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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61095	Tithes too hot to be touched certain treatises, wherein is shewen that tithes are due, by the law of nature, scripture, nations, therefore neither Jewish, Popish, or inconvenient / written by Sr. Henry Spelman ... ; with an alphabeticall table.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Stephens, Jeremiah, 1591-1665.	1640 (1640)	Wing S4931; ESTC R19648	146,054	238

the Deacons which gather wealth to themselves by defrauding the poor let them now so understand this Scripture that they gather no more lest the Lord commeth upon them and overthrow the Tables of their distribution Thus much touching the use of Church goods in the first age of the Church or first 300. yeers of Christ whereby it plainly appeareth that no Ecclesiasticall person enjoyed any thing belonging to the Church to his own benefit but that the Church-men had out of the Revenues and goods of the Church so much onely as sufficed for their necessary maintenance in meat drink cloth and such like the surplusage being faithfully employed to the relief of the poor the needy the widows persons banished for Religion or imprisoned Captives and Christians any way distressed So that the Church exposing all this while the dugs of her piety unto others did live her self on thistles and thorns that is in want necessity and professed poverty When the flood of persecution had prevailed as many years against the Church in the time of the Gospel as that of waters did days against the wicked in the time of Noah and that Constantine like the Dove of the Ark had brought the olive branch of peace unto the people of God the Church then began to smell the sweet savour of rest and changing presently her disposition with her fortune changed also the very policy of her government before in poverty now in riches before a servant now a Mistresse before a Captive now a Conquerour For the noble Constantine being miraculously converted to the faith did not onely free her from persecution but setled her also in the very bosome of peace raised her to honours endowed her with possessions established her with immunities and to be short poured upon her the fulnesse of his regall munificence Insomuch that many prudent Fathers foreseeing then another evill likely to proceed from hence as namely that her plenty might make her wanton and forgetfull of her duty began now to dispute whether it were lawfull for her to accept lands and Temporalties or not Some alledged that the examples of our Saviour and his Apostles bound them to contemn the world and to live in a strict and Stoick kind of poverty Others conceived that course to be but temporall and like a medicinall diet prescribed by Physitians to their patients in sicknesse onely not in health affirming the time to be now come when it pleased God to crown the long-suffering of his Church with the blessings promised in the tenth of Mark v. 29.31 That since they had forsaken house and brethren and sisters and father and mother and wife and children and lands for Christs sake and the Gospel they should receive un hundred fold now at this present with their persecutions and in the world to come eternall life I will not argue this point but letting passe the School-men will rest my self upon the determination of many ancient Councels Fathers and Doctors of the Church who with one consent conclude affirmatively that the Church may hold them And I think their opinion to be of God for that it hath prevailed these 1500. years against all the enemies thereof though the Kytes of Satan have pulled many a plume from it To return to Constantine though he and others by his example did abundantly enrich the Church yet did not the Church-men take these riches to the benefit of themselves and their families but employed them as before to workes of charity Yea Silvester himselfe though the sea of these things flowed into his bosome and were at his pleasure yet took he as sparingly of them as if he had been but a little pitcher suffering the whole streams thereof to run abundantly amongst the children of the church and poor people as did also the other Fathers Priests and Clergy of that time who reckoned not otherwise of riches then as dung which being spread and scattered in the fields of God might make them the more fertile For the resolution then was as in the age before that no Church-man might take Lands to his private use nor the Church her self otherwise then for works of charity and the necessary sustenance of her Ministers not to make stocks or portions for them in earth whose inheritance was in heaven and that had God himself for their portion Therefore Prosper a godly Father of that time Lib. 21. de vita Contemplativa whose authority is often used in the Councel of Aquisgrane disputing the point concludeth it thus If every Minister of the Church have not a Living the Church doth not provide one for him in this world but helpeth him with things necessary that he may receive the reward of his labour in the world to come resting in this life upon the promise of our Saviour To which purpose he applieth the place in the 1 Cor. 9.14 What is it to live of the Gospel but that the labourer should receive his necessaries from the place wherein he laboureth And a little before him Hierome also in his Book De vita Monach Cler. instituenda saith Epist ad Nepotianum If I be the Lords part and the lot of his inheritance not having a part amongst the rest of the Tribes but as a Levite and Priest doe live of tithes and serving at the Altar am sustained by the offerings of the Altar having victuals and cloathing I will be contented herewith and being otherwise naked will follow the naked crosse So in his Book De Co. virginitatis having reproved the curiosity of some