a motion till then we require your patience if we hold fast Gods Ordinance and the Ministers just maintenance Further you say Halt no longer between two c. Aeschylus Jasonem ebrium n scena quâdam induxi◠quo vitio laboraba◠ipse poeta tragicus comentitus Heroas Athenae l. 10. c. 7. We must tell you Sir here you entitle us to your own faults as that drunken Poet Aeschylus did the noble hero Jason and other Grecians to his own vices 't is you who halt between Papist and a Schismatical pretender to Reformation So Ahab would have put the crime of troubling Israel on the Prophet of the Lord as for us God knows that our souls desire is to cleave stedfastly unto him and his sacred Ordinances and we have not yet temporized as too many have done God preserving us in our suffering of hard things Is this halting with Sir Gregory Nonsense Next you talk of A more Gospel-like way of maintenance c. To which 't is easily answered that not only you but no Creature Men or Angels of Heaven can prescribe a more Gospel-like way than that which God hath appointed and Christ approved The light which you talk of we own not for such who have a more sure word of Prophesie unto which as unto light that shineth in a dark place we attend until the day dawn As for those ignes fatui of Mens inventions we neither value them nor find any cause to follow them Next you speak of a way to establish the Nation upon a sure foundation of true freedom as to the conscience We say 1. Use not your Liberty for a cloke of malitiousness 2. Beware that you be not of their number of whom the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 2.16 2 Pet. 2.18.19 who when they speak great swelling words of vanity while they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption 3. If you dissemble not but bear good will to your Countries freedom and good conscience we cannot but pitty the seeming disproportion between your zeal and knowledg as we would pitty to see mettle in a blind jade Jer. 15.19 As for giving content to separate Congragations our rule is the same which God of old gave the Prophet Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them And as for satisfying such as are self-excommunicate and divided from the womb of the Church we pitty them but must leave them to Gods tribunal for our selves we have learned of the Apostle Gal. 1.10 If I yet please men I should not be the servant of Christ That on which you spend your Rhetorick about contention for Tythes as if that were a sufficient cause why they should be taken away is very childish Tell me have there not been and still are many bloody contentions about the preaching of the Gospel of Christ What would it be a sure foundation of true freedom as to the conscience to obey the command of those Rulers Elders and Scribes Annas Caiphas c. Not to speak at all Act. 4.18 nor teach in the name of Jesus Is it your best prescript for the cure of the head-ache to cut off the head medice cura teipsum But seriously your argument is a fallacia accidentis a wholsom way were for the people duly to pay and set out their Tythes according to Laws divine and humane I conceive that no man would be so ill-advised as to sue for his right if he might have it without trouble and charge of Law That you say Paying unreasonable c. You speak like your self But doth paying Tythes hinder Tillage and the staff of bread as you pretend Here is again another fallacia accidentis if that be true which you say or a fallacia non causae pro causa if false It is not paying of Tythes which is the obstruction to plenty but mens unbelief God himself saying Prove me now if I will not pour you out a blessing c. Mal. 3.10 Of what kind Of the encreases of the Earth And what is the condition to which that promise relateth Is it not paying Tythes and leaving their Sacriledg Let no man say you henceforth think it strange c. We shall not think it strange that some men refuse to pay Tythes while there is a Devil to tempt them to Sacriledg nor wonder that some will pay Tythes because we have a good God who though he justly permit many to strong delusions that they may perish yet will he preserve his elect and encline their hearts to obey his Laws and Ordinances that it may be well with them and theirs HAving thus answered these cavils I propose the ensuing conclusions to the good readers consideration 1. All are bound to do the most high Lord God homage and service of whom it is written Him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4. This is a rule so evidently just that the very heathens in their twelve Tables of their Law acknowledged it on this ground Az or l. 6. c. 63. Cic. de leg l. 2. 12ae q. 44. 6. Lex natura is non potest deleri quoad prima principia that God is the Lord and disposer of all things For as Schoolmen say the Law of Nature cannot be extinguished as to its first Principles Now there is no Nation of the World so immane and barbarous but that it believes there is a God who created and still governeth this Universe So that the brutish Poticius for his ignorance of God was esteemed a kind of Paradox in Nature a Prodigy and Monster of Man-kind Cic. Plaut God's Word teacheth us that he must be worshiped but as his self commandeth in it which is his revealed will as 't is written Mic. 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee 2. We must be faithfull and true to him whom we adore as our God the searcher of hearts not encroaching upon any part of that which the holy Word declareth as a reserved right to belong unto the Lord our God 3. What ever carnal reason or wisdom of the flesh pretend or suggest to the contrary we must duly and willingly render and pay unto him all his Rights and Duties belonging unto him as a supream Lord of all As it is written Give unto God the things that are Gods Mat 12.21 1 Chro. 29 14. Psal 115.16 which when we have truly done we must acknowledg with David Of thy own hand have we given thee all is thine The earth hath he given unto the children of men only reserving to himself as it were a smal Lords-rent as an acknowledgment of his Soverain Dominion 4. The things which God hath reserved as a Tribute or Rent to himself are 1. Either of the time measured unto man for this present life out of which he hath reserved a Seventh part or a Sabbath and holy rest that we may be enabled to subsist and serve him without which
And that this Charter might be immortal and like the sanctified things of the Temple forever inviolable It was not only fortified by the Kings Seal the sacred anchor of the Kingdome but by his solemn Oath and the Oath of his Son and the Nobility of the Kingdom yea the whole Kingdom yielded themselves to stand accursed if they should at any time after impeach this grant and therefore in the 25 Edward 1. a special Statute was made for confirmation of this Charter wherein among other things it is ordained that the Bishops shall excommunicate the breakers thereof and the very form of the sentence is there prescribed according to which upon the 13 Mai. An. 1304. Edward 1. Boniface the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and five other Bishops solemnly denounced this curse in Westminster-Hall the King himself with a great part of the Nobility being present First against all them that should willingly and malitiously deprive or spoile Churches of their rites Secondly Against those that by any art or device infringed the liberties of the Church or Kingdom granted by magna Charta Thirdly Against those that should make new Statutes against the Articles of these Charters c. And now consider you that have English hearts to love and pity your Country what these Pamphleters aim at who lay stumbling blocks before the people that they may bring the curse upon this Nation which must inevitably come upon it if sacrilegious hands be permitted to take away the Churches rites for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Mal. 3. If Tythes had no other ground but only the laws of Princes and that they were not before the enacting of those laws and solemn dedications due yet consider 1. What came to Ananias and Saphira Act. 5.4 c. the Apostle told him that whilst the land remained in his hands it appertained unto him as a true proprietor and when is was sold and in money that was also his own it was then arbitrary and he might have otherwise disposed of it but when he had given it to the advancement and service of the Gospel he made it sacred and all due to God and his assignes and therefore keeping back any part thereof he lyed to God and if it were sacriledg to take away any part of that which had been dedicated to holy