Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	aaron_n	land_n	tithe_n	38	3	9.5818	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30255	No sacrilege nor sin to alienate or purchase cathedral lands, as such: or, A vindication of, not onely the late purchasers; but, of the antient nobility and gentry; yea, of the Crown it self, all deeply wounded by the false charge of sacrilege upon new purchasers. By C. Burges, D.D.; Case concerning the buying of bishops lands.	Burges, Cornelius, 1589?-1665.	1660 (1660)	Wing B5676; ESTC R202286	78,792	78

it is no Sacrilege to sell or buy them To make this out take notice of these Propositions 1. Under the Law in the Old Testament God was so far from commanding owning or accepting of lands to be given to the Priests or Levites especially to Aaron the chief Priest excepting a definite number of Cities for the habitations of the Levites that were to be spread over the whole Land of Canaan and the parts without Jordan and a set quantity of Pasture for their Cattle that he absolutely forbad them to have any inheritance among their brethren And this was to be a Statute for ever throughout their generations The reason was given before unto Aaron in behalf of himself and the rest of the Levites to whom God thus I am thy part and thine inheritance among the Children of Israel That is his portion in Tythes and Offerings due from Israel unto God should be theirs For of those to wit Tythes he there expresly speaketh and upon that ground denieth them a portion in Lands I have given them namely Tythes to the Levites to inherit therefore I have said unto them Among the Children of Israel they shall have no inheritance Should not he then blush who so confidently affirmeth that to say God in the New Testament accepteth of money and not of lands is so contrary to all reason c. so contrary to what God himself has expressed in the Old Testament and no where recalled in the New that he that can quiet his conscience with such conceits as these may be doubts not attain to the discovery of some Quirks which in his conceit may palliate either murders or adulteries For admit God should in the Old Testament accept of some Lands upon such and such Terms as in Leviticus or elsewhere yet then God expresly giveth all Rules about the nature of the Land and of the redeeming or not redeeming it to be consecrated to him will this prove his acceptance of Lands in the New Testament of any kind quantity or quality by any man given upon any other account whatsoever until a Cathedral man shall say Hold your hands Levi was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel therefore as considerable a part as any other Nevertheless God was so careful to prevent their claim to Lands among their brethren by Divine Lot that when the rest of Israel were numbred in order to their several Lots in Land God expresly forbad Moses to number the Tribe of Levi or to take the sum of them and commanded him to appoint them over the Tabernacle of Testimony c. Whereby is more then implyed that the Office of Priesthood especially of the High-Priests who were always in person to attend the Tabernacle was then a bar to their inheriting of lands proportionable to their Brethren The inferiour Priests and Levites from thirty to the fiftieth year of their age were in their courses according to their three great families of Gershom Kohath and Merari put upon the most toylsome work in and about the Tabernacle of the Congregation But being numerous in all 8580. they did not could not all attend the Altar at once but onely in their turns Therefore were they to be dispersed all Israel over to instruct the people in the law of God save onely when their several and respective courses came about to serve at the Tabernacle Which being so there was a necessity of preparing habitations for them in all the Tribes and some ground for their Cattle which they were to use as well for travelling thence to the Tabernacle when their turns came as for their own Domestick Occasions Upon this ground God had Moses to command the Children of Israel to give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession Cities to dwell in and suburbs for the Cities round about for their Cattle Goods and Beasts Numb 35. 1 2 3. But of these none were appointed to the High Priest who was always resident about the Tabernacle His house no doubt was also allotted to him His portion and the portions of such as served at the Altar in person consisted in Offerings and in the second Tythes that is in the Tenth of the Tythes gathered by all the Levites which Tenths they were to pay to Aaron and the rest that Waited at the Altar before they might share the rest among themselves or partake of it in common It is true that the Levites had forty eight Cities in all set out unto them and some Lands but God first gave the Word for the giving of them and also limited both the number of Cities among which were six Cities of Refuge and the quantity of the ground that the Israelites should give