A Disquisition Upon our Saviors Sanction of Tithes

Let us then first Examine our Savior's Treaty of the several parts of Moses his Law.

1. And first as to the Moral precepts of Moses his Law, our Lord was so far from Abrogating them, that he sublimated them to their own purity, far above the false Glosses of the Pharisaick Doctors, or the low sense the Carnal Jew had of them, as appears all along that divine Sermon on the Mount, and for the perpetuity he dates the Duration of every Iota or Tittle of them beyond that of Heaven and Earth.

2. In those things wherein either Jewish Custom and Practice, or explicit permission by Moses his Law had prevaricated from the Divine and Original Constitution; Our Savior plainly and immediately reduced those Customs and Practises to that Divine original by settling that Standard of Reduction; From the Beginning it was not so, as in the Case of Marriage and Divorce.

3. He peremptorily decided to the Civil Power the due of Tribute, and therein of all subjection consistent with the supreme Law of God, all pretenses from the Jewish Law or any other of latter date to the contrary notwithstanding, in that everlasting Oracle, Render therefore to Caesar the Things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God's.

4. He diverted the severity of the Judaic Judicial Law as to the Execution, from the woman taken in Adultery, although 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the very Fact; by striking the Consciences of her Accusers with their own Guilt.

5. In that great precept of the S • bbath Day, Our Lord crossed the Superstitious Austerity of the Pharisees, and refuted it by Arguments drawn from the Mosaic Law itself, which allowed nullum in Sanctuario Sabbati Otium no Sabbatism of rest in the Sanctuary; but the Priests profane, as our Lord says, the Sabbath Day in the Temple, and are blameless, from their own practice in Leading their Beasts to Water, from the true Intention of the Sabbath, which was made for Man, and not Man for it, from the ever Active Goodness of the Divine Being and the Mediator that never Sabbatizes; my Father worketh hitherto, and I work: And he foreboded the change of it from the seventh Day to the First, by declaring himself Lord, even of the Sabbath; and assigning that for the Reason, why he declared himself Lord over it, viz. to change it, because the Sabbath was made for Man, and not Man for it, That is, the First day Sabbath might be as much adapted to Man's Good, as the seventh was; and that neither the one nor the other was any of those Eternal and Immutable Laws for which Man was made. Therein intimating he changed no such Laws, but as the Son of Man or the the great Mediator he changed such Laws as were made for Man's Interest, to what he saw most for their interest by variety of Circumstances and Times; and were not those eternal immutable Laws for which Man was made, and wherein his Happiness without any Alteration consisted: Thus he judged the First Day honored with his Resurrection, and as a seventh part of Time including the Memory of the CREATION was now fittest for a Sabbath. For who as the Son of Man can judge of those advantages of Human Nature, who took that Nature upon him, that he might be touched with our Infirmities, and might be a Compassionate High Priest. Upon this Head I have insisted the longer, because it gives great light into the main discourse, and because I shall have after occasion to compare together the precept of Tithes, and of a seventh part of Time.

6. He foreboded the Change of the whole Mosaic Frame, by declaring the Scribe not far from the Kingdom of God, who understood the Love of God and our Neighbor, to be more than all whole Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices, which our Lord soon after (as we shall presently see) in an umbrage abrogated: Circumcision was already antiquated by the Baptism of John, and the Disciples of Jesus; and was undervalued in compare with the making a man every whit whole, the great Design of the Gospel; although by the first Institution, the Uncircumcised was to be cut off from his People; the Pass-Over was voided by the Lord's Supper, the Feast upon the True Paschal Lamb substituted to it.

7. In all Cases wherein Pharisaick Hypocrisy, Extortion, Vain-Glory, Traditional Superstition had introduced any Additions upon Ceremonial, or even Moral Duties; our Savior was most Rigorous in the Detection and Censure, as in their Phylacteries, Corban, Eating with washed Hands, their long Prayers, Fastings, Alms, the odd Sentiments of the Resurrection fastened to Moses his Law by the Sadducees, with many other Instances of both kinds.

Now to draw up a Comparison betwixt the aforenam'd Instances (for there remain two more of a peculiar consideration) of our Savior's Treaty of Moses his Law, and his Treaty of it in this particular of Tithes, and it thus arises.

We find the Interpretation of Moses his Law, concerning Tithes was most particular, and to the utmost Stretch and Extent, when it was drawn down to Mint, and Cumin, far more express than any Words we find in the Levitical Law itself; yet our Lord blames nothing, he finds no fault, nay he Approves, and sets his Seal to it; These Things ought ye not to leave undone: He does not make it void, nay he Establishes it; it could not indeed be, but that especially the Tantilloes, those uttermost Farthings of Tithing, must be in themselves much lighter in our Lord's Account than Judgment, Mercy; but else he moves them not out of their place, though but as the Dust of the Ballance in Tithing itself.

