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A56736
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An answer to Vox cleri, &c. examining the reasons against making any alterations and abatements, in order to a comprehension and shewing the expediency thereof.
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Payne, William, 1650-1696.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing P896; ESTC R36661
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22,857
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39
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AN ANSWER TO Vox Cleri c. EXAMINING The REASONS against making any Alterations and Abatements In order to A Comprehension AND Shewing the EXPEDIENCY thereof LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1690. AN ANSWER TO Vox Cleri c. AN ANSWER TO Vox Cleri c. THE Author of Vox Cleri writes as if he were Clerk or Secretary to the Convocation and so delivered the sense of that whole venerable Assembly for why else does he give such a Title to his Book to amuse the World and bring a scandal upon the Clergy as if they were generally of his mind and yet he tells us that nothing has been proposed to them so that they have not yet declared their minds nor had an opportunity to doe so and I think he has done them a great deal of injury first to suppose and then tell all the World that they are against Alterations and Abatements in some indifferent matters for the sake of that Peace and Union which is the desire and should be the endeavour of every good man I shall be very unwilling to believe so ill of so many wise and worthy men that they are against such a Design so much for the honour of God the good of Religion in general the Peace of the Kingdom and the Interest of the Church of England I cannot think that any man in cool and sober thoughts can be against it unless he be transported with some fit of anger or which is as outragious of eloquence and then such a rash saying as Nolumus mutare leges Angliae may come out without reason and ought to be forgiven among friends but however the words chimed in a Speech to the Tune of Christ-church-bells yet they were as senseless and impertinent as this Authour's quotation out of Solomon on the Banner of his Book Meddle not with them that are given to change which would have served the Quaker as well against changing his old cloaths as the design and business they are brought for but if there had been no changes since Solomon's time nor since the Barons in the Laws of England we had been in a very primitive but not quite so good a state as at present But this Gentleman seems to be under some great fear as well as anger as if he were to be executed at the will of the rabble What he has done I cannot tell but he seems for some reason or other to be afraid to go home he complains he has not the privilege of other Malefactours which all Law and Equity gives them of making a defence especially when their reputation their livelyhoods and even their lives are concerned so that he seems to be under some dread and terrour that has scared him not out of his lively hood or his life I hope but of something else I fear that makes him write as he does for he contradicts himself almost in the same line and owns that several times in a good mood which he writes all along against He and the Clergy in his Neighbourhood are very inclinable he says to part with several Ceremonies and to submit to many Alterations for the Peace of the Church and Satisfaction of sober Dissenters (a) p. 1. Yet he musters up all the reasons he can against this and his whole Book is writ against it The end of the Commission is he says to take away all occasions of difference for the future as well as reconciling all their Majesties subjects at present A Blessing this to be seriously endeavoured by all persons but rather to be hoped for than expected (b) p. 17. If to be seriously endeavoured by all persons why does he all he can against any such endeavours In another place (c) p. 26. I do here protest that were it not that the Dissenters have given us an Assurance that though these and many other alterations should be made it would give them no satisfaction nor bring them into our Communion I would use all the interest I have for such Alterations and for that end also part with many other Ceremonies I cannot believe the Dissenters have given him any such assurance if they have I hope he knows them better than to trust them but how is this reconcileable with what he so often harps upon that if they did come in it would make a worse schism in the Church and so be more mischievous than that out of it It cannot be a crime says he very angrily not to doe that which is both against the Law of the Land and the dictates of their own Consciences by the bye I would fain know where that Law of the Land or those dictates of Conscience are to be found that forbid a Convocation to make Alterations But in the same line he goes on and says It is not a crime for a man not to doe what none as yet hath required of him to doe how does he then know that 't is both against the Law of the Land and the dictates of their own Consciences Something therefore seems to have injured this