Matter of it But to Consent to Teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but Aggravate the Fault Consenting to Teach your People such Doctrine as you think contrary to the Laws of God is a Fault may be a great Fault Tho' the Doctrine you Teach may in it self be true Doctrine because Conscience though Erroneous obliges not to Act against it But what it is that does not lessen but aggravate the Fault you mention I cannot discern For you Grant That reading the Declaration when the King commands it if you Approved the Matter of it would be no Fault at all You say It is possible the People understand that the Matter of the Declaration is against your Principles I Answer T is possible they understand neither the Declaration nor your Principles for by the Reports I hear frequently â—ut of the Countrys there may be Thousands that never Read themselves nor heard the Kings Declaration read to them but take the Matter of it to be as you represent it which to be sure is Bad enough and thus they are kept in ignorance and Affrighted with the conceit of it Most certainly if the Kings Heart were not well Assured of the Justice and Clemency towards all His Subjects in what He has Declared It would be the most Impolitick Action imaginable for Him to command that it should be Published and Communicated to all of them in the most solemn manner when they are Discharged from all Secular Diversions and have their Minds most Free and Intent upon the Matter that is read to them His Majesty Declares the Reason why He would have it thus Published Viz. That they may Vnderstand and Reap the Benefit of that General Good which He designs for the whole Kingdom That His chief Aim has been not to be the Oppressor but the Father of His People That they may lay aside all Animosities and groundless Jealousies and Choose such Members of Parliament as may do their part to Finish what He has Begun for the Advantage of the Monarchy over which Almighty God hath placed Him. Now if the Matter of the Declaration would not bear the most exact Scrutiny and Recommend it self to the Consciences and Understanding of all His Subjects Can any Man rationally think that this was a probable way for His Majesty to Effect the End He proposed therein But since you put me upon Possibilities I think it may possibly be and very probably also as I Gather from your Reasonings that you do what lyes in you to Conceal from your People the Matter of the Declaration least your People would Approve it and Consent to Promote it But though you are thus Industrious to Conceal the Declaration Why do you not tell us what your Principles are for in this you are as Dark as in all the rest I must profess if I had no other means of knowing what the Declaration contains nor what your Principles are than by what you have said in your Discourse concerning them you deal so much in Generals that I should never be Able to Understand either of them nor wherein the One is against the Other But now let us come to the main Point for in comparison of that All the Rest is of little value You say For you to Consent to Teach your People such Doctrines as you think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault You have in your Letter made mention of an old Maxim The King can do no Wrong And therefore if any Wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Ministers who does it Nor is any Minister who does an Illegal Action allowed to pretend the Kings Commission and Authority for it You cannot Forget who They were that before you Insisted upon this sort of Argument nor how severely you of all Men have in your Pulpits and Prints handled them for it But now you think it may serve your Turn you Revive it again Since therefore you make it no scruple of Conscience in this Case to Approve such Things now as you Condemned heretofore Why should you not do it in some other Cases also The Dissenters as oft as they were Summoned into your Courts or elsewhere for their Nonconformity to your Modes of Worship or for Assembling to Worship in other manner Pleaded simply They could not Do the One nor Forbear the Other because in doing the first or forbearing the last They should Sin against their Conscience and Transgress the Law of their Lord whatever your Laws or the Laws of the Land commanded or prohibited This Plea was usually Termed a meer pretence and their Assemblies Censured by their Secular Judges as Riots Routs Seditious or Vnlawful Assemblies and by your Judges they were Condemned as Obstinate and Contumacious and upon these Scores they suffered the Penalties inflicted Now though you did Publish and cause to be Executed such Sentences heretofore against the Dissenters who made use of this Plea as a Pure matter of Conscience with respect to God's Law this may be no Bar as appears by your former instance but that you may take up the same simple Honest Plea at this time if you are as they were sincere therein and make it for your selves now as they did then And by this way you may without Intangling your selves by determining positively Doubtful Points of Law which is not your Province come to a fair Issue in that which is the proper Charge of your Function as Ministers for the Dissenters agree with you in this Principle that For any Man to Consent to Teach others such Doctrines as he thinks contrary to the Laws of God is a great Fault Let the Matter of the Declaration therefore be fairly Discussed between you and us with that Modesty which becomes Subjests Many Dissenters differ from you in their Thoughts in this point They think The King's Declaration is not contrary to the law of God and that therefore it may lawfully be Read If any of them question any part of it It is that wherein the King promises to Protect and Maintain the Arch-Bishops and Bishops as Lord Bishops of which they find no Footsteps in the Holy Scriptures but if they will consider that the Dignity of Barons is only an Addition to that of a Bishop and does neither Alter Enlarge or Abrogate the Spiritual Office but is an Honour conferr'd upon them by the Civil Sovereign Power There is no Reason for any Dissenter or any other of the King's Subjects to make this a scruple of Conscience in regard it proceeds from a Civil Constitution and is a Law of Mans Creation to which among others of like nature every Christian is to submit for the Lord's sake And that you and I may as well Agree in our Thoughts about the Subject in hand as in the Principle I have mention'd It s necessary that we consider what it is
