Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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B04013
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A letter written to a Christian friend, and one of the Parliament men. Proposing the groundlesness of the plea for tyths, impropriat [sic] tyths, or tyth as a revenue due to the magistrat.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing L1767A; ESTC R179629
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12,558
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15
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God can be maintained without them We never reade nor finde any of these used in Christs and his Apostles times and yet Gods worship purely maintained and therefore carnal fears and it being Iewish Popish and unjust undenyably I shall beg that as you gave it not its birth so let it have neither breath nor being But you will say It is unjust Impropriators should lose their Purchase Indeed it is a very proper name and suits their Title well it is fitly so called and were his Holiness the Pope now keeping house here in England he would soon curse all such Children as have committed such Sacriledg as thus to rob his Church It is unjust for any man to pay any therefore unjust for him to force to pay or receive any it was never raised at the first to put in his Purse he doth nothing at all for it therefore no shadow of truth in it why he should enjoy it it was first unjustly raised then diverted from the use given and still is unjustly payd and never will be just till it go back to the Landlord who is the tru Owner thereof for he bought the Land and if any Commodity be found in the Land and Purchase more than the Seller and Purchaser were aware of whose is it but the Purchasers as in all other Contracts and Bargains we take them at all adventures somtimes they prove better somtimes worse than expected Again it will be sayd then you will wrong and perhaps undo many who have bought such Impropriat Tithes and payd largely for them Indeed we fear many are wronged but who hath deceived them Not you the Keepers of our Libertyes and Ministers of Justice your duty is to defend the good and clear Title and not else neither hath the Seller for the Title was well known to be what it is a Badg of Tyranny for so Samuel perswades Israel â— Sam. 8. to avoyd that tyranny and have no King for he will have the Tyth of all and it shall be for a Judgment ye shall cry out in that day because of your King In Henry the third's time there was granted to him two shillings out of every Plough-land and in another Kings Reign there was granted the Eights of every City and Burrough and Twelfths out of the Countrey and is any grieved because this being established by a Law is layd aside Whether did King Henry the sixth alienate Tyth or take it away by Law or not We affirm Kings at their Coronation are sworn to govern according to Law why were not Monopolyes and Ship-money willingly received under our late King No we cryed out he was a Tyrant ruling by a Prerogative Power Was not King Henry's Act the same he was in a rage and had a lust to do what he did and ever since Custom and the gain thereof hath caused that unlawfull Act to stand in force and therefore why should not all the Patentee-men be satisfied King Charls had as much Law on his side as King Henry it is the duty of a Subject of a Nation to know the Laws thereof that they may be sure to have Law on their sides for want of the knowledg hereof many have lost thousands of Pounds and for redress have thrown hundreds after and what recompence should these men have Surely none unless they can summon their Deceivers to keep a Court of Conscience And for Impropriators I am not against their having some satisfaction it is but Equity and Justice they should have some recompence but not from them which have not hurt them unless they will I wish they may finde good mercifull men and if it were a forced Salary at the first it being unequal for proportion with other mens Estates and unjust because ye received the Tenth of the Increase and the Tenth of the Stock as was made appear and because it was gathered to uphold a Popish worship it ought to fall with the worship again grant it were a free Gift at the first and suppose all to be in the Donors power to bestow which I do question how he could give any other than his own viz the Tenth of his Land yet being taken away from the use for which it was given and converted to no such end but sold away for gain imployd to particular mens benefit this implyes the Donor had no Power yea was not capable of a Gift if he were capable to give a Gift such a Gift then that Gift was lawful and then who had power to sell such a Gift and divert it from that use but if the Magistrat say the use was unlawfull then I say the Gift was an unlawfull Gift and the Boons return from whence it came Indeed it is unavoidable some late Purchasers will be Losers by it unless the Charity of the men of the place or the Seller or the State will as an Act of their Grace and Mercy give some Gratuity to such as have little else which they are to acknowledg to be a free Gift if they receive any thing but some have kept it long and bought it for a small matter and have so employd it that when they give it back again it will not ow them a Penny also this sort of men or the greatest number of them will be Gainers in their other Land more than this comes to if Tyths fall and indeed they must will fall ere long and I perswade my self if the Parliament will not honor themselves so far as to throw them down the People will dishonor themselves so much as to pay them with great unwillingness We are declared to be a free Nation and the Magistrat professing to take off all burdensom Yoaks whereof Samuel the Prophet cals this one in the place before named and these are they that eat the fat and best fruit in many places they have the chief Tyth and perhaps the Minister hath left him some Tyth Egs and the rest of all the small Tyth not enough to maintain many of them in a mean sort And for encouragement to all Impropriators consider I pray you what Amaziah did 2 Chron 25. he made but a bad Bargain to lose his money and have nothing for it because willing to take counsel of the Lord so do ye restore back again openly rather than wrong thy self and neighbour by a Law I would have them consider what that Traitor Judas did read you never after he was convicted of sin taking unlawfull wages for unlawfull work sayth he Take the thirty Pieces of Silver again But it is affirmed by some the national Ministers have an equitable and unquestionable right to Tyths as any man hath to his Free-hold but I think they are deceived see Fox Acts and Monuments Volume 1. pag. 604 632 669. and he that robs them in Tyths and Offerings may as well take away any mans Free-hold I take it a man holds his Free-hold either by Purchase or Gift or is Heir by descent but they cannot claim
