Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
england_n bishop_n great_a lord_n 4,276 5 3.7012 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A43648 An apology for the new separation in a letter to Dr. John Sharpe, Archbishop of York, occasioned by his farewell-sermon, preached on the 28th of June, at St. Giles's in the Fields. Hickes, George, 1642-1715. 1691 (1691) Wing H1841; ESTC R12652 21,953 20

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

and Doctrines of Politicks that they that dwell on the Earth shall wonder at them as at the Beast in the Revelations when they behold them One of them as I am told hath been at the pains to compare Dr. Sherlock's Notions about Politicks with those of Julian Johnson's and can make it appear from that Collation that Julian is much the better Church-man and the more Orthodox Apostate of the two In short my Lord in answer to this Reflexion upon them as Coiners of Nations about Politicks they stick not to say that you are the Statists and Polincians who with your humane Policies have corrupted your Religion defiled the Priesthood dishonoured the Church scandalized her Friends and caused her Enemies to triumph In the next Paragraph you say That it is very grievous for those that promote a Separation Page 27. who have always declared themselves Friends to the Church and Enemies to Schism To this Reflexion they reply That they are still as much Friends of the Church and Enemies of Schism as ever but then by the Church they understand the True Old Church of England with all her venerable Doctrines of Faith Justice and moral Honesty and all her strict Decrees against the resisting deposing and forferting Doctrines the Church of England with all her plain Primitive Doctrines of Christian Honesty and Simplicity against Equivocations and Mental Reservations the Church that always abhorred Treason and Perjury as well as Idolatry that never allowed her Children to do any moral Evil for a good End or with a good Intention In a word the Church that equally condemus both the Parts of Popery that which teaches us to be false to Men as well as that which is injurious to God that which pollutes our Morals as well as that which pollutes our Faith and Worship This pure Virgin Church which they think is now driven once more into the Wilderness they say is the Church which they adhere to and to which they think you ought to have adhered with them and that you have separated from her and them and not they from you For they say they are just where they were when you were last with them and have not budged a Foot since from that Church and that you cannot say they have broken from you unless you will affirm that when a Ship breaks from the Shoar where she lay at Anchor the Shoar removes from her and not she from the Shoar And then as to the next Reflexion of being distasted at the establisht Worship for which they were zealous before they say they are as zealous for it as ever as far as the Matter of the Prayers is the same but the Matter of some of the old Prayers they say is changed and this Matter with that of all the New ones being the subject Matter of the New Oath of Allegiance they have the same difficulty of Conscience upon them as to saying of these as taking of those Wherefore in Answer to your fallacious Question about the Liturgie and Prayers they desire to know if you put the Question of the whole Liturgie and all the Prayers in it or not If not then the Question is not to your purpose but if you indeed mean the whole Liturgy and all the Prayers in it as you would be understood then they say they must tell you that the Liturgy and Prayers are not the same they were and by consequence that the Proposition implied in your Question is false For as Changing the Name of God for the Virgin Mary in the invocatory part of any Collect in the Liturgy would change the Object of Worship and make it not as it was a Prayer to God but to the Virgin so changing the Name of a Man for that of his Enemy in the petitionary part of any Collect makes it quite another Prayer not for the Man as it was before the Change of Names but for his Enemy and by consequence alteration of Names alters the Matter and Intention of the Prayer and makes it as different from it self as the two Men and their Interests happen to be They suppose that if a Man should raze the Names out of a Petition to their Majesties and put the French King's Name in their place that it would no longer be a Petition to them but to their mortal Enemy and therefore in Reply to the next Question which follows about the same Liturgie they say this change of Names has changed the Prayers in the Liturgie and that this change disgusts their Consciences and helps to drive them from your Churches being one cause of their Separation from the Publick and but one for as I just now shewed your Grace there was another of which you were pleased to take no notice Ay but you say they proceed so far as to declare open War and set up separate Congregations in opposition to the publick To this they say for the foresaid Reasons That they did not begin this spiritual War which on their side is purely Defensive because they are driven from the Publick and that the same Reasons that will justifie their Separation from it will also justifie setting up separate Meetings in opposition to it in which they think the pure Church of England with her pure Worship may be seen and heard like the Church of Jerusalem in the first persecution of Christianity in the upper rooms And in reply to the great Emphasis which to supply the want of Argument you put upon Separating from the Publick and Setting up Congregations in opposition to the Publick they pray you to consider That the Multitude or great Majority which usually makes the Publick is often in the wrong You will not deny but the Multitude or Publick are now the Schismaticks in Scotland they were so under the Donatist Bishops in Africk they were so in England under the Popish Marian Bishops they were so under Aaron in the business of the Calf they were so in Israel under Ahab and the Idolatrous Priests and lastly they were so under the Arian Emperours and Bishops throughout the whole Roman Empire In short my Lord they say when the Publick is in the right and gives no just cause of separating from it that then it is a great Sin to set up private Meetings against it but when it is in the wrong and gives just cause of separating it then becomes innocent and a Duty to doe so though the Publick be in Possession of all the Churches as it usually is when Safety Honour and Riches attend the erring side I hope by this time my Lord you understand what their Meaning is in Setting up separate Congregations for it is the Cause and not the local Churches and Revenues that make say they a true Church and therefore in Answer to your Question they pray your Grace to consider that Men that have been branders of Schism may think it not onely innocent but their Duty to separate from the Publick or publick Worship without changing