Gentleman's memory and reason and his imagination seems to be disturbed with fears of the Rabble or somebody's having some strange design upon him for being against Alterations and therefore he draws in the dark at all adventures and stands upon his guard and throws about him it being a thing natural he tells us for a man to defend himself there being no living creature so void of sense as not to avoid another that attempts to destroy him and every worm will turn upon him that will tread on it and if an innocent person chance to injure another that injuriously assaults him he is always held guiltless as having done it Se defendendo Why really I pity this Gentleman's case if it be thus with him for one would think he were in some great pain and peril but we have reason to be angry with those that have thus assrighted him for otherwise we had had a better Book or which had been as well none at all That terrible word Latitudinarian (a) p. 6. has scared him I doubt and 't is almost as dreadfull as Vercingentorix and some timorous old men can hardly speak or hear it without trembling they imagine some Monster by it of a mighty swallow and wide capacity having both a Church and a Conventicle if not a Pope in its belly tearing and devouring the Ceremonies mangling and altering the Liturgy snarling and biting at Episcopacy and gaping for the Preferments which other men have signally deserved and are legally possessed of Now such a creature as this may be in some void space of a Map or of an old Man's head but no where else that I know of But I suppose this new Sect or Heresie are for making Alterations and therefore our Authour is so angry with it and resolved to confute it and since he and his Neighbours in the Countrey
against the Assaults of Men and Devils if these things seem necessary to any man it will also seem necessary to that man to admit such Changes as he is perswaded will conduce to such ends (a) p. 8. I have now done with the Cause and leave it to any man who reads his Book and this whether any thing loosely and scatteringly offered in the one has not had its full force fairly given it and as full and complete an Answer returned to it by the other But I have a word or two of Friendly Advice to our Author before I have done with him as a parting civility 1. First then I would advise him not to speak so loudly and openly against the Toleration for fear the Parliament should hear him as he does upon all occasions telling us the Reasons against it are irrefragable that it used to be granted at the instance and for the sake of professed Papists that it is a greater favour than was granted the Church Party in the late Wars I hoped those old Sores had been healed or however that we should not take example of our Enemies ill usage and cruelty to revenge the same upon them The Papists were never for a Toleration of Protestants only as we have it now with exclusion to themselves and they were as much for putting the Penal Laws in execution at one time as they were for Toleration in another so that they have been playing their game on both sides and both have been tricked by them But with submission to the Irrefragable Reasons of the Parliament in 1662. we have since sufficiently tryed other methods and found them not only ineffectual but mischievous so that some such Expedient as a Toleration was absolutely necessary either to prevent on one side the scandalous unsuccesfull prosecution of weak and wilfull men or on the other the King 's illegal dispensing with over severe Laws I see the mischief of a boundless and unlimited Toleration but whether the mischiefs of Persecution i. e. Extreme penalties for the sake of Religion be not greater I leave to experience and the judgment of our Governours to determine However it does not become Clergymen who should use the other methods of Tenderness and Perswasion more proper to the Gospel and their Office to grudge and repine at the favour of the State to those who differ from them and thereby discover their angry and revengefull Resentment and their good will to use other methods if it were in their power 2. I would never have a man that writes against all Alterations at the same time propose any especially such strange ones as reading in our Churches the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp or some select Chapters out of King Charles the Martyr's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (a) p. 26. For since he knows some People are greatly offended at the Apocryphal Lessons and would have nothing read in the Church but what is undoubtedly Canonical it will look very odly to make such a Proposal to the Convocation at its next sitting and therefore I would desire him not to move any such thing though perhaps the thing might take with some men if others were much against it and out of mere spite to the design of Alterations they might clog the Bill with such an Incumbrance I do not intend to examine particular Alterations but shall leave them to the wisdom of the Church i. e. the Convocation and the wisdom of the Nation i. e. the Parliament to agree and settle them as they shall think fit I am for making some few Alterations but am by no means for this of our Authour 's proposing of reading