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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bishop_n	council_n	decree_v	3,988	5	10.1493	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49471	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, March 18, 1665/6 by ... B. Lord Bishop of Lincoln.	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.	1666 (1666)	Wing L349; ESTC R6221	15,643	38

upon him no business but his own II. THis Lesson will not be so easily learned as the former all confinement of it self seems uneasie He that hath no mind to go abroad would not be tied to stay at home And he that cares for no business will take it ill to be barr'd any But this confinement besides nips the growth and encrease of good whereof they think more would be done if every one have free liberty to do it and therefore it is just and reasonable to allow any one a concurrent jurisdiction with others in any thing that is otherwise good though that be to govern with the King to pray preach or what they please with the Priest And they have as much of propriety as any can have to business yet even to these they think any man may make a sufficient title that hath understanding to know what is to be done as well as any other and affection to do it perhaps more then others And all have right and interest in the publick especially that wherein Religion and the soul is concerned how God may be best served and wherein his glory may be most promoted Will not all these make a Title good enough to any business The Glory of GOD indeed is a high and over-ruling Title if we do not set it on our own heads as the manner is to make Gods glory serve our own Otherwise that and the rest are such things as all men of wisdom or conscience should have regard to in any business they undertake provided yet it be their own In that every one hath liberty to improve his understanding and knowledg for the best as well for his own soul as the publick good In that let the glory of God be the Star to guide him But all these do not make the business ours they are a good qualification in any for business yet give no right or Title to it Great knowledg and skill in the Laws will not set a man upon the Bench nor of Divinity in the Bishops Chair nor will the dexterous glib-gifted tongue put a man into the Pulpit There must be besides a Title and Commission to make them ours But must all the obligations we have to the Publick good and to Gods honour stoop to Commissions Titles and proprieties which are but the creatures and constitutions of men To this question I answer in the words of Job 13.7 Will you speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him It is deceitful talking to plead for God against himself for though it should be granted that the sorting of several employments and functions have something of man in them yet the confirmation and approbation of God makes it his and so divine for as God hath founded a divine Moral law upon the propriety of goods and possessions Thou shalt not steal yea thou shalt not covet that which is anothers and yet it comes not to be anothers but by humane Laws So though different states of life and employments have somewhat in them by disposition of Law or our own choice yet upon them also is founded this moral duty to keep within those bounds For though men laid the Land-marks yet God commanded They should not be removed Deut. 19.14 It is a kind of Burglary to break into another mans business as well as into another mans house or if you will not allow it to be theft to have anothers business found with you as it is to have anothers goods it is as ill as theft in S. Peter's opinion The Murtherer the Thief the Evil-doer the Busie-body there 's a Messe of them he puts them all alike together 1 Pet. 4.15 To shut up this point If the glory of God and the publike Good and such like fair pretences might let us loose upon one anothers business it would quickly bring us round where we were to that confusion and disorder for remedy whereof the Apostle added this Lesson to the former We shall never learn to be quiet well unlesse we learn also to keep within our own businesse Yet I deny not but that Discord and Dissention have other causes besides for of Pride cometh contention saith Solomon Prov. 13.10 And from covetousness saith S. James they desire and have not James 4.2 It is true of other Lusts Wrath Revenge Envy Slander and Curio sity too break the peace too often and had need be bound to their good behaviour all Yet we may observe it That none of all these do actually any great mischief that way till they first bring it to this till it draws us from our own station and fling us upon some thing that is none of our own businesse III. THE truth of this will more fully be seen in the Third Part which comes next to be considered The Operation it hath had in the world by disturbing the Peace and Quiet of it Meum and Tuum hath not fill'd it with more Suits and Contentions in our Goods and Possessions than it hath in the actions and businesse of our lives What is our own and what is not our own To arraign all that are guilty of breaking this Rule in several kinds would ask a long process We will therefore take notice onely here of the attempts upon Government and Religion by those whose businesse it was not because the most and greatest tempests and storms in the Christian World have blown from that Coast The Wars and Combustions over all Italy and Germany in the time of the Emperor HENRY the 4th had their beginning from hence Pope Hildebrand GREG. vij not content with that which his Charge and Office of Bishop allow'd him began to measure out to himself a Greatness equal to the City he serv'd in which had been Domicilium Imperii first brake in upon the Temporal Power not heard of before in the Church though then a Thousand years old Where for the better support of his Greatness he endeavoured to get into his Disposing all Church-Promotions and for that end call'd a Council at Rome of a few Bishops for his purpose and there Decreed all Patronages and Donations by Lay-men Princes not excepted to be void and of no effect in Law What could be expected from so Unjust a Decree but vehement Opposition and a Bloody Dispute What troubles the same Patronage and Investiture of Bishops brought presently after into this Kingdom our Stories are full of But the angry Pope when he saw he could not quietly enjoy the Rights of the Crown falls fiercely upon the Crown it self and would be Master of that too and then he thought he should Rule to purpose for the Catholique Cause And for an Essay of this bold Usurp'd Power fairly Deposed the Emperor and absolv'd his Subjects of their Obedience This was certainly no Bishops business He may bless the Coronation not dispose of the Crown He may pray for a Godly and Peaceable Government under it not make a prey of it To absolve Penitents of their Sins is a Bishops

