have but such as would Act with you and in your progress toward hell have ready their go up and prosper But you say we are Godly people yea and your Actions have prettily well declared you such unto the World 'T was godliness with you to spoile our goods to sequester and imprison us though we are silent these injuries cry at the gates of Heaven and posterity willl freely speak of this your pretended godliness Oh Sir but we ever held out the profession of reformation truly as those crested pictures which comming on shew Sainct but going off devil And what competent maintenance faithfull Ministers were like to have of such Professors but that of Ahabs allowance 1 King 22.27 Put this fellow in Prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction here would be your competency for the Ministers of Christ 15. Tythes and Offerings as grounded on the Moral Law are due to those who serve about holy things of the Gospel for all except Atheists and Semiatheistical Antinomians confess that the moral Law doth now as strictly bind quoad vinculum as before Christ came into the World to take away the curse of the Law he took not away our duty therein commanded he did not in respect of our obedience dissolve one jot or tittle of the morality thereof If therefore the moral Law still binds men to pay Tythes it binds to pay them to Ministers whom God hath called and assigned to receive that his part reserved and appointed by him for their service in his publick worship and to none other Christ repeating the first Commandment of the moral Law enjoining our serving God saith Mat. 4.10 him only shalt thou serve which another Scripture expresseth honor the Lord with thy substance Prov. 8 9. and with the first fruits of all thy encrease The quotam partem whereof he determineth by Tythes which are therefore enjoined in the first precept in the moral Law Likewise in the fourth precept for sanctification of the Sabbath by Prayer hearing the Word c. And how shall they hear without a Preacher And how shall Ministers Preach without necessary means to keep them alive and to furnish them with accomodations necessary to the performance of their Ministerial charge which is to give attendance to reading c. that they may both save themselves and their hearers when they have not so much as means to preserve their lives and to supply them with food and raiment much less to buy books Likewise Tythes are commanded in the fifth precept for honouring of our Spiritual parents 1 Cor. 4.15 1 Tim. 5.17 Mal. 3. who are to be counted worthy of double honor that is relief and maintenance This is the first Commandment with promise which the Prophet toucheth when he speaks of Tythes and Offerings duly paid this cannot be in an imaginary competency but in that which God hath appointed a definite setled maintenance for those that serve him in his publick Worship which he never left in Law or Gospel to the will or courtesie of man Now other definite or setled means for Ministers maintenance he never appointed any Decimà certam partem desi nat Alens part 4. q. 2. m 2. but by Tythes Offerings and other like perquisites appertinent to those who served in the Tabernacle Temple or Church constituted therefore these must be their maintenance if any Lastly As Tythes are God's part reserved to himself and his assignes so are they commanded in the eighth Commandment which in the negative part saith Thou shalt not steal and God's Prophet sheweth that taking away or detention of Tythes is stealing and the Apostle Mal. 3. Rom. 2. that Sacriledg the worst thievery is found under the Gospel as it was also under the Law why saith he else Thou that abhorrest an Idol committest thou Sacriledg If there be nothing now sacred in the time of the Gospel as some prophane men affirm How unadvisedly did Paul ask that question concerning a thing which is not in being neither can be And if there be any thing amongst us sacred Are not those things such as God hath consecrated and hallowed And did he not Consecrate and set apart from common use Tythes for their maintenance whom he appointed to serve in his publick Worship Now the eighth precept in the negative part forbiddeth all taking away and detention of others right in the affirmative therefore it commands to yield give and preserve what thou canst every ones right so Tythes belong to the eighth precept and indeed the end of ordaining Tythes is evidently moral as in point of piety equity and gratitude as hath been noted and that to which all men of all ages in the World places and conditions are respectively bound as well under the Ghospel as the Law And Abraham and Jacob paying Tythes had the word of promise To Abraham and his seed in the faith whereof he was justified Rom. 4.9 10 11. before he had received Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised So that the Gospel was preached before the giving of the Law by Moses to Abraham Gal. 3.8 Whence it appears that paying Tythes is a Gospel duty performed before their payment under the Law given on Sina and Abraham payed them before the Levitical Law determined them In which determination God did not infer any new thing or right of Tything into his Church but according to the necessity of the present state thereof so regulated and ordered Tythes for the Priests and Levites to govern the people by the Law which was their Schoolmaster to Christ who being come altered nothing of the morality of his Law although the changeable rites like outworn garments and beggerly rudiments Zeck 3.4 were then to be cast off as Joshuas filthy garments and other habits of sanctity and religious Gospel-worship to be put on with Christ the new Man the same body his Church Eph. 4. en ire in every part