thieves and oppressors made their oblations among others, out of their ill-gotten goods, that they might glory in their wickedness, while the deacon in the church publicly recited the names of those that offered :—such an one offers so much; such an one hath promised so much : -and so they please themselves with the applause of the people, while their own conscience lashes and torments them." Those called the Apostolical Canons, speak also of the oblation of fruits, and fowls, and beasts, but order such to be sent home to the bishops and presbyters, who were to divide them with the deacons, and the rest of the clergy. Another sort of oblations were made monthly, when it was usual for persons that were able and willing, to give, as they thought fit, something to the ark or treasury of the church. Which sort of collation is particularly taken notice, of by Tertullian, who says, "it was made Menstruà die, once a month, or when every one pleased, and as they pleased; for no man was compelled to it: it was not any stated sum, but a voluntary oblation.”—Hence came the custom of dividing these oblations once a month among the clergy. For as Tertullian speaks of a monthly collation, so Cyprian frequently mentions a monthly division, in which the presbyters had their shares by equal portions, and other orders after the same manner. Whence the clergy are also styled in his language, Sportulantes fratres, partakers of the distribution; and what we now call Suspensio à beneficio, is in style Suspensio à divisione mensurnâ, suspension from the monthly division. Which plainly implies, that this sort of church-revenues was usually divided once a month among the clergy. And perhaps in conformity to this custom it was, that the Theodosian heretics, having persuaded one Natalius, a confessor, to be ordained a bishop among them, promised him a monthly salary of one

hundred and fifty Denarii,— μηνιαῖα δυνάρια ἑκατὸν Tevtxovta,” as Eusebius words it, referring to the usual way of distribution once a month among the clergy.If any one is desirous to know, what part of the churchrevenues was anciently most serviceable and beneficial to the church, he may be informed from St. Chrysostom and St. Austin, who give the greatest commendations to the offerings of the people, and seem to say, that the church was never better provided than when her maintenance was raised chiefly from them. For then men's zeal prompted them to be very liberal in their daily offerings; but as lands and possessions were settled upon the church, this zeal sensibly abated; and so the church came to be worse provided for, under the notion of growing richer. Which is the thing that St. Chrysostom complains of in his own times, when the ancient revenue arising from oblations was in a great measure sunk, and the church, with all her lands, left in a worse condition than she was before.' Bingh. v. iv. 1, 2, 3, 15.

No tithes.-'As to when tithes began first to be generally settled upon the Church, the common opinion is, that it was in the fourth century, when magistrates began to favor the church, and the world was generally converted from heathenism. Some think Constantine settled them by law upon the church; so Alsted, who cites Hermannus Gigas for the same opinion.' Bingh. v. v. 3. If tithes were due by divine right under the Christian dispensation, why did not the clergy claim them the first three hundred years ? But they are claimed now only by the law of the land.

Distribution of the church revenues.—' As to the distribution, in the most primitive ages, we find no certain rules about it; but as it was in the Apostles' days, so it continued for some time after: what was collected, was usually deposited with the bishop, and distribution was

made to every man according as he had need. But the following ages brought the matter to some certain rules, and then the revenues were divided into certain portions, monthly or yearly, according as occasion required, and these proportioned to the state or needs of every order. In the Western church the division was usually into three or four parts; whereof one fell to the bishop, a second to the rest of the clergy, a third to the poor, and the fourth was applied to the maintenance of the fabric and other necessary uses of the church. The council of Bracara makes but three parts; one for the bishop, another for the clergy, and the third for the fabric and lights of the church. But then it was supposed, that the bishop's hospitality should, out of such a proportion, provide for the necessities of the poor. By other rules the poor, that is, all distressed people, the virgins and widows of the church, together with the martyrs and confessors in prison, the sick and strangers, have one-fourth in the dividend expressly allotted them. For all these had relief, though not a perfect maintenance, from the charity of the church. At Rome there were fifteen hundred such persons, besides the clergy, provided for in this way, in the time of Cornelius; and above three thousand at Antioch in the time of Chrysostom: by which we may make an estimate of the revenues and charities of those populous churches. In some churches they made no such division, but lived all in common, the clergy with the bishop, as it were in one mansion, and at one table. But this they did not by any general canon, but only upon choice, or particular combination and agreement in some particular churches. As Sozomen notes it to have been the custom at Rinocurura in Egypt, and Possidius affirms the same of the church of St. Austin. What was the practice of St. Austin and his

clergy we cannot better learn than from St. Austin himself, who tells us, "that all his clergy laid themselves voluntary under an obligation to have all things in common; and therefore none of them could have any property, or any thing to dispose of by will; or if they had, they were liable to be turned out, and have their names expunged out of the roll of the clergy: which he resolved to do, though they appealed to Rome, or to a thousand counsels against him; by the help of God they should not be clerks where he was bishop." For his own part, he tells us, he was so punctual to this rule," that if any one presented him with a robe finer than ordinary, he was used to sell it; that since his clergy could not wear the same in kind, they might at least partake of the benefit, when it was sold and made common.' But as this way of living would not comport with the state of all churches, so there were but few that embraced it; and those that did were not compelled to it by any general law, but only by local statutes of their own appointment.' Bingh. v. vi. 3, 4.

The ancient clergy often traded as laymen.-' In some times and places, where the revenues of the church were very small, and not a competent maintenance for all the clergy, some of them, especially among the inferior orders, were obliged to divide themselves between the service of the church and some secular calling. Others, who found they had time enough to spare, negotiated, out of charity, to bestow their gains on the relief of the poor, and other pious uses. And some who, before their entrance into orders, had been brought up to an ascetic and philosophic life, wherein they wrought at some honest manual calling with their own hands, continued to work in the same manner, though not in the same measure, even after they were made presbyters and bishops in the

church; for the exercise of their humility, or to answer some other end of a Christian life. For, first, both the laws of church and state allowed the inferior clergy to work at an honest calling, in cases of necessity, to provide themselves of a liberal maintenance, when the revenues of the church could not do it. In the fourth council of Carthage there are three canons, immediately following one another, to this purpose: "that they should provide themselves of food and raiment at some honest trade or husbandry, without hindering the duties of their office in the church; and such of them as were able to labour, should be taught some trade and letters together." And the laws of the state were so far from hindering this, that they encouraged such of the clergy to follow an honest calling, by granting a special immunity from the Chrysargyrum, or lustral tax, which was exacted of all other tradesmen. Secondly, It was lawful also to spend their leasure hours upon any manual trade or calling, when it was to answer some good end of charity thereby; as that they might not be overburdensome to the church, or might have some superfluities to bestow upon the indigent and needy; or even that they might set the laity a provoking example of industry and diligence in their callings: which were those worthy ends, which the holy apostle, St. Paul, proposed to himself in labouring with his own hands at the trade of tent-making; after whose example many eminent bishops of the ancient church were not ashamed to employ their spare hours in some honest labour to promote the same ends of charity, which the Apostle so frequently inculcates. Thus Sozomen observes of Zeno, bishop of Maiuma, in Palæstine, "that he lived to be an hundred years old, all which time he constantly attended, both morning and evening, the service of church, and yet found time to work at the