uses by a mans own donation and dedication of the whole What is it to rob and take away from the Church that which God his self hath dedicated and consecrated to the same suppose in money glebe or other land given toward the maintenance of Gods worship or Tythes on which came also a second bond by the Vow Oath and free-will offering of the whole body of a republick in the representative thereof consisting of King Nobles Clergy and Commons lawfully assembled in Parliament But some say though our former Kings and Parliaments were bound by their vow and dedication of Tythes or Lands given to the Church or Churches because they lifted up their hands to God to give the same what is that to us very much for lawfull vows of fathers descend and are obligatory to their Children and posterity and so in the blessing to the performers as we may see in the example of the Rechaebites Jer. 35.18 19. and in the curse to the violaters of the same therefore because Joshua and the Princes of Israel though deceived by the Gibeonites a people among the rest of the Canaanites devoted by Gods own commandment to destruction had lifted up their hands to God to spare them alive they were bound by their Oath so to do and so were their Children to succeeding Generations So that when Saul after many Generations out of a perverse zeal slew them 2 Sam. 21 1 2. God punished that fact even in Davids reign Three years year after year there came a famine upon Israel until it was revenged on the family of Saul Many instances of Gods justice in this kind neer us of eminent great and honorable families utterly ruined the main cause to men appearing being sacriledg impropriating Tythes and laying into their own hands those destructive morsels of glâ—be and other lands formerly dedicated with a solemn curse in the Acts of Mortmain might hereto be added even from Henry 8. who before his giving away Tythes and things consecrated to Gods worship unto impropriators hands prosperous in an hopefull issue yet as to posterity that doom was determined which was pronounced by the Prophet Jeremiah on Coniah Write this man Childless Jer 22.30 The curse so many years before solemnly and publickly imprecated came upon divers of our principal Nobility and other illustrious Families and still doth whose names I spare only I hint this that all whom it concerns may be warned to disgorge those sacred morsels which they yet hold lest they prove destructive to them and theirs and that the Reader may at once perceive of what validity all the rest of the like arguments are wherewith this Pamphleter and his associates endeavour to puzzle the minds of illiterate readers and that all may consider what severe whips God yet holdeth over those who hunger for sacred morsels You know the embleme the Eagle snatching up a piece of flesh from the Alter to carry up to her nest of young ones with it carried a coal of fire cleaving to the flesh which consumed the nest and destroyed the whole air But you say Some of our famous Reformers pag. 14. did in their days bear their Testimony against Tythes c. I answer first I conceive that you call them famous reformers ironically and by way of irrision Next I say whatever they or the Bohemians by you cited speak against Tythes is of no more value then mans testimony against Gods Ordinance Lastly that one Bernard saw not all it is no wonder the most learned know but in part now that the sun from the rising appears not in his full light at once none can rationally wonder and why should we that the reformation was not perfected all at once You say In your following heads of recapitulation He will find the knowledg of those things which be needfull Yes no doubt to confirm him in your errour but there can be no necessity of sinning Tythes you say were paid to the Levites that did the common services of the Tabernacle c. how the payment of Tythes to Ministers succeeds the payment of Tythes to the Levites you say we had need to consider We consider the Apostles rule 1 Cor. 9.13 14. which is They which minister about holy things live of the things of the Tempâ—â— and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel Secondly we consider that Melchisedech received Tythes in the figure of Christ the King of Righteousness and Peace and that Tythes are due to Christ and his assignes the Ministers of the Gospel not
Again in the writing of the history of the Creation Moses mentioneth not the Creation of Angels What will you say that Angels were not created because in Moses writings we read not of their Creation Nay but Moses saith Gen. 2.1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them You may say and that truly in that general word all are comprehended the particulars though not nominalitèr and expresly named for indeed omne or totum est extra quod nihil est and why I demand where the Apostle saith Gal. 6.6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things that is in all his goods for he would not teach any to offer è rapina holocaustum to rob others to pay his teacher and why may not the Apostles all comprehend the unspecified particulars Tythes and Offerings as well as Moses all comprehendeth unspecified Angels By this it appears how feeble your main argument is to prove no use or practise of payment of Tythes because we read them not commanded or paid in express words in the New Testament and seldome in ancient councels of the first age of the Church yet ye will not deny Tythes expresly specified and paid Heb. 7. Abraham paid Tythes or gave a tenth of all to Melchisedech pag. 5. Of Ambrose you say But his authority he produceth wholly from Moses writings And would you desire better authority then Moses writings which Christ the Lord of the Prophets citeth See whither blind zeal precipitates men But you say They imposed their own opinion with so heavy Penalties How were they their own opinions if from the Law given to the Israelites they take as you confess their whole Doctrine 2 Pet. 1.19 St. Peter would teach you better That no prophesie of the Scripture is of any private interpretation But h ly men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And what say these men of God as to this matter more or less then God spake by the Prophets Moses and Malachi Ye are cursed with a Curse Deut. 33.11 Mal. 3. ye have robbed me in Tythes and Offerings pag. 6. You say Tythes Easter Pentecost Now for another sigary Our question is concerning Tythes What are Easter and Pentecost to that Will he not bring the Poles Artick and an-Arcick together if he please But you say It was not a general received Doctrine that Tythes ought to be paid Nor as it seems by you is it now it sufficeth us that the devouter sort as your self confess gave Tenths or greater parts of their annual encrease And who knowes not that the better part of the people is very seldome the greater You say Fathers Popes Bishops Praesto pretty Legerdemain you shuffle in Popes hoping as it seems in that company to render Fathers and Bishops odious to the vulgar but if we consider the original of that name Papa was once a name of honour and reverence importing only Patrem Patriae a father of the Country and so was it long used in the better part as Cypriano Papae Cyprian l 2. ep 7. 16. l. 3. ep 11 12. so ad Cornelium Papam This use of that name continued until after the time of Gregory the last of the good Roman Bishops and the first of the bad When Boniface 3. obtained of the Emperor Phocas that the Church of Rome should be called Caput omnium Ecclesiarum which his predecessor Gregory gave for the mark of Antichrist or his fore-runner then was his Seat quickly exalted to Supremacie not only above all Bishops of the Western Churches but also to a claim of Superiority over Kings Princes and People hence the name Papa Pope began to fall into an odium with all those who received not the marke of the beast Rev. 13. But if Popes did in any thing declare or determine Truth and Equity would you eo nomine reject it Remember that the Pharisees Scribes sitting in Moses Chair though bitter enemies to the Person and Doctrine of Christ were to be heard Yea If the devil confess Christ to be the Son of the most high would you reject it as devilish Nay but consider that though the Devil spake it it is the truth of God which when Satan uttereth he speaks not his own God hath so over-ruled some wicked men as to make them instrumental to that eminent good which he who can do nothing but good fore-ordained to do by them See it in the example of Judas the high Priests Herod and Pontius Pilat Act. 4.27 28. You say None of the first 8 general Councils of the