under the same sacred head Christ Jesus John 1. remaining the same the Law then was given by Moses Ministry but grace and truth by Christ who perfectly fullfilled all that which was prefigured in those Ceremonies And we read that Abel offered firistlings of his flock Qui credidit obtulit decimas Alens Part. 4. Ib. Alens Heb. 1.6 A naturae rationalis lege est ut Dâ—us colatur honoretur Alens quo s and the fat thereof he of Adam's posterity was primus verè fidelis before the deluge after which and the growth of Idolatry the first we read of paying Tythes was Abraham the father of the faithfull Now God was to be Worshiped before and after the giving of the Law at all times and by all persons which the very Law of Nature dictated to reasonable men and God's Worship supposing his Ordinance by the Ministry of man could not be without Ministers to officiate neither could
as a Levitical but as a moral duty belonging to God long before either Levites or ceremonial Law were in being and therefore they continue under the Gospel because moral duties are unchangeable And it is observeable that Melchisedech met not Abraham the father of the faithfull with bloody Sacrifice like a Priest of the Law but with a supply of bread and wine the elements of a Gospel-Sacrament which the Ministers are to divide unto the people That Tythes are not Levitical or Ceremonially due it may appear because 1. They are much more ancient then the Levitical Law 2. Secondly Tythes are positively declared to be the Lords and so to belong to his Ministers about holy things for ever 3. Ceremonies of the Levitical-law were all significative as of somthing to be performed by Christ for the work of our redemption but so are not Tythes 4. Tything now used is not after the manner of the Levitical Law but after the manner of Abrahams paying tythes to Melchisedec who was not of the tribe of Levi So our tything is now to Christ who was of the tribe of Judah Heb. 7.13 of which no man gave attendance at the Altar 5. The end whereto tythe was ordained is moral in point of Piety Justice and Gratitude First Piety for that will maintain the worship of God Secondly Justice for that is to give every man his due Now the laborer is worthy of his reward 1 Tim. 5.18 1 Cor. 9.14 and God hath appointed tythes for a reward or maintenance of those who serve him in the Gospel as well as under the Law Thirdly Gratitude for benefits received of him to whom we ow and offer such thanks adde hereto that these are to be paid to incourage and sustain the laborers in the work of the Lord as Hezekiah commanded the people to give the portion of the Priests and the Levites that they might be encouraged in the Law of the Lord 2 Chron. 31.4 And we may here consider that in the Levitical Law the Lord had regard to provision for Gospel Ministers for he saith in one of the branches thereof Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn which the Apostle applieth to inforce payment of honorable maintenance of Gospel Ministers Neither was that equity new neither the Gospel it self The first appearance whereof which we read of was from the beginning when God said It that is the seed of the Woman Gen. 3. Gal. 4.4 Christ made of a Woman shall bruise thy head that is the Serpents head in which his life and venome principally lieth This Gospel promise lay hid for ages and generations Ephes 3.9 Col. 1.26 Exod. 4. Heb. 9.7 18.22 Gen. 3.19 4.4 Gal. 4. Joh. 1. under dark and mysterious shadows and figures So that though the Law like Tamars Zarah as it were first put out the hand which was before its birth marked with a skarlet thred blood and death yet in some sort the Gospel was first born like Pharez Gen. 38.28 29 30. and was as the day light by little and little toward the fulness of time wherein the Sun of Righteousness should arise to enlighten the World manifested See Gen. 49.10 Numb 24.17 Isai 7.14 11.1 10 12. Dan. 9. Mich. 5 c. and at the last clearly interpreted 1 John 3.8 Rom. 6.22 8.2 3. 1. Cor. 15.55 c. Hos 13.14 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil ruine death and hell And because God would manifest this his mercy to the World for the comfort and confirmation of his Elect in all ages after mans fall he still sent out some Interpreters and Preachers of his Sacred Mystery furnished with such means as might every ways enable them thereto and support them as to their humane necessities And it is not probable that an alwise God would slack his hand and appoint a less certain determinate and comfortable maintenance to the Ministers of the most excellent Testament the Eternal Gospel than he did unto the Priests of the more imperfect which was to cease and be done away So that the Gospel-maintenance as to the Moral equity thereof was before the Law of Moses given many hundred years after the Gospel-promises 2. Your second Observation is That amongst the Jews no outward Law was appointed for the recovery of Tythes but he that did not pay them robbed God c. And think you that robbing God against which the curse of the whole Nation was denounced had no punishment following it Think you not that every sin separating between the sinner and God the sole Fountain of Blessedness was not a sufficient punishment to it self in the guilt thereof And do you conceive that we are now bound by Israels Judicial Laws any further than some Statute Law of this Nation makes them in force to binde us It seems grievous to you that any Law is made by good Princes and their great Councils for recovery of Tythes but for which you and others of your Sect would venture on Gods Justice as if it were a light matter by the contempt of Divine Laws to fall into his hands Heb. 12.29 who is a consuming fire But know