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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	world_n	write_n	write_v	503	4	5.1932	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42835	The zealous, and impartial Protestant shewing some great, but less heeded dangers of popery, in order to thorough and effectual security against it : in a letter to a member of Parliament.	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1681 (1681)	Wing G837; ESTC R22540	45,186	68

fierce men that would drive things to Extreams I am sure you can get nothing by Confusions and Dissettlements Pray God disappoint those that would have Distractions because they think they can get by them I remember walking with you last Summer in your Park you were pleas'd to ask me What way there was to fecure the Church of England under a Popish Successor though he should be Mild and Gentle and not bent upon the enforcing of his Religion One chief ground of the Question was That the King bestows the Bishopricks and many other Ecclesiastical Preferments and it cannot well as you reasonably offer'd be supposed but that He will in that case bestow them on such as either are Popishly affected or not very averse to or zealous against that Religion Or if the King should do otherwise and bestow them upon the most Worthy Sincere thorough Protestants yet the People would entertain Jealousies of them and never think them such which would destroy their Authority and Reverence and occasion the dispersion of the People yet further into Corners To this I said That I did not pretend to offer publick expedients in such great and weighty matters but I thought that if by any means of Justice and safety to the Rights of the Crown such as consent in that case would be Canonical Elections should during such time be granted to each particular Church and the King should please not to determine them in their choice to a Person by his Conge de' stire as now but leave them to their liberty of Choosing as they thought fit as in some former times they did each Dean and Chapter to choose the Bishop of the Diocess and their own Members that this might be reasonable Security And if the Bishop the Dean and Chapter the Clergy of each Diocess or distinct Deanry or the Vniversities should have the right given them of presenting to the King's Livings during such time of a Popish Successor this way I humbly thought might in all likelihood secure us against those Dangers For the Clergy of the Church of England are of all men most concern'd in point of Interest as well as Principles and profession to oppose Popery and as far as lawfully they may all advances towards it This one would think should need no proof but it seems it doth among some and I shall clear that Matter by and by And they would no doubt take care from time to time to Elect such as were most fast to our Protestant Constitution most eminent in their Lives and Learning and most able and ready to oppose Popish Corruptions and so the Church of England might stand if direct and profest Violence were not offer'd to it To this purpose I then said I think on the occasion of his Majesty's gracious offers for Protestant Security under a Successor of the other Religion I do not know what opportunities may be offer'd again the next Session but if any such be and this particularly might be obtain'd I hope it will be accepted and me-thinks some such thing should be desired But Sir I am no Projector I speak all this with all imaginable submission to the wiser Judgments of my Superiours CHAP. II. II. ANother occasion I note of the increase and danger of Popery is our ill treatment of our own Protestant Clergie those of the Church of England Their Predecessors were they who first formed our Reformation upon the soberest and best grounds of Opposition to the Roman Church as I have shewn and by their Blood sealed our Protestant Establishments And the Successors of those blessed men Bishops and other Episcopal Divines have ever since been the Scourges of Popery who by their learned and excellent Writings have confuted exposed triumph'd over the numerous Errors of that Church These have been the grand Champions of the Protestant Cause that have fought our Battels against the stoutest and most daring Enemies with glorious success such were Bishop Jewel Bishop Morton Bishop Andrews Arch-Bishop Laud Bishop Hall Bishop Davenant Arch-Bishop Usher Arch-Bishop Bramhal Bishop Taylor Bishop Cozens Dr. Hammond Mr. Chillingworth Mr. Mead Dean Stillingfleet Dean Tillotson Dean Lloyd Dr. Henry More Dr. Brevint these and innumerable others have strenuously and plainly refuted bafled and disproved the Popish Depravations And every where men of the same sort in all parts of England are very busie both by Books and Sermons to render those Corruptions odious and detestable as they deserve Particularly we have an eminent aggregate Instance in the Reverend Episcopal Clergie of the City of London How many learned substantial convictive Sermons have they preach'd against the Popish Doctrines and Practice since our late Fears and Dangers I believe there have not been such deliver'd in that City against those Superstitions since the Foundation of it More sound accomplish'd judicious Preachers it certainly never had never any that understood the Roman Falsities better never any that were more resolv'd or more active Enemies to them The Divines the Ancient and the Modern of the Church of England principally have by their Preaching and their Writings so inform'd season'd and spirited the People against Popery as we find at this Day from them they have their chief Grounds from them their courage of Opposition 'T is true some few others have written something Mr. Baxter and Mr. Pool have labour'd worthily Dr. Owen hath said somewhat to Fiat Lux and there are some Sermons of the Presbyterians extant Morning Lectures against Popery These are the most the chief of their Performances I ever heard of Indeed the People of the Dissenting Party talk commonly as if the Non-conformist Ministers had written the most and best Books against Popery and had this way shewn themselves more zealous Adversaries to it than the Conformable Clergy have done But they do but shew their ignorance in this as they do in other Matters of the like nature And the ground of their Mistake is this That they take all the Books which their Ministers have written against the Church of England to be written against Popery They have indeed written more than a Horseload of Books of this sort but what they have written against the Church of Rome a Boy may carry at his Back I would not disparage any Protestant Writings against the Papists nor appear partial to the Episcopal Divines Let the World compare and judg of which side have been the most and most considerable Opposites to the Popish cause Let any the most prejudiced against the Church of England read both sorts and then judg who have been the Original Authors and who have only used the others Reading Learning and Reasonings I would leave the Matter with the most partial to Dissenters to determine when they have read when they have consider'd There is no man certainly of understanding or experience of the World but must grant that the chief the most successful Antagonists of Popery have been the Clergy of the Church of England These the Papists have

