LXXIX. We might somewhat marvel what the Apostle St. Paul should mean to say that “covetousness is idolatry1,” if the daily practice of men did not shew that whereas nature requireth God to be honoured with wealth, we honour for the most part wealth as God. Fain we would teach ourselves to believe that for worldly goods it sufficeth frugally and honestly to use them to our own benefit, without detriment and hurt of others; or if we go a degree farther, and perhaps convert some small contemptible portion thereof to charitable uses, the whole duty which we owe unto God herein is fully satisfied. But forasmuch as we cannot rightly honour God unless both our souls and bodies be sometime employed merely in his service; again sith we know that religion requireth at our hands the taking away of so great a part of the time of our lives quite and clean from our own business and the bestowing of the same in his, suppose we that nothing of our wealth and substance is immediately due to God, but all our own to bestow and spend as ourselves think meet? Are not our riches as well his as the days of our life are his? Wherefore unless with part we acknowledge his supreme dominion by whose benevolence we have the whole, how give we honour to whom honour belongeth, or how hath God the things that are God’s? I would know what nation in the world did ever honour God and not think it a point of their duty to do him honour with their very goods. So that this we may boldly set down as a principle clear in nature, an axiom which ought not to be called in question, a truth manifest and infallible, that men are eternally bound to honour God with their substance in token of thankful acknowledgment that all they have is from him. To honour him with our worldly goods, not only by spending them in lawful manner, and by using them without offence, but also by alienating from ourselves some reasonable part or portion thereof and by offering up the same to him as a sign that we gladly confess his sole and sovereign dominion over all, is a duty which all men are bound unto and a part of that very worship of God which as the law of God and nature itself requireth, so we are the rather to think all men no less strictly bound thereunto than to any other natural duty, inasmuch as the hearts of men do so cleave to these earthly things, so much admire them for the sway they have in the world, impute them so generally either to nature or to chance and fortune, so little think upon the grace and providence from which they come, that unless by a kind of continual tribute we did acknowledge God’s dominion, it may be doubted that in short time men would learn to forget whose tenants they are, and imagine that the world is their own absolute free and independent inheritance.
Now concerning the kind or quality of gifts which God receiveth in that sort, we are to consider them partly as first they proceed from us, and partly as afterwards they are to serve for divine uses. In that they are testimonies of our affection towards God, there is no doubt but such they should be as beseemeth most his glory to whom we offer them. In this respect the fatness of Abel’s sacrifice2 is commended, the flower of all men’s increase assigned to God by Salomon3, the gifts and donations of the people rejected as oft as their cold affection to God-ward made their presents to be little worth. Somewhat the heathens saw touching that which was herein fit, and therefore they unto their gods did not think they might consecrate any thing which was4 impure or unsound, or already given, or else not truly their own to give.
Again in regard of use, forasmuch as we know that God hath himself no need of worldly commodities, but taketh them because it is our good to be so exercised, and with no other intent accepteth them but to have them used for the endless continuance of religion, there is no place left of doubt or controversy but that we in the choice of our gifts are to level at the same mark, and to frame ourselves to his known intents and purposes. Whether we give unto God therefore that which himself by commandment requireth; or that which the public consent of the Church thinketh good to allot; or that which every man’s private devotion doth best like, inasmuch as the gift which we offer proceedeth not only as a testimony of our affection towards God, but also as a mean to uphold religion, the exercise whereof cannot stand without the help of temporal commodities; if all men be taught of nature to wish and as much as in them lieth to procure the perpetuity of good things, if for that very cause we honour and admire their wisdom who having been founders of commonweals could devise how to make the benefit they left behind them durable, if especially in this respect we prefer Lycurgus before Solon and the Spartan before the Athenian polity, it must needs follow that as we do unto God very acceptable service in honouring him with our substance, so our service that way is then most acceptable when it tendeth to perpetuity.
The first permanent donations of honour in this kind are temples. Which works do so much set forward the exercise of religion, that while the world was in love with religion it gave to no sort greater reverence than to whom it could point and say, “These are the men that have built us synagogues5.” But of churches we have spoken sufficiently heretofore.
