Gospel no lesse than five several times one after another insisting longer on it then on any other Argument to prove the preeminency of Melchisedecs Priesthood above Aarons Whence it undeniably follows 1. That Tithes are not originally Jewish and Levitical 2. That the receiving of Tithes by faithfull Ministers now is no disparagement but an honour to their Ministry and function as well as to Melchisedecs heretofore 3. That Ministers receiving Tithes now doth no more prove their Ministry to be Judaical or Levitical than it proved Melchisedecs Priesthood to be such which is put in contradistinction to it and exalted above it by the Apostle even by the very receiving of Tithes from Abraham Therefore those Jesuitical and Anabaptistical furies against Tithes who rail against our Ministers and their Ministry as Jewish and Aaronical because they receive Tithes and urge this as a disparagement to their Persons Ministry rejecting Tith-receiving Ministers as Jewish Antichristian unlawfull doe herein argue point-blank against the Apostle and thereby conclude Melchisedecs and by consequence our Saviours own Priesthood after the order of Melchise dec to be Jewish Antichristian dishonourable and unlawfull because Melchisedec himself received Tithes which to do is the highest blasphemy 7. That the Apostle informs us that God had never but two orders of Priests in the world The first after the order of Mâ—lchisedec in Abrahams dayes discontinued under the Law for a time but revived again in our Saviour Christ and continuing now and for ever in him compared here to Melchisedec especially in his Nature the seat of his Kingdom the perpetuity of his life his Sacerdotal blessing and IN THE RIGHT OF RECEIVING TITHES as Hemingius on the place observes The second after the order of Levi and Aaron abolished and changed by Christ that Tithes were paid and belonged of right to both these orders of Priests for the exercise of their function by Gods own approbation and appointment as a just fitting righteous maintenance and reward which since they cannot now be paid to Christ himself in person being ascended into heaven and there sitting at Gods right hand a great high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec there is great Justice Reason they should be still paid to and received by his Ministers whom we have alwaies with us as well as the poor who are his Vicegerents and Stewards with whom he hath promised to be alwayes present to the end of the World Mat 28.20 and that as the properest justest best fittest maintenance of all other appointed prescribed by God paid by Abraham and all the faithfull by Gods direction and approbation both before and under the Law and is recited justified allowed but no wayes condemned or abrogated by the Apostle and Gods Spirit under the Gospel Wherefore those who inconsiderately revile and declaim against Tithes as heavy Yokes Jewish Burdens an unequal unrighteous wrangling troublesom maintenance c. do herein blasphemously traduce censure the very wisdom justice discretion not only of Abraham and all the faithfull servants of God approving and paying Tithes in former ages but of God himself who prescribed them and of the Apostle pleading for them as appertaining to both these orders of Gods Priests for their perpetual maintenance 8. Here is one notable observation for all the Officers and Souldiers of the Army seriously to consider and O that God would fix it effectually on their Spirits That Abraham the Father of the faithfull as the Gospel styles him Rom 4.16 returning victoriously from the first Warrs we read of in the world gave the TENTH OF THE SPOYLES taken from the Enemy in the warrs to Melchisedec the first Priest of the most high God we finde in the Word or World and an express type of Christ our only high Priest if not Christ himself as some affirm To teach all Generals Officers Souldiers who professe themselves the Sons or Children of Abraham after the faith to do the like And which is very considerable though this victorious General and Souldier was urged by the King of Sodom to take all the Spoyl and goods he had taken and rescued from the Enemy to himself and to give him only the persons rescued which he magnanimously refused saying I have lift up my hand unto the Lord the most high God possessor of heaven and earth that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet and that I will not take any thing that was thine lest thou shouldest say I have made Abraham rich Gen 14.21 22 23. And O that all Commanders Souldiers now were as conscionable and just in performing their Oathes Covenants Vowes made with hands lifted up unto the Lord as faithfull Abraham was yet he would not renounce nor give away Gods and the Priests portion upon any condition but GAVE THE TENTH OF ALL THE SPOYL TO THEM restoring only the Surplusage And should not our Generals Officers Souldiers in these dayes who professe and style themselves the Eminentest most precious Saints and spiritual seed of faithfull Abraham more really prove themselves such indeed to God the World and their own Consciences by giving the Tenth of all their spoils and gains of Warres to God and his faithfull Ministers which I never heard one of them yet did and making good all their solemn Oathes and Covenants to God whereof this was one clause That they shall sincerely really and constantly endeavour in their several places and callings the preservation of the reformed Religion from utter ruine and destruction against all the treacheries and bloudy Plots Conspiracies Attempts and practices of the Enemies thereof whereof this in present agitation to deprive our Ministers of all Tithes and setled maintenance is one of the principal which will ruine our Ministers Ministry and Religion with them as faithfull Abraham really did rather than by endevouring what they can as too many of them do TO SPOYL THEM OF ALL THEIR TITHES both predial mixt and personal which they have so long enjoyed not only by a just civil right and title confirmed by Prescription the great Charter all sorts of Lawes Statutes Ordinances in antient and late times but likewise by a divine Warrant from this Precedent of Abraham instead of giving them THE TENTH OF THEIR SPOYLS Which practice if pursued as it will insallibly demonstrate them to be no real Saints or Children of faithfull Abraham our Saviour resolving Joh. 8.39 If ye were Abrahams children ye would do the works of Abraham in paying Tithes as he did so it will probably exclude both them and others guilty of it out of Abrahams bosome Luke 16.22 who will never own nor receive those as his friends or children into his bosome who are such virulent Enemies to his most commendable Practice of paying Tithes even of the very spoyls he took in Warr. With this Argument I have so routed some Officers and Souldiers that they blushed for shame had not one word to reply and gave over further rayling
how great this man was unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils And verily they that are of the Sons of Levi who receive the office of the Priesthood have a Commandement to take Tithes of the People according to the Law that is of their brethren though they come out of the loyns of Abraham But he whose descent is not counted from them received Tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the Promises And without all contradiction the lisse is blessed of the better And here Men that die receive Tithes but there he received them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth And as I may so say Levi also who receiveth Tithes paid Tithes in Abraham For he was yet in the loynes of his Father when Melchisedec met him If therefore perfection were by the Levitical Priesthood for under it the people received the Law what further need was there that another Priesthood should rise after the order of Melchisedec and not be called after the order of Aaron For the Priesthood being changed there is of necessity a change also of Law c. I shall draw my Observations Arguments concerning Tithes from both these Scriptures here recited and then answer the main if not sole Scripture objected against Tithes drawn from the cloze of the Apostles words 1. It is undeniable from these Texts that Abraham the Father of the Faithfull is the first person we precisely read of who gave and paid Tithes recorded both in the Old Testament and New for his greater honour and the imitation of all the faithfull under both Testaments 2. That he gave and paid Tithes to Melchisedec the first Priest of the most high God mentioned in sacred writ Who this Melchisedec should be there is great controversie among the Learned some affirming him to be Sem others a Canaanitish King and Priest of that Name and Dr. Griffith Williams very probably and strongly arguing him to be CHRIST himself then appearing to Abraham in his humane shape As Petrus Cunaeus held before him I shall not decide the Controversie certain it is he was either Christ himself or a real Type of Christs and his eternal Priest-hood as the Apostle oft resolves 3. That he was a Priest of a far antienter better and more excellent order than the Levitical Priest-hood and that this payment of Tithes was long before the Law given by Moses for payment of Tithes to the Levitical Priests and before their order instituted Therefore Tithes are not meerly nor originally in their own nature Jewish or Levitical as some rashly now a verr nor eternally abolished as such by Christs incarnation and Priesthood they being originally paid and given not to the Levitical Priests but to Mâ—lchisedec who was either Christ himself or a Type of him and his Priesthood not of Aarons 4. That this Melchisedec as he had neither beginning of daies so he had no end of life but was made like the Son of God and abideth a Priest continually in respect of the truth he typified as Christ himself doth of whom he was a Type who hath an endless life and because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priest-hood and is by the very oath of God made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec Heb. 6.20 7.3 8 13 15 16 17 21 24 25. Psal 110.4 Therefore Tithes being first paid to such an everliving everlasting unchangeable Priest and Priest-hood for the execution thereof may and ought to continue and abide for ever as long as the Priest and Priest-hood last and if so then Tithes are still due payable to the Ministers of Christ under the Gospel by all the Spiritual seed of faithfull Abraham as well as they were by all his Sonnes after the flesh to the Levitical or Aaronical Priest-hood whiles in being and that in the right of Christ they being Ambassadors representing his person beseeching men in Christs stead to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.20 21. Forgiving men in tho person of Christ 2 Cor. 2.10 and in whose persons Christ himself still speaks unto men 2 Cor. 13.3 Whence Christ himself a verres Verily verily I say unto you he that receiveth whosoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Mat. 10.40 Luke 10.16 John 13.20 That whatever is given or paid to them for their Ministry is given and paid to himself Mat. 10.42 25.35 to 41. and is a Sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing unto God Philip. 