Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	lord_n	part_n	tenant_n	1,512	5	9.6400	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57824	Tythes ended by Christ with the Levitical priesthood and therefore no maintenance for a Gospel-ministry, nor lawful for Christians to pay or take under the dispensation of the Gospel : being an answer to two reviling pamphlets written against the people of God called Quakers, because they refuse to pay tythes : the one by C.N. a Presbyterian, and the other by Cress Wheatly, an Episcopal priest : the said C.N. and C.W. are herein justly rebuked for their enmity and lyes against the people of God, and their arguments and plea for tythes considered and fully answered, and the people of God vindicated in their refusing to pay tythes / by the servants of the Lord, T. Rudyard and W. Gibson ; also a postscript by George Watt ; also some brief observations upon some passages in a book, entituled, Christ's call to professors, by W.G.	Rudyard, Thomas, d. 1692.; Gibson, William, 1629-1684.; Watt, George, Lover of the truth. Tythes no Gospel-ordinance.	1673 (1673)	Wing R2183; ESTC R12032	26,888	46

Free Gift as thy words insinuate But 3. I answer Further What was in their Power to give as the Tenth of their Mannors c. or the Tenth of the Rents c. relates not to us but was free for them to give but to give the Tenth of Man's Time or his Labour c. was not their's and they could not intail it to after Generations as I instanced before and this is no Proof against us or Matter of just Exception against him Yet upon this Trivial and Groundless Exception attended with thy strained Observation art thou pleased to make Four or Five further Demands which as they require I shall return an Answer The Substance of thy First is Whether if we or thou should give a Ninth Part of our Estate to Teachers of our Perswasion pag. 10. and then sell the Eight Parts and abate the Buyer proportionably in the Price would not we accompt the Buyer a Thief that should take that Ninth and call it his own Tell me whether this be the Case Answ 1. I answer It s not our Case yet 2. I grant that I may sell or give a Ninth Eighth Seventh a Quarter or Third or what part or parts I will of my Estate and make him to whom I give or sell an Unquestionable Title respecting the Law c. as also the Remainder to whom I please provided hereby each knows his own then let them dispose of it to what Uses they please one hurts not the other But I cannot sell or intail the Labour Strength Industry c. of any Man to the Service of another or to Evil or to my supposed Good Uses But if he whoh as any of the parts tilling his own for that part or in Consideration of that Land according to the Mind or Will of the Giver Worship an Idol pray for a Soul departed c. or with the Increase and Profits thereof sacrifices to the Devil or Heathenish Godds it concerns not him who has the other yet if I sell the whole to one as all our Deeds of Purchase are having dedicated a Ninth or Tenth to one or other Godd of my Imagination this shall not obliege him to whom I have sold to Pray for Worship his Godd Labour for his Deity or such like to the Infringing of his Just Liberty or Imposing upon that Person whom God in Christ has made a free Agent to Labour for him All the Hours in the Day and the Dayes of his Life and to dedicate the Fruit of his Industry to the Lord only to whom he is accomptable So I agree a Ninth of the Land which is certain I may give or sell which is certain and partionable but part of Man's Labour c. neither give nor sell I can it s not to be partitioned or divided Man cannot serve two Masters God and the Devil for he 's wholely the Lord's I gave him not his Strength his Industry c. I cannot require it of him without his Consent I set him or Lease him Lands I may require it from him according to my Contract and do him no Wrong And here 's the Difference so that if Men have been so Wicked to give or grant or thou or we be so Wicked and Unjust to give grant or sell what 's not our own our grant is void and hurts not him whom we would Wrong And he that 's so Injurious is the Thief and Agressor and not he that denyeth to subject himself to such Injustice And this is our Case Thy Second Demand is but a Repetition of a former which had its Answer in its place pag 10. so I shall pass it over Thy Third Demand is Whether we may not as fairly teach such as are Tenants to Papists at this Day or to vitious Land-lords p. 10 11. to pay no Rents because employed to Popish or Prophane Vses c Answ I answer We neither teach others nor deny to pay our Rents to our Land-lords for being Vitious in their Conversation or being Papistical Episcopal Presbyterian c. in their Judgment nor doth the Evil Uses to which they imploy their Rents which we are not probably privy much less accessary unto when in their hands concern us or them as Tenants But Tythes if we pay we know the Uses and abet them and cannot plead Ignorance to God and Man as I may instance a short Case As if I delivered a Knife this day to one and to morrow he kill a man therewith I having neither been in his Counsel nor abetted such Action am not guilty of such Blood nor an Accessory in the Law But 't is otherwise if I give it to that End or abet such Design the Blood will then also