proof That Tithes are no real Grievance Burden Oppression to Gods people especially since orignally granted and commanded by God himself whose Commandements are not grievous 1 John 5.3 and whose heaviest Yoak is easie and Burden light Matth. 11.30 And those New-Saints who shall think otherwise of this Divine Commandement Yoak and Burden of Tithes under the Gospel give the Gospel it self and Christ the lye herein For the 2d Branch That the abolishing of Tithes will be no real Ease Gain or Advantage to Farmors Lessees and the poorer sort of People lyable to pay Tithes other poor being not concerned in the Controversy whose poverty it self ex-exempts them from this surmised Grievance but a Gain and Benefit only to rich Landlords and Landed-men is apparent by the premises For no sooner shall Tithes be abrogated but every Landlord will raise the full annual value of them in his annual Rents or Fines and exact more for them from his poor Tenants Farmers Lessees than they might have compounded for with their Ministers and where then is their expected Gain or Ease wherewith they are deluded by Impostors As for the rich Landlords they complain not of Tithes as a Burden and need no exemption from them and as all predial Tithes now really issue out of their Inheritances charged with them in perpetuity who therefore abate allow the full value of them to their Farmers and Tenants in their Fees and Rents by way of Defalcation they being in truth the greatest and most considerable Tithe-payers not the poor Farmers or under Tenants So their Inheritances only will be much improved augmented by Tithes abolishing at least one part in ten whiles the poor Ministers and Families shall be starved and the Tenants then more racked by the Landlords than by the Ministers now And this is the Godly goodly Ease this Saint-like Project will effect if put into execution by which none will be real Gainers in their Temporal Estate but those who have Inheritances and all losers in their Spiritual Estate by the losse or great discouragements of their Ministers Hebr. 13.17 This will appear by the practice of some greedy Land-lords of old thus recited condemned in this Decree of the Council of Lateran under Pope Innocent the 3d Anno 1215. In aliquibus Regionibus c. I will English it that our Country Farmers may the better understand it In some Countries there are a stupid or mungrel sort of people who living according to their Custom although they have the name of Christians I doubt Canne will say they were Anabaptists and his godly Predecessors some Lords of Farms or Lands let them out to these men to manure ut Decimis defraudentes Ecclesias majores inde redditus assequantur That by defrauding the Church of Tithes they may gain the greater Rents from their Tenants equivalent no doubt to their Tithes where then is the tenants gain by any hoped exemptions from Tithes Being willing therefore to provide remedy for these prejudices for the Indemnity of Churches we ordain that the Landlords themselves shall commit their Farms to be leased to and tilled by such Persons and in such sort That without contradiction they may pay Tithes to Churches with Integrity or their intire Tithes without any Deduction and if there shall be need let them be thereto compelled by Ecclesiastical censure for these Tithes are necessarily to be paid which are due by Divine law or approved by the Custom of the place though not within the Letter of the Divine law is the Councils meaning not any Modus decimandi of ought within Gods law against which no Custom can or must prescribe Let all Country-men learn from hence what they will get by abolishing Tithes if voted quite down Nay let them consider well whether the real designs now on foot prosecuted by some Army Officers and Souldiers be not to vote down Tithes just as they did the Crown lands formerly reputed sacred and incapable of any sale because the common standing Inheritance of the whole Realm to defray all ordinary publick expences in times of peace and war to case them of all Subsidies and Taxes whatsoever except one in three or four years upon extraordinary occasions granted in full Parliament for their safety even to vote them only from the Ministers and get them into their own hands to help pay themselves and the Army under pretext to ease the People in their Taxes and yet continue their Taxes still upon them in the same extream or an higher proportion as heretofore though they take their Tithes to boot without easing them one farthing in their Contributions as in case of the Kings Princes Bishops Deans and Chaptets lands Surely these Officers and Souldiers who pretend so much liberty and ease to the people in words and still so oppress them in deeds as not to ease them one penny in their former unsupportable Taxes Excises which their Ancestors never knew nor paid under which they have for some years groaned though all Ireland be now reduced England in peace within it self and Scotland under Contribution and take upon them to impose such illegal Taxes now without any Parliament by their own