mightily encreased in Davids time as that there were 38. thousand Levites besides the Priests 1 Chron. 23. 3. Magnus sanè numerus pro isto populo ut facilè intelligas multos ornatui magis serviisse quà m necessitati as Grotius there saith Therefore God employed them for many uses more then to attend at the Temple some were designed for other employments in the Common-wealth and they applied other studies as being the chief men for nobility and dignity and also for learning and knowledge in that Common-wealth Cum pingue haberent otium non tantum omnia legis sed medicinae aliarumque artium diligentes ediscebant ut Aegyptii sâ—â—erdotes ideoque primis seculis ex illis ut eruditioribus Senatus 70. virûm legi maxime solebat Grotius in Deut. 17. There was no other Academy or School then in the whole world but at the Temple among them where the knowledge of Gods law or learning in any kinde could bee gained The administration of law and justice throughout the kingdome depended on them principally for God made his covenant with Levi of life and peace The law of truth was in his mouth The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth Mal. 2. 5 6 7. and so Ezek. 44. 23. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and prophane and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean and in controversie they shall stand in judgment they shal judg according to my judgements and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies they being the principall Judges and Lawyers in that Common-wealth of Gods own constitution And whereas it is now granted on all hands than there was 3. Courts of Justice in that kingdome 1. the great Councel of 70. Elders 2. the Court of Judgement consisting of 23. 3. the Court of three or some few more the Priests and Levites were principall men both Judges and Officers in all Courts Scophtim Schoterim as 1 Chron. 23. 4. both to give sentence and judgement and also to execute the same so the Divines doe affirm also in their late Annotations upon 1 Chron. 26. 29 30. and 2 Chron. 19. 8. 11. They did study the Judiciall and Politique laws and had power to see the law of God and injunctions of the King to be observed and to order divine and humane affairs And they held also other honourable offices for we read that Zechariah a Levite was a wise Counsellor And Benaiah a Priest son of Jehoiada was one of Davids twelve Captains being the third Captain of the Host for the third month and in his course consisting of 2400. was his son Amizabad Benaiah was also one of Davids principal Worthies having the name among the three Mighties He was also Captain of the guard to David and after the death of Joab hee was made Lord Generall of the Host by King Solomon in Joabs room 1 Kings 2. 35. And because some have doubted whether they were imployed in the administration of justice it is more clearly of late evinced then formerly hath been for besides Sigonius Bertram Casaubon Moulin and divers others the learned Hugo Grotius in his Annotations upon Matthew cap. 5. 21. hath very accurately proved it out of the Text Josephus Philo and other monuments of the Jews whose testimonies at large I cannot now recite that there was no distinction nor division of the Courts of Justice the one Ecclesiasticall the other Civill but the Courts were united and the Priests and Levites the principall Judges and officers in every Court to whom the people were to be obedient upon pain of death Deut. 17. 12. they being appointed to hear every cause between bloud and bloud between plea and plea and between stroke and stroke being matters of controversie within thy gates and as our Lawyers call them Pleas of the Crown and Common pleas or whatsoever else did arise among them The Provinciall Levites were especially appointed to the Courts of Justice and also the Templar Levites when they had performed their courses and went home to their own houses being but one week in half a year were at very good leisure to assist the people in every Tribe where their Cities were allotted to them in governing ruling and directing in all matters pertaining to God and the King 1 Chron. 26. 30. 32. for which purpose God did scatter them in every Tribe and turned the curse of Jacob into a singular blessing to be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel appointing 1700. to be on the west-side Jordan and 2700. on the East-side The ancient frame of our Common-wealth for 500. years before the Conquest was thus disposed and governed as this learned Authour sheweth fully in his Glossary and Councels and happy had it been if things had so continued still but now the law being otherwise setled and the Courts divided it is not safe or easie to make alteration Comes praesidebat foro Comitatus non solus sed adjunctus Episcopo hic ut jus divinum ille ut humanum diceret alterque alteri auxilio esset consilio praesertim Episcopus Comiti nam in hunc illi animadvertere saepe licuit errantem cohibere idem igitur utrique territorium jurisdictionis terminus Glossar Spelman The Bishop and Earl of the County were joynt Magistrates in every Shire and did assist each other in all causes and Courts and so Mr Selden in his History cap. 14. § 1. By this means there was great union and harmony between all Judges and Officers whereas there is now great contention for jurisdiction and intolerable clashing in all Courts by injunctions prohibitions consultations and crosse orders to the great vexation of the clients and subjects The division of Courts seems to have proceeded first from Pope Nicholas 1. as is mentioned in Gratian Can. cum ad verum 96. dist about 200. years before the Conquest which was imitated here by William the Conquerour whose statute is recited and illustrated by Spelman in his Glossary and Councels and lately also published by Lord Cook lib. 4. Institutes cap. 52. But the further proof hereof will require more then this place or occasion will bear onely thus much was necessary to be mentioned and asserted in regard of explication and reference to many passages in this book and also other parts of his works which perhaps are not obvious or well observed by every common Reader Vide Glossar Domini Spelman in diatribis de Comite de Gemottis de Hundredo c. Concilia passim CAP. VIII The great account made of Priests in the old Law and before PRiesthood is of 3. sorts 1. That before the Law 2. That of the Law 3. This of the Gospel The first belonged to the Gentiles the second to them of the Circumcision the third to us under grace The third came in lieu of the second and the second rise out
