or repining alienation or spoil without casting an evill eye upon Gods allowance and because he hath given the floure of wheat to make bread for his Sanctuary whereof God himself giveth charge in the last vision of Ezekiel contained in the last four chapters where he appointeth a third part of the land to be set forth for his Temple Priests and servants besides the portions for the Prince and for the people which vision for performance concerneth the Christian Church and was never fulfilled in the Jewish State as this Author and many others doe shew and there God doth especially forbid alienation selling or exchanging of his Temples portion as being most holy unto the Lord Ezek. 48. 14. It concerns us therefore that live in these times of the Christian Church when we see the ancient prophesie fulfilled by Kings and Princes in giving much to the Church to preserve Gods portion entire without alienation spoil or violence The Primitive times of the Church as this Authour sheweth ch 6. as had not been since the very Creation times wherein God opened the windows of persecution and rained bloud upon his Church as hee did water upon the world in the days of Noah during the ten grievous persecutions in the first 300. years after Christ so that no man must expect then to finde setled Lawes for Tithes Lands or maintenance of the Clergy when the Emperors and Magistrates were Heathens persecuting the Church and made many furious edicts for rasing and ruinating of Churches which had been built by Christians in some times of intermission as appears by Eusebius when hee comes to the times of Dioclesian Every good Christian and almost every Clergy-man lost his life for religion no man did care or expect for preferment maintenance or dignity save onely the crown of martyrdome which many thousands did obtain The Church saith this Author did all that while expose the dugs of her piety unto others but did live her self on thistles and thorns in great want oftentimes necessity and professed poverty Now those men that would reform all according to the pattern of the Primitive Church and the Apostolicall times do not consider that the Clergy must be reduced again to the same condition of poverty want and misery as formerly they were if the pious and charitable gifts and donations of Kings and Nobles in the ages next succeeding the persecutions should be taken away and the ancient patrimony of Tithes abated or subverted by the worldly and covetous practices of them that esteem gaine to be godlinesse The kytes of Satan as this Author tearmeth them have already pulled away many a plume from the Church in severall ages yet thanks be to God there be some feathers left to keep her from shame and nakednesse if the sacrilegious humour of the times prevail not against her And there is the more reason to hope and expect that we may enjoy our portion and tithes quietly because we have so much lesse then the old Priests and Levites received from the people for they had severall tithes and oblations for themselves for the feasts and for the poor wherein they did share in a far greater proportion then is now required by the Clergy of the Gospel The learned Scaliger Selden and many others do prove apparently by instance of particulars that the Israelites did pay out of their increase of corn much more then a tenth even almost a fifth part for severall tithes and duties then commanded to them I will recite Mr Seldens example History ca. 2. § 4. The Husband-mā had growing 6000 Bushels in one year 100 Bushels was the least that could be paid by the husband-man to the Priests for the first-fruits of the threshing floore 5900 Bushels remained to the husband-man out of which he paid two tithes 590 Bushels were the first Tithe paid to the Levites 59 Bushels the Levites paid the Priests which was called the Tithe of the Tithes 5310 Bushels remained to the husband-man out of which he paid his second Tithe 531 Bushels were the second Tithe 4779 Bushels remained to the husband-man as his own all being paid 1121 Bushels are the sum of both Tithes joyned together which is above a sixt part of the whole namely nineteen out of an hundred So that of sixe thousand bushels the Levites had in all 1063. whole to themselves the Priests 159 and the husband-man onely 4779. He yearly thus paid more then a sixt part of his increase besides first-fruits almost a fifth many of no small name grossely skip in reckoning these kindes of their Tithes saith Mr Selden Observe how much faith Chrysostome speaking of the great maintenance of the Levites the Jews gave to their Priests and Levites as tenths first-fruits then tenths again then other tenths and again other thirtieths and the sicle and yet no man said they eat or had too much The Rabbins also reckon 24. gifts to the Priesthood according as they are set down both by Rabbi Bechai and R. Chaskoni on Numb 18. and so Jarchi on Gen. 29. 34. and in Talmud in the Massech Cholin 133. f. 2. pag. in this order i. The twenty four gifts of the Priesthood were given to the Priests twelve at Jerusalem and twelve in the borders the twelve that were given in Jerusalem are these the sin-offering the trespasse-offering the peace-offerings of the Congregation the skins of the holy things the shew-bread the two loaves the omer or sheaf the remainder of the meat-offerings the residue of the log or pinte of oyle for the Leper the oblation of the thanksgiving the oblation of the peace-offering the oblation of the Ramme of the Nazarite And these following are the twelve that were given in the borders the great heave-offering the heave-offering or oblation of the tithe the cake the first-fruits the first of the fleece the shoulder the two cheeks and the maw the first-born of man the first-born of the clean beast the firstling of the Asse the dedications or vows the field of possession the robbery of the stranger Lev. 6. 5. Numb 5. 7 8. These are the 24. gifts that belonged to the Priesthood
Livings unto the King made somethings in the Act to passe unconsidered and no doubt amongst other these appropriate Parsonages which in truth are not named in that Act but carried away in the fluent of generall words wherein though Tithes be inserted yet the word may seeme onely to intend such portions of Tithes as belonged to the Monastery it self as many did and not those belonging unto Appropriations since the Appropriations themselves are not there named But I will excuse the matter no farther then equity for after Religion had gotten some strength the following Act of 31 H. 8. c. 13. gives them expresly to the King by the words Parsonages appropried Vicarages Churches c. yet was all this done in the heat and agony of zeal then privily enflamed on all parts against the Romish religion insomuch as other inconveniences and enormities likewise followed thereon as in Ed. 6. the burning of many notable Manuscript Bookes the spoiling and defacing of many goodly Tombes and Monuments in all parts of the kingdome pulling down of Bels Chancels and in many places of the very Churches themselves Moses for haste broke the Tables of the Law and these inconveniences in such notable transmutations cannot be avoided some corn will goe away with the chaffe and some chaffe will remain in the corn mans wit cannot suddainly or easily sever them Therefore our Saviour Christ fore seeing this consequence delayed the weeding out of the tares from the wheat till the Harvest was come that is the full time of ripenesse and opportunity to doe it Besides light and darknesse cannot be severed in puncto the day will have somewhat of the night and the night somewhat of the day the religion professed brought something with it of the religion abolished and the religion abolished hath somewhat still that is wanting in ours and neither will ever be so severed but each will hold somewhat of the other no rent can divide them by a line When the children of Israel came out of Aegypt they brought much of the Aegyptian infection with them as appeareth in the Scripture and they left of their rites and ceremonies among the Aegyptians as appeareth in Herodotus Therefore as Moses renued the Tables that were broken through haste and time reformed the errors of religiō amongst the Israelites So we doubt not but his Mty our Moses wil still proceed in repairing these breaches of the Church and that time by Gods blessing wil mend these evils of ours I will not take upon me like Zedechias to foretell having not the spirit of prophecy but I am verily perswaded that some are already borne that shall see these Appropriate Parsonages restored to the Church let not any man think they are his because Law hath given them him for Tully himself the greatest Lawyer of his time confesseth that Stultissimum est existimare omnia justa esse quae sita sint in populorum institutis aut legibus Nothing to be more foolish then to think all is just that is contained in the Laws or Statutes of any Nation Experience teacheth us that our own Laws are daily accused of imperfection often amended expounded and repealed Look back into times past and we shall find that many of them have been unprofitable for the Common-wealth many dishonourable to the kingdome some contrary to the Word of God and some very impious and intolerable yet all propounded debated and concluded by Parliament Neither is this evill peculiar to our Country where hath it not reigned Esay found it in his time and proclaimeth against it Wo be unto you that make wicked Statutes and write grievous things So Tully and the Roman Historians cry out that their Laws were often per vim contra auspicia impositae reipublicae by force and against all religion imposed upon the Common-wealth God be thanked we live not in those times yet doe our Laws and all Laws still and will ever in one part or other taste of the cask I mean of the frailty of the makers It is not therefore amisse though happily for me to examine them in this point if the◠be contrary to the Word of God for I think no man will defend them they leave them to be a Law God cannot be confined restrained or concluded by any Parliament let no man therefore as I say think that he hath right to these Parsonages because the Law hath given them him the law of man can give him no more then the law of Nature and God will permit The Law hath given him jus ad rem as to demand it or defend it in action against another man it cannot give him jus in re as to claim it in right against God Canonists Civilians and common Lawyers doe all admit this distinction and agree that jus ad rem est jus imperfectum right to the thing is a lame Title they must have right in it that will have perfect Title The Law doth as much as it can it hath made him rei usufructuarium but it cannot make him rei dominum the very owner of the thing The books of the Law themselves confesse that all Prescriptions Statutes and Customes against the law of Nature or of God be void and against Justice That the King may better hold Impropriations then his Lay Subjects No man by the Common law of the Land can have inheritance of Tithes unlesse he be Ecclesiasticall or have Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction Lord Coke part 5. Rep. fol. 15. and Plowd fol. So that he which hath Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction though he be no Ecclesiasticall person yet by the ancient Law of the Land he may enjoy Tithes and this concurreth not onely with the Canon Law but seemeth also to be warranted by the example of the Provinciall Levites who medled not with the Temple and yet received their portion of Tithes and other Oblations as well as those that ministred in the Temple But it plainly excludeth all such as be meerly Lay from being capable of them let us then see by what better Title the King may hold them As the head cannot give life and motion to the divers members of the body unlesse it hold a correspondency with them in their divers natures and compositions So the King the head of the politique body cannot govern the divers members thereof in their severall constitutions unlesse he participate with them in their severall natures which because they are part Lay and part Ecclesiasticall the jurisdiction therefore whereby he governeth them must of necessity have a correspondent mixture and be also partly Lay and partly Ecclesiasticall to the end that from these divers fountains in the person of his Majesty those divers members in the body of the kingdome may according to their peculiar faculties receive their just and competent government My meaning is not that a Prince cannot in morall matters govern his subjects professed in religion unlesse himself doe participate with them in some portion of
