Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A31450
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A calm answer to a bitter invective called A letter to the late author of The preparation for martyrdom by that author.
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Cawdrey, Zachary, 1616-1684.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing C1644; ESTC R24126
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4,580
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10
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A CALM ANSWER To a Bitter INVECTIVE CALLED A LETTER to the late Author of The Preparation for Martyrdom By that Author 2 Cor. 6.8 In all things approving your selves as the ministers of God by honour and dishonour by evil report and good report as deceivers and yet true 1 Pet. 3.9 Render not evil for evil nor railing for railing but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing LONDON Printed for Joseph Pool 1683. A Calm ANSWER to a Bitter INVECTIVE c. SIR I Lately met with your Invective stiled A Letter which was published by you for some Weeks if not Months through the Nation before it came to my knowledge I suppose you designed it should do me all the mischief it could before I heard of it I have attempted a calm and general Reply by a just and true Representation of my self and that Discourse without entring upon Particulars in your Invective lest I should raise my own Spirit in any degree to that ferment of Rage under which it appears that you was when you penned it I have also speeded this away before I know what Person it is who hath thus studiously exposed me to the Rage and Scorn of common Persons and as far as he can influence hath stirred up the Magistrate to take away my Life lest knowing you I should have been tempted to answer you in your kind which I shall avoid for I have not so learned Christ Sir In the late times of Rebellion I being Fellow of a Colledge in one of the Universities was active to serve my Soveraign the glorious Martyr King Charles the First and afterwards our present gracious Soveraign in the University in the Royal Garisons and otherwhere to the best of my power I refused with detestation and never took either Covenant Ingagement or other Oath imposed by the Usurpers For this I suffered ejection out of my University-preferments and after out of my Benefice in the Countrey being sequestred and all my Goods my Money my Books yea Wearing-apparel save what was on my Back being seized Upon the happy Return of his Sacred Majesty I had amongst other Sufferers liberty to return to my Benefice to which my Generous and Loyal Patron had freely and without my seeking presented me to which also the Lord Bishop of the Diocess had granted me legal Institution and Induction but within less than six Months after Induction before I had received any Profits I was sequestred I never in my whole Life sollicited any person for any Ecclesiastical Preferment either Dignity or Benefice I have indeed had several Benefices offered me much better than that I have but I refused them being well contented with the Rectory I have which yet is scarce one of the Third-rate Benefices in the Kingdom at least as I make of it who live peaceably with my Neighbours When I returned to my Living I found several Dissenters in my Parish I indeavoured to bring them to conform and did prevail with many With those few who yet dissent for Sir there are but few whatsoever you suggest to the contrary who demeaned themselves peaceably and modestly I declined not the Exchange of any friendly and neighbourly Kindness yet still I declared publickly and to them privately my readiness to give them the best Satisfaction I could to bring them in to the Church I have both by oral Discourses and Letters maintained the lawfulness of Conformity in all the Parts of it against such eminent Dissenters in the Country as my Neighbours thought bâ—st able to defend the Cause of Nonconformity I still persist from time to time to declare my readiness to give all the Satisfaction I can to their Scruples but in the mean time I leave them to stand and fall to the Law and I my self conform to the utmost injoined by Law Nor can you or any other prove that I abate so much as a Ceremony and I thank God I conform with a well-satisfied Conscience not condemning my self in that which I allow But still I judge There are 〈◊〉 amongst the Non-Con's both loyal humble and conscientious persons nor do either your Arguments against my Charity or your Taunts perswade me to abate of it As for my Fellow-sufferers the old Cavaliers I do believe that as we ingaged and suffered for the best of Kings whose most horrid Murder like a prodigious Eclipse of the Sun astonished the World So most of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy and many of the Commonalty were of eminent Virtues and sincere Piety Nor can you without gross abusing Truth and Me instance in an Expression that is of other importance But that many of us alas too many of us were not so regular as we should have been is too sad a Truth to he denied And I pray you Sir instruct me if you can which way I might bring more Glory to God and vindicate the Honour of our blessed Soveraign the Royal Martyr and the Credit of a good Cause than by owning That it was for our Sins the Sins of us Subject that we suffered from a righteous GOD and lost a gracious Soveraign the good Josiah and for which we were given over to the will of our Enemies I am confident no pious Royalist will be angry with me for charging it there I further declare That I judge those who have Abby-Lands are as rightfully possest of them as of any part of their Estates And I know many who have part of their Estates of that Tenure to be as Pious Loyal and Generous Persons as any the Nation knows and to some of them I thankfully own my self personally obliged for their Respects and I do reciprocally love and honour them and I am confident they think so notwithstanding your perverting my words Pag. 6. as your manner is which were level'd only against drunken Atheists and Hobbists As I formerly acted and suffered for my Soveraign so I still bear him all Faith and Allegiance I constantly and heartily pray for his Sacred Majesty for his Royal Consort our gracious Queen for the Illustrious Prince his Royal Highness the Duke of York and for all the Royal Family I have oft with abhorrence declared against it as a traiterous Position and rank Popery That a Subject may on the account of Religion oppose the Rights of Princes And I make it the first warranted Cause of Martyrdom To suffer for persisting to fear God and the King and not to meddle with those who are given to change and that if we suffer because in conscience towards God we retain our Loyalty towards our Soveraign we suffer for righteousness sake Page 10 I do honour the most Reverend the Archbishopâ— and Bishops and amongst them my own most pious and learned Diocesan as the Fathers and Governours of the Church and have been instrumental to convince some who were otherwise minded That in all the Primitive Churches the Bishop was over the Presbyters and in all my Writings about
