Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	honourable_a	lord_n	viscount_n	3,313	5	11.4579	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94227	Tvvo speeches in Parliament of the right honourable William, Lord Vicount Say and Seale Mr. of his Majesties Court of Wards and Liveries, and one of his Majesties most honourable Privie Councell, the first upon the bill against bishops power in civill affaires and courts of judicature. The other a declaration of himself touching the liturgie, and separation.	Saye and Sele, William Fiennes, Viscount, 1582-1662.	1641 (1641)	Wing S795; ESTC R230189	10,162	16

TWO SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT OF THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE WILLIAM LORD Vicount SAY and SEALE Mr. of his Majesties Court of Wards and Liveries and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privie Councell The first upon the Bill against Bishops power in civill affaires and Courts of Judicature The other a Declaration of himself touching the Liturgie and separation LONDON Printed for Thomas Vnderhill 1641. A Speech of the Right Honourable WILLIAM Lord Vicount Say and Seale one of his Majesties most Honourable privie Councell spoken in Parliament upon the Bill against the Bishops MY LORDS I Shall not need to begin as high as Adam in answer to what hath bin drawne downe from thence by a Bishop concerning this question The Bishop of Lincolne for that which is pertinent to it will onely be what concernes Bishops as they are ministers of the Gospell what was before being of another nature can give no rule to this The question that will lye before your Lordships in passing of this bill is not whether Episcopacie I meane this Hierarchicall Episcopacy which the world now holds forth to us shall be taken away Roote and branch but whether those exuberant and superfluous branches which draw away the sap from the tree and divert it from the right and proper use whereby it becomes unfruitfull shall be cut off as they use to plucke up suckers from the Roote The question will be no more but this whether Bishops shall be reduced to what they were in their first advancement over the Presbyters which although it were but a humane device for the Remedy of Schisme yet were they in those times least offensive or continue still with the addition of such things as their owne ambition and the ignorance and superstition of succeeding times did adde thereunto and which are now continued for severall politicke ends things heterogeneall and inconsistent with their calling and function as they are ministers of the Gospell and thereupon such as ever have been and ever will be hurtfull to themselves and make them hurtfull to others in the times and places where they are continued And these things alone this bill takes away that is their offices and places in Courts of Judicature and their imployments by Obligation of office in civill affaires I shall insist upon this to shew first how these things hurt themselves and secondly how they have made and ever will make them hurtfull to others They themselves are hurt thereby in their consciences and in their credits In their consciences by seeking or admitting things which are inconsistent with that function and office which God hath set them apart unto They are separated unto a speciall worke and men must take heed how they mis-imploy things dedicated and set apart to the service of God They are called to preach the Gospell and set apart to the worke of the ministery and the Apostle saith who is sufficient for these things shewing that this requireth the whole man and all is too little therefore for them to seeke or take other offices which shal require and tye them to imploy their time and studies in the affaires of this world wil draw a guilt upon them as being inconsistent with that which God doth call them and set them apart unto In this respect our Saviour hath expresly prohibited it telling his Apostles that they should not Lord it over their Brethren nor exercise Jurisdiction over them as was used in civill governments among the Heathen They were called gracious Lords and exercised Jurisdiction as Lords over others and sure they might lawfully doe so but to the Ministers of the Gospel our Saviour gives this Rule it shall not be so done by you If ye strive for greatnesse he shall be the greatest that is the greatest servant to the rest therefore in another place he saith Hee that putteth his hand to the Plow and looketh backe to the things of this world is not fit for the kingdom of God that is the preaching of the Gospel as it is usually called To be thus withdrawne by intangling themselves with the affaires of this life by the necessity and duty of an Office received from men from the discharge of that Office which God hath called them unto brings a woe upon them Woe unto me saith the Apostle if I preach not the Gospel what doth he meane If I preach not once a quarter or once a yeare in the Kings Chappell No he himself interpreted it Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season rebuke exhort or instruct with all long suffering and doctrine he that hath an office must attend upon his office especially this of the ministery The practice of the Apostles is answerable to the direction and doctrine of our Saviour There never was nor will be men of so great abilities and gifts as they were indued withall yet they thought it so inconsistent with their Callings to take places of Judicature in civill matters and secular affaires and imployments upon them that they would not admit of the care and distraction that a businesse farre more agreeable to their Callings then these would cast upon them and they give the reason of it in the sixth of the Acts It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve Tables And again when they had appointed them to choose men fit for that businesse they institute an office rather for taking care of the poore then they by it would be distracted from the principall worke of their Calling and then shew how they ought to imploy themselves But we said they will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word Did the Apostles men of extraordinary gists thinke it unreasonable for them to be hindred from giving themselves continually to preaching the Word and Prayer by taking care for the tables of the poore Widowes and can the Bishops now thinke it reasonable or lawfull for them to contend for sitting at Councell Table to governe States to turne States-men in stead of Church-men to sit in the highest Courts of Judicature and to be imployed in making lawes for civill polities and government If they shall be thought fit to sit in such places and will undertake such imployments they must not fit there as ignorant men but must be knowing men in businesses of State and understand the Rules and lawes of government and therby both their time and studies must be necessarily diverted from that which God hath called them unto And this sure is much more unlawfull for them to admit of then that which the Apostles rejected as a distraction unreasonable for them to be interrupted by The doctrine of the Apostles is agreeable to their practice herein for Paul when hee instructeth Timothy for the work of the ministery presseth this argument from the example of a good Souldier no man that warreth intangleth himselfe with the affaires of the world So that I conclude That which by the commandement of our Saviour