be more there should not be Instances found to give colour to such Reproaches and if there should not be some to deserve very bad Characters But let it be consider'd that the far greatest part of Livings are poor Vicarages of 20 30 or 40 Pounds a Year into such Patrons must put whom they can get and Bishops that admit know not mens ill Lives and the Laws are content with very slender qualifications for Learning nor are great Matters necessary for every Country Village and this poor condition of so great a number of the Clergy sets them into mean Conversation and by their low and bad Company they are tempted and often purposely so to disorders which then are triumphantly publish'd the men are despised and the whole Order for their sakes Some are surprized for some Traps are laid and they are industriously drawn into Scandal on purpose to defame them and the whole Clergy and it cannot be denied but that too many are Clouds without Water spots in our Feasts Diotrephes's Demas's Judas's not only in the smaller Cures but in the more considerable Preferments Many most of those the Laity present to and do not always prefer for worth but for divers other sometimes very undue considerations all which consider'd it cannot be but Scandals must arise among so great a Body of men in such Circumstances and then they having so many Enemies of so many sorts Atheists Papists Fanaticks Worldlings Debauchees who watch for their haltings and rejoyce when they fall who are ready to invent so many malicious evil things of them and to publish and spread what they hear or what they make their interest being to have them and the Church vilified and despised it could not be but that they must suffer under manifold Reproaches though they were all wise cautious innocent how much more when there are divers ill unwise unwary men among them and in all great Bodies in the World in all times even the best such mixtures have been And even the Good the most Excellent have their Faults and Imperfections which when ill-will is to represent and comment upon them are sometimes so heightned and improved as to blacken them all over and to make them appear very vile to the World But after all this it must be said that the Church of England blessed be God for it hath a great number of most Excellent Divines men of great Piety Parts and Learning substantial powerful Preachers Pious Sober Virtuous Livers such as for all kinds of Ability this Nation never had greater better more Let my former Instance of the Clergy of London be consider'd as an evidence of this Their worth is so great and shines so bright that the Adversaries of our Church cannot but acknowledg it Mr Baxter in one of his late Books the most sharp he hath written against us owns that he meets with judicious substantial Sermons almost in every Church in London where he happens to go And up and down in the Country every where one may find very excellent Persons that lie hid and make no publick noise in the World I have said this by way of brief but just Apology in the behalf of our abused Clergy and add that notwithstanding the ill Character they lie under among some and the failings and imperfections they are guilty of yet this Nation never had I believe a wiser learneder Clergy upon the whole since the Beginnings of it And the contempt and ill treatment they meet withal is one of the greatest Reasons why they are not better General disrespect makes men careless and incautious in their Lives Whereas honour and esteem ingageth them to be circumspect and wary to maintain that veneration and regard that is paid them So that the men that most upbraid the Clergy with ill Lives are the principal causes that many of their lives are so obnoxious and they may consider some of them whether they do not themselves for sordid and unworthy Reasons bestow their Livings upon such as they complain of and so make the reason of their own Complaints I have been tedious upon this Head which yet would require larger Animadversions and I shall here crave leave yet farther to note That Among all the abuses fastned on our Clergy there is none more unreasonable and unjust than that of their inclination to or no great distance from the Roman Church This reproach our Enemies now every where publish or infinuate to carry on their design of destroying the Church of England which shews that some will say any thing against them any thing that may render them popularly odious though it be never so contrary to all truth and all appearance And I challenge the whole Protestant World to shew a publick Instance of more Zeal against Popery than our Church of England Divines have exprest against the Popish Religion ever since and before the discovery of the late Plot. Every Pulpit can witness their frequent earnest Sermons against those Superstitions and every Stationers Shop can shew their numerous excellent Books against them Or if these were not we may consider that Interest will not lye men especially such as they suppose our Clergy will not act contrary to that Can we think that all the Gentlemen of England that have Abby and other Church Lands will desire and endeavour to promote Popery Are they suppose we favourers and friends of that Religion that in likelihood would divest them of their Estates Can we think that the City of London are for blocking up and hindring the Current of the Thames Or that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen have a plot to translate the Trade to Lincoln or York Have the Merchants any desires or designs for the destroying of Shipping and Navigation Shop-keepers intrigues against Trade or the Lawyers designs against the Business of Westminster-Hall If no one is so foolish as to object such inclinations and endeavours against those why should they then alledg Popery any degree of it any the least inclination to it against the Clergie of the Church of England whom of all men it would most throughly most certainly undo And that there is no Church-man so ignorant but he must know For all the Married Clergy lose their Livelihoods without remedy if that be all All the Prebendaries in the new Churches which were Monasteries of Monks must turn out unavoidably All that have been active in Preaching or writing against Popery which takes in the chief part of the Clergy are in imminent danger of being ruined further than the loss of their Livelihoods amounts too If there should be any that think of saving themselves by Conformity they can look on that only as better than being utterly undone not as a thing otherwise desirable For the uncouth work with which they are unacquainted the servile subjection to their Superiours to which they have not been used and above all the hatred contempt fury of the People to which they will be exposed and by which they will