and Parsonages thus well Gospelly served yea not served at all but the Church Doors quite shut up after the New Gospel of England So he This doubtless will be the general sad condition of all England as it is now in most part of Wales if Tithes and Rectories be quite voted down abolished or disposed to the Souldiers or brought into a common Treasury which will hardly leave Ministers the Tenth of their Tithes as our late Sequestrators left not the Tenth nor fifth part clear gains and value of all Sequestrations generally throughout England to the State as I found by examination of their Accompts upon Oath which is now so violently prosecuted endeavoured by many And then we shall have a glorious blessed Reformation indeed according to the Popes and Jesuites hearts desires who like ravening Wolves will make a prey of all Flocks in the defect and absence of able Pastors through want of Maintenance and poverty as they have done in many places throughout the Realm seduced by them to Jesuitism Anabaptism Atheism through defect of able Ministers and ejection of former Incumbent Pastors under pretext of Scandal Insufficiency or Malignity by Arbitrary or Anabaptistical Committees Sequestrators Prosecutors without any legal Tryal by their Peers or any care at all to place better abler or any Minister at all in divers Parishes in their places Whereupon these active Jesuites with other Romish Emissacries under the Disguises of Anabaptists Seekers Dippers inspired Brethren Quakers Ranters Souldiers New Illuminates of extraordinary Endowments and Itinerary Predicants who pretend to preach the Gospel freely have seduced thousands divided the people into sundry Sects and almost ruined our Church and Religion in a short space which they will soon accomplish to their hearts content can they now but vote down Tithes Glebes and set up New Committees in all places of their own and the Anabaptistical party concurring in Design and most principles with the Jesuites as Watson in his Quodlibets and others prove at large to eject our remaining Ministers at their pleasure under pretext they are Antichristian Scandalous and no Ministers of Jesus Christ as John Canne and others have already prejudgeâ— them that they and their Agents may step into their places and at last when all their Designs against our State Church Governm are produced to maturity re-assume their Tithes Rectories with our Bishops Deans Chapters and Abby Lands too into their actual possession according to the Jesuite Parsons and his Companions long prosecuted project at large related by William Watson the Priest in his Quodlibets p. 93 94 98 288 â—89 332 333. with other plots lately prosecuted ad unguem to subvert our Religion Laws Government Monarchy and enslave us to the Iesuits Popes Spaniards Tyranny and Vassalage in conclusion first laid by Parsons and other pragmatical Jesuites then seconded by Thomas Campanella in his Treatise De Monarchia Hispanica c. 25.27 and elsewhere prosecuted of late years by the Jesuites and Spanish Agents on the one hand and Cardinal Richilieu and his Instruments on the other hand who at his death in the begining of our late Warrs which he was very instrumental to rayse recommended the prosecution of them to the French King and his Successor Cardinal Mazarin as A Noble Italian Count Conte Galliazzo Gualdo Priorato in his Historia part 3. printed at Venice in 4to Anno 1648. dedicated by him to the King of Poland and written in Italian p. 175 176 records in these words worthy all English Statesmens special notice where Writing of the affairs of the year 1642. and the death of Cardinal Richelieu in particular he records That amongst other things he caused some Papers to be delivered before his death to the King of France full of Policies and Maximes of State directing him how to carry on his Business with all Forein States His advice in relation to England was this Che Sopra c. That above all other things the King of France should endeavour to keep the Government of Great Britain divided by upholding the weakest party that the other might not make it self too powerfull Reducing the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to be divided by one of these two means or both either by nominating new Kings or by reducting them to a Common-wealth Yet with this Caution that when they are reduced to a Common-wealth So to order it that it may not be intirely one but divided For Republiques ever enemies to Potent Neighbours and Iealous of their Liberties ought to be Suspected by the State of France How punctually this advice hath been pursued by the French as well as Parsons and Campanellaes Plots of like nature by the Spaniards those who please to peruse the Lord George Digbies Cabinet Letters printed in the Collection of all the Publique Orders Ordinances and Declarations of Parliament in folio by the Commons Order 1646. p. 849 858 862 863 866 867. and my Speech in Parliament p. 118. 