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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	ceremonial_a	law_n	moral_a	5,536	5	9.9611	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09057	Honos & onus levitarum. Or, tithes vindicated to the presbyters of the gospel in a sermon preached at an archidiaconall visitation at Marleborough, in the diocese of Sarum, on the 10. of October. 1636. By B.P.; Historie of tithes, or tithes vindicated	Parsons, Bartholomew, 1574-1642.	1637 (1637)	STC 19348; ESTC S100345	26,502	40

for Priests and Ministers of the Churches for their hereditary portion have commanded all people to pay the Tithes of their fruits to the holy places that being no wayes hindred by unlawfull things they might attend their spirituall offices Which lawes the Christian Church hath a long time kept undefiled Whereupon we ordaine that all people shall pay their Ecclesiasticall Tithes And so I conclude with that of Junius that Tithes have beene holy to God by all right since the memory of man (b) Decima iut● o●●ns post hominum memoriā Deo fuerunt sacra And that it was sacrilege in the Pope at first to appropriate them to Monks and Friers from the labouring Oxen no better in secular persons at the dissolution of the Abbies to invade them in Patrons to set them to sale to detaine any glebe or Tithes consecrated to God In Parishioners either by secret practise or pretended customes to defraud the Minister of them And that God is much robbed in our Church partly by prescriptions and customes which snatch away somewhat from every Church in our Realme partly by impropriations which of nine thousand two hundred eighty and foure Parish Churches for that is the just number in England and Wales (c) Cam●d Brit. pag. 262. have devoured three thousand eight hundred ninety five almost the halfe in number but farre above the halfe in value and goodnesse God put it into the hearts of our Reverend Bishops Deanes and Chapiters and Colledges who hold many of them still in the right of the Church to proved so conscionably for those that labour in them that whilst they serve at the Altar they may not starve at it But to dreame of any restitution of them from the Lay possessors unlesse it bee here and there one like a berry or two in the top of a bough whose heart God hath touched were as the Poet saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dreame of a shadow When we have said and reasoned all that we can they have against us one argument for themselves ab utili which we shall never solve nor dissolve In this case let me say to you as Jeremy said to the Prophets that prophesied Behold the vessels of the Lords house shall now shortly be brought againe from Babylon If we be Prophets let us now make intercession to the LORD of Hosts that the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD goe not to Babylon Jer 27.15 16. For as the Israelites of old cryed so may we The sword of the LORD and of Gideon Judg. 7.20 It is the goodnesse of our God and the Piety of our gracious King that yet preserveth to us from those Evening wolves these Relliquias Danaum atque immitis Achillis (d) Virg. Aeneid 1. That I have so long dwelt upon this point and petition The blessing of the Levites substance I may say to these evill times whereinto wee have falne as Paul to the Corinthians in another case Ye have compelled me In the next petition which is another request for an acceptation of the worke of his hands I will briefly touch the first branch which is an intimation of a worke to be performed by him as being most pertinent to this time and personshere present Accept the worke of his hands There lay a necessity upon man even in his innocency to labour in an honest calling The LORD GOD tooke Adam after he had made him and put him into the garden of Eden to dresse it Gen. 2.15 But when man had sinned against his Maker and forfeited his state in that Paradise of pleasure when his labour should have been with pleasure without defatigation hee was turned out into the wide world into the earth cursed for his sake Gen. 3.17 In which with the sweat of his browes even with difficult labour paine and sorrow hee must eat his bread and get his living For now all his dayes are sorrow and his travell grief Eccles 2.13 And now labour lieth on him not only as a duty testifying his obedience wherein hee must imitate the holy Angels who are created of GOD to be ministring spirits Heb. 1.14 Yea his heavenly Father who laboured in the beginning of time in the creating of all things and at this time and to the end of times worketh