tythes that the Priests and Levites were to have without any diminution you may 3. Note that the Priests and Levites were to have a special share of all the first fruits of their Cattel of all kinds as of Bullocks Sheep Goats and the Fruits of their Trees and of their Corn both the Therumoth and Thenuphoth Exod. 13. their Heave-offering and Wave-offering and the firstlings or first-born of every man the Lord challenged as his own and they were to be redeemed for five silver shekels of the Sanctuary which were to be paid unto the Priests for each of them Num. 18.15 16. And so you see how God would be Honored and how great was the portion of the Priests which received Gods part by the firstlings of men and of Cattel and by the first fruits of the Trees and of the Earth in the Sheafe in the Threshing-floor in the Dough and in the Loaves which should teach us to Consecrate the prime of our years and of all that is good unto the service of the Lord. 3. The divers kinds of Sacrifices and Oblations of the Jews whereof the Priests had their part 3. Besides all this you must observe that the Jews had divers kinds of Sacrifices and Ceremoniall oblations instituted by God and administred by the Priests which were either 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prâ—pitiatory and Piacular that was also two fold 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reconciling which the Grecians called Holocaust because it was wholly burnt 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redeeming 1. Pro peccato 2. Pro delicto The 1. A sin-offering The 2. A trespass offering 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratulatory for the manifold benefits that they had received from God and this their thankfulness they attested three manner of waies 1. By their Peace-offering 2. By their Oblations 3. By their Sacrifice of praise And out of all these things and whatsoever things were devoted to God in any waies by Oblations or Vowes for their sin-offering Numb 18.9 10 11 12. or trespass-offering and all the gifts of the Children of Israel which were heaved waved or shaken and the Shew bread Ezech. 44.29 30. and all that was sacred and sequestred from the Common use the portion of the Priests must indispensably be laid out for them Because God had given it unto them by a Covenant of Salt for ever and so out of every Eucharistical Sacrifice Levit. 24.9 the breast and the right shoulder were the Levites fees and from every Holocaust or whole-burnt Sacrifice they had the skin And whensoever they detained any of these either in whole or in part Levit. 7 8. Levit. 5.15 the Lord required them to make a plenary satisfaction and to offer up a Ram for that detention Out of all which it is most evident that the maintenance of these Ministers of the law was both liberal and honorable and so much the better because it was perpetual and entailed to their posterity whereas our means is transient and dieth from our children when we die Yet you know how Saint Paul reasoneth if the Ministration of death written and ingraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses 2 Cor. 3.7 for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away How shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious For if the Ministration of Condemnation be glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in glory So if their Ministry which was the Ministration of the Law and of Death had such glorious allowance for their service I wonder how our Ministry which is the Ministration of the Gospel should be so meanly rewarded and our maintenance so far short of theirs when in respect of our more glorious service and far more beneficial unto our people it should exceed theirs in all glory CHAP. XV. That the payment of Tythes unto the Church is not a case of custome but of Conscience When as the tenth by a Divine right is the Teacher's tribute and the very first part of the wages that God appointed to be paid unto his Work men and therefore that it is as haynous a sin and as foul an offence to defraud the Minister of this due as it is to detain the meat or money of the Labouring-man which is one of the four crying sins HAving seen that it is a part of the duty and charge of all Christian Kings and Princes to have a special care to uphold Gods service and the true Religion and to that end 1. To cause Churches to be built and Beautified for the people to meet in them to serve God And 2. To appoint Worthy men Bishops and Priests to supply those Churches and to instruct the people And then 3. To see that those servants of God should have that allowance and wages which God himself hath appointed and commanded to be paid unto them for their pains and service of his Church We are now to examine what their means and maintenance should be that God appointed for their wages And I say that he is a most bountiful Master that takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants as King David speaketh The two speciall portions of the Clergy 1. Tythes 2. Donations and therefore gives them a very large reward which doth chiefly consist in these two things 1. The Tythes or tenth part of his peoples goods 2. The Free-will-offerings Oblations and Donations of the people The 1. He commandeth to be paid them And the 2. He alloweth to be given them and being given