thousands of such empty Kickshawes though perhaps ready to perish for want One suit of apparel made for one of our gaudy gallants might clothe many a Ministers family a twelvemoneth and one of their riotous feasts might feed such a family another twelvemoneth Yea when the portion of many wealthy Citizens children shall be enough to provide honestly for twenty Ministers children yet this man will grudge to give twenty shillings beyond the custome to supply his Ministers present need Alas he hath children of his own to provide for Are these men Christians are they not men that take earth for heaven Wretched world Such a grudging at the Tenth when the first Christians thought not all too much to be laid at the Apostles feet The Lord soften hard hearts it is not my own case I am sensible of I am better provided for then hundreds of Ministers that deserve far better then I neither do I accuse my people I scarce know that Faithful Minister whose people are for the generality more loving to him then mine are to me most of them some few only excepted and I despair not but that love and patience will melt them too deal with me aswel as I desire for I can say it truely through Gods grace I seek not theirs but them 't is the great cryes and pressing of Ministers and people to procure Augmentions hath wrested this from me I am sure that could never be if some did their duty beyond their power or but any thing near to their power And let it not be offensive to any if I said thus much on the other side that those Ministers who have considerable Estates of their own and are not satisfied with this and what their places afford them but by importuning for Augmentations divert that out of their Brethrens Bellies which is intended to supply those that want are likely to account sadly one day for what they gain so uncharitably to leave their Children Rich Did Rich Ministers forbear this pressing in a time of straites indeed not of purses so much as of hearts and Rich people provide honourably for their Ministers above that small pittance which devouring Impropriations in many places leave Ministers to we should then have the crowding lesse at the doors of Commissioners for Augmentations and Counsels of uniting Parishes laid aside rather too great populous Parishes divided or assistance set up in them that especially in great Congregations we may once be restored to the primitive Order of having more Teaching elders then one in a place Do we our duty in this thing and see how long God will suffer us to want men but Pardon begged for this digression I return 6. It is most probable that the proportion answering those general ends defined in the 3. conclusion is ordinarily a tenth and therefore that ordinarily a tenth is commanded still he hath commanded the general Rule he hath given the particular president both these acknowledged and who will not say should we adde no more seeing Gods measure certainly obtains the general end and it being uncertain whether mans will or no that it is fit Gods Example should guide us only the case wherein a larger Provision is visibly necessary excepted A very large step towards our conclusion even from those premises which no man can or does contradict but I stay not here Adde that God hath now here given up his auncient right in the tenth nor exchanged them for any other proportion determined or undetermined determined none asserts and undetermined none can iustify though they do assert it it is in it self unreasonable to say God hath let go the certain and taken up the uncertain you shall give me what you please but so far as pretence are made to set up the free will-offering the third conclusion undertook them so far as pretences are made for the charge of a tenth into any thing else it is this conclusions talke to answer them And here we are brav'd with an high challenge Who dare affirme that the Law of Tithe is not chang'd P. 5. Hebr. 7.12 Well if it be that Scripture which supports this wonderful confidence that challenges thus the whole world we shall follow you from the 5. P. where you but proclame your challenge to the 14. 15. where you endeavour to make it good There I find you buckle to it with all your might and to stirre up our dull sluggish incapacity we are thrice called upon heed it well mind it well observe it well in obedience to direction we are very attentive what shall we hear now I. It is the scope of the Spirit to prove that as certain as Christ is come in the Flesh so certain is he a Priest an High Priest and so certain he changed the Priesthood true all this the change of the Priesthood and Law ceremonial is the Spirits scope we heed it wel II. He bindeth it up with an also we see the word also a Law is changed aswel as the Priesthood and because the Priesthood therefore the Law but that this or a part of this was Tithes though you stoutly tell us so we cannot see neither in words nor sense no though we look over these again and mind it a thousand times over III. But another lift at it and another Heed it well he doth not say if it be but it is changed just so you are in the very right and the change of the Priesthood proves the change of the Law very true you have told us once already and the Apostle told us so before you in expresse words but Tithes we see not O Neighbour you that with this Scripture have so confidently challenged the whole world know very well that I requested you to prove to me that the Law which is said to be changed was the Law of Tithes why have you not done it is the whole body of the ceremonial Law so great a part of Levi's service nothing was it Tithes the Jews and Judas king Gentiles were so Zealous to maintain find we not many other things and find 〈◊〉 that can any man think the Apostle employed in writing against â—ithâ—s all the Epistle over the change of this Law whatever it is is that great designe and yet so strangely to shoot besides the Mark as but this one Verse should be found in all his Epistle to discover such a meaning and in this no word of Tithes neither spoken nor meant yea so immediately after those Verses from which some so strongly they think unaswerably prove the Law of Tithes not changed A man would look for pâ—â—â—h demonstrations against so many prejudices that Tithes are an essential proper Branch of the Law of ceremonies and have made this good by forcible Arguments that could not with a good conscience be gainesaid But behold after so many solemne callings upon to mind it well here 's nothing but the Law is changed therefore the Law of Tithes as if there were no other Law
wherein as such I may do nothing for Christ But leaving expostulations however most just let 's see upon what principles this power and duty stands To begin with the beginning we find Adam a King and Priest Melchizedech a King and a Priest the Priesthood annexed to the Primogeniture Hebr. 12.16 which made Esau a profane person in selling his birth-Right Regal and Sacerdotal power went together for many ages of the world All that while their Constitutions for the well ordering of Worship had the force of binding Laws if there were any such Constitutions as such there must be God then propagating his revealed truths through their hands by tradition not as now by Scripture I know him that he will Command Gen. 18.19 belongs to Abrahams Princely and Paternal power both in delivering down the Ordinances of Gods Worship as Laws to his Children and Servants And sure God did not joyn those two Offices in one person but that the Authority of the Prince might winne more awe from the then rude world then if meaner persons were employed in the Priestly Office Hitherto the whole power about holy things was in the Princes hand and this from the beginning a good Argument that with such Alterations as God was pleased to make at several times it is to continue to the end the Magistrate hath power in Gods holy things from the beginning it was so Matth. 19.8 Not but that the Offices were distinct though the person was the same and the Acts several and each deriving its functions immediately from God but being in one they joyned hands and mutually strengthned each other by their several Interests the Prince the Priest by all Actions of a Prince the Priest the Prince by all Actions of a Priest so it should be now they are in several hands and there is need both wayes we need not inquire which way most though it be easy to guesse So it was then and it is most unnatural to think it otherwise every Authority will do it utmost to preserve it self So they run in one Stream till they came to Moses then they divide and what is parted with at that division So much will be removed to other shoulders the rest abiding where it was the time and manner of doing this is found Lev. 8. where we find Moses the Magistrate executing the whole Priestly Office in the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons which Act was done by him as a Magistrate aswel as a Prophet for then the Magistrate devested himself of that power which had rested upon him from the beginning of the world till now and communicating to another Order the Government as to both duties growing now too heavy to rest in one hand through the multitude of those that were governed and the variety of Laws they were governed by and what is now parted with The exercise of the Priests function in all the duties of that place the intrinsecal power of that holy ministration but no more the extrinsecal power of ordering both the people and his Sons in matter of Worship commanding all to do their respective duties tithing encouraging c. Lev. 10.3 4 12 16. This Moses parted not with but exercised often afterwards as the Story represents it to us even quickly