that can satisfie his Conscience to do an action without consent which the nature of the Thing the Design and intention of the Command and the Sense of the People expound to be a Consent may I think as well satisfie himself with Equivocations and mental Reservation ANSWER Here is nothing still but barely repeated Supposition together with an open and glory'd in Confession of the Ingratitude of the generality of the Church of England than which he could not certainly have bestow'd a worse Character either upon himself or his Friends Since it was an Obstinate Ingratitude that no renewances of the King's Favours could reconcile to him as proceeding from a sowre Disgust that his Majesty had granted to others the same Liberty which they enjoy'd As if all Mankind besides them were bound to groan under the continual Yoak of their Penal Laws and Tests no less Rigorous and Uncharitable To the remainder of this part the Gentleman has form'd a very substantial Answer of himself I or says he LETTER There are two things to be answered to this which must be considered I. That the People understand our Minds and see that this is matter of Force upon us and meer Obedience to the King. ANSWER Then the Refusal was a work of Supererogation the People being better instructed than all their reading could teach them and then they must fall that way by going about to instruct them by their Obstinacy who were of opinion that their Obedience would have been a far better Admonishment To which he answers LETTER 1. That possibly the People do understand that the matter of the Declaration is against our Principles But is this any excuse that we read that and by reading recommend that to them which is against our own Consciences and Iudgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King commands it did we approve of the matter of it but to censent 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 and People must be very good natur'd to think this an Excuse 2. It is not likely that all the people will be of a mind in this matter some may excuse it others and those it may be the most the best and the wisest man will condemn us for it and then how shall we justifie our selves against their Censures when the world will be divided in their Opinions the plain way is certainly the best to do what we can justifie ourselves and then let men judge as they please No men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great advantage of it against us and against our Church Religion others will severely condemn us for it censure us as false to our Religion and as betrayers both of Church and State and besides that it does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the opinion of the most charitable men can only be excused for what needs an excuse is either a fault or looks very like one besides this I say I will not trust mens Charity those who have suffered themselves in this Cause will not excuse us for fear of suffering those who are inclined to excuse us now will not do so when they consider the thing better and come to feel the ill consequences of it when our Enemies open their Eyes tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified which they will then tell us we ought to have seen before tho they were not bound to see it for we are to guide and instruct them not they us ANSWER Tempora mutantur nos mutamur in illis Time was when there was nothing more abominable more hainous or more cry'd down by the Gowned Clergy of England than Vox Populi now Vox populi is the only Suprema â—ex that guides them they have no other fears than of the Condemnations and Censures of Vox Populi Vox populi is Vox Dei and they dare not read the King's Declaration for fear of Vox populi And all this out of an Infallible Certainty that no people in England will be pleased with their reading the Declaration but their Enemies More than this they see ill Consequences in the Declaration and find Doctrines in the Declaration contrary to the Laws of God and the Land invisible however to all those vast numbers of lowd and thankful Addresters for the publishing of it Quick-sighted Synxes in their own Concerns but such as car'd so little for the Voice of the People that they never melted at the Groans of the People when they had the Scourge in their hands LETTER II. Others therefore think that when we read the Declaration we should publickly profess that it is not our own judgment but that we only read it in obedience to the King and then our reading it cannot imply our consent to it Now this is only Protestatio contra factum which all people will laugh at and scorn us for for such a solemn reading it in the time of Divine Service when all men ought to be most grave and serious and for from dissembling with God or Men does in the nature of the thing imply our approbation and should we declare the contrary when we read it what shall we say to those who ask us Why then do you read it But let those who have a mind try this way which for my part I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable provocation of the King than not to read it and I suppose those who do not read it will be thought plainer and honester men and will escape as well as those who read it and protest against it and yet nothing less than an express Protestation against it will salve this matter for only to say they read it meerly in obedience to the King does not express their dissent it signifies indeed that they would not have read it if the King had not commanded it but these words do not signifie that they disapprove of the Declaration when their reading it though only in obedience to the King signifies their approbation of it as much as 〈◊〉 can signifie a consent let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was called and then preached against it ANSWER Then it appears that the Declaration has been read and that by several Gentlemen of the Church of England also So that it appears that the reading of it is not of that dangerous Consequence to the Conscience as the Author of the Letter would pretend to For we are to have that charity for those that read it as for those that refused it that the forme had as much care for their Consciences as the latter Now then to what purpose all these Terrors and affrights of Conscience all this dread of the
