Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	high_a	levite_n	12	3	9.3997	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49529	Episcopall inheritance, or, A reply to the humble examination of a printed abstract of the answers to nine reasons of the Hovse of Commons against the votes of bishops in Parliament also a determination of the learned and reverend bishop of Sarum Englished.	Langbaine, Gerard, 1609-1658.	1641 (1641)	Wing L367; ESTC R22130	27,048	63

When the Arke of God whereunto they sought not in the dayes of Saul had continued long at Kiriath jearim David out of his zeale and piety was moved to prepare a Tent for it inthe city of David and when he began to remove it hee called a great Assembly of principall men but did not make that use of the Priests and Levites as he ought to have done and therefore the Action prospered not but there happened a terrible Iudgement upon VZZah which hindred the progresse of the good worke and David was afraid of God that day saying How shall I bring the Arke of God home to me So the Arke rested in the house of Obed Edom. But afterwards upō better advise David perceived his errour and he confesseth it cap. 15. 12 13. speaking to the chiefe of the Priests and Levites Sanctify your selves both yee and your brethren that you may bring up the Arke of the Lord God For because you did it not at the first The Lord God made a breach upon us for that we sought him not after the due Order This was a great and a godly worke that was then intended and therefore King David called a great Parliament about it 1. of the Elders of Israel 2. of the captaines of thousands and hundreds whose names and praises are recorded 1. Chron. 11. 26. 3. the Priests and Levites who did it not at the first ver. 13. But now upon better advise King David assembled with the first the children of Aaron and the Levites ver. 4. So that men of all Estates were now present in this godly worke This is to bee marked well of Princes and of all those of any high calling or degree that hath to doe in Gods cause David doth nothing in matters pertaining to God without the presence and especiall concurrence of Gods Ministers appointed to bee spirituall rulers in Gods Church And at the first meant to convay the same Arke to Ierusalem finding their absence and want of their Counsell hurtfull therefore hee saith to them Yee are the chiefe Fathers of the Levites Because yee did it not at the first Thus saith King Iames of blessed memory but now there is a generation of men who doe not thinke the Clergy necessary men to bee consulted that will interpret scriptures remove the Arke as it were and doe things without the presence vote and suffrage of the chiefe Fathers of the Levites which how it agreeth with this pious example of King David and King Iames meditation upon it I leave to be considered and submit to better judgements XXI The first frame of our English Commonwealth was so fetled and ordered by the Saxon Kings when once they became Christians That the Bishop in his Diocesse together with the Earle of the County and so their deputies in inferior Courts under them should be equall Iudges together upon the same Bench in the same Courts and there determineall causes in the forenoon Church-matters and in the afternoon secular busines As Bishop Iewell in part observeth in his Defence of the Apology part 6. pag. 522. This course continued till William the Conquerour and perhaps it had been very happy for our Commonwealth if the frame of our laws and Courts had so still continued mingled together for many reasons that I will not now insist upon XXII The Conquerour first separated the Temporall Courts from the Ecclesiasticall yet not diminishing the authority of the Churches Iurisdiction which by his oath he confirmed and promised to preserve affirming quòd per Ecclesiam Rex Regnum solidum habent subsistendi fundamentum So that he subverted not the Ecclesiasticall power and Iurisdiction but as formerly in the County or in the Hundred so now in the Bishops Court all Ecclesiasticall causes were heard and determined for the old manner the lawes of King Edgar doe shew it cap. 5. Intersit unusquisqueHundredi Gemoto ut superiùs est praescriptum habentur burgemoti tres quotannis duo verò scire gemoti de istis adsunto loci Episcopus Aldermanus doceatque alter jus divinum alter seculare In Hundredo aderant Thani quos Baroues vocant posteri ut patet è LL Ethelredi cap. 1. ipsique judices Ecclesiastici cum partis illius clero in Hundredo enim non minùs quàm in comitatu unà tunc agebantur quae ad forum pertinent Ecclesiasticum quae ad seculare donec Gulielmus Conquestor divisis jurisdictionibus hanc ab illa separavit XXIII For the Division of the Courts and the erection of the Ecclesiasticall to sit by themselves under the Bishop and Archdeacon it appeares by the Charter of King William to the Deane and Chapter of Lincolne And although it be sent in the direction by name to them only yet it seems it grew afterwards to be a generall law no otherwise then the statute of circumspecte agatis that hath a speciall reference only to the Bishop of Norwich as Mr Selden relateth in his history of Tithes cap. 14. 