as in the Old and intend as well the maintenance of those that preach the Gospel as it did of those that served at the Altar Quaere 2 The second Quere upon the account of Conscience is Whether the Lord hath any where in his Word Old or New Testament either expresly or by good consequence forbidden Ministers of the Gospel to receive and Christian people as such to give to them as maintenance either occasionally by private bounty of fixedly by publick donation a Tithe or Tenth of any goods increase as a part or portion meerly Typical Judaical and Ceremonial appropriated to the Levitical Ministry or Priesthood which by the coming of Christ is changed and so abolished that Tithes may no more now be used by Christians either Ministers or people than Sacrifices or Circumcision Answ 1 To this the Answer is Negative Nothing in the word of God appears forbidding Christians by private or publicks bounty to set a part a Tenth of their increase or substance to the glory of God for the Maintenance of Piety or Charity both which ends the Ministry of the Gospel chiefly aymes at I say no more than it is forbiden or commanded to give any other portion above or below the Tenth Certainely if Christians may lawfully devote a 5 6 9 or a 12 15 20. part to the glory of God in a publick good no reason or Religion can be produced against the Tenth as the only unlawful portion 2. If any portion or quantity as a fit Medium between Ministers merit peoples retribution be specified intimated recommended or ordeined by God in the Gospel sure it is no other but this of Tithe or tenth as I shall afterwards prove in the 3. Quere If none be pointed out or signified as Gods choice then is any one lawful which is fit and that most lawful which is fittest to attain Gods end which is evidently commanded namely the competent maintenance of his Ministers under the Gospel at a rate answerable to that which those enjoyed under the Law 3. The scruple some make of Tithes as Jewish urging that place that since the Priesthood is changed the Law must bee changed Hebr. 7.12 and therefore no tithes are allowed to the Evangelical Ministry is easily answered § 1 1. It savours too much of the Jews covetous hard hart to question whether a Christian may not be as grateful to his Minister as a Jew was to his Priest of which there is no doubt And it argues too much of a Jewish confidence presumption to think that the Lord should so far prefer the Altar ministry before that of the Gospel Numb 18.21 Levit. 27.30 Gen. 14.20 Gen. 28.22 Plut. in Lucul Diodo Sic l. 5. c. 2. Macrob. Satur. l. 3. c. 12. Majores solitos decimam Herculi vovere è Varrone Plin. Hist Nat. l. 12. c. 14 Herod 1. Clio. Livi Dec. 1. l. 3 as to provide certain and ample Maintenance for the first and none for the second As if there were more excellency in a beast sacrificed then in Christ crucified § 2 2. The Divine appointment of Tithes to be payd as Gods portion among the Jews to his Priests doth not argue any thing so much as this that they are Gods still after the Law as they were his in a Religious right before the Law when Melchisedeck received them as a right of Abram and Jacob vowed them as a due to God from which ancient light of tradition and use among the Holy Patriarcks the opinion which many of the Heathens had touching the holiness of a tenth part of their goods and spoils arose which they in many places consecrated as due to their Gods Jupiter Hercules and others § 3 3. It doth not follow by any right reason that what ever the Jews used to Religious ends was therefore Ceremonial Typical and to be abolished There was never any thing in Tithes discovered as a Shadow Type or Ceremony They were used long before Moses the institution and end of them in all times depended meerly upon common grounds of Piety Equity and Gratitude both to God and man The most wise and just will of God was pleased to accept first from the Patriarck and afterward to claim as his own Levit. 27.30 then to assigne that quantum or portion of Tenths for his publick service and the sustenance of those men who were imploied in it Now since the same ends as to the main are still required by the Lord namely the Maintenance of his publick Ministry under the Gospel there is no reason why Tithes as a proportionate means should be abolished Since there is still an Evangelical Priesthood and Ministry ordeined by God and derived from Christ which men needing Humane and Mortal supplys as much as the Levites and Priests of old did now exercise celebrate and administer doubtless as the same necessities now require like supplies and a parallel livelyhood is by the Lord ordeined in the Gospel so nothing hinders but these may bee made by the same measure of tenths upon the same grounds of equity which were valid among the Jews Especially considering the Ministry of the Gospel is more paineful more honorable and not lesse useful than that of old was Nor is it to bee presumed that God should be more strait handed to this Ministry which hath the honor to be in Christs stead the Lord of