106 to 114. may read at leisure and every mans observing experience can sufficiently attest The Lord now at last give us hearts to be deeply sensible of it and grace zeal courage to make timely use of it for the Preservation of our Kingdoms Nations Churches Ministers Religion from impendent ruine Having given the world this brief Accompt of the principal Promoters Prosecutors of the present Grand Plot against our Ministers their Tithes and Rectories I cannot upon serious consideration of it but foresee and divine that if all or any of these Projectors through Gods heavy Judgment on us for our sins and detestable violations of all Oaths Vows Covenants Trusts Protestations Promises Declarations Divine and Human Laws should by power fraud policy or armed force so far prevail with our present Legifers or Swaying Grandees as totally to take away and abolish the Rectories Tithes and present setled Maintenance of our Ministry for the Souldiers pay or other ends or else secretly to bring them all into a Common Treasury and reduce all our Ministers to set arbitrary Stipends out of them to dispossess them of the future actual possession of them and make them wholy dependent on the arbitrary discretions of new intruding Land-Lords into their Churches Patrimonies Freeholds from whom they never received them at first as it would inevitably produce a world of mischiefs and Inconveniences both to all Patrons and Parishioners throughout the Nation without the least Ease or Benefit to the People so it would certainly either totally ruine our Ministers making them all poor Fryers Mendicants neglecting their Callings Studies to get their living by begging from door to door and as Peter Martyr observes to be ventris potius quam Ecclesiae Ministros ostiatim validè Mendicare non Mendicantes sed Manducantes appellari and thereby subvert our Church and Religion with them in very few years space open such a wide door for the Pope and whole body of Popery to flow in upon us again with an impetuous irresistable Deluge
Let John Canne and all presumptuous peremptory Tith-oppugners answer me yea this their Soveraign Land-lord and Creator if they can who will one day call them to a stâ—ict accompt for detaining this due Rent Tribute Homage from him and may justly dispossesse and strip them naked of all they have for this their ingrate contemptuous carriage towards him as he hath done many of late by fearful fires blasts droughts and other judgments as well as heretofore Mal. 3.8 9 11. 7. That as the Gospel it self succeeded the Levitical law Baptism and the Lords Supper Circumcision and the Passeover So the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel succeed the Priests and Levites under the Law in their Ministerial function in the Church of Christ by Gods appointment their Ministry and Office being both the same in substance even to worship praise serve honour God according to his revealed word will and instruct exhort direct guide his people in the way of salvation and bring them to eternal glory though differing in some circumstances of lesser moment abolished by Christs death It is therefore most reasonable just equitable convenient they shall receive enjoy the like setled maintenance by Glebes Tithes Oblations as their predecessors did God having prescribed none other kinde of reward or subsistence for them in the Gospel that any can shew me It is usual in all Kingdoms States Nations where there are any publick setled offices and Officers for any persons who succeed others in those Offices to enjoy the self-same Salaries Houses Lands Fees Revenues as their predecessors lawfully received unlesse there be some special Laws to alter their Stipends This we see verified in all Civil Military and Ecclesiastical Officers yea in the times of greatest publick changes revolutions that ever befell the Nation those whom most yet call Judges Sheriffs Majors Generals Colonels Captains Governors of Forts Registers c. though their Commissions be altered in some things and themselves in more do yet receive the self-same Salaries pays Fees maintenance annexed to their Offices as their lawfull Predecessors did yea to come closer home All our Protestant Ministers