frequently, and effectually (as they were obliged) teach Israel Gods Judgments, Deut. 33.10. and that the People might upon all occasions, resort to them for learning the sense of the Law of God, Mal. 2.7. and they do not here refer themselves to the Cha∣rity and Devotion of the People for their Mantenance out of any free Gifts; but they ground their claim upon the Command of God to Moses, Numb. 35.2. nor was this a General Command only of Cities and Suburbs, to be given to them, and the rest to be referr'd to the pleasure of the People, but the number of those Cities are expresly na∣med to be forty eight Cities, and their Lands and Suburbs are exactly measured in their extent belonging to the Levites, not for Tillage (for the Levites were to have no such Employment, Numb. 18.20.24.) but for Pasture, Pleasure, and other Country Com∣modities: Besides, all other means of their maintenance are precisely prescribed, as being the portion which God had appropriated to himself, and bestowed upon them as his Ministers that administred unto him, that so, they might not stand to the courtesie of the People, but acknowledge the Lord alone to be their only Benefactor.
The Second Remark is, The Children of Israel's readiness to grant this claim of the Levites thus grounded upon, and backed with God's Command, ver. 2. they gave them most willingly all those Cities and Suburbs, &c. which God commanded, and not only the bare use of them, but an absolute propriety in them, which they might upon neces∣sity mortgage, yet those Lands, &c. when Mortgag'd, must in the Jubilee return to the Levites, as to their proper Owners, Levit. 25.33, 34.
N. B. The Liberality both of God and of his People to the Ministers of God, is here very Marvelous, in giving 48 Cities to this one Tribe of Levi, which was the least of all the Tribes, yet have they the most Cities given to them, ver. 4.10.41. because it was the Lord's Pleasure to have this Tribe provided for in an honourable manner, seeing, he himself took upon him to be their portion, and made choice of them for his peculiar Service; therefore did he deal thus bountifully with his Ministers, partly to put Honour upon those whom he foresaw many would be prone to despise; and partly, that by this liberality, they being freed from wordly Distractions, might more entirely devote themselves to God's Service, and to the Instruction of Souls; There liberal main∣tenance did not hinder their Legal Ministry, nor was the Lord's Bounty to those Levites then look'd upon as a Burden to them, as too many, pretending Conscience, do dare to affirm at this Day, a Lesson they have learnt from Julian the Apostate, whose Project it was to take away Ministers Maintenance, that thereby no Ministry might stand in his way to oppose his reducing Christianity back to Paganism: Whereas it must be argued on this wise, if the Lord allowed the Levites under the Law, such a Liberal and Ho∣nourable Maintenance, as Cities, Suburbs, and Lands for their Cattle, &c. beside all the rest of their Incomes, by Sacrifices, Free-will-Offering, &c. all due to them by vertue of God's Command, whom only (and not the People) they were to own and acknowledge for their Patron and Benefactor. Assuredly the Lord hath not made worse Provisions for the Ministers of the Gospel, than he did here for the Priests of the Law. Seeing that if the Gospel is a more Glorious Dispensation than this of the Law; And this great point of a comfortable competency for Gospel Ministers, the Apostle strenuously demonstrates, Gal. 6.6. and 1 Cor. 9. throughout; from whence it may well be argued, to allow the Oxe nothing but the Straw for his treading out the Corn, and only so much Straw and no more than what the People please, this is a sure sign of a Gasping Devo∣tion, and of cursed covetousness, as the same great Apostle concludeth, 2 Cor. 9.5. 'tis well observed by an Interpreter, that in former and darker times amongst us in our Land, the Statute of Mortmain was Enacted in Parliament, which provided that Men should give no more to the Church; as if they had given enough already, and wanted rather a Bridle than a Spur: So liberal were our fore-Fathers to the Ministers of the Church in those times; but now,
—Tempora mutantur & nos mutamur in illis.
Times are so changed in these latter times, that their Posterities stand in more need of a Spur than a Bridle, the Spring of that Ancient Bounty is dryed up so, as Men com∣monly grudge their Ministers now a competent Subsistency, but we have a better and a more ancient Instance of an Act of Restraint made in the like case with our Statute of Mortmain, namely, that made by Moses to restrain the People when they had brought enough and too much towards the making of a Worldly Sanctuary, (as tis call'd, Hebr. 9.1.