their spirituall vocation for I see that the Apostles themselves were therein subject to the Heathen Princes and gave commandement to all Christians in generall that they likewise should doe the same and thereupon S. Austin saith that in those things that concern this life wee must be subject to them that govern humane things But my meaning is that a temporall Prince cannot properly dispose the matters of the Church if he have not Ecclesiasticall function and ability as well as Temporall for I doubt not but that the government of the Church and of the Common-wealth are not only distinct members in this his Majesties kingdome but distinct bodies also under their peculiar heads united in the person of his Majesty yet without confusion of their faculties or without being subject the one to the other For the King as meerly a temporall Magistrate commandeth nothing in Ecclesiasticall causes neither as the supream Officer of the Church doth he interpose in the temporall government but like the common arch arising from both these pillars he protecteth and combineth them in perpetuall stability governing that of the Church by his Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and that of the Common-wealth by his temporall For this cause as Moses was counted in sacerdotibus Psal. 99. 6. though he were the temporall Governour of the people of Israel so the Laws of the Land have of old armed the King persona mixta medium or rather commune quiddam inter laicos sacerdotes and have thereupon justly assigned to him a politique body composed as well of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as temporall like to that of David Jehosaphat Hezekias and other Kings of Juda who not onely in respect of their Crown led the Armies of the people against their enemies but as anointed with the holy oyle ordered and disposed the very function of the Levites of the Priests and of the Temple as you may read in their severall lives in the books of the Kings and Chronicles But the Kings of England have proceeded yet further in the gradations of Ecclesiasticall profession as thinking it with David more honourable to be a door-keeper in the House of God then to dwell in the tents of the ungodly that is to execute the meanest office in the service of God then those of greatest renowne among the Heathen and Infidels Therefore they have by ancient custome even before the Conquest amongst other the solemnities of their Coronation not only been girt with the regall sword of Justice by the Lay Peers of the Land as the embleme of their temporall authority but anointed also by the Bishops with the oyle of Priesthood as a mark unto us of their Ecclesiasticall profession and jurisdiction And as they have habenam regni put upon them to expresse the one so also have they stolam sacerdotii commonly called vestem dalmaticam as a Leviticall Ephod to expresse the other The reasons of which if we shall seek from the ancient Institutions of the Church it is apparent by the Epistle of Gregory the great unto Aregius Bishop of France that this vestis dalmatica was of that reverence amongst the Clergy of that time that the principall Church-men no not the Bishops themselves might wear it without licence of the Pope And when this Aregius a Bishop of France requested that he and his Archdeacon might use it Gregory took a long advisement upon the matter as a thing of weight and novelty before he granted it unto them But 22. years before the time of Edward the Confessor unto whom those hallowed vestures happily did belong with which his Majesty was at this day consecrated these dalmaticae otherwise called albae stolae were by the Councell Salegunstadiens cap. 2. made common to all Deacons and permitted to them to be worn in great solemnities which the Kings of England also ever since Edward the Confessors time if not before have always been attired with in their Coronations And touching their unction the very books of the Law doe testifie to be done to the end to make them capable of spirituall jurisdiction for it is there said that Reges sacro oleo uncti sunt spiritualis jurisdictionis capaces the Kings being anointed with the holy oyle are now made capable of spirituall jurisdiction This ceremony of unction was not common to all Christian Kings for they being about Hen. 2. time 24. in number onely four of them besides the Emperor were thus anointed namely the Kings of England France Jerusalem and Sicil. The first English King as far as I can find that received this priviledge was Elfred or Alured the glorious son of noble and devout Ethelwolphus King of West-Saxony who about the year of our Lord 860. being sent to Rome was there by Leo 4. anointed and crowned King in the life of his father and happily was the first King of this Land that ever wore a Crown whatsoever our Chroniclers report for of the 24. Kings I speak of it is affirmed in ancient books that only four of them were in those days crowned But after this anointing Alured as if the Spirit of God had therewith come upon him as it did upon David being anointed by Samuel grew so potent and illustrious in all kindes of vertues as well divine as morall that in many ages the world afforded him no equall zealous towards God and his Church devout in prayer profuse in alms always in honourable action prudent in government victorious in wars glorious in peace affecting justice above all things and with a strong hand reducing his barbarous subjects to obedience of Law and to love equity the first learned King of our Saxon Nation the first that planted literature amongst them for himself doth testifie in his Preface to Gregories Pastorall that there were very few on the South-side Humber but he knew not one on the South-side of the Thames that when he began to reign understood the Latine Service or could make an Epistle out of Latine into English c. He fetched learned men from beyond the Seas and compelled the Nobles of his Land to set their sons to school and to apply themselves to learn the Laws and Customes of their Country admitting none to places of Justice without some learning nor sparing any that abused their places for unto such himself looked diligently He divided the Kingdome into Shires Hundreds Wapentakes and them again into Tithings and free Bourghs compelling every person in his Kingdome to be so setled in some of those free Bourghs that if he any way trespassed his fellows of that free Bourgh answered for him The memory of this admirable Prince carrieth me from my purpose but to return to it his successors have ever since been consecrated and thereby made capable of spirituall jurisdiction and have accordingly used the same in all ages and thought by the Pope to be so enabled unto it that Nicholas 2. doubted not to commit the government of all the Churches of England unto
THE LARGER TREATISE CONCERNING TITHES Long since written and promised by Sir Hen Spelman Knight Together with some other Tracts of the same Authour And a Fragment of Sir Francis Bigot Knight all touching the same Subject Whereto is annexed An Answer to a Question of a Gentleman of quality made by a Reverend and Learned Divine living in London concerning the settlement or abolition of Tithes by the Parliament which caused him to doubt how to dispose of his son whom he had designed for the Ministery Wherein also are comprised Some Animadversions upon a late little Pamphlet called The Countries plea against Tithes discovering the ignorant mistakings of the Authours of it touching the maintenance of the Ministery by such means As also upon the Kentish Petition Published by JER STEPHENS B. D. According to the appointment and trust of the Author LONDON Printed by M. F. for Philemon Stephens at the Gilded Lion in Pauls Church-yard 1647. TO THE VVORSHIPFVLL My much Honoured friends John Crew Esquire and Richard Knightley Esquire worthy Patriots of our Country Northampton-Shire I Addresse unto you both these severall Treatises not onely out of duty and obligations to your selves but in regard of your publike good affection to maintain the patrimony of the Church in Tithes which is so fundamentally setled by our Laws that nothing can be more certain by them And the times now growing dangerous to the whole state of the Clergy in this particular your selves having deâ—lâ—red your opinions for Tithes and accordingly been careful to preserve us in our rights I hope this my service will be acceptable to you what farther may be done depends upon Gods providence and the good endeavours of all pious men to afford tâ—â—â—r best assistance Seeing the Parliament hath honourably declared themselves for Tithes both by their Ordinance and the repulse given to some Petitioners against them For mine own part though I expect censure and opposition from many yet as an Ancient said In causa qua Deo placere cupio homines non formido I have therefore in this needfull time at the earnest request of many adventured the rather to discharge the trust reposed in me by the worthy Knight Sir Hen. Sp. who being imployed in greater works committed these to my care trust to be published His charge doth neerly concern me and in conscience I could not longer conceal them from the publique view They have been long in my custody and if the favour of your self M. Crew in a time of danger besides M. Knightleys publique deserts and defence of me since from scandalous people had not prevented they had been utterly lost by the injury of soldiers together with other Manuscripts and Monuments of great consequence against the common adversary Your selves having preserved them and me I could not doe otherwise then return you the thanks and fruit of your own favours and whosoever shall think these worthy the publique view will have the like cause to render you thanks for saving both them and my self being extreamly injured by some that are styled in our ancient Laws Villani Cocseti Perdingi viles inopes personae by whose troubles I am inforced to omit divers additions materiall to this argument which the learned Knight committed to me But lest hereafter they should miscarry by any common danger or neglect of mine I could find no better means to prevent the same then by committing these to the Presse that they may live be extant for the common benefit of Gods cause and Church The piety excellent learning and moderation of the Author in all his expressions will prevail much with those that are truly wise and sober and if your protection shall concur to defend both them and my poor studies I shall hope to give you farther account hereafter in other works of great moment Thus praying God to guide and blesse you in all your pious endeavours I subscribe my self Yours ever obliged JER STEPHENS To the READER THe eminent worth and dignity of this religious Knight needs not to be set forth by the praise or pen of any man his excellent learning piety and wisdome were very well known to the best living in his time and his owne works published in his life together with the great applause conferred on them both at home and in forain parts by learned noble Parsonages and great Princes are testimonies beyond all deniall or exception Among all other his singular deserts and works there is none more illustrious then his piety towards God testified both in his holy course of life and especially by his learned and godly Treatises of the Rights and Respect due to Churches Wherein he hath so accuratly proved what is due to God and to be rendred unto him both for the time of his worship and also for the means and places wherein his worship is to be performed that no true Christian who embraceth the Gospel but must acknowledge willingly his singular deserts and piety His great knowledge in the Common Law of our Kingdome and all other Laws whatsoever divine or humane ancient or modern Civill or Canonicall Multatenens antiqua sepulta vetusta Quae faciunt mores veteresque novosque tenentem renders him singularly judicious above many other and able to deliver the truth when he descends to speak of humane laws and authorities after he had first founded and setled his opinion upon the divine Law of God Yet notwithstanding his piety learning and moderation in all his expressions there wanted not a perverse spirit to oppose and scribble something against him whereof hee tooke notice and added a censure in his learned work the Glossary and also among other his papers of this argument he hath left a sufficient apology and justification of his former Treatise which is here published for satisfaction to all that be truly pious and well-affected sons of the Church of England For his larger work of Tithes which he prepared long agoe it is also here added though in some few places imperfect and might have been better polished by his own hand if he had engaged himself upon it and desisted from his greater works so much desired by many eminently learned both at home and abroad yet rather then suffer the losse of such a testimony of his piety to God and good affection to uphold the setled maintenance of Gods House and Ministers to whom double honour is due as the Apostle saith it is thought fit to publish it as he left it imperfect in some passages and defective of such ornaments and arguments as he could have added further out of his store and abundance though what he hath here delivered is so compleat as doth fully discover the ability of his judgement and that these reasons and illustrations produced by him could hardly have proceeded from any other Author being agreeable to his expressions style and arguments delivered in his other writings And at this instant it seems very necessary in regard the humour