4.18 5. That Abraham gave Tithes to Melchisedec for the execution of his Priestly office and that not in offring any carnal or Levitical Sacrifices to God for him upon an Altar but only for blessing him and rendring thanks and blessing to the most high God for his victory which being one chief part of the Ministers of the Gospels duty still continuing even to blesse the people to praise and blesse God for them and their successes in spiritual and temporal things Rom. 1.7 8 9. 10.24 1 Cor. 1.3 4 5. 16.23 2 Cor. 1.1 2 3. 9.10 11. 13.14 Gal. 1.2 6.18 Ephes 1.1 2 3 16 17 18. 3.14 to the end 6.23 24. Phil. 1.2 3 4. 4.20 23. Col. 1.2 3 9 to 14. 4.18 1 Thess 1.1 2 3. 2.13 5 23 28.2 Thess 1.2 3 11 12. 2.13 16 17. 3.18 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Heb. 13.25 1 Pet. 1.2 3 4. 5.14 2 Pet. 1.2 Revel 5.12 13. as likewise to blesse the Sacramental bread and wine for their use 1 Cor. 10.16 Mat. 26.26 typifyed as most hold by the bread and wine Melchisedec brought forth to Abraham is a convincing Argument to me that Tithes are no way Levitical or Jewish in their primitive institution or intrinsecal nature but rather Evangelical and are as justly due and payable by all believing sons and children of faithfull Abraham to the Ministers of the Gospel for blessing them and praying blessing praysing God for them and other Ministerial duties as they were by Abraham to Melchisedec for performing the self-same Priestly duties towards him 6. That the scope of the Apostle in the Hebrews being to prove the Honour Dignity Excellency of the order of Melchisedecs and by consequence of our Saviours Priest-hood above Aarons he useth this as one demonstration thereof 1. That he received Tithes of the Patriarch Abraham himself Heb. 7.2 4 to 11. whereas the Levitical Priests received Tithes only of their Brethren that came out of the loynes of Abraham 2. That even Levi himself who received Tithes of his Brethren paid Tithes in Abraham being then in his Fathers loynes to Melchisedec as his superior yea even as the Levits under the Law paid the tenth of their Tithes to the Priests as their superiours Numb 18.26 27 28. And this payment of Tithes to Melchisedec he recites in the
not infallible that Abraham paid Tithes to Melchisedec of all those things which the Levites and Priests afterward received from their brethren not of the spoyls alone out of which no certain Maintenance could be raised not specified therefore in those general precepts concerning Tithes 5. The Apostle arguing the natural justice of Ministers maintenance Rom. 15.27 and 1 Cor. 9.11 useth this expression If we have sowen unto you spiritual things in the plural number is it a great matter if we shall reap your CARNAL THINGS in the plural number too and such things as seem commonly to grow and multiply as the word reap imports And Gal. 6.6 he useth this general precept Let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth IN ALL GOOD THINGS Therefore to restrain Abrahams giving Tithes of all only to the spoyls and not to all his carnal and good things is a very improper exposition dissonant from the scope and sense of these parallel Texts which seem aptly to interpret it 6. The very Pharisee in the Gospel boasting of his Justice and Piety used this expression parallel with that of Abraham Luke 18.12 I GIVE TITHES OF ALL THAT I POSSESSE and to confine Abrahams giving Tithes of all to the Tithes only of the spoils and not to extend it with the Pharisee to all that he possâ—ssed besides is to make this Father of the Faithful less righteous liberal devout than this hypocritical Pharisie 7. That which seems to put all our of question is the parallel Text of Gen. 28.20 21 22. Where Jacob after his travelling vision makes this vow to God even before the Levitical Law for Tithes If God will be with me so that I come again to my Fathers house in peace Then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be Gods house and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely without diminution substraction or failing give the Tenth unto thée Whence should godly Jacob take his pattern of surely giving the Tenth of all not of spoils alone that God should give him unto God but from the practice of his Grand-father Abraham who gave Mâ—lchisedec the Tenth of all God gave him as well as of the Spoils Honouring God with all his Substance and increase according to that precept of Solomon having relation to his practice and this Vow of Jacobs Prov. 3.9 Honour the Lord with thy Substance and with the first fruits of all thy increase And so much in refutation of this second Evasion which some armed men much urge The third Objection which some would make fatal to all Tithes under the Gospel is from the close of the Apostles forecited words Heb. 7.12 For the Priesthood being changed there is also a necessity of a change of the Law c. From whence William Thorp one of our Martyrs thus reasoned against Tithes and others now Saint Paul saith That Tithes were given in the old Law to Levites and to Priests that came of the linage of Levi but our Priests come not of the linage of Levi but of Juda to which Juda no Tithes were promised to be given And therefore Paul saith since the Priesthood is changed from the generation of Levi to Juda its necessary that changing also be made of the Law So that Priests must live now without Tithes and other Dues that they claim following Christ and his Apostles in wilfull poverty as they have given them example I Answer 1. That the Apostle in this and the three following Chapters concludes and proves by sundry Arguments That the Levitical Priesthood and the Ceremonial Law given the people under Moses the Covenant of this Priesthood were both changed and abolished by Christ and his everlasting Priesthood shadowed to us by them and by consequence the maintenance of the Levitical Priests by Sacrifices offered by them at the Altar by first fruits and Tithes themselves so far as they were Ceremonial prescribed by the Ceremonial Law for the maintenance only of these abolished Levitical Priests and Levites which is all this Scripture proves when pressed to the uttermost But can any rational man hence conclude The Levitical Priesthood the Ceremonial law and all the tithes maintenance due to the Jewish Priests and Levites by this Law are abolished by Christ a Priest for ever after after the order of Melchisedec to whom Tithes were due and paid by Abraham before this law and Priesthood instituted Therefore all Tithes maintenance due and paid to Melchisedec and in him to Christ and the Ministers of the Gospel under him are eternally abolished as Jewish and Levitical Surely this is a mad inference both besides and against this Text from which all Orthodox Protestant Commentators as well as Papist and Jesuites conclude the quite contrary and learned Nicholas Hemingius in his Commentary on it p. 805. thus determines It is subjoyned that Melchisedec received Tithes from Abraham which Tithes Abraham verily gave of his own accord following without doubt the custome of Conquerors Let our Conquering Officers Souldiers observe and do the like who were wont to consecrate the tenths of their Spoyls to their Gods or to give them to their Priests But this collation of Tithes multo meliori Jure Christo Sacerdoti debetur is due by much better Right to Christ our Priest who as he gives all things to us out of méer bounty ita vicissim illi non solum Decimas verum etiam omnia nostra debemus so we owe to him again not only Tithes but likewise all we have Whether the Objectors or Hemingius speak most Gospel Divinity and Reason from this Text let every Christians conscience judge 2. The Apostles words concerning the change and abrogation of the Ceremonial Law have no coherence with or relation to the precedent discourse concerning payment of Tithes to Melchisedec and the Levites recited only to prove the dignity and excellency of Melchisedecs Priesthood above Aarons and of the Levitical Priests and Levites above their Brethren from whom they received Tithes The force of the Argument reduced into a Logical form being thus He who receives Tithes for the execution of his Priestly Office is better and greater thaâ— he who payes Tithes But the Patriarch Abraham himself the very Father of the Faithfull and Prince of the Fathers paid Tithes to Melchisedec and likewise the Levitical Priests then in his loyns in and by him who yet receive Tithe of their Brethren but not of their Father Abraham or Melchisedec Therefore Melchisedec is better and greater than Abraham and them and they than their Brethren who paid them Tithes And by consequence Christ being a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec who was but a type of him must be better and greater than Abraham Joh. 8.55 56. or the Levitical Priests or than Melchisdec himself who did but typifie him This excellency and precedency of Christs Priesthood before Aarons he proves by other
