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I should offend against the time, and against you, if I should produce any more of these men's trifles in this presence; nor would any pleasure accrue from thence to you, nor advantage to the cause. Nor do I allege any new writers, because they for the most part do rather touch upon some heads, and not apply themselves home and strongly to the cause. Any, even the most learned author, is otherwise to be esteemed of, when he doth but salute a question, and touch it lightly; otherwise, when he takes it to task, and thoroughly discusseth it. And, in truth, if I would never so fain bring them forth, yet the scales would hang even, in suspense. For, to my thinking, Luther, Melancthon, Brentius, would be for us; Calvin, Martyr, Bucer, go another way. Wherefore, I will dismiss and leave you to yourselves. Here shall be an end.

Two Patriarchs, as many Prophets,-Christ,-his Apostles,the whole Church,-Fathers,-Councils,-History, both laws (civil and canon),—Reason,—the imperfect pieces and fragments of the Heathen, and finally, Experience itself, have brought in their evidence for Tithes. Which if they seem to you to deserve your vote and suffrage, and to have spoken home and good reason, be you, if you please, with me, of the same mind and judgment-That Tithes ought not to be ABROGATED!

[ST. MATT. xxiii. 23. “Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."] This text is not in the Latin copy.

FINIS.

Dec. 15, 1646. Imp. JOHN Downame.

LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

PROSPECTUS OF A PUBLICATION

ENTITLED A

CATALOGUE OF AUTHORITIES,

ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVIL,

TAKEN

FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE ANCIENT FATHERS,

FROM THE LAWS OF ENGLAND, AND FROM OTHER SOURCES,

BEARING UNIFORM WITNESS TO THE

n

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REV. CHARLES MILLER, M.A.

VICAR OF HARLOW, ESSEX.

"Cum decimas dando et terrena et cœlestia possis munera promereri, quare per avaritiam duplici benedictione te fraudas?"-D. AURELII AUGUSTINI Sermo de tempore, ccxix.

"Truth will always support itself by its native vigour; it will never die while heaven and earth last, but be handed down from saint to saint till the end of all things."-CHURCH OF THE FATHERS.

"The general obligation of the Ministers now in power has been declared, by Sir Robert Peel, to maintain, upon their ancient foundations, the institutions of this country in Church and State."-MR. GLADSTONE'S ADDRESS to the Electors of Newark, Sept. 4, 1841.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL;
J. BURNS, 17, PORTMAN STREET:

& J. H. PARKER, OXFORD.

1842.

OTHE

LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

It is happily becoming now, as it was formerly, an axiom in theology, "that what point soever the Fathers do harmonically, and with consent of all agreeingly maintain, that point, when rightly understood according unto their true meaning, is ever certainly orthodoxal truth 1." It is the design of this publication to apply this principle to a practical truth, which was uniformly maintained by our ancient laws, and which the present exigences of the Church seem to force upon our notice. There is an unbroken

1 The Revenue of the Gospel is Tithes (p. 65), by Foulke Robarts, B.D. Cambridge, 1613. The same principle is applied to the same subject in a work which has recently received the imprimatur of the University of Oxford. "In this they (St. Augustin, &c.) all agreed, and those of the ages following did hold the same doctrine (that Tithes were due to the Christian clergy jure divino). So that, according to that old and approved rule, that which was held always, in all places and by all, must needs be true, and come from the Apostles at first.' Nor is there any better way to know the sense of Scripture or the doctrine of the Catholic Church, than by the concurrent suffrages of these holy men."-Dialogue concerning Tithes, in Dean Comber's Works (vol. vii. p. 493), Oxford, at the University Press, 1841.

A 2

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