Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	aaron_n	priest_n	priesthood_n	5,059	5	11.0586	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50954	A supplement to Dr. Du Moulin, treating of the likeliest means to remove hirelings out of the Church of England With a brief vindication of Mr. Rich. Baxter. By J.M.	Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1680 (1680)	Wing M2180; ESTC R215557	32,178	27

people and that a Council at Antioch in the year 340 suffered not either Priest or Bishop to live on Church-maintenance without necessity Thus far Tithers themselves have contributed to their own confutation by confessing that the Church lived primitively on Alms. And I add that about the year 359 Constantius the Emperor having summoned a general Council of Bishops to Ariminum in Italy and provided for their subsistence there the British and French Bishops judging it not decent to live on the publick chose rather to be at their own charges Three only out of Britain constrained through want yet refusing offered assistance from the rest accepted the Emperors provision judging it more convenient to subsist by publick than by private sustenance Whence we may conclude that Bishops then in this Island had their Livelihood only from Benevolence in which regard this Relater Sulpitius Severus a good Author of the same time highly praises them And the WALDENSES our first Reformers both from the Scripture and these Primitive Examples maintain'd those among them who bore the Office of Ministers by Alms only Take their very words from the History written of them in French Part. 3. l. 2. c. 2. La nourriture ce de quoy nous sommes converts c. Our Food and Cloathing is sufficiently administred and given to us by way of Gratitude and Alms by the good People whom we teach If then by Alms and Benevolence not by Legal Force not by Tenure of Free-hold or Copy-hold for Alms though just cannot be compell'd and Benevolence forc'd is Malevolence rather violent and inconsistent with the Gospel and declares him no true Minister thereof but a rapacious Hireling rather who by force receiving it eats the bread of violence and exaction no holy or just livelihood no not civilly counted honest much less beseeming such a Spiritual Ministry But say they our maintenance is our due Tithes the Right of Christ unseparable from the Priest no where repeal'd if then not otherwise to be had by Law to be recovered for though Paul were pleased to foregoe his due and not to use his power 1 Cor. 9. 12. yet he had a power v. 4 and bound not others I answer first because I see them still so loath to unlearn their decimal Arithmetick and still grasp their Tithes as inseparable from a Priest that Ministers of the Gospel are not Priests and therefore separated from Tithes by their own exclusion being neither called Priests in the new Testament nor of any Order known in Scripture not of Melchisedec proper to Christ only not of Aaron as they themselves will confess and the third Priesthood only remaining is common to all the faithful But they are Ministers of our high Priest True but not of his Priesthood as the Levites were to Aaron for he performs that whole Office himself incommunicably Yet Tithes remain say they still unreleased the due of Christ and to whom payable but to his Ministers I say again that no man can so understand them unless Christ in some place or other so claim them That example of Abram argues nothing but his voluntary Act Honour once only done but on what consideration whether to a Priest or to a King whether due the honor arbitrary that kind of honor or not will after all contending be left still in meer Conjecture which must not be permitted in the claim of such a needy and subtle spiritual corporation pretending by Divine Right to the Tenth of all other mens Estates nor can it be allowed by wise men or the Verdit of Common Law And the Tenth part though once declared holy is declar'd now to be no holier than the other Nine by that Command to Peter Act. 10. 15 28 whereby all distinction of holy and unholy is removed from all things Tithes therefore though claimed and holy under the Law yet are now released and quitted both by that Command to Peter and by this to all Ministers abovecited Luke 10 eating and drinking such things as are given in reference to this Command which he calls not holy things or things of the Gospel as if the Gospel had any consecrated things in answer to things of the Temple v. 13 but he calls them your carnal things v. 11. without changing their property And what power had he not the power of force but of Conscience only whereby he might lawfully and without scruple live on the Gospel receiving what was given him as the recompence of his labor For if Christ the Master hath professed his Kingdom to be not of this World it suits not with that profession either in him or his Ministers to claim Temporal Right from spiritual respects He who refused to be the divider of an inheritance between two Brethren cannot approve his Ministers by pretended right from him to be dividers of Tenths and Freeholds out of other mens possessions making thereby the Gospel but a Cloak of carnal interest and to the contradiction of their Master turning his heavenly Kingdom into a Kingdom of this world a Kingdom of force and rapin To whom it will be one day thundered more terribly than to Gehazi for thus dishonouring a far greater Master and his Gospel is this a time to receive money and to receive Garments and Olive-yards and Vineyards and Sheep and Oxen The leprosie of Naaman linked with that Apostolick Curse of perishing imprecated on Simon Magus may be feared will cleave to such and to their seed for ever So that when all is done and Belly hath used in vain all her cunning shifts I doubt not but all true Ministers considering the Demonstration of what hath been here proved will be wise and think it much more tolerable to hear that no maintenance of Ministers whether Tithes or any other can be setled by Statute but must be given by them who receive Instruction and freely given as God hath ordained And indeed what can be a more honourable maintenance to them than such whether Alms or willing Oblations as these which being accounted both alike as given to God the only acceptable sacrifices now remaining must needs represent him who receives them much in the care of God and nearly relating to him when not by worldly force and constraint but with Religious Awe and Reverence what is given to God is given to him and what to him accounted as given to God This would be well enough say they but how many will so give I answer as many doubtless as shall be well taught as many as God shall so move Why are ye so distrastful both of your own Doctrine and of Gods Promises fulfilled in the experience of those Disciples first sent Luke 22. 35. When I sent you without Purse and Scrip and Shoes Lacked ye any thing and they said nothing How then came ours or who sent them thus destitute thus poor and empty both of Purse and Faith Who stile themselves Embassadors of Jesus Christ and seem to be his Tithe-gatherers though an Office of