Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	bishop_n	call_v	presbyter_n	718	5	10.7016	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43613	The ceremony-monger his character in five chapters ... with some remarks (in the introduction) upon the new-star-chamber, or late course of the Court of King's Bench, of the nature of a libel, and scandalum magnatum, and in conclusion, hinting at some mathematical untruths and escapes in the common-prayer book, both as to doctrine and discipline, and what bishops, were, are, and should be, and concerning ordination, humbly proposed to the consideration of the Parliament / by E. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1799; ESTC R20364	90,871	81

great cause and Surrogate a better Reason in the room and be their Profe●●te Nay I 'le stoop lower I 'le condescend to be my Lord 's the Bishops Chaplain and Apologist But If all their skill cannot do it then it is high time to Recant and Repent that iniquity may not be our ruine and to restore the Lamb four-fold and because rich Dives had no more pity of his brethren whom the rich Diocesan calls according to the Style in the Primitive Church Reverend Brother and Brother but looks over the head of his Brother Elder or Presbyter as if a Conge d'Fslier had made him a Saul and higher by the Head when he only Struts being Rich and stands a Tip-toe but is not a better man nor a better Scholar than he was before It may binder his Worth and Learning rather by Avocations runing from Ordinations to the House of Lords thence to the Council-chamber thence to confirmations thence to Visitations c. If these do not hinder a Mans Study and Improvement I have lost my aim Let them but Read Mr. Baxter's Learned Book of Episcopacy or Arch-bishop C●●nmer's Opinion or Ordination This latter a Learned and Holy Martyr The former a most Learned and pious Confessour or let them bu● read the New Testament and there is little or no difference at all betwixt a Presbyter or Elder and Bishop what in one Verse is called Presbyter in the next is called Bishop as Bethlehem the Town is the same with Bethlehem the City aforesaid And a Parish signifi'd the same with Dioce●s But in alter ●●mes when Christians Multiplyed if a Presbyter could not Watch over all their Souls they allowed him a Co-adjutor and for distinction and Precedency sake called him a Bishop who sometimes had not one Presbyter under him as aforesaid most commonly but one and till Bishops begun to Scramble for more Ground and like other Princes to enlarge their Dominions and Jurisdictions which was not till the Emperour Constantine made them so bigg that in the Fourth Century the great Work of Councils and synods was Perambulation to Mark out the Bounds of the● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Parishes or Diocesses to keep the Peace bet wixt the Encroaching Bishops in that Fourth Century called Ambitionis seculum The Ambitious Century not that Bishops in after Ages grew more humble or were Ensamples to the Flock in Self-denial Modesty Humility and Contempt of Worldly Grandeur and as they say they Vow'd in Baptism to forsake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanitles of this Wicked World c. But then first they begun to be ambitious of large Diocesses more than possibly they could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or oversee then they got Journey-men and Surrogates and Registers and Apparitors and all that Tribe to Feed whom the Church Wardens are the Spaniels Sworn to Hunt and Flush the Game that the hovering Jar-Faulcon the Register may Pounce them there 's all and make a Prey of Poor Sinners never to be Redeem'd but by Silver or Gold. The Golden Key always gets Absolution which in Gospel Times and the Primitive Times never was purchased but with Tears in the midst of the congregation as Jerom of Fabiola ep ad ocean Episcopo Presbyteris omni p●puio Collachry-mantibus c. The Bishops Presbyters and all the People Weeping for Joy at those Peultent Tears and at the Return of the Prodigal mixing their Tears with his Heb. 13.17 Obey them that Rule over you for they Watch for your Souls as they that must give an Account c. A woful and sad Account must that Bishop make when God calls him to give an Account which will be very shortly of his Bishoprick for he shall be no longer Bishop Howought he to Tremble at the Thoughts of it When in ●●ead of Watching for the Souls committed to his Charge he has only wa●ch't for their Pu●●es And instead of Guiding them he has sent out Doctor 's Commons-men to Watch all England over in the Bishops Room we Trace