which but seems so unto deluded mindes but Conscience on the infallible Word of God in which can be no falshood Shew us now if you be true men that this is indeed your Conscience and we will go along with you But excuse us if we subscribe not unto such dull and stupid opinions for which you cannot shew that Christs Ministers were ever in your sense made manifest But you would have Magistrates punish and restrain the evil We wish it so but doubt that you would wince when you were under the lash for Sacriledge and your Opinion could not save your You say Would not this ease the Magistrate and be more acceptable to God To so impious and vain a question it is enough to answer No. Who say you made him a Judge c He or they who made him a Magistrate and a restrainer of the evil Pag. 20. A third sort you say plead for Decrees c. I am loath to be expensive of precious time in examination of that which others plead and I content me to say concerning the rubbish which you here scrape together That those things have been sufficiently answered by the learned and most industrious Dr. Tilsley Animad on Hist. of Tythes to whom I refer the Reader who desireth further to be satisfied concerning those things And then you say about that time it came to be received and believed that tythes ought to be paid c. I cannot but think you dissemble your knowledge who say That it was about a thousand years after Christ before it came to be received and believed that tythes ought to be paid Origen Cyprian Jerom Ambrose Augustine c. believed them to be due and payable or else they would not have pleaded so earnestly for them and you know that these lived some hundred of years before the time which you mention Consider what your self have confessed and for shame contradict not that You say That in England as well as other Nations every man might have given his tythes where he pleased till about the year One thousand two hundred If that were true I could not but think it great pitty that they were so long ignorant But must we still be troubled with your Crambe and often repetitions of one and the same falshood surely it is already nauseous to the understanding Reader Page 21. Pleaded for Humane right To this and many things else gathered out of Mr. Seldens History of Tythes I answer again That it skills not much what others plead God gave Ministers the jus and right of Tythes from that time that he had a Church I say Jus in re a right in Tythes though Humane Laws may be said to give them Jus ad rem that is a Law and Custom of Court to claim and recover them as their right To this if Kings and Parliaments have contributed their power and authority by Laws and Decrees they did justly and religiously therein For therefore God put the power into their hands well knowing how malicious Satan is against Ministers of the Gospel and how in his ambition to bring men to his Kingdom of Darkness and Atheism the subtil Impostor works as you do on the worldly minder of Neuters in Religion who wouldly gladly be of the cheapest one that they might spare their purses and the newest that they might be in the fashion Now for Statutes of Kings and Parliaments suppose they have power concerning mutual Humane rights i. e. Meum and tuum God onely hath right in his reserves Suum cuique is the Rule of Justice and Christ said Give to Caesar that which is Caesars to every one that which is his onely let Gods Portion be sacred and inviolable We look therefore on Statutes as effects of Gods mercy towards his Church making Kings and high Powers her Nursing-fathers and yet we say that we ground not our Claim and Interest therein God hereby used a Coercive power to restrain the Sacriledgious because of the hardness of their hearts who regard not Gods Laws but fear Mans. The Law you say doth not give any man a property But sure the Law of God doth of and by which we hold from whence we claim our portion And we further say That if no Humane Law Act or Decree had been made for us on this behalf yet had we a firm right to that which God assigned us by his Will revealed in his Word Yet we thankfully acknowledge that we ow very much to the Laws and Grants of good Princes Magistrates Councils and Judges for our actual recovery of our dues without which it may too easily appear by you and your party how little comfort and support mens consciences would afford Ministers notwithstanding your pretended sufficient maintenance for them whose Judges you would appoint your selves Was not Ticonius your Tutor August Ep. Vincent Cic. Acad. q l. 4. or one of that Sect who said Quod volumus sanctum est or some Protagoras affirming Id cuique verum esse quod cuique videatur You say He that saith they are onely due by Humane Right Pag. 22. c. We know not any of ours who say so We say they are due by the Law of God and Man and recoverable by Humane Laws to God subordinate As Stante Repub. Israeliticâ peculiar Rights and Interests by the Moral Law due and claimable were justly recovered by the Judicial which God appointed as a subsidium thereto and Band of Obedience the execution whereof was by men appointed to judge so now For Magistrates are still to execute justice according to those Laws which by Statute or Statutes are made Judicial to us And if our Magistrates may justly judge for me I may as justly claim and recover my right by the same Law and Equity Adde hereto That Councils may and ought to make Laws to binde the people to obey Gods Moral Law and by just punishments appoint restraints of transgressors thereof that it may be well with them and their children For Salus populi suprema Lex This may appear if we consider either first or second Table As in case of prophanation and common swearing or prophanation of the Sabbath or against Murder Adultery Theft we have wholsome and necessary Laws Now if for the obedience to God Humane Laws be good and necessary in respect of one Moral duty why not in others As if for the maintenance of Gods worship in the quotâ parte of time by God reserved and thereto still necessary Why is it not as just and necessary in the quotâ parte of our substance by the same Law of God reserved to and necessary for the same To the matters in your following Cavils concerning Civil Rights Ministers Proprieties and Courts wherein they have been or ought to be recovered you vainly trouble your Reader our claim being from Divine Law whereto all Laws and Courts ought to be subordinate Pag. 22. You say further That the Act for Tythes gives nothing but