1. in his Ianus lib. 2. 14. and in his not ad Eadmer pag. 167. The words of it as they are recorded are Willielmus gratiâ Dei Rex Anglorum Comitibus vicecomitibus omnibus Francigenis Anglis qui in Episcopatu Remigij Episcopiterras habent salutem Sciatis vos omnes caeteri mei fideles qui in Anglia authoritate praecipio ut nullus Episcopus vel Archidiaconus de legibus Episcopalibus ampliùs in Hundret placita teneant nec causam quae ad Regimen animarum pertinet ad judicium secularium hominum adducant sed quicunque secundùm Episcopales leges de quacunque causâ vel culpâ interpellatus fuerit ad locum quem ad hoc Episcopus elegerit nominaverit veniat ibique de causa sua respondeat non secundùm Hundret sed secundum Canones Episcopales leges rectum Deo Episcopo suo faciat Which I the rather transcribe here because also it seemes togive the originall of the Bishops Consistory as it sits with us divided from the hundred or County Court wherewith in the Saxon's time it was joyned And in the same law of his is further added Hoc etiam defendo ut nullus laicus homo de legibus quae ad Episcopum pertinent se intromittat c. Thus M. Selden only the words of the charter are more fully recited out of the Records by another learned Authour Si verô aliquis per superbiam elatus ad justitiam Episcopalem venire noluerit vocetur semel et secundò et tertio Quòd si nec sic ad emendationem venerit excommunicetur Et si opus fuerit ad hoc vindicandum fortitudo et justitia Regis vel Vicecomitis adhibeatur Ille autem qui vocatus ad justitiam Episcopi venirenoluerit pro unaquaque vocatione legem Episcopalem emendabit Hoc etiam defendo et meâ authoritate interdico ne ullus Vicecomes aut

Seniores verò ipsos quos dixi septuaginta populi seniores Quare Ioseph ab Arimath Senator sive decurio Nobilis idem Concilij particeps fuit Siquidem scriptū est ipsum cum caeteris assensum damnationi Christi non praebuisse Principes autem sacerdotum dico illos qui vicenis quaternis sacerdotum classibus seu vicibus singuli singulis praeerant Scribas verò ipsos legis doctores quos Prophetas Iosephus vocavit To both these judicious Abbreviators of the Iewish government the learned Reader for his further satisfaction may adde the late excellent Annotations of C. L' Emperour upon the 11. chapter of Bertram cited before Now seeing David appointed no lesse then sixe thousand Levites for the outward businesses it could not bee but that many of them were imployed in their secular and civill affayres Whereas now there is not one hundred of the Clergy imployed throughout our whole Kingdome there being not above three or foure Iustices of peace in a whole shire The Priests the sonnes of Levi saith God shall come neare or forth out of the cities where they were placed in every tribe and by their word shall all strife and plague be tryed Remembring alwayes that doubtfull and weighty matters were reserved to the Councell of Priests and Iudges that sate in the place which the Lord did chuse for the Arke to rest in If there come a matter too hard for thee in judgement between blood and blood cause and cause plague and plague of matters in question within thy gates thou shalt arise and goe upto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose and shalt repayre unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Iudge that shall be in those dayes and aske and they shall shew thee the sentence ofjudgemene and thou shalt doe according to that which they of the place shew thee and shall observe to doe according to all that they informe thee thou shalt not decline from the thing which they shall shew thee neither to the right hand nor to the left And the man that will doe presum ptuously in not hearkning to the Priest that standeth before the Lord thy God to minister there or unto the Iudge that man shall dye XIX This Councell or Senate of the Elders residing at Ierusalem in Iehosaphats