AN APOLOGY FOR THE New Separation In a LETTER to Dr. John Sharpe Archbishop of YORK OCCASIONED By his Farewell-Sermon preached on the 28th of June at St. Giles's in the Fields MALACHI 11.7 8 9. The Priest's Lips should keep Knowledge and they should seek the Law at his Mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye have departed out of the Way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the People according at ye have not kept my ways but have been partial in the Law LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCI To the Gentlemen of the Vestry of St. Giles's in the Fields SIRS I Here present you with some Reflections upon the Arch-Bishop of York's Farewel-Sermon which his Grace tells us he Published at your Request They are written in form of Letter to him and as I present them to you with as much Respect and in as much Christian Charity as he I believe presented the Sermon so I hope you will read them with as much Candour and examine impartially without any byass to Persons or Causes which is in the Right and whether the Things which you took upon his Grace's Authority be so or no. I must do him the Justice to acknowledge That he is an eminent Person in his Profession as well as in that station which he now holds in the Church and that he deserves that Esteem and Veneration which you have for him But then I must tell you That the Authority of no single Man or number of Men how eminent or great soever ought to signifie any thing with Church of England Men against the Authority of the Church I have seen her Articles and Homilies in many of the London-Vestries and if they be in yours I desire you to make them the Test of my Lord's Sermon and this Answer to it which I desire may be approved or rejected by you as it happens to prove by that Test See I pray you Gentlemen if you can find any thing in them to countenance transferring Allegiance from a living and claiming Legal King or daily Praying for his destruction See if you can find any thing in them that will justifie his Graces Exposition of 1 Tim. 11.1 2. or of Submitting or Praying for the Powers in being without distinction or regard to Titles which he says Is the very Doctrine of the Church of England Pag. 3. If it be you may surely easily find it but if you cannot find it or any thing like it then you may be sure it is not the the Doctrine of the Church though it may be the Doctrine Preach'd of late in the Churches and then you will have occasion to follow the Apostle's advice which is not to have the Persons of Men in Admiration and to remember what our Lord often inculcated to his Disciples to beware whom and how they heard There are some times in which his advice is more needful than others and this I think is such a time when our Church-men are divided in their Practice and about some practical Points and whether the greater or smaller number is in the Right you will never be able judge though it concerns your Souls to judge aright unless you will hear what both say There are Men of equal Eminence and Learning on both sides and if one side can pretend the Advantage Numbers the other can urge against it the interest of saving and getting more to depretiate the Number and Authority of their Examples together with a multiform variety of most different Opinions and Principles among them one of them complying in one sense and upon one Principle and another upon another This Book of mine is a short and summary Apology for the little suffering Number against the Arguments and Accusations of the Arch-Bishop who is now at the head of the other Party and if it can prevail with you to look more narrowly into the Controversie in which you have engaged his Grace I shall think my self sufficiently recompenced for my little Pains in Writing of it and in Hopes that you or some of you who have most leisure and ingenuity will do so I Subscribe in all Sincerity Gentlemen Your most Faithful and Humble Servant AN APOLOGY FOR THE New Separation MY LORD I Once had the Happiness to hear you preach an excellent Sermon in which you spoke many excellent things that were true and just with all that serious Air and Authority that could become a sincere Preacher I often had occasion since to wish it had been put in Print it was preached at St. Margaret's Westminster on the 30th of January was two years before the Gentlemen of the Convention and remembring the excellent Discourse you then made and pressed upon the Consciences of the Conventioners I had a great Desire and Curiosity to read your late fare-well Sermon to see if you stood firm in these times of Defection to your former Principles But to be plain and serious with you I find you so altered like many of your Brethren from your self that though Dr. Sharpe is still the same Person yet I do not find that the Dead of Norwich and the Archbishop are the same Man For then my Lord you preach'd with great appearance of Zeal and Sincerity against the resisting and deposing Doctrines for which you had the Honour to be censured by many of the House but now in the very Phrase and Language of those Authors who have taught the World those damnable Doctrines Page 30 you tell us that we must be more concerned for our Countrey and Nation than the Interest of any single Man in it A Saying certainly in the sense you must needs mean it fitter for a Bishop of the Romish than the English Church which conformably to our Laws and the eternal Reasons of them teacheth her Children That the Interest of the People is wrapt up with the Safety and Interest of the Prince and that they can never be happy without him This our Ancestors have often felt and confessed upon Experience particularly Mr. Pryn in his Preface to Cotton's Abridgment to whose Words I refer you But you my Lord contrary to all Law Reason and Experience have taught the People in this Sermon to set up a separate and distinct Interest against that of the Prince and by consequence to resist or depose him to turn or keep him out of his Kingdom be he who he will even the present as well as any of our former Kings You cannot but know that there are a party of Men among us who are more concerned for another Interest than the Interest of the King I mean the Comman wealthsmen and they thinking that Interest which I assure you is a growing Interest the Interest of their Countrey they may upon your Principles do as much for his Majesty as the Pretenders of Publick Good in former