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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A29445 A Brief discourse of changing ministers tithes into stipends, or into another thing ... 1654 (1654) Wing B4582; ESTC R11104 22,580 34

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such express Text of Scripture in the New Testament to prove the Lords assignment of Tithes unto the Ministers of the Gospel as that of Numb 18.21 to prove his assignation thereof unto the Levites yet the consequences and arguments drawn from several Texts of the New Testament doe evidently enough prove Tithes to belong to them for their Ministery as well as to the Levites for their service That the New Testament doth frequently command and call for a maintenance for the Minister and that to be not onely competent but honourable we need not cite the particular Texts of Scripture for it That any other ordinary maintenance is intended the Ministery of the Gospel by the New Testament then Tithes the Scripture is silent in it and we must be ignorant of it Nor doth it appear that the Lord hath otherwise disposed of this his Priestly patrimony therefore we may with safety conclude that the ordinary maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel intended by the New Testament is partly Tithes which if they may not enjoy there is no other can claim or derive a title to And the Maxime of the Law is that In aequali Jure Melior est conditio Possidentis The non-payment of Tithes to the Ministers of the Gospel in the Apostles days and in the Primitive times of Christianity is no argument against their right for till a Nation became Christian Tithes could not be paid nor could the Ministers of the Gospel in those times of persecution receive collect or retain them 1 Cor. 9.12.15 The Apostle prevents this objection of non-usage of their power to be no prejudice to their right It hath been and yet is much controverted amongst the Learned by what right Tithes are due some holding them to be due Jure Divino morali Mr. S. P. 150.158 as the Canonists generally with whom agree many of our English and Learned Divines but some agree the tenth part to bee only due by Law Positive and Ecclesiastick and that there is no more Jus Naturale or Divinum Morale in it then what commands a competence to the Priesthood and what now is is in imitation onely of the Jewish state ordered by the Almighty and not obligatory under the Gospel but that the Church might freely have ordained a ninth eleventh or other part Others there are who hold that Tithes amongst the Jews were onely Judicials and not due by Divine Moral Law or Law of Nature but by the Civil Law of that Nation And of this opinion are the Schoolmen generally who when they speak of their Jus Divinum they are to be understood to speak of the Law Positive of the Church imitating the Divine Judicials which retain their vim exemplarem though not obligativam neither do they make any difference betwixt Tithes praediall and personall in this respect which the Canonists do Others there be who hold them Ceremonial and to determine with the Levitical Law though they be not able to shew what the payment of Tithes did signifie nor what they did typifie nor whereof they were a ceremony which are the only Discoverers of that which is Ceremonial In this variety of opinions the question amongst the Canonists Schoolmen and Divines not being yet determined by what Law Tithes are due though it may be gathered for a truth from the Scriptures the Fathers and other Humane Writers that for so much as concerneth the due maintenance of the Minister that it is due Jure Divino Morali by the Law of Nature that yet the part as it was declared by the Judicial Law of the Jews so is it due by the Civil or Positive Law of the Nation but yet from the time of Grant or Dedication to be the Lords to the worlds end unlesse himself or perhaps the Ministers his Trustees shall renounce or relinquish them It is no small or trivial businesse for those in present power to go about an universal alteration of this sacred patrimony Sacred I say that is set apart towards the service of God in perpetuity under the limitation abovesaid of the Lords or of his Ministers renunciation Before there be a judicious determination of its Original right by an Assembly of Learned and Orthodox Divines Lawyers Canonists and Casuists thereunto called by Supreme Authority For if Tithes be due to the Ministers of the Gospel Jure Divino Morali or by the Law of Nature in kinde or in quantity then will that State which shall alter them or enforce an exchange of them for some other thing be guilty of no lesse sin then Sacriledge which is of so high a nature that it cost Ananias and Sapphira dear a president the highest of that nature we read of in the New Testament intimating unto us that sin to be the greatest which after the death of our Saviour was in all the Apostles times acted or committed Not for breach of the Levitical Law then ended but of the Moral law in withdrawing a thing devoted the taking away what our forefathers devoted as Tithes aggravates the offence and so will do the punishment Nor have those parts or persons wherein or by whom it hath been practised gone unattended with direful Judgements Neither Germany France Holland nor Scotland I will not speak of Englands condition can at this day glory of their prosperity where that sacred patrimony with other of the like nature have been swallowed up totally or converted into Stipends or other things And besides the sin of Sacriledge it must needs be interpreted a transcendent and high presumption for man to take upon him to be wiser then his Creator And whereas God in his wisdome hath appointed Tithes to be the maintenance of his Ministers that man should take upon him to chop and to change to take away or confound what the Lord hath ordained When we pay our Tithes duly we have in that particular discharged our duties both to God and to our Minister either according to the Divine Moral Law or exemplary-wise by imitation of the Divine Judicial Law but when Tithes shall be turned into Stipends or some other thing now or into Hoc aliquid nihil hereafter how can a man be satisfied when he hath paid or performed that that he hath done what hee ought or done his duty without diminution the surest way for God to have his right and the truest way for man to do no wrong is payment in kinde out of the very self-same goods which the Earth by his gracious blessing doth continually produce It was a witty observation of the Hebrews that when a man pays his Tithes he is the Husbandman and receiveth nine parts for one and God who receiveth one of ten is the Priest But when Tithes are not paid then God is the Husbandman and keeps the nine parts and man is the Priest and hath but the tenth for then ten acres of Vine shall yield but one Bathe Esa 5.10 So tender were the consciences of men heretofore in point of Tithing