A Discourse OF PAYING OF TITHES By T.L. M.A. Pastour of the Church of Christ at Tavistock in Devon Together with an APPENDIX by way of Apology for the seasonableness thereof LONDON Printed by T.R. E. M. and are to be sold by Francis Eglesfield at the signe of the Marygold in Pauls Church-yard 1656. TO HIS Highness THE Lord PROTECTOUR OF The Common-wealth of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND May it please your HIGHNESSE THAT Gods Holy Morall Law may be duly observed Christian Liberty not encroached upon the inward Man commanded by Trueth and Toleration tolerable be tolerated is the designe of this short ensuing discourse It had its conception many Moneths ago and was intended for the late Supream Authority of this Common-wealth of England but now it casts it self before your Highness whom God hath raised up and into whose hands power and opportunities are put to bring great designes into action This is your day to honour him eminently by whom Kings Reign and Princes decree judgement The brood of Travellours returned Exlies must be served too for Christ's sake who is their Lord and yours That it is a piece of your work to take away Snares that have been spread in the way of Saints and yet ly unremoved I humbly suppose you know much better than I can tell These Lines rightly understood refin'd and observed may be a Cloud like a Mans hand for further fruitful Rain that your day may not slip to you or slide too fast for us is the prayer of your Highness humble servant THOMAS LARKHAM CHAP. I. Containeth the Preface or Introduction IT is and hath been often in my thoughts to communicate mine Apprehensions touching that Ball of Contention and rock of offence and snare to tender Consciences the payment of Tithes as now they are payable and required by Law of the Inhabitants of Towns and Villages within this Common-wealth This is looked upon by some as a very great burden to the people of these Nations and not only so but as a great Let to the People of God whereby they are kept from or disabled in the doing of their dutie to them that teach them in the Word and in doing good to all especially to the Houshold of Faith as Stewards of what the Lord hath entrusted them with especially as some hold of the Tenth of their Estate judged to be the Lords portion by a moral Law though not primarily as neither is the Law of a seventh dayes Sabbath Now say many when men are enforced to pay Tithes to Nobles Gentlemen Colledges or such Ministers as are thrust upon them by corrupt Patrons or otherwise and whom they cannot look upon as their Pastours sent of God and set over them regularly hereby they are put out of their way and the Lords portion goeth not the right way but is diverted out of its proper chanel in the judgment of such as hold Tithes due by divine Right which are not inconsiderable either for number judgment and learning or piety And say others otherwise judgemented it is a burden which we hoped the shedding of so much blood and expending such summes of money would long before now have freed us from but we are as we were alas an old penny for a new and scarce that Now I shall humbly propose a few considerations in order to the removal of these inconveniences and for direction or advice to the giving of content to all considerable Complainants being for my part one of them that do judge the Tenth part of Estate and Seventh of time to be holy to the Lord And that those confusions which Antichrist his followers have brought upon the face of the Christian World may be taken away and Gospel-worship be ordered in moral duties thereunto belonging according to the will and mind of God and our Father whose rules we ought to walk by in all observance both to him and our neighbours And if this be a trueth which I know no learned Man to doubt of that the subject matter of Church-admonitions and Proceedings is Bonum malum rectum iniquum pium impium that is to say Good to be observed and evil to be avoided why should not Christs own way be walked in for the effecting of these things in his Church and the particular Congregations thereof throughout the Common-wealth And if it be a sin even for Magistrates and Sword-men Vzzah-like to cart the Ark of God and pretend to keep it from falling without call and rule how much more to protect sacriledge and countenance Antichristian disorders or at least as others that are not of my mindhold to continue to force the People of God to pay Tithes unto them that may as well by a civil Law require Bullocks Goats and Lambes c. for sacrifices or instead thereof or any such thing of Religious off-spring from Christians Jewes or Heathens We find in the stories of the Church that this wicked practice of diverting Tithes out of their due course was first practised by Romane Popes when they were come to that incorrigible pride and liberty to do all things as they pleased Then began they by all oppressing power to grant first exemptions