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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	belong_v	jurisdiction_n	power_n	2,174	5	5.1301	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34480	Jura cleri, or, An apology for the rights of the long-despised clergy proving out of antient and modern records that the conferring of revenues, honours, titles, priviledges, and jurisdiction upon ecclesiasticks is consistent with Scripture, agreeable to the purest primitive times, and justified by the vsance and practce of all nations / by Philo-Basileus Philo-Clerus.	Philo-Basileus Philo-Clerus.	1661 (1661)	Wing C612; ESTC R23895	70,115	98

Apostolical practise were alwaies binding how comes it to passe that many things approved by them as Community of goods extream unction abstaining from blood c. are now in the revolution of time disused and condemned Nay if there were any strength in this arguing the brainsick Anabaptist and railing Quaker would be furnisht with an unanswerable Plea against our Churches for who knows not what hard shift the poor Primitive Christians were put to how glad they were of private Houses Barns yea Vaults and Caves of the Earth to meet in and secure themselves from the rage of their watchful Persecutours Hence in some antient Monuments Churches are called Cryptae hiding places because through the violence and heat of persecutions the poor Christians were forced with Nicodemus to go to Christ by night and we have frequent mention of their antelucanos hymnos in Pliny Ep. c. But no sooner did God restore a little breathing and send peace then they left their dens and holes building and beautifying Churches and providing liberal maintenance for their Preachers And now there 's nothing more common in Nazianzen and the Greek Writers then to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their Majesty being the Pallaces of the great King For in Constantines daies when the World newly divorced from idolatry was enamoured with true Religion they thought they could never build their Churches-starely and sumptuous enough but how strangely now have they left their first love If a man should read of or view the Ancient Piles the Greek St. Sophia our English St. Pauls the Roman St. Peters c. The stupendious Church at Tyre described by Eusebius at Antioch by Hierony in Chron. at Hierusalem by Cyril in his Catech. which the Piety and Devotion of our Fore-fathers erected and compare them with our Modern whifling Structures he would blush at the sordid penuriousnesse of degenerating posterity I must needs say it has oftentimes moved both pity and anger in me to see an Impropriating Patron flaunting it in a Royal Fabrick when the House of God adjoyning crouched under it in a tottering ragged condition Exclamet Melicerta perisse frontem de rebus David was otherwise minded 2. Sam. 7.2 Nor would former ages have born it who spared no cost no pains to build no care to consecrate these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Authors tearm them those Sacred Structures For this is no novel Invention the practise we find as antient as Hygynus A. 140. whose Decree to that purpose is yet extant Deeret de Consecrat Dist 1. c. Omnes Basilicae And come but a little lower when Constantine had erected that Magnificent Temple in Mount Calvary Zozomen informs us L. 2. c. 25. what an Assembly of Reverend Prelates there met to Consecrate it Nor was any thing more usual amongst the Primitive Fathers Athanas Ep. ad Constant Ambro L. 1. Ep. 5. St. Aust Serm. de Temp. L. 56 Nay it appears by the Titles of severall of St. Austins Sermons that they had Solemn Anniversary Commemorations upon the Consecration day But to return T is confessed then that in the Apostles daies and the Ages immediatly succeeding the poor Christians were glad with any thing and reckond the least toleration a favour but when the State of the Church was changed by those great Revolutions in the Roman Empire order and decency began to be lookt after And is it not downright madnesse in any to complain of their happinesse to desire to return to that condition which the Fury of Persecutors enforced as if they repined at the goodnesse of a merciful God who dissolved that Cloud and made the Sun of Prosperity to break out upon his weather-beaten Church turning a dark morning into a glorious evening Now if such a wild rate of reasoning be allowed a man may as well conclude that all the Succeeding Kings of England are bound to lay aside their State and Imperial Robes because time was when his present Majestie in his own Kingdom to escape the malice of his implacable enemies contented himself with a homely Cottage * Nay a Loyal Oake bestrid a Millers Horse and had none but Dame Joane to wait upon him I know the Courtiers would smile at such Logick though I must needs say t is little better that our learned Sophisters use against the Clergy .. For thus they reason the Clergy enjoyed small Revenues lesse Honours few Priviledges no Jurisdiction under Persecuting Pagans therefore they are immodest to desire it should be otherwise under Believing Christians To speak plainly then once for all in point of Doctrine I reverence those early times equal to any man but in matters of Discipline Order