Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	faith_n	pope_n	3,103	5	6.3417	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91192	A Gospel plea (interwoven with a rational and legal) for the lawfulnes & continuance of the ancient setled maintenance and tenthes of the ministers of the Gospel: proving, that there is a just, competent, comfortable maintenance due to all lawfull painfull preachers and ministers of the Gospel, by divine right, institution, and expresse texts and precepts of the Gospel: that glebes and tithes are such a maintenance, & due to ministers by divine right, law and Gospel: that if subtracted or detained, they may lawfully be inforced by coercive laws and penalties: that tithes are no reall burden nor grievance to the people; the abolishing them, no ease or benefit to farmers, husband-men, or poor people, but a prejudice and losse. That the present opposition against tithes, proceeds not from any reall grounds of conscience, but base covetousnesse, carnall policy, &c. and a Jesuiticall and Anabaptisticall designe, to subvert and ruin our ministers, Church, religion. With a satisfactory answer to all cavils and materiall objections to the contrary. By William Prynne of Swainswick, Esq;	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1653 (1653)	Wing P3971; Thomason E713_12; ESTC R203238; ESTC R26600	128,273	175

be hanged for Traytors and Antichristian Ministers in good earnest else l●t him be hanged in their steed for this his impudent slander of them all as well Independents as Prebyterians Have of late years come and been sent into this Realme of England and were any of our Ministers such and not rather Canne himself coming hither from Amsterdam for the purposes following and other the Queens Dominions OF PURPOSE AS IT HATH APPEARED as well by some of their own examinations now out of date as by divers other Manifest means and proofs more visible of late years than ever not onely to withdraw her Highnesse subjects from their due obedience to her Majestie but also to st●r up and move Sedition Rebellion and open Hostility within the same her Highnesse Realms and Dominions to the great indangering of the safety of her most Royall Person and to the utter ruine desolation and overthrow of the whole Realm now effected as a Realm if the same be not the sooner and now pray God it be not over late by some good means foreseen and prevented For reformation whereof be it ordained c. That All Priests and Jesuits Canne cannot spy such good friends within the Act but deletes them out of it Seminary Priests and other Priests whatsoever made and ordained out of the Realm of England c. under the penalties therein mentioned Had Canne pressed this Statute to those he dedicates his Pamphlet for the speedy execution of it against those many Jesuites and Seminary Priests now in England for their traiterous Practises and Designes therein mentioned of late and now driven on and almost compleated by them it had been a commendable zeale but to write one word or syllable against these Romish Vermine arch-Engineers Janizaries of the Romish See now swarming among us to rui●● our Kingdomes Parliaments Laws Liberties Church Ministers Ministry Religion forreign Protestant States Churches now engaged by them in bloudy wars both by Land and Sea and to omit th● very name of the Jesuits the first Popish Agents mentioned and chiefly intended in this Act and presse it onely against our Ministers Calling Ministry Tithes and Maintenance of purpose to ruine them and theirs and by consequence our Church and Religion the Designe and scope of his whole Pamphlet is such a malicious unchristian Antichristian Practise as proclaims him to all the world either a new converted Jesuite or Romish Factor under the Garb of an old Anabaptist or an over-grown cankered Anabaptist void of Piety Honesty and inspired by the very Father of Lyes For not one of our English Ministers I know or hear of except two or three Jesuits and Priests crept into Livings in Staffordshire and elsewhere very lately I know not by whose favour or negligence was ever ordained by any such Jurisdiction or authority as is here mentioned which all our Ministers and their Ordainers too whether Prelates or Presbyters particularly and publickly abjured both at the time of their respective Ordinations and admissions to their Benefices and likewise when they took any Degree of Learning in our Vniversities by the two known famous Oaths of SUPREMACY and ALLEGIANCE purposely made and ratified by * sundry zealous Protestant Parliaments against the usurped Papal Jurisdiction and authority of the See of Rome and the Popes Jesuits and Papists practises to blow up and destroy our Protestant Kings Parliaments Laws Liberties Religion and subvert our Kingly Government whole State and Common-wealth for the better discovering of them yet lately suspended abrogated as dangerous unlawfull Oaths by some of Cannes good friends who would be reputed Zealots against the Popes Jurisdiction and his Creatures too Now how those Ministers of our Church who thus abjured the Jurisdiction of Rome at the time of their very Ordination and their Ordainers too before them and since have don● the like in their Solemne League and Covenant can without the highest slander be said to derive their Ministry from it and that by Canne his Jesuiticall Anabaptistical Fraternity who never took one of these Oaths or the Covenant and revile repeal them as unlawful out of love to the Popes Jurisdiction Jesuits Priests c. or for want of zeal against them Let the world and this slanderers own Conscience if he have any left determine Besides who knows not but this Ignoramus that the Rites and Ceremonies of Ordination in the Church of Rome recorded at large in Ceremoniale Pontificiale Pontificum Romanorum and the ends of Ordination likewise viz. to say Masse create their Creator offer up Christ in Sacrifice at the altar to his Father Invocate Saints adore Images yield Canonicall obedience to the Pope and his Supremacy c. are far different from the form and ends of our Ministers Ordination in the Church of England prescribed by the Parl. 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 1. ratified by the Statutes of 1 Eliz. 2. c. 1 2. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 8 Eliz. c. 1. and 39 Eliz c. 8. made onely by Protestant Parliaments as they particularly condemne renounce the Popes power and Jurisdiction so they declare and resolve our Ministers Ordination to be lawfull and them in very deed to be Ministers and rightly made ordained and ●onsecrated according to Gods word without any derivative power or Ordination from the Church of Rome And therefore for this New pander for the Whore of Rome to averre they receive their ministry and ordination thence is a NOTORIOVS LYE yea but saith he Francis Mason of Consecration and Mr. Yates in his Modell of Divinity prove and confesse That the Ministry of the Church of England established by the Law of the Land IS DERIVED FROM THE POPE and ROME True but in what sense onely by way of Succession as his own Ministry and Faith if he hath any were derived from John of Leyden or just as our Bibles Religion Baptisme Churches were derived thence and all now living with Canne himself derived from Popish Ancestors many even from Popes Popish Priests Prelates Friars by naturall generation God used the Popes of Rome and their Instruments to convert the Britains and Saxons from thei Paganisme to the Christian not Papal or Roman Faith which through Gods mercy hath continued amongst us ever since yet mixed of later times with manifold Popish Errors and Superstitions These Errors and Superstitions our godly Martyrs and by them our Kings and Parliaments discovering did thereupon by speciall Acts of Parliament abolish as derived from the Church of Rome together with the Popes usurped power and Gain which they served onely to support retaining onely the Scriptures Sacraments Soul-saving Doctrines thence derived by succession onely but authoritatively and originally from God and Christ himself with such Godly Orthodox Bishops and Ministers who though first ordained in the Church of England when Popish did yet renounce all the Popish Errors Corruptions with the Popes Supremacy and all Popish additionall Rites to the form of their Ordination and