time who no doubt did not infringe but rather observe the tenor of the law consisted of Levites and of Priests and of the heads of the families of Israel and had Amarias the High Priest chiefe over them in all matters of the Lord as Zebediah a Ruler of the house of Iudah chiefe for all the Kings affayres and was a continuance of the 70. Elders which God adjoyned unto Moses to beare the burden of the people with him And this Court cannot be better resembled among us then to our Parliament for there was but one Councell of that nature in the whole land of Iury and that consisting of some of the chiefest of every tribe and they not only debated and concluded the highest affayres of that Realme as warre peace appeales from all places punishments of whole Cities and Tribes and such like but also ruled and rectified all Cases omitted or doubted in Moses law and were obeyed throughout the land upon paine of loosing goods or life or being forever excluded from the people of God as they pronounced or prescribed Thus the Reverend and learned Bishop Bilson in his perpetuall Govern cap. 4. Besides in every city there were private and peculiar Rulers 7. in number as Iosephus saith and also to every Magistracy in those cities there was allotted two of the tribe of Levi for assistance as Iosephus witnesseth and if these could not determine the businesse thenthey did appeale to Ierusalem to the great Sanhedrim Now God appoynted these offices and dignities and power of Iudicature to the Priests and Levites besides their attendance upon Gods service which they might persorme duly intheir courses and yet be helpfull to the Common-wealth in government for they did not neglect their principall duty to attend the sacrifices and service of God and to instruct the people in the law of God together with the duties of Iudicature and Iusticeto be performed in the Common-wealth Yea sometimes the principall Iudges were chosen out of the tribe of Levi as at the beginning of their Common-wealth Moses himselfe the greatest Prophet and Prince that ever almost was among them So after in succeeding times Eli the High Priest was the Iudge in his time so Samuel a Levite And also after the captivity of Babylon for some five hundred yeares till the comming of Christ the Priesthood had the greatest stroke in the government as under the Macchabees wherein they performed their duty very worthily and it pleased God to make that family as victorious as any other almost that ever governed that Commonwealth As Sr Walter Rawlie saith lib. 2. cap. 15. If thus it were among them why then should any in these dayes bee so much displeased that a Bishop or a Clergy-man should have any part in the government of the Common-wealth or assistance of government for the better ordering and directing of Iudgement as to be Counsellour to a Prrnce as Zechariah the Levite was or to be Iustice of peace in the country who handles matters of Equity good Conscience for preserving of publique peace order and quietnes among neighbours wherein happens many businesses that depend much upon the conscience of a Iustice the equitable rules of the scripture whereof Clergy men are the most competent Interpreters As also many causes happen touching the estates and persons of the Clergy who have little reason to be subject only to secular Iudges without some of their owne tribe on thebench to see faire carriage and indifferent dealing XX Besides I cannot omit one passage in a late discourse entitled An Assertion of the Scottish government Wherein the Authour cap. 3. makes his argument for ruling Elders thus Whatsoever kind of Officers the Iewish Church had not as it was Iewish but as it was a Church the same ought the christian Church to have also but the Iewish Church had Elders c. for Elders is not now my businesse but it may be likewise inferred But the Iewish Church and commonwealth had Priests Levites mingled and joyned together with the Princes of thetribes in all civill courts of Iustice and Assemblies of the state therefore ought it to be so now in the Christian Church That it was so anciently among them is sufficiently proved already but especially when busines concerned God matters of religiō then the Priests and Levites were principall and necessary men to be imployed as may clearely appeare by the doings of King David about removing of the Arke to the place that he had provided for it Whereupon King Iames hath written a very pious and excellent meditation pag 81. upon the 1. Chron. 15. some of whose words I will here recite