Rev. Henry Constable (Gold or the Gospel) has well said, “The Levitical priesthood, by the command of God, received tithes of their people. It follows as certainly that Melchizedek had the same claim to a tenth from Abraham which they had from the Jews, i. e., a divine command. For, surely, if a tenth were Levi’s right by divine ordinance, while Melchizedek had no such right at all, he is in this respect inferior to Levi, and Paul’s argument from his reception of a tenth from Abraham an inconclusive one.” Why, too, if Christ does not have such a right and does not receive the tithe is He not in that respect at least inferior to Levi? Again, we quote Dr. John Owen. “When Abraham himself gave tithes to Melchizedek, he did it not in his own name only, but in the name of himself, and his whole posterity.” He argues the significance of the act as follows. Abram was called to be “the foundation of a new church;” he “had now received the promise” not only for himself, but for “all his seed in him,” and whatever he “did in obedience unto God, he did undertake in it for his posterity.” Wherefore “Abraham, in this solemn address unto God by Melchizedek the type of Christ, wherein he expressed his covenant obedience unto him, was the representative of all his posterity and in particular of Levi and all the priest that descended from him. And having now received the whole land, by virtue of a covenant, in behalf of his posterity, that it should be theirs, though he himself had never possession of it nor in it, he doth in the name of his posterity, and as their representative, give the tenth unto God by Melchizedek, as the chief rent which God forever reserved unto himself, upon the grant.” This is a remarkable argument from one who earlier in his comments rather hesitatingly tries to break the force of the tithe argument in general, largely, it is evident, because of the misuse of it under the monstrous enforced system of his day. However, if we, as Paul contends in Galatians, are children of faithful Abraham, and “there are not two churches, but two states of the same church” as Dr. Owen puts it, then either Scripture contradicts itself, or we prove false to our covenant relationship and dishonor Christ when we do not do homage to Him in person, as our father Abraham did in type in the paying of tithes. I see no escape from this alternative.