after the Consecration though he never offered up Sacrifices with his own hands more if any say these after-attempts of Moses â—ere meerly Prophetical and that the Princely power did not at all put forth it self in them he will say so gratis and without proof it appeares no more was devested the rest then was retained and when we see it put forth why should we doubt whither to referre it Moses Prophetical Spirit was not necessary to direct about what God had already revealed but about what was further to be received from God But this was a power anciently communicated long used yea in new injunctions from God the receiving and communicating them were Actions of the Office Prophetical but the binding people to the observance of them by a legal establishment is the Action of the Office Princely and its legislative power had by Moses indeed after a manner extraordinary but belonging to that power however Lawfully had and held of God And this difference is altogether the same in the Laws against Murder and Adultery Moses otherwise forbids them as a Prophet otherwise as a Prince and although my Neighbour unadvisedly limit civil Laws to things indifferent P. 11. yet I hope this upon second thoughts will not be stood upon And this reserved power of Moses does yet further appear a certain and perpetual branch of his Princely Government in that all succeeding Magistrates after him Judges and Kings had it and used it both those that were Prophetically inspired and those that were not the good ones to establish good things for the House of the Lord the evil ones to neglect Gods House and draw people to Idolatry the Priests never medling with this matter none but Jehoida appearing upon this Stage and he in a time of great distresse as by right his wife next of kindred to the crown the seed Royal being all destroyed in the Kings Minority as Guardian 2 Kin. 11.17 18. 2 Chro. 23.18 24.15 16. Tutor and Protector to the King in his Infant State yet even he for all his age Authority doing good in Israel both towards God and his House yea and towards the House of the King too yet the King grown up is under command even about the affaires of the Temple he was High Priest in hath matters put into his hands is called to account reproved 2 Kin. 12.4 7 8. and business otherwise ordered consents to all that 's done without any contradiction as in a thing belonging not to his office but to the Kings If this had been an encroachment no person so fit as Jehoiada no season so opportune as under a young King so highly obliged for his life and Crown to attempt the recovery of this power and restore it to its proper place he that had Authority and courage enough to keep in the Spirits of King Princes and People 2 Chro. 24.17 18. 2 Kin. 12.2 so strongly addicted to Idolatry all his dayes would not have likely failed in a meaner business that had belonged to his trust But this not the work of one King or two but of every one that was good no way disallowed in them by God but extoll'd and the best Reformers having this constant Character that they did that which was good in the sight of the Lord. And whereas there was but one of them that presumed to execute the Priests Office 2 Chro. 26.17 18. the Priests valiantly resisted him here they knew what was within the Kings Commission and what not seldom do men a whole rank Society of men Generation after Generation want courage to lay claim to and vindicate their just powers yea and God himself presently testifies his dislike
to break off the agreement upon the account of the sum to be paid does not I promised upon his intreaty to forbear him if he came in any reasonable time to pay me and I kept my word above three years together He promised to compound with me by the pound rent consenting to my termes offered and broke his promise adding contempt to boot by laying me down twenty shillings for three yeares who had laid me down fourty shillings for one year as he said because he had promised me I dealt with him fairly and openly he dealt deceitfully with me for after he had chosen to compound with me by the yearly rent liking that better as he said then to compound by the Acre for then he might use his Land as he pleased he offer'd to bring me his Lease that I might see what rent he paid whereas it is known there are some pounds reserved of his Rent which are not specified in his Lease I am perswaded this was never done by his Landlord my truly honored friend to abuse the Minister The goods controverted I am ready to make good my claim to by that which determines all mens claims among men to things of this nature the just and righteous Laws of the Land he avoids that tryal even with contempt and rebellion after contempt to the lawful commands of the Supream Magistrate as not having any title at all to them that is pleadable in any Court of England and if the Law of God makes them his I desire to see that Law such an evidence I hope will satisfie Magistrates and me too If he detain them by mans Law let him plead it if by Gods Law let him shew it if by neither P. .9 it plainly appeares he hath no right at all and I should pray him to detain them no longer it is sin I never doubted the lawfulness of receiving Tythes he never denied the payment of them or a composition for them to buy his peace till he had to do with me whence I suppose he alwayes held it lawful so to do neither hath he given us one reason in his Book why his mind is chang'd Add that he saves his goods by a deed of gift to his Sons and ventures his person though a person of that moment to soules as an Elder preaching freely to a Congregation baptized many years What truth there is in this pretence let his own heart judge what honesty there is to convey a mans estate to defraud creditors let others judge but what piety it is for an Elder of a Church the freedome of whose person is of that precious value in the exercise of his Ministry to secure his goods in a contest and venture his person when the debate was about the goods not about the person let the members of his own Congregation judge These are sore suspicions in him of the sin I am so often charged with even in this very business yet I dare not with all this evidence name him so I know these dealings may be referred to other causes of which some are not so bad as coveteousness and some are worse I only should advise him to consider his wayes Neither dare I wholely excuse my self from this sin though I could say much to clear my self in the day of man and I know this mans accusations are without proof I hope grace enabling me to approve my heart to God a greater witness then man I say no more then this he is aged and I though but in the thirty fourth year of my life am weak as being lately pulled back by a powerful hand of God from the very Brink of an Hectick Feaver and still in a constant inclination thither again we had need not accuse one another rashly Rev. 12.10 there is one will shortly accuse us both more vehemently then we can one another and it will be our best wisdom to prepare both of us with all seriousness how to answer his accusations P. 21. But how could this word drop from my neighbours pen that Englands Priests never yet learnt in every condition to be content what not so much as one excepted and never I could tell you neighbour of one the least of ten thousand that professeth in the sight of God that the greatest discontent he doth and hath for a long time gone under is his own and yours and other mens sins and yet not of so vast an estate as may be an eye-sore to stir up the plague of envy in any man P. 18. Oh Neighbour in the fear of God consider what Spirit it is puts you upon judging the hearts of so many alive and dead known and unknown to you many of them such as have been the glory of the Churches of Christ all the world over I say not the Lord rebuke you but I say the Lord give you repentance and make you know that a friendly admonition about the breach of Gods Law is no threatning you neither before in the eighth nor now in the ninth Commandement Let profane wicked ones who will not get out of the danger of the Laws penalty say they are threatned when they are told of a Law of God the Law is not against them that are lead by the Spirit Gal. 5.23 direct them it does but you are an old Disciple other apprehensions become you and a more willing conformity to the mind and will of God I used no sharp words then neither do I now do not put forth your hand to take and keep your Neighbours goods against the lawful owners mind it is against the eighth Commandement do not bear false witness against the hearts of so many multitudes of whom the world was not is not worthy it is against the ninth Commandement God is the Judge he will require it think of it I intreat you as a Father That expression of my resolution to recover my right from him if he and I lived together as he proposes it does savour at least of unadvised passion if not of revenge but he professeth he did not publish it with that intent and I accept of his profession though his repeating it often and especially his leaving out my own explication of my self that it was a resolution grounded upon conscience of my duty that I ought not to lose the Title to so considerable a part of the publick revenew given for the good of souls of which I have only the benefit during my present service in the place which in another place himself sets down leave but small ground of credit to this profession of his Had he now set both together P. 6. I am most resolved to endeavour the recovery of my right if you and I live together and added what followes I say I am most resolved I shall sin if I do not c. it would have took out all suspicion of revengefulness out of the Readers mind concerning me I being necessitated to write so openly he mis-interpreting
