Commentary on Genesis and Exodus, Theological treatise · Chapter 22 · Questions · Question 56 – Question 60
QUEST. LVI. Reasons why tithes ought to be payed.
THou shalt not keepe backe, or deferre to give. 1. Si tardius dare peccatum est, quanto magis non dedisse? If to be slacke in giving be a sinne, much more not to give at all, Augustin. 2. Tithes therefore are to be rendred, thereby to acknowledge God to be the giver and author of all good things which we receive: Consideret quia omnia Dei sunt, per quae vivit, sive terra, sive slumina, sive semina; Let man consider that all is Gods, whereby he liveth, whether it be the earth, the flouds, or seed,Serm. 2.19▪ Augustin. ibid. So also Tostatus. By giving first fruits and tithes of all things, Protestamur Deum esse qui ista nutriverit, &c. We professe that it is God who hath nourished the fruits of the earth, by giving raine in due season, quaest. 18.3. Decimae sunt tributa …gentium animarum: redde ergo tributa pauperibus, offer libamina Sacerdotibus, &c. Tithes are the tributes of hungrie and penurious soules: render therefore the tribute to the poore, bring offrings unto the Priests, Augustin. Tithes are given for the maintenance and sustentation of the Ministers of Gods service: which if they be withdrawne, the Ministers of God should be pinched with want, and so the service of God be neglected. 4. Another reason is taken from the equitie, and easinesse of this precept, that whereas God, in regard that all commeth from him, might have required nine parts, and given to the owner the tenth, because all is his; the ground, the raine, the seed, the sunne: yet hee hath dealt most liberally in contenting himselfe, onelyonly to receive the tenth: Quid faceres, si novem partibus sibi sumptis, decimam tibi reliquisset? What wouldest thou have done, if he had taken nine parts to himselfe, and left onelyonly the tenth for thee? 5. Further, the paying of the tenth, as God hath appointed, is a meanes to procure Gods blessing: as Exod. 30.12. Every one shall give a redemption of his life, &c. that there be no plague among them, &c. Non solu… abundantiam fructuum recipies, sed etiam sanitatem corporis consequeris, &c. Thou shalt not onelyonly receive abundance of increase, but health also of bodie, &c. Quare per avaritiam duplici te benedictione fraudas: Wherefore thou by thy covetousnesse doest defraud thy selfe of a double benefit, August. ibid. 6. The withholding of tithes and duties commanded by God, is a meanes to procure Gods curse upon the earth: as the Lord saith by his Prophet, I will send a curse upon you, and will curse your blessings, &c. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and cast dung upon your faces, &c. and yee shall know that I have sent this commandement unto you, Malach. 2.2, 3, 4.that my covenant which I made with Levi might stand, &c. Upon which words Hierome thus writeth, Quia mihi non reddidistis decimas & primitias, ideo in penuria & fame maledicti estis: Because ye have not rendred unto me tithes and first fruits,In Malach. therefore are ye cursed with penurie and famine. Augustine also, Si tu illi decimam non dederis, ut tu ad decimam revoceris, &c. This is just with God, that if thou pay not the tenth, thou shalt thy selfe be brought to the tenth, &c. Novem tibi partes retractae sunt, quia decimam dare noluisti, &c. Nine parts are taken from thee, because thou wouldest not pay the tenth: Dabis impio militi, quod non vis dare sacerdoti, &c. Thou shalt give to the wicked souldier, that which thou wilt not give to the devout Priest, &c. That is, either by unseasonable weather, or by the invasion or spoile of the enemie, or by some meanes or other thou shalt lose thy wonted increase.
QUEST. LVII. Whether this law be understood of the redemption of the first borne, or of their consecration to Gods service.
Vers. 30. THe first borne of thy sonnes shalt thou give me. 1. Osiander, with some others, understandeth this of redeeming the first borne with money, as before, chap. 13.13. they are bid to buy out their first borne. But if this law intended the redemption of the first borne onelyonly, then it had beene lawfull for them presently to redeeme their first borne: but so was it not, for then there should have beene no Ministers for the service of God: for the Levites came not into the place of the first borne untill the second yeare, the first monethmonth of their departure out of Egypt: therefore untill that time the first borne were not to be redeemed: but after this law published, which was in the third monethmonth of the first yeare, not long after the Morall law was delivered, the first borne sacrificed still, chap. 24.5. and therefore were not as yet redeemed. 2. Therefore the law of redeeming the first borne is not here onelyonly insinuated, but that they should be also consecrate unto the service of God: Non intelligitur lex de redemptione primo genitorum, sed de applicatione ad Deum: The law is not understood of the redemption of the first borne, but of their applying unto the service of God, untill the separation and division of the Leviticall tribe, and then to be redeemed with money. So by this law is confirmed that ancient custome which of a long time continued among the people of God, that the first borne should be the Priests and sacrificers. Though in the first age of the world this distinction was not brought in, but they indifferently sacrificed, as well the first borne as others, as we reade of Caine and Abel, Tostat. quaest. 18. 3. This law of the first borne is more at large set forth, chap. 13. but here repeated, ut hominum socordiam excuteret, &c. to shake off their drowsinesse and negligence, and to stirre them up to a diligent observation▪ of the law, Gallas. And now by a solemne law, that is enacted which was given onelyonly in precept before, Simler. 4. Augustins distinction may here bee received, betweene foreign, the first borne, which are understood to have beene either of men or beasts foreign,In quaestionibus super Numeros. the first fruits of their grounds, and foreign, which were the first of the fruits, sed jam redactis de agro, but now brought out of the field: as of their dow, flower, and such like.
