Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	aaron_n	lot_n	village_n	22	3	8.7453	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19267	An admonition to the people of England vvherein are ansvvered, not onely the slaunderous vntruethes, reprochfully vttered by Martin the libeller, but also many other crimes by some of his broode, obiected generally against all bishops, and the chiefe of the cleargie, purposely to deface and discredite the present state of the Church. Seene and allowed by authoritie.	Cooper, Thomas, 1517?-1594.	1589 (1589)	STC 5682; ESTC S118522	145,211	254

priestes of God but of Antichrist Is there no more reuerence and feare of the maiestie of Gods Prince and sacred minister then by such grosse absurdities to seeke to seduce her If this be a conclusion of such necessitie then let them go further for by as good reason they may God sayeth to Aaron Thou shalt not drinke wine nor strong drinke thou nor thy sonnes that are with thee when ye goe into the Tabernacle of the Congregation least ye die Letit be a Lawe for euer throughout your generations In an other place commaundement is giuen to the Priestes That they may not eate of that which is rent of wilde beasts And in the same chapter If the Priestes daughter bee married to any of the common people shee may not eate of the hallowed offerings but if shee be a Widowe or diuorced from her husbande and haue no childe and is returned into her fathers house againe shee may eate of her fathers meate as she did in her youth but there shall no stranger eate thereof In the 21. of Leuiticus it is sayde Speake vnto the Priests the sonnes of Aaron and say Let none bee defiled by the dead among their people And a little after Let them not make baldnes vpon their head nor shaue off the lockes of their beard And againe Let him take a Virgine to wife but a widowe a diuorced woman or a polluted c. shall he not marry Now if the obseruation of the orders appoynted by God to the Priests and Leuites of the olde Law be a thing so necessary in the church of God Why then the Ministers of the Gospell may not drinke wine or strong drinke they may not suffer their daughters married forth if they come vnto their houses to eate any of the tenths and oblations whereby they liue they may not come nigh a dead body nor bury it they may marry no widowes but maydes onely And so likewise shall you bring in by as good authoritie infinite numbers mo of Leuiticall orders into the Church and make it rather like a superstitious Synagogue as the popes church was then like a sincere vndefiled Church of God as you would pretend to do But let vs descende further into this allegation and see howe they ouerthrowe themselues in their owne purpose If vpon this proofe it be so necessarie that bishops and other ministers shoulde not liue by landes then as the negatiue is necessarie in the one branch so is the affirmatiue in the other When God hath sayd Thou shalt haue no inheritance in their land he addeth Beholde I haue giuen the children of Leui all the tenth of Israel to inherite for the seruice which they doe c. Then it is of necessitie by the Lawe of God that bishops and preachers shoulde liue vpon tenths and offerings neither may this order be altered by any authoritie And here is an other errour of the Papists that tenths and offerings are in the Church Iure diuino by the lawe of God and not by any positiue Law of the Church Thus we see that these men are not able to stand to their positions but they must ioyne arme in arme with the Papists in their greatest and grossest errors And if it be of necessitie that ministers must liue by oblations and tithes and no otherwise howe can the prince by Gods Lawe take away their Landes and set them to meere pensions in money Or if princes haue libertie by the Lawe of God according to their discretions to appoynt the liuings of ministers by pensions of money contrary to the order that God hath prescribed to his priests in his Law why haue they not like authoritie by the same worde of God if they see it conuenient for the state to allot vnto them some portion of temporall Landes and much more to suffer and beare with that order being alreadie setled in the Church By this it appeareth that the assertion of the aduersaries doeth not hang together in it selfe but that the one part impugneth and ouerthroweth the other But mee thinkes these men deale not directly but seeme to hide and conceale that which maketh against them For in the same place of Iosua by which they will prooue that bishoppes and ministers may not haue any possession of Landes because hee saith To the Leuites he gaue no inheritance among them Immediatly hee addeth Sauing Cities to dwell in and the fieldes about the Cities for their beastes and cattell And in like manner The Lorde sayde to Moyses Commaunde the children of Israel that they giue vnto the Leuites of the inheritaunce of their possession Cities to dwell in And yee shall giue also vnto the Cities Suburbes hard by their Cities rounde about them the Cities they shall haue to dwell in and the Suburbes or fieldes about their cities for their cattell and all manner beastes of theirs And the Suburbes of the Cities which you shall giue to the Leuites shall reach from the wall of the Citie rounde about outward a thousande cubites c. And you shall measure on the East side two thousande cubites and on the West side two thousande cubites c. In the twentie one Chapter of Iosua The number of these Cities is mentioned And the lotte came out of the kinred of the Caathites the children of Aaron the Priest which were of the Leuites and giuen them by lot out of the tribe of Iudae Simeon and Beniamin thirteene Cities And the rest of the children of Caath had by lot of the kinreds of the tribe of Ephraim Dan and halfe the tribe of Manasses tenne cities And the children of Gerson had by lotte out of the kinred of the Cities of Isachar Aser Nepthaly and the other halfe of the tribe of Manasses in Basan thirteene cities And the children of Merari by their kinreds had out of the Tribes of Ruben Gad and Zabulon twelue cities The whole number therfore of the cities assigned to the Leuites in the lande of Iurie amounted to fortie eight Nowe I woulde demaund of indifferent Christians that vvere not obstinately set to maintaine an euill purpose Whether the state of inheritance without rent of fortie eight Cities in one Region no bigger then England with the fieldes almost a mile compasse may bee thought in trueth to bee temporall possessions or no Surely I thinke there is no man so wayward that will denie it to be most true Wherefore eyther the worde of God must bee found vntrue which is blasphemie to thinke or els that boulde assertion that is made of the contrary is found vaine and the argument to prooue it false and deceitful They that had to their portions fortie eight Cities with the fields thereof did not liue by tithes and oblations onely You see therefore good Christians howe they vnderstand the Scriptures that in such immodest and confident maner take vpon them to be masters and controllers of other and by how fleight allegations absurde arguments they seeke to

