Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	christian_a	good_a	great_a	1,688	4	2.1264	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43627	The lay-clergy, or, The lay-elder in a short essay in answer to this query : whether it be lawful for persons in holy orders to exercise temporal offices, honours, jurisdictions and authorities : with arguments and objections on both sides, poyz'd and indifferently weigh'd / by Edm. Hickeringil ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1695 (1695)	Wing H1818; ESTC R10850	22,034	36

Josh 8.31 Moses the Servant of the Lord commanded c. We must have none but Pagans and Heathens Atheists and Debauchees for Kings and Magistrates if we exclude all the Disciples and Servants of Christ for one and all exclude one exclude all and for the same Reasons Besides the distinction of Lay-men and Clergy-men are names of Distinction that God never made but quite contrary those that we call Lay-People are more especially called Clergy or God's Flock or God's Lot or God's Inheritance 1 Pet. 5.2 3. where St. Peter whom we call a Clergy-man Commands the Bishops Elders or Priests whom we also call Clergy-men to feed the Flock of God and not to Lord it over God's Clergy or God's Inheritance viz. over them which we contrarily call Lay-men And the Statute Hen. 8.21 13. calls Lay fee. Pride and Popery first made this Distinction making an Impropriation of the name Clergy or God's-lot to the Divines who called themselves also Spiritual Persons and Ecclesiastical Persons and Church-men as if God had no Church-men but Cassock-men nor any Saints but such as are in Holy Orders And what I pray is entring into Holy Orders Other than being Commission'd or Authorized to do such and such Acts by men of authority so to Ordain thus the King Ordains Judges and Justices by Commission Judges Ordains Gentlemen in the Country to Represent themselves in many cases by taking Fines Depositions c. By Commission too or Dedimus Potestatem The King Ordains or orders the Dean and Chapter to Elect A. B. to be a Bishop The Conge deslyer is a mandamus The Patron Orders or Ordains or appoints a man to such a Benefice if the Bishop do not accordingly give him Institution a Writ of Quare Impedit lies against him so that the Bishop in such cases can neither will nor chuse but if the person Presented be Literatus and according to the late Acts of Parliament in Holy Orders which we call Ordination but really and truly the Presentation is the Ordination or Order that Entitles him with the Bishops Institution to jus ad rem and in course the Archdeancon's Induction gives him Livery and Seizin or jus in re and Possession All this is called Holy Orders and so Prayers and hearing the Word are called Holy matters and Holy things because they more immediately relate to Communion with God but I understand not how Prayers in a Clergy-man is more Holy than Prayers in a Lay-man nor how Preaching is more Sacred than Hearing It is all God's Service and they that exercise the same are his immediate Servants one as much as another if their Faith and Devotion be equal Obj. But why did not Christ accept the Temporal Office and Honor of being a Judg I answer by another question why is not every man you meet a Judg and an Award's man to decide and determin all your Controversies Your Answer must be the same with mine to the said Quaere namely He never had a Commission a Dedimus Potestatem an Authority to make such an Award to divide or decide any such Inheritance or controversy as neither had Jesus Christ in the Days of his Humiliation for that he came to suffer for the sins of the World he could have been born of a Queen but he chose to be Born of a Poor Woman in a poorer Equipage than any and as he was born poor even so he liv'd and so he dyed and it was necessary as it was Proyhecyed of him that he should be a man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief despised and rejected of men oppressed and afflicted he was brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter for it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief making his Soul an Offering for Sin c. Now observe the Vanity of these Rump Orators and Logicians would you Christian Magistrates and Ministers of Christ be above or better than your Master He was poor and had not an House of his own to hide his head in neither would you if you be his true Disciples and Servants for the Servant is not greater than his Lord you should be poor as your Master All this fine Rhetorick if any were so silly to use it did not prevail with St. John to part with his Estate his House or his Home our blessed Saviour on the Cross took notice of it and therefore recommended his Mother to his Care and Provision and from that very hour that beloved Disciple carryed her to his own home It was well he had a Home and to put it to so good an use it was more than his Master had who had not so much as the Birds have 〈…〉 Nest an Home some men will be Interpreters of Holy Writ and consider nocircumstances which alter the 〈…〉 There was a time when Christ sent his Disciples out without purse or scrip and bare-foot that is in the time of his