THE Minister's Reasons For His not reading the Kings ' Declaration Friendly Debated By A Dissenter Allowed to be Published this 21st day of June 1688. SIR I Am beholding to you for Publishing the Reasons you alledg for your refusal to Read His Majesties Declaration in your Church for by them I discern that he who writ the first Letter to a Dissenter wherein he told us you were convinc'd of your Error in being Severe towards us and that we had not now to do with those Rigid Prelates who made it a matter of Conscience to give us the least Indulgence writ this of his own Head without any Authority from you but that He or They who writ a Treatise which was Published a little before the Kings Declaration Entituled The Vanity of all pretensions for Toleration wherein the Question is put and Answered Shall we give up the Cause and subscribe to a Toleration Nothing less and that because in our Circumstances it is not only contrary to Religion and Civil Prudence but also to Charity and Compassion were guided in this matter by the same temper of Mind with that which is discovered in your reasonings which are as like one to the other as Face is to Face in a Glass for therein the Author who is your Advocate and without doubt had both your Countenance and Assistance tells us That the practice of punishing Dissenters is contrary neither to the Doctrine or Practice of Christ and therefore He hopes they that use it upon great occasion may be discharged of the odious Imputation of Antichrist and that Experience hath taught us that Compulsion in matters of Religion serves many times to render Men more Teachable and willing to be Instructed And besides all this That a steady and discreet Execution of the Laws against Dissenters might happily have been a much more merciful Conduct even with respect to them then that Râ—â—nissness or Connivance which tempted them to presumptuous Sins One touch he hath also at the Kings Prerogative not like to your present reasoning which calls it into Question but by way of Allowance and Commendation for he says We owe it only to the Wisdom and Foresight of His late Majesty that some of the most considerable Laws are now in being I mean that of 35 Q. Elizabeth which He saved by His Prerogative as well as Men when it was condemned to be Abolished and if His Clemency had saved many who the Laws had justly Condemmed Why should it not save a Law that had done Him and His Ancestors no small Service and was then doom'd to an undeserved Fate I intend not to enter upon Examination of this your Advocate Treatise which is sufficiently refelled and rebuked by His Majesties Royal Declaration of Indulgence but to shew you until you give a better Evidence to the contrary then hitherto you have done how the Dissenters are to interpret Your Charity Your Compassion Your Mercy Your Clemency and Your due tenderness towards them when you have an opportunity of shewing your Inclinations without danger But I pass from this to what I intend and that is to make a brief enquiry into the weight of your Reasons which I suppose you therefore make Publick that they might be well consider'd scann'd in order thereto I have without partiallity or injury to their proper sence not Literally Transcribed but Extracted the substance of them That which hath principally induced me to this is because I think you either do not your self understand the substance of the Kings Declaration or else by your not Reading it and Mis-representing it you seem unwilling that it should be understood by any others For thus you begin I. To take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in Yet it sets open our Church Doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter Here is a far fetch'd Inference How would you be understood Suppose it granted for Argument sake that to take away the Test and Penal Laws is but one step from the introducing of Popery Is your Reading the Declaration a nearer step to the introducing of Popery then such a Repeal If you should Read it will that open your Church Doors so wide that Popery may enter without any more to do though the Penal Laws and Test should not be taken away I take the true and genuine sense of the Kings Declaration to be a setting open your Church Doors that Papists and Dissenters who have no mind to be there may not be Compelled by Temporal Penalties to come in and abide there whether they will or no For you have hitherto opened your Church Doors that you may drive them in and in force of Penal Laws to keep them there in Spiritual Bondage against their Wills and if they have at any time for above these Hundred Years adventured to start out of your Churches to free themselves from this sort of Bondage you by your Excommunication prosecuted them into Corporal Bondage without Redemption It s accounted an ill Omen to stumble at the Threshold but this you have done by calling that an opening your Doors to let Popery in which is intended only to let Papists and Dissenters out and to leave you with all that are of the Religion Established by Law in the full and peaceable Possession of your Churches and to enjoy them with Security to Perpetuity II. You say Should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would Despise and Hate us and then we may be easily Crush'd may soon fall without any Pity In reasoning thus you are either very Censorious and Uncharitable toward all Dissenters or else you greatly mistake their Temper For your reasoning herein can conclude no less then either that there is not one good Protestant among all the Dissenters or else if there be any such that they would Dispise and Hate you for doing of that which is their Interest to do themselves and to have done by all Men and by you in particular that the Justice Reason and Clemency which the King has manifested in His Gracious Declaration may be known and acknowledged by all If any other good Protestants should Despise and Hate you for it for which they have no cause yet you do not suppose that they are the Men that would Crush you and for the Dissenters though you Mis-represent them in the Close of your Letter yet herein I would do them this right to rid you of your groundless Fears You may be assured that for your Reading Pursuing the intent of the Kings Declaration which Tends both to your and their Security in Equity and Law they will not Crush you for thereby they will expose themselves to be Crush'd together with you so that I see no cause for your Fears either of Dishonour or Downsal unless you resolve to throw