Super-Regal Authority transcending all Presidents of our Kings and their Councils out of Parliament can never be presumed to tender their Ease and Gain so much as to permit them or their Land-lords to put up into their own private Purses so great and constant an Annual Revenue as their Tithes amount to unto which they have neither legal Right nor Title but will appropriate it to themselves as they have done Church-Land and Crown-Land too for their future pay or past Aâ—rears and some of them have confessed so much And which then think you will prove the better Tithe Lords Ministers or Souldiers For the third Branch That the abolishing of Tithes will be a loss and detriment to all others excepting Land-Lords and Landed men I shall thus demonstrate 1. It will be so to all our Ministers and their families Tithes being their principal livelihood 2ly To all such Colleges Hospitals Corporations Schools all or part of whose Revenues depend on appropriated Tithes and Rectories and to all their Farmers and Families 3ly To all impropriators and their Lessees which are very many there being by Mr. Cambdens and others Computation 9284. Parishes in England whereof 3845. of the best value for the most part are impropriated or appropriated And the abrogation of Tithes without giving competent recompence to all Impropriators as well body Politicks as natural and their Lessees which how it can be done now Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands devoted and voted once for their satisfaction are sold to pay the Souldiers I cannot yet discern will ruine many Colleges Hospitals Schools with other Corporations and thousands of families depending on them 4ly All Tenants and Farmers will be losers by it in their estates as well as souls For then the Land-lords will raise the full improved value of their abolished
the Lord. From all these Scriptures here recited at large for the Readers fuller satisfaction conviction and ease in turning to them these conclusions undeniably arise 1. That the Priests and Levits had by Gods special command precept oft repeated both Cities Houses Suburbs Lands Glebes designed to setled on them by their brethren out of all the other tribes of Israel for their habitation and the keeping feeding of their Cattel Goods Beasts and that in a very large and bountifull proportion And likewise necessary convenient houses chambers lodgings neer the Temple when first built and when re-edified afterwards which refutes the common errour of those ignorant Simpletons and illiterate New-lights who from Numb 18.20 Deut. 10.9 chap. 18.1 2. The Priests the Levites and all the tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire and his inheritance Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren the Lord is their inheritance as he hath said unto them Conclude That the Priests and Levites amongst the Israelites had no Cities houses lands suburbs or possessions of their own belonging to their Office and were expresly forbidden by God to receive or enjoy any among their brethren And hence inferr That Ministers of the Gospel ought not to enjoy any Rectories Houses Lands or Glebes Whereas all the forecited Scriptures directly record the contrary and the meaning of these seeming repugnant texts is only this That they should have no inheritance amongst their Brethren in such sort and manner as they had set out altogether in one parcel by Joshua and the rest who divided the land amongst the tribes by lot which would have hindred them from their duties but only a subsequent assignment of certain Cities houses and suburbs seattered and divided one from another in and out of every tribes inheritance that so they might perform their offices with more ease and be alwayes ready at hand in every tribe to teach and instruct the people upon all occasions 2. That the inheritance of the Cities houses and suburbs which they enjoyed were not reputed their own proper inheritance though they enjoyed the possession and profits thereof but Gods inheritance as a thing devoted and dedicated unto God himself and therefore stiled by Ezekiel an Oblation unto God and an holy portion as Histories Divines Common Civil and Canon Lawyers stile all our Rectories Church-lands and Glebes with the Charters that first setled them being given and consecrated Deo et Ecclesiae an oblation unto God and the Church 3. That these endowments and Glebes of theirs were called reputed Gods own Portion and Inheritance 1. Because given by his special command and appointment by all the tribes 2. Because originally consecrated devoted to God and to his Priests and Ministers onely in Gods right for his sake 3. Because given to promote Gods worship service glory and for an habitation support to Gods own Priests and Levites imployed wholly in his immediate service 4. That they were expresly prohibited to be sold exchanged or alienated by the Priests Levites or any others because they were reserved by and given unto God himself as an holy Portion and Oblation and to the Priests and Levites for a perpetual possâ—ssion in regard of