Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	admit_v	certain_a	great_a	48	3	2.1033	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48828	Seasonable advice to all Protestant people of England heartily recommended by a lover of his countrey.; Seasonable discourse shewing the necessity of maintaining the established religion in opposition to popery.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.	1681 (1681)	Wing L2692A; ESTC R13209	23,584	39

Popish Successor in case any such shall be But it is the unhappiness of most men that they see persons the least when nearest them and understand them best at farther removes Which must be imputed partly to this that few know the reasons of other mens actings especially while masked and clouded in a multiplicity of affairs and things arising from different parties principles and designs therefore in such circumstances if men judge alwayes according to outward appearance they must needs sometimes judge amiss For the wheels of Government sometimes necessarily run in the deep and by many oblique motions windings and circumferences come at last to the point they first aimed at Therefore when men alwayes conclude that their Governours design what their faces are at any time set towards they must unavoidably fall into error of judgement and trouble themselves with needless suspicions and fears And sometimes the mistake is founded on want of good information due consideration sound judgement and an over-easiness to be inclined by the unsteady measures of fame which represents persons and things not according to their own natures but according to the rashness ignorance ill-will suspicions and other unreasonable humours of men These indeed are the bitter fountains from whence our present as well as late fears jealousies and unsettlements do spring 3. Many are affrighted into a dreadful expectation of some severe visitation by Prodigies and therefore think it very requisite to be upon their watch or guard that they may be ready to receive the shock or rather to stave the evil off Indeed there was one prodigious appearance in the face of Heaven in the latter end of December or beginning of January last Things of which nature have formerly been held to be Exhalations kindled in the air and were believed to be even operative causes of evil as sometimes of Famines the Earth being beggered by such vast quantities of such matter drawn from it sometimes of Pestilence the Air being poison'd by noxious matter arising from Fens Bogs Ditches Sinks and other unwholsome places and sometimes of War mens minds being inflamed by I know not what influence from thence and so disposed to quarrels and fighting But these fancies have long since been hissed off from the Stage For now most men hold they are no causes but only signs and tokens of some approaching evils But these conceits have no foundation in Scripture for though our Saviour foretold some notable appearances that should precede the destruction of Jerusalem yet this doth not reach our case For 1. That was a calamity that admitted no parallel it was a Type of the destruction of the world and was to carry with it some sensible evidences of Divine displeasure not only against that people but their worship which was at first established by mighty Signs and Wonders 2. As we are not to expect any like Visitation so we have no warrant to expect any like prodigies 3. St. John in the Revelations threatning a ruine to so many Churches never mentioned any such Sign that should precede that ruine nor do we elsewhere read of any such thing observed to have preceded the same nor doth any Text in the New Testament mention any thing of this nature unless in those two cases viz. of Jerusalem and the end of the world 4. There were doubtless such appearances in the several Ages of the Jewish Church and are thought to be mentioned under the terms of pillars of fire and smoak yet we no where read that they ever looked upon them as Signs of the times as some now take it The Romans indeed and other Nations had very sacred regards to these things long before Christ therefore they seem as much of Gentile Original as the May-poll or any thing else that is arraigned and condemned by some amongst us And if Scripture cannot justifie I am sure Reason hath no plea for any such matter For the only inducement to such a perswasion is the common observation that they are usually fore-runners of some very sore visitation or revolution To which we answer 1. Sometimes they are owned to be tokens of good as the birth of Princes c. 2. Many notable changes and heavy judgements have been in the world when men have not been alarmed by any Prodigy 3. Come when they will something remarkable must be expected to follow because there is little in the world but instances of the frailty of nature and uncertainty of humane affairs 4. They do not remain fixed like the Sword over Jerusalem nor do they hover about one Countrey only as the Armies in the Air about Judaea but pass over great part of the world Therefore from these heads it undeniably follows that men cannot say whether the Prodigy portends 1. Good or 2. Evil or 3. Neither that is whether any thing or nothing But suppose it bodes some evil yet no man can tell whether it be 1. To us or 2. To the Dutch German French Italian or any other to whom it hath been as visible as here But suppose it portends some evil to us yet none can guess what evil whether 1. Any thing from a Popish hand or 2. Whether it may not be an evil that some men are disposed to run into in order to keeping out some other evil they may fear There is no certain conjecture then from things of this nature but they have been often abused to vanity or wicked purposes for while they take off mens minds from the more steady rules of Scripture and reason which shewmen what they must expect from the works that they have done they have usually been made an incouragement to men of all sides parties and causes And have oftentimes affrighted some and incouraged others to those disturbances and other evils they had not else been likely to have run into Therefore it hath been the policy of wise men of old observing that no good and many times great evils befel a Society from attendance to and conjectures from such appearances to use all prudent means they could to take off men from such Vanities There is as much foundation in reason for Palm●stry Augury and such other Ethnick customes as for presages from monstrous births and generations on the Earth or in the Heavens And as the Egyptians and at last the Romans with other Heathen people were the great observers of such things so it was the Nations that lived without God in the world who gave the first being to these conceits for which reason we may plead as our Saviour in another case after these things do the Gentiles seek which would be argument enough against it were it an institution or rite of the Church of England But admit they are some general Alarms to mankind yet that we of this Nation should draw from them certain conclusions of evil upon us when they pass over so great a part of the World is an humour like that of the late times which would have the prophecies of