as a Levitical but as a moral duty belonging to God long before either Levites or ceremonial Law were in being and therefore they continue under the Gospel because moral duties are unchangeable And it is observeable that Melchisedech met not Abraham the father of the faithfull with bloody Sacrifice like a Priest of the Law but with a supply of bread and wine the elements of a Gospel-Sacrament which the Ministers are to divide unto the people That Tythes are not Levitical or Ceremonially due it may appear because 1. They are much more ancient then the Levitical Law 2. Secondly Tythes are positively declared to be the Lords and so to belong to his Ministers about holy things for ever 3. Ceremonies of the Levitical-law were all significative as of somthing to be performed by Christ for the work of our redemption but so are not Tythes 4. Tything now used is not after the manner of the Levitical Law but after the manner of Abrahams paying tythes to Melchisedec who was not of the tribe of Levi So our tything is now to Christ who was of the tribe of Judah Heb. 7.13 of which no man gave attendance at the Altar 5. The end whereto tythe was ordained is moral in point of Piety Justice and Gratitude First Piety for that will maintain the worship of God Secondly Justice for that is to give every man his due Now the laborer is worthy of his reward 1 Tim. 5.18 1 Cor. 9.14 and God hath appointed tythes for a reward or maintenance of those who serve him in the Gospel as well as under the Law Thirdly Gratitude for benefits received of him to whom we ow and offer such thanks adde hereto that these are to be paid to incourage and sustain the laborers in the work of the Lord as Hezekiah commanded the people to give the portion of the Priests and the Levites that they might be encouraged in the Law of the Lord 2 Chron. 31.4 And we may here consider that in the Levitical Law the Lord had regard to provision for Gospel Ministers for he saith in one of the branches thereof Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn which the Apostle applieth to inforce payment of honorable maintenance of Gospel Ministers Neither was that equity new neither the Gospel it self The first appearance whereof which we read of was from the beginning when God said It that is the seed of the Woman Gen. 3. Gal. 4.4 Christ made of a Woman shall bruise thy head that is the Serpents head in which his life and venome principally lieth This Gospel promise lay hid for ages and generations Ephes 3.9 Col. 1.26 Exod. 4. Heb. 9.7 18.22 Gen. 3.19 4.4 Gal. 4. Joh. 1. under dark and mysterious shadows and figures So that though the Law like Tamars Zarah as it were first put out the hand which was before its birth marked with a skarlet thred blood and death yet in some sort the Gospel was first born like Pharez Gen. 38.28 29 30. and was as the day light by little and little toward the fulness of time wherein the Sun of Righteousness should arise to enlighten the World manifested See Gen. 49.10 Numb 24.17 Isai 7.14 11.1 10 12. Dan. 9. Mich. 5 c. and at the last clearly interpreted 1 John 3.8 Rom. 6.22 8.2 3. 1. Cor. 15.55 c. Hos 13.14 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil ruine death and hell And because God would manifest this his mercy to the World for the comfort and confirmation of his Elect in all ages after mans fall he still sent out some Interpreters and Preachers of his Sacred Mystery furnished with such means as might every ways enable them thereto and support them as to their humane necessities And it is not probable that an alwise God would slack his hand and appoint a less certain determinate and comfortable maintenance to the Ministers of the most excellent Testament the Eternal Gospel than he did unto the Priests of the more imperfect which was to cease and be done away So that the Gospel-maintenance as to the Moral equity thereof was before the Law of Moses given many hundred years after the Gospel-promises 2. Your second Observation is That amongst the Jews no outward Law was appointed for the recovery of Tythes but he that did not pay them robbed God c. And think you that robbing God against which the curse of the whole Nation was denounced had no punishment following it Think you not that every sin separating between the sinner and God the sole Fountain of Blessedness was not a sufficient punishment to it self in the guilt thereof And do you conceive that we are now bound by Israels Judicial Laws any further than some Statute Law of this Nation makes them in force to binde us It seems grievous to you that any Law is made by good Princes and their great Councils for recovery of Tythes but for which you and others of your Sect would venture on Gods Justice as if it were a light matter by the contempt of Divine Laws to fall into his hands Heb. 12.29 who is a consuming fire But know you that it is both lawful and necessary for those who have Legislative power in Republicks of authority to execute Justice to binde their Subjects from running into sin and pulling down curses upon their Souls and therefore to enact Laws to compel them by respective punishments to obedience to Gods Moral Laws As in case of prophanation and common swearing for which the Land mourneth adultery murder theft oppression c. I suppose you will allow You say again That Tythes were not for the Levites onely 3. It is easily granted Jerom on Ezek. lib. 14. cap. 45. shews That there were tythes of four sorts First For the Levites Secondly For the Priests Thirdly For Love-feasts Fourthly For the Poor Which whether this Pamphleter dissembleth that he may have something to say though to no purpose except to trouble the Reader I know not You say again That when the Levitical Priesthood was changed by the coming of Christ Jesus 4. the Law for tything was also changed as Paul writ to the Hebrews Now Samson will pull the House upon his own head That very Text which you cite is point-blanck against your self the Law that is the Ceremonial Law was changed therefore something was appointed in its place What but the Gospel and the Ministery thereof And as the Office so of the necessity of humane condition respect must be had for the supplies thereof whereby it may continue There was therefore a change of this Law as to that which was Ceremonial for example in the manner of paying Tythes to the Priests and Levites the place where at Jerusalem or other publick store-houses thereto appointed but not in respect of the morality or any branch thereof So that the Priesthood after