Swainswicke 1 Sep. 1653. To the unprejudiced Christian Reader KInd Reader the 80. Psalme in my weak judgement is both a lively Character of the deplorable condition of Gods Church of late yea●s and l●kewise a most excellent Morning and Evening Prayer for it in pub●ick or private The Psalmist thus complaines That God by the OPPRESSING SWORD of combined enemies as Psal 83. imports had broken down his Churches hedges so that all they that passed by the way did pluck her the Boare out of the forrest did wast it and the wild beasts OF THE FIELD devour it The ancient hedges of the Church here planted and spread in our Nation to wit Gods d●vine protection and Law the Patronage Lawes Statutes Priviledges and Immunities granted confirmed to our Churches by the manifold great Charters Lawes Statutes of such bountifull devout Kings and Queens as God himselfe predicted should be NURSING FATHERS and NURSING MOTHERS UNTO HIS CHURCH under the Gospell and bring their Glory and Honour to it and Kings of Iles amongst others having been of late years very much broken down and almost levelled to the dust by arbitrarie Committees Sequestrations and the oppressing all-devouring Sword of War which God hath kept so long unsheathed without returning into the Scabberd these many years for the just punishment of our manifold sins and enormities all they that goe by the way or in by-wayes taking advantage thereof have so plucked and the wilde-boares out of the wood and wilde-men and wilde-beasts of the field have so wasted and devoured the best and richest part of our Country Patrimony originally designed by the Parliament by a spec●all Bill tendered to the late King at Oxford Aprill 1643. when Arch-bishops Bishops Deanes and Chapters were first voted down and extirpated as none of our Heavenly fathers plants or planting for the encrease of the Crown Revenues to ease the people in their future Taxes and the Augmentation of our Ministers maintenance and incompetent livings that there is little or none of it now remaining undevoured by them for either of these two publick ends And many new highway-men wilde-boars and Beasts as well as old encouraged by former rich Church-plunders in stead of imitating faithfull Abraham whose heires and children they professe themselves who gave THE TENTH OF ALL HIS SPOYLES OF WARRE to Melchisedec Priest of the most high God a type of our Saviour Christ if not Christ himselfe as some probably assert they most eagerly and violently attempt to spoyle plunder all the Evangelicall Priests and Ministers of God throughout the Nation at one blow without any lawfull Tryall by their Peers due processe of Law or Legall conviction of any Capitall crimes which cannot forfei● their Churches inheritance which is not so vested in them as either to forfeit or alien by the Law of God or the Realme in all their inconsiderable remaining Tithes Glebes and setled ancient Maintenance and of their very Ministry too as JEWISH and ANTICHRISTIAN as John Canne the old Anabaptist in his new Voice from the ALEHOUSES RATHER then the TEMPLE which certainely is as Jewish and Antichristian as he would have Tithes to be with sundry late Petitions and Proceedings proclaime to all the World and strip them naked of all other coercive maintenance for the future to starve them and their families bodies and the peoples souls that so a new generation of ambulatory Fryers Mendicants and Itinerary Predicants fixed to no certaine Parish or Parishes selected out of those swarmes of Jesuites Seminary Priests and Popish Fryers now in England under the disguises of Anabaptists Gifted Brethren Dippers Seekers Quakers New-lights Mechanickes of all Trades Gentlemen Troopers and Souldiers too Ignatius Loyola their Father and founder of their Order being a SOULDIER by his profession as diverse of his Disciples are now amongst us as many wise men beleeve and some on their owne knowledge averre may succeed them in their Ministry to subvert our Church Religion and reduce us back to Rome The Pope now living within these few years affirming to some English Gentlemen of quality in Rome who out of curiosity only went to see him being Protestants that he hoped before he died though he were aged to see England perfectly reduced to her former obedience to the See of Rome having sent many Jesuites Priests Fryers from all parts into England and particularly into THE ARMY as Ramsy the late detected Jesuite at New-Castle under the vizor of a converted Anabaptized Jew confessed in his printed Examination there lately taken and sent up with him to Whitehall Against whom Iohn Canne might have done well to have pressed those to whom he dedicated his Voice from the Temple to execute the Statute of 27 Eliz. c. 2. particularly made against them as most dangerous insufferable Tray●ors purposely sent over TO WORKE THE RUINE DESOLATION and DESTRUCTION OF THE WHOLE REALME as well as of our Church and Religion as that Statute reso●ves and not to have most ignorantly and malicio●sly wrested it contrary both to the very letter and inten●ion against our godly Protestant Ministers their greatest opposites and eye-sores to strip them of their Ben●fices Livelihood and ●●ves together the whole scope of his Lamentable Voice without so much as uttering one word against these wilde-boares and beasts of Rome with whom he and his Companions the Anabaptists are apparent Confederates both in their principles and practises against our Ministers Maintenance Calling Lawes and setled Government to their eternall Infamy The sad consideration whereof hath engaged me though no Impropriator whose cause I plead not nor other Tithe-receiver but a consciencious Tithe-payer as my Ancesters were before me without any retaining fee or other Solicitation to appeare publickly in the defence of this common cause of God and all his faithfull Ministers Tithes and ancient setled Maintenance being through his mercy and their Prayers enlarged from my long close remote Imprisonments as I did occasionally in private whiles a close Prisoner in Pendennis Castle in Cornwall in December and January last against some Officers and Souldiers there who publickly subscribed in the Castle by sound of Drum three severall mornings and promoted in the Country a Petition for abolishing all Tithes though our Ministers own by all Divine and Humane Lawes Rights which our Souldiers nor any mortals now living gave to them nor have any pretence of Law Power or Authority from God or our Nation to take from them and all other compulsory Maintenance in lieu of them for Ministers sent to them and to other Garisons as they then informed me by the Generall Counsell of Officers of the Army from St. James both for their own subscriptions though few or none of them or other subscribers of such Petitions Tith-payers and such hands of Countrymen as they could procure Upon which occasion I had some briefe discourses with some of them concerning the lawfulnesse and antiquity of Tithes

A GOSPEL PLEA Interwoven with a RATIONAL and LEGAL FOR THE LAWFULNES CONTINUANCE of the Ancient Setled MAINTENANCE and TENTHES Of the Ministers of the Gospel PROVING That there is a Just Competent Comfortable Maintenance due to all Lawfull painfull Preachers and Ministers of the Gospel by Divine Right Institution and expresse Texts and Precepts of the Gospel That Glebes and Tithes are such a Maintenance due to Ministers by Divine Right Law and Gospel That if substracted or detained they may lawfully be inforced by Coercive Laws and Penalties That Tithes are no reall Burden nor grievance to the people The abolishing them no ease or benefit to Farmers Husband-men or poor people but a Prejudice and Losse That the present opposition against Tithes proceeds not from any reall grounds of Conscience but base Covetousnesse Carnall policy c. and a Jesuiticall and Anabaptisticall designe to subvert and ruin our Ministers Church Religion With a Satisfactory Answer to all Cavils and Materiall Objections to the contrary By WILLIAM PRYNNE Of Swainswick Esq Mal. 3. 8 9. Will a man rob God Yet ye have robbed me But ye say Wherein have we robbed thee In Tithes and Offerings Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole Nation Mat. 22. 21. Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are his AUG Serm. 219. Si tu illam Decimam non dederis dabis impio Militi quod non vis dar Deo Sacerdoti Hoc tollit Fiscus quod non accepit Christus London Printed by E. Cotes for Michael Sparke and are to be sold at the Blue Bible in Green Arbor 1653. Christi servus etiam in summa Captivitate Liber Anno 1653. Aetatis 49. All flesh is Grass the best men vanity This but a shadow here before thine eye Of him whose wondrous changes clearly show That GOD not men swayes all things here below The Places and Times of his First Imprisonments under his professed Enemies the PRELATES 1. THe Tower of London to which he was committed for his Histriomastix Februa 1. 1632. It being Licensed II. The Fleet when his first sentence for his Histriomastix was executed May 7. 1634. III. The Tower of London to which he was committed from the Fleet June 1. 1639. IV. Carnarvan Castle in Northwales to which by his second Sentence he was sent close Prisoner from the Tower August 5. 1637. V. Mount Orguel Castle in the Isle of Jersy where he was close imprisoned when removed from Carnarvan Januar. 17. 1637. Whence he was sent for and enlarged by the Parliament Novemb. 19. 1640. The Places and Times of his Second Imprisonments under false Brethren and pretended Friends I. HEll in Westminster by the Army Officers for speaking his conscience and discharging his duty in Parliament Decemb. 6. 1648. II. The Swan in the Strand by the same Officers for the same cause Decemb. 7. 1648. III. The Kings-head in the Strand by the same Power for the same cause Janua 2. 1648. IV. Dunster Castle in Summersetshire where he was close Prisoner by a Whitehall Warrant under Mr. ●●adshaw's hand expressing no particular cause July 1. 1650. V. Taunton Castle and the Lambe Taverne in Taunton when removed from Taunton by no particular warrant Janua 12. 1651. VI. Pendennis Castle in Cornewall where he remained close Prisoner by a Whitehall Warrant under Mr. Bradshaw's hand mentioning no cause but Tauntons unfitnesse to restrain him in July 2. 1651. 2 COR. 11. 23. to 28. In Labours more aboundant in PRISONS MORE FREQVENT in Deaths oft in Journying often in Perils of waters in Perils of Robbers in Perils by mine own Countrymen in Perils in the City in Perils in the Sea in Perils among false Brethren In wearinesse and painfulnesse in watchings often in cold and nakednesse Loe here the shade but not Heroick minde And Publick soul of him who most unkinde Vnjust Restraints Bonds Pressures hath sustain'd From foes and friends because he still maintain'd Religion Truth Lawes Freedome Justice Right His Countries common good with his whole might In all ill Times and ne're would once combine With Lawlesse Grandees these to undermine 2 TIM 3. 