as in the Old and intend as well the maintenance of those that preach the Gospel as it did of those that served at the Altar Quaere 2 The second Quere upon the account of Conscience is Whether the Lord hath any where in his Word Old or New Testament either expresly or by good consequence forbidden Ministers of the Gospel to receive and Christian people as such to give to them as maintenance either occasionally by private bounty of fixedly by publick donation a Tithe or Tenth of any goods increase as a part or portion meerly Typical Judaical and Ceremonial appropriated to the Levitical Ministry or Priesthood which by the coming of Christ is changed and so abolished that Tithes may no more now be used by Christians either Ministers or people than Sacrifices or Circumcision Answ 1 To this the Answer is Negative Nothing in the word of God appears forbidding Christians by private or publicks bounty to set a part a Tenth of their increase or substance to the glory of God for the Maintenance of Piety or Charity both which ends the Ministry of the Gospel chiefly aymes at I say no more than it is forbiden or commanded to give any other portion above or below the Tenth Certainely if Christians may lawfully devote a 5 6 9 or a 12 15 20. part to the glory of God in a publick good no reason or Religion can be produced against the Tenth as the only unlawful portion 2. If any portion or quantity as a fit Medium between Ministers merit peoples retribution be specified intimated recommended or ordeined by God in the Gospel sure it is no other but this of Tithe or tenth as I shall afterwards prove in the 3. Quere If none be pointed out or signified as Gods choice then is any one lawful which is fit and that most lawful which is fittest to attain Gods end which is evidently commanded namely the competent maintenance of his Ministers under the Gospel at a rate answerable to that which those enjoyed under the Law 3. The scruple some make of Tithes as Jewish urging that place that since the Priesthood is changed the Law must bee changed Hebr. 7.12 and therefore no tithes are allowed to the Evangelical Ministry is easily answered § 1 1. It savours too much of the Jews covetous hard hart to question whether a Christian may not be as grateful to his Minister as a Jew was to his Priest of which there is no doubt And it argues too much of a Jewish confidence presumption to think that the Lord should so far prefer the Altar ministry before that of the Gospel Numb 18.21 Levit. 27.30 Gen. 14.20 Gen. 28.22 Plut. in Lucul Diodo Sic l. 5. c. 2. Macrob. Satur. l. 3. c. 12. Majores solitos decimam Herculi vovere è Varrone Plin. Hist Nat. l. 12. c. 14 Herod 1. Clio. Livi Dec. 1. l. 3 as to provide certain and ample Maintenance for the first and none for the second As if there were more excellency in a beast sacrificed then in Christ crucified § 2 2. The Divine appointment of Tithes to be payd as Gods portion among the Jews to his Priests doth not argue any thing so much as this that they are Gods still after the Law as they were his in a Religious right before the Law when Melchisedeck received them as a right of Abram and Jacob vowed them as a due to God from which ancient light of tradition and use among the Holy Patriarcks the opinion which many of the Heathens had touching the holiness of a tenth part of their goods and spoils arose which they in many places consecrated as due to their Gods Jupiter Hercules and others § 3 3. It doth not follow by any right reason that what ever the Jews used to Religious ends was therefore Ceremonial Typical and to be abolished There was never any thing in Tithes discovered as a Shadow Type or Ceremony They were used long before Moses the institution and end of them in all times depended meerly upon common grounds of Piety Equity and Gratitude both to God and man The most wise and just will of God was pleased to accept first from the Patriarck and afterward to claim as his own Levit. 27.30 then to assigne that quantum or portion of Tenths for his publick service and the sustenance of those men who were imploied in it Now since the same ends as to the main are still required by the Lord namely the Maintenance of his publick Ministry under the Gospel there is no reason why Tithes as a proportionate means should be abolished Since there is still an Evangelical Priesthood and Ministry ordeined by God and derived from Christ which men needing Humane and Mortal supplys as much as the Levites and Priests of old did now exercise celebrate and administer doubtless as the same necessities now require like supplies and a parallel livelyhood is by the Lord ordeined in the Gospel so nothing hinders but these may bee made by the same measure of tenths upon the same grounds of equity which were valid among the Jews Especially considering the Ministry of the Gospel is more paineful more honorable and not lesse useful than that of old was Nor is it to bee presumed that God should be more strait handed to this Ministry which hath the honor to be in Christs stead the Lord of glory the beloved Son of God § 4 4. It is most certain that the same moral tyes and dutys he now upon Christians which did upon the Jews in matters of Piety Equity and Charity yea and those Patternes of Prudence and Policy in Church or State which were used by them are so far allowed and by Gods pattern recommended as best to Christians according as they wisely consider the fitnes of them as means to those holy ends which the Lord still requires The sanctifying of a Sabbath or day of rest Confessing of sins over the sacrifice reading and hearing the Law and Prophets explained Praying to and praising of God Charity to the poor Relief of enemies in distress Reconciling before they come to the Altar with their gift preparation before the Passover c. So also as to other Lawes Judicial Penal and Political which the Jews had and observed by a positive command of God Christians may under a different ministration and form use and do the same things upon those moral and general grounds of Equity Piety and Charity which are still and ever will bee in force as they are in this point of Ministers maintenance by Tithes as well yea better than an any other way § 5 5. What sober and judicious Christian understands not this clearTruth That where any duty is at large or in general commanded by the Lord the same duty in its particular circumstances qualifications and restrictions which humane prudence according to the liberty granted puts upon it is also commanded approved and accepted and so becomes not onely lawful but necessary in its
of Tithes both as to their consciences and their estates These in piety and prudence ought to be eased and relieved I answer 1. As nothing is more tenderly to be considered than the Consciences of Christians So nothing is less to be made either a cover to Mens ignorance or a colour to their covetousness 2. Pleadings of Conscience serves no Mans turne for not paying Taxes to Souldiers why should it be good for not paying Tithes to Ministers since both are civill and secular things as to the matter and the equity of both is justified in Scripture as well as reason 3. It is not conscience but obstinacy and contentiousness to deny or affirm without reason neither proving what they assert nor answering what is urged from common equity Scriptures analogy Catholick custome private donations publike sanctions and Gods acceptation as is in the case of Tithes 4. It were indeed a zeal according to knowledge to deny paying Tithes to a Jewish Priest sacrificing but not so to pay them to a Jewish Minister preaching the Gospel The first is to be abhorred since Christ is come and hath finished all The second is to be maintained that Christ come and crucified may be preached and believed on The same action may be lawfull or unlawfull according to the different ends to which it is designed as a means He that gives a poor man mony to buy him Tooles to work honestly is charitable but he that gives so much to a Thief to furnish him with instruments of violence and robbery is blameable 5. As for these complainers in conscience against Tithes full as good and Godly men Ministers and others complain of these complainers as weak ignorant passionate and imprudent or else very peevish unjust covetous and violent perturbers of the publike Ordinance Besides for the most part they are causlesly clamorous and unreasonably importune since few of these either pay any Tithes at all or any thing else to any Minister of the Church of England and if they do it is full sore against their wills Their greatest grief and burthen is that they may not keep their Tithes to themselves to which they can pretend no more right then a Tenant can to detaine his Rent from his Landlord Nor were they ever heard to complain of the load and burthen of Tithes taken to themselves were they never so heavy both in the quantity and in the injustice 6. But if it may indeed be a burthen to some mens estates that are weak or to their mindes that are illiberall and loth to pay Tithes to their Ministers will not the same Plea ly against all Rents and civill charges laid on lands and estates of poor men But no Godly man though poor will in conscience because he cannot in justice desire or expect that he should be eased of any charge or civill burthen by inflicting injuries on other men least of all on Ministers who as Gods labourers merit their wages 7. But people grudge that Ministers should have the benefit of all that cost and labour by which they mend and improve their Lands They could afford them a tenth of the Rent but not of their stock and labours Poor men how well they deserve and how well pleased they would be with a barren untilled unimproved Ministry Let any Ministers stock be never so great of learning and knowledge let him dayly with great cost in books and paines in his studies improve himself for Gods glory and peoples good Is there not as much reason and justice he should have the benefit of their lands improved as they should have of his gifts and talents increased whereto he is dayly intent