Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	prove_v	religion_n	true_a	5,057	5	6.8388	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

Iewish or Popish in Tithes but the assignation of the decimae decimarum from the Leviticall Priests to the high Priest from the high Priest to the Pope and from the Pope to the King when first Pope Urbane gave them to Richard the second to aid him against Charles the French King and others that uphold Clement the seventh against him as Polydore Virgil relateth And King Henry the eighth taking from the Pope the title of head of the Church to himself by Act of Parliament took from him the tenths and other profits annexed to that title which were setled upon the Crown by Statute in the 26th year of Henry the 8. so that the Iewish high Priesthood being expired the papall Lordship abolished the Tithes paid under those titles may be called Iewish and Popish but not that which is assigned for the maintenance of Ministers because they are yet to doe service to their Master and so to receive the maintenance of his allowance for his work which fellow-servants cannot take upon them to take away without presumption their door-neighbour will not allow them a power to appoint the wages of their servants much lesse may they usurp upon the right of God and his Ministers to alienate tithes from the support of his service and worship for that is rather Popish as hath before been observed Which being true and clear as touching the pedegree of such Tithes from the high Priesthood of Aaron to the Independent Prelacy of the Pope and from him to the King as by claim from the title Head of the Church translated from the Miter to the Crown it will not I conceive be thought congruous to the Christian Reformation the thorow Reformation professed by our worthy and religious Rulers that such Monuments of Superstition or Popery should be removed which were unprofitable and that onely retained as a silver shrine to Diana which brings gain to the King or State and puts the charge upon the Ministers of the Gospel who thereby I may say it confidently for some whom I know are brought to this perplexed Dilemma either to pay them with reluctancy as no lesse contrary to their consciences then to their commodities or to deny or withhold them with suspition or imputation of avarice or disobedience to lawfull Authority But the Parliament liketh not that Tithes should be proposed or pressed as many Divines doe both in Pulpit and from the Presse as of divine right which because they think to be wrong they will rather reject them then ratifie them under a title of so high a strain 1. Not onely Divines but divers others who are men of very eminent note hold Tithes to be due by divine right and some of them have undertaken to prove them so and to answer all objections against them which how far they have performed is left to the judgement of indifferent Readers 2. It is more like that as both religion and reason will dictate unto them they will be the more wary how they take them away lest if that tenure should prove true they should be found guilty of the sin of sacriledge that they should abolish them and that they will seriously search and enquire into the ground of that title and while they are in doubt that they will resolve of the safest course which is not to repeal them for as we must forbear to feed of meats of which another saith that they are sacrificed to idols 2 Cor. 10. 28. for his sake that saith it though but a private Christian so if Divines say and bring Scripture and reason for it that Tithes are dedicated to God or by him assumed first to himself and then assigned or set over by him to his servants for his work in waiting on his worship which must be maintained to the worlds end it will be rather a reason for them to support the tenure of Tithes by their Parliamentary power then any way to prompt or dispose them to desert it or to alienate their right from Ecclesiasticall uses The fear of sacriledge hath been of such force with some heathen Moralists as Plutarch observeth in his Morals that if they pulled down a house contiguous to a temple they would leave some of that part standing which was next unto it lest they should with it take away any part of the Temple it selfe Wherein if they shewed any spice of superstition it will be more capable of pardon or lesse liable to punishment at the hand of God then we may expect if we proceed hastily to lay violent hands upon any thing peculiarly entituled to his honour who is the authour and giver of all things to all men 2. If the plea of a divine right for Tithes supposing it setteth them up too high should incline to irritation in some to make opposition against them why should not the contrary tenet which peremptorily taketh them down too low calling them Jewish Antichristian and Popish and that undeniably as hath been said but never can be proved move others the rather to retaine them and confirm them chiefly the Parliament whose authority is most engaged for their justification and especially since the servants of God have had possession of them by so many laws and so long a prescription for according to the maxime of the law the possessors title is the best untill he bee fairly evicted out of it 3. If the Parliament doe not in their approbation of Tithes come up to the tenure of divine right they may yet be willing enough to establish them upon other grounds and leave Divines to the liberty of their judgment consciences to plead for them according to the principles of their own profession as in their Ordinances made for setting up of the Presbyterial Government though yet they be not satisfied of the claim of divine right for it they were pleased to authorize it by their Ordinance and to require Divines to prepare the people for the reception thereof by preaching of it and for it so as both to clear it and assure it so farre as they could by the sacred Scripture And on the other side while they approve it though but by a civill assent as to a prudentiall design untill they see more light which they look for in the Answer to their Queres proposed to the Assembly of Divines the Presbyterians who hold it in the highest esteem take none offence that they proceed no farther and professe themselves well satisfied with their civill sanction so one of the learned Commissioners of Scotland hath said in the name of the rest in these words If they shall in a Parliamentary and Legislative way establish that thing which is really and in it self agreeable to the Word of God though they doe not declare it to be the will of Iesus Christ they are satisfied Ob. If there were no purpose to put down Tithes by such as are in Authority how commeth it to passe that the