And therefore undoubtedly, our Savior saw some Rule of unchangeable Right, that sustained so nice an Exposition of Moses his Law, and that supported even that Law itself above the Ceremonial, or Judicial Sanctions of Moses.

He does not fulfil it, that is explain it at a greater Breadth or Height, as he did Matthew the 5th, those greater Laws: Indeed the Pharisees had done that to his Hand, and shrivell'd up the other by false Glosses, but he Evacuates it not, he retrenches nothing, he gives nothing of an equitable Interpretation to it: He redargues nothing as in all the rest of the forementioned Instances. It assures us therefore, this Exactness of Tithing was none of their Extortion, Vain-Glory, Traditional Superstition, Rigid or Erroneous Interpretation, not knowing the Scrip • ures in their Mercy to Human Nature, or the Power of God; but only their Hypocrisy showed itself in their passing over the weightier Matters of the Law, while they were so punctilious in Tithing Mint, and Cumin.

But besides all these Instances given of our Lord's Abearance towards the Law of Moses, there are two more that require a more intimate research into them, because they import a greater Favor of our Lord's towards the Mosaical Law, and yet in one of them there was a certain Expiration of Moses his Institution at the Death of Christ, and in the other within less than half an Age after his Death: so that except there shall be a certain Distinction found betwixt those two Instances, and this of Tithing, we are upon; it may have been out of Date with the Rest of the Mosaic Law, which had some kind of Languishing Life till the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.

The first is that of the Leper, Mat 8. 2. &c. who being cleansed by our Lord's miraculous Power, was enjoin'd by him to sh • w himself to the Priest, and to offer for his cleansing as Moses commanded, from whence it may be thus argued:

But in Answer to this Argumentation, I rejoin these Considerations:

1. Our Lord was indeed himself in all Instances of Duty obedient to the Law of Moses, under which he was made, and proportionably he withdrew no man at that time of his Being upon Earth from a present Actual Obedience to it, rightly understood, so to this Leper, he enjoin'd the observation of the Law of his cleansing so far as to offer according to it.

2. Yet in the course of our Lord's miraculous Healing, there were many Lepers cleansed; For as a daily thing, he renunciates to John by his Disciples, among other Miracles, the Lepers are cleansed; and yet we have only this Exemplification of Christ's Solemn Command to observe Moses his Command; Nor did he Caution his Apostles concerning it in their Commission to cleanse the Lepers, Mat. 10. 8.

3. In that most remarkable Healing of the Ten Lepers, Luke 17. 14. There was only a Command to show themselves to the Priest, without any mention of the Offering, which shows, though our Lord did pay an observance to the Mosaic Law; yet in all his miraculous Cleansings, he knew a Greater than Moses was there, and so did not oblige the Cleansed rigorously to those Observances.

4. He Limits the Injunction to the proper end of it, viz. For a Testimony to them: that is,

1. That our Lord was no Contemner of Moses his Administration, though they calumniated him as such on all occasions, but a Just moderator over it. As a Son over his own House.

2. For a Testimony to them, that the Kingdom of God was come upon them in the Miraculous Power of Christ: And therefore the Leper was charged to tell no Man, but to surprise the Priest with the Offering for his Purification, that so there might be a legal Attestation to the Truth of the Miracle, which was so porfect doubtless (like Naaman's his Flesh coming again, as the Fl • sh of a Child,) as to surmount any occasion for the seven Days probationership, Levite. 13 6. The Appearing thus to the Priest, and the Offering for Cleansing were Indisputable Ratifications of the Miracle, and therefore were so carefully Commanded.

Now all these things laid together, There will appear to any unprejudic'd Considerer, a vastest Difference betwixt our Savior's Sanction of the Duty of Tithing, and the Command to the Leper, as pro hac vice, for that time to show himself to the Priest, and Offer, &c. and that for so great an End, as a Testimony to them, without which there had been no such necessity.

The second of these two last Instances, and much the Greater is comprehended in those two Zeloticisms (if I may be bold so to call them) of our Lord and Savior, the one at the first Pass-Over he publicly appeared at, after his Baptism; and the second at his last, just before his Death, viz. the Whipping and Ejecting the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple, and which is most Remarkable, prohibiting the passing of Vessels through the Temple or Sanctuary rather; setting these Two Mottoes, as it were, by his Divine Action on the Gates, or first Avenues to the Temple.

The first in his First Action, make not my Fathers House a House of Merchandise.

The second in his Second Action, my House shall be called a House of Prayer for all Nations.

