with his hands as Paul did to support himself and preach gratis wherefore he tells him 2 Tim. 2.4 That no man that warreth a spiritual warfare as he and other Ministers do intangleth himself with the affaires of this life that he may please or serve him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier A direct inhibition to Ministers to follow Pauls Precedent who cannot serve and please God in their Ministry if they labour day and night in Mechanick trades for their living And upon this ground which is very observable the very Apostles themselves Act. 6.3 4 5 6. Calling the multitude to them said it is not reason pray marke it that we should leave the Word of God and serve Tables much lesse work day and night at a Mechanick Trade wherefore brethren looke ye out seven men of honest report full of the holy Ghost wisdom whom ye may appoint over this businesse but we will give our selves continually to Prayer and to the Ministry of the word And the saying pleased the whole multitude From which Texts it is clear 1. That the Apostles themselves resolve that they could not exercise the very antient office of a Deacon in serving Tables attending on Widowes and other poor aged impotent Saints without neglecting or giving over preaching of the Word much lesse then can Ministers labour day and night with their hands at some Trade or other to maintain themselves and their Families without neglecting and desisting from the Ministry 2. That Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel ought to give themselves wholly and continually to prayer preaching meditation reading and other Ministerial duties and therefore must not undertake or intermeddle with secular Imployments and Callings 3. That the Apostles themselves have punctually resolved and that all the primitive Christians unanimously assented to it that it is not reason that they should leave preaching the word of God so much as to wait upon Widdowes and poor people at their tables whereupon they elected seven Deacons to discharge that office Therefore it is far lesse reason and they are most wicked and unreasonable men without faith or charity from which the Apostle prayes God deliver him and all his Ministers 2 Thess 3.2 who now urge it to enforce all our Ministers to neglect forsake their Ministry Preaching Studies now to follow handicraft Trades to get their livelihood that so they might preach freely to the people without any recompence or reward at all 2. All godly Ministers people in all ages and the very Objectors themselves of late years have extremely condemned censured our Bishops and Prelatical Clergy together with Popes Popish Prelates and Clergy men for intermedling with and executing civil Offices Imployments and worldly affairs which necessitated them to neglect the preaching of the Gospel and their Ministerial duties whereupon not only many antient and late Councils Synods but Acts of Parliament have specially prohibited them to be Privy Counsellers of State Judges Justices of the Peace Lord Chancellors Treasurers Keepers of the Privy Seal Stewards of Courts Commissioners and our very last Parliament by several late Acts disabled all Bishops from sitting as Peers in Parliament and them with all other Clergy men to execute any temporal Offices or Commissions as incompatible with their spiritual Function and an impediment to their Ministry according to the old proverbial verse Pluribus intentus minor est ad singula sensus Which I have proved at large by testimonies in all ages in my Breviate of the Prelates intolerable Vsurpation printed Anno. 1637. My Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus and Antipathy of the English Prelacy to Monarchy and Vnity Anno 1641. Therefore to force our Ministers to become Mechanicks and give themselves wholly to worldly callings imployments incompatible with their professions must needs be an irrational unchristian Project unworthy the profession or professors of the Gospel not justifiable from Pauls example in them that would enforce it 3. If this Precedent of Paul be a sufficient argument to prove that our Ministers ought to work for their living and to preach the Gospel freely without any reward or coercive Maintenance I shall then by the self-same reason prove that all Officers and Souldiers of the Army who make this Objection and all our publick civil Officers approving it ought likewise to fight and discharge their Offices without pay or salary and to work with their own hands to get their livings without oppressing the people with any Contributions of Excises to maintain them 1. Because Ministers and they are both of one profession in several senses to wit Souldiers 2 Tim. 2.3 4. as I have formerly proved Therefore to fare both a like in respect of pay or hire 2. Because God records in Scripture Ezech. 29.18 That Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon even by Gods appointment caused his Army to serve a great service against Tyrus every head was made bald and every shoulder was â—eeled Yet had he no wages nor his Army for Tyrus for the sâ—rvice that he served against it If Nebuchadnezzer and his Army served God freely against Tyre without wages many years Should not our present Army and Officers much more serve God and their Country freely without wages True it is God gave them after their service fully ended not any Taxes or Contributions from their own Country-men or Nation but the Land and spoyle of Egypt for their wages because they wrought for him verses 19 20. And if our Officers and Souldiers will have such wages it must only be the Lands and spoyles of forein Aegyptian enemies not our Churches or Crown-Lands or Revenues formerly easing the peoples Taxes and defraying all Garrisons and ordinary publick expences which they now claim and enjoy for Arrears of pay 3. Nehemiah both a godly Souldier General and Governour of his people records this for his own honour and others imitation Neh. 5.14 15 16 17 18 19. Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their Governour in the Land of Judah from the 20. even to the 32. year of Artaxerxes the King Even twelve years I and my Brethren have not eaten the bread of the Governor But the former Governours that had been before me were Chargeable and had taken of them Bread and Wine besides forty Shekels of Silver yea even their Servants bare rule over the people but so did not I marke the reason because of the fear of God Yea also I continued in the work of this wall neither bought we any Land as many Officers and Souldiers do now and all my servants were gathered thither unto the work Moreover there were at my Table an 150 of the Jewes and Rulers besides those that came unto us from among the heathen that were about us Now that which was prepared for me daily was an Oxe and six choyce sheep also Fowles were prepared for me and once in ten daies store of all sorts of Wine yea for all this required not I the breed that is the allowance