since the reformation of Religion have generally enjoyed the Glebes and Tithes as the Parishioners enjoy frequent the Churches possesse the Houses Inheritances which their Popish predecessors did before them though the one of them just like the Levitical abolished Priests made it their chiefest businesse and part of their calling to say Masse and offer an unbloody Sacrifice as they falsly termed it on their Altars both for the quick and dead and the other who succeed them make it their principal work to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacrament according to Christs institution Since then the Ministers of the Gospel succeed the Levitical as well as the popish Priests as the Gospel doth the Law and the Christian Sacraments the Jewish and we with all converted Gentiles engraffed into Jesus Christ and the Church of God succeed the Jews who were broken off from their own Olive Tree that we might be ingraffed in their places who now partake of the root and fatnesse of their Olive Tree as the Apostle resolves Rom. 11.16 to 25. Why the Ministers of the Gospel should not likewise succeed the Levitical Priests as well as the popish in the enjoyment of their setled Maintenance by Glebes Tithes being not meerly ceremonial as I have proved nor yet so papal as Bishops Deans and Churches Lands in which our Anabaptists Army-Officers and Tithe-oppugners will yet succeed them without any scruple and all believing Gentiles who succeed the believing Israelites in Gods Church succeed them likewise in the due and just maintenance of their Ministers by Tithes and Glebes reserved to and prescribed by that true holy just and righteous God who is not only the God of the Jews but of the Gentiles also Rom. 3.19 Let any rational Christian now resolve his own Conscience and mine from grounds of Scripture Reason or Equity if he can God having given us a Land flowing with milk and honey as fit as able to render Glebes and Tithes of all things in kinde to his Ministers as he did unto the Jews It is a received maxim in our Law Quod venit in loco alterius est de natura Prioris If this be Gospel as it hath been ever held both Law and reason under the Gospel I need adde no more to this Aphorism to prove the lawfullnesse and equity of our Ministers Glebes and Tithes and their continuance as well for the future as heretofore by a divine Right 8. That all Christian Churches and pious Christians generally throughout the world from the Apostles dayes till now have unanimously resolved both in point of Piety Justice Conscience and right Reason that they are bound to consecrate and Render unto God the self-same weekly portion of time for his publick worship as the Israelites and Jews under the Law were obliged to do to wit one day in seven though they differ in the circumstance only of the day they observing the seventh day from the Creation every week in memory of the Creation and Gods rest thereon for their Sabbath prescribed by special Laws and we the first day of every week in memorial of our Saviours Resurection thereon by the General Moral Equity of these Laws warranted by Apostolical practice only without any special Gospel-precept Let then the whole Army of Tithe-Oppugners render me one dram of Reason or shadow of answer if they Canne why all Christian Realms Churches Nations in the world may not should not by the self-same rule of Piety Justice Equity proportion continue and render the like proportion of Glebes Tithes to God and his Ministers under the Gospel as the Jews did to him his Priests and Levites under the Law as well as they render to him the self-same Proportion of time for his Weekly publick Service and why payment of Tithes Oblations under the Gospel to God who gives us both them and the residue of our Estates and encrease out of his own meer free grace for the maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel and support of his publick Worship on the Lords Day should be more Judaical Vnchristian Antichristian Superstitious as Canne and others stile it than the dedicating appropriating of the Lords Day to Gods publick Worship and Honour who hath given and allowed us the other six for our imployments when as he might have justly reserved the nine parts of our Lands and goods to himself had he pleased instead onely of the Tenth as well as the six daies in lieu of the seventh wherewith he is content which Divines usually urge to induce men to the more chearfull Sanctification of the Lords Day and some Scriblers against Tithes as well as others St. Augustin in his 229. Sermon de Tempors thus enforceth this very argument and let Canne and all his confederates reply to it if they can Hear O indevout mortality know that all things thou possessest receivest
