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	justice_n	lord_n	2,728	5	4.2500	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26780	An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the gospel near Whitechurch in Shropshire, who dy'd June 24, 1696, in the sixty fifth year of his age	Henry, Matthew, 1662-1714.	1698 (1698)	Wing B1100A; ESTC R14627	175,639	290

he constantly attended there with his Family was usually with the first and reverently joined in the Publick Service he diligently wrote the Sermons always staid if the Ordinance of Baptism was Administred but not if there were a Wedding for he thought that Solemnity not proper for the Lord's Day He often Din'd the Minister that Preach'd after Dinner he sung a Psalm repeated the Morning Sermon and Pray'd and then attended in like manner in the Afternoon In the Evening he Preach'd to his own Family and perhaps two or three of his Neighbours would drop in to him On those Lord's Days when there was no Preaching at the Chappel he spent the whole Day at home and many an excellent Sermon he Preach'd when there were present only four besides his own Family and perhaps not so many according to the limitation of the Conventicle Act. In these narrow private Circumstances he Preached over the former part of the Assemblies Catechism from divers Texts He also Preached over Psalm 116. besides many particular occasional Subjects What a grief of Heart it was to him to be thus put under a Bushel and consin'd to such a narrow Sphere of Usefulness read in his own words which I shall Transcribe out of an Elegy he made to give vent to his thoughts upon the Death of his worthy Friend Mr George Mainwaring sometime Minister of Malpas who was Silenced by the Act of Uniformity and Dy'd Mar. 14. 1669 70 wherein he thus bewails feelingly enough the like restraints and Confinements of his Friend His later Years he sadly spent Wrap't up in Silence and Restraint A Burthen such as none do know But they that do it undergo To have a Fire shut up and pent Within the Bowels and no vent To have gorg'd Breasts and by a Law Those that fain would forbidden to draw But his dumbSabbaths here did prove Loud crying Sabbaths in Heaven above His Tears when he might sow no more Wat'ring what he had Sown before Soon after his Settlement at Broad-Oak he took a young Scholar into the House with him partly to teach his Son and partly to be a Companion to himself to Converse with him and to receive help and instruction from him and for many Years he was seldom without one or other such who before their going to the University or in the intervals of their attendance there would be in his Family sitting under his Shadow One of the first he had with him in the Year 1668. and after was Mr. William Turner born in the Neighbourhood afterwards of Edmund Hall in Oxford now Vicar of Walberton in Sussex to whom the World is beholden for that Elaborate History of all Religions which he Published in the Year 1695. and from whom is earnestly expected the Performance of that Noble and useful Project for the Record of Providences Betwixt Mr. Henry and him there was a most intire and affectionate Friendship and notwithstanding that distance of place a constant and endearing Correspondence kept up as long as Mr. Henry liv'd It was observ'd that several young Men who had sojourn'd with him and were very hopeful and likely to be serviceable to their Generations dy'd soon after their Removal from him I could instance in Six or seven as if God had sent them to him to be prepared for another World before they were called for out of this yet never any dy'd while they were with him He had so great a kindness for the University and valued so much the mighty advantages of improvement there that he advis'd all his Friends who design'd their Children for Scholars to send them thither for many Years after the Change though he always counted upon their Conformity But long Experience altered his mind herein and he chose rather to keep his own Son at home with him and to give him what help he could there in his Education than venture him into the Snares and Temptations of the University It was also soon after this Settlement of his at Broad-Oak that he Contracted an intimate Friendship with that learned and pious and judicious Gentleman Mr. Hunt of Boreatton the Son of Colonel Hunt of Salop and with his excellent Lady Frances Daughter of the Right Honourable the Lord Paget The Acquaintance then begun betwixt Mr. Henry and that worthy Family continued to his dying day about Thirty Years One Lords day in a Quarter he commonly spent with them besides other interviews And it was a constant rejoycing to him to see Religion and the Power of Godliness uppermost in such a Family as that when not many Mighty not many Noble are called and the Branches of it Branches of Righteousness the planting of the Lord. Divers of the Honourable Relations of that Family contracted a very great respect for him particularly the present Lord Paget now his Majesty's Ambassador at the Ottoman Court and Sir Henry Ashurst whom we shall have occasion afterwards to make mention of In the time of Trouble and Distress by the Conventicle Act in 1670. he kept private and stirr'd little abroad as loth to offend those that were in Power and judging it Prudence to gather in his Sails when the Storm was violent He then observ'd as that which he was troubled at That there was a great deal of precious time lost among Professors when they came together in discoursing of their Adventures to meet and their escapes which he feared tended more to set up self than to give Glory to God Also in telling how they got together and such a one Preached but little enquiring what Spiritual Benefit and advantage was reaped by it and that we are apt to make the circumstances of our Religious Services more the matter of our Discourse than the Substance of them We shall close this Chapter with two Remarks out of his Diary in the Year 1671. which will shew what manner of Spirit he was of and what were his Sentiments of things at that time One is this All acknowledge that there is at this day a number of sober peaceable Men both Ministers and others among Dissenters but who either saith or doth any thing to oblige them who desireth or endeavoureth to open the Door to let in such nay do they not rather provoke them to run into the same Extravagancies with others by making no difference but laying load on them as if they were as bad as the worst 'T is true that about this time the Lord Keeper Bridgman and Bishop Wilkins and the Lord chief Justice Hale were making some Overtures towards an Accommodation with them but it is as true that those Overtures did but the more exasperate their Adversaries who were ready to account such moderate Men the worst Enemies the Church of England had and the event was greater Acts of Severity Another is this If all that hath been said and written to prove that Prelacy is Antichristian and that it is Unlawful to join in the Common Prayer had been effectually to perswade Bishops to Study