teacheth him in all good things To which I shall subjoyn 1 Cor. 9.11 If we have sowed unto you spiritual things is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things Rom. 15.25 And their Debtors they are for if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things All these three Gospel Texts resolve That Ministers of the Gospel have a just due and right to a competent comfortable share in all the goods things Temporal blessings and necessaries for the support of this life which the people instructed by them and receiving spiritual things from them enjoy And that the people are bound both by expresse precepts in the Gospel and by the rules of common moral equity and justice chearfully to communicate and minister such a fitting share of all their good things and temporal blessings as a debt and due unto them for their ministring to them in spiritual things which I fully proved in the first Proposition and Impudency it self cannot deny The sole question then is what this share or portion ought to be and who shall determine it in point of difference I confesse the Apostle doth not decide either of these in terminis these Texts being general all in the plural number All good things your carnal things comprising all such things out of which Tithes predial mixt or personal as Canonists and Lawyers distinguish them are or may be paid Wherefore every faithfull Christian every spiritual son of God and of faithfull Abraham whose footsteps presidents they are to follow in all doubtful cases admit this one to satisfie his conscience and judgement in this case must and will resort to the presidents of the Eminentest Saints in former ages and Gods own prescripts in other expresse Texts Where finding the very Father of the faithfull Abraham himself giving his Grandson Jacob vowing and God himself specially reserving prescribing the payment of a Tenth of all good things from and by his own people for the maintenance of his Priests and Levites under the Law which they cheerfully rendred until and in Christs own time that the very Pharisees and Scribes though Hypocrites were so just as to pay Tithes of all that Christ resolved they ought to do it and not leave it undone and that none before the Apostles dayes ever gave lesse than a Tenth part as the premises largely evidence he must and will necessarily conclude from all these sacred Directories precepts presidents that the ordinary constant standing portion and proportion of all his goods and carnal things here prescribed and intended by Gods Spirit is the tenth part and in extraordinary cases more when Gods glory the Ministers necessities the Defence or Propagation of the Gospel require it And when he shall further read in the Gospel it self that speech of Zacheus the converted Publican Luke 19.8 Behold Lord the Half of my Goods I give to the poor And how the first converted Christians and Jews in the Apostles dayes sold their Lands Houses and brought and laid the money at the Apostles feet Acts 4.5 His conscience which must not guide the Word and Spirit of God as most mens consciences do now but the Word and Spirit it and him too will and must from thence conclude that he must not give his faithful Minister lesse than a Tenth part of all and in cases of extraordinary necessity share even half his goods yea the price of all his Lands and Houses between the Ministers and poor Saints of God specially in times of persecution when as he ought to hide and feed them too as godly Obadiah did an hundred of the Lords Prophets in the dayes of Jezebel at his own charge with the hazard of hiâ— Office and Life 1 Kings 18.4.13 If any mans conscience in a setled Christian Realm State be so obstinate or froward as not to submit to the lowest proportion of a Tenth which all ages and most or all setled Christian Realms have unanimously agreed upon and confirmed by publike Edicts as well Civil as Ecclesiastical whereof there are neer thousands in print the Christian Kings and Magistrates are to determine all controversies of this nature and state the just proportion of this Debt and Duty between the Minister and people where it is not publikely decided and may justly enforce the due payment of it when and where it is determined by positive publick Laws as a just Debt as they do in all other civil Debts Duties Accompts in controversie before them as I shall prove in due place even by these very Texts though John Canne denies it in his VOX praeterea NIHIL p. 14. To these I shall subjoyn that noted Text in the 1 Cor. 9.13 14. which John Canne cites by piece-meal as the Devil did Scripture leaving out the principal branch Mat. 4.6 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and they that wait at the altar are partakers with the altar Even so hath the Lord ordained this Canne omits that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel I have urged this Text before for proof of the first I shall here apply it only to the second Propositions confirmation as to Tithes 1. Then we have here A Divine Gospel Ordinance made by the Lord of Hosts himself not repealable by any Army or Powers on Earth as well as Parliamentary Ordinances for the Maintenance of the Preachers of the Gospel and let Canne the poorest Preacher of the Gospel I ever yet knew in England except one of his fraternity who heard him once preach an Assize and Fast Sermon too at Chard deny our Ministers to be able Preachers of the Gospel at the peril of his Soul though he denies them to be lawful Ministers of Christ and censures them as Antichristian and Popish But why so Because forsooth they had their Ordination from Rome and by consequence are TRAYTORS and FELONS too by the Statute of 27 Eliz. c. 2. for which they might be legally executed for Treason and Felony if the State were not pleased to interpret the Statute contrary as he conceives to the Letter and form of it the words whereof he both curtals and misrecites just as he did this Text p. 5. To doe him and his best friends a kindness vindicate the lawfulness of our Ministers calling against this ordinary slander and convince him of his grosse mistake I shall truly recite the Statute Thus intituled JESUITES and PRIESTS in England shall depart and NONE SHALL COME INTO THIS REALM If so then many Dippers Speakers Administrators Members in Anabaptistical Congregations many New-lights and Gifted-brethren in separate Congregations many Shakers Quakers Ranters Broachers of new Notions Errours Blasphemies throughout the Realm many new Politicians Levellers Agitators Soldiers in the Army if not some Officers all the late converted pretended Jews dipped in Anabaptistical Congregations discovered and known to be disguised Iesuites
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