from the Secular Priests to themselves That the Command of Tithes was not Moral but Ceremonial and not to be performed by constraint of Conscience to the Minister and that out of whatsoever Lands at least was given to any of the four Orders of Fréers Mendicants as now to Anabaptists and Quakers their disciples no Tithe was in conscience to be deduced for the Minister as he proves out of the Council of Vienna held An. 1340. Pope Innocent the 4th and Richard Archbishop of Armagh in Defens Curatorum Alex. l. 4. Consil 60. and William Râ—ssel a Franciscan Freer his Doctrine condemned in the Convocation of the Clergie Anno 5 H. 6. as Haeretical and publikely recanted by him at Pauls Cross as such That Tithes especially personal fall not under divine precept at least that they should be paid to the Parochial Curate as a due unto him of right unlesse there were a Custom to the contrary but that every one might lawfully give them to pious uses at their pleasure Whereupon these Nâ—w Masters and Preaching Freers preaching and teaching thus against the Old and Nâ—w Testament were enjoyned by several Councils and Synods in their Sermons to exhort inform and instruct the people without any fraud to pay their Tithes faithfully to their Ministers as DVE by the Lawes of God and the Church under pain of being deprived of the power of absolving the people from their sins Therefore John Cannes with his confederate Anabaptists and Quakers new Doctrines Invectives Petitions against our Ministers Tithes derived from these old and new Franciscan Mendicant Freers now swarming amongst them is far more truly really Antichristian than our Ministers and their Tithes of which more in its due place 11. That God in the Levitical and Judicial Law prescribed Laws for Warr and Souldiers in the Wars Deut. 20. throughout and amongst others v. 2 3 4. It shall be when ye come nigh unto the Battel that the Priest shall approach and speak unto the people and shall say unto them for their encouragement Hear O Israel you approach this day unto battel against your enemies let not your hearts faint fear not and do not tremble neither be ye terrified because of them for the Lord your God is he that goeth with you against your Enemies to save you After which v. 8. c. The Officers are commanded to make Proclamation that every man who was fearfull and faint-hearted should go and return to his house lest they should discourage their brethren that they should proclaim Peace to every City they came nigh before they besieged or stormed it and if they won it by force the Souldiers should take the spoil thereof unto themselves and eat the spoil of their enemies which the Lord their God had given them And by another Levitical Law the Priests were thus enjoyned by God to pray for and bless his people Num 6.23 24. c. On this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying to them the Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee Peace and they shall put my name upon the Children of Israel and I will bless them If then it be neither Jewish nor Antichristian nor superstitious nor unlawfull for Ministers of the Gospel to encourage Christian Souldiers going to battel in the self same manner and form or to bless them and the people in these very Levitical words as Iohn Canne and all Anabaptistical Independent Chaplains of the Army and Mr. Peters especially will grant who have frequently used the self same or like encouragements and exhortations to the Army receiving good constant pay for their pains And if it be neither Jewish nor Antichristian nor unchristian for our Saintlike Officers and Soldiers under the Gospel to make like Proclamation to cowardly persons or to proclaim peace to Cities and garisons ere they besiege or storm them and if obstinat and won by force to take the Spoil and Plunder of such Cities Enemies to themselves and eat therof which I am certain all our Officers Soldiers and their Anabaptistical Tithe-oppugning Chaplains will grant and subscribe to though thus prescribed by the Levitical law abolished as they say by Jesus Christ Then questionless our Ministers of the Gospel may still receive and enjoy their Glebes Tithes Oblations by like reason without the least guilt or reproach of Judaism or Antichristianism though prescribed to the Levitical Priests and Levites by the Levitical law else John Canne and others of his fraternity professing themselves the only Ministers of the Gospel and rejecting all others as Antichristian must give over their Chaplains places in the Army Navy Garrisons and no more encourage nor accompany any Soldiers in the wars or bless the people as aforesaid because it was a part of the Levitical Priests Office who were also to blow the Trumpets in the wars Num. 6.1 to 10. Josh 6.4 c. prescribed by an abolished Levitical law 12. That all Israelites Jews both Priests and people were by the Levitical law frequently commanded inviolably to perform keep pay execute the solemn Oaths Vows Covenants they made to God or men and no wayes to infringe them or prevaricate in them Levit. 19.12 Num. 21.2 3. cap. 30.2 to 16. Deut. 12.11 cap. 23.21 22 23. Josh 2.11 12 13. cap. 6.22 to 26. cap. 9.15 to the end And among other things we finde their Tithes vowed to God by Jacob Gen. 28.20 21 22. coupled with their Vows as things devoted by them to God by Vow as well as reserved by Law Deut. 12.11 Yea all the Jews were obliged by a Solemn Covenant to bring pay their first fruits and Tithes to God his Priests and Lâ—vites Nen. 10.31 to 39. Will or dare John Canne then or any other Tithe-leniers averr that it is both Jâ—wish Antichristian unlawfull for Ministers and Christians under the Gospel inâ—iolably to observe and perform all those just lawfull Oathes Vows Covenants they have solemnly made to God and men with hands listed up to heaven as some of their persidious horrid violations of them without blush or check of late seems to proclaim before God and all the world and to pay those Tithes Dues to our Ministers which our Ancestors and we by Solemn Vows and Covenants too have dedicated unto God and his Ministers and never intended by our Covenant to abolish or diminish in the least degree as Canne perjuriously and absurdly asserts but to establish and perpetuate as the late Ordinances for Tithes and Aâ—gmentations made by the very Prescribers and Subscribers of the late Solemn League and Covenant which it seems John Canne never took though he presseth it on others as his words Many have sworn who I hope will now observe it import both at the time and since the making taking of the Solemn League and Covenant with the Assemblies Exhortation for the better taking
Levitical Priests themselves especially after their abolition as he was a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck to whom Abraham himself and the Levites then in his loins paid Tithes of all Heb. 7.1 to 15. of which at large before Therefore he had a just Right to receive Tithes from them both before the institution and after the abolition of the Levitical Priesthood which he might have lawfully claimed exercised and his Apostles likewise in his Right though they did it not We read that Christ had a just Right Title by Inheritance and lineal descent from his Father King David to the Temporal Crown and Kingdome of Judah being therefore said by the Wise men Mat. 2.2 to be born King of the Iews an unanswerable Argument for the lawfullnesse Excellency of Hereditary Titles to Crowns and Kingdomes before that of Election only wherewith I frequently silenced vapouring Souldiers against Hereditary Kingship being the very Title of Christ himself both to his Spiritual and Temporal Kingdome and that which God instituted amongst his Church people as the best surest of all other taken up by most Heathen Nations Now though Christ neither claimed nor exercised this his Temporal Right but avoided it when the people would have made him King by force John 6.15 who yet after cryed him up for the King of Israel John 12.13 15. which even Pilate himself acknowledged when he said unto the Jews Behold your King demanded of them Shall I crucifie your King and wrote fixed this Title on his Crosse Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews John 19.14 15 19. will or can John Canne or any other of his antimonarchical confederates hence justly infer that it was unlawfull for Christ himself Right Heir by Descent to his Hereditary Temporal Kingdome kept and thrust out thereof by usurping Herod who murthered all the infants in Bethlehem and the Coasts thereof that were two years old and under and would have murthered our Saviour himself to secure his own usurped Power Mat. 2.13 16. such is the bloody cruelty Jealousie of Usurpers to have claimed or exercised this his just Hereditary Right to the Crown or unlawfull for the people to have thrust out this bloody Intruder Herod by force from his usurped Authority and made Christ King as they intended or because Christ did then voluntarily forbear relinquish his Temporal Right to Herod will it thence necessarily follow that it is therefore unlawfull for any other Hereditary Christian King or Right Heir to a Crown kept from or thrust out of his Throne Kingdome by armed violence against the generality of his peoples desires by any aspiring usurping Herod to lay claim to his Crown Kingdome or for the faithfull natural born Subjects according to their duty Oathes Allegiance to endeavour by all lawfull means and open force to expell dethrone such Herods and Crown set up their lawfull Soveraign on the Throne of the Kingdome Doubtlesse they cannot be so absurdly stupid to affirm it seeing Jehoiadah the high Priest the Captains of Hundreds Levites Souldiers and people too thrust out and slew with the sword Athaliah the bloody Usurper of the Kingdome and Throne of Judah in the second year of her Usurpation crowned Joash the Kings Son King as the Lord had said of the Sons of David and set him upon the Throne of the Kingdome whereupon all the people of the Land rejoyced and the City was quiet as is recorded at large to their eternal Honour by God himself and for others imitation in the like case 2 Chron. 