Learned Gulielmus Stuckius Antiquitatum Convivalium l. 1. c. 19. De Decimis Stipendiis atque Salariis eorum qui Ecclesiis praesunt proves from the example of Abraham and vow of Jacob Consuetudinem Decimas dandi etiam ante legem fuisse usitatam Veresimile etiam est Ethnicos ab illis commemoratis exemplis tritum illud suum et usitatum praedae spoliarum et quicquid ab hostibus captum est Decimam Jovi caeterisque Diis vovendi solvendique morem traxisse cujus multa sane illustria exempla extant apud Alexand. ab Alex. l. 3. Genial c. 22. Then he shews how God prescribed them to the Levites and Priests that the payment of them continued in Christs time and was revived by Christian Emperors and Magistrates as Constantine Charles the Great Concluding thus Ut ergo impie agunt illi Magistratus qui bona Ecclesiae dicata ad se rapiunt vel ad alios usus transferunt ita Impii et Sacrilegi sunt privati Homines qui non modo nihil pro suis facultatibus conferunt ad Ministri Ecclesiastici et Scholarum conservationem sed Decimas et Census devitos jam antea Ecclesiae dicatos vel omnino non solvunt vel non ea qua par est fide c. Itaque mirum non est multa quotidie cum privata tum publica mala annonae praesertim caritatem ingruere Cum Decime aliâ—que Census ad Ecclesiarum Scholarumque conservationem pertinentes vel negantur vel maligne persolvantur For our own Domestick Councils Parliaments and Writers Judgements herein Egbert Archbishop of York in his Excerptions about the year of Christ An 750. c. 4.99 100. The National Council of Calchuth under King Oswald and Offa ann 787. c. 17. forecited The famous Council of Grateley under King Athelstan ann 928. cap. 1. De Decimis sollicite reddendis Odo Archbishop of Canterbury in his Constitutions ann 943. c. 10. De Decimis reddendis The Canons under King Edgar about the year 967. Can. 54. The Ecclesiastical laws of King Aethelred ann 1012. cap. 4. The Ecclesiastical laws of Edward the Confessor c. 8. confirmed by William the Conqueror The Popish Schoolmen Canonists and Commentators on the Texts forecited whose names I pretermit the Convocation of England an 5 H. 6. and the Petition of the English Clergy in Parliament 50 E. 3. rot Parl. n. 199. resolve in positive terms That Tithes are due to God and his Ministers under the Gospel by Divine Right The same is asserted by divers of our Protestant Divines particularly by Dr. George Carleton in his Treatise intituled Tithes proved to be due by a Divine Right printed at London 1606. By Dr. William Sclater his Ministers Portion By Richard Eburne his Maintenance of the Ministry London 1609. By Richard Mountague in his Diatribe on the first part of the History of Tithes London 1628. by Robert Tileslee his Animadversions on Mr. Seldens History of Tithes London 1619. Mr. Samuel Purchas in his Pilgrimage l. 2. c. 7. with sundry others And though one or two English Writers are of a different opinion yet they all accord that being setled by our laws they are duely to be paid even in point of justice and conscience that they are not simply unlawfull but a just and fitting maintenance under the Gospel which Mr. Selden in his History of Tithes Review thereof doth affirm and no wayes oppose Seeing then all these with the laws of sundry other Kings Nations and Authorities of all sorts conclude them to be of Divine Right and conclude it both a grievous Sinne and Sacrilege against God to substract or abolish them and those who oppugn their Divine Right under the Gospel do affirm it is no sin but a bounden Debt and Duty to pay them as settled by humane Grants Donations Vows Laws Canons Constitutions Prescriptions time out of minde how any bearing the name of Christians can or dare with open face oppugn detain or attempt their total abrogation now as Jewish or Antichristian I referre it to their own consciences and others resolutions to determine I shall answer one grand Objection against Ministers Tithes under the Gospel and so cloze up this Chapter Neither Jesus Christ himself nor his Apostles nor the Ministers of the Primitive Church for two or three hundred years after them received Tithes for preaching the Gospel but lived onely upon the peoples alms and voluntary contributions Therefore the Ministers of the Gospel likewise after them ought to receive no Tithes of the people for preaching the Gospel but to live upon Alms and voluntary contributions as they did This was William