Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	house_n	king_n	officer_n	2,496	5	7.4181	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91565	The great case of tythes truly stated, clearly opened, and fully resolved. By a countrey-man, A.P.	Pearson, Anthony, 1628-1670?	1657 (1657)	Wing P989; Thomason E931_2; ESTC R207656	39,708	44

was their glory and their Crown And herewith let all our now called Churches be proved and tryed who separate from the world and yet many of them receive pay and wages for their teachers from the world who send none at their own cost to preach to the world And here our Rulers should learn wisdom to with-hold their hands from upholding any with their worldly Sword and compelling others to maintain them and to leave Christs Kingdom to his own Rule who is Lord of the Harvest and sends forth labourers and hath spirit to put upon them who sends forth the-Fisher-men the Shepherds the Herdsmen the tillers of the ground and the keepers of flocks who speake plain words that wise men cannot understand who are wise in the worlds wisdom gathered in Schools whither they are sent to learn a trade thereby to get their livings and in the time of popery they studyed the popish Doctrine and then preached them to others and in the time of prelacy they changed to a new form And when that was laid aside Presbytery was set up and then such the Vniversities sent forth and since Independency was preferred great store of them are spread abroad and look what pleaseth them best that have the greatest livings in dispose that is the most cryed up and most studyed and preached and here is the spring of our Teachers the Vniversities and these say that Greek and Hebrew are the original which they go thither to learn that they may understand what Christ spoke and the Apostles preached But the Hebrews and Greeks who heard them speake in their own Language could not understand their Doctrine for it seemed foolishnesse to them and these by their original are in no better state nor nearer to the knowledge of the Gospel And let our Rulers consider that Christs love to the world for whom he dyed is not abated neither is his spirit diminished nor his powde shortened that he will not or cannot send forth and fit Ministers for his service or that he needs Vniversities to instruct or Magistrates to provide maintenance for those he sends forth And let them look to their own kingdom the world therein to punish restrain the evil to encourage protect the good then all would be agreed and the Nation kept in peace every one enjoying his true liberty and freedom For in this it is assented that the Ministers of Christ Jesus who sowe unto us spiritual things should reap of our temporals But here is the difference first That our consciences must be our judge who those Ministers are and no other mans direction for to the conscience were Christs Ministers alwayes made manifest and not approved with the reason and wisdom of man Secondly That our gift must be free and by no mans compulsion Would not this ease the Magistrate of much trouble that he makes to himself and be more acceptable to God and man for who hath made him a Judge in these things A third sort plead the Decrees Canons Constitutions of General Councils Popes Bishops Convocations To such I shall onely say that for the first 800. years after Christ no Canon or Decree was made by general Council nor was it then determined by the Church as 't was called what part every man should pay And the first eight General Councils do not so much as speak of the name of tythes and that was till about 1000. years and then about that time it came to be received and believed that tythes ought to be paid yet in England as well as other Nations every man might have given his tythe where he pleased till about the year 1200. as is already proved But I need not say much to these few being of this mind but those who own the Pope for their Head we having in England denyed and cast off his Supremacy though in this matter of tythes and many other things we still feel his power amongst us And now having briefly gone over the substance of what is pleaded for a Divine of Ecclesiastick right I come next to what is pretended for a humane Right And the first sort pleads the gifts of Kings as Ethelwolph c. To these I answer If they could prove the whole Land had been the particular possession of any such King they said something though that would not justifie the taking tythes from all the people as shall be more fully proved hereafter But by what right could he give the tenth part of the encrease and fruits of the labours of all the people of his Dominions who had no legal property therein It was an easie matter when the Popes Emissaries had taught the people that tythes were due to God and them and had perswaded Kings and Nobles that Heaven might be purchased by then works to procure from them the gift of that which was not theirs the poor peoples tythes especially considering the people were of the same mind and as zealous of all the popish superstitions as themselves and every one striving who should therein most excel witnesse those many rich Abbeys and Monasteries lately in this Land But if that K. Ethelwolphs Grant be the foundation of tythes then how many succeeding Kings and Bishops and others have violated his Deed by appropriating them to Abbeys Monasteries and such like Houses And how hath all Ages since Ethelwolphs taken upon themselve the disposition of tythes without any relation to what he did which shewes clearly That neither Kings Parliaments nor prople did ever take themselves bound by his Grant But the folly and vanity of this Argument will more plainly appear hereafter The next and those which seem to have the strongest plea do urge the temporal Laws of Kings and Parliaments and say by the Law they have as good property in tythes as any man hath in his Lands Ans To such I say The Law doth not give any man a property either in land or tythes or any other thing but onely doth conserve to every man his property which he hath in his land and possessions either by gift purchase or discent and secure him from the injury or violence of another But let us not be deceived with a new pretence lately taken up to delude the simple minds of a legal property and a civil right for that is but a shift and it matters not what any say or now pretend concerning the right of tythes when they see their other claims will not serve the turn but let us hear what the Makres of the Laws say of them those from whom they claim and passing by the Saxon times and K. Stephen and the rest of those who were in the mid-night of popery let us come to H. 8. who cast off the Pope and upon whose Law all others that were since made are builded and in the preamble of the Act it is declared That tythes are due to God and holy Church and they blame men for being so wicked as not to pay them and therefore