10 11 12. But thou hast fully known my Doctrine manner of Life Purpose Faith Long-suffering Charity Patience Persecutions Afflictions which came unto me at Antioch at Iconium at Lystra what Persecutions I endured But out of them all the Lord delivered me yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution London Printed for M. S. 1653. To my most High Mighty Great Dreadfull Omnipotent Omnipresent Omniscient Righteous True Faithfull All-gracious All-sufficient Everliving Everlasting Immutable Covenant-keeping LORD GOD the God of my Life Health Strength Mercy Preservation Consolation Supportation Salvation Deliverance Praise O God THE SAVIOUR of Israel of England too anciently styled Regnum Dei Gods Kingdome Thou art God alone and there is none else Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee In thee alone I live move and have my being Thou art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever My whole Spirit Soul Body Parts Endowments Naturall Spirituall are only of thee through thee O sanctifie them wholly for and only to thee to whom alone I desire intirely and eternally to devote them as due to none but thee and that by right of Creation Redemption Resignation Preservation and that extraordinary Tribute of gratitude I stand most deeply engaged to render to thy most gracious Majesty for those many and manifold WONDERS of Preservation Supportation Concomitation Protection Consolation Absolution Vindication and Restauration thou hast of thy free Grace most miraculously extended to me the meanest and unworthyest of all thy servants in under from all my former and late injurious illegall Sufferings Oppressions Imprisonments inhumane close Restraints Exiles in TEN SEVERALL PRISONS CASTLES some of them at remotest distance from all Acquaintance Kindred Friends and thy publick Ordinances under some Rude Barbarous armed Gardians and Men of bloud of purpose to destroy me where thou was present with me as with Daniel in the Lyons den Paul in the Lyons mouth the three Children in the midst of the fiery Furnance Jonah in the whales belly to secure comfort and supply me for about ELEVEN YEARS SPACE through the malice and cruelty of mercilesse men yet blessed be thy holy name for no other cause or crime thy poor servants conscience is guilty of his last close Imprisonments in three severall Castles being without the least Examination Hearing Accusation Charge of any particular offence against him or yet declared to him but only his sincere cordiall desire to discharge his bounden duty to glorifie thee in his generation by opposing the dangerous wrath-provoking Errors and corruptions of the age in which he liveth by contending earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto

the Saints according to thy Commands and for the setled fundamentall Lawes Liberties Rights Government of his distracted Native Countrie against all secret Underminers open Oppugners or Subverters of them to the uttermost of his Ability By a consciencious inviolable observation of all those solemne sacred Oathes Protestations Covenants and Obligations prescribed by those lawfull higher Powers thou commandedst him to submit to under paine of DAMNATION wherewith he hath frequently bound his soul not so much to men as to thee who art a most Faithfull Promise-Oath-Covenant keeping God especially of those Oaths and Covenants wherewith thou vouchsafest to oblige thy self even to meer dust and ashes both IMMUTABLE and INVIOLABLE never violating nor repenting of them in the least degree and obliging men both by thine owne example and Precepts to do the like in all their publick or private Oathes Vowes Covenants to thee or men under pain of temporall wrath here and eternall exclusion from thy holy Hill And for not daring to confederate or comply against his Oathes Covenants manifold publick Engagements Conscience Judgement and thy sacred Inhibitions WITH THOSE WHO ARE GIVEN TO CHANGE many of whose Calamities and Ruines are sodainly risen and fallen upon them by the Divine justice even from those they least suspected and most relyed on for Protection for the manifold changes they presumed to make against their Oathes Vowes Trusts Protestations Covenants and unrighteous oppressing of their dearest Christian Friends Brethren and thy suffering Servant among others Now all Glory Honour Power Salvation and Prayse be for ever rendered by me and all thy glorious Saints and Angels in heaven and earth because true and righteous are thy Judgements and because the deliverance of me thy oppressed Servant without any wound to his Conscience dishonour to thy Name or scandall to thy People is exceeding Gracious and Glorious Now Know I again and again that the Lord loveth his anointed that he hath heard him and others praying for him from his holy Heaven WITH THE SAVING STRENGTH OF HIS RIGHT HAND Some of his self-exalting Oppressors trusted in Chariots and some in Horses but he remembred the Lord his God they are brought down and fallen but he is risen and stands upright Who therefore ever will rejoyce greatly in THY SALVATION and in the Name of his God will set up his Banners For thou hast broken the gates of Brasse and cut the bars of Iron in sunder Thou hast sent thy holy Angel and knocked off the Chaines from my long fettered hands and made the long-barred Iron Castle Gates wherein I was close shut up to open of their own accord without any enforced long-expected Petition from me Thou hast rescued me from more then 4. Quaternions of Souldiers who most strictly garded me day and night as they did thyimprisoned Apostle Peter and more narrowly then any formerly under the Prelats greatest Tyranny and delivered him out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the People of the Je●s the Jesuits and Popish Priests who marched freely abroad not only preaching but printing and dispersing no lesse then 19. grosse Popish Books in defence of their Religion and condemning ours for Heresie whiles I their chief oppugner was shut up so close in three remote Castles that I could neither write against nor discover their Plots against our Church State Religion nor yet send Letters to mine Imprisoners to demand my liberty unless I would first give Copies of them to my Gardians and then trust them to send them when and by whom they pleased nor have admission to thy publick Ordinances for above two years space In thankfull Commemoration of which my late and great deliverance from this Aegyptian Bondage I doe here presume in all humility at thy feet and Dedicate to thee the Great GAOLE-DELIVERING PRISONER-LOOSING GOD who sayest to the Prisoner GOE FORTH and to them that are in darknesse SHEW YOUR SELVES this mean and unworthy Gospell Plea for the lawfulnesse and continuance of the Ancient setled Maintenance and Tithes of thy Minist●rs of the Gospell reserved to and by thy self AS THY. DEVOTED PORTION DEBT DUE whereof many now by FRAUD and VIOLENCE endevour Sacrilegiously TO ROB BOTH THEE and THEM as the first fruits of my enlargement a Second EBENEZER Hitherto hath the Lord HELPED ME and a lasting Monument to Posterity of my gratitude and thankfulnesse to thee my God for my late restitution to so much Liberty and Freedome as to be able thus once more publickly to plead thine owne and thy Ministers cause against Jesuits Anabaptists and all other open Oppugners and Subverters of our Church and State and secret Underminers of the true Preachers and Preaching of the Gospell who now like Gebal Ammon Amalek Edom Ismael Moab the Hagarens Ph●listines the Inhabitants of Tyre and armed Assur of old have consulted together with one consent and are confederate against thee and have said Come and let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance Bes●eching thy Majesty most graciously to accept it most powerfully to protect and so effectually to blesse prosper it and thy servant against all these combined Confederates that they may be no way able to resist thy Truth Wisdome Spirit appearing pleading in it by it but either like convicted Seducers or Seduced persons fall down flat on their faces before it worship thee and report that God is in it and in thy servant of a truth Or in case of wifull malicious obstinacy against thee and thy faithfull Ministers Houses of publick worship Truth and Gospell Do unto them as unto the Midianites as to Sisera and to Jabin at the brook of Kison which perished at Endor and became as dung for the earth Make their Nobles like Oreb and Zeeb yea make all their Princes as Zebah and as Salmunna who said as these doe now LET US TAKE TO OUR SELVES THE HOUSES OF GOD IN POSSESSION O my God make them as a wheel as the stubble before the winde As the fire burneth the wood and as the flame setteth the mountaines on fire so persecute them with thy tempest and make them afraid of thy storme fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name O Lord let them be confounded and troubled for ever yea let them be put to shame and perish That men these men may know that thou whose name alone is JEHOVAH art the most high over all the earth So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture wil give thee thanks for ever we will shew forth thy Praise to all generations And thy servant Davids resolution Whiles I live will I praise the Lord I will sing praises unto my God WHILE I HAVE ANY BEING shall through thy Grace be both the Resolution and Practice of Thy unworthy unprofitable Redeemed Preserved and frequently enlarged Servant and Vassall William Prynne