This I account an Instance of greatest moment to the present Case;

1. Because our Savior gave this as a Sanction of his own above, and beyond the Sentiment of the Jews, who were in amaze at it, and asked a Sign to be the Warranty of so great Doings, and it did so enrage the Pharisees, that they sought to destroy him upon it, and yet the Temple of the Lord was their great Cry, and their last Accusation of our Lord at his Death was for the very Temple, as if Blasphem'd by him. And further, It is the more remarkable, because Christ for the fulfilling of a double Prophecy thus Soveraignly manifested himself, the first Time, that of David his Type; The Zeal of thy House hath • aten me up. The last Time, that of the Prophet Isaiah, My House shall be called the House of Prayer for all Nations.

2. It is the more Influential on our present Discourse because Tithes and the Sanctuary had such a Correlation one to another, that they may seem to have Lived, and Died together.

3. Because this Divine Zeal of our Lord terminated in a Temple, whose Holyness and Use was much prostrated at his Death; Then the Vail of the Temple, that separated it from common Approach, even of Eyes, was by Miracle rent from the Top to t • e B • ttom, and within less than forty years it was burnt by Titus, the Instrument of Divine Vengeance, and utterly rased.

Here then appears, as Solemn a Sanction upon the Holyness of the Temple, as upon Tithes; and yet how soon, It was of necessity to be abrogated, and that even as by a Hand from Heaven, we have seen, as our Savior also foretold, A Stone not left on a Stone.

Now to All This these two things are said,

1. That our Lord's Intention was to put that Sanction upon the Holyness of the Temple, as an Entail of the same Holyness upon the successive Temples of the Christians; against which I shall say no more, then that the very want of the Cabor and Shekhinah, proper only to that material Sanctuary does disprove that opination.

2. The more valuable Account of the most Pious and Learned Mead, takes the Place of this, who puts the Emphasis of our Savior's Action of Favor to the the Temple, on that part of it, which was allowed to the Gentiles, which the Jews valued at that vile Rate, as to make it as Common and Unclean: But our Lord for the Vindication of it in preparation to the Gentiles coming into his Church, did thus Exterminate All that profane Incumbrance of it: and Correspondent to this does that Prophecy especially shine out; My House shall be called for All Nations the House of Prayer.

3. Although this Account of our Savior's Action can be by no means spared, much less excluded for the very sake of that Prophecy, and also the near approach of the Gentiles Conversion; yet I shall be bold to give one larger, and more Receptive, as also more close and nearer to the purpose of this unparalleled Comming of the Lord into his Temple.

And that is, This was indeed our Lord's Causing Sacrifice and Oblation to cease, foretold by Daniel in the midst of the week his last Pass-Over, or just approaching Death Consummatively; as it was inchoated at the very beginning of the Week, or the first Pass Over.

And when Saerifice was thus caused to Cease; Prayer, that was at least Coeval with Sacrifice, and to endure to the very end, as the surviving Worship succeeded naturally to it alone; as Comprehensive of all Spiritual and Intellectual Worship, and God's Acceptance of it.

This Action then of our Lord's so superlative takes away the First, that he may Establish the Second. And that here resided the Mind of that Heavenly Grandeur our Lord assumed, I thus argue.

1. The Temple was at that time the Great Symbol of both the Divine Presence and Worship, and indeed the only then in the World.

2. It was from its very first Foundation, a House of Prayer, Solomon dedicated it, as such at the first, by that his Reyal Prayer, Prayer was intermix'd with all Sacrifices, as the most Learned Dr. Outram often observes, in that Excellent Discourse of Sacrifices. It was always Comprehensive of all Divine Worship, Oh thou that hearest Prayer, to thee shall all Flesh come; but yet under Moses his Law Sacrifice over-shaded it; and the Temples name was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 primarily, not a House of Prayer, but a House of Sarifice.

3. The Evangelical Prophet Isaiah foretells: It should in the Gospel state of the Church receive another name; It should be called the House of Prayer, that is, of Prayer separated from Sacrifice, for else it was before the House of Prayer, and although he joins Sacrifices, yet it is only according to the Language of that time a prediction of Spiritual Sacrifices.

4. That Merchandize our Savior ejected, and the passing of Vessels through the Bounds of the Sanctuary he prohibited, was in a Sense absolutely necessary; at least of High Conveniency to the Sacrifices of the Temple, and had some Countenance from God's Allowance to the Far Dwellers of his People, to bring their Money instead of their Sacrifices, that they might buy nearer the Temple, and on many Accounts the Vessels could very ill be interdicted to that Service; so that the Cessation of one was hardly possible without the other; the Cessation of the Merchandize and the Vessels, without the Cessation of the Sacrifices.

