for the praise of them that do well By which we are taught Obedience and Submission to all lawful Powers as the Christians to whom St. Peter wrote were to yield Obedience to the then Roman Emperor though a Heathen And St. Paul likewise from God enjoins Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God But these men disown and deny every Magistrate that is not according to their own Description which is all one as if the Christians should have rebelled against the Government of Caesar because he was an Heathen So that if a Magistrate shall speak or act any thing contrary to their Humor he is so far from having Obedience that he is denied and disowned and after this if it lie in their power 't is easie to imagin what will become of him If a Magistrate be wicked there is still an Obedience due to him not out of Constraint but out of Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Tragedian Sophocles but Saint Paul with an Apostolical Gravity They are Gods Ministers But when men shall profess they will own none but such as are holy and righteous in their esteem how is any Magistrate secure in his place but when they shall get an opportunity into their hands he may presently be accounted wicked and fit for nothing but to be disowned and testified against Is not this now a Doctrin fitted to stir up Sedition and Rebellion If the Parent be never so harsh or severe there is still a duty of Honour and Obedience to be used to him by the child how much more to Magistrates who are Gods Vicegerents and his Ministers 2. They exauctorate and disclame the Civil Magistrates Right and Power in ordering the affairs of Religion and confine his Authority only to matters of right and wrong in Temporal concerns For such they declare their Judgment to be in the fore named Book p. 52. We believe that the outward Laws and Powers of the Earth are only to preserve mens Persons and Estates and not to preserve men in Opinions neither ought the Laws of the Nation to be laid upon mens Consciences to bind them to or from such a Judgment or Practice in Religion I cannot tell what can be spoken more plainly to take away from the King all Power and Authority in matters of Religion and the Service of God and if any of his Majesties Subjects will turn Turcs or Jews it seems he has nothing to do to meddle with them or punish them or to make Laws to the contrary A very fine Prerogative that the King shall have power to secure mens Estates from spoil and rapin but none to make Laws to secure their Souls from the Devil The Donatists of old taught this as Petilian in St. Austin Quid vobis c. What have you to do with worldly Emperors And as that other in Optatus Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What has the Emperor to do with the Church And our Brownists learned the same ditty and the Quaker he comes on with the third Part to the same Tune Belike they cannot think themselves good Christians except they be Rebels But certainly his Majesty as a Christian Prince may and ought to have the same Power that the Kings of Israel and Judah enjoyed who were commended by the Spirit of God or condemned according as either they established or neglected Religion and the Service of God among their People So that certainly he must by his Authority preserve and secure Religion as well as mens Estates And God be thanked the Church and its Rights are the Care of his Majesty and his thoughts are daily for the promoting the Interest and Welfare of it 3. P. 50. of the fore-named Principles of Truth mis-called for Heresie they say We believe that all Governours and Rulers ought to be accountable to the People and to the next succeeding Rulers for all their actions which may be enquired into upon Occasion and that the chiefest of the Rulers be subject under the Law and punishable by it if they be transgressors as well as the poorest of the People We know that his Majesty the King is the chiefest of the Rulers or chief Ruler in the Kingdom of England and all other his Majesties Dominions but by this wicked Principle of Quakers he is to be accountable to the People and punishable by them How near this borders upon Treason I leave the Civil Magistrate to judge And if it were possible to make a more favourable Interpretation of their words yet when they express their Loyalty in such doubtful terms and their obedience grounded upon such a ticklish hold it is easie to imagin what sense they themselves own and considering withal how obstinate and deaf they are to all good Principles and Instructions and how numerous in many Counties of England it must needs be an Act worthy the supreme Power to suppress the growing Evil that those who are yet good Christians and Subjects may not be seduced and corrupted by such dangerous Doctrins 4. They affirm that the taking of an Oath in any case whatever though before a lawful Magistrate is unlawful and contrary to the Word of God Which whether it were at first instilled into them by the Jesuite to avoid the Oath of Supremacy or taken up to give themselves a greater Latitude and Liberty to the commission of all that Villany and Wickedness which in many cases the Imposition of an Oath may and does frequently obstruct and hinder I know not But this I know that to deny the Lawfulness of taking an Oath is to throw away the greatest Tie and Security that any King hath upon his public Officers Ministers and Subjects and by which all mens Titles are cleared in Civil Causes and Justice executed in Causes Criminal and indeed that by which all human Society is preserved And in all these cases the taking of an Oath hath been and is still used by all nations under the heavens In the Old Testament it is commanded as a thing that is lawful and necessary in the forementioned Instances Deut. 6. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and swear by his Name So Deut. 10. 20. Jer. 4. 2. Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in Truth in Judgment and in Righteousness And to such as swear in such a holy and religious manner God promises a blessing Jer. 12. 16. If they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my Name then shall they be built in the midst of my people And if the Quaking Generation shall object and say that this was under the Law therefore now not to be used they may remember that the exacting and taking of an Oath was used long before the Law of Moses thus Abraham sware to Abimelech Gen. 21. and he requires an Oath of his Servant Gen. 24. And Jacob requires an Oath of his Son Joseph Gen. 47. 31. But what if a Duty