by study and prayer that his profiting may appear to all men 8. For that glistering of godliness which some men make a shew of against Ministers Tythes 1. It is no signe of solid and true godliness to with-hold good from them to whom it is due Pro. 3.27 To deprive the labourer of his hire to deny men that honest subsistence which is theirs by the appointment of the Law and by the merit of their labours 2. The first thing required in goliness is to do Justice Micah 6.8 Equity and Piety never clash or interfere nor is there any fear of sin or superstition in giving to every one what is theirs by law of civil society A Christian ought to pay his rent to a Turk Jew or Heathen-Landlord though he knew they imployed it to Idolatrous superstitious uses And shall it be urged as godliness by Christians to deny the paying of tythes which is but as out of their rent to a Minister of Jesus Christ which by free gift he lawfully might and by law he necessarily ought to do 3. How can such godliness and unjustice be reconciled or how can such covetous scruplers hope to enter into heaven whose righteousness is so far from exceeding that it comes far short of that of the Scribes and Pharisees They paid Tythes of all they had which Christ Mat. 23.23 commended and joynes with Moral and great duties these of nothing they have How far from fulfilling the Apostolical and divine commands Gal. 6.6 Let them that is taught communicate to him that teacheth in all good things These communicate of no good thing or onely in a disorderly way to whom they list and what they list neither regarding Gods example and proportion in old nor his direction and ordinance in the new Testament 4. Godly men ought to consider that the temptation is easie and obvious in matters of profit to pretend conscience it is a Chymistry some men have to turne godliness into gain which will undo them at last Covetous scruples usually resolve into mens owne profit as Ice into water but never into expences or other mens benefits 5. It were a sure sign of godliness for men to be rather self-denying in point of profit then defrauding others to pay rather more then less to be willing to encourage good Ministers not to reproach and impoverish them this would express a godliness not in the form of talkative inconstancy and thrifty pragmaticalness but of judicious sincerity and generous charity 6. Truly Godly men might soon ease themselves of this scruple in point of conscience that in stead in paying a tenth they paid a ninth or sixth which at once may satisfie Gods ordinance the law of the land the Ministers claim and their owne consciences besides their liberality will supererogate and to their honour exceed what Ministers could ask or any man expect of them 7. It is strange that the complaint and clamour against Tythes should never be heard till of late and now so few persons of either estates or eminent worth are found in it Is it because men of mean estates and licentious mindes take confidence to desire any thing which reason and justice deny yet despair of nothing that numbers and power can reach or are these in the simplicity of their souls set on by others more crafty
whose drift is against the Ministry more then the maintenance their aim is not that there be no Tythes for Ministers to receive but no reformed Ministers to receive Tythes 8. The scruple of conscience would lye more direct against these mens receiving Tythes themselves as they oft do without any check in impropriations then in paying them to Ministers Since the first is but an aberration or by-blow alien and hid from the chief intent and end of the Donors which was for the maintenance of Christs Ministers and service and however by Law they are made as a lay fee in Hen. 8. dayes yet this was first grounded on the Popes Authority it may be with no ill intent who took them from the rectories or cures and applyed them to Covents or Monasteries yet in the Court of Conscience the Popes act was injurious at first in alienating the means from the Minister or Incumbent from whence in the event have followed so many poor livings poor Ministers and poor souls How can an injury be made good by succession or just by shifting from hand to hand It is strange these godly men do not scruple to make good any Act of the Popes or to enjoy any favour and indulgence on his account in their impropriate tythes and Parsonages which they enjoy 9. But they would not have Ministers Tythe-coveters O godly jealousie Nor would Ministers have any of these cautious objecters coveters of Tythes which they then do sinfully and sordidly when they have no right to them as they have not by Gods or mans law there is no sin is coveting what is a mans owne by all right both divine and humane But may they not be as much coveters of Pensions as of Tythes or of benevolences as of either and most of all prone to be coveters of other men estates when they have no certainty of their owne 10. Lastly I answer to these complainers If persons in publick place shall alwaies be altering and changing until men cease to complain or to project amendments they shall never want either work or woe and never enjoy the fruit of their counsels or labours For such is the proud envious nature of man that what one plants another seeks to pull up what one builds another pulls downe what one approves another abhors Vessels with large sayles have not alwaies answerable blast Some mens consciences carrie little or no science with them their cryes portend no wooll nor do their complaints intend any reformation wise men ought impartially to cast anchor and fix in just resolutions once taken either by their fore-fathers or themselves so to bring the publick to the haven of consistence not to be tossed to and fro with every winde of fancy or faction nor may they suffer the waters to be troubled so oft as some men hope to catch fish though it be to the Shipwrack undoing and drowning of many men far their betters every way 5. But the Country people or Farmours and Yeomen are against Tythes these would have them taken away Answ 1. It was neither piety nor prudence in Pilate to condemn Christ to be crucified that he might please the peoples clamour Wise men must not regard what but upon what ground common people desire that which threatens any man with injury But Secondly it is certain This is not the desire of either the wisest best or most Country-men the noise is not the voice of many and great waters but of shallow and sudden torrents Thirdly Such as do urge the taking away of Tythes do it most what upon a false supposition and are tempted by a strange yet vaine delusion which is like the Jack-daw in the Fable who hoped he should get the morsel which the Eagle let fal when indeed the Fox ran away with it Poor men they flatter themselves that if Tythes be once taken from Ministers hands they will presently fall into their laps rest in their purses It is pity and yet it is but just the country-simplicity should be thus gulled Wise Farmers are got beyond these Fairy-fancies and the event will confute the others golden dreams when they shall see Tythes if taken from Ministers either turn to the increase of their Landlords rents as purchased by them or else required by others more severe exactors then ever Ministers were After this they shall have either no Ministers or at a new charge when Tythes are gone another way as little to their ease as nothing to their benefit None but weak men can suppose that men in power will ever be so prodigal as to remit of courtesie either to Landlords or Tenant so considerable a Revenue to which neither of them have any right or title in Law or Equity 6. Others pretend as a point of prudentiall thrift that Tithes are too much for Ministers less will serve their turnes part of what they have more then enough may help to defray publike charges or ease the people who by Tithes and other exactions are much impoverished Answ There is no reason to put the after-burthens of people upon the score of Tithes which was long before these civill taxes and to another end nor do they rise out of any private mans Estate but out of a publike patrimony to which God is proprietor and his Ministers are his pensioners 2. It is a project unworthy the honor of this Nation which is blessed with a rich and good Land to ease themselves by injuring God and his Ministers or to repine at that cost bestowed on Chirst 3. No wise or Godly man ever thought or by experience found his paying Tithes to the Ministers of the Gospel was either moth or worm to his estate or to the publike but rather a protection and blessing to the remaining parts The due payment of them is rather as the Jews observe a fatning and improving of mens estates and consciences usually they get most good by the Ministers pains who make most conscience to pay them their dues which is seldome done cheerfully and exactly unless where the oyl of love softens the vigor of the Law 4. For the too much which is objected with as little truth as much envy all experience confutes it which shews that Ministers in every Country living with the severest thrift becoming men of any charity and hospitality yet dye poor or mean at best leaving Widowes and Posterity to conflict with many difficulties and to finde few friends It is not comely in piety charity or prudence to object superfluity where there is seldom competency and for the most part necessity Many livings affording but little livelihood to the Minister by that time they are pared with those expences which are charged on them 7. But many Ministers are unworthy of their maintenance some defective in abilities others negligent in their duties many scandalous in their manners These in prudence ought to be looked to that at least Drones may not devour the Hony intended for industrious Bees Answ 1. This indeed were
