consciencious and comfortable because it hath least of covetousness or grudging In cases any way dubious as to practice it is safest for Christians to be on the self-denying side and rather to propend to Gods interest then to their own They may sin as injurious and unthankful to God and his Ministers as dishonouring and defrauding Christ of his rights and due who do not pay the Tithes or Tenths but they cannot sin who doubting between covetous and consciencious suggestions to what propotion the Lord under the Gospel requires the grateful retributions of beleevers conclude by a just paying of their Tithes to the Ministers of the Gospel to imitate at once Gods prescript of old and to fulfill the utmost extent of his Ordinance in the New referring to what still continued of that ancient provision which chifley consisted in Tithes as a constant maintenance Since then it is most evident that a setled competent maintenance for the Ministry of the Gospel is as lawful now as it is necessary and is no lesse necessary now then it was of old and is as much deserved now and consequently just as of old The surest way for wise Christians not to err on the right hand by Ministers craving too much devouring whole houses by pious insinuations Nor yet on the left hand by peoples giving too little is to take God for their umpire and the pattern his holy will for the standard of equity between Ministers and people that neither the flock may deny their Milk and Fleece nor the Shepherd flea their skins and devour their flesh Since the bounty of God bestows on men the ten parts and all they have yea and offers Christ also to them how can they as Saint Austin urges it in any generosity equity or gratitude grudg to retribute one of ten to Gods glory and their Saviours honour who assigning this Tenth to their Ministers maintenance returns the blessing and benefit of it to the good of mens souls together with their families and neighbours yea and oft to the enlargment of their estates If the Lord had not limited his portion to a tenth godly men would hardly have contented themselves not to have given with Zacheus even half of their goods increase to God The requiring but a Tenth is not a burthen but an Indulgence of God in any gracious mans esteem Thus have I answered these three Quaeries raised from the first general ground of lawfulness or unlawfulness sin or no sin in point of Conscience regulated by the will and Word of God From all which so clear resolutions I may firmly draw these conclusions 1. That a compent comely and constant maintenance for the Ministers of the Gospel may lawfully and ought in Conscience to be raised out of other mens estates by such as have a right and power so to do 2. I conclude that Ministers of the Gospel may lawfully require such maintenance as Gods Ordinance even by a Tenth portion of yeerly increase and receive what is so raised or charged out of mens estates without any sin or shame however it be in some cases comely and charitable in them to remit their right yea and to preach the Gospel gratis 3. I conclude That necessitous sordid and uncertain maintenance of Ministers is the sin and shame of any Christians because they are not provided for so as the Lord hath appointed but short of the Lords provision which of old was at least a Tenth 4. I conclude although a Tenth or Tithe is not literally or precisely in terms concluded in the Gospel for reasons best known to the wisdom of God in Primitive times Yet this proportion is no where forbidden by the Lord yea it is clearly included specially pointed unto and exemplarily commended as the best pattern and proportion to Christians imitation 5. I conclude That the private giving and publique confirmation or setling of Tithes as part of Ministers maintenance in England which the Law hath declared and ratified beside the consent and custome of the Nation for many hundreds of years as the act and will of all Estates is a very good work hardly to be amended or imitated in these days full of noble and munificent piety agreeable to the Word of God both in the general and propounded and the equitable proportion ordained to which the Apostle referrs Christians 6. I conclude That for any men by meer will and force to take away the publike maintenance by Lands and Tithes setled upon the Ministers of the Gospel in order to the service and worship of Christ by the will and act of those who had lawful power so to do must needs be so far a sin and snare of rapine and injustice as by Law they belong to Ministers in their several places also a work of high and infamous extortion against the light of Nature violating the will of the dead which the Apostle Paul tels us no man justly can do Lastly Gal. 3.15 Mal. 3.8 Rom. 2.22 it is a sin of Sacriledg or robbing God to whose honour and service they are set apart and dedicated in a way agreeable to his will Where the Donors sometimes the rightful owners of those Lands and the fruits of them divesting themselves and their Successors for ever of any power of revocation resumption or alienation have invested the Ministers of the Gospel