Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	work_n	world_n	worthy_a	63	3	6.2719	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39326	A vindication of the clergy from the contempt imposed upon them by the author of The grounds and occasions of the contempt of the clergy and religion with some short reflections on his further observations.	Eachard, John, 1636?-1697.	1672 (1672)	Wing E65; ESTC R35669	53,663	152

hath greatest reason and truth of his side We are agreed in the first place I presume whom we mean by the present English Clergy viz. such Bishops Priests and Deacons as are now or were at least about last Michaelmas-Term actually preferr'd in the Church of England So that we exclude first all that having sometime been of our Clergy are since dead and so cannot de jure render such as are now alive contemptible for what is that to me if my Predecessour forty or fifty years ago could not say his Commandments or tell how many Apostles our Lord had or that he baited a white Bear now and then in his Sermons or talk'd beside the Cushion There 's not the same reason for Preaching sure as for Original Sin that it should be entail'd upon all Posterity and yet our Author is so ingenuous as to produce instances before he was born the truth whereof might perhaps be question'd too to serve his present purpose as you shall see anon Secondly we exclude also all the Non-conforming Brethren of what Sect or Party soever who have indeed excluded themselves to our hands by departing schismatically from our Communion We intend not to answer for their ridiculous extravagancies in the Pulpit more than their other faults for what do their gross abuses of Preaching concern the Orthodox Clergy who abhor to tread in their steps Men may as well charge upon us the old Monk's Proof of a plurality of Worlds from that Text St. Luke 17.17 Annon decem facti sunt mundi or the ignorance of those two other Disputants who having resolved that ten thousand Spirits might dance upon a Needles point could not determine where the Piper must stand all this while Yet this will be found too some bodies close way of reasoning some factious Separatists have used foolish Phrases and childish Metaphors in their Preachments ergo the English Clergy is Ignorant Secondly We are agreed further against the brain-sick Catharists conceit and expect not to see a Clergy made up all of Saints and Worthies It is suppos'd on both sides that every Vicar is not oblig'd to be as rich as the Vicar of Rome and that two or three in a County may be connived at although they be not altogether as learned as Saint Augustine We know full well that there is no Profession in Nature wherein all are improved to the same Perfection There was and always will be an Ignoramus or two amongst the Lawyers some Quacks and Empiricks amongst Physitians some Idiots in the Schools of Philosophers and Dunces in the number of pretended Scholars some poor Gentry amidst the rich to make up the Harmony of things and that it were a downright piece of Sophistry to condemn any whole Profession and Order of Men for the ignorance mistakes and absurdities of some few Individuals thereunto belonging Thus far I must hold my Gentleman's Nose to the Grind-stone and make him agreed whether he will or no for otherwise he fights with his own shadow and fathers faults upon the Clergy which are either committed by those who are not of that rank or are not a sufficient number to make a denomination So that the great difference or Ball of contention between us is Whether the generality or at least a great part of our present English Clergy deserve the brands of poor and ignorant or not He does not only take it for granted all along but expresly affirms it and that with a Witness pag. 81. as if the Lord's Lot were a meer Lottery wherein there are an hundred Blanks for one Prize but my second Proposition doth with as much Confidence and more Reason deny it First As for Ignorance I blush for him to think he could find no where to fasten that but upon one of the most learned Churches in the World which as it hath always been able to deal with the formidable Roman Giants on the one hand and those undermining Separatists on the other for Papist and Puritan like Sampson's Foxes though looking and running two several ways yet are ever joyn'd together in the Tail so I am bold to say it is now more plentifully furnisht with Men of singular Worth universal Knowledge and great Clerks than ever it has been since the Reformation Now although he can expect but little favour from me yet I will do him the justice to believe he never intended to bring our Reverend Prelates into his Indictment nor yet the worthy Deans and other Dignitaries in the Church Men generally of known Abilities some of whose Works do not only praise them in the Gates but are also famous throughout the World Nor do I think him so ingrateful to our Vniversities as to deny that they now flourish more than heretofore with all sorts of good Literature very learned Men and accurate Preachers Nor do I believe he aims at the City since they are fully satisfied in the Labours of their Pastours unless they quarrel them sometimes for their too much Humane Learning Reason and Morality as being hard words many of them were not brought up to No the Ignorance he upbraids us with must be amongst us in the Country or no where Now it is not probable there should be many Dunces amongst the Parsons considering they hold their Benefices either from the Broad Seal for obtaining which 't were great rashness to think they give not as ample Testimony of their Parts as a Man must do for his Truth and Honesty before he can procure an ordinary Brief or from some Spiritual or Temporal Lord and it were somewhat sawcy to think either of them keeps a Fool for his Chaplain or some Collegiate Society and 't were as strange they should search all about for an Hocus when they have so many good Scholars at home unemployed and fit to present or some Civil Incorporation or Company and they are not so easily bribed but will have their choice of several persons all of good note or lastly from some private Patron and there lies all the danger lest he having an Oak Tree or good Horse to sell should close with his best Chapman and require no more Latine skill in his Clerk than to render Quantum dabis into current English Money But I hope such sordid practices are very rare I 'm sure 't is below the Spirit of a true English Gentleman who can sacrifice his whole Estate to serve his King and Church to stoop to such a pitiful Bribe or Bargain forgetting Honour and Conscience both at once Besides if any that wear that Name be so far degenerated as to expose a Benefice to Sale yet where is that bold Son of Simon who shall dare to be the Buyer He must be a prodigious Sot indeed who will pawn his own Soul by living in a continued perjury to be put into a capacity of saving other mens So improbable it is there should be many ignorant Parsons And if I may guess at other Diocesses by this I must tell our pragmatical