he requireth that they should not be alienated and taken from them no not by the givers themselves therefore much less by any other 1. That tythes are due to our Ministers 1. That Tythes or the tenth part of our goods and substance are due to them that discharge the service of God by the instruction of his people to Worship God as well under the New Testament as the Old it may be manifested by these Reasons Reason 1 1. Whatsoever nature and Humane Reason teacheth to be justly due to any man or society of men Antâ— legem datam â—acrificiorum impensis rebus aliis ad exâ—ernum Dei cultum conservandum pertinentibus decimae applicaban uâ— Fran. Sylvius the same doth the Scripture both the Law and Gospel teach to be due and ought to be paid unto them Nam sicut Deus est Scripturae it a Deus est Naturae for as God is the Author of the Scripture so he is the God of nature and whatsoever is true in nature I speak not of defiled nature but of pure nature the same is true in Scripture And therefore Saint Augustine saith that as Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus contra Ecclesiam nemo Catholicus No Christian will speak against the Scripture and no Catholick will gain-say the Church so Contra rationem nemo sobrius No sober man will
admit them of their counsel and to undertake secular authority and civil jurisdiction 2. To allow dispensations of Pluralities and Non-residency which they may most justly and most wisely do without any transgression of the Law of God 3. To give tolerations where they see cause of many things prohibited by their Law to dispence with the transgressions and to remit the fault of the transgressours For 1 Point 1. Though the world relapsed from the true light and declined from the sincere Religion to most detestable superstition yet there remained in the people certain impressions of the divine truth The great respect of the Clergy in former ages Saravia l. 2. c. 2. p. 103. 1. Among the Gentiles Osor p. 231. De tota Syria Paâ—estina refert Dion l. 37. quòd rex summi Pontificis nomen habeat Strâ—bo lib. 12 Apud Tertul. advers Valent. Hermetem legimus appellari Max. sacerdotem maximum regem Cicero l. 2. de legibus Diotogenes apud Stob. d cit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aethiopes reges suos del gebant ex numerâ— sacâ—rdotum Di odor l 3. c. 1. Titus Vespas Pontification maximum ideo sele prosessusest accipere ut puras servaret manus Sution i't Tito cap. 9. In Aricia regnum erat concretum cuâ— sacerdotio Danae ut iunuit Ovid De arte amandi lib. 1. Ecce suburbanae templum nemorade Dianae Paraiáque per gladios regna nocente manu Strabo lib. 5. that there was a GOD and that this God was religiously to be worshipped and those men that taught the worship of that God how fowly soever they did mistake it were had in singular account and supereminent authority among all Nations and as Saravia saith they were compeers with Kings in their Government so that nothing was done without their counsel and consent and as Theseus was the first that Cives Atticos è pagis in â—rbem compulit and put the difference betwixt Nobles Husbandmen and Artificers so the Priests were always selected out of the noblest families and were ever in all their publick counsels as the Divines sate among the Athenians and the South-sayers sate with the King among the Lacedemonians in all their weightiest consultations and Strabo tells us that the Priests of Bellona which were in Pontus and Cappadocia for that Goddess was honoured in both places were regarded with the greatest honour next to the King himself and the Romans that were both wealthy warlike and wise did almost nothing without the advice and counsel of their Priests I will omit what Valerius Maximus setteth down of their care of Religion and their great respect unto their Priests and religious persons and I will refer you onely to what Tully writeth of this point where he saith that the greatest and worthiest thing in their Common-wealth was the priviledge and preheminence of the Divines which was joyned with the greatest authority for they dismissed the companies and the Councels of the chiefest Empires and the greatest Potentates when they were proposed they restrayned them when they were concluded they ceased from the affaires which they had in hand if but one Divine did say the contrary they appointed that the Consuls should depose themselves from their Magistracy and it was in their intire power either to give leave or not to give leave to deale with the people or not to deal to repeal Laws not lawfully made and to suffer nothing to be done by the Magistrate in peace or war without their leave or authority this was their Law though I beleive it was not always observed by their proud Consuls and unruly Magistrates Cicero de nat deorum l. 2. In like manner Caesar writeth of the Gaules and Britons that they had two sorts of men in singular honour the one was their Druides or Divines the other was their Souldiers or men of war and he saith that their Druides determined of all controversies in a manner both private and publick and if there were any crime committed any murther attempted if any controversy about inheritance or the bounds of lands did arise they also did set down their Decree and appointed the penalty and whosoever rejected their order or refused