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CAP. XXI. In what right tithes are due: and first of the law of na∣ture.
VVE have said in our definition, that they be due unto God: now we are to shew by what right, and to prove it. First, therefore, I divide Tithes into two sorts, Morall, and Leviticall; Morall, are those which were due to God before the Law given in the time of nature. Leviticall, are those nine parts assign∣ed by God himself, (upon giving the Law) unto the Levites for their maintenance, the tenth part being still reserved to himself, and retained in his own hands. Mo∣rall tithes were paid by man unto God, absque praecep∣to, without any commandement; Leviticall tithes were paid by the Israelites unto the Levites, as transacted and set over by God unto them pro tempore for the time being, and that by an expresse Canon of the Ce∣remoniall law. To speak in the phrase of Lawyers, and to make a case of it; God is originally seised of tithes to his own use, in dominico suo, ut de feodo, in his own demesne, as of fee-simple, or as I may say, Jure Coronae, and being so seised by his Charter dated, year after the Flood, he granted them over to the Levites, and the issue male of their body law∣fully begotten, to hold of himself in Frank-Almoigne, by the service of his Altar and Tabernacle, rendring yearly unto him the tenth part thereof: So that the Levites are meerly Tenants in tail, the reversion expe∣ctant to the Donor, and consequently their issue fai∣ling, and the consideration and services being extinct and determined, the thing granted is to revert to the