Clerks of that time he saith also Habentes victum vestitum his contenti sumus for as Ambrose saith upon Esay 1. Tom. 2. In officio clericatus lucrum non pecuniarum sed acquiritur animarum In the function of a Clegy-man the gain of mony is not to be sought but the gain of souls All these are but particular opinions of some Western Fathers hear now therefore the determination of the Eastern church assembled in the Councell of Antioch Anno 340. cap. 25. Episcopus Ecclesiasticarum rerum habeat potestatem ad dispensandum erga omnes qui indigent cum summa reverentia timore Dei participet autem ipse quibus indiget tam in suis quàm in fratrum qui ab eo suscipiuntur necessariis usibus profuturis ita ut in nullo qualibet occasione fraudentur juxta sanctum Apostolum sic dicentem Habentes victum tegumentum his contenti sumus Quòd si contentus istis minime fuerit convertat autem res ecclesiae in suos usus domesticos ejus commoda vel agrorum fructus non cum Presbyterorum conscientia diaconorumque pertractet sed horum potestatem domesticis suis aut propinquis aut fratribus filiisque committat ut per hujusmodi personas occultè caeterae laedantur ecclesiae Synodo provinciae poenas iste persolvat Si autem aliter accusetur Episcopus aut Presbyteri qui cum ipso sunt quòd

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 linest 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 ●●umino but the earth is the Lords ex jure divine 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 divine In this right Christ calleth the Temple the house of God and saith also My house shall be on house of prayer And St. Paul saith 1 Crr. 11.22 Despise ye the house of God So that doubtlesse God must have houses for his forvice in all places where we inhabite But Christ had not wherein to lay his head Mat. 8.20 Luke 9.18 therefore the Ministers must have no houses provided for them for the disoiple 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 like wise 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 want it in the chiefest of all that is in our habitations Againe he commandeth that they should be Hospitales Goodhouskeepers how should they be so if they have no houses to keep John Baptist lived in the wildernesse it is true and he was commended for it Christ did not so though he frequented the fields yet in that he gave no Commandement that his disciples should follow him for he appointed them to remaine in other mens houses What that they should goe sojourne where they listed The Commandement hath nothing to the contrary but the meaning is thereby apparent they must have habitations provided for them or else shake off the dust of your feet against them Mat. 10.14 as much as to say let them be accursed So then our Saviour hath not repealed the Law of providing for the Levites unto his Ministers He could not give them Cities to possesse for his kingdome was not of this world But he appointed them to such places as themselves should choose among the children of the Gospell Doeth this differ from the Commandement of providing Cities for the Levites Doubtles no for as the Logitians say Conveniunt in eodem tertio They agree in this that the Ministers must have habitations provided for them as well in the Gospell as the Levites had under the Law Oh but they must have no inheritance among their brethren for the Lord is their portion Numb 18.24 It is true the Lord hath communicated with them his owne portion viz. his tithes and his offerings as he did with the Levites therefore as the Levites had no share in the division of the Land so our Ministers must have no share with us in tilling the Land matters of husbandry for they are called from secular cares to spirituall contemplation but after the Israelites had their shares in the Land they yeelded portions to the Levites for their convenient residence and so must wee for our Ministers And so still the conclusion is they must be provided for Which to shut up the matter is invincibly ratified by our Saviour himselfe who in sending forth his disciples would not suffer them to take the least implements of sustenance with them because he would put them absolutely upon the care and charge of the congregation alledging a Maxime of the morall Law for warranty thereof that the

they should have placed their Parsonage or Rectory where their Cellar for their tithe of Wines Where the tithe Barn for the Corn or if they had had such places how should they have been defended à fisce how frō the rapine of their persecutors Our Saviour sending his Disciples but to the neighbour Towns of Iudaea would not suffer them to encumber themselves with carrying any thing And therefore the Apostles had great reason to eschew all impediments in these their turbulent and long peregrinations CAP. XII That Ministers must have plenty THose that would have Ministers live of alms and benevolence make their reason that they must follow the example of Christ and the Apostles but by the example of Christ and the Apostles they are taught to abound in all works of charity themselves to feed the hungry to cloath the naked lodge the harbourlesse c. and how shall they perform this living in want 5000. did Christ feed at one time Joh. 6.10 Mat. 14.21 above 4000. at another time Mat. 15.38 and even herein are his Ministers bound to follow him not in the miracle but in shewing like mercy and compassion for he faith not I desire to doe a miracle but I have compassion on this people Mat. 15.32 and therefore lest his mercifull disposition toward them should be unprofitable wanting then other means he chose rather to perform it by a miracle then to leave it undone yet to shew that all ordinary means must first therein be used as far as it may be he neither called for Manna from heaven nor quailes from the sea Exo. 16.13 Numb 11.31 but beginneth the feasts by ordinary