lie at my Door The Case then of Rent to Land-lords and Tythes to Priests differeth in this the first abets not but is Ignorant of the Evil Use or Murder so Innocent the second knows them and is an Accessory thereto so Guilty of the Fact Therefore do we Pay the Former but Deny the Latter Again Thou queriest Do not Contracts between Buyers and Sellers of Land equally obliege as between Land lord and Tenant Answ I answer They do equally obliege I perceive this Query is but a Relick of the former mistaken Assertion in thy former Letter That Tythes are part of the Rents and Services reserved in our Deeds of Purchase which has Answer in its place And he that 's but a N●vice of a Conveyancer knows very well that there 's not one Clause in our Deeds that oblieges us to pay Tythes but to pay Rent to the Land-lord be sure there wants not such a Covenant in our Lease And further that I may explain to thy Understanding That Tythes for which thou pleadest and the Priest persecutes are neither a Reserved Rent nor a Tenth of my Estate that I never purchased nor a distinct Part that the Seller reserved upon the Sale to some other Proprietor as thou wouldst insinuate appears in this that they differ from the nature and tenure of all such Proprieties and Interests as for Instance 1. If I have a Third or other Part of a House Land c. which I have purchased I can have Writ of Partition for such part and know my own 2. If Land-lord I can enter and Seize for my Rent 3. If chief Lord of the Fee I can make a Distress for the chief Rent c. 4. If Title to any part of Land in others Possession I can bring an Ejectment or other real Action and Recover my Interest But the Priest Pope Presbyter● c. for Tythes can neither Distrain Re enter Seise Eject or Enter upon any man's Possession which shews the Mistake thou hast run upon throughout thy whole Discourse and that they have no such Interest as Tenth one or other part or just Propriety in our Estates as thôu supposest and doest unadvisedly suggest And here 's the mistaken Foundation thou hast unadvisedly built upon Thy Fourth Demand is rather

Decretals of Popish Councils and Prelatical Synods since the Apostacy and find the like Instance of Atheism To say It matters not who has Right is begging the Question that will never be granted For certainly if part of my Strength Daily Labour Sweat of my Brows Yearly Encrease of that Substance which God makes me Steward of here to his Praise shall be demanded of me 't is but Reasonable I should know who he is that requires such Servit●ds else wherein I should be God's Freeman I may be the Devil's Slave In my Apprehension it had been most Just and Reasonable first to have asserted the Pope Priests Presbyter c. his Title to the things in demand and when their Propriety had been sufficiently demonstrated it had been early enough to have insinuated the Quakers Th●eves and Robber● for refusing to work and labour under such Tusk-Masters But here thou proclaimest to the World a Design to stigmatize others rather then to clear the Innocency of thy own Party so without Breach of Charity thou 'lt incur the censure a Partial Controvertist And now to the Question What Right have the People to Tythes● I might answer by this Question What Right has any others to them For certainly the Law presumes every Man to have a good Right to what he possesses till his Opposer Out him by shewing a better Title Therefore have we a common Anglicism That of Twelve Possession is Eleaven Points of the Law And that Man hath good Right to enjoy the Fruit of his Labours Strength and Industry as to those outward Concerns wherewith God has blest him and to be accomptable to his Creator is most consonant to the Rule of Holy Scriptures and Right Reason This in general but to thy Particulars Thou proposest in thy Plea for Tythes That all manner of Right and Propriety must needs be conveyed to Men in or by some of these five Wayes viz. 1. Either Free Gift or Donation from God or Man to Man 2. Or Right of Inheritance from Ancestors 3. Or Purchase one Man from another 4. Or Compact Bargain or Release 5. Or Possession or Occupancy I shall not oppose thy Distinctions but grant that these or such like must be the Wayes whereby Right ought to be conveyed and Propriety settled amongst Men adding only that it s still absolutely necessary in every of these 1. As to the Gift that it be not given to a void End and so becomes null 2. That there be a Lawful Heir that claimeth by Inheritance 3. That for a Purchase Compact or Bargain 'twixt Man and Man there be a Real Consideration given Vender has right to sell 4. That Right attend the Occupancy or Possession Give but these their due Place and Reason shall be Judge betwixt us Whether Pope Priest or their Assignes have absolute Right to the things in demand or we whom God has made Possessors of them And truly if under any of these reasonable Titles our Adversaries had made their Claim and we refused to render Right it had been colour of Censure But to declaim against a People for detaining that which no Man claims for ought appears by thine is Unjust Clamour Bear with me if I term thy Proprietor No Man For its a Common Maxime Idem est non esse non appavere 't is the same not to be as not to appear And when the Priest Pope Presbyter or any who will produce