The next things to churches are the ornaments of churches, memorials which men’s devotion hath added to remain in the treasure of God’s house not only for uses wherein the exercise of religion presently needeth them, but also partly for supply of future casual necessities whereunto the Church is on earth subject, and partly to the end that while they are kept they may continually serve as testimonies giving all men to understand that God hath in every age and nation such as think it no burden to honour him with their substance. The riches first of the tabernacle of God and then of the temple of Jerusalem arising out of voluntary gifts and donations were as we commonly speak a nemo scit, the value of them above that which any man would imagine. After that the tabernacle was made, furnished with all necessaries and set up, although in the wilderness their ability could not possibly be great, the very metal of those vessels which the princes of the twelve tribes gave to God for their first presents amounted even then to two thousand and four hundred shekels of silver a hundred and twenty shekels of gold6, every shekel weighing half an ounce7. What was given to the temple which Salomon erected, we may partly conjecture, when over and besides wood, marble, iron, brass, vestments, precious stones, and money, the sum which David delivered into Salomon’s hands for that purpose was of gold in mass eight thousand and of silver seventeen thousand cichars8, every cichar containing a thousand and eight hundred shekels which riseth to nine hundred ounces in every one cichar: whereas the whole charge of the tabernacle did not amount unto thirty cichars9. After their return out of Babylon they were not presently in case to make their second temple of equal magnificence and glory with that which the enemy had destroyed. Notwithstanding what they could they did10. Insomuch that the building finished, there remained in the coffers of the Church to uphold the fabric thereof six hundred and fifty cichars of silver, one hundred of gold11. Whereunto was added by Nehemias12 of his own gift a thousand drachms of gold, fifty vessels of silver, five hundred and thirty priests’ vestments, by other the princes of the fathers twenty thousand drachms of gold, two thousand and two hundred pieces of silver; by the rest of the people twenty thousand of gold, two thousand of silver, threescore and seven attires of priests. And they furthermore bound themselves13 towards other charges to give by the poll in what part of the world soever they should dwell the third of a shekel, that is to say the sixth part of an ounce, yearly. This out of foreign provinces they always sent in gold14. Whereof Mithridates is said15 to have taken up by the way before it could pass to Jerusalem from Asia in one adventure eight hundred talents16; Crassus after that to have borrowed of the temple itself eight thousand: at which time Eleazar having both many other rich ornaments and all the tapestry of the temple under his custody thought it the safest way to grow unto some composition, and so to redeem the residue by parting with a certain beam of gold about seven hundred and a half in weight, a prey sufficient for one man as he thought who had never bargained with Crassus till then, and therefore upon the confidence of a solemn oath that no more should be looked for he simply delivered up a large morsel, whereby the value of that which remained was betrayed and the whole lost.
Such being the casualties whereunto moveable treasures are subject, the Law of Moses17 did both require eight and twenty cities together with their fields and whole territories in the land of Jewry to be reserved for God himself, and not only provide for the liberty of farther additions if men of their own accord should think good, but also for the safe preservation thereof unto all posterities18, that no man’s avarice or fraud by defeating so virtuous intents might discourage from like purposes. God’s third endowment did therefore of old consist in lands.
Furthermore some cause no doubt there is why besides sundry other more rare donations of uncertain rate, the tenth should be thought a revenue so natural to be allotted out unto God. For of the spoils which Abraham had taken in war he delivered unto Melchisedec the tithes19. The vow of Jacob at such time as he took his journey towards Haran was20, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this voyage which I am to go, and will give me bread to eat and clothes to put on, so that I may return to my father’s house in safety, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set up as a pillar the same shall be God’s house, and of all thou shalt give me I will give unto thee the tithe.” And as Abraham gave voluntarily, as Jacob vowed to give God tithes, so the Law of Moyses did require21 at the hands of all men the selfsame kind of tribute, the tenth of their corn, wine, oil, fruit, cattle and whatsoever increase his heavenly providence should send. Insomuch that Painims being herein followers of their steps paid tithes likewise22.
Imagine we that this was for no cause done, or that there was not some special inducement to judge the tenth of our worldly profits the most convenient for God’s portion? Are not all things by him created in such sort that the forms which give them their distinction are number, their operations measure, and their matter weight? Three being the mystical number of God’s unsearchable perfection within himself; seven the number whereby our own perfections through grace are most ordered; and ten23 the number of nature’s perfections24 (for the beauty of nature is order, and the foundation of order number, and of number ten the highest we can rise unto without iteration of numbers under it) could nature better acknowledge the power of the God of nature than by assigning unto him that quantity which is the continent of all she possesseth? There are in Philo the Jew many arguments to shew the great congruity and fitness of this number in things consecrated unto God.