and their Successors in the Name and for the service of Christ with full possession and perpetual use of them under many curses and imprecations and without any reservation 7. I conclude That for any private Christians who stands related to the society and communion of this Nation and is so bound by the Laws established which are the measure and standard of civil justice giving every man their due to pay to the respective Ministers of the Gospel such portion of Tithes or profits as are assigned them for maintenance for any such I say wilfully to defraud or deny the Ministers their dues or to encourage others so to do can be no other then a fraudulent and injurious practice no way consistent with justice divine or humane contrary to all rules and examples of holy mens piety equity and charity scandalous to the Gospel and reproachful to that grace of God Tit. 2.12 which teacheth men to deny all worldly lusts and to live righteously soberly and holily in this present world 8. Since it is most evident that private and particular men in this Nation either Landlords or Farmers are as to Tithes they pay to Ministers not now the Proprietors or Donors as of private good will and arbitrary bounty but onely Trustees Executors or payers of a publike debt laid upon those estates and lands which they now hold Onely dischargers of a sacred trust or Feoffement reposed in them by the will of God and of their Forefathers and of the Laws of the Land which include all Successors Suffrages and Consent it follows that they have no power in nature Law Reason or Religion to frustrate revoke or abrogate nor yet to alienate and pervert from the will and intent of the Donors what hath been so sacredly and solemnly setled Nor have they cause either
men hold their civill estates and rights There can be no reason that parsimonious cruelty should over-rule and antiquate pious and liberal Antiquity in this point and right of Tithes which in England as in all Christian Churches hath obtained the force of a Law by the long customes and succession of times which the best Christians freely and cheerfully yet conscienciously observed as that which they esteemed to be agreeable to the will of God as well as conform to the best examples of their forefathers It is true no guilding of Antiquity or paint of Custome can commend what is in its nature evill or change it into good but the universal verdict and approbation both by judgment and practice of holy and wise men given to that which is in it self good and lawful advanceth it by the antiquity and universality of a good custome to the sacredness and venerableness of a Law giving great assurance and confirmation to the consciences and practises of sober Christians setting it far above the despite and petulancy of Innovators who are given to change and as Mushrooms are but of yesterday either as to their persons or opinions against whom as a grand prejudice and obstruction 1 Cor. 11.16 the blessed Apostle S. Paul urgeth the custome of the Churches which were guided by the general spirit of wisdome enough to stay and satisfie wavering or scrupulous Christians in things for which as they had not a precise or special command from God yet they were no where forbidden as this matter of Tithes is not 4 A fourth right or claim which Ministers have to Tithes here in England is from that personal bounty and freewill of Christians in this Nation who if no divine rule and precedent had directed them to retribute Even so much as their Tenths to Ministers which no doubt in conscience they had regard unto yet as proprietors of their lands and estates they lawfully and commendably might and effectually have so far honoured God with their substance Prov. 3 9. as to have devoted to his Ministers for a constant retribution of their labours the Tenth of their profits or increase arising out of those Lands and Estates There is no Title lesse disputable then that of free gift where there is no fraud no infirmity of understanding an undoubted power upon just and valuable considerations and to a good end such as God not onely alloweth in general but rather seemeth to require in particular which is the case here exactly and hereby is given the proprieters former right not so much to Ministers as to God himself 5. The Ministers of England have that right to Tithes and other setled maintenance which ariseth from those Political Laws or Civil sanctions which upon mature deliberation and with publique Counsel of all Estates have established long ago and oft confirmed as just and good those particular donations of Tithes made by any lords and owners as no way prejudicial to the publique good either for profit safety or honour to which it is confessed all private acts and Interests must yeeld being frustrate and invalid if inconsistent with a publique and general good of a Nation These Laws of the Land which are the results of publique wisdome and justice have declared Ministers right to Tithes every way pious just and good Yea and do enable them in their several places and portions even by secular power to vindicate these rights both