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	king_n	power_n	3,247	5	5.0875	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43632	Reflections on a late libel intituled, Observations on a late famous sermon intituled, Curse ye Meroz in a letter to our old friend, R.L.; Reflections on a late libel, intituled, Observations on a late famous sermon, intituled, Curse ye Meroz	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1680 (1680)	Wing H1824; ESTC R3189	26,477	48

thy own Eye The man from first to last it seems stares all the Sermon over to spy faults or any thing that looks but faulty by his dis-joynting it from the rest of the Sentence to lessen the Reputation as he us'd to phrase it of the Sermon and the Author and therefore tells the most Generous and Ingenuous Nation in the World that there 's a Plot a Popish Plot or a Plot by one that would as he phrases it page 7. kiss the Mass-book and all against their Generosity and Ingenuity and make them Blockish English Sure the Observator has got the Sermon printed for his own turn for that printed for J. Williams has not one word in it of a Plot against Generous and Ingenuous English but onely those English that were gull'd that surely was not all the English nor any part of the English that were either generous or ingenuous but onely such blockish English as in spight of all Sence Grammar and the Context by wresting the plain and easie sence thereof were gull'd to their destruction these are the very words of the Sermon And is not this Observator also a keen Sophister to impose upon men that in sensu diviso which is and ought to be taken in sensu composito to pick out a word and a scrap of a Sentence here and there and then expose it not in its own colours but even what he is pleased to bedaub it with and whether this be like a Member of the most Ingenuous and Generous English Nation or more like the Knavish and Blockish English judge you Has he not cause to wish in all haste that the Parliament might sit to make Bottoms for Ingenuity Truth and Honesty as well as Bottoms for his Faith for by his Discourse his Honesty as well as his Faith is bottomless I having been searching for a little of either of them either Honesty or Faith and cannot yet find a Bit sure then it is so his Honesty and Faith is bottomless I wish he would read St. Austin and he 'l tell him his Faith was not bottomless but bottom'd on Humane Authority nay saith he I would not believe nor had not believ'd the Scriptures but for the Church that handed them to him of which Church he had a good opinion The bottom of a mans Faith must be either private or publick if private then his own or other mens private Dreams Fancies Madness and Enthusiasms may as well be obtruded under Pretence of Divine Testimony for ought any man knows to the contrary excepting only where there is supernatural and miraculous Revelation in the case to convince others as was in the Apostles Nay at this day if there should come an Angel from Heaven or a Worker of Wonders endeavouring to stagger or alter the Faith held out unto us by the holy Scriptures infallibly as they are interpreted to us by the Laws of the Land and by them only the Lord our God does it to prove us as Moses said and we are not to believe him or them contrary to our said Laws much less should we believe the Comment and Interpretation of every Jugler that cannot work any one Miracle and is so far from the Gift of Tongues that he has scarce one Tongue that can speak Sense or good English though he may like other Hocus's speak hard Words and new Words or instead of old Jingo Tanutus c. cries Incomes Outgoings c. which are indeed Nothingnesses For all men that believe either believe with or without Reason either they do know or they do not know wherefore He that believes and knows not wherefore is an Ass or a Beast not a man at least a very silly man with a bottomless Faith like our Observator and then at best is but an Enthusiast or Dreamer a Fanatick or Frantick alias a Madman and knows not why nor wherefore he thinks so and so and no man in England can have a certain humane Authority to trust to but only our sacred Laws The Church of England and People of England are or should be one and the same of and over which under God and Christ the King in the executive Power and the King and Parliament in the Legislative Power is the Head and all Canons and Laws that are not confirmed by Acts of Parliament are not Canons nor Rules to an English Christian nor bottoms of any godly and wise English-mans Faith or Works And People for want of being thus truly taught are led to follow blindly a Stranger whose own the Sheep are not as the English Papists who have nothing to do with the Laws of another Country another Bishop or Potentate nor can never be True and Loyal Subjects whilst they think themselves under such an Obligation Neither can a Fanatick be a Loyal Subject and a good Christian if he thinks he may without Sin transgress and disobey the Laws of the Land for passive Obedience is no Obedience that will justifie a Man 't is but Gallows-Obedience and the Obedience of Devils for they obey Gods Laws passively But to pursue this Discourse will raise as much Discourse as did that innocent Sermon and the unblemisht Author I mean justly and truly unblemisht and as for Fools and Knaves that will hear but of one Ear and being credulous to believe any Slander of one they hate though perhaps they hate but as they believe not knowing wherefore for the Judgments or condemning Sentences of such men the Author is so much plac't above them and as little concern'd as the Moon is when the Dogs bark And all the Dirt and Stones which Malice has now on this Occasion cast upon Mr. Hickeringill will have no worse Effect than those Stones which the Jews and Mahometans as their Custom is to this day do cast upon Absalom's Pillar as they pass by namely to build him a fairer that is a greater and a more lasting Monument In a little time graceless Villain spightful Rascal popishly affected Masse-book-kisser and jesuitical Dog c. as the Fanaticks are old excellent at calling of Names will be accounted but words of Course and only the familiar Results of frenzical Wrath and of a silly Observator and will rather heighten than lessen Reputation amongst the generous and ingenuous English If the Sermon on Curse ye Meroz had only spoke against Popery Arbitrary Government c. the Fanaticks had made a precious godly man of that same graceless Villain all England over before this and if it had only smartly check't Fanatical-plots and designs another sort of People would have almost canoniz'd and besainted the Preacher but to be such a plain-dealer and to spare neither Papist Fanatick nor cursing Debanchee which three include a great part of the Blockish-English That That makes the Sermon on Curse ye Meroz the common-eye-sore to some as well as the common-Talk to all But if no man can answer nor save old Calvin's-Ears with Scholar-like Man-like and Christian-like Attacques they seem to