Humiliation But when that was accomplished or upon Finishing he gives them new Orders Luke 22.35 36. But now saith Christ He that hath a purse let him take it and likewise his scrip and he that hath no sword let him sell his Garment and buy one Whereby they had a plainer Commission to wear a Sword than to wear a Cassock And to want this rather than that Another brisk Oratour and Logician in that Parliament against Clergy-men's exercising temporal Jurisdiction argues thus Obj. 3. From 2 Tim. 2.4 No man that warreth Obj. 3 entangleth himself with the Affairs of this Life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier Answ Answ What 's this to Clergy-men more than to all other Christians No Man no good Christian-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implicatur is entangled in the Affairs of this Life It is not so well Translated as commonly entangles himself but is entangled 't is a passiue not an active word and spoken of them Qui tricis laqueis quibusdam implicantur that are snared or fetter'd with or in the things of this Life catch't by the Foot so that they cannot go It is a word used by St. Peter 2 Pet. 2.20 concerning such as are once Converted and have thereby escaped the snares and pollutions of the World and are again entangled or snar'd So that St. Paul to Timothy only advises that no man no good Christian man that hath escaped the snares and pollutions of the World should again be entangled and ensnared therein no God forbid It is just like that of our blessed Saviours Prayer John 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the World but that thou shouldest keep them from the Evil. And all this is but the Daty and should be the endeavour of every good Christian tho he live in the World yet to keep himself unspotted from the World Agur's Prayer Prov. 30.8 is excellent to this purpose give me neither Riches nor Poverty feed me with Food convenient for me lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in Vain Great Riches

was as good as his word in that taking it without Law Less I could not well say in answer to this Objection that must be confest to be unanswerable otherwise than by acknowledging the miscarriages in Government to be true and too palpable for they were felt sufficiently but that Lay-men not Clergy-men had then the Administration of affairs both in the Privy-Councel and Cabinet injuriously therefore were such failings imputed to Laud and more injuriously to make all men of his Profession nay the very Profession it self to be guilty of his crimes This is as Logicians term it non causa pro causa To ascribe the treachery of Judas to all the Disciples Yet such was the Logick of those mad times in 1640 and 1641. and the same mad Infection still spreads its self amongst prejudiced and unthinking men Of which sort the number was much greater than now a days or else sure those sleighty Arguments and Objections against Clergy-men's exercising temporal Jurisdictions could not have prevail'd so far as to be formed into an Act of Parliament But men even yet are apt enough to be enclin'd to any thing that promotes their own interest or pleases their fancies how ridiculous soever Nevertheless soon after the Restauration and Return of King Charles II. in the first Free Free Parliament begun at Westminster May 8 1661. The First Act they made was for safety of his Majesties Person and Government And the Second Act viz. 13. Car. 2.2 was for safety of the two Houses of Parliament and the three Estates of this Realm Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and the Commons by replacing the ancient Groundsel which had been so fatally and with such bloody Consequences taken away by that rash Act made 17. Car. 1.27 whereby all persons in Holy Orders were disabled from exercising any Temporal Jurisdiction or Authority therefore the said Act was thereby from thenceforth repealed annulled and made void to all intents and purposes whatsoever to give you the very words of the said Act for that the said Act had made several alterations prejudicial to the Constitution and antient Rights of Parliament and contrary to the Laws of this Land and is by experience woful experience the only Mistriss of Fools found otherwise inconvenient In the next place let us consider the subtle Arguments and knotty Reasonings that went smoothly and currantly down with those whose appetites were prepared to relish and receive them in those easy times that were mistaken in the Causes of Misgovernment charging the faileurs and miscarriage during Laud's Ministration to the Vice of his Profession as a Spiritual Person and in Holy Orders therefore vicious and unhappy in him which would not so have been in a Lay-man And that God All-mighty blest this and blasted the other But such dreams never happen to any but men unacquainted with History and with the Temper of former times and of our own To instance only in the Contemporaries of Arch-bishop Laud was there ever an honester Privy-Concellor than Archbishop Abbot Or that gave the King wiser or better Counsel than he if the King would have hearkned Was there ever a wiser States-man and Lord Chancellor than Williams Bishop