to the naturall condition of those times as sacrifice and first-fruits which though they rose out of the law of Nature as touching the common end of being offered by way of thanksgiving unto God yet in that they were also types and figures full of ceremony they became temporall and thereby transitory For the children of Adam finding themselves in the wrath of God and their flesh bloud body and life to be altogether corrupted and accursed by the transgression of their father they sought by all invention possible to help it as far as nature could and therefore both to expresse the present estate of their miserable condition and the mark also they aimed at for redemption in time to come they held it as a necessary correspondency that flesh should be redeemed with flesh bloud with bloud life with life the guilty body with a guiltlesse body and to be short the trespasse and corruption of man by the innocency of some sanctified creature offered unto God for remission of sin And because nothing under the sun could be offered up but it also was full of corruption and that nothing could be acceptable unto God that was impure therefore though they chose the cleanest and perfectest beasts and things for these offerings and sacrifices and purged and sanctified them by all manner of means they could yet they devised further to sever the purer and aeriall part thereof from the grosse and earthly consuming the one that is to say the flesh and the bones as the body of sin and corruption with the deserved torment of fire and sending the other that is the fume and vapour as the purer part to carry their prayers and invocations up into heaven before the Throne of God First how corruptible they were that is even like the great body of a bullock suddainly consumed Secondly the punishment in justice due unto them even the torment of fire Thirdly the place and person from whence they hoped for redemption Heaven and Almighty God And lastly the means whereby they were to attain it taken from two of the proprieties of fire light and heat that is first the light of faith whereby they long foresaw the promised seed and secondly the heat of zeal and hearty prayer breathed and sent forth from the altar of a fervent heart whereby they hoped to obtain remission of their sins After all this they yet considering further that the corruption and wrath fallen upon them was perpetuall and that these oblations and sacrifices were but temporall and momentary they thought in reason being onely under the law of Reason that the one could not countervail the other and that therefore it was necessary by continuall reiteration and multiplying of sacrifices to sollicite and importune God from day to day untill the time came that a perpetuall sacrifice might be offered up to make finalem concordiam in the high Court of heaven a full atonement betweene God and man which being once accomplished by our Saviour Christ both the institution and the end of sacrificing were wholly accomplished and so no cause for ever after to use that ceremony any more For with one offering saith the Apostle to the Hebrews hath he consecrated for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Touching Circumcision though it were before the Leviticall Law yet it rise not out of the Law of Nature or Morall Law but was instituted by a positive constitution made by God himself and not as a part of his worship but as a seal of his Covenant with Abraham which by this ceremony of cutting away the impurer part of the flesh did put the children of Israel ever in mind to cast away carnall affections and to hope for the promised Messias that should cleanse them from the impurity of sin and restore them again to the favour of God which being performed by our Saviour the Covenant was fulfilled and the seal of Circumcision presently thereby defaced § 2. Of the Sabbath day Easter and Pentecost The Institution of the Sabbath day had in it much more Levitical ceremony then the matter of tithing for no man ought to kindle a fire on that day nor dresse the meat he should eat nor carry any burden take a journey or stir out of the place he was in Tarry every man in his place let no man goe out of his place the seventh day Exod. 16. 29. It was besides a day appointed for divers particular ceremonies sacrifices and offerings as yee may read Num. 28. 9 10. and amongst other significations to be a memoriall of the great deliverance out of Aegypt a thing peculiar to the Jews Neither have we any commandement but only a precedent for the keeping of it from the Apostles Acts 20. 9. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Rev. 1. 