Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A61457
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An account of the growth of deism in England
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Stephens, William, d. 1718.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing S5459; ESTC R19943
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19,063
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34
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maketh the matter worse For notwithstanding King James is as they will have it Conquer'd and his Throne which was declared vacant is legally filled by one who by Act of Parliament is declared our Rightful King yet after all this Dr. S will reserve a Right to King James though through Success and Settlement he will allow a Right also to King William And this Notion the Clergy generally adhere to because thereby they kill two or three Birds with one stone 1st They preserve to themselves their ancient Right of giving Titles to Sovereignty For though both King and Parliament have disclaimed and damned the Conquest yet the Clergy still insist upon it 2ly They make fair Weather with King James by keeping his Title alive and by still asserting his Right open him a Door to recover his Possession again For what honest Christian can oppose a Rightful King in regaining the Possession of his Throne which is kept from him by a Successful Usurper and 3ly They think they have obliged King William sufficiently by the formality of an Oath and owning him in his Possession Put all this together and 't will prove that When all the Argument is out 'T is Interest still resolves the doubt Thus cry they you plainly see that your Church is nothing but a Party to which whosoever joineth himself shall find his Account thereby notwithstanding any Error Heresy Immorality or Disloyalty to the present Government whatsoever whilst any other who is conformable to the Rubricks and Canons whose Learning and Morals are an Honour to his Gown and who is truly dutiful to his Majesty shall be excluded from all those benefits his Profession would entitle him to Thus the bold Asserters of King James's Right enjoy some of the best Preferments and particularly Dr. S sits D of St. P whilst honest Mr. Johnson is starving upon Charity The Church of England is a meer Party say they again and has a Watch-word whereby they know one another which they can vary upon occasion Non-Resistance was the Word in King Charles's days For though at that time you did conform to every tittle and ceremony injoin'd by Rubrick and Canon yet if you failed in the Point of Non-Resistance you were a Phanatick and Republican a Rebel and what not Now if this Doctrine be contain'd in the Book of Homilies as the Jacobites say 't is a Sacred Record of the Unjustice of some of those who concurred in the late Revolution The Shiboleth of the Church now is King William's de facto Title And no Conformity to Homilies and Rubricks will make you owned by the present Church if you should acknowledge the King to be otherwise said than a meer de facto Now say they although we grant that Men will submit to the Government upon their own particular Principles and therefore 't is reasonable that the King should admit the Obedience of his Subjects upon what Grounds they please yet we know no Reason why the Church should set up the de facto as the only Principle of Obedience And when the King had better Titles to his Crown as the Consent of the People in Parliament and his Matrimonial Title with the Queen yet he must be made to pay the greatest price for the weakest and worst of all Titles and give Dr. S Sixteen Hundred Pounds a Year for a Defactoship only You see Sir that the Deists want not Occasions for their Prejudices how far soever they are from having Reason o' their side And pray resolve me why must this false Title be set up as 't were by the King's Consent to worm out the only true one Why must none be preferr'd to Church-Dignities but such who come in upon this Title only And those who own the King 's Right upon the Consent of the People be still labouring under the Church's highest displeasure and poor Johnson a Man against whom no Immorality was ever objected that is an Object even of the Deists Compassion be left to starve for the Cause Nay they have gone so far upon the Strength of Dr. S Convocation-Title in Opposition to that of Parliament that since the good Queen is dead and the Consent of the People according to them null and void they have left the King a bare Possession without any Title at all 4. I am acquainted with a Gentleman who for some Years has not gone to Church having taken offence at those Practices I was now writing upon This Man you must know had an extraordinary Veneration for the profound Learning so he thinks much reading and common-placing to be of a certain Eminent Divine who had a fat Bishoprick bestow'd on him by King William and Queen Mary But he to requite their Kindness when a Bill was brought before the Lords declaring the King and Queen's rightful and lawful Title to the Crown not only opposed and voted against it in the House but when it had passed he entred his Protestation against it in the Journal Nay said this Gentleman if King William be only King de facto then the Bishop is de facto only Truly Sir you may believe me that I was amaz'd at this Relation for as I then said though most Men look no further than only to get Mony de facto and do not with much strictness inquire quo jure yet 't was strange that any Man should protest that he had no right to that Estate which he openly continued in Possession of But I was soon answer'd by this his former Admirer that if that Bishop had strengthened his own Title to the Bishoprick from King J. I might cease my wonder I am indeed sorry to hear Stories of this Nature especially when they assure me of the Truth of 'em and when I see the ill Consequences of them For though nothing be more certain than that the Baseness and Falshood of Man can never disprove the Truth of God yet when Men are highly Scandaliz'd and greatly deceived by those for whom they had Esteem and by whose Authority they in great measure governed themselves they will stretch their Conclusion beyond their Premisses and disown Religion in their Principle because 't is disregarded by some great Men in their Practice But though to strict Reasons such Arguments for Deism appear ridiculous yet from the Promotion of these de facto Men I am told hath arisen great disadvantage to the King and those Subjects whose Principles and Practices have been always faithful to his Majesties Interest Since hereby it is that it hath always been in the power of the open and professed Enemies of the King to oppress his most dutiful Subjects For these de facto-men and the Jacobites were but lately the same sort of People both of the same Principle and Temper And though the Jacobites do now rail at them for their base Complyances as they term it with the P. of O's Revolution yet the de factos are unwilling for old Acquaintance sake to pass by their Railing and underhand