you that it is both lawful and necessary for those who have Legislative power in Republicks of authority to execute Justice to binde their Subjects from running into sin and pulling down curses upon their Souls and therefore to enact Laws to compel them by respective punishments to obedience to Gods Moral Laws As in case of prophanation and common swearing for which the Land mourneth adultery murder theft oppression c. I suppose you will allow You say again That Tythes were not for the Levites onely 3. It is easily granted Jerom on Ezek. lib. 14. cap. 45. shews That there were tythes of four sorts First For the Levites Secondly For the Priests Thirdly For Love-feasts Fourthly For the Poor Which whether this Pamphleter dissembleth that he may have something to say though to no purpose except to trouble the Reader I know not You say again That when the Levitical Priesthood was changed by the coming of Christ Jesus 4. the Law for tything was also changed as Paul writ to the Hebrews Now Samson will pull the House upon his own head That very Text which you cite is point-blanck against your self the Law that is the Ceremonial Law was changed therefore something was appointed in its place What but the Gospel and the Ministery thereof And as the Office so of the necessity of humane condition respect must be had for the supplies thereof whereby it may continue There was therefore a change of this Law as to that which was Ceremonial for example in the manner of paying Tythes to the Priests and Levites the place where at Jerusalem or other publick store-houses thereto appointed but not in respect of the morality or any branch thereof So that the Priesthood after
know all things and therefore may err in some but still we must remember that it is the Cause not the Punishment which makes the Martyr Few are perswaded that either the Conclave which canonized Garnet had power to make him a Saint or that your Neoteric Saints have authority or warrant from God to unsaint the Evangelists Apostles and Disciples of Christ by the holy Ghost and Church ever since their times owned for Saints Rom. 1.7 Rom. 16.15 1 Cor. 1.2 2 Cor. 1.1 Eph. 1.1 c. and so by calling we fear least their next attempt should be to devest St. Mathew St. John St. Thomas c. and to send them out among the vulgar by the names of Mat Jac and Tom But now justifie your assertion and shew us any one Martyr of Christ who ever was of your opinion in denying the payment Tythes and suffering death for the same Next you demand Page 16. Whether any person have a true and legal property in the tenth part of another mans encrease Concerning such legality by the Laws of man I conceive you make no question concerning divine Law if your quaere be that upon the matter is to doubt whether God hath property in mans encreases or hath power and right to assign the same to whom he will For the first part of such a question I take it to be indisputable with all those who take Gods Word to be their rule and guide he saying expresly all the Tythes of the Land whether of the seed of the Land or the fruit of the Tree is the Lords it is holy unto the Lord so of the Tythe of the Herd or of the Flock the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord Levit. 27.30 32. And concerning these he saith Ye have robbed me though the Jewes said as many amongst us now think it is no robbing of God to take away M l 3. or detain Tythes from his Ministers Wherein have we robbed thee God saith Ye have robbed me in Tythes and Offerings and therefore were they cursed even the whole Nation As for the second part of the doubt all know that the right and absolute Proprietor who holds not of any other but is the Lord Paramount hath right and free power to assign his propriety to any other or others Now God doth as expresly say Numb 18.24 c. The Tythes I have given to the Levites to inherit Of which he yet reserved to himself the Heave-offering as it were a Quit-rent for their acknowledgment of his Soveraign right over all Now from his grant we claim a moral and so an unalterable right due to those whom he appointeth to serve about holy things and not solely from the Laws of good Princes and States though as your self presently confess in the same Paragraph Tythes are to be paid because commanded by the State and that Law and equity obliges the payment That which you after say That the person that claims them may have no particular interest is contradictory to the forecited Scriptures and your own Concessions as also by that which immediatly you grant it appeareth false where you say if a true legal Property be in another person to the tenth part of my encrease I ought in conscience to yeeld and set it forth because it is not mine To which we say First What can be a true or legal Property if that be not such which God himself gives makes the conveiance and in his holy Word testifieth that he hath given and setled as Inheritance and for such service on those whom he hath appointed to minister about holy things Next we say that you can have no right in Tythes that they should become yours either by purchase for who hath right to sell Gods part and that invito Domino Nor by descent or prescription The first you say claims these to be due jure divino and produce the Law of Moses for it c. What other mens opinions are or have been cannot make our right and claim by Gods divine donation by the moral Law void and therefore we trouble not our selves about them I have you say again diligently for two years and more Page 17. laboured to enform my self c. Here you bring an argument from the time you have spent in studying this point and implied unerring faculty of apprehension For if this were not no time can profit to