unto them The several names of the Cities and how and where situated are set down in the 21th of Joshua Their Suburbs were also bounded by a set number of Cubits Nor might the Israelites give nor the Levites accept one Cubit more Nor were they lords or sole proprietors or inhabitants of those Cities Others dwelt therein and shared also in the residue of the Lands adjacent as well as they onely care was to be taken that in every of those Cities so many Levites as were assigned to each City should be well accommodated and the remainder should still continue to the former Owners Hence Lyra on those words Cities to dwell in Non dicit ad dominandum vel ad redditus inde accipiendum quiasic erant ipsius Regis vel aliorum Dominorum urbes in quibus habitabant Levitae He saith not Cities for them to lord over or to receive the whole profits of them for so they were either the Kings or Cities of other lords in which the Levites dwelt That this was so is manifest by the City of Hebron or Kiriah-Arba the City of Arba Father of Anak and a Great man that first founded it That Citie being given to the Kohathites who were Levites and had the first Lot was yet the City of Caleb to whom Joshua had before given it for an inheritance Therefore after mention of disposing Hebron to the Kohathites by the free Lot of the Israelites it is said But the fields of the City and the Villages thereof gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession Out of which fields it is clear by the next verse that the Suburbs were excepted for these were given to the sons of Aaron the Priest Here by the way a few words to him whether he were a Bishop or not that hath taken much pains to demonstrate that church-Church-lands are not to be sold. 1. He is much mistaken in the greatness of those Cities and Suburbs so also are others building upon St. Hierome's report who say That those forty eight Cities had Suburbs of so large circuit that they exceeded the portion of any other Tribe in Israel Which cannot be For the circuit of the Suburbs given to the Levites were

But 1000 Cubits to be measured from the wall of each City outward round about which cannot contain 8000 Acres English measure in the whole were each City two miles in compass which is not probable And in every of those Cities there must be placed neer 200 Levites and their families so as the Land could not extend to four Acres apiece to each Levite For of such as were fit for service there were as was noted before 8580. All the Males were 22000 besides women and servants Now divide 8580 into 48 parts according to the number of the Cities and you will find almost 200 Levites that were in their turns for actual service in each City And these served for all the other Cities and Countries throughout Israel As for that conceit of some Rabbins upon the 35th of Numb and fifth verse where 2000 Cubits are allowed for Suburbs to each City that the first 1000 were onely for walks and recreations and another 1000 Cubits for Fruit Vines Corn c. this is a meer dream and contrary to Scripture For 1. the Suburbs given to the Levites are plainly declared to be but 1000 Cubits and that not for walks and recreation but for their Cattle their goods and beasts 2. the other thousand Cubits vers 5. which were added are said to be Suburbs of the City but not of the Levites This thousand Cubits were for the Owners and other Inhabitants of those Cities beside the Levites as appears by what hath been before alleged in the case of Caleb Josh. 21. 12. the Levites then had their Suburbs next to the Walls and the Owners of the Cities had theirs without the Levites and so theirs must be of far greater Longitude and Latitude than the Lands of the Levites For as in all Cities there is a Tract of ground measured from the Walls which belongs to each City as Suburbs so here 2000 Cubits in the whole of which 1000 was for the Levites 2. What and how large soever the Lands of those Levites were yet had they none but only Pastures for feeding of their Cattle as Abulensis upon good grounds affirmeth They did neither sow nor reap but yet had store of Cattle brought in by the rest of the Tribes unto them as being the Lords And this is clear from the Text for the Lands assigned them were for their Cattle and for their goods and for all their beasts Therefore they had only pasturage And this could not extend to such a proportion as should exceed the Lands of the least of the other Tribes 3. There is a great mistake in the Computation of the Land of Canaan given unto Israel and by Lot cast out for the several Tribes It is said by the Author of Church-lands not to be sold that the whole land was hardly 160 miles in length from Dan to Beersheba and but 46 miles in breadth from Joppa to Bethlehem as if this were the whole length and breadth of Canaan given of God to Israel and by them enjoyed And for proof hereof Saint Hierome who lived long there is produced as a witness But is not longitude usually reckoned from East to West and breadth from North to