or if this comparison be too low like those woemen 1 Tim. 3. 7. ever learning and never attaining yet not so much through thir own fault as through the unskilful and immethodical teaching of thir pastor teaching here and there at random out of this or that text as his ease or fansie and oft-times as his stealth guides him Seeing then that Christian religion may be so easily attaind and by meanest capacities it cannot be much difficult to finde waies both how the poore yea all men may be soone taught what is to be known of Christianitie and they who teach them recompenc'd First if ministers of thir own accord who pretend that they are calld and sent to preach the gospel those especially who have no particular flock would imitate our Saviour and his disciples who went preaching through the villages not only through the cities Matth. 9. 35 Mark 6. 6 Luke 13. 22 Acts 8. 25. and there preachd to the poore as well as to the rich looking for no recompence but in heaven John 4. 35 36. Looke on the fields for they are white alreadie to harvest and he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal This was their wages But they will soone reply we our selves have not wherewithall who shall bear the charges of our journey To whom it may as soone be answerd that in likelihood they are not poorer then they who did thus and if they have not the same faith which those disciples had to trust in God and the promise of Christ for thir maintenâ—nce as they did and yet intrude into the ministerie without any livelihood of thir own they cast themselves into a miserable hazzard or temptation and oft-times into a more miserable necessitie either to starve or to please thir paymasters rather them God and give men just cause to suspect that they came neither calld nor sent from above to preach the word but from below by the instinct of thir own hunger to feed upon the church Yet grant it needful to allow them both the charges of thir jornâ—y and the hire of thir labor it will belong next to the charitie of richer congregations where most commonly they abound with teachers to send som of thir number to the villages round as the apostles from Jerusalem sent Peter and John to the citie and villages of Samaria Acts 8. 14 25 or as the church at Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch chap. 11. 22 and other churches joining sent Luke to travail with Paul 2 Cor. 8. 19 though whether they had thir charges born by the church or no it be not recorded If it be objected that this itinerarie preaching will not serve to plant the gospel in those places unless they who are sent abide there som competent time I answer that if they stay there a year or two which was the longest time usually staid by the apostles in one place it may suffice to teach them who will attend and learn all the points of religion necessary to salvation then sorting them into several congregations of a moderat number out of the ablest and zealousest among them to create elders who exercising and requiring from themselves what they have learnd for no learning is retaind without constant exercise and methodical repetition may teach and govern the rest and so exhorted to continue faithful and stedfast they may securely be committed to the providence of God and the guidance of his holy spirit till God may offer som opportunitie to visit them again and to confirme them which when they have don they have don as much as the apostles were wont to do in propâ—gating the gospel Acts 14. 23. And when they had ordaind them elders in every church and had praied with fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they beleevd And in the same chapter Vers. 21 22 When they had preachd the gospel to that citie and had taught many they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch confirming the soules of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith And Chap. 15. 36. Let us go again and visit our brethren And Vers. 41. He went thorow Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches To these I might add other helps which we enjoy now to make more easie the attainment of Christian religion by the meanest the entire scripture translated into English with plenty of notes and som where or other I trust may be found som wholsom bodie of divinitie as they call it without schoole terms and metaphysical notions which have obscur'd rather then explan'd our religion and made it seem difficult without cause Thus taught once for all and thus now and then visited and confirmd in the most destitute and poorest places of the land under the government of thir own elders performing all ministerial offices among them they may be trusted to meet and edifie one another whether in church or chappel or to save them the trudging of many miles thether neerer home though in a house or barn For notwithstanding the gaudy superstition of som devoted still ignorantly to temples we may be well assur'd that he who disdaind not to be laid in a manger disdains not to be preachd in a barn and that by such meetings as these being indeed most apostolical and primitive they will in a short time advance more in Christian knowledge and reformation of life then by the many years preaching of such an incumbent I may say such an incubus oft times as will be meanly hir'd to abide long in those places They have this left perhaps to object further that to send thus and to maintaine though but for a year or two ministers and teachers in several places would prove chargeable to the churches though in towns and cities round about To whom again I answer that it was not thought so by them who first thus propagated the gospel though but few in number to us and much less able to sustain the expence Yet this expence would be much less then to hire incumbents or rather incumbrances for life-time and a great means which is the subject of this discourse to diminish hirelings But be the expence less or more if it be found burdensom to the churches they have in this land an easie remedie in thir recourse to the civil magistrate who hath in his hands the disposal of no small revenues left perhaps anciently to superstitious but meant undoubtedly to good and best uses and therefor once made publick appliable by the present magistrate to such uses as the church or solid reason from whomsoever shall convince him to think best And those uses may be no doubt much rather then as glebes and augmentations are now bestowd to grant such requests as these of the churches or to erect in greater number all over the land schooles and competent libraries to those schooles where languages and arts may be taught free together without the needles unprofitable and inconvenient removing to another place