Ignatius and Polycarp and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Churches though I like them almost as well as Tobit and his Dog or Bell and the Dragon however some question whether they are all genuine 3. Above all I would advise our Authour when he writes again never to make Comparisons between men because he knows by the old Proverb they are odious and nothing can excuse them but when a necessary defence calls for them Thus though Dr. Jane be a very worthy person and fills both the Professor's and Prolocutor's Chair very well and gracefully yet why he and his Neighbour Clergy should be in such mighty Joy and Triumph because he was chosen rather than Dr. Tillotson and look upon this as a good Omen for the good of the Church * p. 1. as if the choice of the other would have foreboded some mischief to the Church this is so unmannerly rude and reflecting that it requires the temper of that excellent Man to forgive it who has done as much good to Religion and the Church as half a Convocation Prolocutor and all But I perceive the bottom of the pique our Author has a most ill opinion of Sermons on Week-days Lectures and the Dean has been a Preacher of such and has thereby provoked some but taught more to Preach well and to Live well than any man perhaps since the Apostles but why has our Authour and some others who are not much for Preaching on any day such a spite against Sermons on the Week-days Lectures why he tells us because in those many great Absurdities tonding to Schism and Sedition are injected into the minds of the People (b) p. 26. and cannot they be as well injected on Sunday Lectures if Men have a mind as well as on Week-days Lectures nay I know no absolute Preservative but that they may be injected in Sermons on Sunday morning as well as at any other times if the Preachers be very much inclined to it I will by no means dispute with our Author whether there be not in the Countrey many Ministers who for their Learning may be without disparagement compared with most of the City Ministers (c) p. 15. that they may I 'll assure him and very much exceed them too if he be a Countrey Minister himself as I have two or three Reasons besides his Latine Sayings which are far beyond the learning of most City Ministers to believe him to be But why must he be comparing the Countrey and City Ministers like the Countrey and City Mouse as to the great ease and pleaty of living * p. 37. I perceive he has been searching not only into their Vestries where they sometimes tarry he says till Prayers be ended he might have added where they drink Sack too sometimes after Sermon which they don 't in the Countrey but into their very Kitchings and so far as I know he might be for Reforming of those were he not against all Alterations and Amendments whatsoever What brave Stories does he carry down I warrant you and tell his Neighbours in the Countrey of the City Ministers plentifull eating and seldom preaching having such frequent Supplies besides Lectures and Readers * Ibid. whereas the whole burthen lies upon them in the Countrey of studying carefully and accurately penning their Sermons and then preaching them in great Churches besides writing against Popery and defending at all times the Cause of the Church and Religion Further It ought to be considered he says that a great part of the Countrey Ministers have travelled some an hundred some near two hundred miles but not the Apostolical way of footing it I suppose to meet in Convocation for the benefit of the Clergy and I hope the great good they have done there is a sufficient reward for all their pains and sit sometimes near the whole day in the depth of Winter but they were hot enough they say for all this and I pray where do the City Clergy of the Convocation sit then in a Vestry or some other warm place One would think a man doated either with age or some other feebleness who would thus trifle and expose himself by such drivelling and ridiculous malice This is so below Don Quixot and Fur Praedestinatus to which he mighty wittily compares the Authors of the two Letters p. 56. but with an unaccountable impertinence and silliness that I can think of nothing for a New years gift for him but a Coat with long Sleeves and this Badge upon it Nolumus mutare Leges Angliae So I take my leave of him and wish him and his Neighbours a merry New Year FINIS ADVERTISEMENTS THere is newly Printed a Large Folio Bible of a fair new Roman Letter with Annotations and Parallel Scriptures or References some Thousands more than are in the Cambridge Oxford or any other Bible yet Extant To which is annexed the Harmony of the Gospels As also a Reduction of the Jewish Weight Coins and Measures to our English Standards And a Table of the Promises in Scripture In One intire Volume containing 325 Sheets Printed for Richard Chiswell Jonathan Robinson and Brabazon Aylmer Allegiance Vindicated or the Takers of the New Oath of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary justified and the Lawfulness of taking it asserted in its consistency with our former Oaths and also with the Doctrine of the Reformed Church of England concerning Non-resistance and Passive Obedience By a Divine of the Church of England Printed for Brabazon Aylmer