Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	earl_n	great_a	king_n	16,990	5	3.9820	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25575	An answer to the Bishop of Rochester's first letter to the Earl of Dorset, &c. concerning the late ecclesiastical commission by an Englishman.	Englishman.; Charlton, Mr.; Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713. Letter from the Bishop of Rochester to ... the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex.	1689 (1689)	Wing A3388; ESTC R15480	10,664	36

of hindring as much Evil as we possibly could in that unfortunate Juncture of Affairs Answ. I will not take upon me to argue for or against the Earl of Rochester but sure I am that he who ventures his Temporal condition to save his Spiritual is of much more Value than he who ventures his Spiritual to save his Temporal If the Earl of Rochester hazarded and lost the first place of England the Treasury for the sake of the Protestant Religion when the Formality of a Conference might appear some kind of Contest with a King a Brother-in-Law and so great an Employment that one Action shall be imputed to him for Righteousness in this World and ought to stand in Ballance against any great oversight because from the many Cases of History informing that Lord how dangerous it is for a Favourite in a set Competition to be Wiser than his Prince much more how Fatal to condemn his Religion he could not but see his Fall in the Perseverance and are therefore Irrefragable Arguments that neither Ambition Relation nor Temporal Interest governed him But if the Bishop of Rochester put the Protestant Religion in danger for an Hour in servile Obedience to the Arbitrary Will of his Prince the Presumption is Violent that he followed Humane Interest in the Compliance especially if the Bishop had never been seen in any one important Self Denial for the sake of his Religion that might stamp the Character upon him of one that would not Act against his Conscience Wherefore I think the Spiritual Rochester can by no means assign Ignorance for Plea with the same Application the Temporal Rochester may if but for want of the Like Credentials nor pretend to shelter himself under the same Paragraph of Umbrage because he never parted with the least Advantage that ever came into Publick Discourse for the sake of his Religion The Good you urge to have done was Evil in you all because unjust in the Foundation the Evil you did was much more Evil in you my Lord because of the Good you might properly have wrought out of that very Evil Not by accepting the Commission with purpose of doing what Good you could and hindering as much Evil in the Subservient way of your latter Paragraphs but opposing the Commission it self a first a second a third time and so left them been earnest and forward in your protestation preparing your self to declaim strenuously against it Asserting your Religion like a Bishop in a Just foresight of Evil to come and taking the freedom of St. Paul to plead for God against the Idolatrous design maintaining the Liberty you are required to stand fast in This was your Duty my Lord and the Good ought to have been wrought by a Bishop out of the Evil of the Commission thanking God for the Opportunity he had given you to appear in defence of the Christian Faith to manifest your contempt of Ease Pleasure Life it self accounting all things but Dung and Dross compared with the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ your Master And if your Heart through Natural Infirmity or Temporary Delights had failed you Retired to your Closet down upon your Knees have humbled your self before him adoring his Divine Bounty in Grace of Inclination and besought him to remove from before your Eyes the Prospect of any Felicity that stood between you and your Resolution in his Service have turned to the Life and Death of some Primitive Christian Bishop whose Example might support your Spirits Or it may be my Lord not to despise poor Fox your Book of Martyrs if that Manual of Popish Clemency durst be seen in your Study might have shewn you about a dozen or two of your Country-men of the meaner sort upon a Page Coblers Weavers and such like Weaklings in a Chain tied to a stake kissing the Post rejoicing in the Flame and blessing the Day that God had vouchsafed to single them out to bear Testimony against the Persecution of Princes This my Lord was the least of your Duty and I believe had been performed if the Temporalties of the Episcopacy to say nothing severe had not gained time upon the Spiritualty of the Bishop The sixth Paragraph of the Letter As for my own part I was startled when I perceived my Lord of Canterbury scrupled to be present with us whose Example 't is true I ought rather to have followed than the greatest Lawyers in all matters of Conscience Yet I hope his Grace will excuse me if I declare that I did not at first know He made a matter of Conscience of it Nor did I understand his Grace took Exception at the Lawfulness of the Commission it self till after my Lord of London was Cited and had Appeared and Answered and the unjust Sentence had past upon Him. Answ. The Scruples of that Arch-Bishop have been my great Satisfaction and are now as much my Trouble I am not worthy but as hearty to Remove the Latter as I was ever ready to Justifie his Former with reference to that Commission his Grace behav'd himself like the Metropolitan of all England to refuse Attendance and you had appear'd a worthy Suffragan if the Countenance of his Disdain had rais'd you up to a Defiance You ought my Lord to have argued against what he thought below him to take notice of Vindicating at once a Temper in him Suitable to the Apostolick See and in your self to the Sincerity of a Protestant Bishop that is an humble greatness of Mind explained in Him by the modesty of Not Appearing and Christian Fortitude in You by the Vigour of Opposing If after my Lord of London had been cited and appeared you had consulted his Grace how to carry your self at the next meeting and followed his Advice such a Retrieve might have been an Apology for the Surprise in your First sitting there but to let the Citation Appearance Answer Sentence and All be over All past my Lord before you could move from Westminster to Lambeth let a Bishop be affronted in an Unjust Sentence before you would vouchsafe cross the Thames to understand why my Lord of Canterbury ' your Metropolitan disowned the Commission puts your Case beyond Scruple and Startle into Wilfulness Prepense and me almost beyond reasoning into Astonishment Demonstration it self that you took care not to approach his Grace's Exceptions to the Legality of the Commission lest they should prove too clear for your Unlawful Obedience to the pleasure of the King or rather lest he should tell your Lordship you understood the Illegality of it beyond any Excuse of Ignorance if you made your Conscience a Slave to his Power No my Lord Ignorance was to be reserved against a wet day and might serve well enough to Charm a Good natured Unthinking Lethargick People Easie to be pacified a little whining will melt them down if ever they are redeemed into a capacity of demanding Justice but at present Unshaken Loyalty is the word and I must On. Thus it