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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61092	The larger treatise concerning tithes long since written and promised by Sir Hen. Spelman, Knight ; together with some other tracts of the same authour and a fragment of Sir Francis Bigot, Knight, all touching the same subject ; whereto is annexed an answer to a question ... concerning the settlement or abolition of tithes by the Parliament ... ; wherein also are comprised some animadversions upon a late little pamphlet called The countries plea against tithes ... ; published by Jer. Stephens, B.D. according to the appointment and trust of the author.; Tithes too hot to be touched	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Stephens, Jeremiah, 1591-1665.; Bigod, Francis, Sir, 1508-1537.	1647 (1647)	Wing S4928; Wing S4917_PARTIAL; ESTC R21992	176,285	297

have his portion Of all that thou shalt give me saith Jacob will I give the tenth unto thee and in the Gospel the Pharisee though braggingly yet according to the use of the righteous of that time saith I give tithe of all that I possesse as it seemeth even of his goods and dead commodities as of the fruits of the earth For I suppose that the Ancients paid tithes in two sorts some ex praecepto others ex arbitrio or placito some by commandement of the Law others out of their free-will and benevolence In the 31. of the 2 Chron. v. 6. it is said They brought the tithes Boum pecudum of oxen and sheep things tithed before whilest they were young as I conceive and not now again to bee tithed when they were grown to their full ages So in the 10. of Nehe. 37. they brought first-fruits of their dough yet no doubt their dough was tithed before in the corn it was made of therefore I take these tithes to be tithes ad placitum in the election of the party whether he will give them or not but if he doe allot them to God he is tyed like Ananias and Sapphira to perform them faithfully for they then become due ex praecepto for he that voweth unto the Lord is commanded not to break his promise Numb 30. 3. And these kind of tithes no doubt were often paid by the godly sometime upon generall occasion as that of Hezekiah sometime of particular as that pretended by the Pharisee Military spoil and the prey gotten in war is also tithable for Abraham tithed it to Melchisedek and thereof if we may depart a little out of the circle of holy Scripture into the Histories of the Gentiles who even by instinct of nature found this duty to belong unto God we abound with examples thereof as paid by Cyrus at the taking of Sardis by Furius Camillus upon the overthrow of the Veians by Alexander the great upon his conquest of Arabia when he sent a whole ship laden with frankincense for the Altars of his gods But occasion to speak of these shall serve me better afterward and therefore to return to that is more materiall The example of Abraham in this point of tithing the prey teacheth us also that we give God a tithe out of every accession of wealth that he sendeth to us in any course whatsoever so that the gains of buying and selling and the great improvement arising by merchandise is under this title both registred and commanded I know not what the rich City of London doth in this kind but I read in Herodotus that the poor Samians yeelded at one time sixe talents to that purpose and that the Siphnians out of their silver and gold Mines sent so great a tithe to Delphos as the richest man of that age was not more worth St Augustine saith Vnusquisque de quali ingenio aut artificio vivit de ipso decimam Deo in pauperibus vel in ecclesiis donet Let every man out of the trade or craft whatsoever he liveth by give God the Tithe De rectitud Cathol conversat Tractat. Tom. 9 f. 250. CAP. XVII That things offered to God be holy I Must first explain what I mean by holy and that is not that they are divine things or like those of the Sanctuary which none might touch save the anointed Priests But like the lands and possessions of the Levites mentioned in Leviticus that were said to be holy and separate from common use and separate from man Levit. 27. 28 29. that is from the injury of secular persons and to be onely disposed to and for the service and servants of God defensum munitum ab injuria hominum N. F. de rer divis L. sanctum as the persons of Emperors and Kings are said to be holy and sacred for as the Altar sanctifieth the offering Mat 23. 19. so these things being offered to God are by this very act of oblation made holy and taken so into his own tuition as they may not after be divorced Wo be therfore to the Scribes and Pharisees that devour widows houses Mat. 23. 