The Worcestershire Petition for the Ministry of England, Questions 2
Having done with your Queries, because Queries are in fashion, I will give you a few more of mine, besides what you have already. And
Query I.
Whether the Ministry of England have not as full a Right to their Tithes and Glebes, as any other man to his Lands? A double ground of their right they do produce. 1. The will of the Donors, that gave and dedicated these portions to the Church; Had not they power to make that Donation and Dedication? 2. The Law of the Land, which establisheth their right as firmly, as it establisheth any other mans in his Estate. May not the same Power, if they had the same mind to it, take away all Gentlemens Estates, or Free-holders as well as all Ministers?
Quere II.
Is it not Covetousness and Theft, or violent detaining another mans goods, for any man to refuse to pay Tithes? We do not desire you to give us yours, but only to divide ours from yours. Have not we the same Law to give us a proprietie in the Tenths, which gives you proprietie in the other nine? If we have no right, you have none. Was the Tenth ever yours, or is it any mans else living? did not your fathers or forefathers, that bought or took Leases of your Land, understand that they must pay the Tenth as well as their Rent? and did they not buy them on those terms, and pay so much the less in Purchase, Fine, or Rent? Would not the Seller or Landlord have made you pay a tenth part more, if it had not been for your paying the tenth to the Ministers? And would you take that by force which was never yours, nor was ever paid for by your selves or your forefathers? Your Land-lords might better pretend to it, then you. And is it not an injury to Patrons, whose Ancestors having been Benefactors to the Church, have left the disposal to their Care? Do you not cry Thief first, to hinder the prosecution, and blind the eyes of the world, while you defraud men of their Estates?
Quere III.
Nay, Have not Ministers yet a far better title to their Maintenance then ever a Lord or Knight in the Land? I think they have, in two Respects: 1. This particular Maintenance which they have, was by the Donors dedicated and devoted to God, and so God himself is the primary Owner. I speak not of proper donation: for I know, that God being the Absolute Lord of all, we are not capable of giving to Him in a full sense, so as to make that his own, which was not so before: But as a Father will try his Childe, when he hath given him an Apple, whether hee will give him some again: So God will have a voluntary resignation of a portion for his especiall use: which we are said to give him in the same sense as we are said to give our selves to him in our baptismal Covenant; or as Hannah gave Samuel to him. Now because God is not visible, and needs not any thing of ours for himself, therefore he wil have us imploy it to his use: which is especially to his Worship, and to his poor: And though these be the Uses, yet God is the Owner; not onelyonly by his own Dominion, but also by our Forefathers Dedication and voluntary Resignation: and therefore it is justly called Sacriledg, or Robbing of God, to detain it.
2. Yet more, If there had never been a foot of Land, or any Tythes dedicated to God in England, yet he who is the Absolute Lord, hath excepted a sufficient Maintenance for his Ministers, and commanded all that hear them to pay it them. So that this is the strictest way of appropriation, when God shall appropriate it to himself, as he did the Portion of the Priests and Levites, and the Offerings, and the First-born, &c. God hath not determined or commanded that any Lord or Knight in England shall have to him and his Successors a sufficient estate continued them; if they fel that they have, they may be beggars. But God hath taken a more special care of his Ministers (for his Church and Worship sake) that they that preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel, and be accounted worthy of double honour. So that if this be denyed now, here is a double Sacriledg; A detaining of what God in general hath Reserved and Appropriated to his use; and a detaining of what hath been particularly Dedicated to him by our Fore-fathers.
Quere IV.
Is it not ominous blindnesse in those men that cannot see Gods visible Judgments, nor understand his terrible Threatnings against Sacriledg? When there was no Magistracy to punish it, what a dreadfull punishment did the Apostle and the Holy Ghost miraculously inflict on Ananias and Saphyra, for detaining but part of that which they had dedicated to God, (as Mr. Meade hath fully proved on that Text) and then cloaking it with a Lie? The observation of Gods Judgments in our own Age, is fully opened by many Writers, and acknowledged by most. One would think the Apostle had an eye on this Age and Nation, when he saith, Rom. 2. Thou that abhorrest Idols, dost thou commit Sacriledg?
Quere V.
Is it not a fearful hardening to the Papists, when they shall observe, that those of Their Religion give to the Church, and those of Our Religion take it away? And how every Reformation catcheth a part? King Henry the Eighth must have one part, and This Age another, and you will not willingly leave a morsell for the next. Common people may easily be perswaded, that the Religion which teacheth men to rob God, is not so good as that which teacheth them to give to him and his Worship.
Quere VI.