a better Title to Imbondage then we have to evidence our Freedom I question not but we shall avoid to be justly censured for detaining what 's not our own But that we as well as others shall have all manner of Evil spoke against us falsly for the sake of our Master no wise doubt And although our Possession be a Plea sufficient against the Decimators Cract Title to the things in demand yet to remove all Scruple relating to our Just Interest I shall be willing to enter into Examination of what is offered against us and descend to the Particulars as laid down in thy Letter 1. First Of the first viz. Donation of God or Man Here thou tellest us That thou presumest that we denying them to be a Divine Right to the Clergy will not so claim them Answ Here I must tell thee that thou grandly Mistakes us For I answer We claim as the free Gift of God our Understanding Strength Ability to Labour the Product and Encrease of the Fruit of our Fields and the Fleece of our Flocks out of which our Enemies would extort a Tenth which we know the Lord God above gives and thereof has made us Stewards requiring us to be faithful that when he calls we may render unto him who is the Giver of all a Just Accompt And not to be found as Prodigalls wasting our Substance amongst Harlo●s but that with all we have and do enjoy we may render unto him the Praise of all who is worthy having laid a holy Constraint upon our Souls not to put into the Mouths of Pope Priest Presbyter or such like who are Enemies unto his Truth Nor we cannot own those Laws of Pope Priest c. to be Just that would take away from us what God freely gives unto us to uphold their false Worships So is our Testimony from God against them and their Laws although to the Loss of our outward Liberty and Estates and to the incurring of such bitter Censures as thy self utters forth against us And as to Man's Donation which thou counts to be considered under thy next Head may be there taken notice of 2. What right sayest thou is due to Men by Inheritance from Ancestors Sayest thou to clear our Understanding in this Question 't is necessary to enquire into the Strength or Truth of that common Objection viz. That Tythes were originally a forced Payment by Injustice of humane Laws and that what is Vnjustly taken at first can never be made Lawful by Duration of Time or Possession For Answer of which Objection thou tellest us it s worthy Consideration whether the Objection strikes not more at our Nine parts then at the Clergy's Tenths of the things in Contest undertaking to demonstrate it from the Norman's Conquest of this Nation by forreign Force distributing the Lands to Natives or others to hold of him as chief Lord reserving Rents Duties and Services then continuing the Tenths to the Clergy forcing the Lands in great part from the Owners gave them to others of whom we purchased alledging further that Ethelwolph a Saxon Conquerer four hundred Years before conquered this Nation and enriched the Church viz. the Clergy with Tythes of all Lands Goods c. since which time they have held them without Force or not so forced as the other Part of the Conquests Answ How little this makes for thy Party or against us will appear upon Examination I observe to this second Question of what Right is due to Men by Inheritance from Ancestors thou first offerest this 1. That common Objection

Estate Labour Industry c. is backt with Reason The Law has a Maxime C●ssante rati●ne cessat ipsa lex such as is a Valuable Consideration for his Demands expect no less then that the Right I have purchased will defend me from all other Trivial and Vnjust Claims And except thou findest a good and just Foundation for the first Stablishment and Imposition of Tenths upon us look not to Impose either the Use of former Tenants Custom of the Nation Antiquity of Popes Decretals backt with Humane Laws since all manner of Wickedness Cruelty and Oppression have in one Age or other had as equal Colourable Authority to enforce their Continuance and Imposition upon the People Then which I see nothing offered by thee 4th Head To thy 4th Head What Right by Compact or Release from Man to Man Answ I see no more in this then thy be●ting again the former troden Path The Tenant has the Leaser's Right the Farm is the Tenant's the Rent the land-Land-lord's and whatever was the Leasor's Right to have is in the Lease as to the Land he holds paying his reserved Rent But the Tenants Strength Labour Industry and Understanding the Encrease of Stock is not by Lease from the Land-lord but by the free Gift of God as was said before of and from whom he holds it If Priest Pope c. have a Tenth of the Land why does he not sow it and improve it to his own Advantage 'T is that only we claim under the Land-lord If he pretends to a Right to the Tenth of our Labour Industry c. let him produce his Title and if it precede or be superiour to our's we shall condescend till then our Land-lord's Title has set us free from Priest Pope Presby●er or whoever claims by from or under them 5th Head What Right by virtue of Possession or Occupancy This sayest thou is a Proper Natural and Just Claim to the first Planters and Possessors of any Part of the Earth not before possessed or planted Answ 'T is well then from the beginning it was not so And how then came this Course