due time and proportions Not absolutely positively and explicitely as to every particular regulation and circumstance but relatively consequentially and inclusively where the duties of preaching praying baptising receiving distributing paying tribute reliefe of Parents honoring God with our substance c. are commanded without any limitations as who when where how long how much by whom to whom c. In these cases not only the duty in the abstract and general by explicite precept is injoined but also in the conorete as it is bounded with convenient circumstances and proportions fitted to the main end The like justifiableness is most clear in this portion of Tithes to be assigned to Ministers for their maintenance for which we have not onely the general Ordinance and command of God oftentimes in the New Testament as I have shewed which always includes the fittest means for it but we have also Gods wisdome and bounty particularly pointing us even so as of old to that portion which he chose as his and gave to his Ministers from which we have no command to vary or alter but rather an injunction or divine Ordinance to continue since it is still a means no lesse sutable to the main end then it was before and as necessary for the sustenance of the evangelicall Ministry as it was for the Levitical § 6 6. As for the change of the Law which is objected must follow the change of the Priesthood it is fulfilled most clearly not by taking away Tithes or utter abolishing the payment and use of them in the Church but by the transferring of them to another Priesthood and Ministry which is not after the Aaronical and Levitical but after the Melchisedecian and Christian order and succession with neither of which the paying or receiving of Tithes as an honour to Christ and a maintenance of his worship are any way inconsistent as the Author to the Hebrews proves Hebr. 7.8 but rather most congruous as a token of honour to Christs royal and eternal Priesthood and a testimony of gratitude and devotion from those that worship him In which point even of Tythes the Author to the Hebrews strongly urges the Prerogative or eminency of right and claim which Christ hath for ever both to the honour of the Priesthood and consequently to Tithes as properly belonging to him which was long before the Levitical Institution foreshewed in that great Type of Christ Melchisedeck who bringing forth Bread and Wine the Symbols of Christs body and blood in the great Mystery of the Eucharist received in the person and right of Christ Tithes of Abraham the Father of the faithful yea and in some sort of Levi as by an higher and ancienter right which sufficiently justifies if it do not implicitely command any of Abrahams children after the faith by their paying of Tithes to own with this honour and homage the royal Priesthood of Christ as by a tribute and an offering which he receives by his Ministers who are in his Name and stead ministring holy things now under the Gospel by whom and no otherways he which liveth for ever now receiveth Tithes as was prophetically prefigured of him who yet while he lived on earth received none in Person because the Levitical Ministry and dispensation was not yet finished of which Tribe the Lord Jesus was not Nor did the Apostolical wisdome and tenderness require of the beleeving Jews any Tenths while yet the Levitical service Altar and Temple were living neither dead nor deadly lest the Gospel might seem a burthen to those that were otherwise charged and yet they were very gratefull to the Apostles even selling their estates and laying the price at the Apostles feet § 7 7. As then the Lord Jesus Christ did not abolish all Priesthood or Priestly office and Ministry but onely he changed the Aaronical line order and Ceremony of Succession himself continuing a King and Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck so neither may he be thought utterly to have abolished those ancient Priestly rights to Tithes used before and under the Law as a maintenance still of his Ministers and an agnition of his Soveraign Priesthood however he hath changed the temporary and intervenient Law of Moses which assigned them to the Levitical Ministry The channel or course is changed but not the stream which is turned another way end derived to another cistern Nothing then forbids Christians now under the Gospel to own this duty to Christ and discharge it even in a way of Tithes dedicating them to his honour and service in the maintenance of his Ministers by whom Christ as our High Priest still instructeth prayeth for and blesseth his people Lastly I affirm There is so little so nothing in the Analogy and Tenor or in the Letter of the New Testament against Ministers of the Gospel being maintained by this portion of Tithes that there is much more preponderancy to prove them not onely lawful which is evident but for the most part necessary as a right and duty yea to ingenuous Christians who are neither covetous nor contentious they will appear the most laudable wisest equallest and fittest measure or dimensum 1. As a due which God challengeth to himself 2. As an honorary right specially belonging to Christ in his Priestly dignity 3. As a grateful retribution of beleevers to the divine bounty of which they have received all and to which they owe themselves 4. As an equitable valuation and requital of Christs Ministers labour among them 5. As an imitation coming neerest to Gods ancient command and pattern under the Law and to the devotion of his holy servants before the Law 6. As the fruit of tender hearrs carefull and conscientiously jealous least they should come short any way of that which the Lord may justly expect from them and which by one most pregnant place seems so expresly to require of them which I shall urge in my Answer to the third Question Which here follows to be discussed Quaere 3 The third Quaere is Whether the Lord hath by any Evangelicall Precept precisely appointed any such Quantum or measure as a tenth portion of increase and profits to be exactly and constantly paid by Believers to their Ministers and these to be yearly required by Ministers as their due for their livelihood or maintenance Or what positive right as from God have Ministers of the Gospel to plead for their Tithes here in England Answ 1 To this I must first Answer by distinguishing upon these terms Right or Due which may be taken in a twofold sense either as to a particular precept explicitely exacting a Tenth in terms as in the levitical Law or as to a general Ordinance including implying and referring to a Tenth We must distinguish between the letter of the Scripture limiting to a Tenth as in the Old Testament And the scope sense or equitable meaning of the Scripture intimating or pointing to and exemplarily recommending that proportion in the New Testament as the best
and most proper means where it is meet and proportionate to that end which God hath expresly ordained Which is that the Minister of the Gospel should live of the Gospel even so as the Minister of the Altar did of the Altar Herein although particular circumstances may differ under different administrations yet the main design and general intention is the same both as to the end competent maintenance and to the aptest means so far as they are in our power and opportunity 2. But it is urged if God required a Tenth under the Gospel why did he not in any place of the Gospel mention that part by name as of old he did Gods silence in the New Testament as to renewing a precise command for paying Tithes by name to the Ministers of the Gospel is no abrogating of them as to right and equity the not specifying or exacting of believers a Tenth was upon several grounds of divine wisdome which are evident 1. It was not necessary because the rule and measure of gratitude devotion and equitalble retributions to which the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.14 referrâ—s Christians under the Gospel as a continued binding ordinance of the Lord in this case is sufficiently set forth in the Old Testament both by the Religious bounty of the Holy Patriarcks as Abraham and Jacob expressed in this proportion of Tithes or Tenths before the Law And also by the express command of God afterward pitching upon this quantum as his and appointing it for the fittest medium which his wisdome and bounty thought good to set between the covetousness of Priests who might have exacted or expected more and the niggardliness of people who might have allowed less if left to their own arbitration choice free will men being naturally penurious to the true God and his word as having no love to or delight in his service and only prodigal to their own Idolatrous fancies as those which they most count and esteem Charets and Horses shall be dedicated to the Sun or the Queen of Heaven when a Lamb or Pigeon a little meal or cake is grudged as an offering to the true God and holy Temple The equity and analogy of Gods former will continues in force and sufficiently binds the conscience to obedâ—ence although a particular precept were not renewed especially where Christians are specially referred to that which is clearer in this point of Ministers maintenance by Tithes than for the Lords daies Sabbath or Rest 2. The indulgence of God foresaw and the Apostles tendernes considered That an exact or strict requiring or mentioning of the Tenths of all increase and profits to bee payed to the Ministers of the Gospel in all places and at all times might discourage Jews and Gentiles from the Gospel yea and many times prove very inconvenient to Christians who must expect persecution to whom it might have been a burthen and snare in their uncertainties distresses and poverty A burthen to pay alwaies a tenth of their profits hardly gotten and hardly preserved A snare also if they payed them not exactly Yet this Indulgence Silence Remission which in the primitive tenderness might bee permitted by the Lord is no abrogation of the duty or Law any more than the omission of circumcision for forty years in the wilderness was a vacating of that ordinance of God to the Jews or the not commanding expresly the Lords day to bee kept as a Sabbath is any argument against our sanctification of it which is only related in the New Testament as a primitive practice 3. By the Lords not mentioning Tithes in the very terme or