ascension of Christ whē God sent his Apostles and other holy men to preach the Gospell of our saluation in Christ and the same was among men vnthankfully receiued God did cast sundry plagues punishments vpon them as dearth and scarcitie famine hunger the pestilence and sundry other diseases warre tumult earthquakes and great deluges in sundry places The causes of al this very slāderously blasphemously they imputed to Christian Religion and therby raised those dreadfull persecutiōs which at that time were exercised against the Christians This errour was the cause that Saint Augustine wrote his notable worke De ciuitate Dei and that Orosius by the counsell both of Saint Hierome and Saint Augustine vvrote his historie vvherein he ansvvereth this false argument and shevveth that God in all times had sent the like plagues for the sinnes and offences of mankinde and for the reiecting of his vvorde and trueth In the fourtie foure Chapter of Ieremie The Ievves deceiue themselues with the like argument to confirme their conceiued superstition and idolatrie But we will do say they whatsoeuer thing commeth out of our owne mouth as to burne incense to the Queene of Heauen to powre out drinke offerings vnto her as we haue done both we and our Fathers our Kings our Princes in the Cities of Iudah and in the streetes of Hierusalem for then had we plentie of victuals were well and felt no euill But since wee left off to burne incense to the Queene of Heauen and to powre out drinke offerings vnto her we haue had scarcenesse of all things haue bene consumed by the sword and by the famine In these vvordes you see to the hardening of their owne hearts they attribute the good giftes of God to their idolatrie and their dearth and trouble to the preaching of Ieremie and other Prophets vvhich indeede were not the true causes thereof In like maner reason rebellious subiects in common vveales when they seeke to make odious the Princes gouernors vnder whom they liue vniustly imputing to them the causes of such things wherwith they finde thēselues grieued So reasoned the rebels in the time of King Richard the second against the King against the Counsell and chiefe Nobilitie of the Realme against the Lavvyers and all other States of learning therefore had resolution among them to haue destroyed and ouerthrovven them all and to haue suffered none other to liue in this Realme with them but the Gray Friers onely Seeing therefore this manner of reasoning is so perillous it behooueth all them that feare God and loue the trueth and will not vvillingly be caried into errour to take diligent heed that they be not abused herewith And so I pray God they may doe vvhich at this time so earnestly seeke to make odious the state of the Clergie of England imputing to them the causes of those things vvhich they most detest and abhorre For if they vvill see the trueth and iudge but indifferently they shall finde that there is no such vnlearned Ministerie as they complaine of neyther such vvant of preaching as may iustly prouoke the wrath of God to send such plagues punishments vpon vs as they recite This I dare iustifie that since Englande had first the name of a Christian Church there was neuer so much preaching of the vvorde of God neuer so many in number neuer so sufficient and able persons to teach and set forth the same as be at this day hovvsoeuer they be defamed and defaced There bee I confesse many vnlearned and vnsufficient Ministers but yet I take it to bee captious and odious in respect of them to name the whole Ministerie vnlearned or ignorant For the simplicitie and charitie of Christian iudgement doth giue the name of any Societie according to the better part and not according to the vvorse There were in the Church of Corinth many euill persons aswel in corruption of doctrine as wickednesse of life and yet Saint Paul noteth that Church to bee a reuerend and holy congregation The Church of Christ militant heere in earth hath alwayes a great number of euill mixed vvith them that be good oftentimes the worse part the greater yet were it reprochfull and slaunderous to call the Church vvicked In like sort may it vvell bee thought vncharitable to call the ministerie of the Church of England ignorant when that thenkes be to God there bee so many learued and sufficient preachers in this lande as neuer vvere before in any age or time and the same adorned with Gods excellent good giftes and comparable to any other Church refourmed in Europe If men would cast so curious and captious eyes vpon the Ministers of other countreyes and note the blemishes and imperfections in them as they doe in our owne I am perswaded vnder correction they would not thinke so meanely of the state of the Ministerie of England as they doe But this is the generall disease of vs Englishmen to haue in admiration the persons and states of other foreine countreyes and loath their owne bee they neuer so commendable or good I speake not this to note with reproch any refourmed Church in forreine countries or to diminish the commendations of those excellent giftes which it hath pleased God plentifully to powre downe vpon them as the first renuers and restorers of the Gospel in this latter age to whome in that respect we ovve great loue and reuerence But yet they see and acknowledge that they haue imperfections and cannot haue churches in this world without blemishes Notwithstanding it is not free among them no not for the best learned or of greatest authority in publike speech or vvriting to vtter those things vvhich may tend to the generall reproche of their Church or common weale as it is commonly vsed vvith vs at this day Or if they doe they are sharpely dealt vvithall for the same For as vvise gouernours they see that such doings is the very seede of dissention discorde and faction the very pestilence of all Churches common vveales and societies Wherefore in most Churches they doe tollerate some imperfections setled by order at the beginning least by change of lavves there shoulde bee greater inconuenience Obiection Yea but all their Ministers are learned and able to teach Answere Of that I doubt in some places by good testimony I know it not to be true That is easie to be had in a free Citie that hath no more congregations but those that be within the Citie or within a fevve villages about vvhich is not possible in so great a kingdome as this is replenished with so many Villages almost in euery place as scantly you haue two miles vvithout a Towne or Village inhabited And yet that men doe not conceiue euill opinion of the Bishops for that which cannot bee remedied it behooueth the vvise and godly to consider that the state of this Church is such as of necessitie there must bee some of very meane abilitie in