censures of the People for reading it since the business admits such a positive variety of Opinion The Loyal and Obedient may read it but the Scrupulous and Refractory will not Well then if the case be so the City Clergyman should have done well to have reserv'd his Niceties and Slicing of significations to himself and not have gone about so Zealously to spread the infection of his Scruples to the discouragement of others But he has past the Rubicon and will forward LETTER To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think my self bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it ANSWER To this the Loyal Gentlemen that read it reply That if Reading the Declaration in their Churches be neither in the nature of the Action nor in the Intention of the Command nor in the Opinion of the People an Interpretative Consent to it they think themselves bound in conscience to read it because they are bound in conscience to approve it But says he LETTER It is against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts ANSWER He must of necessity allow the Constitution of the Church of England to be a strange uncharitable constition that will not allow Liberty of Conscience to any but it self And it is his misfortune that he has subscribed to a Church that wants the bond of Perfection which is the reason that many believes he mistakes the Constitution of the Church of England LETTER It is to teach an Vnlimited and Vniversal Toleration which the Parliament in 72. declared Illegal and which has been Condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages ANSWER What the Parliament Declared in 72 signifies nothing against the Authority of the Scripture which all along declares the contrary And whereas the Gentleman is pleased to say That Universal Toleration has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages There is nothing more contrary to the infinite Sayings of the Primitive Fathers and their Successors and that celebrated Maxim of Tertullian Religionis non est Religionem cogere LETTER It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free Leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass. ANSWER This is like Cardinal Wolsey Ego Rex His leave and the King 's But they are a sorry sort of People That do not know already That a Rector of a Parish is no Sovereign but that the People may come and go where they please without his Leave LETTER It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it ANSWER It seems the King's Authority signifies nothing with this City Clergyman But if he had the Authority of Parliament for it he would stretch his Conscience and Read the Declaration In the mean time The King 's Dispensive Power is no Business for a Man in his Station to meddle with Nor is he to be such a Judge of Royal Declarations as to be the Interpreter of their Meaning or Intention That Power is not within the Verge of his Desk or Pulpit either neither can the Authority of Parliament warrant any such Boldness among Ecclesiasticks LETTER It is to Recommend to our People the Choice of such Persons to sit its Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Iudgment against ANSWER Then not to Read the Declaration is to recommend to the People the Choice of such Persons as shall not take away the Test and Penal Laws as if the Peoples Election of Parliament Men depended upon the Recommendation of the City-Clergymen But the Declaration requires no such Officious Recommendation from them And therefore the Gentleman might have spared his Complement to the Nobility and Gentry LETTER It is to condemn all those Great and Worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The Favour of their Prince and a great many Honourable and Profitable Imployments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in Conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing ANSWER The Nobility and Gentry are mightily beholding to the City-Clergyman for his kind Encomiums But whether they would have thought it any Condemnation of their Resolutions in Reference to the Penal Laws and Test is uncertain for the Nobility and Gentry do not depend upon this Gentleman's Divinity their Motions and the Circumstances that guide their Actions being of a higher Nature than to care for the Condemnation of their Chaplains However if the Nobility and Gentry were so Kind to do what they did for their sakes the City-Clergyman has ill retaliated their Favour to lay the Load of his Actual Disobedience upon the Shoulders of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation But now he 's come to his Effects and ill Consequences for says he LETTER For let us consider further What the Effects and Consequences of our Reading the Declaration are likely to be and I think they are Matter of Conscience too when they are Evident and Apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely Contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2. 15. That is so to Behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under Contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves Ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being Silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them But he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue Compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves Ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly Fall and Fall unpitied ANSWER He is now wrapt up in the Spirit of Prophesie what Strange things will befal him for reading the Declaration which he calls a Betraying the Church by undue Complyances But the Prophet mistakes the Points that renders the Ministerial Office he means Ridiculous for while they keep to the Business of Sound Doctrine and meerly True Divinity there is not a more Profound or Learned Clergy in the World than
