SOME REASON'S AGAINST Paying Tithes, AND Upholding that Ministry that doth Receive the same.  
Written in Love to the Truth, and for the sake thereof, and in Love to my Neighbours,  
Stephen Smith.  
First, CHrist Jesus he is Lord of Heaven and Earth, and hath Power over all Flesh, by whom the World was made, who is Heir of all things, and hath right of Government in the Hearts and Consciences of all People, and over all the Kingdoms of Men, the Right of ordaining & appointing Ministers being in him, and also in giving forth his Righteous Law and Commands in their Hearts, where he ought to reign, where his Ministers so ordained of him are to wait, with their Minds stayed in his Light, to receive of him freely a Supply of Wisdom and Power, and to communicate from the same freely, and to be contented with what Provision the Lord is pleased to make for them; and by him there being a Change of the Priesthood under that Covenant given unto Moses and the People of Israel, there is made of Necessity a Change also of the Law; and forasmuch as the Priests in this Age, who are not ordained of Christ, do uphold that which the Lord hath changed, therefore we do deny them, and that which they claim for their Maintenance.  
II. These Priests being not ordained of Christ, nor appointed to that Office by him, they therefore do usurp that Authority, the which doth of Right belong to Christ Jesus, the which are presumptuous Sins, and therefore we do deny them.  
III. These Priests having denied the Revelation of Christ's Spirit now adays, and set up the Letter and Law without above the Spirit and Law within, by which its plain and evident, that they are Strangers to the great Love of God in his New Covenant, and being void of the Knowledge of the Gift of God to the World, they have nothing but Imaginations and Inventions of their own Brain-Study, and out of others Works and Labours, therefore we do deny them.  
iv They not being ordained of Christ they bring forth no pleasant Fruit, as is evident, but being ordained of Man, being Man-made Ministers, they are Men-pleasers, so no Servants of Christ Jesus, but of their own Bellies, and for the Sake thereof they are abominably greedy of filthy Lucre, and therefore we do deny them.  
V They being out of the Way of the Lord, and Strangers thereunto, therefore they can be no Guides therein, having set up Imaginations and Devices in their own Hearts, they follow them in defrauding People, therefore we deny them.  
VI Forasmuch as Christ hath said, John 10. All that ever came before me are Thiefs and Robbers, or as it may be rendered, All that go before him (Now mind) before Abraham was he was, and before the Prophets were he was; so the true Prophets they did not go before him, they waited for the Signification of Christ's Spirit, which was in them, the which was their Foundation, and this was the Apostles Foundation, and the Believers in the Primitive Time were built upon the same; but the Thiefs and Robbers were the false Prophets and Priests that came before him, who steal the true Prophet's words and use them in their Divination for Money, and Rewards, and Preaching for Hire, the which were wicked Practices, testified against and cried out against by the true Prophets; among which wicked Practices we finding the Man-made Ministers in this Age and Generation, who go before Christ, and being of that Number Christ Jesus spoke against therefore do we deny them.  
VII. All take notice, that the Testimony against Priests that preach for Hire is no new thing of twenty or thirty years standing, as some do vainly imagine; those Abominable Practices were testified against by the true Prophets; read Micah 3. Isaiah 56. Jer. 5. Ezek. 13. Hosea 6. and read Christ's Testimony against Hirelings, John 10. (and mind) all the Holy Men of God were and are of the same Mind. And for Priests and People now adays to pretend to Gospel-Order and gospel-days, and to live in the same, and if not worse Practices than the False Prophets, Priests, Teachers and People, who were before the more powerful Manifestation of Christ in Flesh, the Everlasting Gospel, who is the End of the Law for Righteousness to all that believe; this is a very great Shame even to the Name of Christianity, and the False Teachers the Priests being the Leaders into these Abominations; therefore we do Deny them.  