means the one with 5. loaves and 2. fishes the other with 7. and a few little fishes In which example of charity and hospitality the Ministers I say are bound to follow him as far as they can for the commandement is Sequere me Follow thou me Mark 10.21 cap. 5.27 Ioh. 21.19 and if the Minister be not able to follow him for worldly wants as the Galatians would have given Paul their eyes so the Congregation must give him their legs that is means and faculty to doe it for the arm of working of miracles is now taken from our mother the Church and therefore her children must now strengthen her hand the more abundantly to work by ordinary means that is they must furnish her with worldly necessaries whereby she may be inabled to perform these great works of charity required of her Paul commandeth that the Bishops should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hospitales 1 Tim. 3.2 good housekeepers and how should they be so if they have not provision and means to maintain it and that in a certain manner for if themselves be fed at the trencher of benevolence what assurance have they of a dish of meat for their poor brethren The heavens themselves are unstable now it raineth and wee have abundance then commeth drought and all is in scarcity The humour of man is as variable the people of Lystra that made a god of Paul on the one day stoned him on the other Acts 14. and in the fiery time it self when zeal was most inflamed our Saviour as it seemeth found even then a cooling blast when for want of ordinary supply he was fain to fetch 20d. by a miracle out of a fishes mouth to serve his need withall Mat. 17.27 It is meerly therefore unfit that Ministers should live upon benevolence and uncertainty therefore though Christ and the Apostles lived so for the present yet it is not prescribed as a perpetuall law to the succeeding Ministers CAP. XIII Not to give lesse then the Tenth IF those that ministred without the vail of the Temple were worthy of the tenth part how much more deserved they that minister in the Sanctuary the Levites might not come within the vail that is into the first Tabernacle or holy place Heb. 9.2 nor meddle with the ceremonies but did onely the outward work and drudgery of the Lords house as to bear the burthens prepare the wood the water fire vessels and instruments for the sacrifice and holy rites kill dresse and flea the bullocks and beasts for the burnt sacrifice yet even in this by the rules of equity they deserved a tenth part of the increase of the Land yea the Ministry of the Priests themselves was but in earthly and transitory things as in types and ceremonies to foreshew a better Testament yet because their vocation was more honourable then the rest of the Levites as being called into the Sanctuary and to perform the holy ceremonies therefore they received a more honourable portion for first they had the Tithe of their brethren the Levites part that is the tenth part of the tithe of all the land which because they were but few in respect of the whole Tribe of the Levites as not the 40. part perhaps therefore the allowance of every one of them was much greater then of any other Levite and yet to encrease it they had the first-fruits and their portions and fees out of the sacrifice and other offerings and all these great allowances had they for their service about the earthly Sanctuary or as it is called in the Epistle to the Hebrews 9.1 the worldly Tabernacle Come then unto the Ministers and Clergy of our Church look upon them with the eye of common equity compare them with the Leviticall Ministery what proportion their deserts hold one to the other surely though it be an axiom● of Philosophy yet it holdeth also in Divinity that Eadem est ratio partium qua est totius there is the same reason of the parts that is of the whole therefore if the Priesthood of our Saviour be much more excellent then that of Aaron the Ministration of the Gospel then that of the Law then much more excellent must them embers be of the Gospel then of the Law And as their calling is more honourable so is their charge as having the care of souls committed to them for which they must give a stract account the Levite and the Leviticall Priest were free thereof and stood onely charged with the performing the ordinary ceremonies and no further Their paines much more laborious then the Levites Though the Levite be said 2 Chron. 25.3 to teach all Israel yet it seemeth not that they expounded the Word of God unto the people or had it in charge so to doe but that they instructed them how to carry themselves in their sacrifices ceremonies therefore Jerome translateth this place Davitis quoque ad quorum eruditionem omnis Israel sanctificabatur Domino who neither were burthened with preaching nor served any where but in the Temple at Jerusalem and not above a week at a time and notwithstanding had their corrodary or allowance in the vacation If then the Levite and Priest of the Law had the tenth part for his entertainment how much rather is it to be conferred and enlarged upon the