good information Concerning the validity of this reason I leave to others to judge who better know your abilities of Art and Nature than I yet do but now give me leave to ask what Authors studied you Very likely some who were in the same error with you others who could have informed you better you condemn unknown and because your aim is to uphold a party for the carrying on a secret design you did not receive the love of the truth and therefore cannot want strong delusions and so may you still be of their form who are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledg of the truth if you study to deceive your self and others which if it be not so I am confident that you may find enough in the writings of sound and Orthodox Divines to undeceive you if at least you will not shut your eyes if the vail be laid over your eyes none but God can make you see whom we pray in his good time to remove it You speak again of changing the Law by Christ c. Concerning the change of the Ceremonial Law you have been answered that change is granted you without advantage to you or apparent damage to us See what hath been said to your 14 pag. Further we say that Christ changed not the moral Law in any one jot or title thereof as to the morality of it Matth. 5. he protested against it who is the faithful and true witness So that the precepts thereof having no repeal appearing in all Gods Word binde for ever unto the worlds end Shew us if you can where the Law-giver ever repealed the Law for tything Bring us any one Text of holy Scripture either expresly declaring it or by necessary consequence concluding it Which seeing you cannot do abuse not the Scripture making it to speak what you please to hold up your party In a right use of Scriptures we must carry sense from them not bring it to them Your pretending to an absolute change of the Law causeth your ignorant and credulous Readers presently to think they are discharged from all duty to Moral precepts not considering that it must continually binde all men and that the Ceremonial and Judicial Law were positive for a time and appertaining to Israel onely 12ae q. 122. 1. 2m as determinationes moralium which being changed the Moral Law still continues A discharge of obedience hereto granted what an Harvest would the Devil reap from these pernicious Tares which you scatter in the Lords field and what unspeakable confusion would follow what out of
Hell can be imagined more damnable Consider therefore what designs of Satan your captious disputes carry on You will say you intend no such thing Parum interest quo animo feceris quod fecisse malum est but it skills not with what intent you do that which is evil to be done You say Much more colour had the Quiristers c. Homo suavis a merry man I trow But I am not at leisure to exchange words concerning odde Crotchets But say you How doth Gospel-Ministry succeed to the Levites c. We have spoken hereof before and say more first they succeed the Legal Priesthood as they are Ministers of holy things and therefore must live of Christs portion which is tythes though their office in some things differ as shall appear in its place Next the Apostle will shew you Heb. 7.12 The Priesthood saith he being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law Where note that he saith not that the Priesthood is abolished but changed So the Law in the Morality thereof is not abolished but the Ceremonies and things thereto belonging are changed Now changing presupposeth a suffection or substitution of some other thing in place of that which is removed So the Ministers succeed in place of the Levitical Priesthood and their honorary and maintenance accompanieth the same Now the portion due to Melchisedec's Priesthood which is a permanent order is tythes these being due to Christs Priesthood are due to Christs Ministers As for your buzzing about here and there and no where seâ—ling concerning the Priesthood it is nothing to purpose And what say you was the Primitive Church assured of for some hundred years After you have done trifling we shall have it that the Church for some hundreds of years never called for tythes Your own citations of Jerom Ambrose Augustine c. shew this to be grosly false except by some hundreds you mean onely the first three hundred wherein the rage of persecution neither permitted Christians to pay nor Ministers to receive their tythes concerning which we have already spoken in answer to the same objection You say again What is this to the payment of tythes Pag. 18. What that Abraham paid tythes very much First this imports a right in Melchisedec to take them and therefore a debitum in Abraham to pay them who having a special direction by some inspiration which had the force of an injunction Abraham's act was of duty not arbitrary benevolence yea by the Moral Law which before the exact transcript thereof on the Tables of Stone was the very same with the Law of Nature which bound not onely Abraham but all persons respectively to all times and places For to worship God is a Moral Precept though for the time the determination thereof 12 ae q. 99. as to the manner how appertained to the Ceremonial which being antiquated and changed into another manner of worship under the Gospel yet is still the same in point of Morality which bound and unchangeably bindeth all You possibly may say Abraham paid tythes but once but there needs no other proof that he constantly paid them at other times as well as that once specified to Melchisedec because God testified concerning him saying Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment which is afterwards interpreted Deut. 32 46. By doing all the words of this Law Adde hereto that he onely is good and just