their judgement they excommunicated him from all society and he was then deemed of all men as an ungodly and a most graceless person Thus did they that had but the twilight of corrupted Nature to direct them judge those that were most conversant with the minde and will of the gods to be the fittest Counsellors and Judges of the actions of men and I fear these children of nature will rise in judgement to condemne many of them that profess themselves to be the sons of grace for comming so short of them in this point 2. The Jewes also which received the oracles of God 2. Among the Jewes were injoyned by God to yeild unto their Priests the dispensation both of dâ—vine and humane Lawes and the Lord enacted it by an irrevocable Law that the judgement of the High Priest should be observed as sacred Deut. 17. and inviolable in all controversies and if any man refused to submit himselfe unâ—o it his death must make recompence for his contumacy And Josephus saith Si judices nesciunt de rebus ad se delatis pronunciare integram causam in urbem sanctam mittent convenientes Pontifex Propheta Senatus quod visum sit Joseph contra Appi. lib. 2. pronuntient and in his second book against Appian he saith Sacerdotes inspectores omnium judices controversiarum punitores damnatorum constituti sunt à Moyse The Priests were appointed by Moses to be the lookers into all things the Judges of controversies and the punishers of the condemned And they were of that high esteem amongst the Jewes that the royall blood disdained not to match in marriages with the Priests as Jehojada married the daughter of King Jehoram 2 Chron. 22.11 and in the vacancie of Kings they had all the affaires of the Kingdome in their administration and when they became tributaries unto the Romans after Aristobulus the royall government was often annexed to the Priesthood and S. Paul argueth from hence 2 Cor. 3.7 8 9. that if the administration of death was glorious how shall not the administration of the spirit be rather glorious for if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory or otherwise it were very strange that the Ministers of the Gospel should be deemed more base and contemptible because their calling is far more glorious and excellent yea so excellent that to all good Christians the Prophet demandeth quà m speciosi pedes eorum Esay 52.7 Priests imployed in secular affaires 1 Among the Jewes Psal 99.6 Priests and Prophets among the Jewes exercised secular jurisdiction And for the discharging of secular imployments we have not onely the example of the Priests and Prophets of the Old Testament but we have also
and death did not Moses Joshua Samuel Eliah Elizaeus Jehoida and others of the Priests and Prophets of the old Testament and S. Peter also the Prince of the Apostles in the new Testament judge in the case of blood and pronounced the sentence of death against Malefactors As when Ananias and Sapphira were suddenly brought unto their end by the judgement of the Apostle and if they be able and fit to judge of any thing then why not of this If you say because they are the Advocates of mercy Ob. the procurers of pardon the Preachers of repentance and men that are made to save life and not to put any one to death or to bring any man unto his end I answer Sol. That they are therefore the fittest men to be the Judges both of life and death For who can better and more justly judge me to death than he that doth most love my life it is certain he will not condemn me without just cause even as God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of mercies and even mercy it self is the fittest and most righteous Judge that can be found both of death and damnation Clergy how fit to be Judges because his mercy and goodness towards his creatures will not permit his severity against sin though never so detestable to his purity to do the least injustice to their persons so our love of mercy and pity will not suffer us to do any thing that shall transcend the Rules of justice and equity And as our inclination to mercy prohibites us to condemn the innocent so our love to justice and our charge to preserve it will not permit us to justifie the wicked for the Scripture teacheth us That he which justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the innocent that calleth the evil good and the good evil that spareth Agag and killeth Naboth are both alike abominable unto the Lord. And therefore notwithstanding this unjust Canon I never find in any of our Histories that the Bishops did ever withdraw themselves and quit their Votes in this case either before or after save only from the 10th year of Richard the 2d unto the 21th year of the raign of the same unfortunate King which they did not because they could not justly be present but because they had just reasons to be absent as you may find it in the Annals of his time Therefore I know nor how to palliate their facility of yielding way to those Nâ—n-Canonical Lords Non-Canonicall Lords to produce those non-obliging Canons which they abhorred in all that made not for the furtherance of their design to exclude them from doing this which was one of their chiefest duties for who knoweth not the Lord Say and Lord Brook and others of the Lords to hate all Canons even the old Canons of the Apostles as inconsistent with their new Rules