it was our own Skill and Strength which Got us All these Riches by which our Portion was made Fat Hab. i. 16. and our Meat Plenteous therefor we Sacrific'd to our Net but thought it needless to Acknowledge God in all this by giving Him a Tenth Shall He not therefor Empty our Net We have Empty'd it with our own hands Yet will not see this to be a Judgment from God! But we shall see and consider for he is stronger than We. We thought a Tenth too much for God and Grudg'd the ordinary Tribute of our Kings But have Pay'd Ten times over by Extraordinary Ways and Means We Robb'd God of His Tribute the Tythe and thought it Good Husbandry to save it in our own Pockets And he has taken the Nine Parts from us and not left us a Tenth of what but a few years ago we Possessed And what will be the End of these things Except ye Repent If any think that the seizing of the Tythes in Hen. VIII's time cannot be visited now 150 years after let them Reflect that God visits the sins of the Fathers upon their Children to the 3d and 4th Generation That He bore with the Jews in their Continual Breach of the Sabbatical year for 490 years yet Forgot it not but Punished it afterwards with a Fearful Destruction even the Captivity and Removal of the whole Nation for 70 years together Pray God we may not continue to Provoke Him to the same Degree VI. What shall I say more We have the Promises of God who cannot Lye That if we will shew our Trust and Dependance upon Him so far as to give Him a Tenth if we will thereby Acknowledge Him to be our God and that by His Blessing we are made Rich He will Return it to us an hundredfold till ther shall not be Room enough to Receive it Again if we will not Trust to Him but to our own Net that he will Empty it and shew Himself to be our God by Manifold Judgments till He overcome Us and make Us see and confess That it is He who hath done All these things unto Us And that ther is not an Evil in the City which He hath not sent upon us We have seen the Faith of Jews and Heathens to exceed ours It was a Proverb among the Jews Pay Tythes and be Rich. So much they acknowledged All that they had to come from God And the Heathens made the same Observation that they who Pay'd most to God did Receive most from him They saw God's Judgments upon them for not giving Him His Tenth They Repented and Restored the Tythe and were Delivered But we Christians remain the only Incurable Infidels We will not Trust GOD and Provoke Him to Convince us by All His Judgments Which God Avert by Opening our Eyes and Enlarging of our Hearts that with a sincere Repentance for all our other sins we may likewise Restore His Tythe and Learn to Trust in Him That he may yet Repent for All the Evil he has brought upon Us and with which He still threatens Us and may leave a Blessing behind Him even a Meat-Offering and a Drink-Offering unto The Lord our God that ther may be Meat in His House and thereby Plenty in Ours May His Judgments have this Happy Effect with us to make us Search and try our ways to Examine seriously this Matter of Tythe And to Turn again to the Lord in this as well as in any other Breach of God's Commands of which we have Many to Reckon and this not the Least Now is the time to search out All. For when God's Judgments are upon the Earth Isa xxvi 9. the Inhabitants of the World will Learn Righteousness SECT XIV Of what things Tythes are to be Paid 1 Ans OVT of All your Gifts Numb xviij 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. vi 6. Of All our Goods or Good things Of All things that God gives us Of All things wherein we Expect the Blessing of God For All come under the same Reason of Paying Tythe as an Acknowledgment and Tribute to God for the Nine Parts which He has given to us And to shew our Dependence and Trust in Him for All that we shall Receive All the Tythe of the Land whether of the Seed of the Land or of the Fruit of the Tree is the Lords it is Holy unto the Lord Lev. xxvij 30. Thou shalt truly Tythe All thy Increase of thy Seed that the Field bringeth forth year by year Deut. xiv 22. The first-fruits of Corn Wine and Oyl and Honey and of all the Encrease of the Field and the Tythe of All things The Tythe of Oxen and Sheep and the Tythe of Holy things which were Consecrated unto the Lord their God 2 Chr. xxxi 5 6. Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the Tenth unto Thee Gen. xxviij 22. Honour the Lord with thy Substance Prov. iij. 16. and with the First-fruits of ALL thine Increase So shall thy Barns be filled with Plenty c. This is the Reward God has Promis'd to it if we Dare Trust Him And wherein soever we Expect God so to Bless us of All those things we must Pay Him the Tenth else have we no Title to this Promise And this was the Notion of the Jews I give Tythes of ALL that I possess said the Pharisee Luk. xviii 12. And our Saviour Determines Matth. xxiij 23. that we ought to Pay Tythes even of Mint Anise and Cummin i. e. of the smallest things This was the sense of All the Fathers in the Primitive Ages of the Church They Excepted Nothing from Tythe of which I have given some Instances and many more are to be Produc'd II. We are moreover bound to this by the Solemn Vows Dedications and Laws of our Predecessors Kings and Parliaments of England before-mentioned In the first Great Charter or Act of Parliament of King Ethelwolf which I have already Mentioned and which Selden Recites ut supra p. 200. it is thus Vowed Constituted and Ordained Vnde etiam cum Obtejtatione Praecipimus ut omnes studeant de omnibus quae Possident Decimas dare quia speciale Domini Dei est i. e. Wherefor we Command and Objure All to Pay the Tythe of All things that they Possess because it is the Peculiar of the Lord God And thus it is in all the following Grants and Dedications of the Kings and Parliaments downwards Many of which are Recited by Mr. Selden And some of them Descend to name All Particulars that well cou'd be thought of As in the Laws of Edward the Confessor set down at large by Mr. Selden c. 8. n. 13. p. 224 225. which Names Tythe de omni Annona of All sorts of Provisions Victuals Wages or any Income Moreover of Colts Calves Cheese Milk Lambs Fleeces Pigs Bees Wood Hay Mills Parks Warrens Fishing Orchards Gardens Negotiationibus Trading Merchandise and all Business omnibus rebus quas dederit Dominus
likely that the Gentiles wou'd learn from them Especially such an Expensive Worship as wou'd cost them the Yearly Tenth of all that they possessed And on the other hand The Jews were strictly forbidden to learn the Customs of the Gentiles they thought the Gentiles so Impure as that it was not Lawful to Marry no nor to Eat with them and therefor it is as Improbable that the Jews shou'd Part with the Tenth of all their Yearly Increase because the Gentiles did so Again If some Neighbouring Gentiles had learn'd it from the Jews how shou'd it have spread to other far distant Nations How shou'd it have been Receiv'd amongst them all at the same time How wou'd not the Beginning of it be known in any Nation Nor from whence they had it But to come to Matter of Fact If as Mr. Selden did suppose the Jews had the Notion of Tythes only from the Levitical Law and that the Gentiles after this Learn'd it of them Let us consider that the Law was given to the Jews after they came out of Egypt so that the Egyptians not any other cou'd have learn'd it from them while they stay'd there It was given them in the Wilderness where for 40 Years they convers'd with no other Nation and where Moses died Now Triptolemus King of Attica before mentioned who made the Attick Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Honour the Gods with their Fruits which as Porphyry Repeats it was Porphyr de Abstin l. 4. §. ult p. 179. That all the Inhabitants of Attica shou'd worship the Gods according to their Estates with First-fruits and Offerings of Wine every Year And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Porphyry's Expression for offering of their Fruits to the Gods and was his Phrase for Paying of Tythe as was usual with all others in those times both Sacred and Profane Writers See N. 2. of this Sect. I say this Triptolemus was Co-temporary with Moses and for the Reasons before told cou'd not have learnt the Notion of Tythes from him or the Jews in his time And yet Triptolemus is not said to have been the first who brought the Notion of Tythes among the Gentiles only that he made Laws for it in his own Country which supposes the thing to be known before But Mr. Selden wou'd screw it in another way and as I before quoted his c. 3. n. 5. makes the Example of Abram to have given the first Ground to the Phaenicians Carthaginians and Europaeans for Paying of Tythes How was it the Example of Abram that taught Melchisedec what Tythes meant who Tythed him or put him under that Tribute And Melchisedec was a King and a Priest amongst the Phaenicians and no doubt Received Tythe from them as well as from Abram And did the Phaenicians then first learn it from Abram's once paying it to Melchisedec Is it not more Probable that they shou'd learn it from Melchisedec than from Abram who was a Stranger to them These are hard Shifts which Ingenious Men are put to to Defend a Bad Cause But if one of