the perception of the profits the inheritance of them residing only in God himself Therfore not possible to be justly and lawfully sold exchanged or alienated by the Priests Levites or any other mortal Powers whatsoever who could claim no power right property or disposing interest in or over them against Gods own Soveraign and sacred title 5. That these Cities Suburbs Glebes were ratably set out in and by every tribe in an equal proportion according to the multitude or paucity of their Cities as a Tenth of their Cities and lands to which their 48 Cities and Suburbs amounted as some probably conceive And yet besides these 48 Cities there were Houses and Schools of Prophets and Prophets children in nature of our Universities in Bethel and in Jericho 2 Kings 2.3 4 5 7 to 24. chap. 6.1 2 3 4. which were none of these 48 Cities 6. That none of the Kings and Princes of Judah though many of them were Idolatrous wicked and put to great extremities to raise monies to pay their Armies and Tributes to forein Invaders and Conquerors did yet ever attempt to sell or alienate the Cities Suburbs or revenues of the Priests and Levites to maintain their warrs or pay publike Debts or tributes though King Asa Jehoash Hezekiah by way of loan made bold with the Silver and Gold in the treasure of the Lords house in cases of publike extremity which might be and was afterwards re-paid 1 Kings 15.18 cap. 18.15 2 Chron. 16.2 Yea the Scripture expresly records that in the great famine in Aegypt when all others sold their lands to buy bread to King Pharaoh only the Lands of the Priests bought he not For the Priests had a Portion assigned them of Pharaoh and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them wherefore they sold not their Lands Gen. 47.20 to 27. 7. That the Idolatrous usurper Jeroboam out of a carnal fear and policy to keep the people from returning to their rightfull Soveraign and establish the crown on himself and his Posterity was the first man we read of and his Idolatrous sons and successors after him who cast out Gods Priests and Levites out of their offices and then out of their Cities Suburbs and Possessions which he enforced them to desert though we read not that they sold them to maintain their Warrs or pay Soldiers arrears who thereupon repaired to Jerusalem to Rehoboam the right heir and after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to enjoy Gods Ordinances strengthned Rehoboam and his kingdom against this persecuting usurper 2 Chron. 11.13 to 18. 8. That this his casting out of the Priests and Levites from their Offices and Pâ—ssâ—ssions making Priests of the lowest of the People and suffering every one that would to consecrate himself a Priest without a lawfull call is objected against Jeroboam by Abijah as a very high crime and provocation against God and the maintaining encouraging of Gods lawfull Priests and Levites in their Offices and setled possessions alleged by him as a certain argument of Gods presence with him and so with any other King and people and of victory successe in conclusion against sacrilegious Usurpers 9. That when Gods lawfull Priests and Levites are deprived of their Glebes and Possessions we must presently expect a base contemptible time-serving Idolatrous ignorant Priestood Jeroboams Golden Calves with their new Feasts and Sacrifices and a universal inundation of Idolatry wickedness prophanness to ensue with all the forementioned calamities which befell Ieroboams Army adherents subjects Person Family Kingdom which the Lord now set home on all our hearts that we may
Levitical Priests themselves especially after their abolition as he was a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck to whom Abraham himself and the Levites then in his loins paid Tithes of all Heb. 7.1 to 15. of which at large before Therefore he had a just Right to receive Tithes from them both before the institution and after the abolition of the Levitical Priesthood which he might have lawfully claimed exercised and his Apostles likewise in his Right though they did it not We read that Christ had a just Right Title by Inheritance and lineal descent from his Father King David to the Temporal Crown and Kingdome of Judah being therefore said by the Wise men Mat. 2.2 to be born King of the Iews an unanswerable Argument for the lawfullnesse Excellency of Hereditary Titles to Crowns and Kingdomes before that of Election only wherewith I frequently silenced vapouring Souldiers against Hereditary Kingship being the very Title of Christ himself both to his Spiritual and Temporal Kingdome and that which God instituted amongst his Church people as the best surest of all other taken up by most Heathen Nations Now though Christ neither claimed nor exercised this his Temporal Right but avoided it when the people would have made him King by force John 6.15 who yet after cryed him up for the King of Israel John 12.13 15. which even Pilate himself acknowledged when he said unto the Jews Behold your King demanded of them Shall I crucifie your King and wrote fixed this Title on his