GREAT CASE Sog TITHES LONDON: Printed and Sold by LUKE HINDE, at the Bible A PREMONITION TO THE READ E R. T THE enfuing Treatife was first 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 fevere Profecutions for Tithes. For although the Power and Jurifdiction of the Ecclefiaftical Courts, to which Profecutions 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 finefs : For A 2 For, when feveral 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 Encouragement and Maintenance of able and painful Teachers, a Clause was inferted therein, that until fuch Provifion be made, the prefent Maintenance (viz. by Tithes] fhall not be taken away nor impeached. By which Clause, the Preachers, fecure of the Continuance of the old Pay, fat down at Ease, prosecuting such as refused to pay them Tithes, both in the Courts at Westminster, and before the Justices of the Peace in the Country, with fuch extreme Severity, that our Author has taken a particular Notice of it, and pathetically defcribed fome of their unmerciful Exactions, pag. 43. After he has given an Extract, or short Hiftory of Tithes, from the first Appointment of them by the Law of Mofes, taken chiefly from the History of Tithes by the learned Antiquary John Selden, he then confiders the feveral Claims made to them; as firft, 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 Donation of the Owners of the Land; fifthly, By Prefcription and legal Poffeffion; fixthly, By Purchase. To the Arguments for each of |