Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	bishop_n	power_n	2,858	5	4.7198	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65050	A vindication of their Majesties Wisdom in the nomination of some reverend persons to the vacant arch-bishopricks and bishopricks occasioned by the scandalous reflections of unreasonable men / by a minister of London.	Minister of London.	1691 (1691)	Wing V534; ESTC R29265	13,123	30

I Have been according to my Opportunities not a negligent Observer of the Genius and Humour of the several Sects and Professions in Religion and upon the whole matter I do in my Conscience believe the Church of England to be the best constituted Church this day in the Christian World and that as to the main the Doctrine and Government and Worship of it are excellently framed to make men soberly Religious securing men on the one hand from the wild Freaks of Enthusiasm and on the other hand from the gross Follies of Superstition Dr. Tillotson in a Sermon before King CHARLES the Second A VINDICATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES Wisdom In the late NOMINATION of some Reverend Persons To the Vacant Arch-Bishopricks AND BISHOPRICKS Occasioned by the Scandalous Reflections OF UNREASONABLE MEN. By a Minister of London LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1691. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER READER THere are three sorts of Persons whose Spirits I know so well that I am very well satisfied before-hand I shall not want their unseemly as well as unkind Reflections for several things said in these few sheets The first is the man so resolute for the late King James that he cares not if the whole Kingdom was nothing but a Common Slaughter-house and the Inhabitants thereof were involved in an utter ruine together with our Religion and Liberties provided King James was at the Helm again The other is the very High flown Church-man who rather than part with something that is but like the pairings of his Nails will venture the whole Constitution of the Church The last is the loose Whigg who notwithstanding all his former Professions of satisfaction if he might enjoy the Liberty of his Conscience without molestation yet still is very uneasie as if nothing would content him but the Power of a Committee-man or Sequestrator and is daily extolling the Justice of the late Civil War and where he dares justifying the Murder of that Incomparable Prince King CHARLES the First Now Reader to be plain with thee as I expect bad words from these persons so I will promise thee to be Easie under them because I think it much more for a mans Credit to be spoke Ill than Well of by men of such Kidneys for such spirited men have been the Bane of all sorts of Society Religious as well as Civil in most Ages of the World And therefore if thou findest any thing that cuts with too keen an Edge and looks too sharp in the following Treatise I must begg thee to believe it is intended only against such Bigots as these and not against any good man whatever For I am not afraid to tell the World that wherever I meet with a good and modest man let him be of any Opinion or Perswasion never so different from my own yet I love him as a Friend and according to my power will treat him as a Brother Farewell A VINDICATION OF THEIR Majesties Wisdom In the NOMINATION of some BISHOPS TO THE Vacant Sees THere is nothing in all the Ages of Christianity hath done more Mischief to the Church of God than violent Prejudices and Passionate Resolutions to adhere to those Prejudices tho' never so hastily and groundlessly taken up either against Things or Persons for through the influence of these Men have been deaf to all Argument and Reason to all wise and cool Thoughts and Discourses and you can as well almost remove a Mountain as stir these Men from their fixed and determined Opinions and Perswasions so hastily taken up It is no doubt but this is the main Reason of so many Mens otherwise Men of Consideration in the World both for Learning and other Qualities standing out and declaring against the late Revolution and whispering nay the more is the pity publickly abusing the Government as it is in the Hands of their present Majesties whom God grant long to live and to succeed in all their Just and Pious Undertakings and impeaching all those Conscientious Persons that having taken the easie Oaths imposed by Authority upon them as Men that have forsaken the Principles of the Church of England and turned their backs upon their former Obligations to the late King James and withall in gratification of these Principles of Prejudice are now full of nothing but Rage and Fury which they vent by all manner of unseemly Words and Speeches upon their Majesties late Nomination of those worthy Men to fill up the Sees of the Bishopricks vacant by their Predecessors denying to take the Oaths enjoyned them by the Supreme Power of the Kingdom Alas you cannot come into the Company of some sort of Men but your Ears are filled and dinned with nothing but the Church the Church Oh the Church is utterly destroyed put into the hands of false Loons who will betray her Rites break down her Fences set up Presbytery or else countenance Anarchy and Confusion and give up the Order of Bishops together with the grave and solemn and therefore necessary way of publick Worshipping of God by a stated Liturgy and that is not all but they must be cryed down too