A present FOR CAESAR, Of 100000 l, in hand and 50000 l. a year.  
By Thomas Bradley D. D. and Minister of Nettlebed, in the County of Oxford.  
Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.  Luke 20. 25. 
LONDON, Printed for the Author, and are to be sold by Stephen and Thomas Lewis in shoe-lane, at the sign of the Book-binders.   

To his Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with the Dominions thereunto belonging, etc▪  
My Lord,  
IT is not my business, nor intention in this Paper-praesent, to set out all Caesar's dues, or duties; but as a Subject under your highness' government, and a friend and servant to the Commonwealth, whereof I am a Member, to do mine own. It is a business concerning which I have formerly acquainted your highness with some things in the 
Col. Goffe, Lieut. Col. Worsley, and Mr. Scobel Clark of the Council.  general; and since that, some others appointed by your Highness to take the cognisance of it in particular; and it is at this present before the Commissioners for discoveries at Worcester-house: But as the presence of the Sun obscures all other lesser lights, and makes them burn more dimly, so the assembling of the present Parliament doth in a manner suspend and supersede all vigorous actings of derivative and infeour powers: And therefore I have made bold to make this address immediately unto yourself, and to present unto your Highness own hand and view, in short, and yet in full too, the whole substance of the matter, with the grounds and reasons of it; showing the legality, equity, justice, and necessity of it, that you may at your leisure deliberately consider of it, and the more confidently resolve what to do in it. It is the unhappiness of great Princes, that they must see with other men's eyes, and hear with other men's ears; In this I desire your own may be Judges. And now, my Lord, I shall humbly crave your favourable protection in the offer of this proposal, and the further pursuit of it, if any further pursuit be made in it: For although it speaks nothing but Law and Reason, Equity and Antiquity; yet what entertainment it may probably meet with when it comes abroad, both the title and the subject of it may promise and presage, even such as all subjects of this nature do usually find, to be unwelcome; yet truly there are none of those that are most concerned in it, but upon conference, when they have rightly understood my mind in it, and their own Case, they have gone away wellsatified; but, my Lord, they will be better satisfied, if in consideration of those great sums your Highness is to receive out of the Church-revenues, so freely and so firmly by law conferred upon you, your Highness will be pleased to protect them in all the rest, and to settle upon the Church, and confirm unto it her ancient portion and patrimony, the Tithes, & to put them into a better capacity of demanding and receiving them, than now they are in, when men will pay them but what they list, and if they do but demand their dues of them in a legal way, presently they are threatened with ejectment, which (as things now stand with them) is no hard matter to compass, considering the many pins upon which their standing doth depend, and the world of exceptions, which the Commissions, Proclamations, Orders, and Ordinances made concerning them (if stretched upon the tenters, to the extremity of them, and acted upon with rigour) make them liable unto; besides, many of those which are their Judges in these cases being of different judgements from them in matters of Religion, and ways of worship, and directly principled, not only against their persons, but even against their very callings and the payment of Tithes, out of which their livelihood, and your highness's revenue should arise, the continuance whereof is the only way of perpetuating the Ministry, in the Church; and which once taken away, it will inevitably follow, that in short space the Ministry will be utterly ruined and rooted out of the Church of England, and that once down, all other Ordinances fall with it, which it is your highest honour to protect, and to uphold; but leaving those matters to your highness' wisdom and care, with the contribution of my prayers to the great God of Heaven and Earth, the high dispoof all things, for his blessed protection, direction, and assistance, to be ever present with you in all your Great, Noble, High, Wise, and Religious undertakings, I pass to the business intended, and subscribe as above,  
Your Highnesses and the Commonwealths, to serve you in all good ways, Thomas Bradley.   

A present FOR CAESAR.  