partake with the people in times of plenty or suffer with them in extremities whereas by a certain stipend in mony they would be far lesse sensible Also the change and alteration of the fundamentall Laws of this Kingdome touching tithes glebe oblations and other means which have continued in force above a thousand years and setled by the Common Law will produce many mischiefs especially to the Crown in payment of tenths and first-fruits subsidies pensions and other taxes which amount yearly unto many thousand pounds to the Exchequer all which must be abated and lost to the Crown for no reason they should be paid when the means and maintenance shall be taken away out of which they arise Besides the impossibility to provide a sure and setled means in every Parish to pay a certain stipend in money quarterly to the Minister there can be no caution provision or security given or established for payment of money for wee see by daily experience that all bonds conveyances and securities doe fail often whatsoever the devise bee for secure payment No way is comparable to Gods own way of giving yearly the tenth part in kinde of every increasing commedity and all lawfull profits as they arise and grow due at severall seasons of the year As for stipends and pensions because they have been lately invented in some forain Churches in times of war great troubles and distractions I will mention only one mischief which is already published in print and that is that the best learned are oftentimes neglected and put to hard shifts as in the Low-Countries John Drusius lately a very painfull and learned man well known for his singular works He complains in an Epistle to Joseph Scaliger before his Commentary on the Maccabees that hee was in want of things necessary and elsewhere prayeth unto God to stir up the hearts of the great ones to help him May heaven and earth take notice saith one thereof how miserable the condition of the learned is when tithes the fixed honourary of the Priesthood by divine right are usurped by the Laicks and reward is measured not by true worth or by the measure of the Sanctuary which was full running over and double to the common and prophane measures but by the ignorant estimate of niggardly Mechanicks and their underagents Many more such complaints might be easily alledged out of Luther Melancthon Calvin and others which I will now forbear one great reason being that their Churches for most part are still under great persecution miserable wars pitifully wasted being never almost quietly composed nor setled by Kings and Parliaments as ours hath been for the Emperour and many great Kings and Princes continue Papists and great adversaries to Reformation whereby Germany France and Poland have most sharply suffered and lost many thousand Churches and Ministers since the the blazing Comet 1618. the people being relapsed and inforced to Popery for want of Ministers which makes the reverend and learned Deodatus Professor at Geneva magnifie the Church of England as the most eminent of all the reformed Churches in Christendome styling it Florentissima Anglia Ocellus ille Ecclesiarum peculium Christi singulare perfugium afflictorum imbellium Armamentarium inopum promptuarium spei melioris vexillum splendidae Domini caulae and much more he addeth speaking of our condition before these troubles If any demand what success the labours of this worthy Knight found among the Gentlemen of Norfolk and other places where he lived long in very great esteem and publiquely imployed always by his Prince and Countrey in all the principall offices of dignity and credit it is very observable to alledge some particular testimonies worthy to be recorded to posterity and with all honour to their names who were perswaded presently upon the reading of his first little Treatise and perhaps upon sight of the larger worke now published more the like good effects may follow to restore and render back unto God what was due to him And first the worthy Knight practised according to his own rule for having an Impropriation in his estate viz. Middleton in Norfolk he took a course to dispose of it for the augmentation of the Vicarage and also some addition to Congham a small Living neer to it Himself never put up any part of the rent but disposed of it by the assistance of a reverend Divine his neighbour M. Thorowgood to whom he gave power to augment the Vicars portion which hath been performed carefully and having a surplusage in his hands he waits an opportunity to purchase the Appropriation of Congham to be added to the Minister there where himself is Lord and Patron Next Sr Ralph Hare Knight his ancient and worthy friend in that Country upon reading of the first Book offered to restore a good Parsonage which onely he had in his estate performing it presently and procuring licence from the King and also gave the perpetuall Advowson to Saint Johns Colledge in Cambridge that his heirs might not afterwards revoke his grant wherein he was a treble benefactor to the Church and the Colledge hath deservedly honoured his memory with a Monument of thankfulnesse in their Library and also wrote a respective letter of acknowledgement to this excellent Knight to whom they knew some part of the thanks to be due for his pious advice and direction Sir Roger Townsend a religious very learned Knight of great estate in that County restored three Impropriations to the Church besides many singular expressions of great respect to the Clergy having had a great part of his education together with Sâ— John Spelman a Gentleman of incomparable worth eldest son to S Henry and by his directions both attained great perfection and abilities The like I have understood of others in that Country but cannot certainly relate their names all particulars at this present that Shire abounding with eminent Gentlemen of singular deserts piety and learning besides other ornaments as Cambden observeth of them In other parts divers have been moved with his reasons to make like restitution whereof I will mention some as Sir William Dodington Knight of Hampshire a very religious Gentleman restored no lesse then six Impropriations out of his own estate to the full value of six hundred pounds yearly and more Richard Knightley of Northamptonshire lately deceased restored two Impropriations Fansley and Preston being a Gentleman much addicted to works of piety charity and advancement of learning and shewing great respect to the Clergy The right honourable Baptist Lord Hicks Viscount Campden besides many charitable works of great expence to Hospitals and Churches as I find printed in a Catalogue of them in the Survay of London restored and purchased many Impropriations 1. He restored one in Pembrokeshire which cost 460l. 2. One in Northumberland which cost 760l. 3. One in Durham which cost 366l. 4. Another in Dorsetshire which cost 760l. He redeemed certain Chantry lands which cost 240l. And gave pensions to two Ministers which
mightily encreased in Davids time as that there were 38. thousand Levites besides the Priests 1 Chron. 23. 3. Magnus sanè numerus pro isto populo ut facilè intelligas multos ornatui magis serviisse quà m necessitati as Grotius there saith Therefore God employed them for many uses more then to attend at the Temple some were designed for other employments in the Common-wealth and they applied other studies as being the chief men for nobility and dignity and also for learning and knowledge in that Common-wealth Cum pingue haberent otium non tantum omnia legis sed medicinae aliarumque artium diligentes ediscebant ut Aegyptii sâ—â—erdotes ideoque primis seculis ex illis ut eruditioribus Senatus 70. virûm legi maxime solebat Grotius in Deut. 17. There was no other Academy or School then in the whole world but at the Temple among them where the knowledge of Gods law or learning in any kinde could bee gained The administration of law and justice throughout the kingdome depended on them principally for God made his covenant with Levi of life and peace The law of truth was in his mouth The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth Mal. 2. 5 6 7. and so Ezek. 44. 23. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and prophane and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean and in controversie they shall stand in judgment they shal judg according to my judgements and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies they being the principall Judges and Lawyers in that Common-wealth of Gods own constitution And whereas it is now granted on all hands than there was 3. Courts of Justice in that kingdome 1. the great Councel of 70. Elders 2. the Court of Judgement consisting of 23. 3. the Court of three or some few more the Priests and Levites were principall men both Judges and Officers in all Courts Scophtim Schoterim as 1 Chron. 23. 4. both to give sentence and judgement and also to execute the same so the Divines doe affirm also in their late Annotations upon 1 Chron. 26. 29 30. and 2 Chron. 19. 8. 11. They did study the Judiciall and Politique laws and had power to see the law of God and injunctions of the King to be observed and to order divine and humane affairs And they held also other honourable offices for we read that Zechariah a Levite was a wise Counsellor And Benaiah a Priest son of Jehoiada was one of Davids twelve Captains being the third Captain of the Host for the third month and in his course consisting of 2400. was his son Amizabad Benaiah was also one of Davids principal Worthies having the name among the three Mighties He was also Captain of the guard to David and after the death of Joab hee was made Lord Generall of the Host by King Solomon in Joabs room 1 Kings 2. 35. And because some have doubted whether they were imployed in the administration of justice it is more clearly of late evinced then formerly hath been for besides Sigonius Bertram Casaubon Moulin and divers others the learned Hugo Grotius in his Annotations upon Matthew cap. 5. 21. hath very accurately proved it out of the Text Josephus Philo and other monuments of the Jews whose testimonies at large I cannot now recite that there was no distinction nor division of the Courts of Justice the one Ecclesiasticall the other Civill but the Courts were united and the Priests and Levites the principall Judges and officers in every Court to whom the people were to be obedient upon pain of death Deut. 17. 12. they being appointed to hear every cause between bloud and bloud between plea and plea and between stroke and stroke being matters of controversie within thy gates and as our Lawyers call them Pleas of the Crown and Common pleas or whatsoever else did arise among them The Provinciall Levites were especially appointed to the Courts of Justice and also the Templar Levites when they had performed their courses and went home to their own houses being but one week in half a year were at very good leisure to assist the people in every Tribe where their Cities were allotted to them in governing ruling and directing in all matters pertaining to God and the King 1 Chron. 26. 30. 32. for which purpose God did scatter them in every Tribe and turned the curse of Jacob into a singular blessing to be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel appointing 1700. to be on the west-side Jordan and 2700. on the East-side The ancient frame of our Common-wealth for 500. years before the Conquest was thus disposed and governed as this learned Authour sheweth fully in his Glossary and Councels and happy had it been if things had so continued still but now the law being otherwise setled and the Courts divided it is not safe or easie to make alteration Comes praesidebat foro Comitatus non solus sed adjunctus Episcopo hic ut jus divinum ille ut humanum diceret alterque alteri auxilio esset consilio praesertim Episcopus Comiti nam in hunc illi animadvertere saepe licuit errantem cohibere idem igitur utrique territorium jurisdictionis terminus Glossar Spelman The Bishop and Earl of the County were joynt Magistrates in every Shire and did assist each other in all causes and Courts and so Mr Selden in his History cap. 14. § 1. By this means there was great union and harmony between all Judges and Officers whereas there is now great contention for jurisdiction and intolerable clashing in all Courts by injunctions prohibitions consultations and crosse orders to the great vexation of the clients and subjects The division of Courts seems to have proceeded first from Pope Nicholas 1. as is mentioned in Gratian Can. cum ad verum 96. dist about 200. years before the Conquest which was imitated here by William the Conquerour whose statute is recited and illustrated by Spelman in his Glossary and Councels and lately also published by Lord Cook lib. 4. Institutes cap. 52. But the further proof hereof will require more then this place or occasion will bear onely thus much was necessary to be mentioned and asserted in regard of explication and reference to many passages in this book and also other parts of his works which perhaps are not obvious or well observed by every common Reader Vide Glossar Domini Spelman in diatribis de Comite de Gemottis de Hundredo c. Concilia passim CAP. VIII The great account made of Priests in the old Law and before PRiesthood is of 3. sorts 1. That before the Law 2. That of the Law 3. This of the Gospel The first belonged to the Gentiles the second to them of the Circumcision the third to us under grace The third came in lieu of the second and the second rise out