of Independent Government and yet herein to exclude the Bishops Votes in the judgement of this man and the passing of this Bill which being admitted might perhaps have turned the scales they will take hold of the unjustest Law and alleadge one of the worst of Canons a Canon against reason and most repugnant to the best of God's Properties which though they be all equall in themselves fummè perfectissimè yet are they not so perceived by us but his mercy is over all his works But you will say Was this man so just that he was unjustly condemned to death Did all men so untruly complain against him And was he good notwithstanding all the evill that was proved against him I answer That I dare not and I do not say that he was unjustly adjudged to death or that the Bill it self was unjust But this I assure my self that he was a very wise and understanding man and indued with may rare Heroick vertues and most excellent graces as among the rest The Earle's Vertues with those two incomparable indowments that cannot easily be found among many of the Nobles of this World 1. Faithfulness to his Prince to whom as I conceive he shewed himself a true servant and most Trusty in his greatest imployments save in what was and I know not that justly proved against him and I believe he would never have taken Arms as some others of the Lords do now against his Soveraign 2. Love unto the Church and Church-men to whom though others think it their glory to oppresse them and a vertue to contemn them yet he was a true Friend a most Noble Benefactor and most just unto his death as his very last speech unto his dearest Son doth sufficiently testifie unto all posterity which speech was to this effect and I would to God it were indelibly imprinted in the memory of all our Nobility That as he regarded his father's blessing or expected a blessing from God upon what his father left him so he would be careful never to take away or in any wise to diminish any part or parcell of the goods or Patrimony of the Church which if he did would prove a Canker to waste and consume all that he had Yet it may be he was which in truth I cannot imagin as the Philosopher saith of Marcus Antonius a man of that composition that his vices did equalize if not exceed his vertues and his offences cloud all his graces and obscure all his glory And as the saving of one mans life cannot save him from suffering that doth unjustly put another man to death so the rarest Vertues cannot justifie the man that committeth so many horrible offences How a Malefactor may be unjustly condemned as his accusers conceived this man did to which it may be well replyed That a notorious Malefactor though I apply not this to him may be unjustly condemned and so he may be justly condemned and unjustly executed as when he is not condemned for the fault committed or condemned not according to the Law which condemneth that Fact For though a Murderer deserveth death yet any one may not presently be the death of that Murderer nor the Judge condemn him for robbery And though I should commit many offences worthy of death yet if the Law doth not condemn me I ought not to die for any of them For as the Apostle saith Where there is no Law there is no sin because sin is the transgression of the Law Therefore the Earl of Strafford might be an evill man and do many things that in the sight of God and good men were worthy of death Yet if our Law made not those crimes Capital or if the Law made them Capital and not Treason we ought not for Treason to adjudge him unto death So in sum the result is this That he might justly deserve death and yet be very unjustly condemned to death And it seemed to some of his friends that so he was especially because they had no plain unquestionable Law but were fain in some kind to make a Law to take off his head and when
therefore their Kings do raign and domineer over their Subjects as Masters do over their servants and the Fathers of Families have the same authority over their Wives and Children Saravia c. 28. p. 194. as ouer the slaves and vassals and the Muscovites at the day do rule after this manner neither is the great Empire of the Turke much unlike this Government and generally all the Eastern Kingdomes were ever of this kinde and kept this rule over all the Nations whom they Conquered and many of them do still retain it to these very times Yet our Westerne Kings whom charity hath taught better and made them milder and especially the Kings of this Island which in the sweetness of Government exceeded all other Kings The milde government of our Kings as holding it their chiefest glory to have a free people subject unto them and thinking it more Honourable to command over a free then a servile nation have conferred upon their subject many titles of great honour which the Learned Gentleman M. Selden hath most Learnedly treated of and therefore I might well be silent in this point and not to write Iliads after Homer if this title of Lord given by His Majesty unto our Bishops Of the Title of Lord. for none but he hath any right to give it did not require that I should say something thereof touching which you must observe that this name dominus is of divers significations and is derived à domo as Zanchius observeth where every man is a Lord of that house and possession which he holdeth and it hath relation also to a servant so that this name is ordinarily given among the Latinists to any man that is able to keep servants and so it must needs appear how great is the malice I cannot say the ignorance when every school-boy knowes it of those Sectaries that deny this title to be consistent with the calling of a Bishop which indeed cannot be denyed to any man of any ordinary esteeme But they will say that it signifieth also rule and authority and so as it is a title of rule and Dominion it is the invention of Antichrist the donation of the Devill Luke 22.