those two examples were given 12. When I asked you whether you did demand it by the Law of God you answered no. I did not say so only I waved that question as being unwilling to trouble him with it 13. He addes immediately as from me you were no Jew nor Levite c. This was not in answer to the question about the Law of God in general as he relates it falsely but in answer to the question of the Law of God as it made Tithes due to the Levitical Priesthood as such for I was no Jew Aug. 25. 1656. c. This he wrote out of the Narrative of the Conference word for word from whence he might have related the rest with faithfulness for it was before him 14. When I asked you Do you require it by the gift of Indulgent Princes you say no. The quite contrary is most true I alwayes pleaded it to him by the gift of Indulgent Princes and people and never used to him any Argument but that and my similitude to make things plain to him was this A Testatour dies and leaves me a Legacy his Executor refusing to pay is constrained to it by order of Law the Law here does not ground the Title but the Testators will P. 13. it only confirmes the will and affords a remedy to the injured person This he knows and hath confessed was my Language to him see what he Prints 15. Yet to deceive the simple you plead both I challenge him to name the person to whom I have said otherwise in this or in any other point then I have said to him and then it will appear whether this be a slander or no. 16. Your Predecessor takes 20. l. per an of you to let you have the living and cometh once or twice a year for his money and Preacheth a Sermon to colour it over Untrue and incredible both through the grace of God I am what I am I hope they that know me do not believe that I need lay our money to purchase a living I was sought to from London at that very time from a people there after a free and full Election as I have to show under their hands this in the midst of my relations and acquaintance and was it likely I should wound my Conscience so deep without cause that I might place my self in the dirt far from my Friends among a company of meer strangers or if I were so vain as well as wicked could not this money matter be carried closely as such manner of purchases are want to be were we all so many of us such sots as to proclaim our wickedness in the face of the Sun No no there was no such matter if ever I saw Gods hand in any particular providence all my life it was in his over-ruling hand disposing me for Staplehurst and bringing me to it it was Gods work I am most undoubtedly assured of it and not the Devils had I not seen it most apparently I had never staid here what was done between me and my Predecessor was done before many witnesses it was but this Two Ministers consenting to Preach to the same people by consent likewise share the proportion both of time and maintenance which each should have that there might be no difference about these things afterwards a thing not only lawful to be done but in a manner necessary on my part with all sincerity undertaken and performed God is witness as for my truely honoured Predecessor his integrity needs not my defence he is able to do it himself in a season and manner convenient if need be 17. More might be said from experience in this Parish but I spare a most merciful Reviler we are guilty in things it seems not to be named such is the modesty and tender-heartedness of the man For my part where I walk out of the way of my duty I desire not to be spared let him or any man reprove me in a way of Gospel Charity he that spares my sins does not spare me is cruel to me I desire for ever so to think But if the concealed matters be of the same nature as this which is expressed and one would think impudent lies should not be uttered and things true hid oh that he would at last learn to spare his own soul use no more false and uncharitable reproaches and repent of these even the Saints God is a consuming fire 18. They presently prepare war Mic. 3.5 P. 19. there is no presently in the Text either in word or sence but it s put in that I after above three years patience may be the more deeply wounded by a false accusation how often have I been thanked by this man and commended for my long forbearance 19. Like the Priests Boyes 1 Sam. 2.15 16 17. had my Neighbour pleased I might have had that name of scorn put upon me without changing the translation he uses into a worse from a visitation Sermon the Levites that Ministred unto the Priests in holy things did begin their service from 30. years age Num. 4.3 I have attained through Gods patience some years above that and yet can well enough bear that Title without any injurious reflexions upon the infirmities of old age Alas how childish are such Contests as these in Print and how unbeseeming the honour of Religion 20. P. 7. I adde one more drawn from the very cause all these are personal a thing more then once we are told of and it tends to weaken the force of our civil constitutions in the behalf of Tithes That those Princes Laws that first established Tithes in England did also establish the Catholick Faith of the Church of Rome and all Traitors that denied it whether this be a truth or no Though with an impudence to amazement he bring it in with Be it known to you I am sure he knows it not to be a truth for being desired where thee Laws might be found now he tells me of Henry the eighth no great Establisher of Tithes I think to be sure not the first by and by he tells me of Magna Charta wherein Tithes are not at all mentioned but included in general among the rights of the Church And whether ever there were any Law that makes it treason not to be of the Religion of Rome let the skilful in the Law judge heresy likely More of this nature hereafter but treason not likely These uncharitable Censures and plain Falsehoods I have privately demanded satisfaction for and offer'd a fair debate of them before indifferent men matters of Fact coming most of them within the compass of an ocular demonstration may admit of a speedy decision if men will but see what is before their eyes and this I did that I might prevent this ungrateful narrative had it been accepted and now I am still ready by the same means to make good the narrative I have given to prevent unnecessary replyes to this part of the
too as to that or any other Religious use not appointed by Christ himself It were a strange thing to see fleshly sacrifices offered up religiously men to put the world off with they doe it to other uses and ends then for which it was done in the Law it remaines onely that yielding the consequent of the supposition we demand a proof of the so But here we press them too far it may be and it is possible must serve our turnes And this is all we can have from those that plead onely against the Divine Right and from them that plead against the lawfulness of Tithes too Strange A Law of Gods is produced between us confessed only the perpetuity of that Law is denied yet no evidence at all given to prove the temporary nature of it He that sayes a known Law of Gods was in the nature of it temporary had need not onely affirm it possible but prove it certain I take it to be evident they have nothing to say here because where they have been often called upon to speak and ought by such deep bonds of necessitie yet they say nothing I adde concerning those learned men that deny no more then the Divine Right That if this payment to Melchisedech may be truly and properly a branch of the Ceremonial Law it may be an unlawful payment also and if it be certain it was so it is certainly unlawful also Another man may see the congruity of this answer to their own stating of the question but truly I cannot So then we proclame a Law found out they deny it not we proclame again we finde nothing in the Law why it should not be perpetual they say not they doe onely it is possible that they may we proclame again Attempt it shew it but they are silent Ye we will not leave them we will try what we can say to the Negative ex abundanti that payment of Tithes to Melchisedech was not by the force of a Law ceremonial First Melchisedech was a Priest of another Order and not a Ceremonial Priest else he should not be higher then Levi nor for ever nor should our Lord have been called a Priest after this Ordâ—â— rather then after the Order of Aaron And the service for which Melchisedech received Tithes was not any work of Sacrifice but for his work of Benediction as it is manifest in the Text and acknowledged by the famous Capel Gen. 14.19 20. in Thesibus Salmur though I know not what to make of his Parenthesis following quanquam nec ratio ista excludenda It is an high presumption to say positively that Melchisedech offer'd any Sacrifice at all when Scripture sayes nothing of it To be sure as he is brought in and so he is a type of Christ and so he took Tithes he offered none The Papists will never finde out a Sacrifice in the Bread and Wine as busily as they hunt for it a resemblance to our Eucharist the Fathers indeed have found out but not a Sacrifice And in this place we know Scripture silence is argumentative Melchisedech being a Type not as he did or was at other times but as he is storied to have been and to have done then and to this his Tithing doth belong and to nothing else Adde that we finde nothing Ceremonial in Melchisedechs Priesthood to be verified a mystery by some other thing in Christ not in his name King of righteousnesse King of peace not in his Genealogie without Father and without Mother not in the end mentioned of his life and office not in the work of