Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	good_a	merit_n	merit_v	6,691	5	10.7705	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55985	To the right reverend, the ministers of the Kirk of Scotland, of the Presbyterian perswasion the following defence, of the rights and liberties of the church ... / by Robert Park.	Park, Robert, d. 1689?	1680 (1680)	Wing P364; ESTC R22921	75,715	177

and stretcheth forth his own hand with him for in as much says he as you did it to the least of my Brethren you did it to me c. XIII But to clear this yet farther it may be observed that any Right a Patron can pretend to give a Pastor to his maintenance is quoad the Pastor but a groundless pretence and so a super vacaneous and useless grant the Pastors Right to his maintenance being fully established in his person by his lawful Call to the Ministry and his faithful discharge of it So that unless the Patron will pretend that he can put a Minister in a spiritual capacity and so claim the power of Ordination which is indeed Christ's Power committed to his Ministers as well as that of Election he can give him no right to his maintenance but such as will be superfluous For as abundantia non vitiat so neither does it strengthen or confirm a right And tho' what the Patron gives should be granted to be a confirmation yet it can give no new right confirmatio enim nihil novi juris addit sed antiquum jus tantum roborat it being the Pastors spiritual capacity Mat. 10.10 Gal. 6.6 1 Tim. 5.18 and faithful discharge of his duty and that only which gives him a full and unquestionable Title to his Wages XIV Next it may be observed very Naturally that if what a man hath once given away and devoted to the Lord for pious uses be no more his that gave it then certainly the founder of a benefice cannot expect to retain to himself and much less to his heirs and successors a negative Interest in the maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel with so little use and advantage and so much prejudice to the Church And therefore tho' such Acts of Favour and Charity as are freely and gratuitously bestowed on the Church seem to plead more for the Rights of Patronage than such as are done per modum debiti or for satisfyng of a Moral duty and obligation to which the Donor or Founder was previously engaged yet there is none who perform such Acts out of the singleness of their Heart and from a true principle of advancing the Glory of God and a sincere motive of Compassion to their poor Brethren that will sciens volens wittingly and willingly desire or expect a Priviledge so useless and yet so hurtful to the interest of the Church and the good of Souls This were indeed a Flie in the Appothecaries Oyntment XV. The thrid sort of Benefactors to wit those who confer Favours on the Church partly per modum debiti and partly per modum Eleemosynae partly by way of debt and partly by way of almes and free Charity are such persons as have some civil interest and estate within the bounds where the Kirk lyes but not the whole And therefore their building or doting of a Kirk is neither wholly Duty nor wholly Charity but part of both They being indeed previously oblidged thereto but are not oblidged to do it alone and without the Concurrence of the rest of that bounds for bearing their share of the common Burden seing he that so dots or builds is but one of many having interest And those Benefactors can as little as the former expect to be gratified with the Priviledge of Patronage for the Reasons already mentioned For if neither he who acts in such matters wholly per modum debiti nor he who acts wholly and intirely per modum Eleemosynae can with any reason assume or expect such a priviledge Then also by a necessary consequence he who Acts in bestowing such favours on the Church partly the one way and partly the other hath as little if not less ground than either of them to expect or assume the same XVI There is a fourth sort of Benefactors if they deserve the Name and those are such as do their good deeds meerly out of ostentation and from a Pharisaical principle of Vain glory to be seen of Men to gain the applause of the World and not to advance the Glory of God or the good of his Church And for the most part those Men bestow their Favours where there is little or no need seldom or never consulting how or where they may place them with most advantage for the publick good but satisfie themselves if they can place them in such a way as they may bear most bulk in the eyes of the World. This is a truth so undenyable that it was certainly from this vanity that the Monastries Nunneries Abbacies Pryories Cloysters c. both in this and other Nations before the Reformation from Popery and in other Popish Countries to this day were endowed with so many rich livings that in some places they possest near or above a third of the whole Land in others near a full half as the devotion as it was then termed or rather the superstitious folly of a simple and ignorant People and the influence and interest of a cheating and idle Clergy inclined them Thus many Church-men turned in effect to be Temporal Princes And generally the interest of the Clergy in the Legislative Power and Exercise of the Government of these Nations became very large upon the account of the great Interest and Authority they enjoyed by such ample Revenues and Possessions which was the true Original of making the Clergy the third Estate in the Conventions and General Councils of State both in these Lands and else where But those Benefactors if they may be so named are so fully exposed by our Blessed Lord in that 6. of Matth. and elsewhere Matth. 6. that it will be needless to insist any farther upon them And certainly this sort of men less than any of the former deserve any trust or priviledge in the Church of God Their vanity and self-seeking which is the principal or rather the only Motive and Design of all their Actions deserves much rather the Censures of the Church than any encouragment by trusting them with a power that they are utterly incapable to manage with any measure of Wisdom or Discretion which are Qualities that men of such a vain and ostentive humor are seldom or never blessed with XVII As for the last sort of Benefactors To wit such as from an opinion of Merit confer such good Offices on the Church thinking thereby to deserve life and happiness at the hands of God and going about to establish their own righteousness by the works of the Law it is little wonder that such men who do so highly injure and rob our blessed Lord and only Saviour of the honour of that compleat ransom and satisfaction payed by him to divine Justice for the sins of his elect as to think that they can merit eternal felicity by their own works which is to say in effect that they will be their own Saviours and that Christ died in vain I say it is but little wonder that such men should expect to be gratified with