Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	scotland_n	4,378	5	8.3735	4	true

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

well known to those who have been impartial Readers of the History of the Church since the Reformation by what means she hath lost ground and upon what score the Non-conformists grew up in Interest against her To pass by the Reign of King Edward the sixth because it was a Reign of great Factions amongst Men of different Interests and who too many of them rather sought to serve themselves of the Reformation than to serve the Reformation it self we will begin with Queen Elizabeth's coming to the Crown who though she was certainly always a Protestant after she came to some Years of discerning in her Inclination yet was forced to comply when Popery was upermost so as to keep her self out of danger For without doubt had she professed her self an open Enemy to Popery and used any other Publick Devotions than what were then in fashion and established by Law she had fallen a Sacrifice to the Biggottry of her Sister and to Gardiner's Rage and Revenge but however when she came to the Crown her self she presently after a very little Temporizing which we ought to believe Necessity of State was the only Reason of she fell to reforming the Church and it may be advanced a Number of as good Men to the Vacant Bishopricks both for Learning and Piety as any of her four Successors have done since And here was the first false step by which the Church hath rather lost than got ground ever since for though she preferred Men of so great Worth Men of such signal Holiness and who upon the account of either their Banishment or other Sufferings in Queen Mary's dayes were very acceptabe to all the Men of the Kingdom who were then Protestants and who by vertue of their exemplary Conversations were very well fitted to stop the Mouths of gain sayers and by degrees to win over the Papists especially those who were only so by the strength of their Education yet at the same time she would not suffer these Men though of her own raising to influence her into any little Alterations or Changes which might at that time have settled the Church upon a larger bottom and prevented that after Schism which was made by some Men who by their Travels in Germany and another place had sucked in some very narrow stingy Principles which by a little Condescention they certainly had been shamed out of or else put out of Capacity of deluding the common People as they afterwards did to the great detriment of the Church She had been brought up in the pompous gawdy way of Popish Worship and therefore notwithstanding all the modest Applications of her Pious Bishops who valued substantial Religion above all other things she continued her Zeal for Ceremonies and supported and maintained them all her Reign which thô she might lawfully do and there was no moral Evil in them as hath been sufficiently made out by many learned Pens ever since yet some wise Men think that an Abatement of one or two Ceremonies and changeing four or five Phrases in the Common-Prayer-Book would have enlarged the Churches Pale and prevented all the Puritans designs against her for to give those early Malecontents their just due and I am not afraid to speak it they never got into the good Opinion and Affection of the People by any strength of Argument by any real and solid Proofs of Scripture but by popular Harangues and odious Names fixt upon the Ceremonies and the Common-Prayer-Book and they wrought more upon the unthinking and yet zealously-inclin'd Vulgar by calling a thing a Rag of Rome a Mark of the Beast and an Antichristian Usage than ever they did by rational and well-weighed Exceptions to any thing enjoyned by the Laws of the Land all which Occasions of Mischief had been prevented as very wise Men think if the Bishops at that time could have had their Will of the Queen and got her to Condescend to those Abatements in which they thought the Church so little concerned as to her Being or Well-being that they did believe they could thereby stifle the Faction and have left them to be the Heads of an inconsiderable Party which would quickly have dwindled into nothing But however Queen Elizabeth kept to her Point resolvedly and by her prudent and unwavering Government kept the Party down for forty four Years together upon whose Death and King James the first 's just Accession to the Crown the Party hoping some advantage from his Education under Buchanan a Friend of theirs Petitioned for Relief and he to settle the Minds of his Subjects commands a Conference at Hampton Court where certainly had there not been too stiff an adherence to some few things which might without danger have been altered had not the Bishops then though very good Men yet not able to foresee the effects of these Mens Pretences upon the Common People in future times and trusting to the Zeal of the then King to stand by and assist them I say had not the Bishops then had such an Ascendant throughout the whole Conference over the King which he was well pleased withall having by the contrary Party in Scotland been so roughly handled all his time I say certainly that Conference had terminated in a great advantage to the Church of England for the Puritan Party was not so numerous nor consequently strong as afterwards nor yet their Dissatisfactions so great as they have been since a very little and easie Condescention had spoiled the Market of the Designing men both Gentry and Ministers too and we had not heard of nor felt those Miseries in the Nation that God knows both our Ancestors and we have done ever since And so this Opportunity was lost and the Party grew stronger and stronger all King James his time and talked as loud as they durst against Will-worship and beggerly Elements as they were pleased to call our Prayers and Ceremonies by which they continued to captivate abundance of easie People and to insinuate a Belief into them that they only Worshipped God and Administred Ordinances according to the Pattern in the Mount as they Phrased it and that which gave them a great advantage over and above their Pretences to a more Pure way of Worship was the Spanish Match and upon the Failure of that the French Marriage for then they easily made the credulous World believe that nothing but Popery was at the door and that it was impossible when a Papist lay in a King's Bosom but that he must be influenced by her Charms to Favour her Religion as well as to Love her Person and the truth of it is this was too great an advantage to be put into a restless and designing Party's Hand and they made use of it accordingly for by this means they got a great Power in most of the Counties and Corporations of England whereby were returned a major part of Men affected to them to the House of Commons and what the Effects of their Counsels were and what Spirits