Parliaments been made Parish Churches subject to the Bishops and their Diocesses Pag. 11. The people you say then generally being Papists did yield their obedience Yet that God had ever some good corne among those tares I conceive you have so much faith to believe if you believe that he had in all ages a Catholick Church though possibly you have not so much Charity as to confess that he had such excellent Saints then as are among you now in this last and worst of ages You say What before was owned for a gift was now claimed as a debt Shew if you are a true man who ever owned it as a gift or free benevolence of men except those who knew not or would not acknowledge the divine institution of Tythes we own them as Gods gift and therefore as mans due to be paid unto us God made us not your almes-men but in things spiritual our peoples rulers Heb. 13.7 17. watchmen and guides set over them in the Lord. 1 Thes 5.12 And so not to live of your benevolence but duty as spiritual Parents and shew if you can why that duty should be less determinate and certain then it was under the law to Priests and Levites that he ever reserved out of the rest which he gave to Israel to himself and to his service never leaving it arbitrary to mans will or wisdom to appoint no not to Moses himself And how prove you that he leaves us to your will and charity now All acknowledg a Law for paying Tythes to those who serve about holy things shew us in any one Text of the Old or New Testament where that law is repealed or the whole of Ministers maintenance left to the peoples pleasure Seeing you say themselves in a snare To you it seems that the ordinance of God is a snare this discovereth your dangerous condi ion and is an impious expression Again you say The Pope hath been imperious or in a great heigth of pride What is that to us If so it was his sin for which he is responsible to God who can make wicked men instrumental to some eminent good as in the example of Judas as to the passion of Christ for our Redemption and Salvation appeareth to whom we may add the rest who did therein that which the hand and Councel of God determined before to be done And who can deny but that he might also work good by the Popes commanding Tythes to be paid for the support of the preaching of the Gospel to the then living elect the powerfull instrument of Salvation however it proved a savour of death to many possibly of those that preached it but obeyed it not Next you trouble your readers about Canon-laws and Parochial payment of Tythes setled What suppose you that no good could be professed done or setled in that time wherein error and wickedness had miserably overspread a Church I suppose you will not on second thoughts conclude so when you mind not the propagation of the Gospel in Israel when the Jews Princes Priests and people generally persecuted the faith of Christ Next you talk of the poor Pag. 11. For whose sakes you say Tythes were chiefly given If you mean that these specified Parliaments did settle Tythes chiefly for the relief of the poor you do but trifle knowing that Tythes were anciently appointed for several uses 1. Ornament of Churches 2. For the poor 3. For love Feasts 4. For Ministers maintenance What ever Parliaments enacted must be judged by Gods laws human law is to our duty à mensura mensuraâ—â— Ã lege divina â—ae q. 19. whose end is the utility of men therefore to that supream power and justice must we look and in that rest So that this your argument is childish and impertinent except you could shew that we take human Laws and Statutes of Parliaments to be the ground of our right to Tythes we say after that ancient Councel of Matiscon forecited God hath appointed them for our inheritance or hereditary portion You say moreover He that did not pay no great punishment could they inflict on him but excommunication You mean I suppose that men could not you cannot be ignorant of the power of God to punish the Sacrilegious who hath denounced the curse on them Mal. 3. but was excommunication no great punishment 1. Cor. 5. in the Apostles sence delivering to Satan Possibly you account this punishment the less because herein the sacrilegious were but delivered to their own Master As for the exemptions you mention we dislike them as well as you as little to your purpose is that which you say in your following censure of Popish imitation of Jews l. 1. c. 7. c. 8. c. ib. c. 4. c. which as to those rites which your Durand citeth in his Rationale we utterly dislike But you say Henry 8. being a Papist c. One thing is remarkable you use to call all Popery which suits not with your fancy If Henry 8. did any thing according to Gods Will and Word that is no more Popish than that was Devillish which the Devil said Mar. 5.7 Henry 8. was a Papist and he made a Law that every man should set out his Tythes What is the conclusion yon drive to ergo paying of those duties is Popish Poor Sophistry You are not ignorant that this were a Sophism Non causae pro causâ His being a Papist was not the cause of his making that law for Tythes but as your self confess because he believed that Tythes were due to God and his holy Church In that you call that the Popes doctrine which by your own party is confessed to be grounded on the Law of God you commend the Popes Doctrine though with an intent to calumniate ours And you say First of our Parliament laws for Tythes Pag. 12. and that upon which the rest are grounded Here is another notorious untruth Was our Henry 8. before Athelston who reigned in this land about the year of our Lord 924 Would you have your readers believe that Henry 8. made a Law about 600 years before he was born and crowned King Was he King of this land before Edgar living about the year 959 or before Canutus who reigned here about An. 1016 or William the Conquerer Henry 1 Henry 2. Henry 3. Hist of Tythes c. 8. by William Selden cited as Law-makers for the payment of Tythes to the Ministers One thing out of the learned S. H. Spelman I desire the Reader to consider King Henry 3. Large work of Tythes saith he In the 9th year of his reign by that sacred Charter made in the name of himself and his heires for ever granted all this anew 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 rites inviolable Magna c. 1.