Is it not the way to banish all such publick good works out of the world, when they shall stand no more surely? Who will, in life, or death, leave any thing to the publick use of the Church, or maintenance of Ministers, when they know not but the next Age may rob them of it, and say, It is Theirs?
Quere VII.
How unlike is this monstrous Age to the Primitive Age? When for many hundred yeers, when there was no Christian Magistrate to compell them▪ they gave (both Tithes, (I am sure, in Cyprians time) and especially) Farms and Lands to the Church, such store, that some of the Bishops complain of their great burden, in having such great Revenues to take care of: and this Age is enviously and restlesly barking at the Relicks of the bountie and pietie of their Progenitors?
Quere VIII.
How can the World devise a way to make the Episcopall party and partakers with the late King to be more confident of the goodnesse of all their Cause, and justifie themselves from first to last, as having done nothing but in necessary Defence of the Church; when it shall appear that the ruine of the Church is indeed intended? And how will it make them think, that the Parliaments Cause was carried on with Church-destroying intentions, and hypocriticall pretences?
Quere IX.
What way could all the Enemies of this Parliament or Armie devise to make them the odium and scorn of the World, and make their names stink in every corner of the Earth where it shall be mentioned; then to provoke them, after so many Oaths, Covenants, Fasts, Thanksgivings, high Professions, long Discourses, and yearly talking of Reformation, at last to shut up all with a Robbing the Church of the Relicks of her Maintenance, and so preparing for an extirpation of the Gospel? yea, or swallowing the Revenues of the Universities, as some would have them? I judg others by my self, I blesse God, I can live without their Tithes: yet if I should see them brought to this, (which God forbid) I should think of them as so many Toads or Serpents; Or if they did so far awe me, as to mention them with fear, it should be also with detestation, as I do mention the Divel; though as men, I must love them. But let none misunderstand me, as if I would intimate their inclination to such a wickednesse. I hope verily that they detest such a thing (the most of them) more then I do: and that they would themselves as much abhor any Rulers on earth, that after such Engagements to the contrary, should be guilty of such wickednesse. I onelyonly shew, what odious persons these Malignants would perswade the most godly and conscionable Rulers to become. The like interpretation you must put on my Sixteenth Quere following. The favourable Acceptance of the Worcester-shire Petition, and what we hear they have since Resolved, doth forbid me to have such uncharitable thoughts of the Parliament, as if they were so loose from Christ and his Gospel, as ever to hearken to such doting Malignants as these Pamphleters discover themselves to be.
Quere X.
Can any man name any Age since the Apostles, among all the odious Heresies that still invaded the Church, that ever had such open maligners of the Ministry in General, and that struck so ragingly at the very standing of the Gospel, as the opposers of the Ministry in this Age have done, and stil do? and that in such numbers?
Quere XI.
Was there ever a season when the Serpent could have plaid this Game more hopefully for the total subversion of the Gospel then now? For as there was never yet the place known on earth, where the Gospel was long continued without Ministers; so if the publick Maintenance be taken away and alienated, there is little likelihood of a Ministry long. For though whiles the people were richer, they might have voluntarily made some provision for a Minister; yet now Wars and Taxes have brought them to a morsel of bread themselves, they be not able to maintain Ministers, if the publick Maintenance be alienated.
Quere XII.
Is it not a most hypocriticall thing for these men to talk all against the Ministers, as if it were them onelyonly that they would impoverish, and to cover their designe against the Church? It is the Church that hath the gain of Tithes, and not the Minister: They must have Ministers, or they must cease to be Churches, and publickly to worship God according to his will. And if Tithes were down, poor Christians must maintain Ministers out of their own purses, when most commonly (or oft) the best are the poorest, and so the rich would no whit help them: And so men would set their Sons to other Studies, and the Churches would be ruined through poverty. Who would lose then by the taking down of Tythes? Ministers, or People? I seriously profess, for my part, if it were not for the Worship of God, and for the Churches sake, more then the Ministers, I would scarce ever have opened my mouth for them.
Quere XIII.
Doth not the Divel and his Agents know, That if once every man might pay whom and what he please, most would have a Masse-Priest or Reading Sir John, that would humour them for a little, and many of the rest would have such a Doctor as this Author, that rageth because he hath not vent for his wares, and which speaks novelties, and that good cheap: And perhaps there might be half a dozen Churches in a Parish, that would spend their meetings in stirring up hatred and rage against each other: O what Nuts were this for the Divel and the Pope! And what friends are these to the Church and Gospel of Christ, and to the Unity, Peace, Holinesse, and Edification of the Saints?
Quere XIV.
