Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	church_n	great_a	time_n	5,546	4	3.4499	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30445	A sermon preached at the funeral of the most reverend Father in God, John, by the divine providence, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, primate and metropolitan of all England, who died at Lambeth the 22nd day of November, in the 65th year of his age, and was buried at St. Lawrence Jewry, in London, on the 30th of that month, Anno Dom. 1694 by ... Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing B5902; ESTC R22882	18,942	42

the Design seemed to be laid to make us first Atheists that we might be the more easily made Papists and that many did not stick to own that we could have no Certainty for the Christian Faith unless we believed the Infallibility of the Church This gave him a deep and just Indignation It was such a betraying of the Cause of God rather than not to gain their own that in this the Foundation was laid of his great Zeal against Popery This drew his Studies for some Years much that way He looked on the whole Complex of Popery as such a Corruption of the whole Design of Christianity that he thought it was incumbent on him to set himself against it with the Zeal and Courage which became that Cause and was necessary for those Times He thought the Idolatry and Superstition of the Church of Rome did enervate true Piety and Morality and that their Cruelty was such a Contradiction to the Meekness of Christ and to that Love and Charity which he made the Character and Distinction of his Disciples and Followers that he resolved to sacrifice every thing except a good Conscience in a Cause for which he had resolved if it should come to Extremities to become a Sacrifice himself His Enemies soon saw how much he stood in their way and were not wanting in the Arts of Calumny to disable him from opposing them with that great Success which his Writings and Sermons had on the Nation His Life was too pure in all the Parts of it to give them a Pretence to attempt on that So regular a Piety such an unblemished Probity and so extensive and tender a Charity together with his great and constant Labours both in private and publick set him above Reproach That Honourable Society which treated him always with so particular a Respect and so generous a Kindness and this great City not only the Neighbourhood of this Place which was so long happy in him but the whole Extent of it knew him too well and esteemed him too much for those his Enemies to adventure on the common Arts of defaming subtiler Methods were to be used since his Vertue was too exemplary to be soiled in the ordinary way His endeavouring to make out every thing in Religion from clear and plain Principles and with a Fulness of demonstrative Proof was laid hold on to make him pass for one that could believe nothing that lay beyond the Compass of humane Reason And his tender Method of treating with Dissenters his Endeavours to extinguish that Fire and to unite us among our selves against those who understood their own Interest well and pursued it closely inflaming our Differences and engaging us into violent Animosities while they shifted Sides and still gained Ground whether in the Methods of Toleration or of a strict Execution of Penal Laws as it might serve their Ends those calm and wise Designs of his I say were represented as a want of Zeal in the Cause of the Church and an Inclination towards those who departed from it But how unhappily successful soever they might be in infusing those Jealousies of him into some warm and unwary Men he still went on in his own way He would neither depart from his Moderation nor take Pains to cover himself from so false an Imputation He thought the Openness of his Temper the Course of his Life his Sincerity and the visible Effects of his Labours which had contributed so much to turn the greatest Part of this vast City to a hearty Love of the Church and a firm adhering to the Communion of it in which no Man was ever more eminently distinguish'd than he was He thought I say that constant Zeal with which he had always served such as came to labour in this great City and by which he had been so singularly useful to them he thought the great Change that had been made in bringing Mens Minds off from many wild Opinions to sober and steady Principles and that in so prudent a manner that things were done without Mens perceiving it or being either startled or fretted by the Peevishness which is raised and kept up by Contradiction or disputing in which without derogating from other Mens Labours no Man had a larger Share than himself upon all these Reasons I say he thought that his Conduct needed no Apology but that it was above it After the Restoration of the Church Anger upon those Heads was both more in fashion and seemed more excusable Men coming then out of the Injustice and Violence by which they had been so long ill used and were so much provoked yet neither that nor the Narrowness of his Fortune while he needed Supports and saw what was the shortest way to arrive at them could make him change his strain A Benefice being offered him in the Country he once intended to have left this great Scene and gone to that Retirement where he spent almost a Year But he was happily recalled by that Honourable Society for whom he always retained just Impressions of Gratitude And though in the Intervals of Terms he could have given a large Part of the Year to his Parish yet so strict he was to the Pastoral Care in the Point of Residence that he parted with it even when his Incomes here could scarce support him I need not tell you for how many Years and with what Labour and Success he divided himself between that Society and this Place I am confident you have profited so much by it that you will remember it long and that you do reckon it as a great Item of the Account you must all one Day give that you were so long blessed with his Ministry The numerous Assembly that this Lecture brought together even from the remotest Parts of this wide City the great Concourse of Clergy-men who came hither to form their Minds the happy Union that thereby the Clergy of this great Body grew into and the blessed Effects this had are things which it is to be hoped an Age will not wear out of Mens Minds Some great Charity some publick Service or good Design was the Work of most of those Days Every one saw him considered as the Head of this learned and eminent Body he was the only Person that made no Reflections on it himself he was still so affable and humble so modest and so ready to serve the youngest and meanest in it that such as saw all that must needs feel the Impressions of it go deep and stick long with him Those great Preferments to which his extraordinary Worth seemed to have forced some who had no Kindness to him to advance him afterwards had no other Effect on him but to enlarge his Capacity of doing Good He neither slackned his Labours nor advanced his Fortunes by them he did not content himself with such a Residence as answered the Statute considering his Obligations to attend at Court but gave as much of his Time and Labours to his Cathedral as could