But because over-nice and curious speculations become not the earnestness of holy things, I omit what might be farther observed as well out of others as out of him touching the quantity of this general sacred tribute, whereby it cometh to pass that the meanest and the very poorest amongst men yielding unto God as much in proportion as the greatest, and many times in affection more, have this as a sensible token always assuring their minds, that in his sight from whom all good is expected, they are concerning acceptation, protection, divine privileges and preeminences whatsoever, equals and peers with them unto whom they are otherwise in earthly respects inferiors; being furthermore well assured that the top as it were thus presented to God is neither lost nor unfruitfully bestowed, but doth sanctify to them again the whole mass, and that he by receiving a little undertaketh to bless all. In which consideration the Jews were accustomed to name their tithes the hedge of their riches25. Albeit a hedge do only fence and preserve that which is contained, whereas their tithes and offerings did more, because they procured increase of the heap out of which they were taken. God demanded no such debt for his own need but for their only benefit that owe it. Wherefore detaining the same they hurt not him whom they wrong, and themselves whom they think they relieve they wound, except men will haply affirm that God did by fair speeches and large promises delude the world in saying26, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house,” (deal truly, defraud not God of his due, but bring all,) “and prove if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven and pour down upon you an immeasurable blessing.” That which St. James hath concerning the effect of our prayers unto God is for the most part of like moment in our gifts. We pray and obtain not, because he which knoweth our hearts doth see our desires are evil. In like manner we give and we are not the more accepted, because27 he beholdeth how unwisely we spill our gifts in the bringing. It is to him which needeth nothing all one whether any thing or nothing be given him. But for our own good it always behoveth that whatsoever we offer up into his hands we bring it seasoned with this cogitation, “Thou Lord art worthy of all honour.”
With the Church of Christ touching these matters it standeth as it did with the whole world before Moses. Whereupon for many years men being desirous to honour God in the same manner as other virtuous and holy personages before had done, both during the time of their life and if farther ability did serve by such device as might cause their works of piety to remain always, it came by these means to pass that the Church from time to time had treasure proportionable unto the poorer or wealthier estate of Christian men. And as soon as the state of the Church could admit thereof, they easily condescended to think it most natural and most fit that God should receive as before of all men his ancient accustomed revenues of tithes.
Thus therefore both God and nature have taught to convert things temporal to eternal uses, and to provide for the perpetuity of religion even by that which is most transitory. For to the end that in worth and value there might be no abatement of any thing once assigned to such purposes, the law requireth precisely the best of that we possess, and to prevent all damages by way of commutation, where instead of natural commodities or other rights the price of them might be taken, the Law of Moses determined their rates, and the payments to be always made by the shekel28 of the sanctuary29 wherein there was great advantage of weight above the ordinary current shekel. The truest and surest way for God to have always his own is by making him payment in kind out of the very selfsame riches which through his gracious benediction the earth doth continually yield. This where it may be without inconvenience is for every man’s conscience safe. That which cometh from God to us by the natural course of his providence which we know to be innocent and pure is perhaps best accepted, because least spotted with the stain of unlawful or indirect procurement. Besides whereas prices daily change, nature which commonly is one must needs be the most indifferent and permanent standard between God and man.
But the main foundation of all, whereupon the security of these things dependeth, as far as any thing may be ascertained amongst men, is that the title and right which man had in every of them before donation, doth by the act and from the time of any such donation, dedication or grant, remain the proper possession of God till the world’s end, unless himself renounce or relinquish it. For if equity have taught us that every one ought to enjoy his own; that what is ours no other can alienate from us but with our30 own deliberate consent31; finally that no man having passed his consent or deed may change it to the prejudice of any other32, should we presume to deal with God worse than God hath allowed any man to deal with us?
Albeit therefore we be now free from the Law of Moyses and consequently not thereby bound to the payment of tithes33, yet because nature hath taught men to honour God with their substance, and Scripture hath left us an example of that particular proportion which for moral considerations hath been thought fittest by him whose wisdom could best judge, furthermore seeing that the Church of Christ hath long sithence entered into like obligation, it seemeth in these days a question altogether vain and superfluous whether tithes be a matter of divine right: because howsoever at the first it might have been thought doubtful, our case is clearly the same now with theirs unto whom St. Peter sometime spake saying34, “While it was whole it was whole thine.” When our tithes might have probably seemed our own, we had colour of liberty to use them as we ourselves saw good. But having made them his whose they are, let us be warned by other men’s example what it is νοσϕίσασθαι, to wash or clip that coin which hath on it the mark of God.