Crosse Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews John 19.14 15 19. will or can John Canne or any other of his antimonarchical confederates hence justly infer that it was unlawfull for Christ himself Right Heir by Descent to his Hereditary Temporal Kingdome kept and thrust out thereof by usurping Herod who murthered all the infants in Bethlehem and the Coasts thereof that were two years old and under and would have murthered our Saviour himself to secure his own usurped Power Mat. 2.13 16. such is the bloody cruelty Jealousie of Usurpers to have claimed or exercised this his just Hereditary Right to the Crown or unlawfull for the people to have thrust out this bloody Intruder Herod by force from his usurped Authority and made Christ King as they intended or because Christ did then voluntarily forbear relinquish his Temporal Right to Herod will it thence necessarily follow that it is therefore unlawfull for any other Hereditary Christian King or Right Heir to a Crown kept from or thrust out of his Throne Kingdome by armed violence against the generality of his peoples desires by any aspiring usurping Herod to lay claim to his Crown Kingdome or for the faithfull natural born Subjects according to their duty Oathes Allegiance to endeavour by all lawfull means and open force to expell dethrone such Herods and Crown set up their lawfull Soveraign on the Throne of the Kingdome Doubtlesse they cannot be so absurdly stupid to affirm it seeing Jehoiadah the high Priest the Captains of Hundreds Levites Souldiers and people too thrust out and slew with the sword Athaliah the bloody Usurper of the Kingdome and Throne of Judah in the second year of her Usurpation crowned Joash the Kings Son King as the Lord had said of the Sons of David and set him upon the Throne of the Kingdome whereupon all the people of the Land rejoyced and the City was quiet as is recorded at large to their eternal Honour by God himself and for others imitation in the like case 2 Chron. 23. and 2 Kings 11. The rather because all other men by our Laws may justly lay claim to and repossesse themselves of such Lands Houses Goods as others forcibly detain or take from them against all Law Right notwithstanding Christs Non-claim to his Rightful Crown Therefore by the self-same Reason our Ministers of the Gospel now may lawfully challenge and take Tithes from the people though Christ and his Apostles did it not albeit they had a just Right and Title to them which they might have exercised had they pleased without Sin or Judaism as our Ministers do now as Paul resolves in 1 Cor. 9.4 5 6 15 18. To clear which Right from Judaism and all other cavils beyond all contradiction I shall cite only two Prophecies relating joyntly to Christs Kingdom and Ministers under the Gospel The first is Jer. 33.15 to the end In those dayes and at that time will I cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David and he shall execute Righteousnesse and Judgement in the Land In those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and this is the name wherewith he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness For thus saith the Lord David shall never want a man to sit upon the Throne of the house of Israel Neither shall the Priests the Levites want a man before me to offer Burnt-Offerings and to kindle Meat-Offerings and to do Sacrifices continually Thus saith the Lord if you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night so that there should not be day and night in their season then may also my Covenant be broken with David my Servant that he should not have a Son to reign upon his Throne therefore our Covenants Oaths to our Kings their Heirs and Successors should be as stable as inviolable and strictly observed as Gods to David and his Posterity Ps 89.3 4 34. Ps 132.11 12. Hebr. 6.17 18. Ps 15.4 Eccles 8.2 Gal. 3.15 17. and with the Levites the Priests my Ministers As the host of heaven cannot be numbred neither the sand of the Sea measured so will I multiply the seed of David my Servant and the Levites that minister unto me c. The second is Isa 66.18 to 20. I will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my Glory and I will set a Sign among them and I will send those that escape of them unto the Nations and to Tarshish c. and to the Isles afar off whereof England is chief and principally intended And they shall bring all your Brethren for an Offering unto the Lord out of all Nations upon Horses and in Chariots and in Litters and upon Mules and upon swift Beasts to my holy Mountain in Jerusalem saith the Lord as the Children of Israel bring an Offering in a clean Vessel unto the House of the Lord And I will also take of them for Priests and for Levits saith the Lord From which Texts I shall observe 1. That as Christs Title to his everlasting Spiritual Kingdom under the Gospel over all the converted Gentiles as well as Jews is expresly set forth to be neither elective nor by conquest but by DESCENT HEIRSHIP and lineal succession after the flesh from King David Whence he is stiled Heir of all things Heb. 1.12 And the Lord shall give unto him THE THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID and HE shall reign over the House of