his Priestly office all these were verified in Christ in the Letter and 't is wonderful that Tithing alone should be verified in Christ by a mystery which mysterie I think is not yet expounded by any that we may know what it is much less proved and made good If any shall say that the ceremonialness of Tithes as paid to Melchisedech consists not in their respective consideration as paid to such a Priesthood but in the absolute proper nature oâ— them This at the first sight is utterly improbable that a Priesthood not Ceremonial should be maintained by a maintenance essentially and in it selfe ceremonial But let that pass if a Ceremony be defined A carnal Rite in Religion appointed by God to shadow out Christ or some spiritual grace in Christ till it expire with the death of Christ I think it will pose the wit of man to shew Tithes such a ceremony for either this ceremony must be found out in the Tenth or in the Law determining any set proportion whatsoever If men say the Tenth as Tenth is that which is essentially ceremonial it should be shewn by what Scripture it is appointed by God so to be that the meer Tenth abstracted from either Priesthood should be in it self designed to a ceremonial use 2. What ceremonial use it could have being common to Levi with Melchisedech to whom it could not have that use and whatever is Essentially Ceremonial hath alwayes a Ceremonial use 3. How a Tenth could be more carnal then a 9th or a 11th Hebr. 7.8 4. What there is in Christ which this Ceremony signifies 5. What burdensomnesse there is in a tenth to Christians more then in a ninth or even then a twentieth except that it is the bigger summe 6. What other determinate proportion is shut up in its room as it fared with other Ceremonies Say we then the tenth as a maintenance by Law determined is the Ceremony Then I ask 1. What one tittle in Scripture to prove this 2. How should this be more a ceremony then other stints by name of time for worship 3. What answers this supposed Ceremony not a free-will offering taken to come in the room of a stinted summe for that 's not the body which answeres this shadow Spiritual sacrifices come in the room of fleshly ones but they are not the body of them no more can it be here some other body must be found out for them and what is that 4. Why a Law for maintenance should not be Ceremonious but a Law for this or that should Gal 6.6 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Cor. 16.2 Luc. 12.33 5. Why Paul may determine it to something out of all mens goods that are taught in the word without a Ceremony but may not limit the how much under danger of a Ceremony 6. Why the double honour designed should not be a Ceremony but the expresse determination of the how much should 7. What Ceremony there is in the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what ever he hath thriv him and whether that were not a determinate Law why sell that you have A determinate command be not equally a Ceremony as what we speak of Why more Ceremonious to say give a ninth with eleventh c. then sell all and as it seems give all for they might aswel keep it in land as put it out to use or trade with it He that can give a
eaten I had almost said that all the Antiquaries in the world should never perswade me to so unreasonable a thing that from all parts of the inheritance of Gods people on this side and on that side Jordan the Husbandman must carry his tith in kind unto Jerusalem and that then I know not who should carry it back again to the Levites respective habitations the Levites Cities were in all likelyhood the Store-houses for the Fields near them the other was to be carried to Jerusalem One was to be eaten in any place the other in the place which the Lord shall chuse Deut 14.6 Lev. 27.31 32. Deut. 14.24 One might not be redeemed not the Tithe of the Hay Corne. c. but by adding a fift part not of the heard at all but the tith for the Feast might so these two were plainly two distinct tithings and both paid by the people every year The third years tithing was distinct from them both not all one with the tithing for the Feasts for must the Feasts be neglected then and the Law broken every third year Deut. 16.16 17. 14.28 29.16.12 is nor the third years tith to be laid up within thy Gates and eaten within thy Gates whereas the tithes for Feasts were to be carried to Jerusalem and eaten at Jerusalem and why should the third year be called the year of tithing if no more were done that year then at other times plainly they are two distinct Laws and must have a distinct obedience The Tithes for Feasts were Ceremonial and were never before nor ever after only from the equity upon which they were grounded will one Argument among others be brought for our offerings towards the furnishing of the Lords Table though a far lesse proportion will serve for that use so on all hands no ground of this Tithes continuance The third years tithing was Judicial a Statute for the Poor and so continues in its equitable foundation that a due provision be made by Law for the Poor whom we have alwayes with us There remains now only that to the Levites to be inquired after what appearance there is in the Laws about it for us to conclude either for or against the perpetual right of them the Scripture that contains those Laws if I have not been strangly overseen in my Search are three and no more Lev. 27.30 31 32 33. Num. 18.21 24 31. and Deut. 18.1 Not many leaves these among the Levitical Satutes though if many leaves had been found of them in Moses Law they would not therefore have been presently Ceremonial unlesse it were proved they were there as branches of the Ceremonial Law and then one leaf yea one Verse would serve the same Now in none of these Scriptures do we find the Original Law but only resolutions about the disposal of them supposed due to God by a former right and therefore the cessation of these Laws and how removed out of the way will only after this disposal of them but never overthrow Gods right in them which they do not constitute but suppose That in Lev. 27.30 tells us it is the Lords it is holy to the Lord therefore not to be alienated Verse 31 32 33. God challengeth his right to them already in being and the Statute forbids encroachment upon that right and this is I think the first time these Tithes are mentioned in Moses Law and here we are referred to an higher claim in which if nothing Ceremonial have appeared then what ever becomes of these Scriptures Tithes must stand still their foundation root being not plucked up though these after-authorities should lose their binding force What the other two Scriptures determine is not material to this inquiry because though they should speak never so peremptorily in commanding them yet they can be only confirmations establishing what is on foot already and so must follow the Original one for a thing can be Originally commanded but once we have found them before in the Law of Moses and there also in the current not in the well-head of them for that we must seek higher then Moses if we would find it out and I am perswaded no man can fixe his foot with any certainty of resolution sooner then the beginning of the world And yet neither in them have we any Law commanding them from the people but that supposed and upon that the people offering them to the Lord of debt now at this time it is on all hands resolved on Num. 18.21 29. not of free gift And God assigning them to Levi for his service in the Tabernacle as for Deut. 18.1 it is a short summe of Num. 18. The Priests to eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire as in the beginning of Num. 18. it is at large declared all the Tribe of Levi shall eat the Lords inheritance as is declared at large Num. 18.21 There are two rights found in these Laws one from the people to God and that right is supposed the other from God to the Levites and that right is stated Num. 18.21 and de novo expressed here be it then that Levis service of the Tabernacle for which this assignement was made is ceased and so the assignement with it which is the later right yet we want still the evidence of Gods giving up his right from the people surely it should be shown not only where they cease to be Levis but where they cease to be Gods they come to Levi at the second hand and Gods right is a distinct right from Levis was before Levi's and it would be inquired into how it comes not to be Gods since let the Detainers of Tithes show where God hath released them of this tribute Neitheir let the excellent Capell object here that we owe our selves and all we have to God and Christ quanti quanti jumus for as this is most true now and we desire to acknowledg it most equal that we make our all his who hath made his all ours so it was ever more most true and yet God reserved unto himself a special right to Tithes Mal. 1.10 as sufficient to testifie our homage and support his Worship who would have none shut the doors of his house for nought nor kindle a fire on his Altar for nought there being enough left besides for the subsistence of them that used the Land under God and were to live upon it so it was then needful and it appearâ—s that so it was done so it is needful still upon the very same grounds and notwithstanding what this reason produceth to the contrary so it is still Besides should not the most learned man remember that the reason alledged is as strong in the point of time as it is in the point of goods Neither let others object this special right to be from the Jews onely as who held their Land of God by a peculiar gift and because of the wonderful Fruitfulness of the Land I cannot see any
