A88586:39
The main points of church-government and discipline
The main points of church-government and discipline; plainly and modestly handled by way of question and answer. Very useful to such as either want money to buy, or leisure to read larger tracts.The main points of church-government and discipline; plainly and modestly handled by way of question and answer. Very useful to such as either want money to buy, or leasure to read larger tracts.
London: printed by J.M. for Luke Fawne, 1649London: printed by J.M. for Luke Favvne, 1649
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
As for the Tithes, with relation to this Kingdom, (omitting how far the Law of nature, one of the fundamentals of our Laws, did teach them the Gentiles,) it is unquestionable that they, in some Parishes at least, are the Ministers right, by as good Law as the 9. parts are the peoples; and it is as illegal for the people to with-hold their tenth's, as if the Minister should, besides his tenth's, take away one or more of their 9. parts; and it is perilous to a ⟨p. 24⟩State, that private men should prefer their judgment of meum & tuum, of right and wrong, before the public judgment of the Law and Courts of the Kingdom, and may be as destructive to Nobility, Gentry, and others in the Kingdom, to have the hedge of the Law broken down, as it is to the Ministry; sundry persons (some whereof are in power and place) being as inclinable to defraud them also of the Tithes, and to introduce equality and community in the Commonwealth, as in the Church.
As for the Tythes, with relation to this Kingdom, (omitting how far the Law of nature, one of the fundamentals of our Laws, did teach them the Gentiles,) it is unquestionable that they, in some Parishes at least, are the Ministers right, by as good Law as the 9. parts are the peoples; and it is as illegal for the people to with-hold their tenth's, as if the Minister should, besides his tenth's, take away one or more of their 9. parts; and it is perillous to a ⟨p. 24⟩State, that private men should prefer their judgment of meum & tuum, of right and wrong, before the publick judgment of the Law and Courts of the Kingdom, and may be as destructive to Nobility, Gentry, and others in the Kingdom, to have the hedg of the Law broken down, as it is to the Ministry; sundry persons (some whereof are in power and place) being as inclinable to defraud them also of the Tythes, and to introduce equality and community in the Commonwealth, as in the Church.
2. This Law of Tithes was not an imposition on the people, as some falsely suggest, but a voluntary donation, not of the people (though, if they that were then owners of the land, and had power to alienate them in whole, or in part, and did so, that is a sufficient bar against those in whose hands they now are, which have no title but what they hold from and under them, and can justly claim no more then was transmitted by them,) but of the King, who then having all the Lands in England in demesne, did give the tenth part of his own Lands, or, as some call it, the tenth part of his Kingdom, to the Church, and were consented unto, and