I had rather pass to the Grave and there rest in silence than to have my Name stand among that proud Generacion I know it was the fruit of Christs Intercession to store the Church with guifts for the edifying of the body of Christ that is the Church and the faithfull Ministers of the Gospel have a precious lustie comliness in my ey especially those that love the work for their Masters sake I mean the conversion of souls I say their employment is the most honourable they serve the Lord Christ They that convert soules to God shall shine as the Starres in the Firmament they are fathers in the Church and it may serve to humble men that God hath appointed this way to teach men by men And my prayer to God is that he would send out more faithfull Labourers for the harvest is great Also Maintenance for them is as clear an Ordinance as the other I could instance in many Scriptures Gal. 6.6 and the best of outward things befits the best Calling and not nigardly porcions for they must use Hospitality and so be Ensamples for their flock and for a Christian Nacion so professing to be t is not our glory but our shame to let them live beggerly and in disgrace as we flourish they should be partakers he that gives freely and of a chearfull minde he offers the acceptable Sacrifice to God and none is accepted for Sacrifice but such Our Saviour sayth the time shall come that he that worshipeth shall worship in spirit and in truth but you wil say who shal take care for the worship of God Ministers and Maintenance in the mean time That I suppose is your work to be studying how to be nursing fathers to the Church and to see that those that preach and publish the Gospel under your Dominion may have du encouragement and supply I think none wil deny but that they should participate with us in our good and pleasant temporall things and I judg it better by guift than force in the Old Testament they gave all things as they had them for building the Temple and Sacrifice the Apostle tels Ananias was it not in thy power Acts 5.4 The portion God appointed the Levites as it was typicall so to encourage them in the work so that being about the work of the Lord they might not be hindered and the mayntenance Ministers should receive besides as duty from the Donor it should be for encouragement to him whose work is enough for the whole body and minde is it any encouragement to a servant to continu his service that must su for his wages after earned by painfull sweatings and hard labor is it any encouragment to the Merchant and Tradesman after they have made use of their utmost skill in buying and waited to take the best season for Winde and Tide to bring home their Goods and after all must impose them on such as will never pay till haled to Prison this speaks the Commodityes to have no worth in them so for the Ministers of Christ to have their Wages by force and to be a man of strife when his Message is Peace and precious work it is I say for him to force and become a Ruff-man Can he do this and be encouraged in his work the Word sayth alluding to them The Labourer is worthy of his hier so that the Gospel is of some worth and O that the Gospel might dissolve hard hearts more many times it proves but souer Food to eat the Bread of him that hath an evil eye yet many have their teeth fet on edg I wish these faults were amended the covetousness of the Ministers less and the Charity of the People more I know no Rule in the Word of God that the Magistrat should study wholly to deliver the Minister from living somwhat by Faith now how far a Christian Magistrat may force worship and for worship in every Punctilio I will not dispute but this I know Gospel Principles bears that every man do what he do in Faith and this I know is according to the Law of Nations if the Magistrat command any thing against my conscience I ought to obey or suffer I will not undertake to say what the Magistrate may not do as a Magistrat but I conceive this he may do without oppressing any give to the Ministers the Glebe Land in all places also all those Lands wrested out of the Bishops hands for whatsoever we won by conquering our late Enemy and not sold in the three Nations is in your power to give or sell and much more were I a Statesman pardon the supposal I should bend my minde to finde out to serve the Church and bring my glory to her and if there were fewer fixed Ministers in most parts of the Downs and those places and Parishes where there are few Inhabitants joyned and an itinerat godly and able Ministry to journey from place to place it may probably awake the deaf and dead sinners more and O that they might hear the voyce of the Son of God and live but if they will not hear nor receive them to turn away But Sir want I Bowels or Expressions the dearest Lord knoweth I speak the truth in Christ I ly not for it pierceth my heart as sharp arrows to think that Gods Labourers for so they are called should toyl all the day of their Pilgrimage praying and woing men in Christs stead that they would be reconciled to God and while they are telling them the good tidings of the Gospel and counselling and pointing out to the foolish world Jesus Christ which is the tru Bread come down from Heaven and for all this men have no bowels moved to count them worthy of common Bread my heart pityes all hard hearts and all hearts bound up whom their own ey does not pity Let them know Mercy is but Mercy in its time and then Justice seals what Mercy leaves O you precious hearts consider your labor shall not be lost in the Lord Can you spend and be spent for the Lord Christ Remember who sayth it I will never leave you nor forsake you Do not think you serve an hard Master Can you believe the Children of the Earth will honor you with what is theirs Christ sayth The world loves its own and if ye were not the Children of the Light the world would not hate you I know no Rule they have to match the world so well as this ye stand by Faith in the greatest Peace and Prosperity that can be you are at uncertaintyes with the world how long you shall stand or when you shall fall Remember Christs Kingdom is not of this world therefore possess all you have or would have by Faith and it is not long but he that shall come will come and bring his reward with him but wo to those whose Gold and Silver is cankered through ignoble imployment for the Rust of it shall witness against them Dives hath his place I have nothing more with you for the present for I know not how you can bear this In the mean time you may be sure I honor your Authority your Counsel your Person and so commit you to the Eternal God and stil remain Your Honors in all humble and du observance FINIS