For that all these are his possessions and that he doth himself so reckon them appeareth by the form of his own speeches. Touching gifts and oblations, “Thou shalt give them me35;” touching oratories and churches, “My house shall be called the house of prayer36;” touching tithes, “Will a man spoil God37? yet behold even me your God ye have spoiled38, notwithstanding ye ask wherein, as though ye were ignorant what injury there hath been offered in tithes, ye are heavily accursed because with a kind of public consent ye have joined yourselves in one to rob me, imagining the commonness of your offence to be every man’s particular justification;” touching lands, “Ye shall offer to the Lord a sacred portion of ground, and that sacred portion shall belong to the priests39.”
Neither did God only thus ordain amongst the Jews, but the very purpose intent and meaning of all that have honoured him with their substance was to invest him with the property of those benefits the use whereof must needs be committed to the hands of men. In which respect the style of ancient grants and charters is40 “We have given unto God both for us and our heirs for ever:” yea “We know,” saith Charles the Great41, “that the goods of the Church are the sacred endowments of God, to the Lord our God we offer and dedicate whatsoever we deliver unto his Church.” Whereupon the laws imperial do likewise divide all things in such sort that they make some to belong by right of nature indifferently unto every man, some to be the certain goods and possessions of commonweals, some to appertain unto several corporations or companies of men, some to be privately men’s own in particular, and some to be separated quite from all men42, which last branch compriseth things sacred and holy, because thereof God alone is owner. The sequel of which received opinion as well without as within the walls of the house of God touching such possessions hath been ever, that there is not an act more honourable than by all means to amplify and to defend the patrimony of religion, not any more impious43 and hateful than to impair those possessions which men in former times when they gave unto holy uses were wont at the altar of God and in the presence of their ghostly superiors to make as they thought inviolable by words of fearful execration, saying, “These things we offer to God; from whom if any take them away (which we hope no man will attempt to do) but if any shall, let his account be without favour in the last day, when he cometh to receive the doom which is due for sacrilege against that Lord and God unto whom we dedicate the same.”
The best and most renowned Prelates of the Church of Christ have in this consideration rather sustained the wrath than yielded to satisfy the hard desire of their greatest commanders on earth coveting with ill advice and counsel that which they willingly should have suffered God to enjoy. There are of Martyrs whom posterity doth much honour, for that having under their hands the custody of such treasures44 they could by virtuous delusion invent how to save them from prey, even when the safety of their own lives they gladly neglected; as one sometime an Archdeacon under Xystus the Bishop of Rome did, whom when his judge understood to be one of the church-stewards, thirst of blood began to slake and another humour to work, which first by a favourable countenance and then by quiet speech did thus calmly disclose itself45: “You that profess the Christian religion make great complaint of the wonderful cruelty we shew towards you. Neither peradventure altogether without cause. But for myself, I am far from any such bloody purpose. Ye are not so willing to live, as I unwilling that out of these lips should proceed any capital sentence against you. Your bishops are said to have rich vessels of gold and silver, which they use in the exercise of their religion, besides the fame is that numbers sell away their lands and livings, the huge prices whereof are brought to your church-coffers, by which means the devotion that maketh them and their whole posterity poor must needs mightily enrich you, whose God we know was no coiner of money, but left behind him many wholesome and good precepts, as namely that Cæsar should have of you the things that are fit for and due to Cæsar. His wars are costly and chargeable unto him. That which you suffer to rust in corners the affairs of the commonwealth do need. Your profession is not to make account of things transitory. And yet if ye can be contented but to forego that which ye care not for, I dare undertake to warrant you both safety of life and freedom of using your conscience, a thing more acceptable to you than wealth.” Which fair parley the happy Martyr quietly hearing, and perceiving it necessary to make some shift for the safe concealment of that which being now desired was not unlikely to be more narrowly afterwards sought, he craved respite46 for three days to gather the riches of the Church together, in which space against the time the governor should come to the doors of the temple big with hope to receive his prey, a miserable rank of poor, lame, and impotent persons was provided, their names delivered him up in writing as a true inventory of the Church’s goods, and some few words used to signify how proud the Church was of these treasures.