know all things and therefore may err in some but still we must remember that it is the Cause not the Punishment which makes the Martyr Few are perswaded that either the Conclave which canonized Garnet had power to make him a Saint or that your Neoteric Saints have authority or warrant from God to unsaint the Evangelists Apostles and Disciples of Christ by the holy Ghost and Church ever since their times owned for Saints Rom. 1.7 Rom. 16.15 1 Cor. 1.2 2 Cor. 1.1 Eph. 1.1 c. and so by calling we fear least their next attempt should be to devest St. Mathew St. John St. Thomas c. and to send them out among the vulgar by the names of Mat Jac and Tom But now justifie your assertion and shew us any one Martyr of Christ who ever was of your opinion in denying the payment Tythes and suffering death for the same Next you demand Page 16. Whether any person have a true and legal property in the tenth part of another mans encrease Concerning such legality by the Laws of man I conceive you make no question concerning divine Law if your quaere be that upon the matter is to doubt whether God hath property in mans encreases or hath power and right to assign the same to whom he will For the first part of such a question I take it to be indisputable with all those who take Gods Word to be their rule and guide he saying expresly all the Tythes of the Land whether of the seed of the Land or the fruit of the Tree is the Lords it is holy unto the Lord so of the Tythe of the Herd or of the Flock the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord Levit. 27.30 32. And concerning these he saith Ye have robbed me though the Jewes said as many amongst us now think it is no robbing of God to take away M l 3. or detain Tythes from his Ministers Wherein have we robbed thee God saith Ye have robbed me in Tythes and Offerings and therefore were they cursed even the whole Nation As for the second part of the doubt all know that the right and absolute Proprietor who holds not of any other but is the Lord Paramount hath right and free power to assign his propriety to any other or others Now God doth as expresly say Numb 18.24 c. The Tythes I have given to the Levites to inherit Of which he yet reserved to himself the Heave-offering as it were a Quit-rent for their acknowledgment of his Soveraign right over all Now from his grant we claim a moral and so an unalterable right due to those whom he appointeth to serve about holy things and not solely from the Laws of good Princes and States though as your self presently confess in the same Paragraph Tythes are to be paid because commanded by the State and that Law and equity obliges the payment That which you after say That the person that claims them may have no particular interest is contradictory to the forecited Scriptures and your own Concessions as also by that which immediatly you grant it appeareth false where you say if a true legal Property be in another person to the tenth part of my encrease I ought in conscience to yeeld and set it forth because it is not mine To which we say First What can be a true or legal Property if that be not such which God himself gives makes the conveiance and in his holy Word testifieth that he hath given and setled as Inheritance and for such service on those whom he hath appointed to minister about holy things Next we say that you can have no right in Tythes that they should become yours either by purchase for who hath right to sell Gods part and that invito Domino Nor by descent or prescription The first you say claims these to be due jure divino and produce the Law of Moses for it c. What other mens opinions are or have been cannot make our right and claim by Gods divine donation by the moral Law void and therefore we trouble not our selves about them I have you say again diligently for two years and more Page 17. laboured to enform my self c. Here you bring an argument from the time you have spent in studying this point and implied unerring faculty of apprehension For if this were not no time can profit to good information Concerning the validity of this reason I leave to others to judge who better know your abilities of Art and Nature than I yet do but now give me leave to ask what Authors studied you Very likely some who were in the same error with you others who could have informed you better you condemn unknown and because your aim is to uphold a party for the carrying on a secret design you did not receive the love of the truth and therefore cannot want strong delusions and so may you still be of their form who are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledg of the truth if you study to deceive your self and others which if it be not so I am confident that you may find enough in the writings of sound and Orthodox Divines to undeceive you if at least you will not shut your eyes if the vail be laid over your eyes none but God can make you see whom we pray in his good time to remove it You speak again of changing the Law by Christ c. Concerning the change of the Ceremonial Law you have been answered that change is granted you without advantage to you or apparent damage to us See what hath been said to your 14 pag. Further we say that Christ changed not the moral Law in any one jot or title thereof as to the morality of it Matth. 5. he protested against it who is the faithful and true witness So that the precepts thereof having no repeal appearing in all Gods Word binde for ever unto the worlds end Shew us if you can where the Law-giver ever repealed the Law for tything Bring us any one Text of holy Scripture either expresly declaring it or by necessary consequence concluding it Which seeing you cannot do abuse not the Scripture making it to speak what you please to hold up your party In a right use of Scriptures we must carry sense from them not bring it to them Your pretending to an absolute change of the Law causeth your ignorant and credulous Readers presently to think they are discharged from all duty to Moral precepts not considering that it must continually binde all men and that the Ceremonial and Judicial Law were positive for a time and appertaining to Israel onely 12ae q. 122. 1. 2m as determinationes moralium which being changed the Moral Law still continues A discharge of obedience hereto granted what an Harvest would the Devil reap from these pernicious Tares which you scatter in the Lords field and what unspeakable confusion would follow what out of
