Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	let_v	lord_n	see_v	4,012	5	3.3773	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77224	Downfal of tythes no sacriledge; or Certain earnest and important queries, with their reasons or grounds. In answer to the author of a printed sheet, entituled, An item against sacriledge, or sundry queries concerning tythes. Earnestly tending to a full result, what ought to be done by the now present Parliament concerning tythes. Manifestly proving, that it is no sacriledge for the now present power to remove the laws and authority, whereby tythes, or any other maintenance for the ministery, is informed. Shewing also the dangerous inconveniency that necessarily ensueth, upon forcing maintenance for the ministery, and the unlawfulness of it in the sight of God. By Ellis Bradshaw.	Bradshaw, Ellis.	1653 (1653)	Wing B4143; Thomason E714_18; ESTC R207248	14,926	23

for Ministers maintenance is without all question an efficient cause both of a generall sin yea a National sin And of a general National and particular reproach and shame and dishonour to all our Christian Nations Churches and persons that by Authority and Power are so ingaged as hath been clearly proved from the Word of truth sufficiently to convince any rational creatures that will consider it if he beleeves the Scriptures Ob. But it will yet be objected that there will greater sins and worse consequences and greater shame and reproach follow if the compulsive Power be taken away for then it will follow that Ministers shall want maintenance for few will give any thing if they may but chuse 1 Ans I answer If it should so fall that were not the fault of the Civil Power but of their own selves that did neglect their duty Reas For it is no where required in all the whole Scriptures that the Magistrate should compel men to any such duties but only command and exhort them and then the charge lieth at there own door and the Magistrate is clear 2 Ans It is an uncharitable censure to conclude so far as that the faithfull Ministers of Christ shall want and that few will give them any thing if they may but chuse Reas For first I nothing doubt but such who are sent of God the Lord himself will care for that they shall either not want any outward maintenance or be content to want as well as to abound when he seeth it good so to excercise their faith as so the Apostle had learned 2. And secondly I cannot beleeve but that all True-hearted and faithful Christians that either feare God or reverence men will be the more liberal when the Compulsive Power is taken away and that according likewise as they abound in liberality God will bless them so much the more abundantly so that they shall still be increased and the more able by how much more they are more abundantly liberal 2 Cer. 9.10 11 12. Gal. 6. 3. And thirdly As the duty lyeth not only upon Husbandmen but upon all sorts of Christians to communicate liberally as the Lord increaseth them I make no doubt but when they know their duty they will be the more liberal by how much the more slack they shall find others that are not yet Christianized nor have attained as yet either to the love or honour of God or man nor to beleeve the Scriptures to wit Gal. 6. 2 Cor. 9 c. 4. And fourthly why shall such men be compeled to communicate when the case is so with them as that they neither beleeve nor can expect a reward from the hands of God for such communicating as so they cannot if they do it not freely but be meerly compeled and so that such communicating is utterly lost and therefore is wrongfully taken and wrested from them 5. It is a gross disparagment to the true Christians of any Church or Nation that either they are too few to maintain a Ministry or too spairing if all they have will serve the turn seeing Christ hath promised to increase them accordingly and that they shall not want if they be but obedient to do their dutys liberally as he hath appointed them in communicating Carnals to the Ministers of Spirituals Gal. 6.6 6. It is a disparagment to their faith in that they dare not trust God but their own Providence to the faith of people if they do not communicate and to the faith of Ministers if they use any force 7. It is a great dishonour to Ministers if they either inforce them or receive them of such who need inforcement Abraham would have scorned it lest they should say they had made him rich 8. It is a great dishonour to Christianity for they lose the Honour of doing it freely if compulsion be used in a general way for they that are Christians indeed and can do it freely and faithfully also trusting in God as so he requireth of them yet they cannot in that be distinguished from others that are meerly inforced I mean in the sight of men who cannot know their hearts in such a case when allare alike under compulsive Power so that men may account them as covetous and unfaithful as those who are compeled 9. It is a great dishonour and a manifest afront to the wisdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ For those in Authority to use any inforcement for the maintenance of his Ministers without commission from him It is as much as to say they are wiser then God Reas For he never appointed them any other maintenance but what was given freely no not in the time of the Law but told them their duties if they would be blessed what they must do by way of Gratitude unto him for his free donation both of Land it self and of the increase thereof which was by his blessing and providence and that they should give it to the Preists as his special substitutes that so they might cause the blessing to rest upon their House and all that they had But he never required the Magistrate to compel them unto these duties which are properly to himself no more then to pray or to offer Sacrifice all of which were always left to their free wills to do or not do after they were once informed that it was their duties save only by incitements in the Name of God which was all the inforcements that ever was used or commanded to be used in the name of men by the Jewish Nation However I grant that what the Lord commands it is likewise Lawful for the Magistrate to command in the name of the Lord as so Abraham did and other Rulers also but not to compel without his commission any such duty for in so doing we both dishonour his Name and disparage his wisdom and take his Name in vain and likewise so cause others to do the like Reas For he that inforceth any thing to be given unto God without his commission he forceth it properly to be given to himself whom they only obey in such Donation and only give it for his sake so that no rewards can be expective from God for such Donations but from him only And so the case is the same in point of Worship for the Worship tendred or offered unto God either for fear of men or for favor respect or praise of men Is offered unto men and not to God and so is an Idolizing of the Creature and fearing or honouring or respecting of it more then the Creator himself who is eternally blessed and that for evermore Nay any such compulsion is a manifest and wilful inforcement to the practise of Hypocrisie which is an odious sin in the sight of God and a manifest breach of the negative part of the third Commandment See Exod. 20.7 1 Pet. 2.1 5.23 Let such look to it who are forward to compel unto such duties For the Lord our God will not hold