these must learn it from the other it is more Probable that Abram might learn'd from Melchisedec than Melchisedec from Abram for Melchisedec was much the Elder Man and both a King and a Priest But the Truth is neither of them did learn it from the other Both knew it and learn'd it from their Fathers And that Instance of Abram's paying Tythe to Melchisedec the Priest was told only occasionally not as the Original of Tythes or of Priesthood more than his Paying current Money with the Merchant to Ephron Gen. xxiii 16. was the Original of Money or Merchandize because we never Read of Money or of Merchants before And as certainly as his paying of Money current with the Merchant supposes that ther was Money and Merchants before and that is was usual to pay Money so certainly and from the same Reason do's Abram's paying Tythes to a Priest suppose that ther were Priests before and that it was usual to Pay Tythes to them And ther is as much Ground to suppose that the Gentiles learn'd the Use of Money from Abraham's Paying Money to Ephron as that they learn'd the Use of Tythes from his paying Tythes to Melchisedec How shou'd All the far Distant Nations of the Earth know and take such Notice of this single Act of Abram's who was but a Traveller and Sojourner in Canaan so as to make it their Pattern and Example How shou'd they have this Notion All at once Wou'd not some Footsteps or Account remain in History how it was Receiv'd from one Nation to another If that of Abram was the Original of Tythes wou'd not their Beginning be found in some Nation or other What Wild and Un-accountable Imaginations are these But the Truth is the Gentiles neither learn'd the Notion of Tythes from Abram or the Jews nor the Jews from the Gentiles more than the Notions of Sacrifices of Priesthood of Marriage which were Receiv'd from the Beginning of the World and Deduc'd through the After-Generations as well of Jews as Gentiles Tythes must be as Ancient as Sacrifice for Tythes were a Sacrifice They were the Quantum of the Sacrifice And they must be as Ancient as Priesthood for they were Given by God as a Maintenance to His Priests and always so understood To Sacrifice was the Office of the Priest and the Tythe was his Reward So that these being Relatives must be of equal Standing Having thus shewn the Original of Tythes to have been from God at the Creation and to have Descended from that time to this through all Ages and Generations of Men I will now Proceed to Answer some Objections which have been made against them SECT IX Obj. That Tythes are not Commanded in the Gospel I. THIS Objection proceeds from a Mistake of the Nature of the Gospel as if it did Abrogat the whole Law and that Nothing of the Law were of Force but what is anew Commanded in the Gospel Whereas the Gospel was not meant to Overturn any thing in the Law but to Confirm it to the least Jota Matth. v. 17 18. by Fulfilling all the Types of Christ which as Shadows vanish of Course when the Substance is come And the Ceremonys which were ordain'd to accompany these Types were with the Types Fulfilled that is Ended And Fulfilling is the Perfection not the Destruction of any thing That is the Highest Perfection to attain to the End for which it is Ordain'd and that is the Fulfilling of it Ther was another Part of the Law which respected the Particular Nation of the Jews as to their Political Government and Oeconomy which is call'd their Judicial Law And this vary'd even in the Nation of the Jews according to their Different Times and Circumstances as it must be in all Nations And this do's not or ever did oblige any other Nation otherwise than as the Justice and Equity of that Municipal Law of the Jews being given by God
ejus Prosperos si quis vero Minuere vel Mutare presumpserit Noscat se ante Tribunal Christi redditurum rationem nisi prius satisfactione emendaverit i. e. He that shall Add to what I have Given The Lord add to him Prosperous days But if any shall Presume to Lessen or Change it let him know that he shall give an Account of it before the Tribunal of Christ unless he first Repent and make Satisfaction This Mr. Selden says he had out of the Cotton Library where it is in MS. among the Chartularies of the Abbey of Abingdon The Charter expresses That the King made this Grant by the Advice and Consent of the Bishops Earls and All the Great Men. And Mr. Selden says p. 208. That this was a Constitution by the Parliamentary Consent of that time 3. But in the Year following A. D. 855. King Ethelwolf did Renew this Grant in a more solemn Manner Dedicating and Vowing the Tythe of All the Lands in England