The like did Ananias with Saphira his wife but because they brought a certain part thereof and laid it at the Apostles feet and kept back part of the price of the Land which is less than to keep back Tithes when due by sundrie Lawes and Ordinances and thereby lyed not unto Men only but to God they both fell down dead sodainly at the Apostles feet in a miraculous manner and were carried forth and buried And great fear came upon all the Church and as many as heard thereof We finde in 2 Cor. 11.7 8 9. That though Paul preached the Gospel at Corinth freely yet he took wages of other Churches at the same time to do them service And when he was present with them and wanted that which was wanting unto him the Brethren that came from Macedonia supplied that in all things he might keep himself from being burdensome to the Corinthians for reasons expressed by him In which respect of not ministring to him of their substance he writes they were inferiour to other Churches 2 Cor. 12 13. How bountifull the Church and Saints of Philippi were to Paul not only whiles present with them and preaching among them but also absent from them preaching the Gospell in other places and how pleasing this their liberalitie was to God he thus records Phil 4.10 to 21. But I rejoyced in the Lord greatly that at last your care of me is revived wherein ye were also Carefull but ye lacked opportunity Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content c. Notwithstanding ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel when I departed from Macedonia no Churches communicated with me as concerning Giving and Receiving but ye only For even in Thessalonica Ye sent once and again to my necessity Not because I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your accompt But I have received all and abound and am full having received of Epaphroditus the things sent from you an odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice Acceptable well-pleasing to God But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever Amen And in 2. Tim. 1.16 17 18. He makes this memorable Testimony of and prayer for Onesiphorus The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain But when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day And in how many things he Ministred unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well From all which precedents coupled together these conclusions naturally and necessarily arise 1. That it is not only the practice but duty of the Saints and Christians under the Gospel chearfully and liberally to contribute to the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel and that not only whiles they are actually preaching and resident amongst them but whiles absent preaching the Gospel in other places or suffering for the Gospel in bonds and prisons if their necessities so require 2. That they ought not only barely to supply their necessities when they are in want but in such a plentiful manner that they may truly say We abound and are full blesse God for rejoyce in their peoples liberality and pray to God for a blessing upon them and theirs with greater chearfulness and zeal 3. That in cases of necessity when the wants of the Apostles Ministers and Saints of God require it Christians are not only bound to pay them the Tithes of their Lands and other setled Dues but even to sell their very Lands Houses Estates themselves and lay them down at the Apostles and Ministers feet for their common supply as the primitive Christians did they being not real proprietors but meer Stewards of their worldly estates which as they all proceed from Gods hand gift blessing so they are still Gods own not mans and therefore in such cases to be chearfully expended for the maintenance and supply of the necessities of his Ministers servants worship 1 Chron. 29.11 12 14 15 16 17. 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. 4. That the maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel is not meer pure Almes as some have held but wages which though Paul for some special reasons received not from the Corinthians yet he did from other Churches under the name of wages 5. That niggardlinesse and not contributing towards the maintenance of painful Ministers is a shame infamy dishonour to a Church and people making them inferiour to all other Churches 6. That peoples liberal bountifull contributing to the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel is a great joy comfort encouragement to them yea a means to enlarge their hearts in prayers to God for spiritual and temporal blessings on them and their housholds 7. That bountifull and chearfull contributions to the Apostles and Ministers of Christ is not only a well doing or good work but an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing unto God though it stinks in the nostrils of many covetous earth-wormes sectaries and pretended godly Saints now adaies 8. That Liberality to the Ministers of the Gospel and paying them their just deserved Tithes Dues is so farr from impoverishing and hurting mens estates that it redounds to their spiritual and temporal accompt too causeth God to supply all their wants and to blesse both them and their families with spiritual temporal eternal mercies and rewards as the several forecited Scriptures with Prov. 3.9 10. Mal. 1.10 11. Mat. 10.41 42. Mar. 9.41 2 Cor. 9.6 to 13. 