THere is no man that looks upon this Commonwealth, and considers it in the posture that now it stands, but he will confess that it would require even the golden mines of Peru to defray the charge of it, and to carry on the businesses in which it is engaged; hence it is that the supreme Magistrate, upon whose shoulders the government of it lies, is forced to raise vast sums of money by such ways & means as reason of state puts him upon, (as by contribution, excise, decimation, and the like) for the managing of them, which lie heavy upon the people, and are resented as grievous burdens: for let reason of State speak what it will, and necessity be never so pressing, men are not willing to part with their money, 'tis ease and freedom from burdens that they look for, which when they sensibly feel, than they will sit down satisfied and contentedly acquiesce in their condition. What was it that kept the 10 tribes so close to Jeroboam, and his successors, after the rent from Judah, that through the reign of 18 Kings they kept constant to them, and never returned again, But that he did that which Rehoboam should have done, and which the people sued for, and the grave counsellors advised him to, in making their yokes easier, and their burdens lighter? The nearest way 
I mean not as to the form of it, but as to the charge of it.  for us to do so too, is to alter the chargeable posture that we now stand in, if with honour, justice, and safety, that may be done: but if that cannot be, the next way is to supply it with treasure, by such ways and means as are most clear and smooth, and least liable to exceptions; and what more clear than what Law hath determined? what more just than for a man to demand his own? what more equal than for men to pay their debts which they owe? 'tis not a courtesy, but a duty, not a gratuity, but the payment of a just and due debt, To render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And such is that which here I offer, which if it may be managed by such hands as I have ready to commend, of men of known worth and integrity, fidelity and ability to undertake, and to perform it, It shall bring in to the Treasury for the present 100000l. and to the Revenue 50000l. yearly, and clearly, without any charge to the State in the gathering of it, or trouble, or just cause of grievance to any other that are most concerned in it, whose good is principally aimed at in this design, which is as followeth.  
I do propose, that the Statute of the 26. of Henry the 8th. and of the first of Qu. Eliz. for payment of first-fruits, and tenths, may be put into due execution, which require that they be paid in to the true value of them, and not as they stand partially rated in the late King's books, by an ancient inquiry made above 100 years since, which gives them not in to the 5th. nor to the 6th. nor scarce to the 8th. part of the true value of them, throughout the land.  

Some reasons showing the reasonableness, equity, justice, and seasonableness of this Demand.  
FIrst it is legal that they should be so paid, the Statute is clear, and peremptory for it as above, the 26. of Hen. the 8. and the 1. or Qu. Eliz.  
Secondly, And that Statute made in a free & full Parliament, where the Bishops chiefly concerned in it, as Lords Spiritual (so called) sat in the upper House, in great power, and with them in that Parliament six and twenty Abbots, which (together) with the Bishops, were able to have carried a Vote against the Lords temporal, which in those days were not so numerous. And besides these a full Convocation of the Clergy sitting, and unanimously assenting to it,  
Thirdly, And this Act so considerable, that three of the greatest Officers in the land, The Lord Chancellor, the Lord chief Baron, and the Master of the Rolls, are thereby required to make Inquiry from time to time, by all the ways and means they can in their discretion devise, to find out the true values of them, that so the first-fruits and tenths may be paid in accordingly. And against those would I have put in my information in the Committee for discoveries, if my Council had not otherwise persuaded and overruled me.  
Fourthly, There is good Bond for it, which every Incumbent (at his entrance into his living) enters into the first-fruits Office, called the Melius Inquirendum, the Condition whereof runs as followeth.  
THe Condition of this Obligation is such, that if the Rectory of A. in the County of B. be hereafter proved to be of more yearly value than ten pounds, then if C. D. Incumbent there, do answer the Keepers of the Liberties of England accordingly within one month after Certificate of due proof thereof had, and delivered unto him, without fraud or further delay▪ then this present Obligation to be void and of none effect, or else to stand and remain in full force and virtue.  
I Have taken some pains, and been at some cost in this Inquiry, and I find this ten pound, commonly to be an hundred, seldom less than fourscore; as for instances, the Rectory of Alsford in Hampshire, stands in the late King's Books at 29l. and some odd shillings: I have known this Rectory to be let at 450l. communibus annis, and besides the 
* Dr. healing.  incumbent reserving to himself the house, with the accommodatious about it, with some glebe land, and other advantages, to the value of 30l. a year, and upward. I could multiply instances of this kind, if it were necessary.  
