Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abandon_v	church_n	common_a	16	3	4.9415	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58921	A seasonable corrective to the one project for the good of England intended for God's glory and the good of souls, and dedicated to the King and his great Council.		1680 (1680)	Wing S2226; ESTC R13156	15,035	12

Protestants in opposition to the Popish Edicts of Charles the Fifth of Germany they take the name and title of Protestant in opposition to the wholesom Laws of Charles the Second of England 'T is granted likewise to be the Interest of all Protestants to unite against the forein Authority of the Pope but a Negative Vnion will signifie little to our security against the Power of it For such an Vnion we have with Turks Jews and Heathens who have an equal aversion to Popery with our selves But with this negative Union we see there may be and is a positive division and that Aphorism of our Saviour is still in force in spight of all such pretended negative Unions A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand To keep up ours therefore there is a necessity of a compliance towards a firmer Union And if such as are thorowly addicted to this Church take fire at your aversions to it 't is out of a pious design to melt you into so much Christian Charity as may dispose you to run into one Communion that their Forces and yours united may be the stronger and the more effectual to oppose the common Enemy But that men who are espoused to the Church of England should at the same time be devoted to the Church of Rome or act a part for it Nothing but a stupid and affected Ignorance or a spiteful Malice could suggest For before they can do this they must be abandoned of their Reason and Common Sense too and yet thinking men cannot but look upon them as the most if I may not say the onely invincible Champions of this Orthodox Church against all Attempts of the Forein Power of Rome and this they find themselves obliged unto upon grounds irrefragable that is their certain knowledge that in giving way to the Popish Faction they should betray their Conscience and all their Interests together That the Church of Rome aims at the restauration of her Empire over us is no news to us To this end 't is visible she bestirs her self to inflame the Reckoning amongst Protestants But if it be her Artifice to personate the Dissenter as we see it is and not the true Conformist as the best Expedient she has left to compass her tyrannous and ambitious ends it must needs be of great importance with all Dissenters if conscientious to let fall their private Animosities against us and close with the Interest of this Church to frustrate the designs of Rome which their division helps to carry on Pag. 6. whereas their uniting in the common Interest would secure the Government from all danger of Subversion by rendering it too formidable for the Attempt This being the Case let us turn the Tables and take leave to ask the precise Dissenters of this Kingdom some few such Questions as this Projector puts to the Clergy of the Church of England mutatis mutandis Is Non-conformity to the Government and solemn Worsbip of God here established amongst us dearer to them than England 's Interest and the common cause of Protestancy Is their love to Church-division greater than to the Church it self and her Religion than to their native Countrey her Laws and Liberties Or lastly Whether in case they are sincere in their sorry Allegations for their Dissent which I confess ingenuously I am apt to suspect it is to be supposed that the present Non-conformists are better able of themselves to secure Protestancy and our Civil Interest against the Attempts of Rome than in conjunction with the Interest of the Church of England If they say Yes I would have them at the same time for the same reason give it under their hands that 't is a standing Rule in Arithmetick that one is more than six and that hitherto we have been all mistaken in the Art of Numbers Being brought to this pinch I conceive whatever they say they resolve to run the hazard of falling under the power and designs of Popery rather than suffer the present English Church to stand This is such a desperate piece of Bigotry to pay this Projector back in his own coyn as the Civil Government is highly concerned to discountenance for this dissipates the People impairs Trade foments Jealousies and endangers the Peace and Welfare of the whole And what should a Prince be more tender of than suffering the Civil Interest of a great People to be disturb'd and narrow'd for the humour of a dissenting peevish Party I might follow this great Projector through his whole Harangue and turn his whole Train of Artillery upon himself and beat off at least if not quite batter down all the Pretensions of the dissenting Brethren with it But I 'le spare them onely I cannot forbear to tell him that he does not carry himself so ingenuously as he should do towards that Sovereign Authority which he declares should not be superseded or controlled in what it does determine for when he has sharpened his Weapon and made it keen enough for Execution he turns the edge of it directly and purposely against the establish'd Law of that Sovereign Authority Whereas if he had dealt honestly like a good Subject according to his own Principles the Arguments which he draws from the danger of our divisions should have been press'd not upon the Church but the Non-conformists For 't is clear they are Dissenters to the Law or at least offer to supersede and controul the Government before they do actually divide themselves from our Communion And here I must tell this Confident Projector they do controul the Civil Government whose Act Will and Determination that Law is And to go a little further with him I shall grant him that the difference betwixt the Papist and the Protestant is not precisely Religious nor chiefly such 't is a Civil Empire and a Secular Interest consequent thereto which the Church of Rome aims at though they are cunning enough to palliate their Pretences with the specious but frivolous distinction of In ordine ad spiritualia And I think there are very few discerning persons guilty of that mistake which this Projector would seem to rectifie in that case But before he pretends to remove the other Mistake as he calls it let him attempt to do a miracle that is to remove mountains Betwixt Protestants we must understand those of the Church of England and their Dissenters there is no civil difference if we may take his word for it Those Dissenters are at a Ne plus ultra on the behalf of the English Government as well as themselves They neither acknowledge nor submit to any other Authority They hold the one common Civil Head and not onely acquiesce in the distribution of Justice by Law but embrace it as the best part of their Patrimony And I pray how long is' t since this Hercules has become so tame or weary as to set up his pillars with this Inscription Is King CHARLES that common Head and is he so In all Causes and over all Persons