Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A47520
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The kitchin-maids answer to the London apprentice's Word to the wavering Levite, &c. being a vindication of the Reverend Dr. Sherlock ... for his taking the oaths.
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Kitchin-maid.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing K654; ESTC R7874
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6,271
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10
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he then judged it not Lawful to take the Oaths but upon further search into the Matter he found that his Scruples how strong Arguments soever they seemed to him for some time yet after a full search into them they had no real ground and therefore thought he might lawfully take them And this I am sure all good Christians ought to conclude till they certainly know the contrary I dare say you dare not Swear that the Doctor had no other end in taking the Oaths than you alledge which shews how void of Charity you are to charge so eminent a Divine with the highest Crime which yet you durst not Swear he is guilty of And if you should say you durst Swear it every Body that should hear it must needs say that you are a Person that makes no Conscience of an Oath since it is plain that no Body can know what is in the Heart but only God And what you charge the Doctor with in the end of this Answer is levell'd as much against many of our Worthy Clergy as against the Doctor since not a few of them preached the same Doctrine the Doctor did Nay the same Argument might be stretched as far against those that still scruple the Oaths since 't would be no hard matter to prove even them to have acted contrary more or less to what they preach'd and maintain'd some years ago if it were no more but this that about the time of his present Majesty's coming over very few of them were heard to preach up Non-resistance Nor did any of them mind the People to stand by King James besides that even they who were for the continuing of King James were yet for tying up his Hands which if we look back but a few Years we shall find to have been ranked by them amongst the most hainous Sins So that one may see how true a Son of the Church of England you are to start an Argument against the Doctor which might if concluding be stretch'd against most of the Divines of the Church of England I am afraid you are a Church-man bred up in Mr. Lobb's or Father Peters School From your next Answer we may shrewdly guess whatever you pretend that you are for the Mans having his Mare again as you use to Cant in your Cabals For you are pleased to compare Dr. Sh 's Case to no other than a Servant taking an Oath to keep his Masters Secrets which he is always obliged to do and which he can have no plausible Pretence for the breaking of and you are pleased to discant upon it at large But your Comparison is so wide of the purpose that 't is obvious to any that can but read and therefore I shall say no more of it In your next Answer you say How can their Majesties confide in such a Man that has a pair of Consciences one to take the Oaths and the other to let them alone I wonder any Man should pester the World with such Nonsense Because a Man Scruples a thing for some time and afterwards sees his Scruples have not such weight in them as he at first apprehended they had therefore he must have a pair of Consciences It would not have been amiss if thou in stead of that Poor Maid in Woodstreet hadst met with such a Whipping Mistress that she might either have whip'd thy puny Soul out of the World and beat out thy insipid Brains or beat more into thee For if we seriously consider the Matter their Majesties have more reason to believe that Dr. Sherlock is fitter to be trusted than some that took the Oaths hand over head and will be as ready it may be to break them whenever occasion serves since he would not take them till he satisfied all his Scruples which 't is a question whether some of them did and whether they have acted accordingly since they took them What you say in answer next is of the same Bran for it is one thing to be engaged in a Faction that is to say to endeavour to carry on a Faction with all Eagerness and Industry by Word and Writing c. and another thing when one is ask'd his Opinion and at the Importunity of the Asker declares it The former is Properly said to make Proselytes who as the Jews are said by our Saviour to do compass Sea and Land to do it that is to say in plain Terms go from place to place from one Company to another to delude simple People amongst whom I may reckon you our London Apprentice as many of our Jacobite Levites have done some of whom have had the Law inflicted upon them tho in the opinion of many Honest Men with too great a Mixture of Lenity which has render'd others too Malapert and occasion'd not a few's being led aside with their Dissimulation And not the latter since they do not go about to promote a Faction but only if any scrupulous Person comes to them for Advice barely deliver what their present Sentiments are which yet if they are not strangely puffed up beyond what is