and Decency to draw Rules from a poor persecuted Church that was constrained to use what the necessity of the times would bear not the Gospel allow and to confine posterity to their hardships when the wise providence of God has changed the Series of Affairs is just as if a man should be enjoyned to wear the same Garments in fair weather as he did in foul and not to change the nasty attire he had on in a boisterous Storm though the clearest Calm succeeds it The time then that we must principally eye is that when God gave Rest Peace to his long afflicted Saints when the Great Monarchs of the earth veiled their Crowns to the Crosse and if from those daies their Civil Jurisdiction cannot be cleared let an irrevocable Decree be passed against them Not that I grant them wholly excluded in those elder times many footsteps of their private medling in secular matters being every where found as has already been evidenced But how could it rationally be expected that any Precedents of such Eminent Authority and Power conferred either upon the Apostles or their immediate Successours should be produced since the Jus Divinum of Civil Jurisdiction belonging to the Clergy is utterly disclaimed and no title pleaded to it but the Favour of the Supreme Magistrate and who is such a stranger in Israel as to be ignorant how little the Professours of the Gospel were then set by when all the Great Potentates of the World ran madding after Idols and t was no lesse then death to own our Crucified Redeemer So that if this be strictly stood upon we shall at last joyn issue with the Frantick Euthusiasts who deny it lawful for a Christian to be a Magistrate there being no expresse command for it in the New Testament nay many Texts seemingly against it not any Example of the Apostles hardly of the Professours of the Gospel known to be such in those early times that bare an Office Well then for the first 300 years the Church had no Kings for its nursing Fathers none that gave up their names to Christ in Soveraign authority the wise God that disposes of all times and Estates reserving that mercy for these later daies exercising them with great tryals till the Earth was watered with the blood of

taking an oblique course by undermining their comfortable Subsistence Honours and Priviledges This only I must disclaim before all the world that I have not the least thought in the following Treatise to become an Advocate for Luxury Pride Idleness or any thing that is morally dishonest the severe Reformation of which I both hope and wish those in Authority may vigorously endeavour Scandalous Loiterers being no lesse pernicious then Schismaticall Innovatours and sooner may my hand rott off and my Tongue cleave to the roofe of my mouth then ever I speak or write in defence of such or against the power of Godliness My Name I have studiously supprest least the inconsiderableness of it should create Prejudices and injure the truth But if any be so curious as to enquire after it Let him know that I am one who can safely Profess that ever since I was able to look into Controversies have alwaies reverenced Gray-headed Antiquity and detested factious Novelty Nor had I held my peace formerly but that I despaired my poor Bucket could have done any thing to the quenching of such a Fire when the whole Nation was on a light Flame This farther encouragement I have to use the more ingenuous Freedome as not any way partaking in what is here contended for nor as to my particular interest gaining the least by our late happy Revolution And as farre as I am acquainted with my own deceitfull heart I dare no lesse confidently avow that I was not induced to put Pen to Paper by any ambitious Hopes a private Retirement which through mercy I injoy being all I covet So that my great my only Aime is Piety and Peace the flourishing of the Church and State which like Hippocrates Twins have long Mourned and t is hoped will now Rejoyce together THE CLERGIES REVENUES CHAP. I. A Priesthood proved as Antient as the World continued in all Ages with an Honourable allowance to the First-born and the Levites THat God in all Ages has had a select number deputed to attend his Publick Worship and Minister in Holy things is a Truth that none can deny who own the Scripture For 2000 years and upwards after the Creation this was intrusted to the First-born as is evident out of Philo Josephus Maimonides and other Jewish Writers who all unanimously acknowledge that the Priesthood was ever annexed to the Primogeniture till the Law given by Moses It being the confessed duty and priviledge of the eldest to take care of Sacrifices and other Rites then in use * Bertram de Rep Jud. c. 2. Grot. in Num. 19.22 Thus Adam Seth who taught his children to call upon the name of the Lord Gen. 4. And Enoch those Ante-Diluvian Patriarchs and that Heathen Janus Noah a Preacher of Righteousness 2. Pet. 2.5 After the Flood Melchisedeck Abraham Jacob c. whilest the Law of nature lasted Upon the delivery of the Mosaical Law we find the First-born redeemed and discharged from their attendance God himself giving them a Writ of ease and designing the Children of Levi for their Successors Numb 3.45 In whose hands the management of Ecclesiastical Affairs continued near 2000 years