and afterward impropriations transferring Tithes from one to another And so in processe of time when althings were ready merchandise for them that brought most no marvel that the portion of the Lord which was to be payd by divine Rule to Church-officers in their particular Congregations and disposed of by them in relation to the particular charges were taken from them as now they are kept from them and either bestowed upon the Popes kinsmen the lazy Monkes or else some such as could make best friends with any of the Popes creatures were exempted from paying any thing at all And upon the dissolution of those irreligious houses you cannot be ignorant how many filled their Mawes and rode up to the very Horse bridles into those spoils when those dens of theeves were routed Now because the Lords portion seized upon as I said before lay among the devoted things all was taken together and made good prize And because 't was so it must be so or else say our wise Men Children of these Ancestours Purchasers of these Tithes will be wronged if they may not enjoy that which they or their Fathers purchased But in other things they have a proverb Caveat Emptor and a man may seize on his stollen Horse wheresoever he find it and sometimes an honest mao may be in danger of his life for buying it though meaning no harm Why then should not the Lords portion berescued and restored to him And yet other things I shall briefly lay down in order to the making this good That Tithes as now payd are sinfully exacted and received and that the payment of them this way is injurious burthensome sacreligious or at least an hinderance to the performance of Christian dutie according to Gods Law CHAP. II. The main argument is taken from referring
the duty of paying of Tithes unto its proper Law and here is a short discourse of Lawes COncerning Lawes I will for brevities sake referre them to three Heads Divine Civil Canon By Canon Lawes I mean the decrees of Councels which were of great force when the mysterie of iniquitie was grown ripe By Civil Lawes I mean Princes Constitutions and Acts of Parliament Now that Tithes did not receive their original from either of these Lawes were very easy to make good For we find in Histories that Tithes were more duly more orderly and more sincerely payd before the Canon Law was invented then ever they were since and that they were not anciently due by the Civil Law and Princes constitutions till now of late years is more then evident And we know how generally Tithes have been held due throughout all the Christian World And we know no one Prince hath power over all Christian Lands And therefore it remaines that if Tithes be payable at all in Gospel times it must be by the Law of God and from it their due must take it's rise Now the Law of God is either Moral Judicial or Ceremonial these things are known to every abcedarian in Divinitie The work next will be to place the paiment of Tithes in its proper form that we may by help of its proper scituation see the dutie of Princes and Parliaments to help the Lord against the Mighty and to cause usurping Cesars to let alone that which belongeth to God and to take that which is their own Then will not men be so earnest to keep up Tithes as they are now paiable nor make such hideous cryes as they do set a work by such of Elies House as know the Lord hath not owned them and therfore desire not maintenance in his way According to those threesorts of Lawes before-mentioned there are three several opinions among men that are called Christians The first that I wil speak of as being the newest and weakest is that Tithes became payble by the Ceremonial Law Now what is Ceremonial is either so Levitically which all ceremonies are not for there was sacrificing and other ceremonies in use before the Levitical Order or else those ceremonies that were so in use before Now if Tithes be Levitically ceremonial then before the Levites they had no being or use at all But if any shall say they were ceremonial before the Law as sacrifices were in use and ceremonial before they were Levitical viz. before those particular Ordinances for the manner of sacrificing were commanded and therefore so ceremonial I answer this is very plausible and probable viz. that Tithes were ceremonies before the Law as well as sacrifices and that certain particular Ordinances of paying them to the Levites or the assignation of them to that worship of God which was then in use may be called a Levitical constitution But to make this opinion good ungainsayably and to make the paying of Tithes and offering of sacrifices to agree compleately we must enquire into two things first the Propriety secondly the end of both Sacrifices and Tithes For the first the propriety of Sacrifices is not the Lords untill they are once offered to him and till that time he hath the right and propriety in those things that is about to sacrifice them But in Tithes man hath no right