glory the beloved Son of God § 4 4. It is most certain that the same moral tyes and dutys he now upon Christians which did upon the Jews in matters of Piety Equity and Charity yea and those Patternes of Prudence and Policy in Church or State which were used by them are so far allowed and by Gods pattern recommended as best to Christians according as they wisely consider the fitnes of them as means to those holy ends which the Lord still requires The sanctifying of a Sabbath or day of rest Confessing of sins over the sacrifice reading and hearing the Law and Prophets explained Praying to and praising of God Charity to the poor Relief of enemies in distress Reconciling before they come to the Altar with their gift preparation before the Passover c. So also as to other Lawes Judicial Penal and Political which the Jews had and observed by a positive command of God Christians may under a different ministration and form use and do the same things upon those moral and general grounds of Equity Piety and Charity which are still and ever will bee in force as they are in this point of Ministers maintenance by Tithes as well yea better than an any other way § 5 5. What sober and judicious Christian understands not this clearTruth That where any duty is at large or in general commanded by the Lord the same duty in its particular circumstances qualifications and restrictions which humane prudence according to the liberty granted puts upon it is also commanded approved and accepted and so becomes not onely lawful but necessary in its
and most proper means where it is meet and proportionate to that end which God hath expresly ordained Which is that the Minister of the Gospel should live of the Gospel even so as the Minister of the Altar did of the Altar Herein although particular circumstances may differ under different administrations yet the main design and general intention is the same both as to the end competent maintenance and to the aptest means so far as they are in our power and opportunity 2. But it is urged if God required a Tenth under the Gospel why did he not in any place of the Gospel mention that part by name as of old he did Gods silence in the New Testament as to renewing a precise command for paying Tithes by name to the Ministers of the Gospel is no abrogating of them as to right and equity the not specifying or exacting of believers a Tenth was upon several grounds of divine wisdome which are evident 1. It was not necessary because the rule and measure of gratitude devotion and equitalble retributions to which the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.14 referrâ—s Christians under the Gospel as a continued binding ordinance of the Lord in this case is sufficiently set forth in the Old Testament both by the Religious bounty of the Holy Patriarcks as Abraham and Jacob expressed in this proportion of Tithes or Tenths before the Law And also by the express command of God afterward pitching upon this quantum as his and appointing it for the fittest medium which his wisdome and bounty thought good to set between the covetousness of Priests who might have exacted or expected more and the niggardliness of people who might have allowed less if left to their own arbitration choice free will men being naturally penurious to the true God and his word as having no love to or delight in his service and only prodigal to their own Idolatrous fancies as those which they most count and esteem Charets and Horses shall be dedicated to the Sun or the Queen of Heaven when a Lamb or Pigeon a little meal or cake is grudged as an offering to the true God and holy Temple The equity and analogy of Gods former will continues in force and sufficiently binds the conscience to obedâ—ence although a particular precept were not renewed especially where Christians are specially referred to that which is clearer in this point of Ministers maintenance by Tithes than for the Lords daies Sabbath or Rest 2. The indulgence of God foresaw and the Apostles tendernes considered That an exact or strict requiring or mentioning of the Tenths of all increase and profits to bee payed to the Ministers of the Gospel in all places and at all times might discourage Jews and Gentiles from the Gospel yea and many times prove very inconvenient to Christians who must expect persecution to whom it might have been a burthen and snare in their uncertainties distresses and poverty A burthen to pay alwaies a tenth of their profits hardly gotten and hardly preserved A snare also if they payed them not exactly Yet this Indulgence Silence Remission which in the primitive tenderness might bee permitted by the Lord is no abrogation of the duty or Law any more than the omission of circumcision for forty years in the wilderness was a vacating of that ordinance of God to the Jews or the not commanding expresly the Lords day to bee kept as a Sabbath is any argument against our sanctification of it which is only related in the New Testament as a primitive practice 3. By the Lords not mentioning Tithes in the