QUERIES concerning TITHES TO THE Priests and Bishops.  
I. WAs not Tithes to be paid to the Levites which had no Lot amongst the rest of the Tribes? And was not the decayed Widows, and Fatherless, and Strangers, which had no Lot, to have part with the Levites in their Lot? and so eat, and drink, and praise the Lord together, the Tithes being the Lords.  
II. And did not Christ come to end the Levitical Priesthood that took Tithes? And did he not end Tithes, and the Command that gave them, and also the Law by which the Priesthood was made? And so did not Christ put down all?  
III. And was not Tithes called a Heave-offering, and a Shake-offering, and a Wave-offering? And did not Christ by offering up himself once for all the Offerings, end all? Not only the Offerings of Bulls and Goats, but the Heave an● Shake-offerings of Tithes? And if so; then do not they that hold up the Heave-offering of Tithes, and Wave-offering, deny Christ come in the Flesh, and offered up once for all?  
IV. Did any receive Tithes, or pay Tithes, but only the Jews, by the Command of God? Or had ever the Gentiles Priests a Command to receive Tithes, or the people of the Gentiles to pay them to them? Or are we outward Jews? Or are they the outward Priests and Levites to whom we must pay Tithes now?  
V. Or if you hold that Tithes are not to be paid Jure Divino, as you formerly pleaded, but by the Law of the Nation, then do you make that Law not to be of God, and so not being Jure Divino, is it not Jure Diaboli, and from the corrupt nature and power? and how can that be called Civil Right, which is not civilised by the power of God?  
VI And if you say the Law commands them to be paid to God and holy Church; will you say the Priests and Bishops are God and the Church? would not this be ridiculous? seeing the Poor hath no part, the Widow and Stranger hath no part, according to the Law of God; and that though the Jews were as the Stars of Heaven, and the Sand of the Sea, yet the decayed Widows and Fatherless, who had no Lot, were to have their Lot with Levi of the Tithes, that there might not be a Beggar amongst them.  
VII. And after Christ Jesus had ended the first Priesthood, Offerings and Tithes; and they that were believers in him, called Christians; was there not another provision made for the poor amongst the Christians than Tithes? as you may see in the first Conversion, and the first Ages of Christianity, that there might not be a Beggar among the Christians, according to the Gospel order, and Law of Jesus, as you see in the Acts, from the counsel of the Apostles, when they said, Choose you seven men, fearing God, hating covetousness, full of the Holy Ghost, to be set over the Christians at Jerusalem, to see that nothing be lacking among them; and if nothing be lacking, all is well.  
VIII. Did Christ give any such Command either among the Christian Jews, or Christian Gentiles, that they should receive or pay Tithes? or was there any mention of Tithes among the Christians for several hundred years after Christ? and was not the first paying of them in England, for praying of people's Souls out of Purgatory?  
IX. And hath not Christ said to his Ministers, Freely you have received, freely give? And doth not the Apostle say, he coveted no man, Silver, nor Gold, nor apparel, that he might be an example to all that came after him? And also said to Timothy and Titus how Bishops should be qualified, Not covetous, not greedy of filthy lucre? And so here have not the Teachers and Priests of Christendom forsaken that Order of Jesus, and the Apostles, who take Tithes of people's Estates, and will not preach without them; and also take away the Tenths of them they do not preach to; and if they will not pay them, sue them, and cast them into Prison? And would not such, if they had been in the Apostles days been ridiculous, who serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own Bellies? And if they were not justifiable then, how are they now?  
G. F.