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A55530 An answer to a letter from a clergyman in the city, to his friend in the country containing his reasons for not reading the declaration. Poulton.; Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695. Letter from a clergyman in the city to his friend in the country. 1688 (1688) Wing P3039; ESTC R25 16,451 21

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censures of the People for reading it since the business admits such a positive variety of Opinion The Loyal and Obedient may read it but the Scrupulous and Refractory will not Well then if the case be so the City Clergyman should have done well to have reserv'd his Niceties and Slicing of significations to himself and not have gone about so Zealously to spread the infection of his Scruples to the discouragement of others But he has past the Rubicon and will forward LETTER To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think my self bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it ANSWER To this the Loyal Gentlemen that read it reply That if Reading the Declaration in their Churches be neither in the nature of the Action nor in the Intention of the Command nor in the Opinion of the People an Interpretative Consent to it they think themselves bound in conscience to read it because they are bound in conscience to approve it But says he LETTER It is against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts ANSWER He must of necessity allow the Constitution of the Church of England to be a strange uncharitable constition that will not allow Liberty of Conscience to any but it self And it is his misfortune that he has subscribed to a Church that wants the bond of Perfection which is the reason that many believes he mistakes the Constitution of the Church of England LETTER It is to teach an Vnlimited and Vniversal Toleration which the Parliament in 72. declared Illegal and which has been Condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages ANSWER What the Parliament Declared in 72 signifies nothing against the Authority of the Scripture which all along declares the contrary And whereas the Gentleman is pleased to say That Universal Toleration has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages There is nothing more contrary to the infinite Sayings of the Primitive Fathers and their Successors and that celebrated Maxim of Tertullian Religionis non est Religionem cogere LETTER It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free Leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass. ANSWER This is like Cardinal Wolsey Ego Rex His leave and the King 's But they are a sorry sort of People That do not know already That a Rector of a Parish is no Sovereign but that the People may come and go where they please without his Leave LETTER It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it ANSWER It seems the King's Authority signifies nothing with this City Clergyman But if he had the Authority of Parliament for it he would stretch his Conscience and Read the Declaration In the mean time The King 's Dispensive Power is no Business for a Man in his Station to meddle with Nor is he to be such a Judge of Royal Declarations as to be the Interpreter of their Meaning or Intention That Power is not within the Verge of his Desk or Pulpit either neither can the Authority of Parliament warrant any such Boldness among Ecclesiasticks LETTER It is to Recommend to our People the Choice of such Persons to sit its Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Iudgment against ANSWER Then not to Read the Declaration is to recommend to the People the Choice of such Persons as shall not take away the Test and Penal Laws as if the Peoples Election of Parliament Men depended upon the Recommendation of the City-Clergymen But the Declaration requires no such Officious Recommendation from them And therefore the Gentleman might have spared his Complement to the Nobility and Gentry LETTER It is to condemn all those Great and Worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The Favour of their Prince and a great many Honourable and Profitable Imployments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in Conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing ANSWER The Nobility and Gentry are mightily beholding to the City-Clergyman for his kind Encomiums But whether they would have thought it any Condemnation of their Resolutions in Reference to the Penal Laws and Test is uncertain for the Nobility and Gentry do not depend upon this Gentleman's Divinity their Motions and the Circumstances that guide their Actions being of a higher Nature than to care for the Condemnation of their Chaplains However if the Nobility and Gentry were so Kind to do what they did for their sakes the City-Clergyman has ill retaliated their Favour to lay the Load of his Actual Disobedience upon the Shoulders of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation But now he 's come to his Effects and ill Consequences for says he LETTER For let us consider further What the Effects and Consequences of our Reading the Declaration are likely to be and I think they are Matter of Conscience too when they are Evident and Apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely Contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2. 15. That is so to Behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under Contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves Ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being Silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them But he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue Compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves Ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly Fall and Fall unpitied ANSWER He is now wrapt up in the Spirit of Prophesie what Strange things will befal him for reading the Declaration which he calls a Betraying the Church by undue Complyances But the Prophet mistakes the Points that renders the Ministerial Office he means Ridiculous for while they keep to the Business of Sound Doctrine and meerly True Divinity there is not a more Profound or Learned Clergy in the World than