Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A33914
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The office of a chaplain enquir'd into and vindicated from servility and contempt
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Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing C5258; ESTC R24123
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17,677
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42
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insinuate that they have no Essential Advantages above the rest of mankind to awaken them into right apprehensions of things and rescue them from that delusion which their own vanity and the ignorance or design of others often puts upon them Therefore if men would have their Lives correct and happy they ought to encourage their Friends especially those who are particularly concern'd in the Regulation of their Conscience to tell them of their faults they should invite them to this freedom if not by express declaration yet by affable Deportment always receiving the performance of the nice Office with demonstrations of pleasure and satisfaction Did men consider how slippery and difficultly manageable an Elevated station is they would easily discern that it was not the safest way to trust altogether to their own Conduct but to take in the constant assistance of a Religious Person that so their miscarriages might be represented their Consciences directed in doubtfull cases and their minds fortified with defensatives proper to the temptations of their condition and temper Indeed the very converse of such a Guide if his character were rightly understood and prudently supported would help to keep them upon their guard and by striking a kind of Religious awe upon their spirits make their conversation more staunch and regular and often prevent their falling into any remarkable excesses But these advantages are all lost upon those who misapprehend the Priests Office and entertain him upon the same account they do their Footmen only to garnish the Table and stuff out the Figure of the Family When a man hath received such a disparaging notion of the Priest and rang'd him amongst his servants there is small likelihood of his being the better for his company for this conceit will make his carriage lofty and reserv'd his words gestures and silence will all carry marks of Neglect and Imperiousness in them which are plain and designed Intimations that the Priest must not insist upon the priviledges of his Function that he must not pretend to any Liberty but what his Patron is pleas'd to allow with the Direction of whose actions he is not to intermeddle nor remonstrate against the unreasonableness of any practice nor show him the danger of continuing in it for though all this be done with caution and tenderness and respect yet he must look for nothing but disdain and disappointment in requital for presuming to admonish his Superiours which is such an Usurpation upon Dominion and Quality as is not to be endur'd being neither agreeable to the servile Employment of the one nor consistent with the Honour of the other 5ly This degrading the Priesthood into a servile Office takes off from that Veneration which is due to the solemn Mysteries of Religion and makes them look common and contemptible by being administred by Persons not sui juris but obnoxious to the pleasure of those who receive them God therefore to prevent his Ordinances from falling into contempt and to make them effectual to procure the happiness of Mankind hath given his Priests Authority over all they are concern'd with they are to bless the people in his Name and the Author to the Hebrews tells us that without contradiction the less is blessed of the better Hebr. 7.7 They are called the Lords Priests 1 Sam. 22.17 The Messengers of the Lord of hosts Mal. 2.7 and in the New Testament they are stiled the Stewards and Ambassadors of God and made Overseers of his Church by the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 5.20 Acts 20.28 The sense of which Texts and partly the words are by the appointment of our Church applied to those who are ordain'd Priests to put them in mind of the dignity of their Office and the great Care they ought to take about the conscientious discharge of it I confess 't is possible for a Priest to make himself a servant he may 't is likely be Steward or Clark of the Kitchin if he pleases as Bishop Latimer complains some of the Clergy were forced to be in his time Heylin Hist. Refor p. 61. but as long as he does not engage in any Employment which is intended for State or the convenience of Life as long as he keeps to his Priestly Function so long he may be assured he hath no Master in the House and for any to suppose he hath is an unreasonable and absurd mistake to say no worse of it 't is an inverting that Order which God made between the Priest and people and denies that Authority which God hath granted for the Edification of his Church It endeavours to destroy that Honourable Relation which the Priest hath to the Divine Majesty to whose service he is appropriated which God is pleas'd to dignifie him with that he might have the greater Influence upon those he is concern'd with and be successfull in the Execution of his Office and therefore for a Patron to account such a Consecrated Person his Priest as if he belonged to him as a servant is in effect to challenge Divine Honours and to set up himself for a God for if he is any thing less he must own that the service of the Priest does not belong to him for that in the very terms and notion of it is intended for no Being inferiour to that which is suppos'd to be Divine If it be Objected that the Priest hath obliged himself to remove with the Patron when and whither he thinks fit and therefore seems to be in the same condition with the rest of the Attendants to this I answer that this makes him no more a servant than the travelling and ambulatory way of living among the Tartars would make the Priests servants to the people provided they were Christians To make it plainer suppose a Bishop Ordain'd over the Company of a Ship and that his Dioecese lay only in one Bottom can we imagine that he would lose his Episcopal power and fall into the Condition of other Seamen as soon as the Ship was order'd to weigh anchor and began to make its Voyage from one Port to another At this rate a man may call a Guardian Angel one of his Domesticks because for the security and protection of their Charge these benevolent Spirits are pleas'd to accompany us from one place to another I grant the Scripture tells us they are sent forth to minister for those who are Heris of Salvation Hebr. 1.14 but then we must allow them to be Gods Ministers not ours and so likewise are those of whom I am speaking as among other places may be seen from 2 Cor. 6.4 God hath pleas'd to put the Clergy in joynt Commission with the Angels themselves for the Guidance of and superintending his Church When St. Iohn would have worshipped the Angel which appear'd to him he is forbid to do it and the reason alledged is because I am thy fellow servant Rev. 19.10 that is as Grotius expounds it we are both Ambassadors of the same King. And although St. Iohn and