2 Kings 4.8 to 38. 1 Kings 17.10 to 24. most abundantly prove 9. That the willful detaining withdrawing of any thing solemnly devoted to the necessary maintenance of the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel brings exemplary curses judgements on those who are guilty thereof as the examples of Ananias and Saphira testifie compared with Mal. 3.8 9 11. Hag. 1.9 10 11 2.16 17 18 19. further illustrating it which all sacrilegious invaders plunderers detainers oppugners of our Ministers ancient established Maintenance Tithes Dues may do well now seriously to ruminate upon and then reform their practice or else renounce their pretended Christianity and Saintship so much swarving from the recited precedents of the first and purest Christians XV. This is further proved by Mat. 7.12 Luke 6.31 All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets yea and the Gospel too thus twice enjoyning it from Christs own mouth Whence thus I argue All Estates Callings Professions of men whatsoever whether Kings Princes Rulers Judges Magistrates of all sorts Lawyers Physicians Chirurgeons Merchants Artificers Traders Husbandmen Labourers of all kinds Sea-men
teacheth him in all good things To which I shall subjoyn 1 Cor. 9.11 If we have sowed unto you spiritual things is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things Rom. 15.25 And their Debtors they are for if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things All these three Gospel Texts resolve That Ministers of the Gospel have a just due and right to a competent comfortable share in all the goods things Temporal blessings and necessaries for the support of this life which the people instructed by them and receiving spiritual things from them enjoy And that the people are bound both by expresse precepts in the Gospel and by the rules of common moral equity and justice chearfully to communicate and minister such a fitting share of all their good things and temporal blessings as a debt and due unto them for their ministring to them in spiritual things which I fully proved in the first Proposition and Impudency it self cannot deny The sole question then is what this share or portion ought to be and who shall determine it in point of difference I confesse the Apostle doth not decide either of these in terminis these Texts being general all in the plural number All good things your carnal things comprising all such things out of which Tithes predial mixt or personal as Canonists and Lawyers distinguish them are or may be paid Wherefore every faithfull Christian every spiritual son of God and of faithfull Abraham whose footsteps presidents they are to follow in all doubtful cases admit this one to satisfie his conscience and judgement in this case must and will resort to the presidents of the Eminentest Saints in former ages and Gods own prescripts in other expresse Texts Where finding the very Father of the faithfull Abraham himself giving his Grandson Jacob vowing and God himself specially reserving prescribing the payment of a Tenth of all good things from and by his own people for the maintenance of his Priests and Levites under the Law which they cheerfully rendred until and in Christs own time that the very Pharisees and Scribes though Hypocrites were so just as to pay Tithes of all that Christ resolved they ought to do it and not leave it undone and that none before the Apostles dayes ever gave lesse than a Tenth part as the premises largely evidence he must and will necessarily conclude from all these sacred Directories precepts presidents that the ordinary constant standing portion and proportion of all his goods and carnal things here prescribed and intended by Gods Spirit is the tenth part and in extraordinary cases more when Gods glory the Ministers necessities the Defence or Propagation of the Gospel require it And when he shall further read in the Gospel it self that speech of Zacheus the converted Publican Luke 19.8 Behold Lord the Half of my Goods I give to the poor And how the first converted Christians and Jews in the Apostles dayes sold their Lands Houses and brought and laid the money at the Apostles feet Acts 4.5 His conscience which must not guide the Word and Spirit of God as most mens consciences do now but the Word and Spirit it and him too will and must from thence conclude that he must not give his faithful Minister lesse than a Tenth part of all and in cases of extraordinary necessity share even half his goods yea the price of all his Lands and Houses between the Ministers and poor Saints of God specially in times of persecution when as he ought to hide