Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	signify_v	word_n	1,913	5	4.1167	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62171	The infancy of elders a short treatise composed for vindication of the Christian liberty of freeborne denizens of England, or A refutation of the tyrannicall unlawfull mis-government of our church by lay-elders / written by J.S. minister of the Word in Lancashire.	J. S., Minister of the Word in Lancashire.	1647 (1647)	Wing S68; ESTC R8376	22,428	29

admitting them their sage and politique capacities as Elders and yet will take them off their feet and throw them upon their backes ere I leave them In prosecution whereof though it be not my custome to play with words yet for method sake I will first insist upon the definition of the word Elders Omnis enim qui de re aliqua instituitur sorme debes à definitione proficisci ut intelligatur quid fit de quo disputatur and prove that our Lay-Elders are no waies to be understood the things signified by the word Secondly of Civill Elders in generall and that here in England our Lay-Elders are not within that notion Thirdly of Spirituall Elders in generall and that they cannot be rightly taken for such Fourthly that Civill Elders are not to joyne with Spirituall in Ecclesiasticall affaires For the definition of the word Elder Verstegan and divers others affirme that it is an abreviation of a word which we borrow from the Saxons called Salden ealder which word is used for grave wise and expert men men which for their deserving parts excellent above others were made choice of to be Officers in the Common-wealth or else for such their noble deservings were promoted to dignity and honour And hence hath that custome growne in England That out of the Nobility were selected the most discreet and grave Barons and were made above the ranke of Barons Ealdermen In the Danish tongue Eorles in English Erles a name we continue to this day And indeed Erles and Elders are both one in the literall sense So likewise we have in every ancient Burrow a Court of Ealdermen that is to say Elders men of most sufficiency and discretion and these men were to bee honoured of others for their worthy and Noble vertues according to which Mr. Purchase in his booke called His Pilgrimage fol. 125. faith The Iewes have an affirmative precept to wit rise before thine Elder the word Elder being expounded in that place by Rabbi Jose saith it signifieth a wise man though young in yeares and to him the people were to rise at foure cubits distance and being past to sit downe againe according to this interpretation my Lord Cooke that grave and reverend Judge of the Law in the first part of his Institutes fol. 168. saith Aldermani non ita dicuntur propter aetatem sed propter sapientiam dignitatem adolescentes exim essent juris periti experti But stay I must not digresse too far from my businesse for what doth this concerne our reverend Coblers Websters Taylors Skinners c the Ruling-Elders of this age to whom I am sure the sense of this word is not applicable unlesse in reference to their Trades and Handicrafts and yet these filly upstart fellows now made Lay-Elders begin to puffe and swell already with pride and conceit themselves by a wonderfull providence to be exalted above their former equalls expecting submission from the people as unto Rulers for my part I shall acquit them of this crime and give my voice that the poore simple bumpkins are not to be blamed for it it being according to their education and tutoring for sith their Minister or High Priest tells them that their government was used amongst the Jewes well may they expect the circumstance or concomitance of their office to follow along with the office it selfe to wit that according to the Jewish custome the people should rise up before them But this is not all that causeth this timpany of pride in them they are further instructed that they shall reap profit by their places the same or more their territories considered as Bishops formerly exacted from the people Now this considered me thinkes the people have very much betrayed their liberty who gave any consent to this government for that whereas formerly the greedy gripings of Bishops and their officers were censured for high incroachments upon the peoples priviledges and freedomes and propriety in their goods they must needs now expect a huge multiplication of extortion from a numerous rable of Lay-Elders poore and meane fellowes put into Office who being called from their Trades and Handicrafts which was their livelihood must now of necessity live upon the people But I will proceed to a further explanation of the word The word Elder is sometimes taken for aged and hoary headed men as Levit. the 19. cap. the 32. ver our English translation renders it thou shalt rise before up the hoary headed And the 1 of Tim. 5.1 It is used for a word of Age not Office and all translations of such places render it Senior not Presbiter rebuke not an Elder translated by Beza by Junius Tremelius seniore non increpato by Erasmus seniorem ne savius objurges but all seniorem not Presbiterem Intreate him as a Father the yong men as Brethren It is likewise a word of age the 1 of Pet. the 5.1 The Elders which are among you I exhort c. and ver 5. likewise yee yonger submit your selves unto the elder but in this latter place it is a word both of Office and Age. Peter bidding them feed the flocke and therefore is the word there rendred Presbyteri as it is alwaies where it signifies Church Officers but not comprehensible of lay Elders of which anone in all other places it is rendred seniores Reader what is in other Countryes I cannot tell but in this County of ours in which these Master-ships Country Lay-Elders are leapt into Authority upō a private petitiō of some lordly Pastors mē never heard of by many thousands till the Ordinance came downe I know not any one particular man of them that is comprised within the sence of the word that is to be a hoary headed man but they are generally as non-sensically called Elders in this interpretation as they come short for challenging the name in the first to wit grave wise and expert Since God hath set these fellowes over us as a punishment for our sins and a meere reproach unto the Nation that men should rule over us that are not endowed with any thing to be honoured in them no not so much as with this which their Muse Dame nature amongst the rest of their Arts she hath quallified them with might easily have bestowed upon them but I will proceed a little further in expression of the Word and see if it will any wise concerne them The word Elder sometimes is a word of Ecclesiasticall Office and not of age and is as much as to say Priest or Bishop and is scarce mentioned in the new Testament in any other sence unlesse Mathew the 26.3 Math. 16.21 Jo. 11.47 where it is rendred Elders of the people which all Translators render seniores in other places it is translated Presbyter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the Greeke signifies seniores aetate Magis prisci qui Ecclesia presunt the word being derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Legatus mittor to be sent an Embassadour and this