Fifthly, We may better now afford to do it than heretofore, inasmuch as we are freed from many other burdens, and yearly payments which formerly we stood charged withal (as Synodals, and procurations) and good reason for it; for the duties upon which they were charged being laid down, which were the calling of Synods, and visitations of the Churches, which were to be done at the 
Procurabit Hospitia, & Synodalia.  charge of the Ministry, it will follow rationally, that the charge, occasioned by these duties, should die with them, as also the contributions usually given to the Bishops at their first entrance upon their Sees by way of gratuity.  
Sixthly, It was not so long since it was questioned, and that in Parliament too, whether any tithes should be paid at all, and shall it now be questioned, whether these dues shall be paid out of them to his Highness which the Law requires?  
Seventhly, what more usual with Christian Kings and Commonwealths than in great exigencies of affairs, as in their chargeable wars, etc▪ to supply their wants out of the Revenues of the Church, by receiving sometimes a tenth, sometimes a fifteenth part throughout their Dominions, and that where they have no such Law for it as we have, but only raggione del Stato, as the Italian speaks?  
Eightly, If you look upon the Preface that ushered in this Act when it was first made, in the 26. of Hen. 8. you shall find it speaks as strongly for his Highness, and the present affairs of the Commonwealth now, and they do as necessarily require it, as than they did.  
Ninthly, do the great affairs of the Commonwealth force his Highness to raise such great sums of money for the managing of them, by such ways and means as reason of state puts him upon, as by contribution, decimation, excise, and the like; and is it fit that such sums as these are, which are clearly due by Law, should lie asleep, and be waved the while?  
Tenthly, Let no man think it strange, that the melius Inquirendum should be now set on foot: The Lord Treasurer Buckhurst was setting it on foot in his time, as his Secretary Gurney told me about eight and twenty years ago, at my return out of Spain, where I had been with the Lord Cottington, ambassador▪ extraordinary, upon the treaty of the peace between the two Kingdoms, then and there honourably concluded, ever since which time I have had it by me.  
Eleventhly, I offered to set it on foot in the late King's time, and for that purpose acquainted the Archbishop of Canterbury with it, but he kept it off, and charged me upon my Canonical obedience I should not stir in it, neither did I while I owed him any.  
Twelfthly, and mainly, even those which are most concerned in it, and may pretend to have greatest cause to except against it, shall receive advantage by it; It is the only way to settle them in their tithes, and to confirm them upon them, and to engage his Highness to protect them in the possession and enjoyment of them, which before, and as yet do stand but upon tottering terms; most of the Counties in England having petitioned against them; let them pay their dues, and they may with the better confidence demand and require them: But in the mean time, while they pay their dues to his Highness in such an inconsiderable proportion, what if the Parishioner should take the advantage of it to pay his tithes by the same proportion; and being required to pay them to the full value, shall answer, that he pays his tithes in to the Incumbent, after the same proportion, that the Incumbent pays them in to his Highness and the Commonwealth, both being equally due? How this will stand good in Law I know not; but I am sure it is good in equity.  