are they of the Church of England but when they will be Studying the Points of Royal Declarations which are Acts of State will be making their Pulpits the Stages of Farce and Satyr will be Interloping and Intruding into State Affairs which nothing at all concern them when they will be Teaching the King the Judges Deputy Lieutenants and all other Magistrates their Duties This is that which renders the Ministry before mentioned or any Ministry in the World Ridiculous And it is to be feared The City-Clergyman has not altogether freed himself from that Contempt in calling the Reading of the Declaration a Betraying of the Church by Undue Complyances and then Complementing the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation to Justifie his Ridiculous Language and all this to gain Popularity or to preserve the Possession of his Living under the Name of the Protestant Religion for he must not take it amiss That others dive with the same severity into his Meaning as he dives into the King's Intentions LETTER There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final Ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will Discourage or Provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any Man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by Reading the Declaration Have we not Reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already Suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a Fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any Reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Region and Interest I think I ought to make as much Conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral Action in Nature ANSWER Here we find him talking as if the Final Ruine of the Church of England lay upon the Church of England-mens Reading or Not Reading the Declaration and that by Not Reading it they had saved the Palladium's and Ancilia of their Religion And all these Rodomontado's upon bare Suppositions and Imaginations no ways compatible to Reason for it is not Rational to Believe That the Nobility and Gentlemen of England when they delivered their Sentiments contrary to what was Proposed to them concerning the Test for as to the Penal Laws 't is well known Their Judgments are much more Remiss did what they did for Fear of being Condemned by the Levites whom they feed 'T is therefore a Presumption in the City-clergyman to arrogate in the Plural Number such a Power over the Nobility and Gentry as if they were bound to Justifie his and his Friend 's particular Acts of Disobedience and could not be Safe in their Resolutions unless they were Obstinate What was proposed to the Nobility and Gentry was one thing what was commanded them was another and there is a great Difference between not Consenting to a Proposal and not Submitting to a Sovereign Command LETTER To say that these mischievous Consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary Consequences as Natural Causes have Necessary Effects because no Moral Causes act necessarily Reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the Consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be consider'd they are in this case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extremely averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather than comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a Complyance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Iesuites may find some salvo for the Kings Conscience and persuade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the as probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to Read it ANSWER These are all meer Comments and Descants of the City-Clergyman upon the Honour and Conscience of his Majesty and the evil design of the Declaration upon the Church of England drawn from Probabilities of the evil consequences of Repealing the Penal Laws and Test which the Church of England must no more part with then the Iews with their Ark without exposing themselves to utter ruine and destruction For the charitable Clergyman takes no care of any other part of the Protestant Religion so the Church of England be secure To all which if he would have but vouchsaf'd to have read the Declaration he might have found an Answer shining fully out and dispelling all the Fogs and Mists of his Probable Consequences in His Majesty's own words where he declares a second time That ever since His granting the Indulgence he has made it His principal Care to see it preserved without distinction And farther adds his Resolutions To use His utmost Endeavours to Establish Liberty of Conscience on such just and equal foundations as will render it unalterable and seoure to All People the free Exercise of their Religion for ever But this will not serve the City-Clergy-man's turn he must have the Rains of Temporal as well as Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in his own hand and drive on for ever or else there is nothing to