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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42270	A short defence of the church and clergy of England wherein some of the common objections against both are answered, and the means of union briefly considered.	Grove, Robert, 1634-1696.	1681 (1681)	Wing G2160; ESTC R21438	56,753	96

from them by a Council of Officers and tossed from one to another at the pleasure of an unruly rabble of Souldiers The Crown has not been fixed on the point of the Sword but all things have gon on in a regular and legal way And if our own knowledge did not sufficiently assure us of this we have the testimony of one that has lately written a kind of Politital Dialogue very full of pretty fancyful speculations who tells us That as we have as Loyal Subjects as are any where to be found so we have as gracious and good a Prince I never says he having yet heard that he did or attempted to do any the least Act of Arbitrary Power in any publick concern nor did ever take or endeavour to take from any particular person the benefit of the Law This is honest and plain dealing and we have no cause to question the truth of these expressions For if this Author were not a person of known Integrity and a true Protestant it would yet be too great an absurdity for the English Gentleman to impose so grosly upon the Noble Venetian and he does not seem so mighty partial to our present form of Government that he would be guilty of such an indecorum to save the credit of all the Monarchs in Europe But that is a thing that needs no proof the moderation and equity of his Majesties Reign is well enough known to all the World And why should any one think that he can ever desire to alter the temper of the Government when it cannot be done without offering a very great violence to his own But if such an attempt should be made and succeed too which are both very unlikely it would be a great diminution of the Soveraign Power For the Prince is the loser when the Subject is inslaved and he is in truth far more Absolute that has the hearts of his People at his devotion than he that treads upon their Backs And how can it be thought that a good King that has the methods of Governing already laid out by wise and excellent Laws and that has Authority enough for the securing his own dignity and the necessary defence of his dominions should forfeit the affections of his Subjects and hazard all by a vain indeavour to overturn the whole frame of the received Establishment and set up his own will instead of it when the most unlimited Powers are forced to prescribe some Laws to themselves and necessitated to govern by certain Rules It is almost impossible that he that has a legal Right should ever be Arbitrary but he that is an Usurper must needs be so For he that is not supported by the Law can be maintained by nothing but a standing force But after all the stir we have had about it it might be worth the considering whether Arbitrary Obedience be not every whit as dangerous as Arbitrary Government For my part I look upon them as the same thing only that one is but just springing up and the other is come to its full growth I am sure those that have made the greatest clutter about Liberty and have been the most backward to Obey as soon as ever they have gotten any Power into their hands have commonly proved the most mercyless Tyrants And all wise men will be very careful that they be not wheedled into slavery by the threadbare pretences of preserving those Liberties that are not invaded and removing of grievances where there are none The Government we live under is so excellently tempered that nothing can be more prudently fitted to the mutual happiness and satisfaction of Prince and People unless there should happen a misunderstanding betwixt them which they that aim at the ruine of both will be very studious to foment But they that injoy the benefit of such a Constitution have all the reason imaginable to be contented But it is the highest injustice to accuse the Clergy for favouring an unknown Arbitrary Power when they desire to be always governed by the Laws and such Laws as have the greatest regard to the Subjects freedom of any in the World SECT XVI There is one objection more which is sometimes brought out upon special occasions and that is when they cannot be prevailed with to join themselves with any number of Malecontents then the Clergy must be complained of for being overbusy in medling with State Affairs if they do but dare to speak any thing that may tend to the quieting of mens minds And if they were indeed something guilty of what they are taxed with they might hope to escape in a crowd of offenders who are as little concerned and yet will be offering at publick Business This is not so much their peculiar blame as it is the common fault of the times Heretofore amongst the wisest nations it was esteemed a matter of some dfficulty to make a compleat Statesmen it was thought to require a good natural capacity great industry diligent observation and some competent age and experience But of late these Northern parts have been most wonderfully inspired with Politicks We have a sort of Statesmen that are shot up like Mushromes after a thunder-shower some that never saw twenty yet and others as good as they that can scarce write or read Some that have pickt up all their skill at the Theatre and the Tavern and some that have learnt as much at the Plowtail You can hardly meet with a man that is not able at least to entertain you with the News of the times and make most notable remarques upon it Every pert fellow can give his judgement of the whole State of the Kingdom more readily and confidently a great deal than those that have taken some pains to consider it 'T is a dull-pated Mechanick indeed that can't correct the mistakes of the Council Table and tell how every thing ought to be ordered and talk shrewdly about it whether he understand it or not This would have been looked on as a Prodigy amongst the old heavy-headed Senators of Rome If their City and Country had bred but one of such monstrous parts we should have had it recorded in Livy and no doubt there had been sacrifices appointed to avert the Omen But I do not think that this strange crop of Politicians that is sprung out of the ground in our days can portend any Ill unless by degrees they should happen to grow too wise to be governed But in the mean time the Clergy may be well excused if they have gotten a spice of the common disease where it is become Epidemical it is hard to escape without something of infection But for all this I have not observed that they have been so mighty busy in State Affairs as has been pretended Many of those that accuse them for this may be proved more faulty themselves And if any one will be pleased to take the pains to turn over most of the Sermons that were preached by another sort of men

