Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	gain_v	jew_n	weak_a	10,116	5	11.7630	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35698	Some remarks recommended unto ecclesiasticks of all perswasions	Denton, William, 1605-1691.	1690 (1690)	Wing D1068; ESTC R14	74,373	48

Dead of many Superfluities which creep into the Churches under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it self For to charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the beginning of all Superstition and when scruples of Conscience began to be made or pretended then Schisms began to break in If the Spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities and not over-rigid in either reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there were far less danger of Schism or Superstition and all the inconveniences likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yield a little to the Imbecillity of Inferiors a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do Mean while wheresoever false and suspected Opinions are made a piece of the Church Liturgy he that separates is not the Schismatick for that is a like unlawful to make Profession of known or suspected Falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspect Actions Much of the same Opinion is Bishop Usher If at this day we should take a Survey of the several Professions of Christianity that have any large spread in any part of the World as of the Religion of the Romans and the Reformed Churches in our Quarters of the Egyptians and Ethiopians in the South of the Graecians and other Christians in the East and should put by the Points wherein they differ one from another and gather from one Body the rest of the Articles wherein they all did generally agree we should find that in those Propositions which without Controversie are Universally received in the whole Christian World so much Truth is contained that being joyned with Holy Obedience may be sufficient to bring Men into everlasting Salvation His Sermon on Ephes 4.13 preached before his Majesty 1624. If our Ecclesiastical Grandees in the last Reformation of our Liturgy had been of St. Paul's mind as they ought to have been and not abuse their Power in the Gospel who though he was free from all Men yet made himself Servant unto all that he might gain the more to the Jew a Jew to them that are under the Law as under the Law to them that are without the Law as without the Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ To the weak as weak and was made all things to all men that by any means he might save some And this he did for the Gospel sake 1 Cor. 9.18 23. And by his so doing he gave no offence neither to the Jews nor the Gentiles nor to the Church of God but he pleased all men in all things not seeking his own profit but the profit of many that they might be saved chap. 10. ver 32 33. There had been no complaining of our Prelates nor any matter left to pick quarrels withall and the Kingdom much happier than now it is which Doctrine of Compliance is to be understood only of things indifferent And our Non-cons desire but the like in things indifferent Sure if St. Paul so much a more excellent Person than our Pontiffs held it his Duty thus to comply it would be no disparagement to our Prelates to do the same Certainly none will dare to aver That our Conventicles quatenus Conventicles are unlawful but unlawful only upon Presumptions and ungrounded Prejudices and Surmizes that their Non-conformist Teachers mostly Presbyterians or Independants do teach or foment Rebellion Schism Faction Now if in truth they are not guilty of such Crimes but their good Conversation is falsly abused by them 1 Pet. 3.16 What have such Conformist Church of England Men to answer for themselves that so slander them by laying such Crimes to their charge as they are no ways guilty of and in their Pulpits out of which nothing should be Preach't but what is as true as Gospel One Mr. J.T. in his Sermon on Eccl. 10.20 pag. 29 31. hath so hard thoughts of them as to believe That we shall never be free of a Plot if not against the Lafe of the King yet against the Peace and Honour of his Government so long as there is one Conventicle in England left And that as it is Death by the Laws of this Nation for a Popish Priest to be seen upon English Ground so it would be very well if it were so for a Non conforming one too Very Ghostly Councel to come from a Ministor of the Gospel of Peace I could wish that he and those of the like Junto did understand their Priesthood as it ought to be understood then they would Preach things that now were Holy Pure Peaceable and of good Report without such Trash This Gentleman is not alone in these stabbing Censures there are more of his Quire that sing to the like Tune a temper very ill becoming Preachers of the Gospel of Peace One other Mr. M. B. commonly known in the University by the Character of his Majesty's D ee Chaplain was turned out for what it 's a shame to tell tho' since crept in again in his Sermon on Luke 19.14 tells us That among Phanaticks a new Nick-name for old Puritans their Loyalty is Rebellion and their Religion is Treason and whose very Gospel is the Mystery of Iniquity and that amongst Phanaticks and Atheists transformed into malitious Fiends by the Hellish divinity of that Monster of a Priest the Author of Julian the Apostate whose whole Book it as great an Apostacy from the Practice of the Primitive Christians the Precepts of Obedience delivered by Christ and his Apostles and Christianity it self as ever Julian was guilty of pag. 19. As false a Scandal as a Priest of Baal could pulpit These are your Boanarges pure Church of England Men in their right Colours and Pontificalibus Nay the unclean Spirits like the Frogs that came out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet which are the Spirits of Devils which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth c. Rev. 26.13 14. who are not content falsly to Calumniate the Non-cons only but to Stigmatize also true Nathaniels Witness M. B. charging as a profligate Wretch and mercenary Scribler the late Writer of Julian the Apostate of which Charge the generality and best and wisest both of Clergy and Laiety do now acquit and justifie him to be the more Orthodox by their Pulpits Prints and Practices Sure sure Pulpits were never designed to spit Venome nor fulsly to Calumniate any especially for Printing and Publishing Gospel truths as that of lawful Resistance and Passive Obedience which Doctrines the generality of the Nation Lords Commons Bishops Priests Clergy and Laiety now own and practice and which was ever the Doctrine of the Church of England and of all sound Divines tho' metamorphosised and misrepresented by some Mungril Church of England Men as thwarting their sublunary designs of Pride Ambition Covetousness Honours and Preferments very ill becoming that most

