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master_n child_n husband_n parent_n 3,987 5 7.8229 4 false
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A33912 Miscellanies in five essays ... the four last by way of dialogue / by Jeremy Collier ...; Selections. 1694 Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726. 1694 (1694) Wing C5256; ESTC R20832 94,227 232

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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 Diocese lay only in one Bottom can we imagine that he would lose his Episcopal Power and fall into the Condition of other Sea-men 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 Heirs of Salvation Hebr. 1. 14. but then we must allow them to be God's Ministers not ours and so likewise are those of whom I am now 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 the rest of the Apostles had Privileges peculiar to themselves both in respect of the extent of their Jurisdiction the infallibility of their Doctrine and other miraculous Gifts with which they were endowed to which Bishops themselves much less inferiour Priests have no reason to pretend yet though God was pleas'd for the more speedy and effectual planting of Christianity to qualifie the Apostles in an extraordinary Manner and to give them a larger Commission than to the Clergy of succeeding Ages yet they all act by the same Authority and for the same End therefore the unfixt and moving Nature of a Cure does not alter and degrade the Office of a Priest He is not less a Shepherd because the Flock happens sometimes to wander unaccountably from one Pasture to another He is bound to attend the Charge he hath undertaken and must answer the Neglect of it to God and when it does not continue in the same Place to accompany its Motion is no more a Diminution to his Office than it is to that of a Judge to go the Circuit whose Commission is as considerable though it travels with him from one County to another as if he had been always fixt in Westminster-hall If it be farther objected That the Patron appoints the Hours of Prayer which seems to imply something of command To this I answer That in his chusing the Time of Prayer he does not appoint any Service for himself but only declares when he and his Houshold are ready for God's Worship and desirous of the Priestly Absolution and Blessing which is proper for him to do because the Family is employed in his Business and under his Command and therefore without his Permission they have not many times an Opportunity of meeting together for Divine Service Which is still more reasonable because the Priest is supposed only to intend the Affairs of Religion and to be always ready for the performance of his Office and consequently that Time which is most convenient for those under his Care and in which the Assembly is like to be most numerous he is by virtue of his Office bound to observe whether his Cure lies in a private Family or a whole Parish But lastly it may be urged That the 13 of Hen. 8. cap. 28. calls the Patrons of Chaplains their Masters and will any Man be so hardy as to question the Judgment and Determination of the Parliament But here we may observe That this Act calls only those Patrons Masters who can give Qualifications for Pluralities Having premised this Observation I answer with all due Submission and Respect to this Legislative Council That if the Question was concerning any Civil Right then 't is confessed 't is in the Power of the Parliament either to limit or take it away because the whole Power and Authority of the Kingdom is there either Personally or by Representation and therefore they may deprive any Person of his Honour or Estate the Right of the Succession to the Crown excepted as far as they please Not that 't is impossible for them to act Unjustly but only that what they Determine hath the force of a Law because every Man is suppos'd to have given his Consent to it But here we must observe that the Church is a distinct Society from the State and independent upon it The Constitution of the Church is founded in the Appointment of Christ in that Commission which he gave the Apostles and their Successors and consequently does not derive its Authority from any Earthly Power The Civil Magistrate never yet made Bishop Priest or Deacon nor ever can and therefore we may safely affirm without any injury or disrespect to him That he cannot make these Spiritual Offices greater or less than they are Therefore if God hath made the Priests Office as nothing is plainer in Scripture than that he hath an Office of Government Direction and Superintendence over those he is concern'd with then 't is not in the Power of the Parliament to make his Condition servile because no Person or Society of Persons can take away that Power which they never gave The Parliament may with equal Right Enact that Parents shall be subject to their Children and that the Wife shall be her Husband's Mistress without a Compliment as make the People the Priests Masters and give the Flock a Jurisdiction over the Shepherd They may with the same Justice repeal the most Established Laws of Nature and invert the Right of the two former Relations as of this latter for this hath its Establishment from the same God that the other have and for Ends at least equally weighty and momentous This Power of their Spiritual Governours they have no more Authority to destroy than they have to vote down the Cannon of Scripture or to decree Sacrilege to be no Sin 'T is granted That all Ecclesiastical Persons as they are Members of the State are subject to its Authority and that a Priest or Bishop may properly be a Servant to the Magistrate if he holds any Secular Employment under him because in this case he acts by a Commission from the Civil Government but this only concerns him as he is a Member of the State and does not in the least affect his Spiritual Capacity The Power which results from that flows from another Fountain and is given by our Saviour himself and therefore cannot be weakned or recall'd by