to reproach us with it and I esteem it rather to be the effect of fondness and partiality to their own men than a just and equitable censure of Ours For from whence they may receive their information I cannot tell but those that attend more constantly at our publick assemblies can assure them that they shall not often hear so mean a Sermon there from which by the grace of God they may not reap some Spiritual advantage if they come rightly disposed ready to be informed or reminded of their Duty and not as the fashion of too many is meerly to sit as judges while they are at Church and give their opinion of the Preacher when they come home But this is but a slight and cavilling objection and if we pleased might be easily retorted upon many of them that are the forwardest to make it SECT XII The next is far more considerable for we are told that great numbers of our Clergy are men of debauched and scandalous lives which is a thing that the very meanest may freely judge of and if true is indeed a very great and real offence But before I endeavour to give any answer to this I must needs take notice of a piece of injustice which if I mistake not has been pretty common Many there are that will be exceeding severe in censuring the least miscarriages of the Clergy which can overlook grosser faults in other men Nay some I have heard of that can indulge themselves in riot and intemperance who will pretend to be mightily scandalized if they hear of a Minister that may possibly be taxed with the like excess They seem to imagine that a loose and careless way of living is the unquestionable right of the Lay-man and if any of us presume to tread in their steps they grow very angry as if we invaded their Property and intended to share with them in their patrimonial estate They talk as if they believed it lawful for others to behave themselves as they pleased and that the sobriety of the Clergy were to make an attonement for the sins and licentiousness of all the People They tell us indeed very truly that we are to be Examples to the flock but then they do not remember that they are to be followers of us as we are of Christ Except the faithful discharge of their particular calling which is required of others too in their several stations I cannot tell of any thing that Ministers are bound to which is not the duty of every other private Christian It is true that their faults do admit of very great aggravations but that does only inhance the degree not alter the nature of the guilt And these aggravations it may be are no greater in them than they would be in others of eminent place and quality either Civil or Military whose vitious lives may have as bad an influence upon the world as theirs But of this there can be no doubt that they that do pass such a rigorous sentence upon their failings and can so easily excuse themselves and others for the same or more heynous crimes do make it appear that they are no great enemies to the sin but that they are something displeased at the men Gregory Nazianzen reflecting sadly upon the unhappy dissentions of those times and the want of charity contempt of the Ministry and the bold pretences to knowledge and the Spirit that arose amongst them complains that things were brought to that pass that all their Piety consisted in nothing else but in condemning the Impiety of others He acquaints us farther that they were very busie in hunting after one anothers faults not to lament but to upbraid them not to heal but to hurt and that they might salve their own credit by wounding their neighbours and that it was not the Life but the being friends or enemies that gave men the character of good or bad These and more such observations were made by that excellent person upon the Christians that were then of different perswasions and where the like prejudice is conceived it may incline men to the like censoriousness and partiality in any age We are often told of the debauchery of Conformists and it is our great grief that there should be any just cause for such an accusation and I hope that those that make the complaint will join their hearty endeavours to take away the occasion of it But let them make a diligent inquiry whether they may not have some such among themselves and whether there were none of that stamp remaining after the Church had been purged of so many Centuries of pretended scandalous Ministers I will not be curious in making such a search we need not recriminate for the defence of a good Cause we have been always backward to do this after many provocations given and I wish that our Brethren would forbear such insinuations in their controversial writings For as the same great Author says Wicked men do build upon our backs and what we invent one of mother they make use of against us all Those he speaks of were exposed to the hatred and scorn of the Heathens for vilifying and disparaging one another and we may be laid open by the same means not only to the contempt of the Papists but of those too that make a mock of all Religion who are many degrees worse than any Heathens But after all the clamours about licentious Clergy-men it may be likely enough that they that make them may be overhasty and credulous in receiving reports and not judge with that candour and charity with which we should examine other mens actions For allowing some exceptions which I hope considering our numbers will not be many I do not see but that the Conforming Clergy in the general are of as circumspect sober inoffensive a conversation as any of their accusers It will not be adviseable for either side to make comparisons of this nature But he that knows of any one in Holy Orders that is really guilty of such vices as make him scandalous let him not presently strive to defame him but be careful to pay him the love and respect that is due to the Character he bears not for his own but for his Lord's sake St Chrysostome discourses pretty largely to this purpose and for our incouragement to do so he tells us Though the Priest should be a debauched one God seeing that by reason of the honour thou hast for him thou dost honour one that is unworthy of it he himself will give thee a reward But this is only a good intimation to others how they should behave themselves towards them and not any thing that can palliate or excuse any mans loosness and intemperance Where any of the Clergy can be convicted of such sins as do openly disparage his calling let him suffer the severity of the Law to the utmost rigour And if those Laws that are already in force be too gentle to