23. and 2 Kings 11. The rather because all other men by our Laws may justly lay claim to and repossesse themselves of such Lands Houses Goods as others forcibly detain or take from them against all Law Right notwithstanding Christs Non-claim to his Rightful Crown Therefore by the self-same Reason our Ministers of the Gospel now may lawfully challenge and take Tithes from the people though Christ and his Apostles did it not albeit they had a just Right and Title to them which they might have exercised had they pleased without Sin or Judaism as our Ministers do now as Paul resolves in 1 Cor. 9.4 5 6 15 18. To clear which Right from Judaism and all other cavils beyond all contradiction I shall cite only two Prophecies relating joyntly to Christs Kingdom and Ministers under the Gospel The first is Jer. 33.15 to the end In those dayes and at that time will I cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David and he shall execute Righteousnesse and Judgement in the Land In those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and this is the name wherewith he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness For thus saith the Lord David shall never want a man to sit upon the Throne of the house of Israel Neither shall the Priests the Levites want a man before me to offer Burnt-Offerings and to kindle Meat-Offerings and to do Sacrifices continually Thus saith the Lord if you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night so that there should not be day and night in their season then may also my Covenant be broken with David my Servant that he should not have a Son to reign upon his Throne therefore our Covenants Oaths to our Kings their Heirs and Successors should be as stable as inviolable and strictly observed as Gods to David and his Posterity Ps 89.3 4 34. Ps 132.11 12. Hebr. 6.17 18. Ps 15.4 Eccles 8.2 Gal. 3.15 17. and with the Levites the Priests my Ministers As the host of heaven cannot be numbred neither the sand of the Sea measured so will I multiply the seed of David my Servant and the Levites that minister unto me c. The second is Isa 66.18 to 20. I will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my Glory and I will set a Sign among them and I will send those that escape of them unto the Nations and to Tarshish c. and to the Isles afar off whereof England is chief and principally intended And they shall bring all your Brethren for an Offering unto the Lord out of all Nations upon Horses and in Chariots and in Litters and upon Mules and upon swift Beasts to my holy Mountain in Jerusalem saith the Lord as the Children of Israel bring an Offering in a clean Vessel unto the House of the Lord And I will also take of them for Priests and for Levits saith the Lord From which Texts I shall observe 1. That as Christs Title to his everlasting Spiritual Kingdom under the Gospel over all the converted Gentiles as well as Jews is expresly set forth to be neither elective nor by conquest but by DESCENT HEIRSHIP and lineal succession after the flesh from King David Whence he is stiled Heir of all things Heb. 1.12 And the Lord shall give unto him THE THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID and HE shall reign over the House of
6. c. 3. 5 E. 6 c 2. 7 E. 6. c. 11.1 Phil. Mar. c. 6.5 Eliz. c. 3.14 Eliz. c. 3.18 Eliz c. 3.22 Eliz. c. 11.23 Eliz. c. 3.31 Eliz. c. 10.35 Eliz. c. 7. 43 Eliz. c. 2. as Dalton and other Justices of Peace Tit. Poor Maimed Souldiers Therefore admit Tithes mere Alms as some would have them yet when and where detained they may be as justly levyed and recovered by coercive Laws and Statutes as Alms to the Poor and those who condemn coercive Laws for Tithes as unbeseeming the Gospel must Tax and Repeal all Laws for the Poor and for Maimed Souldiers too as such which I presume they will not do 5ly I suppose neither Canne himself who receives pay as a Chaplain to the Army out of publick Contributions from the people not from voluntary contributions of the Souldiers and all other Officers and Swordmen oppugning the coercive Maintenance of our Ministers by Tither or otherwise will maintain even unto death that the People even against their wills and Consciences too may be enforced to pay Monthly Taxes and Excises amounting to twenty times more each year than all the Ministers Tithes in England by coercive Orders and Ordinances though not made in a full free or old English Parliament nor warranted by so many indisputable Acts of Parliament as Ministers Tithes and Dues and levyed by Imprisonments Distresses Forfeitures armed violence and free quartering of Souldiers on the people though adjudged High Treason in Straffords Case in full Parliament for which he lost his Head our Ministers therefore being real Spiritual Souldiers of Jesus Christ even by the Gospels Resolution and not to go a warfare at any time on their own free cost but upon the Peoples pay wages as due to them as any Souldiers which I have formerly proved they must by the self same reason acknowledge the levying enforcing of the payment of their less Burdensom and more legal necessarie Tithes for the defence and preservation of the very Gospel Religion Gods Glory and Mans Salvation once a year by penalties forfeitures imprisonments or distresses when obstinately detained or else disclaim their own coercive Contributions first to maintain unchristian bloodie wars between Christians of the same Religion in firm unity and amity with us which are not so necessarie or commendable amongst Christians who should live peaceably with all men not make a last Trade of war Love as Brethren Lay down their Lives one for another Yea love and pray for their Enemies not murder or destroy them and beat all their Swords into Plowshares and their spears into Pruning Hooks not lifting up Sword Nation against Nation as now they do to the peril of the Gospel reproach and slaunder and learn war no more as is the Spiritual warfare of our Ministers against the World Flesh Sin Devil and all Errors Blasphemies Corruptions for the eternal Salvation not Destruction of mens Souls and Bodies too 6ly We find it long since prophecied in the Old Testament in relation to the calling to the Gentiles by and under the Gospel Isay 49.23 That the KINGS of the Gentiles should become Nursing-Fathers and their Queens Nursing-Mothers to the Church Isay 60.9 10. Surely the Isles shall wait for me and the Ships of Tarshish first to bring my Sons from far their Silver and their Gold with them And the Sons of Strangers shall build up the walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee Psal 72.10 11. The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring Presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer Gifts yea all Kings shall down before him and then all Nations shall serve him Thus seconded in the New Testament Rev 21.24 where it is prophecied of the Heavenly Jerusalem the Church of Christ the Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory unto it Which Prophecies concerning Kings and likewise Kings of Isles in particular and no other sorts of Governors which is observable have been most eminently verified of the Kings and Queens of this Isle and Realm of Britain beyond all the Kings Queens Regions Isles and Kingdoms in the world besides to the eternal Honour of that late rejected abjured form of Kingly Government derived from Gods own form of Kingly Government over the whole world and of Christs Royal Government over his Church both Militant and Triumphant and of this our Isle where God blessed our Church and Kingdom 1. with three such worthy Heathen Kings in Succession Arviragus Marius and Coylus who though they embraced not the Christian Faith here preached soon after our Saviours Ascension by James the Son of Zebedee Simon Zelotes Peter Paul Aristobulus and Philips twelve Disciples wherof Joseph of Aramathaea who honourably interred our Saviour was chief Yet they courteously entertained them permitted them freely to preach the Gospel to their people gave publick entertainment to the persecuted Christians resorting hither as to a safe and peaceable Sanctuary when they were forcibly expelled out of all other Kingdoms and Countries throughout the world and Roman Empire by bloody Persecutors bestowed Lands and a comfortable Maintenance on the Preachers of the Gospel at Glastonbury where they built the first Christian Church in the world and were the first Kings and Kingdoms in the world who gave publique Reception Protection Countenance Maintenance to the Preachers and Professors of the Gospel as not only our own Historians but two forein Writers namely Polydore Virgil Hist Angl. l. 2. and Cardinal Baronius himself Annal. Tom. 1. An. 95. n. 5. with Spondanus in his Epitome of him records 2ly With the first Christian King we read of publickly baptised professing and establishing the Christian Faith builded endowed Churches and Ministers with Glebes and other Maintenance to wit our famous King Lucius who about the year 187. as Matthew Paris Matthew Westminster the History of Rochester and others record Possessiones et Territoria Ecclesiis et viris Ecclesiasticis abundanter conferens Chartis Munimentis omnia communivit Ecclesias vero cum suis Coemiteriis ita constituit esse Liberas ut quicunque Malefactor ad illa confugeret illaesus ab omnibus remaneret a good Policy at that time to draw Pagans to frequent the Church and hear the word to convert them both from their Paganism and evil Lives He not only giving all the Lands and Possessions belonging to the Pagan Temples and Priests to the Churches and Ministers of the Christians Sed quia majorem honorem illis impendere debuerat augmentavit illas amplioribus agris et mansis omnique libertate sublimavit as Galfridus Monmuniensis and Gervasius Tilburiensis affirm Here was a true Nursing Father indeed to Gods Church and Ministers 3ly With the first Christian Queen we read of in all the world to wit Queen Helena Daughter and Heir to King Coel and Mother to Constantine the Great who was a carefull Nursing Mother and Bountifull Benefactor to the Church and Ministers