In Sempiterno Graphio in Cruce Christi as it is Express'd and was the Manner at that time of the most Solemn Vow And Tender'd the Charter by him sign'd upon his Knees offering it up and laying it upon the Great Altar of St. Peter's Church in Winchester the Bishops receiving it from him oâ— God's Part. And this was done nâ—â— only with the Consent of both Lord and Commons of whom an Infiniâ—â— Number was Present But all the Bishops Abbots Earls and Nobles diâ— Subscribe it with the Greatest Applause of the People And it was seâ— and Published in every Parish-Church throughout the Kingdom 4. This Ethelwolf was the first â—â—reditary Monarch of the English Saxons who held the whole Nation under his Subjection in Peace anâ— without Contradiction and consequently he was the first who cou'd effectually make a Law to oblige 〈◊〉 whole Nation And this Law and Vow of his and of the whole Nation by their Consent given as aforesaid was Confirm'd and Renewed by almost every King and Parliament that succeeded in the Reigns of Alfred Edward Athelstan Edmund Edgar Ethelred Canutus and Edward the Confessor before the Conquest and from William the Conquerour down all the way to Hen. VIII in many Parliaments with solemn Curses and Imprecations upon Themselves or Posterities who shou'd Detract any of the Tythes so Vowed and Granted And such Curses and Excommunications were Pronounced in the most Solemn and Dreadful Manner by the Bishops with Burning Tapers in their hands in Presence of King Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled and All Consenting and Confirming the same in Name of Themselves and their Posterities And as it is express'd in the Act of Parliament made in the Reign of King Edmund A. D. 940. Wherein All the People are Charged Spelm. Concil T. 1. p. 420. Hist Jorval Col. 858. upon their Christianity to Pay their Tythes and those who Neglect it are Declar'd Accursed i. e. Excommunicated and they were Esteem'd as Men who had Renounced their Christianity and not to Deserve the Name of Christians And these Grants and Vows are Confirm'd by Magna Charta and all the rest of our Laws both before and after it 5. Now it is a Receiv'd Maxim in the Civil Law as well as a Dictate of Reason That Votum transit in Haeredes A Vow do's Descend and Oblige our Heirs And in the Law of Justinian which he Receiv'd from Vlpian it is Particularly apply'd to this of Tythes f f. lib. de Policit l. 2. Quis §. 2. Si forte qui Decimam vovit Decesserit ante Sepositionem Hares ipsius Haereditario nomine Decime obstrictus est Voti enim obligationem ad Haeredem transire constat i. e. If any that had vowed Tythes should Dâ—ebefore they were Pay'd his Heir is oblig'd to Pay them because it is a known Rule That the Obligation of a Vow do's Descend to the Heirs How much more then if any not only Voweth but actually Executeth his Vow and has Already Given the Tythes which he Vowed out of his own Possession to those to whom his Vow did oblige him to give them how much more is his Heir obliged in this Case not to Recall or Take back such Tythes out of their Possession to whom they were so Vowed and Given If a Man cannot Annul or Make void his own Vow without a manifest Mocking of God how can he Re-call or Disannul the Vow of Another If a Man's Grant of his own Estate when Duly Executed cannot be Recall'd tho' to the Prejudice or Ruin of his Family And tho' it was a Wrong in him and very Vnjust to make such a Grant shall not his Grant of Restitution stand whereby he only Gives back what he had Vn-justly taken from Another What he had Robbed from God of His Tythes and Offerings Must ther be a writ of Enquiry to Examin into the Justice and Equity of the Original Grant And to Recall it because it was too Much Shall we think that too Much which God has Reserved as Holy unto Himself And for which He has Promised to Bless us in All that we set our Hand unto Is not He Able to make us Amends and Encrease our store an hundred fold Is not He Able to Punish our Distrust of Him And take away our Nine Parts who Grudge to Give Him the Tenth Is not this a Snare of the Devil to throw us out of God's Favour and make us Forfeit His Protection Is it not a Snare to the Man who Devoureth that which is Holy Prov. xx 25. and after Vows to make Enquiry If it is not Lawful to make Enquiry to Grudge or Snip from what I have Vowed tho it be of things which I was not Obliged to Vow or to Give away How much more Unlawful is it to make Enquiry after I have Vowed that which was God's Due before I Vowed and which I was Obliged to Pay tho I had not Vowed it at all If Ananias and Sapphira were stricken