AN Examination OF THE CASE OF THE Suspended Bishops In Answer to the APOLOGY for them LONDON Printed for Roger Alwin 1690. An Examination of the CASE of the Suspended Bishops THere is no folly incident to the Sons of Men but has had some one Pen or other to write either in its Praise or at least Vindication And it 's natural for Men to imitate their fore-father Adam in sowing Fig-Leaf Aprons to cover their Nakedness Thence it is I am nothing surpris'd to see so preposterous so ridiculous and so illegal an Action as was the Address of the Grand Jury of Glocester at the last Lent Assizes in favour of the Suspended Bishops endeavour'd to be vindicated especially by one who had the unhappiness to be one of the Addressers himself Yet one might have thought Men of any Discretion or Sense should have rather ventur'd to put a favourable Construction on this piece of Folly in Conversation among People of the Country where it was transacted than to expose themselves of new again to the World by an Apology little better upon the matter than the Address it self It has been the unhappiness of Men of our Profession I mean the Clergy whereof I have the honour to be one that the World has in all Ages tax'd them with something of willfulness and positiveness of humour beyond the rest of Mankind And this silly impertinent Apology does certainly add to the Calumny if it be one For tho' a certain Gentleman of the Crand Jury of Glocester has had the good Nature to Father this expos'd Brat yet we know that it was a Club of our own Profession that have had the Honour of bringing it to the World as they had that of framing the Address apologised for and inciting the Grand Jury to sign it If the church were at the point of Ruin for want of the Suspended Bishops the exercise of their Offices If the Succession of our Hierarchy derived to this Day without interruption were thereby in hazard of being broken off If there were no where in England to be found Men capable to handle down to our Posterity the Doctrine of the Gospel but they then it had been not only pardonable but in some sense necessary to use all possible means and even those out of the ordinary Road in order to their re-establishment But however Great however Learned these Suspended Bishops may be we are hopeful there are no such Miseries impending upon our Church through their Suspension as the fear of them should oblige us to break through Laws and Acts of Parliament meerly for their sakes which is the thing the Grand Jury of Glocester by their Address would have the King to do I cannot but regret that these Reverend Persons who had the Honour to give a noble Testimony of their Constancy and Zeal for the Liberties of our Church and Country in the last Reign should have been so unhappy as to occasion such a Schism and so many Offences in this We justly hop'd at the first dawning of this late happy Revolution That instead of proving Stumbling-Blocks to a great part of the Nation by casting all the Dust upon our Deliverance was in their Power in refusing to acknowledge it as such They would rather have continued in their first Zeal than to have left it so soon without every acquainting the World why they did so In this we have a bright Testimony of the weakness of Humane Nature and of the Possibility of the Stars of the first magnitude their suffering an Eclipse in the midst of their Carreer of Light God forbid that in making Reflections upon this Pamphlet I add to the ill Circumstances these Reverend Bishops are in from the harsh Censures of the most of Protestants both at home and abroad and I confess my self to be of the Humour of Constantine who us'd to say If he found a Bishop in the Act of Adultry he would throw his Mantle over him But no body will think the respect I owe them as being my ghostly Fathers should forbid a Refutation of a Paper that at the bottom is Levell'd against the King and both Houses of Parliament that Suspended them and at all the rest of the Reverend Bishops and other Clergy who took the Oaths to their Majesties in Obedience to the Act of Parliament For without all question so hearty and so zealous an appearance for them who have refus'd the Oaths must be more than a tacit Reflection upon others that did so To come to the Pamphlet it self I shall only touch at the Passages of it which seem to have any weight even in the Opinion of the Author or rather Authors themselves For the canting strain and a thousand Expressions foreign to the Affair are neither worthy of any body 's reading nor answer The Title it self is Comprehensible enough and tho' the Gentleman that Fathers the Pamphlet would seem to be only or most concern'd to vindicate his own and his Neighbours their Address yet he shuffles in both in the Title page and all along the Pamphlet it self an Apology for the Suspended Bishops At first sight of this specious Title I believe other People were as much mistaken as I For I immediatley thought I had fallen upon some mighty Treasure hidden to this moment from all Mankind but the Suspended Bishops themselves I imagin'd that in this Paper we was to expect an account of all those profound Reasons which determin'd the Bishops against taking the Oaths And which Reasons the World had been in so long expectation of But alas the poor Gentlemen in stead of really vindicating the Bishops as his Title bears leaves them in a thousand times worse Case than he found them For if he had been prevail'd with not to appear thus in print invita Minerva we might have still continu'd in an awful expectation of those thundring Arguments for refusing the Oaths which these Fathers have thought fit hitherto to lock up in their own Breast Whereas on the contrary by so ridiculous and nonsensical an Apology he has given occasion to the World to think more harshly of the Cause he undertakes and to ascribe his Friends their stiffness rather to a piece of groundless sullenness than to any perswasion from Reason This Thought will be the rather natural to those who reads the Apology That all the Country about knows it was the great product of the united Brains of those sort of Men tho' they took the Oaths themselves who are indeed far greater Enemies to the present Settlement than those who refus'd them In his Dedication he begins with a Reflection on all those of a contrary Opinion to his calling them a restless Faction and at the same time he begs the question for himself in calling the Cause he vindicates Truth and Charity alas the Gentleman does not consider that the People he calls a restless Faction as being an Enemy to his Address is the whole Noble-men Clergy Gentlemen and Commons of England