at all because they are all the Lords In Sacrificing man sanctifieth of his own to God which before offering is his own and if he should not offer it remaineth his own still but paying of Tithes is not a giving but a rendring to God that which was his before not to sacrifice is ungodliness not to pay Tithes is injustice also Therefore forasmuch as a ceremony standeth in giving to God what is a mans own not what is Gods before paying of Tithes cannot be a ceremony Secondly if we look to the end of a Sacrifice it did signifie and type out the great Sacrifice upon the Crosse it was a carnal type of that holy Sacrifice and was to have an end when that should be exhibited and indeed the end of all ceremonies was to signifie something But who can shew such an end of paying Tithes or indeed any other end then Maintenance of the Ministery before the Law and under the Law with some particular additional constitutions and claimed and challenged in the times immediately succeeding the Apostles and by the consent of all or the most Christians yielded to Tithes were the Lords before he assigned them to Levi. Object All things are the Lords Sol. In another sense then Tithes are All things are the Lords as he created them and as by his Power he Rules over all and as all owe him duty and homage But Tithes are said to be the Lords in respect of and by immediate right more then the other nine parts as the seventh-Seventh-day is his more then the other six We might argue also from the definition of a Levitical ceremonie and make a long discourse but the end of my writing is not to prove Tithes due so much as to shew which is the way to help thē that fear the Lord to be able to give God his due which must be by the power of a Law taking away Tithes as now they are challenged and payed rather to the Devil then to God at the best to men upon a civil account which is a snare to many a gracious soul There is a second Opinion that Tithes were payd among the Jews by a judicial Law It seemeth to me somwhat absurd that Holy things and Worship should be referred to judicials And besides they that have read Histories know that this is an invention of the Popish Schoolemen and though it be elder then the former Opinion that Tithes were ceremonial yet it is but at most four hundred years old and was thought upon to excuse the Romish sacriledge of appropriating parochial Tithes to the Popes kinsmen Abbots and Monks as D. John Reynolds upon Obadiah notably sheweth For after the Pope had through corruption made Tithes away from their proper charges to salve it this errour was devised and this is the second Opinion The last and most likely to be true for I determine not absolutely is that Tithes are the Lords and belong to such as are employed about his worship morally and that to maintaine Ministers is a part of the worship of God for so Jacob did worship God Gen. 28.22 and that such as withdraw themselves from this duty by withdrawing maintenance from Ministers are robbers of God Malachy 3.8 and mockers of God Gal. 6.6 7. And here I might make work had I time and skill and an inclination to make a Treatise of Tithes to shew you the various Opinions that are now in England concerning Ministers and their maintenance Some scarce allowing any use of a Ministry or Ordinances others granting reasonable competent maintenance to be meet to be allowed Others pleading hard for the continuance of Tithes as they are
as it is written of the Governors of Judah Zach. 12.6 Will be like a heath of fire among wood and like a torch of fire in a sheaf and devoure all that stands against it on the right hand and on the left But to the matter in hand For the point of taking away tythes as now they are required and many molested and grieved in spirit some even precious ones for being unwilling to pay them as now made payable and yet made by force so to do I say for this I suppose I shall have many approvers of what I write among such as pretend to the exactest Reformation But the other branch of my assertion will not so easily go down with them Well if it will not yet I hope yet they will not be uncharitable of me that write what I judge to be true and what I think more Saints will see to be a truth shortly In the meane time however I trust that all that have the face of Religion will be loâ—th under a Gospel dispensation shining as the Sun in its strength to be worse and more backward to Minister to the Lord of their substance then the Jewes were who lived under such dark Typical and umbratical administrations And in the meane time I hold forth no other compulsories to be made use of but such as are to work upon conscience for these are the weapons Ministers and Churches must make use of judging such for my part as can finde in their heart to neglect expresse commands of Scripture concerning Ministers maintenance and distributing to the necessities of the Saints yea of any that are in want to be unmeet for