quae vivit c. because all things whereby he liveth are Gods whether it be the Earth or Rivers or Seas or all the things that are under or above the heavens Abraham and Jacob paid tithes and therein bound all whosoever bee of their posterity to doe it Even Levi himself who after received tithes of his brethren was bound thereby and paid them in the loins of Abraham as it is said in the 7. Heb. 400. years before he was born and we also as Abrahams children For if the Levites themselves that as the mean Lord to use the Lawyers tearm received tithes of their brethren were not freed from paying them over to the Lord Paramount God Almighty how much more are all wee bound of what sort and condition soever to pay them likewise But some happily will ask if the Levites paid tithes yea they did pay the tenth part of their living to God as well as their brethren as before wee have touched it in speaking of the heave-offering and as it is manifest in the 18. of Numbers v. 26. Speak unto the Levites saith God to Moses and say unto them when ye shall take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you of them for your inheritance then shall you take elevationem an heave-offering of the same for the Lord even the tenth part of the tithe which in the next verse save one they are commanded to deliver to Aaron Gods generall Vicar in spirituall function And in the 10. of Nehem. it is further said The Priest the sonne of Aaron shall bee with the Levites when the Levites take tithes and the Levites shall bring up the tenth part of the tithes unto the house of our God unto the chambers of the treasure house So then the Levites themselves paid tithes and by their example the Clergy of our time must doe it likewise but the question will be then to whom First let us see what became of these tithes Paramount thus laid up in the treasury We must understand that the Treasury of the Temple was not particularly for that purpose but for the guests and offerings also whatsoever dedicated and given to God and I find that of this Treasury there were 3. sorts Mesack where the munificent gifts of Kings and Princes were laid up Corban where those of the Priests and Gazophylacium whereinto the people and all passengers brought their offerings and into which the poor widow as it seemeth cast her two mites I find not any particular limitation of these Treasuries but the common end of them all was to be employed upon things necessary for the house and service of God and for relief of the poor and of orphans widows and strangers Josephus expoundeth Corban for the very gift it self offered by them that dedicated themselves to God as the Nazaraei and sheweth that the Priests disposed it to the needy And to these ends must our Clergy give and pay over their owne Tithes unto God first in repairing and maintaining the house and service of God as 2 Kings 12. 4. then in alms and charitable devotion to the poor for the poor are Gods Publicans and by him appointed to gather and collect this rent or custome due to him and to carry it into his Treasury of heaven as the Porters thereof there to be laid up for our use and benefit in the world to come Decimā Deo in pauperibus vel in ecclesiis donet saith S. Augustine Let him give it to God either in bestowing it upon the poor or in the Churches Though Christ be ascended into heaven in his person he is still upon earth by his Proctors and Substitutes the poor and needy and therefore a Father Jerome I take it answereth Mary when she complained that they had taken away the Lord Oh saith he but they have not taken away his servants meaning the poor and needy on whom shee might abundantly expresse her charity As the Law of God enjoyned the Levite to pay tithe to the high Priest so also the old Law of the Land bindeth our Bishops themselves to pay Tithes yea the King himself I command my Sheriffes saith Ethelstane through my Kingdome in the name of the Lord and of all the Saints and upon my love that they presently pay my own Tithes to the uttermost both of living things and of the fruits of the earth and that the Bishops doe the same of their own goods and also my Aldermen and Sheriffes Tom. 1. Concil Britan. pag. 402. And the very glebe Land of the Parson himself if it be letten to another must pay tithe as was adjudged in the Kings Bench this Term Sancti Hillarii Quaere CAP. XVI Out of what things Tithe is to be paid IT is recorded in Genesis that Abraham before his name was changed Gave him tithe of all And Jacob in the 28. ca. saith Of all that thou shalt give me will I give the tenth unto thee In the 27. Lev. All the tithe of the Land of the seed of the ground the fruits of the trees is the Lords it◠is holy unto the Lord and in the 14. Deut. 22. Thou shalt give the tithe of all the encrease of thy seed that cometh forth of thy field year by year that we should bring the tithes of our Land unto the Levites that the Levites might have the tithes in all the Cities of our travell or labour So in the 2 Chro. 31. 5 they brought the tithes of all things abundantly v. 6. they brought the tithes of bullocks and sheep and the holy tithes which were consecrated unto the Lord their God i. by a vow In these general precepts there needeth no particular enumeratiō of what should be paid they run upō the word All without exceptiō all whatsoever the ground yeeldeth either by industry or naturally corn wine oyl the fruits increase of every thing whether living or vegelative And more then so for even those things that are gotten by labour and travell for therein we have our part of his mercy and blessing as well as in his other gifts bounty And the words in Nehe. in all the Cities seem to extend to the handy-crafts-men for Citizens commonly occupy not fields or husbandry which is rather proper unto the Villages Country people So that if Citizens should not yeeld the tithe of their travel most of them should yeeld nothing at al and no man must appear before the Lord empty Exod. 23. 15. for he hath shewed mercy upon all and he will have some acknowledgement from all This upholdeth the custome of many places of England where the very servants pay a tithe out of their wages some deduction being made for apparell and by like reason I think that those that have Annuities and fees as Officers and such like ought to yeeld a tithe thereof for out of those the King hath his Subsidies and tenths and by like yea better reason should God
of our English Councels wherein not onely these Laws mentioned are recited but also many other Laws and Constitutions concerning Tithes by other Kings and Parliaments of that age It would have been an easie matter to have inserted them at large here being there set down in order of time successively but because I am unwilling to add any thing or alter in the text of his discourse and that the Tome of the Councels is obvious to every mans perusall I will onely adde some brief references to them as also to M. Selden in the eight chap. of his History who hath recited them all and some more then are here mentioned From both these learned Lawyers the studious Reader may be abundantly satisfied especially when the second Tome of the Synods shall be extant there will be full testimony of our own Laws to confirm this truth for 500. years after the Conquest as these are for 500. years before it When Gregory the great sent Augustine about the year 600. Chr. assisted with 40. Preachers to publish the Gospel to our forefathers in England it is testified by the Laws of Edward the Confessor among other things that he preached and commanded Tithes to be paid Haec beatus Augustinus praedicavit docuit haec concessa sunt à Rege Baronibus populo sed postea instinctu diaboli multi eam detinuerunt c. and all this was confirmed by the King and his Barons and the people Tom. 1. Concil Brit. pag. 619. § 8 9. Egbert Archbishop of York brother to Eadbert King of Northumberland published Canons about the yeare 750. which did binde all the Northern parts and Scotland in those days wherein he directeth all Ministers to instruct their people when and how to pay their Tithes Tom. 1. Con. pa. 258. Can. 5 c. About the year 786. in the time of Offa a great King of Mercia and Helfwood King of Northumberland and the two Archbishops there was a great Councell held by two Legates from Hadrian the first wherein Tithes were established and it was likewise confirmed in the South part by the King of West-Saxony And as M. Selden saith it is a most observable Law being made with great solemnity of both powers of both States History cap. 8. pag. 201. Tom. 1. Con. pag. 291. Can. 17. In the year 855. King Ethelwolph by the consent of all his Baronage and Bishops granted the perpetuall right of Tithes to the Church throughout his whole kingdome and that free from all taxes and exactions used then in the State and this statute is very remarkable and was confirmed by other Kings Brorredus and Edmundus of East-Angles Tom. 1. Con. pag. 384. For the Northern Clergy there was a Law made to punish the non-payment of Tithes Tom. 1. Con. pag. 501. In a great Parliament at Earham Anno 1009. by all the States assembled under King Ethelred Tithes are commanded and confirmed Tom. 1. Con. pag. 510 c. Maccabeus an ancient King of Scotland confirmeth Tithes in his Laws Con. pag. 571. Anno 1050. In the Canons of Aelfric Tithes are confirmed Anno 1052. Con. pag. 572. These and many other Constitutions and Laws are particularly and more fully recited in the first Tome of our Councels and in Mr Seldens History cap. 8. from whence the Reader may please to take satisfaction for the space of some 500. years before the Conquest William the Conquerour in the fourth year of his reign when he took a view of all the ancient Laws of the Land he first confirmed the liberties of the Church because that by it saith Hoveden the King and the kingdome have their solid foundation pag. 601. and herein amongst other Laws of King Edward these particularly touching Tithes which Hen. 1. also did Anno 1100. as appeareth by Mat. Par. pa. 53. The like did also Hen. 2. in the 26. year of his reign as Hoveden witnesseth pa. 600. And for a perclose of all that went before or should follow after King Hen. 3. in the ninth year of his reign by that sacred Charter made in the name of himself and his heirs for ever granted all this a new unto God We have granted saith he unto God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and for our heirs for evermore that the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her holy rights inviolable Magna Charta cap. 1. And that this Charter might be immortall and like the sanctified things of the Temple for ever inviolable it was not onely fortified by the Kings Seal the sacred Anchor of the kingdome but by his solemn oath and the oath of his sonne and the Nobility of the kingdome Yea the whole kingdome yeelded themselves to stand accursed if they should at any time after impeach this grant And therefore in the 25 Ed. 1. a speciall Statute was made for confirmation of this Charter wherein amongst other things it is ordained that the Bishops shall excommunicate the breakers thereof and the very form of the sentence is there prescribed according to which upon the 13. Maii Anno 1304. Ed. 1. 31. Boniface the Archbishop of Canterbury and five other Bishops solemnly denounced this curse in Westminster Hall the King himself with a great part of the Nobility being present First against all them that should wittingly and maliciously deprive or spoil Churches of their rights Secondly against those that by any art or devise infringed the liberties of the Church or Kingdome granted by Magna Charta de Foresta Thirdly against all those that should make new Statutes against the Articles of these Charters or should keep them being made or bring in or keep other customes and against the writers of those Statutes Counsellors and Executioners thereof that should presume to give judgement according to them And lest this should seem a passion of some particular men for the present time rather then a perpetuall resolution of the whole kingdome in the succeeding ages the zeal and care thereof was continually propagated from posterity to posterity So that in 42 Ed. 3. cap. 1. it was further enacted that if any Statute were made contrary to Magna Charta it should be void And 15. times is this Charter confirmed by Parliament in Ed. 3. time eight times in Rich. 2. reign and six times in Hen. 4. Yea the frontispice of every Parliament almost is a confirmation of the rights and priviledges of the Church as having learned of the very Heathen Poet who had it from the law of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we begin ever with God Neither was there any man found that ever would or durst with Nero lay hands upon his Mother the Church for he that smiteth his father or mother shall die the death Exod. 20. 15. Heu tot sancitas per plurima secula leges Hauserit una dies hora una et perfidus error My meaning is not to strain these Laws to the maintenance of such superstitious