QUEST. LVIII. Why the first borne of cattell were not to be offred before the eighth day.
Vers. 30. SEven dayes shall it be with his damme. 1. Whereas it is said before, Likewise shalt thou doe with thine oxen, &c. R. Salomon thinketh that as the first borne of men were not to be redeemed till after 30. dayes, at the time of the purification: so the first borne of the oxen should be kept 30. dayes with the owner, and of sheepe 50. dayes, before they were offred unto God: And this terme of seven dayes is not limited (saith he) for the first borne, but for other sacrifices which the Priests should not offer before the eighth day. Contra. But this word likewise, onelyonly signifieth that they should offer the first borne of their cattell, as before it is said of their sonnes: it cannot have any such reference to any such terme, because there was none mentioned before: and why was not the terme of eight dayes as well to hold in the oblation of the first borne as in other sacrifices? 2. Oleaster is of a contrarie opinion, that these eight dayes are limited as well for the first borne of men as of cattell. But it is unlike and without all probabilitie, that the first borne of children should be taken from their mothers upon the eighth day. 3. Therefore this precept concerneth onelyonly the first borne of cattell, that because they were weake and of an imperfect substance, till the eighth day they should not offer that, cujus nullus usus inter homines, whereof there was no use among men, Gallas. 4. It was not necessarie that precisely upon the eighth day it should be offred unto God: but that not before the eighth day, at any time after the eighth day it might, Tostat. quaest. 18. 5. As in the offring of the first fruits, the law provideth they should use no delay, nor bee slacke to pay them, because it might bee an advantage to the owner: so here order is taken that they should not make too great haste in offring the first borne of their cattell, to be rid of them the sooner, Simler.
QUEST. LIX. Of the meaning of this law, whether it were mysticall, morall, or historicall.
1. SOme thinke that the eighth day is prescribed for the oblation of their first borne, because that day was appointed also for circumcision, Calvin. 2. Some, to prefigure the institution of the Lords day, which should succeed the legall Sabbath upon the eighth day, Pelarg. 3. Rabanus maketh this mysticall application; that as the first borne was kept seven dayes with the damme, and presented the eighth: so oportet nos in praesenti tempore, &c. honorum operum primogenita elaborare, &c. so we should in this present time of the world labour out the first borne of our good works, untill we shall bee presented at the resurrection, which is as it were the eighth day, before the tribunall of Christ. 4. Lippoman doth thus morally applie it: Nihil Deo offerendum, nisi integrum & perfectum: Nothing must be offered unto God, but that which is entire and perfect. 5. But the end and use onelyonly was historicall: that the first borne should not bee presented unto God before the eighth day, because they were yet unfit for any service, Marbach. Quia talia animalia erant quasi abortiva, nondum plenae consistentiae propter teneritudinem: Because such yong beasts were yet but as abortive fruit,1.2. q. 502. art. 3. addu. 7. not well consisting or put together because of their tendernesse, Thomas.
QUEST. LX. Why they are forbidden to eat flesh torne of beasts.
Vers. 31. NEither shall yee eat any flesh that is torne, &c. 1. As well that which was rent and torne of any beast, cleane or uncleane, as if it were goared of an oxe, was not to bee eaten, because the bloud was in it: as also that which was tasted before and eaten by any uncleane beast: as the Latine readeth, praegustata, if it were tasted before, because an uncleane beast had touched it, and so made it uncleane, Simler, Tostatus. 2. Not onelyonly that part of the flesh which was so torne, but all the whole carcase was to be refused, Lyranus. Such were fowles and beasts taken in hawking or hunting, Tostatus. 3. And not onelyonly that which was torne, and thereof died, but if it after lived, and were killed by themselves, yet because it was torne of beasts, it was uncleane: unlesse the beast so torne lived to recover that hurt, and page missing and Anabaptists: for although the Lord had chosen Israel out of all the nations of the world, to bee an holy people to himselfe, yet he did foresee that many would depart from his law, and therefore appointeth divers kinds of punishment for the offenders, Pelarg.