now most seasonable and in these matters wherin every Christian hath his free suffrage no way misbecoming Christian meeknes to offer freely without disparagement to the wisest such advice as God shall incline him and inable him to propound Since heretofore in commonwealths of most fame for government civil laws were not establishd till they had been first for certain dayes publishd to the view of all men that who so pleasd might speak freely his opinion therof and give in his exceptions ere the law could pass to a full establishment And where ought this equity to have more place then in the libertie which is unseparable from Christian religion This I am not ignorant will be a work unpleasing to some but what truth is not hateful to some or other as this in likelihood will be to none but hirelings And if there be among them who hold it thir duty to speak impartial truth as the work of thir ministry though not performd without monie let them not envie others who think the same no less their duty by the general office of Christianity to speak truth as in all reason may be thought more impartially and unsuspectedly without monie Hire of itself is neither a thing unlawful nor a word of any evil note signifying no more then a due recompence or reward as when our Saviour saith the laborer is worthy of his hire That which makes it so dangerous in the church and properly makes the hireling a word always of evil signification is either the excess thereof or the undue manner of giving and taking it What harme the excess therof brought to the church perhaps was not found by experience till the days of Constantine who out of his zeal thinking he could be never too liberally a nursing father of the church might be not unfitly said to have either overlaid it or choakd it in the nursing Which was foretold as is recorded in ecclesiastical traditions by a voice heard from heaven on the very day that those great donations and church-revenues were given crying aloud This day is poison pourd into the church Which the event soon after verifi'd as appeers by another no less ancient observation That religion brought forth wealth and the daughter devourd the mother But long ere wealth came into the church so soone as any gain appeerd in religion hirelings were apparent drawn in long before by the very sent thereof Judas therefor the first hireling for want of present hire answerable to his coveting from the small number or the meanness of such as then were the religious sold the religion it self with the founder therof his master Simon Magus the next in hope only that preaching and the gifts of the holy ghost would prove gainful offerd before-hand a sum of monie to obtain them Not long after as the apostle foretold hirelings like wolves came in by herds Acts 20. 29. For I know this that after my departing shall greevous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock Tit. 1. 11. Teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucres sake 2 Pet. 2. 3. And through covetousnes shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you Yet they taught not fals doctrin only but seeming piety 1 Tim. 6. 5. supposing that gain is Godlines Neither came they in of themselves only but invited oft-times by a corrupt audience 2 Tim. 4. 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrin but after thir own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they on the other side as fast heaping to themselves disciples Acts 20. 30 doubtles had as itching palmes 2 Pet. 2. 15. Following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor who lovd the wages of unrighteousnes Jude 11. They ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward Thus we see that not only the excess of hire in wealthiest times but also the undue and vitious taking or giving it though but small or mean as in the primitive times gave to hirelings occasion though not intended yet sufficient to creep at first into the church Which argues also the difficulty or rather the impossibility to remove them quite unless every minister were as St. Paul contented to teach gratis but few such are to be found As therefor we cannot justly take away all hire in the church because we cannot otherwise quite remove all hirelings so are we not for the impossibility of removing them all to use therefor no endevor that fewest may come in but rather in regard the evil do what we can will alwayes be incumbent and unavoidable to use our utmost diligence how it may be least dangerous Which will be likeliest effected if we consider first what recompence God hath ordaind should be given to ministers of the church for that a recompence ought to be given them and may by them justly be received our Saviour himself from the very light of reason and of equity hath declar'd Luke 10. 7. The laborer is worthy of his hire next by whom and lastly in what manner What recompence ought be given to church-ministers God hath answerably ordaind according to that difference which he hath manifestly put between those his two great dispensations the law and the gospel Under the law he gave them tithes under the gospel having left all things in his church to charity and Christian freedom he hath given them only what is justly given them That as well under the gospel as under the law say our English divines and they only of all Protestants is tithes and they say true if any man be so minded to give them of his own the tenth or twentith out that the law therefor of tithes is in force under the gospel all other Protestant divines though equally concernd yet constantly deny For although hire to the laborer be of moral and perpetual right yet that special kinde of hire the tenth can be of no right or necessity but to that special labor for which God ordaind it That special labor was the Levitical and ceremonial service of the tabernacle Numb. 18. 21 31. which is now abolishd the right therefor of that special hire must needs be withall abolishd as being also ceremonial That tithes were ceremonial is plane not being given to the Levites till they had bin first offerd a heave-offering to the Lord Vers. 24 28. He then who by that law brings tithes into the gospel of necessity brings in withall a sacrifice and an altar without which tithes by that law were unsanctifi'd and polluted Vers. 32. and therefor never thought on in the first Christian times till ceremonies altars and oblations by an ancienter corruption were brought back long before And yet the Jewes ever since thir temple was destroid though they have Rabbies and teachers of thir law yet pay no tithes as having no Levites to whom no temple where to pay them no altar wheron to hallow them which argues that the Jewes themselves never thought tithes