quâ—ntum somthing seems left in the Gospel to the conscience and ingenuity both of people and of Ministers These that they may in part remit in times of distress those rights as Paul did not exacting this proportion of Tenths which they might otherwise claime expect as due People also by so much Indulgence are invited to shew so much the more a liberal and a willing mind where God enables them either occasionally to return or constantly to settle even such a maintenance on their Ministers as comes neerest both to the equity of Gods will and the exemplarines of that proportion of Tithes which he anciently required as his own and which we do not find he hath in the Gospel remitted for then the Lord had left his Ministers of the Gospel to meer uncertainties and benevolence which was not even so as he ordeined for those of the Altar and indeed flatly contradicts the Apostles reddition Even so c. 4. The Divine wisdom saw that in some conditions of Christians living a Tenth of the earths yearly increase would not afford a competent or any convenient maintenance for Ministers as in Cities and populous Towns so in Castles Ships c. There some other way by rents of Houses or Trades increase must equivalently be raised And here although men now a daies would grudg to pay a tenth of Trades increase or their callings yet we read of old it was payd by many Citizens Merchants Lawyers and Physicians 5 Although we do not find in the Practice of primitive Churches among Jews or Gentiles mentioned in the New Testament that either the Apostles or other Pastors and Ministers alwaies used this power or strictly required the just proportion of a Tenth which to the beleving Jews on whom the Charges due to the Altar still lay for a time might have seemed a burthen and so to the Gentiles among whom not many rich or Noble but poor and mean people in Cities chiefly received the Gospel and this oft with persecution Yet we find in those daies in stead of exact Tithes and setled maintenance that which is not in these daies to bee expected Namely Acts 2.45 That in those primitive times Christians were willing to sell all or great part of their possessions to bring the price of them and lay it at the Apostles feet for their support and the Churches relief So faâ— did they as then so afterward exceed the proportion of a tenth part that many gave all they had and themselves too to serve the Lord and his Church Those were excusable in their poverty and persecution if they had come short of a tenth and were commendable where they most what exceeded it Wisdome teacheth us that necessity dispenseth with positive precepts that different times requires different counsels and wayes yet alwayes keeping neerest to Gods rule and aiming at the same good end Those were the purest flames of Christians first Love and Primitive Zeal when Apostles and other excellent Ministers of the Gospel were received as the Angels of God the feet of those Messenge s of peace were beautiful Their persons dearer to believers then their right eies The honor of their calling and Ministry daily kept up with frequent miracles that the poverty of S. Peter Acts 3 6. when he had not gold or silver was venerable by the miraculous power hee exerted to the creple in relieving him
beyond his desire and it was also formidable in the dreadfull sentence hee thundred against the sacrilegious parsimony lying and distrust of Ananias and Saphira Tithes need not to be urged or exacted then when Christians are forward beyond what they were able and in the midst of poverty abounded to a liberality But alas wee are now sunk to the dregs of time raked up and buried in the very ashes or embers of devotion All is become worse and more perilous by how much it drawes more of the later dayes when the charity of men shall grow cold iniquity abound when men shall be lovers of themselves of the World and Mammon more then of God Generally seeking their own profits and preferments and not the things of Jesus Christ and his Church when miserable forms of penurious Piety and sacrilegious sanctity shall eat out and deny the power of Godliness when men shall chuse to serve God in away that costs them nothing turning Godliness into gain when the Ministers of the Gospel the more learned holy able and faithfull they are are forced to hide their faces and are covered with that confusion both from poverty and reproach which some men delight to cast upon them The more beautiful their wings and feet are which shine with the beams of the Sun of righteousness his truth and his spirit the more they are forced to lie among the pots to bee levelled to and buried among the meanest of the people Having enough to do to preserve now their own eies from being pulled out by those unreasonable men ingrateful Ravens who neither regard the Mother which bare them nor the Father which begat them So that different minds and manners of Christians may will require different ways and setling of maintenance for Ministers The more covetous ingrate and inconstant people are the more needful it is and more required by God that competent and constant provision should in conscience be urged and in prudence established for his Ministers of the Gospel It was pious in primitive times for Christians to pay no Tithes when they failed not to give much more It is impious now not to pay Tithes when these are all that is settled or may be expected for maintenance and hardly this obtained restore pristine Liberality and Ministers shall gain by taking no Tithes 6. We find in all ages of the Church either in the intervals or cessations of persecution when peace prosperity and plenty had somewhat slackned as the Sun doth shining upon fire the warmth of piety that the devoutest Christians in all places not onely gave free-will offerings and oblations but even the Tenth or Tithes of their profits and and increase both personall and prediall out of which the Bishops and Presbyters the poor and other pious uses were maintained And this out of not onely custome and bounty but of conscience thankfulnesse and duty Oâ—ig Hom. in Num. 11. Cypt. ep 66. Jâ—ron in Mâ—l 3. Aug. ser de Temp. as coming up to that proportion which they saw God of old required and to which in the New-Testament he referred them As Origen St. Cyprian St. Jeronimus Austin and others of the Ancients testifie Which Catholick conscienicous customes among Christians of paying Tithes to the Ministers of Christ came afterward to be setled by particular gifts or donations And at length in the abating of Christians fervour and bounty Tithes were established by Edicts Imperial Canons of Councels Ecclesiastical also by particular National Laws or Statutes in every country which included the donation consent and frewil of all Estates and degrees severally and jointly who were as Proprieters of Lands and Estates related to and included in any Christian Polity or community 7. To answer then that Question what Positive Right as from God or man have Ministers in England to their Tithes Answ There clearly appears without any violence to Scripture or reason a fivefold right which ministers of the Gospel in England justly plead to their maintenance by Tithes as here setled in England 1. That right of Natural Equity and grateful retribution which every man 's own conscience dictates which God who hath implanted it in them requires of them and which the Apostle by many instances in Souldiers Shepherds and husbandmen presses 1 Cor. 9.7 arising from the merit of Ministers labours in the Church of which God is the justest valuer by which they deserve to live of the Gospel so as becomes the Gospel i. e. the God and Saviour there set forth And so as must be answerable to what their Studies Pains and Places do require The Labourer hath Gods right to his wages which ought to be not what a Nabal will give but what his time care and pains in justice deserve The light of Nature taught all men to value the service of their Priests at an high and honorable rate None ever grew so mean and niggardly as some that pretend to be reformers but cannot tel where to six till al is wasted and deformed 2. Ministers of the Gospel have a Scriptural Right drawn from the will of God expresly ordaining as I have shewed a livelyhood in general and a power of partaking of other mens temporal good things And although the Lord in the Gospel hath not by renewed precept so expresly confined it to this particular proportion of Tenths by â—â—â—mes and in terms yet he hath expresly commended to Christians imitation the equity of the old Law referred them to the exemplary benignity of Gods love bounty and care toward his Ministers at the Altar to whom he assigned his own portion the Tenth binding Christians inclusively and relatively in Conscience yea leaving them without excuse in like cases if they do not estimate Ministers labours as highly or provide for them Even so as he hath ordained equivalent parallel or proportionate both in competency and constancy § For this is clear that the Lord hath given to Beleevers evident Rules of religious gratitude and Examples of holy retributions not according to mans good pleasure but Gods not as a benevolence of good will but as a retribution of righteousness and duty which are set forth 1. In the piety and devotion of the Patriarchs of old who no doubt had this measure of a Tenth to be offered to God from that traditional Theology which their Forefathers taught them by words and works as a beam of Gods wisdome who indulging to sinful man nine parts when indeed he had forfeited all reserved to his particular honour and service a tenth 2. We see the Lord challengeth this Tenth among the Jews as his own not only by right of creation and donation for so all is his but also by a peculiar and religious claim that man might testifie by paying a Tenth to the Lord that he owns and adores him as the giver of all and that by this Tenth portion men might have the benefit as God the honour of religious publike service 3. This portion or peculiar reserve of
