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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	lord_n	time_n	3,556	5	3.5091	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78503	A certificate from Northampton-shire. 1. Of the pluralities. 2. Defect of maintenance. 3. Of not preaching. 4. Of scandalous ministers. As there is an order lately printed and published concerning ministers, by a committee of the high court of Parliament. Wherein every ingenuous person is desired to be very active to improve the present opportunitie, by giuing true information of all the parishes in their severall counties.		1641 (1641)	Wing C1766; Thomason E163_13; ESTC R5755	9,545	23

Edmonds Knight whose sonne Mr. Charles Edmond hath repaited the Chancell and the body of the Church and destroyed the Pigeons pulling downe their nests and hath put all things in good order for the Church and Fabrick only thee poore U●car is destitute of globe or dwelling house and for these 80. yeares it hath stood in a miserable case though upon a late suit in th'E●chequer the Vicarage tithes are recovered and upon the next avoydance it is hoped there will be some amendment 5. The Vicarage of Thrip within three miles of Northampton is very poore and contemptible having only a beggarly Cottage allowed to the Vicar for his dwelling house and some small tithes to the value of 20 pounds yearely or somewhat better if they bee well payd but the Parsonage house and glebe which by right and the old indowment which lately remained upon Record doth belong to the Vicar is detained by Sir Richard Samuel Knight not by any good title in law but some colour of an Order as is reported in th' Exchequer made long agoe when his Grandfather perhaps was an Auditor in th' Exchequer and so might procure some favour there in his owne behalfe more then a poore miserable Vicar could ever get reversed or altered The tithe corne is worth one hundred pounds yearly which also Sir Richard Samwell holdeth an Appropriation But by this meanes the Vicar is very poore and in part scandalous being a man chosen by Sir William Samwell and there presented who would be sure to place one in the Vicarage that for want of wit and meanes should neuer be able to make any question of the Parsonage house and glebe The want of bread and drinke in his owne house doth make him too often frequent the Ale-house where if he talke foolishly it is not much to be wondered at 6 The Parsonage of Lampert distant foure miles from Northampton is worth about 400 pounds yearely but it is held by Sir Iohn Issam Knight by colour of an old long Lease and the present incumbent hath but some stipend upon agreement but hee-hath also another Living not farre off where he resideth but if this Rectory had the rights restored it would give entertainment to any one of the most eminent Divines in either Universities and there might be continuall preaching in very due manner with great hospitality and reliefe of the poore The old Curate Master Bunny who dyed lately lived very poore and long and no marvell if there were little preaching and 't is pitty that such a great Living should be swallowed up under colour only of a Lease 7. Duston a poore Vicarage stipendiary neere Northampton Master Iames the Vicaris well reputed but his living is very poore only 20. pounds yearely some 5. pounds more was given lately by the Honourable Earle of Warwicke but he having sold his estate there that Exhibition is discontinued 8. Dallington a poore Vicarage neere Northhampton the Patron is Sir Henry Wallop There are many other poore Vicarages and Livings in this Countrey occasioned sometimes by the Appropriations sometimes by the meane and small rates which in many places are given only for tithes as twenty shillings where twenty pounds were due if tithes in kind were paid I think the Clergie would be content to forgo their pluralities being so few for the number if the poore Vicarages and other poore livings might be made competible or enjoy their fulltithes and the small rates taken away throughout the whole Kingdome which is but a very reasonable proposall if pluralities should be taken away and till there be a tolerable maintenance provided in every parish it is impossible that there should be a constant faithfull preaching ministery throughout the whole kingdome which hath beene so often moved and petitioned for in Parliament Cambden doth reckon almost the one halfe of the parishes in the Kingdome to bee Vicarages there being in the whole nine thousand two hundred whereof almost foure thousand are Appropriate Churches which for the most part are poore besides also many Parsonages are very destitute and unfit to give entertainment to a constant and diligent Preacher and many also are shamefully spoyled and robbed most unjustly though they be not Appropriate It hath beene reported that it was once voted in Parliament in Queene Elizabeths time that an Act might passe to make it lawfull for them that would bee willing to restore Impropriations to the Church which now is not lawfull in an ordinary way without charge and that the Religious Earle of Huntington offered to restore all the Impropiations of his estate which then was great and might have many in it The motion was in many respects Christian pious and very religious but it happened to be denyed ne res transiret in exemplum Which was detestable and perhaps one cause why God hath given no better successe to many Parliaments since that time Master Calvin speaking of Impropriations saith that the theft is still continued in the Church only the theeves are changed heretofore the Monks and Friers were the theeves now many that would be accounted good Protestants It were much to bee wished that the Parliament would make an Act whereby it should be freely lawfull and absolutely cleere in Law without any hinderance to restore or purchase Impropriations to the Church wherein of late yeares many worthy Gentlemen have given singular good example as Master Richard Knightly who dyed lately restored Preston and Faustey as is reported whiles he lived blessed be his name and memory I have heard a wise man propose a course how the Restitution of Impropriations might be made easie and that was if the King would bee pleased to publish and grant Letter Patents to give leave for restitution of them and if this may hold good in law as good Lawyers may easily informe and direct a course for the drawing of the Letters Patents it would in time produce many singular and good effects for many well disposed Gentlemen are willing to restore and many might bee named as Sir william Dorrington Knight of Hampshire restored six out of his owne estate to the value of five hundred pounds yearely and more Concerning the scarcity of preaching Ministers throughout the whole Kingdome In the generall it may be objected that there is no scarcity for it is thought and I take it may easily bee proved that for number there are more Preachers and for worth and desert more excellent within these last 40. yeares then ever was since the Reformation of Religion or since we were first Christians And both the Universities have greatly encreased in numbers of Schollers and Preachers especially since King Iames his time because he gave so pious example being excellently learned himselfe and speaking favourably as the good Hezekias did to all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord. Perhaps the scarcity of preaching Ministers if it be so may arise from the causes alledged in the Conference at Hampton Court Where the King saith that he