commands what was before Herein you say true For God gave them from the beginning and man confirmed them in sundry times following Next you demand how Laws of Kings and Parliaments c. binde the Conscience Your self have formerly answered but the Apostle more definitively saith Rom. 13.1 5. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers Ye must be subject needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake 1 Pet. 2.13 And St. Peter Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake And will this double band hold Samson if it doth sin not against Conscience Satan-like endeavoring to seduce others and draw them in society of sin Pag. 23. Tythes you say be not due by the Law of God This is a shameless begging of the question which will never be approved by us or proved by you But you say Who hath set them up the Law of man at best Here is another begging of the question at another door as also in the following words where you say in the place where God disanulled his own command We offer here again to joyn issue with you and challenge you to shew us any one Text of Gods Word whereby it appears that God ever disanulled or repealed his Law of Tything For the rest if you could cite and urge as many Decrees of Princes or Acts of Parliaments against us as you have cited for Tythes yet no Decrees of men can Impeach our Right therein seeing God by the Magna Charta of his holy Word hath setled it for an Inheritance upon the Ministry You demand Who put this power into the hand of man Pag. 23. to raise a compulsory maintenance for Ministers The Apostle will tell you Rom. 13.4 The Magistrate is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil Is not execution of wrath a compulsory means think you Or is not Sacriledg evil in your Theology That you further say that the Ministers of Christ never lookt for or durst own such a way of provision We say First That the maintenance of Ministers ought to be willingly aforded them not grudgingly or sparingly as also their ministration this is as to the first intention of the Law but if men will be obstinate Compulsion is a second intention hereof Secondly Suppose that Ministers did not own such a way of provision for recovery of Tythes before such Acts of Parliament were made for them What hindereth but that they may justly use such Laws now Enacted and in Force You proceed What Nation in Europe will not say they have a Christian Magistracy Do you not forget how great a part of Europe is under the Turk Your many following impertinences should have had no answer but that you say heavy punishments are inflicted upon such as cannot for conscience sake conform unto them To which I say it was never well since mens Consciences were tied to their Purse-strings and that opinions not so much as probable must go for Conscience Shew us Gods Word for your Conscience and we will submit to the same bond but we think it an abominable Idolatry to set up opinions of beguiled Men instead of Gods sacred Oracles Concerning This day of clear and Sunshine light We say Isai 8.20 to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them To this Law we appeal and willingly submit Doth this savor in you tender sensory of the old Popish Spirit Who sees not your endeavour to re-establish Popery though you so much seem to speak against it And now let me bonâ cum veniâ tel you that either your hypocrisie or ignorance is somthing gross And is this as you say a shame to our reformation Or is the practise of you deformers a shame to Christian Religion It is probable that you carry on the Jesuits design of reducing England to darkness of Popery again by decrying Ministers right to a setled maintenance that by taking them away you may remove the Candlestick out of his place the light of the Gospel from us and then you may possibly bring many to Popery and Atheism I must needs say that this personated Zelote speaks much against Popery but works what he can for it on whom I look as on Thames-water-men with their faces one way but labouring might and main to carry their Passengers and Vessel another You add Were the Law just commanding Tythes c. What will he not question Pag. 24. who doubteth of the equity of the Law I hope you mean humane Law which yet is founded on Gods Law and have you not learned of Socrates to doubt of all things Concerning treble damages or other punishments which the Law hath appointed obstinate transgressors I suppose you know that the plaintifs charges of the Suit commonly exceed the dammage justly awarded him towards his reparation therein so that even under the tender hands of just Judges the remedy is more burdensome than the disease these punishments therefore are but just What injustice is it think you to force a Thief or Possessor malae fidei to restore the goods of another man which he hath injuriously possessed himself of and still deteineth What injustice can be in a legal reinvesting the true owner And in case that the iniurious refuse to submit to the Law to compel him by some severe punishment by Law provided in such case And if this be justice in one case Why shall it not be so in another kind of wrong or robberry Why not in case of Sacriledg the worst of robberies if in inferior thieveries O but you say our consciences tell us that detention of Tythes from Mininisters is no sin What if a Thieves Conscience as you account Conscience should tell him that had robbed you that stealing is no sin Would you not pursue him and prosecute law against him I doubt in your next scruple your weak and tender Consciences will tell you that 't is a sin to pay your Land-lords any Rent or at least their sin to Distrain or Sue for any though you can but will not for your Conscience sake forsooth pay him any And will not the next question in your Schools be whether it be lawful In foro Conscientiae to pay any Debt To set out Tythes c. You say this is against his Conscience once again we require you to shew us any one Text of Scripture prohibiting seting out of Tythes that we may know that it is Conscience and not Opinion grounded on humane fancy malice greedy desire of enriching your selves by pillaging the Ministers which moveth you to think so You say This age so much pretends to reformation and every one cries wo wo and he complain's that help 's to make it so Are you not a chief pretender to Reformation Why then trouble you the sacred peace of the Church And truly I fear that it will come to pass