more without any considerable interruption till in the fulnesse of time by the Incarnation of the Son of God the Priesthood of Aaron being abolished our Mediatour of a better Covenant no lesse faithful in his house then Moses Heb. 3. left not his Lambs without Shepherds but appointed Preachers of the Gospel to take the room of the casheered Levites and promised his presence with them to the end of the world Mat. 28. Thus we see a Priesthood clearly deduced and that God never wanted some in a more immediate manner to attend his Worship from the day the first foundation of the earth was laid Our next Quaere is what proportion was allotted for the maintenance of these three distinct Successive Orders For the first-born there is little controversie it being granted on all sides that their Priviledges and Honours were great being appointed Lords over their Brethren Chrys de Sacerd a Princely Prerogative Gen. 49.8 and a double portion assigned them the better to support the Dignity of their Degree and Function See Grot. upon the Deut. 21.17 We come in the second place to surveigh the Levitical Institution and enquire what a liberal allowance God made them Now the best course to take an estimate of that is by examining the Proportion this Tribe bare to the rest You have all the 12. Tribes that were able to go forth to war mustered and polled Num. 1.46 compared with the 3.39 where the Levites are numbred from a moneth old and upwards yet see what a vast disproportion the former amounting to 603550 the latter to barely 22000. none excepted Let us then but make some small allowance for those under 20. and above 50. years old ages excused from the war Josephus and so not reckoned in the first summe these we cannot rationally imagine to be lesse than a third part more So that by this computation the Levites will not amount to above a fortieth some say a fiftieth or 60th part of the nation Their numbers being thus cast up let us descend to the proportions of their allowance And here I am perswaded that some Fanatick Sacrilegious persons will be ready to blaspheme with that prophane Alphonsus in a paralel case if they had been the Allmighties Councellors they would have made a more equitable division then we find recorded and would have judged a fortieth part more than sufficient for such Loiterers But the most wise God made them anothergets proportion allowing them 48 Cities * Cunaeus de Rep. Jud. some Royal ones and the fairest in the Nation with the adjacent Country 2000 Cubits or a mile about every way no small matter in that petit tract of Land hardly exceeding four of our larger Counties Hieronym ad Dardan Adricom Adde to this the tenth of all increase of Corn Cattel First-fruits offerings Vows Redemptions amounting to no lesse than 24 several dues as the Learned Buxtorph * Synag Jud. collects out of the Rabbies and which may justly come in as none of the meanest advantages all this brought to their Barns without any farther trouble charge or confideration that Nation ever conscientiously paying their Tithes and frequently preventing the demand being perswaded it was the Hedge of their riches according to the * Drus. Prov. Talmudical Canon Now put all this together with many other particulars mentioned in Josephus and the Rabbies even Selden himself none of the best friends the Church ever had * Rev. Hist Tith c. 2. is forced to grant that this smallest Tribe had neer three times the annual Revenue of the largest among them If any one desire to be better satisfied about this let him but read Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of whom I shall set down this one remarkable observation that the people were commanded to bring their offerings first

whole which I shall have more occasion to speak to in the following Chapter yet I am half afraid that the ignorant Superstition of our bountifull Ancestors will find more favour in the great day of reckoning then the knowing Sacriledge of their Penurious Posterity I confesse 't is matter of wonder to me that any enuious eye should repine at the large Revenues of the Church which the Liberality and Magnificence of Princes and other Benefactors have bestowed upon it Did their Purses pay for it there might be some reason for murmuring but when none are oppressed none injured many thousand Tenants gratified by good Leases and the hungry bellies of the poor relieved by the full Tables of Ecclesiasticks it speaks an unworthy sordid spirit to deny others Liberty to exercise that Charity which their covetuousnesse will not permit Who will grudg them a plentiful maintenance that freely receiving freely give But some insist much upon the poverty of Christ and his Apostles which they very zealously commend as a pattern for Preachers of the Gospel exempting all other orders of men and priviledging them from this strictnesse Excellent Doctrine which allows so fair a liberty to the generality of Professors as not concerned to imitate this grand Exemplar nor observe his rigorous Injunctions of leaving all and following him But may it not as rationally be concluded if his life respected no other then those that immediatly attend his Worship his precepts reach no other that no other shall receive benefit by his Death no other be saved