ceremonial fervice of the tabernacle, Numb. xviii, 21, 31, which is now abolished: the right therefore of that Ipecial hire muft needs be withal abolished, as being alfo ceremonial. That tithes were ceremonial, is plain, not being given to the Levites till they had been firft offered a heave offering to the Lord, ver. 24, 28. He then who by that law brings tithes into the gofpel, of neceffity brings in withal a facrifice, and an altar; without which tithes by that law were unfanctified and polluted, ver. 32, and therefore never thought on in the firft christian times, till ceremonies, altars, and oblations, by an ancienter corruption were brought back long before. And yet the Jews, ever fince their temple was deftroyed, though they have rabbies and teachers of their law, yet pay no tithes, as having no Levites to whom, no temple where to pay them, no altar whereon to hallow them : which argues that the Jews themfelves never thought tithes moral, but ceremonial only. That chriftians therefore fhould take them up, when Jews have laid them down, muft needs be very abfurd and prepofterous. Next, it is as clear in the fame chapter, that the priests and Levites had not tithes for their labour only in the tabernacle, but in regard they were to have no other part nor inheritance in the land, ver. 20, 24, and by that means for a tenth, loft a twelfth. But our Levites undergoing no fuch law of deprivement, can have no right to any fuch compenfation: nay, if by this law they will have tithes, can have no inheritance of land, but forfeit what they have. Befides this, tithes were of two forts, thofe of every year, and those of every third year: of the former, every one that brought his tithes, was to eat his fhare: Deut. xiv, 23, "Thou fhalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he fhall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, &c." Nay, though he could not bring his tithe in kind, by reafon of his diftant dwelling from the tabernacle or temple, but was thereby forced to turn it into money, he was to bestow that money on whatsoever pleased him, oxen, fheep, wine, or ftrong drink; and to eat and drink thereof there before the Lord, both he and his houfhold, ver. 24, 25, 26. As for the tithes of

every third year, they were not given only to the Levite, but to the ftranger, the fatherlefs, and the widow, ver. 28, 29, and Chap. xxvi, 12, 13. So that ours, if they will have tithes, muft admit of thefe fharers with them. Nay, thefe tithes were not paid in at all to the Levite, but the Levite himfelf was to come with thofe his fellow-guests, and eat his fhare of them only at his houfe who provided them; and this not in regard of his minifterial office, but because he had no part nor inheritance in the land. Laftly, the Pricfts and Levites, a tribe, were of a far different conftitution from this of our minifters under the gofpel: in them were orders and degrees both by family, dignity and office, mainly 'diftinguithed; the high pricft, his brethren and his fons, to whom the Levites themfelves paid tithes, and of the beft, were eminently fuperiour, Numb. xviii, 28, 29. No proteftant, I fuppofe, will liken one of our minifters to a high priest, but rather to a common Levite. Unles then, to keep their tithes, they mean to bring back again bishops, archbishops, and the whole gang of prelatry, to whom will they themselves pay tithes, as by that law it was a fin to them if they did not? ver. 32. Certainly this muft needs put them to a deep deinur, while the defire of holding faft their tithes without fin may tempt them to bring back again bithops, as the likeness of that hierarchy that fhould receive tithes from them; and the defire to pay none, may advise them to keep out of the church all orders above them. But if we have to do at prefent, as I fuppofe we have, with true reformed proteftants, not with papifts or prelates, it will not be denied that in the gofpel there be but two minifterial degrees, prefbyters and deacons: which if they contend to have any fucceffion, reference or conformity with thofe two degrees under the law, priefts and Levites, it must needs be fuch whereby our prefbyters or minifters may be anfwerable to pricfts, and our deacons to Levites; by which rule of proportion it will follow that we must pay our tithes to the deacons only, and they only to the minifiers. But if it be truer yet, that the priesthood of Aaron typified a better reality, 1 Pet. ii, 5, fignifying the chriftian true and " holy priefthood to offer up fpi