10. Yet durst never any man say that the Sabbath was therefore to be abolished but the temporall and ceremoniall parts thereof being taken away the morall use of the commandement which is that the seventh part of our time must be dedicate to the generall service of God remaineth for ever to the worlds end for otherwise our Sabbath is so remote from the Sabbath commanded in the Decalogue that the one holdeth almost no affinity with the other as appeareth in the points aforesaid and for that their Sabbath was the last day of the week ours is the first their 's was in celebration of the end of his workes ours in celebration of the beginning thereof for in the first day were the Elements the Angels c. made August Tom. 10. fol. 250. Theirs in memory of the Creation of the world ours of the Redemption that Christ rise from the dead the first day of the week And though the Apostles taught us by example to exchange the Jewish Sabbath for this of ours as touching the publique meeting on the first day of the week for setting forth the glory of God yet they gave us no commandement to abstain from work on that day but the Church decreed saith S. Augustine that all the honour of the Jewish Sabbath should be transferred to the Christian loco dicto and is done upon the Morall reason of the commandement not the Leviticall So likewise in tithing cut off those parts that were temporall and ceremoniall which as I have shewed were neither in the payment nor in the receiving of them but in the manner of sanctifying and employment of part of them after the Levites were possessed of them and then that which remaineth namely the payment and receiving of them for maintenance of the service of God remaineth for ever as a part of the Morall Law and common equity So touching Easter Christ our Passeover was sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. and thereby the end of Institution accomplished how come we then to continue it especially having neither commandement nor precedent thereof from the Apostles The Ceremoniall part of the Paschall feast viz. the Leviticall Lamb the Purification precedent c. are abolished with the Law
THE LARGER TREATISE CONCERNING TITHES Long since written and promised by Sir Hen Spelman Knight Together with some other Tracts of the same Authour And a Fragment of Sir Francis Bigot Knight all touching the same Subject Whereto is annexed An Answer to a Question of a Gentleman of quality made by a Reverend and Learned Divine living in London concerning the settlement or abolition of Tithes by the Parliament which caused him to doubt how to dispose of his son whom he had designed for the Ministery Wherein also are comprised Some Animadversions upon a late little Pamphlet called The Countries plea against Tithes discovering the ignorant mistakings of the Authours of it touching the maintenance of the Ministery by such means As also upon the Kentish Petition Published by JER STEPHENS B. D. According to the appointment and trust of the Author LONDON Printed by M. F. for Philemon Stephens at the Gilded Lion in Pauls Church-yard 1647. TO THE VVORSHIPFVLL My much Honoured friends John Crew Esquire and Richard Knightley Esquire worthy Patriots of our Country Northampton-Shire I Addresse unto you both these severall Treatises not onely out of duty and obligations to your selves but in regard of your publike good affection to maintain the patrimony of the Church in Tithes which is so fundamentally setled by our Laws that nothing can be more certain by them And the times now growing dangerous to the whole state of the Clergy in this particular your selves having deâ—lâ—red your opinions for Tithes and accordingly been careful to preserve us in our rights I hope this my service will be acceptable to you what farther may be done depends upon Gods providence and the good endeavours of all pious men to afford tâ—â—â—r best assistance Seeing the Parliament hath honourably declared themselves for Tithes both by their Ordinance and the repulse given to some Petitioners against them For mine own part though I expect censure and opposition from many yet as an Ancient said In causa qua Deo placere cupio homines non formido I have therefore in this needfull time at the earnest request of many adventured the rather to discharge the trust reposed in me by the worthy Knight Sir Hen. Sp. who being imployed in greater works committed these to my care trust to be published His charge doth neerly concern me and in conscience I could not longer conceal them from the publique view They have been long in my custody and if the favour of your self M. Crew in a time of danger besides M. Knightleys publique deserts and defence of me since from scandalous people had not prevented they had been utterly lost by the injury of soldiers together with other Manuscripts and Monuments of great consequence against the common adversary Your selves having preserved them and me I could not doe otherwise then return you the thanks and fruit of your own favours and whosoever shall think these worthy the publique view will have the like cause to render you thanks for saving both them and my self being extreamly injured by some that are styled in our ancient Laws Villani Cocseti Perdingi viles inopes personae by whose troubles I am inforced to omit divers additions materiall to this argument which the learned Knight committed to me But lest hereafter they should miscarry by any common danger or neglect of mine I could find no better means to prevent the same then by committing these to the Presse that they may live be extant for the common benefit of Gods cause and Church The piety excellent learning and moderation of the Author in all his expressions will prevail much with those that are truly wise and sober and if your protection shall concur to defend both them and my poor studies I shall hope to give you farther account hereafter in other works of great moment Thus praying God to guide and blesse you in all your pious endeavours I subscribe my self Yours ever obliged JER STEPHENS To the READER THe eminent worth and dignity of this religious Knight needs not to be set forth by the praise or pen of any man his excellent learning piety and wisdome were very well known to the best living in his time and his owne works published in his life together with the great applause conferred on them both at home and in forain parts by learned noble Parsonages and great Princes are testimonies beyond all deniall or exception Among all other his singular deserts and works there is none more illustrious then his piety towards