Thorps chief Argument against Tithes Fox Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 699 700. who addes That those Priests who will challenge or take Tithes deny that Christ is come in the flesh and do the Priests Office of the Old Law for whom Tithes were granted for else Priests take now Tithes wrongfully citing this not as his own but a Doctors opinion whose name he remembred not but thought it was St. Jerome or rather St. Canne in his New Voyce p. 13 14 15. who delivers this for Orthodox Doctrine which St. Jerome directly contradicts with all other antient Doctors I have read Answ To this I reply 1. That Christ and his Apostles lived amongst the Jews who at that time were obliged by Gods own Law to pay their Tithes only to such Priests and Levites as were of the Tribe of Levi of which Tribe Christ and his Apostles were not therefore they challenged not Tithes from them Heb. 7.5 to 15. 2. They then paid their Tithes duly to their Priests and Levites mentioned John 1.19 for which Christ commended them resolving they ought not to omit it Mat. 23.23 Luke 11.42 ch 18.12 Therefore it was no reason they should pay them over again to Christ or his Apostles no more than Papists who pay Tithes in kind against their wills unto our Ministers though not to their own Priests but only voluntary Contributions whiles their Priesthood stood in force which they generally submitted to 3. The total abrogation of the Levitical Priesthood and Ceremonies by the death of Christ was not certainly known to nor resolved by the Apostles and believing Jews or Gentiles till some years space after our Saviours Ascension as is evident by Acts 15. in the great case of Circumcision about which there was a Synod assembled by Pauls circumcising Timothy after this because of the Jews Acts 16.3 his purifying himself and shaving his head after the Jewish manner many years afterward Acts 21.20 to 28. which he being a Jew was obliged even then to observe to avoid scandal but not the Gentiles Therefore Tithes amongst the Jewes upon this account were then still paid to their Levitical Priests not to the Apostles 4. Though Christ whiles on earth received no Tithes from the Jewes yet he had a just Right Title to Tithes from Abraham and all his Posterity yea from the
6. c. 3. 5 E. 6 c 2. 7 E. 6. c. 11.1 Phil. Mar. c. 6.5 Eliz. c. 3.14 Eliz. c. 3.18 Eliz c. 3.22 Eliz. c. 11.23 Eliz. c. 3.31 Eliz. c. 10.35 Eliz. c. 7. 43 Eliz. c. 2. as Dalton and other Justices of Peace Tit. Poor Maimed Souldiers Therefore admit Tithes mere Alms as some would have them yet when and where detained they may be as justly levyed and recovered by coercive Laws and Statutes as Alms to the Poor and those who condemn coercive Laws for Tithes as unbeseeming the Gospel must Tax and Repeal all Laws for the Poor and for Maimed Souldiers too as such which I presume they will not do 5ly I suppose neither Canne himself who receives pay as a Chaplain to the Army out of publick Contributions from the people not from voluntary contributions of the Souldiers and all other Officers and Swordmen oppugning the coercive Maintenance of our Ministers by Tither or otherwise will maintain even unto death that the People even against their wills and Consciences too may be enforced to pay Monthly Taxes and Excises amounting to twenty times more each year than all the Ministers Tithes in England by coercive Orders and Ordinances though not made in a full free or old English Parliament nor warranted by so many indisputable Acts of Parliament as Ministers Tithes and Dues and levyed by Imprisonments Distresses Forfeitures armed violence and free quartering of Souldiers on the people though adjudged High Treason in Straffords Case in full Parliament for which he lost his Head our Ministers therefore being real Spiritual Souldiers of Jesus Christ even by the Gospels Resolution and not to go a warfare at any time on their own free cost but upon the Peoples pay wages as due to them as any Souldiers which I have formerly proved they must by the self same reason acknowledge the levying enforcing of the payment of their less Burdensom and more legal necessarie Tithes for the defence and preservation of the very Gospel Religion Gods Glory and Mans Salvation once a year by penalties forfeitures imprisonments or distresses when obstinately detained or else disclaim their own coercive Contributions first to maintain unchristian bloodie wars between Christians of the same Religion in firm unity and amity with us which are not so necessarie or commendable amongst Christians who should