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 16.30 and forbidden by our Saviour where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in effect be not you called gracious Lords or benefactors which is the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore these titles of honour are not fit for the Preachers of the Gospell to puffe them up with pride and to make them swell above their brethren That there is a double rule or dominion It is answered that if our Saviours words be rightly understood and his meaning not maliciously perverted neither the authority of the Bishops nor the title of their honour is forbidden for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of dominion so it is fit to be ascribed to them unto whom the Lord and author of all rule and dominion hath committed any rule or Government over his People and our Saviour forbiddeth not the same because you may finde that there is a double rule and dominion the one just and approved the other tyrannicall and disallowed 1 Pet. 5.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the tyrannicall rule or as S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the domineering authority over Gods inheritance both Christ and his Apostles do forbid but the just rule and dominion they deny not because they must do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the son of man doth it so the manner of their rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Kings of the Nations rule with tyranny he prohibiteth but as the servants of Christ ought to rule with charity not with austerity with humility and not with insolencie he denieth not and so he denieth not the name of Lord as it is a title of honour and reverence given unto them by the King and ascribed by their people but he forbiddeth an ambitious aspiring to it and a proud carriage and deportment in it yet it may be so with you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is with the son of man whom no man can exceed in humility and yet in his greatest humility he saith ye call me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master and Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye say well for so I am John 13.13 And therefore he forbad not this title no otherwise then he forbad them to be Fathers Doctors and Masters and I hope you will confess he doth not inhibit the Children to call them Fathers that begat them nor forbid us to call them Doctors unto whom the Lord himselfe hath given the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Doctors in his Church Ephes 4.11 otherwise we must know why S. Paul doth call himselfe the Doctor of the Gentiles 1 Tim. 2.7 and why doth the Law command us to honour our Father and our Mother if we may call no man Father But Christ coming not to diminish the power of Princes nor to make it unlawful for Christian Kings to honour his servants which the heathen Princes did to the servants of God as Nebuchadnezzar preferred Daniel among the Babylonians and Darius advanced Mordecai among the Persians nor to deny that honour unto his servants which their own honest demerits and the bounty of their gracious Princes do confer upon them it is apparent What Christ forbiddeth to his Ministers that it is not the condition of these names but the ambition of these titles and the abuse of their authority is forbidden by our Saviour Christ For as Elias and Elizaeus in the old Testament suffered themselves with no breach of humility to be called Lords as where Abdias 3 Reg. 18.1 a great officer of King Ahab saith art not thou my Lord Elias and the Shunamite called Elizaus Lord 4 Reg. 4.16 So in the new Testament Paul and Barnabas that rent their cloaths when the people ascribed unto them more then humane honour yet refused not the name of Lords Act. 16.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it was given them by the keeper of the prison that said Lords what shall I do to be saved which title certainly they would never have endured if this honour might not be yielded and this title received by the Ministers of the Gospel and Saint Peter tells us that Christian women if they imitate Sarah that obeyed Abraham * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he propounded to them as a pattern may and should call their husbands though mean Mechanicks Lords or else he proposeth this example to no purpose and therefore me thinks they should be ashamed to think this honour may be afforded to poor Trades-men and to deny it to those eminent pillars and chief governours of God's Church And as the Scripture gives not onely others the like eminent and more significant titles of honour unto the governours of the Church as when it saith they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