5. The Remark of these two Actions of our Lord's is put upon this first: Make not my Father's House a House of Merchandize; and in the second, It shall be called the House of Prayer.

6. It is once by the Evangelist Mark added, For all Nations; which argues to us, It was not principally, but yet inclusively and consequentially intended, that is when it should be a House of Prayer, and not of Sacrifices. All Nations should flow into the Church, and it could not indeed be a House of Prayer for All Nations, in a confluence to the Church of God, while it was a House of Sacrifice; For that state was fitted only to the Jewish Nation.

There are these Three Things therefore in our Lord's Intention in the Action, and his Concomitant discourse.

1. That there should be a Cessation of that Carnal Jew • sh Worship, of God by Sacrifice.

2. That in the place of it should succeed a Spiritual Intellectual Worship comprehended under Prayer, and that represented by the Temple, or House of God, as the Symbol of it.

3. Our Savior with so high a Zeal thrusts out that Market, that Sacrifices necessarily brought so near the Temp •• , not only with the Reproach of its Sordidness, but of all that Fraud, Injustice, and other Rapines attending places of Traffick, by which it was made a Den of Thieves. And this to prepare for that Purer, Freer, less Cumbersom Worship, signified by Prayer; and that should not be clogged with those Temptations of Fraudulency.

4. The Christian Church Catholic, as consisting of all Nations, rises as it were out of this Temple, when the Apostles met together, when the Effusion of the Holy Spirit coming down, as a Shekhinah upon them, viz. in Fiery Cloven Tongues, consecrated that Church to be the House of the Living God, a House of Prayer for all Nations, a representative of which then met, Devout men of every Nation under Heaven.

5 The Jews and especially the Pharisees Surmizing, whither All this Action of our Lord tended, were filled with so much Rage and Amazement, being equally Enemies to the Cessation of Sacrifice, and to the Church of God spread through all Nations.

And thus I have given Account of the most plausible Appearance of our Lord's Sanction upon a Branch of the Mosaic Jewish Law, which yet was indeed, and in true understanding the most efficacious Abrogation of it, and Introduction of the Evangelical state; and I have insisted the more industriously upon it because it is of difficult explication according to its true Sense, and according to that Sense very different from this Case of Tithes.

I am now arrived to the second Point of the Argument, that is, that our Lord not only blamed nothing in this most Rigid Interpretation of the Pharisees upon the Law of Tithes given by Moses; nor in the Law itself: But on the contrary, that he saw some unchangeable Equity in it, for the sake of which, he intimated not the least Iota of Abrogation in relation to it.

And that we may attain that, I shall proceed by these several Propositions that are either evident by their own Light, or proved in the former, or following course of the Argument.

[Posit. 1] God hath a Sovereign Right over all things we possess, being himself always the most High possessor of Heaven and Earth.

[Posit. 2] He may reserve to himself, or command from us, as a Tribute or Homagery-Acknowledgment whatever proportions of anything we call ours, and to what ends he pleases.

[Posit. 3] Since the Sin and Fall of Man, because all the Grace and Favors of God to us are in and through his Son as our High Priest, and Mediator, in whom All things now consist; there hath therefore arisen together with the aforesaid Acknowledgment of the Divine Nature, an Acknowledgment of our High Priest and Mediator, an Acknowlegment of the Son of God in our Nature, through whom we receive All, and offer All; who abideth a High Priest continually, without either Beginning of Days. or End of Life.

[Posit. 4] Because neither to God, nor the Son of God in Heaven can our Goodness of this sort extend in specie, therefore he hath declared his Pleasure, It should be Deputed.

1. To the outward means and conveniencies of Solemnizing his Worship.

2. Because for the more Due, and certain Performance of his Worship, God hath separated and selected persons for the Care of, and Service in it; He hath therefore given to those his Immediate Servants, and Ministers of his Worship in the World, their just proportions of those Acknowledgments, due to him, out of what we possess, both for an Inablement to, and Recompence of their Service, not as Alms, but as Honor.

3. After this by way of Alms to the Poor, which yet is also called our Righteousness on this Account.

[Posit. 5] By Divine Impulse the Tenth of All hath been pitched upon, as the Quota pars, or proportion of a Tribute to him, to whom All is indeed Due.

[Posit. 6] In God's own peculiar Nation, and Government, the Tenth of All the Increase of the seed of the Land, and of whatsoever passed under the Rod of the Flock, or of the Herd, was Holy to the Lord by his special Appointment.

Here then we find, that, which was in our Savior's Eye, that differences this Law of Tithing so much from other parts of Moses his Law.

