Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	apostle_n	church_n	teacher_n	2,224	5	8.9443	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50892	Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings out of the church wherein is also discourc'd of tithes, church-fees, church-revenues, and whether any maintenance of ministers can be settl'd by law / the author J.M.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1659 (1659)	Wing M2101; ESTC R12931	33,775	176

the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the Lords holy unto the Lord Levit. 27. 30. And this before it was given to the Levites therefor since they ceasd No question For the whole earth is the Lords and the fulnes therof Psal. 24. 1 and the light of nature shews us no less but that the tenth is his more then the rest how know I but as he so declares it He declares it so here of the land of Canaan only as by all circumstance appeers and passes by deed of gift this tenth to the Levite yet so as offerd to him first a heaveoffring and consecrated on his altar Numb. 18. all which I had as little known but by that evidence The Levites are ceasd the gift returns to the giver How then can we know that he hath given it to any other or how can these men presume to take it unofferd first to God unconsecrated without an other cleer and express donation wherof they shew no evidence or writing Besides he hath now alienated that holy land who can warrantably affirme that he hath since hallowd the tenth of this land which none but God hath power to do or can warrant Thir last prooff they cite out of the gospel which makes as little for them Matth. 23. 23 where our Saviour denouncing woe to the Scribes and Pharises who paid tithe so exactly and omitted waightier matters tels them that these they ought to have don that is to have paid tithes For our Saviour spake then to those who observd the law of Moses which was yet not fully abrogated till the destruction of the temple And by the way here we may observe out of thir own prooff that the Scribes and Pharises though then chief teachers of the people such at least as were not Levites did not take tithes but paid them So much less covetous were the Scribes and Pharises in those worst times then ours at this day This is so apparent to the reformed divines of other countreys that when any one of ours hath attempted in Latine to maintain this argument of tithes though a man would think they might suffer him without opposition in a point equally tending to the advantage of all ministers yet they forbear not to oppose him as in a doctrin not fit to pass unoppos'd under the gospel Which shews the modestie the contentednes of those forein pastors with the maintenance given them thir sinceritie also in the truth though less gainful and the avarice of ours who through the love of their old Papistical tithes consider not the weak arguments or rather conjectures and surmises which they bring to defend them On the other side although it be sufficient to have prov'd in general the abolishing of tithes as part of the Judaical or ceremonial law which is abolishd all as well that before as that after Moses yet I shall further prove them abrogated by an express ordinance of the gospel founded not on any type or that municipal law of Moses but on moral and general equitie given us instead 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. Know ye not that they who minister about holy things live of the things of the temple and they which wait at the altar are partake●s with the altar so also the Lord hath ordaind that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel He saith not Should live on things which were of the temple or of the altar of which were tithes for that had given them a cleer title but abrogating that former law of Moses which determind what and how much by a later ordinance of Christ which leaves the what and how much indefinit and free so it be sufficient to live on he saith The Lord hath so ordaind that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel which hath neither temple altar nor sacrifice Heb. 7. 13. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe of which no man gave attendance at the altar his ministers therefor cannot thence have tithes And where the Lord hath so ordaind we may finde easily in more then one evangelist Luke 10. 7 8. In the same house remane eating and drinking such things as they give For the laborer is worthy of his hire c. And into whatsoever citie you enter and they receive you eat such things as are set before you To which ordinance of Christ it may seem likeliest that the apostle referrs us both here and 1 Tim. 5. 18 where he cites this as the saying of our Saviour That the laborer is worthy of his hire and both by this place of Luke and that of Matth. 10. 9 10 11 it evidently appeers that our Saviour ordaind no certain maintenance for his apostles or ministers publickly or privatly in house or citie receivd but that what ever it were which might suffice to live on and this not commanded or proportiond by Abram or by Moses whom he might easily have here cited as his manner was but declar'd only by a rule of common equitie which proportions the hire as well to the abilitie of him who gives as to the labor of him who receives and recommends him only as worthy not invests him with a legal right And mark wheron he grounds this his ordinance not on a perpetual right of tithes from Melchisedec as hirelings pretend which he never claimd either for himself or for his ministers but on the plane and common equitie of rewarding the laborer worthy somtimes of single somtimes of double honor not proportionable by tithes And the apostle in this forecited chapter to the Corinthians Vers. 11 affirms it to be no great recompence if carnal things be reapd for spiritual sown but to mention tithes neglects here the fittest occasion that could be offerd him and leaves the rest free and undetermind Certainly if Christ or his apostles had approv'd of tithes they would have either by writing or tradition recommended them to the church and that soone would have appeerd in the practise of those primitive and the next ages But for the first three hundred years and more in all the ecclesiastical storie I finde no such doctrin or example though error by that time had brought back again priests altars and oblations and in many other points of religion had miserably Judaiz'd the church So that the defenders of tithes after a long pomp and tedious preparation out of Heathen authors telling us that tithes were paid to Hercules and Apollo which perhaps was imitated from the Jewes and as it were bespeaking our expectation that they will abound much more with autorities out of Christian storie have nothing of general approbation to beginn with from the first three or four ages but that which abundantly serves to the confutation of thir tithes while they confess that churchmen in those ages livd meerly upon freewill offerings Neither can they say that tithes were not then paid for want of a civil magistrate to ordain them for