First paid by Souldiers out of the very spoyles of Battle taken in the very first Warre we read of to the very first Priest of God we find recorded in the Scripture and therefore admired that Officers and Souldiers in this age should so degenerate as to be the very ringleaders and chief oppugners of them drawing up some brief Notes of this subject out of Scripture to help passe the time in defence of Tithes relating more particularly to Souldiers to silence satisfie and reclaime them from this Sacrilegious designe which having since enlarged with Arguments and Answers to their Objections drawn from their own Military pro●essions for the better satisfaction and conviction of all Sword-men and others I hope neither Officers nor Souldiers nor any others truly fearing God if they confider Lecit 19. 17. Mat. 18. 15 16 17. Prov. 19. 25. 10. 17. 12. 1. 13. 18. 15. 10 31 32. 17. 10. 25. 12. Psal 141. 5. 1 Sam. 25. 32 33. 1 Tim. 5. 20. Luke 3. 14. will or can be justly Offended with me no more for writing truth then speaking it to their faces as I did upon all occasions whiles among them not to defame but to informe and reforme them for their own and the publick good in what I conceive not warrantable by but repugnant to Gods word and their duties as Souldiers or Christians and to those known fundamentall Lawes Liberties of the Nation they were purposely raysed commissioned waged and engaged by Protestations Covenants and their own voluntary printed Declarations to protect and not subvert and that they will not repute it a capitall crime in me not to prove a flatterer or dissembler or not to act or write wittingly against my Science and Conscience when our Ministers Maintenance Calling Religion Gods glory Lawes Liberties all we have or hope for are in danger of such a sad sodain and destructive Convulsion and concussion if not Subversion as I long since by Authority of Parliament discovered in Romes Master-piece well worth perusall now when so many known Jesuits under a new Provinciall which Hugh Peters himself reported as I have been credibly informed are now even in London it selfe acting as busily and sitting there in Councell as duely as when the reclaimed Author of that discovery purposely sent from Rome for the purposes therein discovered was resident amongst them O that these professed Enemies of our Church Religion Nation and those Janizaries of Rome may not sow their Tares of error and seeds of ruine and desolation amongst us whiles almost our who●e Nation for ought I can discerne if not those who call themselves Watch-men are in a dead sleep or Lethargy and heaving at our most faithfull Ministers maintenance and Callings too in stead of enquiring after discovering these Arch-traytors and executing the good Lawes and Oathes against them to prevent those treafonable practises destructive designes miseries and that ruine to our Religion Government Governors Lawes Parliaments Church and Common-wealth which the wise Protestant vigilant Parliaments of 13 Eliz. c. 1. 23 Eliz. c. 1. 27 Eliz. c. 2. ●5 Eliz. c. 2. 1 Jac. c. 4. 3 Jac. 1 2 4 5. 7 Jac. c. 6. and some hundreds of Declarations and p●in ed Ordinances R●monst ances of the Lords and Commons the last Parliament with the good new Lawes and Oath they provided against those Romish Vipers quite buried in Oblivion have publ●shed to allarme all drowsie stupid carelesse people all lovers of God their Religion or Country against them even at this very season when they and their confederates are wittingly or ignorantly over-turning overturning overturning whatever is not yet totally subverted am●ng us and carrying on these their designes If these my impotent undertakings with a sincere affection only to Gods glory and the reall weal and preservation of our Religion Ministry Lawes Native Country and all Protestant Churches now indangered by their mutuall discords and Jesuite Emissaries to foment their intestine differences may so farre open the eyes of all Degrees in our Nation really fearing God so to know in this their day the things which belong unto their peace and settlement and to move them effectually to pursue them before they be hid from their eyes I have all the reward I do expect and shall blesse God for the good successe If any shall be offended with me or it and requite me only with envy hatred persecution and new Oppression Bonds close Imprisonments for well-doing and endevouring any more publick good for our Church Religion Country I shall commit my cause to God who judgeth righteously who hath so often brought forth my righteousnesse as the Light and my judgement as the Noon-day to the shame and confusion of my causelesse enemies and shall carry this comfortable cordiall unto my brest to any Prison Pillory Gibbet Grave that the malice or power of poor vapouring Mortals who know not how soon their violent dealing may or will come down upon their own pates as well as on other potent adversaries shall be able to hurry me to and ascend triumphantly which is to heaven it selfe that I have discharged that duty which God Conscience Providence and the publick danger of our Ministry and Religion and my sacred Oathes and Covenants have engaged me unto And if I perish for it I perish and in perishing shall by Gods assistanced part with this Swan-like Saint-like Song of that eminent Prisoner of Jesus Christ who was in Prisons more frequent in P●rils Afflictions and Persecutions often as I have been for the faithfull discharging of his duty I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteoufnesse which God the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them also which suffer for his truth and love his appearing which is the unshaken constant faith hope and expectation of thine and our Churches Countries unmercenary faithfull Friend and Servant William Prynne A GOSPELL PLEA FOR THE Lawsulnesse and Continuance of the Antient setled Maintenance and Tithes of the Ministers of the GOSPELL THE antient necessary competent maintenance of our Ministers of the Gospell setled on them by the Piety and Bounty of our religious Christian Kings and Ancestors almost from the very first preaching and embracing of the G●spell in this Iland and constantly enjoyed ever since without any publick opposition being in these times of a long expected glorious resormation and reall propagation of the Gospell more audeciously oppugned more impiously decryed declaimed petitioned publickly against and more sacrilegiously invaded detained substracted then in the very worst or profanest of former ages and that not only by professed enemies of the Ministers and Ministery of the Gospell but by such who pretend themselves their friends and the most precious Saints who not yet satisfyed with the late sales of all

our Arch-bishops Bishops Cathedrals Deanes and Chapters Lands and Revenues the fattest morsels of the English Clergy tending rather to support their Lordly Power Pride Pomp and Luxury then their true Gospell Ministry ingrossed into Sword-mens and Lay-mens hands do now industriously and violently endevour speedily to deprive all our painfull godly preaching Ministers of all their remaining inconsiderable Maintenance by Tithes Glebes Oblations and other duties formerly setled on them by long prescription by sundry successive Lawes and Acts of Parliaments as well as ●●te Ordinances with sufficient warrant even from Gods Word and Gospell and to leave them no other subsistence encouragement or reward for all their labour in Gods harvest but the meer arbitrary unco●rcive Benevolence of the people who being generally profane covetous vicious and enemies to all godly Ministers will not voluntarily contribute one farthing towards them desiring rather their room and ruine then their company or subsistence and what they shal otherwise earn by their own labour and industry in some other callings It is high time for all sincere Patrons and Friends of the Ministers and Ministry of the Gospell now dangerously assaulted publickly to appear in their behalf and openly to vindicate to secure as well the Divine as Civill right of their yet remaining ancient necessary established Maintenance against the clamorous cavils and false absurd Allegations of Sacrilegious Covetous Impious Violent Unreasonable B●utish men to convince them of their errour and impiety herein or else to shame and silence them for the future and preserve our Ministers and Ministry and by consequence our very Religion it selfe now more endangered then in any age since its first establishment from impendent ruine For which end having not long since had some private discourses with Souldiers concerning the lawfulnesse of our Ministers Tithes and setled Maintenance during my late strict restraints under their armed Guards and perusing some short Prison notes and notions upon that occasion of that subject lying by me I thought fit to enlarge and reduce them to these ensuing Propositions wherein the whole controversie now publickly agitated touching our Ministers Tithes and Livelihood is comprised and to make them publick for the common good and satisfaction of those who shall peruse them especially Sword-men whom I finde most violent against T●●hes and Ministers forced Maintenance trusting more as I apprehend to the length of their Swords then strength of their Arguments against them which how weak they are let all rationall perusers hereof resolve The Propositions I shall here through Gods assistance make good from the very Law