agree with his Obligations here He neither aspired nor hearkned to the Motions of a further Advancement and all that he desired upon this Happy Revolution was such a Change as did considerably lessen his Income but delivered him from the invidious load of having two Dignities He bore this in the former Reigns because the practice was common And he was enabled by it to go far in his Charities But as he intended to put a stop to that Abuse so he resolved to set an Example to others in it Thus he went on while his Enemies were still endeavouring to beat down a Reputation which gave him as they thought too great an Authority How fatally this grew to be hearkned to and how much it was entertained I chuse rather to suppress than to lament that so this Discourse may have the more of his own Air in it And may be as free from resentment as his Mind was But I must now give you the last Scene of the Struglings thro' which this holy Man past but out of which he is now escaped He did truly rejoyce in the happy Deliverance of these Nations he could not but observe those amasing Steps of Providence that accompanied it and hoped it was a beginning to great Blessings that were to follow it Many of those who had longed for it and wisht well to it did of a sudden start back And some in high Stations of the Church would neither openly declare for it nor act against it according to the Authority of their Characters One of which they certainly ought to have done If they did then judge it so unlawful as they would now represent it they ought to have thundered both with their Sermons and Censures against it especially in the first fermentation when a vigorous Opposition might have had considerable Effects and would have made them look like Confessors indeed to which they afterwards pretended They did it not But left their Authority intirely with their Chancellors who acting in their Name and by their Commission were the same Persons in Law with themselves Oaths were tendred to others and taken by them in their Name which they thought unlawfull and yet would scarce say so much even in confidence to any of their Clergy that asked their Opinions about it Both concealing their Principles and withdrawing from the publick Worship of the Church and yet not daring to act or speak against it They hoped at this rate to have held their Sees and enjoyed their Revenues while in a silent but fearful manner they still adhered to an Interest with which as one of them writ they could no more part than with their Interest in Heaven Thus did they abandon the Government of the Church We were in such a Posture by their means that neither our Laws nor our Princes could bear it long And therefore the same Authority mdae their Sees void that had displaced the Non-conformists in 61 and the Popish Bishops in the beginnings of Queen Elizabeth's Reign Our Sovereigns after a long forbearance beyond the term prefixed by Law resolved at last to fill the vacant Sees And that great Judgment which they have shewed upon other occasions made them soon settle on him as the fittest Person to steer this Church It is well known how long and how earnestly he withstood this Not from any feeble or fearful Considerations relating to himself He was not afraid of a Party nor concerned in such Censures and Calumnies as might be thrown upon him He was not unwilling to sacrifice the quiet of his Life which he apprehended might soon decline and sink under so great a Load The Pomp of Greatness the attendance upon Courts and a high Station were indeed very contrary to his Genius But tho' these were grounds good enough to make him unwilling to rise higher in the World yet none of them seemed strong enough to fix him to an obstinate Refusal That which went the deepest in his own mind and which he laid out the most earnestly before Their Majesties was That those groundless prejudices with which his Enemies had loaded him had been so industriously propagated while they were neglected by himself that he believed that he who as his Humility made him think could at no time do any great Service was less capable of it now than ever But their Majesties persisting in their Intentions he thought it was the Voice and Call of God to him and so he submitted Yet with a heaviness of Mind that no Man knew better than my self But as he engaged in it he formed two settled Resolutions from which he never departed The one was That whensoever the state of their Majestie 's Affairs was such that he could hope to be dismist from that Post he would become a most importunate Suitor to be delivered from it The other was That if the Infirmities of Age should have so overtaken him that he would not go thro' the Fatigue and Labours of it then he would humbly offer it up to Their Majesties And he charged some of his most particular Friends to use all freedom with him in this matter if they should observe it before it were perceived by himself Thus did he enter upon this last Scene of Life how much he applied himself to it and how faithfully he went thro' it and how constantly he proposed and promoted all good designs in it is so well known that I need not enlarge upon it He enjoyed more privacy in it than in the former parts of his Life for while he lived in or near this great City his acquaintance was so much desired and his conversation was so much valued so many came to him or sent for him that his time was almost wholly given up to the Labours of his Function or the endearments of Friendship And he chose rather to live to the good of others than to himself So that his Studies were by this means much broken for he thought that to do an Act of Charity or even of Tenderness and Kindness was of more value both in its self and in the sight of God than to pursue the pompous Parts of Learning how much soever his own Genius might lead him to it But in his last Years the Post he held and the place he lived in set him more at liberty from that Croud which he had suffered to break in upon him formerly This Privacy was for most part imployed in considering what could be done for the good of the Church and the advancement of Religion and Vertue In his minutes of leisure he was looking over his Sermons and giving them their last touches His Thoughts were indeed chiefly raised to the best Objects for he gave himself much to Prayer and Meditation He had one great encouragement in that high but Invidious Station Which was not only the constant favour of Their Majesties but that which gave him a support of another nature since the other was only Personal and so was less regarded by one