Even the Everlasting Equity of Acknowledging God by the Mediator, and Eternal High Priest, out of what we possess, deputatively defer'd to the immediate Ministers and Servants of his Solemn Worship, which Acknowledgment is most duly, and justly arising from the very least Things; even the Mint and Cumin, that serve the uses of Life, and is therefore to continue in the Substantials, as long as God hath a Holy Service in the World, Priests and Ministers of it, even throughout All Ages; and no less under the Evangelical Law, then the Mosaic; after Moses, as it was before him; As long as the Goodness of God grants us All Things to enjoy, even so long does our Tribute to God through Jesus Christ, oblige us out of All Things, we do enjoy, It is of Eternal Equity to Honor the Lord with our Substance, and with the First Fruits of all our Increase, Prov. 2. 9.

Abraham, therefore the Father of Decimation gave the Tenth of All to Melchized • k, long before Moses, and under that Character, Priest of the most High God, Possessor of Heaven and Earth, who Blessed him in the name of the most High God.

Aod who this Melchizedek was and of whom he was so Near, so Express, and Immediate a Type in his PRIEST-HOOD, and therein so Great a Man, Abraham, who saw Christ's Day, and was Glad, very well knew, and therefore He Received Blessing from Him, who Himself had the Promises; which Blessing Melchizedek could not have confer'd upon him, who had the promises, had he not immediately represented the Seed, who was the True High Priest and Blesser, in whom both Melchizedek, Abraham, and All the Nations of the Earth were Blessed. Upon all which Accounts Abraham gave him the Tenth of All. Which Tenth as to its Substantial Sense and Intention was first of the Eternal Law of Equity, and Evangelical, before it was Mosaickly Legal.

In pursuance of this Acknowledgment of God, Jacob the Third from Abraham, vowing JEHOVAH should be his God, that he would Build him a House, Vowed also to that God, the Tenth of All, He should give him, according to the Example of his Great Father, and by the same Divine Impulse, God's Acceptance of which he testified to Jacob when he said, after the giving him Laban 's Cattle: I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the Pillar, and Vowedst a Vow unto Me, and at other times after that.

And after all this, when the God of Abraham, and Jacob founded a National Church in their Seed, from which the High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek also sprang; in approbation of his own Impulse, He separated a Tenth part of ALL to himself for the Priesthood, he ordained.

Now all this being under the Eye of our Lord and Savior, the High Priest of Our Profession; He diminish'd nothing from the Right of God, and of himself in the very least Particles, however abused by his Hypocritical Adversaries to the neglect of Greater Things; He knew ir too Awful to be violated, and did it not; No; he established it by his own Sanction, even the minimum quod sic, the very smallest Digits of it.

Thus our Savior looked back upon what had been before; That he looked forward upon the Future state of Things also is undoubted: For at this time the Kingdom of God, or the Evangelical State was already Commenced, although the Mosaic Frame was allowed a Co-existence with it for a Time: But that it was already entered is most certain, and that some Time before.

1. John the Baptists Preaching, and Baptism is still'd by the Evangelist Mark; the Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the Year of it directly noted by the Evangelist Luke; Our Lord calls it the Counsel of God, which the Pharisees rejected against themselves, being not Baptiz'd of J • hn: The Publicans and Harlots conversion by it he Praises, as their entering into the Kingdom of Heaven before the Pha •• sees, who were Baptiz'd with John 's Baptism: He dates the Law and the Prophets till John, and that then the Kingdom of God was taken by violence, and Ceremoniousness no longer attended it. The Week our Lord's confirming the Covenant was begun; John's Baptism, as an Intermedious Ministration had decreased, that our Lord's might increase and out-shine it, and the least in the Kingdom of Heaven became greater than He, so that He himself had instructed Nicodemus concerning Baptism, the Symbol of Regeneration into his Kingdom, some considerable time before this: For now our Lord's Week wax'd near its middle point, that he might Cause Sacrifice to Cease, as I noted even now.

And now it was that he gave this his Determination concerning the Exactness of Tithing; These Things ought ye •• t to leave undone.

And whether this was the very Time, to which the Apostle refers, and which he further explains, when he says, the Lord ordained, That they, who preach the Gospel, should Live of the Gospel; even as they that Minister about Holy Things, &c. May be now farther examined.

Thus much of certainty we have attained, that the Gospel being begun, and the whole Mosaic Law of Sacrifices, ready to expire; He thus ordained, (as we have already all along declared,) These Things ought, &c.

I come therefore now to make the Appeal of this Discourse to the Apostolical Writings, and to observe from them, how the Scales will turn, whether to the Dissenters from Decimation, or towards the Assertors of it: And that the proceeding may be most equal, I will first make the Objection of the Dissenters from those Apostolic Writings, as strong as I am able, and then apply to it its Answers: first from what is most Certain and Demonstrative, out of the Apostolic Writings, then from what is very probable and agreeable to Reason, although possibly not so Demonstrative.