who is constantly so and accordingly Jacob also paid tythes because the Morality of the Law universally binding to this duty of Equity and Justice bound all men and ever respectively to do the same how else fell Abraham and Jacob upon a tenth rather then on a fifth seventh or twelfth part Without faith it is impossible to please God as also to do any thing in faith which God commandeth not You say more that few are now left who will onely stand to it and the generality are of a contrary minde Few are now left We may thank your rage for that But I demand doth the appearing paucity of any Truths Professors disparage their Cause What then shall we think of Eliah crying I onely am left Were there not then many thousands on the Prophets side whom he knew not of might it not even then have been answered to him as Elisha said to his servant 2 Kings 6.6 Fear not for they that be with us are more then they that be with them But what you mean by onely stand to it I know not but doubt hic ambiguo ludimur Mean you onely stand to it that jus of receiving of tythes and so wave and disclaim all right which in confirmation of the same good Princes and Parliaments or Donations and Bequeathments which well-affected men have given us by several Laws and Acts in divers ages past That were foolishly and ingratefully done so to value these grants to which you confess your self bound to obey Even for Conscience sake That the generality are against Right and Truth I do no more wonder then that you are And so you say the greatest part of the people of England deny tythes to be due by Gods Law To this and that which immediately precedeth I think no more answer then this necessary if so it is the more shame for them Concerning the end of paying tythes you have been answered As for Impropriators they are out of the verge of our present question which concerns the Ministers portion yet here we may use the saying of Boniface Archbishop of Mentz in his Epistle to Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterbury Our complaints saith he hereof are not much unlike to a dogs barking at theeves and robbers breaking open digging through and rifting his Masters house Quia defensionis auxiliatores non habeat Spelm. Concil decret pag. 239 submurmurans ingemiscat lugeat Because he cannot have helpers for defence yet growling he will grumble and whimper And this you say leaves every man free to give to him that teacheth I am sure you are not very free to give to him that teacheth and for all this preceding Miscellany you leave us in doubt what you mean by this leaves this what your irresolute conclusion and confused resolution Do these make for your dream of the Castle in the air Competent maintenance for Ministers and that arbitrary voluntary contribution If you mean voluntary to import willingly performed as all good works must be we accord Paul Preached the Gospel willingly that act of Preaching was a voluntary act of Paul 1 Cor 9.16 17. yet wo had been unto him if he had not preached the Gospel because a dispensation of the Gospel was committed unto him Concerning those you speak of who you say Pag 19. are transformed as Apostles and Ministers of Christ who have the form but want the power who teach for filthy lucre c.
Resurrection The moral precepts as simply such are unalterable and indispensable as to all times places and persons Neither did God ever dispense with the morality of his own Laws Mat. 5. Neither did Christ in any one jot or tittle dissolve them whatsoever seems contrary is but expository in the result as Christ doing most of his great works on the Sabbath was no dispensation with the fourth precept but only an interpretation thereof shewing that works of necessity and mercy Luk. 13.15 14.5 are works of the Sabbath So God commanding Israel to borrow of the Egyptians and take away the things so borrowed Exod. 11.2 Gen. 18. by that Act of his justice doing Israel right he being the great Judg of all the World in giving them their just wages for their unjust servitude which wages the Egyptians detained from them doth but interpret the eigth Commandment Thou shal not steal That is not by any means take away another mans goods invito domino i. e. bonae fidei possessore Now first we must consider That due wages belonging to Israel in point of morality which saith the labourer is worthy of his hire Luk. 10.7 was in the Egyptians hands who therefore were thereof but malae fidei possessores from whom as from a thief or usurper it was legally to be recovered that might not be done without warrant from a competent Judg therefore God's warrant empowred them so to do 2 Chron. 19.6 as the sentence of those who now judg for God may warrant a labourer or servant to recover his due hire or wages unjustly detained from him Secondly it is considerable That we may not take from him who though of some other Nation is yet united in the same bonds of community and amity with the republick Exod. 13.18 Numb 14.3 11. c. Deut. 17.16 Gen. 44.14 of which we are a part which the Egyptians from that time were no longer to be except in case of legal proceeding or lawfull hostility wherein as thou maist take away the life of an enemy so maist thou his goods but in an unjust War the murder or latrociny is double injury 8. In man's fall some moral Laws were to his understanding more unextinct than others So were the precepts of the first Table which concerned our duty to and worship of God more obliterated than the precepts of the second Table which concern the maintenance of humane society as Honour thy father and thy mother Thou shalt not kill Commit adultery steal c. The very Heathens knew that such things were unjust impious and destructive to humane society