the Emperors Decrees were not executed by the bounty of Constance Cloro Caesar who governed it But a while after Constantine and Licinius granted freedom of Religion to the Christians approved of the Ecclesiastical Colledges called Churches granted generally throughout the Empire that they might gain and acquire stable Goods as well by Gift as Testament exempting also the Clergy from personal publick services that they might attend the Duties of Religion more constantly But the Clergy made so ill use of these Favours that Princes were forced to regulate them by Laws in the Year 370 Which St. Jerom confesseth to have been a Remedy against the Corruptions entred amongst the Clergy which was of getting Temporal Estates But that Law not being sufficient to suppress their greediness of getting Temporal Estates another Law was made Anno 390 to the same end and purpose this excess of getting was so unpleasant to St. Austin who lived in those Days that he openly declared against them saying The Ecclesiastical Ministry consisted not in getting and distributing much but in getting and distributing well Likewise he abhorred the new indirect ways they had found out of increasing their Stock and would never permit them in his Church and often declared in his Sermons That he had rather live on the Primitive Oblation than to have a care of Possessions which hindred from attending intirely upon the Principal Charge of a Bishop i. e. Spiritual things Notwithstanding all Laws Reprimands and Checks yet the Ecclesiastical Goods increased excessively above what it ought but the ancient manner of Governing and Distributing lasted till the Year 420. both the Oblation and the Ecclesiastical incoms from real Estates were in common and governed by Deacons Sub-Deacons and by other Assistants and distributed for the maintenance of Ecclesiastical Ministers and of the Poor The Colledge of Priests and the Bishops were the Superintendants so that the Bishops disposed of every thing and the Deacons executed it But after France Spain and Africa were divided from the Empire the Churches were differently governed The Eastern Church retained the common Government but in the Western the Bishops by Administrators and Superintendants made themselves Masters and to govern the Goods of the Church Arbitrarily from whence arose Confusions in the distribution of them and the Buildings fell to ruine and the Poor neglected and forsaken For which cause about the Year 470 in the Western Church it was ordained that the Ecclesiastical Goods should be divided into Four parts which alteration was also soon abused And also other changes made in the Government which in and through all things proved contrary to the Ancient as also the manner of chusing Ministers was instituted by the Apostles That Bishops Priests and other Ministers of God's Word and the Deacons Ministers of Temporal things should be elected by the Universality of the Faithful and should be ordained by the Bishops with laying of Hands on the Head a thing which lasts without alteration to this Day Which Custom continued about 200 Years The Bishops were chosen by the People and ordained by the Metropolitan in the presence of all the Com-provincial Bishops or else by their Consents c. And afterwards many Provinces for a better Form of Government were subject to one Primate whose Consent was also required for Ordaining Then the Priests Deacons and other Clergy Men were presented by the People and ordained by the Bishop or else nominated by the Bishops and with the Consent of the People ordained by him An unknown Man was never received neither did the Bishop ever Ordain one who was not approved of and commended or rather presented by the People and the Consent of the People was judged so necessary that Pope Leo the First treated amply that the Ordination of a Bishop could not be valid nor lawful which was not required by the People and by them approved of which was the Opinion of all the Saints of those times A thing worthy to be noted now a Days when that Election is declared to be illegitimate and null where the People have any share Thus is seen how things in the Government of the Church are degenerated from what they were in purer times even quite contrary that now accounted lawful which was then accounted wicked and that now unjust which then was reputed holy The Clergy finding the sweet and great Advantages of the Favours granted by Princes did improve them to the uttermost but by such means as were not pleasing to the Faithful of which St. Austin and St. Chrisostom greatly complained in their times For they increased the common Stock by undue practises and distributed over much to themselves and neglecting the Poor And their Wealth so vastly and unjustly increasing they instituted new kinds of Government which they changed at pleasure until at last it came to that we see at this Day Not content with the old ways of getting about the 500 Year another sort of Religious Colledges called Monasteries were erected Monkery began in Egypt about the Year 300 and from thence past into Greece whereby St. Basil at the Year 370 it was formed in the manner which yet continues But in Italy about the Year 350 it was brought to Rome by Athanasius but had little encouragement till about the Year 500 when St. Equitius and St. Benedict gave it a settled Form The Institution of Equitius increased but little but that of Benedict spread it self all over Italy and beyond the Mountains The Monks in those Days were not Ecclesiasticks but Seculars and in the Monasteries without the Cities they lived on their own Labour Arts and Husbandry together with some addition out of the publick Oblations and were governed by the Abbot The Abbot Tritemius makes Account that Monasteries of the Benedictine Monks were 15000 besides Prepositures and lesser Convents The Monks themselves chose their own Abbots by this time the Bishops by tricks and cunning Artifices became absolute Dispensators of the Fourth part of the Churches Goods which made the haughty Clergy mind Temporal Goods more than Spiritual and to make themselves Eminent and Popular whence arose Discords Seditions Tumults and Blows to the great Disturbance of Civil States especially about the Election of Clergy Dignitaries which Primarily at the first Institution was in the People beyond contradiction but afterwards by the cunning craftiness of those that lay in wait to deceive it was sometimes in the Clergy sometimes in the Prince sometimes in a mixture one chusing and another confirming as the Interest and Power of the one or the other could prevail Elections being then used not as the end of Divine Service but for secular Interests and worldly Ends. Antiquity knew of no distinction between Ordination and Benefice and Ordaining was then the same thing as to give an Office and the right of having ones livelihood from the common Goods of the Church But afterward through Wars and Confusions the Clergy being driven from their Ministries had recourse and retired