If men did not naturally abhor sacrilege, to resist or defeat so impious attempts would deserve small praise. But such is the general detestation of rapine in this kind, that whereas nothing doth either in peace or war more uphold men’s reputation than prosperous success, because in common construction unless notorious improbity be joined with prosperity it seemeth to argue favour with God, they which once have stained their hands with these odious spoils do thereby fasten unto all their actions an eternal prejudice, in respect whereof, for that it passeth through the world as an undoubted rule and principle that sacrilege is open defiance to God, whatsoever they afterwards undertake if they prosper in it men reckon it but Dionysius his navigation47; and if any thing befall them otherwise it is not, as commonly, so in them ascribed to the great uncertainty of casual events, wherein the providence of God doth control the purposes of men oftentimes much more for their good than if all things did answer fully their heart’s desire, but the censure of the world is ever directly against them both bitter and peremptory48.
To make such actions therefore less odious, and to mitigate the envy of them, many colourable shifts and inventions have been used, as if the world did hate only Wolves and think the Fox a goodly creature. The time it may be will come49when they that either violently have spoiled or thus smoothly defrauded God shall find they did but deceive themselves. In the meanwhile there will be always some skilful persons which can teach a way how to grind treatably the Church with jaws that shall scarce move, and yet devour in the end more than they that come ravening with open mouth as if they would worry the whole in an instant; others also who having wastefully eaten out their own patrimony would be glad to repair if they might their decayed estates with the ruin they care not of what nor of whom so the spoil were theirs, whereof in some part if they happen to speed, yet commonly they are men born under that constellation which maketh them I know not how as unapt to enrich themselves as they are ready to impoverish others, it is their lot to sustain during life both the misery of beggars and the infamy of robbers.
But though no other plague and revenge should follow sacrilegious violations of holy things, the natural secret disgrace and ignominy, the very turpitude of such actions in the eye of a wise understanding heart50 is itself a heavy punishment51. Men of virtuous quality are by this sufficiently moved to beware how they answer and requite the mercies of God with injuries whether openly or indirectly offered.
I will not absolutely say concerning the goods of the Church that they may in no case be seized on by men, or that no obligation, commerce and bargain made between man and man can ever be of force to alienate the property which God hath in them. Certain cases I grant there are wherein it is not so dark what God himself doth warrant, but that we may safely presume him as willing to forego for our benefit, as always to use and convert to our benefit whatsoever our religion hath honoured him withal. But surely under the name of that which may be, many things that should not be are often done. By means whereof the Church most commonly for gold hath flannel, and whereas the usual saw of old was “Glaucus his change,” the proverb is now, “A church bargain.”
And for fear lest covetousness alone should linger out the time too much and not be able to make havock of the house of God with that expedition which the mortal enemy thereof did vehemently wish, he hath by certain strong enchantments so deeply bewitched religion itself as to make it in the end an earnest solicitor and an eloquent persuader of sacrilege, urging confidently, that the very best service which men of power can do to Christ is without any more ceremony to sweep all and to leave the Church as bare as in the day it was first born, that fulness of bread having made the children of the household wanton, it is without any scruple to be taken away from them and thrown to dogs; that they which laid the prices of their lands as offerings at the Apostles’ feet did but sow the seeds of superstition; that they which endowed churches with lands poisoned religion; that tithes and oblations are now in the sight of God as the sacrificed blood of goats; that if we give him our hearts and affections our goods are better bestowed otherwise; that Irenæus Polycarp’s disciple should not have said, “We offer unto God our goods as tokens of thankfulness for that we receive52,” neither Origen, “He which worshippeth God must by gifts and oblations acknowledge him the Lord of all53;” in a word that to give unto God is error, reformation of error to take from the Church that which the blindness of former ages did unwisely give. By these or the like suggestions received with all joy and with like sedulity practised in certain parts of the Christian world they have brought to pass, that as David doth say of man so it is in hazard to be verified concerning the whole religion and service of God54: “The time thereof may peradventure fall out to be threescore and ten years, or if strength do serve unto fourscore, what followeth is likely to be small joy for them whosoever they be that behold it.” Thus have the best things been overthrown not so much by puissance and might of adversaries as through defect of counsel in them that should have upheld and defended the same.