Word and Gospel of God with all possible brevity I trust beyond contradiction are these 1. That there is a just competent and comfortable Maintenance due to all lawfull painfull Preachers and Ministers of the Gosp●ll from the people even by Divine right and institution and expresse Texts and Precepts of the Gospell 2. That the maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospell and of Places and Houses for Gods publick worship by Tithes Glebes Oblations yea and spoyles won in battle by Generals Collonels Captaines and Souldiers is not only lawfull and expedient but the most fitting rationall and convenient Maintenance of a●l others warranted by direct Precedents and Precepts b●th before and under the Law and likewise by the Gospell which doth no wayes abolish or condemne but approve and confirme this way of Maintenance 3. That if Tithes and other Ma●ntenance formerly setled on our Ministers be either wilfully with-held or substracted from them by the people in part or in whole the Civill Magistrates may and ought by coer●ive Lawes and Penalties to enforce the payment of them in due forme and fine both by the Law of God and Rules of Justice without any injury or oppression to the people 4. That our Ministers Tithes are really no burthen grievance or oppression to the people but a charge debt duty as well as their Land-lords Rents or Merchants poundage That the abolishing of them will be no reall ease gain or advantage to Farmers Lessees and the poorer sort of people as is falsely pretended but only to rich Land-lords and Landed men and a losse and detriment to all others 5. That the present Opposition and end●voured Abolition of Tithes and all other coercive Maintenance for Ministers proceed not prom any reall grounds of Piety or Conscience or any considerable reall inconveniences or mischiefes arising from them but meerly from base covetous carnall hearts want of Christian love and charity to and professed enmity and hatred against the Ministers of the Gospell and from a Jesuiticall and Anabaptisticall designe to subvert and ruine our Ministers Church and Religion he probable if not necessary consequence of this infernall Project if it should take effect which would prove the eternall shame infamy and ruine of our Nation not its glory and benefit CHAP. I. THe first of these Propositions being the foundation and corner-stone whereon all the rest depend and into which it hath a prevailing influence I shall be most copious in its Probation and in the Refutation of the Objections which are or may be raised against it That there is a just competent and comfortable Maintenance due to all lawfull painfull Preachers and Ministers of the Gospell from the people even by Divine right and institution and expresse Texts and Precepts of the Gospell is as clear as the noonday Sunne by these irrefragable Gospell Testimonies I. By Matth. 10. 5 6 9 10 11. where when our Lord and Saviour Christ himself first sent forth authorized and commanded his 12. Apostles to preach the Gospell he gave them these instructions among other Provide neither gold nor silver nor brasse in your purses nor scrip nor bread addes Marke 6. 8. for your journey neither two coats nor shoes nor yet staves adding this as the reason thereof FOR THE LABORER IS WORTHY OF HIS MEAT or his Reward Hire Wages Maintenance as the Greek word will bear and other following Scriptures render it II By Luke 10. 1 6 10. where we read when our Saviour Christ not long after h●s former Commission to the 12. Apostles sent forth the 70. Disciples by two and two to preach in every City and place whither himselfe would come he gave them almost the self same instructions Carry neither purse nor scrip nor shoes and into whatsoever house ye enter first say Peace be to this house c. And in the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they give subjoyning this reason for it FOR THE LABORER IS WORTHY OF HIS HIRE Go not from house to house as Beggers use to doe for almes And into what City ye enter and they receive you eat such things as are set before you c. III. By John 6. 35 36 37 38. where our Lord Jesus Christ soon after the former Commissions used these words to his Disciples Behold I say unto you Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are

at all or judgement in their Art learning their Military skill not at their owne but the peoples great costs 3. Learned Ministers both before and after their admission into the Ministry are at great charges to furnish themselves with Bookes and Libraries necessary for their Calling whereas our Officers and Souldiers are and were furnished with all sorts of Armes and Ammunition fitting for their calling out of the publick Treasury only which continually recruites them when lost in Service 4. The calling of the Ministry requires men of far more able parts and eminency of gifts whereby they might gain far more worldly wealth riches and honours in many other callings then they do or can do by the Ministry by which they are commonly losers in respect of worldly gains ●and preferments a thing very considerable then the calling of an ordinary Souldier or most warlike Officers doe as experience manifests and I thinke most Soldiers and Officers will acknowledge and thereupon must admit them proportionable allowance to their parts and work in the Ministry it selfe 5. Ministers when once entred into their callings are alwayes day and night upon constant duty without intermission their whole lives being so taken up with study preaching catechizing praying fasting exhorting admonishing reproving comforting visiting the sick in body troubled in minde resolving doubts of conscience and other Ministeriall duties as well private as publick that they have most of them scarce one spare day or hour all the year to imploy in other affaires for their owne advantage in worldly things Whereas many of our Army Officers and Souldiers lie idle in their Quarters many months if not years of late together without any actuall service and yet receive their full constant pay and those in actuall service and Garisons do that they call duty only by turnes once or twice a week and then but for two or three houres in a day being then successively relieved by others having sufficient time every day and week not only to follow their private Trades if they please necessary usefull beneficiall to others but also to exercise Merchandise and other gainfull worldly imployments and Offices to which they were never trained up whereby most of them are grown richer then most of our Ministers in halfe the space they were fitting for their Ministry before they received one penny profit by it As for our Officers they seldome do any duty have all their men-servants listed under them and paid by the people to do them service only being exempt from duty and how seldome they have been of late times at their Quarters upon their duty as Souldiers but otherwise sitting in Counsell to advance their own power estates and pull down all above them to intrude themselves into their places we all see by experience contrary to the Apostles precept 2 Tim. 2. 4. No man that warreth intangleth himselfe with the affaires of this life that he may please not supplant him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier and to John the Baptists injunction to Souldiers Luke 3. 14. Do violence to no man nei●her accuse any falsely and be content with your wages Which ungospell practises I wish they would first reforme by conforming themselves unto this Precept before they reforme our Ministers or their setled wages a thing beyond if not against their calling 6. The calling of Ministers as it is every way farre more laborious as perillous and full of hardship as that of Souldiers 2 Cor. 11. 23 to 33. 4. 8 9 10 11. 2 Tim. 2. 3 9 10 12. 3. 10 11 12. 4. 5 6 7. So questionlesse it is far more honourable necessary usefull beneficiall to others then that of Souldiers and Commanders for they are the very Embassadors of God himselfe and Jesus Christ the King and Lord of glory the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Prince of the Kings of the earth and only Potentate to whom all other Powers and kne●● must bow beseeching men in Christs stead to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 20. The Ministers servants messengers of Jesus Christ workers together with him Stewards of the mysteries of God and the glory of Christ 1 Cor. 4. 1 2. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 8. 23. 2 Tim. 2. 24. imployed to preach to sinfull men the unsearchable riches of Christ to turne them from darknesse unto light and from the power of Satan unto God Eph. 3. 8. Act. 26. 18. to rescue their souls from the slavery and power of sin Satan hell death everlasting damnation and make them the sonnes of God heirs and coheirs with Christ of everlasting glory and felicity in Gods heavenly Kingdome through the power of Gods Grace and Spirit working in with by and through their Ministry on their hearts Now the calling of a Souldier though it be honourable and in some cases lawfull and necessary if rightly managed yet it is for the most part sinfull hurtfull pernicious dangerous and unbeseeming the Gospell in respect of the cause managing abuses thereof it being accompanied with murther violence rapine treachery perjury sacriledge cruelty inhumanity profanenesse blasphemy contempt of God of all sacred civill Lawes and Ordinances ambition treason and the worst of sins tending usually like an overflowing Deluge to the subversion desolation ruine of whole Families Cities Countries Kingdomes Churches yea Mankinde it selfe Religion Lawes Liberties Properties turning whole f●amous Cities into ashes and Kingdomes into Golgatha s Acheldamaes fields of bloud and dead mens sculs very wildernesses as the Scripture Histories and experience manifest Hence God styles great Warriers and Armies The rod of his anger a Battle Ax with which he breaketh in pieces the Nations destroyeth Kingdomes and treadeth them down like the mire in the streets and then at last destroyes them in his wrath when they have executed his judgements for their rapines violence and bloudy cruelty Isa 10. 