that subject I assert it For the rest of the pious and learned Clergy of this Church which are more I believe than any Christian Church in the World can shew I reverence them and bless God for them So that you might with as much shew of Truth have charged me with the Rebellion of Wat Tyler or the composing the Alchoran as with any one of the Anti-Monarchical or Anti-Episcopal Positions or Practices you have suggested against me and I am confident be you who you will I have suffered as much or more from the men of those Principles as you have All your arguing therefore is only to this purpose That I say one thing but mean the contrary I assert and prove That Men may not resist Authority in case of the danger of Religion O but say you he means They may and must resist Might you not as justly and truly have said He saith and proves That Jesus is the Christ but he means Jesus is not the Christ Sir Was either Truth or Charity consulted by you when you wrote at this rate Making my Discourse to speak direct Contradictions to it self that you might put upon it the appearance of Sedition If you had thought that those who read your Invective would ever consult the Discourse you pretended to write against there would certainly have been some restraint upon you to keep within the bounds of Truth at least of the appearance of Truth For first Let it but be supposed that the Parliament declared Truth in their Vote printed with the Form of Prayer to be used on Friday the 11th of April 1679. appointed by the King's Proclamation and his Majesties special Command which is interpretatively a Royal Attestation to that Vote Which is as followeth Die Martis 25. Martii 1679. Resolved nemine contradicente by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled That they do declare that they are fully satisfied by the Proofs they have heard That there now is and for divers years last past hath been an horrid and treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the murdering of His Majesties Sacred Person and for subverting the Protestant Religion and the ancient and established Government of this Kingdom Jo. Brown Cler. Parliament This therefore being supposed to be Truth let it next be supposed That his Sacred Majesty in further Attestation to and tender Concernment for the removal of the just fears of his Liege-People did most wisely and graciously propose by the right Honourable the Lord Chancellour in Parliament as appears by his printed Speech those most prudent and excellent Securities for the preserving the Protestant Religion under a Popish Successor whiâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—ed by his Lordship Let it next be supposed which I know you are ready enough to suppose That it was to be suspected that some factious Persons taking the advantage of these general Fears of Popery might attempt to stir up the People to fight through their Fears as your Phrase is in defence of their Religion Now then I dare appeal to any unprejudiced Person Whether an honest well-meaning Man concerned for the Peace of his Country could more effectually contribute to the quiet of the same than by perswading his Country-men first That the great and only true ground of their Fears of the subverting Religion and of other Judgments were their sins without the prevailing of which their Enemies could do them no harm and hereby he indeavours to stir up Men to timely Repentance Next by convincing them That under God's Mercy and Favour they had all possible Security for their Religion at home and Peace from abroad in his Majesties most happy Conduct of Publick Affairs and this is done without the least insinuation so much as in a syllable of any jealousie of his Majesties Royal Successor 〈…〉 And then however to keep their Fears whether well-grounded or groundless from raising any Distempers or Disorders I indeavour to instill into my Reader a love of and indeavour after that spirit of Loyalty Humility Meekness Charity and Heavenly-mindedness under the power of which the Primitive Christians lived and died And that these are the total Contents of that Discourse and the unfeigned Design of it will appear to any confiderate Reader and hath been attested to by the Letter of Thanks which several pious and loyal and learned Divines and others have sent to me on that occasion So that what I intended and others received as an Antidote against Sedition you have used all your Art to mis-represent it as Poison and have served both me and my Discourse as the bloody Inquisitors in Spain use the suffering Martyrs the Protestants there you have sowed me up in a Sambenito a Coat painted all over with ugly Devils And 〈…〉 this short Narrative and Analysis is a sufficient Vindication of me and my Discourse against your Invective which is indeed nothing else but one continued Calumny mixed with the most palpable Falshood and highest Contempt and Scorn imaginable I shall therefore committing my Cause to a righteous God indeavour to possess my soul in patience waiting for your other scouring Dose with which you threaten me tho I think and you seem to glory in it there cannot be a Dose compounded of more sublimated Mischievousness than this is When your second Invective shall come forth I will answer both this and that in all the Particulars which shall concern me if I judge that to do so may redound to the Glory of GOD and the Service of the Church and my Country otherwise I shall be as one that heareth not and in whose mouth are no reproofs In the mean time I shall continue to pray for you and the Men of your Combination if there be any That God would forgive my enemies persecutors and slanderers and turn their hearts Adding also that of the Psalmist for my self and other Sons of Peace Psal 123.4 5. Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us for we are exceedingly filled with contempt our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the conâ—â—â—â—â—â— of the proud FINIS