Edward the Confessor as by and by we shall more largely declare And the Kings of France being so likewise consecrated ever since the time of Clodoveus alià s Ludovicus whom Saint Remigius Bishop of Rheimes both baptized and anointed about the year of our Lord 500. have from time to time in all ancient ages exercised the like Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction insomuch that Clodoveus himself being but newly entred into iâ— doubted not to appoint a Councell at Orleans and to call thither the Bishops and Clergy of France but out of the motion of Priestly minde to use the very words of the Councell coÌ„manded the Priests meaning the Bishops to assemble there for debating necessary matters which in his own consideration he had advised upon and delivered to them in heads and titles and they having answered thereunto and framed the Canons of that Councell accordingly did submit them to his judgement and desiring if it approved them himself for greater authority would confirm them Tom. 2. Concil pag. 309 in rescripto Synodi The Kings of Jerusalem and Sicil were also anointed and endowed with Ecclesiasticall authority whereof we shall speak more anon for the right of both these Kingdomes resideth at this present upon the Kings of Spain who till the same came unto them were neither anointed nor crowned and though since that time they have been dignified with both these Prerogatives yet are they not so illustrious in them as in the Kings of England and France for that these are ancient Kingdomes raised by their own power and prowesse and those other of lesse continuance erected by the Pope and not absolute but Feodaries of his Sea And touching that of France also the meer right thereof resteâ—h upon his Majesty of England though de facto another for the time possesseth it So that in this point of unction our Soveraign the King of England is amongst the rest of the Kings of Christendome at this day Peerlesse and transcendent and well therefore might William Rufus say that himself had all the liberties in his Kingdome which the Emperour challenged in his Empire Mat. Paris But I wonder why the Papists should so confidently deny the Kings of England to be capable of spirituall jurisdiction when Pope Nicholas 2. of whom wee spake before in an Epistle to King Edward the Confessor hath upon the matter agreed that it may be so for amongst other priviledges that he there bestoweth upon the Church of Saint Peter of Westminster then newly founded by that vertuous King He granteth and absolutely confirmeth that it shall for ever be a place of Regall Constitution and Consecration and a perpetuall habitation of Monkes that shall be subject to no living creature but the King himself free from Episcopall service and authority and where no Bishop shall enter to give any orders c. Tom. Concil part 3. pa. 1129. a. In which words I note first that the Kings of England in those ancient days being before their Coronation meerly Lay persons were by their consecration made candidati Ecclesiasticae potestatis and admitted to the administration thereof for to what other purpose was Consecration ordained but to make secular things to belong unto the Temple and Lay persons to become sacred and Ecclesiasticall like Jacobs stone in the time of the Morall Law which presently upon the anointing thereof became appropriate to the House of God Secondly he plainly maketh the King head of this Monastery that is of the place it self and of all the persons and members therof which then by consequence he might likewise be of all other Ecclesiasticall persons and places through the whole Kingdome And even that also he granteth in a sort in the end of his Epistle Vobis posteris vestris regibus committimus advocationem tuitionem ejusdem loci omnium totius Angliae Ecclesiarum ut vice nostra cum concilio Episcoporum Abbatum constituatis ubique quae justa sunt So that if the Kings of England be pleased to execute this Ecclesiasticall authority as the Popes Vicar then by this his Charter they are invested therewith and peradventure the Clergy of Rome can never revoke it being granted posteris regibus and the Epistles of the Popes being as Barclayus saith of Nich. 1. to Michael the Emperour as an Ecclesiasticall Law Lib. de potest Papae ca. 2. pag. 13. But in the mean time it is hereby evident which I endeavour to prove that the Kings of England are justly capable of spirituall jurisdiction by the Popes own confession for which purpose onely I here alledge it And to give more life to the matter it appeareth by Baronius that Pope Vrbane the granted not onely as much in the Kingdome of Sicil to the King of Spain being the anointed King thereof but added also to that his Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction divers branches of spirituall power belonging meerly to the keys and not to the sword that is to the very function of a Bishop as namely that of Excommunication All which though Baronius impugneth mainly to be of no validity because that all things are void he saith that the Church doth against her self yet the King of Spain both holdeth and exerciseth this function and jurisdiction onely by the connivency of the Pope but defended therein by Cardinall Ascanius Colonna against Baronius But to leave forain examples and to goe on with our domesticall precedents It is manifest by other ancient Authorities Charters and Manuscripts that the Pope thereby granted no more to King Edward and his successors then the same King and his Predecessors before assumed to themselves For this Epistle could not be written to S. Edward before the end of his reign Nicholas not being Pope till then and in the Laws of the same King before that time published himself doth plainly declare himself to be Vicarius suâ—d â—i Regis not summi pontificis yea and that in the government of the Church For the words of his own Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 17. be these The King because he is the Vicar of the highest King is appointed to this purpose that he should rule his earthly Kingdome and the Lords people and should above all things worship his holy Church and govern it and defend it against them that would wrong it and to pull the evill doers out of it c. So that write the Pope what he will S. Edward here taketh upon him to have the rule and government of the Church of England committed to him from God and not from the Pope and to be Gods Vicar not the Popes wherein he imitated his predecessors for King Edgar speaking of the government of the Church saith in plain tearms that it belonged to himself ad nos saith he spectat And because Casaubon in citing this place out of the Manuscript is charged by Parsons to falsifie it and that it is or should be on the contrary ad vos spectat scil Ecclesiasticos give me leave to defend that worthy man
want it in the chiefest of all that is in our habitations Againe he commandeth that they should be Hospitales Goodhouskeepers how should they be so if they have no houses to keep John Baptist lived in the wildernesse it is true and he was commended for it Christ did not so though he frequented the fields yet in that he gave no Commandement that his disciples should follow him for he appointed them to remaine in other mens houses What that they should goe sojourne where they listed The Commandement hath nothing to the contrary but the meaning is thereby apparent they must have habitations provided for them or else shake off the dust of your feet against them Mat. 10. 14. as much as to say let them be accursed So then our Saviour hath not repealed the Law of providing for the Levites unto his Ministers He could not give them Cities to possesse for his kingdome was not of this world But he appointed them to such places as themselves should choose among the children of the Gospell Doeth this differ from the Commandement of providing Cities for the Levites Doubtles no for as the Logitians say Conveniunt in eodemtertio They agree in this that the Ministers must have habitations provided for them as well in the Gospell as the Levites had under the Law Oh but they must have no inheritance among their brethren for the Lord is their portion Numb 18. 24. It is true the Lord hath communicated with them his owne portion viz. his tithes and his offerings as he did with the Levites therefore as the Levites had no share in the division of the Land so our Ministers must have no share with us in tilling the Land matters of husbandry for they are called from secular cares to spirituall contemplation but after the Israelites had their shares in the Land they yeelded portions to the Levites for their convenient residence and so must wee for our Ministers And so still the conclusion is they must be provided for Which to shut up the matter is invincibly ratified by our Saviour himselfe who in sending forth his disciples would not suffer them to take the least implements of sustenance with them because he would put them absolutely upon the care and charge of the congregation alledging a Maxime of the morall Law for warranty thereof that the labourer is worthy of his hire Mat. 10. 10. And therefore into whose house soever yow enter stay there Mat. 10. 11. CAP. V. What part in reason and by direction of Nature might seeme fittest for God It being agreed that some part by the Law of Nature is due unto God out of all the time of our life and the goods that we possesse it is now to be examined how far this Law of nature or reason may lead us to the discovery of that part or portion For which purpose we must for a while lay aside Canonicall Divinity I mean the Scriptures and suppose our selves to live in the ages before the Law was given that is in the time of nature And then let us propose this question to the Sages of that world and see what answer we are like to receive from them And first touching this question What portion of our time or goods were sittest for God It is like they would have considered the matter in this manner That God hath not any need either of our time or goods and that therefore he requireth them not in tanto that is to have so much and no lesse But on our parts it is our duty to yeeld unto him as much in quanto as we can conveniently for beare over and besides our necessary maintenance So that as Bracton saith of Hyde that tenants are to yeeld unto their Lords it must be honorarium Domino and not grave tenenti so much as the Lord may be honoured by it and the tenant not oppressed wherein if a second third or fourth part be too much so a twentieth or thirtieth seem also too little As God therefore desireth but an honourary part not a pressory so reason should direct us to give him that part wherein his own nature with the respects aforesaid is most properly expressed for the maxime or axiome which our Saviour alledged Date Deo quae Dei sunt give unto God the things that are Gods is grounded on the Morall law originally and therefore examining among numbers which of them are most proper and resembling the nature of God we shall finde that seven and ten above all other perform this mystery and that therefore they are most especially to be chosen thereunto therefore God in the Creation of the world following the light of nature chused the seventh part of the age thereof as Philo Judaeus in his Book De fabricatione mundi pag. 36. hath with singular and profound observations declared And because it may be demanded hereupon why he should not by the same reason have the seventh part of our goods also I answer that as touching the time of our life he giveth that unto us of his own bounty meerly without any industry on our part so that whether we sleep or wake labour or play the allowance thereof that he maketh unto us runneth on of its own accord and therefore we owe him the greater retribution out thereof as having it without labour or charge But as for the fruits of the earth we have them partly by our own labour though chiefly by his bounty and therefore he therein requireth his part as it were with deduction or allowance of our charges seeking another number be fitting the same The first place in Scripture wherein a Priest is mentioned is Gen. 14. 18. where Melchisedek is said to be the Priest of the most high God there also are tithes spoken of and paid unto him v. 20. Abraham gave him tithes of all The first place also where an House of God or Church is spoken of is Gen. 28. 18 22. there also are tithes mentioned and vowed unto God even by that very name whereby Parish Churches upon their first Institution in the Primitive Church were also styled that is by the name of Tituli Gen. 28. 22. Lapis iste quem posui in titulum erit Domus Dei omne quod dederis mihi decimas prorsus dabo tibi wherein it seemeth the Primitive Church at that time followed the translation then in use for Damasus in the life of Euaristus Bishop of Rome Anno 112. saith Hic titulos in urbe Roma divisit Presbyteris Tom. Concil 1. pag. 106. And speaking after of Dionysius who lived Anno 260. he saith Presbyteris Ecclesias divisit coemeteria Parochiasque Dioeceses constituit Tom. Concil 1. pag. 206. Thus Church and Tithe went together in their first Institution If there be no mention after of Tithes in the Scripture till the time of Moses that is no reason to exclude them for so also is there not of any House of God or Priest yet no man