South Now Beersheba is almost South from Dan and Dan almost North from Beersheba on which account there is hardly 160 miles between them But what is this to the whole longitude of Canaan divided among the Tribes from East to West according to the latest Maps and particularly that appointed by Authority to be prefixed to the last Translation of the holy Bible Anno 1611 It is hardly a fourth part of the true Longitude And as for the space between Joppa and Bethlehem where St. Hierome dwelt which is said to be 46 miles it is not the one half of the breadth of the whole Land from South to North nor is it said by Hierome that it is the breadth of the whole but of the space between Joppa and Bethlehem the place of his habitation which was almost in the middle And here take notice that Hierome in that Epistle endeavours to prove that much of the Land of Canaan promised to Abrahams posterity is to be understood in an allegorical sense as if God did not verifie all that he promised to them in the Letter which under favour of so great a Clerk is a mistake For can we think God would be worse than his word in kind Read the several distributions by Lot to the Tribes in the book of Joshua and elsewhere and then it will clearly appear that St. Hierome in this was out But whatever the length and breadth of that Land was this is clear that the Levites enjoyed not one foot more than God had appointed the Israelites to set out by Lot unto them Therefore the Lands sold by Christians Act. 4. or by that Hypocrite Ananias Act. 5. can be no warrant for Christians to set out what Lands they please or any Lands at all upon this setting out of Suburbical Lands for the Levites until they can shew the like warrant from God under the New Testament both for kinde and dimensions for the Lands given to Cathedrals Now then if Bishops take upon them as of late they did to be above Presbyters or Ministers of particular Congregations as Aaron was above the ordinary Priests and Levites it is as clear as Analogy can make it that there is no colour for nor shew of warrant out of the Old Testament to enable Bishops to hold whatever Lands the blind Devotions or Commutations of Penances of the people conferred on them but rather that there was an express Law against it It is true that after the Temple was built there was no doubt conveniency of habitation and perhaps some Lands for the beasts and Cattle of the High-Priest in or about Hierusalem as there perhaps was while the Ark remained in the Tabernacle And if Bishops answerable thereunto had made it out that they were as Aaron above the rest of their brethren in the Ministry there had been some reason for the allowance of some Lands to them if they labour in the Word and Doctrine while they continue Howheit although Bishops could not by Scripture make out their Title to the Lands they held those 48 Cities alotted to the Levites with the Suburbs pertaining to them which lands were not to be alienated while the Levitical Priesthood was in force may by Analogy be a good Argument for the setling of Glebe-lands upon faithful and painful Ministers of each particular or Parochial Congregation for their habitation and necessary provision of Cattle for their use and for the acknowledging of them as sacred or holy to the Lord. Because himself commanded the like for the Priests of the Law who had then sundry other obventions and incomes which Ministers now cannot enjoy Nor can it be thought that God is more wanting to the Ministers of Christ when more grace is given to those to whom they preach than he

was first cast in the Popes Mint Semel Dicatum Deo non est ad humanos usus ulterius transferendum Which wherein and how far it holds hath been above declared and needs not to be repeated Things once given to God by his command warrant or approbation may not be aliened to other uses while the use appointed of God continueth But this holds not in ought else that men pretend or say they give to God As in persons so in things such onely as the Lord chuseth are accepted and holy let them say or think what they will to the contrary The vilest wretch that is saith He gives his Soul to God at least in his last Will. Doth this make him accepted or holy No of things in themselves good God will not accept every thing from every man David was an holy man had an honourable and holy designe to build God an house and Nathan thought he did very well in it and therefore said unto him Go and do all that is in thy hea t for the Lord is with thee Yet David and Nathan were both mistaken herein Wherefore to pin Lands upon God and to proclaim this because once pretendedly given to him perhaps by an Adulterer a Murtherer a Parricide c. that is made to believe he is damned if he give not largely to the Church and so gives rather out of fear than of a willing minde is as the Proverb saith to reckon without the Host and to put that upon God which he will not own It is no better then those gifts of the Israelites in the absence of Moses pretended to be offered