Churches of the Gentiles the Jewish had all things in common and yet it will not help the cause it is produced for by him and may be by others for though payed both at once they are payments distinct in nature having several grounds and several measures to direct and determine conscience by asmuch as if they were paid never so much asunder P. 18. Yet this instance is made a Rule for all Churches to walk by and to this purpose 1 Cor. 7.17 and 1 Cor. 4.17 are produced neither of which speak to the matter of maintenance particularly if at all Now to see the unhappiness of this man in all his reasonings be all this granted that the Ministers maintenance is no otherwise determined by God then the Poors and that the Apostles Ordinance about this in one Church is a Rule for all Churches it will then deserve an inquiry to know what that Ordinance was this we must take at the first Original Law about it not upon an after-Act upon special reasons varying in one particular from the first general constitution That we find a punctual Law indeed and pretty general 1 Cor. 16.1 2. but this runs quite in another strain the Rule is determinate and a very strait one too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arian Epict. l. 4.15 Proclaim that thou art at peace with all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatever they do to thee not as God hath prospered him in yet that is not the proportion of the heart and mind of the Giver but whatever he hath thriven in the whole increase of their stock in trading that week uncertain you will say that and whether we will or no we must leave it to mens wills and consciences unius cujusque arbitrio conscientiae what shall we leave so most Excellent Capel not the Law that 's determined in the Text it must be his obedience to the Law and that the Apostle left indeed not to mens wills that 's unhansome that word arbitrio but to their consciences that they deal faithfully in obedience to his Command to the utmost of their knowledge and for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a caveat sufficient indeeed Answer this to that learned mans exception about personal Tithes for which he brings those words This being the Laws in Corinth it met with a proud sturdy covetous people with whom the whole increase of a great gainful trading that City flourished in would have amounted to too great a summe for an evil eye contentedly to part with the Apostle having notice of it and their proneness upon every occasion to division through the influence false Teachers had among them takes quite another course in the second Epistle from what he used in the first not commanding them peremptorily without a reason nor appointing them what to give in any sense of the words but because of the hardness of their hearts leaving them free in the summe and endeavouring to raise them up another way by many most melting Arguments in two whole Chapters which course he had omitted altogether before so it appeares this was a special indulgence upon special causes relaxing the rigour of a severe Canon to the Corinthians and to them only as to all other Churches remaining in its full force vertue You will say this could not last long for men to bear all the losses in trading themselves and others to carry away all the gain true no more it did not the order it self expresses its own expiration when the Apostle came to carry away their charity to Jerusalem and for what I can see to the contrary it was but one weeks burden so far is it from being a perpetual Law for Ministers maintenance that it was not so much as a perpetual Law for Collections for the Poor so exceeding inconsiderable is this allegation to the purpose in hand yet one place there is which speaks to the Ministers maintenance indeed Phil. 4.17 18 19. we find diverse such in the Old Testament to Prophets especially which were never therefore pleaded Rules that so it ought to be done alwayes and no otherwise yet this is plainly and fully to the instance Payments to Ministers are either out of duty to supply them as God hath Commanded them to be supplied these have their measures bounded and not left arbitrary to the discretion and will of the people Other payments are out of courtesy as Testimonies of that love and kindness which is comely good people should and many do bear to their Ministers these are altogether arbitrary a little signifying love aswel as much Which of these two sorts the Philippians were does depend upon the knowledge of the Apostles then state if not necessitous we may admit the free will-offering in this place it being an Act of courtesy and Christian care if necessitous as it seems by Verse 14. and 16. the Gift was not free but a matter of plain duty will any deny this bounded as hath been forementioned and smelt never the worse in Gods nostrils for being Commanded and having an other Rule and measure besides mans own will See v. 10.14 The summe of this is Contribution to the Apostle in a necessitous condition was in it self a duty in its measure so far as it had a correspondency with Gods bounds then pointed out and known as hath been declared that was a duty too if in any thing their bounty exceeded this will be referred to their courtesy and was indeed a free Gift and as then so it is now the Stint does not thrust out the free Gift if men have hearts to exceed P. 2. P. 18. But these are the Sacrifices alone which are accepted with God that only and God accepts no other it must needs be so then indeed we have cause to look to that see what 's brought to convince us 1 Chro. 28.9 Again that What will not serving the Lord be accepted unlesse without a Command if will-worship become the only acceptable worship in your account how at randome do you write 1 Chro. 29.5 6 9. Accepted no doubt these were but the word only is wanting there were other Laws acknowledged at that time and were these snares to men they must obey them because Laws but they could not be accepted in their obedience to them because Laws too Oh do not write so reproachfully to the goodness of God 2 Cor. 9.14 and 8.1 Contribution is called a grace and that to their power Verse 2. was a grace enabling them to do their duty if the Apostle reason well Rom. 15.27 beyond their power was grace enabling them to an uncommanded Act of mercy obedience to just Commands is of grace Where there is a Ye must needs be subject Rom. 13.5 this done for conscience sake is a grace and accepted too is it not so still here wants the only Phil 4.17 18 19. The free Gift is an odour phy P. 2. P. 18. why put you in the word free 't
is the Gift and that of duty and yet the word only is not here yea though I heed it well it is not here there can indeed be no safe account without we do our duty freely as it hath an opposition to coaction and constraint but as freely hath an opposition to a Law or Command in which sense we dispute about it that saying there can be no safe account without it is not so true though he that gives no more then he must needs by the Laws of God and man had need see that his parcimoniousness proceed not from want of love for that will render his account unsafe Prov. 11.25 P. 18. The covetous man gives neither one way nor other by his good will and we need not inquire how that will be accepted that is not as for the liberal mans superabundant charity to the poor of which that Scripture mainly speaks accepted it will be no doubt so also his hearty and willing Contribution when he is Commanded to it by Law of God or man what you adde God accepts of no other nor will blesse or water no other is no conclusion from the Text the like of the liberal mans maintaining his Minister which is no matter of charity Is 66.3 The Lord will have no Sacrifice but what himself chooseth who hath required this Is 1.11 Why these were all Commanded duties and were therefore not accepted because unduely performed the Texts themselves give you the reason why they were vain and hated Is 1.15 66.3 4. And here also we plead a Command and you plead against it by telling us God accepteth no service but what himself chooseth why man you forget your side you are engaged for just so would you speak were you on our side and we take the Argument to be probable enough and conclude therefore he hath bounded it because he is most likely to know what will please himself and most unlikely in a thing that hath so near a correspondence with his own worship to leave men to the lusts of their own hearts or at best to the blindness of their own reason what a wilderness are you in here you are to prove that no commanded proportion in a Ministers maintenance is accepted by God in Gospel times and your reason is no service uncommanded is accepted you adde also going on as in a Maze but that which the Teaching of the Spirit brings forth in the Faithful Why the Teachings of the Spirit bring forth a conscientious obedience to Scripture Commands that we affirme in this very case will not God accept of it for the Scripture Laws sake sure in writing these things you were not well in your mind And so much of Scripture grounds against the Commanded proportion Your reasons follow why that was done which was never done all Stints removed and men left to their own minds and hearts I might well spare them for it is in vain to examine the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not But you and yours shall never have cause to say that any thing produced stands unanswered P. 19. your reasons are not to ensnare his Ministers with lucre a sin indeed inconsistent with the duty of a Minister but hath God ever told us that a set maintenance would make men Covetous and that therefore he hath removed it not a word well yet strong grounds for this are brought from reason if any sound one we will hear that too no