God testified both in his holy course of life and especially by his learned and godly Treatises of the Rights and Respect due to Churches Wherein he hath so accuratly proved what is due to God and to be rendred unto him both for the time of his worship and also for the means and places wherein his worship is to be performed that no true Christian who embraceth the Gospel but must acknowledge willingly his singular deserts and piety His great knowledge in the Common Law of our Kingdome and all other Laws whatsoever divine or humane ancient or modern Civill or Canonicall Multatenens antiqua sepulta vetusta Quae faciunt mores veteresque novosque tenentem renders him singularly judicious above many other and able to deliver the truth when he descends to speak of humane laws and authorities after he had first founded and setled his opinion upon the divine Law of God Yet notwithstanding his piety learning and moderation in all his expressions there wanted not a perverse spirit to oppose and scribble something against him whereof hee tooke notice and added a censure in his learned work the Glossary and also among other his papers of this argument he hath left a sufficient apology and justification of his former Treatise which is here published for satisfaction to all that be truly pious and well-affected sons of the Church of England For his larger work of Tithes which he prepared long agoe it is also here added though in some few places imperfect and might have been better polished by his own hand if he had engaged himself upon it and desisted from his greater works so much desired by many eminently learned both at home and abroad yet rather then suffer the losse of such a testimony of his piety to God and good affection to uphold the setled maintenance of Gods House and Ministers to whom double honour is due as the Apostle saith it is thought fit to publish it as he left it imperfect in some passages and defective of such ornaments and arguments as he could have added further out of his store and abundance though what he hath here delivered is so compleat as doth fully discover the ability of his judgement and that these reasons and illustrations produced by him could hardly have proceeded from any other Author being agreeable to his expressions style and arguments delivered in his other writings And at this instant it seems very necessary in regard the humour
and displeasure of many in the world is now obstinately bent to beat down root up overthrow and destroy whatsoever the piety and wisdome of our forefathers built and contributed in the Primitive times of their faith and conversion to Christianity as if all they did were Popish and superstitious fit to be rooted up and as if themselves had a Commission as large as the great Prophet had from God and were set over the Nations and Kingdomes to root out and pull down to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant Jer. 1. 10. But if men will rest satisfied either with proof from divine authority there wants not enough here to guide their consciences or with humane Laws and Statutes confirmed and fully enacted by many Parliaments whereby they are now become ancient and fundamentall as well as any other Laws together with the constant course and practice of above a thousand years in our Common-wealth there wants not here the testimony of all our ancient Monuments Statutes Deeds and Charters of our Kingdome Princes and Noble men which this learned Knight hath more fully and compleatly published in order of time and in their originall Saxon-language in his first Tome of our English Laws and Councels for the first five hundred years before the Conquest being his last work before his death Whereunto when the second Tome which he hath also finished shall be added for the next 500. years after the Conquest together with his learned Commentary upon all difficult and ancient rites and customes there will be abundant proof from all humane Laws and the authority of our Common Law together with the practice of our Kingdome in severall ages that no man can raise a doubt or exception that shall not receive satisfaction fully and clearly As for the Laws of Israel and the Heathens also in imitation of Gods own people the Decrees and Canons of generall Councels in succeeding times here is also such abundant testimony produced that no judicious Reader can refuse to yeeld his vote thereto and approbation for continuance There is another noble and religious Knight of Scotland Sir James Sempil who hath so accurately laboured in this argument and proved the divine right of Tithes from the holy Scriptures insisting thereupon onely and no other humane Authorities or Antiquities further then he finds thē to play upon the Text pro or contra as himself saith in his Preface that much satisfaction may be received from his pious endeavours having therein cleared some Texts of Scripture from sinister interpretations and exactly considered the first Institution and Laws for Tithes delivered by God himself both in the Old and New Testaments If both these godly and learned witnesses of the truth will not serve the turn to convince the judgement of some ill-affected they being both raised up by God out of both Nations like to Eldad and Medad among the people extraordinarily to prophecy and defend the truth being moved and inspired doubtlesse by God himself besides those that belong to the Tabernacle to uphold and maintain his own cause against the adversaries of his Church yet they may well stop the mouths of worldlings and Mammonists from clamour and inveighing and perswade them to acquiesce upon the known and fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome which areas ancient and fundamentall as any other or rather more because they concern especially the upholding and maintenance of the worship of God then which nothing can be more necessary or fundamentall and therefore the pious and good