be to authorize the Bible by an Act and furnish People with Bottoms of Faith If the Observator was not very illiterate in the Laws of the Land he might find Acts of Parliament enow before he was born and almost as old as Paul's for England was the first Christian-Kingdom to make the Bible Canonical and to furnish People with bottoms of Faith For though the Holy Bible was and is the Word of God though never a King or Parliament had told us so yet it does not become Canonical that is a Canon or Law to Subjects till it be commanded by Lawful Authority and therefore our Holy Bible is not onely the Word of God and so Sacred but also the Law of the Land and so Canonical and all the Laws of the Land lawfully made and by lawful Authority are also the Laws of God to which we ought to submit not only for wrath but also for conscience-sake And then where would there be place for Mutinies and Rebellions for the Spirit of Popery or spirit of Foppery This makes that Devil rage at Mr. Hickeringill having great wrath because his time is short but to attacque or answer him or his Sermon only with Calumnies Lyes and Slanders Is this Scholar-like Manlike or Christian-like Truth is Truth whoever proclaims it and 't is a base Requital of Ingenuous men onely to load them with false Invectives and Hatred instead of good Will such Returns will make men of more than Vulgar Learning and Attainments say with the Popish Cardinal Si Populus vult decipi decipiatur If the People have a mind to be blockish so let them continue for all me Yet the Observator seems to be in great trouble of mind that the Sermon should p. 38. call the English the most Generous and ingenuous Nation ah Sycophant in the world the blockish English Was it not greatly done of our little Observer to reflect so severely upon that innocent Passage in the Sermon The most loyal Text in all the Bible Whereupon he very gravely observes p. 4. in these words Comparisons are generally odious especially when between things incomparable Why Are they so indeed Beloved Some of the blockish English that are not so concern'd to lessen the Reputation of the Author or his Sermon would have past by so innocent a Passage and never have knit their brows at it nor yet have mark'd it with so sharp-pointed an Asterism Whil'st you live look to your hits and place your words in order when you come within ken of a little Observer Such a Fool was I that I had thought a man might be very innocent though he had said by way of comparison more Spiritual knowledge and comfort is to be had from the New Testament than the Old and from some Texts and Verses therein than from other and from the latter end of the first Chapter of St. Matthew than from the middle or beginning and yet the Holy Bible is Incomparable that is above all other Books but not when compar'd within its self I never till now knew where or how much St. Paul was a Sinner and to be blam'd by the Observator for saying I thought harmlesly 1 Cor. 15.10 I labour'd more abundantly than they all namely All the Apostles Happy St. Paul that never met with such an Observator amongst all the Corinthians that had a Design to lessen the Reputation of him and his Writings if he had how might they have descanted upon him in the words of our Observator Comparisons Paul are generally odious especially when between things incomparable Surely the Corinthians were very blockish Corinthians that could not spy faults at least not so ill-natur'd and malicious as our Observator and willing to spy faults and expose them to lessen mens Reputation or else our Observator is as blockish as envious to make such severe Observations upon so innocent an Expression and more blockish to imagine that any of the Generous and ingenuous English can be such blockish English as not to see that whilst the Observator is so trivially and keenly busie to lessen the Reputation of Mr. Hickeringil He has onely thereby lessen'd his own if ever he had any amongst the generous and ingenuous English at least This Trifler is I say like Mercury in the Planets good with the good and bad with the bad sometimes he cokes's the Clergy sometimes the Fanaticks as p. 7. because Mr. Hickeringill sayes p. 23. If there was not a Papist in England yet they would fright the People with fears of Popery Now for my part such a plain blockish Englishman was I that I could not spy where the Mischief or the Popery lay in that harmless and true Expression But comes me our Observator and very gravely and formally as he never opens but he makes up his Mouth in Mood and Figure nay you ' scape well if he does not gore you with one or other of his dilemma's a keen tool with which just such another W.S. gall'd him that writ concerning the Contempt of the Clergy sagely observing That This Aphorism is but borrowed from another Brother of the Quill Now if the Observator had not a mischievous Design to spoil Mr. Hickeringill's Credit for ever borrowing any more he need not have told every Body how much he was indebted and did borrow of a Brother of the Quill But dear Sir why may not one Brother borrow of another but that the Observator must be concern'd I dare say that neither of the said Brothers of the Quill nor are there any other Brothers of the Quill in England but would make shift with their own Pittance and scanty Store rather than go a borrowing to our little Observator and if they should he would tell all he met and lessen their Credit spoil them for ever borrowing any more But as honest and Loyal Hearts may joyn so good Wits may jump as well as bad ones and if so then though the Observator would seem to tell Tales out of School 't is but a Tale and a Story of his own making like all the rest of the Sham's he would gladly put upon the Author of that Sermon with Design to make them both odious but such a Rayler will but be the black-patch to Curse ye Meroz And most People think that the Author has hired this Zany to set him off with greater Lustre and provoke him or his Friends to a Vindication of himself and his Sermon both which but that Comparisons are odious except when a mans Credit and Reputation lyes at stake may possibly appear in good time as innocent polite unblemisht and unreproveable as any other of his Coat let Lyers and Slanderers vent their utmost Gall and Bitterness our blessed Saviour the holy Apostles pious King Charles the greatest Innocence cannot escape them Nor can the worst of the Authors Adversaries be able to prove in any the worst Instances of his whole Life that any Infirmity Sin or Temptation has befallen him but such