been at least your tacite Plea for not stirring up or troubling your Consciences to make a Disâ—retive Judgment whether the Act of your Superiour which you are commanded to Publish were Lawful or Unlawful by the Law either of God or of the Land and to tell you the truth I do not think you are in the Eye of the Law such Criminals as on this particular occasion you would render your selves to be in case you should Read the Kings Declaration in Obedience to his Command though you did not approve the matter of it in your private Judgment it not being your Province positively to determine concerning it in point of Law You might with better pretence of Conscience if pressed to it in your own mind as an Act necessary to avoid a Sin against God after the Reading of the Declaration have taken your Exceptions to it in your particular Station then to have followed the course you have taken as it were by common consent one in the name of all the Rest thus openly to Declaim against it for that had been an Exercising of such an Act of Judgment and Reason if the cause Required it as a Minister of the Gospel might have done in reference to God whatever had been the consequence of it in respect to Men And the Prospect you had of this as you afterwards manifest does not excuse but rather condemn you for seeing better things and following the worse VII You say Our Law supposes that what we do in Obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it This is the onely Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that Commandt it becomes our own Act and we are Responsible for it If you State this as a general Case of every Subject I suppose you mistake the Law for I cannot conceive how a Clerk in Parliament Privy Council Court of Justice or Convocation who Writes and afterwards Reads openly what his Superiours have Dictated and Commanded him to Read should be supposed in the Eye of the Law to be his own Act If you mean by your Laws you being Ministers are Responsible for what you do in any other Manner then the rest of the Kings Subjects or Ministerial Officers are you should have done well to have shewed it for till that be done I know not how to Distinguish of your Case as Different from other Ministerial Clerks The onely Reason you alledge why you must not obey a Prince against the Law of the Land or the Laws of God is both Complicated and Equivocal For if you willingly walk after any Command which is contrary to the Law of God let the Authority be as you say what it will that Commands it whether of a Prince singly or a Prince in conjunction with a Parliament I grant that it becomes your own Act for which you are responsible to God But it is not so in many Cases where a Prince may Command to Do or forbear what a particular Statute forbids or appoints Because He may therein Exercise His Prerogative according to the Common Law. Besides if you being a Minister should obey the Kings and your Lawful Superiours Order and Read his Declaration by which some Penal Laws are suspended and this Act of Prerogative should afterwards come to be Questioned in Parliament to whom are you Responsible Surely not to the King nor to your Ordnary whom you have Obeyed you cannot mean thaâ— not to any ordinary Court of Justice for no Information or Indiâ—â—ment will lye against you there at the Kings Suit you must be then Arraign'd for it in Parliament or no where And if you come to be Responsible for it there I think your Rubrick established by Law and our Ignorance of any other Law will be a Sufficient Plea to excuse you For it will be a President of the First Impression I know not of any Parish Minister has ever heretofore been Question'd and Condemn'd in Parliament for obeying an Order in this Kind of His Prince or Lawful Superiour VIII Ministers are bound to take care that what they Publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor the good of the Church Ministers of Religion are not look'd upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too though they do no more then read it For is not Reading Teaching It may be it were no fault to consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to my self I am sure that is a great one I take it for granted that you have sufficiently demonstrated to all Men that Reading and not Preaching off Book is Teaching for that has been your ordinary Practice for many Years and it is true by Reading you Teach your People to understand what you Read but when that is done your People are at liberty to judge and you also in this Present Case being ordered to read what the King hath declared are at liberty to Pen a Sermon that may be a Paraphrase upon what you read before and read that in your Pulpit afterwards so as therein you do not transgress the Law of God or of the Land and by that your People may understand whether you consent to or dissent from what you have read and if your are commanded by Law to read what you do not consent to in your own Conscience and for the discharge of a good Conscience towards God let your People know so much I think you therein discharge both the Office of a Minister to Man and Duty of a Teacher to God and in such a Case tho you should afterwards be judged by Mans Law yet you may with a quiet Mind therein commend your Cause to God who judgeth righteously Be it so That Ministers are not look'd upon as common Cryers yet give me leave to say you being Ministers are look'd upon as publick Preachers or Heralds to publish the Orders of your Superiors and are no more accountable to any Man for the matter which you so publish then a Herald who Publishes the Kings Proclamation to his Subjects conâ—â—der the Consequence if the Judgment of what iâ— agreeable or contrary to the Laws of the land the Good or Hurt of the Church be left to the private Determination of every Parish Minister What will become of the Authority of their Superiours Of what usâ— is the Rubrick to which they have Subscribed which directs them to read what the King or their Ordnary enjoyns For in this Case 't is all one as I said before whether you are enjoyned to Read by an â— of State or an Act of Parliament for I think you will grant me this That the â— of an Eternal 〈…〉 t 〈…〉 t of Parliament then 〈…〉 So that in 〈…〉 〈…〉 no 〈…〉 fâ—r in your Sâ—tion to 〈…〉 it himself of Evil a 〈…〉