the Lord to himself we find he did afterward fully assign and give to the Levitical Ministry at the Altar as a fit proportion to maintain them and to keep up the honour and Majesty of his service 4. Both before the Levitical Priesthood or Ministry as also after it was finished and changed by Christ we read Tithes not onely presented to Christ as honorary in his Type Melchisedeck in the History of the Old Testament but also challenged in the New as a due or right belonging to Christ in order to set forth the honour and prerogative of his royall and eternal Priesthood that not onely he had this right before Levi or Aron but also beyond them and upon them whose Priesthood ceased after Christs appeared and they ought as Levi did in Abraham to pay Tithes to Christs Evangelical Ministry who not dying any more nor changing his Priesthood or Ministry hath a perpetual right to receive Tithes as well from the children of Abraham by the Faith as Melchisedeck had in his Type or Figure to require them of Abraham And this so long as the visible Ministry of Christ continues among men on earth which he hath appointed to be carried on by men is his Ministers and Embassadors 5. The Scriptural right which Ministers under the Gospel have to Tithes is yet more emphatically and industriously upon serious disspute set forth in that pregnant place 1 Cor. 9.14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel Which words since they are a conclusion drawn from many Premises and do import not a counsell and advice of Apostolical prudence but an Ordinance of God an Evangelical Institution which binds the conscience by the divine Authority of it we must not superficially but seriously consider the weight and force of it which lyes thus The Apostle intending to prove a right or lawful power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which himself and all true Ministers had to an honourable maintenance 1 Cor. 9.6 however he might sometimes in charity and prudence remit the use of it having first premised the grounds of naturall equity and common justice to be shewed to man and beast and the light of God in Nature and in the Law he at last brings forth the pattern of Gods own appointment for his Ministers at the Altar which was sufficiently known to Jews and Gentiles to be in great part as to the certainty of it by those Tithes of the Earths increase which the Lord first challenged as his own peculiar and after assigned them as his right to his Ministers at the Altar which the Levites and Priests held not by the will pleasure and bounty of men but by a tenure from God a rent which he charged upon all the Lands Immediatly without any restriction lessening or subduction upon the whole matter the Apostle subjoyns and peremptorily concludes Even so hath the Lord ordained c. 1. That which is the equity of Gods will his divine pleasure both for matter and manner for quantity and quality in point of Ministers maintenance under the Gospel is there sufficiently declared you need go no further for Gods direction both the end and means hold parallel to that former it is still Gods Ministry and so hath his right to his portion what he then ordained he still ordains That even upon the same certainty and proportion such as preach the Gospel as of duty office and authority should live of the Gospel upon such a portion at least of other mens increase or revenues as the Lord formerly required and still doth to himself as God and to his son Christ whom he hath annointed to be King and Priest now in his Church whose Ministry and Ministers must Even so be maintained 2. Even so not as to all particulars properly Levitical which are ceased namely the Sacrifices and legall oblations but so far as the Tenth of the fruits of the earth still continues and holds good to like holy ends though under different ministrations 3. Even so That the Ministers of the Gospel should enjoy not less liberal honourable setled maintenance than the Ministers of the Altar had not of courtesie given but out of conscience paid not of alms but of equity not necessitons not arbitrary but ample and permanent 4. Even so hath the Lord ordeined id est The will of God in this point foreseeing the hardness and narrowness of menâ— hearts which may happen under the Gospel ministry towâ—â—d theiâ— Ministers hath in their behalf declared of old and doth now by mee an Apostle of Christ renew it as an Ordinance of God enacted wâ—th Majesty and Divine Authority Shewing that as th Lord doth not expect that men will be better natured under the Gospel or more large hearted than before And as the Lord hath not less care or regard of his Evangelical Ministers than of the Levitical so that hee hath in no sort left their maintenance now to those loose and general in d fferencies liberties and confusions which the covetous hearts of men are pr one to fall into in things of Religion if they fal under their own will and choice which in this case must not be supposed that the Lord hath done For that were not even so but would differ as much as the tenure of owners to their Lands or Revenues and of poor men to their Charity or Alms 5. Even so To come short then of that proportion so far as in Gods Providence and bounty it still holds Not to give to the Ministers of the Gospel as was given to the Ministers at the Altar is it not to violate Gods ordinance Sure it is not fulfilling of any donors bountiful will and command who bids you so give to a second as to the first if having by precise appointment as of due and necessity given twenty Shillings to the former you give only as of Charity and with brow or insolency but one Shilling or Penny or nothing at all of that deposited bounty to the second To whom the Giver not only intends but clearly commands should bee done even so as to the first 6. Even so hath the Lord ordeined As if the Holy Apostle had said you as Christians now under another easier and more excellent Ministry as to the outward charge and forme though the same as to the substance Jesus Christ must not suffer covetous or parsimonious temptations to rise in your hearts as a root of bitterness So as to fancy that because the former subject of that Law for maintenance by Tithes Namely the Levitical Ministry at the Altar is changed and ceased therefore the Equitable and Moral bond is abrogated But though the letter ceaseth to bind you upon those Rates and Charges to maintain an Altar Ministry yet as then the Lord ordained an ingenuous ample and permanent provision part of which by Tithes at least yet remains in your power so the justice of Gods will still continues and you are to follow
men hold their civill estates and rights There can be no reason that parsimonious cruelty should over-rule and antiquate pious and liberal Antiquity in this point and right of Tithes which in England as in all Christian Churches hath obtained the force of a Law by the long customes and succession of times which the best Christians freely and cheerfully yet conscienciously observed as that which they esteemed to be agreeable to the will of God as well as conform to the best examples of their forefathers It is true no guilding of Antiquity or paint of Custome can commend what is in its nature evill or change it into good but the universal verdict and approbation both by judgment and practice of holy and wise men given to that which is in it self good and lawful advanceth it by the antiquity and universality of a good custome to the sacredness and venerableness of a Law giving great assurance and confirmation to the consciences and practises of sober Christians setting it far above the despite and petulancy of Innovators who are given to change and as Mushrooms are but of yesterday either as to their persons or opinions against whom as a grand prejudice and obstruction 1 Cor. 11.16 the blessed Apostle S. Paul urgeth the custome of the Churches which were guided by the general spirit of wisdome enough to stay and satisfie wavering or scrupulous Christians in things for which as they had not a precise or special command from God yet they were no where forbidden as this matter of Tithes is not 4 A fourth right or claim which Ministers have to Tithes here in England is from that personal bounty and freewill of Christians in this Nation who if no divine rule and precedent had directed them to retribute Even so much as their Tenths to Ministers which no doubt in conscience they had regard unto yet as proprietors of their lands and estates they lawfully and commendably might and effectually have so far honoured God with their substance Prov. 3 9. as to have devoted to his Ministers for a constant retribution of their labours the Tenth of their profits or increase arising out of those Lands and Estates There is no Title lesse disputable then that of free gift where there is no fraud no infirmity of understanding an undoubted power upon just and valuable considerations and to a good end such as God not onely alloweth in general but rather seemeth to require in particular which is the case here exactly and hereby is given the proprieters former right not so much to Ministers as to God himself 5. The Ministers of England have that right to Tithes and other setled maintenance which ariseth from those Political Laws or Civil sanctions which upon mature deliberation and with publique Counsel of all Estates have established long ago and oft confirmed as just and good those particular donations of Tithes made by any lords and owners as no way prejudicial to the publique good either for profit safety or honour to which it is confessed all private acts and Interests must yeeld being frustrate and invalid if inconsistent with a publique and general good of a Nation These Laws of the Land which are the results of publique wisdome and justice have declared Ministers right to Tithes every way pious just and good Yea and do enable them in their several places and portions even by secular power to vindicate these rights both personally to receive them and constantly to preserve them for their successors as a maintenance every way both just and fit which right by the Laws of the Land as learned Lawyers are best