Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	people_n	time_n	14,554	5	3.5851	3	false

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

but in the Ages past since the Apostacy have for Conscience sake born their Testimony against TYTHES Wherein is Demonstrated That it is directly contrary to Christ's Commission given to his Ministers and contrary to the Apostles Practice Occasioned through C. N's Unreasonable and Unchristian like Contending for the Lawfulness of Tythes By G. W. a Lover of the Truth He that Justifieth the Wicked and he that Condemneth the Just are both an Abeminaiion to the Lord Prov. 17. 15. Printed in the Year 1673. TYTHES No Gospel-Ordinance MAN by Wisdom knows not God neither can the Things of God be found out by Man's Wisdom but are altogether hid from it they are of too pure a Nature for that Eye to see or for that Heart to receive But there is an Eye that God in his Loving-kindness has opened that can with great Delight behold those Glorious Truth● that he has promised and there is a Heart that can Rejoyce in the sensible Feeling of the opening of that Wisdom that the World by all their Wisdom cannot see or know This was it that caused Abraham to Rejoyce who saw the Day of Christ his Eye affected his Heart he rejoyced at what he saw and blessed Paul counted all things Loss in respect of this True Wisdom and Knowledge which only is to be found in Christ Jesus through the Death of the Cross which crucifies unto all this World's Wisdom and Glory so that Death having past thereon that New Life may be witnessed wherein all things become New and into this Life hath the Lord our God begotten a Remnant which are accounted to him for a Generation unto whom he has revealed his Counsels and his Wisdom is with them and by it are they made able to judge of things that differ and in which Judgment we certainly find where Men's Standings are the Lord being come in Numbers of his Saints to Judge the Inhabitants of the Earth so it was in the Apostles dayes and so it is now in the True Church For the Spiritual Man judgeth all things yet is ●e Judged of no Man and without all Doubt the Apostle in those Dayes by the Wise Men of this World was esteemed a Boaster yet was he certain of what he said knowing that in the True Wisdom of the Spirit of God they could fathom all Men but could not be fathom'd by them that were out of this Wisdom The Wisdom of the Servants of the Lord is in the Light from above but the others is in the Darkness from below which cannot comprehend the Light nor those that live therein Yet Vain Man in this Fallen Wisdom will be a Judging and speaking Evil of the things he knows not among whom is found C. N. although to his great Infamy and Confusion who has wedded the Cause that Antichrist by his Servants has supported against the true Christians in many Ages and hath justified that Ungodly Generation condemned the Generation the Righteous who in the Patience of the Lamb and in his Living Testimony have born their Testimony against that Carnal Imposition and Maintenance of Tythes as do testifie Records in Ecelesiastical Matters witness that Truly Noble-Minded William Thorpe who among the rest of the Testimonies he had for the Lord this was one against Tythes he lived in the dayes of Henry the 4th of England and was persecuted by Thomas Arundell the then Arch Bishop of Canterbury a Man highly infamous for his Envy to the Truth and to those that followed the Lord according to the Measure of Light they had then received where Thorpe openly declared That although Tythes were brought in and ordained by Gregory the 10th yet it was not consonant nor agreeable to Truth nor the Practice of the Apostle Paul whose Example saith he all ought to follow even as he was a Follower of Jesus Christ who received no Tythes neither did his Disciples but God opened the Hearts of those they went unto so that they had no Lack and some wrought with their Hands that so the Gospel might not be thought Burthensom by any such Care took they of the Gospel The whole Discourse of William Thorpe with Thomas Arundell touching this Matter would be too tedious to insert here although it is truly deserving our Knowledge and may be found at large in Fox's Acts and Monuments in his Universal History fol. 669 700. Thus we may perceive that the Honest-hearted not only in this Age but in several Ages have born their Testimony 〈◊〉 this settled and forced Maintenance as being bad in its Original and that that is Bad in its Root cannot be Good in its Fruits It was a Work brought forth in the fallen Wisdom because directly Contrary to that Way that Christ ordered his Ministers to walk in for when they were to go forth they were not to make any Provision but to relie on the Lord that sent them forth and when they returned their Answer was That they lacked nothing And the Apostles who were the true Ministers in the true Church followed the same Example who had the Lord to take Care of them who alwayes takes Care of his own But the Wisdom of this World hath fashioned out to it self a Church some after one Fashion some after another so that the whole of their Inventions makes up a Spiritual Babel and all her Likenesses and Imitations are truly discerned by those that follow the Lamb her gilded Cup cannot deceive them the Elect of God cannot be deceived it is not possible they should neither canst thee C. N. deceive them although thou appear with a very fine spun Thread of Babel's Wisdom yet in the Wisdom of the Lord which is with his People thou the rest of you that are concerned in this Work are found out weighed in the Ballance of God's Sanctuary found to be of one Spirit with the former Builders of Babel that were in times past whose Names stink to Posterity and thus have brought on your own Heads all the Righteous Blood that hath been shed on this Accompt and it doth cry to God for Vengeance because you have opposed the Righteous Seed in many Ages and still do notwithstanding that the Lord has very eminently appeared for and with his Servants on this Accompt by enabling them in the Virtue of his own life to testifie against the Hireling and his Wayes who cryes to the People Hear the Word of the Lord and they have it not neither hath the Lord sent them But Christ's Sheep knows his Voice and a Stranger they will not follow and therefore it is we cannot follow thee C. N. thy Voice is a Strangers Voice thou savourest not the things that are of God but of the Serpent wherefore we may justly say to thee get thee behind us Satan For what dost thou aim at Is it not to save thy self or is it not that thou wouldst provide for the Hirelings of thy own Fraternity hoping that you shall yet see such dayes as you despise