King Edward the Confessor doth begin his Laws with the recitall and confirmation of the Ecclesiasticall Lawes and particularly of Tithes Church-possessions and Liberties thereof A legibus igitur sanctae matris Ecclesiae sumentes exordium quoniam per eam Rex regnum solidum habent subsistendi fundamentum leges libertates pacem ipsius concionati sunt Because thereby the King and Kingdome have their solid foundation for subsistence therefore the laws liberties and peace thereof are first proclaimed and established And thus begins also Magna Charta Nos intuitu Dei pro salute animae nostrae ad exaltationem sanctae Ecclesiae c. and so also many other Statutes successively pour le common profit de Saint Esglise del Realm c. The possessions tithes and rights of the Clergy being thus setled they may doubtlesse be enjoyed having been freely collated according as was foretold by the Prophets Esay and others by Kings Nobles and many good men fully confirmed by Law and Parliament established by the possession of many hundred years that although in the beginning perhaps things were not so commanded in particular as any man else may enjoy lands goods chattels gifts and grants whatsoever is freely collated purchased or obtained by industry or is freely given and bequeathed by Ancestors or other Benefactors although perhaps there be not divine right in speciall to prove and justifie so much land money rents or goods of any sort to be his due and right God did foretell and promise by the Prophet Esay cap. 49. 23. that he would raise up in the Church of the redeemed Kings and Queens to be nursing fathers and nursing mothers to his Church that is saith Calvin upon the Text Magni Reges ac principes non solùm Christi jugum subierunt sed etiam facultates suas contulerunt ad erigendam fovendam Christi Ecclesiam ita ut se patronos tutores ejus praestarent Kings and Princes should give much Lands Revenues and great maintenance for the worship of God and his Ministers attending thereon which promise God abundantly performed by many and great Emperours Kings and Princes in all Countries after their conversion to the faith The donations gifts and buildings of Constantine the first and great Christian Emperour born at York and Helena his mother an English Lady exceeding religious and devout are famous in History together with their buildings and endowing of many ample and beautifull Churches in severall Counties of the Empire Neither did he thus alone in his own persō but he also gave leave to his subjects to doe the like whereby the Church was greatly enriched in a short time C. L. 1. c. de sacrosanct Ecclesiis § Si quis authent de Ecclesia The gifts and buildings of divers other Emperours and Kings as Theodosius Justinian Pipin and Charles the great are endlesse to be repeated When as any doth the like now or repair old Churches formerly built he is by some ignorant people tearmed Popish or Popish affected The grants buildings and gifts of our own English Kings Noble men and Bishops ever since our first conversion are famous in our Histories especially of King Lucius and Ethelbert the two first of the British and Saxon Kings so also of Egbert Alured Ethelwolph Edgar Edward the Confessor and many others in times following after the Conquest no Princes or Nobles being more bountifull then ours in England Their
their spirituall vocation for I see that the Apostles themselves were therein subject to the Heathen Princes and gave commandement to all Christians in generall that they likewise should doe the same and thereupon S. Austin saith that in those things that concern this life wee must be subject to them that govern humane things But my meaning is that a temporall Prince cannot properly dispose the matters of the Church if he have not Ecclesiasticall function and ability as well as Temporall for I doubt not but that the government of the Church and of the Common-wealth are not only distinct members in this his Majesties kingdome but distinct bodies also under their peculiar heads united in the person of his Majesty yet without confusion of their faculties or without being subject the one to the other For the King as meerly a temporall Magistrate commandeth nothing in Ecclesiasticall causes neither as the supream Officer of the Church doth he interpose in the temporall government but like the common arch arising from both these pillars he protecteth and combineth them in perpetuall stability governing that of the Church by his Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and that of the Common-wealth by his temporall For this cause as Moses was counted in sacerdotibus Psal. 99. 6. though he were the temporall Governour of the people of Israel so the Laws of the Land have of old armed the King persona mixta medium or rather commune quiddam inter laicos sacerdotes and have thereupon justly assigned to him a politique body composed as well of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as temporall like to that of David Jehosaphat Hezekias and other Kings of Juda who not onely in respect of their Crown led the Armies of the people against their enemies but as anointed with the holy oyle ordered and disposed the very function of the Levites of the Priests and of the Temple as you may read in their severall lives in the books of the Kings and Chronicles But the Kings of England have proceeded yet further in the gradations of Ecclesiasticall profession as thinking it with David more honourable to be a door-keeper in the House of God then to dwell in the tents of the ungodly that is to execute the meanest office in the service of God then those of greatest renowne among the Heathen and Infidels Therefore they have by ancient custome even before the Conquest amongst other the solemnities of their Coronation not only been girt with the regall sword of Justice by the Lay Peers of the Land as the embleme of their temporall authority but anointed also