Voss—A True Bit of Instruction. 
693 
Therefore it follows in the third place that the tithes should 
not be given to the rich who would merely make a display 
with it and would not help the poor with it; whether they 
be noble or plebeian, spiritually or worldly minded, whether 
they live in monasteries or cloisters, unless they distribute 
it among the poor and sustain the ministers of the churches 
to which they belong and from which they take the tithes. 
This is certainly true and is sanctioned both by natural and 
divine law, and neither worldly law nor custom should be 
opposed to it as I have clearly shown in a sermon on the 
love of God and one’s neighbor (published in the year xxiv, 
(1524). 
In case one should look upon the tithe as a temporal 
possession (as though God had given through the kings, so 
that one might be justified in saying this is mine, (not as 
though God had given everything) the HOLY Scriptures 
decree that one is bound according to the plan of God to 
give it to the king when he shall demand it, as we read in 
the eighth book of Samuel: And he will take your fields, 
and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of 
them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the 
tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give them to 
his officers (i. e. eunuchs), and to his servants. And he will 
take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 
Accordingly the tithe belongs to the king, if it has been 
pledged before the people of his kingdom: if it has not, it 
should not be exacted as a new burden, unless it is done for 
lawful reasons: and when the deficits are made up it should 
be discontinued: because of all this he the king is called a pro¬ 
tector and defender by human laws. How much more is 
not God the giver of all things by natural divine rights. 
And since God cannot be against Himself, Christ has not 
absolved us from that order but rather subjected us to it. 
And if we were real Christians, it would make our hearts glad: 
as it did the Apostles, who were glad that they were worthy 
to suffer for Christ. 
In order, however, that ye may note from what Christ 
has absolved us, give heed to the brief conclusion. 
Christ has not absolved us from any temporal, external 
thing, which He took upon Himself or did for us (with the 
exception of the circumcision, which gave way to baptism: 
but He gave to us an example which we should follow, as 