therefore they prohibited them in their 12 tables or abridgment of their Laws and accordingly severely punished the offenders Towards the divine precepts of the first table which enjoyned the due worship of one true God their unerstandings were more darkened though even thereof they had some very slender remains by natural principles not utterly extinct as may appear in their worshipping of those whom they took to be Gods 9. The Scripture affirms not only that which is therein expressed totidem verbis but that also which by necessary consequence followeth the true sense thereof as appears in that which Christ said to the Saduces Mat. 22.29 Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Wherein Exod. 3.6 In that which God said unto Moses I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Why here 's not a word or syllable concerning the resurrection of the dead concerning which Christ there spake true if we consider express words but from necessary consequence it followeth If God be the God of the living and not of the dead then Abraham Isaac and Jacob are not so dead but that they still live with God in their Spirits and therefore their bodies shall rise again to be with God the God of the living which they not understanding knew not the Scriptures and Power of God to raise the dead in the Scriptures declared This may also appear in that which the Catholick Church believeth concerning the sacred Trinity which is no where named in holy Scripture totidem Syllabis 1 John 5. but by certain consequence from thence proved The same also we must understand concerning Baptising Infants and the observation of the Christian Sabbath and so of paying Tythes to Gospel Ministers c 10. God's precepts be they never so ancient having no repeal appearing in holy Scripture are ever binding unto the end of the World and no man can with any security of conscience attempt to free himself from the bond of any duty imposed by Gods moral law at all or from his positive precepts without clear evidence of the lawgivers will for the cessation thereof 11. No moral Law of God is temporary as concerning the future but as it bindeth every man without exception respectively so doth it ever bind Such is the Law of tything which is enjoyned in the first fourth fifth and eighth precepts of the moral Law as will appear in its place 12. No man councels or authority of men may dispense with any one precept of Gods Law Christ disavoweth any dissolution of it by himself in the least jot as to the morality thereof Therefore it is a sin and such as shall exclude a man from the Kingdom of Heaven to attempt it though with consent of many or most suffrages of men under any pretence whatsoever So when God saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image What will it avail the Idolater to plead before his Tribunal that a great part of the people say that Idols are Laymens books Shall their distinction of dulia and latria excuse them What that some think the Sabbath peculiar to the Jews and therefore that it ought to vanish away with the ceremonial Law What that some think that Christian liberty freeth them from Obedience to their civill Magistrates and that it was proper to the Jewish policy only that some impious Nicolaitans thought fornication no sin or that Christian Liberty freeth them from Gods Law forbidding all uncleanness and filthy lust If all Nations and people should or possibly could dispense with these or any one precept of Gods Moral Law such consent could not amount to more or less than a general apostasie from God and his sacred Law What if people and Nations should cry down tythes as when the Hunnes Goths and Vandals invading the Western parts of the Christian World Tythes and Churches were pulled down Universities Colledges and Schools of good learning were overthrown as our adversaries would fain have it now Could all this do any more than make their outrages more infamous hateful to God and Man and more odious to all posterities to whom their detestable and unhappy memory should come and for present themselves instrumental to pull down Gods curses and plagues upon themselves and their Countrey unappy in the birth and breeding up of such prodigious miscreants 13. No
for the Altar of God and truly the annexed reason is remarkable For they were offered before the Lord therefore they are hallowed Numb 16.38 And is not the same reason good for reducing Tythes abused to superstitious uses in former times unto the present true worship of God seeing they were hallowed not by the dedication of a rebellious Corah but by God himself and that to his own holy service And what els means our Saviour by the Parable of the strong mans Fort Luk. 11.22 and reprizal of all his impropriated Vessels but Christs overcoming Satan and recovering the bodies and souls of his Elect from his Power and Captivity Body and Soul must perish eternally if that alteration which is wrought in the sinner by the Spirit of Sanctification make him not acceptable and beloved of God as a son who was before his reconciliation by Christ an enemy How else saith the Apostle speaking of many sorts of pollution by sin Such were some of you Rom. 5. â— Cor. 6.10 but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Upon the accompt of reducing that to a good use acceptable to God which hath been abused unto evil we retain our Churches and Oratories and worship God in Spirit and in Truth therein though they have been in times of Popery houses of Idols and Idolatry To your many following impertinencies if I should follow you in your Wilde-Goose-Chase I should tire the patient Reader therefore I onely adde That there is much difference between tythes of Mines Quarries of Iron Brass