becoming they dare not assert will always be so Your Ignorance next makes you believe it a strange Paradox that the Doctor seemed so concerned at some Persons taking the Oaths and yet at the same time believed them to be Honest Men. Why Good-man Fool this is not so strange a Paradox as your weak Brains fancy There is no doubt to be made but many Honest Men do many things and mean honestly which yet are not justifiable at the same time I suppose Mr. Apprentice you will not deny but St. Peter was an Honest Man when he did those things for which he was reproved by St. Paul tho there was something of Humane Frailty in the case Nay St. Paul himself declares that when he persecuted the Christians he did it in Sincerity thinking that he did God good Service All good Church-men are heartily concerned for the Dissenters going off from the Church and yet at the same time 't would be very uncharitable to conclude that none of them were Honest Men. Not to say more to shew how unreasonably you concluded this so strange a Paradox You next question the Doctor since he thought it Lawful to pray for their Majesties King William and Queen Mary Why not as lawful to take the Oaths then as now John Sheep because the Doctor thought it not so Lawful which was sufficient for him since he was endeavouring all he could to satisfie himself in this Point Nor can he be blamed with Reason for Praying for their Majesties tho he at the same time scrupled the Oaths to them since there was an Act past in the late Convention declaring them King and Queen and so he could lawfully pray for them as such since they had not any ways sought after it but 't was the voluntary Act of the People of England done by their Representatives and was universally approved which cannot be said of Usurpers But because of
the former Principles which by reason of their being so much for some Years inculcated in our Church and which the Doctor at that time was so strongly possess'd with he thought it not Lawful to take the Oaths And for this you may blame and vomit out your Gall against others than the Doctor for you cannot say that he was the first Broacher of Non-resistance the Divine Right of Succession with all the other precious Stuff with which our Church has been pestered these many Years to the no small Grief of many Worthy Divines and Gentlemen of her Communion And if he has at last discovered the Falsity of these Tenets which not only he but the major part of the Clergy of the Nation have been infected with and now retracts them and to shew that he is in earnest in so doing takes the Oaths to their Majesties why should any rational Man question the Honesty of his Design in so doing And why this uncharitable Censure that 't was because K. James being now fled he must either take the Oaths or lose his Living This manner of Judging was more becoming a Dissenter from our Church many of whom are ready to construe our actions in the worst Sense in which I must ingenuously confess we are not much behind with them tho at the same time I must say that 't is long of that sort of Men that are now Jacobites that Differences betwixt us and them have been so far widened or a Tory Jacobite and I make no doubt but all Understanding Readers will take you for no other than one in Masquerade So that Jesuit-like you can put on a William's Face when the Devil and Lewis are at your Heart on purpose that so far as your shallow Wit can reach and Fools commonly are most confident they can do great things you may deter other Persons from taking the Oaths tho they must be as Silly as your self that will be Bugbear'd with what you lay to the Doctor 's Charge As for what follows of your Pamphlet 't is much the same with what has been taken notice of and therefore I pass it Any Reader may easily see that 't is a Dissatisfaction to their Majesties Government that raises your Spleen against Dr. Sh k however cunningly you pretend to be of another Temper And this is plain enough if we consider that whereas all others that have meddled with the Doctor seem only offended at his not vindicating their Majesties Government or retaining some Principles which they think are diametrically opposite to his taking the Oaths but you are downright Angry for his taking of them and your Bait to delude the Simple is Why he took them not sooner as if you were angry that he did it no sooner whereas had he been acted by your Principles 't is obvious enough he had never taken them Thus you have a little Touch what Improvement I have made in Politicks A Science never so common as it has been within these three Years which is all owing to Gentlemen of your Kidny who have compassed Sea and Land gone from House to House to Proselyte People unto Slavery that when you had done so you might make them Seven-fold more the Children of the Devil or the Pope than your selves or if you could not do that that you might have Power to send them to the other World in a Fiery Chariot You should have had a taste of my skill in Poetry too but that you know I must wait on my Mistress's as you on your Master's Affairs But a few spare Hours may possibly furnish you with an Elogium in Rhime according to your Merit till which time I must bid you Adieu