such thing neither how then answer you this shew it if you can why by the experience of ages nay that will not prove the point if Ministers be coveteous the cause is not without in evil Laws but within them in evil hearts take those hearts away and let the Laws stand Ministers will not be covetous take away the Laws and let the hearts remain they will be coveteous still nay more for the more uncertainty of their Provisions the more will coveteousness distrust God the more greedily will it take where it hath an opportunity the more will it quarrel at the straitness of mens purses the more will it look upon other mens goods with an evil eye the more unlimited will desire range having no bounds from God or man the more niggardly will it be in spending as not having any certainty of more coming in when this is gone Every Minister will not do thus should we be left at uncertainties but every covetous Minister would yet what if your experience of ages should prove partly frivelous and partly slanderous For this man propound to make their Sons Scholars and blessed be God a certain subsistence encourages then so to do but do all design to make them rich assuredly they shall lay out five hundred l. upon that design this way most unwisely to make them serviceable to God and live honestly they may but this no coveteousness 't is their flat duty If a Parson be sick what riding and running c. if from a people blessed be their hearts who are so careful of their own souls and blessed be the heart of that Patron who is as tender as such a people as if he were in their stead if from Ministers and their Friends 1 Tim. 3.1 no such hainous crime neither if the desire be well grounded yet in my Observation I have seen more good people inquire where they shall find a good Minister then good Ministers where they shall a find good people or a rich either In our striving for Parliament men the word was Is he for Tithes if he be let us all voice for him and pray was not your word Is he against Tithes we may keep our own better without coveteousness then you can pull away what is not your own without coveteousness Yet what Minister was so indiscreet as to use those words I know not frivolous are these slanders that you adde of men of vast estates if I am concerned in this I am sorry my vast Estate is such an eye sore to you I would you were lesse coveteous then it would not be so yet if a Poor needy Farmer I have taken you for a Farmer but for a poor needy one I never took you for cannot in conscience trust me I doubt that yet if you should tell your Land-lord you cannot in conscience pay him Rent I doubt he would not take himself bound to to accept of that answer for the laying in Prison it is not come to that show your Title to the goods you unrighteously detain and if the resolution of Justice go on my side I shall afterwards consider what mercy to show you in the mean time know that the Warrants which have been out against you have been for contemning and rebelling against the Lawful Commands of Authority requiring your appearance to show cause why you detain the goods in question in your hands 1 Pet. 3.13 which thing no wit of man can excuse from sin the rest of being worse then
with such jeers as this or which they please to gnash their teeth I say no more to this businesse then thus much That Ministers and Subjects are the same persons though under different Relations both in the duties that belong to each agreeing very well together and no good subject can from the supposition of the one infer the denial of the other It is the very Argument upon which Papists ground the Exemption of their Priests from the Jurisdiction of Princes Pray do you forbear it lest you make your self as bad a subject as they P. 17 13. If it be Civil or Common it may be done or left undone till the Magistrate compell it and then it must be done What strange work have we here a Civil or common thing who would joyn those two words together to signifie one and the same thing but my Neighbour especially when the common thing is explained by a thing indifferent which may be done or undone till the stamp of Authority set upon it make it necessary What are all Civil things such that Ministers maintenance must needs be such among the rest if it come under a civil Sanction Well fare your heart however when you acknowledge that the stamp of the Magistrates power added to indifferent things makes them necessary But hath the Magistrate no power to set the stamp of his Authority upon things necessary Are all things that come within his reach such as may be done or left undone till he make Lawes about them I had thought that the great work of the Judicial Lawes was to be a fence about the Moral and that the main work of Magistrates was To be a terrour to evil doers and to be for the praise of them that doe well the Rule of which doing well or ill is the Law of God The best excuse for these things is that you wrote at random and mended not what you wrote And that will further appear if we take notice that this very foul mistake does most dangerously wound that very cause for which it is asserted For is it not your Doctrine That the determinate proportion of what is to be paid to Ministers is nowhere commanded by God if so then though a maintenance is due yet this or that proportion is indifferent may be done or left undone and another chosen Will not now the resolution of this quota pars according to your very rule belong to the Magistrate as a thing indifferent The Consequence then to be heeded will not be if Magistrates please Christs Ministers shall have a maintenance and if they so please they shall have none But if Magistrates please they shall have this maintenanance in particular or if this please not another the determination of which indifferent thing supposing it so to be some men think will better become a faithful upright Magistrate then the very best of our people who are the persons must pay what is so determined I hope we shall hear of this Argument no more which is apparently false and destructive to civil government in the proposition and in the consequence cuts the throat of that cause for which it is produced P. 11. In the last place Scriptures are produced against compulsion as they which hinder the Gospel and make it chargeable to which purpose are alledged 1 Cor. 9.15 16 17 18. 2 Cor. 9.7 and 2 Thes 3.8 9. All which places speak not of the Magistrates power in making Lawes P. 23. but of the Ministers duty of remitting his maintenance due any how from a people whether by a Law of mans or by the free contribution of the people your self acknowledge they do immediatly concern this so are not at all material to our persent question for they are two things The stating of a mans right by Law which we speak of now And the recovery of those rights so stated by him whose they are They are just Lawes by which a Landlord may recover his Rent of his Tenant yet there may be many cases wherein the Landlord may abuse his power in the use of it to the hinderance of the Gospel So is it in an higher degree here Yet he that would make Pauls example even as himself commends it to the Elders of Ephesus who were not so far as we know extraordinarily gifted nor did receive help from other Churches so far as we know both which are considerable differences in Pauls example had need consider well that he make the cases alike Acts 20.34 35. He must suppose a people newly brought to the Faith of Christ a Minister contesting with false Apostles whose glory it was to preach freely Where note Neighbour That it is the character of a false Apostle to Preach taking nothing and of it to glory and a Minister enabled by skill in an ingenuous Trade to earn his bread without destroying his bodily health 2 Cor. 11.12 Where no publick maintenance is already set apart for this Service which is the Ministers propriety and no mans else this is our case but was not Pauls P. 9. Acts 18.3 nor the Elders of Ephesus We covet no mans silver but allow every man to take a moderate share in what is ours and allow it most contentedly without grudging it them For my part God knowes my sincerity Whether this be not beyond Pauls Example let others judge And yet then when the cases are made the same if it were possible what would Pauls Example binde to onely thus much to deny our selves in the possession and use of our Right upon weighty considerations for the Gospel sake not in the right and title that was eagerly stood to by him and not denied by them Now it hath been the matter of Right hath been in question between you and I not the exacting of the use of this right where it is acknowledged and this is none of mine the Apostle durst not give up his right to a maintenance neither dare I to this Adde as the Close of all that whereas 2 Cor. 8. and 2 Cor. 9. are chiefly alledged against a constrained maintenance by the Civil Magistrates Authority they doe directly belong to provisions for the poor onely by consequence if at all of that above provisions for Ministers Now if the Magistrate determine any thing as to us whom the places concern not but by consequence you obey not whereas if the Magistrate determine any thing as to the poore of whom the places alledged speak directly you resist not so far as ever I heard none of you Now what perversness is this Consider your wayes I have with most punctual exactnesse considered all that hath the least shew of a reason against the Power and Duty of the Civil Magistrate The Lord help you to a clear understanding to discern the exceeding emptiness and insufficiency of them and to an humble heart that you may be willing upon so plain and full a discovery to lay aside your Errour The matter is of very