and feed them too as godly Obadiah did an hundred of the Lords Prophets in the dayes of Jezebel at his own charge with the hazard of hiâ— Office and Life 1 Kings 18.4.13 If any mans conscience in a setled Christian Realm State be so obstinate or froward as not to submit to the lowest proportion of a Tenth which all ages and most or all setled Christian Realms have unanimously agreed upon and confirmed by publike Edicts as well Civil as Ecclesiastical whereof there are neer thousands in print the Christian Kings and Magistrates are to determine all controversies of this nature and state the just proportion of this Debt and Duty between the Minister and people where it is not publikely decided and may justly enforce the due payment of it when and where it is determined by positive publick Laws as a just Debt as they do in all other civil Debts Duties Accompts in controversie before them as I shall prove in due place even by these very Texts though John Canne denies it in his VOX praeterea NIHIL p. 14. To these I shall subjoyn that noted Text in the 1 Cor. 9.13 14. which John Canne cites by piece-meal as the Devil did Scripture leaving out the principal branch Mat. 4.6 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and they that wait at the altar are partakers with the altar Even so hath the Lord ordained this Canne omits that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel I have urged this Text before for proof of the first I shall here apply it only to the second Propositions confirmation as to Tithes 1. Then we have here A Divine Gospel Ordinance made by the Lord of Hosts himself not repealable by any Army or Powers on Earth as well as Parliamentary Ordinances for the Maintenance of the Preachers of the Gospel and let Canne the poorest Preacher of the Gospel I ever yet knew in England except one of his fraternity who heard him once preach an Assize and Fast Sermon too at Chard deny our Ministers to be able Preachers of the Gospel at the peril of his Soul though he denies them to be lawful Ministers of Christ and censures them as Antichristian and Popish But why so Because forsooth they had their Ordination from Rome and by consequence are TRAYTORS and FELONS too by the Statute of 27 Eliz. c. 2. for which they might be legally executed for Treason and Felony if the State were not pleased to interpret the Statute contrary as he conceives to the Letter and form of it the words whereof he both curtals and misrecites just as he did this Text p. 5. To doe him and his best friends a kindness vindicate the lawfulness of our Ministers calling against this ordinary slander and convince him of his grosse mistake I shall truly recite the Statute Thus intituled JESUITES and PRIESTS in England shall depart and NONE SHALL COME INTO THIS REALM If so then many Dippers Speakers Administrators Members in Anabaptistical Congregations many New-lights and Gifted-brethren in separate Congregations many Shakers Quakers Ranters Broachers of new Notions Errours Blasphemies throughout the Realm many new Politicians Levellers Agitators Soldiers in the Army if not some Officers all the late converted pretended Jews dipped in Anabaptistical Congregations discovered and known to be disguised Iesuites
abroad and at home in England The Ecclesiastical Laws of King Edgar An. 967. c. 1 2. The Council of Eauham under King Edgar An. 1010. and his Laws near that time c. 14. and the Council of London under Archbishop Hubert An. 1200. 15 years before this of Lateran All which enjoyn the people to pay their Tithes to their own Mother-Churches where they heard divine Service and received the Sacraments and not to other Churches or Chapels at their pleasures unless by consent of the Mother-Churches Hence Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bath about the year 1170. 45. years before the Council of Lateran in his 62. Epistle writes thus to the Praemonstraticatian Monks who procured an Exemption from paying Tithes out of their Lands That their Lands were obnoxious to Tithes before they became theirs and were paid hitherto not with respect of Persons sed ratione Territorii but by reason of the Territory and Parish Precincts And Pope Innocent the 3d. his Decree dated from Lateran An. 1200. mistaken for the Council of Lateran cited in Cooks 2 Instit p. 641. was but in confirmation of these precedent Authorities 2ly The abuses complained against and reformed by this Council was not the lay Parishioners giving away of their Tithes from their own Ministers and Parish-Churches at their pleasures not a word of this but a New minted practice of most covetous Monks Religious Houses and some secular Clerks to rob the Parish-Churches and Ministers of all the Tithes of the lands held of them by compelling their Tenants and Lessees by special covenants in their Leases and Bonds to pay their Tithes arising out of their Lands only to themselves and their Monasteries not to their Parish Churches as formerly which the Pope and this great General Council resolve to proceed merely from the root of Covetousness let Canne