DECIMAS Primigenia adulta tua DEO DATO O that all those Militarie victorious Commanders who boast of like victories as he obtained would imitate him in these his Vertues Bounty Liberalitie both to our Universities Scholars Ministers and promulging Edicts for the due payment of their detained Tithes and Dues and then they should be Chronicled for SAINTS INDEED as well as the forenamed Kings of which there was not one in three in former Ages as Sir Henry Spelman observes WHO DID NOT ADORN AUGMENT ENRICH THE CHURCH IN SOME THINGS even during their very wars instead of making a mere prey and spoyl of her as some late SAINTS have done to maintain the warres and enrich themselves In which Sacrilegious Rapines if any shall persevere to the utter ruine of the remaining Glebes Tithes Maintenance of all our Ministers and Churches too the prime Honour of our Nation ECCLESIA Faemina Lana as some have designed and would engage them to do to render our Religion Nation and those who shall give their Votes thereto for ever execrable Let them take heed that instead of inducing the Ministers and godly people really fearing God throughout our three Nations to forget Monarchy and be in love with their New Military Government they do not necessitate them and most others too thereby by comparing their Irreligious Church-Robberies and Sacrilegious Rapines against the very Laws even of War and Conquest it self in an Enemies Country and detestable to very Heathens as Grotius proves at large to love and honour Kings and Monarchs more than ever as the only Nursing-Fathers to Gods Ministers Church People under the Gospel and to esteem others not comming in by the Door into the Sheep-fold but climbing up by Storm some other way to be but Theeves and Robbers who come not but to Steal Kill and to Destroy whatever the Bounty Piety and Munificence of these and other our Kings have built and setled on the Clergy for Gods Honour and maintenance of his worship and thereby engage them so to act speak and peremptorily resolve as all the Israelites and Godly Levites Priests People twice did in a like case 2 Chron. 11.13 14 15 16 17. 1 Sam. 8.3 5 19 20. If any here object these Kings and Queens were more Popish Superstitious than really Religious Admit they were in some things as too much doting upon Monkery not Monarchy or worldly wealth or Power which some condemn in others when most guilty of and applauding it in themselves yet their very Bounty and profuse munificent Building Monasteries and Nunneries whereof King Edgar alone built no less than 47. endowed them with large Revenues and intended to make them up 50. had he lived besides what they bestowed in building adorning endowing maintaining all Cathedral and Parish Churches and Chapels for the support and honour of their superstitious Religion should eternally shame all those pretended Saints who will be at no cost at all to maintain and propagate what they now call the True Religion and the faithfull Ministers of the Gospel but instead thereof will by mere Force and Rapine against all Rules of Law Justice Piety Equity and war it self plunder if they can the remaining Materials and Fabricks of our Churches which those Kings or their Successors and other antient Benefactors built for Gods Honour and the small surviving Lands Rectories Glebes Tithes Pensions Dues which our Ministers yet enjoy by their sole Bounty Piety Gift Laws without any real charge injurie oppression or obligation to any Mortals now surviving them But to take off the stain of Popery wholly from our Kings which was no disparagement to their commendable Charity and Bounty Consider in the sixth place that God hath honoured us with the first Christian King in the Universe Henry the 8 th who durst not only question but by Publick Laws and Statutes abolish and renounce the Popish usurped Antichristian Power and with it all Popish Shavelings Abbots Priors Monks Nunnes and many Popish Doctrines Ceremonies and restored the People to the use of the Holy Scriptures in their own Native Language Whose example encouraged other Kings Princes Churches to do the like Who though he seised upon Abby Lands as given to mere Superstitious Persons Orders Vses repugnant to Gods word and the Popes mere Creatures and Supporters yet he continued the Lands Glebes Tithes and Maintenance of the Bishops and other Ministers and augmented it and our Vniversities Revenues also out of the Abbies Spoyles which yet could not exempt him from the publick censure of some Protestants for selling or rteaining most of their Lands and Impropriations for his own use which say they he should have rather converted to other lawfull sacred uses according to the will of the first Donors And Mr. Purchas writes That the Monks unrighteous coveting and the Popes appropriating of the Tithes of some Thousands of our best Benefices unto Abbies and Monasteries and robbing the Ministers of them to whom only they were given by God himself and the first Donors for their Maintenance to the great prejudice both of the Ministers and People was one principal cause that by a Divine Judgement and Providence beyond all mens expectation the Pope and they were both suppressed together on a suddain even by him who not long before had justified his usurped Supremacy against Luther and for which he had received this ominous Title from the Pope DEFENDER OF THE FAITH God grant our New Defenders of the Faith do not as ill requite those Persons Powers who first commissioned them with their Arms to defend our Faith Church Religion against Iesuites Papists and their Confederates in the Field as King Henry did the Pope after this new Motto 7ly That our God blessed honoured us with the first incomparable Protestant King in the world no Papist but a REAL SAINT beyond any of his years in this or former Ageâ— even young KING EDWARD THE SIXT the first King I read of who by publick Laws and Statutes suppressed banished all Popish Pictures Ceremonies Superstitious Monuments Practices Abuses throughout his Dominions and established the true worship Service Sacraments Ministers and Ministry and Gospel of Christ throughout his Dominions for which all Ages shall call him blessed no waies embesselling or diminishing the Churches Glebes Tithes or Revenues and enacting a New excellent Law for Tithes recovery when detained But God taking him suddenly from hence to a better Kingdom and his Successor Queen Mary defacing deforming his blessed Reformation and restoring both the Pope and Popery again almost to its former height except in point of Monkery which the defacing of the Monasteries prevented 8ly God then blessed our Church and Kingdom with an unparallel'd Protestant Princesse Queen Elizabeth a Nursing Mother to the Church who demolished the whole Body of Popery with the Popes revived usurpations again by publick Acts established the reformed Religion again in greater beauty and purity than at first banishing
all Jesuites and Seminary Priests as Traytors restored the exiled Ministers of the Gospel suffering for Religion rewarding them with the richest Bishopricks and Church-Preferments and planting a faithfull painfull preaching Ministry by degrees in most dark corners of her Dominions endowed them with a setled competent maintenance which our subsequent Protestant Kings continued to them and their Successors without diminution All which considered we of this Isle may with much thankfulnesse to God and honour to our Princes without flattery averr before all the world That the forecited Prophecies of Kings being Nursing-Fathers and Queens Nursing-Mothers to the Church and specially Kings and Queens of this Isle have been more really accomplished in the Kings and Queens of this our Island than in the Kings and Queens of any other Isle Kingdom or Nation whatsoever throughout the world and God grant that those who shall succeed them in any other New-modelled-form of Government may not prove such Step-Fathers and Step-Mothers to our Churches and Ministers as to demolish the one and strip the other quite naked of all that former Livelihood and remaining small Revenues which they yet enjoy by our Princes Grants Gifts Charters Laws and Favours only and thereby give all Godly Ministers and people too in our Nation just cause to cry out with wringed hands weeping eyes and bleeding hearts in the Prophets words Hosea 10.3 4. For now they shall say We have no King because we feared not the Lord What then should a King do to us or amongst us They have spoken words Swearing falsely in making a Covenant Thus Iudgement springeth up as Hemlock one of the deadliest Poysons to destroy men in the fields Or else to speak in Solomons language to the same effect Prov. 28.2 For the transgression of a Land many are the Princes thereof as our Land had never so many Transgressions and Princes too as now But by a Man of Vnderstanding and Knowledge and where is such a one to be found to stand up in a Gap the state thereof shall be prolonged Now the Lord raise up such a Man or Men lest God say to our Nation and all Grandees in Power as he did once to the prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day was come Ezech. 