of the people rejected as oft as their cold affection to Godward made their presents to be little worth. Since the greater they are whom we honour, the more regard we have to the quality and choice of those presents which we bring them for honour's sake; it must needs follow that if we dare not disgrace our worldly superiors with offering unto them such refuse as we bring unto God himself, we shew plainly that our acknowledgment of his greatness is but feigned; in heart we fear Him not so much as we dread them. 32. Gifts unto God his Church and Ministers not unattended by blessings on the giver. The meanest and the very poorest amongst men yielding unto God as much in proportion as the greatest, and many times in affection more, have this as a sensible token always assuring their minds, that in his sight, from whom all good is expected, they are concerning acceptation, protection, divine privileges, and pre-eminences whatsoever, equal and peers with them unto whom they are otherwise in earthly respects inferiors; being furthermore well assured that the top as it were thus presented to God is neither lost, nor unfruitfully bestowed, but doth sanctify to them again the whole mass, and that he by receiving a little undertaketh to bless all. In which consideration the Jews were accustomed to name their tithes, the hedge of their riches. Albeit a hedge do only fence and preserve that which is contained, whereas their tithes and offerings did more, because they procured increase of the heap out of which they were taken. God demanded no such debt for his own need, but for their only benefit that owe it. Wherefore detaining the same, they hurt not him whom they wrong, and themselves, whom they think they relieve, they wound; except men will haply affirm, that God did, by fair speeches and large promises, delude the world in saying, Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house 1, (deal truly, defraud not God of his due, but bring all,) and prove if I will not open unto you the wisdom of heaven, and pour down upon you an immeasurable blessing. 33. God and nature teach us to provide for the perpetuity of Religion. It is to Him, which needeth nothing, all one whether any thing or nothing be given him. But for our own good, it always behoveth that whatsoever we offer up into his hands, we bring it seasoned with this cogitation, Thou, Lord, art worthy of all honour. With the Church of Christ, touching these matters, it standeth as it did with the whole world before Moses. Whereupon for many years men being desirous to honour God, in the same manner as other virtuous and holy personages before had done, both during the time of their life, and, if farther ability did serve, by such device as might cause their works of piety to remain always, it came by these means to pass that the Church from time to time had treasure, proportionable unto the poorer or wealthier estate of Christian men. And as soon as the state of the Church could admit thereof, they easily condescended to think it most natural and most fit that God should receive, as before, of all men his ancient accustomed revenue of tithes. Thus therefore both God and nature have taught to convert things temporal to eternal uses, and to provide for the perpetuity of religion, even by that which is most transitory. 34. Scripture authority for Tithes. Of the spoils which Abraham had taken in war, I Mal. iii. 10. he delivered unto Melchizedeck the tithes. The vow of Jacob, at such time as he took his journey towards Haran, was, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this voyage which I am to go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothes to put on, so that I may return to my father's house in safety, then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone which I have set up as a pillar, the same shall be God's house, and of all thou shalt give me I will give unto thee the tithe'. And as Abraham gave voluntarily, as Jacob vowed to give God tithes, so the law of Moses did require at the hands of all men the self-same kind of tribute, the tenth of their corn, wine, oil, fruit, cattle, and whatsoever increase his heavenly providence should send. 35. Tithes once granted inalienable. The truest and surest way for God to have always his own, is by making him payment in kind, out of the very self same riches which through his gracious benediction the earth doth continually yield. This, where it may be without inconvenience, is for every man's conscience sake. That which cometh from God to us, by the natural course of his Providence, which we know to be innocent and pure, is perhaps best accepted, because least spotted with the stain of unlawful or indirect procurement. Besides, whereas prices daily change, nature, which commonly is one, must needs be the most indifferent and permanent standard between God and man. But the main foundation of all, whereupon the security of these things dependeth, as far as any thing may be ascertained amongst men, is that the title and right which man had in every of them before donation doth by the act, and from the time of any such donation, dedication, or grant, remain 1 Gen. xiv. 20. Gen. xxviii. 20-22. the proper possession of God till the world's end, unless himself renounce or relinquish it. For if equity have taught us, that one ought to enjoy his own; that what is ours no other can alienate from us, but with our own deliberate consent; finally, that no man having passed his consent or deed, may change it to the prejudice of any other, should we presume to deal with God worse than God hath allowed any man to deal with us? Albeit therefore we be now free from the law of Moses, and consequently not thereby bound to the payment of tithes ; yet because nature hath taught men to honour God with their substance, and Scripture hath left us an example of that particular proportion, which for moral considerations hath been thought fittest by him whose wisdom could best judge; furthermore, seeing that the Church of Christ hath long since entered into like obligation, it seemeth in these days a question altogether vain and superfluous, whether tithes be a matter of divine right: because, howsoever at the first it might have been thought doubtful, our case is clearly the same now with theirs unto whom St. Peter sometimes spake, saying, While it was whole, it was whole thine1. When our tithes might have probably seemed our own, we had colour of liberty to use them as we ourselves saw good. But having made them his whose they are, let us be warned by other men's example what it is to wash or clip that coin which hath on it the mark of God. For that all these are his possessions, and that he himself doth so reckon them, appeareth by the form of his own speeches. Touching gifts and oblations, Thou shalt give them me; touching oratories and churches, My house shall be called the house of prayer 3; touching tithes, Will a man spoil God? Yet behold, even 2 Exod. xxii. 29, 30. 4 Mal. iii. 8. 1 Acts v. 4. me your God ye have spoiled, notwithstanding ye ask wherein, as though ye were ignorant, what injury there hath been offered in tithes: ye are heavily accursed, because with a kind of public consent ye have joined yourselves in one to rob me, imagining the commonness of your offence to be every man's particular justification; touching lands, Ye shall offer to the Lord a sacred portion of ground, and that sacred portion shall belong to the priests. Neither did God only thus ordain amongst the Jews; but the very purpose, intent, and meaning of all that have honoured him with their substance, was to invest him with the property of those benefits, the use whereof must needs be committed to the hands of men. In which respect the style of ancient grants and charters is, We have given unto God both for us, and our heirs for ever 2. 36. The turpitude of sacrilege. If men did not naturally abhor sacrilege, to resist and defeat so impious attempts would deserve small praise. But such is the general detestation of rapine in this kind, that whereas nothing doth either in peace or war more uphold men's reputation than prosperous success, because in common construction, unless notorious improbity be joined with prosperity, it seemeth to argue favour with God; they which once have stained their hands with these odious spoils do thereby fasten unto all their actions an eternal prejudice, in respect whereof, for that it passeth through the world as an undoubted rule and principle that sacrilege is open defiance to God, whatsoever afterwards they undertake, if they prosper in it, men reckon it but Dionysius his navigation; and if any thing befall them otherwise, it is not, as commonly, so in them ascribed to the great 1 Ezek. xiv. 1. 4. 2 "We have given," &c. Mag. Char. c. 1. |