Church did so much as mention the name of Tythes While none contradicted there was no cause why they should speak of them yet were the issue and determination of your controversie put upon antiquity we could say enough thereof We can prove that Tythes are more ancient then the law of Moses who shews that Abraham paid them and you cannot shew them taken away by any law of God why general Councels did not make Canons for them Agobardus cited by Mr. Sâ—lden some give this reason Nulla enim compulit necessitas fervente ubique religiosa devotione c. indeed the actual payment of Tythes was not exacted in the infancy of the Church of Christ but respited until the greater interests of Faith and Obedience to the Gospel were setled in a Church constituted yet Paul sheweth that there was much due unto him in respect of his Ministry 1 Cor. 9. but concluded that he had not used that liberty but as the time and present condition of the Gospel required suffered all things that he might not hinder the propagation thereof and that he might stop the mouths of backbiters Add hereto that there appeared more probability that men of the world and Pagans would more readily entertain the truth which cost them nothing and when the Ministers could not be suspected to preach for gain honor or any selfishness but only for their auditors Salvation That which you say That Tythes were never so much as named in the first 8 general Councels makes nothing against their right yet you may know that though we avow not the Canons attributed to the Apostles to be indeed the children of those fathers yet that the first of them are very ancient and neer the Apostles times it may appear in that Dionysius exiguus who lived within 400 years of the Apostles translated them out of the Greek and received long before in the Eastern Church Sr. Henry Spelmans large work of Tythes c. 20. of which City you may see Plin. lib. 3. c. 1. Stra. lib. 3. c. Bin. To. 4. See thereof the fifth Canon likewise the Council Agrippinense is cited Anno 356. Decreeing that Tythes should be called Dei census Gods rent The Concilium Hispalense or Spalense as Garsias citeth it held about the time of Gregory 1. about the year 603. in a
Parliaments been made Parish Churches subject to the Bishops and their Diocesses Pag. 11. The people you say then generally being Papists did yield their obedience Yet that God had ever some good corne among those tares I conceive you have so much faith to believe if you believe that he had in all ages a Catholick Church though possibly you have not so much Charity as to confess that he had such excellent Saints then as are among you now in this last and worst of ages You say What before was owned for a gift was now claimed as a debt Shew if you are a true man who ever owned it as a gift or free benevolence of men except those who knew not or would not acknowledge the divine institution of Tythes we own them as Gods gift and therefore as mans due to be paid unto us God made us not your almes-men but in things spiritual our peoples rulers Heb. 13.7 17. watchmen and guides set over them in the Lord. 1 Thes 5.12 And so not to live of your benevolence but duty as spiritual Parents and shew if you can why that duty should be less determinate and certain then it was under the law to Priests and Levites that he ever reserved out of the rest which he gave to Israel to himself and to his service never leaving it arbitrary to mans will or wisdom to appoint no not to Moses himself And how prove you that he leaves us to your will and charity now All acknowledg a Law for paying Tythes to those who serve about holy things shew us in any one Text of the Old or New Testament where that law is repealed or the whole of Ministers maintenance left to the peoples pleasure Seeing you say themselves in a snare To you it seems that the ordinance of God is a snare this discovereth your dangerous condi ion and is an impious expression Again you say The Pope hath been imperious or in a great heigth of pride What is that to us If so it was his sin for which he is responsible to God who can make wicked men instrumental to some eminent good as in the example of Judas as to the passion of Christ for our Redemption and Salvation appeareth to whom we may add the rest who did therein that which the hand and Councel of God determined before to be done And who can deny but that he might also work good by the Popes commanding Tythes to be paid for the support of the preaching of the Gospel to the then living elect the powerfull instrument of Salvation however it proved a savour of death to many possibly of those that preached it but obeyed it not Next you trouble your readers about Canon-laws and Parochial payment of Tythes setled What suppose you that no good could be professed done or setled in that time wherein error and wickedness had miserably overspread a Church I suppose you will not on second thoughts conclude so when you mind not the propagation of the Gospel in Israel when the Jews Princes Priests and people generally persecuted the faith of Christ Next you talk of the poor Pag. 11. For whose sakes you say Tythes were chiefly given If you mean that these specified Parliaments did settle Tythes chiefly for the relief of the poor you do but trifle knowing that Tythes were anciently appointed for several uses 1. Ornament of Churches 2. For the poor 3. For love Feasts 4. For Ministers maintenance What ever Parliaments enacted must be judged by Gods laws human law is to our duty à mensura mensuraâ—â— Ã lege divina â—ae q. 19. whose end is the utility of men therefore to that supream power and justice must we look and in that rest So that this your argument is childish and impertinent except you could shew that we take human Laws and Statutes of Parliaments to be the ground of our right to Tythes we say after that ancient Councel of Matiscon forecited God hath appointed them for our inheritance or hereditary portion You say moreover He that did not pay no great punishment could they inflict on him but excommunication You mean I suppose that men could not you cannot be ignorant of the power of God to punish the Sacrilegious who hath denounced the curse on them Mal. 3. but was excommunication no great punishment 1. Cor. 5. in the Apostles sence delivering to Satan Possibly you account this punishment the less because herein the sacrilegious were but delivered to their own Master As for the exemptions you mention we dislike them as well as you as little to your purpose is that which you say in your following censure of Popish imitation of Jews l. 1. c. 7. c. 8. c. ib. c. 4. c. which as to those rites which your Durand citeth in his Rationale we utterly dislike But you say Henry 8. being a Papist c. One thing is remarkable you use to call all Popery which suits not with your fancy If Henry 8. did any thing according to Gods Will and Word that is no more Popish than that was Devillish which the Devil said Mar. 5.7 Henry 8. was a Papist and he made a Law that every man should set out his Tythes What is the conclusion yon drive to ergo paying of those duties is Popish Poor Sophistry You are not ignorant that this were a Sophism Non causae pro causâ His being a Papist was not the cause of his making that law for Tythes but as your self confess because he believed that Tythes were due to God and his holy Church In that you call that the Popes doctrine which by your own party is confessed to be grounded on the Law of God you commend the Popes Doctrine though with an intent to calumniate ours And you say First of our Parliament laws for Tythes Pag. 12. and that upon which the rest are grounded Here is another notorious untruth Was our Henry 8. before Athelston who reigned in this land about the year of our Lord 924 Would you have your readers believe that Henry 8. made a Law about 600 years before he was born and crowned King Was he King of this land before Edgar living about the year 959 or before Canutus who reigned here about An. 1016 or William the Conquerer Henry 1 Henry 2. Henry 3. Hist of Tythes c. 8. by William Selden cited as Law-makers for the payment of Tythes to the Ministers One thing out of the learned S. H. Spelman I desire the Reader to consider King Henry 3. Large work of Tythes saith he In the 9th year of his reign by that sacred Charter made in the name of himself and his heires for ever granted all this anew unto God We have granted saith he unto God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and for our heirs for evermore that the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her holy rites inviolable Magna c. 1.