The Objection I frame thus.

The two main Hinges, on which this Objection turns are these.

1. Tithes were of a Sacrifical and Priestly Original, and as such, consign'd into Moses his Law; and therefore certainly Abrogated with all things of that sort and alliance.

2. They are not once mentioned by the Apostles, and therefore are to be concluded abrogated, though our Lord out of Honor to that Law of Moses defalked nothing from it himself, yet He left it to be thus done by his Apostles.

To the first of these Objections, I make these following Answers.

1. The whole sum of all True Religion was by Divine Artifice, interwoven with the Jewish Administration, whatever of Natural or Revealed Truth had been derived from God. was either in plain precepts, or curious Types and Shades to be found in that Theocratical Frame of Laws; and not only what had been implanted, or delivered by God to his Servants; but even the whole Evangelical Frame was in apt Figures, and Emblems delincated in it. It is no wonder then, that a Tenth, devoted as a Tribute to God, should be taken into the Mosaic Frame under the Symbol of a Heav-Offering, which by its Exaltation (as Terumah signifies) to Heaven, and then let down to Earth Sursum, Deorsum should carry its pedigree, and original in that symbol; even the Acknowledgment of the most High God, Possesser of Heaven and Earth. And in the second Heaving by the Levites of the Best of the Tithes for the use of Aaroh, the High Priest and his Successors; the most lively Type, the Jewish Priest-hood had of our Lord's Priesthood; there were the Lineaments of the first Decimation to Melchizedek, the more lively Type of Jesus, our High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

2. As all True Religion was by God's own Infinite Wisdom deposited in the Jewish Types, so in them were the most unchangeable and eternal Moral Duties performed by all True Worshippers: In the Sacrifices were close Applications to the Infinite Mercy of God in Christ under the Type; Confessions, Supplications, Thanksgivings, Acknowledgments of JEHOVAH, the Only True God; filling Heaven and Earth with his presence; of which the Tenupha, or Wave-Offering was a Symbol; turning the Worshipper to all parts of the World • rorsum, Retrorsum, Dextrorsum, sinistrorsum, to Adore God, to whom the Sacrifice was Wav'd.

3. When therefore under the Gospel the Shaddows flew away, and the Types were stripped off, whatever was substance still remained; Nor did the Holy Spirit of God so desert its formerly Instituted Organs of Divine Worship, but that it still delighted to make use of them, as lively Expressions of those Duties, the Things themselves had formerly been the Shades of; Prayers are called • d • urs; and Praise is still a Sacrifice; and True Christians called Priests; The Offering up the Body in Holiness is a Living and Acceptable Sacrifice.

The Apostles Conversion of the Gentiles was a Priestly or Hierurgical service: And more close to our purpose, The Things the Philippians sent to the Apostles supply, were an Odor of a sweet smelling savor, and would abound to their Account, of what they possessed under the most High possessor of Heaven and Earth; To do good, and to Communicate, a Phrase proper to the support of Gospel Ministry, (as is to be observed) are Sacrifices, with which God is well pleased; Thus we see these Moral Duties remain, and continne a Memory of the Divine Law by Moses, by being expressed to us in the Gospel, under such Tralations, as were proper to that Law,

If therefore we shall find Great Moralities under Tithing as a Tribute to God in his Ministers; If we shall find in a Tenth Part, more then Typical and Ceremonial, and in such Expressions as resemble such a Dedication to God, as Decimation was; why should we reject it as merely Sacrifical.

For it is Evident, Sacrifice hath a plain and undoubted Ceremonialness in its Nature, for the sake of which only can it by any Law of Nature, or Equity be once supposed an Acceptable Acknowledgment of God, or Worship of him; and whenever a Ceremonial Worship vanishes, that must needs Evanish also.

But setting out a Tenth part to God, and in honor of the Priest-hood of Christ, for so Great and Real an Use, as the upholding the Worship of God in the World in his Ministers, Set apart to that Work; is of so True a Morality in the Substance, as not to be denied, and the Omission of it is a Robbing of God.

And for the Tenthliness of it, It is the Determining so far a settled proportion, to such a purpose, as which beyond all Reversal, God did once accept and approve, and therefore could not be Inequitable in itself, and which also after so many Ages, Christ on an occasion of Severity Review'd, and Blamed nothing in both which Characters of honor can never be raz'd out.

But now what was Shaddowy, Mosaic and Typical; viz. the Tenth being accounted above other parts, Holy to the Lord; the Bringing the Tithes to Jerusalem; Any Ceremony of Heaving them, first to the Levite • , then to Aaron; the Affixing them to Sacrificing Priests; These are all vanished.