21.25 26 27. Remove the Diadem and take off the Crown this shall not be the same Exalt him that is Low and abase him that is High I will overturn overturn overturn Church State Laws and it shall be no more untill he come whose Right it is and I will give it him To prevent these treble fatal over-turnings with the wiping and turning of our Jerusalem UPSIDE DOWN like a Dish a certain Fore-runner of a Churches Nations ruine 2 Kings 21.13 Psal 146.9 I shall now in the last place present the whole Nation with a brief Catalogue of those manifold Laws Statutes which our Kings have successively made in their Great Councils and Parliaments almost from the very first establishment of Religion in our Island for the due payment of Ministers Tithes by coercive Means Forfeitures Penalties in case of willfull detaining or neglect in paying all or any part of them at the times appointed which those who please may peruse in Chronicon Johannis Brompton Mr. Lambards Archaion Sir Henry Spelmans Councils Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments John Bridges his Defence of the Government of the Church of England Book 16. p. 1350. Our Statutes at large and Mr. Rastals Abridgement of Statutes Title Tithes which Laws being well known to most learned men are therefore needlesse fully to transcribe The first of them is the forecited Law Decree of the Council of Calcuth under King Oswald and Offa An. 787. of famous King Alfred Anno 887. of King Alfred and Gutburn the Dane cap. 9. De Decimis Deo Debitis about the year 890. of King Edward the elder and Guthurn Anno 905. or 906. as some Cap. 6. in some c. 9. DE DECIMIS ET CENSU ECCLESIAE RETENTIS of King Aethelstan made in the famous Council of Gratelean An. 928. cap. 1. DE DECIMIS REDDENDIS tam ex Animalibus quam de fructibus terrae which this King himself duly paid and then enjoyned all his great Officers and People duly to render of King Edmond An. 944. c. 2. concluding Qui non solverit ANATHEMA ESTO Of famous King Edgar Anno 967. c. 3. DE DECIMIS Canon 54. of the Kings and Presbyters of Northumberland made a little after that time Lex 51. of King Aethelred An. 1012. c. 1 4. of King Knute the Dane An. 1032. c. 8. but 15. in some Copies De Decimis reddendis c. 11 17. and a Statute law against obstinate Detainers of Tithes there stiled JURA ET DEBITIONES DIVINAE of King Edward the Confessor about the year 1060 confirmed verbatim by William the Conquerour in the fourth year of his Reign c. 8 9. forecited To which may be added the Great Charters of King Henry the first and King John recorded in Matthew Paris ratified by King Henry the 3d. in his Magna Charta c. 11. made in the 9th year of his Reign confirmed by above 37 Acts of Parliament since in many successive Parliaments That the Church of England shall be free now in greater Bondage than ever and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable never so much violated diminished as now notwithstanding all Laws Covenants Declarations Protestations lately and all antient Solemn Curses and Excommunications annually made against the Infringers thereof 13 E. 1. 17 E. 3. 14. 2 H. 4. c. 4. Enacting the Cistertian Monks to pay Tithes to Ministers and Evangelists notwithstanding any Buls of Exemption from the Pope which the King and Parliament declared to be void and that the Promovers or Executors of any such Buls shall be attainted in a Praemunire It appears by the Parliament Roll of 2 H. 4. nu 40. This Act was made upon the Petition of all the Commons which because not extant in print pertinent to the present business of Tithes and unknown to most I shall here transcribe at large May it please our most gracious Lord the King to consider That whereas time out of wind the Religious men of the Order of the Cistercians of your Realm of England have paid all manner of Tithes of their lands tenements possessions let to farm or manured and occupied by other persons besides themselves and of manner of things tithable being and growing upon the same lands tenements and possessions in the same manner as your other Lieges of the said Realm Yet so it is that of late the said Religious have purchased a Bull from our Holy Father the Pope by the which our said Holy Father hath granted to the said Religious That they shall pay no Tithes of their Lands Tenements Possessions Woods Cattel or any thing whatsoever although they are or shall be leased or farmed notwithstanding any Title of Prescription or Right acquired or
which hereafter may be had or acquired to the contrary The which Pursute and Grant is apparently against the Laws and Customs of your Realm by reason that divers Compositions real and Indentures are made between many of the said Religious and others your Lieges of the prise of such Tithes and also by reason that in divers Parishes the Tithes demanded by the said Religious by colour of the said Bull exceed the fourth part of the value of the Benefices within whose limits and bounds they are and so if the said Bull should be executed much more the late Petions against all Tithes and coercive Maintenance for Ministers condescended to as well your dreadfull Majesty as your Liegeâ— Patrons of the said Benefices shall receive great losses in their Advowsons of the said Benefices and the Conusance which in this behalf appertains and in all times hath belonged to your Regality shall be discussed in Court Christian against the said Laws and Customes besides pray mark the prevailing reason the Troubles and Commotions which may arise among your people by the motion and execution of such Novelties within your Realm That hereupon by assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament you would be pleased to ordain that if the said religious or any other put or shall put the said Bull in execution shall be put out of your Protection by due Process made in this behalf and their goods forfeited to You lost and that as a work of Charity Which Petition being read and considered was answered in the words following It is accorded by the King and Lords in Parliament That the Order of the Cistertians shall be in the state they were before the time of the Bull purchased comprised in this Petition and that as well those of the said Order as all others Religious and Secular of what estate or condition soever they be who shall put the said Bull in execution or shall hereafter take advantage in any manner of any such Bulls already purchased or to be purchased shall have Process made against them and either of them by sommoning them within a moneth by a Writ of Premunire Facias And if they make default or shall be attainted that they shall be put out of the Kings Protection and incur the peines and forfeitures comprised in the Statute of Provisors made in the 13. year of King Richard And moreover for to eschue many probable mischiefs likely to arise in time to come that our said Lord the King shall send to our Holy Father the Pope for to repeal and annul the said Bulls purchased and to abstain to make any such Grant hereafter To which Answer the Commons well agreed and that it should be made into a Statute From which memorable Record I shall desire Iohn Canne and all his ignorant deluded Disciples who cry out against Tithes and the payment of them as Popish to observe 1. That all the Commons of England in this Parliament even in times of Popery together with the King and Lords resolve the quite contrary That the exemption of any order of men from payment of their due and accustomed Tithes is Popish and that the Pope was the first and only man who presumed by his Bulls to exempt men from payment of due and accustomed Tithes to their Ministers 2ly That Popish Friers of the Cistercian Order not Godly Saints abhorring Monkerie and Poperie were the first men who sued for procured and executed such Exemptions from the Pope and that merely out of Covetousness against the express word and Law of God as our John Salisbury de Nugis Curialium l. 7. c. 21. and our Arch-deacon of Bathe Petrus Blesensis observe who tax them for it And therefore the petitioning writing endeavouring to procure a like exemption from the payment of antient and accustomed Tithes to our Ministers must be Popish and Monkish likewise infused into our New-lighted Saints by some Popish Monks and Jesuits disguised under the notion of New-lights Seekers Anabaptists c. 3ly That they declare this Bull though granted by their Holy-Father the Pope whose Authority and esteem was then very great to be against the Laws and Customs of the Realm and thereupon repeal null it for the present and provide against the grant of any such Bulls for Non-payment of Tithes for the future and make the Procurers and Executioners of them subject to a Praemunire Such a transcendent Crime and Grievance did they then adjudge it to seek or procure the least exemption from payment of Tithes from any earthly Powers yea from their very Holy Father the Pope himself then in his highest Power 4ly That they resolve the exemption from Tithes though amounting but to a fourth part in every Parish would prove a great prejudice to the King and all other Patrons in their Advowsons to the Lessors and Farmers of Tithes to the incumbents and people and that the moving of such Novelties might occasion great Troubles and Commotions within the Realm And will not then the abolishing of all Tithes in every Parish to the prejudice of the Patrons Ministers yea and people too as I shall prove anon the scandal of most godly men undoing of thousands of families and confounding all Parishes and order in them now much more do it in these dangerous generally discontented times instead of setling Unity Amity Peace and propagating the Gospel as some pretend Let those whom it most concerns consider it at their leisure lest they repent too late The next printed Statute for the payment of Tithes is 27 H. 8. c. 20. which in the preface gives this true Character of and fixeth this brand of infamy upon Tithe-detainers Forasmuch as many evil disposed Persons such are they justly branded for by this Act of Parliament have attempted to withhold their Tenths as well predial as personal and have also contemned and disobeyed the Decrees of Ecclesiastical Courts of this Realm c. Therefore it enacts the Civil Magistrate and Justices shall imprison such till they pay their Tithes After which followes a special Statute for payment of Tithes in London 27 H. 8. c. 21. confirmed enlarged by a Statute and Decree too 37 H. 8 c. 7. thus prefaced as if purposely penned for these times Whereas divers and many persons inhabiting in sundry Counties and Places of this Realm and other the Kings Dominions not regarding their duties to Almighty God or to the King our Soveraign Lord but in some years past more contemptuously and commonly Presuming to infringe the good and wholsome Lawes of this Realm and Gracious Commandments of our said Soveraign Lord than in times past have been seen or known have not letted to substract and with-draw the lawfull and accustomed Tithes of Corn Hay Pasturage and other sort of Tithes and Oblations commonly due c. After which it provides a remedy by coercive means against the detainers refusers of Ministers Tithes The last and fullest Statute for payment of Tithes of all sorts and