as a Levitical but as a moral duty belonging to God long before either Levites or ceremonial Law were in being and therefore they continue under the Gospel because moral duties are unchangeable And it is observeable that Melchisedech met not Abraham the father of the faithfull with bloody Sacrifice like a Priest of the Law but with a supply of bread and wine the elements of a Gospel-Sacrament which the Ministers are to divide unto the people That Tythes are not Levitical or Ceremonially due it may appear because 1. They are much more ancient then the Levitical Law 2. Secondly Tythes are positively declared to be the Lords and so to belong to his Ministers about holy things for ever 3. Ceremonies of the levitical-Levitical-law were all significative as of somthing to be performed by Christ for the work of our redemption but so are not Tythes 4. Tything now used is not after the manner of the Levitical Law but after the manner of Abrahams paying tythes to Melchisedec who was not of the tribe of Levi So our tything is now to Christ who was of the tribe of Judah Heb. 7.13 of which no man gave attendance at the Altar 5. The end whereto tythe was ordained is moral in point of Piety Justice and Gratitude First Piety for that will maintain the worship of God Secondly Justice for that is to give every man his due Now the laborer is worthy of his reward 1 Tim. 5.18 1 Cor. 9.14 and God hath appointed tythes for a reward or maintenance of those who serve him in the Gospel as well as under the Law Thirdly Gratitude for benefits received of him to whom we ow and offer such thanks adde hereto that these are to be paid to incourage and sustain the laborers in the work of the Lord as Hezekiah commanded the people to give the portion of the Priests and the Levites that they might be encouraged in the Law of the Lord 2 Chron. 31.4 And we may here consider that in the Levitical Law the Lord had regard to provision for Gospel Ministers for he saith in one of the branches thereof Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn which the Apostle applieth to inforce payment of honorable maintenance of Gospel Ministers Neither was that equity new neither the Gospel it self The first appearance whereof which we read of was from the beginning when God said It that is the seed of the Woman Gen. 3. Gal. 4.4 Christ made of a Woman shall bruise thy head that is the Serpents head in which his life and venome principally lieth This Gospel promise lay hid for ages and generations Ephes 3.9 Col. 1.26 Exod. 4. Heb. 9.7 18.22 Gen. 3.19 4.4 Gal. 4. Joh. 1. under dark and mysterious shadows and figures So that though the Law like Tamars Zarah as it were first put out the hand which was before its birth marked with a skarlet thred blood and death yet in some sort the Gospel was first born like Pharez Gen. 38.28 29 30. and was as the day light by little and little toward the fulness of time wherein the Sun of Righteousness should arise to enlighten the World manifested See Gen. 49.10 Numb 24.17 Isai 7.14 11.1 10 12. Dan. 9. Mich. 5 c. and at the last clearly interpreted 1 John 3.8 Rom. 6.22 8.2 3. 1. Cor. 15.55 c. Hos 13.14 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil ruine death and hell And because God would manifest this his mercy to the World for the comfort and confirmation of his Elect in all ages after mans fall he still sent out some Interpreters and Preachers of his Sacred Mystery furnished with such means as might every ways enable them thereto and support them as to their humane necessities And it is not probable that an alwise God would slack his hand and appoint a less certain determinate and comfortable maintenance to the Ministers of the most excellent Testament the Eternal Gospel than he did unto the Priests of the more imperfect which was to cease and be done away So that the Gospel-maintenance as to the Moral equity thereof was before the Law of Moses given many hundred years after the Gospel-promises 2. Your second Observation is That amongst the Jews no outward Law was appointed for the recovery of Tythes but he that did not pay them robbed God c. And think you that robbing God against which the curse of the whole Nation was denounced had no punishment following it Think you not that every sin separating between the sinner and God the sole Fountain of Blessedness was not a sufficient punishment to it self in the guilt thereof And do you conceive that we are now bound by Israels Judicial Laws any further than some Statute Law of this Nation makes them in force to binde us It seems grievous to you that any Law is made by good Princes and their great Councils for recovery of Tythes but for which you and others of your Sect would venture on Gods Justice as if it were a light matter by the contempt of Divine Laws to fall into his hands Heb. 12.29 who is a consuming fire But know you that it is both lawful and necessary for those who have Legislative power in Republicks of authority to execute Justice to binde their Subjects from running into sin and pulling down curses upon their Souls and therefore to enact Laws to compel them by respective punishments to obedience to Gods Moral Laws As in case of prophanation and common swearing for which the Land mourneth adultery murder theft oppression c. I suppose you will allow You say again That Tythes were not for the Levites onely 3. It is easily granted Jerom on Ezek. lib. 14. cap. 45. shews That there were tythes of four sorts First For the Levites Secondly For the Priests Thirdly For Love-feasts Fourthly For the Poor Which whether this Pamphleter dissembleth that he may have something to say though to no purpose except to trouble the Reader I know not You say again That when the Levitical Priesthood was changed by the coming of Christ Jesus 4. the Law for tything was also changed as Paul writ to the Hebrews Now Samson will pull the House upon his own head That very Text which you cite is point-blanck against your self the Law that is the Ceremonial Law was changed therefore something was appointed in its place What but the Gospel and the Ministery thereof And as the Office so of the necessity of humane condition respect must be had for the supplies thereof whereby it may continue There was therefore a change of this Law as to that which was Ceremonial for example in the manner of paying Tythes to the Priests and Levites the place where at Jerusalem or other publick store-houses thereto appointed but not in respect of the morality or any branch thereof So that the Priesthood after
Hell can be imagined more damnable Consider therefore what designs of Satan your captious disputes carry on You will say you intend no such thing Parum interest quo animo feceris quod fecisse malum est but it skills not with what intent you do that which is evil to be done You say Much more colour had the Quiristers c. Homo suavis a merry man I trow But I am not at leisure to exchange words concerning odde Crotchets But say you How doth Gospel-Ministry succeed to the Levites c. We have spoken hereof before and say more first they succeed the Legal Priesthood as they are Ministers of holy things and therefore must live of Christs portion which is tythes though their office in some things differ as shall appear in its place Next the Apostle will shew you Heb. 7.12 The Priesthood saith he being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law Where note that he saith not that the Priesthood is abolished but changed So the Law in the Morality thereof is not abolished but the Ceremonies and things thereto belonging are changed Now changing presupposeth a suffection or substitution of some other thing in place of that which is removed So the Ministers succeed in place of the Levitical Priesthood and their honorary and maintenance accompanieth the same Now the portion due to Melchisedec's Priesthood which is a permanent order is tythes these being due to Christs Priesthood are due to Christs Ministers As for your buzzing about here and there and no where seâ—ling concerning the Priesthood it is nothing to purpose And what say you was the Primitive Church assured of for some hundred years After you have done trifling we shall have it that the Church for some hundreds of years never called for tythes Your own citations of Jerom Ambrose Augustine c. shew this to be grosly false except by some hundreds you mean onely the first three hundred wherein the rage of persecution neither permitted Christians to pay nor Ministers to receive their tythes concerning which we have already spoken in answer to the same objection You say again What is this to the payment of tythes Pag. 18. What that Abraham paid tythes very much First this imports a right in Melchisedec to take them and therefore a debitum in Abraham to pay them who having a special direction by some inspiration which had the force of an injunction Abraham's act was of duty not arbitrary benevolence yea by the Moral Law which before the exact transcript thereof on the Tables of Stone was the very same with the Law of Nature which bound not onely Abraham but all persons respectively to all times and places For to worship God is a Moral