Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	church_n	earth_n	militant_a	5,036	5	12.4963	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15369	The debt book: or, A treatise vpon Romans 13. ver. 8 Wherein is handled: the ciuill debt of money or goods, and vnder it the mixt debt, as occasion is offered. Also, the sacred debt of loue. By Henry Wilkinson, Bachelor in Diuinity, and pastor of Wadesdon in Buckinghamshire.	Wilkinson, Henry, 1566-1647.	1625 (1625)	STC 25646; ESTC S114431	56,271	156

Incumbents Of this kinde I haue heard many pretended but I could scarce euer see any produced lest some thing of aduantage should relieue the present Minister which shewes the obnoxious diffidence of a guilty heart when the cause is nought for otherwise men are forward to make proofe of their right for satisfaction of such as haue iust cause to question it But suppose a composition as firme as couetousnesse and craft can deuise it I would gladly learne how it stands with conscience or common sense that the act of an Incumbent onely for terme of life remoueable vpon preferment or misdemeanour should preiudice his Successor in a place of painfull seruice to the vtter impouerishment and vndoing of all posteritie Is it possible that in any lawfull contract the fruit of the godly and religious labours of a free and ingenuous man in the Lords haruest should bee bought and sould before he is borne by those who are meere strangers vnto him Or if this cannot bee done in any godly and righteous course why should not the ancient rule take place Quae contra tus fiunt pro infectis haberi debent That those things which are done against right ought to be esteemed as if they had not beene done The old word is Caueat Emptor let the buyer looke to it but I thinke both the buyer and seller being in this case brethren in euill had neede to looke to it lest they swallow that in earth which they shall digest in hell I doubt it will one day be a cold comfort to those who are parties to such an act to consider vpon their death-bed that by their sinfull hands the Church is depriued for the time present and to come of what soeuer hath fallen within their power to dispose of Can that mā haue any hope to be found a true member of the Church triumphant in heauē that liues dies a betrayer spoiler of the Church militant here on earth Prescription is another mousell of the Prescription Oxe that treadeth out the Corne the originall of this worke of darkenesse is commonly thus There are few great rich men to be found that can indure with patience to pay any Tyth in kinde hereupon they take their opportunity when some Minister is incumbent either not able to doe the worke or not resident or some other way obnoxious to agree with him for their Tyth at an vnder-value a pound perhaps in the hundreth pretending that they can vse the matter so as that the Tyth shall bee little or nothing worth vnto him yet this yearely pension they will allow for zeal to the Church and good will to the man whom they will not sticke to mollifie with complements or with any thing else that shall cost them nought these conditions are continued from the father to the child by the same arts and practises till a new man come to be presented who for quietnesse sake must take things as he finds them or if he dare contend they will scourge him through all the Courts of the kingdome When thus it hath beene caried for two or three descents though men know in their consciences that Non firmatur tractu temporis quod de iure ab initio non subsistit That it gets no validity by tract of time which is not grounded vpon right from the beginning yet from these deceitfull practises thus continued prescription doth arise to put the Minister to perpetuall silences who hauing spent his patrimony in the Vniuersitie hath neither time nor money nor euidence on the suddaine to mannage the Churches right though a prescription once begun consume it daily more and more For if the prescribers adde by purchase or inclosure to their demaines within the same Parish the thin and ill-fauoured prescribed pension like the * Gen. 41. 4 7. thin eares of corn and lean Kine in Pharaohs dreame will swallow vp all the Tythe of the portions so annexed and be neuer a whit the fuller On the other side if the prescribers chance to sell it s no sauoury bargaine vnlesse the Tythe be included and the Minister excluded out of that portion and confin'd to some smaller peece of ground more proportionable to his pitifull pension The time was when our Sauiour Ioh. 2. 14 15 16. in a feruent zeale cast buiers and sellers out of the Temple what will he doe one day to those who thus couetously incroach vpon the patrimony of the Temple Customes are no lesse pernicious to Customes the state of the Minister in keeping backe his due then these for as these exempt some particular persons or places in great matters so customes swallow all so far as they goe like a generall Deluge if they find a Benefice like the Garden of Eden they will leaue it like a desolate wildernesse I speake of such as are pretented vpon vsage without any euident reasonable cause whereby the Churches patrimony is most iniuriously detained and why should not euery man that is able to oppose reason and truth against them cry them downe For though it be true that diuturni mores consensu vtentium comprobati Iust lib. 1. ●●● 2. legem imitantur that manners long continued and approued by consent of such as haue vsed them are a kind of law yet consent and practise is not enough to giue a custome the power of a lawe vnlesse it be consensus rationabilis a consent grounded vpon reason nisi enim consuetudo ratione munita sit non est consuetudo sed corruptela If custome be not fortified by reason it is not a custome but a corruption Now it will be hard to proue either reason in the thing or consent of the Minister who is alwaies a party in those things which are obtruded as custome vpon the Church If men will sweare that it is their custome to pay no tyth wood then you must haue none though the greatest part of the Parish bee wood-ground If men will sweare that it is their custome not to pay tyth Wooll for sheep not wintered in the field then you must haue none though they haue a full stocke that takes I benefit of the Common for eight the most profitable moneths of the yeare but it may bee you shall haue some proportionable rate nothing lesse but some such contemptible scraps as are not worth the gathering vp which how it stands with reason or the good liking of the Minister let wise men iudge Yet if men will affirme vpon oath that these and the like are the customes of their Parish wee haue no remedie and customes seldome fail for lacke of swearing If theeues had come vnto thee if robbers by night would they not haue stollen that which were enough for them If Grape-gatherers had come to thee would they not have left some Graps Obadiah verse 5. but customes sweepe all away they leaue in a manner nothing The Church saies Austen discoursing of customes being August Ianuar Epist 119. placed in the