by the Bishops with the oyle of Priesthood as a mark unto us of their Ecclesiasticall profession and jurisdiction And as they have habenam regni put upon them to expresse the one so also have they stolam sacerdotii commonly called vestem dalmaticam as a Leviticall Ephod to expresse the other The reasons of which if we shall seek from the ancient Institutions of the Church it is apparent by the Epistle of Gregory the great unto Aregius Bishop of France that this vestis dalmatica was of that reverence amongst the Clergy of that time that the principall Church-men no not the Bishops themselves might wear it without licence of the Pope And when this Aregius a Bishop of France requested that he and his Archdeacon might use it Gregory took a long advisement upon the matter as a thing of weight and novelty before he granted it unto them But 22. years before the time of Edward the Confessor unto whom those hallowed vestures happily did belong with which his Majesty was at this day consecrated these dalmaticae otherwise called albae stolae were by the Councell Salegunstadiens cap. 2. made common to all Deacons and permitted to them to be worn in great solemnities which the Kings of England also ever since Edward the Confessors time if not before have always been attired with in their Coronations And touching their unction the very books of the Law doe testifie to be done to the end to make them capable of spirituall jurisdiction for it is there said that Reges sacro oleo uncti sunt spiritualis jurisdictionis capaces the Kings being anointed with the holy oyle are now made capable of spirituall jurisdiction This ceremony of unction was not common to all Christian Kings for they being about Hen. 2. time 24. in number onely four of them besides the Emperor were thus anointed namely the Kings of England France Jerusalem and Sicil. The first English King as far as I can find that received this priviledge was Elfred or Alured the glorious son of noble and devout Ethelwolphus King of West-Saxony who about the year of our Lord 860. being sent to Rome was there by Leo 4. anointed and crowned King in the life of his father and happily was the first King of this Land that ever wore a Crown whatsoever our Chroniclers report for of the 24. Kings I speak of it is affirmed in ancient books that only four of them were in those days crowned But after this anointing Alured as if the Spirit of God had therewith come upon him as it did upon David being anointed by Samuel grew so potent and illustrious in all kindes of vertues as well divine as morall that in many ages the world afforded him no equall zealous towards God and his Church devout in prayer profuse in alms always in honourable action prudent in government victorious in wars glorious in peace affecting justice above all things and with a strong hand reducing his barbarous subjects to obedience of Law and to love equity the first learned King of our Saxon Nation the first that planted literature amongst them for himself doth testifie in his Preface to Gregories Pastorall that there were very few on the South-side Humber but he knew not one on the South-side of the Thames that when he began to reign understood the Latine Service or could make an Epistle out of Latine into English c. He fetched learned men from beyond the Seas and compelled the Nobles of his Land to set their sons to school and to apply themselves to learn the Laws and Customes of their Country admitting none to places of Justice without some learning nor sparing any that abused their places for unto such himself looked diligently He divided the Kingdome into Shires Hundreds Wapentakes and them again into Tithings and free Bourghs compelling every person in his Kingdome to be so setled in some of those free Bourghs that if he any way trespassed his fellows of that free Bourgh answered for him The memory of this admirable Prince carrieth me from my purpose but to return to it his successors have ever since been consecrated and thereby made capable of spirituall jurisdiction and have accordingly used the same in all ages and thought by the Pope to be so enabled unto it that Nicholas 2. doubted not to commit the government of all the Churches of England unto
God for them as their great Patrons and benefactors for that manner of maintenance wherein they have done beyond and above any Parliament that were before them and they continue and persist in the making of such augmentations as occasion is offered to this very day 3. They have given the repulse to divers petitions against Tithes which by the instinct and instigation of men of unsound principles and unquiet spirits have been put up unto them For the second that they will not take them away in time to come I have these grounds if not of infallible certainty yet of very great probability Though they have resolved upon the sale of Bishops lands and revenues in their Ordinance of November 16. 1646. for that purpose they have made an especiall exception with respect to the maiutenance of Ministers in these words Except parsonages appropriate tithes tithes appropriate oblations obventions portions of tithes parsonages vicarages Churches Chappels advowsons donatives nomination rights of patronage and presentation In excepting the right of patronage they meane neither to leave it to the power of the people to choose what Minister they please and the practice of the Honourable Committee for plundred Ministers sheweth the same for they appoint and place Ministers very often without the petitions of the people and sometimes against them as their wisedome seeth cause and if it were not so many would choose such as deserved to be put out againe Nor to put the Ministers upon the voluntary pensions or contributions of the people for their subsistence but assigne them under such a title what belongeth unto them by the Laws of the Land viz. Tithes obventions c. which intimates their mind not onely