Had God commanded every day of our Lives to be wholly devoted to him it had been but Reason and Equity and since that out of regard to our Weakness and that condition of Mortality wherein he has placed us he requires but one day in a week to be more especially set apart for his Service it were most irrational not to give him that Besides our merciful Lord has a regard in this Commandment even to the Beasts themselves as a part of his Creation which surely are not to be worse used now under the Gospel than under the Law but have as much reason to be rested on the Sabbath day now as they had then 3. Since that this is reasonable what fitter day can we pitch upon than the first day of the week on which our blessed Saviour Jesus arose from the dead For if the Jews together with the Commemoration of the Creation of the World wherein God having perfected all his works rested on the seventh day did likewise keep holy that day with respect to their deliverance from the Tyranny of Pharaoh How much greater reason have we to solemnize the Christian Sabbath with them indeed to celebrate the Goodness Wisedom and Power of God in making of all things in remembring the glorious Resurrection of the Son of God wherein he rose as a triumphant Conquerour from his bed of Darkness after he had dis-mantled the Prisons of Hell and the Grave and wrought a mighty Salvation for Mankind 4. That as God did then so Christ having transmitted his Power to them the Apostles and succeeding Church of God now may very reasonably dispose of us in matters of this nature and direct all its Members into some uniform way at such set times of the Worship of God And that they have done so appears both by some mentions of the Lords day in the Holy Scriptures and by the constant suffrage of the Fathers of the Church since that time which is a sufficient Obligation on all Christians to a due constant and diligent Observation of the Christian Sabbath Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day And lest any man shall say that this Command was given by Moses and so at an end and therefore that Christians are not bound by it Let him take this for an Answer and consider it well and then he will see there is no weight in the Objection and so will not be moved when by impertinent cavilling Fellows 't is urged upon him I say therefore first That every one of the ten Commandments is moral and for that very reason binds all Christians still and therefore the Church of England though these rebellious Quakers disown their Mother hath made them a part of her Liturgy and all good people teach them to their Children in their Catechisms as knowing that all Christians are to give obedience to them under the Gospel Secondly our blessed Saviour says Matth. 5. 17. that he came not to dissolve the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil Think not says he that I am come to dissolve the Law and the Prophets that is to take away the Obligation of that Rule of the Duty of Man to God and his Neighbour given first by Moses and afterwards repeated and inculcated by the Prophets but to fulfil them that is to supply accomplish and perfect those Rules and Doctrins of just and unjust conteined in them by a more ample Interpretation and other Improvement befitting the state of the Gospel And if as these Familists persuade their unwary Proselytes to fulfil were to put an end to a thing the sense must be thus that Christ came not to destroy that is to put an end to the Law but to put an end to it But who can imagine without Blasphemy our blessed Saviour would be guilty of such an absurd speech Now if it shall be asked why then Christ did not improve the fourth Commandment touching the keeping holy of the Sabbath it is answered That this was already strictly observed among the Jews even unto Superstition and therefore there needed rather a Relaxation than an Addition to this Commandment For whereas the Jews on that day would not so much as kindle a Fire or dress the Meat they should eat or carry any Burden or take a Journey and hence accuse our Saviour for healing on the Sabbath and his Disciples for plucking the ears of Corn Jesus tells them that The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath intimating that Works of Necessity and Mercy may lawfully be done on the Sabbath though not the Works of a mans ordinary Trade and Employment SECT II. Almighty God having given the whole Earth to Man for his Habitation common Reason and Justice require that Man should sanctisie and separate some peculiar place for the Service and Worship of his great Creator And accordingly we find in all Ages of the world and by all Persons professing any Religion at all some particular and set places appointed to invocate and worship the supreme Deity Among the Jews God had his Temple whither all the Tribes went up to worship And in Prophane Histories we read of Temples dedicated to the Use and Service of some Supreme Deity From whence it appears that the very Law of Nature commands to fix and set apart a place for the Service of God And God will have this of us too that as he hath reserved a portion of the Time of our Life for the celebration of his Honour so hath he also reserved a Portion out of the Place of our Residence Therefore in Ezek. 45. God commands the children of Israel and in them all the Nations of the World that when they come to inhabit the Land he gives them they must divide it into three Parts one for the People another for the King but the first for God himself But and if it shall be said that this was a Command under the Levitical Law and so not obligatory to us Christians who live not under that Law It must be remembred that though God commanded a House and Place for his Service to be built and set apart yet all Mankind were tied to the same Duty by a Law more Antient than that of Moses even by the very Law of Nature which lays a perpetual and indispensable Injunction upon all men that God have his Place of Worship and as it were Residence among them that they might live in a continual Dependence upon him and remember that that they receive the very Places of their Abode and Habitation from his Gift and Benevolence And it was some hundreds of years before the Law of Moses was given that Jacob when he was poor and had not wherewithal to build God an House yet consecrated a Portion of Ground by erecting a Stone and pouring oil on the head thereof calling the Place Bethel that is The House of God and vowed to build it when God should bless and make him able to do it Gen. 28. 22. So that