them by the Footing at a Visitation c. What have they been doing Citing Admonishing Excommunicating Jayling Absolving this Twenty Nine long Years in all this Kingdom What ●en●●en●s have they made What Penance What Repentance Is it not a great Chear that defeats all Repentance By Commuting as the Papists and we say turning the Whores Sins by which she got Money they Joy in her for they go Ships into Money and a few great Whores are ●how to Maintain all the Ecclesiastical free-booters in Doctors-Commons she is the Thief that Pick 's Men's Pockets they the Receivers Oh! the Jubi●ee's they make when the Apparitor has found out a Rich Wh●re and a Rich Bastard which least they should miss let the Church-Wardens look to it for they Swear the Ecclesiastical Span●el always to quest upon a Haunt if he do not he is forsworn Oh most Preciou● Ecclesias●ical D●scipline that begins with Perjury and ends with Mercenary Repentance or Bribery Why should not the King and Parliament be as careful of their Subjects Souls as their Bodies For they also must give an Account But what an Irrational account would it be if it was to be feared that an Enemy should Land and Invade us at Harwich or Canterbury to say I have set a Watch-man upon the Top of Paul's or to make sure upon the Higher Steeple of Lambeth call to the Watch-men is the Enemy Landed at Harwich How angry would they be at such a non-se●sical Question And say Surely you are Mad Do you think any Mortal Man can see from London to Harwich Or from Lambeth to Canterbury There may be a Hundred Thousand Enemies Landed for ought we know How is it possible for us to Watch and Ward at this Distance In the ●nte●im the Kingdom is well look't to And the Coasts well Guarded are they not We are the next Door to Ruin if more Watch men be not set and stronger Guards which is easie and no charge or expence at all when the Pay that two Watch-men have ingrost would well pay and maintain fourty of as good Vigour and Ability and in some Sence better-sighted and better Tongu'd Watch-men to Feed and give Warning Or are the wellfare of our Lands and Bodies only the care of Governours And as for Mens Souls one Watch-man is enough betwixt this and Canterbury But you 'le say a Man is but a Man he does what a Man can do Nemo tenetur ad Impossibilia I grant But who bid him undertake such a Charge that no Mortal can discharge Who Who think you but Filthy-lucre and Ambition The Council of Sardica in the Fourth Century Anno 347. saw this Devilish mischief coming Trowling into the Church and a perpetual strife and comest about the Borders and Limi●s as Litigious as now at Doctors-Commons about the Probate of Wills and about Letters of Administration namely who shall get the Money whether the Bishop's or Arch-deacon's Courts of that Diocess

Curats must all assent and consent that this falshood is a truth and such a falshood it is and of so evil consequence that it makes a blunder and confounds all our wise Methods of uniformity in Common-prayers Episties Gospels and Lessons And if we do not confess and subscribe that this falshood and untruth is 〈◊〉 truth then starve and dir I can give several other instances of our irrational Doctrine and Discipline but I am loth to offend let them even go on they 'l give me but little thanks for my pains already but I thank God I do not find the fault to expose it to shame but to cure it I know how And let me tell you it requires some skill in the Cure Why may not Lightning sometime come from a black Cloud and a dull By-stander see better sometime than he that play Some part of that seven-hill'd City Rome is scituated in a Vale as well as Westminster Hall and therefore no wonder 〈◊〉 sometimes both of them be in a Fog And if it abate the proved pragmatical imposing self-conceited dogmatical and imperious Spirit that confounds the whole Creation by Methods and Aims of Uniformity point blank against those different Measurer of God and Nature it is well CHAP. III. Concerning Bishops WHat I am going to speak concerning Bishops may the more favourably be received because so contrary to self-interest the worst of evil Counsellors For why may not I as well as any other live in hopes of a pair of Lawn Sleeves rightly put on since nothing else keeps me from making as good a Speech in the House of Lords as that which of late was only a Speech without Doors and proves so genuine and well aim'd that all of it 〈◊〉 now a Speech within Doors However I could serve as well as the best to make up the number of the Yea's or No's And that 's all the wise Speech that some men ever did make I do not say that