it As soon as Christ was born the wise men that came afar off out of the East brought offerings unto him as directed onely by the law of nature for they were Gentiles and none used to visit the Temple of God but with some presents not that God is delighted with such things but that their affections by the fruits of their devotion were made manifest the Church and service of God maintained and those that were in need and necessity orphanes widows strangers and the poor people provided for and relieved for these are Gods care and are to him as the dearest kinde of his children and though younger brothers as touching the worldly inheritance yet those on whom he thinketh the fat Calf well bestowed Donum saith Lactantius est integritas animi the gifts we give unto God are a testimony of our frank and open heart towards him An offering of a free heart saith David will I give unto thee out of his abundance we have received all things and out of ours let us render some CAP. XXIII Tithes in the time of Nature first considered in the time of Paradise I Would not be so curious as to seek the institution of tithes in Paradise yet no man will deny but that Paradise was a modell of the Church and that God had his honourary rights in all the three kindes he now requireth them at our hands namely ◠portion of time place and of the fruits of the fruits as the tree of knowledge of the place as the midst of the Garden the time as the cool of the day which fignifieth the time of rest and so the Lords day as more particularly wee shall shew by and by Touching the fruit it was the portion that God reserved from Adam when he gave him all the rest and that portion also that justly and properly belongeth to God knowledge And therefore this part particularly was assigned by God unto his Priests as the sacred keepers of this his sacred Treasure and therefore no other man might invade this his right and inheritance Knowledge saith Malachi belongeth to the Priest Touching place what should be assigned to the chiefest but the chiefest and what is the best and chiefest but the midst for medium and therefore the place here where Gods portion is assigned him is the midst of the Garden and therefore into this place doth Adam flye as into Sanctuary and to the horns of the Altar when he had offended for it is said that Adam hid himself in the midst of the Garden So Calvin which is the trees in the midst of the Garden And touching the time it is by all expositors upon the matter applied to the time of rest for either they expound the cool of the day to be the evening as Oncalus or the morning as Calvin and take it in either of these senses it may aptly discover the Judaicall Sabbath in the first sense or the Christians Sabbath in the latter And as these are the times when we are to make our publick reckonings confessions and prayers unto God and thereupon to receive sentence of curse or absolution so at this time presently God calleth Adam and Eve and the Serpent that is the whole congregation of Paradise to a publique reckoning confession and account and like the great Ordinary and Bishop of his Church denounceth against them the curse that their sins had demerited If occasion required I could shew many other particulars wherein Paradise exemplified the very Church of Christ. Again these rights of honour are likewise prefigured unto us in other examples under the age of Nature the time I mean before the floud for we have therein three great examples of all these his three rights First in the creation of the earth he reserved a particular place for himself as the place of his own resort and pleasure Paradise which was the very locall place of his Church and therefore out thereof he threw man being accursed as a prophane and excommunicate person And as touching his portion of time he figuratively shewed the seventh part of our age to belong unto him as in respect of his Sabbath when he took Enoch being the seventh from Adam to keep his perpetuall Sabbath And so likewise all the fruits of the tenth age which was that of Noah for he was the tenth from Adam he took wholly to himself making the evill parts as a sacrifice of his wrath to honour him by their destruction and the better parts which were saved in the Ark of his Church to glorifie his name by their preservation so that in this time of nature the full tenth of all things was paid unto God as a propitiatory sacrifice for of the ten ages from Adam hee had the fruits of one whole age which is all one as if he had had the tenth part of every particular thing as it grew due in every particular age and so the Church expoundeth in that Canon of the Councell of 〈◊〉 where it is commanded that the CAP. XXIV The time of Nature after the fall LEt us take a view of the state of Religion before the Law and from thence unto the calling of the Levites to the service of the Tabernacle The time before the Law was the kingdome of sin and of death having no means propounded whereby to escape but what the light and law of nature taught unto men who finding themselves fallen from the favour devised by invocation and beating of the heavens with continuall odours and savours to seek for mercy at Gods hand and by sacrificing of bullocks and brute beasts to ransome themselves as far as they might from his heavy displeasure Therefore in those times though every man might offer oblations and sacrifices that would yet because the order thereof might bee the more certain and reverent both the children of God and the Heathen also ordained to themselves particular persons of greatest worth wisdome and sanctity which they called their Priests to take care of these things to see them performed in such manner as might make them most acceptable to God Hereby grew the reputation of Priesthood to be above all dignities that in those days the Kings themselves in all Nations affected it as the greatest and immediate honour under God himself Yet because necessity required so great a number of Priests for the service of God as there could not be had Kings enough for that purpose therefore other inferiour persons were also called to that excellent function yet such as in one respect or other were still the noblest that were to be found Therefore even in that time I mean before the Law was given God promiseth the Israelites that if they will hear his voice indeed and keep his covenant they shall not only be his chiefest treasure upon earth but they shall be unto him also a kingdome of Priests Exod. 29. 5 6. Of these kingly Priests two are mentioned in Scripture before the Law Melchisedek Priest and King of Salem
of Scripture mentioning tithes is the 28. Gen. ver the last Jacob going upon his adventure voweth that if God will be with him in his journey and give him meat and cloth and so that he return safe then saith he the Lord shall be my God and this stone which I here set up as a pillar shall be Gods house and of all that thou shalt give me will I give the tenth unto thee Romulus made the like vow for building the Temple to Jupiter Feretrius upon Mount Palatine Tatius and Tarquinius upon Tarpeius William the Conquerour for Battail Abbey But Hemmingius cannot say that Jacob did it by their example for they lived too too long after him I think rather that the law of nature and reason taught all Nations to render honour thanks and service unto God and that the children of God being more illuminate in the true course thereof then the Heathen by the light of reason could be first began the precedent and that then the Heathen dwelling round about them apprehended and dispersed it for the use of paying tithes even in those first ages of the world was generall as hereafter shall appear But Iacob doth not here bargain and condition with God that if God will doe thus and thus that then he shall be his God and that he will build him an house and pay him tithe and otherwise not but he alledgeth it as shewing by this means he shall bee the better enabled to perform those debts and duties that he oweth unto God and will therefore doe it the more readily The actions and answers of the Sages are in all Laws a law to their posterity Iustinian the Emperour doth therefore make them a part of the Civill Law The common Lawyers doe so alledge them and the Law of the holy Church hath always so received allowed them And though Saint Augustine saith that the examples of the righteous are not set forth unto us that thereby we should be justified yet he addeth further that they are set forth to the end that we by imitating them may know our selves to be justified by him that justifieth them Why then should we now call tithes in question since we find them to be paid and confirmed by two such great Sages and Patriarchs Abraham Iacob Yea their payment practised generally by all the Nations of the world for 3000. years at least never abrogated by any Law but confirmed also by all the Fathers and Doctors of the Church and not impugned by a single Author as far as I can find during all the time I speak of Well It will be said that all this is nothing if the Word of God commandeth it not for every thing must be weighed and valued by the shekel of the Sanctuary Lev. 27. 25. They may by the same reason take away our Churches for I finde not in all the Bible any Text wherein it is commanded that we should build us Churches neither did the Christians either in the Apostles time nor 100. yeares after build themselves Churches like these of ours but contented themselves at first to meet in houses which thereupon were called aedes sacrae And to shew that they were commanded by the Leviticall Law will not serve our turn for it will be said the Statute of repeal even the two words spoken by our Saviour upon the Crosse Consummatum est Iohn 19. 30. clearly abrogated that Law but it is to be well examined how far this repeal extendeth for though the letter of it be taken away yet the spirituall sense thereof remaineth for Ierome saith that almost every syllable thereof breatheth forth an heavenly sacrament Saint Augustine saith the Christians doe keep it spiritually so that if tithe be not given in the tenth according to the Leviticall Institution yet the spirituall meaning of providing for the Clergy our Levites remaineth But with the precepts of the Leviticall and Ceremoniall Laws divers rules of the Morall Law are also mingled as the Laws against Witches Userers Oppressors c. the Laws that command us to lend to our brother without interest and to sanctifie the Sabbath for though the Institution of the Sabbath be changed yet the spirituall observation remaineth and that not onely in the manner of sanctifying it but as touching the time also even the seventh day Notwithstanding I find not that the Apostles commanded us to change it but because they did change it we take their practice to be as a Law unto us yet though they changed the time they altered not the number that is the seventh day I will then reason that God hath as good right to our goods of the world as to the days of our life and that a part of them belong unto him as well as the other And the action of Abraham and Jacob may as well be a precedent to us for the one in what proportion we are to render them as that of the Apostles in the other for both of them were out of the Law the one after it the other before it And why may not the limitation of the day appointed to the Lord for his Sabbath be altered and changed as well as the portion appointed to him for the tenth You will say the seventh day was not due to him by the law of nature for then Abraham and the Fathers should have kept it before the Law given but it held the fittest analogy to that naturall duty that we owe to the service of God and therefore when that portion of time was once particularly chosen by God for his service by reason himself had commanded it under the Law the Apostles after the Law was abolished retained it in the Gospel And so since the number of the tenth was both given to God before the Law and required by him in the time of the Law being also most consonant to all other respects great reason it is to hold it in the age of the Gospel Yet with this difference that in the old Law the Sabbath was the last part of the seven days and in the Gospel it is the first because our Saviour rose from the dead the first day of the week and not the seventh God is our Lord and we owe him both rent and service our service is appointed to bee due every seventh day our rent to be the tenth part of our encrease He dealeth not like the hard Landlords that will have their rent though their Tenants bee losers by their Land but he requireth nothing save out of their gain and but the tenth part thereof onely These two retributions of rendring him the seventh day of our life and the tenth part of our goods are a plain demonstration to us of our spirituall and temporall duty towards God Spiritually in keeping the Sabbath and temporally in payment of tithes that is in providing for his Ministry and them in necessity the one being the image of our faith the other of our works for seven
