Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	bishop_n	church_n	presbyter_n	2,348	5	10.4986	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30298	An essay to revive the necessity of the ancient charity and piety wherein God's right in our estates and our obligations to maintain his service, religion, and charity is demonstrated and defended against the pretences of covetousness and appropriation : in two discourses written to a person of honour and vertue / by George Burghope.	G. B. (George Burghope)	1695 (1695)	Wing B5732; ESTC R26568	69,015	226

Family of Aaron they had the First-Fruits of all things the Earth produced as Corn Wine and Oil and he was a Man of an evil Eye that offered under the sixtieth part They had also the First-Fruits of Cattle clean and unclean the first in kind the other to be redeemed at a Price They had the First-born of Man to be redeemed at five Shekels a piece being likewise the Shekel of the Sanctuary They had all the Vows Gifts and Offerings and all Males were to appear before God thrice every Year and none to appear empty-handed And besides all this they had thirteen Cities with their Suburbs of the same Dimensions with the former So that every Priest considering the smalness of their Number could not chuse but live if he wou'd himself in a plentiful Condition far above Want and nearer to that of great Men than the common People What Provision was made for the Chief of every Course I remember not but the High-Priest had the Tenth of the Levites Portion and a Revenue equal to many some say three or four thousand Levites suitable to that of the Princes amongst whom he was accounted the chiefest Now let any Man tell me why God shou'd thus provide for those that perform'd his Worship after such an extraordinary manner above others under the Law was it not to free 'em from Wants and consequently from Contempt And if so as none can deny if we have a Specimen of the Divine Allotment in those Days of the largest Measures why should we think that he is not of the same Mind now Or that he would have his Priests under the Gospel live upon Alms as Beggars Especially seeing there is the same reason in the thing it self and he hath declared nothing to the contrary But this will be better clear'd by taking a view of that Competency which his Providence ordered his Ministers under the Gospel §. VII The large Provision God made for the Ministry under the Gospel in the Primitive Times Tho' our Lord chose Poverty as a state of Life best suiting his Design of redeeming Mankind and his Apostles were of mean Concerns and forc'd to leave what they had as unportable Matter which they cou'd not nor indeed needed carry with them about the World whither they were sent to publish the Gospel yet no sooner was the Holy Ghost given and those their mighty Powers confirm'd to them the least of which was of more worth than a Crown and Scepter but we find that they commanded all that their Converts had And in recompence of their own Losses receiv'd their Proselytes whole Estates in Money at their Feet and Disposal The right of Tythes and Offerings which was appropriated during the Levitical Law to that Tribe and Priesthood reverted now to its old Channel And that Priesthood being at an end they return'd to God's Ministers of what Nation or Family soever they were This our Lord himself intimated in the Sentence of giving to Caesar the things that are Caesar ' s and unto God the things that are God's by which last the Primitive Fathers who must best know his Mind say he meant the restoration of God's due his Tythes and Offerings to his Servants they now properly belong'd to and thereby laying down a Maxim or Foundation for the right of the Christian Priesthood And St. Paul alludes to this or some other Ordination of our Saviour when he maintains the Priests Right under the Gospel to the Dues of the Altar upon our Lord's Order Even so as the Ministers of the Temple and the Altar were partakers of the Things of the Temple and Altar which were Tythes and Offerings hath the Lord ordained that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 14. But those Times wou'd not bear that Truth and therefore it was not seasonable to declare it in plain Terms or press it upon the Churches lest the Jews should be scandaliz'd at it and cry out Sacrilege and the Devil should have an Objection of pretended Covetousness and Self-Interest against the Propagators of the Gospel It was therefore abundantly sufficient to assert the Ministers Rights in general Words and in such Terms that they knew the future Christians would interpret to the Churches Settlement Besides Tythes cou'd neither be demanded without Offence nor paid nor receiv'd in those Times and therefore Providence ordered Things so that they needed them not For the Believers with themselves made the Apostles a Present of all that they had and left them to be Stewards and Distributers of it as they shou'd think fit Offerings supply'd the Place of Tythes which were so considerable during those Times of Trouble and Persecution that not only the succeeding Bishops Presbyters and Deacons but the Poor also were plentifully maintain'd and that in all Places whither Christianity extended it self And this till the Times of Constantine who settled Peace and its Rights to the Church and Tythes amongst the rest which cou'd not be regularly and universally paid before tho' they might and were privately and in some Places where suffered and therefore we read of some Churches endow'd before But be that as it will After the time of this Christian Emperor Churches were built and endow'd by Pious Men who gave to them Portions of Glebe and the Bishop of the Diocess allotted and appropriated Portions of Tythes to the new-built Churches such as was sufficient to maintain the Minister of Religion plentifully and enable him to be hospitable and to give to the Poor This was the Original of Parochial Rights and by these means these Portions of Tythes by little and little were derived from the Bishop who was at first the Grand Proprietor and Receiver of them in his Diocess to the Parish-Priest to whom likewise with the Profits he derived also part of his Charge and Care the Curam animarum of those in such and such Precincts And this last is done to every new Incumbent to this Day and it is call'd the Bishops Institution to the Benefice The rest of the Tythes Offerings and Endowments were reserv'd to the Cathedral Church of the Bishops Sea and the Priests there resident who lived longer together in common till Abuses made it necessary to separate likewise their Allowances which we call at this Day Prebends This was the Work of several hundred Years more or less and sooner or later in the Nations wherein Christianity was settled during which time God stirred up the Hearts of Pious Men both Ecclesiastical and others to endow and settle the Revenues of the several Churches that the Pastors or as they are now call'd Rectors of them liv'd above Contempt kept Hospitality maintain'd the Poor for then there needed no Laws for their Sustenance by Collection as now and so waited comfortably on their Office Their Gifts were great and Offerings many No Man came to the Christian Altar empty-handed and none died but he gave something in his Will to his Parish-Church if not to