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the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the fisrtlings of thy herds and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always."

Of the third kind, that intended for the poor, we read in the 28th and 29th verses of the 14th chapter of Deuteronomy,-" At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shall lay it up within thy gates. And the Levite (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest."

We here see that under the Mosaic dispensation three-tenths, or at the least twotenths, of their annual increase was set apart for purposes of piety and benevolence; and not only was a tenth of the value of the land taken, but three-tenths,

or at least two-tenths, of the produce of the land, which must have necessarily amounted to a much larger sum.

As there was a blessing attached to the honest payment of tithes, so there was a curse attached to the neglect of it. We read in the 3rd chapter of Malachi, the 8th verse, the last of the Prophets before the appearance of our Lord,-that the neglect in this respect was considered as most criminal. Thus says the Prophet, speaking in the name of God, "Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me. But ye say

wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes

and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have obbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing, and there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Our Saviour gives his sanction to this duty when he charged the Pharisees with

their hypocrisy; "For ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone." And to the custom St. Paul alludes in the 7th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 5th verse," And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law. And although from the circumstance of the Roman government being hostile to the Christian religion, and the jealousy with which their labours were watched, it was impossible to propose or establish the same custom among the Gentiles, we find the Apostle continually urging upon the Christian converts the duty of maintaining their ministers, and of supporting and assisting their poorer brethren. Thus in

the 6th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, 6th verse,-" Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto

him that teacheth in all good things." And again in the 9th chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians,-" Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." And our Lord himself, when he sent his Apostles to preach in the cities of Israel, forbade them to carry gold, or silver, or brass, in their purses, or scrip for their journey, or two coats, or shoes, or staves, but to enter into the houses of those who were willing to receive them, and to eat what should be set before them, "for the labourer," says he, "is worthy of his hire."

And that which is remarkable, and

makes it probable that the appointment of tithes was from the earliest ages made by God himself, is, that the most barbarous nations, and the heathen Greeks and Romans, out of a principle of religion, common as it were to all men, often dedicated

their tithes to the gods. Laertius says, that when Pisistratus wrote to Solon to persuade him to return to Athens, he tells him that every one there pays the tithes of his goods for the offerings of sacrifices to the gods. Pliny says, that the Arabian merchants who traded in spices, durst not sell any till they had paid the tithe to their god. And Plutarch, in more cases than one, mentions a custom of the Romans of offering to the god the tithe of what they took from their enemies.

As soon as Christianity had become the established religion of the Roman Empire, we find emperors and kings appropriating their revenues to the maintenance of the ministers, and the keeping up the services of religion; and in our own country the kings, in the time of the Saxons, appropriated one-tenth of their possessions to this purpose, and the nobles and possessors of land imitated their examples, and thus introduced the system which is even at present in operation,although in many cases the funds are

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