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Footnotes
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[Col. iii. 5.] ↩
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[Gen. iv. 4.] ↩
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[Prov. iii. 9. כָּל־תּֽבואָתֶךָ סֵרֵאשִׁית “not only with the first, but with the best, of all thine increase.”] ↩
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“Purum, probum, profanum, suum.” Fest. lib. xiv. [p. 397. ed. Dacerii. “Puri, probi, profani, sui auri dicitur in manumissione sacrorum causa: ex quibus puri significat, quod in usu spurco non fuerit; probi, quod recte excoctum, purgatumque sit; profani quod sacrum non sit, et quod omni religione solutum sit; sui, quod alienum non sit.”] ↩
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[St. Luke vii. 5.] ↩
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Num. vii. 85, 86. ↩
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[See Arbuthnot, Coins, Weights, and Measures, p. 37.] ↩
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1 Chron. xxix. [2-7:] Exod. xxv. 28. [39?] xxxvii. 24. ↩
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[There seem to be two errors in this statement. One, that the talent or cichar was worth only 1,800 shekels: whereas it is clear from Exod. xxxviii. 25, 26, that its value was 3000. The other, that the whole cost of the tabernacle was less than thirty talents; see Exod. xxxviii. 24: “All the gold that was occupied in the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.” The silver and brass was over and above, exceeding, the one 100, the other 70 talents; ver. 25, 29.Arbuthnot, c. xxi. gives the results in English money as follows: “For the altar of burnt offering,” (rather for the gold of the holy place) “181,308l. 13s. 4d. For the silver of the same, 19,604l. 5s. 5d… . David laid up of his own money for building the temple 3000 talents of gold, 18,600,000l.; and 7000 of silver, 2,712,500l. The princes of the tribes gave towards it 5000 talents and 10,000 drachms of gold, 31,000,516l. 13s. 4d. and 10,000 talents of silver, 3,875,000l.” In these calculations Arbuthnot does not follow his own tables: for he makes the talent of gold worth 6200l.: whereas his tables give it only 5475l.: using in the latter the rabbinical computation, which values the shekel at four Roman drachms; in the former, that of Josephus and Hesychius, who say, σίκλος, τετράδραχμον Ἀττικόν.] ↩
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Ezra ii. 68, 69; Hag. ii. 3. ↩
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Ezra viii. 26. ↩
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Nehem. vii. 70. ↩
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Nehem. x. 32. ↩
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Cic. Orat. pro L. Flac. [c. 28.] “Cum aurum Judæorum nomine quotannis ex Italia et ex omnibus vestris provinciis Hierosolymam exportari soleret, Flaccus sanxit edicto ne ex Asia exportari liceret.” ↩
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Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 7. § 2. [quoting some lost work of Strabo, probably his ὑπομνήματα: see Hudson in loc.] ↩
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Every talent in value six hundred crowns. ↩
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Numb. xxxv. [“Twenty” is no doubt a slip of the pen for “forty.”] ↩
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Levit. xxv. 34; xxvii. 28. ↩
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Gen. xiv. 20. ↩
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Gen. xxviii. 20. ↩
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Deut. xiv. 22. ↩
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Plin. Hist. Nat. l. xii. c. 14. [“Decimas [thuris] Deo, quem vocant Sabin, mensura non pondere sacerdotes capiunt. Nec ante mercari licet.”] ↩
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Δεκὰς ἀριθμω̑ν τω̑ν ἀπὸ μονάδος ἐστὶ πέρας τελειότατον. Philo περὶ ἀποικ. [It should be περὶ τη̑ς εἰς τὰ προπαιδεύματα συνόδου. p. 297. ed. Turneb.] ↩