Dead upon the Place for keeping back but Part of the Price which they had not formally Vowed no nor Promised for ought Appears but only Thought of or Resolved in their Minds to Give even of Their Own and which cou'd not have been Exacted from them Shall they Escape who keep back not a Part but the Whole of those Tythes which God had Reserved like the Forbidden fruit not to be Touched by us Ever since the Creation of Man upon the Earth And which had been moreover so often and so Solemnly VOWED with the most Dreadful Imprecations both Temporal and Eternal upon all those who should Refuse or Neglect to Pay them If the Dissembling of Ananias and Sapphira was constru'd a Lying not to Men But to The Holy-Ghost How is it not a Lying both to Men Act. v. 4. and to The Holy-Ghost to Defeat the Grants of our Fore-fathers to Disannul their Vows And Rob GOD of what they had vowed to Him and which was His Due before And is
from Him For says he Isai xlv 7. I make Peace and Create Evil I the Lord do all these things And Am. iij. 6. Shall ther be Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it The wicked Blaspheme God Psal x. 12 14 15. while they do say in their Heart Tush Thou God carest not for it He hideth away his Face and He will never see it Surely Thou hast seen it for Thou beholdest Vngodliness and Wrong This Thou may'st take the Matter into Thine own Hand And the Jews are Reprehended by our Saviour for Not Discerning the Signs of the Times Mat. xvi 3. It is call'd a Knowing of God to observe the Course of His Judgment and His Mercies for how otherwise can we Know Him upon Earth He Judged the Cause of the Poor and Needy Jer. xxij 16. then it was well with him Waâ— not this to know Me saith the Lord And the Consequence is That not to take Notice of these things is not to Know God it is to Belie Him to Blaspheme Him as in the Texts before Quoted and Many More that cou'd be Produc'd to the same Purpose Now to Apply this to our Present Purpose I do not Pretend to draw an Argument from the Many Instances of God's Remarkable Judgments upon both their Persons and Families who had Robb'd His Church as if those Judgments Must of Necessity have been Inflicted Purely and Solely for this Sin But if this be a Sin and of so Deep a Dye as it must be if it be any Sin at all for it can be no other than Sacrilege And if that be the most Open and Notorious Known Sin of these Persons And likewise That these Judgments are observ'd to follow the Lands Houses and Tythes Impropriate tho often Bought and Sold and Changing of Owners Not in Every Case for if God shou'd Punish Wickedness in All the World must soon be Destroy'd And He do's often suffer the Wicked to Prosper It is one of the Sharpest Scourges He uses to Chastise a Sinful Nation And having done His Work to Burn the Rod But when we see Judgments to follow such a Sin for the Most Part and in such Repeated and Remarkable Instances as Sir Henry Spelman gives Us in his History of Sacrilege And many more of the same sort which we can Gather elsewhere And some that our own Experience can furnish Us withal In such Cases it is far from Superstition to take Notice of the Hand of God in them And not to do it is that Stupidity and Blasphemy before Reprehended it is a Hardning our selves against all the Methods of Divine Providence a Denial of it and Living without God in the World Who can for Example avoid the Observation of the New-Forest in Hampshire Devouring so Many of William the Conqueror's Sons by Strange Deaths he having Destroy'd 26 Parish Churches to make Room for his Deer there as you may see in Spelman's Hist Sacril p. 119 120. Or what is observ'd in the Preface to his De non Temerand Eccl. p. 42. That within 20 years after Hen. VIII his Seizing the Revenues of the Church by the Advice and Assistance of his Nobility and Dividing her Patrimony among them Chiefly More of them and their Children were Attainted and Dy'd by the Sword of Justice than from the Conquest to that time which was about 500 years Sir Henry Spelman's Hist Sacril c. vij Computes that The great Increase of Lands and Wealth that came to the King by the Dissolution was Quadruple to the Crown-Lands And takes Notice p. 226 227. how the Crown-Lands were Dwindling away Most of them being then gone when he Wrote in the Reign of King Charles I. and only Fee-Farm Rents Reserv'd out of the Greatest part of them viz. 40000 l. a year out of the Crown-Lands and 60000 l. out of the Church-Lands And observes as a Continuance of the Judgment upon them That an Infraction was then begun to be Made upon the Very Fee-Farm Rents themselves And that some