T

HE enfuing Treatife was firft publifh'd about the Year 1657, and fo well accepted, that within about two Years Time it paffed three Editions.

The Author, a zealous Proteftant and Lover of Liberty, was excited to write on this Subject, by the numerous Complaints of the People, at that Time labouring under severe Profecutions for Tithes.

For although the Power and Jurifdiction of the Ecclefiaftical Courts, to which Profecu→ tions for Tithes were limited by an Act made in the 32d Year of King Henry the Eighth, had been taken away, and the Bishops and their Clergy removed; yet the fucceeding Preachers, equally mindful of their own Intereft, foon obtained an Order of Parliament for fettling themselves pro tempore, dated the 2d of October 1644, and an Ordinance for Tithes dated the 8th of November following; under the heavy Burden of which the People in vain continued to exprefs great Unea finess : A 2 For

For, when several Years after, upon Cromwell's

being made Protector, one of the Articles of

Government, by him fworn to and fubfcribed,

did exprefs, that as foon as may be a Provifion

lefs fubject to Scruple and Contention, and more

certain than the prefent, be made for the En-

couragement and Maintenance of able and

painful Teachers, a Claufe was inferted therein,

that until fuch Provifion be made, the prefent

Maintenance (viz. by Tithes] fhall not be taken

away nor impeached. By which Claufe, the

Preachers, fecure of the Continuance of the

old Pay, fat down at Eafe, profecuting fuch

as refused to pay them Tithes, both in the

Courts at Westminster, and before the Justices

of the Peace in the Country, with such ex-

treme Severity, that our Author has taken a

particular Notice of it, and pathetically de-

feribed fome of their unmerciful Exactions,

pag. 43.

After he has given an Extract, or short

Hiftory of Tithes, from the firft Appointment

of them by the Law of Mofes, taken chiefly

from the Hiftory of Tithes by the learned

Antiquary John Selden, he then confiders the

feveral Claims made to them; as first, By

divine Right; fecondly, By the Gifts of Kings

and Princes; thirdly, By the Laws of Kings

and Parliaments; fourthly, By particular

Gifts, Appropriations, Confecration, and Do-

nation of the Owners of the Land; fifthly,

By Prefcription and legal Poffeffion; fixthly,

By Purchafe. To the Arguments for each

of

of which Claims he returns a particular
Answer.

But,

As the Author has not been fo full in his

Remarks on Impropriate Tithes, nor fo copious

in his Answers to the Arguments of thofe

who plead for the divine Right of Tithes, as

he might have been, for which latter he gives

this Reafon; Though divine Right, fays he,

hath been long pretended, few are now left who

will only fand to it, and the Generality, both

of Lawyers, Priefts and People, are of a con-

trary Mind. pag. 31. Wherefore for the Sake
of fuch Readers as may not be thoroughly
fatisfied in thofe Points, we have thought
proper to annex by way of Appendix,

ift. A Difcourfe of Impropriate Tithes,
written by Thomas Ellwood.

2d. Reafons given by Thomas Bennett, an
Inhabitant of the Parish of Allhallows, Bark-
ing, London, concerning the unjust Exaction
of Tithes, prefented to Thomas Adams, Lord-
Mayor of that City, Anno 1645-

3d. Some Arguments against Tithes, ex-
tracted from a Treatife written by the cele-
brated John Milton. And,

4th. In Conclufion, we have added a few

Extracts from a Tract, under the Title of An

Anfwer to the Country-Parfon's Plea against

the Quakers Tithe-Bill, by a Member of the

Houfe of Commons; wherein a pretended legal

Property in Tithes, fo much infifted on by

fome of the Clergy, is fet in a ftrong Light.

A 3

Having

Having laid before the Reader these Hints
of the Contents of the Work, and the Ap-
pendix thereto, we fhall fubjoin in brief our
Inducement for the Republication of both;
which is for the Information of the present
Generation that the Youth of our Society,
or others into whofe Hands they fhall fall, may
not be ignorant of the Reasons which at first
did, and still do, determine us in an inflexible
Teftimony against the Payment of Tithes;
and they will find it clearly proved, that no
Obligation to a contrary Conduct can arife
from any legal or Parliamentary Sanction.

Yet as from this Plea, fome, not of our
Profeffion, who in other Refpects make no
great Shew of Bigotry, are fo weak as to
urge the Payment of them, and fome who
are of our Profeffion, under the fame Con-
fideration or Pretence, and from the Influence
of Example and Perfwafion, may be induced
to pay them;-to each of thefe it is neceffary
to say a Word or two; for, in regard to the
latter, we do not obferve that our antient
Friends, who wrote on this Subject, have faid
much directly to fuch an inconfiftent Con-
duct; not apprehending, as we fuppofe, the
Degeneracy would ever be fo great as to re-
quire it.

And though a divine Right to Tithes is by
Proteftants at this Time generally disclaimed,
yet it ftill is upon that Suppofition the Na-
tional Law enforces the Payment of them, as
the following Sheets abundantly make ap-

pear.

{

pear. We are to confider then, and judge of the Confiftence or Inconfiftence of the Conduct of any Member of our Society in this particular, as we would of the Conduct of any Proteftant Diffenter on the Principle of Liberty and Confcience; who, on Pretence of being determined by an outward Law, acts contrary to his own profeffed Principles. There is a Language, and much stronger, in Actions than in Words. Every one who pays Tithes to a National Miniftry, by that Act, feems to declare his Belief that they are, by the Constitution of the Chriftian Church, due to that Ministry, antecedent to any National Law, and that it is truly and properly a Gofpel Ministry, whether of this or any other National Church; because not only the Law by which they are recovered, but the Parfon: who claims them, takes all this for granted. For can it be fuppofed he will plead a Right to Tithes, without declaring himself to have this Right as a Minifter of Chrift? From whence this fhameful Abfurdity undeniably follows, that every Man, under the Profeffion of Quakerifm, who pays Tithes, either profeffes what he does not believe, or believes what he does not practise. For,

The Basis of our Religion is the univerfal Manifestation and immediate Teaching of the holy Spirit ;-from which arifes a Faith, that all acceptable Worship is performed in and under its Influence ;-that all Gospel Ministry flows from its Emanations ;-that this in Vel

fels.