Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	better_a	form_n	great_a	229	4	2.1340	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66942	The dissenting casuist, or, The second part of a dialogue between prejudice, a dissenting country gentleman, and reason, a student in the university being I. a clear justification of the execution of the laws against dissenters, II. a comparison of the arguments on both sides concerning monarchy in general, III. concerning an elective kingdom, or whether a lawful successor or true heir upon any misdemeanours may be excluded.	Wood, Thomas, 1661-1722.	1682 (1682)	Wing W3409; ESTC R21026	23,696	40

ridiculous as so many Jack Daws without their Feathers And here 's one that being weary of secret Faction comes forth boldly and prosecutes people at Law for Scandalum Magnatum and then if he thinks he has vex'd and tormented them he will go no further will let fall his Suit and for half a minute be at quiet He grins like a Dog and in the evening walketh about the City and like a Lion seeketh whom he may devour Here is a Company sent to Taverns and Coffee Houses to dispute the case to blow the Coals with a stronger Breath and if it be possible to make it flame out These are to make Bonfires raise Tumults and as if it were a perpetual Whitsun Ale they stop every Passenger force him to drink a Health to My Lord and The good old Cause his Lady And will any one make me believe that these are not Juglers Baxters and Owens and Humble Moderators c. behind the Curtain that guide these Puppetae by a secret Spring and send them dancing into the world A Conventicle in short is a Nursery for pack'd Juries Injustice and Rebellion and to invert what you say a Quarter of Tares and scarce a Handful of Wheat in it But if there should be any good men any Gouges now See the Tryal of Char. I. his Judges alive amongst them they must fare as some of our late Kings foolish Judges who were onely Hearers and did sit onely for Company but were hang'd though against their wills for Company too Prejud But the man says they do exercise according to the Liturgy of the Church of England The Liturgy of the Church of England contains no more Spec. Crape than onely Truth The Dissenters speak and pray according to Truth Ergo The first Proposition you your selves will grant for if the Liturgy contains any thing besides Truth it contains a Lie c. which you will never own And then that the Dissenters preach nothing but Truth nay the Truth of Truth Divine Truth all the world will grant Reas No I my self will never grant it I will shew you a Book called The Dissenters Sayings one of these days where if you don't find their Doctrien to be faithfully collected and in them cursed Lies the Lies of Lies Hollish Lies I will be contented to take that punishment upon me which the Dissenters deserve But as to the Argument the Author shews he had forgot his Logick at this time there be two Brethren of it and very much like it in another Author If Impotency be a sufficient Tory Plot p. 15. 19. cause for dissolving the sacred tie of Marriage because the main end of Marriage the propagating Mankind is thereby frustrated it may be equally reasonable to debar the D. of Y. the Espousal a pretty Conceit of the Government who is perverted to an utter incapacity of answering the ends of it Again If a Papist can exclude unlawfully a Protestant a Protestant may unlawfully exclude a Papist And of another Author whom I have forgot at present that would prove the Scripture not to be the Word of God because the Word was made Flesh Ergo This by the by now to the main point If the Liturgy contains nothing but Truth they that speak and pray according to Truth speak and pray according to the Liturgy If this Glass contains nothing but Wine he that drinks up the Wine swallows down the Glass Look upon your Argument a second time and tell me if you dare that there is Consequence in it A man that stands upon Bow Steeple and repeats the Commandments that preaches Christ and him crucified in High-ways and Ditches speaks and prays according to Truth yet notwithstanding this person shall be look'd upon as irregular and prophane and punish'd accordingly In short the Liturgy of the Church of England is a certain Form and Manner agreed upon by Authority for the better Vtterance of the Truth and therefore he onely that acts according to this Form and Manner comes to Church c. does act according to the Liturgy of the Church of England Prejud Sir this is an Argument that we have cherished for these many years and I am sure 't is impossible for you to confute it in so short a time as you pretend to do We lose our Christian Liberty if we must be forced to obey this Form We lose our Christian Liberty when by Human Laws things indifferent are determined either the one way or the other Now Ceremonies and Liturgy are indifferent things if they were not determined by Authority And why Ecclesiastical Constitutions should 1 Arg. determine us precisely to one side in the use of indifferent things which God and Christ have left free I know no Reason By inducing a necessity upon the thing they enjoyn 2 Arg. they take upon them to alter the nature of things and make that to become necessary which is indifferent which God onely can do It makes these indifferent things of absolute necessity unto 3 Arg. Salvation forasmuch as it is necessary to Salvation to do that which he is bound in Conscience to do and you say we must in Conscience obey Superiours so that by this device Surplice Organs Kneeling at the Communion Bowing at the Name of Jesus c. are necessary to Salvation I say all this is a grand Imposition upon Christian Liberty Reas I will answer these Arguments with as much brevity as I can and abstract from the large Discourse which Bishop Sanderson affords you To the first Argument I answer That the determining of any thing in unam partem taketh not away a mans Liberty For the Liberty of a Christian to any thing indifferent Bishop Sanderson consisteth in this that his Judgment is thorowly persuaded of the indifferency of it and therefore 't is the determination of the Judgment in the Opinion of the thing not in the Vse of it that taketh away Christian Liberty For Example If my Friend invite me to Supper shall I not promise him to come because the Liberty I had before to go or not go will be determined by making such a Promise It is a very vain power and indifferency that may not be brought into act or actually determined but God made no power in vain as is long ago agreed upon both by Philosophers and Divines To the second Argument I answer That the nature of the thing enjoyned is not changed but still indifferent though for some conveniences there is an Order to use them added to that Indifferency To the third 'T is the Obedience that is necessary to Salvation as being immediately commanded by God and not the things commanded for they are still indifferent A Master commands his Servant to go to Market or wear a Livery the Servant is bound in Conscience to obey his Master but his going to Market or his wearing a Livery the things supposed to be commanded by every one must be concluded to be indifferent