but ex debito SHEPHERD by the Law of God for substraction whereof no remedy lay at the common-Law and therefore if a Parson let a Lease of his Glebe to another with all the Appurtenances yet he himself shall have tythe of it Terrae non sunt decimbiles and therefore neither Mynes nor Quaryes of Iron COOK Brasse Tin Lead Coles Stones Tile Brick or Lime are tytheable ner Houses Consimilar is felony trespasse between free-hold moveable goods nor Trees nor Grasse or Corn till they be severed from the Land the real Estate which descends by inheritance from the Ancestor and made a distinct personal possession And therefore tythe is not paid of Land nor by reason of the Land nor is it a charge upon Land like a Rent-charge nor was it ever so claimed till of late that the popish covers were not broad enough Obj. But some object and say When I bought my Land I bought not the tythe nor paid any thing for it Ans I answer That I and all men bought all our Land and that without any charge of tythe upon it and therefore in all Conveyances it 's still said All that c. and never any covenant for or exemption of a tenth part either of land or encrease and he that saith the seller or his Ancestor charged it with tythes as a Rent I say Where a Rent is charged it 's still expressed and finde any such exception or covenant and I will freely pay them as a just debt And is it not ridiculous for any to talk of parchasing his tythe for with his labour charge and husbandry he payes deere enough for his whole encrease Obj. Another objects That though I bought all my Land yet I bought it cheaper because it was supposed that it ought to pay tythes then I could have bought such Land as was known to be tythe-free and therefore having a cheaper bargain I am bound in equity to pay tythes Ans I answer That I have already proved all Land is tythe-free and the charge of tythe is upon the stock and personal Estate and not upon the Land And the strength of this objection lies in comparing those that pay tythes with those that are free they that buy lands tythe-free are eased of this oppression and are in no hazard and though all others ought to be so yet being a question whether they can ease themselves of the burthen they buy under a hazard and as subject to such a charge but if they can cast off the yoke they get but what is their own And seeing we have denyed the Popes Authority and Supremacie we may so soon as we can wholly cast off the burthens which he laid on us And thus he that buyes Land in yeers of trouble and heavy taxes may perhaps buy much cheaper then when none or little is paid shall he therefore alwaies be required to pay taxes when others are discharged or shall he that bought cheap pennyworths on the borders between England and Scotland when those parts were insected with Mosse-Troopers alwaies maintain or pay tribute to thieves and robbers We bought Land when the Popes yoke was upon our necks and if we can cast it from us we may by as good reason be eased of our tythes as they of their taxes But if I bought cheaper what is that to the State or to a Priest If in equity I be bound to pay any more it is must just that he have it of whom I bought my Land and not another There are others who plead a legal right by prescription and that they have a good right because they have so long possessed them This was the old device first to preach that tythes were due and then to limit them to the Parishes and when fourty yeers was past to claime that as a debt which before was paid as charity or ar most as a free-will-offering of the owner And thus the Pope got first fruits and tenths and Peter-pence and many great sums out of this and other Nations which long continued and he might as well have pleaded his prescription as any of his branches now can do In temp H. 3. the Pope had above 120000. l. per. an out of this Nation which was then more worth then the Kings revenue Is any so blind as not to see what poor shifts are now made to uphold so great an oppression which can find no better ground for its support then this that it hath been so long continued But shall the continuance of an oppression give right to perpetuate the grievance How many great and heavy pressures in other things did long lye on this Nation of customs and practices of former times which daylie were and still have been abolished as light did more and more encrease witness those many Laws and Statutes made and now in force abolishing the usages and customs of former ages but yet this is a great mistake for by the Common-Law and the old popish Ecclesiastick Law is out of doors no man can prescribe to have tythes though many may prescribe to be free from tythes or part thereof for he that claims tythes except Impropriators to whom I shall speake hereafter must claim them as a Parson Vicar or other called Ecclesiastick Officer and as I have hinted before he claims them not as such a person but as such an Officer and the prescription if any were is to his Office Now if no such Office be in being his claim is at an end That there is now no such Office is plain for when H. 8. renounced the Pope he was declared by Act of Parliament which was assented to by all the Clergy in their Convention to be the Head of the Church and all Arch-Bishops Bishops and all others in Ecclesiastical Orders were no longer to hold of the Pope but of the King and not to claim their Benefices by title from the Pope but of the King by vertue of that Act of Parliament And here the Succession from the Pope was cut off and discontinued and the King by his new Authority as Head of the Church made Bishops and gave them power to make Parsons Vicars and others called Ecclesiastick Officers Afterwards as the King renounced the Pope so the Parliament of England laid aside Kings who had assumed the Title and Stile of Head of the Church and also abolished Arch-Bishops and Bishops and all their dependancies root and branch and here the whole Ecclesiastick state was dissolved and the Body fell with the Head and the Branches with the Root both Parsons Vicars and Curates and all the whole progeny and off-spring and so all their right title and claim to tythes was and is at an end as is more plainly and more fully set forth in a late printed paper by Ier. Benson to which I refer And now I come to the last those that claim by purchase and these are the Impropriators and they say they have bought them of the State and have