their Priests, or at odds with him, as Reform⚫ed Principles give them fome Light to be not wholly conformable, whence infinite Difturbances in the State, as they do, must needs • follow.

THUS much I had to fay; and I fuppofe, • what may be enough to them who are not avariciously bent otherwife, touching The likelieft • Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church; ⚫ than which nothing can more conduce to Truth, to Peace, and all Happiness both in Church and

• State.

• IF I be not heard nor believed, the Event will bear me Witness to have spoken Truth: And I'in the mean while have born my Witness, • not out of Seafon, to the Church and to my Countrey.

THESE, Reader, are the Sentiments of this Learned Writer, concerning Tithes and Hireling Minifters, to which we shall add his Description of Christ's true Difciples and Followers; and the Usage they have met with in the World through all Ages of the Church, to this Day; taken out of that excellent Poem Of Paradife Loft.

AFTER the Angel had told Adam, how the Meffiah and Reftorer of Loft Man, to be born of his Seed, should be put to Death, and rise again from the Dead, and afcend into Heaven; the Poet makes Adam to enquire thus of the Angel,

Bur fay, if our Deliv'rer up to Heav'n • Must reafcend, what will betide the Few His Faithful, left among th' unfaithful Herd, The Enemies of Truth; who then fhall guide His People, who defend? will they not deal • Worfe with his Followers than with him they dealt? Befure they will, faid th' Angel, butfromHeav'n He to his own a Comforter will fend,

The

The Promise of the Father, who fhall dwell His Spirit within them; and the Law of Faith Working thro' love, upon their hearts shall write, To guide them in all Truth, and also arm • With Spiritual Armour; able to resist • Satan's Affaults, and quench his fiery Darts, • What Men can do against them, not afraid, • Tho' to the Death, against such Cruelties . With inward Confolations recompenc'd, • And oft fupported fo as fhall amaze

Their proudeft Perfecutors: for the Spirit < Pour'd firft on his Apostles, whom he fends T'evangelize the Nations, then on all Baptiz'd, fhall then with wondrous Gifts endue To fpeak all Tongues, and do all Miracles, As did their Lord before them. Thus they win Great Numbers of each Nation to receive with joy the tidings brought from heav'n: at length Their Miniftry perform'd, aad Race well run, Their Doctrine and their Story written left, They die; but in their Room, as they forewarn, • Wolves fhall fucceed forTeachers, grievousWolves • Who all the facred Myfteries of Heav'n

་

To their own vile Advantages fhall turn • Of Lucre and Ambition, and the Truth • With

13

*The famous Quefnelle fays, That Avarice, and the Love of Money has always perfecuted Jefus Chrift; The Avarice of the Jewish Priefs during his Life-lime; The Avarice of an ApoAle at bis Death; The Avarice of the Soldiers after his Refur reation, and the Avarice of bad Clergy-Men to the very End of the World.- -The moft Ancient and most Cruel Perfecutor of the Church, is Money in corrupt Clergy-Men and in the Soldiers. See bis Refle&ion on Mat. xxviii. 15. in the New-Testament with Moral Reflections, which was condemn'd and prohibited by the Conftitution or Bull Unigenitus of Pope Clement xi.

L'avarice & l'amour des faux Biens a toujours perfecuté Jefus Chrift, L'avarice des Prêtres Juifs, durant la Vie;

celle

With Superftitions and Traditions taint, Left only in thofe Written Records pure, Tho' not but by the Spirit understood. Then fhall they feem to avail themselves of names, Places and Titles, and with these to join Secular Pow'r, tho' feigning ftill to act By fpiritual, to themselves appropriating The Spirit of God, promis'd alike and giv'n To all Believers; and from that Pretence Spiritual Laws by Carnal Pow'r fhall force • On ev'ry Confcience: Laws which none shall find Left them Enroll'd, or what the Spirit within Shall on the Heart engrave. What will they then But force the Spirit of Grace it felf, and bind • His Confort Liberty; what, but unbuild His living Temples, built by Faith to stand, Their own Faith not another's; for on Earth "Who against Faith and Conscience can be heard Infallible? Yet many will prefume:

• Whence heavy Perfecution fhall arise

• On all who in the Worship persevere

• Of Spirit and Truth; the Reft, far greater Part, • Will deem in Outward Rites and fpecious Forms Religion fatisfy'd; Truth fhall retire

Beftuck with fland'rous Darts, &Works of Faith • Rarely be found: So fhall the World go on, To Good malignant, to bad Men benign, Under her own Weight groaning till the Day Appear of Refpiration to the Juft, And Vengeance to the Wicked.

BUT

celle d'un Apôtre en fa Mort; celle des Soldats, apres fa Refurrection; celle des mauvais Ecclefiaftiques jufque à la Fin du Monde.- -Le plus ancient & le plus cruel Perfecu teur de l'Eglife, c'eft l'Argent dans les Ecclefiaftiques corcompus & dans les Gens de Guerre.

BUT now to speak a little more of the Author of the Great Cafe of Tithes: In the Year 1652, when he was a Juftice of the Peace in Weftmorland, it pleafed God to raise up, and fend forth as Ministers of the Everlasting Truth and Gospel of Christ Jefus, feveral of the despised People call'd in Scorn Quakers: And two of them being brought before him and others, when fitting on the Bench, at the Alizes held at Appleby; in the Examination, amongst other Queftions, he puts this to one of them,

Why dost thou speak against TITHES which are allowed by the States?

I meddle not (faid the Quaker) with the States; I fpeak against them that are Hirelings, as they are Hirelings; thofe that were fent of Christ, never took Tithes, nor ever fued any for Wages.

JUSTICE Pearfon reply'd, Dost thou think we are fo beggarly as the Heathens, that we cannot afford our Minifters Maintenance? We give it them freely.

THEY are (faid the Quaker) the Minifters of Chrift, who abide in the Doctrine of Christ.

JUSTICE Pearfon reply'd, But who shall judge? How fhall we know them?

By their Fruits (faid the Quaker) you fhall know them; they that abide not in the Doctrine of Chrift, make it appear they are not the Ministers of Chrift.

JUSTICE Pearfon reply'd, That is true. AT this very Tryal, we are well informed, our Author was convinc'd of the Principles which the Quakers profefs'd, and foon after became an Advocate for them; fo powerful was the Truth in thofe Days, in the Mouths of illiterate Men; Men, who having experienced the purifying Virtue of the holy Spirit, were made willing, nay, 14

were

were constrain'd by the Efficacy and Virtue of it, to go forth into the World, and proclaim the Power of God nigh in the Heart, for the cleansing of Sinners, if they would but turn their Minds

unto it.

THIS Power, this Spirit of God, they having found to be near, and in them, their Meffage was to direct the Minds of People, to Chrift in themselves, The true Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World, John i. 9. To this they recommended all People, to have Regard, as to their true and only Teacher, Sanctifier and Redeemer.

BUT, to give it in the Words of *One of the First of those People, Now, fays he, when the Lord God, and his Son Jefus Chrift, did fend me forth into the World, to preach his everlasting Gospel and Kingdom, I was glad, that I was commanded to turn People to that inward Light, Spirit and Grace, by which all might know their Salvation, and their Way to God; even that Divine Spirit, which would ⚫ lead them into all Truth, and which I infallably knew, would never deceive any.

BUT with and by this Divine Power and Spirit of God, and the Light of Jefus, I was to • bring People off from all their own Ways, to • Chrift the new and living Way; and from their Churches (which Men had made and gathered) to the Church in God, the General Affembly written in Heaven, which Chrift is the Head of; and off from the World's Teachers made by Men, to learn of Chrift, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, of whom the Father faid, This is my beloved Son, hear ye him; and • off

* See George Fox's Journal.