Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abate_v	church_n	divine_n	21	3	9.5508	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59823	Humble and modest proposals tender'd to the consideration of both houses of Parliament, for uniting the Protestant interest in the nation for the present age, and preventing our divisions for future	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1680 (1680)	Wing S3294A; ESTC R37545	5,942	11

Humble and Modest PROPOSALS Tender'd to the Consideration of Both Houses of PARLIAMENT FOR UNITING THE Protestant Interest IN THIS NATION For the Present Age And preventing our DIVISIONS for Future LONDON Printed for C. P. and are to be sold in the Strand 1680. Humble and Modest PROPOSALS For Uniting the PROTESTANT INTEREST IN THIS NATION I Doubt not but every pious and sober Protestant of this Nation is now in great grief and anguish of heart to observe the passionate Differences and unchristian Dissentions which dayly increase amongst Christians united in one and the same Doctrine of their Religion and reformed from the Errours and Superstition of the Church of Rome which cannot but oblige every serious man who wisheth Peace and Prosperity to the Kingdom he lives in to consider what should be the occasion of those unhappy and ruinous Divisions we have so long suffered under and to offer probable means for the composing of them As to their first rise I doubt not but they owe their Original to the different manner of the Reformation and the establishing of the Orders which each Church did think fit and convenient for it self as the Reverend and Pious Mr. Hooker acquaints us which were so peremptorily established under that high commanding Form which rendered them to the People as things everlastingly required by the Law of that Lord of Lords against whose Statutes there is no exception to be taken by which means it came to pass that one Church could not but accuse and condemn another of disobedience to the Will of Christ in those things where manifest difference was between them Whereas the self-same Orders allowed but yet established in more wary and suspense manner as being to stand in force till God should give the opportunity of some general Conference what might be best for them afterwards to do This I say had both prevented all occasion of just dislike which others might take and reserved a greater liberty unto the Authors themselves of entering into farther consultation afterwards which though never so necessary they could not easily now admit without some fear of derogation from their Credit And therefore that which once they had done they became for ever after resolute to maintain Now if we consider the shortness of that time wherein our first Reformation continued under Edward the Sixth and the necessity of many learned and pious Ministers of the Church of England to flee into foreign Countries as Strasburgh Geneva c. in Queen Mary's Reign for the preservation of their lives where they frequently conversed with those eminent Divines who were the great Reformers there 't is no wonder that some of them should return better pleased with their Discipline than their own especially considering that several of them had intimate Acquaintance and Conversation with one of the Reformers whom the Reverend Mr. Hooker thought incomparably the wisest man that ever the French Church did enjoy since the hour it enjoyed him In Queen Elizabeth's King Iames and our late Soveraign's Reigns 't is well known how our Differences still increased until that unhappy War broke out by which the Non-conforming Interest prevailed so that the Presbyterian Discipline was endeavoured to be fixed as the established Form of Government in this Nation our Universities Preachers Writings Education c. were generally modelled thereto by which means the greatest number of the Trading part of the Kingdom many of the Gentry and some few of the Nobility observing the Precepts and Practices Lifes and Deaths of most of that Clergy to be pious and exemplary joyned with men of this or the like Perswasion Since which time it pleased God to restore our present Soveraign to his Throne and the Wisdom of the Nation thought it convenient to establish the same Discipline which our first Reformers judged prudential not abating or leaving indifferent those Ceremonies which unhappily have occasioned those hither-to-irreconcilable Differences between the Church of England and the Dissenters in it and have been matter of dispute between the Reformers even from the first Reformation from Popery Upon which account many of the Non-conforming Divines laid down their Livings and the old Disputes began afresh to be revived and so are like to be continued until we be either ruined by Popery or healed by Moderation which is the onely Salve to cure the Churches wounds and that admirable Weapon-Salve formerly proposed to the wisdom of Superiours by the Reverend Dr. Stillingfleet who having highly commended the prudence and temper of the French Churches in composing their publick Forms of Prayer that they were so far from inserting any thing controversial into them that Papists themselves would use them And saith he The same temper was used by our Reformers in the composing our Liturgie in reference to the Papists to whom they had an especial eye as being the onely Party then appearing whom they desired to draw into their Communion by coming as near them as they well and safely could And certainly those holy men who did seek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their Principles as the Papists were did never intend by what they did for that end to exclude any truly tender Consciences from their Communion That which they had laid as a Bait for them was never intended by them as a Hook for those of their own Prefession but the same or greater Reason which made them at that time yield so far to them then would now have perswaded them to alter and lay aside those things which yield matter of offence to any of the same Profession with themselves now For surely none will be so uncharitable toward those of his own Profession as not to think there is as much reason to yield in compliance with them as with the Papists And it cannot but be looked upon as a Token of God's severe displeasure against us if any though unreasonable Proposals of Peace between us and the Papists should meet with such entertainment among many and yet any fair offers of Vnion and Accommodation among our selves be so coldly embraced and entertained Thus far our Reverend and Learned Dean of Pauls Upon these and some other like Considerations I should humbly propose to the Wisdom of this present Parliament some probable means to put an end to our present Differences and to Unite us for the future that so we may become a flourishing Nation free from the Factions and Divisions of former Ages For the First 1. I Humbly propose That the Ceremonies at present enjoyned by Law might be left to the liberty of the Clergy to use or lay aside and that because the Dissenters on the one hand do declare that their conformity to them would be sinful and the Church of England on the other hand hath not onely declared upon our first Reformation in the account she hath given of Ceremonies why some be abolished and some retained That as those Ceremonies were taken away which were most abused and