a year So that the Appropriation of a Parsonage was no more at the first but a grant made by the Pope c. to an Abbot Prior Prebend or some other spirituall person being a Body politique and successive that he and his successors might for ever be Parsons of that Church that is that as one of them died his successors might enter into the Rectory and take the fruits and profits thereof without further trouble of admission institution or induction which upon the matter was no more but to doe that briefly at one cut that otherwise might and would in length of time be done at severall times as to admit institute and induct the whole succession of a religious body politique at once whereas otherwise every successour must have had a particular institution and induction and therefore every such successour during his time was as perfect an Incumbent as if he had been particularly instituted and inducted but when the succession failed then it was again presentative as upon the death of an ordinary Incumbent and by extinction of the House dissolution cession or surrender of the House and Order the appropriation is determined and they are now again presentative for the appropriation is but as a stop in a run which being taken away the former right renueth What alteration then did the Statute make of them did it make them lay or temporall Livings no the words of the Statute are That the King shall have them in as large and ample manner as the Governors of those houses had them c. So that though the Statute changed the owner of the thing yet it changed not the nature of the thing The Monasticall persons had them before as spirituall Livings and now the King must have them in as large manner but still as spirituall Livings and with much more reason might the King so have them then any other temporall men for as the Kingdome and Priesthood were united in the person of our Saviour Christ so the person of a King is not excluded from the function of a Priest though as Christ being a Priest medled not with the kingdome so they as Kings medle not with the Priesthood Yet by the Laws of the Land the King is composed as well of a spirituall body politique as of a temporall and by this his spirituall body he is said to be supream Ordinary that is chief Bishop over all the Bishops in England and in that his Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall authority doth many things which otherwise in his temporall he could not doe and therefore the Statute of 25 H. 8. cap. doth agnise the words authoritate nostra regia Suprema Ecclesiastica qua fungimur which the King useth in divers Charters touching spirituall causes doe testifie that he taketh upon him the execution thereof and therefore in this respect he may much better hold them then his lay subjects Neither is this authority of the King founded upon the Statute of H. 8. or any other puisne institution but deduced anciently from the very Saxon Kings as appeareth by many of their Laws and Charters wherein as supream Ordinary they dispose of the rights and jurisdiction of the Church delivering unto religious persons greater or lesser portion thereof according to their own pleasure and abridging and exempting other from the authority of the Bishops and Archbishops or any other Ecclesiasticall Prelate And in this respect it seemeth that the Chappell of the Kings house was in ancient time under no other Ordinary then the King himself for William the Conquerour granting all exemption to Battail Abbey granteth that it shall be as free from the command of any Bishops as his own Chappell Dominica Capella which as it thereby seemeth was under no other Bishop then the King himself But the Bishops agreed to the granting away of these Church Livings It is true that the Law accounteth the judgement of the major part to be the judgement of all but the Bishops cannot be said to have agreed unto it as being willing with it but as concluded by legall necessity and inference For though all the Bishops said nay yet the Lay Barons by reason of their number exceeding the Bishops were not able to hinder it and no man doubteth that in publique suffrages very many times major pars vincit meliorem therefore I neither accuse nor condemn the reverend Bishops herein for their voices though they had given them every one against the Bill were not able to hinder it Neither doe I think but that they being men of another profession unexercised in the elenchs of the Law were overtaken in the frame of words and thereby passed that away in a cloud which if they had perceived could never have been won from them with iron hooks But in this matter there being a question of Religion Whether Tithes be due jure divino or whether they could be separated from the Church it was not properly a question decidable by the Parliament being composed wholly of Lay persons except some twenty Bishops but the question should first have been moved amongst the Bishops by themselves and the Clergy in the Convocation house and then being there agreed of according to the Word of God brought into the Parliament For as the Temporall Lords exclude the Bishops when it commeth to the decision of a matter of bloud life and member so by the like reason the Bishops ought to exclude the Temporall Lords when it commeth to the decision of a question in Theology for God hath committed the Tabernacle to Levi as well as the kingdome to Juda and though Juda have power over Levi as touching the outward government even of the Temple it self yet Juda medled not with the Oracle the holy Ministery but received the will of God from the mouth of the Priest Therefore when Valentinian the Emperour required Ambrose to come and dispute a point of Arianisme at his Court he besought the Emperour that he might doe it in the Consistory amongst the Bishops and that the Emperour would bee pleased not to be present among them lest his presence should captivate their judgements or intangle their liberty That after the Appropriation the Parsonage still continueth spirituall It appeareth by that which is afore shewed and the circumstances thereof that the Appropriating of a Parsonage or the endowing of a Vicarage out of it doe not cut the Parsonage from the Church or make it temporall but leaveth it still spirituall as well in the eye of the Common Law as of the Canon Law for if it became temporall by the Appropriation then were it within the Statute of Mortmain and forfaited by that very Act. But it is agreed by the 21 Ed. 3. f. 5. and in Plowd Com. fo 499. that it is not Mortmain and therefore doth continue spirituall for which cause also the Ordinary and Ecclesiasticall Officers must have still the same authority over such appropriate Churches as they had before those Churches
beleef in my good doings and just proceedings for you without my desire or request have committed to my order and disposition all Chauntries Colledges Hospitals and other places specified in a certain Act firmly trusting that I will order them to the glory of God and the profit of the Common-wealth Surely if I contrary to your expectation should suffer the Ministers of the Church to decay or Learning which is so great a jewell to bee minished or poor and miserable to be unrelieved you might well say that I being put in so speciall a Trust as I am in this case were no trusty friend to you nor charitable to my even Christian neither a lover of the publique wealth nor yet one that feared God to whom account must bee rendred of all our doings Doubt not I pray you but your expectation shall bee served more Godly and Goodly then you will wish or desire as hereafter you shall plainly perceive c. So that the King hereby doth not onely ingenuously confesse the Trust committed to him by the Parliament in the same manner that the Act assigneth it viz. to be for the glory of God and the profit of the Common-wealth but he descendeth also into the particularities of that Trust as namely for the maintenance of the Ministers the advancement of Learning and provision for the poor That the King might not take them In the 45. chap. of Ezekiel God commandeth the Prophet to divide the Land into three parts one for God himself and his servants the Priests the other for the King and the third for the people And then he saith Let this suffice O yee Princes of Israel v. 9. Leave off cruelty and oppression and execute judgement and justice take away your exactions from my people And again chap. 46. 18. The Prince shall not take of the peoples inheritance nor thrust them out of their possessions but he shall cause his sonnes to inherit his owne possession that my people be not scattered every man from his own possession Though the said Texts savour something of the Leviticall Law as to preserve the Tribes from confusion yet they present also unto us rules of Morall justice First that in the division of the Kingdome wee must remember to give him a part for his honour that giveth us all for our necessities therefore he saith in another place 45. 1. When yee shall divide the Land for inheritance yee shall offer an oblation unto the Lord an holy portion of the Land Secondly that the Prince must be contented with the portion assigned him and not to disturbe the people in their possession but not God especially in his for that is priviledged further and defended with another iron barre it is an oblation saith the Text unto the Lord yea it is an holy portion of the land Holy because it is offered unto God and holy again for that being offered unto the Lord it is severed from the injury of man it must not be violated nor plucked back it must not be sold nor redeemed it is an inheritance separate from the common use it is most holy unto the Lord Lev. 27. 28. It being thus manifested what are the chief ends and uses of Parsonages it appears how unjust it is to tolerate Appropriations and how miserable their condition is who hold them Oh how lamentable is the case of a poor Approprietary that dying thinketh of no other account but of that touching his lay vocation and then comming before the Judgement seat of Almighty God must answer also for this spirituall function first why he medled with it not being called unto it then why medling with it he did not the duty that belongeth unto it in seeing the Church carefully served the Minister thereof sufficiently maintained and the poor of the Parish faithfully relieved This I say is the use whereto Parsonages were given and of this use we had notice before we purchased them and therefore not onely by the Laws of God and the Church but by the Law of the Land and the rules of the Chancery at this day observed we ought onely to hold them to this use and no other Look how many of the Parishioners are cast away for want of teaching he is guilty of their bloud at his hand it shall be required because he hath taken upon him the charge He saith he is Parson of that place and of his own mouth will God judge him for idle Parsons are guilty of the bloud of the Parishioners and this S. Paul sheweth when he saith I thank God I am pure from the bloud of all men Act. 20. 26. meaning he taught the counsell of God so faithfully as if any be not saved thereby their bloud is upon their own heads for he on his own part addeth that hee hath kept nothing back but shewed them all the counsell of God v. 27. It is not therefore a work of bounty and benevolence to restore these Appropriations to the Churches but of duty and necessity so to doe It is a work of duty to give that unto God that is Gods Mat. 22. 21. and a work of necessity towards the obtaining remission of these sins for as S. Augustine saith Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum cum restitui potest Augustin Macedon Ep. 54. The sin shall not be forgiven without restoring of that which is taken away if it may be restored Of the Statute of dissolution that took away Impropriations from the Church We must note touching that first Statute the time wherein it was made the persons by whom the circumstances in the carriage and effecting of it and the end why The time while it was yet but dawning of the day or twilight of both Religions The persons then members of the Parliament half of them I fear if not the greater half either absolute Papists or infected with Romish Religion the other half yet in effect but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and candidati restitutae religionis and so could not by and by conceive all dependencies in so great a work and what was fit in every respect to be provided for The circumstances incident to the businesse as the great and strong opposition of the adverse party which happily was so potent in Parliament as if opportunity had not been taken at some advantage for passing of the bill whilest many of them were absent it had not passed so soon and this might well cause haste in the carriage of it and haste imperfection How it fell out in that point I doe not know but I have heard that anno 1. Mariae when the Laws of H. 8. touching the Premunire and of Ed. 6. touching Religion were repealed the matter was so handled as there were but 28. persons in the Parliament House to give their voice with the Bill and yet carried it So in this businesse the great haste and desire to effect it and the great matters aimed at as the transferring of all Monasteries