to keep his perpetuall Sabbath And so likewise all the fruits of the tenth age which was that of Noah for he was the tenth from Adam he took wholly to himself making the evill parts as a sacrifice of his wrath to honour him by their destruction and the better parts which were saved in the Ark of his Church to glorifie his name by their preservation so that in this time of nature the full tenth of all things was paid unto God as a propitiatory sacrifice for of the ten ages from Adam hee had the fruits of one whole age which is all one as if he had had the tenth part of every particular thing as it grew due in every particular age and so the Church expoundeth in that Canon of the Councell of _____ where it is commanded that the CAP. XXIV The time of Nature after the fall LEt us take a view of the state of Religion before the Law and from thence unto the calling of the Levites to the service of the Tabernacle The time before the Law was the kingdome of sin and of death having no means propounded whereby to escape but what the light and law of nature taught unto men who finding themselves fallen from the favour devised by invocation and beating of the heavens with continuall odours and savours to seek for mercy at Gods hand and by sacrificing of bullocks and brute beasts to ransome themselves as far as they might from his heavy displeasure Therefore in those times though every man might offer oblations and sacrifices that would yet because the order thereof might bee the more certain and reverent both the children of God and the Heathen also ordained to themselves particular persons of greatest worth wisdome and sanctity which they called their Priests to take care of these things to see them performed in such manner as might make them most acceptable to God Hereby grew the reputation of Priesthood to be above all dignities that in those days the Kings themselves in all Nations affected it as the greatest and immediate honour under God himself Yet because necessity required so great a number of Priests for the service of God as there could not be had Kings enough for that purpose therefore other inferiour persons were also called to that excellent function yet such as in one respect or other were still the noblest that were to be found Therefore even in that time I mean before the Law was given God promiseth the Israelites that if they will hear his voice indeed and keep his covenant they shall not only be his chiefest treasure upon earth but they shall be unto him also a kingdome of Priests Exod. 29.5 6. Of these kingly Priests two are mentioned in Scripture before the Law Melchisedek Priest and King of Salem and Revel or Jethro Prince and Priest of Midian Exod. 16. 〈◊〉 Of other Priests it appeareth in Exod. 19.22 24. that there were many Let the Priests saith God that come to the Lord be sanctified and again Let not the Priests break their bounds c. Touching these Priests we finde no mention either how they were called to their function or how they were maintained in it neither of them that executed that place after the Law was given till the calling of the Levites which though it were a short time as not above a year and some months yet must they have some maintenance and means to live on even during that time The Priests of Aegypt had not onely lands for their maintenance but they also had a certain part appointed them by Pharaoh to live upon and though it appeareth not by the Scripture what this part was yet it is plain that it was such and so bountifull as when all the other Egyptians sold their land to Joseph for Pharaoh to save their lives in the famine they lived upon this part and kept their lands The children of God no doubt came not behinde the Heathen in devotion and consequently not in their bounty to their Priests therefore though we have no authority to demonstrate unto us the particular means wherein they were provided for before the Law yet we may very probably conceive it to be much after the manner of the Heathen Priests of that time for that the Priests and children of God being then scattered amongst the Heathen as Melchisedek among the Canaanites Jethro amongst the Midianites could use no rites nor ceremonies in the worship of the true God but the Heathen would have the same in the service of their gods insomuch as nothing is mentioned in the Scripture concerning the same before the Leviticall Institutions but it is particularly found among the Gentiles first touching both their Priests and manner of sanctifying of them as also touching their offerings altars and sacrifices and the manner of feasting at the sacrifice of thanksgiving used by Jethro Exod. 18.12 I infer therefore that seeing the Heathen took their originall manner of holy rites from the children of God that therefore what originall rites the Heathen had in their service of their religion that the same were in use also among the children of God though they be not mentioned in the Scripture and consequently that insomuch as the Heathen universally paid Tithes and first-fruits unto their Gods and Priests that therefore the children of God did so likewise from the beginning to the true God And to this agreeth Hugo Cardinalis saying It is thought that Adam taught his sons to offer first-fruits and tenths unto God so that the children of God borrowed it not from the Heathen or the Heathen from them but both the one and the other from the law of nature for as Ambrose saith God therefore by Moses followed not the fashion of the Gentiles Non ergo Deus per Mosem Gentilium formam sequutus est sed ipsa naturalis ratio hoc habet ut quis inde vivat ubi laborat in Epist 1 Cor. ca. 9. C. 41. Col. c. And as the examples of Abraham and Jacob do plainly confirm it to be done by them so doubtlesse was it also done by other of the Hebrews even before the Leviticall Institutions and even then holden and taken to be a duty belonging unto God as plainly appeareth by Gods own mouth in 22. Exod. 29. when hee saith and that before the Leviticall Institutions Thine abundance and thy liquor shalt thou not keep back which all Interpreters agree to be spoken of the Tithe and first-fruits of corn oyl and wine and therefore Jerome doubted not so to translate it viz. Thy tithes and first-fruits shalt thou not keep back wherein the word keep back non tardabis is very materially to be considered as evidently shewing that it was a custome of old to pay these tithes unto the Lord and therefore that he now required them not as a new thing but as due unto him by an ancient usage That the word non tardabis thou shalt not keep back or delay implieth a thing