For in no such Sense do the Ministers of the Gospel claim them, nor call themselves a PRIEST-HOOD, but as they offer up by their Ministry Souls Converted to GOD, who are thereby as the Apostle in allusion speaks; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and He Himself, as before, a Priestly Administrator.

And as they are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Seniors, or Elders in the Family of God, offering up the Sacrifices of Prayer and Praise, as the Apostle James instructs us. Jam 5. 14.

And lastly as they attend on that Altar, of which they have no right to eat that serve the Tabernacle; viz. The continual publication of the Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus, who suffered for his people without the Gate, as a Malefactor, by Preaching, and Administration of the Lord's Supper, which is a setting forth of Jesus Christ evidently, before Men's Eyes, crucified among them, and a showing forth his Death till he come; as Apostasy, and Denying of Christ is in a contrary sense Crucifying the Son of God afresh, putting him to an open shame, counting the Blood of the Covenant, a Common, or Unclean Thing.

In any other Sense we are all of the same Mind with that Eminent Servant of God, and Minister of the Gospel • ow with Christ.

Thus the whole Objection from the Connection between Tithes and Sacrifices is clearly removed; and therein whatever concerns the first part of the Objection.

I come now to the second part of the Objection, There is no mention of Tithing in the Apostles Writings with Reference to the Ministers of the Gospel; but such a Deep Silence, as argues it a very Unevangelical Practice to Require or Receive such a Maintenance.

In Answer to this, I shall first observe, what is Demonstratively certain from the Apostolical Writings: And that is.

1. That, It is the Ordination of Christ the Lord, that they, who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. This is so expressly the Ap. Paul 's Doctrine; that it cannot be questioned even when he most professed a Recession from his own Right or Power, as it were to fit himself for it, there he most boldly asserted this, either as immediate Revelation, or some most known Decree of the Lord in this Case, or the Result of this Determination upon the Law of Tithes or that undoubted Maxim; The Labourer is worthy of his Hire: But this is most positive; The Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should Live of the Gospel, whether we take it for the Reward of the Messengers of Good Tidings, according to the Custom of all Ages and Nations, who use to proportion the Rewards to the Goodness of the Tidings, or for the Sacrifices of Gratitude to God for so Joyful an Embassy of Peace: It is evident the Compensation for Spiritual Things out of our Carnal Things is to be Great and Honorable; like the Presents made to Ambassadors, answerable to the Dignity of the Prince from whom, and to whom they are sent, and according to the particular Riches of every Country, where they are to Treat.

All the provision the Law made for the Ministers of the Altar and Temple, and even for the very Oxen tended hither; for if the Ministers of the Law, that was but a Ministration of Death, and Condemnation were so honor'd; the Ministers of the Gospel, the Ministration of Life are worthy of Double Honor; and least any should think a Low Proportion enough the Apostle in this very Case of Communication admonishes; God is not mocked, that is, He will not suffer himself to be so.

2. It is most certain, the Tenth part under so many Scales of Divine Acceptance must remain a Standard, to the very ends of the World, of that proportion God expects, as a Sacrifice of Praise to him, of Glory to him in the Highest for the Message of Peace on Earth, and Good will to Men proclaimed in his Gospel; so that if it be supposed not to be absolutely required to the Formality, yet it cannot but be expected in the Substance. Seeing the Right of God and our High Priest is unchangeable; and the obligation through the clearness of the Revelation is much higher: The Tribute therefore cannot possibly abate in its value or obligation, but must needs Rise.

2. There is therefore great probability, that the Provision made by God for the Ministers of the Temple, and the Altar, leads to the very Specification of a Tenth Part; that the Double Honor is suited to the Promogeniture of the Evangelical Presbytery above that of the Law; that the Priest-hood of Christ, shadowed by Melchizedek, that was honor'd with Abraham 's Decimation to it, so abundantly insisted upon by the Apostle, was an Admonition to Christians of that Acknowledgment Due to our High Priest, as conferred upon the Preachers of his Sacrifice and Intercession, by those to whom the Feet of them that bring those glad Tidings are Beautiful. That Communicating in all Good Things, is a silent insinuation of the Ancient Law of Tithing, carrying so clear an Image of it: But because These Things are not so Cogent, as to convince the Gain-sayer, I therefore acquiesce in what is impossible by those that acknowledge the Scriptures of the New Testament to be contested.

Let us then for a Conclusion of this whole Matter, observe several Reasons, why we may suppose no such Cogent Indications of a Tenth part, in the Apostolic Writings, as agree with former Times of Scripture. To omit the great modesty of the Gospel, as to any secular Design I give these.

