Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	authority_n	church_n	true_a	2,292	5	5.6438	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07397	The vickers challenge claiming a maintainance as due by proofes out of the gospell : wherein is manifested, that there is a competencie due unto them / by Ios. Meene, vicker.	Meene, Joshua.	1640 (1640)	STC 17780.5; ESTC S2818	46,566	86

wages and the labourers deserve to receive their reward This seemeth a character so deeply ingraven in common reason as although the direfull hands of impious sacriledge be shamefully audacious to incroach upon the substance of the tithes c. yet are they not sufficiently able to extinguish the stampes of it's truth Namely that the excellency of the Clergies labour being in quality and industry in place and paines supereminent above others must needs aptly challenge the most worthy stipend and best temuneration To this purpose the Lord Archbishop Sandes affirmeth that there is no state though of that heigth as feare honour obedience and tribute is due to it which may more rightly challenge a competent and sufficient living then the Ministers of the word of God Wherfore those which repine at the reasonable maintenance of them they seeme to have put out the very light of nature in themselves 5 Because this hinderance and detraction of the spirituall Pastours portion is very averse and degenerate from the conceit and course of venerable Antiquity For decimae erant ante legem sub consilis in lege sub praecepto post legem in libertate Spiritus the payment of tenths before the Law seemed to subsist under counsell and in the time thereof they stood firme by precept and when as that was once expired still they are good in the Evangelicall liberty of the Spirit As in the season of the old Law the affection of the faithfull people unto the Temple and Service there spared no expences yea some of the chiefest Princes of the Gentiles Cyrus Artaxerxes Darins Alexander Magnus Ptolomeus Philadelphus Antiochus Epiphanes c. shewed themselves in this sort exceedingly bounteous So since the birth of our Saviour Christ the pious munificence of Emperours Kings c. also the jealous devotion of Christian people ran in the current of continuall addition to the Churches patrimony but not in substraction from her propriety The Clergy held their Lands free from Taxes and Impositions their children held their Inheritance with like freedome in honour of their Fathers Priest-hood But now a long time since hellish iniquity hath abounded the holy love of the most part of our Christian World is waxed cold the dolefull tune of the desolate Churches Song is thus sad and lamentable Isaiah 24. My leannesse my leannesse wo unto me the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously King James of excellent memory imployed in some places of his Realmes pious wisdome and power for a relief of our Sions shamefull distresse Hee gave moreover many thousand Acres of good ground to the Irish Churches an illustrious monument of his religious liberality Our now most gracious King God be thanked followeth the devout foot-steps of his happy Father in paternall protection and favour of his Clergy His Majesties Sovereigne power and sanctified disposition is able and willing with the precious balme of heavenly justice to cure this otherwise unrecoverable and inveterate ulcer and to compell the due practice of this divine precept Thou shalt not muzzle the month c. 6. I alledge when the maintenance of the Ministers lyeth at such a low ebbe it usually occasioneth Schisme in the Church and Faction of the State especially as for the most part commeth to passe where poore beneficed Parishes are most populous Amongst sundry wise and learned persons sacriledge hath been concluded the prophane mother of these deformed daughters It is no lesse lamentable then shameful to consider some Clergy men through defect of a legall provision being stung with the smart of want and put to extremity they are forc'd to submit their necks unto a slavish yoke of servile dependance and base engagement unto their wealthier people who are able to succour and support them They are bound to the base peace of obsequious flattery by the cruell chaine of intolerable necessitie so they dare not but quietly digest whatsoever these inordinately do either in conversation of life or by confusion at Church either in the rudenesse of their works or by the irregularity of their worship Neither durst they refuse to stand as they set them for single Cyphers and suffer them patiently to number their summes at their own pleasures with the figures of such idolized Ministers as they most fancy whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas yea I wish there wanted cause sometimes to adde be he Martin Mar-prelate or Julian or Iudas or Satan transforming himselfe into an Angell of light they may scarce murmure at his preferment Moreover whiles the Clergy remayneth miserably oppressed with poverty which contempt of their persons and neglect of their Ministery usually accompany so long doth that necessity of theirs being of an active nature seeme to call in many of them a continuall scrutiny of devises and shifts for the succour and reliefe of it selfe And because those courses which swimme against the common stream of goverment and neverthelesse carry an externall countenance of piety and sincerity have ever appeared most prevalent for the promotion of sinister designes they palliate their subtile practice under this specious habit Thus they declaim against the corruption of the times and bitterly inveigh against the Ceremonies and Polity of the Church It is their usuall property to speak evill of those which are in Authority chiefly they draw our the sharp sword of Schismaticall censure against Ecclesiasticall Superiours The drift of their whole doctrine concerning them soundeth always With this Anabaptisticall accent down with them to the ground They never preach against Church-robbery nor presse in any Sermon the true payment of tithes But for their own peculiar interests without any due distinguishment of different reasons they perswade this Paradoxe how when the Church is poorest she is purest And wheras the ancient Fathers determined out of the sacred Scriptures that God is to be worshiped with some liberall return of his own bounty And how hee must be thankfully acknowledged for the munificent Lord and Donor of all blessings by a devout and free-hearted reflux and rendring back again a meet and sufficient portion of the good things and benefits given us to his honour and service Such sentences they insimulate to favour of Popish superstition and whiles they are sure God hath no necessity they are as secure to do him no dutie condemning for an errour in opinion to offer unto him but commending as a mayn ingredient of Reformation to take away from his Church Thus having by these plausible insinuations skrewed themselves into a world of the peoples affections unto whom nothing for the most part is wont to be more gratefull and pleasing then liberty of censure matter of innovation disorder singularity and Religion at their owne price which is next cost nothing lo They get private gains out of the publike losses having brought conformable Ministers out of a good conceit into an evill estimation with their Parishes they climbe up by their breaches and supply