and do the Duty of Church Rulers in preaching and feeding the Flock according to the Word and to perswade People to be serious inward and spiritual in the use of Forms it had been much better with the Church of God in England than it now is Consonant to the Spirit of this Remark was that which he took all occasions to mention as his settled Principle In those things wherein all the People of God are agreed I will spend my Zeal and wherein they differ I will endeavour to walk according to the Light that God hath given me and Charitably believe that others do so too CHAP. VI. His Liberty by the Indulgence in 1672. and thence forwards to the Year 1681. NOtwithstanding the severe Act against Conventicles in the Year 1670. yet the Nonconformists in London ventur'd to set up Meetings in 1671. and were conniv'd at but in the Country there was little Liberty taken till the King's Declaration of March 15. 1671 2. gave Countenance and Encouragement to it What were the secret Springs which produced that Declaration Time Discovered however it was to the poor Dissenters as Life from the Dead and gave them some reviving in their Bondage God graciously ordering it so that the Spirit he had made might not fail before him But so precarious a Liberty was it that it should never be said those People were hard to be pleased who were so well pleased with that and thanked God who put such a thing into the King's Heart The Tenor of that Declaration was this In Consideration of the inefficacy of Rigor tryed for divers Years and to invite Strangers into the Kingdom ratifying the Establishment of the Church of England it suspends Penal Laws against all Nonconformists and Recusants promiseth to License separate places for Meetings limiting Papists only to private Houses On this Mr. Henry writes It is a thing diversly resented as Mens Interests lead them the Conformists displeased the Presbyterians glad the Independents very glad the Papists triumph The danger is saith he lest the allowing of separate places help to over-throw our Parish-Order which God hath own'd and to beget Divisions and Animosities among us which no honest Heart but would rather should be healed We are put hereby saith he into a Trilemma either to turn Independents in Practise or to strike in with the Conformists or to sit down in former Silence and Sufferings and Silence he accounted one of the greatest Sufferings till the Lord shall open a more effectual door That which he saith he then heartily wished for was That those who were in place would admit the sober Nonconformists to Preach sometimes occasionally in their Pulpits by which means he thought Prejudices would in time wear off on both sides and they might mutually strengthen each others Hands against the common Enemy the Papists who he foresaw would fish best in troubled Waters This he would chuse much rather than to keep a separate Meeting But it could not be had no not so much as leave to Preach at Whitewel Chapel when it was vacant as it often was though 't were three long Miles from the Parish-Church He found that some People the more they are courted the more coy they are however the Overtures he made to this purpose and the slow steps he took towards the setting up of a distinct Congregation yielded him satisfaction afterwards in the Reflection when he could say we would have been united and they would not 'T was several Weeks after the Declaration came out that he received a License to Preach as Paul did in his own House and elsewhere no Man forbidding him This was procur'd for him by some of his Friends at London without his Privity and came to him altogether unexpected The use he made of it was that at his own House what he did before to his own Family and in Private the Doors being shut for Fear he now did more Publickly threw his Doors open and welcomed his Neighbours to him to partake of his Spiritual things Only one Sermon in the Evening of the Lord's Day when there was Preaching at Whitewel Chapel where he still continued his Attendance with his Family and Friends as usual but when there was not he spent the whole Day at publick time in the Services of the Day Exposition of the Scriptures read and Preaching with Prayer and Praise This he did gratis receiving nothing for his Labours either at home or abroad but the Satisfaction of doing good to Souls which was his Meat and Drink with the trouble and charge of giving Entertainment to many of his Friends which he did with much cheerfulness and he would say he sometimes thought that the Bread did even Multiply in the Breaking and he found that God did abundantly bless his Provision with that Blessing which as he used to say will make a little go a great way He was wont to observe for the encouragement of such as had Meetings in their Houses which sometimes drew upon them inconveniencies That the Ark is a Guest that always pays well for its Entertainment And he Noted that when Christ had borrowed Peter's ●…oat to preach a Sermon out of it he presently repaid him for the Loan with a great draught of Fishes Luke 5. 〈◊〉 4. Many thoughts of Heart he had concerning this use he made of the Liberty not knowing what would be in the end hereof but after serious Consideration and many Prayers he saw his way very plain before him and addressed himself with all diligence to the improvement of this Gale of Opportunity Some had dismal apprehensions of the issue of it and that there would be an after-reckoning but saith he let us mind our Duty and let God alone to order Events which are his Work not ours It was a word upon the Wheels which he preached at that time for his own Encouragement and the Encouragement of his Friends from that Scripture Eccl. 11. 4. He that observes the wind shall not sow and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap Those that are minded either to do good or get good must not be frighted with seeming Difficulties and Discouragements Our Work is to Sow and Reap to do good and get good and let us mind that and let who will mind the Winds and Clouds A Lion in the way a Lion in the streets a very unlikely place he would say for Lions to be in and yet that serves the Sluggard for an Excuse While this Liberty lasted he was in labours more abundant many Lectures he Preached abroad in Shrap-shire Cheshire and Denbighshire laying out himself exceedingly for the good of Souls spending and being spent in the work of the Lord. And of that Neighbourhood and of that Time it was said that this and that Man was born again then and there and many there were who asked the way to Sion with their Faces thitherwards and were not Proselyted to a Party but savingly brought home to Jesus Christ. I mean this such