Precept though for the time the determination thereof 12 ae q. 99. as to the manner how appertained to the Ceremonial which being antiquated and changed into another manner of worship under the Gospel yet is still the same in point of Morality which bound and unchangeably bindeth all You possibly may say Abraham paid tythes but once but there needs no other proof that he constantly paid them at other times as well as that once specified to Melchisedec because God testified concerning him saying Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment which is afterwards interpreted Deut. 32 46. By doing all the words of this Law Adde hereto that he onely is good and just who is constantly so and accordingly Jacob also paid tythes because the Morality of the Law universally binding to this duty of Equity and Justice bound all men and ever respectively to do the same how else fell Abraham and Jacob upon a tenth rather then on a fifth seventh or twelfth part Without faith it is impossible to please God as also to do any thing in faith which God commandeth not You say more that few are now left who will onely stand to it and the generality are of a contrary minde Few are now left We may thank your rage for that But I demand doth the appearing paucity of any Truths Professors disparage their Cause What then shall we think of Eliah crying I onely am left Were there not then many thousands on the Prophets side whom he knew not of might it not even then have been answered to him as Elisha said to his servant 2 Kings 6.6 Fear not for they that be with us are more then they that be with them But what you mean by onely stand to it I know not but doubt hic ambiguo ludimur Mean you onely stand to it that jus of receiving of tythes and so wave and disclaim all right which in confirmation of the same good Princes and Parliaments or Donations and Bequeathments which well-affected men have given us by several Laws and Acts in divers ages past That were foolishly and ingratefully done so to value these grants to which you confess your self bound to obey Even for Conscience sake That the generality are against Right and Truth I do no more wonder then that you are And so you say the greatest part of the people of England deny tythes to be due by Gods Law To this and that which immediately precedeth I think no more answer then this necessary if so it is the more shame for them Concerning the end of paying tythes you have been answered As for Impropriators they are out of the verge of our present question which concerns the Ministers portion yet here we may use the saying of Boniface Archbishop of Mentz in his Epistle to Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterbury Our complaints saith he hereof are not much unlike to a dogs barking at theeves and robbers breaking open digging through and rifting his Masters house Quia defensionis auxiliatores non habeat Spelm. Concil decret pag. 239 submurmurans ingemiscat lugeat Because he cannot have helpers for defence yet growling he will grumble and whimper And this you say leaves every man free to give to him that teacheth I am sure you are not very free to give to him that teacheth and for all this preceding Miscellany you leave us in doubt what you mean by this leaves this what your irresolute conclusion and confused resolution Do these make for your dream of the Castle in the air Competent maintenance for Ministers and that arbitrary voluntary contribution If you mean voluntary to import willingly performed as all good works must be we accord Paul Preached the Gospel willingly that act of Preaching was a voluntary act of Paul 1 Cor 9.16 17. yet wo had been unto him if he had not preached the Gospel because a dispensation of the Gospel was committed unto him Concerning those you speak of who you say Pag 19. are transformed as Apostles and Ministers of Christ who have the form but want the power who teach for filthy lucre c.
commands what was before Herein you say true For God gave them from the beginning and man confirmed them in sundry times following Next you demand how Laws of Kings and Parliaments c. binde the Conscience Your self have formerly answered but the Apostle more definitively saith Rom. 13.1 5. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers Ye must be subject needs be subject not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake 1 Pet. 2.13 And St. Peter Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake And will this double band hold Samson if it doth sin not against Conscience Satan-like endeavoring to seduce others and draw them in society of sin Pag. 23. Tythes you say be not due by the Law of God This is a shameless begging of the question which will never be approved by us or proved by you But you say Who hath set them up the Law of man at best Here is another begging of the question at another door as also in the following words where you say in the place where God disanulled his own command We offer here again to joyn issue with you and challenge you to shew us any one Text of Gods Word whereby it appears that God ever disanulled or repealed his Law of Tything For the rest if you could cite and urge as many Decrees of Princes or Acts of Parliaments against us as you have cited for Tythes yet no Decrees of men can Impeach our Right therein seeing God by the Magna Charta of his holy Word hath setled it for an Inheritance upon the Ministry You demand Who put this power into the hand of man Pag. 23. to raise a compulsory maintenance for Ministers The Apostle will tell you Rom. 13.4 The Magistrate is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil Is not execution of wrath a compulsory means think you Or is not Sacriledg evil in your Theology That you further say that the Ministers of Christ never lookt for or durst own such a way of provision We say First That the maintenance of Ministers ought to be willingly aforded them not grudgingly or sparingly as also their ministration this is as to the first intention of the Law but if men will be obstinate Compulsion is a second intention hereof Secondly Suppose that Ministers did not own such a way of provision for recovery of Tythes before such Acts of Parliament were made for them What hindereth but that they may justly use such Laws now Enacted and in Force You proceed What Nation in Europe will not say they have a Christian Magistracy Do you not forget how great a part of Europe is under the Turk Your many following impertinences should have had no answer but that you say heavy punishments are inflicted upon such as cannot for conscience sake conform unto them To which I say it was never well since mens Consciences were tied to their Purse-strings and that opinions not so much as probable must go for Conscience Shew us Gods Word for your Conscience and we will submit to the same bond but we think it an abominable Idolatry to set up opinions of beguiled Men instead of Gods sacred Oracles Concerning This day of clear and Sunshine light We say Isai 8.20 to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them To this Law we appeal and willingly submit Doth this savor in you tender sensory of the old Popish Spirit Who sees not your endeavour to re-establish Popery though you so much seem to speak against it And now let me bonâ cum veniâ tel you that either your hypocrisie or ignorance is somthing gross And is this as you say a shame to our reformation Or is the practise of you deformers a shame to Christian Religion It is probable that you carry on the Jesuits design of reducing England to darkness of Popery again by decrying Ministers right to a setled maintenance that by taking them away you may remove the Candlestick out of his place the light of the Gospel from us and then you may possibly bring many to Popery and Atheism I must needs say that this personated Zelote speaks much against Popery but works what he can for it on whom I look as on Thames-water-men with their faces one way but labouring might and main to carry their Passengers and Vessel another You add Were the Law just commanding Tythes c. What will he not question Pag. 24. who doubteth of the equity of the Law I hope you mean humane Law which yet is founded on Gods Law and have you not learned of Socrates to doubt of all things Concerning treble damages or other punishments which the Law hath appointed obstinate transgressors I suppose you know that the plaintifs charges of the Suit commonly exceed the dammage justly awarded him towards his reparation therein so that even under the tender hands of just Judges the remedy is more burdensome than the disease these punishments therefore are but just What injustice is it think you to force a Thief or Possessor malae fidei to restore the goods of another man which he hath injuriously possessed himself of and still deteineth What injustice can be in a legal reinvesting the true owner And in case that the iniurious refuse to submit to the Law to compel him by some severe punishment by Law provided in such case And if this be justice in one case Why shall it not be so in another kind of wrong or robberry Why not in case of Sacriledg the worst of robberies if in inferior thieveries O but you say our consciences tell us that detention of Tythes from Mininisters is no sin What if a Thieves Conscience as you account Conscience should tell him that had robbed you that stealing is no sin Would you not pursue him and prosecute law against him I doubt in your next scruple your weak and tender Consciences will tell you that 't is a sin to pay your Land-lords any Rent or at least their sin to Distrain or Sue for any though you can but will not for your Conscience sake forsooth pay him any And will not the next question in your Schools be whether it be lawful In foro Conscientiae to pay any Debt To set out Tythes c. You say this is against his Conscience once again we require you to shew us any one Text of Scripture prohibiting seting out of Tythes that we may know that it is Conscience and not Opinion grounded on humane fancy malice greedy desire of enriching your selves by pillaging the Ministers which moveth you to think so You say This age so much pretends to reformation and every one cries wo wo and he complain's that help 's to make it so Are you not a chief pretender to Reformation Why then trouble you the sacred peace of the Church And truly I fear that it will come to pass