Law Jacob when he was poore and had not wherewithall to build God an house yet he sanctified a portion of ground when God had blessed him to that purpose by erecting a stone and pouring oyle on the head thereof calling the place Bethel that is the house of God and vowing to build it when God should blesse and make him able to doe it Gen. 28. 22. which as Josephus testifieth Antiq. lib. 1. cap. 27. he afterwards performed And as God commanded the whole Nation of the Israelites in generall that in laying out the chiefe City they should first assigne a place unto God for his Temple Priests So likewise he commanded every Tribe thereof in particular that after they had their portion in the division of the Land they should likewise out of the same assigne unto the Levites Cities to dwell in with a circuite or suburbs of a thousand cubits round about to keepe their cattell in Command the children of Israel that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possessions Cities to dwell in yee shall also give unto the Levites the suburbs of the Cities round about so they shall have the Cities to dwell in and the suburbs shall be for their cattell and for their substance and for their beasts And the suburbs of the City which ye shall give unto the Levites from the wall outward shall be a thousand cubits round about Numb 35. 2 3 4. In execution of this Commandement every Tribe of Israel allotted certaine Cities to the Levites out of their portion according to the quantity thereof as appeareth Jos. 21. 41. The whole Land of promise according as St. Hierom layeth it out in his Epistle to Dardanus Tom. 3. 68. containeth in length from Dan to Bersabe scarce 160. miles and in breadth from Joppa to Bethlem 46. miles A small portion of ground for a Kingdome so famous and so small indeed as St. Hierom there saith that he is ashamed to tell the breadth of it lest it should give occasion to the heathen to blaspheme or deride it yet out of this small territory not so much as the principality of Wales with the Marches fourty eight walled Cities more then are in all England as I take it were assigned onely for their Clergy to dwell upon their maintenance and revenues being otherwise provided generally through the whole Kingdome by Tithes oblations and other devotions of their brethren So that it is apparent both by the Law of God and Nature that God must have one portion of our Lands to build him an house on that is his Churches and another portion thereof for the habitation of his Levites that is his Ministers CAP. III. That the portion of Land assigned to God must be sufficient for the habitation of the Minister THough the portion of Land thus to be rendred to God for his Ministers be not certaine yet is it thus farre determined that it must be answerable to the necessity of the service and to the number of the Levites that is there must be Churches sufficient for the congregations and habitations sufficient for the Ministers and their families to dwell upon with pasture convenient for their domesticall cattell They must not be pulled from God with secular care and therefore their maintenance is appointed to arise by other meanes then by tilling the Earth but their habitation as befitteth students and men of contemplative life must be under their owne command and solitary But what should the portion of the fruites of the earth assigned them for their maintenance be certaine as namely the tenth part and not the portion of Land also allotted for their habitation I answer that as the people encrease so also the fruite of the earth encreaseth with them by their industry and labour and therefore as the Levites encrease in number so doe the rest of the Tribes and by reason thereof there is a greater encrease of Tithe toward the maintenance of the Levite for the labour of ten men yeeldeth more profit then the labour of five But when the Levites were inclosed within walls and confined with immutable bounds this circuite in reason could not alwaies be sufficient for them And therefore being so increased as their Cities might not containe them they must of necessity have new places of habitation provided for them For in such cases God gave a generall rule to the people Deut. 12. 19. Beware that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest in the Land And the people of the Jewes in this necessity did not forsake the Levites for before the transmigration to Babylon which was about 840. yeares after the Leviticall Cities as appeareth 1 Chron. cap. 6. and cap. 9. 1. were growne to be about sixty eight viz. twenty more then were appointed by Josua They might not enlarge the bounds prescribed to their Cities but they might encrease the number of the Cities as the number of the Levites encreased and necessity required The reason is they might not adde house to house and field to field lest growing great in earthly possessions they should forget God who had otherwise provided for them then by manuring the earth but if they wanted habitations they might then seeke for new Cities and the care of the people was to provide them for them One Levite might not have more then sufficient for his habitation but if the Cities appointed were not sufficient to yeeld an habitation for every Levite then might they assigne new Cities to that purpose CAP. IV. That Christ released not the portion due to God out of our Lands THe possession of Lands is ex jure humano but the earth is the Lords ex jure divino Therefore when he granted the earth to the children of men and reserved a portion thereof for his service and Ministers this part thus reserved is in him and his Ministers ex jure divino In this right Christ calleth the Temple the house of God and saith also My house shall be an house of prayer And St. Paul saith Despise ye the house of God So that doubtlesse God must have houses for his service in all places where we inhabite But Christ had not whereon to lay his head Mat. 8. 20. Luke 9. 18. therefore the Ministers must have no houses provided for them for the disciple is not above his master Christ indeed had not whereon to lay his head for he came to his owne and his owne received him not But doth this prove that Ministers should neither have nests in the ayre like birds nor holes in the ground like foxes Did not he that made the Vineyard in the Gospell build a tower in it for them that dressed it So likewise must the Ministers that attend upon the Vineyard of the Church have their habitations in it St. Paul appointed it so when he commandeth us to render a portion unto them 〈◊〉 of all the good things Gal. 5. 6. How have they a part in all if they