14. how much more wo then unto those that destroy the house of God and by divorcing Christ from his Spouse the Church make him also a widower and his Church a widow and so devour both the widows house and the widow her self But some are of opinion that the Church it selfe is no longer holy then while the service of God is in hand therein as the Mount and the Bush were no longer holy then while God was there and by that reason a Church and an Ale-house are of like sanctity for a man may preach in an Ale-house and minister the Sacraments in an Ale-house and occasion sometimes doth necessarily require it And what is their reason hereof why their reason is that consecration of places and of the implements belonging to the service of God were Leviticall ceremonies and therefore ended with the Leviticall Law These men reason as if before the Leviticall Law there had been no rules of Gods honour and as though the Morall Law and the Law of nature taught us nothing therein Doth not God himself leave the precepts of the Leviticall Law and reason with the Israelites out of the Law of nature Mal. 3. when he saith will any man spoil his goddesse as if he should say that the Law of nature hath sanctified those things that are offered unto God and therefore will any man violate the Law of nature Doth not Saint Paul reason also in the same sort when he saith Despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. 11. 22. If I should apply the places of Scripture that are spoken of the great reverence of the Temple it would be said that that were Leviticall but the office of the Temple was Morall as well as Leviticall and therefore though these be ended yet the other the Morall remaineth When Christ had cast the oxen doves that were for the Leviticall service out of the Temple yet he said that it was an house of Prayer as figurating that after the ceremonies were ended and gone yet the Morall office of the Temple to be an house of Prayer still remained Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11. 22. when he saith Despise yee the Church of God speaking it as if he wondred that any should be so irreligious or rather sacrilegious to despise the Church and no man I think doubteth but that this was spoken of the materiall Church for he blameth them that did use unseemly drinking in the Church See the first Treatise of the rights and respect due § 10. Of the three severall places and three functions of the Temple and how the last continueth holy for Prayer Doctrine and instruction of the people which therefore had in it no Ceremoniall implement at all CAP. XVIII Tithes must not be contemned because they were used by the Church of Rome IF we should reject Tithes because

they were used by the Church of Rome by the same reason we must also reject our Churches but the Apostles used both the Synagogues and the Temple it self after Christs Ascension though they were polluted with the doctrine and ceremonies of the Jews and therefore we are not to reject Tithes and other things profitable to Gods service because the Papists used or misused them The Censors ordained for Gods honour were impiously abused by Corah Dathan and Abiram yet God rejected them not but commanded them to be still employed in some better course of his service namely in making plates for the Altar Numb 16. 38. And by this Scripture doth Huge and Origen reprove them that judge the works of an heretique to be burned without preserving the good things in them and the Altar to be pulled down whereat a Schismatique hath ministred Hugo in Genes 16. fol. 136. a. and Origen in Homil. 9. sup Num. fol. 104. God refused not the burnt-offering of Gedeon though he made it with the idolatrous wood of Baals grove yea himself commanded it so Judg. 6. 26. and in the Gospel the offerings of the proud Pharisees were as well received into the Treasury of the Temple as the mite of the poor widow When Jericho was destroyed and accursed yet God required the gold and silver for his holy utensils Jos. 6. 19. For though filthy gains are forbidden to be offered unto God yet good things because they have been abused are not forbidden to be offered unto him When the pottage provided for sustenance of the children of the Prophets was infected by him that threw in the wilde gourdes or colloquintida Elisha the Prophet commanded them not to be cast away but cleansing them from their infectious venome used them still for food of the children 2 Kings 4. 38. So if the pottage of the Ministers have been abused with Roman Colloquintida purge the infection but take not their pottage I mean their Tithes from them Aristophanes bringeth in Hercules laughing to see effeminate Bacchus clad in the Lions skin but we may well lament to see a spruce Castilio and his masking mistresse trickt and trimmed up with those Church-livings that godly and grave men in times past gave for maintenance of Gods service and the Ministers thereof I can but wonder what should move Flacius Illyricus a man so conversant in the history of the Church to affirm that Tithes were lately extorted by the Popes and that they were first imposed by Pope Pelagius in the Councell Anno 588. unlesse his meaning be that in elder times they were paid at pleasure and now first commanded to be paid of duty which construction though contrary to the understanding of a common Reader if we doe allow him yet is it untrue also for that Councell reciteth that they had been paid before of long time and that by the whole multitude of Christians and as due by the Word of God and consequently not at pleasure Concil Matisconense 2. c. 5. Anno 588. Tom. 2. So that this Councell did but revive and quicken the cold devotion of that time and not inferre new matters unheard of before CAP. XIX That the Tradition of ancient Fathers and Councels is not lightly to be regarded IT appeareth by divers ancient Fathers and Councels that Tithes were paid long before their times in the Primitive Church and were unto the age of the Apostles though little memory thereof remaineth in the Authors of those times And shall we not beleeve the Fathers received such instruction from their elders Doth not God bid us ask after the days of old and the years of so many generations saying Ask thy father and he will shew thee thine elders and they will tell thee Deut. 32. 