for the Altar of God and truly the annexed reason is remarkable For they were offered before the Lord therefore they are hallowed Numb 16.38 And is not the same reason good for reducing Tythes abused to superstitious uses in former times unto the present true worship of God seeing they were hallowed not by the dedication of a rebellious Corah but by God himself and that to his own holy service And what els means our Saviour by the Parable of the strong mans Fort Luk. 11.22 and reprizal of all his impropriated Vessels but Christs overcoming Satan and recovering the bodies and souls of his Elect from his Power and Captivity Body and Soul must perish eternally if that alteration which is wrought in the sinner by the Spirit of Sanctification make him not acceptable and beloved of God as a son who was before his reconciliation by Christ an enemy How else saith the Apostle speaking of many sorts of pollution by sin Such were some of you Rom. 5. â— Cor. 6.10 but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Upon the accompt of reducing that to a good use acceptable to God which hath been abused unto evil we retain our Churches and Oratories and worship God in Spirit and in Truth therein though they have been in times of Popery houses of Idols and Idolatry To your many following impertinencies if I should follow you in your Wilde-Goose-Chase I should tire the patient Reader therefore I onely adde That there is much difference between tythes of Mines Quarries of Iron Brass Tin Lead Coles and that which the Earths superficies brings forth as Corn Grass Fruits Wood c. though by your leave all these are increases of the Earth and therefore tythable Sir Edward Coke by you cited limits his sentence with a Till they be severed from the Land So that though no tythe be paid of the Land yet are they to be paid from the Land Your frequent talking of Popery is but to make your incautious Reader believe that you are no Papist and that you may insinuate into the peoples mindes an odium against Ministers whereas indeed in such seeming-opposition you do your uttermost endeavor to bring in Popery You further say When I bought my Land I bought not the tythes c. This you say some object to which you frame your answer But we require our liberty to answer for our selves Neither could you nor any man buy out Gods part for that no man had power to sell you So that in your conveyance there needed no specification of Covenant for or exemption from a tenth part of the increase of the Land that being presupposed payable by Gods reservation thereof unto his own service What ever man buyeth or selleth in point of commutative justice Gods part cometh not within the compass thereof neither can it be sold or alienated neither can any sale or purchase of man lessen or impeach his right or any part thereof which he never granted to any but those whom he appointeth to serve about holy things Next you bravely say I answer Pag. 29. that I have already proved all Land is tythe-free c. Indeed I think he meant it Magnis tamen excidit ausis Tell me now in sadness who can free the earth from the charge of tythes but that supream power of God who gave them for an inheritance unto those whom he designed to his publick service Here we require your explication of this term Tythe-free mean you this in respect of any Humane Law Ordinance Provision or Prescription of Men thereto pretended If so it is to no purpose seeing as hath been said None but God hath power of giving or alienating tythes Now once again we challenge you to shew us where God in holy Scripture ever repealed his Law of tything Further we say that all the habitable parts of the Christian world which yield increase are tythable and none exempted there-from by Gods Law in which if you beat our ears with a thousand beggings of the question you shall never obtain it of us That you say Tythes are a burden which the Pope laid on us Is a fallacious assertion the Heathen could here teach you that quod in divinis rebus sumes Plaut Mil. glor sapienti lucro est But God laid this duty on us which you call a burden and this grant of his no Ordinance or Law of Man though enjoyning the same duty can more drown than a Lease can a Fee-simple Mans Laws are alterable but the morality of Gods Law is not Next you talk of Theeves and Robbers Whom you mean I onely guess at and say Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes Clodius accusat maechos What great Theeves make hue and cry after true men you Church-Robbers stealers of tythes of whom you are at best an a better are the Theeves and Robbers Mal. 3. in Gods judgment if there be any such on these borders You say next That you may by as good reason be eased of your tythes as of the Popes yoke Which is in effect to say that you may as justly cast off Gods Law as the Popes is this Popery ho The reason offered as to the question if formed would appear to be a fallacia non causae pro causa Your Land you say was purchased when the Popes authority lay heavy on this Land That being cast off you would infer that we may with as good reason cast off tythes which he commanded to be paid Yea but consider a superior command and cause I mean a Divine inforcing that duty of paying tythes although the Pope had not at all commanded such payment and your fallacy is dissolved You say First to preach that tythes are due Pag. 29. and then to limit them to Parishes c. And why not Gods Word warranting the one and mans just accommodation requiring the other Once again I say as concerning Parishes there is a parochial or particular dueness of tythes or that of Parishes to the Minister there officiating in Gods publick service And there is a general dueness of tythes that is to say of tythes to be paid to the body of the Ministry which is by Gods providence distributed into several parochial Cures where they are by the increases of the Earth thence arising to be maintained that they may there preach the Gospel and administer the holy Sacraments c. unto the people there inhabiting You say again That tythes were at first as charity at most as a freewil-offering of the owner This is an absurd falshood and a shameless begging of the question and you seem to dispute non ad idem but circularly Speak plainly Do you mean that Mans charity giving and not Gods Law commanding brought tythes to be the Ministers maintenance If so it is apparantly false by Gods several commands to pay them to the Levitical Priesthood wherein I