for the present but for the future Their wisedome well knoweth that the Revenue of Tithes as it is most ancient for the originall of it and most generall in practice both for times and places so it hath the best warrant from the word of God not onely in the old Testament which none can deny but in the new which though it be denyed by some is averred by others as D. Carleton M. Roberts D. Sclater M. Bagshaw in their treatises of Tithes and yet unrefuted by any and from the Laws of many Christian States especially from the Statutes of our Kingdome whereof abundant evidence is given in the booke of the learned Antiquary Sr Henry Spelman 3. That notwithstanding all the authority that may be pleaded for them the people are backward enough to pay to their Ministers a competent maintenance and if Tithes should be put down by the Parliament it would be very much adoe to bring them up any other way to any reasonable proportion of allowance for their support and so in most places the Ministery would be reduced to extreame poverty and that poverty would produce contempt of their calling and that contempt atheisme 4. That it is evident that such as make the loudest noyse against the tenure of Tithes are as opposite to the office and calling of Ministers as to their maintenance and intend by their left-handed Logicke because as the saying is the Benefit or Benefice is allotted to the office to make way for the taking away of the Ministery by the taking away of Tithes and not to wait the leisure of consequentiall operation according to the craft of Julian who robbed the Church of meanes expecting the want of wages would in time bring after it a want of workmen but presently to beare down both as Relatives mutually inferre one another as well by a negative as a positive inference and so as the Parliament having put down the office of the Prelacy now makes sale of their lands they if they could prevaile for the discarding of Tithes would by the same argument clamour and slander presently and importunately presse for deposition of the Ministery And we see how they take upon them with equall confidence and diligence not onely to write but publikely to dispute against them both 5. That if rights so firmely set upon so many solid foundations should be supplanted it would much weaken the tenure or title that any man hath to his lands or goods and would be a ready plea for rash innovators and the rather because of the manner of the Anabaptists proceedings who began their claime of Christian liberty with a relaxation of Tithes and went on to take off the Interdict or restraint in hunting fishing and fowling wherein they would allow neither Nobility nor Gentry any more priviledge then the meanest peasant And as their principles were loose so were their practices licentious for they held a community of goods and equality of estates whereupon the Common people gave over their worke and whatsoever they wanted they tooke from the rich even against their good wills So that it was a breach of their Christian liberty belike to have a lock or a bolt on a doore to keep a peculiar possession of any thing from them And the liberty was more and more amplified according to the fancies of their dreaming doctors for their dreames were the oracles of their common people and every day they set forth their liberty in a new edition corrupted and augmented till all the partition walls of propriety were broken down and so not content to have other mens goods at their disposall and to be quit from payment of rents and debts having made a monopoly of Saintship to themselves they excommunicated all who were not of their faction both out of sacred society of the Church and out of common communion in the world as wicked and profane and unworthy not onely of livelyhood but of life also and usurped a power to depose Prince and other Civill Magistrates as they pretended they had commission to kill them and to constitute new ones in their stead as they should thinke fit Such seditious and sanguinary Doctors as Luther called them did Satan stirre up under the pretext of Euangelicall liberty a liberty which in them admitted of no bounds being like the c. oath without bankes or bottome of no rule or order being carried on with a wild and giddy violence such as the great and pernicious impostor of the world prompted them unto though they vented their diabolicall illusions under the Title of Divine Revelations as the Prince of darknesse made them believe when he put on his holy-day habit the appearance of an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11. 14. 6. That the payment of Tithes where there are the fruits of the earth and increase of cattell out of which they may be raised is the most equitable way and meanes of maintaining the Minister since such a gaine is not onely harmelesse and without sinne for the manner of acquisition which we cannot say of pensions and exhibitions made up out of trade or traffique but such as may be most permanent and constant since whether the Tithe be lesse or more it is still proportionable to the other