Tin Lead Coles and that which the Earths superficies brings forth as Corn Grass Fruits Wood c. though by your leave all these are increases of the Earth and therefore tythable Sir Edward Coke by you cited limits his sentence with a Till they be severed from the Land So that though no tythe be paid of the Land yet are they to be paid from the Land Your frequent talking of Popery is but to make your incautious Reader believe that you are no Papist and that you may insinuate into the peoples mindes an odium against Ministers whereas indeed in such seeming-opposition you do your uttermost endeavor to bring in Popery You further say When I bought my Land I bought not the tythes c. This you say some object to which you frame your answer But we require our liberty to answer for our selves Neither could you nor any man buy out Gods part for that no man had power to sell you So that in your conveyance there needed no specification of Covenant for or exemption from a tenth part of the increase of the Land that being presupposed payable by Gods reservation thereof unto his own service What ever man buyeth or selleth in point of commutative justice Gods part cometh not within the compass thereof neither can it be sold or alienated neither can any sale or purchase of man lessen or impeach his right or any part thereof which he never granted to any but those whom he appointeth to serve about holy things Next you bravely say I answer Pag. 29. that I have already proved all Land is tythe-free c. Indeed I think he meant it Magnis tamen excidit ausis Tell me now in sadness who can free the earth from the charge of tythes but that supream power of God who gave them for an inheritance unto those whom he designed to his publick service Here we require your explication of this term Tythe-free mean you this in respect of any Humane Law Ordinance Provision or Prescription of Men thereto pretended If so it is to no purpose seeing as hath been said None but God hath power of giving or alienating tythes Now once again we challenge you to shew us where God in holy Scripture ever repealed his Law of tything Further we say that all the habitable parts of the Christian world which yield increase are tythable and none exempted there-from by Gods Law in which if you beat our ears with a thousand beggings of the question you shall never obtain it of us That you say Tythes are a burden which the Pope laid on us Is a fallacious assertion the Heathen could here teach you that quod in divinis rebus sumes Plaut Mil. glor sapienti lucro est But God laid this duty on us which you call a burden and this grant of his no Ordinance or Law of Man though enjoyning the same duty can more drown than a Lease can a Fee-simple Mans Laws are alterable but the morality of Gods Law is not Next you talk of Theeves and Robbers Whom you mean I onely guess at and say Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes Clodius accusat maechos What great Theeves make hue and cry after true men you Church-Robbers stealers of tythes of whom you are at best an a better are the Theeves and Robbers Mal. 3. in Gods judgment if there be any such on these borders You say next That you may by as good reason be eased of your tythes as of the Popes yoke Which is in effect to say that you may as justly cast off Gods Law as the Popes is this Popery ho The reason offered as to the question if formed would appear to be a fallacia non causae pro causa Your Land you say was purchased when the Popes authority lay heavy on this Land That being cast off you would infer that we may with as good reason cast off tythes which he commanded to be paid Yea but consider a superior command and cause I mean a Divine inforcing that duty of paying tythes although the Pope had not at all commanded such payment and your fallacy is dissolved You say First to preach that tythes are due Pag. 29. and then to limit them to Parishes c. And why not Gods Word warranting the one and mans just accommodation requiring the other Once again I say as concerning Parishes there is a parochial or particular dueness of tythes or that of Parishes to the Minister there officiating in Gods publick service And there is a general dueness of tythes that is to say of tythes to be paid to the body of the Ministry which is by Gods providence distributed into several parochial Cures where they are by the increases of the Earth thence arising to be maintained that they may there preach the Gospel and administer the holy Sacraments c. unto the people there inhabiting You say again That tythes were at first as charity at most as a freewil-offering of the owner This is an absurd falshood and a shameless begging of the question and you seem to dispute non ad idem but circularly Speak plainly Do you mean that Mans charity giving and not Gods Law commanding brought tythes to be the Ministers maintenance If so it is apparantly false by Gods several commands to pay them to the Levitical Priesthood wherein I