VIII. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ, he did exhort the then Believers, To follow him as he was a Follower of Christ, who ever was and is a blessed Leader out of Transgression, out of Sin, and therefore out of Strife and Contention; he taught and teaches to love Enemies, for this Cause was and is the Love of God in his Son manifest in Flesh, even to condemn Sin in the Flesh, and to destroy the Devils Works of Malice, Envy, Lust, Pride, Excess, Covetousness, Lying, Guile, Hypocrisy, Deceit, Fraud, Vain Worships, Vain Services, Persecution, and all other Abominations that may be mentioned; the true and faithful Witness, even the Light of his Holy Spirit in Mankind, never did nor will assent unto any thing that is Evil. And forasmuch as the Priests are led by another Spirit, and acted by another Spirit, as by their Fruits and Practices they are manifested, even to be led by the spirit of Cain, he being the first Persecutor about Religion; and the Priests being in the same Steps of Persecution, they may say if they will speak truly, Beloved, be you Followers of us as we are Followers of our Forefathers, Cain, the False Prophets and Teachers in Ages past; they bringing forth the same Fruits, therefore of Necessity they must spring from the same corrupt Ground and Root; and therefore let all the Wise in Heart judge, whether we have not Good Cause to Deny them.  
IX. It hath been so from the Beginning, that He that was born after the Flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now; & when we turned our Backs upon Ungodliness, & waited in the Grace of God, that we might live Godly and Righteously in this present Evil World, we did believe we might suffer by Unreasonable Ungodly Men, who live exalted above the Grace of God, of which Number the Priests are chief; and therefore we do deny them.  
X. And whereas Christ Jesus, who is Lord of the Sabbath, did above Sixteen Hundred Years ago set up the Everlasting Worship in the Spirit and Truth, and directed all to take that for their Leader into all Truth, the Truth and blessed Effects whereof being witnessed to the Praise of God this day, as it was in the primitive Time. And whereas the Man-made Ministers of this Age and Generation, who are not ordained nor sent of Christ Jesus, do teach for Doctrine the Commands of Men, and so Worship in vain, and by their Traditions and Vain Customs they have excluded that Worship in Spirit and Truth, the which Christ Jesus set up; therefore we do Deny them.  
XI. Whereas the Man-made Ministers now adays do make that their Plea for their Persecution and Wickedness, they have a Law, so said their Forefathers, the Scribes, Pharisees and Chief Priests, who crucified Christ, they said, They had a Law; and what Persecutors about Religion since Cain had not some seeming Pretence and Covering? though indeed these in this Generation do excel in rare Arts and Cover to hid their Wicked Bloody Spirit of Persecution under; but he is risen and come that sees through them, and teaches his Followers to deny them; and therefore we do deny them.  
XII. And we do commend the Reader for his full and complete Satisfaction about the Ground and setting up of Tithes, since the Gospel days, unto a Book entitled, The Great Case of Tithes Revived, by Francis Howgil, who Died a Prisoner for the Testimony of Jesus; in that Book are all Reasonable Objections clearly answered, and there is clearly shown, what a dark Night of Apostasy was over People when Tithes were set up by a Law, and how many Hundred Years it was after Christ before that gross Ignorance was ushered in, in making Laws to Persecute and Compel about Tithes.  
And unto all we do signify, That we have hopes in our Lord & Master, Christ Jesus, our Saviour, that he will maintain us by his Grace, and supply us out of his Fullness of Wisdom and Power to live godly, soberly and righteously in this present life, giving no just Cause of Offence to any, but in all things to live an innocent harmless Life, keeping our Conscience void of Offence, both before God and all men: And if any that may be among us, and profess to own our Principle, should do otherwise then Right and Just, let none be so rash as to condemn our just Principle, or those that live in it, because of the Unfaithfulness of some that may make some Profession of it, and not live up to it: And we do pray for all in Authority, that the Lord of Heaven and Earth may pour out his Spirit of Judgement & Wisdom upon them, that they may be opened, and the Nobility of their Understandings may be cleared from Darkness and Error, that they may discern between the Precious and the Vile, and that they may be for the Punishment of them that do Evil, and for the Praise of them that do well.  
The 16th of the 1st Month, 1676.  
THE END.