acquainted with so I hope some of those Gentlemen are so much lovers of Reformed Ministers as to plead their cause and so valiant as to appear friends to them 6. In the last place I may further twist and strengthen this fourfold cord of Ministers right by natural Equity Scriptural Ordinance Personal donation and publique Sanction which is not easily broken by that divine acceptation or appropriation whereby God himself and our Lord Jesus Christ are invested into a right these joyntly as one God claim a property and challenge as their portion and due what is once thus by any man or men dedicated to their service according as they have instituted in the Word What is given to Christs Prophets and Ministers in his Name is given to God so that it is now Acts 5.4 as Saint Peter told Ananias no more any private mans own nor in his power save onely in order to those ends and uses for which the Lord hath accepted it and which he must be thought no less to approve in the particular obedience or devotion then he doth command or require in the general precept or duty Hence that complaint Mal. 3. Ye have robbed me saith the Lord even this whole Nation For God is not onely well pleased with the internal goodness and equity of his own will ind commands but also with mans cheerful conformity to them both in mind and manners which is then most comfortable and commendable when it comes the neerest unto that equitable rule measure and proportion which the divine wisdome hath set before men which Tithes evidently are when they are so paid to God and setled for maintenance on Christs Ministers as leaves them no more to arbitrary and uncertain allowances or niggardly stipends then God did leave his Ministers at the Altar which is the prescript or pattern to which the Lord refers Christians who are tyed to it as to an Ordinance of God still in force under the Gospel I have done with this third Quaere also which I thus resolve That however there be not so immediate precise and explicite command for the exact Quantum of Tithes named in the New Testament and however the Ministers of the Gospel do not claim a proper and immediate right to Tithes by the letter of the Leviticall Law Yet they have by the dignity of their Ministry and merit of their Labours from the will of God in his Word a general and implicite right by way of equity and proportion also a particular explicite title to Tithes as they are devoted to God and setled upon his Ministers here in England both agreeable to and grounded upon the equity of Gods ancient precept and example in the Old Testament as also upon that express Ordinance renewed and established in the New which carries a force of equivalency and whatever proportion the nature of things may still bear under the Gospel with those under the Law where estates in Lands and the increase of the earth are still the same and common to Christians with the Jews Herein then to imitate Gods President cannot be unsafe to come up to the proportion he required of old cannot but be honourable and every way to observe the neerest conformity to his will in the largest meaning and extent of that Ordinance in the New Testament Even so c. cannot but be most
consciencious and comfortable because it hath least of covetousness or grudging In cases any way dubious as to practice it is safest for Christians to be on the self-denying side and rather to propend to Gods interest then to their own They may sin as injurious and unthankful to God and his Ministers as dishonouring and defrauding Christ of his rights and due who do not pay the Tithes or Tenths but they cannot sin who doubting between covetous and consciencious suggestions to what propotion the Lord under the Gospel requires the grateful retributions of beleevers conclude by a just paying of their Tithes to the Ministers of the Gospel to imitate at once Gods prescript of old and to fulfill the utmost extent of his Ordinance in the New referring to what still continued of that ancient provision which chifley consisted in Tithes as a constant maintenance Since then it is most evident that a setled competent maintenance for the Ministry of the Gospel is as lawful now as it is necessary and is no lesse necessary now then it was of old and is as much deserved now and consequently just as of old The surest way for wise Christians not to err on the right hand by Ministers craving too much devouring whole houses by pious insinuations Nor yet on the left hand by peoples giving too little is to take God for their umpire and the pattern his holy will for the standard of equity between Ministers and people that neither the flock may deny their Milk and Fleece nor the Shepherd flea their skins and devour their flesh Since the bounty of God bestows on men the ten parts and all they have yea and offers Christ also to them how can they as Saint Austin urges it in any generosity equity or gratitude grudg to retribute one of ten to Gods glory and their Saviours honour who assigning this Tenth to their Ministers maintenance returns the blessing and benefit of it to the good of mens souls together with their families and neighbours yea and oft to the enlargment of their estates If the Lord had not limited his portion to a tenth godly men would hardly have contented themselves not to have given with Zacheus even half of their goods increase to God The requiring but a Tenth is not a burthen but an Indulgence of God in any gracious mans esteem Thus have I answered these three Quaeries raised from the first general ground of lawfulness or unlawfulness sin or no sin in point of Conscience regulated by the will and Word of God From all which so clear resolutions I may firmly draw these conclusions 1. That a compent comely and constant maintenance for the Ministers of the Gospel may lawfully and ought in Conscience to be raised out of other mens estates by such as have a right and power so to do 2. I conclude that Ministers of the Gospel may lawfully require such maintenance as Gods Ordinance even by a Tenth portion of yeerly increase and receive what is so raised or charged out of mens estates without any sin or shame however it be in some cases comely and charitable in them to remit their right yea and to preach the Gospel gratis 3. I conclude That necessitous sordid and uncertain maintenance of Ministers is the sin and shame of any Christians because they are not provided for so as the Lord hath appointed but short of the Lords provision which of old was at least a Tenth 4. I conclude although a Tenth or Tithe is not literally or precisely in terms concluded in the Gospel for reasons best known to the wisdom of God in Primitive times Yet this proportion is no where forbidden by the Lord yea it is clearly included specially pointed unto and exemplarily commended as the best pattern and proportion to Christians imitation 5. I conclude That the private giving and publique confirmation or setling of Tithes as part of Ministers maintenance in England which the Law hath declared and ratified beside the consent and custome of the Nation for many hundreds of years as the act and will of all Estates is a very good work hardly to be amended or imitated in these days full of noble and munificent piety agreeable to the Word of God both in the general and propounded and the equitable proportion ordained to which the Apostle referrs Christians 6. I conclude That for any men by meer will and force to take away the publike maintenance by Lands and Tithes setled upon the Ministers of the Gospel in order to the service and worship of Christ by the will and act of those who had lawful power so to do must needs be so far a sin and snare of rapine and injustice as by Law they belong to Ministers in their several places also a work of high and infamous extortion against the light of Nature violating the will of the dead which the Apostle Paul tels us no man justly can do Lastly Gal. 3.15 Mal. 3.8 Rom. 2.22 it is a sin of Sacriledg or robbing God to whose honour and service they are set apart and dedicated in a way agreeable to his will Where the Donors sometimes the rightful owners of those Lands and the fruits of them divesting themselves and their Successors for ever of any power of revocation resumption or alienation have invested the Ministers of the Gospel and their Successors in the Name and for the service of Christ with full possession and perpetual use of them under many curses and imprecations and without any reservation 7. I conclude That for any private Christians who stands related to the society and communion of this Nation and is so bound by the Laws established which are the measure and standard of civil justice giving every man their due to pay to the respective Ministers of the Gospel such portion of Tithes or profits as are assigned them for maintenance for any such I say wilfully to defraud or deny the Ministers their dues or to encourage others so to do can be no other then a fraudulent and injurious practice no way consistent with justice divine or humane contrary to all rules and examples of holy mens piety equity and charity scandalous to the Gospel and reproachful to that grace of God Tit. 2.12 which teacheth men to deny all worldly lusts and to live righteously soberly and holily in this present world 8. Since it is most evident that private and particular men in this Nation either Landlords or Farmers are as to Tithes they pay to Ministers not now the Proprietors or Donors as of private good will and arbitrary bounty but onely Trustees Executors or payers of a publike debt laid upon those estates and lands which they now hold Onely dischargers of a sacred trust or Feoffement reposed in them by the will of God and of their Forefathers and of the Laws of the Land which include all Successors Suffrages and Consent it follows that they have no power in nature Law Reason or Religion to frustrate revoke