If Maintenance established were taken down, and men left to pay whom they please, and so to have what Ministers and Worship they please, were it not the way to fix the multitudes of ignorant wicked men in their self-delusions? would they not get that Priest that should please them, and read them a few words, and be drunk with them when he had done, and rail at Puritans, and make the people believe that the Ale-house, Gaming-house, or Play-house, is as ready a way to Heaven, as the House of Devotion and Holiness? And so people would never hear better, but perish by millions in their Delusions, and their bloud be required at the Rulers hands. People will have some Religion to quiet Conscience: And is there any such way to keep them from the True, as by tolerating a false, which they far more affect? How many have I known, that would hear a bad Reader before a Godly Preacher, who yet when their Readers were put down, would rather hear an able Godly man then none, and so have been convinced and changed by the Word? Moreover, if men have libertie to set up such a debauched Religion, and call it Christianity, is it not the greatest dishonour and shame to the name of Christ, and the way to make Christianitie become a scorn, and Pagans and Mahometans to seem as good as Christians?
Quere XV.
If every man may have, and pay what Minister he please, and so Congregations be broke in pieces, and three or four Churches set up where now there is one, and these meetings prove but the Divels forge, where he may kindle hatreds and heart-burnings by the breath of the Leaders of the differing Factions; Whether would the face of such Churches be like those described or commanded in Gods word? Is any thing, next Faith, more commended then Love, and Unity, and Peace? That we be of one mind, and speak the same things, and that there be no divisions amongst us: Nay, That we mark them which cause divisions, and avoid them; for they that are such, serve not the Lord Jesus, but their own bellies, and by good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple, 1 Cor. 1. 10, 11, 12. and 3. 1, 2, &c. Rom. 16. 17, 18. O how many such Texts for Unity, could I cite?
Quere XVI.
Whether, if these Malignants could prevail with the Parliament and Army, to take down the established Maintenance of the Ministry, and lay open Christs Churches to the wills of the wicked and giddy multitude, and his Ordinances to the scorn of ignorant pretenders, and mens souls to the utmost danger of the subtillest Seducers, or yet to devour the Revenues of the Universities, and dry up our Fountains; Were it not a certain way to bring Gods heavy and intolerable Judgments on Parliament, Army and the Nation it self? Would not their sin be sure to find them out? and would not the Lord Jesus make them a warning and example to all hypocrites and Traytors to his Crown and Dignity? and set them as Pillars of Salt, and Trophies of his Justice? and leave their names for a curse to Posteritie? and make them know what it is to slight his interest, and to prefer their own? and how hard it is for silly wormes to kick against the pricks, and to strive with their Redeemer? and make them wish when it is too late, that they had kissed the Son, and prevented his indignation? And, Oh what power or policie could save them from his wrath! See then what friends they are to Parliament, Army, and Nation, that would draw them to be guiltie of Jeroboams sin; to put down the Priests of the Lord, and stretch out their hands against them, and to make them Priests of the basest of the people, that they may have such as will please them, and are fitted to perform their Bethel Worship, that so they may be known by this name to all Generations, Jeroboam that made Israel to sin, and that after God of a servant had made him a Soveraign: 1 King 12. 26, to the 33. I will go beyond my Antagonists in the number of my queres: they shall have seventeen for their sixteen.
Quere XVII.
If there be any thing amiss that cryes for Reformation (as God knows there is much) doth not the Worcester-Shire Petition propound a better way for redress, then these desperate Malignants do? If there be differences to be healed, whether is crushing godly, sober men on any side, (much less such a Ministry of Christ through the Land) so likely a way to heal them, as a Solemn Meeting of Prudent, Sober, Godly, Peaceable men of each Party, who shall resolve and protest sincerely to addict themselves to a conscionable endeavor after Unity and Peace, and bend all their consultations mainly to that end? And whether they be friends to Christ, his Church and Gospel, that have been the Obstructors of the motion for such a Peace-making Assembly? And whether Christ will own them as faithful servants to him, who so easily suffer it to be obstructed and laid by, while their consciences are convinced of the necessity of it? And whether such halters, that are no more resolved and unreserved for Christ, but will be born down by every frown, or subtil Sophism, will not shortly be annumerated with those that were against him? And whether those in Parliament, Army, or Ministry, that did not in their places faithfully gather the lacerated, divided Church of Christ, will not be reckoned with the Malignants that scattered it abroad? Also, If there be any unworthy persons yet left in the Ministry (as alas, there are too many) whether it will not please God better to cast them out, and put in better, then to rob the Church of the established Maintenance? And so much for our queres.