suppose you will not affirm that Mens charity was the first or principal moving cause or do you mean that the freewil of man in this business of tythes preceded that command of God as a cause the effect or that posito Dei mandato man did yield a free and chearful obedience in paying tythes as God had commanded Which voluntary act was as Pauls preaching of the Gospel such as that wo had been to him if he had not done it Express your terms and sense and let us have no after-reckonings We know that Gods Children yield a chearful and a voluntary obedience they do their duty commanded not moillingly grudgingly or of necessity and 2 Cor. 9 7. 1 Pet. 5.2 1 Cor 9.17 that God loves and rewards chearful obedience and such are all acts of true Religion voluntary not compulsory the Spirit of God making us willing of unwilling so carrying about our wills and affections as Astronomers say the primum mobile doth the inferior orbs of Heaven in their Diurnal motion from East to West contrary to their Natural motion yet by an admirable influence Citra violentiam So we can admit tythes paid by Gods servants to be a free-will offering respectu offerentis but not ex parte praecipientis as if man instituted and paid them without Gods Command for the same and as if they were works of Supererogation We know that in every good which we do God worketh both velle perficere Phil. 2. we acknowledg that they are not rightly performed by any pure Naturals of man but of Gods free Grace both Jubentis quod vult praestantis quod jubet So Israel brought a willing Offering unto the Lord every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work Exod 35.29 which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hands of Moses But our Adversaries would fain have it that Tythes were but as some votive Obligation of the Owners which they needed not to have dedicated or paid except themselves pleased This is the Witchess Herodias which they so ambitiously pursue that they might once conclude an Arbitrary maintenance for Ministers and do but mark the Circle to which this mole is Conjured Fain would they have Gods Ordinance undermined and dissolved into such Imaginary Principles as might bear this castle in the Air that Tythes should henceforth be only what men in Charity and Free-will would give their Ministers Thank you for you kindness gentle Sir but get you Alms-men where you will we are none of them The Papist hath too much advantage already in their large maintenance open Presses for their Students Works liberal Contributions for any advancement of his Cause while our Presses are too much shut to good Studies Contributions rare is Honesty and if the Jesuite could but yet more discourage us by taking away the remainder of Ministers necessary maintenance by Tythes his work were done and England undone To the reverend Ministers I entreat leave to say If they be Prophets and if the Word of the Lord be with them let them now make Intercession to the Lord of Hosts Isai 27.18 that the Vessels which are left in the house of the Lord go not to Babylon And now limit them that is Tythes to Parishes c. That which you speak Page 30. may pass muster among your Impertinences as to the present question concerning Parishes I have already spoken Gen. 14.18 here I only add 1. That the first place of Scripture mentioning a Priest mentioneth Tythes paid unto him 2. The first place also wherein House of God Gen. 28. â—8 â—2 or Church is spoken of there also are Tythes the maintenance of the Priest-hood vowed to God as some note by that name whereby Parish-Churches were anciently called that is tituli lapis iste quem posui in titulum erit Domus Dei So Damasus in the life of Evaristus Bishop of Rome Anno 112. saith hic titulos in Urbe Roma divisit Presbyteris Platins vit Evaâ—ist Onuthrius compuâ—eth Anno 96. Concil To. 1. Pag. 106. eâ—i 1606. And the Nicen Council c. 21 mentionth Parishes as Carraza reciteth the Canons thereof out of the second Epistle of Julius So that by those divisions the Congregations were assigned to such and such Churches and the Tythes thence arising belonged to the Ministers there serving as hath been noted from Gal. 6.6 what the Popes you speak of got of first-fruits impropriate Tythes c. is a loss to our Clergy and therefore not advisedly urged by you against them That which you further say that No man can prescribe to have Tythes c. Were somthing against those who make prescription the ground of their claim which concerns us not who claim from divine donation Again you say many may prescribe to be free from Tyithes or part thereof Consider of what value prescription can be against Gods unchangeable moral Law and your second thoughts will tell you that antiquity of error can never make any good Prescription Christ yielded the Pharisaical glosses antiquity on their side Math. 5.21 c. ye have heard of old time that it was said by or to them c. which he presently corrected with his but I say unto you c. The rest of your following discourse savoureth strongly of your siding with the Popish party as your stomaking the Title of the head of the Church which we understand to be the supream Governor under God of inchurched men neither is this as you say here The Kings new Authority as the head of the Church For what say we more therein than Tertullian many hundred years since said We honor saith he the Emperor as we ought Vt hominem a Deo secundum solo Deo minorem Sic enim omnibus major est dum solo vero Deo minor est In Scap. c. 2. I conceive that you are not to learn that Caput importeth a Chief First or Principal But you say That all Arch-Bishops Bishops c. were no longer to hold of the Pope Page 30. but of the King and not to claim their benefices by Title from the Pope but of the King by vertue of that Act of Parliament and here the succession from the Pope was cut off and discontinued c. A grief to all good hearts think the Papists But why should this trouble you if you be none of them What is this to us who acknowledg neither dependance on nor Succession from the Pope You say more And so all their Right Title and Claim was and is at an end What because the Popes donation is at an end must Gods also be involved in the same ruin How will that conclusion follow The abuse and usurpation is taken away ergo the right use and just possession must down Are Gods Laws grounded on the Popes Decrees and Grants I never yet heard that claimed by any of you And what wilde Logick stands your discourse