5 c. Jer. 51. 20 c. They being really carried on from one war to another out of vainglory ambition covetousnesse a mad humour of false greatnesse et nullus supra caeteros eminendi modus in sua fata pariter ac publica to their own and the publick ruine yet still under a pretext of publick good and safety as Seneca excellently writes in his 94 Epistle a piece worth the reading of Alexander the great Caesar Pompey Marius qui cum omnia concuterent concutieb antur et cum mult is fuerunt mali pestiferam illam vim qua plerosque nocuerunt ipsi quoque sentiunt And indeed the Profession of a Souldier even in the best of men and warres is so full of danger and pollution that it leaves some scars of sin and tincture of pollution on them Whence we read that though David were a man after Gods own heart and fought the battels of the Lord against his professed enemies by his speciall command with constant successe yet God would by no means permit him to build an house and Temple

his reigne by the Councell of his Barons through all the Counties of England caused 12. men of the most Noble wise and skilfullest in the Law to be sunm●ned out of every Shire that he might learn th●ir Lawes and Customes from them and gave them this Oath That proceeding in a right path without deel●ning to the right hand or the left to the best of their power they should make known to him the Customes and Sanctions of their Lawes pretermitting nothing adding nothing and altering n●thing in them by prevarication which they accordingly performing a●d King William intending to alter the Law only in one particul●● according to the Lawes of Norway from wh●nce he and his N●●●●ans desee●ded all the Barons and Grand English Enquest w●o presented him their Lawes on Oath being much grieved at it unanimosly besought him that he would permit them to enjoy their pr●pe● Lawes and ancient Customes under which their Fathers lived and themselves had been borne and educated because they deened it very hard for them to receive unknown Lawes and to judge of those things they knew not importunately beseeching him for the sou● of King Edward WHO HAD GRANTED TO HIM THE CROWNE and KINGDOME AFTER HIS DEATH and whose Lawes they were that he would not compell them to persevere under the Lawes of any Forainers but their owne Country Lawes alone Wherefore the King taking advise consented to the request of his Barons confirming all their Lawes and Customes in Parliament without any alteration or diminution as they presented them Whereof this is the very first Law concerning the preservation of the Churches rights and Scholars from rapine Every Cleargy-man and likewise all Scholars and all their Goods and Possessions wheresoever they are shall enjoy the Peace of God and of holy Church free from all forfeiture and Seisure and if any shall lay hands on that which Mother Church shall require LET HIM RESTORE THAT WHICH HE SHALL TAKE AWAY and likewise one hundred shillings in the name of a sorfeiture if it be from an Abby or Church of Religion and 20. s. if it be from a Mother Parish Church and 10. s. if it be from a Chappell After which follow 6. other Lawes concerning the Churches peace and priviledges and then these two Lawes concerning TITHES Of the TITHES of the Church Of all Corne the tenth Sheaf is given to God and therefore to be paid If any shall have a ●erd of Mares let him pay the tenth colt he who shall have onely one or two let him pay a penny for every colt Likewise he who shall have many Kine let him pay the tenth calfe he who shall have but one or two let him pay a penny for every calfe and he who shall make cheese let him give the tenth to God and if he shall make none the milke every tenth day Likewise the tenth Lambe the tenth Fleece the tenth Butter the tenth Pig Of BEES and all lesser TITHES In like manner also of Bees the tenth of the profit and also of Wood of Meadowes Waters and Mils and Ponds and Fishings and Copses and Orchards and Gardens and Negociations wherein Souldiery and all other Professions are included and all things which the Lord shall give THE TENTH PART IS TO BE TENDRED TO HIM WHO GIVETH THE NINE PARTS TOGETHER WITH THE TENTH And he who shall detain it SHALL BE COMPELLED TO RENDER IT BY THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP and OF THE KING IF NEED BE For these things St. Augustine hath prea●hed and taught and THESE THINGS ARE GRANTED BY THE KINGS and BARONS and PEOPLE But afterward let our Tith oppugners and detainers marke who is their originall Tutor BY THE INSTINCT OF THE DEVILL many have detained Tithes and rich negligent Priests do not care to prosecute them because they had sufficient necessaries for their life for in many places now there are three or four Churches where at that time was only one and so they began to be diminished This is that William the Conquerour whom our Officers Souldiers with the Levellers and Anabaptists most virulently reproach and raile against in their Discourses and silly ignorant scurrilous Pamphlets for an Invader Vsurper ROBBER TYRANT and subverter of our native Lawes and Liberties c. when as he claimed the Crowne onely by Gift and Title confirmed all our ancient Lawes and Liberties Civill and Ecclesiasticall without any alteration or diminution put never a Noble man or other person to death who rebelled or tooke up Armes against him all his reign but such who were actually slain in Battle was the gallantest Souldier and best Justiciary of any in his age as some Historians then living attest and not only much devoted to Religion frequenting the Church both morning and evening but likewise very industrious and bountifull to promote it honouring and richly endowing the Cleargy that lived according to their rule and profession but being very rough and hard hearted to the licentious and scandalous degrading his own Vnkle Malgerius Archbishop of Rhoan and many English Bishops for their dissolute lives founding no lesse then three Churches and Abbies of chief note whereof that of Battle was one endowing them with large Possessions and Priviledges according to the piety of those times out of his Conquests and confirming all the Clergies Tithes Rights Priviledges by the recited Lawes If those Officers and Souldiers who now pretend themselves Conquerers and us a Conquered or cousened Nation will really imitate his Justice Piety Bounty in these recited particulars no man will thenceforth bestow such reproachfull termes of Invaders Vsurpers Robbers Tyrants Subverters of our Lawes Liberties c. as they do usually on this first Norman King but repute them reall Saints and Patrons of Religion Ministers and the Church yea Sonnes of faithfull Abraham who gave the tenth of the Spoyles of war to God whose example with all the rest here recited in justice and conscience rather obligeth them to imitate his and their footsteps as the premises evidence then to spoyle our Ministers and Churches of their Tithes and Materials And so much in Answer of the first Evasion respecting our Army Officers and Souldiers only Object 1 The second Evasion of Abrahams Precedent is made by Country Farmers Tradesmen and their Advocates who alleage That Abraham gave the tenth only of his spoyles gained in Warre to Melchisedec but not of his Corn Wine Cattle and other Goods therefore this example bindes only Souldiers to pay personall but not them or any others to pay any such prediall mixt or personall Tithes as now they do by coercive Lawes and Ordinances against Law and Gospell To which I answer Answ 1. That the expresse words of Moses Gen. 14. 20. are And he gave him Tithes OF ALL. Which being universall not confined by him to the spoyles taken in War must be taken and intended in the largest sense that is of all his Substance or Encrease as well as of the spoyles then wonne 2. The