7. If we shall not beleeve them why should we ask them and why did the children of Israel complain that their Fathers heard not the words of the book of the Law 2 Kings 22. 13. but because they therefore could not report it to them their children Shall we think nothing to be done but what is written doth not the Evangelist tell us that if all were written that Christ did he supposed the world could not contain the books Joh. 21. 25 are not many actions of elder time alledged in latter Scriptures and yet no testimony of them in the former it is said 1 Chro. 26. 18. that Samuel Abner and Joab dedicated many things unto God yet their story reporteth no such matter Solomon is noted 1 Chron. 10. to have kept a famous Passeover yet is there not a word of it in the history of his time Fasting was brought into the Church before Christ and the use also of building of Synagogues but it appeareth not when or how Paul alledgeth that our Saviour said It is better to give then to take Act. 20. 35. yet no Evangelist doth mention it Jude saith v. 9. that Michael and the Devil strove for the body of Moses yet the Old Testament noteth no such thing how then came they by these instructions Surely by books that are perished or by inspiration or by relation of others and doubtlesse the ancient Fathers came to the knowledge of many things by all these ways First by books that be perished for it is manifest by Eusebius Jerome Gennadius and others that the ancient Fathers saw many thousands which are not now extant If by inspiration the holy Ghost that was sent down upon the Apostles and passed from one to another returned not by and by to heaven but remained actually amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church and therefore what they generally taught is carefully to be kept But if they received these things by Tradition the very Tradition of those first ages of the Church are much to be received for all that time no doubt infinite speeches and actions of Christ and the Apostles whereof many were collected by Ignatius and Papias as Jerome reporteth but now lost were then fresh in the mouths of every man as not onely the Fathers of that time doe abundantly testifie but our own experience also induceth us to conceive for doe not we our selves hear and beleeve many things to be done in the time of King Hen. 8. that never yet were written nor like to be CAP. XX. Ancient Councels and Canons for payment of Tithes THe Canons attributed to the Apostles come first in rank to be mentioned yet I will not insist upon them Neither doth Bellarmine as they are now published maintain them to be the children of those Fathers Yet can it not be denyed that the first 35. of them are very ancient and neer the time of the Apostles for Dionysius Exigu that lived within 400. yeares of the Apostles translated them out of Greek as received long before in the Eastern Church The fifth of those Canons ordaineth that all other fruit should be sent as first-fruit and tithe home to the house of the Bishop and Priests and not to be offered upon the Altar

gifts as were made to the Church against the honour of God but to those onely that were for maintenance of his Word and Ministery which if they were lawfully conferred as no man I think doubteth but they were then let us consider how fearfull a thing it is to pull them from God to rend them from the Church to violate the dedications of our Fathers the Oaths of our Ancestors the Decrees of so many Parliaments and finally to throw our selves into those horrible curses that the whole body of the kingdome hath contracted with God as Nehemiah and the Jews did Nehem. 10. should fall upon them if they transgresse herein For as Levi paid Tithes in the loins of Abraham Heb. 7. so the lawfull vow of the fathers descendeth upon their children And as the posterity of Jona●ab the sonne of Rechab were blessed in keeping it Jer. 35 18 so doubtlesse have we just cause to fear the dint of this curse in breaking this vow Say then that Tithes were not originally due unto God and that there belonged no portion of our Lands unto his Ministers yet are we in the case of Nehemiah and the Jews Nehem. 10. 