or abrogate nor yet to alienate and pervert from the will and intent of the Donors what hath been so sacredly and solemnly setled Nor have they cause either to grudg at what Ministers require as their due or to pay their Tithes with insolency or glorying in their bounty or gifts which indeed is none of theirs any more then a Legacy is the liberality of the Executor 9. I add in the last place That where such maintenance for Ministers of the Gospel is thus setled as in England in order to Gods glory and the peoples good For any men illegally to deprive people of their lawfull Ministers or these of their lawful maintenance for any man to challenge to himself this maintenance who is no Minister in the sense of the Law For any Minister to enjoy the benefit who hath no lawfull civill right and title to it yea for a lawfull Minister lawfully possessed of right to the profits yet not lawfully to discharge the duties of his place according to his power diligently taking care for the feeding that flock of whose milk and fleece he partakes each of these I say must needs be both before God and man respectively guilty of the sins of usurpation oppression injurious intrusion and sacrilegious perverting that rule of righteousness which ought by all godly men to be strictly and conscienciously observed without any vain dispensations neither invading another mans office rights or profits nor frustrating and defeating the good ends of Gods appointment and mans Law by taking the benefit without doing the duty And now Gentlemen from these first considerations premised and duely pondered with their Conclusions I dare appeal to your judgments and Consciences Whether there be any such Leprosie of sin and irreligion of Jew or Antichrist on the face of Tithes as some men petend to be scared withall which no Scripture discovers no godly and learned man in in the Church of Christ Ancient or Modern ever perceived or suspected but ever approved that portion as most proper and convenient because neerest to the pattern and mind of God 2. Whether those eager Petitions against Tithes as unlawful unjust oppressive unevangelical abominable c. either for Ministers to receive them or people to pay them as maintenance have any thing in them beside their noise and cry the repeated crambes of hard speeches against Ministers and their maintenance alledging nothing of true Scripture grounds or sound inferences of right reason 3. Whether those Petitions against Tithes can in any truth or justice be esteemed by wise and upright men as the vote sense and desire of the best and most people in this Nation and whether it be righteous to act against so clear mind of God against the will of the dead and the living too in so great and publike an Interest only upon the suggestions of a very few men compared to the whole whether it be not an injury and indignity to esteem the most and best of this Nation so simply ignorant in so clear a case as this of Tithes is 4. Whether the Scruples in Conscience which some make against Tithes for which I have shewed so much reason equity and religion can by wise men be thought to have any other rise but that of pitiful weakness popular ignorance vulgar prejudice and preposterous zeal at best whether in others they carry not shrewd tinctures of malice envy covetousness and revenge Lastly whether in some they may not be suspected as the smoke of the bottomless pit to proceed from the depths devises and disguises of Satan from profane superstitious or atheistical policies projecting by overthrowing Tithes and all setled maintenance to destroy all true Religion Church and Ministry either as Christian or at least as reformed in this Nation Whether the breathings so fiercely against Tithes do not threaten to make havock of Sheep and Shepherd Pastors and People Maintenance and Ministry 5. Whether since it is so hard as to be next door to an impossibility to find or settle any other Basis or fixed foundation whereon to settle a constant and competent maintenance upon Ministers save onely that of Lands and the fruits thereof for Taxes Excise Customes or the like as sandy foundations will never hold so many years as this of Tithes hath done hundreds whether I say the taking these away without substituting something better or equivalent at least in the room doth not inevitably portend the overthrow of learning and religion civility and Christianity which is the work not of reforming friends but of destroying enemies 6. Whether men truly consciencious have not much more cause to suspect the taking away or denying of Tithes to be a great sin then the paying and continuing of them This hath so much of gratitude of equity of conformity to Gods holy will of self-denial that it cannot have any thing of evill in it yea the best Christians were ever most conscienciously strict in paying their Tithes The other hath so much of unthankfulness unholiness injustice and self-seeking that it can hardly be a vertue or among the things either praise-worthy or comely The First hath much of God and Christ the other of Mammon and Belial nor can that Christian be truly godly who is in this point of so combined a duty either careless to know or unconsciencious to act according to Gods rule Lastly I leave to your consideration whether you have not more cause seriously to examine and if you find the guilt of the sin of Sacriledg upon this Nation speedily to expiate it by all possible care wherever Gods portion the Donors piety and the Laws intention in order to Gods glory are made void or perverted either by injurious incroachments hard customes fraudulent compositions or violent alienations of maintenance due to Ministers which make so many incompetent livings that no able man can live comfortably on them but Ministers are either by tenuity starved or abused and peoples souls are destitute of the means of salvation But I leave the Ministers case in this point of their maintenance which regards justice and Conscience to your more serious consideration against whom I should I fear have sinned as against God my own soul and my brethren if I had not endeavoured according to my Talent to set forth to you and others so clear a light both of reason civil justice and religion as in this case appears enough to disperse by Gods grace all darkness of error passion prejudice or ignorance which in this matter of Tithes may have possessed the minds of some men who professe to fear God Having thus as briefly and clearly as I could set before you the first main consideration Consid 2. In prudence touching the lawfulness or unlawfulnesse of Tithes in point of Conscience I crave your leave and patience to look to the second which regards not the matter kind measure or proportion of them which I have proved by Gods and mans laws to be good lawful and most laudable
10. Lastly Wise men must consider not what the Vulgar easiness desires or dislikes in a fit of worldly-wantonness thrift faction or discontent in which distempers they will cast off with murmuring and reproach both Moses and Aaron their ablest Governours and faithfullest Ministers but Rulers ought to regard what is best for peoples Temporal and Eternal welfare though in the present fit it displease them also what is really for the honour of Religion the glory of God and the welfare of a Nation The disordered Appetites of people if humored as feaverish persons will soon make them as miserable as they are unreasonable Conclusion Thus have I endeavoured as briefly as I could with your leave and patience Gentlemen to present to your view these considerations touching Ministers maintenance by Tithes here in England From which I have sought in the first place with all cleareness of reason calmness of affâ—â—tion and uprightness of conscience to remove all aspersions and suspition of any thing sinful or unlawful in them having demonstrated the Equity and Piety of them both in general as a reward and in particular as so proportioned according to Gods command or patern of old and his reference or appointment to those precedents in the New Testament to which the devotion of primitive Christians the custome of all setled Churches the will of the donors and the establishment of the Civil Laws of this Nation are conform In the 2. place I have salved the chief inconveniences and endeavoured to satisfie the pretences of prudence in point of innovating or altering the way of this maintenance by Tithes Not but that here I well remember how I have oher where wrote and published in another method my judgment touching this subject Where being to deal as in other grand disputes with men wise in their own conceits I was forced with weight of reason and some earnestnes of expression many times to bray them in a Mortar not out of my own genius or propensity to strive or contest but urged by the obstinacy of that folly which hath by words and deeds been lately discovered with most uncomly bostings and unjust reproaches against the office honor authority maintenance and very being of the Ministers of England In whose behalf I held it my duty not to be silent and so to speak as might shew how much I reverenced their worth and how little I feared the petulancy of their enemyes who beyond any example in any Christian Nation have endeavoured under pretences of special Sanctity and Reformation to disgrace and destroy the ablest Preachers and most excellent Professors of true Religion in the Nation But to you Gentlemen as Persons now in power and counsel I do with all gravity modsty calmnesse and humility present these considerations Not but that I wel understand by what I have seen and read how impertinent and useless such adresses by the Pen for the most part are to men confident of their power byased with prejudices and transported with passions if learned and Godly men should write as many Books as the World would contain they should do but little good The calmest Remonstrances which Reason Religion Humanity Christianity Equity or Piety Charity or Conscience History or Experience afford oft prove as the Oration in Tacitus of Musonius a grave and learned Senator to the mutinous Soldiers which at first was unwelcome next tedious after ridiculous at last dangerous to that unseasonable Orator This made me somtime think it the best and prudentest way for