Voss—A True Bit of Instruction. 
691 
All this Jacob saw (as a prophet) in spirit, for the worship 
of God has continued uninterrupted until Christ fulfilled it 
for eternity. 
And therefore the tithe has not been done away with, as 
some have said in their misunderstanding of the Scriptures. 
Let us look at the words of Christ concerning it. Matt. 
XXIII. Luke XL 
Matt. XXIII. Christ says among other things: Woe unto 
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint 
and anise and cummin. Luke says: rue and all manner of 
herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God. Mat¬ 
thew: And have omitted the weightier matters of the law, 
judgment, mercy and faith: these ought ye to have done and 
not to leave the other undone. 
Here Christ neither forbids nor rejects tithes, because the 
giving of tithes is implanted and grounded in the law of 
nature, as are the ten commandments, and its observance 
Jacob signified as true worship, for with the ten command¬ 
ments it is counted in the moralia of the law (which are en¬ 
during and binding) and not in the ceremonia which Christ 
has abolished, as the Apostles recognize through the Holy 
Spirit and explain. Acts XV. Therefore Christ punished 
the Pharisees not because they paid tithes of little things, 
but because, as hypocrites commonly do, they made those 
matters of conscience and because they would not observe 
the more important matters, judgment, mercy, faith, and the 
love of God, as Paul Luke says. 
Therefore if the tithe serves love and mercy (it is grounded 
in the law of nature) and is a work of faith, which God sets 
above everything else and looks upon as the giver of all 
things and accordingly one is bound in ordinary love to 
give it for the sustenance of poor ministers, servants of God 
and other needy people (for of such is the kingdom of heaven), 
and no Christian should set his face against doing it. And 
thus it became a custom not long after the Apostles’ time 
in the beginnings of the church, as soon as Christ could be 
preached and confessed openly, at the time of Constantine 
and later, as the councils (whose decrees should not be disre¬ 
garded if they are in accordance with the scriptures and with 
faith, love and mercy) clearly show. We find it also in the writ¬ 
ings of the old teachers, in those of Hieronimus and Ciprianus 
