Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A79568
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The church defended, against Mr. Skingle's assize-sermon at Hertford In a letter to a friend. By a true lover of the orthodox clergie.
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True lover of the orthodox clergie.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing C3994eA; ESTC R223892
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9,939
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19
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us with a mighty Harangue in Praise of the KING but perhaps not with over-much Sincerity For that Party which he favours and hopes to be favour'd by have an Invincible Prejudice to Crown'd Heads and will always follow the Bent of their own Inclinations which will not suffer them to shew any real Kindness to Monarchy and therefore notwithstanding their fulsom Flattery They are not presently to be trusted for fear the Sting should still be in them and Safety and Opportunity might Encourage them to thrust it out Pag. 5. None more likely to have that unworthy Carriage of the Refresh'd Traveller than Presbyterians who kneel to the King as the Fountain of Refreshment yet may soon turn their Backs when they don't need him What Sort of Men so Fickle or so Inconstant Or where can we find a more Ungrateful People All the Kindnesses all the merciful Concessions shew'd them in former Reigns were interpreted as Arguments of Weakness or Cowardice in the Prince and the Consequence of That is too well known to need a Remembrance Only this one Thing I would not omit N. B. being perhaps a Secret to most Men That after the horrible Murder of King CHARLES the First when all his Friends were utterly disabl'd from making any Opposition that there might be a sure Work of Reformation in the Land 't was Voted in Parliament to put all the King's Friends to Death in Cold Blood and it was carried in the Negative only by Two Those of the Loyal Party who surviv'd that Danger lost their Estates and Liberties and 't was a Wonderment they scap'd so If the Reader would know the Presbyterian-Temper at this Day let him look into Scotland Lay but the Old Covenant or Common-wealth-Mouse before this transform'd Puss of Presbytery she cannot but return to her own Nature and leap at the Bait. At Pag. 5. that he might shew his Reading he quotes Mr. Charnock for what he might have learn'd out of Scripture in several Places viz. That the Israelites had a Regret that they were brought out of Egypt Which puts me in mind of that Story of the Sorbonist who being asked Where he read such a Thing in the New Testament answered That he had read it in St. Jerome or in the Decrees but for the New Testament he knew not what it was I am not fond of exposing all the Misapplications of this Man of Uses nor of finding Fault with any Thing wherein the Truth was not in danger to be mistaken 'T is strange Ill-Fortune if a Man shoots many Arrows not to come near the Mark with One or Two and the Author would be vex'd to have his whole Sermon prov'd a Presbyterian Cant Yet let the Reader consider that Truths as well as Lies may be spoken in hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4.2 At length he comes to his REFORMATION and UNION p. 8 9 10 11. To the First I answer That if our Church needs purging from her Dregs with all our Hearts we desire it should be so But then I doubt without gentle Physick Mr. S. will not long continue in our Communion but must sink down to the Common-shore amongst the worst Presbyterians Does he or any Man believe that the Dissenters have no Cause to purge out their Dregs too I 'm sure their Lives and Principles require it 't is as much wanting among the Presbyterians Independents and all other Sectaries and more by far than in the Church This Universal Reformation we daily pray for and it would be sooner done all Immoralities and Profaneness would cease to a great Degree were not the proper Means of Reformation so strenuously oppos'd by our open and secret Enemies These are chiefly in the Fault We must expect to be more and more vitiated and deform'd in our Manners to see the Nation expos'd to all Mischiefs unless we can fansie this to be the Golden Age wherein Men will be Good and Vertuous of themselves without the Force of Law and Justice to govern them So desirable a Blessing I am certain cannot belong to this evil crooked and perverse Generation 'T is not to be doubted but there is too much Swearing practised in the Land But whether the Unjustifiableness of the Sin or our Act of Parliament against it hath occasion'd a Reformation in this Particular I know not but am willing to believe That our Gentry are less guilty of it than formerly and that it is now sunk to the Bottom of the People with whom perhaps this Gentleman mostly converseth and therefore judgeth of the Age by the Company that he himself keeps But supposing that it reigned as much as ever yet I don 't like his Expedient for suppressing it which is That Parish-Officers should be most strictly requir'd to take notice of it If he means in stead of that Method which the Parliament has prescrib'd wherein the Accuser is so much encouraged and the Magistrate so much threatned if he be remiss then I think our Change would be much for the Worse But if he means it as an additional Help to the Statute I fancy the Parliament will scarce think it worth their while to follow his Advice and make a New Act rather than lose his Expedient when every one that will may put his helping Hand to the Suppressing of the Vice which may be somewhat more useful than an Injunction upon Parish-Officers is like to be In the same Paragraph he commends a very few Gentlemen of that County for their Zeal in this Matter and at the same Breath casts a Disrespect and Contempt upon all the rest And yet those mighty Men of Morals those Church-Presbyterians whom he design'd to complement are too well known to be trusted have Infirmities of this kind and as many as their Neighbours This forward dissembled Zeal is not unlike that of a passionate School-master about the Year 41 who would whip his Boys for Swearing and at the same time often swear violently That he had rather spare 'em for any Vice than That One Thing more I observe upon this Head That among all the Vices of the Age he durst not so much as touch upon Schism Pride Malice and Disobedience the daily Service offer'd to their God Sins that lie too plainly at the Dissenters Doors Sins of as vile a Nature and of as dangerous Consequence as any he had named But he was careful to leave These out for fear of losing his Design and what That was let the Reader judge 'T is plain if he favours or excuses the Practice of any Sin in vain does he talk of a Thorow-Reformation unless he means by This as one did by the Thorow-passage of a Sermon i. e. when it goes in at one Ear and out at t' other Pag. 12 13 14. He proceeds next to Union By which he seems not to intend that the Presbyterians should for the Sake of Christianity and Publick Peace leave off their Self-love Will and Humour and return to the Communion of the Church but that