ritual facrifice;" it follows hence, that we are now juftly exempt from paying tithes to any who claim from Aaron, fince that priesthood is in us now real, which in him was but a fhadow. Seeing then by all this which has been shown, that the law of tithes is partly ceremonial, as the work was for which they were given, partly judicial, not of common, but of particular right to the tribe of Levi, nor to them alone, but to the owner alfo and his houfhold, at the time of their offering, and every three years to the stranger, the fatherlefs, and the widow, their appointed fharers, and that they were a tribe of priefts and deacons improperly compared to the conftitution of our miniftry; and the tithes given by that people to those deacons only; it follows that our minifters at this day, being neither pricfts nor Levites, nor fitly answering to either of them, can have no juft title or pretence to tithes, by any confequence drawn from the law of Moles. But they think they have yet a better plea in the example of Melchifedec, who took tithes of Abraham ere the law was given; whence they would infer tithes to be of moral right. But they ought to know, or to remember, that not examples, but exprefs commands oblige our obedience to God or man: next, that whatsoever was done in religion before the law written, is not prefently to be counted moral, when as fo many things were then done both ceremonial and judaically judicial, that we need not doubt to conclude all times before Chrift more or lefs under the ceremonial law. To what end ferved elfe thofe altars and facrifices, that diftinction of clean and unclean entering into the. ark, circumcifion, and the raifing up of feed to the elder brother? Gen. xxxviii, 8. If thefe things be not moral, though before the law, how are tithes, thon h in the example of Abraham and Melchifedec? But this inftance is fo far from being the juft ground of a law, that after all circumftarces duly weighed both from Gen. xiv, and Heb. vii, it will not be allowed them fo much as an example. Melchifedec, befides his prieftly benediction, brought with him bread and wine fufficient to refresh Abraham and his whole army; incited to do fo, first, by the fecret providence of God, intending him for a

type of Christ and his priesthood; next, by his due thankfulness and honour to Abraham, who had freed his borders of Salem from a potent enemy: Abraham on the other fide honours him with the tenth of all, that is to fay (for he took not fure his whole eftate with him to that war) of the fpoils, Heb. vii, 4. Incited he also by the fame fecret providence, to fignify as grandfather of Levi, that the levitical priesthood was excelled by the priesthood of Chrift. For the giving of a tenth declared, it feems, in thofe countries and times, hin the greater who received it. That which next incited him, was partly his gratitude to requite the prefent, partly his reverence to the perfon and his benediction: to his perfon, as a king and prieft, greater therefore than Abraham, who was a pricft alfo, but not a king. And who unhired will be fo hardy as to tay, that Abraham at any other time ever paid him tithes, either before or after; or had then, but for this accidental meeting and obligement; or that elfe Melchifedec had demanded or exacted them, or took them otherwife than as the voluntary gift of Abraham? But our minifters, though neither priefts nor kings more than any other chriftian, greater in their own efteen than Abraham and all his feed, for the verbal labour of a feventh day's preachment, not bringing, like Melchifedec, bread or wine at their own coft, would not take only at the willing hand of liberality or gratitude, but require and exact as due, the tenth, not of fpoils, but of our whole eftates and labours; nor once, but yearly. We then it feems, by the example of Abraham, muft pay tithes to thefe Melchifedecs: but what if the person of Abraham can neither no way reprefent us, or will oblige the minifters to pay tithes no lefs than other men? Abraham had not only a prieft in his loins, but was himself a priest, and gave tithes to Melchifedec either as grandfather of Levi, or as father of the faithful. If as grandfather (though he understood it not) of Levi, he obliged not us, but Levi only, the inferiour prieft, by that homage (as the apoftle to the Hebrews clearly enough explains) to acknowledge the greater. And they who by Melchifedec claim from Abraham as Levi's grandfather, have none to feek their

tithes of but the Levites, where they can find them. If Abraham, as father of the faithful, paid tithes to Melchifedec, then certainly the minifters alfo, if they be of that number, paid in him equally with the reft. Which may induce us to believe, that as both Abraham and Melchifedec, fo tithes alfo in that action typical and ceremonial, fignified nothing elfe but that fubjection which all the faithful, both minifters and people, owe to Christ, our high priest and king.

In any literal fenfe, from this example, they never will be able to extort that the people in thofe days paid tithes to priefts, but this only, that one prieft once in his life, of fpoils only, and in requital partly of a liberal prefent, partly of a benediction, gave voluntary tithes," not to a greater prieft than himself, as far as Abraham could then understand, but rather to a prieft and king joined in one perfon. They will reply, perhaps, that if one prieft paid tithes to another, it must needs be understood that the people did no lefs to the priest. But I fhall eafily remove that neceffity, by remembering them that in those days was no prieft, but the father, or the first-born of each family; and by confequence no people to pay him tithes, but his own children and fervants, who had not wherewithal to pay him, but of his own. Yet grant that the people then paid tithes, there will not yet be the like reafon to enjoin us; they being then under ceremonies, a mere laity, we now under Chrift, a royal priesthood, 1 Pet. ii, 9, as we are cohcirs, kings and priefts with him, a prieft for ever after the order or manner of Melchifedec. As therefore Abraham paid tithes to Melchifedec becaufe Levi was in him, fo we ought to pay none because the true Melchifedec is in us, and we in him who can pay to none greater, and hath freed us, by our union with himself, from all compulfive tributes and taxes in his church. Neither doth the collateral place, Heb. vii, make other ufe of this ftory, than to prove Chrift, perfonated by Melchifedec, a greater prieft than Aaron: verf. 4, "Now confider how great this man was, &c."; and proves not in the leaft manner that tithes be of any right to minifters, but the contrary: firft, the Levites had "a commandment to take tithes of