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[Chr. Letter, 35. “§ 18. Of speculative doctrines. There be also in your book divers theoremes not so familiar to us common Christians, neither doe we perceave them in the English Creede; neither in the reading of the holy writinges of God. Wee pray you therefore declare unto us by what spirit or worde you teach them unto us … . such as are these: Tenne, the number of nature’s perfections:” &c.Hooker MS. note. “You seeme neither to understand what theoremes nor what speculative doctrines are.“Hitherto nothing but every article begunne with The Church of England teacheth, The Church of England affirmeth, It is an Article of faith, A foundation of beliefe. And are you now come to pettie quarels? Must I either conforme myselfe not onlie to the bodie of the whole Church, as reason is, but even to every particular man’s humour, and to what patern so ever you like, speaking as it pleaseth you to prescribe, wrighting in such onlie forme and maner as your censure may approve, finallie dissenting in judgment from no man which findeth favour in your eyes, nor sorting with anie but such as you admire and set up for the principall lights in the Church, and the polestarres of all men’s faith; or els to be held an enimie of true and Christian beliefe?”“See Philo, p. 298.” where Philo argues ingeniously for the natural congruity of the number ten as measuring the offering due to Him, who abides as it were in the tenth sphere, above all the orbs which compose the material world according to the Ptolemaic system.] ↩
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“Massoreth sepes est legis; divitiarum sepes decimæ.” R. Aquiba in Pirk. Aboth. [fol. 35. Cracoviæ, 1660: מַסּוֹדֶה םְיָב לַהּוֹדָה מַעְשְׂרוֹת םְיָב לְעוֹשֶׁר כְדָוִיס םְיָג לִפְוִישׁוּת םְיָג לְתָבְםָת שְתִיקָת׃] ↩
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Mal. iii. 10. ↩
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“Nemo libenter dedit quod non accepit sed expressit.” Sen. de Benef. lib. i. c. 1. ↩
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“sicle,” Bodl. MS. and early edd.] ↩
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Levit. xxvii. 25. ↩
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L. xi. de Reg. Jur. [“Id quod nostrum est, sine facto nostro ad alium transferri non potest.” Dig. lib. L. tit. xvii. l. 11. p. 788.] ↩
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“Cujus per errorem dati repetitio est, ejus consulto dati donatio est.” L. i. D. de cond. indeb. [Dig. lib. L. xvii. 53. “De solutione indebiti.” The title “de condictione indebiti” is lib. xii. tit. vi. and the first law is in substance the same.] This is the ground of Consideration in alienations from man to man. ↩
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“Nemo potest mutare consilium suum in alterius præjudicium [injuriam].” L. lxxv. de Reg. Jur. [Dig. lib. L. tit. xvii. l. 75. p. 791.] ↩
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[Eccl. Disc. fol. 95. “Sciendum est, quod sub lege de decimis sacerdotibus et Levitis permittendis præceptum est, non ita præcise nos ad decimas persolvendas adigere. Hæc enim politica lex Judæorum fuit, quæ nos tantum generali quadam ratione devincit, ut nos quoque iis qui in opere Domini laborant consulamus.”] ↩
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Acts v. 4. ↩
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Exod. xxii. 29, 30. ↩
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Matt. xxi. 13. ↩
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Mal. iii. 8. ↩
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“Non videntur rem amittere quibus propria non fuit.” L. lxxxiii. de Reg. Jur. [Dig. L. xvii. 83. p. 791.] ↩
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Ezek. xlv. 1, 4. ↩
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Mag. Char. c. 1. [Imprimis, “Concessimus Deo, et hac præsenti charta nostra confirmavimus, pro nobis et hæredibus nostris in perpetuum, quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit, et habeat omnia jura sua integra, et libertates suas illæsas.”] ↩
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Capit. Carol. l. vi. ca. 284. [285. ap. Lindenbrog. Cod. p. 1025. (= l. vi. c. 370. Baluz. Capit. viii. ann. 803. of Worms. It is from the “Petitio populi ad Imperatorem.”) 1887. “Scimus enim res Ecclesiæ Deo esse sacratas, scimus eas esse oblationes fidelium, et pretia peccatorum: quapropter si quis eas ab ecclesiis, quibus a fidelibus collatæ, Deoque sacratæ sunt, aufert, proculdubio sacrilegium committit. Quisquis ergo nostrum suas res Ecclesiæ tradit, Domino Deo illas offert atque dedicat.”] ↩
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“Nullius autem sunt res sacræ et religiosæ et sanctæ. Quod enim divini juris est, id nullius in bonis est.” Inst. lib. ii. tit. 1. [§ 7. p. 9.] ↩