Lastly, were the revenues yet left unto the Church distributed in any indifferent or reasonable proportion, with due respect had to the different worth, gifts, and parts, of those that are employed in the glorious work of the Ministry, and the different Congregations under their several charges, there is yet left means abundantly sufficient for the maintenance and encouragement of an able ministry throughout the land, cheerfully paying out of it his highness's dues too, which the Law requires in testimony of their thankfulness to him for protecting them in all the rest. For besides all the defalcations and deductions that have been made out of it, both in the time of Hen. the 8. and of the late Parliament, there is yet left unto it full half a million a year, and if course were taken, that this might be prudently proportioned, so as the greater livings might help the lesser, there would be found abundantly sufficient for both; and so all the revenues of the first-fruits Office, would come in clearly unto his Highness, which now goes all out in augmentations, and doth not serve the turn neither; And if all the revenues of the Church will not now be sufficient for the maintaining of the Ministry, now they are all set a part, and appropriated to that use, how did it serve the turn anciently, when they had scarce a fourth part of it, the other three being distributed to other uses? for if you look back into antiquity, you shall find, that primitively these revenues were not shared amongst the Clergy parochiatim, by Parish meal, as now, it was many hundred years since Christ, before the Land was so divided, and cantonized into Parishes; but all the tithes and oblations, and other revenues of the Church were put into several Church Treasuries, in every Diocese one, those treasuries committed to the care and trust of faithful and prudent men, by whom they were to be distributed to pious and charitable uses, as need did require; those men by whom they were to be thus distributed, were the Deacons, according to the primitive institution, Act. 6. Those uses unto which they were distributed, were principally these four. First for the maintenance of the Ministry. Secondly, for the relief of the poor. Thirdly, for the building and repairing of Churches, and Religious houses. And 4thly, for the redemption of Christian Captives, the relief of persecuted Christians, and the like, so that of all these revenues there was not above a 4th. part fell to their share; nor that neither, but with these 2 limitations.  
First, if they had no other competent means of their own to live upon; for if they had, then by the ancient Canons, they were to receive no distribution out of the Church Revenue; but were to preach the Gospel freely. Qui bonis Parentum sustentari possunt Clerici, si quod pauperum est accipiunt, sacrilegium committunt; Clerks or 
Hieron. cap. Clericos, 1. & 2.  Clergy men which may be sustained by the goods of their Parents, or (as I conceive he means) by maintenance left them by their Parents, if they take any thing of the poors' patrimony, they commit sacrilege; and what they meant by the poors' patrimony, appears by the same father in another place. Quicquid possidet Ecclesia, vel in fundis, vel in pecunia, pauperum est patrimonium; Whatsoever the Church possesseth, either in lands, or in money, it is the patrimony of the poor, they only had the honour and the trust of the distributing of it, or overseeing the distributing of it by the Deacons, in which regard most properly they were Episcopi, which signifieth overseers; And good reason that themselves, and the rest of the Clergy having not otherwise wherewith to sustain themselves, should be supplied out of the treasury; And so they were, but (which was the second limitation) that so sparingly, and so frugally, that there should be no allowance for any vain, or unnecessary expenses, much less for purchasing of lands and houses, for raising of families to greatness, lest of all for Princely pomp, and state; for what the pomp & state of Bishops 
Concil. Aquil.  was in those days, appears by that modest Canon made in the ancient Council of A quileia, in these words 
* The motto of my house at Nettl●bed.  Episcopus non procul ab Ecclesia habeat hospitiolum, vilem mensam, & supellectilem; Let the Bishop have near unto the Church a little house or Hospital, and in it a mean table, with mean houshouldstuff. That grave Council, even by the Spirit of prophecy foreseeing, and prudently endeavouring to prevent that which after followed in the Princely pomp of Prelates.  