to be altered The Great God gave Man the Fruit of his Industry Wisdom and Understanding the Pope took part of it away and gives it to his Creatures was not this Inv●ntion of Man that altered the Course that God had made Evil God's Law made void by Man's Traditions So Tythes entred Man coming to God and his Law again denies Tythes that the Devil had settled contrary to the Pure Holy Law And here 's the Quarrel 'twixt the Priest Pope Presbyter c. the People called Quakers who cannot put into their Mouthes so Priest Pope Presbyter c. prepare War against them And we do respect the Intention of Buyer and Seller Donor and Donee he that made us Possessors and he that would Dispossess and conclude as Christians That in despight of Popes Decrees Priests Canons c. we are free from all their Dark and Superstitious Gifts and Impositions whatsoever And he who will take the Pains to enquire may be well Informed That this Imposition of Tythes was not the Fruit of Christianity but an Effect of the Christian● Apostacy from the Faith of Jesus For the Christians many Hundred Years after Christ knew no such thing as Tythes till the Popes and Prelatick Authority imposed them by their Bulls Decrees and Canons But that these Bulls Decrees and Canons did meet with many Oppositions from the Faithful Martyrs of Jesus is plentifully set forth in History Fox Acts Mon. p. 564 605 607 621. as of many more we may instance John Wickliff John Huss William Thorpe William Swinderly Walter Brint and many others bear their Testimonies against this Antichristian Imposition and all other Unjust and Forced Priest Maintenance which for Conscience sake towards God they could not no more then we submit unto yet in all their Conversation towards Men were Blameless whose Faithfulness will be had in Everlasting Remembrance with them that fear the Lord and bear Witness to his Holy Name which is set up as a Standard to the Nations and those that put their Trust in him is he pretious although a Stumbling-Stone and a Rock of Offence to all such who have and do wilfully D●spise his Tender of Mercy and this his Day of Visitation In case thou beest an Enquirer I doubt not thy Information if an Imposer upon others I do not in the least suppose its Prevalency with such whose Hearts are towards God However if there yet remains a Spirit in thee to oppose us take the Pains to consult the Learned Rabbies of thy Party and Perswasion and fairly state this Case of Tythes and plainly tell your Opinions and Iudgments 1. Whether Priest Pope or who else have Right to them 2. Who are to pay them and for what 3. By what Authority whether of God Holy Scriptures Edicts and Decrees of Popes Princes Parliaments or Councils by which of them are they to be payed who hath set them up and when set up Let us understand the Title plainly by which they are claimed And if upon a solid Stating the Question and sober Resolve we are found detaining that which of Right belongs to a Just Proprietor whether of our Daily Labour the yearly Produce of the Earth or Encrease of our Herds or what else God has made us Stewards of here we shall be ready to receive Instruction and exercise our Conscience in being content with our own which according to that Wisdom God has given us hitherto we have of which the Lord is our Witness And until we have otherwise learned we must believe 't is rather thy Mistake than our Just Desert that censures out Sufferings as the meet Reward of Thieves and Robbers who have in this Case kept a Conscience void of Offence towards the God of our Peace with whom we have Peace and Satisfaction although in the World we a●others who have been alike Faithful in this Matter have had Trouble Thy Friend Thomas Rudyard London 3d Moneth 1673. An Answer to C. Nedham's second Letter FRIEND THy Former came to me in Manuscript as I intended its Answer this Latter in Print before which I neither saw or h●ard of it However it may please thee or thy Party it s against my Desire to trouble the Press and whatever thy Hopes may be in sowing such Seeds of Contest sure I am thy Joy will be small in Harvest I have not backt thy Question though as subtil as our Enemy could forge it For I am sure Reason and Truth 's on our side which hath and yet will plead our Innocency and prevail whatever Dirt thou attemptest to cast upon us Thou informest in thy Second That thou hast read the Case of Tythes reviewed by F. H. written in 1655. to which thy main Objection is That there 's not therein any one Argument or Reason to prove the People's Right to Tythes Answ Consider but what Tythes are and 2d F. H's

