Post by Standing Firm in Christ on Jul 25, 2014 15:09:46 GMT -6
Excerpt from "The Gainsayer Convinced"; AD1648, p.6 It is a stern rebuke written to the Catholic Church. I find it interesting.
…And alas! The greatest work you do, is to picked and penned sermons a week (and then over and over) and rail against the Sectaries, and oh! Such an one is cried up as a very rare, zealous, good Churchman, and made the only Oracle, and this is the brave watching over the flock: Is this going from house to house? Is this meeting to comfort and exhort each other? Was this all the Apostles and Disciples of Christ did, to be penned up in a closet 3 or 4 days a week, or as some to lie in the Ale house so long? Oh sad age! When the leaders of the people shall cause them to err, see what the Lord saith of such false prophets, Jeremiah 23: 13-17, 22-23, 26-28, 30-32. And certainly, should we see the downfall of your means, we should soon behold the downfall of your ministry; that being the grand prop thereof, and therefore rather then you will trust God for your maintenance, you will take (nay, force) the legal maintenance of tithes from the people, which was only given to the priests under the Law for their service, the reason why it was given, was, because they had no inheritance among their Brethren, they being one of the ten tribes, which they took only of their Brethren, and that not by compulsion: but there is no equality that our priests should have it, First, because they are not a hundred part of the people, Secondly, because they have temporal inheritance among their Brethren, those priests had but the tenth of the increase, ours of poor men’s labours, the priests under the law were not so covetous as ours, for they gave one tenth to the Lord, ate one part with those that paid them, and the rest was laid up for the poor and strangers, and therefore were to have the storehouses for that purpose, but ours get all to themselves and instead of bringing into the storehouses for the poor and strangers, they cry out to bring into their storehouses, and for that purpose abuse that place in Malachi 3:10 which was lawful then but not now. Christ having put an end to the priesthood, hath also changed the Law, Hebrews 7, which was tithes, Therefore to take tithes under the Gospel, there being not the least syllable for it (the Apostles never owning it) is abominable heresy (though not mentioned in the book of Heresies) and a denying Christ come in the flesh. And certainly, were you not willfully blind you might see God blasting them, for it is remarkable that scarce any of your posterity comes to any thing, but are generally miserable.—“The Gainsayer Convinced”, p. 6, written in 1648
…And alas! The greatest work you do, is to picked and penned sermons a week (and then over and over) and rail against the Sectaries, and oh! Such an one is cried up as a very rare, zealous, good Churchman, and made the only Oracle, and this is the brave watching over the flock: Is this going from house to house? Is this meeting to comfort and exhort each other? Was this all the Apostles and Disciples of Christ did, to be penned up in a closet 3 or 4 days a week, or as some to lie in the Ale house so long? Oh sad age! When the leaders of the people shall cause them to err, see what the Lord saith of such false prophets, Jeremiah 23: 13-17, 22-23, 26-28, 30-32. And certainly, should we see the downfall of your means, we should soon behold the downfall of your ministry; that being the grand prop thereof, and therefore rather then you will trust God for your maintenance, you will take (nay, force) the legal maintenance of tithes from the people, which was only given to the priests under the Law for their service, the reason why it was given, was, because they had no inheritance among their Brethren, they being one of the ten tribes, which they took only of their Brethren, and that not by compulsion: but there is no equality that our priests should have it, First, because they are not a hundred part of the people, Secondly, because they have temporal inheritance among their Brethren, those priests had but the tenth of the increase, ours of poor men’s labours, the priests under the law were not so covetous as ours, for they gave one tenth to the Lord, ate one part with those that paid them, and the rest was laid up for the poor and strangers, and therefore were to have the storehouses for that purpose, but ours get all to themselves and instead of bringing into the storehouses for the poor and strangers, they cry out to bring into their storehouses, and for that purpose abuse that place in Malachi 3:10 which was lawful then but not now. Christ having put an end to the priesthood, hath also changed the Law, Hebrews 7, which was tithes, Therefore to take tithes under the Gospel, there being not the least syllable for it (the Apostles never owning it) is abominable heresy (though not mentioned in the book of Heresies) and a denying Christ come in the flesh. And certainly, were you not willfully blind you might see God blasting them, for it is remarkable that scarce any of your posterity comes to any thing, but are generally miserable.—“The Gainsayer Convinced”, p. 6, written in 1648