live peaceably with all men not make a last Trade of war Love as Brethren Lay down their Lives one for another Yea love and pray for their Enemies not murder or destroy them and beat all their Swords into Plowshares and their spears into Pruning Hooks not lifting up Sword Nation against Nation as now they do to the peril of the Gospel reproach and slaunder and learn war no more as is the Spiritual warfare of our Ministers against the World Flesh Sin Devil and all Errors Blasphemies Corruptions for the eternal Salvation not Destruction of mens Souls and Bodies too 6ly We find it long since prophecied in the Old Testament in relation to the calling to the Gentiles by and under the Gospel Isay 49.23 That the KINGS of the Gentiles should become Nursing-Fathers and their Queens Nursing-Mothers to the Church Isay 60.9 10. Surely the Isles shall wait for me and the Ships of Tarshish first to bring my Sons from far their Silver and their Gold with them And the Sons of Strangers shall build up the walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee Psal 72.10 11. The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring Presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer Gifts yea all Kings shall down before him and then all Nations shall serve him Thus seconded in the New Testament Rev 21.24 where it is prophecied of the Heavenly Jerusalem the Church of Christ the Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory unto it Which Prophecies concerning Kings and likewise Kings of Isles in particular and no other sorts of Governors which is observable have been most eminently verified of the Kings and Queens of this Isle and Realm of Britain beyond all the Kings Queens Regions Isles and Kingdoms in the world besides to the eternal Honour of that late rejected abjured form of Kingly Government derived from Gods own form of Kingly Government over the whole world and of Christs Royal Government over his Church both Militant and Triumphant and of this our Isle where God blessed our Church and Kingdom 1. with three such worthy Heathen Kings in Succession Arviragus Marius and Coylus who though they embraced not the Christian Faith here preached soon after our Saviours Ascension by James the Son of Zebedee Simon Zelotes Peter Paul Aristobulus and Philips twelve Disciples wherof Joseph of Aramathaea who honourably interred our Saviour was chief Yet they courteously entertained them permitted them freely to preach the Gospel to their people gave publick entertainment to the persecuted Christians resorting hither as to a safe and peaceable Sanctuary when they were forcibly expelled out of all other Kingdoms and Countries throughout the world and Roman Empire by bloody Persecutors bestowed Lands and a comfortable Maintenance on the Preachers of the Gospel at Glastonbury where they built the first Christian Church in the world and were the first Kings and Kingdoms in the world who gave publique Reception Protection Countenance Maintenance to the Preachers and Professors of the Gospel as not only our own Historians but two forein Writers namely Polydore Virgil Hist Angl. l. 2. and Cardinal Baronius himself Annal. Tom. 1. An. 95. n. 5. with Spondanus in his Epitome of him records 2ly With the first Christian King we read of publickly baptised professing and establishing the Christian Faith builded endowed Churches and Ministers with Glebes and other Maintenance to wit our famous King Lucius who about the year 187. as Matthew Paris Matthew Westminster the History of Rochester and others record Possessiones et Territoria Ecclesiis et viris Ecclesiasticis abundanter conferens Chartis Munimentis omnia communivit Ecclesias vero cum suis Coemiteriis ita constituit esse Liberas ut quicunque Malefactor ad illa confugeret illaesus ab omnibus remaneret a good Policy at that time to draw Pagans to frequent the Church and hear the word to convert them both from their Paganism and evil Lives He not only giving all the Lands and Possessions belonging to the Pagan Temples and Priests to the Churches and Ministers of the Christians Sed quia majorem honorem illis impendere debuerat augmentavit illas amplioribus agris et mansis omnique libertate sublimavit as Galfridus Monmuniensis and Gervasius Tilburiensis affirm Here was a true Nursing Father indeed to Gods Church and Ministers 3ly With the first Christian Queen we read of in all the world to wit Queen Helena Daughter and Heir to King Coel and Mother to Constantine the Great who was a carefull Nursing Mother and Bountifull Benefactor to the Church and Ministers