1. Because in the first ministration of the Apostles in Jerusalem, so much above a Tenth part was freely given, that Christians sold Intire Possessions, and laid the Prices of them at the Apostles Feet; neither said Any Man that ought he possessed was his own: And it is probable in all the First Christian Churches, Greater proportions, then the Tenth were offered for the service of the Gospel.

2. That in the Affluence of Nations, States, and persons; They might not think themselves Circumscrib'd, nor indeed discharged by a Tenth part as a Tribute to God: The Priests and Levites had much more given them by God under the Law. Nor Any, whose Increase falls not under ordinary Decimation should absolve themselves from the main Duty.

3. Because some Things clearly, and abundantly settled in their Formality in the Old Testament are more silently in the New applied only to the Gospel pu • pose, and Service.

Thus the Lord's Day so evidently noted by the First Day of the Week, the Day of our Lord's Resurrectio • ; of his several Appearances to his Disciples, of the Effusion of the Spirit, at Pentecost fully come for Preaching the Gospel, as it had been of Giving the Law on Mount Sinai, the Day of Christian Sollemnities, and • ollections is the only Day of the Week, noted in all the Scripture, after the Six Days of Creation, except the Seventh, or Sabbath; and after it had been often remark'd under the name of the First Day was at length consecrated by the name of the Lord's Day, as Breaki • g of Bre • d was by the name of the Lord 's Supper▪ Which Two Engraven with our Lord's Name, as in Capital Letters, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , are the Commemorations of Two of the Lord's Great Actions (in which all the rest Center) appointed us in his Word; viz. his Dying for Our Sins, and Rising again for Our justification, one in a Sollemn Institution, the other in a Solemn Time; and it were Happy, if they could at no Time be sundered, one from the other.

Yet That This Day though the only Instituted Time in the New Testament is to be a Sabbath; its Observation to be Weekly in memory of the Creat • on; Its Celebration to be by keeping it Holy: All these so principal Concernments are refer'd to the State of that Matter in the Old Testament, where every Thing is full and clear: And although the Reversal of the Jewish Sabbath by the Apostle; the First Day so sollemnly Recorded as the Day of the • ord 's Resurrection and Christian Meetings; the Apostles Being in the Spirit on this Day; (though the principal Intendment be Prophetical) It's being still'd the Lord 's Day are very Great Characters of a Christian Sabbath; Yet the Importance and Ratification of such a Sabbath are to be derived wholly from the Old Testament; No wonder then, if Devoting a Tenth Part to God, which cannot be supposed equal to God's Sanctification of a seventh part of Time be only conserv'd in the Old Testament, and confirmed by our Lord in the Days of his Ministry, as a Standard of proportion, and yet not mentioned in that so undoubted point of Duty in the Apostolical Writings, viz. Let Him that is taught, Communicate to him that teacheth in All Good Things, fortified with so Tremendous a Monition; God is not mocked.

4. That there might be no ensnaring Consciences in regard of the various Revolutions of States and Laws determining this point of Decimation: Or not allowing the possibilities of it; either setting it a-part to the support of a False Religion, as under the Papacy, or to Secular uses: In such Cases the Consciences of Subjects are Free, in rendering them according to Law, to Caesar, as the Things that are Caesar's; For public Acts having devested private persons of them, they can have no propriety in them; although yet this Standard of Dedication to God out of what they possess beyond that Alienated Tenth obliges them still to Render to God the Things that are God's.

But especially where Both Concur, the Laws of Men with the Laws of God; we at the same Time Render to Caesar the Things that are Caesar 's, in obeying Laws; and to God the Things that are God's, in that they are devoted to his Service, and are therefore to do it with all Heartiness and Chearfulness as to the Lord, and not to Men only: For God loveth a Chearful Giver. No Man now can have any Just Reason of being Scandalaiz'd at the separation of such a Tenth for an Evangelical Ministry, that duly weighs what hath been offerr'd.

And especially seeing their whole Lives, the Education of their Youth, and the service of their Age, are necessary to this Service, since the Cessation of extraordinary Gifts; and the Labor not only of the Mind but of the Body are sequestered to it. Giving themselves wholly to their Ministry, and Attending in private to Reading, as well as publicly to Exhortation, and Preaching in Season, and without Season, are expressly required by the Apostle; so that it is but a Recompense of Justice required by God in this Case:

But if on any Account whatever, Any Man be unsatisfied in the Decimation, Laws impose upon him: He must consider, nothing separated by public Acts, that have stood from Age to Age is anymore any Man's claim by his Birth Right; then a wholesome Air, or Fruitful soil are, when his Country is not so happily situated.