Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	church_n	parliament_n	3,629	5	6.4769	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50645	Some farther remarks on the late account given by Dr. Tenison of his conference with Mr. Pulton wherein the doctor's three exceptions against Edward Meredith are examined, several of his other misrepresentations laid open, motives of the said E.M's conversion shewed, and some other points relating to controversie occasionally treated : together with an appendix in which some passages of the doctor's book entutuled Mr. Pulton considered are re-considered ... : to all which is added a postscript in answer in answer to the pamphlet put forth by the school-master of Long-Acre.	Meredith, Edward, 1648-1689?	1688 (1688)	Wing M1783; ESTC R25023	114,110	184

Confessions and the like But that this I meant such a plentiful provision of Spiritual Guides was not so practisable in England in regard that most of the English Curates had Families to provide for and consequently stood in need of greater Benefices than those who had obliged themselves to a single Life And for the same reason what was sufficient for many Pastors beyond Seas would scarce be enough for one here Especially I said the Regulars were maintained for very little and that 600 l. per annum which I heard the Parsonage of St. Martins was worth tho' perhaps it may be more would keep Thirty of them at least with the conve●●ence of an House to dwell in Hinc illae Laohrymae Now such Discourses as these I do confess that I have made more than once and particularly I remember that I spake somewhat of this kind to C. O. and I am so far from being ashamed of it that I cannot but think that the cause of shame lies at their door who are more concerned for the extent of their Jurisdiction or Profit than for the benefit of the Souls committed to their care And when I understand that Dr. Tenison is one of those it is then that I shall begin to do what he said I had done viz. pity the State of St. Martins It was according to what I have said here that I answered the Doctor telling him withal that I had spoken of the largeness of the Out-Parishes in general and not of his in particular And this as one would have thought would have satisfied any reasonable Man. But the French say A scalded Cat dreads cold Water and it seems the Doctor which I then knew nothing of had so deep an * See the Drs. Epistle to his Parishioners Impression made on him in his Youth by the loss of his Fathers Benefice that now the least hint which so much as brings it to his mind raises his Suspicion and Indignation to an high degree Moreover the Doctor seemed to take it ill that I undervalued the Reformed Charity and said that there were too many Churches within the Walls and that in some places there were two in one Church-Yard He talked somewhat likewise of an Act of Parliament for Building of Twelve new Churches for the Suburbs which was no small confirmation of what I had said of the want of them I looked on that compulsive way of doing good Works as not so * Certainly the Statute of Mortmain was a better sign of the Charity of former Ages than this Act for building Churches is of that of the present clear a Dem●●stration of Charity as when they are done voluntarily and without constraint and therefore I told the Doctor that it argued some defect in theirs that it stood in need of Acts of Parliament for doing things which were in a manner absolutely necessary The Doctor answered that he wish'd he could see some of our Charity or some such like words What he meant by this wish I could not well tell viz. whether he would have us employ our present Liberty in Building Churches that when time served they might dispossess us of them as they did of our Antient ones and so be Provided without burthening the People by Act of Parliament or something else In this doubt I asked him only whether he would have us Build Churches now in England To which he made me no answer but seemed to attempt something for the proof of Protestant Charity But all that I can remember he said was that he would not brag of himself Which I esteemed a Rhetorical way of doing it And certainly he must needs be put hard to it for an instance of Charity who is forced so far to intrench upon Humility for it as to begin with himself I am not ignorant all this while that some Hospitals Alms-houses and Churches have been Built by Protestants But there is more proportion between Dr. Tenisons two Parishes and a couple of the poorest Vicaridges in Wales than there is between the Monuments of Catholic Zeal * For some proof of what is here said see a Book lately Primed at Oxford called Pietas Romana Parisiensis By which in some measure the rest may be guessed and whatever of that kind hath been done by Protestants It will be a great while before the Reformation builds the fortieth part of what it hath pulled down Nay supposing that this poor Nation is not to return to it's Antient Religion there is more likely-hood that Reformations following one another like Egyptian Plagues the succeeding ones should still devour what the preceding leave than that Men who have taken Sacrilege for the Service of God should endeavor to repair any part of that which is already Destroyed The Doctor having finished his Second Objection put an end to my defence by bringing on his Third without telling me whether he thought that what I said was true or if it were whether he judged it satisfactory or not But every Man minds his own business And it was not the Doctor 's to Absolve but to Accuse There is yet said the Doctor another * Dr. T ' s. 3d. Objection against me Objection against you which is that you are One who have forsaken our Church That which then immediately occurred to me for an Answer was the parallel of what I had often heard from Protestants concerning such as turn to them viz. That I was then the better judge having known the Doctrins of both Churches But I had forgotten that what is * When Church of England-men dispute with Dissenters Church Authority is of great force and no Scripture is of private Interpretation But When Catholics argue with them the case is alter'd and every Man is to be his own Judge reason in a Protestants mouth is stark naught in a Catholics The Doctor replyed That I went away Young from their Church and that if I had understood it better I should not have left it I know not what the Doctor accounts Young But it was not till I had gone through one of the best and most careful * Westminster-School Schools in England and spent above three years at the University and as many in Spain And I question not but the Doctors of the Church of England will allow that after all this I must needs have been come to the Age of judging for my self since I find that for this Liberty in others they do not require so much Education as mine amounted to And had it been so that I had embraced the Roman Catholic Religion without sufficient consideration the last fifteen or sixteen years which I have lived in it had been time enough for the Correction of an Error which my Interest and Necessities would have prompted me to have laid aside But I thank God I have not been the least shaken in my Faith ever since my Conversion either by what I have seen written or heard spoken by the most