of Lincoln Or that managed that Place with greater prudence or success he made his way tho' he always row'd against the stream wind and tide against him Buckingham and Laud. Was there ever an honester or more wise and frugal Lord Treasurer than Bishop Juxten his Enemies the Rump-Parliament being Judges and after they had with prying Eyes examin'd his Books of Accounts Therefore it is as ridiculous as unjust to make all Clergy-men suffer for one man's offence and attribute the miscarriages of the Man to the Profession that as Andrew Marvel says if they keep to their Bibles make the best States-men in the World And surely they are as likely to keep to their Bibles and have been as Wise and Honest Statesmen as any other Men of what Profession soever For alas Laud did not Lead but Follow those bad methods and steps of raising Mony without the Peoples consont in Parliament of calling no Parliament to redress Grievances under which no People ever groan'd more so that those Minions and chief Ministers of State were afraid of Parliaments afraid to be called to account and more than one Parliament was disfolv'd for calling Buckingham to Account insomuch that the ills which those Ministers had done could not be safe but by attempting greater King James I. from the 7th to the 18th year of his Reign 11. years had not one Parliament and then all that was done in that Parliament was but the old business the Mony-business and an Act of Indemnity of which as the Favourites had most need so they promoted the same King Charles I. never called but three Parliaments all his whole Reign which lasted almost 24. years and the last Parliament he called outlasted him at least the Rump of it And it is observable that neither King Charles I. nor King James I. ever parted with a Parliament with smooth Foreheads dissolving them in a rage and sending them home with wrinkled Brows on all sides which sowred the Blood turn'd it to Choler so that after such long Intervals of Parliament when they met again they Vented it in a Rage and like Haman for the affront of one Mordecai they would he revenged of the whole Tribe and therefore made that Act which as aforefaid disabled all persons in Holy Orders from the exercise of any temporal Jurisdiction To Effect which let us listen in the next place to their Wise Reasonings Obj. 2. The next great Argument against Clergy-men's exercising Temporal Authorities was taken from Holy Scriptures and from the Example and words of our blessed Saviour Luke 12.14 When a man came to him and desired him to speak to his Brother that he should divide the Inheritance with him To which the Blessed Jesus replyed Man who made me a Judg or a divider over you Now quoth they Is the Disciple above his Master or the Servant above his Lord If the Master disclaimes the temporal poral Office of a Judg or Magistrate how comes his Disciples to claim the same and by what Authority Has the Man more power than the Master Ans I Answer That they that swallow such stuff as this must do it without chewing For such a construction and improvement of that Text Disrobes all Lay-magistrates as well as Clergy-Magistrates except the Lay-Magistrates renounce their Christianity and the Service of Christ For I was in good hopes that all the Judges Parliament-men Justices of Peace and Magistrates in England are and were Disciples of Christ and his Servants as well and as much as Clergy-men St. Peter call's the Lay-men to whom he writes The Servants of God And St. Paul more particularly stiles the Magistrate The Minister or Servant of God It is no disgrace for the King 's Writ to run in the stile that Moses his Precipe's and Commands did run

Cursers and Damners in a Parish than twenty Preachers But of late times Preaching has justled all other Duties almost out of the Church as if Prayers and Sacraments by which men have the most immediate Communion with God were but the Parenthesis of our Religion and our sence of Religion sufficiently preserved tho they be omitted and left out Obj. 8. Again it was objected Obj. 8 that our blessed Saviour gives a Prohibition to his Apostles Luke 22.25 lest his Disciples exercise Lordship and aim at Dominion as do the Princes of the Gentiles and the Apostle Peter Commands the Elders not to Lord it over God's-Clergy and Diotrephes is blamed for seeking preheminence Answ Answ This is the Argument of the Levellers and may as well be used to Level all Christian men and make an equality of all Honours and Estates in the State as well as the Church Drive it Home as they would and it Levels all Christian Princes Judges and Magistrates in the State as well as the Church For all Christians are or should be Disciples and Servants of Christ whereas our Blessed Saviour in the foresaid Prohibition Levels not all Orders of men but only Pride and Ambition he would abate their Pride restrain their Malice and mortify their Avarice and Ambition A great Prince a great States-man a great Prelate should be Humble loving and kind to his fellow Creatures their greatest Honour is Humility and the greatest Humility of Inferiours consists in Honouring all men especially the King Nay Servants who are under the yoak