32. They made Statutes by themselves to give every year the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of God And our fathers made Laws amongst themselves to give a portion of their Land and the tenth part of their substance that is these Parsonages for the service of the house of God If they were not due before they are now due For when thou vowest a vow unto the Lord thy God thou shalt not be slack to be pay it for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee and so it should be sin unto thee Deut. 23. 20. Therefore S. Peter reasoning the matter with Ananias telleth him That whilest his land remained in his hands it appertained unto him and when it was sold the money was his own Act. 5. 4. he might have chosen whether he would give them God or not but when his heart had vowed his hands were tied to perform them he vowed all and all was due not by the Levitical law which now was ended but by the Morall law which lasteth for ever for Job being an Heathen man and not a Jew saith also Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee and thou shalt render him thy vows Job 22. 27. If the King give a gift of his inheritance to his son his son shall have it if he give it to his servant his servant shall have it Ezek. 46. 16. If the King then give a gift to his Father that is to God Almighty shall not God have it or the servant to his Master and Maker shall not he enjoy it Who hath power to take that from God which was given unto him according to his Word can the Bishops can the Clergy give this away no they are but Vsufructuarii they have but the use of it the thing it self is Gods for the words of the grant be Concedimus Deo we give it to God not to the Bishops Therefore when Valentinian the Emperor required the Church of Milan of that noble Bishop S. Ambrose O saith he if any thing were required of me that were mine as my land my house my gold or my silver whatsoever were mine I would willingly offer it but saith he I can take nothing from the Church nor deliver that to others which I my self received but to keep and not to deliver CAP. XXVIII Tithe is not meerly Leviticall How it is and how not and wherein Judiciall TIthe is not simply a Leviticall duty but respectively not the naturall childe of Moses Law but the adoptive Consider first the action and then the end the action in payment of them the end in the employment or disposing of them The action of payment of them cannot be said to be properly Leviticall for divers reasons First it is much more ancient then the Leviticall Law as is already declared and cannot therefore bee said to begin by it or to be meerly Leviticall Secondly the manner of establishing of it in the Leviticall Law seemeth rather to be an annexion of a thing formerly in use then the creating or erecting of a new custome for in all the Leviticall Law there is no originall commandement to pay Tithe but in the place where first it is mentioned Lev. 27. 30. it is positively declared to be the Lords without any commandement precedent to yeeld it to him Some happily will affirm the commandement in the 22. Exod. that thou shalt not keep back thy Tithe doth belong to the Leviticall Law though it were given before the Levites were ascribed to the Tabernacle Yet if it were so that is no fundamentall Law whereupon to ground the first erection of paying Tithe but rather as a Law of revive and confirmation as of a thing formerly in esse for detaining and keeping back doe apparently imply a former right and therefore Tithe was still the Lords ex antiquiore jure and not ex novitio praecepto by a precedent right and not by a new commandement Thirdly it containeth no matter of ceremony for if it did then must it be a type and figure of some future thing and by the passion of our Saviour Christ bee converted from a carnall rite into some spirituall observation for so saith Jerome of the legall ceremonies but no such thing appeareth in it and therefore it cannot be said to be a ceremony The whole body of the Fathers doe confirm this who in all their works doe confidently affirm the doctrine that S. Paul so much beateth upon that all legall ceremonies be abolished and yet as many of them as speak of Tithes doe without all controversie both conclude and teach that still they ought to be paid and therefore plainly not to be a ceremony Fourthly the Tithing now used is not after the manner of the Leviticall Law for by the Leviticall Law nothing was tithed but such things as renued and encreased out of the profits of the earth but our manner of tiching is after that of Abrahams who gave tithe of all And this is a thing well to be considered for therein as Abraham tithed to Melchisedek not being of the Tribe of Levi so our Tithing is now to Christ being of Melchisedeks order and not of the Tribe of Levi but of that of Juda whereunto the Tribe of Levi is also to pay their Tithe Fifthly and lastly the end whereunto Tithe was ordained is plainly Morall and that in three main points Piety Justice and Gratitude 1. Piety as for the worship of God 2. Justice as for the wages and remuneration of his Ministers 3. Gratitude as sacrificium laudis an offering of thankfulnesse for his benefits received All which were apparent in the use of Tithes before they were assigned over to the Levites both in the examples of Abraham and Jacob and by the practice