insinuated that the Bishops needed a Pardon which truly they did not for they humbly pray the like Favour viz. a Pardon might be extended to their Pious Bishops particularly their Diocesan Whatever Thanks they pretend to pay the King sure I am the Suspended Bishops owe none to those Gentlemen who desire a Pardon for them when they themselves I hope are sufficiently perswaded they need none And if a Man had been design'd to redicule these Reverend Fathers it could not been better done than begging a Pardon for them that had appear'd in the last Reign with so much Zeal for the Liberty and Religion of their Country and had suffered a Confinement like that of the Primitive Martyrs under Dioclesian among Murtherers and Traytors to use our Authors own words upon that Score IV. Our Addressers have stumbled unhappily upon the Word Serving their Majesties in their several Provinces One would have thought these Zealous Votaries should rather have used the word Serving God Almighty for the Office of Bishops does more immediately refer to that than to the Service of any Earthly Monarch It 's an ordinary Expression to Serve God in the Work of the Ministry but it 's a new one to Serve the King in it And I believe these Reverend Persons will be of my Opinion The word Provinces comes in as much from the Purpose for by Provinces when referring to the Bishops of England are meant two the Districts of Canterbury and York and that of York is already happily filled So that the word Province should have been used only in the Singular Number to mean that of Canterbury now Vacant otherwise it was not good Sense But to answer this Address in one word There is no Government in the World that ever allowed Men to enjoy the greatest Offices and Dignities in it that would not acknowledge the Government it self some one way or other And there can be no greater Presumption nor Affront done the Government than for a Handful of Men to present a Petition or Address which is all one for continuing these Men in Offices which the Law and all the Rules of Policy incapacitate them for There is no Honest Man but could heartily wish these Reverend Bishops might have their Consciences satisfied in point of the Oaths but until they satisfie the Law by taking them we must regret their Misfortune without wishing them in Offices the Law cannot allow them to enjoy There is no question but whenever they shall get over their Scruples the King will shew as much Kindness to them as he has been pleased to shew One of their Coat of late upon his getting over his We have some hopes that the Pungent Reasons which prevail'd with this Reverend Parson to change his Sentiments as to the Lawfulness of the Oaths may at length prevail with the Bishops too And it 's from thence the World is in so much Impatience to see that New Convert's Reasons in Print I know not if I be obliged to follow this rambling Apologist through all the Impertinencies in the rest of his Pamphlet But I cannot enough admire the wonderful Application he makes of the Fable about the Camels getting from Jupiter crop'd Ears instead of Horns and all this our Author is at pains to relate meerly for the sake of a fine single Epithet in calling Crop'd Ears a Sanctified Dress What a Learned Man must this be that can go back the length of Esop's days only to have a Nonsensical Fling at the Diffenting Ministers whom such Learned Authors as himself have sometime for what Reason no body knows Nicknam'd Crop'd Ear'd Parsons But I would fain know of this Gentleman whither if he himself had been to ask a Boon of Jupiter it might not have been as much his Interest to desire him to crop his Ears as to give him or allow him to keep Horns the one being more visible and making perhaps a greater Noise in the Neighborhood than the other could possibly do especially if hidden by a Perriwig He spends almost all the rest of the Pamphlet in vindicating the Grand-Juries making their Address to the King and not to the King and Parliament It 's not worth the pains to consider whither they should have Address'd it to the King or to the Parliament or to both for whatever way they were to do it they were to lose their pains and to meet with that Just Disdain such a Folly deserves The Poor Man after this falls into one of the Saddest Fits of Fury against the Presbyterians that can be and no body knows what has given occasion to this Paroxism of his Was it because they condemn'd the Gloucester Address At that rate he might have with the same reason belsh'd out his Venom at the Better and Learneder part of the Church of England who have unanimously condemn'd this Address as much as the Presbyterians as being more concern'd for the Reflection such a Folly brings upon the Church But how he comes to spend so much time and so many Invectives against Doctor du Moulin for writing against some Mistakes in the Discipline of the Church of England I know not The Truth is I thought both the Man and his Book had been forgotten but it 's probable our Author is Master of so few Books that it 's no wonder he takes pains to cite so many Passages out of one that has casually fallen into his Hands There is very few I know that approves du Moulin's Heat against the Discipline of our Church but there are others of the other side nothing behind him in Invectives against the Dissenters from the Church We have had both before and of late several who have gone to that length of Animosity against the Dissenters as for their meer Sakes to Vnchurch all the Protestant Churches in Europe because of the want of the Order of Bishops among them And it 's very likely this Uncharitableness of the Church of England against the Protestants abroad and particularly of the French