now most seasonable and in these matters wherin every Christian hath his free suffrage no way misbecoming Christian meeknes to offer freely without disparagement to the wisest such advice as God shall incline him and inable him to propound Since heretofore in commonwealths of most fame for government civil laws were not establishd till they had been first for certain dayes publishd to the view of all men that who so pleasd might speak freely his opinion therof and give in his exceptions ere the law could pass to a full establishment And where ought this equity to have more place then in the libertie which is unseparable from Christian religion This I am not ignorant will be a work unpleasing to some but what truth is not hateful to some or other as this in likelihood will be to none but hirelings And if there be among them who hold it thir duty to speak impartial truth as the work of thir ministry though not performd without monie let them not envie others who think the same no less their duty by the general office of Christianity to speak truth as in all reason may be thought more impartially and unsuspectedly without monie Hire of itself is neither a thing unlawful nor a word of any evil note signifying no more then a due recompence or reward as when our Saviour saith the laborer is worthy of his hire That which makes it so dangerous in the church and properly makes the hireling a word always of evil signification is either the excess thereof or the undue manner of giving and taking it What harme the excess therof brought to the church perhaps was not found by experience till the days of Constantine who out of his zeal thinking he could be never too liberally a nursing father of the church might be not unfitly said to have either overlaid it or choakd it in the nursing Which was foretold as is recorded in ecclesiastical traditions by a voice heard from heaven on the very day that those great donations and church-revenues were given crying aloud This day is poison pourd into the church Which the event soon after verifi'd as appeers by another no less ancient observation That religion brought forth wealth and the daughter devourd the mother But long ere wealth came into the church so soone as any gain appeerd in religion hirelings were apparent drawn in long before by the very sent thereof Judas therefor the first hireling for want of present hire answerable to his coveting from the small number or the meanness of such as then were the religious sold the religion it self with the founder therof his master Simon Magus the next in hope only that preaching and the gifts of the holy ghost would prove gainful offerd before-hand a sum of monie to obtain them Not long after as the apostle foretold hirelings like wolves came in by herds Acts 20. 29. For I know this that after my departing shall greevous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock Tit. 1. 11. Teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucres sake 2 Pet. 2. 3. And through covetousnes shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you Yet they taught not fals doctrin only but seeming piety 1 Tim. 6. 5. supposing that gain is Godlines Neither came they in of themselves only but invited oft-times by a corrupt audience 2 Tim. 4. 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrin but after thir own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they on the other side as fast heaping to themselves disciples Acts 20. 30 doubtles had as itching palmes 2 Pet. 2. 15. Following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor who lovd the wages of unrighteousnes Jude 11. They ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward Thus we see that not only the excess of hire in wealthiest times but also the undue and vitious taking or giving it though but small or mean as in the primitive times gave to hirelings occasion though not intended yet sufficient to creep at first into the church Which argues also the difficulty or rather the impossibility to remove them quite unless every minister were as St. Paul contented to teach gratis but few such are to be found As therefor we cannot justly take away all hire in the church because we cannot otherwise quite remove all hirelings so are we not for the impossibility of removing them all to use therefor no endevor that fewest may come in but rather in regard the evil do what we can will alwayes be incumbent and unavoidable to use our utmost diligence how it may be least dangerous Which will be likeliest effected if we consider first what recompence God hath ordaind should be given to ministers of the church for that a recompence ought to be given them and may by them justly be received our Saviour himself from the very light of reason and of equity hath declar'd Luke 10. 7. The laborer is worthy of his hire next by whom and lastly in what manner What recompence ought be given to church-ministers God hath answerably ordaind according to that difference which he hath manifestly put between those his two great dispensations the law and the gospel Under the law he gave them tithes under the gospel having left all things in his church to charity and Christian freedom he hath given them only what is justly given them That as well under the gospel as under the law say our English divines and they only of all Protestants is tithes and they say true if any man be so minded to give them of his own the tenth or twentith out that the law therefor of tithes is in force under the gospel all other Protestant divines though equally concernd yet constantly deny For although hire to the laborer be of moral and perpetual right yet that special kinde of hire the tenth can be of no right or necessity but to that special labor for which God ordaind it That special labor was the Levitical and ceremonial service of the tabernacle Numb. 18. 21 31. which is now abolishd the right therefor of that special hire must needs be withall abolishd as being also ceremonial That tithes were ceremonial is plane not being given to the Levites till they had bin first offerd a heave-offering to the Lord Vers. 24 28. He then who by that law brings tithes into the gospel of necessity brings in withall a sacrifice and an altar without which tithes by that law were unsanctifi'd and polluted Vers. 32. and therefor never thought on in the first Christian times till ceremonies altars and oblations by an ancienter corruption were brought back long before And yet the Jewes ever since thir temple was destroid though they have Rabbies and teachers of thir law yet pay no tithes as having no Levites to whom no temple where to pay them no altar wheron to hallow them which argues that the Jewes themselves never thought tithes