had consulted with his Bishops about that complaint whom hee found willing and ready to second him in it but as subita evacutio was periculosa so subita mutatio therefore this matter was not for a present resolution because to appoint to every parish a sufficient Minister were impossible the Universities would not afford them Againe hee had found already that he had more learned men in his Realme then he had sufficient maintenance for so that maintenance must first be provided and then the other to be required What the King saith that the Universities will not afford store of learned Preachers to supply every parish throughout the Kingdome is true if a view and consideration be taken of their numbers for both Universities will not afford constantly every yeare 200. Preachers though perhaps at this instant they would afford 100. a piece because there bee many there that would gladly bee gone if they had Benefices whereas of nine thousand parishes and 200. in all there dyes five or six hundred Ministers every yeare so that there should be to supply the vacancies that happen by death every yeare so many ready Preachers if the Colledges could afford them but seeing the Universities cannot afford so many the supply of the rest 300. at least yearly must come from Curates Schoole-masters and such as teach children in the houses of Knights and Gentlemen whom they commonly reward with some Benefice in their gift and donation But further in that Conference of Hampton Court Doctor Bilson then Bishop of Winchester made knowne to the King that then insufficiencie of the Clergie be it as it was at that time came not by the Bishops defaults but partly by Lay-Patrons who did present very meane men to their Cures whereof in himselfe he shewed an instance how that since his being Bishop of Winchester very few Masters of Art were presented to good Benefices partly by the law of the Land which admitteth of very meane and tolerable sufficiency in any Clerkes so that if the Bishop should not admit them then presently a Quare impedit is sent out against him And certainly it cannot bee denyed but that man Patrons are very much to bee blamed for as the excellent Bishop Iewel complained in his time in a Sermon before the Queenes Majesty that if the Patron were no better then a Gentleman they seldome suffer a Benefice to passe but either for the Lease or for ready money I wish it were made by Law to be felony to take either Lease of the tithes or ready money for a Living Mr. George Catesby Gentleman that wants neither wit nor learning and one that will talke zealously for Religion yet he sold most shamefully a very good Parsonage viz. Acton worth 240 pounds yearely first to one Master Carjer then to one Master Parker two scandalous Ministers for many disorders so that Master Catesby was the true cause of that scandall and mischiefe that did arise to the Church thereby and now the same Living is upon sale againe the third time the old incumbent being hurt and sickly But when Benefices are exposed to sale the choyce of a Minister can never be good for Chapmen that buy in this kind are commonly obnoxious men or none of the best sort Master Perkins that man of God in his Sermon of the duties and dignity of the ministery giveth three reasons of the rarenesse and scarcenesse of good Ministers 1. The contempt and disgrace of their Calling by wicked and worldly men 2. The difficulty of discharging the duties of their Calling 3. The third is more peculiar to this age of the New Testament viz. Want of maintenance and preferment for men that labour in the Calling and that in these times under the Gospell when it deserves best to bee rewarded Certainly it were a worthy Christian policy to propound good preferments to this Calling that thereby men of the worthiest gifts might be wonne to it and the want thereof is the cause why so many young men of especiall parts and greatest hope runne to other vocations and especially to the Law wherein at this day the greatest part of the finest wits of the Kingdome are imployed And why but because they have all the meanes to rise whereas the Ministery for the most part yeeldeth nothing but a plaine way to beggery This is a great blemish in our Church and surely I wish the Papists those children of this world were not wiser in their kind in this point then the Church of God The reformation hereof is a worke worthy of the labour of a Prince and people and speciall care is to be had in it else it will not bee reformed for doubtlesse had not God himselfe in the Old Testament taken such streight order for the Livings of the Levites they had beene put to no lesse extremities then is the Ministery of this Age. Thus master Perkins and much more he hath touching this and the former reasons in the same Treatise whereto I referre It is not to be forgotten what was the sinne of Ierobeam that made Israel to sinne hee made Priests of the basest of the people and this hee did 2 Chron. 13.9 because he robbed sacrilegiously the Priests and Levites of all the Cities which they had in his Kingdome of the ten Tribes and those Cities were many more then there are Bishopricks in England And also he freed the people from the payment of tithes to the Levites which is the secret thing which our common Freeholders and Grand-Iury-men doe so much ayme at if Bishops and their Courts were overthrowne so that of necessity he must make base Priests for his base gods And so if tithes were taken away here then would quickly follow Ierobeams Priesthood base contemptible poore and illiterate for what man of good quality or ability will bring up his sonne to the Ministery when he shall be sure to be nayled fast to one place and live there only upon a stipend Invitatus ad haec aliquis de ponte negabit A beggars brat taken from the bridge where he sits a begging if he knew the inconvenience had cause to refuse it But I greatly hope and trust that God will so direct and blesse the supreme Court of Iustice that they will be ready to command double Honour to be given to the labouring Clergy as Saint Paul requireth and make the Calling honourable and respected according to the true esteeme that it ought to have God said anciently Levit. 21.8 Thou shalt sanctifie the Priest and hee shall be holy to thee 1. Thou shalt reverently esteeme him as an holy person Calvin saith upon the place Quo melius commendet sacri officii reverentiam admonet ad totius populi salutem spectare Ego inquit sum Deus qui ves sanctifico Illis autem verbis significat gratiam adoptionis qua selecti erant in peculium in sacerdotio fundatam esse And now perhaps you will expect to know from whom this commeth which for