are now in is not because they are Worse then you but because you would Eat the Fat and Drink the Sweet and Live in Idleness as you did before It is high time for you to refrain your lusting after the Onions and Garlick of Egypt this Egyptian-Maintenance that gratified their and their Families Lusts And if you were come unto the Wisdom of God that teach●th to profit by every Dispensation you would consider God's Hand has been lifted up against you and for what has not your Evil Entreating the Tender People of the Lord some of them for Refusing to Pay Tythes some for other Causes been the Reason of it c But as in the dayes of Old so now they will not see although the Lord's Hand hath been lifted up against them and it is vident to some that knew some of you in the dayes past that at some times some Good Desires after God were begotten in some of you until they were choaked by your Coveting and Complying under your Fat Benefices and this the true Witness of God in your Consciences will bear you Witness of in the Secrets of your own Hearts and Glad should 〈◊〉 be to hear or see that such were returned to those Desires again but how few of you are come to be sensible of what you have done and to cry out That you have offended the Lord and his People but on the contrary your Desires are 〈◊〉 after that Sweet Morsel that you have lost and after your Lordizing Power which God in his Mercy has delivered his ●●ple from Happy were it for you that yet you would consider why the Lord hath and doth Contend with you if that peradventure your Eyes might be opened your Ears uns●opped and your Hearts affected before this Glorious Day pass over your Heads wherein God in his Great Loving-kindness hath visited Thousands otherwise you shall ● remain in your Estate of Darkness whilst others dwell in the Light and are at Unity with him that is True Light whose Light many of you have opposed and many of you have Blasphemed by speaking Evil of it Yet I would make a Difference of you and in the Fear of the Lord would be content to be made an Instrument to pull some of you as Brands out of the Fire that you might be saved and might come to know that Blessed Fellowship that is in the Light and with those that walk therein that so you might become Ministers indeed Ministers of a Savory Life Savory to God and Savory to the People of the Lord but you are too wise in your own Wisdom to receive him that is esteem'd Foolishness to that Wisdom that is from below you are too high to receive and believe in the True Light by whom all Men are lightened that come into the World who is the Way to the Father and in which Light there is Life which Life Leavens the Soul to God this Light you have stumbled at and there is no coming to the Father but by it he is the Way and the Truth But it is the Poor that have received the Gospel which is the Power of God They were the Master-Builders that rejected him as not fit for their Building but to the True Builders he was and is still the Chief Corner Stone on which is founded all God's Holy Building in all Ages of the World both Prophets and Apostles and all the holy Martyrs he is the Way the Inward Way the Light of Life that quickent unto God and those that have experienced it can t●ll what its Goodness and Worth has been to their Souls Wisdom is justified of her Children And could you as the Apostles count the Loss of all your Attaintments Gain that you might find this Knowledge and this Wisdom then would you be Happy in coming to know this Only True Teacher the Light which many of you in Pride and Arrogancy have Opposed ● and it will shew you all that ever you have done and what plainer Evidence can you have is not this God's Salvation to the Ends of the Earth to whom all are to look unto and be saved For to as many as received him he gave Power to become the Sons of God and he that hath received the Light and hath Unity with it hath Unity with God with Christ and with his People And thus Christ is known to be a Saviour who shall save People from their Sins Therefore whilst it is called to day and the People of the Lord have any Desires to God for you when the Light of the Lord dawneth in upon your Hearts refuse it not but open unto him and he will shew you his Salvation he will lead you in a Way that you have not known through the Pathes of Judgment unto the Land of Everlasting Rest which otherwise cannot be known So all of you know That the true Priesthood is known which differs from the Old both in Services and Maintenance and unto this New Priestood all are invited to his ●nward Teachings who is the New and Living Way Life is in Christ Jesus who is our Head and from him doth his Members receive Life because he liveth we do live also and he that receiveth him receiveth us whom he hath sent and yet of our selves we are nothing but as he is pleased to operate in us that so the Glory might be the Lord's and that he might have the Preheminence over all who is God blessed forever and ever And as for the particular Answers to the Articles of C. N. it is another's Work I meddle not with it but having found C. N. a Blasphemer against God and his Holy City who have born their Testimonies in the Spirit of the Lamb against that Forced Maintenance of Tythers in many Ages of the World I was not clear of him nor of those that are at Unity with him in this Work until I had laid God's Judgments over their Heads and there must leave it And remember this for all that you have done Vengeance is the Lord's and he will certainly repay and conclude with Desires of Good-will to all Men warning them that they joyn not with thee C. N. or any in thy Spirit in this Cursed Imployment of seeking to strengthen the Hands of Persecutors against God's Inheritance for his People that serve him are precious to him and they that touch them are as they that touch the Apple of his Eye The Lord upholdeth the Righteous and maketh them as Pillars supporting the Truth against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail George Watt. TYTHES