• Maintenance given them; their Sincerity alfo in the Truth, tho' lefs gainful; and the Avarice of ours, who, through the Love of their 'old Papistical Tithes, confider not the weak Arguments, or rather Conjectures and Surmifes which they bring to defend them.

CERTAINLY, if Chrift or his Apoftles, had approv'd of Tithes, they would have either by 'Writing, or Tradition, recommended them to ⚫ the Church: And that foon would have appear'd in the Practice of those Primitive, and the next Ages; but for the first three Hundred Years and more, in all the Ecclefiaftical Story, I find no fuch Doctrine or Example: Tho' Error, by that Time, had brought back again Priests, Altars, and Oblations; and in many other Points of Religion, had miferably Judaiz'd the Church. So that the Defenders of Tithes, after a long Pomp, and tedious Preparation out of Heathen Authors, telling us, that Tithes were paid to Hercules and Apollo, which perhaps was • imitated from the Jews, and as it were bespeaking our Expectation, that they will abound much more with Authorities out of Chriftian Story, having nothing of general Approbation to begin with from the first three or four Ages, but that which abundantly ferves to the Confufutation of their Tithes; while they confefs that • Church-Men in thofe Ages liv'd meerly upon 'Free-will Offerings. Neither can they say, that • Tithes were not then paid, for want of a Civil 'Magiftrate to ordain them, for Chriftians had then alfo Lands, and might give out of them what they pleas'd; and yet of Tithes then given, we find no Mention. And the first Chriftian Emperors, who did all Things as Bishops advis'd them, fupply'd what was wanting to the

Clergy,

Clergy, not out of Tithes, which were never • mention'd, but out of their own Imperial Revenues, as is manifeft in Eufebius, Theodoret and Sozomen, from Conftantine to Arcadius. Hence ⚫ thofe Ancienteft Reformed Churches of the Waldenfes, if they rather continu'd not pure fince the Apoftles, deny'd that Tithes were to be given, or that they were ever given in the Pri• mitive Church, as appears by an ancient Trac⚫tate inferted in the Bohemian History.

• THUS far hath the Church been always, whether in her Prime, or in her ancienteft Reformation, from the approving of Tithes; nor • without Reason; for they might easily perceive that Tithes were fitted to the Jews only, a Na⚫tional-Church of many incompleat Synagogues, uniting the Accomplishment of Divine Worship in one Temple; and the Levites there had their Tithes paid, where they did their Bodily Work, to which a particular Tribe was fet apart by Divine Appointment, not by the People's Election. But the Chriftian Church is univerfal, not ty'd to Nation, Diocess, or Parish, but confifting of many particular Churches compleat in themselves, gather'd, not by Compulfion, or the Accident of dwelling nigh together, but by free Confent, chufing both their particular Church, and their Church-Officers; whereas if Tithes be fet up, all these Christian Privileges will be disturb'd, and foon loft, and with ⚫ them Chriftian Liberty.

THE firft Authority which our Adversaries bring, after those fabulous Apoftolick Canons, ⚫ which they dare not infift upon, is a provincial • Council held at Cullen, where they voted Tithes to be God's Rent, in the Year Three Hundred fifty Six; at the fame Time, perhaps, when

'the

the three Kings reign'd there, and of like Authority. For to what Purpofe do they bring these • trivial Testimonies, by which they might as • well prove Altars, Candles at Noon, and the greatest Part of thofe Superftitions, fetch'd' • from Paganism or Jewifm, which the Papist, inveigl'd by this fond Argument of Antiquity, retains to this Day? To what Purpose those De• crees of I know not what Bishops, to a Parliament and People who have thrown out both Bishops and Altars, and promis'd all Refor⚫mation by the Word of God? And that Altars brought Tithes hither, as one Corruption begot another, is evident by one of those Questions < which the Monk Austin propounded to the Pope, • Concerning thofe Things, which by Offerings of the Faithful came to the Altar, as Beda writes, L. 1. c. 27. If then by these Testimonies we must have Tithes continued, we must again have • Altars.