of them had been Alienated But if he had Liv'd another Reign he wou'd have seen them Every one Sold And the Crown Reduc'd to Live from Hand to Mouth upon the Mere Benevolence of those Whose Care it is to keep it Always so Depending and upon its Good Behaviour So much has the Crown Gain'd by the Access of Sacrilegious Wealth as from Imperial Dignity and a Propriety Paramount in all the Lands of England to become an Honourable Beggar for its Daily Bread I know not how far this has sunk with those who are Concern'd Or whether another Curse may not be Added that is Never to Consider but Go on However Sir Hen. Spelman has told Us of several Gentlemen in England who out of a Due sense of the sin of this Sacrilege have freely Given up and Restored to the Chruch as far as the Laws wou'd Permit them all their Impropriate Tythes which had Descended to them from their Ancestors That instead of them and the Curses which attended them they might Entail the Blessing of God upon the Rest of their Estates and upon their Posterities The sense of this sunk so Deep with the Great Earl of Strafford that foreseeing a new Sacrilegious Deluge of Vsurpation upon the Church then coming on An. 1640 he made it his Dying In junction to his Sâ—â— under Peril of his Curse and of the Curse of God never to meddle with any Church-Lands or what had been once Dedicated to God This Legacy he sent him from the Scaffold where Men are past Dissembling or Courting of Favour tho this cou'd have been no Recommendation to him at that time And how Light soever some Men make of the sin of Sacrilege while they Gain by it yet when they come to Dye they may have the same sense of it which that Noble Lord then so Religiously Exprest But ther being no Repentance Accepted by God without Restitution as far as in our Power I Pray God they may think of it while it is in their Power to make that Restitution which Alone can witness the Sincerity of their Repentance 8. Ther can no Pretence be made for the Lawfulness of Impropriations when those Very Acts of Parliament which took them from the Church and Gave them to Lay-Men do acknowledge that they are God's Dues and His Right That they are Due to God and Holy Church as in 27 Hen. VIII c. 20. Nay they were always so acknowledg'd and no otherwise Insomuch that ther was no Law or Precedent for a Lay-Man to sue for Tythes it was utterly Heterogeneous and Abhorrent For which Reason when Tythes were given to Lay-Men they were forced to have a Particular Act of Parliament 32 Hen. VIII c. 7. to Enable Lay-men to sue for Tythe which before they cou'd not do In which Very Act Tythe is Nam'd as being Due to Almighty God And next to Act of Parliament the Great Oracle of our Law Sir Edw. Coke is to be heard who
Small Encouragement towards it I have now done with my Politicks wherein I have no Talent And Return to make a Short Conclusion from all that has been said CONCLVSION IF it be a Truth That we ought to Honour the Lord with our Substance If that be Part of his Worship of the Honour due unto his Name If the Determinate Quantum of a Tenth Part has been the Receiv'd Notion and Practice of the Whole Earth ever since the Beginning as far as we have any Account of Times If God has Promised Great Blessings as well Temporal as Eternal to our Performance of this Part of Religious Worship the Due Payment of our Tythe to Him And Threatned the Neglect thereof with severe Judgments even to Curse Whole Nations Accounting it as a Robbing of Himself And if we have seen this made Good in the Heathen Nations as well as amongst Jews and Christians And visited many Years after it was Committed in following Generations to shew that he Forgets not this Sin though He may bear Long with it If ther be any thing Sacred in Vows Made in the Most Solemn Manner by Kings Parliaments and People with the Dreadfulest Imprecations and Curses upon Themselves and Posterities who shou'd Alienate or take back to Common Vse what they had Dedicated to God and His Church If it be the Rule of our Law and Determin'd Now every Day in Westminster-Hall That what is once Mortify'd to the Service of God can never Revert to the Donor And that if the Particular Vses for which he did Mortifie such Lands Money c. be Superstitious or Vnlawful the Vse is to be Amended and the thing Devoted turn'd to some other Holy Use like the Censers of Korah But can never Revert to the Donor or his Heirs because the Grant is To God and His Church And Must so Remain and cannot be De-Secrated or Return'd to Common Use Nay though the Vse shou'd become Impracticable as in the Late Case of Mr. Snell who gave a Mortification