as Men of no Honour nor Conscience in taking the Places of Men so good and deserving And what particular brands of Infamy and Reproach are fixed upon the Reverend Learned and Pious Dean of St. Pauls whom their Majesties have Nominated to the See of Canterbury things which as he is altogether unworthy of so thanks be to God he is a Man of that Christian Courage and of that great Prudence that he knows how to do his Duty to God and to their Majesties Persons and Government without being ruffled or discomposed by such unmannerly and base Reflections which have no Original but from the corrupt and disingenuous malicious and revengeful minds of those who have been all along Enemies to him because he hath been a steady Friend to Truth and Christian Moderation and hath lived bewailing but no wayes countenancing or encouraging those Passions of all Sides and Parties which have been the Bane of Religion it self as well as of the Safety and Honour of the Church of England And therefore because the Clamour is so great and runs so high and the effects of it may be of so very destructive Consequence to their Majesties Government both in Church and State I will endeavour to do Right to those Reverend Persons who have so greatly Merited by their learned Pens and Pious Lives as well as to their Majesties Wisdom at this time in pitching upon Men to succeed those who have voluntarily quitted their Stations in the Church and I do not doubt but to make it plain that the Church of England is so far from being in danger of ruine by these worthy Men that she will gather strength more and more and look with a more acceptable Countenance amongst the general part of the Nation yea even Dissenters themselves who are but tolerably wise and thoughtfull It is very

him and his Princess King and Queen of England which by the way I verily believe was the only way things being in such a Posture as they were to settle the Nation notwithstanding all the talk of a Regency or any other Expedient Pray now upon this great Change of Affairs was there no steps made by both Parties to an Accommodation surely now if ever Mens Eyes might be opened in order to see the Cause of their former Miseries and to provide Remedies against them for the future yea to give a great many good Men their due and in particular our excellent King and Queen they with abundance of other Men shewed their Inclination to bring the Nation to a due Temper a thing we all know our Reverend Bishops in the day of their Afflictions and Fears promised and in order to this a Commission was issued out by the King in which were named a great many extraordinary Persons both for Religion and Learning and who for the greatest part of them as I am well assured had with great Harmony and Agreement prepared things for the Convocation which the wise and well disposed part of the Nation did not doubt would have had a very good effect to bring in many of the Clergy and I am very well satisfyed great Numbers of the Laity too into our Communion and by that means would have weakened the hands of Division and much laid that scurvy Spirit which hath been so mischievous to so many of the Churches of Christ ever since the Apostles dayes What was done upon this I will rather with grief of mind pass over in silence than bring fresh upon the Stage because it will tend to nothing but exasperation And therefore seeing all these Opportunities have been so lost which I have named truly I know no way to keep the Church in a state of Life to preserve her from the rough and barbarous hands of her resolved and stubborn Enemies than to put such Men into Places of Trust and Command of Authority and Power whose Religion as well as Learning whose Christian Spirits as well as great Understandings may endear the Church to the People and make them see that a Man may be a true and zealous Member of the Church of England and yet be a Pious and a good Man a thing which the Dissenters too many of them God knows the more is their ignorance or their impudence have endeavoured to perswade the People against as if no Man could be a Child of God and in a State of Regeneration that thinks honourably of a Bishop or serves God as he ought to do if he would serve him wisely by well digested Forms of Prayer And were such Pious and Holy Men in most of the Places of the Church of low as well as high degree I am very certain that Separation would lose ground every day and our Posterity would not be leavened with such sowr and narrow Principles as we have cause to fear they will be if Fanaticism does not lose its reputation more than it hath done a few Years last past And to this end I dare say it is that our excellent King and Queen have Chosen and Nominated such Persons to the several Vacant Sees I am no Flatterer but speak what I know from Personal Acquaintance that they are Men of Prudence and Learning of Integrity and Honour who highly value and also live up to that which we call deservedly Substantial Religion and yet at the same time know how to defend and encourage the honest Observation of the legal and established Rites of the Church and who by Vertue of these good Qualities will and cannot but promote the true Interest of the Church both by being Examples of and also by zealous recommending Holy Living to all under their Charge and Care And notwithstanding all the Clamours against the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury notwithstanding