the use of the Poor Pilgrims Strangers Widows and Orphans in general at their discretion or particularly of such and such Parishes and they supposing the Monks to be most charitable to distribute them to the Poor most of which Grants or all were made by the consents of the Bishops of the Diocess and confirmed by them and many of them with the Assents of the Patrons and Encumbents of the Churches And sometimes whole Churches with their Tithes were thus granted and impropriated to Monasteries and Monks In jure perpetual Frankalmoigne to the starving of the peoples Souls to pray for their Patrons when deceased and seed the Bodies of the Poor without their Souls whence all or most of our Appropriations and Impropriations really sprang to the great prejudice of Ministers maintenance and Parishioners Souls Upon this ground many Monks and Mendicant Fryers who were no part of the ordained Ministry just like our vagrant Anabaptistical and unordained Sectarian Predicants now to rob the Ministers and most Priests of all their Tithes engross them into their own hands and disposal to enrich themselves and their Monasteries everie where cryed up tithes to be Pure Almes which everie man might bestow where he pleased and that themselves having renounced the world and vowed Povertie were fitter to receive and dispence them than the Secular Parish-Priests and made this Doctrine a very gainfull Trade whereby they got most of the best Benefices of England and a great part of the Tithes into their own Possession to the great prejudice of the Church And not content herewith the Premonstratenses and other Orders procured a Bull from Pope Innocent the 3 d. about the year 1210. to exempt all their Lands which themselves manured and all their Meadows Woods Fish-ponds from paying any Tithes at all to Parish-Priests or others That they might bestow them in Alms or on the poor of their Monasteries as they had requested them from the Pope as the words of the Bull attest After which they invented other Bulls condemned in our Parliament by a special Act to exempt their Tenants likewise from paying Tithes under the same pretext And this is the true ground and original of that Monkish opinion That Tithes were pure Alms and that men might give them to whom they pleased Which grant of tithes to Monasteries Monks and exemptions of their Lands from paying them upon pretext of giving them in Alms to the great prejudice of the Ministers perdenda Basilica sine plebibus Plebes sine Sacerdotibus Sacerdotes sine reverentia sine Christo denique Christiani Bernard Epist 240. was severely censured and sharply declaimed against by St. Bernard and Hugo Partimacensis Epist ad Abbatum Conventum Nantire Monasterii after Ivo his Epistles p. 245. a most excellent Epistle against this practice The Council of Vienna An. 1340. Joannis Sarisburiencis De Nugis Curialium l. 7. c. 21. Petrus Blesensis Epist 82. Petrus Clamianensis Epist l. 1. Epist 33. And the Monkish Assertors of this Doctrine that Tithes were pure Alms and disposable to whom the people would were by Pope Innocent the 4 th stiled and censured in these terms Isti Novi Magistrique dicent praedicant contra Novum et Vetus Testamentum yea Richard Archbishop of Armaugh complained much against these greedy unconscionable Monks in his Defensorium Curatorum for possessing the people with this opinion That the command of Tithes was not moral but only ceremonial and not to be performed by constraint of Consciences to the Ministers and Curates and that what Lands or Goods soever were given by any of the four orders of Mendicants ought to be exempted from paying Tithes to Ministers in point of Conscience which he refutes from these Monks John Wickliff Walter Brute and William Thorp living in that blind Age took up their opinion That Tithes were pure Alms and that the people might give them to whom they please if they were Godly Preachers and their Parish Priest lazy proud and wicked which opinion of Wickliff was refuted by Thomas Waldensis as erronious and condemned in the Council of Constance This I have the longer insisted on to shew how Canne and the rest of our Anabaptistical Tithe-Oppugners revive only these old greedy Monks Friers Tenents and practices for their own private ends and lucre to wrest our Ministers Tithes from them into their own hands or disposing and exempt their own Lands and Estates from paying Tithes that so we may have Churches without people People without Ministers Ministers without due reverence and finally Christians without Christ as Bernard writes they then had by this Monkish Sacrilegious Doctrine and practice The fourth Objection much insisted on as I hear against our coercive Laws and Ordinances for Ministers Tithes is this common Mistake That the payment of Tithes to Ministers as a Parochial Right and Due was first setled by the Popish Council of Lateran under Pope Innocent the 3 d. An. 1215. before which every man might freely give his Tithes to what Persons or Churches he pleased Therefore it is most unjust unreasonable to deprive men of this liberty and enforce them to pay Tithes to their Ministers now by â—uch Laws and Ordinances I answer That this is a most gross Mistake of some ignorant Lawyers and John Canne For in the Canons of this Council there is not one syllable tending to this purpose as I noted above 20 years since out of Binius and Surius in the Margin of Sir Edward Cooks 2. Reports fol. 446. where it is asserted which error he expresly retracts in his 2d Institutes on Magna Charta f. 641. The words of the Council Can. 56. Plerique scut excipimus Regulares Clerici Seculares interdum dum Domos locant vel Feuda concedum in Prejudicium Parochialium Ecclesiarum pactum adjiciunt ut Conductores Feudatorii Decimas eis solvant apud eosdem elegant Supremam Cum autem id ex avaritie radice procedat pactum hujusmodi penitus reprobamus Statuentes ut quicquid fuerit ratione hujusmodi pacti praeceptum Ecclesiae Parochiali reddatur By which Constitution it is apparent First that Parish Priests and Churches had a just Parochial Right to the Parishioners Tithes within their Precincts before this Council else they would not have awarded restitution to them of the Tithes received and that they had so ordered and decreed it by sundry Councils and Civil laws some hundreds of years before is apparant by the 2. Council of Cavailon under Charles the Great An. 813. Can. 19. Synodus Ticimensis under Lewis the 2d An. 855. The Council of Mentz under the Emperour Arnulph An. 894. Can. 3. The Council of Fliburg An. 895. Can. 14. The Decree of Pope Leo the 4th attributed to Gelasius by some about the year 850. The Council of Wormes and Mentz about that time or before cited by Gratian Caus 16. qu. 1. The Council of Claremont under Pope Vrban An. 1095. these
nor any Christian Souldiers else but the Popish Templers and Hospitalers for the Lands conferred on their Orders not for their private Inhabitances And if Souldiers be obliged to pay Tithes of all their Spoyls and Gains of war as I have abundantly proved much more then of their real and personal Estates as well as any others not in armes especially where they are well paid and war not on their own expences but other mens purses Amongst the Jewes we never read of any Taxes Tributes or Contributions imposed on the Cities Houses Lands or Tithes of the People and Levites for the maintenance of wars or pay of Souldiers from which even Artaxerxes a heathen Conqueror exempted them by an express Decree Ezra 7.24 Yet they received Tithes of all their Kings Generals Captains Souldiers as well as Peoples Lands and increase both in times of war and peace But our Army-Officers and Souldiers now receive above the Tithes of all our Ministers Tithes Glebes in Monthly Taxes and Contributions by arbitrary illegal Impositions without their or Consents in Parliament contrary to their antient Privileges all former Presidents and our Laws Therefore there is all Equity and Justice they should receive the Tenths both of their Lands Goods and Gains of war too and that no Officers or Souldiers should be exempted from Tithes as the Templers and Hospitalers were who had no other Pay or Salaries but their Lands and received no constant Contributions from the Clergy Xenophon that famous learned Greek Heathen Commander having made the most Noble retreat we ever read of in Story out of the upper part of Asia with ten thousand men through mountains frost and snow in memorie of his thankfullness to the Gods for this safe return separated the Tenth of all the Spoyls that his Army had gained in the wars and by general consent commited them to the Captains to be dedicated to Apollo and Diana That for Apollo was layd up at Delphos in the Athenean Treasury but with that other Tenth Dianas share Xenophon himself purchased a Peece of Land and built thereon a Temple and an Altar to Diana and appointed the Tenth of the yearly increase forever unto it This Pagan Commander and his Captains and Souldiers were so far from exempting their Lands from Tithes to their Idol Deities that they Tithed the very Spoyls of their wars to them and built and endowed a Temple to Diana with Lands and Tithes out of their own Lands and Estates for ever Which shall for ever silence and shame those Christian Army-Officers Souldiers Templers and Hospitalers who would exempt not only their Spoyls but their Lands and Estates from all Tithes to God and his Ministers because they are Souldiers and pretend to fight for their Defence 7ly This Reason that they should enjoy not only their own but our Ministers Tithes because they are an Army of Preachers and Priests and more Officers Souldiers in the present Army Preachers or Speakers as they phrase them than ever in any Army in the world before hath frequently minded me of that saying of Pope Gregory the first which famous Bishop Jewel much insisted on concerning Antichrist The King of Pride Antichrist is at hand and which is an horrible Thing to be spoken Sacerdotum est praeparatus Exercitus an Army of Priests is prepared to gard and usher him in Certainly I never heard nor read of such an Army of Priests as our Army now is before wherein there are not only some hundreds of disguised Popish Antichristian Priests and Jesuites as most wisemen conceive under the disguise of Souldiers preaching venting many notorious Errors Blasphemies and Antichristian Tenents to infect the Army and Nation too but many preaching Colonels Captains Officers Souldiers of all sorts not a preaching General as some say too And among others one of these Army-Preachers not long since published a Book with this