_Of Tythes._
The Word Tythes being the same with Tenths, signifie of it self
no more then the proportion of the Excisum, or part retrenched,
as if Customs upon imported and exported Commodities should be
called by the name of Twentieths, as it is sometimes called Tunnage
and Poundage; wherefore it remains to say, that Tythes in this
place, do together with the said proportion, consignifie the use
of it, _viz._ the maintenance of the Clergy, as also the matter
or substance out of which this Maintenance is cut, _viz._ the
immediate fruit of the Land and Waters, or the proceed of mens
Labour, Art, and Stock laid out upon them. It signifies also the
manner of paying it, _viz._ in _specie_, and not (but upon special
and voluntary causes) in money.
2. We said the matter of Tythes, was the immediate Fruits of the
Earth, _viz._ of Grain as soon as ’tis ready to be removed from
the ground that bare it; and not of Bread which is Corn thresht,
winnowed, ground, tempered with liquor and baked.
3. ’Tis also the second choice out of the young of multiparous
Cattle taken in _specie_, so soon as the said Younglings can
subsist without their Dams, or else a Composition in Money for the
Uniparous.
4. ’Tis Wool, so soon as it is shorn; ’tis Fowl and Fish, where
Fowling and Fishing is rather a Trade then a meer Recreation, &
_sic de cæteris_.
5. Moreover, in great Cities Tythes are a kinde of composition in
Money for the labour and profit of the Artisans who work upon the
materials which have paid Tythes before.
6. Tythes therefore encrease within any Territory, as the labour
of that Countrey increases; and labour doth or ought to increase
as the people do; now within four hundred years the people of
_England_ are about quadrupled, as doubling every two hundred
years, and the proportion of the Rent of all the Lands in _England_
is about the fourth part of the Expence of the people in it, so as
the other three parts is labour and stock.
7. Wherefore the Tythes now should be twelve times as good as they
were four hundred years ago; which the rates of Benefices in the
Kings books do pretty well shew, by comparing of times; something
of this should be abated because the proportion between the proceed
of Lands and Labour do vary as the hands of Labourers vary:
Wherefore we shall rather say, that the Tythes are but six times as
good now as four hundred years ago, that is, that the Tythes now
would pay six times as many Labourers, or feed six times as many
mouthes, as the Tythes four hundred years ago would have done.
8. Now if there were not onely as many Parishes then as now, more
Priests in every Parish, and also more Religious Men who were
also Priests, and the Religion of those times being more operose,
and fuller of work then now, by reason of Confessions, Holydayes,
Offices, &c. more in those dayes then now, (the great work in
these dayes being a compendious teaching above a thousand at once
without much particular Confession and Catechising, or trouble
about the Dead), it seems clear, that the Clergy now is far richer
then heretofore; and that to be a Clergy-man then was a kinde
of a Mortification, whereas now (praised be God) ’tis matter of
splendour and magnificence; unless any will say, that there were
golden Priests when the Chalices were wood, and but wooden Priests
when the Chalices were gold; or that Religion best flourisheth when
the Priests are most mortified, as was before said of the Law,
which best flourisheth when Lawyers have least to do.
9. But what ever the increase of the Churches Goods are, I grudge
it them not; onely wish, that they would take a course to enjoy
it with safety and peace to themselves; whereof one is, not to
breed more Churchmen then the Benefices as they now stand shared
out, will receive; that is to say, if there be places but for
about twelve thousand in _England_ and _Wales_, it will not be
safe to breed up 24000. Ministers, upon a view or conceipt that
the Church means otherwise distributed might suffice them all;
for then the twelve thousand which are unprovided for, will seek
wayes how to get themselves a livelihood; which they cannot do more
easily then by perswading the people, that the twelve thousand
Incumbents do poison or starve their souls, and misguide them in
their way to Heaven: Which needy men upon a strong temptation will
do effectually; we having observed, that Lecturers being such a
sort of Supernumeraries, have preached more times in a week, more
hours in the day, and with greater vehemence every time then the
Incumbents could afford to do; for _Graculus esuriens in Cælum,
jusseris, ibit._ Now this vehemence, this pains, this zeal, and
this living upon particular donations, makes the people think, that
those who act them are withall more Orthodox, nay better assisted
from God then the others. Now let any man judge, whether men
reputed to be inspired will not get help to lift themselves into
Church-livings, &c. But these things are too plain from the latest
experiences.