which you next say that Papists your honoured Patrones shall rise in judgment against you and condemn you they own some Order Unity Government and Law they have some shew of Devotion and religious Charity but in our new Sectaries I see very little of these if any at all Your following objections in this Page are but quarrelsom captious as to the present not deserving answer You say By conscientious men Pag. 25. far more heavy than the loyns of the Law Conscientious men and Opinatours are with you convertible terms as concerning abuses in offices we are ignorant But what if there were such things What were this to our Cause You say nothing against those wealthy Kerns who by detaining Tythes begger poor Ministers and their Families which we know to be true In this 't is marvel but you think they do God service John 16.2 You say The Pope himself hath no such penalties No what think you of his holy House forsooth his Inquisition Preaching with fire and faggot You say You write what you can prove by manifold instances It may be so in some things impertinent and possibly you are acquainted with the Popes Ecclesiastical Courts and what ever you seem under your present disguise are a right trusty Advocate for them You say Priests are not able to pay tenths unto the Protector c. What Priests you talk of we enquire We own not that title in any but Christ a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec that faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 2.17 And as we conceive ancient Councils Fathers and the Rubrick of our Church Liturgy attribute that name to Ministers of the Gospel Cyprian ep Caecilio l. 2. ep 3. by way of analogy and allusion to that which was under the now-antiquated Ceremonies of the Law So Irenaeus l. 4. c. 20. saith Sacerdotes autem sunt omnes Domini Apostoli semper Altari â—eo serviunt That is in respect of their succeeding the Levitical Priesthood and allusion to their service So Cap. 3.32 Sacrificium Deo cor contribulatum and Cap. 33. Incensa Johannis in Apocalypsi orationes ait esse sanctorum For as Cyprian saith Adv. Jud. l. 17. the old Priesthood was to cease ut novus sacerdos veniret qui in aeternum futurus esset that is onely Christ See Heb. 7.23 an elegant figure whereof immediately preceded Christs coming when Zachary the Levitical Priest was to come out and bless the people he was dumb For then God would bless his people by his Son Christ the Eternal Priest after the order of Melchisedec who not onely auspicated his preaching with sundry blessings but ascending into Heaven lifting up his hands Matth. 5.2 c. Luk. 24.50 51. blessed his Disciples When he was to come into the World the Priest the son of Aaron could not speak that by that sign God might teach his people to expect another Priesthood and Priest in whom not onely Jews but all the Nations of the World should be blessed Gal. 3.8 And this was also intimated in that the Levitical Priests were after the morning Sacrifice onely to lift up their hands and bless the people but not after the Mincha or evening Sacrifice Maimon tract de Orat. c. 14. Heb. 1.1 2. 13.10 15. for in the evening of time God spake unto his people by his own Son Christ To our purpose again the Lords Table may be called an Altar and praises of God a Sacrifice as it is written By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually So will we render the calves of our lips Hos 4. â— So are all the Servants of Christ Priests not by propriety of speaking Rev. 1.6 5.10 20.6 1 Pet. 2.5 but as they are also called Kings by analogy and representation Nor do I remember where Ministers are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Priests in the Gospel Here it is necessary to consider 1. How Ministers may be called Priests 2. How not or wherein there appears a real difference between them and Levitical Priests properly so called 1. In that the Apostle saith The Priesthood being changed Heb. 7.12 he implyeth that the Office of Ministration in the publick worship of God is not abolished or taken quite away so that there is nothing substituted in the place thereof but that the Office as to the morality thereof so continues as that Analogically Ministers of the Gospel may in some sense be called Priests The Prophet Joel makes them convertible terms Joel â— 17 saying Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep And the Prophet Isaiah speaking of the calling of the Gentiles Isai 66.21 c. saith I will also take of them for Priests and for Levites saith the Lord. 2. The Levitical Priest served at the Altar that is Did there that service which by Gods Law he was there to perform And so the Minister is to do that service in the Church which God hath under the Gospel appointed and setled on him in his Calling thereto and separation from the people in preaching the Gospel Praying Administration of the Holy Sacraments and those other Ministerial Functions which are peculiar to his Calling 3. That Priests had their certain and determinate allowance and maintenance assigned them out of the encreases of the Earth by Gods donation for his service Hebr. 7.5 never being left to the curtesie or charity of men no not the faith Moses to dispose of and so have the Ministers of the Gospel In both which it was and is sacriledge to alienate take away detain or change the whole or any part thereof otherwise reserved by God to his own service and assigned to the Ministers thereof or to reduce the same to common uses 4. The Ministers of the Gospel succeeding the Legal Priests in the publick service of God as persons in their Office sacred to which they are set apart or separated Rom. 1.1 Gal. 1.15 may not desert or be distracted from their Calling nor impropriated to any other Thus and in such like respects they may analogically be stiled Priests as hath been said thanksgiving may be called a Sacrifice Psal 116.17 Spiritual not bodily or proper Psal 141.2 as Prayers are Spiritual incense Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight and the lifting up my hands as the evening sacrifice and as I said the Lords Table may be called an Altar not properly but by way of allusion to that to which it succeeded So may Gospel Ministers be stiled Priests 2. Herein observe That the Legal Priests and the Ministers of the Gospel differ 1. The Legal Priests were to be onely of that tribe of Levi and family of Aaron Exod. 40.13 14. But the Ministers of the Gospel if lawfully called are limitted to no one stock or family but may be of any So that the Legal Priests were in some sort born to the Priesthood but Ministers
