After their rejection of God in the demanding of a king, they enjoyed still the same revenue; but the right thereof was derived from that, that the kings did never take it from them: for the public revenue was at the disposing of him that was the public person; and that, till the Captivity, was the king. And again, after the return from the Captivity, they paid their tithes as before to the priest. Hitherto therefore Church livings were determined by the civil sovereign. [Sidenote: In our Saviour’s time, and after.] Of the maintenance of our Saviour and his apostles, we read only they had a purse, which was carried by Judas Iscariot; and that of the apostles, such as were fishermen did sometimes use their trade; and that when our Saviour sent the twelve apostles to preach, he forbad them (_Matth._ x. 9, 10): _to carry gold, and silver, and brass in their purses, for that the workman is worthy of his hire_. By which it is probable, their ordinary maintenance was not unsuitable to their employment; for their employment was (verse 8) _freely to give, because they had freely received_; and their maintenance was the _free gift_ of those that believed the good tiding they carried about of the coming of the Messiah their Saviour. To which we may add, that which was contributed out of gratitude by such as our Saviour had healed of diseases; of which are mentioned (_Luke_ viii. 2, 3) _Certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary Magdalen, out of whom went seven devils; and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance_. After our Saviour’s ascension, the Christians of every city lived in common (_Acts_ iv. 34,35) upon the money which was made of the sale of their lands and possessions, and laid down at the feet of the apostles, of good will, not of duty; for, _whilst the land remained_, saith St. Peter to Ananias (_Acts_ v. 4), _was it not thine? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power?_ which sheweth he needed not have saved his land nor his money by lying, as not being bound to contribute any thing at all, unless he had pleased. And as in the time of the apostles, so also all the time downward, till after Constantine the Great, we shall find that the maintenance of the bishops and pastors of the Christian Church was nothing but the voluntary contribution of them that had embraced their doctrine. There was yet no mention of tithes: but such was in the time of Constantine and his sons the affection of Christians to their pastors, as Ammianus Marcellinus saith, describing the sedition of Damasus and Ursicinus about the bishopric, that it was worth their contention, in that the bishops of those times, by the liberality of their flock, and especially of matrons, lived splendidly, were carried in coaches, and were sumptuous in their fare and apparel. [Sidenote: The ministers of the Gospel lived on the benevolence of their flocks.]