then an undoubted Truth that if the Priesthood of Jesus be more excellent than that of Aaron and the Ministry of the Gospel a more honourable and excellent Function than that of the Levites under the Law then ought the Maintenance of the Euangelical Ministers to be more large and honourable than theirs under the Law Secondly The Apostle 1 Tim. 3. 2. commands that the Ministers of the Gospel be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good House-keepers and how should they be so if they have not Provision and Means to maintein it and that in a certain manner For if themselves be fed at the Trenchers of Benevolence what assurance have they of a dish of meat for their poor Brethren The Heavens themselves are unstable now it rains and we have abundance then cometh drought and all is in scarcity The humour of Man is as variable the People of Lystra that made a God of St. Paul on the one day stoned him on the other Acts 14. And in the fiery time itself 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 Twenty pence by a Miracle out of a Fishes mouth to serve his need withal Matth. 17. 27. Unless therefore the Zeal and Piety of men towards God did now burn as bright as in the Apostles time when they thought nothing too much or too good for their Spiritual Fathers it were the most wicked and unseemly thing in the World to put the Ministers of Jesus either to labour like Mechanics with their hands for their bread or to live upon the uncertain benevolence of the People Wherefore when the great Love of the first Ages to Christ and his Ministers by degrees cooled and was abated and men grew to be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God it pleased that All-wise Providence which always watches over the Church so to inspire the hearts of Christian Kings and Princes to secure his provisions that though men should so far forget and deny God from whom they receive all that they have as to detain sacrilegiously his right yet they might be compelled by Laws and external Discipline to pay him this his Rent or Tribute which they would not do of their own accord For all the Tythes are the Lords and the Ministers claim them not as a duty of the people unto them but as the Lords portion which he gives to his Ministers and so the Scripture speaks Mal. 3. 8. Will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me saith the Lord. Mark well God does not say they had robbed his Ministers though he gave the Tythe to them but they had robbed him And whoever sacrilegiously detains and keeps back his Tythe robbeth God and must expect to be cursed with a curse Almighty God therefore reserving a portion out of every mans Estate as his Rent or Tribute to the end that every one may acknowledge his Sovereignty and Dominion over all that he possesses questionless the Civil Magistrate may and ought to make Laws whereby men may be forced to give God his due when they shall grow so wicked and Atheistical as to rob him of it And if it be lawful for a man to appeal to the secular Powers to secure his own Estate it is much more lawful to use them to preserve Gods Revenue And if it were not some more mischievous design these abominable wretches drive at they may as well quarrel at the Laws that are made for the maintenance of the Poor as at those that are made to constrain them to pay their Tythes since the Poor are likewise Christs charge as well as the Ministers and yet none but some covetous Worlding would say that it were better they should be left to the free benevolence of every one if they were it is doubtful whether a great many would not starve But would you know what design it is the Devil drives at by setting these people to cry out against the maintenance of the Ministers It is briefly this to bring men back from the true knowledge of Christ and the liberty of the Gospel into their ancient bondage of Pagan Superstition and Idolatry and to compass this he makes these wild people his Instruments For he well knows that it is the Ministers that lay open his plots and warn men to take heed of falling into his snares and traps and they daily incourage men in vertue and instruct them in the knowledge of God Now if he could take these enemies of his Kingdom away he is then sure the people will perish through ignorance and become his own easie prey And there is no better way to make sure work with the Shepherds than to incourage the flock to withdraw and detain though it be with the greatest injury to God and their own souls that portion and maintenance God has commanded to give him and assigned over to his Ministers For Faith comes by hearing and how should people believe except the Word of God be preached to them I shall now take away as briefly as I can those Objections which these bold Enthusiasts make against the present maintenance of the Ministers And first they endeavour to perswade men that Tythes are Levitical and consequently when Christ came they were abolished with the Law of Moses But to this impious cavil I answer 1. That there is nothing of the Law of Moses abolished or taken away by Christ but what did adumbrate prefigure and shadow out his coming in the flesh for whatever was natural and moral obliges us still and will do so to the end of the world therefore Christ says Mat. 5. 17. that be came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil it i. e. to make it more perfect than it was before But 't is apparent that Tythes were no Types of any thing nor did they shadow out any thing to come that when that substance was come they should be taken away and we may as well say that Prayer to God was taken away by the coming of Christ as that the Revenue due to God was taken away for we are as much bound to honour God with our substance as with our lips 2. Tythes were due to God and paid before ever the Law of Moses began and therefore cannot be said to be proper and natural to that In Gen. 14. it is said that whilst Abraham dwelt at Hebron in the Plain of Mamre his Brother Lot was carried away Prisoner by the four Assyrian or Babylonian Kings with all that he had and that Abraham confederate with Mamre the Amorite and his brethren Escol and Aner armed his houshold three hundred and eighteen in all and pursued them unto Dan where he smote them in the night and recovered Lot and the prey and that as he returned Melchisedek King of Salem Priest of the most high God met him and gave him Bread and Wine and blessed him and prayed and praised