Title Antichrist with us by John Spittle-house a member of the Army printed at London 1648. which intimated to me at first sight that Antichrist was in the Army and truly if they proceed as Canne would have them to usurp our Ministers Office Rectories Glebes Tithes Churches to themselves and Suppresse our Ministers Churches Parishes as Antichristian I shall then justly suspect and others will confidently conclude they are the very Army of Priests prophecied of by Pope Gregory who shall forcibly usher and bring in Antichrist the King of Pride who exalteth himself above all that is called God or Worshipped that is above Kings Lords Parliaments and all Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers whatsoever as Expositors resolve into our Church and re-establish him in his Throne 8ly I never read in the Old Testament or New that Christ Authorized Commissioned or sent out any Captains or Souldiers to preach the Gospel or made choyce of such to be his Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel Surely had this been a part of their duty as Christian Officers and Souldiers John Baptist Christs forerunner would have instructed those Souldiers who came purposely to and demanded of him what shall we do in another manner than he did and said unto them Go and preach the Gospel and instruct the ignorant Souldiers and people publickly where ever you quarter in the first place and then Do violence to no man and accuse no man falsly and be content with your wages The only precepts he gave them Which our Army-Officers and Souldiers since they turned Preachers have much forgotten and neglected I read of 2. devout Centurions in the New Testament eminent for their faith piety Charity and of one devout Souldier yet neither of them a publick Preacher The first of these Colonels or Centurions built a Synagogue for the Jews and others to meet and preach in who were Priests and Ministers but I read not he ever preached in it publickly himself The latter Centurion is thus characterized Acts 10.1 2. That he was a devout man and one that feared God with all his House which gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God continually but doubtlesse he never preached for then it would have been there recorded that he preached continually as well as prayed Yea he was so far from this that when the Angel of God came to him in a vision he sayd Thy Prâ—yers and thine Alms not thy preaching therefore he preached not at all or if he did God accepted it not but disliked it as against his word and will are come into remembrance before God And now send men to Joppa and call for Simon Peter he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do Whereupon he presently sent two of his Servants and a devout Souldier continually waiting on him but not on preaching for the Apostle Peter to preach to him his Friends and Family who repairing to him Cornelius goeth forth to meet him falls down at his feet worshippeth him talks with him brings him into his House where many were come together relates his vision
to Christ himself in the shape of Melchisedec and prescribed by Gods own special Precept 2ly How any thing commanded by God even when the 2d Commandement was given recorded in the same Canonical Books of Scripture with it practised by Gods special command by all his true Saints under the Law and generally in all Christian Churches under the Gospel as I have proved can possibly be a Sin against the 2 d. Commandement in it self and whether it be not direct Blasphemy in him thus confidently to aver it in making Gods very Commandements to fight one against another and to command one thing as a Duty in some Texts and condemn it as a Sin and damnable Superstition in another 3ly How Tithes if truly and orignally Iewish can yet be truly and originally Antichristian Popish and the Popes device many thousand years after Tithes first Institution and customary payment Till he can satisfactorily reconcile these apparent contradictory Assertions or publickly recant them if he cannot all the world must accompt him for an Antichristian Minister and Lying Impostor his Voyce the Voyce of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth both God and Men Psal 44.16 and confess there is no ground at all in Piety or Conscience against Tithes or their payment but grounds both of Piety and Conscience for them as I have proved especially for our Godly Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel for whom I only plead whose Calling being of unquestionable Divine Institution notwithstanding all Cannes Alehouse Arguments against them not worth a Canne and to continue in the world to the very end thereof and the consummation of all things by Christs own resolution Matth. 28.20 Ephes 4.10 11 12 13. they may and ought by Divine and Human Laws to enjoy their Glebes and Tithes so long continued maugre all the malice power of their violent Oppugners and will do so when they and their Posterities shall not have so much as a Name or Being upon Earth or in Heaven unless they repent notwithstanding they were justly taken from Popish Fryers Abbots Priors Lordly Prelates of mere popish Antichristian Institution not Divine when their very Orders were suppressed as mere Vsurpers Encroachers of the Ministers Rights Rewards alone for their pains in preaching exercising their Ministerial Function in their respective Parishes not in Abbies Cathedrals no Parish-Churches for the people to resort unto to which by the Popes Bulls they were unjustly appropriated heretofore To clear this Proposition more fully in all its branches I have observed that there are five sorts of persons of late very busie active both against our Ministers tiths and callings too The first are Souldiers The 2d Anabaptists Dippers Quakers with other late blasphemous Sectaries and Hereticks The 3d. prophane covetous Earthworms and Atheistical Wretches who say in their Hearts and sometimes boldly profess not only by their Lives but with their Tongues in this lawless Age There is no GOD. The 4th prophane ignorant cheating Prognosticators and Astronomers The 5th Jesuites popish Priests and Romish Emissaries sent from all parts to ruine our Ministers and Religion For the first they are either Officers and Common Souldiers and those either such who have gained or purchased Lands since the Wars lyable to Tithes for such who have no Lands at all and so not of present Ability Capacity to pay Tithes Those who have any purchased Lands lyable to Tithes are now so fierce against them for ought I can discern not out of any grounds of piety or Conscience but either out of an unworthy covetous degenerous sordid disposition to ease themselves and their Heirs from this just antient Debt yea a charge of Tithes upon their New cheap Purchases and gain them as an Over-plus into their Bargains to improve their Purchases to an higher value the case of such of them who approve of our Ministers our publick Ordinances and are no Speakers Anabaptists Sectaries Or else a like avaritious Disposition mixed with and heightned by a professed Enmity Malignity against the very Persons Calling of our Ministers whom they usually revile by the names of Baals Priests Black Coats Antichristian Locusts rotten corrupt Clergy-men Seditious Factious Varlets and all other rayling Epithites which Lilly in his late Almanacks and Scurrilous Pamphlets hath furnished them with which they much magnifie This is the Case of such Sword men who are above or against all Ordinances Duties publick or private or Antiscripturists Antitrinitarians Anabaptists Seekers Quakers Asserters of the Souls mortality as rising from and dying with the body of all their ordinary unordained Speakers Preachers infected with any other erronious heretical or blasphemous opinions of all disguised Jesuites Priests Papists under the Profession and Name of Souldiers Those who have no Lands liable to Tithes petition and speak against them either meerly to please their Superior Landed-Officers for fear of being cashiered by them or because they are infected with Anabaptism Jesuitism Errors Blasphemy Schism Arianism Atheism contempt of all publique Ordinances Duties and a bitter Emnity against our Ministers Persons Callings or Intruders into their Office as well as into most other Professions without any Lawfull call These in my Observation and I appeal to every of their own Consciences in the presence of the Searcher of all hearts for the truth of it are the only true Grounds Motives of any Officers or Souldiers present stickling opposition against Tithes and Ministers arising from within them as they are private persons And these unchristian Grounds seconded with the open or under-hand sollicitations of their Anabaptistical Heretical Schismatical Jesuitical Astromatical Friends and acquaintance out of the Army backed with a most impious wretched Sacrilegious Policy to please the simple oppressed deluded Country people in discharging them at present from the payment of Tithes to their Ministers that so they may augment their Taxes to the full value of their abolished Tithes to support themselves and the Army the longer in a body to uphold their Supream enchroached Powers preserve encrease their New Purchases Estates depending wholly upon the New Law and Title of the longest Sword are in my apprehension the only true causes why the General Council of Officers of the Army with the Souldiers under them by their directions as a New created All-swaying Military Corporation have so oft appeared publickly against our Ministers Tithes to abolish them and their Ministry by necessary consequence with them which all other Opponents being inconsiderable were never able to effect but by their armed power These are all the real principles of Piety Conscience if they deserve the Title I could ever yet find amongst them engaging the Army-Officers and Souldiers against Tithes which how inconsistent they are with the real profession or grounds of Christianity Piety Conscience Justice Saintship let their own Consciences and the world resolve and what Censures Execrations Judgements they may in Justice expect from God for such a Sacrilegious Rapine as they intend upon these carnal impious atheistical