them guiltless that either take themselves or force others to take his Name in vain These are words as I suppose both of truth and faithfulness whether men will hear or whether they will forbear that are of the rebelious house See Ezek. 2.5 6 7. 3.7 8 9. Ob. But because I am not ignorant but that some of those who are eminent in profession will account me their enemy because I write these things and because they fear the event and success will be evil for the Ministers if it should be thus Ans I Answer in the words of Christ fear not little flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom if you be of that little flock for whom the Kingdom is provided what need you fear though you fear the burthen of maintenance for the Ministry shall all be layd upon your shoulders Nay though it should be so indeed Reas For was it not so in the Primitive times and yet there was none that lacked And when the Apostles were sent forth without bag or scrip or mony they lacked nothing Nor when they were sent into all the world into all Nations amongst heathens and strangers and of strange languages yet God provided for them And so he will do for you if you can but trust in him for it is he that hath said I will not fail thee neither forsake thee and this Promise is yours therefore you need not fear if you be his And besides those who are of the sheep of Christ whether they be Ministers or of the meanest of his flock they may justly say with David Psal 23.1 The Lord is my shepard And then if they can beleeve as David did they may thence conclude with David to wit I shall not want which is a conclusion that the greatest Monarch in all the World cannot possibly make from any worldly estate be it what it can And the promise is cleere and large that he that soweth liberally shall also reap liberally and that not only Temporals but Eternals See 2 Cor. 9. throughout Gal. 6.6 to 11. And there is a reason rendered to wit both because God is able to make all grace to abound to themwards that are Richly liberal to give them an all sufficient store of all things needful that so they may abound in every good work See 2 Cor. 9.8.9 And he is likewise willing for he that Ministreth seed to the sower will likewise Minister bread for food and multiply their seed sown and increase the fruits of their Righteousness See Vers 10.11 From all which it is manifest that giving to the poor and communicating to the Ministry are both held forth and taught by the Apostle by the same similitude of sowing and reaping And the promise and threatening is alike for both for they are both accounted under the same notion as don or not don to the Lord himself who is both able and will certainly reward us liberally or sparingly as we sow this way so that we need not fear if we can but claim and apply his promises and repose therein but we shall reap as liberally as we can possibly sow if we do it freely for the case is so in this as it was with the Apostle in respect of preaching If saith he I do this thing willingly I have a reward but if against my will a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me 1 Cor. 9.17 For if we sow liberally and do it willingly we have a reward but if against our wills there is none promised though it lyeth as a duty Incumbent upon us to do it however and wo unto us if we do it not For it is easie to prove that liberal distribution and communication is a morral duty that God requireth of us And that he will most certainly and severely punish us if we do neglect it Though I dare not undertake to prove it moral that we are stinted to a tenth part as some have endeavoured For I can sooner prove that all that we have is a morral duty to give unto God when need requireth and that he calleth for it then any can prove that a tenth is requireth as his stinted due But the rule is this either to wit Every man according as he purposeth or wisheth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly nor of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver See 2 Cor. 9.7 The Apostle would neither have them necessitated to it by compulsion nor to give it somuch as grudgingly but in a free loving and cheerful manner so as the Lord may love them in so doing and bless them abundantly for it yea that in so doing they might shew the sincericy of their love See 2 Cor. 8.8 the which they could not do if they should be compelled For what shew can be made of love by doing that whereto we are compeled But I must not inlarge any further at present either to prove the morrality of liberal communication and distribution as I hope God willing to do ere long nor yet to answer oblections of which there is many and many devices to propriate Tythes in the hands of the Incumbent some pleading it from the Law of God But others only from the Laws of the Land as a Civil right By which they do so lumble the titles together that they lose them both as to the stating of incumbents in propriety of them or Impropriators either and so I hope they will fall into the proper hands of the Land holders that so they may have their own at their own disposing which will be very much If it pleaseth God to incline the hearts of the now present Power to abrogate such Laws whereby Tythes are inforced either to be paid to the Ministry or to Impropriators who have too long injoyed sacriligious Inheritance And too much likewise if it be true as some affirm to wit That Impropriations are judged to be twise so much in value as all the Personages and Vicarages that are in Ministers hands And that the value of them after ten years purchase would amount to eight Millions All which if justly propriate in the hands of the owners would inable them sufficiently to maintain the Ministry and the poor besides and to supply the wants of all poor places that in barren Countrys are not able to maintain them Some rich Parishes being valued to be worth two Thousand a Year The Lord grant our now present Parliament corrage and wisedom to abrogate all Laws whereby Iniquity is established See Psal 94.20 For it hath long time layne as a shame and dishonour upon the supream Power and Authority of this Nation that such manifest Robbery hath been not only tolerated but maintained by Law against justice and Righteousness which is above the Laws as being the end of the Laws and therefore ought to be the ends of all that are in Autnority So that if they cannot by Laws accomplish justice so as to break the laws of the wicked and pull the prey out of their Teeth they ought to do it by Power See Job 29.17 The Lord grant that our present Power may put on Righteousness and be clothed with it and that there Judgment may be as a Robe and a Diamond That so the God of justice may bless and prosper them in their great affairs that concern this life and may establish their Souls in the full propriety of eternal happiness in the life to come See Job 29.14 FINIS