Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	word_n	world_n	worst_a	105	3	8.1157	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32880	Notes upon the Lord Bishop of Salisbury's four late discourses to the clergy of his diocess particularly upon the last, relating to the dissenters, in a letter to a friend.	Chorlton, John, 1666-1705.	1695 (1695)	Wing C3928; ESTC R21864	13,725	38

NOTES Upon the Lord Bishop of Salisbury's Four late DISCOURSES To the CLERGY of his Diocess PARTICULARLY Upon the Last relating to the DISSENTERS In a LETTER to a Friend Right Prelating is busie Labouring and not Lording Bishop Latimer's Sermon of the Plough Wherefore lift up your Heads Brethren and look about with your Eyes spye what things are to be Reformd in the Church of England Is it so hard is it so great a matter for you to see many Abuses in the Clergy many in the Layety His Sermon before the Convocation LONDON Printed in Usum Sarum MDCXCV ERRATA Page 1. line 2. blot out the p. 7. l. 17. for acted upon read acted by p. 31 l. 7. in some of the sheets the words in metre should be put in after psalms NOTES c. SIR I Thank you for Obliging me with the sight of my Lord Sarum's four late Discourses to the the Clergy of his Diocess the last of which your self must needs own the worst tim'd and the worst linkt of any thing in the World For what reason his Lordship was pleas'd to reflect upon the Dissenters as Separatists at this time of day when by Act of Parliament they enjoy tho' not Equal Advantages an Equal Establishment with his own Constitution I will not pretend to determine Nor perhaps can he himself give any better Account of his tacking a Discourse against them to the rest than that the same Spirit of Contention which his Lordship hath before now discover'd had in that Moment an Unconquerable Ascendancy over him His Lordship it must be confess'd writes with one singular Advantage which the poor Noncons must never expect he hath the Civil Government for his Security and free Liberty to vent whatever he pleases tho' 't is true He must have a care how he Misrepresents the Foundations of our Government his frequent remembring a Vote of Parliament and Mr. Johnson's most ingenious Notes on a Pastoral Letter with what the Common Hangman was once employ'd about in his Lordships Service will be of admirable Use to him in this Case But in Spiritual Matters he may e'en talk all that is in his Heart and whatever else he finds agreeable to his Interest for being himself a Spiritual Lord one of the six and twenty Lights of the Nation and a chief among the Guides of the Church he may hold himself safe from any Contradiction especially Now he knows the Press is entirely at the devotion of his own Party and they must very much expose themselves who would get in but one Word against a whole Volume of his Lordships Tho' methinks an Ecclesiastical Peer of all others should be of too generous a Temper either to call the more Names because he wears a Protection or to take any Advantage against his Brother of lower degree that mildly jogging him by his Lawn Sleeves may happen to tell him An 't please you my Good Lord in this thing I humbly conceive you were not a little overseen A great Champion it must be confess'd the Prelatical Church hath in this Salisbury Bishop and no doubt both He and the Cause he pleads will flourish Eternally if the Greatness of their Circumstances can but deter all others as it doth their own Underlings from questioning their Pastoral Oracles What success Our Prelate will have against his other Antagonists I will not Divine but the Dissenters I make no question will hold themselves oblig'd to him for the Episcopal Confirmation which his weak Management of his own hath given to their Cause to the Goodness of which this must be imputed unless this Right Reverend Author hath incurr'd the same Unhappy Fate from which the great Livy himself was not wholly exempt that the Last part of his Works should be a sufficient Disgrace to all the rest These four Discourses coming out together in a body afford us a Notable Specimen of his Lordships Abilities but the Learned World hath been long acquainted with his many Productions and hath already given them an Universal Applause yet I am apt to believe they have not at any time seen a more pregnant Instance of his Cunning and Dexterity than appears in his uniting these last Compositions into one Volume where most Invidiously and with a strange kind of Impartiality the Atheist leads the Van and the Dissenter brings up the Rear It will be no just Cause of Offence I hope to this Noble Prelate or his Party if in our own Vindication we take the Liberty to requite his Lordships Kindness with a few just and serious Reflections on each Subject of his several Discourses and I shall choose Sir to begin with that against the Atheists First then let us Enquire What is it hath given the greatest Occasion to the Rise and Progress of Atheism in the English Nation Is it not that Men have made Religion and the Sacred Function of the Ministry truckle to the Gratification of their Lusts especially their Avarice Pride and Sensuality But a few will be Convinced that there is any solid Foundation for that Belief which they see made use of to such vile and sinister Ends Many are mistaken if the extravagant Grandeur of Prelates and other Church Dignitaries hath not exceedingly contributed to diffuse this horrible Contagion It would make a Man sick to hear our Prelate declaim against the Poverty of the Inferior Clergy as a Crying Grievance and a Scorn put upon the Gospel when those that enjoy some Thousands a Year among whom I do not say his Lordship is one shall yet behold their Poor Brethren who Minister in Spiritual things so slenderly supply'd in Temporals that nothing but extream Necessity can induce them to serve in such Cures who are put to wrestle still with the same Necessity especially if they have Families that grow upon them Nor is it less ridiculous and Criminal in our Prelate to tantalize them with Hopes of Relief by New Methods whilst the true Cause and Remedy are so obvious and yet so much slighted and in effect renounced Our Law-makers I am of Opinion will be so kind to try how far a more equal partition of the Ecclesiastical Revenue will go towards the supply of the poor Clergy before they lay any more Burdens upon the People on that account There will be no want of Atheists so long as Church-men are thus desperately enamour'd of Great Benefices and so Careless of their Cures while they heap one Steeple upon another 'till their Heads grow giddy and they can scarce look low enough to Converse with their Inferior Brethren They may Preach up Humility and Mortification long enough in their cold formal florid Discourses before they perswade one Atheist that themselves are convinc'd of its Necessity while they Vye in Fullness and Gaiety not with the Gentry only but with the Nobility too How should Atheism but thrive in a Land where Men can Declare and Swear and Preach ay and print Dialogues too for such a kind of