with other names and go on with their serpents vipers filthy beasts dogs and such names as these innocent meek ones please to give us the Magistrate in the mean time clapping all sides on the back only holding a sword between them to keep them asunder and who can expect but these two Seas should in time meet in one and that then words should be turned to blowes and we dealt with as those noysome creatures we are likened to are wont to be This they would doe becoming Papists though they were meeker then they are turn the lamb into a wolf and it wil devour flesh though it do not now And if we tolerate not the name of Popery it will be smally to our relief if we tolerate the thing names shed no blood Look to it therefore ye Magistrates supream and subordinate drive away those blood-sucking Leeches out of the Nation under what favour'd disguise soever you finde them Let not those frogs of Egypt creep into your Life-guard and Bed-chamber Papists have under every government shewed us where they intend to begin Let not Queen Esther think to escape when her fellow Jews are massacred But why should we be enemies to the liberty of mens consciences especially we that are so lately come out of bondage our selves what a tyranny is it to bereave men of that precious freedome which is purchased for them by the blood of Christ It is so indeed and if this be such a freedome as is purchased by Christs blood we have done and shall never speak more against mens enjoying the sweet benefit of it But did ever Christ purchase a freedom for us from those commands of men that require us to doe our duty did he do so to servants or children or wives that he should he thought to doe so to subjects 1 Pet. 2.15 There were such ignorant and malicious ones that thought so in the Apostles time too but Christian freedome was not to be abused so What does the grace of the Gospel intend to make us men of Belial lawless and without a yoke to believe what we list and doe and speak in matters of Religion what we list why not a freedome to murder adultery treason as well Is it not as likely that Christs blood should be shed for these as for blasphemy against his own person These are sad reasonings from men of wisedome the Lord in mercy answer them that men may once learn the truth of such maxims as these That it is mans greatest slavery to be free to sin That gevernment is in vain appointed if men may doe and speak what they please under it That there is a great difference between execution of justice and persecution That Christs blood was shed to make us free to good not free to evil That Christianity diminishes not the just rights of any lawful Superiour nor frees any from a due subjection to the powers over them as it finds in those things so it leaves Saints must be subject as well as other men That though God alone make Lawes to binde mens consciences yet men may guide mens consciences to the obedience of those Lawes and punish the disobeying person though they meddle not with his conscience That it will be no plea allowed at the day of God in matters of sin to say It was my Conscience And if it will not excuse the sinner from Hell he should not have had such a conscience much less ought it to be a plea in the day of man where the penalty is of a lower narure That it is far better to suffer for doing well then not to be restrained from doing ill That Magistrates should have consciences as well as subjects and if it be according to their conscience to be a terrour to evil doers I am sure it should be why may not they plead this freedome of conscience upon the same ground as evil doers plead it that they may goe unpunished If Magistrates omit a known duty they wound their conscience if the evil doer suppose the well doer suffer under the mistake of Magistrates his conscience is not presently wounded here who then should rather of the two be provided for That a Liberty to obey God without fear of man is a choise mercy not so a liberty to disobey God That when Magistrates lay more upon men in matters of Religion then God hath commanded there Liberty of Conscience is a Jewel but where they lay no more then things necessary not so When they can say truly It seemes good to the Holy Ghost no great harm if and to us follow no not from them That it is a more fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God then of a mortal man and that if we did judge our selves we should not be judged We know the Story The Mothers seasonable and sharp correcting her son might have prevented her unprofitable weeping for him when she saw him at the Gallows Thereâ—ore That the allowing every man to worship God peaceably in his own way becomes them onely that suppose every man may be saved in his own Religion living orderly according to the Rules of it and to such the Faith of Christ owes little If this were true it were better be for Mahomet for his Rules afford greater liberty then Christs do But we are as much Hereticks in their eyes as they are in ours It appears so indeed by the language they vouchsafe us But the question is not what either side is named but how justly The Prince is as much a Tyrant in the Assassinates eyes as he is a Traitor in the Princes Strange that we should not transfer the reason of these things as easily and with as little scruples to matters of God as we do to our own But such things are contrary to the light of nature things whereof we speak are only contrary to revealed light the light of Scripture There is a generation that reject this distinction I hope they will expect no benefit by it For others 't is much that the gatherer of sticks on the Sabbath day could not finde out this distinction to save himself from stoning with Have we not as good evidences for the New Testament-doctrine as they had for the old The Doctrine of the Gospel is revealed sufficiently to damn them that will not believe it and may not men be punished on earth for blaspheming it for want of a sufficient Revelation Take heed do not make God unrighteous who taketh vengeance It is as hard a matter to be assured of that Law of Nature No woman but one that it is of God as it is to be assured of that Law of Scripture No Mediatour but one that this is of God Let any man compare the Evidences for both and he will quickly see this is truth and yet the adultery of having two wives is justly punished with death What man can see so much of the Law of Nature written in his own heart as he may see
of it written in Scripture let him adde the help of all the great Masters of Nature that ever wrote in the world Rom. 7.7 Paul was of our mind in this thing when he tels us he had not known sin but by the Law And Scripture is clearer in that which is knowable onely by revealed light then it is in that which in part is also knowable by the light of Nature if in any thing it exceed its self in clearness True but men know not Scripture so well as they might and they must be acquainted with this greater Light else it will not condemn them Not know Scripture we know them that scorn to be pleaded for thus they will tell you none know Scipture but they But what do they not know Not that there is but one Christ that we are purchased by the blood of God that to lye against the Holy Ghost is a lye against God c. We speak not of things doubtfully defined or of tolerable differences in the less vital parts of Religion Men here may be ignorant of Scripture and God forbid we should stir up Magistrates against them if they would hold peaceableness and unity but are they ignorant of such things as these how dare they how can they will God take this at their hands for a sufficient answer and in their ignorance will they venture to blaspheme too May not some Ranter with as good Arguments plead that Adultery is no sin and Levellers that to overthrow all propriety is no sin and Traitors that to assassinate Magistrates is no sin will ignorance excuse here They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them We are under the highest dispensation for the attaining of knowledge and by it eternal life already If therefore men hear not these we may well conclude Neither will they be saved though one rise from the dead But these are innocent creatures hurt no body with their evil 't is to themselves and there is none the worse for it Most false this of the smallest Errour that is much more of those soule enormous ones against the first Principles of the Gospel Why should God be provoked and his vengeance brought upon the Nation Is it not evil that the Word loseth its Authority upon sinners to their eternal undoing through the perpetual violent clamours of contradicting men That Gods worship is visibly and professedly despised with that impudence as no Turk almost durst doe the like That thousands of well-meaning people are drawn aside to the hazard of their soules That mutual evil speakings estrangements oppositions heart-burnings boiling up the more for a State-connivance prepare for civil Combustions and letting one another blood That all offices of mutual love are forgotten The great Gospel-law of Unity broken and we that live but two fields asunder should be as far from one another when call'd to assist in any work of mercy for common good as if we liv'd at a hundred miles distance Pray why was Hymenaeus delivered to Satan I would they were even cut off that trouble you 1 Tim. 1.20 Gal. 5.12 What a word is this against false Teachers Surely Paul was too surly he was not merciful enough to tender Consciences What need all that art in 2 Cor. against false Teachers good men they were for Christ as well as he only for Heresie and Division too Why should Christ threaten the 7 Churches of Asia so sharply Teaching Jezebel a Prophetess