Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A28824
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The minister of Richmond's reasons for refusing to subscribe the association but under the following sense with reflections thereupon / by a minister of the Church of England in a letter to his friend.
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Borfet, Abiel, 1633?-1710.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing B3763; ESTC R35775
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6,577
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8
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The Minister of Richmond's Reasons For refusing to Subscribe the ASSOCIATION But under the following SENSE WITH Reflections thereupon By a MINISTER of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In a Letter to his Friend RICHMOND April 3. 1696. MY answer to the second asking my name to the Association to Mr. Singer Bodicoate and Smithyes who made the first demand I know not who they all are that I am asked to Associate with But if they be 1. As many of the Vniversal Mobb as are willing to joyn their names with mine whose Bells and Bonsires have never failed hitherto to Argue and Dispute pro and con with equal Blaze and Noise or if they be II. The Kirke of Scotland who sold their Royal Refugee K. Charles the I. into his Enemies hands or if they be III. Voluntary Addressers with Lives and Fortunes both of them hitherto never touch'd or ventur'd first to Charles the I. in the Protestation and in the Solemn League and Covenant then to the Rump Parliament then to the two Cromwells then to the Rump again then to the Committee of Safety afterwards to Charles and James the II. into whose Association I thank God I never entred before or if they be IV. Any of the Circumcision who will be sure to forsake King William when their expected Massias Appears I fear that by puting my name to the Association now a foot in such Company as aforesaid I shall bind my self in the sense of an honest man to such uncertain Creatures as will not be firmly bound to me but will leave me in the lurch as they have left others their Associates heretofore and incase they shall hereafter break and divide into two Contrary and Hostile Parts or Factions that both sides will with equal reason expect I should joyn with them by virtue of my having entred into an Association with them For which Cause before I do it it were wisdom to take as much time as the Law allows me for enquiring more perfectly who my Associates are and in the mean time to continue King William's most faithful Subject as my Oath of Allegiance obliges me to be which hitherto has been exactly observed But hearing that some of you were at my house again to day for a more speedy answer and finding also that several of my best beloved and most honoured Parishioners have done the same without demur and by consequence can put such a tolerable sense upon the words as I have found it hard to do For these Reasons being willing to suffer in so worthy Company by the foreseen Knavery and falshood of other our fellow Associates I have taken the more pains to hunt out for some good sense that the words may be capable of And therefore in that sense I am ready to put my Name to the Association whensoever you shall ask it which sense is as here follows in three Articles I. By these words true and I awful King I mean while he shall continue to be owned for such by the three Estates of this Realm freely and fully assembled in Parliament for I have no other skill of such Rights and Titles II. By the King's Enemies which I promise to be revenged of if it lies in my power I do not mean all those whom some of my fellow Associates may think or call his Enemies for so they have called me their fellow avenger for one But whom my self not only suspect or believe but know and can prove to be his Enemies III. By promising to be revenged on them to my power I do not mean tho it were in my power to kill or hurt one of them because all Religions teach Revenge to be a sin in a private person according to that precept of St. Paul Revenge not your selves but only that if I be Commissioned by the Publick Magistrate whom the same Apostle calls an Avenger to execute wrath to bring the King's Enemies to a legal Tryal That so Justice may be done them I will discharge my Office in such deligated Revenge Witness my hand Reflections one the Minister of Richmond's Reasons c. MAY 1. 1696. I Had yours last Post wherein you desire my thoughts of the Minister of Richmond's Paper delivered at your Quarter Sessions But I must tell you that I look upon my self to be as unfit to Reflect on it as 't was for him to write it 1. Because of my great distance and unacquaintance with the Man and his History and Principles Conversation and Communication which to understand might furnish a Reflector with great advantages whereas I know no more nor ever heard any more of him than that he is the Minister of Richmond who you say wrote such a Paper and so whether I may use him too sharply or too gently I cannot so well judge 2. Because the matters of State which are his Subject are the farthest from my Studies And for such things I submit my self to the Information of those whose Profession and Talent it is not so much as pretending my self to any accuracy therein For you know I lye low here in the Country obscurity seldom looking out of my little Parish or so much as seeing any Accounts of the Publick News but what you now and then transmit And 3. Because at this time I am taken up with business that sets my Thoughts on working quite another way so that I am more than ordinary indisposed for the undertaking wherein you would engage me Yet when it is to comply with the request of a Friend and also to shew my forwardness to do any thing that I am able for the service of my Dear as well as Dread Soveraign King William to whom as I am a Protestant Subject I cannot but own my self more obliged than to any Person in the world and for whom I lately entr'd the Association as formerly I took the Oath of Allegiance without the least hesitation I will adventure to say somewhat which tho Mean and Dilute my pass between you and me as well as some Answers and Reflections which I see even in Print particularly what you last sent me that run at a low Ebb and do not say half that might be said nor with that Acumen and Quickness which an Ingenious Man would wish 'Till the thing then be better done which I doubt not but we shall shortly see from some of the Town Pens I will make a little bold with my Reverend Brother Tho he seems to be a man of Accomplishments above my Level and too nimble for me at Disputation yet I do not fear the honest Defence of a good Cause against any one let him be never so much to big for me in other respects Nor do I think I ought to spare one of my own Sacred Calling when that Calling gives him the sad advantage of poysoning the more People with such wild Tenents as are distructive to all Government As you and I and the world too well know what service to their Countrey too many of