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

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

and therefore plead for them at a distance but the Lord to his everlasting Praise has delivered us out of the Hand of that Lordizing Generation and hath given unto them the Reward of their Works even Shame and Contempt And Friends and People since we have to do with these Workers in Mystery Babylon if we would know them aright we cannot know them truly but in their Ground in their Rice in that that 's hid like a Snake in the Grass that that covers itself with a Fig Leaf of Self-Righteousness they appear like Sheep but at last manifest themselves to be inwardly Ravening Wolves and secretly smite the Righteou● in the hinder parts as they are in their Travel towards the Holy Land as the Enemies of God and his People did in the dayes of old that Cursed Race of Esau who no doubt could claim some Right in Abraham to be their Father yet they were in one Spirit with the Philistines and would both of them have hindred the true Israelite to enter and enjoy the Possession that God had Provided for them Oh Foolish M●n and Unwise I Know you not that none of your Weapons against God's Inheritance shall prosper And do you Professors still go on from one degree of Wickedness to another till you meet joyntly in Unity of spirit with the Wicked Enemies of God that have been in many ●ges and still are and to strengthen the Hands of those that should be weakened and seek to weaken the Hands of those that should be strengthened the Lord God of our Life that you have opposed will c●●tainly remember you and all you Workers in Mystery Babylon shall be stripped naked to the loathing of your Professions For in you is found the Blood of the Saints you being found in the Unity of spirit with the Former and Latter Persecutors The Day is come that God is revealing the Secrets or Men by his Son Christ Jesus and the hidden things of Babylon which you plead for are brought to Light by the Brightness of his coming from which you cannot be hid And he hath brought in an Everlasting Priesthood and hath put an End to that old Priesthood and its Maintenance which in God's Day and Time was Glorious of which Priesthood you never were and therefore with what Confidence can you plead for that Maintenance that never did the Work of that Priesthood And it is most manifest that that Priesthood is now changed from whence the Apostle pleads a Necessity of a Change of that Law since the Priesthood was changed and you your selves confess that that Priesthood is changed and wherefore then will you plead for keeping that part of the Law the Reason hereof is so manifest that it is Self-Interests that you cannot hide your selves for having not your Call from God to be Ministers you cannot depend on him for a Livelihood and so being unacquainted with the Life of Faith but living in that wisdom that is from below will be assured of that Maintenance And thus 't is plain who it is thar pleads for Tythes it is Man's Self in his fallen Wisdom and if Self be not answered Self will persecute for it if he hath it not and this hath been their Practices for many Ages and still are And further Consider what the Effects of this Settled Maintenance have been all along since this Settled Maintenance was imposed Do not Histories at large acquaint the World with the Clergies unsufferable Pride living in Excess and Wantonness and in the Venities of the Heathen insomuch that those that feared the Lord could do no less then cry out against them and lamented the Cursed Fruits that were produced by this Settled Maintenance of Tythes to be no Preduce of any Gospel-Ordinance but the Invention and Fruits of the Fallen Wisdom of Man and so clearly out of the Way of the Lord 's Ordaining who sent his Ministers out without any of these Provisions and they lacked nothing and that was Christ's Way hereby teaching his Ministers to live by Faith and tha● as they had Freely Received so they were Freely to Give and he that goeth forth otherwise has not Christ's Commission Therefore harken all you that are concerned in this Work with C. N. Consider whom it i● you serve for herein the Lod bears me witness You are of A●tichrist Let your Covers be what they will the Lord by his Spirit hath found you out and you are of that Man of Sin whom Christ has revealed by the Brightness of his Coming and will destroy by the Breath of his Month your Works have been the Works of Babel's Brats whom God hath meeted out for Destruction And Blessed shall those Men be that in pure Love to God have their Hearts sitted as the Spiritual Archers of God to shoot at you oh you Sons of Babel Blessed be our God who hath made our Bow to stand in Strength against you and in the Power of his Might we shall not spare emptying our Quivers at you because God is on our side and in God we believe that in his Strength we shall remain Conquerers For our Faith standeth in the Power of God which Power is over you all This was the Plea of the Wicked in the dayes past We have a Law by which they crucified the just it is the same still with the Children of the same Father when they are argued with in Matters of Tythes by Christian Arguments are put to their Wits End say they We have a Law for our Tythes and we will hav● their and this is that that C. N. has to say They have a Law for it c. But it is evident that this was no Law of Christ's Institution nor of his Apostles whom we are to follow as they were Followers of Christ And further observe That Persecution Pride and Arrogancy and the like have been the Fruits of such as have and do Contend most for it and if according to Christ's Doctrine we are to judge of the Tree by the Fruit this must be an Evil Tree that hath produced such Bad Fruit. But what is the Reason that C. N. with those of his Brotherhood concern themselves now for Tythes They are they that are generally displaced from them But have they not an Eye to Reversion a Hope to get into the Saddle if they could ●et the Riders off And is it not therefore you would keep the Beast in Readiness that you might get on as soon as Occasion shall offer Hath not God let some of you have a Tryal of your Hearts already in such a Condition and who abounded more in Pride and Idleness then your Families Who were Examples of more Vanity then your Wives and Children And are you not the same still where you can And as you then Lordized over such as beard you so do you still if any one do but Contradict you and Conscientiously Contend with you therefore may we not conclude that your Desires to be in the Rooms of those that