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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50954	A supplement to Dr. Du Moulin, treating of the likeliest means to remove hirelings out of the Church of England With a brief vindication of Mr. Rich. Baxter. By J.M.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1680 (1680)	Wing M2180; ESTC R215557	32,178	27

of Marriages Christnings and Burials for Fees exacted or demanded nor counts it less Simonie to sell the ground or place of Burial And in a State-Assembly at Orleans 1561 it was decreed Che non si potesse essiger co●● alcuna c. P. 4● 9. That nothing should be exacted for the administring of sacrament● Burials or any other Spiritual Function Thus much that Coun●●l of all others the most Popish and this Assembly of Papists though by their own Principles in Bondage to the Clergy were induc'd either by their own reason and shame or by the light of Reformation then shining in upon them or rather by the known Canons of many Councels and Synods long before to condemn of Simbnie Spiritual Fees demanded For it the Minister be maintain'd for his whole Ministry why should he be twice paid for any part thereof Why should he like a Servant seek above his wages As for Christnings either they themselves call Men to Baptism of Men of themselves come If Ministers invite how ill had it becomed Iohn the Baptist to demand Fees for his Baptising or Christ for his Christnings Far less becomes it these now with a greediness lower than that of Tradesmen calling Passengers to their Shop and yet paid before hand to ask again for doing that which those their Founders did did freely If Men of themselves come to Baptised they are either brought by such as already pay the Minister or come to be one of his Disciples and 〈◊〉 of whom to ask a Fee as it were for entrance is a peice of paultry Craft or Caution befitting none but beggarly Artists Burials and Ma●●lages are so 〈◊〉 to be any part of their gain that they who consider well I may find them to be no part of their Function At Burials their Attendance they alleadge on the Corps all the Guests do as much unhir'd but their praiers as the Grave superst●idusly required yet if required their last performance to the deceased of their own Fl●ck But the Funeral Sermon at their Choise or if not an occasion offered them to preach out of season which is one part of their office But something must be spoken in praise if due their Duty if undue their Corruption a peculiar Simonie of our Divines in England only But the ground is broken and especially their unrighteous possession of the Channel To sell that will not only raise up in judgment the Councel of T●ent against them but will loose them the rest Champion of Tithes their zealous Antiquary Sir Hen. Spelman who in a Book written to that purpose by many cited Canons and some even of times corruptest in the Church proves that Fees exacted or demanded for Sacraments Marriages Burials and especially for interring are wicked accursed Simoniacal and abominable Yet thus is the Church for all this noise of Reformation left still unreformed by the censure of their own Synods a Den of Theeves and Robbers As for Marriages that Ministers should not meddle with them as not sanctif●●d or legitimate without their Celebration I find no ground in Scripture either of precept or example Likeliest it is which our Selden hath well observ'd 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 their Autority not to be Spectators only in busineses of such concernment to the Life of Man they insmuated 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 Mankind 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 therefore invalid or unholy without a Minister and his pretended necessary hallowing more than any other Act Enterprise or Contract of Civil Life which ought all to be done in the Lord and to his glory All which ho less than Marriage were by the cunning of Priests heretofore as material to their profit transacted at the Altar Our Divines denie it to be a Sacrament yet retain'd the Celebration till prudently a late Parliament recovered the civil liberty of Marriage from their inchroachment and transferred the ratifying and registring thereof from Canonical Shop to the proper Cognizance 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 moderate Livelihood the hire of their Labour and that the Heave-Offering of Tithes is abolished with the Altar yea though not abolished yet lawless they injoy them their M●lchised●cian Right also trivial and groundless and both Tithes and Fees if exacted or established unjust or scandalous we may hope with them removed to remov'd Hirelings in some good measure whom these tempting Baits by Law especially to be recovered allure into the Church The next thing to be considered in the maintainance of Ministers is by whom it shall be given Wherein though the l●ght of Reason might sufficiently inform us it will be best to consult the Scripture Gal. 6. 6. Lt 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 ability 1 Cor. 8. 11. If we have sown unto you spiritual things 〈◊〉 it a great matter if we reap your carnal things To whom therefore hath not been sown from him wherefore should be reap'd Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double Honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine By these places we see was given either by every one in particular who had been instructed or by all them in common brought into the Church-Treasurie and distributed to the Ministers according to their several Labours and that was judged either by some extraordinary Person as Timothy who by the Apostle was then left at Eph●sus 2 Tim. 4 5. or by some to whom the Church deputed that care This is so agreable to Reason and so clear that any one may perceive what iniqiuity and violence hath prevailed sin●● in the Church whereby it hath been so ordered that they also shall be to recompence the Parochial Minister who neither chose him for their Teacher nor have received instruction from him as being either insufficient or not resident or inferiour to whom they follow wherein to bar their cho●● is to violate Christian Liberty Our Law-Books testifie that before the Councel of L●teran in the year 1179. and the fifth of our Henry 2 or rather before a Decretal Epistle of Pope Innoc●nt the third about 1200. and the first of King Iohn any man might have 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