all those false as well as vile Reproaches they have attempted to fasten upon him which can proceed from no other than a Diabolical Spirit I do not doubt but he will prove one of the greatest Blessings to the Church this Age hath produced for it is such a Temper as he hath always manifested throughout his whole Life and Conversation that must heal our Breaches and restore us Paths to dwell quietly and safely in and they who accuse him for not being a true Church-man I must tell them have framed false Notions and Idea's of the Church and have made it a little Fold fit to hold none but a Company of hot-headed and violent spirited Men A Notion which at this time of the day ought to be laid aside and without doing of which the Church England will be but a small Party of Men and lose every day her Strength and her Reputation and at last will be devoured by those greedy Cormorants that long for her Lands and Possessions again and those Men that have the Confidence as well as Sillyness to call no Men true Church men but such as are stretched out to just such a length must excuse me if I tell them that under pretence of Friendship and Love to her they smite her through the fifth Rib and throw out of her Communion the best and most pious Members she can and ought to glory in I know I shall anger abundance of Men by these just though too short Characters I have given of these Worthy and Reverend Persons and some may think that it looks like a design to lessen the deserved value of those who have forsaken their Bishopricks because they could not take the Oaths but I must begg their Pardon I am I thank God for it a Person of more Manners and Justice as well as of more Candour and Temper than rudely to fly in the Face of or by any voluntary Act to disparage those whom all observing Men must needs acknowledge to have merited highly at the Nations hands I thank God I never think of some of these great Mens stout Defence of the Nations Religion and Laws by Petitioning King James against reading the Declaration by an undaunted Appearance at the Council Table and going in that unconcerned manner to the Tower with the Spirits of Noble and Brave Patriots and Heroes by standing a Tryal at Westminster-Hall Further I never reflect upon that Noble and almost unparallel'd Act of the late Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Sandcroft with others of his Brethren Addressing to King James and telling him to his Face though with all modesty and becomingness yet with more than a Roman Courage all those Faults of his whereby he had violated the Laws and incensed his Subjects against him with an humble desire to rectifie those Errors of his Government for the time to come I say I never think of these things without thoughts of great honour and admiration and I heartily wish for the Churches sake and their own they could have complyed with what was required at theirs and all other Mens hands who were in publick Places but since they cannot God forbid but they should have a share in our Charity as well as others and that they should be no more severely reflected upon than others whose Consciences and Principles are so widely different from the established Church And those Men we know what stamp they are of and what they design who thô they lay at King James's Feet with Lives and Fortunes even at that very time when these great Men suffered for their Religion and Laws and ventured their all I say those Men God knows there are too many of them who now when they hear these Mens Names cry Hang Damn Sink them Saint like terms indeed and Drink Healths of Confusion to them I must begg their Pardon if I tell them they are so far from understanding the Commands of Christianity that they are strangers to the Laws of Nature such as the very Heathens think themselves obliged by and reproach themselves if they do not in some sort live up to One thing more and I have done if any Man shall think and suggest to others the Commendation I have given these Learned Men reflects upon those Eminent Persons who were in Episcopal Chairs before I must crave leave to tell them I scorn the thoughts of it for there were some of those as great and good Men as we can desire to fill a See for the Churches Honour and the Comfort and Satisfaction of those both Clergy and Laity who are Members of her Communion amongst whom I must tell the World I mean our own Honourable and Right Reverend Diocesan whose Name and Vertues will find a room in future Annals and Records when the Memory of his implacable Enemies on both sides will perish And now therefore for a Conclusion let us Bless God for such a King and Queen who make it their Business to Consult and Study the Nations good by promoting worthy Men themselves and countenancing all those Worthy Persons whom they found fixed in the upper Preferments of the Church before they came to the Throne May they Prosper in all their just and righteous Undertakings May they live long to Reign over and to preserve us against all the Designs of Priests and Jesuites and all other wicked Men who either Envy or are ready to Plot the ruine of the Nations Happiness and present Settlement and may God cover our great Kings Head in the Day of Battel give him Victory over all his Enemies and bring him home again with Triumph to an Obedient and Rejoycing People to which I do not doubt but all good Men who love their Religion and their Laws will say Amen FINIS