Ministers to stand still and wait for the Salvation of God in an evil time to be silent after the example of their Lord Christ to hold their Peace though they be as Sheep under the Shearers hands and by some appointed to be slain and the rather lest some mens cruelty and unjustice against Ministers might possibly gain some reputation by the reasons publikely offered to them in behalf of Ministers rights and publikely refused by them which must of course be traduced as weak and unsufficient to preserve their interests which wilful and unreasonable men are resolved to destroy But I have learned never to fear or despair in a good and just cause such as I take this to be which I humbly present before you Among whom I doubt not but the distressed Ministers of this Church shall find some friends However you have invited us not to betray our cause by our silence lest present and after ages should suspect us unable or ashamed to justify what we do or desire By the pregnancy of reasons which I have here recorded and with all due respect tendered to you this age and posterity may judg the obstinacie of that folly which will determine of things it understands not and the violence of that fury which will cut in sunder that knot by force which with justice and good consciene it cannot untie But I must presume till I find the contrary that you as Gentlemen and Christians will bear the words of Truth and soberness That your Counsels and designes are not swayed by vulgar Clamors and factious discontents but by Rational Equitable and Religious demonstrations Looking not only how to attemper your resolutions to present distempers and to humor the Paroxismes of diseases but also how to recover the health and happiness of this sorely tossed and afflicted Church and Nation To which the overthrowing of maintenance and Ministry will contribute very little This confidence hath made me once more in a matter of so grand concernment to adventure upon this part of pious importunity which God knows in the midst of many confessed infirmities ayms at nothing but those great and good ends of which I shall at last day be least ashamed before God Angels and men At whose great impartiall tribunal since you also must appear it higly concernes you and all of us to avoid the contracting any further guilt of Sacriledg upon your souls and the Nation Which of all crying sins is least taken notice of by men in power seldome pardoned because seldome repented of and seldome repented of because true repentance requires just Restitution If the fear of God be before your eyes you will not be as a people that strives with the Priest Nor will you treat so many learned grave and holy men with a Soldierly roughnes Nabalitick churlishness and fanatick fury But remember your and their God your and their Judg your and their Saviour To whose labours love and faithfulness you and your Fore-fathers owe the reformation and vindication of true Religion hitherto However they are now looked upon us as afflicted of God and forsaken of men yet their judgment and reward are with the Most High Nor hath any oppression or fear so far disordered them but that their wisdome remains with them as persons very sensible of right reason justice honor and religion both in its doctrine and its fruits in its profession and its power which makes men by grace and holiness like to
but onely regards what in prudence is by some men pretended for the better ordering and disposing of them 1. It is hard to meet with every thing objected as inconvenient in the way of Ministers maintenance by Tithes in England which are propounded according to the various opinions men have of themselves heightned by their passions and interests 2. Some complain of those Inconveniences which themselves make and the scandals which they lay in Ministers way by their injurious cavillings either deteining or denying what is many wayes their due Others cry out of those burthens and oppressions which themselves least feel and most impose on poor Ministers Every one imagineth as Empyricks do that a great amendment will follow if his advise bee followed Not remembring that remedyes partially and imprudently applyed prove worse then the disease 3. Many ears are open to hear the complaints made against Ministers and their maintenance few are willing to hear Ministers complaints against those that injure and oppress them In the first secret hope of saving or gaining opens mens ears in the second fear of cost and charges shuts them yea and it is oft a fourth damage to a Minister to seek to right himself by the Statute of treble damages 4. Not that in these things which are in the lower sphear of Prudence I presume to prejudg interpose or oppose your Counsels Gentlemen I know it is above my place and proportion No one man may put his private thoughts into the balance against many who advise or act as in a publick Sphear I only present to you both sides of those Vulgar fancies and specious proposals that you may see how counterfeit they are though they be so currant and highly cried up by those who take it ill if all mens sheaves do not bow down to theirs whose fundamentall error usually is to consider no mans thoughts but their own and not those very much to think those wayes most prudent which are most popular and most politick which are most profitable 1. First then I may assert with truth and justice against those that are given to change the whole form way of Ministers maintenance in England That to make alterations without just and valuable compensations so to shuffle and confound the change as thereby to make a prey and secular advantages by Ministers loss or lessening in their maintenance is but an unhandsome sharking upon the Church of Christ for it is not only the Minister and his family that are thereby damnified but the poor also and the whole Parish or Congregation Certainly all sacrilegious frauds and fetches with Ananias Act. 5.4 are but mockings of God lyings against the holy Ghost sordid cheatings of a mans own conscience for a little filthy Lucre A very mean and poor spirited project which will be pernicious to many worthy Ministers And is indeed every way unworthy and far below the wisdome munificence honor and piety of this Nation which hath been of old the liberal donor and faithful conservator of Gods and his Ministers portion for many hundred years By which Patrimony of Religion people had the spiritual as Ministers the temporal benefits 2. To alter Ministers maintenance although upon just and equivalent compensations yea and really to more conveniency for Ministers and people yet to do this without a fair hearing of all sides without and against the consent of those many learned and worthy men who are invested in the present right possession and use who are most neerly concerned in the business This I say will seem hard measure and is not like to give so general satisfaction men are prone to suspect and think themselves injured though you do them good if against their wills Supposing none can bee more faithful to their interests then themselves or such men at least to whose wisdome they dare commit the arbitration of their affairs 3. The grand project of men Super-politick and overwise is this Nothing will bee more prudent in order to publick Peace than to bring all Tithes and Church Revenues into a civil tenure To take the profits into a common purse or exchecquer from hence to dispense them in such convenient portions as shall be thought fit which Plot pretends at once to case Ministers of the truth to gather in or compound for their Tithes and will avoid all jangling suits and differences usually attending 1. This is indeed a very plausible pretension which some men so please themselves with that probably they have already layd out what place they shall get in this new Office But to look deeper into it I confess it is a project of very great Worldly policy but how Pious or Prudent it is we shall see It is indeed a very probable if not a necessary way to make Ministers eyes tongus hearts and hands dependent upon and servient to the will of any men that at any time obtain power and dominion It will be a means to make alwayes a necessitous ministry whose words will bee sure to bee smooth supple and conform to any thing that at any time power will command or bounty reward Mens greatest temptations lying in their stomacks are extreamely sharpned by fear of want and feeling any necessities What will not Jezebels prophâ—ts say or do that are daily fed at her Table By this means they that rule at any time will bee sure to have both swords Temporal and Spiritual at their command a double Souldery or Militia Secular and Ecclesiastical which last shall every week in every Parish one day at least be upon their guard and defence moving all men and perswâ—ding them to be obedient both for fear and for conscience This is the Wordly policy of this project 2. But then in the eye of true wisdome this way appeares fully to such as fear God and chuse rather to imitate his wise and holy example who would not have his Ministers of the old and no more of the new Testament to depend upon mens good will and pleasure for their wages and reward no nor to receive as Philo Iudaeus observs oblations and dues from the peoples hands who were to bring them into the house of God or the place he should chuse and leave them there lest the Priests as Gods more immediate servants should fall under the shameful and dishonourable burthens of flattery and servility but live as Gods free men who were to speak his word in his name whether men smiled or frowned whether they did hear or forbear Better a Minister of Christ feed as Micaiah on the bread and water of affliction or as the three Children on pulse or as Iohn Baptist on Locusts than they should betray by secular and sordid dependencies the honour of God the majesty of his truth the salvation of mens souls by selling either the truth or truth speaking with all ingenuous boldness and comely freedome for a morsell of bread or any greater gifts which blind the eyes of the wise and vassalate the of