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“Soli cum Diis sacrilegi pugnant.” Curt. lib. vii. [c. 23.] “Sacrum sacrove commendatum qui dempserit rapseritve, [cleperit, rapsitque,] parricida esto.” Leg. xii. Tab. [Cic. de Leg. ii. 9.] Capit. Carol. lib. vi. c. 285. (v. n. 7 on p. 493.) [“Facit scripturam de ipsis rebus, quas Deo dare desiderat, et ipsam scripturam coram altari, aut supra, tenet in manu, dicens ejusdem loci sacerdotibus atque custodibus; ‘Offero Deo, atque dedico, omnes res, quæ hac in chartula tenentur insertæ… Siquis autem eas inde, quod fieri nullatenus credo, abstulerit, sub pœna sacrilegii ex hoc Domino Deo, cui eas offero atque dedico, districtissimas reddat rationes.’ ”] ↩
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“Deposita pietatis.” Tertul. Apologet. [c. 39.] ↩
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Prudent. Peristeph. [ii. Pass. Laurent. 57. seqq. “ ‘Soletis,’ inquit, ‘conqueri, Sævire nos justo amplius, Cum Christiana corpora Plusquam cruente scindimus. A best atrocioribus Censura fervens motibus; Blande et quiete efflagito Quod sponte obire debeas. Hunc esse vestris orgiis Moremque et artem proditum est, Hanc disciplinam fœderis, Libent ut auro Antistites. Argenteis scypbis ferunt Fumare sacrum sanguinem, Auroque nocturnis sacris Adstare fixos cereos. Tum summa cura est fratribus, Ut sermo testatur loquax, Offerre fundis venditis Sestertiorum millia. Addicta avorum prædia Fœdis sub auctionibus Successor exhæres gemit, Sanctis egens parentibus… . * * * * Hoc poscit usus publicus, Hoc fiscus, hoc ærarium, Ut didita stipendiis Ducem juvet pecunia. Sic dogma vestrum est, audio: Suum quibusque reddito:— En Cæsar agnoscit suum Nomisma nummis inditum. Quod Cæsaris scis, Cæsari Da: nempe justum postulo: Ni fallor, haud ullam tuus Signat Deus pecuniam. * * * * Implete dictorum fidem Quæ vos per orbem venditis: Nummos libenter reddite, Estote verbis divites.’ Nil asperum Laurentius Refert ad ista, aut turbidum, Sed, ut paratus obsequi, Obtemperanter annuit.” … &c.Sarav. de Hon. Præsul. &c. c. 11. “Nota est Laurentii Diaconi Romanæ Ecclesiæ historia, penes quem thesauros adservari Ecclesiæ tyranni suspicabantur: quæ suspicio partim vera fuit, nam thesauros habebat Ecclesia, partim falsa, nam adservandi thesauros mos non erat, sed distribuendi.”] ↩
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[So 1616, 1662. But Bodl. MS. and 1st ed. respect.] 1887. ↩
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[Valer. Max. lib. i. c. 2. “Syracusis Dionysius genitus… fano … Proserpinæ spoliato Locris, cum per altum secundo vento classe veheretur, ridens, amicis, ‘Videtisne,’ ait, ‘quam bona navigatio ab ipsis Diis immortalibus sacrilegis tribuatur.’ ”] ↩
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“Novimus multa regna et reges eorum propterea cecidisse, quia Ecclesias spoliaverunt, resque earum vastaverunt,” [“abstulerunt,” sic in Ed. Par. 1640.] “alienaverunt vel diripuerunt, Episcopisque et Sacerdotibus, atque, quod majus est, Ecclesiis eorum abstulerunt, et pugnantibus dederunt. Quapropter nec fortes in bello nec in fide stabiles fuerunt, nec victores exstiterunt, sed terga multi vulnerati et plures interfecti verterunt, regnaque et regiones et quod pejus est regna cœlestia perdiderunt, atque propriis hæreditatibus caruerunt et hactenus carent.” Verba Carol. Magn. in Capit. Carol. lib. vii. c. 104. (= vii. c. 142, ed. Baluz. from the Capitulare of Worms, 803.) ↩
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“Turno tempus erit, magno cum optaverit emptum Intactum Pallanta, et cum spolia ista diemque Oderit.” Virg. Æn. lib. x. 503. ↩
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Ἡ τω̑ν πραγμάτων αἰσχύνη οὐδεμια̑ς ἐλάττων ζημίας τοι̑ς γε σώϕροσι. Demosth. [Olynth. i. ad fin.] “Pœnam non dico legum quas sæpe perrumpunt, sed ipsius turpitudinis quæ acerbissima est non vident.” Cic. Offic. lib. iii. [c. 8.] “Impunita tu credis esse quæ invisa sunt? aut ullum supplicium gravius existimas publico odio.” Sen. de Benef. lib. iii. c. 17. ↩
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[“Sardonius inter tot sacrilegia Dionysii risus fuit: tot maleficiorum conscius metu vacare non potuit.” Sarav. de Sacrilegiis, c. 9. Then reciting the story of Damocles, he adds, “Satisne videtur declarasse Dionysius, sacrilegos in perpetuo versari metu?”] ↩
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Iren. lib. iv. c. 34. [“Offerimus ei non quasi indigenti, sed gratias agentes Dominationi ejus, et sanctificantes creaturam.”] ↩
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Orig. in 18. Num. hom. xi. [“Indignum existimo et impium, ut is, qui Deum colit non offerat primitias sacerdotibus.” t. ii. 303 A.] ↩
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Psalm xc. 10. ↩