10. Now you will ask, how shall that be done, or how may we know
how to adjust our Nursery to our Orchard? To which I answer,
that if there be twelve thousand Church-livings in _England_,
Dignitaries included, then that about four hundred being sent forth
_per ann._ into the Vineyard, may keep it well served, without
luxuriency; for according to the Mortality-Bill-observation, about
that number will dye yearly out of twelve thousand Adult-persons,
such as Ministers are as to age, and ought to be as well as to
speculative knowledge, as practical experience, both of themselves
and others.
11. But I have digressed, my main scope being to explain the
nature of the Tax of Tythes; nevertheless since the end of such
explanation is but to perswade men to bear quietly so much Tax as
is necessary, and not to kick against the pricks; and since the end
of that again, and the end of all else we are to do, is but to
preserve the publick Peace, I think I have not been impertinent in
inserting this little Advertisement, making so much for the Peace
of our _Jerusalem_.
12. But to return to Tythes as a Tax or Levy, I say that in
_England_ it is none, whatsoever it might be or seem to be in
the first Age of its Institution; nor will the Kings Quit-rents
in _Ireland_ as they are properly none now, seem any in the next
Age, when every man will proportion his Expence to the remainder
of his own Rent after the King is paid his; for ’tis surprize and
the suddenness of the Charge, which a Tax supervenient to a mans
other expences and issues makes, that renders it a burthen, and
that intolerable to such as will not understand it, making men
even to take up Arms to withstand it; that is, leap out of the
Frying-pan upon earth into the fire even of hell, which is War and
the consequences thereof.
13. Now Tythes being no Tax, I speak of it but as the _modus_ or
pattern of a Tax, affirming it to be next to one, the most equal
and indifferent which can be appointed in order to defray the
publick Charge of the whole Nation as well as that of the Church;
for hereby is collected a proportion of all the Corn, Cattle, Fish,
Fowl, Fruit, Wool, Honey, Wax, Oyl, Hemp, and Flax of the Nation,
as a result of the Lands, Art, Labour, and Stock which produced
them; onely it is scarce regular in respect of Housing, Cloth,
Drinks, Leather, Feathers, and the several Manufactures of them;
insomuch, as if the difference of Tythes which the Countrey payes
in proportion to the City, were now _de novo_ to be established, I
do not see what in likelihood would sooner cause a grand sedition
about it.
14. The payment of an _aliquot_ part to the King out of the
same things as now pay Tythes, _in specie_, would have an
inconvenience, because the Kings Rents would be like the Dividend
in Colledges, _viz._ higher or lower according to the prices of
those Commodities, unless the said inequality in Colledges happen
by reason of the fewness of particulars, according to the market
rates whereof, their Rents are paid in money; whereas the whole
of all the particulars might well enough ballance each other, a
dear or plentiful year being but an appellation _secundum quid_,
_viz._ with reference as to Corn onely, as the chief food of the
multitude; whereas ’tis likely, that the same causes which makes
Corn scarce may make other things in plenty of no less use to the
King; as repairing in one thing what he wants in another.
15. Another inconvenience would be that which was observed in
_Ireland_, when the Ministery were paid by Sallary, and the Tythes
in kinde paid to the State; who because they could not actually
receive them _in specie_, let them at farm to the most bidder;
in the Transaction whereof was much juggling, combination, and
collusion, which perhaps might have been remedied, had not that
course been used but as a sudden temporary shift, without intention
of continuing it.
16. The third inconvenience is, that abovementioned, _viz._ the
necessity of another way of Tax, to take in the Manufactures of
those Commodities which pay the Tax of Tythes; whereas possibly
there is a way of Tax equal in its own nature, and which needs
not to be pieced up by any other; so as the Officers about that
may have a full employment, and none others wanted, whose wide
intervals of leasure shall make them seem Drones, as they are also
the Caterpillers of any State.