Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A63884
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A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall November 5, 1684 / by Francis Lord Bishop of Ely ...
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Turner, Francis, 1638?-1700.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing T3285; ESTC R1832
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11,471
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34
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a strange Means of Barring out Popery by letting in the Doctrine of Translating and Disposing of Kingdoms 'T is most true we Abhorr'd that Association which naturally and directly lead to the second Powder-Plot as I must have leave to call it All this is true and because we in none of these Instances would Do Evil for fear of suffering it therefore we are Reported to be Doing or Designing so ill a thing as 't is hard to conceive what Good we should Intend even to our private Interests by hurting the publick And therefore we may truly say with S. Paul in my Text that we are slanderously Reported And they that are Guilty of the Slander do an Extream ill thing whatever their Ends be they might expect some Good to come of it if they could teach the Party cum Ratione insanire that is When they had frighted them with Fears and Jealousies out of their Wits then to make them Act like Reasonable Creatures But if the Association had broken out into a furious Rebellion and that was just breaking out as 't is most clear and Evident from many Credible Witnesses and Dying Confessions long ago nay from Hands and Seals taken but very lately then how could the Greatest Evil have been avoided even as Great as any that Piercy and Catesby intended unless Well-meaning Rebells could have given every Bullet its Commission whom to hit or miss and could have directed their Shot as well as their Intentions Soon after that Execrable Assassination of King Henry the Fourth of France one of that Great Prince's Servants one of that Incomparable Learning as made him justly esteem'd one of the Glories of his Time coming over into England to divert his Melancholy and to wait upon King James the Patron of the Learned he writes Causabon Epist 1612. Dan. Heins from hence to another Eminent Scholar in these words That he was come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Island of the Happy where I enjoy sayes he this Consolation that I am not Tormented with the sight of those wicked Fiends and Parricides those he means who he suppos'd had Animated the Murder of his Royal Master and then sayes he I have this Comfort too that in this Kingdom I see that Face of the Primitive Church which I learn'd to know from the Writings of the Ancient Fathers But had that Worthy Stranger Liv'd and Convers'd with us here until these Times he must have endur'd not only the Aspect but the almost Twenty Years Tyranny of as Cursed Furies among us as any he left behind him in his own Countrey and he must have beheld another Woful Spectacle the Church which he so much admir'd in a manner Defac'd or at least most sadly Deform'd by them And yet by the Mercy of God neither the black Traytors of the Powder-Plot nor the scarlet Traytors of the High Court of Justice tho' these latter prevail'd for a time were able to Compass their utmost Hellish Ends and Purposes but we are once again the Island of the Happy if we but knew our Happiness and we are a Kingdom again where there is now to be seen the same Venerable Face of the Ancient Church Restor'd together with the King and Restor'd by the King under God As long as our Church deserves that Glorious Character which that Great Man bestow'd upon it while it bears the likeness of the Primitive Church it has a Just Title to a full share in that Gracious Promise made to the Catholick Church Isa 54. and the last Verse No Weapon that is form'd against thee shall prosper this is the Inheritance of the servants of the Lord and may we not justly say with Joyful Thanks that the Lot is fall'n to us in a fair Ground and that this is a Goodly Inheritance May we not with an Humble Greatness call such a Church the place of the Vineyard that His right hand hath planted and the Branch that He made so strong for Himself O let it never be said that Her Hedge is broken down that all they that go by pluck off her Grapes that the Wild Boar out of the Wood doth Root it up and the Wild Beasts of the Field devour it And after this Prayer for the Church let us also pray for the King as it follows in that Psalm Let thy Hand be upon the Man of thy Right Hand or in the plainer words of another Psalm O continue thy Loving Mercies that they may preserve Him So will we alway give praise unto thy Name that we may daily perform our Vows Now unto the King Eternal c. FINIS
Lord the Temple of the Lord or as the Jesuits do the Church the Catholick Church and yet these True Protestants as they love to style themselves are truly and thoroughly Jesuited in the Arts of Evasion destructive to the End of our Laws and contrary to the meaning of our Law-Givers Thus all men would do something to save their Souls as we say or they would at least say something to save their Credit with themselves as well as with others Some Device they would gladly find out to ease themselves while they play with that little of Natural Conscience they have left them They do like one that forg'd a Will then took up the Dead Body out of the Grave put a Pen into the Dead man's Hand guided the Hand to sign the Will and then took his Oath that he had seen it sign'd by the Hand of the Testator To what purpose was all this Pageantry Had not down-right