• OF Fathers, by Cuftom fo call'd, they quote Ambrofe, Auguftin, and fome other Ceremonial Doctors of the fame Leaven; whofe Affertion, without pertinent Scripture, no Reformed Church can admit. And what they vouch, is founded on the Law of Mofes, with which, every where pitifully miftaken, they again incorporate the Gofpel; as did the reft alfo of thofe Titular Fathers, perhaps an Age or two before them, by many Rights and Ceremonies, both Jewish and Heathenifh introduc'd; whereby thinking to gain all, they loft all: And instead ' of winning Jews and Pagans, to be Christians, by too much condefcending, they turn'd Chri'ftians into Jews and Pagans. To heap fuch unconvincing Citations as thefe in Religion, whereof the Scripture only is our Rule, argues not

• much

• much Learning nor Judgment, but the loft La bour of much unprofitable Reading.

THEY produce next, the Ancient Conftituti⚫ons of this Land, Saxon Laws, Edicts of Kings, and their Councils, from Athelston, in the Year • Nine Hundred twenty eight, that Tithes by Statute were paid: and might produce from Ina, above two Hundred Years before, that Romefcot, or Peter's Penny, was by a good StatuteLaw paid to the Pope, from feven Hundred twenty five, and almost as long continu'd. And • who knows not that this Law of Tithes, was • enacted by thofe Kings and Barons, upon the Opinion they had of their Divine Right, as the very Words import of Edward the Confeffor, < in the Close of that Law: For fo blessed Austin preach'd and taught? meaning the Monk, who firft brought the Romish Religion into England from Gregory the Pope. And by the Way I add, that by thefe Laws, imitating the Law of Mofes, the third Part of Tithes only was the Prieft's Due, the other two were appointed for the Poor, and to adorn or repair Churches ; as the Canons of Ecbert and Elfrick witnefs. • Concil. Brit. If then thefe Laws were founded upon the Opinion of Divine Authority, and that Authority be found miftaken and erroneous, as hath been fully manifefted, it follows that thofe Laws fall of themfelves, with their falfe Foundations. But with what Face of Conscience can they alledge Mofes, or thefe Laws for Tithes, as they now enjoy, or exact them; whereof Mofes ordains the Owner, as we heard before, the Stranger, the Fatherlefs and the Widow, Partakers with the Levite; and these Fathers which they cite, and thele, tho' Romib • rather

rather than English Laws, allotted both to • Priest and Bishop the third Part only.

• ANOTHER Shift they have to plead, that • Tithes may be Moral as well as the Sabbath, a • Tenth of Fruits, as well as a Seventh of Days. I anfwer, that the Prelates, who urge this Árgument, have leaft Reafon to use it; denying Morality in the Sabbath, and therein better agreeing with Reformed Churches abroad than • the rest of our Divines. As therefore the Se• venth Day is not Moral, but a convenient Re• course of Worship in fit Season, whether Se• venth or other Number; fo neither is the Tenth ❝ of our Goods, but only a convenient Subsistence morally due to Minifters.

THE laft, and loweft Sort of their Argu⚫ments, that Men purchas'd not their Tithe with their Land, and fuch like Petty-Foggery, I • omit, as refuted fufficiently by others. * I omit alfo their violent and irreligious Exactions, ⚫ related no lefs credibly: Their feizing of Pots ⚫ and Pans from the Poor, who have as good • Right to Tithes as they; from fome, the very Beds; their fuing and imprisoning, worse than when the Canon-Law was in Force; worse than when those wicked Sons of Eli were Priests, ‹ whose Manner was thus to feize their pretended Priestly-Due by Force, 1 Sam. ii. 12. &c. Whereby Men abbor'd the Offering of the Lord; • and it may be fear'd, that many will as much abhor the Gospel, if fuch Violence as this be fuffer'd in her Ministers, and in that which they 'alfo

* 'Tis not unlikely but that Milton bad an Eye in this Place to our Autbor, who in Page 53 has answered those Arguments or Objections.