very terme or quâ—ntum somthing seems left in the Gospel to the conscience and ingenuity both of people and of Ministers These that they may in part remit in times of distress those rights as Paul did not exacting this proportion of Tenths which they might otherwise claime expect as due People also by so much Indulgence are invited to shew so much the more a liberal and a willing mind where God enables them either occasionally to return or constantly to settle even such a maintenance on their Ministers as comes neerest both to the equity of Gods will and the exemplarines of that proportion of Tithes which he anciently required as his own and which we do not find he hath in the Gospel remitted for then the Lord had left his Ministers of the Gospel to meer uncertainties and benevolence which was not even so as he ordeined for those of the Altar and indeed flatly contradicts the Apostles reddition Even so c. 4. The Divine wisdom saw that in some conditions of Christians living a Tenth of the earths yearly increase would not afford a competent or any convenient maintenance for Ministers as in Cities and populous Towns so in Castles Ships c. There some other way by rents of Houses or Trades increase must equivalently be raised And here although men now a daies would grudg to pay a tenth of Trades increase or their callings yet we read of old it was payd by many Citizens Merchants Lawyers and Physicians 5 Although we do not find in the Practice of primitive Churches among Jews or Gentiles mentioned in the New Testament that either the Apostles or other Pastors and Ministers alwaies used this power or strictly required the just proportion of a Tenth which to the beleving Jews on whom the Charges due to the Altar still lay for a time might have seemed a burthen and so to the Gentiles among whom not many rich or Noble but poor and mean people in Cities chiefly received the Gospel and this oft with persecution Yet we find in those daies in stead of exact Tithes and setled maintenance that which is not in these daies to bee expected Namely Acts 2.45 That in those primitive times Christians were willing to sell all or great part of their possessions to bring the price of them and lay it at the Apostles feet for their support and the Churches relief So faâ— did they as then so afterward exceed the proportion of a tenth part that many gave all they had and themselves too to serve the Lord and his Church Those were excusable in their poverty and persecution if they had come short of a tenth and were commendable where they most what exceeded it Wisdome teacheth us that necessity dispenseth with positive precepts that different times requires different counsels and wayes yet alwayes keeping neerest to Gods rule and aiming at the same good end Those were the purest flames of Christians first Love and Primitive Zeal when Apostles and other excellent Ministers of the Gospel were received as the Angels of God the feet of those Messenge s of peace were beautiful Their persons dearer to believers then their right eies The honor of their calling and Ministry daily kept up with frequent miracles that the poverty of S. Peter Acts 3 6. when he had not gold or silver was venerable by the miraculous power hee exerted to the creple in relieving him
beyond his desire and it was also formidable in the dreadfull sentence hee thundred against the sacrilegious parsimony lying and distrust of Ananias and Saphira Tithes need not to be urged or exacted then when Christians are forward beyond what they were able and in the midst of poverty abounded to a liberality But alas wee are now sunk to the dregs of time raked up and buried in the very ashes or embers of devotion All is become worse and more perilous by how much it drawes more of the later dayes when the charity of men shall grow cold iniquity abound when men shall be lovers of themselves of the World and Mammon more then of God Generally seeking their own profits and preferments and not the things of Jesus Christ and his Church when miserable forms of penurious Piety and sacrilegious sanctity shall eat out and deny the power of Godliness when men shall chuse to serve God in away that costs them nothing turning Godliness into gain when the Ministers of the Gospel the more learned holy able and faithfull they are are forced to hide their faces and are covered with that confusion both from poverty and reproach which some men delight to cast upon them The more beautiful their wings and feet are which shine with the beams of the Sun of righteousness his truth and his spirit the more they are forced to lie among the pots to bee levelled to and buried among the meanest of the people Having enough to do to preserve now their own eies from being pulled out by those unreasonable men ingrateful Ravens who neither regard the Mother which bare them nor the Father which begat them So that different minds and manners of Christians may will require different ways and setling of maintenance for Ministers The more covetous ingrate and inconstant people are