communion in Church-Ordinances And let such as will not hear the Church know that the Lord is coming Doubtlesse did Ministers and Saints wield and look upon spiritual weapons with faithful hands and awful eyes there would more be done in souls I meane borne of the spirit incomparably then by all the force of an arme of flesh can ever be expected But I am afraid many Ministers had rather serve the State for visible shpends then Jesus Christ upon Scripture pay which is one maine cause I am perswaded though they shall surely answer for it that so use us that we are so vile and contemptible among the people But some objections are to be answered Obj. 1 Obj. 1. As first that this Nation is uncapable of this way and work there being so many in it whose estates are upon the matter made up of tythes c. and therefore it is at least unseasonable though possibly taking away of tythes as now payable may be effected in time to come Sol. Sol. To which I answer that the Scripture gives us many examples of such as have acted by halves about necessary works upon reasons of State and grounds of policy who have alwayes found at last it had been better for them to have walked exactly and to have done to the utmost what God would have had them to do A grave wise counsel was led into a very ill practice to wit to Vote the Son of God to death upon a reason of policy John 11.47 onward in divers verses And besides we have had experience that some have let slip opportunities and nicks of time wherein they might have done great things which they could never recover again Now therefore while the spirits of the most of the godly in the Land are and have beene upon this point of extirpation of this root of mischief which lieth in the way of advancing Gospel-reformation paying of tythes I mean as they are now required to be paid it seems to me to be the duty of all so farre as in them lieth to promote this work before the door be fully shut and God disowne the present actors for want of faith courage diligence and sincerity And although a sentence of death seem to be passed already upon Christs cause in this particular yet we should not flinch or be discouraged as long as there is any the least possibility of doing good And lastly the procrastinating of a work which God hath marked our to be now to be done by the votes of his sealed ones in all places is a very great offence As in Haggai's time the work of building of the Temple was put off under pretence the time was not come Hag. 1.2 for which they are sharply reproved Obj. 2 Obj. 2. But it may further be objected that the greatest wisest and most learned in the Land cry shame of such motions and some that have beene forward this way have now learned more wit and are as much against it as ever they were for it c. Sol. Sol. True it is Gods works though in their season have seldome found the friendship of great ones Truths of God especially touching upon interests are a continual offence to the great men of this world Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed in him was thought a good plea in Christs time Not many wise not many mighty not many noble in Pauls time It is not long agone I taught out of this Scripture But their Nobles put not their neck to the work of their God I confesse this is a great discouragement to many Men of princely race noble blood great parts are not usually saved first The Lord shal save THE TENTS of Judah first Zach. 12.7 And therefore I am not utterly cast down to see many great and learned ones withdrawing their hands from Gods work But I humbly propound two things First whether Moral precepts are out of date I hope none think so that resolve that Christ is Lord and King of his Church and that Morals are of eternal verity 'T is true I confesse that neither this Law of Decimation or tythes nor yet that of a Septimarian Sabbath are primarily Moral but that they are secundarily and positively Moral I have formerly proved for the one and judge so of the other though it be not my present work now to meddle with it And I am perswaded many that dislike my way of handling this matter are yet clear enough of the same judgement with me viz. that tythes are the Lords portion and due Jure Divino Then secondly I humbly demand whether there can be greater evidence that this is a truth of God about removing what hindereth the practising of it I meane then have beene in our age when the spirits of men are raised to obey Christ in all things and to follow the Lamb whither soever he goeth For although it be true that much darknesse is among the godly party about the latter part of my Thesis that tythes are holy to the Lord Morally yet for the catching and snatching of them which is now in use and the compelling of people to give not to Caesar only but to Nobles Lawyers persecutors of the power of godliness and I know to whom else that which is Gods I am perswaded it is generally condemned in the hearts and spirits of