Wherefore these things duly cosidered, I hope no man will be offended at me for what I here offer and present; but rather that I shall deserve thanks from all parties concerned in it respectively; from his Highness for endeavouring the augmentation of his Treasury, and the increase of his Revenue▪ in a legal way, whereby he may be the better enabled to defray the charge, and to carry on the great businesses of the Commonwealth, committed to his care and trust; from the Commonwealth, whose affairs shall by this means be the better administered, and they in due time eased from other burdens, now lying upon them; and from my brethren in the Ministry, whose portion and patrimony shall by this means be settled and confirmed upon them, and his Highness engaged to protect them in the enjoyment of them, together with his own interest, and in all other their ancient duties and immunities, now miserably invaded. In three words, Me thinks it should be satisfactory to all, that there is nothing here proposed but what there is Law for, what there is reason for, and what there is bond for. If his Highness will be pleased to remit all these his dues now he knows them, he shall therein do a very noble, and gracious Act, and I shall have my share in the benefit of it; but if (the exigencies of the time so requiring) he shall be pleased to demand them, we have no more reason to be offended with him for taking his own, than the people have to be offended with us for taking ours. The way for us to improve this payment to our own advantage, is to do it freely, and cheerfully, and out of our sense of the pressing necessities of the time, and our thankfulness to his Highness for our protection in them, to offer it up to him as a freewill offering; though there were no Law at all to require it. Were the Clergy of those times so sensible of the great burdens of the Commonwealth, and so thankful to the King for his care and pains in managing the affairs of it in troublesome times, as to make such a Law when there was none, and shall we be so insensible of the greater burdens of the present times, or so unthankful to the supreme Magistrate, upon whose shoulders the weight of them lies more heavy than ever it did upon that King, as not to observe it now it is made? surely, as the Clergy of those times did show their sense of the one, and their thankfulness to the other, in their free offer of this their assistance, in making such a Law; so the Ministry of these times will be much more forward to do their parts to assist, enable, and encourage the Magistrate in his government by keeping it, and every one to put to his little finger, to the easing of him of the heavy burden of it lying upon his shoulders; so as I trust I may generally in the name of them all, as well as of myself, tender this present unto him as to our Patron, Protector and Benefactor. And although that servant which doth no more than his duty cannot plead merit, nor challenge any extraordinary reward; yet upon this our readiness and cheerfulness in the performance of it, we may undoubtedly promise unto ourselves from his Highness such Acts of grace, in reference to our calling, and protection in the exercise of it, in reference to our maintenance by tithes, and that competent and certain, and in some indifferent manner proportioned unto us, & of our restauration to all other privileges, immunities & exemptions belonging to us, as may abundantly recompense the cost of our obedience in this matter. In order to all these things, and of settling all things into a right posture, concerning the Ministry, there was a paper drawn up with a great deal of care, pains, study, and circumspection, and offered to the late Parliament, though their multiplicity of business would not permit them to peruse and to consider of it within the time limited; which although it were presented by inconsiderable hands, Mr. Baker's and my own, yet there were other hands and heads used in the composing and perusing of it much more considerable; which if his highness's greater businesses would but permit him to peruse, or this present Parliament now convened to consider of, or to appoint some grave Committee to take the cognizance of it, it would be found to be of special use unto them, and to give them much light and many hints as to this business, not to be despised, in which we shall be ready at all times to serve them with our best endeavours, if it be required.  
In which (as also in any thing else that I have written, as touching the settling of Ministers in their dues, and their payment of their dues, I humbly crave to be candidly interpreted on both hands, my intentions in reference to both, being honest, just, and good, that Caesar may have his due, and that they that pay it may have theirs too, with an earnest desire and hope, that as they are to pay with one hand, so they may receive with the other; that in consideration of these great sums by their own voluntary Act, so clearly coming to the public treasury, for the public good, some Act of Grace may be past for them, or something done in favour of them, which may so balance the payment of it, as that they may resent it, not as a burden, but a benefit, not as a damage, but an advantage; if it shall please his Highness as freely to remit the payment unto them, as they did at first grant it unto him, and so engage the Pulpit to him that way, what is that to me? why should my eye be evil because his is good? he shall therein do an act both of bounty and policy; but what will the rest of the Commonwealth think the while, when (reason of State and necessity so requiring) he shall raise such great sums of money from them by all the ways and means he can rationally and prudentially devise, and in the mean time gratify these with such great sums of his own, so clearly by Law and reason due unto him? may his Highness be pleased but to take his own dues of them, and to grant them theirs in their ancient portion, and patrimony, with all those privileges, immunities & exemptions, in which the Law hath indulged them, custom confirmed them, and all the Kings of this Nation, not only since the conquest, but since the first reformation have protected them in, his highness' dues may be paid, his treasuries supplied, the commonwealth eased in good part in some other burdens, and in all this they no losers but gainers by the bargain.   
FINIS.