the more needful it is and more required by God that competent and constant provision should in conscience be urged and in prudence established for his Ministers of the Gospel It was pious in primitive times for Christians to pay no Tithes when they failed not to give much more It is impious now not to pay Tithes when these are all that is settled or may be expected for maintenance and hardly this obtained restore pristine Liberality and Ministers shall gain by taking no Tithes 6. We find in all ages of the Church either in the intervals or cessations of persecution when peace prosperity and plenty had somewhat slackned as the Sun doth shining upon fire the warmth of piety that the devoutest Christians in all places not onely gave free-will offerings and oblations but even the Tenth or Tithes of their profits and and increase both personall and prediall out of which the Bishops and Presbyters the poor and other pious uses were maintained And this out of not onely custome and bounty but of conscience thankfulnesse and duty Oâ—ig Hom. in Num. 11. Cypt. ep 66. Jâ—ron in Mâ—l 3. Aug. ser de Temp. as coming up to that proportion which they saw God of old required and to which in the New-Testament he referred them As Origen St. Cyprian St. Jeronimus Austin and others of the Ancients testifie Which Catholick conscienicous customes among Christians of paying Tithes to the Ministers of Christ came afterward to be setled by particular gifts or donations And at length in the abating of Christians fervour and bounty Tithes were established by Edicts Imperial Canons of Councels Ecclesiastical also by particular National Laws or Statutes in every country which included the donation consent and frewil of all Estates and degrees severally and jointly who were as Proprieters of Lands and Estates related to and included in any Christian Polity or community 7. To answer then that Question what Positive Right as from God or man have Ministers in England to their Tithes Answ There clearly appears without any violence to Scripture or reason a fivefold right which ministers of the Gospel in England justly plead to their maintenance by Tithes as here setled in England 1. That right of Natural Equity and grateful retribution which every man 's own conscience dictates which God who hath implanted it in them requires of them and which the Apostle by many instances in Souldiers Shepherds and husbandmen presses 1 Cor. 9.7 arising from the merit of Ministers labours in the Church of which God is the justest valuer by which they deserve to live of the Gospel so as becomes the Gospel i. e. the God and Saviour there set forth And so as must be answerable to what their Studies Pains and Places do require The Labourer hath Gods right to his wages which ought to be not what a Nabal will give but what his time care and pains in justice deserve The light of Nature taught all men to value the service of their Priests at an high and honorable rate None ever grew so mean and niggardly as some that pretend to be reformers but cannot tel where to six till al is wasted and deformed 2. Ministers of the Gospel have a Scriptural Right drawn from the will of God expresly ordaining as I have shewed a livelyhood in general and a power of partaking of other mens temporal good things And although the Lord in the Gospel hath not by renewed precept so expresly confined it to this particular proportion of Tenths by â—â—â—mes and in terms yet he hath expresly commended to Christians imitation the equity of the old Law referred them to the exemplary benignity of Gods love bounty and care toward his Ministers at the Altar to whom he assigned his own portion the Tenth binding Christians inclusively and relatively in Conscience yea leaving them without excuse in like cases if they do not estimate Ministers labours as highly or provide for them Even so as he hath ordained equivalent parallel or proportionate both in competency and constancy § For this is clear that the Lord hath given to Beleevers evident Rules of religious gratitude and Examples of holy retributions not according to mans good pleasure but Gods not as a benevolence of good will but as a retribution of righteousness and duty which are set forth 1. In the piety and devotion of the Patriarchs of old who no doubt had this measure of a Tenth to be offered to God from that traditional Theology which their Forefathers taught them by words and works as a beam of Gods wisdome who indulging to sinful man nine parts when indeed he had forfeited all reserved to his particular honour and service a tenth 2. We see the Lord challengeth this Tenth among the Jews as his own not only by right of creation and donation for so all is his but also by a peculiar and religious claim that man might testifie by paying a Tenth to the Lord that he owns and adores him as the giver of all and that by this Tenth portion men might have the benefit as God the honour of religious publike service 3. This portion or peculiar reserve of
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