have but such as would Act with you and in your progress toward hell have ready their go up and prosper But you say we are Godly people yea and your Actions have prettily well declared you such unto the World 'T was godliness with you to spoile our goods to sequester and imprison us though we are silent these injuries cry at the gates of Heaven and posterity willl freely speak of this your pretended godliness Oh Sir but we ever held out the profession of reformation truly as those crested pictures which comming on shew Sainct but going off devil And what competent maintenance faithfull Ministers were like to have of such Professors but that of Ahabs allowance 1 King 22.27 Put this fellow in Prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction here would be your competency for the Ministers of Christ 15. Tythes and Offerings as grounded on the Moral Law are due to those who serve about holy things of the Gospel for all except Atheists and Semiatheistical Antinomians confess that the moral Law doth now as strictly bind quoad vinculum as before Christ came into the World to take away the curse of the Law he took not away our duty therein commanded he did not in respect of our obedience dissolve one jot or tittle of the morality thereof If therefore the moral Law still binds men to pay Tythes it binds to pay them to Ministers whom God hath called and assigned to receive that his part reserved and appointed by him for their service in his publick worship and to none other Christ repeating the first Commandment of the moral Law enjoining our serving God saith Mat. 4.10 him only shalt thou serve which another Scripture expresseth honor the Lord with thy substance Prov. 8 9. and with the first fruits of all thy encrease The quotam partem whereof he determineth by Tythes which are therefore enjoined in the first precept in the moral Law Likewise in the fourth precept for sanctification of the Sabbath by Prayer hearing the Word c. And how shall they hear without a Preacher And how shall Ministers Preach without necessary means to keep them alive and to furnish them with accomodations necessary to the performance of their Ministerial charge which is to give attendance to reading c. that they may both save themselves and their hearers when they have not so much as means to preserve their lives and to supply them with food and raiment much less to buy books Likewise Tythes are commanded in the fifth precept for honouring of our Spiritual parents 1 Cor. 4.15 1 Tim. 5.17 Mal. 3. who are to be counted worthy of double honor that is relief and maintenance This is the first Commandment with promise which the Prophet toucheth when he speaks of Tythes and Offerings duly paid this cannot be in an imaginary competency but in that which God hath appointed a definite setled maintenance for those that serve him in his publick Worship which he never left in Law or Gospel to the will or courtesie of man Now other definite or setled means for Ministers maintenance he never appointed any Decimà certam partem desi nat Alens part 4. q. 2. m 2. but by Tythes Offerings and other like perquisites appertinent to those who served in the Tabernacle Temple or Church constituted therefore these must be their maintenance if any Lastly As Tythes are God's part reserved to himself and his assignes so are they commanded in the eighth Commandment which in the negative part saith Thou shalt not steal and God's Prophet sheweth that taking away or detention of Tythes is stealing and the Apostle Mal. 3. Rom. 2. that Sacriledg the worst thievery is found under the Gospel as it was also under the Law why saith he else Thou that abhorrest an Idol committest thou Sacriledg If there be nothing now sacred in the time of the Gospel as some prophane men affirm How unadvisedly did Paul ask that question concerning a thing which is not in being neither can be And if there be any thing amongst us sacred Are not those things such as God hath consecrated and hallowed And did he not Consecrate and set apart from common use Tythes for their maintenance whom he appointed to serve in his publick Worship Now the eighth precept in the negative part forbiddeth all taking away and detention of others right in the affirmative therefore it commands to yield give and preserve what thou canst every ones right so Tythes belong to the eighth precept and indeed the end of ordaining Tythes is evidently moral as in point of piety equity and gratitude as hath been noted and that to which all men of all ages in the World places and conditions are respectively bound as well under the Ghospel as the Law And Abraham and Jacob paying Tythes had the word of promise To Abraham and his seed in the faith whereof he was justified Rom. 4.9 10 11. before he had received Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised So that the Gospel was preached before the giving of the Law by Moses to Abraham Gal. 3.8 Whence it appears that paying Tythes is a Gospel duty performed before their payment under the Law given on Sina and Abraham payed them before the Levitical Law determined them In which determination God did not infer any new thing or right of Tything into his Church but according to the necessity of the present state thereof so regulated and ordered Tythes for the Priests and Levites to govern the people by the Law which was their Schoolmaster to Christ who being come altered nothing of the morality of his Law although the changeable rites like outworn garments and beggerly rudiments Zeck 3.4 were then to be cast off as Joshuas filthy garments and other habits of sanctity and religious Gospel-worship to be put on with Christ the new Man the same body his Church Eph. 4. en ire in every part under the same sacred head Christ Jesus John 1. remaining the same the Law then was given by Moses Ministry but grace and truth by Christ who perfectly fullfilled all that which was prefigured in those Ceremonies And we read that Abel offered firistlings of his flock Qui credidit obtulit decimas Alens Part. 4. Ib. Alens Heb. 1.6 A naturae rationalis lege est ut Dâ—us colatur honoretur Alens quo s and the fat thereof he of Adam's posterity was primus verè fidelis before the deluge after which and the growth of Idolatry the first we read of paying Tythes was Abraham the father of the faithfull Now God was to be Worshiped before and after the giving of the Law at all times and by all persons which the very Law of Nature dictated to reasonable men and God's Worship supposing his Ordinance by the Ministry of man could not be without Ministers to officiate neither could