or so much as to admit or invite them to a Feast or meat within their Houses and then they with all theirs and other poor widows and orphanes must all presently starve and perish by these mens new Gospel Light and Charity because Hospitality and Alms to such are Leviticall and Jewish abolished with the Leviticall Law and Priesthood which abolished all Charity and Humanity out of the world as well as out of these Tith-Oppugners hearts if this their Objection be Orthodox Gospel truth 5. Meer Freewill Offering and voluntary unconstrained Contribution were prescribed by the Leviticall and Judiciall Law both for and towards the Maintenance of Gods Priests and worship of the buildding and repairing of the Tabernacle and of the Temple afterwards towards which the godly Kings Princes Generalls Captains Officer Souldiers and all the pious people of God contributed most joyfully liberally and in such abundance upon all occasions that they gave far more then was sufficient and thereupon prohibited by speciall Proclamation to give or bring any more as in the case of Materialls of all sorts for the building and furniture of the Tabernacle of the congregation and of the Temple towards which many Heathen Kings and their Officers contributed freely and the very cap●ive Jews Exod. 35. 20. to 30. chap. 36. 2. to 9. Levit. 22. 18. 21 23. chap. 23. 38. Num. 15. 3. chap. 29. 39. chap. 31. 48. to the end 1 Chron. 26. 26 27 28. chap. 22. 1. to 17. chap. 29. 1. to 17. 2 Chron. 24. 4. to 15. chap. 27. 3. chap. 29. 3. to 20. 31. chap. 34. 8. to 15. Ezra 1. throughout and chap. 3. 5. chap. 7. 16. chap. 8. 28 29. Therefore Ministers under the Gospel must not be maintained nor Churches and Houses for publick Assemblies built or repaired by Free-will offerings and voluntary contributions being Leviticall Jewish and so abandoned and if not by Tithes nor forced Rates as they alledge then the Ministers must utterly starve and all our Churches fall to sudden ruine as many now do And is this Gospel Saintship and Christianity 6. The Priests and Levites by the Leviticall Lew were prescribed what wives they should marry and what not Levit. 21. 7. to the 14. will it therefore follow as the Papists Votaries conclude Therefore Ministers of the Gospel must not marry and must all now be divorced from their wives as well as from their Tithes and Benefices because the Leviticall Law is abolished and Priests wives Jewish aswell as their Tithes Our beastly Ranters then may seize upon Ministers aswell as the bruitish Anabaptists and Swordmen on their Tithes and Glebes 7. The seventh day Sabbath it self though prescribed by a Morall Law was in some sense ceremoniall and enjoyned by ceremoniall Laws too and therefore as most affirme abrogated by Christs death as Jewish as to the precise seventh day from the Creation and the Jewish rigidities and Sacrifices on it will it therefore follow that it is Jewish and unlawfull for Christians under the Gospel to observe the Lords day every week and render unto God the same weekly proportion of time for publike worship as the Jewes did or to keep any publike Fasts or Feasts to God at all as the Jews by the Leviticall Law were bound to doe If so then farewell all Lords-dayes Fasts Feasts publike Assemblies for Gods worship Ministers Churches God himself together with them aswell as Tithes and let Gain of Money be the onely Deities hence forth adored among us as the Motto stamped upon our our new State-coyn GOD WITH US and most mens practises sadly proclaim to Gods dishonour and Religions intolerable defamation These Answers I presume will for ever satisfie or silence these Objectors with John Canne their new Champion who may now discern their grosse mistake and learne this for a general certain truth That whatever is not in its own nature and Originall meerly Jewish and ceremonial hath a kind of naturall justice equity conveniency morality or necessity in it and had a divine originall or institution before the ceremoniall Law given or the Leviticall Priesthood instituted That thing though afterwards given limited or prescribed to the Levitical Priests or Israelites by a generall or speciall Levitical Law-abrogated by Christ doth neither cease its being nor become unlawful in its primitive or proper use unto Christian Ministers or Believers under the Gospel by the abolishing of the Leviticall Law and Priesthood but may and must necessarily be continued practised and perpetuated among them without the least sin scandall or Judaisme according to its owne primitive institution or naturall necessary divine moral or civil use else Bread meat drink wines clothes religious Sabbaths Fasts Forts Edifices and Assemblies for Gods publike worship Houses Hospitality and Charity to Ministers or poor distressed Saints and People yea reading prayer preaching of the word of God and Magistracy and Government it self should be utterly unlawfull unto Christian Ministers and People aswell as Tithes because given or prescribed to be used by the Leviticall Priests Jews by the Leviticall Law And seeing meat drink food raiment Lands Houses and a competent proportion of all worldly necessaries are as simply needfull for the preservation and subsistence of the Ministers of the Gospel and their Families now as for the Priest● and Levites before and under the Law or all other sortes of men in the world who cannot live without them And Tithes Lands Houses both before and under the Law were originally given to and setled by God and Men upon Priests and Levites first and Ministers since not as meer Types Shadows or Ceremonies but as a just fitting convenient recompence of their Labour necessary Livelyhood habitation refidence for them and their Families and to provide them meat drink Books clothes and other necessaries to live by Why our Ministers under the Gospel should not still enjoy them in this kind and Nature without the least shadow of Judaisme aswell as Melchise dec before the Law or the Jewish Priests and Levites under it or their Predecessors before them even from the first settlment of the Gospel amongst us or aswell as any other Men or the Objectors do their Lands Goods Houses and the other nine parts of their Tithes encrease for their livelihood and subsistence transcends my capacity to apprehend and the ability of all armed or unarmed Enemies of Tithes or Glebes to demonstrate from Scripture Law Reason or the objected abused Text over-longinsisted on to clear it from all ignorant or wilfull wrestings And so much for the payment of Tithes by Abraham and vowing them by Jacob before the Law to justifie the lawfulnesse and continuance of them under the Gospel against all cavilling Exceptions Secondly I shall make good the Proposition from the Maintenance of the Priests and Levites by Glebes Tithes and Oblations under the Law urged as the strongest if not only Reason against them and thusform my Argument That which God himself

them likewise in the due and just maintenance of their Ministers by Tithes and Glebes reserved to and prescribed by that true holy just and righteous God who is not only the God of the Jews but of the Gentiles also Rom. 3. 19. Let any rational Christian now resolve his own Conscience and mine from friends or Scripture Reason or equity if he can God having given us a Land flowing with milk and honey and as fit as able to render Glebes and Tithes of all things in kinde as he did unto the Jews It is a received maxime in our Law Quod venit in loco alterius est de natura Prioris If this be Gospel as it hath been h●ld both Law and reason under the Gospel I need add no more to this Aphorisme to prove the lawfulnesse and equity of our Ministers Glebes and Tithes and to continue as well for the future as heretofore by a divin● Right 8. That all Christian Churches and pious Christians generally throughout the world from the Apostles dayes till now have unanimously resolved both in point of Piety Justice Conscience and right Reason that they are bound to consecrate and render unto God the sel●same weekly portion of time for his publick worship as the Israelites and Jews under the Law were obliged to do to wit one day in seven though they differ in the circumstance onely of the day they observing the seventh day from the Creation every week in memory of the Creation and Gods rest thereon for their Sabbath prescribed by speci●ll Lawes and we the first day of every week in memoriall of our Saviours Resurrection thereon by the Generall Morall Equity of these Laws warranted by Apostolicall practise only without any special Gospel-precept Let then the whole Army of Tithe-Oppugners render me one dram of Reason or shadow of answer if they Canne why all Christian Realms Churches Nations in the world may not should not by the self same rule of Piety Justice Equity and proportion continue and render the like proportion of Glebes Tithes to God and his Ministers under the Gospel as the Jews did to him his Priests and Levites under the Law as well as they render to him the self same Proportion of time for his Weekly publick Service and why payment of Tithes under the Gospel to God who gives us both them and the residue of our Estates and encrease out of his own meere free grace for the maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel and support of his publick Worship on the Lords Day should be more Judaicall Vnchristian Antichristian Superstition as Canne and others stile it than the dedicating and appropriating of the Lords Day to Gods publick Worship and Honour who hath given and allowed us the other fix for our imployments when as he might have justly reserved the nine parts of our Lands and goods to himself had he pleased instead onely of the Tenth as well as the six dayes in lieu of the seventh wherrewith he is content which Divines usually urge men to induce men to the more chearfull Sanctification of the Lords Day and some Scribler● against Tithes as well as others 9. That Christians under the Gospel are bound in Justice Equity and Conscience to give their hired Servants Labourers their due and deserved Wages and not to detain it from them even under the Gospel and that by vertue of Gods command recorded in the Leviticall and Judiciall Law Levit. 19 13. Deut. 14. 14 15. approved in the Gospel Col. 4. 1. and to allow their Beasts and Oxen that plow and tread out their Corn Straw and Provender without muzling up their mouths by vertue of a like precept recorded Deut. 25. 4. twice repeated and urged by the Apostle in the new Testament to prove the lawfulnesse of Ministers maintenance under the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 8 9 10. 1 Tim. 5. 