and his Comrades observe it who pretend Conscience to be the ground whereupon they condemn reform this practice null the Covenants Bonds Deformations and decreed Restitution of all profits by these Frauds to the Parish-Churches And was not this a just righteous and conscionable Decree rather than an Antichristian and Papal as Canne Magisterially censures it 3ly Admit the Parochial Right of Tithes first setled in and by this Council which is false yet being a right established at 438. years since confirmed by constant use Custom Practice ever since allowed by the Common law of England ratified by the Great Charter of England ch 1. with sundry other Sâ—atutes Acts of Parliament Canons of our Councils and Convocations and approved by all our Parliaments ever since as most just expedient necessary Yea setled on our Parish Churches by original Grants of our Ancestors for them their Heirs and Assigns for ever with general warranties against all men with special Execrations and Anathemaes denounced against all such who should detain or substract them from God and the Church to whom they consecrated them for ever and that as sacred Tribute reserved commanded by God himself in the Old and New Testament as a badge of his Vniversal Dominion over them and their Possessions held of him as Supream Landlord as the Council of London under Archbishop Hubert in the 2d year of King John with another Council under Archbishop Replain 3 E. 3. The Council under Archbishop Stratford with others resolve There neither is nor can be the least pretext of Iustice Reason Prudence Law or Conscience for any Grandets in present Power by force or fraud to Null Repeal Alter this Antient Right and unquestionable Title of our Ministers to them now and set every man loose to pay no Tithes at all or to dispose of them how and to whom they will at their pleasure to destroy our Churches Ministers Parishes and breed nothing but Quarrels and Confusions in every place and Parish at this present when all had now need to study to be quiet and to do their own Business and not to disturb all our Ministers and others Rights without any lawfull call from God or the Nation Which unparalleld incroachment on our Ministers and Parish-Churches Rights if once admitted countenanced all the people in the Nation by better right and reason may pull down all the Fences and Inclosures of Fields Forests or Commons made since this Council deny substract all Customs Impositions Duties Rents Payments publick or private imposed on or reserved from them since that time by publick Laws or special Contracts and pay all their Rents Customs and Tenure-Services to whom and when they please which our Grandy late Army-Purchasors of Kings Queens Princes Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands with other Opposers of Tithes may do well to consider for their own Advantage and Security their Titles to them being very puny crazy disputable in comparison of our Ministers to their Tithes Now whereas Thomas Walsingham Randal Higden a Monk of Chester in his Polichronicon and Henry Abbot of Leycester write that the general Council of Lyons in France under Pope Gregory the tenth An. 1274. Decreed what others ignorantly attribute to the Council of Lateran aforesaid An 1215. Vt nulli homini deinceps liceat decimas suas ad libitum ut antea liceat assignare sed matrici ecclesiae omnes decimas persolverent Which seems to imply that before this Council every man might give his Tithes from the Mother Church to whom he pleased notwithstanding the Council of Lateran and Innocents Decrees I answer 1. That there was no such Canon made in this Council as these ignorant Monks mistake which is undeniable by the Acts and Canons of this Council printed at large in Binius Surius and other Collectors of Councils but only one Canon against Clergy-mens alienation of the Revenues of the Church and another against the Vsurpation of the Churches Revenues by Patrons in time of their vacancy which have no affinity with that they mention which if true then that which Canne and others object that the Council of Lateran made this Inhibition and took away this Liberty of disposing Tithes at pleasure from the Parishioners is false as I have proved it Secondly That from this mistake of these Monks it was as Mr. Selden probably conjectures that William Thorp ignorantly affirmed that one Pope Gregory the tenth first ordained new Tithes first to be given to Priests now in the new Law John Canne to manifest his great Ignorance both in History and Chronologie in his Second Voice from the Temple p. 13 14. Writes thus Before the Council of Lateran which was under Innocent the third any man might have paid his Tithes to any Ecclesiastical person he pleased but by that Council it was decreed That Tithes should be paid to the Parochial Priest which I have proved a grosse Forgerie and then he addes William Thorp saith That Pope Gregory the tenth was the first that ordained Tithes to be paid to Priests in the year 1211. Fox p. 494. Wherein 1. He mis-recites Thorps words who speaks not of Tithes in