in the preservation of all his creation John 5.17 but also as punishment of his disobedience Man is borne unto labour as the sparks flie upward Job 5.7 And this working with his hands is the discharging of the duties of that calling wherein GOD hath set him as the LORD hath called every man so let him worke 1 Cor. 7.17 Now this worke of Levies hand was that I may distinguish the things that differ either ceremoniall or morall The ceremoniall was to minister in the Priests office Ex. 28.1 to offer gifts and sacrifices Heb. 8.3 to be over the Tabernacle of the Testimonie over all the vessels thereof and all things that belong unto it Numb 1.10 The morall was to thanke and praise the GOD of Israel 1 Chro. 16.4 and 23.31 to blesse the children of Israel in GODS name Numb 6.23 Deut. 10.8 to read in the book of the Law distinctly give the sense and cause the people to understand the reading Neh. 8.8 to shew the people the sentence of judgement in hard matters Deut. 17.8 2 Chro. 19.8 Ezek. 44.23 24. to exhort them in warre Deut. 20.23 to teach them at all times the Law of the LORD of Hosts and to walk before the Lord in uprightnesse that so they might turne many stom their iniquities Mal. 2.6 7. Now the first of these the ceremoniall worke was to indure but till the time of reformation Heb. 9.10 the fastning of that hand writing of ordinances to the crosse of Christ Col. 2. that law being changed and abolished this work of the Priesthood is abolished also The other worke the morall is to continue though not in the tribe of Levi yet in those Prophets Pastors and teachers that Christ gave for the perfecting of the Saints the worke of the ministry and the edifying of his body Eph. 4.11 till the end of the world the appearing of JESUS CHRIST Mat. 28.20 1 Tim 6.14 This worke in regard of the authority by which or master for whom it is don is called the Lords work 1 Cor. 16.10 in regard of the dignity of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good or godly worke 1 Tim. 3.1 and the workemen thereof labourers together with God 1 Cor. 3.9 in regard of the greatnes of it a worke hardly to be fitted with a workman who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2.16 it is onus vel ipsis angelis formidan● dum (e) Bernard a burthen to be feared of the very Angels Ars est artium regimen animarum (f) Gregor in past par 1. ca. 1. the government of Soules is the art of arts Now beloved Brethren of the Clergie the chariots of Israel and the horsemen

Deus dare consituit caus 16 qu. 2. And the authority of the Scripture sheweth that Tithes were granted for the furtherance of piety (y) Decimas in usum pieta●●● concess●s esse Canonica autoritas demonstrat caus 16. qu. 7. The Schole-men on the other side striving that they are but judicialls and so laying them open to the Popes power to be alienated transferred and disposed of by him at his pleasure But the schismaticall and upstart generation of the Browmists cry out and herein the whole world will as easily wonder after these beasts as after the beasts mentioned Rev. 13.3 that Tithes are ceremonies an opinion of yesterday scarclely devised an hundred years since and therefore to be throwne headlong out of the Church of Christ aswell as all other ceremonies which Christ hath taken away and nailed to his crosse Col. 2.14 Assuredly if their assertion be justified the conclusion cannot be denied I pronounce with a free voice faith S. Hierom (z) Libera voce pronuntio cerimo●ias Juda. ●rum perni●iosas esse mortiferas Christianis Hieron Aug. epist 11. that the ceremonies of the Jewes are both pernicious and deadly to Christians That which they cannot prove let me in a word or two disprove Ceremonies were shadowes of things to come carrying with them an analogicall resemblance of the things signified as the shadow carryeth with it a resemblance of the body Col. 2.15 They were carnall rites of holy of heavenly things Heb. 9.10 23. of some Evangelicall truth Let them shew then the body whereof they were shadowes the holy things the Evangelicall truth whereof they were types or else we must tell them that Tithes are no ceremonies For if the definition doth not agree to any thing the thing defined cannot agree to it (a) Cui non convenit definitio eidem non convenit definitum Regula Dialect And since all these carnall rites were but to indure till the time of reformation Heb. 9.10 it is more then marveilous that the Church of Christ ever retaining Tithes in use since the Apostles time could not see them to be dead elements yea deadly ceremonies till this generation arose Oh