suppose you will not affirm that Mens charity was the first or principal moving cause or do you mean that the freewil of man in this business of tythes preceded that command of God as a cause the effect or that posito Dei mandato man did yield a free and chearful obedience in paying tythes as God had commanded Which voluntary act was as Pauls preaching of the Gospel such as that wo had been to him if he had not done it Express your terms and sense and let us have no after-reckonings We know that Gods Children yield a chearful and a voluntary obedience they do their duty commanded not moillingly grudgingly or of necessity and 2 Cor. 9 7. 1 Pet. 5.2 1 Cor 9.17 that God loves and rewards chearful obedience and such are all acts of true Religion voluntary not compulsory the Spirit of God making us willing of unwilling so carrying about our wills and affections as Astronomers say the primum mobile doth the inferior orbs of Heaven in their Diurnal motion from East to West contrary to their Natural motion yet by an admirable influence Citra violentiam So we can admit tythes paid by Gods servants to be a free-will offering respectu offerentis but not ex parte praecipientis as if man instituted and paid them without Gods Command for the same and as if they were works of Supererogation We know that in every good which we do God worketh both velle perficere Phil. 2. we acknowledg that they are not rightly performed by any pure Naturals of man but of Gods free Grace both Jubentis quod vult praestantis quod jubet So Israel brought a willing Offering unto the Lord every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work Exod 35.29 which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hands of Moses But our Adversaries would fain have it that Tythes were but as some votive Obligation of the Owners which they needed not to have dedicated or paid except themselves pleased This is the Witchess Herodias which they so ambitiously pursue that they might once conclude an Arbitrary maintenance for Ministers and do but mark the Circle to which this mole is Conjured Fain would they have Gods Ordinance undermined and dissolved into such Imaginary Principles as might bear this castle in the Air that Tythes should henceforth be only what men in Charity and Free-will would give their Ministers Thank you for you kindness gentle Sir but get you Alms-men where you will we are none of them The Papist hath too much advantage already in their large maintenance open Presses for their Students Works liberal Contributions for any advancement of his Cause while our Presses are too much shut to good Studies Contributions rare is Honesty and if the Jesuite could but yet more discourage us by taking away the remainder of Ministers necessary maintenance by Tythes his work were done and England undone To the reverend Ministers I entreat leave to say If they be Prophets and if the Word of the Lord be with them let them now make Intercession to the Lord of Hosts Isai 27.18 that the Vessels which are left in the house of the Lord go not to Babylon And now limit them that is Tythes to Parishes c. That which you speak Page 30. may pass muster among your Impertinences as to the present question concerning Parishes I have already spoken Gen. 14.18 here I only add 1. That the first place of Scripture mentioning a Priest mentioneth Tythes paid unto him 2. The first place also wherein House of God Gen. 28. â—8 â—2 or Church is spoken of there also are Tythes the maintenance of the Priest-hood vowed to God as some note by that name whereby Parish-Churches were anciently called that is tituli lapis iste quem posui in titulum erit Domus Dei So Damasus in the life of Evaristus Bishop of Rome Anno 112. saith hic titulos in Urbe Roma divisit Presbyteris Platins vit Evaâ—ist Onuthrius compuâ—eth Anno 96. Concil To. 1. Pag. 106. eâ—i 1606. And the Nicen Council c. 21 mentionth Parishes as Carraza reciteth the Canons thereof out of the second Epistle of Julius So that by those divisions the Congregations were assigned to such and such Churches and the Tythes thence arising belonged to the Ministers there serving as hath been noted from Gal. 6.6 what the Popes you speak of got of first-fruits impropriate Tythes c. is a loss to our Clergy and therefore not advisedly urged by you against them That which you further say that No man can prescribe to have Tythes c. Were somthing against those who make prescription the ground of their claim which concerns us not who claim from divine donation Again you say many may prescribe to be free from Tyithes or part thereof Consider of what value prescription can be against Gods unchangeable moral Law and your second thoughts will tell you that antiquity of error can never make any good Prescription Christ yielded the Pharisaical glosses antiquity on their side Math. 5.21 c. ye have heard of old time that it was said by or to them c. which he presently corrected with his but I say unto you c. The rest of your following discourse savoureth strongly of your siding with the Popish party as your stomaking the Title of the head of the Church which we understand to be the supream Governor under God of inchurched men neither is this as you say here The Kings new Authority as the head of the Church For what say we more therein than Tertullian many hundred years since said We honor saith he the Emperor as we ought Vt hominem a Deo secundum solo Deo minorem Sic enim omnibus major est dum solo vero Deo minor est In Scap. c. 2. I conceive that you are not to learn that Caput importeth a Chief First or Principal But you say That all Arch-Bishops Bishops c. were no longer to hold of the Pope Page 30. but of the King and not to claim their benefices by Title from the Pope but of the King by vertue of that Act of Parliament and here the succession from the Pope was cut off and discontinued c. A grief to all good hearts think the Papists But why should this trouble you if you be none of them What is this to us who acknowledg neither dependance on nor Succession from the Pope You say more And so all their Right Title and Claim was and is at an end What because the Popes donation is at an end must Gods also be involved in the same ruin How will that conclusion follow The abuse and usurpation is taken away ergo the right use and just possession must down Are Gods Laws grounded on the Popes Decrees and Grants I never yet heard that claimed by any of you And what wilde Logick stands your discourse
we cannot be happy 2. Or of the blessing and encreases of the Earth out of which God in his bounty feeds clothes every way necessary accommodates us in our humane necessities only reserving unto his own service little more than a tenth part and that for man's good also that by such means a Ministry able to edifie comfort and enform him concerning the Will of God for his salvation may be maintained to which Ministry he hath appointed that his reserved part the tenths to those I say whom he calleth to labour in his service 3. A part of the Earth or land which he hath given man to Till Sow Plant and yield Encrease as he reserved a part of our time of life for our serving him so hath he also a part and portion of our place or the earth on which he will be served for without time when and place where there can be no humane Action That is Church and Churches Houses set a part from all common use to his service and publick worship accommodate So was there a Temple and Synagogues for Israel and Churches among Christians even from the Primitive age 1 Cor. 11.22 Also to the Levites there were Cities appointed out of every Tribe Num. 25. 23. c. even 48 walled Cities with their Suburbs their other revenue being generally provided for them by Tythes Oblations c. out of the whole Land beside Now our Savior released none of these Rights as to the morality thereof that is the equity of his servants maintenance and necessary accommodation in his worship Therefore he avowed the Temple to be his Fathers House and the Prophet saith John 2.16 Mal. 1.11 R v. 8. Mat. 21.13 From the rising of the Sun even to the going down of the same in every place incense that is Prayers of the Saints shall be offered unto my name saith the Lord of Hosts So Christ declared himself to be Lord of the Sabbath and so also is he Lord of that portion of the Earhts encreases reserved to the publick Worship of God and in case of detention thereof Mal. 3. he saith expresly Ye have robbed me in Tythes and Offerings 5. The Law had three branches The Moral Ceremonial and Judicial The first whereof was and is the rule by which all persons at all times and in all places are to compose their lives as to God which is the substance of the first Table The second Table prescribeth the mutual duty of man to man The Ceremonial Law prescribed several religious Rights according to which God would have his Israel to worship him until the fullness of time wherein Christ was to come in the flesh and fullfill all those things for mans redemption which those rights prefigured and under which God's people were to be exercised and trained up all the time of their minority as a Child under a Schoolmaster in expectation of a Savior and Redeemer to come The judicial Law appertained to Israel for the well government of them by administration of civil Laws for the peace welfare and tranquillity of that people therefore these are often joyned together in holy Scripture Precepts Ceremonies and Judgments The first whereof appertaineth to the right forming of holy manners The second to Rights and sacred Ceremonies determining the manner of Gods worship for that time The third to the civil government of the people And these three are as it were the nerves of every well governed State holy Manners religious Worship and due execution of Justice 6. Divine positive Laws or Institutions bound as did moral Preceps though with some considerable differences Some positive Laws were binding only to some particular persons as that Gen. 2.16 Of the tree of knowledg of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it this bound as to the precept only Adam and Eve who were but one flesh Some positive Law Gen. 2.24 as they were temporal having their beginning and ending in time thoug they were binding to a multitude or nation yet were they not so to all men as Circumcision raising up seed to the diseased brother c. which bound Israel respectively until Christ came in the flesh that the trueth of the promise concerning his being of the Tribe of Judah and family of David might appear in that distinction of Tribes So the many Sanctions appertinent to Priests and Levites Heb. 10.1 the Service and Rights which having a shadow of good things then to come were to cease when the truth was come and had accomplished all those things which were thereby prefigured So the judicial Precepts were positive for the time while Israels republick continued and so were binding and still are as they have their ground in moral equity To these are reducible those precepts prohibiting Mariages in certain degrees of consanguinity which positive Law maketh incestuous then commencing when mankind was encreased unto multitudes and societies of men which could not bind in the family of Adam supposing God's Ordinance for the progagation of all mankind by one man and one woman For the Ceremonial Laws they bound not before their institution signified to Israel by the divine Lawgiver neither do they because they are not positive unto this time Therefore that opinion is erroneous and dangerous which saith Naturae lex ratio deposcit precipit Azor. instit l. 6. 