Perjury been as easily swallowed No Drowning men will catch at Straws Such is the force of Religion that it can scarce be absolutely stifl'd in the minds of men they would gladly retain some faint colour or shadow of Innocence that their faults may not appear too ugly but that they may flatter themselves in their own sight until their Abominable Sin be found out But what do we of the Church of England complain of others if that be true which some would fain insinuate that we are Betraying our selves Why do we still thank God for Discovering and Defeating the Powder-Plot if we are Undermining the Several of Mr. Pryn's Pieces Apostasia Laudensium Patronus Bonae Fidei c. Church for we are so Reported whether slanderously or no must be tryed What Volumes have been Publisht heretofore and some Pamphlets but lately to make it appear that Arch-Bishop Laud had bred us up for Popery What a noise has been made with this as if they meant to stop the Cry of his Innocent Blood with their Clamours that he Liv'd and Dy'd in the Design of Introducing Popery Nay more that the Governing part of the present Clergy have made what Advances they could treading in his footsteps and in the same Broad Way with their Faces towards the Vatican The Clergy of England are more than Ten Thousand Men that most of this vast Number whether they Lead or Drive should be marching so fast toward Rome is exceeding strange It puts me in mind of the Story of the Eleven Thousand Virgins who as the Legend would make us believe went out of England in Pilgrimage and Perisht in the way But the Wisest and Learnedest Writers for that Fable would be contented to strike out their thousands at first dash that they confess was an Error of some Monkish Transcriber they would gladly compound for Eleven nor can they prove even those few So may not I challenge all our Accusers that reflect on so great a Body as the Clergy which consist as I said of ten thousand at least To name but ten of the whole Clergy ten men of any Note either for their Dignity or Learning who in the worst of Times under the greatest Temptations fell from the Church of England to that of Rome But since we are so Defam'd as if we still went on with the same Intrigue where that Great Prelate was forc't to leave off in Vindicating Him I shall make a Defence for our selves and to Justifie Him and His Administration I shall make such an Appeal to Rome it self as will be in no danger of a Praemunire And first I refer my self to a Voluminous Italian Writer of Universal History he Qualify'd himself very long ago with the Title of Historian to the Most Christian King His Name I spare because I think he is Living still though he spares not the Memory of the Dead and of one that Dy'd a Martyr This Author is pleas'd to conclude in these words the Tragical Story of that Great Prelate Laying down his Head upon the Block it was sayes he sever'd from his Shoulders by the Executioner at one Blow Rendendo l'anima a Satanasso i. e. while he gave up his Soul to the Great Devil to whom sayes he he belong'd in his life time with his Damnable Doctrine of Calvin whose follower he was While I live I shall think the better of our Charity in the Church of England as often as I Reflect upon this most Uncharitable Expression In the mean time with what Justice is He still branded by our Dissenting Protestants for a Papist when the other Adverse Party at the same time Damn Him for a Calvinist But I add further with what Justice does this Romanist tax Him for a Calvinist when there 's another far more Authentick Writer a Romanist too but Spondanus Anno 1605. of a more Christian temper for he speaks with Detestation of the Powder-Plot and ascribes the Discovery of it to the Hand of God this Author clearly acquits that Renowned Prelate both from Popery and Puritanism I mean the Pope's own Historian as I may style him the Continuator of the Great Cardinals Annals who gives this Account the Primate of England sayes Spondanus Anno 1645. he without the Tents of the Roman and Apostolick Church after he had been Imprison'd in the Tower of London for many Months is Beheaded by the Command of those that stood for the Parliament for his standing up in defence of the Kings Just Rights and for Advising his Majesty against the Puritans then it follows Catholica Religio ei Morienti defuit quod dolendum He wanted the Catholick Religion when he dy'd which sayes my Author partial to his own Faction was to be lamented By the Catholick we are sure he means the Roman After two such Testimonies as these who ever can believe that Great and Good Man a Romanist can I suppose believe whatever he has a mind to believe and he may in good time believe the Relation of a Third Author a Lutheran German who in the Body of a large Continuat Pezelii pars 4. Mellif Hist Anno 1645. General History tells us gravely that the Arch-Bishop being Convicted to have Accepted the Title of a Cardinal sent him by the University of Oxford and to have Corrupted Religion was put to Death And we are just as Guilty as he was 'T is true indeed we refus'd to Close and Comply with this Doctrine of Expedients some of them not unlike Sampson's Desperate Expedient to Destroy the Philistins by pulling a vast Fabrick upon his own head as we must have done the Monarchy upon ours or rather like Fawx's Expedient to prevent the Death he apprehended but to prevent it by Blowing up the Parliament-House and himself and all which he much regretted he had not done then when they seiz'd upon him 'T is very true we believ'd it a preposterous way of securing our Religion by giving up the peculiar Honour of our Church the Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings And we judg'd it