for four Scots Exhibitioners in Baliol-College in Oxford for the Propagation of Episcopacy in Scotland Which being Now Abolish'd there by Act of Parliament that Use is for the Present become Impracticable And his Heirs who sued for this here in Chancery Offer'd to give Sufficient Security That whenever the Vse shou'd become Practicable the Mortification shou'd be Apply'd to it But the Court wou'd not suffer that Ther must be no Compounding or Jesting with God what is once Mortify'd to His Service must not Revert And the Exhibitioners are now Maintain'd upon it in Baliol-College though the Vse for which Mr. Snell did Design it is at Present Impracticable But if the thing Mortify'd Vowed or Devoted be not any thing of our Own but that which God has Antecedently Hallowed and Reserv'd to Himself as the Tythes And consequently wherein we never had any Property Then the Breach of Such Vows Made only in Affirmation and for the Performance of what was our Duty before and though we had not Added the farther Sanction of an Oath to God I say The Breach of Such Vows have an Additional and Great Aggravation as to Substract our Tythes which are Commanded wou'd be More Heinous than not to Make a Free-will-Offering Though when it is Offer'd it is Hallowed as well as the other And when we say to God Hallowed be thy Name if we Must Mean All that is Hallowed to his Name as well Things as Words that All such be Pay'd to Him then whenever we Repeat The Lord's Prayer we do Again Hallow All our Dedicated things to God It is a Fresh Vow at least an Acknowledgment and Recognition of all our Former Vows And not only of Our Own but of what has been Vowed and Dedicated by Others especially if we are their Successors for then the Obligation Descends upon Us and we are Answerable for the Performance All I have to Add is That wherein soever we find we have done Amiss we shou'd not Deferr to Return and Amend And put not off from Day to Day Abraham Rose Early to Sacrifice his Only Son whom he Loved Ther must be a Zeal to Execute the Commands of God even when most Adverse to Flesh and Blood To shew the Preference we give to God above All other things whatsoever Without this we shall never be able to overcome the Strong Temptations of the World And when they cannot Persuade Us they will Retard and Hinder Us And make us go Heavily about our Work And then they seldom fail to Stop Us altogether and finally to Disappoint Us. For the Longer we Delay after we are Convinc'd we are Every Day less Apt to Dis-ingage our selves from the World Our Trust in God grows Weaker when we Dare not Venture upon it And by the same Degrees our Trust in the World grows Stronger And the Longer it Continues so we grow Weaker and Weaker And our Faith Dwindles into Less than a Grain of Mustard-seed Whereas if we wou'd put on a Noble and Christian Courage and but Try the Experiment then if we found it Answer beyond our Expectations it wou'd Encrease our Faith And we shou'd Rise from Strength to Strength and find Comforts beyond Expression Not only that Peace of Mind which the World cannot Give But it wou'd be the surest Means to Attain even the Riches of this World To Prevail with God to Bless and Encrease our Store as He has Promised And Bid Us Prove Him herewith if He will not Perform it Mal. iij. 10. And if a Modern Example will be any Encouragement he that writes this do's Assure the Reader That he knows Now at this Present where Tythes are and have been for some time Punctually paid according to the Rules before set down And the Effects have been Wonderful More than an Hundredfold and in Manner Extreamly Remarkable and Surprizing Glory be to God 17. July 1699. A FORM OF Prayer and Thanksgiving Upon the Offering our Tythe to the PRIEST A Gentile ready to Perish was my Father Deut. xxvi 5. Rom. xi 17. a Wild Olive Tree growing out of the Paradise of God the Pale of his Church But He sent forth his Son a Light to Lighten the Gentiles and hath shined even unto us And I Profess this Day unto The Lord thy God Deut. xxvi 3. that I am come unto His Glorious Gospel which the Lord swore unto our Fathers to give us And moreover that He hath been with me Gen. xxviij 20. and kept me in the way that I have gone and has given me Bread to eat and Raiment to put on And now behold Deut. xxvi 10. I have brought the First-Fruits all the Tythes of my Increase 12. I have brought away the Hallowed things out of mine House 13. neither have I taken away ought thereof but I have hearkened to the Voice of the Lord my God 14. To Honour the Lord with my Substance Prov. iij. 16. and with the First-Fruits of all Mine