to God although in a carnal way as most of the gifts now spoken of by all the Deeds and Instruments of the Donors appear to be when they brake off the golden ear-rings which were on their ears and brought them unto Aaron to make them gods to go before them They pretended they were for God and what Aaron made was but to please their eye by some visible representation of the invisible God expresly against the second Commandment but newly given them yet how far these gifts were from acceptance or made holy because as they thought they had given them to God or from being reserved for holy uses was manifest by the sad punishment of that their great folly and wickedness And what Lawyers say of gifts to the Church Quod Ecclefae datur Deo datur what is given to the Church is given to God is not spoken in a Theological sense but onely to shew the sense and construction of our municipal Laws and what such are in the account of the Law of the Nation or rather of some Levites not of Gods Law 2. It is apparent that those gifts to Bishops and other Cathedral men were to be no longer continued had they been theirs by Divine Right then the Offices for and to which they were given remained useful If Levi might hold his no longer why should Bishops and others of the same association Datur beneficium propter officium Office and Benefice are relatives like Hippocrates Twins they live and die together The Suburbs of the forty eight Cities were no longer continued by God to holy uses yet Tythes were and given by God to his Ministers of the Gospel No reason therefore to conclude against employing holy things to common uses when God himself reserved not the Levites Lands to godly Ministers but onely his own inheritance the Tythes There is a wo to those that call good evil as well as to those that call evil good Indeed if these Lands had still continued as a common Revenue to all the Clergy or Ministers as one intire Corporation there had been some colour for the continuation of them to the rest when Bishops and Cathedral men were laid aside But when at the instance and by the labouring of the Bishops themselves and their partners every Order had their several shares apportioned and laid out unto them so as the other could no longer make the least claim thereto without coveting what was their neighbours the Lands of Cathedral men cannot be in Law or Equity justly required to go to Parochial Ministers but it is in the free dispose of those to whom by Law they do eschete by the total laying aside of their former owners and offices to do what they will with them as their own 3. When the vastness of the revenue or unlawful procuring of it is a wrong to the Commonwealth or to any particular Family which God requireth not especially in times of peace and plenty to be ruined to enrich him or his MInisters this is not a Dedication that God will own but rather a robbing of others of what is more properly their right and an abusing of God by fathering upon him the acceptance of that which the Donors ought not so to have given to him who hateth robbery for burni-offerings and a profaning of his Name by teaching men to take that for a warrant to give that which is not theirs so to give That position therefore now urged if taken in the full Latitude without bounds would be of dangerous consequence to such as swallow it and act upon it 4. Things voluntarily given according to Gods own Rules and Directions to warrant the gift cannot be aliened from the use to which he hath appointed them so long as the use continueth If such things have by the corruptions of men been abused the abuse must be removed and the things employed to such holy uses as the Lord himself hath directed not what man shall think fit to apply them to without Gods warrant Thus the Censers abused by Korah and his Companions were no more used for the burning of Incense yet because they mere hallowed they were by Gods appointment converted into broad plates for covering of the Altar But in things not appointed by God from the beginning this Tenet holdeth not For to give unto God upon wrong grounds and for superstitious ends most derogatory to God and Christ to maintain and feed a company of Harpies that heretofore lay in wait as he that setteth snares and traps to catch men thereby to fool them out of their Estates upon fair but false pretences is no better accepted then the hire of a whore or the price of a dog that is then money gotten by whoredom or by the sale of a dog brought into the house of the Lord which he abborreth Such are all those gifts of Lands to Cathedrals pretended to be thereby given unto God many of them being first gotten by rapine and spoile whereby Christ is put out of Office or at least declared an insufficient Saviour as if men could not be saved by his merits alone but they must eek them out by some works of their own which they are taught to believe to be the Saviours which they must trust unto God looks no otherwise upon such offerings then upon she offering of Swines blood