what harm had she don that her children should be killed with death See pray False Doctrine was the sin of those Churches Christ himself was the Threatner he hath executed those threatnings long since Laodicea is not to be found upon the face of the earth 't is swallowed up under ground so spewed out of the mouth of Christ too So great an enemy to tender Consciences is Christ himselfe To teach us all what a kind of mercy it is to spare Jesuits and such Malefactors as are worse then Jesuits for the whole Nation to be involved in the curse of God and Christ The Ministers third Plea for his Portion The Right of Donation I Am now at last arrived at the last of our Pleas for the right of Tithes my Neighbours own beloved free will-offering the Plea I have alone insisted upon to him it being with me a Rule that if the same things may be obtained upon pâ—inciples not controverted I would never trouble men with those that were I have found successe in so doing with other persons in other matters blessed be God but have been extreamly unhappy with my Neighbour in this he it seems interpreting my peaceable forbearance of things controverted to be from an inward conviction of the badness of the cause I was engaged in and for filthy lucres sake was resolved to persist in and defend as well as I could however the relieving of him from those uncharitable thoughts hath been the design of what hath been said upon the two former Arguments that he may know there is enough from both to bottom a good conscience on it what I have done and do I have little to say to this third because there is little said against it P. 10. if it were so sayes my Neighbour I must resign it and yet himself shows us not one word to prove it was so 〈◊〉 â—â—mself gives us some instances publick and private to prove at was so yea the most part of that little answer he gives runs upon the supposition that it was so as that it was out of a Popish perswasion that they were given by the Law of God c. yet he resignes not though himself acknowledge he must if it be so which he contradicts not by one Argument to the contrary nay he supposes nay he proves To what purpose then my Christian Friend that wild extravagant discourse of Tyrant Kings giving away what 's none of their own yet conquest upon a righteous War is a just Title though William was no Conquerour held not his Crown by that Title much lesse does Oliver Protector The Beast Rev. 13. and the Whore c. 17. what come they in for Do they prove themselves the Beasts off-spring by freely giving their own and the Whores by taking what is freely given Remember man 't is the Right of Donation is now stood upon which you reply to Why should I mind King Henry VIII suppressing the Popes supremary and taking it to himself or our reverend Fathers the Bishops the Lords Bishops What 's all this to the Title of Free Donation and what is this better before God think you then the hood c. This what Free Gift Is this also from that Holy Father the Pope What have we here to do with Henry the VIII P. 11. P. 11. taking of Parsonages with Princes Laws or Popes workings Our Flock if Faithful will be a willing people they have been so have freely given it is not left to the Magistrates pleasure Princes and people have freely
no Martyrs Look your Book and see but all within the communion of Rome were so What Record have you for this who sayes so besides your self none doubtless but they who are wont to ask us where our Church was before Luther Our common answer to that Popish taunt is point-blank contradictory to this Assertion of yours it was where it is now for all was not Popish then Anatomy of the Masse not in their form of worship for did you never hear of the famous Peter Moulins Confutation of Popery out of their own Mass-book much less were all Papists in that communion Is it not known that Luther rising up to preach against the Pope did it plaudente orbe universo the whole world applauding him Did not the Christian world groan under the burden of Popish tyranny and cry out for a free General Council or any effectual meanes of Reformation do not al our Writers against Rome prove by sensible demonstrations that Poperie that now is was but a Faction in the Church bringing in their innovations now one then another till they were advanced into that body they are now in by the Council of Trent yea it was possible that errours creeping in by degrees and not imposed upon any of necessitie should at once carry away all like a floud before them no man opening his mouth nor so much as believing to the contrary where was the voice of the true Shepherd then could Arminianism rush in so upon us in the Bishops times or can it now as it is brought in again at the back door by Sectaries yea do not all know what moderation there was in many of the Trent-Fathers and how many of them were sent away in disgrace all overborn by the violence of the Romish partie If al was Popish what need the Pope fear so much a General Council as he did what need that packing shuffling as was in Trent why so many Italian Bishops many of them titular ones thrust in so much exceeding those from other Nations that they might over-ballance all good motions by their numbers what need things be so strangely carried there that their own friends cried shame of it and the French Nation for a long time rejected it as an unlawful Council and yet this a Conventicle pack'd for the nonce to carry on the Popish cause otherwise great fear lest their cake should have proved dough too Nay when many I know not but all of our Divines doubt not but God hath his company in the midst of Poperie at this day now that so considerable Bodies of Nations are departed from them and they as evil men seducers are wont to do wax worse and worse and they think Rev. 18.4 leads them plainly to be of that minde yet this man makes no bones of concluding concerning the former much better times of Romish communion that all was Popish then Not likely such considerable bodies should have fallen off from them at the time of Reformation and no doubt of them that shook their heads at the Romish abominations yet durst not depart from that Communion Erasmus was not the man only neither I have found perverse men ready to say any thing rather then let go an errour they have once espoused Let it not be so with you Neighbour I am assured you wrote this inconsiderately rashly and headily as you have many things in this Book besides It is certainly untrue and most dishonourable to our common Faith no Papist but will be glad of such a concession and no Protestant I think knowing or ignorant ever yielded it but you Let it go for shame and let no more such frantick Assertions fall from you That the Acts and Monuments fetch all their ground for Tithes out of the Mosaical Law does not appear to me I finde little disputed for tithes and two Martyrs Walt. Brate in Rich. 2. time and William Thorp in Henry 4. time disputing against it the former against the necessitie of them the later against the lawfulness in both little is said in their behalf only one word from the Arch-Bishop to Thorp is of any weight Thou wouldst hereby make the Old Law more free and perfect then the New Law and this is a New-Testament Argument I finde also King Ethelstanes gift there Recorded and for it alledged Jacobs vow a place in Matth. and a sentence much used by the Fathers If thou withhold from God the tenth he will withhold from thee the other nine or to that purpose But the Mosaical Law I finde not urged by any much less that only Other things are said that not at all yet I may be deceived something may escape my hastie search you may perhaps finde that ground elsewhere yet that ground is not all if anywhere at all herein your relation must be blamed So when it is said a King at his death-bed gave to the Priests that then were I cannot certainly say no yet I doubt this is not so they were wont to give to God and the Church and that it was out of a Popish perswasion that they were due by the Law of God I want your proof for the fact you did ill you set it not down For the Charter of England it onely confirms the Rights and Liberties that were then known and had of which Tithes at that time were an undoubted part but expresses not them nor any ground of them much less was the Mosaical Law the ground and all the ground What meant you to affirm an untruth where it is so easie to find you out The Tithing-table of England is a Book I never saw and you have not seen this seven years that in it the Mosaical Law should be the only ground is incredible and if it should prove true either you have a very good memorie or write at random true or false at a venture But be this so they pleaded the Mosaical and that onely yet all the Mosaical Law is not Ceremonial Tithes may be morally due out of the Mosaical Law and if so for what you have demonstrated to the contrary this may have pleaded right But that we have done with suppose the ground of the Plea whatever it was to be naught yet it follows not that the obeyers of that Councel acted upon those grounds I have not found any certain evidence of such a thing and the Lawes about Woodland c. the prevailing customes in so many places about the manner of Tithing cutting the Minister short of a precise Tenth are evidences that the Divine Right of Tithes was not so much regarded by the Donors and Confirmers of them Yet again admit Priests so pleaded for them and people so gave them will the Donation therefore fall to the ground frame it then into a general rule All those deeds of gift which are granted upon a mistaken perswasion are ipso facto void and of no force Do you not see this a manifest untruth power to give and power to receive will