Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	age_n	great_a	king_n	2,374	5	3.4489	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93683	A sermon preached in Oxford before the Kings Maiesty, April 19. 1643. VVherein is handled the vnlawfulnesse of non-preaching bishops, non-residents, plurality of benefices, &c. with the utter destruction of images. According to the votes of both the houses of Parliament, scripture, ancient writers, and reason it selfe. By Richard Spinkes, minister of the word of God, and imprisoned there for the said sermon.	Spinkes, Richard.	1643 (1643)	Wing S4982; Thomason E104_10; ESTC R212784	18,404	23

I but he that will justifie it calls idle and silent Ministers Isay 58.10 His watchmen are blinde they are all dumbe dogs they are all ignorant they cannot barke sleeping lying downe and loving to slumber they are all Shepheards which cannot understand they all looke to his owne way every man to his gaine from the quarter that is they will be sure to demand their annuities their quarterages and how doe they spend it merrily in the next verse Come say they and we will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drinke and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant And here is the true property of dogs indeed to returne to their vomit drinke and to it againe Pliny that great Secretary of Nature acquaints us with a great reason of State used in that title but exemplary Common-wealth of Bees those that are Drones and are by the losse of their stings become unprofitable and unserviceable to the State are not onely denyed maintenance but cast out into disgrace or severely punisht Cessantium inertiam notant castigant mox puntunt morte They take notice of and censure sometimes with death the idlenesse of unusefull Drones among them Now what is all the meanes of the Church but like the Honey which Sampson found in the carkasse of the dead Lyon having beene bequeathed by Kings and Potentates at their deaths or by some others who perhaps have got them by rapine or extortion from others dedicated to pious uses the benefit of others and others soules And what is an idle Priest who never preacheth a man as the Psalme saith in whose mouth there are no reproofes a Drone without a sting as Hesiod well compares idle persons to stinglesse Robbers who did idely devoure the labours of the more industrious Bees this ignavum pecus these idle Drones ought not to be tolerated in the Church but should be cast out and excommunicated There is an old Canon of the Apostles to that purpose I feare it is razed out of our latter Editions but Franciscus Torrensis a credible Author saith that he found it in vetustissimo libro in an old Manuscript If any that are Pastors do not abide with their owne flockes there to instruct them let them be cut off from the communion of Saints if any doe so little love the Lord Jesus as not to feed his sheepe let him be Anathema Maranatha It is strange to heare how declamatory many men are in their discourses for the maintenance of the Clergy and that tythes are de jure divino is the first Text prosecuted with that passion and vehemency of Rhetoricke as if Arius were alive againe or the Divinity of Christ once more called into question But that Residency and Preaching at their ●ivings is of the like necessity is contradicted by many and questioned by most In the one are many provisoes exemptions dispensations and excuses allowed but none admitted for the non-payment of the other a necessity is laid upon the poore people and woe be unto them if they pay not their tythes Mistake me not I doe not goe about to slacken their forwardnesse or to manacle their withered hand too many are over forward to rob the Church and there would bee more if they could but make benefit or advantage of any Statute if they had any Law to plead for it their consciences would bee perswaded to detaine and sequester their tythes But I say to Ministers as the Prophet to negligent Priests of his time Mal. 1.9 Now therefore I pray you beseech God that he would be gracious unto us this hath beene by your meanes It is the Ministers idlenesse ignorance and covetousnesse that hath so withered the han●s of the Laity men are of the same mould they were of in old time and perhaps not so comparatively wicked neither as those who crucifie the Lord of life yet they at the Apostles preaching parted with their demeanes sold their possessions rather then their poore brethren much lesse then the Apostles should want Who more free-hearted then our Forefathers were looking upon the decayes and ruines of Churches Abbeyes and Monasteries I cannot choose but fish out that of the Philosopher Vestigia hominum video or rather the hand of God for it was the lazinesse and luxury of the Church that mortmaimed their liberties In many deeds of Feoffement in Fee there was commonly a clause added saith Bracton lib 1 fol. 14. Quod licitum sit donatorio rem datam dare vel vendere cui voluerit exceptis viris religiosis Judaeis Land was given and bequeathed with this condition that the party might give or sell it to whom he would unlesse it were to Jewes and Cle gimen A strange combination in that Climactericall alteration of the Church when Kings and Princes the nursing Fathers of it did not onely weane it but saw it necessary to let it bloud for the dropsied superfluity of humours which domineered in the body of it It is apparant that the idlenesse and Non-residency of the Priests was that which improptiated all our livings For in Queene Maries dayes Cardinall Poole conventing a Synod of the Clergy in London for the reformation of the Church as he called it beginns the third Decree with these words Seeing that judgement ought to beginne with the house of God and reformation among the Clergy but among themselves is espied a notorious and scandalous abuse that those who have the greatest Livings doe not reside upon them but put off the cure and charge to a sort of mercenary Hirelings quae res omnium faeces malorum in Ecclest a causam at rulit which thing hath beene the onely cause of these calamities and of the Church of late therefore be it enacted c. And to looke a little abroad especially on that kingdome the heroicall atchievements of which the eyes of all men now ad yes are fixt upon unto admiration and after ages will reade with unbe●●efe Gustavus King of Sweden Grandfather to that great avenger of bloud in our dayes having by the exposing of his person to many dangers freed his Country from the Danish yoake and tyrannous usurpation did likewise to provide for the future quiet of that Commonwealth and utterly to defeat the more dangerous factions of intestine Trayrors summon a Parliament at V●salia Anno Dom. 1327. March 18. where among other things he did demand that the Revenues Lands and immoderate riches of Bishops and other Clergy-men which was rather the maintenance of fuell pride luxury and sedition in his predecessors times might be reduced to a competent allowance and the rest transferred into the Kings Exchequer for the use and defrayment of the publique This part of the Reformation the Bishops and Prelates did most earnestly labour against affirming that the annuities priviledges and endowments of the Church granted by the free donation of Kings and Emperours and confirmed by their Seales and Charrers could not neither ought to be revoked and disclaimed