And that this Charter might be immortal and like the sanctified things of the Temple forever inviolable It was not only fortified by the Kings Seal the sacred anchor of the Kingdome but by his solemn Oath and the Oath of his Son and the Nobility of the Kingdom yea the whole Kingdom yielded themselves to stand accursed if they should at any time after impeach this grant and therefore in the 25 Edward 1. a special Statute was made for confirmation of this Charter wherein among 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 Mai. An. 1304. Edward 1. Boniface the Arch-bishop 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 willingly and malitiously deprive or spoile Churches of their rites Secondly Against those that by any art or device infringed the liberties of the Church or Kingdom granted by magna Charta Thirdly Against those that should make new Statutes against the Articles of these Charters c. And now consider you that have English hearts to love and pity your Country what these Pamphleters aim at who lay stumbling blocks before the people that they may bring the curse upon this Nation which must inevitably come upon it if sacrilegious hands be permitted to take away the Churches rites for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Mal. 3. If Tythes had no other ground but only the laws of Princes and that they were not before the enacting of those laws and solemn dedications due yet consider 1. What came to Ananias and Saphira Act. 5.4 c. the Apostle told him that whilst the land remained in his hands it appertained unto him as a true proprietor and when is was sold and in money that was also his own it was then arbitrary and he might have otherwise disposed of it but when he had given it to the advancement and service of the Gospel he made it sacred and all due to God and his assignes and therefore keeping back any part thereof he lyed to God and if it were sacriledg to take away any part of that which had been dedicated to holy uses by a mans own donation and dedication of the whole What is it to rob and take away from the Church that which God his self hath dedicated and consecrated to the same suppose in money glebe or other land given toward the maintenance of Gods worship or Tythes on which came also a second bond by the Vow Oath and free-will offering of the whole body of a republick in the representative thereof consisting of King Nobles Clergy and Commons lawfully assembled in Parliament But some say though our former Kings and Parliaments were bound by their vow and dedication of Tythes or Lands given to the Church or Churches because they lifted up their hands to God to give the same what is that to us very much for lawfull vows of fathers descend and are obligatory to their Children and posterity and so in the blessing to the performers as we may see in the example of the Rechaebites Jer. 35.18 19. and in the curse to the violaters of the same therefore because Joshua and the Princes of Israel though deceived by the Gibeonites a people among the rest of the Canaanites devoted by Gods own commandment to destruction had lifted up their hands to God to spare them alive they were bound by their Oath so to do and so were their Children to succeeding Generations So that when Saul after many Generations out of a perverse zeal slew them 2 Sam. 21 1 2. God punished that fact even in Davids reign Three years year after year there came a famine upon Israel until it was revenged on the family of Saul Many instances of Gods justice in this kind neer us of eminent great and honorable families utterly ruined the main cause to men appearing being sacriledg impropriating Tythes and laying into their own hands those destructive morsels of glâ—be and other lands formerly dedicated with a solemn curse in the Acts of Mortmain might hereto be added even from Henry 8. who before his giving away Tythes and things consecrated to Gods worship unto impropriators hands prosperous in an hopefull issue yet as to posterity that doom was determined which was pronounced by the Prophet Jeremiah on Coniah Write this man Childless Jer 22.30 The curse so many years before solemnly and publickly imprecated came upon divers of our principal Nobility and other illustrious Families and still doth whose names I spare only I hint this that all whom it concerns may be warned to disgorge those sacred morsels which they yet hold lest they prove destructive to them and theirs and that the Reader may at once perceive of what validity all the rest of the like arguments are wherewith this Pamphleter and his associates endeavour to puzzle the minds of illiterate readers and that all may consider what severe whips God yet holdeth over those who hunger for sacred morsels You know the embleme the Eagle snatching up a piece of flesh from the Alter to carry up to her nest of young ones with it carried a coal of fire cleaving to the flesh which consumed the nest and destroyed the whole air But you say Some of our famous Reformers pag. 14. did in their days bear their Testimony against Tythes c. I answer first I conceive that you call them famous reformers ironically and by way of irrision Next I say whatever they or the Bohemians by you cited speak against Tythes is of no more value then mans testimony against Gods Ordinance Lastly that one Bernard saw not all it is no wonder the most learned know but in part now that the sun from the rising appears not in his full light at once none can rationally wonder and why should we that the reformation was not perfected all at once You say In your following heads of recapitulation He will find the knowledg of those things which be needfull Yes no doubt to confirm him in your errour but there can be no necessity of sinning Tythes you say were paid to the Levites that did the common services of the Tabernacle c. how the payment of Tythes to Ministers succeeds the payment of Tythes to the Levites you say we had need to consider We consider the Apostles rule 1 Cor. 9.13 14. which is They which minister about holy things live of the things of the Tempâ—â— and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel Secondly we consider that Melchisedech received Tythes in the figure of Christ the King of Righteousness and Peace and that Tythes are due to Christ and his assignes the Ministers of the Gospel not