more force but they wil receive satisfactory answers The one is that if they may remove Bishops they may as well next time remove Barons and Earles for answer The Reason is not the same the one sitting by an Honour invested in their blood and hereditary which though it be in the King to grant alone yet being once granted he cannot take away the other sitting by a Barony depending upon an Office which may be taken away for if they be deprived of their office they sit not 2. Their sitting is not so essentiall for Lawes have bin and may be made they being all excluded but it can never be shewed that ever there were Lawes made by the King and them the Lords and Earles excluded The other objection is this that this Bill alters the foundation of this house and innovations which shake foundations are dangerous I answer first that if there should be an error in the foundation when it shall be found and the master-builders be met together they may nay they ought rather to amend it then to suffer it to runne on still to the prejudice and danger of the whole structure 2. Secondly I say this is not fundamentall to this House for it hath stood without them and done all that appertaines to the power thereof without them yea they being wholly excluded and that which hath beene done for a time at the Kings pleasure may be done with as little danger for a longer time and when it appears to be fit and for publick good not onely may but ought to be done altogether by the supreame Power FINIS A Speech of the Right Honourable WILLIAM Lord Vicount Say and Seale one of his Majesties most Honourable privie Councell spoken in Parliament touching the Liturgie and Separation MY LORDS I Have waited to find you free from greater businesses that I might crave leave to speake of something that concernes my selfe And this I have the more desired since my Lord of Canterburies last speech who expressing his troubles and bewailing the miserie of his condition and of the condition of the Church of England for he would needs joyne them together which I thinke he may as the cause and effect for the miseries of the Church have certainly risen from him hee insisted much upon this That these troubles had befallen him through the malice of two parties the Papists and the Sectaries and by those hee said the Church was greatly afflicted How farre this man will extend this word Sectarie and whom he will comprehend under it I know not but I have some cause to feare that I may lye under some misapprehensions in respect of matters of this nature which how farre it concerneth him your Lordships will perceive by what I shall say My Lord of Canterbury a man of meane birth bred up in a Colledge and that too frequently falls out to be in a faction whose narrow comprehensions extended it selfe no farther then to carry on a side in the Colledge or canvas for a Proctors place in the Universitie being suddenly advanced to highest places of government in Church and State had not his heart inlarged by the inlargement of his fortune but still the maintaining of his partie was that which filled all his thoughts which he prosecuted with so much violence and inconsideratenesse that he had not an eye to see the consequences thereof to the Church and State until hee had brought both into those distractions danger and dishonour which we now find our selves incompassed withall Yet to magnifie his moderation presently after the breaking of the last Parliament hee told a Lord who sitteth now in my sight that if he had beene a violent man hee wanted no occasion to shew it for hee observed that my Lord Say never came to prayers and added that I was in his knowledge as great a Separatist as any was in England My Lords how farre hee hath spit this venome of his against me I am not certaine But I may well feare where it might doe me greatest prejudice I shall therefore intreat your Lordships favours and patience that I may give you in these things which so neerely concerne me a true account of my selfe which I shall doe with ingenuity and clearenesse and so as that if I satisfie not all men yet I hope I shall make it appeare I am not such a one as this waspish man was willing to make the world beleeve For the first of these that he chargeth upon me it may be he was willing to have it thought that I would not joyne in prayer with your Lordships but refused such a communion which is altogether false for I should most willingly joyne in prayer with you And further I will adde that I doe not thinke but some set formes of prayer by some men in some cases may be lawfully used But this is that which I am not satisfied in that a certaine number of men should usurpe an authority unto themselves to frame certaine prayers and formes of divine Service and when that is done under the name of the Church to injoyne them upon all persons in all times and upon all occasions to be used and none other and upon this ground which makes it the worse because these come from the publike spirit of the Church when the Bishop or his Chaplaine shall frame them and others proceed from the private spirit of this or that particular man This injunction is an usurpation of power over the Churches of Christ and over the gifts and graces which Christ hath given unto men which the Apostles never exercised nor would assume and yet they might much better have done it and the same reasons might then have beene alledged for it that are now This turnes such formes in stead of being directions into superstition This sets aside the gifts and graces which Christ hath given and thrusts out the exercise of them to substitute in their places and introduce a device of man This injunction of such formes upon all men turnes that which in the beginning necessity brought in for the helpe of insufficiency to be now the continuance and maintenance of insufficiencie and a barre to the exercise of able and sufficient gifts and graces As if because some men had need to make use of Crutches all men should bee prohibited the use of their legges and injoyned to take up such crutches as have beene prepared for those who had no legges This I confesse I am not satisfied in yet I will further say thus much here are with your Lordships some Bishops men of great parts able to offer up this worship unto God in the use of those gifts which God hath endowed them with and certainly they ought to serve him with the best of their abilities which they have received Let them make use of their owne gifts nay let them but professe that they accompt not themselves bound to use formes nor to this forme they use more then any other but that it is free