18. and that without the least suspition of Judaisme or Antichristianisme therefore they may and are also bound in Justice equity Conscience not onely to settle Glebes upon but likewise to pay Tithes to the Ministers of the Gospel as a due Wages Hire and Reward for their Labour in the Ministry as well as the Jews did to their Priests and Levites without the least tincture of Judaisme or Antichristianisme since Christ in the Gospel resolves Math. 10. 10. Luke 10. 7. and 1 Tim. 5. 18. That Ministers being Labourers are worthy of their Meat Hire and a competent Maintenance suitable to their pains and Function as well as any other hired Servants or Labourers in the Fields or as our labouring Oxen or Horses are of Straw and Provender 10. We read it recorded 1 Sam. 8. 11 15 17. That this would be the manner of the King that should reign over the Jews that amongst other things He will take the Tenth of your Seed and of your Vineyards and the Tenth of your Sheep give them to his Officers and Servants In imitation wherof the Kings of England in ancient Parliaments and of late times have usually demanded and received by Grant in Parliament a Decime or Tenth of the Goods and Estates of their Subjects for their Supplies and likewise a Tenth of their Merchandise exported and imported for Tonnage and Poundage as our Parliament Records Histories and Rastall in his Abridgement of Statutes Tithes Taxes and Tenths attest If then our lawfull Kings Princes and Governours under the Gospel may justly demand and receive by Grantia Parliament the Tenth of all our Goods Corn Wooll Sheep Estates Merchandise for their necessary supplies and the Defence of the Kingdome and some who are no Kings and have engaged against Kingship as Tyrannicall do the like without a Parliament being not only a Tenth of all our Estates but a double and treble Tenth of all mens yearly Revenues and Estates and of Ministers Tithes besides for the Maintenance of themselves and the Army without the guilt of JVDAISME or ANTICHRISTIAN TYRANNY OPPRESSION OR SVPERSTITION Why our faithfull Ministers may not likewise demand and enjoy their Glebes and Tithes not onely granted but confirmed to them by our Ancestors in successive Parliaments from the first planting of the Gospel in this Nation till the Reformation all our Protestant Parliaments since the Reformation and by sundry Ordinances in the very last Parliament to which some now in highest Power gave their cordiall Votes for the Preaching and propagating of the Gospel and saving of mens Souls without the like Brand of Judaisme and Antichristianisme let John Canne resolve me when he can who most falsely scandalously and unchristianly brands both the last and all Protestant Parliaments confirming Tithes for Popish Idolatrous Parliaments acting against the Lord Jesus and our Ministry for ANTICHRISTIAN MINISTRY Who certainly was in his Cannes or Cups when he writ and published such palpable Scandalous untruths to the dishonour of our Church Parliaments Nation Religion But such Cretians are alwayes LYARS EVIL BEASTS SLOW BELLIES wherefore they need a sharp rebuke

that they may be sound in the faith Tit. 1. 12 13. He might have done better to excite those to whom he dedicates his Pamphlet against those Popish Priests Monks Friars Jesuits sent from the Pope and Rome into England of late to root out our Ministry and their Maintenance as most opposite to Antichristianisme and his Papal S●veraignty and Errors under the Notion of Anabaptised dipped Jews Gifted Brethren New Lights Seekers of which more in its due place 11. That God in the Leviticall and Judiciall Law prescribed Laws for Warre and Souldiers in the Warres Deut. 20. throughout and amongst others v. 2 3 4. It shall be when ye come nigh unto the Battel that the Priest shall approach and speak unto the people and shall say unto them for their encouragement Hear O Israel you approach this day unto battel against y●ur enemies let not your hearts faint fear not and do not tremble neither be ye terrified because of them for the Lord your God is he that goeth with you against your enemies to save you After which v. 8. c. The Officers are commanded to make Proclamation that every man who was fearfull and faint-hearted should go and return to his house left they should discourage their brethen that they should proclaim Peace to every City they came nigh before they besieged or stormed it and if they won it by force the Souldiers should take the spoil thereof unto themselves and eat the spoil of their enemies which the Lord their God had given them And by another Leviticall Law the Priests were thus enjoyned by God to pray for and blesse his people Num. 6. 23. 24. c. On this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying to them the Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee Peace and they shall put my name upon the Children of Israel and I will blesse them If then it be neither Jewish nor Antichristian nor Superstitious nor unlawfull for Ministers of the Gospel to encourage Christian Souldiers going to battel in the self same manner and form or to blesse them and the people in these very Leviticall words as John Canne and all Anabaptisticall and Independant Chaplains of the Army and Mr. Peters especially wlil grant who have frequently used the sel● same or like encouragements and Exhortations to the Army receiving good constant pay for their pains And if it be neither Jewish nor Antichristian nor unchristian for our Saintlike Officers Soldiers under the Gospel to make like Proclamation to cowardly persons or to proclaim peace to Cities and garrisons ere they besiege or storm them and if obstinate and won by force to take the Spoil and Plunder of such Cities and Enemies to themselves and eat thereof which I am certain all our Officers Souldiers and their Anabaptisticall Tithe-oppugning Chaplains will grant and subscribe to though thus prescribed by the Leviticall Law abolished as they say by Jesus Christ Then questionlesse our Ministers of the Gospel may still receive and enjoy their Gl●bes and Tithes by like reason without the least guilt or reproach of Judaisme or Antichristianisme though prescribed to the Levitical Priests and Levites by the Levitical law else John Canne and others of his fraternity professing themselves the only Ministers of the Gospel and rejecting all others as Antichristian must give over their Chaplains places in the Army Navy Garrisons and no more encourage nor accompany any Soldiers in the wars or blesse the people as aforesaid because it was a part of the Levitical Priests Office who were also to blow the Trumpets in the wars Num. 6. 1. to 10. Josh 6. 4 c. prescribed by an abolished Levitical law 12. That all Israelites and Jews both Priests and people were by the Levitical law frequently commanded inviolably to perform keep pay and execute the solemn Oathes Vows and Covenants they made to God or men and no wayes to infringe them or prevaricate in them Levit. 19. 12. Num. 21. 3 3. cap. 30. 2. to 16. Deut. 12. 11. cap. 23. 21 22 23. Josh 2. 11 12 13. cap. 6. 22. to 26. cap. 9. 15. to the end And among other things we finde their Tithes vowed to God by Jacob Gen. 28. 20 21 22. coupled with their Vows as things devoted by them to God by Vow as well as reserved by Law Deut. 12. 11. Yea all the Jews were obliged by a Solemn Covenant to bring and pay their first fruits and Tithes to God his Priests and Levites Neh. 10. 31. to 39. will or dare John Canne then or any other Tith-denyers aver that it is both Jewish Antichristian and unlawfull for Ministers and Christians under the Gospel inviolably to observe and perform all those just and lawful● Oathes Vows Covenants Solemnly made to God and men with hands lifted up to heaven as some of their perfidious horrid violations of them without blush or check of late seems to proclaim before God and all the world and to pay those Tithes and Dues to our Ministers which our Ancestors and we by Solemn Vows and Covenants too have dedicated unto God and his Ministers and never intended by our Covenant to abolish or diminish in the least degree as he perjuriously and absurdly asserts but to establish and perpetuate as the late Ordinances for Tithes and Augmentations made by the very Prescribers and Subscribers of the late Solemn League and Covenant which it seems John Canne never took though he presseth it on others as his words MANY HAVE SWORN who I hope will now observe it import both at the time and since the making and taking of the Solemn League and Covenant with the Assemblies Exhortation for the better taking thereof authorised by the late Parliament infallibly evidence If so John Canne with his perfidious Oath-Vow-Covenant-breaking Tith-abjuring disciples must renounce that true and onely God they say they worship in greatest truth and sincerity as a Jewish unchristian antichristian God likewise I speak it with reverence and honour too for their fuller conviction because he alwayes hath been now is and will be a most true faithfull Oath-observing Covenant-keeping Vow-performing God who reputes his Oaths Vows Covenants IMMUTABLE THINGS and will never violate falsifie forget or neglect them in the least degree though made to sinfull treacherous and perfidious men Psal 89. 3 4 28. to 38. Psal 120. 4. Neh. 1. 5. cap. 9. 32. Psal 111. 5 9. Isa 54. 10. cap. 55. 3. Jer. 33. 20 21. Luke 1. 72 73. and● Chron. 21. 6 7. a memorable Text 2 Cor. 1. 18. which all those who own or challenge him to be their God are peremptorily obliged to imitate herein or else they shall never enter into his holy hill or dwell with him in his Tabernacle Ps 15. 1 2 14 Psal 24. 3 4. Rom. 1. 31 32. 1 Tim. 1. 10. Rev. 22. 15. and that in