ever they can make for the more frugal any man is and the less he spends the greater is his Stock But if I had been so hasty as to bespeak the Lawn-Sleeves this Sheet that I am going to write will spoil all my finery And certainly there cannot be such a Fool in England or the World as to think that the King's Letters Patents or Conge de Slyer can make the Baronet or the Bishop a Linguist or a Learned Man except he was so before though usually the Vulgar are of Opinion that if a Bishop or a Lord says it writes or preaches it O Heavenly because O Earthly and is a Judgment as preposterous a● that Action of the Orator when pointing to the Earth he declaimed O Caelum But it is a received Maxime No Bishop no King I know not who invented it but it may be true in some sense but it is false If it be meant no Rich Bishop no King for that the Rich Bishops were so Rich that what with the Hank they got upon silly Mens Consciences and the Interest that their Lands good Leases and Dependencies their Tenants Servants and Friends they were so prevalent when united that when our Kings have sometimes been so hardy and boid as to displease them they have either taken the Crown from his Head as the Rich Bishop of winchester unking'd his Brother King Stephen on whose Head that Nimrod of a Clergy-man had without any right clapt it on and upon displeasure the Bishop chiefly unking'd him again and in effect spurn'd 〈◊〉 off as Pandolfus the Popes Nuncio did the ●rown off King John's Head which say groveling at his Foot whilst the proud Prelat put it on and to shew the Ecclesiastical Insolence of some Lawn-Sleeves he up with his foot and kick't it off from the Kings Head. So that no Bishop no King Stephen or John and a Bishop no King Stephen or John for that Rich Bishops like other Rich Lords are a Strength to the Crown when it does not displease them and on the contrary have been too great and dangerous when controul'd growing musty and morose a King had as good be a Slave in Turky as to be at the mercy of such Popish-like Ecclesiastical Pride Nay did not the very Dean of westminster and the Arch-bishop of York chiefly though with others bandyed make the Reign of Hen. 4. and Hen. 5. very uncasie For which cause the wise King Henry 7. Invented a way to pull down the Stomacks of the great Temporal Lords with their own hands by enabling them to alienate and sell their Lands of which many were so glad that it was the first Bargain they would make to chuse away runs the Foot-man for the Usurer and Scrivener who were as glad to buy as the other to sell when both sides are willing the Bargain is soon struck up and Time was unwing'd till the Entail was dockt Then his Son Hen. 8. he reform'd the Clergy with a Witness and pocketed up the Reformation by Act of Parliament and excluded from the House of Lords all the spirtual Lords Abbots and ●ut their Lands in his Pocket by Statute Law. Edw. 6. and Queen Elizabeth were his own Children too for they and their wise Counsel finding that though the Spiritual Lords Abbors were excluded the House of Lords yet the other Spiritual Lords Bishops were so proud sometimes and high that no Body could imagine them to be the best Disciples of Christ who was meek and lowly therefore Edw. 6. took at once from the Arch-bishop of York about 37 great Mannors and were annext to the Crown and Queen Elizabeth amongst other things took all the Lands belonging to the Prince Palatine of Ely Bishop in the Vacancy and gave 2000 l. to be paid out of the Exchequer Annually a sufficient Competency and an Injury to no Man for the Bishoprick was in Abayance as the Law calls it in nubibus it being in posse any bodies but in esse no bodies So that I also am so much a Friend to that Proverb No Bishop no King and so very much a Friend to Bishops that where there is one now in England I wish there were twenty and as old as I am I hope to live to see it and yet not take one Farthing from the present Incumbenrs nor in the least diminish the vast Revenues and Grandeur of my Lords the Bishops that are in possession let them keep it I say till they die and die they must and then their Bishopricks being vacant by Death however if not sooner justly forfeited it will be no Injury to any Man to share out and divide the vast Incomes to many Bishops who must take the pains and perform the Work of a Bishop in their proper persons which is now done by Proxies Sureties and Implicite Faith. And I doubt not but that all my Lords the Bishops would be of my mind herein as to the Work of a Bishop which they themselves and all English-men find to be so great a Work and a