their own setting up to his Dishonour his Exacters his Publicans rather not trusting that he will maintain them in their Embassy unless they bind him to his Promise by a Statute-Law that we shall maintain them Lay down for shame that Magnifie Title while ye seek maintenance from the People It is not the manner of Embassadors to ask maintenance of them to whom they are sent But he who is Lord of all things hath so ordained trust him then he doubtless will command the People to make good his Promise of maintenance more honourably unasked unracked for This they know this they preach yet believe not but think it as impossible without a Statute-Law to live of the Gospel as if by those words they were bid go eat their Bibles as Ezekiel and Iohn did their Books and such Doctrines as these are as bitter to their Bellies but will serve so much the better to discover Hirelings who can have nothing though but in apperance just and solid to answer for themselves against what hath been here spoken unless perhaps this one remaining pretence which we shall see either to be false or uningenuous They pretend that their Education either at School or Universitie hath been very chargeable and therefore ought to be repaired in future by a plentiful maintenance whenas it is well known that the better half of them and oft-times poor and pitiful Boyes of no merit or promising hopes that might entitle them to the publick Provision but their poverty and unjust favour of Friends have had most of their Breeding both at School and Universitie by Schollarships Exhibitions and Fellowships at the publick cost which might ingage them the rather to give freely as they have freely received or if they have miss'd of these helps at the latter place they have after two or three years left the course of their Studies there if they ever well began them and undertaken though furnished with little else but Ignorance Boldness and Ambition if with no worse vices a Chaplainship in some Gentlemans House to the frequent imbasing of his Sons illiterate and narrow Principles Or if they have lived there upon their own who knows not that seaven years charge of living there to them who fly not from the Government of Parents to the License of a Universitie but come seriously to study is no more than ma● be defrai'd and reimburs'd by one years Revenue of an ordinary good Benefice if they had then means of Breeding from their Parents 't is likely they have more now and if they have it needs must be Mechanick and Uningenuous in them to bring a Bill of charges for learning of those Liberal Arts and Sciences which they have learned if they have indeed learned them as they seldom have to their own benefit and accomplishment But they will say we had betaken us to some other Trade or Profession had we not expected to find a better Livelihood by the Ministery This is that which I looked for to discover them openly neither true Lovers of Learning and so very guilty of it nor true Ministers of the Gospel So long agoe out of date is that old true saying 1 Tim. 3. 1. If a man desires a Bishoprick he desires a good work for now commonly he who desires to be a Minister looks not at the work but at the wages and by that Lute or Lowbel may be told from Parish to Parish all the Town over But what can be plainer Simonie than thus to be at charges before hand to no other end than to make Ministry double or trebly Beneficial to whom it might be said as justly as to that Simon thy mony perish with thee because thou hast thought the Gift of God may be purchas'd with mony thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter Next it is a fond Error though too much believed among us to think that the Universitie makes a Minister of the Gospel what it may conduce to other Arts and Sciences I dispute not now But that which makes fit a Minister the Scripture can best inform us to be only from above whence also we are bid to seek them Mat. 9. 38. Pray ye th●refore to the Lord of the Harvest that he will send forth Labourers into his Harvest Acts 20. 28. The Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Over-Se●rs Rom. 10. 15. How shall they preach unl●ss they be sent by whom sent by the Universitie or the Magistrate or their Belly no surely but sent from God only and that God who is not their Belly And whether he be sent from God or from Simon Magus the inward sense of his Calling and Spiritual Ability will sufficiently tell him and that strong Obligation felt within him which was felt by the Apostle will often express from him the same words 1 Cor. 9. 16 Necessitie is laid upon me yea woe is me if I preach not the Gospel Not a beggarly necessity and the woe fear'd otherwife of perpetual want but such a necessity as made him willing to preach the Gospel gratis and to embrace povertie rather than as a woe to fear it 1 Cor. 12 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles c. Eph. 4. 11. c. He gave some Apostles c. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministrie for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come to the unitie of the Faith as he hath made them at the first so he makes them still and to the worlds end 2. Cor. 3. 6. Who hath also made us fit or able Ministers of the New Testament 1 Tim. 4. 14. The Gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophesie and the laying on of the hands of the Presbyterie These are all the means which we read of required in Scripture to the making of a Minister All this is granted you will say but yet that it is also requisite he should be train'd in other Learning which can be no where better had than at Universities I answer that what Learning either Human or Divine can be necessary to a Minister may as easily and less chargeably be had in any private House How deficient else and to how little purpose are all those Piles of Sermons Notes and Comments on all parts of the Bible Bodies and Marrow of Divinitie besides all other Sciences in our English Tongue many of the same Books which in Latine they read at the Universitie And the small necessity of going thither to learn Divinitie I prove first from the most part of themselves who seldom continue there till they have well got through Logick their first Rudiments though to say truth Logick also may much better be wanting in Disputes of Divinitie than in the subtle Debates of Lawyers and States-men who yet seldom or never deal with Syllogisms And those Theological Disputations there held by Professors and Graduates are such as tend least of all to the Edification or capacitie of