25. ut Deo Sacrificia offeramus quibus peccata nostra expiemus For sacrificing was no Law of Nature but a Posi ive Law the Law of Nature was as the Original to the Moral which was a transcript or duplicate thereof and there was a positive precept for Abels sacrificing without which it could not have been acceptable to God as done in faith but now in propriety of terms offering Sacrifice for expiation is no more justifiable than Circumcision Christ hath by his own oblation of himself once offered Heb. 10.10 14 18. vid. ib. c. 9. 12. perfected for ever them that are sanctifyed now where remission of these that is sins is there is no more offering for sin These Laws are now not only mortuae but mortiferae not only dead but a killing Letter Whereas the moral Law in all negative precepts thereof binds Semper ad semper And the Affirmative as may be seen in the fourth and fift precept bind semper though not ad semper So we are all our life time bound to sanctifie the Sabbath but we are not bound at all times of our life so to do because it is not always the Sabbath or Seventh day and we are not bound to any impossibility in Nature 7. The Ceremonial and Judicial Laws as positive had some mixtures with morality and the moral had somthing Ceremonial or Positive for a time Erat partim morale partim ceremoniale 12ae q. 100. 3. 2m Alens parc 4.2 which was the reason why the fourth precept was alterable from the seventh day reckoned from the Creation to the Seventh day from Christs
have but such as would Act with you and in your progress toward hell have ready their go up and prosper But you say we are Godly people yea and your Actions have prettily well declared you such unto the World 'T was godliness with you to spoile our goods to sequester and imprison us though we are silent these injuries cry at the gates of Heaven and posterity willl freely speak of this your pretended godliness Oh Sir but we ever held out the profession of reformation truly as those crested pictures which comming on shew Sainct but going off devil And what competent maintenance faithfull Ministers were like to have of such Professors but that of Ahabs allowance 1 King 22.27 Put this fellow in Prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction here would be your competency for the Ministers of Christ 15. Tythes and Offerings as grounded on the Moral Law are due to those who serve about holy things of the Gospel for all except Atheists and Semiatheistical Antinomians confess that the moral Law doth now as strictly bind quoad vinculum as before Christ came into the World to take away the curse of the Law he took not away our duty therein commanded he did not in respect of our obedience dissolve one jot or tittle of the morality thereof If therefore the moral Law still binds men to pay Tythes it binds to pay them to Ministers whom God hath called and assigned to receive that his part reserved and appointed by him for their service in his publick worship and to none other Christ repeating the first Commandment of the moral Law enjoining our serving God saith Mat. 4.10 him only shalt thou serve which another Scripture expresseth honor the Lord with thy substance Prov. 8 9. and with the first fruits of all thy encrease The quotam partem whereof he determineth by Tythes which are therefore enjoined in the first precept in the moral Law Likewise in the fourth precept for sanctification of the Sabbath by Prayer hearing the Word c. And how shall they hear without a Preacher And how shall Ministers Preach without necessary means to keep them alive and to furnish them with accomodations necessary to the performance of their Ministerial charge which is to give attendance to reading c. that they may both save themselves and their hearers when they have not so much as means to preserve their lives and to supply them with food and raiment much less to buy books Likewise Tythes are commanded in the fifth precept for honouring of our Spiritual parents 1 Cor. 4.15 1 Tim. 5.17 Mal. 3. who are to be counted worthy of double honor that is relief and maintenance This is the first Commandment with promise which the Prophet toucheth when he speaks of Tythes and Offerings duly paid this cannot be in an imaginary competency but in that which God hath appointed a definite setled maintenance for those that serve him in his publick Worship which he never left in Law or Gospel to the will or courtesie of man Now other definite or setled means for Ministers maintenance he never appointed any Decimà certam partem desi nat Alens part 4. q. 2. m 2. but by Tythes Offerings and other like perquisites appertinent to those who served in the Tabernacle Temple or Church constituted therefore these must be their maintenance if any Lastly As Tythes are God's part reserved to himself and his assignes so are they commanded in the eighth Commandment which in the negative part saith Thou shalt not steal and God's Prophet sheweth that taking away or detention of Tythes is stealing and the Apostle Mal. 3. Rom. 2. that Sacriledg the worst thievery is found under the Gospel as it was also under the Law why saith he else Thou that abhorrest an Idol committest thou Sacriledg If there be nothing now sacred in the time of the Gospel as some prophane men affirm How unadvisedly did Paul ask that question concerning a thing which is not in being neither can be And if there be any thing amongst us sacred Are not those things such as God hath consecrated and hallowed And did he not Consecrate and set apart from common use Tythes for their maintenance whom he appointed to serve in his publick Worship Now the eighth precept in the negative part forbiddeth all taking away and detention of others right in the affirmative therefore it commands to yield give and preserve what thou canst every ones right so Tythes belong to the eighth precept and indeed the end of ordaining Tythes is evidently moral as in point of piety equity and gratitude as hath been noted and that to which all men of all ages in the World places and conditions are respectively bound as well under the Ghospel as the Law And Abraham and Jacob paying Tythes had the word of promise To Abraham and his seed in the faith whereof he was justified Rom. 4.9 10 11. before he had received Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised So that the Gospel was preached before the giving of the Law by Moses to Abraham Gal. 3.8 Whence it appears that paying Tythes is a Gospel duty performed before their payment under the Law given on Sina and Abraham payed them before the Levitical Law determined them In which determination God did not infer any new thing or right of Tything into his Church but according to the necessity of the present state thereof so regulated and ordered Tythes for the Priests and Levites to govern the people by the Law which was their Schoolmaster to Christ who being come altered nothing of the morality of his Law although the changeable rites like outworn garments and beggerly rudiments Zeck 3.4 were then to be cast off as Joshuas filthy garments and other habits of sanctity and religious Gospel-worship to be put on with Christ the new Man the same body his Church Eph. 4. en ire in every part under the same sacred head Christ Jesus John 1. remaining the same the Law then was given by Moses Ministry but grace and truth by Christ who perfectly fullfilled all that which was prefigured in those Ceremonies And we read that Abel offered firistlings of his flock Qui credidit obtulit decimas Alens Part. 4. Ib. Alens Heb. 1.6 A naturae rationalis lege est ut Dâ—us colatur honoretur Alens quo s and the fat thereof he of Adam's posterity was primus verè fidelis before the deluge after which and the growth of Idolatry the first we read of paying Tythes was Abraham the father of the faithfull Now God was to be Worshiped before and after the giving of the Law at all times and by all persons which the very Law of Nature dictated to reasonable men and God's Worship supposing his Ordinance by the Ministry of man could not be without Ministers to officiate neither could