by him Though this consequence will hardly be granted which yet undeniably follows from the Premises Indeed we have a Command Luk. 9. that the Disciples should possesse neither gold nor silver no mony in their Purses not two coats neither shooes So that if the Letter must be stuck to why are not all Preachers by vertue of this injoyned to go naked and barefoot May we not therefore safely believe that many of these Precepts were onely Personal and Temporary as that Go not into the way of the Gentiles but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and salute no man which all but the Quaking Principles acknowledge to be no longer binding If then there be any force in those Allegations they equally belong to all that have given up their names to Christ and cannot be restrained to the Clergy alone for if want and poverty were to be their continued portion t was madness in St. Paul to require them to be lovers of Hospitality Tit. 1.8 which they can exercise only in good wishes Again is there no difference between the Apostles and us that their practise is so much urged They had such immediate assistance that there was no need of study for their Preaching whereby they had leasure enough to fish and make Tents for a livelihood but Ours are forced to pore upon Books to meditate write and all hardly sufficient to search out the deep mysteries which cost them no pains the Spirit supplying the place of all Now to make amends for those Extraordinary Qualifications and abundant measure of Spiritual Graces wherewith they were furnisht above us it hath pleased the Lord of the Harvest in these later daies to raise up Christian Magistrates to assist and encourage his Labourers and appoint them a more setled plentiful allowance Others mutter that Affluence is a great Temptation and exposes them to Pride and Luxury For this let experience judge whether many times Diogenes prove not more supercilious then Plato there be not as much insolence under a Freeze-Jerkin as a Velvet Jippo a Geneva Rocket as an Episcopal Cassock Nay there are some Scores will be ready to depose that within these few years they saw as little Humility and as much Voluptuousnesse in some ordinary Heads of Colledges and Pastours of Congregations caeteris paribus as ever was charged upon the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury or any that enjoyed the fat See of Winchester Let not any one mistake me as a Patron of idlenesse or an Advocate for the Luxury of spiritual persons God and my Conscience bear me witnesse how much I abominate such a thought all my fear is that beggery and the sordid competency which some men talk of and project is the readiest way to usher in Atheism and Prophanenesse For poverty of Preachers brings them into contempt and when once men begin there the next step is to despise * Spotswood in Congullus Religion it self Insomuch that it may confidently be affirmed there is nothing more dishonourable to the Gospel or disadvantageous to the happy progresse of it then the low condition of its publishers Perfection is not here to be expected the holiest men are still flesh and blond and do we not every hour see it before our eyes how much want depresses the spirit and cools zeal A poor Preacher that has a large Family to maintain will hardly take the courage to reprove a bosome vice in his Lordly Patron and dissolute Parishioners if he lives upon their Trenchers and must stand to their allowance many faults must be winked at and a fair construction put upon foul miscarriages But when able parts an upright conversation and suitable revenues meet that a Pastour can as well give as receive courtesies and not depend upon the Benevolence of his people with what authority can such a man deliver himself his Doctrine is imbraced as an Oracle for as one notes t is an errour that will never be beaten out of the pates of the Vulgar who imagine wisdom alwaies to go hand in hand with Riches and Power and t is a complaint as old as Solomon that the poor wise man with all his wisdom is despised Eccl. 9.15 May it not then justly be feared that poverty of the Clergy will beget a dull and stupid irreverence in the minds of ordinary persons Majestie it self being apt to be slighted and trampled upon when destitute of its accustomed state and our Judges find there 's nothing does so much purchase them the Cap and Knee of the trembling multitude as their Robes Pomp and Grandeur Sure I am t is one of the greatest scandals to the Papist to see the Magnificence and Splendour of their Prelates and the meannesse I had almost said beggary of some of ours And though the power of Religion does not consist in these externals yet something must be allowed to Christian Prudence which may well suggest this seasonable advice to our Governours to restore God his own who gave Caesar his Hieronym de Cevallos is my Author that if a true estimate were made of all the Spanish Territories 't would be found the Ecclesiasticks possest near as much if not more then the Seculars * Relat. Vniv L. 1. p. 4. Brerewood Enq. Sands Eur. Spec. Boterus goes a step farther who has a conceit That for the Reverence and Wealth this nation bestowed upon the Clergy God gave them the Indian Mines And their vast Demeasnes in Germany