especially for interring are wicked accursed Simoniacal and abominable Yet thus is the church for all this noise of reformation left still unreformd by the censure of thir own synods thir own favorers a den of theeves and robbers As for marriages that ministers should meddle with them as not sanctifi'd or legitimat without their celebration I finde no ground in scripture either of precept or example Likeliest it is which our Selden hath well observd l. 2. c. 28 ux Eb. that in imitation of heathen priests who were wont at nuptials to use many rites and ceremonies and especially judging it would be profitable and the increase of thir autoritie not to be spectators only in busines of such concernment to the life of man they infinuated that marriage was not holy without their benediction and for the better colour made it a sacrament being of it self a civil ordinance a houshold contract a thing indifferent and free to the whole race of mankinde not as religious but as men best indeed undertaken to religious ends and as the apostle saith 1 Cor. 7 in the Lord Yet not therefor invalid or unholy without a minister and his pretended necessary hallowing more then any other act enterprise or contract of civil life which ought all to be don also in the Lord and to his glorie All which no less then marriage were by the cunning of priests heretofore as material to thir profit transacted at the altar Our divines denie it to be a sacrament yet retaind the celebration till prudently a late parlament recoverd the civil liberty of marriage from thir incroachment and transferrd the ratifying and registring therof from the canonical shop to the proper cognisance of civil magistrates Seeing then that God hath given to ministers under the gospel that only which is justly given them that is to say a due and moderat livelihood the hire of thir labor and that the heave-offering of tithes is abolishd with the altar yea though not abolishd yet lawles as they enjoy them thir Melchisedecian right also trivial and groundles and both tithes and fees if exacted or establishd unjust and scandalous we may hope with them remov'd to remove hirelings in som good measure whom these tempting baits by law especially to be recoverd allure into the church The next thing to be considerd in the maintenance of ministers is by whom it should be given Wherin though the light of reason might sufficiently informe us it will be best to consult the scripture Gal. 6. 6. let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things that is to say in all manner of gratitude to his abilitie 1 Cor. 9. 11. if we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things to whom therefor hath not bin sown from him wherefor should be reapd 1 Tim. 5. 17. let the elders that rule well be counted worthie of double honor especially they who labor in the word and doctrin By these places we see that recompence was given either by every one in particular who had bin instructed or by them all in common brought into the church-treasurie and distributed to the ministers according to thir several labors and that was judgd either by som extraordinarie person as Timothie who by the apostle was then left evangelist at Ephesus 2 Tim. 4. 5 or by som to whom the church deputed that care This is so agreeable to reason and so cleer that any one may perceive what iniquitie and violence hath prevaild since in the church whereby it hath bin so orderd that they also shall be compelld to recompence the parochial minister who neither chose him for thir teacher nor have receivd instruction from him as being either insufficient or not resident or inferior to whom they follow wherin to barr them thir choise is to violate Christian liberty Our law-books testifie that before the councel of Lateran in the year 1179 and the fifth of our Henry 2 or rather before a decretal epistle of Pope Innocent the third about 1200 and the first of king John any man might have given his tithes to what spiritual person he would and as the L. Coke notes on that place instit. part 2 that this decretal bound not the subjects of this realm but as it seemd just and reasonable The Pope took his reason rightly from the above cited place 1 Cor. 9. 11 but falsly suppos'd every one to be instructed by his parishpriest Whether this were then first so decreed or rather long before as may seem by the laws of Edgar and Canute that tithes were to be paid not to whom he would that paid them but to the cathedral church or the parishpriest it imports not since the reason which they themselves bring built on fals supposition becoms alike infirme and absurd that he should reap from me who sows not to me bee the cause either his defect or my free choise But here it will be readily objected What if they who are to be instructed be not able to maintain a minister as in many villages I answer that the scripture shews in many places what ought to be don herin First I offer it to the reason of any man whether he think the knowledge of Christian religion harder then any other art or science to attain I suppose he will grant that it is far easier both of it self and in regard of Gods assisting spirit not particularly promisd us to the attainment of any other knowledge but of this only since it was preachd as well to the shepherds of Bethleem by angels as to the eastern Wisemen by that starr and our Saviour declares himself anointed to preach the gospel to the poore Luke 4. 18. then surely to thir capacitie They who after him first taught it were otherwise unlearned men they who before Hus and Luther first reformd it were for the meanenes of thir condition calld the poore men of Lions and in Flanders at this day les gueus which is to say beggars Therefor are the scriptures translated into every vulgar tongue as being held in main matters of belief and salvation plane and easie to the poorest and such no less then thir teachers have the spirit to guide them in all truth Joâ—. 14. 26 16. 13. Hence we may conclude if men be not all thir life time under a teacher to learn Logic natural Philosophie Ethics or Mathematics which are more difficult that certainly it is not necessarie to the attainment of Christian knowledge that men should sit all thir life long at the feet of a pulpited divine while he a lollard indeed over his elbow-cushion in almost the seaventh part of 40. or 50. years teaches them scarce half the principles of religion and his sheep oft-times sit the while to as little purpose of benifiting as the sheep in thir pues at Smithfield and for the most part by som Simonie or other bought and sold like them