personally to receive them and constantly to preserve them for their successors as a maintenance every way both just and fit which right by the Laws of the Land as learned Lawyers are best acquainted with so I hope some of those Gentlemen are so much lovers of Reformed Ministers as to plead their cause and so valiant as to appear friends to them 6. In the last place I may further twist and strengthen this fourfold cord of Ministers right by natural Equity Scriptural Ordinance Personal donation and publique Sanction which is not easily broken by that divine acceptation or appropriation whereby God himself and our Lord Jesus Christ are invested into a right these joyntly as one God claim a property and challenge as their portion and due what is once thus by any man or men dedicated to their service according as they have instituted in the Word What is given to Christs Prophets and Ministers in his Name is given to God so that it is now Acts 5.4 as Saint Peter told Ananias no more any private mans own nor in his power save onely in order to those ends and uses for which the Lord hath accepted it and which he must be thought no less to approve in the particular obedience or devotion then he doth command or require in the general precept or duty Hence that complaint Mal. 3. Ye have robbed me saith the Lord even this whole Nation For God is not onely well pleased with the internal goodness and equity of his own will ind commands but also with mans cheerful conformity to them both in mind and manners which is then most comfortable and commendable when it comes the neerest unto that equitable rule measure and proportion which the divine wisdome hath set before men which Tithes evidently are when they are so paid to God and setled for maintenance on Christs Ministers as leaves them no more to arbitrary and uncertain allowances or niggardly stipends then God did leave his Ministers at the Altar which is the prescript or pattern to which the Lord refers Christians who are tyed to it as to an Ordinance of God still in force under the Gospel I have done with this third Quaere also which I thus resolve That however there be not so immediate precise and explicite command for the exact Quantum of Tithes named in the New Testament and however the Ministers of the Gospel do not claim a proper and immediate right to Tithes by the letter of the Leviticall Law Yet they have by the dignity of their Ministry and merit of their Labours from the will of God in his Word a general and implicite right by way of equity and proportion also a particular explicite title to Tithes as they are devoted to God and setled upon his Ministers here in England both agreeable to and grounded upon the equity of Gods ancient precept and example in the Old Testament as also upon that express Ordinance renewed and established in the New which carries a force of equivalency and whatever proportion the nature of things may still bear under the Gospel with those under the Law where estates in Lands and the increase of the earth are still the same and common to Christians with the Jews Herein then to imitate Gods President cannot be unsafe to come up to the proportion he required of old cannot but be honourable and every way to observe the neerest conformity to his will in the largest meaning and extent of that Ordinance in the New Testament Even so c. cannot but be most
10. Lastly Wise men must consider not what the Vulgar easiness desires or dislikes in a fit of worldly-wantonness thrift faction or discontent in which distempers they will cast off with murmuring and reproach both Moses and Aaron their ablest Governours and faithfullest Ministers but Rulers ought to regard what is best for peoples Temporal and Eternal welfare though in the present fit it displease them also what is really for the honour of Religion the glory of God and the welfare of a Nation The disordered Appetites of people if humored as feaverish persons will soon make them as miserable as they are unreasonable Conclusion Thus have I endeavoured as briefly as I could with your leave and patience Gentlemen to present to your view these considerations touching Ministers maintenance by Tithes here in England From which I have sought in the first place with all cleareness of reason calmness of affâ—â—tion and uprightness of conscience to remove all aspersions and suspition of any thing sinful or unlawful in them having demonstrated the Equity and Piety of them both in general as a reward and in particular as so proportioned according to Gods command or patern of old and his reference or appointment to those precedents in the New Testament to which the devotion of primitive Christians the custome of all setled Churches the will of the donors and the establishment of the Civil Laws of this Nation are conform In the 2. place I have salved the chief inconveniences and endeavoured to satisfie the pretences of prudence in point of innovating or altering the way of this maintenance by Tithes Not but that here I well remember how I have oher where wrote and published in another method my judgment touching this