God for them as their great Patrons and benefactors for that manner of maintenance wherein they have done beyond and above any Parliament that were before them and they continue and persist in the making of such augmentations as occasion is offered to this very day 3. They have given the repulse to divers petitions against Tithes which by the instinct and instigation of men of unsound principles and unquiet spirits have been put up unto them For the second that they will not take them away in time to come I have these grounds if not of infallible certainty yet of very great probability Though they have resolved upon the sale of Bishops lands and revenues in their Ordinance of November 16. 1646. for that purpose they have made an especiall exception with respect to the maiutenance of Ministers in these words Except parsonages appropriate tithes tithes appropriate oblations obventions portions of tithes parsonages vicarages Churches Chappels advowsons donatives nomination rights of patronage and presentation In excepting the right of patronage they meane neither to leave it to the power of the people to choose what Minister they please and the practice of the Honourable Committee for plundred Ministers sheweth the same for they appoint and place Ministers very often without the petitions of the people and sometimes against them as their wisedome seeth cause and if it were not so many would choose such as deserved to be put out againe Nor to put the Ministers upon the voluntary pensions or contributions of the people for their subsistence but assigne them under such a title what belongeth unto them by the Laws of the Land viz. Tithes obventions c. which intimates their mind not onely for the present but for the future Their wisedome well knoweth that the Revenue of Tithes as it is most ancient for the originall of it and most generall in practice both for times and places so it hath the best warrant from the word of God not onely in the old Testament which none can deny but in the new which though it be denyed by some is averred by others as D. Carleton M. Roberts D. Sclater M. Bagshaw in their treatises of Tithes and yet unrefuted by any and from the Laws of many Christian States especially from the Statutes of our Kingdome whereof abundant evidence is given in the booke of the learned Antiquary Sr Henry Spelman 3. That notwithstanding all the authority that may be pleaded for them the people are backward enough to pay to their Ministers a competent maintenance and if Tithes should be put down by the Parliament it would be very much adoe to bring them up any other way to any reasonable proportion of allowance for their support and so in most places the Ministery would be reduced to extreame poverty and that poverty would produce contempt of their calling and that contempt atheisme 4. That it is evident that such as make the loudest noyse against the tenure of Tithes are as opposite to the office and calling of Ministers as to their maintenance and intend by their left-handed Logicke because as the saying is the Benefit or Benefice is allotted to the office to make way for the taking away of the Ministery by the taking away of Tithes and not to wait the leisure of consequentiall operation according to the craft of Julian who robbed the Church of meanes expecting the want of wages would in time bring after it a want of workmen but presently to beare down both as Relatives mutually inferre one another as well by a negative as a positive inference and so as the Parliament having put down the office of the Prelacy now makes sale of their lands they if they could prevaile for the discarding of Tithes would by the same argument clamour and slander presently and importunately presse for deposition of the Ministery And we see how they take upon them with equall confidence and diligence not onely to write but publikely to dispute against them both 5. That if rights so firmely set upon so many solid foundations should be supplanted it would much weaken the tenure or title that any man hath to his lands or goods and would be a ready plea for rash innovators and the rather because of the manner of the Anabaptists proceedings who began their claime of Christian liberty with a relaxation of Tithes and went on to take off the Interdict or restraint in hunting fishing and fowling wherein they would allow neither Nobility nor Gentry any more priviledge then the meanest peasant And as their principles were loose so were their practices licentious for they held a community of goods and equality of estates whereupon the Common people gave over their worke and whatsoever they wanted they tooke from the rich even against their good wills So that it was a breach of their Christian liberty belike to have a lock or a bolt on a doore to keep a peculiar possession of any thing from them And the liberty was more and more amplified according to the fancies of their dreaming doctors for their dreames were the oracles of their common people and every day they set forth their liberty in a new edition corrupted and augmented till all the partition walls of propriety were broken down and so not content to have other mens goods at their disposall and to be quit from payment of rents and debts having made a monopoly of Saintship to themselves they excommunicated all who were not of their faction both out of sacred society of the Church and out of common communion in the world as wicked and profane and unworthy not onely of livelyhood but of life also and usurped a power to depose Prince and other Civill Magistrates as they pretended they had commission to kill them and to constitute new ones in their stead as they should thinke fit Such seditious and sanguinary Doctors as Luther called them did Satan stirre up under the pretext of Euangelicall liberty a liberty which in them admitted of no bounds being like the c. oath without bankes or bottome of no rule or order being carried on with a wild and giddy violence such as the great and pernicious impostor of the world prompted them unto though they vented their diabolicall illusions under the Title of Divine Revelations as the Prince of darknesse made them believe when he put on his holy-day habit the appearance of an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11. 14. 6. That the payment of Tithes where there are the fruits of the earth and increase of cattell out of which they may be raised is the most equitable way and meanes of maintaining the Minister since such a gaine is not onely harmelesse and without sinne for the manner of acquisition which we cannot say of pensions and exhibitions made up out of trade or traffique but such as may be most permanent and constant since whether the Tithe be lesse or more it is still proportionable to the other
Anabaptists are more bold in London to take up a publique contestation against them then the Presbyterians to make apology for them for did not one Mr B. C. an Anabaptist manage a dispute against Mr W. I. of Chr. and after that undertake another upon the same argument against M. I. Cr. and offered to proceed in it against all opposition which M. Cr. durst not doe upon pretence of a prohibition from authority Ans. 1. It is no strange thing for men who have a bad cause to set a good face on it and to make out with boldnesse and confidence what is wanting in truth of judgement and strength of argument this is observed of the Papists by a judicious Authour whom he sheweth to have been forward in the offers of disputation with iterated and importunate suits for publique audience and judgement And Bellarmine reporteth out of Surius that Io Cochleus a great Zealot for the Papacy offered to dispute with any Lutheran upon perill of his life if he fayled in the proof of his part of the Questionâ— 2. For the boldnesse of the Anabaptists at this time and in this Cause and this City there may be divers conjectural reasons in particular given thereof besides the generall already observed as 1. Because they advance in their hopes of a toleration of their Sect and to promote that hope they have been so ready to engage in military service with a designe no doubt to get that liberty by force if they be able which by favour of authority they cannot obtain 2. For this matter of Tithes they might be more forward to oppose their tenure because it is a very popular and plausible argument wherein they might have the good wils of the people that they might prevail and their conceits that they did so though they did not because they would be very apt to beleeve what they vehemently desire may come to passe and it is not to be doubted but a dram of seeming probability will prevail more with most worldlings to spare their purses then an ounce of sound reason to put them to charges 3. They might take some encouragement to dispute against Tithes in this City because there is a project to change the maintenance of the Ministers set on foot by many worthy and well-minded Citizens which yet in truth makes nothing for the Anabaptists opinion who would have Ministers maintained by meer benevolence for the Citizens as they intend a more liberall allowance then the former since they see many of their Churches are destitute of Ministers because their Ministers have been destitute of means so they mean that it shall be certain setled by Authority and not left arbitrary to the courtesie of men 3. For the two disputes the one managed betwixt M. W. I. and M. B. C. the other purposed betwixt M. I. Cr. and the same B. C. but disappointed it makes nothing at all for the taking away of Tithes For as touching the former they who were not possessed with prejudice or corrupted with covetousnesse against the truth were much confirmed in the lawfulnesse of such rates as are paid in London under the title of Tithes though indeed they are not Tithes and of such onely was the debate at that time For the intended debate which was to be touching the divine right of Tithes though some godly and prudent men thought it should not have been taken in hand without the warrant of publique authority yet they made no doubt but that the truth of the cause or ability of the man who undertook the defence of it against M. C. would prevail unto victory But for the disappointment it was by the warrant of the Lord Major of the City to them both interdicting the dispute which was both without M. I. Cr. his knowledge and against his good will yet he obeyed the prohibition and when his Antagonist insisted and urged the performance of what was agreed upon notwithstanding the contrary command of the Lord Major his answer was that it was agreeable to the Anabaptists principles to disobey Authority but not according to the principles of Presbyterians And lest B. C. should take it for a token of distrust in his cause and make it an occasion of vain-glory either against the cause or person of M. I. Cr. he proposed the printing of M. B. C. his arguments against Tithes and engaged himself to answer them in print and so to refer both to the judgment of al unbyasâ—ed Readers which was the best way to give clear and full satisfaction to such as doubt on which side the truth is swayed by the most authentick testimony and soundest reasons It is no part of my task for the present to argue farther for Tithes then may answer the doubt you have proposed to me which is of the Parliaments purpose and proceedings touching the establishing or abolishing of them Animadversions upon the late Pamphlet intituled The Countreys plea against Tithes YEt that you may not be scrupled in conscience as you were in conceit by a new petty Pamphlet against payment of Tithes which perhaps may come to your hands I will give you some animadversions upon it which may also be of use to others as well as to you The title of the Booke is The Countryes plea against Tithes with this addition A Declaration sent to divers eminent Ministers in severall parishes of this Kingdome proving by Gods word and morall reason that Tithes are not due to the Ministers of the Gospell and that the Law for Tithes was a Leviticall Law and to endure no longer then the Leviticall Priesthood did c. Wherein the Authors say much in the outside but make no answerable proof in the inside of the Booke They direct it in the Title page as a Declaration to divers worthy Ministers in the Kingdome and in the beginning of the body of the Book they present it as a joynt Declaration of the people of severall parishes for their opinion concerning Tithes as a Reply to certaine papers from some Ministers pretending to prove Tithes due by authority of Scripture It had been faire dealing if they had printed those papers of the Ministers that it might appeare how well they had answered them But for the confident contradiction of the Divine right they alledge 1. The novelty of them in the Christian state 2. The ceremoniality of them as being meerely Leviticall 3. The inequality of them in severall respects 4. The trouble of them to the Minister For the first they referre the originall of them under the Gospell for the author to Pope Vrbane for the time to the three hundredth yeare after Christs ascension and for proofe of both they cite Origen Cyprian and Gregory at large without any particular quotation to find what they cite untill which time say they there was community of all things among Christians But first they should tell us which Vrban it was who they say began to bring Tithes into use for the maintenance of