THE Dissenting Casuist OR THE SECOND PART OF A DIALOGUE BETWEEN PREJVDICE a Dissenting Country Gentleman AND REASON a Student in the Vniversity BEING I. A clear Justification of the Execution of the Laws against Dissenters II. A Comparison of the Arguments on both sides concerning Monarchy in general III. Concerning an Elective Kingdom or whether a Lawful Successor or true Heir upon any Misdemeanours may be excluded Saepe etiam Stultus opportuna loquitur LONDON Printed for T. Sawbridge at the Three Flower de Luces in Little Britain 1682. TO THE READER THE first Part of this Dialogue being not above three Sheets was designed onely by way of Preface to this I being forced to dig upon Rubbish before I could come to their Mine of Gold but really if you are impartial you will conclude with me that this is mere Rubbish too If in the first Part they were represented as gross Fools they must thank themselves for it not me If people talk idlely I cannot help it I am sure if you will take the pains to keep them company you may hear the same every day But Ugliness does not care to have its Picture drawn I am no common Pamphlettier neither do I at all delight in it being very well satisfied in my Conscience that the Works of our Tribe will never be sent to Forein Courts or translated into another Language I believe it is with most of them as it is with the Poets they first get the Itch of writing in their Fingers being perhaps an Infection from the Pen they hold and then it presently spreads over their whole Bodies so that they can never be at quiet till they are scratching upon Paper My design is onely for the good of my Country but if I signifie but little toward it my Zele and Loyalty will be commended This Discourse is not levelled against any particular man but against all their Arguments that have been are at present or are to come and that is a bold word you will say but read and judge I have engaged with their Champions condescended to the little ones and resolving as much as in me lieth to clear the Country of all sorts of Vermin I have div'd into Stews Haylofts and Boghouses If I have not been very exact in my Quotations on the Margin I suppose every Author can find his own words out I am sure I have not abus'd or misinterpreted his Assertions Pardon pray the Printers Errata and I am Your very Humble Servant T. W. June 20. 1682. The Dissenting CASUIST OR The Second Part of a Dialogue between Prejudice a Dissenting Countrey Gentleman and Reason a Student in the University c. Prej. Come Sir I am desirous of entring into a second Discourse with you the Distraction of the Times makes me thoughtful so that I find I am forc'd by my Conscience and good Nature to raise up as many Arguments as is fit and convenient for a man in my mean capacity I keep several Persons in pay sending them out to Taverns Coffee-houses c. to see if there is any thing more to be glean'd and pic'kd up towards the maintenance of our Cause and the heartning on of the Righteous that they may not have reason to say they are weary of these * Sh Sh te Carryings on And truly I think my self as Loyal as he that keeps a Regiment of Souldiers at his own charge and is hourly at his Majesties Service Well then first I say you Crape Gown-men are rank Papists downright Devils though you hide your cloven Feet though for the present you are pleas'd to put on the Garments of the Angels of Light Your Pride Ambition Covetousness c. shew that you are possess'd The Restauration of the Abbey Lands and the pretended Riches of the Church Cardinals Caps c. the dear embraces of the gaudy painted Whore are the Objects of your furious and extravagant Loyalty Your Covetousness is so great and * A Scandalous Libel call'd Speculum Crape-Gownorum Part. 2. there is such a uumerous Fry of you that hunger and thirst after Maintenance and so few bones in the Nation that you snarl at all who do but pretend to share with you We may easily discern whether the Good Pious Nonconformist Ministers or the Priests of Baal are the truest Levites or the chosen of the Lord the Actions of the former being wholly and without the consideration of worldly Gain directed to the Spiritual edification and recovery of Souls to the preaching of the Lord Christ c. whereas the Zeal and Divinity of the latter must never mount or fly abroad unless it be upon Wings that are adorned with silver and golden Feathers unless for every Scripture Sentence so much Money is paid down as may recover the Preachers Spirits render him in good Plight that he may come up with the greater Assurance and Eagerness the next Week Reas I do not understand what you mean by all this Ribble Rabble unless that in your Judgment 't is a thing unbecoming and irreligious that our Ministers do not preach and perform their Spiritual Offices in any place without a Promised Maintenance and Salary or without Respect to things that are sordid and temporal I am very far different from this Opinion or do in no wise think it unbecoming or that a care for a competency of living deserves the Epithet of Sordid We know that Mens Minds are now grown more carnal and sensual than ever that really Christs Kingdom is not of this World nor in the Hearts of worldly men that Interest and Riches is the only God ador'd here that the Man that can shew a good Face and an Acquittance for so much Money shall gain more Respect and Honour than Virtue it self if she be naked Alas we have very few Philosophers amongst us that will admire Wisdom in her Rags A Knavish Mahomet if he sets in a Throne shall gain more Followers than a True Christ if he once lay in a Manger Men will scarce be convinc'd by the Doctrine of that Person who does owe him Money or who is beholding to him for his Bread 'T is very requisite yea and necessary that they should be endowed with the greatest Plenty both of Riches and Honour First because as I told you it gains them a greater Respect from their Auditors who on this Consideration will more easily yield up their Hearts and Attention Secondly because there will be greater Encouragements where they may not be liable to ill Fortune and the Crosses and many Accidents of the World or have their Studies interrupted or that glorious design of making men eternally happy swallowed up in Poverty We often see what Authority the Presence of a Bishop has over his vast Congregation whilst perhaps the Poor Curate is attended only by a few serving Maids and very drowzily hearken'd to though perhaps his Doctrine may be the same or every whit as good In my small reading I have found that