subject Where being to deal as in other grand disputes with men wise in their own conceits I was forced with weight of reason and some earnestnes of expression many times to bray them in a Mortar not out of my own genius or propensity to strive or contest but urged by the obstinacy of that folly which hath by words and deeds been lately discovered with most uncomly bostings and unjust reproaches against the office honor authority maintenance and very being of the Ministers of England In whose behalf I held it my duty not to be silent and so to speak as might shew how much I reverenced their worth and how little I feared the petulancy of their enemyes who beyond any example in any Christian Nation have endeavoured under pretences of special Sanctity and Reformation to disgrace and destroy the ablest Preachers and most excellent Professors of true Religion in the Nation But to you Gentlemen as Persons now in power and counsel I do with all gravity modsty calmnesse and humility present these considerations Not but that I wel understand by what I have seen and read how impertinent and useless such adresses by the Pen for the most part are to men confident of their power byased with prejudices and transported with passions if learned and Godly men should write as many Books as the World would contain they should do but little good The calmest Remonstrances which Reason Religion Humanity Christianity Equity or Piety Charity or Conscience History or Experience afford oft prove as the Oration in Tacitus of Musonius a grave and learned Senator to the mutinous Soldiers which at first was unwelcome next tedious after ridiculous at last dangerous to that unseasonable Orator This made me somtime think it the best and prudentest way for Ministers to stand still and wait for the Salvation of God in an evil time to be silent after the example of their Lord Christ to hold their Peace though they be as Sheep under the Shearers hands and by some appointed to be slain and the rather lest some mens cruelty and unjustice against Ministers might possibly gain some reputation by the reasons publikely offered to them in behalf of Ministers rights and publikely refused by them which must of course be traduced as weak and unsufficient to preserve their interests which wilful and unreasonable men are resolved to destroy But I have learned never to fear or despair in a good and just cause such as I take this to be which I humbly present before you Among whom I doubt not but the distressed Ministers of this Church shall find some friends However you have invited us not to betray our cause by our silence lest present and after ages should suspect us unable or ashamed to justify what we do or desire By the pregnancy of reasons which I have here recorded and with all due respect tendered to you this age and posterity may judg the obstinacie of that folly which will determine of things it understands not and the violence of that fury which will cut in sunder that knot by force which with justice and good consciene it cannot untie But I must presume till I find the contrary that you as Gentlemen and Christians will bear the words of Truth and soberness That your Counsels and designes are not swayed by vulgar Clamors and factious discontents but by Rational Equitable and Religious demonstrations Looking not only how to attemper your resolutions to present distempers and to humor the Paroxismes of diseases but also how to recover the health and happiness of this sorely tossed and afflicted Church and Nation To which the overthrowing of maintenance and Ministry will contribute very little This confidence hath made me once more in a matter of so grand concernment to adventure upon this part of pious importunity which God knows in the midst of many confessed infirmities ayms at nothing but those great and good ends of which I shall at last day be least ashamed before God Angels and men At whose great impartiall tribunal since you also must appear it higly concernes you and all of us to avoid the contracting any further guilt of Sacriledg upon your souls and the Nation Which of all crying sins is least taken notice of by men in power seldome pardoned because seldome repented of and seldome repented of because true repentance requires just Restitution If the fear of God be before your eyes you will not be as a people that strives with the Priest Nor will you treat so many learned grave and holy men with a Soldierly roughnes Nabalitick churlishness and fanatick fury But remember your and their God your and their Judg your and their Saviour To whose labours love and faithfulness you and your Fore-fathers owe the reformation and vindication of true Religion hitherto However they are now looked upon us as afflicted of God and forsaken of men yet their judgment and reward are with the Most High Nor hath any oppression or fear so far disordered them but that their wisdome remains with them as persons very sensible of right reason justice honor and religion both in its doctrine and its fruits in its profession and its power which makes men by grace and holiness like to