would cause the Gospel to be Blasphemed if they do not count their Masters worthy of all Honours 1 Tim. 6.1 The Holy Scriptures then are the Magna Charta to conserve Orders and Respects amongst Christians not to Level and Confound all degrees and Qualities to an Equality Obj. Obj. 9 9. Lastly It is Objected that Spiritual Persons are not fitted and qualified by their Education for Temporal Offices and Honours Answ Answ To which I answer then let no such unqualified Persons be called to such Places Offices and Trusts But none in England be it spoken without exception or offence have had more liberal and ingenuous Education than some of the Clergy improved not only by Study but Travel and are Learned in the Knowledg of Men as well as Books and in the Laws of God and the King Who are more likely to be improved in all manner of Learning than such as have been Students all the days of their Lives Who likely to be more accomplish't as to Conversation and Business than such as have always kept the choicest Company Nay some of them are of as good and noble Families as any other Gentlemen and is a man less a Man less a Gentleman less a Knight or Nobleman by being a more immediate Servant of God By being a Spiritual Person does he undress himself and lay aside his Body wherefore then must he needs divest himself of all care for the Body St. Peter never exerted more fiery Zeal than when Ananias and Saphira turn'd Church Robbers by purloyning that Temporal Estate and Riches which was indeed once their own and Sacrilegiously picking the Churches Pocket of what was Devoted and might have otherwise lawfully been kept in their own Pockets Is a good man the most unsit to be a great man I had thought that he had been more fit to serve his Country faithfully the more Faithfully he had serv'd his God Moses his frequent Communion with God made him not only more able but consequently more capable to govern the People And Samuel had no pretence to the Throne till he was the more qualified to be a Judg over men after some Discourse betwixt God and him Nor was David the less but the better King by being the Prophet David nor his Son Solomon less but more wise by being Ecclesiastes or the Preacher Was Isaiah less a Prince and less of the Blood-Royal by being a Prophet of God Nay all Nations that ever I saw or heard of pay the greatest respects to the Priesthood What greater King in all Africa at this day than Proster John that is to say Presbyter John or Priest-John The Aegyptians and so the Ancient Hebrews by one and the same word signified Priest and Prince Gen. 41.45 Potipherah Priest of Ou in the Margent Prince of Ou I say all Nations except our Britain since the late confusions have thought no Station too good or too great for their Priests both Civil and Barbarous Nations gave thus much to Religion and what Nation is there in Christendom Turky or Heathenism wherein Men in Holy Orders are not a Constitutive and Essential Part of the Government Popish Priests whom the ignorant Papists believe to be able to make a God must needs be not only Respected but Adored But Protestant Ministers in Holy Orders can never without as great a Miracle be kept from Contempt and given to Hospitality if they be kept poor by the many Impropriations now appropriated to the Crown and great Men which once belong'd to the Clergy and now they shall be stript too of all Temporal Offices and Honours their just due by the Laws of Nature of God and of the Realm as those enjoy'd by them you call Lay-men Bishops have their Baronies jure Humano who denies it No Barons have other Right the Law of the Land is their Birth-right of which when by the Heats and rage of the late Dog-days time they were madly depriv'd what was the Consequence but the Ruin and Confusion of all men's Birthrights It must be confest that Envy pure Envy made Sir Francis Bacon Lord Verulam when Lord Chancellour of England one of the First and Worst Lord Chancellours of a Lay-man that ever had the Custody of the Great Seal of England by shameful Briberies for which he lost it say when it was told him that a poor Clergy-man waited to speak with him below stairs Let him come up quoth he for I love to see a poor Clergy-man There are no doubt very many that have had the same love for the Clergy they love to see them Poor they love to see a poor Clergy-man The Lord Chancellors Antient Title is Clericus Primae sedis Clerk of the first Form Clerk not Clark a name now commonly given to every Scribler and Lawyers Clark but Clerk from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clergy-man or the Lord's lot I know as before that Pride and Self-conceit monopoliz'd this name unjustly to men in Orders but it has obtain'd by custom to signify Spiritual persons be it so not the Law of God nor the Language of Holy Scripture but only Ordination Presentation or the Kings's Commission makes the Distinction at this Day The famous Dr. Donne was a favourite Lay-Courtier when King James gave him his Hand to Kiss in assurance that he should be Dean of Pauls he afterwards was Ordain'd Deacon and Priest and well became his Spiritual sunction I know no Law that hinders grave and sober