Committees in many places are not all of them men of sound and orthodox Judgement neither for matter of Tithes nor for divers other Tenets of Religion 2. Howsoever they professe a good meaning to establish a sufficient maintenance for godly and well deserving Ministers a very good meaning to extend it so farre as to succor their widowes and fatherlesse children as we see by the 8th proposition of their new project It will be a probleme which the present age perhaps will not be able to resolve who the Trusties in after times will accept for such Ministers although they may have cause to suspect that some part of Kent for the present is not so reformed as it should be Anabaptists and other sectaries having misled many into adverse principles not onely to Tithes but to other matters of moment concerning mans duty both of the first and second Table 3. For their exceptions against the received maintenance by Tithes they say first in generall That they bewayle the sad condition of the Country in respect of the uncertaine floting and miserable condition of the Ministry occasioned by the very nature manner and adjuncts of the way of Tithes which the experience of thus many ages doth plainly evince to be miserably attended with these ensuing mischiefes To which I answer That the miserable and floting condition of the Ministry proceeds not from the nature manner or adjuncts of their subsistence by way of Tithes nor doth the experience of thus many ages that is of the precedent ages hitherto evince so much for God who is omniscient and therefore cannot but foresee all subsequent inconveniences for many hundred yeares to come established that meanes to be a standing and settled maintenance for his service and the misery of the Ministry proceeds not from the nature or manner of Tithes which to affirme may seem to coast too neere their conceipt who imagine God to be the author of sinne but from the ill consciences of men who make no scruple to rob God of his right Malach. 3. for Tithes are his portion Levit. 27. 30. and Ministers may suffer very much in the present age because there be many Anabaptisticall sectaries from which Kent is not more free but as some say more infected then some other Counties who take up importunate clamours against Tithes as Antichristian and Jewish and there will be the more by the countenance they may have from such a petition and such petitioners because divers of them are of good reputation not onely for wealth but for their wisedome and learning well affected to Religion and the Parliament and I beleeve it the rather because some godly ministers have expressed their approbation both of it them though therein I conceive they shewed more of the simplicity of the dove then of the wisedome of the serpent for albeit their meaning might be so to gather the Tithes and to put them into such hands as might be rather for the Ministers ease then for their losse no man can prophesie that so good a spirit will descend upon their successors nor how crosse they may prove to such a Christian Intention 2. For the particular exceptions they say first That for the nature of this subsistence it is a very mystery and secret not easily without much art and industry attained unto namely for the Minister to know his dues demandable or the parishioners their dues payable whence ariseth that multitude of scandalous and vexatious suites and brables betwixt Ministers and people which doth fill all the Courts at Westminster and other the Justice-sittings in the Country likewise with causes in this kinde In this charge there be two particulars contained first of the difficulty of knowing the right of Tithes secondly of the vexatious suites raised betwixt pastors and people upon that ground For the first It is a very strange mystery that after so many hundred yeares of Tithing it should not yet be knowne what it is but I doubt not but in this case the right is better knowne unto Ministers that should receive Tithes then acknowledged by the people that ought to pay them And how can they set up their new designe upon the old foundation of Tithing as they project it if it cannot be knowne what is the Ministers demandable due what the peoples payable duty that modell is more like to be a mystery which they propound since it was never heard of in this Kingdome untill they had devised it and as like it is to prove a misery to Ministers if their portion should come into no better hands then most of theirs who have petitioned against Tithes since this Session of the Parliament And secondly for the multitude of scandalous and vexatious suites they make no more against the Right of Tithes then against borrowing and lending buying and selling letting of leases setling inheritances Joyntures c. upon which titles are set the greatest number of suites and for suites for Tithes if the law allow them a right it alloweth them a remedy to recover that right and for the suites that were occasioned thereby they are neither so many as is here presented nor so scandalous for the Ministers part for they may be imputed to the old avarice of worldly minded men who being of a contrary mind to the Apostle thinke it an hard bargaine to exchange their carnall for the Ministers spirituall things but principally to the new principles and practises of such unreasonable reformers as imagine they are never sarre enough removed from one extreame untill they arrive at the other accounting all superstitious in point of Tithing that are not sacrilegious 2. For the manner of it respecting either the collecting or payment of Tithes it is a mutuall scourge in the hand of Ministers and people each to other if either or both as too often it happens prove covetous or crosse If it be a mutuall scourge it would well become the wisedome of these Committee-men to enquire where the right is and who doth the wrong and to project a way how the wrong-doer may be made to doe right and to give due satisfaction to such as suffer under an undeserved scourge and I hope when our reformation is grown up to such a competent degree of strength and stature as that it may quit the service of Country Committees there will be no more cause of such a complaint then for many hundred yeares heretofore there hath been 3. For its adjuncts that is of the maintenance by Tithes the mischiefes of them will appeare innumerable if the pregnancy of onely one be but considered namely in the unreasonable proportion of livings or values of Churches to which they are belonging whence arise these inseparable evils By what new-found Logick will you frame such an Induction as from one particular to inferre innumerable mischiefes particularly from the disproportion of livings You seeme to thinke otherwise where you say in your 8th proposition that in the