that is destructive to it Now if in all this the King moves not out of his own civil Sphere To return to our Sectaries who put us upon this digression they still remain as we left them guilty of doing much that is none of their own business What then is to be done with them According to a late Statute a Mittimus I think might be made to send them to prison but the Apostle here deals more kindly with them and sends them only to School to study better which is my Fourth and last Point IV. THat ye study to do your own business I will take no more out of the word Study then what any one understands to be in it A serious weighing and considering of the matter and there is need of it The first thing the Student is to do before he takes in hand any matter of importance is to set down and consider whether it be his own business or no what Title he can make to it It is utterly a fault amongst us to think that no part of our business to consider whether it be our business or no. If a qualm comes over the stomack that we begin to grow Government-sick or that the Ceremonies and Superstitions of the Church offend us presently without further dispute what ever comes of it it is resolved we will have a better Government and a more pure and reformed Church That is commonly concluded before this be disputed No good Student will do so conclude without premises We must see whether it be our own business first how we can derive a Title to it We know that Government and Religion come both originally from God to which none can have Right but they to whom God hath set over and entrusted the Care and Charge of either Our part is to see by what mean Conveyance it comes from them to us If we have nothing to shew that either of them have been particularly committed to us we may safely and certainly conclude it is none of our business Every Student must observe a good method in his study whereof one Rule is To proceed à manifestis ad obscuriora Let him begin at that which is without question his own business Hath he done all that belongs to his proper place and Function which is certainly his own Or hath he a Family at home to govern that no doubt is his too Are his Wife and Children and Servants well ordered all as they should be S. Paul gives a charge to Timothy not to set a Bishop over the Church who hath not governed his own Family well Though some have not a Family without yet every one hath a Family within and a large one too To rule his passions and inordinate desires only asks a world of work and they will find it so when ever they set themselves upon it What a preposterous method and course is it to hunt eagerly after Liberty from some imaginary Pressure in Government or some poor Ceremony in the Church while in the mean time we are true slaves to some base vile lust within us Here we should begin to set our selves at liberty from our selves And this the method of Charity requires as well as the method of Art Charity begins always at home at our own business Tantumne ab re tua otii est tibi was well said in the Comedy Aliena ut Cures True Charity will find no leisure for other's work till her own be done If this method were carefully observ'd the world would be a great deal quieter than it is Study will be therefore needful in this case because otherwise unconsidering men are apt to be carried away with the fair shew of Zeal and Religion in reforming others they take it for a wrong from any that think not so of it But by considering well they will find they are disappointed of that hope for whatsoever sets them on work it cannot be true Religion that is not contrary to it self All Students know that One truth is not repugnant to another nor one vertue to another Religion doth not make men fools to employ themselves in that whereof there comes no good All we do in other mens business runs wast S. Paul 2 Thes 3.11 calls it idleness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 working not at all but are busie-bodies busie and yet not work at all He says the same of his Widows of Pleasure 1 Tim. 5.3 That they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idle and busie-bodies both He thinks that not worthy to be call'd business which is not our own And yet Secondly There is a worse matter in it than idleness It charges our account more than needs and there is no Wisdom in that for when the Conscience brings us in more Work than either God or Man particularly requires though it be not our own of Duty here it will be our own in Account hereafter For the conscience of doing it makes it ours howsoever and so guilty both of it and all the mischief that comes by it 'T is against Justice That doth suum cuique tribuere Justice lets every man enjoy his own He that takes upon him another mans business because he can do it better for that 's the great pretence to do that which is best may as well take another mans Purse because he will spend the money better I think we will hardly allow of that Justice 'T is against Hope that Christian hope which supports us in all our Sufferings and Afflictions Whereof when S. Peter 1 Ep. 4. c. had for the consolation of his Countrey-men scattered abroad pour'd out a plentiful measure v 13 14. Rejoice in as much ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be reveal'd ye may be glad also with exceeding joy Ver. 14. If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you But presently in the very next words ver 15. he puts in an exception to busie-bodies they have no part or share in that consolation Let none of you suffer as a Murtherer or a Thi●f or a Busie-body They have as little right to the comfort in suffering as they had to the business for which they suffer Lastly As it disappoints them of the hope of that Mercy from God so it casts them into the snare of the Devil It was safe and wise Counsel the Apostle gives Eph. 4.27 Not to give place to the Devil He whose busie thoughts carries him abroad to pry into and meddle in others business gives place to the Devil in the mean time to enter in ransack and disorder all at home where there is none to resist him There is no better fence against the Devil than this si invenerit occupatos if he finds us diligently employ'd at home in our own business If for all this the medling Reformers of others would be thought the men of Religion and of the first rate too Let them know That it is of such a Religion as hath neither Prudence in it nor Charity nor Justice nor Hope nor Safety And when he hath weigh'd all these mischiefs that follow the breaking this Rule Let him in the next place consider the benefit that comes by keeping it At that I began and with that I will conclude This lesson was set us of purpose by the Apostle to second and enforce the other of Peace and Quiet The best way to be quiet with others is to be busie with our selves It is the natural and genuine effect of it All discord and dissention must be between two either persons or parties and that which commonly kindles the fire is envy or some supposed injury now he that intends his own business only can give no occasion to others of either envy or complaint and so in recompence of keeping to his own business he shall quietly sit under his own Vine and under his own Fig tree he shall have own for own Lastly Besides this outward quiet with others it will produce another within us the quiet and tranquillity of the Conscience without which outward peace may prove to some but a quiet passage here to eternal misery hereafter But this makes it a thorough quiet both sides alike within and without for it layes those busie unsatisfied thoughts within us which otherwise give● trouble both to our selves and others That when we see not or think we see not all things so well carried in the Church and Government as we could wish yet having gone as far to mend it as the line of our own business will reach and the farthest end of that is having peaceably mov'd for it and heartily pray'd for it we may with a safe and quiet Conscience leave the rest to God and those to whom he hath committed that Care and Charge whose proper business it is And as many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them and Mercy from the God of Peace and Mercy To whom be all honour glory and praise for ever Amen FINIS