Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	law_n	parliament_n	repeal_v	2,928	5	12.0628	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43627	The lay-clergy, or, The lay-elder in a short essay in answer to this query : whether it be lawful for persons in holy orders to exercise temporal offices, honours, jurisdictions and authorities : with arguments and objections on both sides, poyz'd and indifferently weigh'd / by Edm. Hickeringil ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1695 (1695)	Wing H1818; ESTC R10850	22,034	36

was as good as his word in that taking it without Law Less I could not well say in answer to this Objection that must be confest to be unanswerable otherwise than by acknowledging the miscarriages in Government to be true and too palpable for they were felt sufficiently but that Lay-men not Clergy-men had then the Administration of affairs both in the Privy-Councel and Cabinet injuriously therefore were such failings imputed to Laud and more injuriously to make all men of his Profession nay the very Profession it self to be guilty of his crimes This is as Logicians term it non causa pro causa To ascribe the treachery of Judas to all the Disciples Yet such was the Logick of those mad times in 1640 and 1641. and the same mad Infection still spreads its self amongst prejudiced and unthinking men Of which sort the number was much greater than now a days or else sure those sleighty Arguments and Objections against Clergy-men's exercising temporal Jurisdictions could not have prevail'd so far as to be formed into an Act of Parliament But men even yet are apt enough to be enclin'd to any thing that promotes their own interest or pleases their fancies how ridiculous soever Nevertheless soon after the Restauration and Return of King Charles II. in the first Free Free Parliament begun at Westminster May 8 1661. The First Act they made was for safety of his Majesties Person and Government And the Second Act viz. 13. Car. 2.2 was for safety of the two Houses of Parliament and the three Estates of this Realm Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and the Commons by replacing the ancient Groundsel which had been so fatally and with such bloody Consequences taken away by that rash Act made 17. Car. 1.27 whereby all persons in Holy Orders were disabled from exercising any Temporal Jurisdiction or Authority therefore the said Act was thereby from thenceforth repealed annulled and made void to all intents and purposes whatsoever to give you the very words of the said Act for that the said Act had made several alterations prejudicial to the Constitution and antient Rights of Parliament and contrary to the Laws of this Land and is by experience woful experience the only Mistriss of Fools found otherwise inconvenient In the next place let us consider the subtle Arguments and knotty Reasonings that went smoothly and currantly down with those whose appetites were prepared to relish and receive them in those easy times that were mistaken in the Causes of Misgovernment charging the faileurs and miscarriage during Laud's Ministration to the Vice of his Profession as a Spiritual Person and in Holy Orders therefore vicious and unhappy in him which would not so have been in a Lay-man And that God All-mighty blest this and blasted the other But such dreams never happen to any but men unacquainted with History and with the Temper of former times and of our own To instance only in the Contemporaries of Arch-bishop Laud was there ever an honester Privy-Concellor than Archbishop Abbot Or that gave the King wiser or better Counsel than he if the King would have hearkned Was there ever a wiser States-man and Lord Chancellor than Williams Bishop of Lincoln Or that managed that Place with greater prudence or success he made his way tho' he always row'd against the stream wind and tide against him Buckingham and Laud. Was there ever an honester or more wise and frugal Lord Treasurer than Bishop Juxten his Enemies the Rump-Parliament being Judges and after they had with prying Eyes examin'd his Books of Accounts Therefore it is as ridiculous as unjust to make all Clergy-men suffer for one man's offence and attribute the miscarriages of the Man to the Profession that as Andrew Marvel says if they keep to their Bibles make the best States-men in the World And surely they are as likely to keep to their Bibles and have been as Wise and Honest Statesmen as any other Men of what Profession soever For alas Laud did not Lead but Follow those bad methods and steps of raising Mony without the Peoples consont in Parliament of calling no Parliament to redress Grievances under which no People ever groan'd more so that those Minions and chief Ministers of State were afraid of Parliaments afraid to be called to account and more than one Parliament was disfolv'd for calling Buckingham to Account insomuch that the ills which those Ministers had done could not be safe but by attempting greater King James I. from the 7th to the 18th year of his Reign 11. years had not one Parliament and then all that was done in that Parliament was but the old business the Mony-business and an Act of Indemnity of which as the Favourites had most need so they promoted the same King Charles I. never called but three Parliaments all his whole Reign which lasted almost 24. years and the last Parliament he called outlasted him at least the Rump of it And it is observable that neither King Charles I. nor King James I. ever parted with a Parliament with smooth Foreheads dissolving them in a rage and sending them home with wrinkled Brows on all sides which sowred the Blood turn'd it to Choler so that after such long Intervals of Parliament when they met again they Vented it in a Rage and like Haman for the affront of one Mordecai they would he revenged of the whole Tribe and therefore made that Act which as aforefaid disabled all persons in Holy Orders from the exercise of any temporal Jurisdiction To Effect which let us listen in the next place to their Wise Reasonings Obj. 2. The next great Argument against Clergy-men's exercising Temporal Authorities was taken from Holy Scriptures and from the Example and words of our blessed Saviour Luke 12.14 When a man came to him and desired him to speak to his Brother that he should divide the Inheritance with him To which the Blessed Jesus replyed Man who made me a Judg or a divider over you Now quoth they Is the Disciple above his Master or the Servant above his Lord If the Master disclaimes the temporal poral Office of a Judg or Magistrate how comes his Disciples to claim the same and by what Authority Has the Man more power than the Master Ans I Answer That they that swallow such stuff as this must do it without chewing For such a construction and improvement of that Text Disrobes all Lay-magistrates as well as Clergy-Magistrates except the Lay-Magistrates renounce their Christianity and the Service of Christ For I was in good hopes that all the Judges Parliament-men Justices of Peace and Magistrates in England are and were Disciples of Christ and his Servants as well and as much as Clergy-men St. Peter call's the Lay-men to whom he writes The Servants of God And St. Paul more particularly stiles the Magistrate The Minister or Servant of God It is no disgrace for the King 's Writ to run in the stile that Moses his Precipe's and Commands did run