but they were given to the Levites for the service of the Tabernacle Num. 18.21 therefore ceremonies But I shall make it appeare by and by that Tithes were not then first instituted but long before even from the beginning they were then only assigned to the Levites Againe the argument holds not to prove them ceremonies because given to the sons of Levi for the service of the Tabernacle For what manner of reasoning is this their work was ceremoniall therefore their wages ceremonies May not I better reason they were given to the Levites for their service in the Tabernacle which was not only ceremoniall but also yea and more principally morall reading of the Scriptures causing the people to understand the reading Neh. 8.38 blessing and praising the GOD of Israel 1 Chr. 16.4 and teaching of the people the Law of the LORD of Hosts Mat. 2.7 Therefore they were morall duties But as when our Saviours disciples had rehearsed to him the diverse opinions of men concerning him some saying that he was John Baptist some Elias some Jeremiah or one of the Prophets He asked them Whom say yee that I am Mat. 16.15 So happily having proposed to you the diversity of opinions herein some saying that they are judiciall some ceremoniall some tolerable some abominable some one thing some another most of them shooting at one marke to wrest them out of the hands of GODS Ministers you are ready to demand But what sai'st thou that they are whether moral ceremoniall or judiciall I am not beloved fearfull to answer you concerning this point but doe resolutely professe unto you that they are neither ceremonies necessary to be rejected nor judicialls indifferent either to be retained or refused but morall being holy to the LORD by an eternall right as well before and after the Law as under it and being by him ordained to be the portion of his Priests and Ministers as well before and after as under the Law so that that assertion all Tithes are holy to the Lord Levit. 27.30 is no way Leviticall but containeth in it a perpetuall truth and that the Ministers of the Gospell may as lawfully claime the tenth of their peoples increase as before and under the Law the Priests of the high GOD received them For the making good whereof two points are to bee proposed First that Tithes were ever due and paid before the law of Moses Secondly that they are now due in the time of the Gospel for from thence it must follow evidently that howsoever in the Law they were specially assigned to the sonnes of Levi yet they had not then their beginning but were ever the Lords and his Ministers by a morall and perpetuall right For the first Tithes were ever due and paid before the Law As soone as ever we finde any mention of a Priest of GOD we find paiment of Tithes to him and that eo nomine because he was the Priest of GOD Melchisedek was Priest of the most high GOD and Abraham gave him Tithes of all Gen. 14.19 20. And this he did not by voluntary contribution but rather by necessary injunction for such a gift would rather have argued the superiority and excellency to have beene in Abraham the giver than in Melchisedek the receiver whereas the Apostle would have us to consider Melchisedeks greatnesse by Abrahams giving of Tithes to him Heb. 7.4 Againe the Originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 6. Melchisedek tithed Abraham importing that he tooke it by lawfull authoritie not as a free will offering In this way of Abraham walketh his grandchilde Iacob who no doubt was taught by Abrahams pious direction to keepe the way of the LORD herein Gen. 18.19 and voweth payment of Tithes unto GOD Gen. 28.20 as acknowledging that they were his right before the Law was given But here Cardinall Bellarmine and his side would faine wring this testimonie out of our hands and conclude hence that tithes are no morall duties because they were vowed he himselfe faith it had beene an ungodly thing to vow Tithes if he had beene absolutely bound to pay them (b) Impium fuisset vovere decimas si absolutè fuisset obligatus eas solvere Bellar. contr 5. l. cap. 25. tom 1. and great a Rabbi amongst them as he that a man may not vow a morall duty conditionally as Jacob here doth (c) Alphons Tostat in Matt. 23. if GOD would be with him and keep him in his way and give him bread to eate and raiment to put on But it seemeth they are readie with their answer before ever they looked on the Text. For Jacob voweth and that conditionally that if GOD will bee with him c. the LORD shall bee his GOD which I thinke they will not denie to bee a morall dutie even here then is evidence enough