Church whereof Doctor du Moulin was a Member might animate the Angry Old Man as our Author calls him a little beyond his Design and beyond Reason and Decency too So that Dr. du Moulin and our Author may even forget one another since they are equally in the wrong to one anothers Party The Author Raves when he tells us the Reason why People are displeased with his Gloucester Address is because it 's in Favour of Men that are Bishops and for their being so This is a rediculous and malicious Reflection there is no body but has a great Veneration for the Order and for a great many Learned Pious and Worthy Persons that compose it But indeed our Author will have much to do to reconcile the Generality of Mankind at least Protestants to the Conduct of the Suspended Bishops It 's not because they were Bishops that this Address in their Favours was generally condemned but it was because they by their Stiffness have weakened the Hands of
the rest of their Order and Communion and as much as in them lay cast Dust upon a Revolution that retriv'd our Religion from Ruine by their not acknowledging it as such In the next Apology this Gentleman makes for these Fathers it could be wish'd in his Panagyricks upon our Holy Primate he would use a word less Monkish than that of Seraphick Austerities If one who knew not the Zeal of that Reverend Person to the Protestant Religion were reading this Article of his Encomium he would be inclinable to think the Person the Author speaks of were a Popish Bishop rather than a Protestant one We put no Value upon that the Romish Church calls by the Name of Austerities which we know they do by way of Pennance and to gain Merit and this thoughtwe know to be infinitely far from this Pious Prelate It could likewise be wish'd that in his Praises of his own Diocesan he abstain from such Romantick or Martial Epithets and Expressions as these of Glorious Exploits c. They belong to the Sons of Mars and not to the Apostles of Peace and that Reverend Person owes him no thanks for his pains But I would fain know to what use serves the reaping up the Faults or Mistakes of others in the last Reign Does the Gentleman think that because others committed unwarrantable Actions then that it justifies his and his Colleagues Follies and Faults now No sure It was never thought a good Vindication of one Man to accuse another of the like Guilt And this must be said in favour of those that in the last Reign were for an equivalent as he tells us Page 17. They were to be pitied as well as condemn'd in going any length to satisfie a Prince that whatever was his real Designs in granting them a Toleration yet they were oblig'd to him in the mean time for a Deliverance from the Clutches of a Party of Men that had made them the Butt of their Anger for a great many years together We know it 's somewhat Natural for Men to wish an Out-gate from Trouble and Persecution even at any Rate but much more when they have a Door open for it upon no other Condition but that of giving Thanks for the Favour received And I believe this was the Dissenters Case in King James's Reign whatever other unwarrantable things they might after be tempted to in order to free them from coming under the Clurches of their Enemies a second time And this colour on the Dissenters Actions will be the rather believed when coming from one that is of another Communion It 's one of the strangest things in the World to hear a Man that Vomits forth such Scurrilous Reflections upon the Dissenters in general speak so favourably of Calvin as to call him The Sweet and Angelick Spirit of Calvin If Dr. Heylin and some of the Stamp were alive it were a Ground of irreconcilable Quarrel with our Author But I confess it 's ordinary for Men of so Hot Brains as our Author to be inconsistent with themselves and therefore we 'll let this kind Expression of Calvin pass tho never so much out of purpose What a malicious ill-natur'd Reflection is that Page 18. of the Dissenters their being willing to have seen the Abomination of a Curs'd Aelia set up over the Archbishops Gate and Nuncio's Apostolick Whipping Herefie out of our Protestant Chappels I believe there are few but such as our Author who have so very ill thoughts of that People and let them be never so great Enemies to the Church of England it 's certain they are no less to the Church of Rome and the Roman Church thinks so themselves In the end of this Pamphlet this Great Champion comes to raise up a Pillar that has been lying equal with the Ground for a considerable time and to shew his Skill he falls upon the Defence of a Tenent that has been sufficiently laugh'd out of Doors long e're now What rediculous Stuff have we been vex'd with in the last two Reigns about Passive Obedience and we thought the Affair was over but this Learned Author will needs once more rouze it up out of his Grave Let the Gentleman play the Fool as much as he will about this Old Tool of Passive Obedience as all he says of can say for it has been a Thousand times exploded by better Pens I am not resolved to say over again things that have been already convincingly said against it And I must say we have reason to be satisfied of some Peoples being fond of this Principle if so be they look upon it as a binding one under the Present Government Our Author needs not terrifie us with the Bugbear of the Suspended Bishops having many Friends Page 20. and of their not incouraging them to Rise in Arms on their account There is no body I hope much afraid of these their many Friends and there are few that dread they may Disturb the Security of the Nation as he Insinuates But our Author must forgive me to tell him If these many Friends should Rise in Arms yea tho the Bishops should blow the Trumpet for such an Alarm as he words it perhaps it were nothing the worse for us for a Quash'd Rebellion Settles the Throne the Stronger The next time our Author troubles us with an Apology for the Suspended Bishops he would do well to leave out such Bragging Threats as these for be mightily Abuses thereby the Cause he Espouses and certainly the Suspended Bishops will disown all such rediculous and irritating Expressions if they were put to it He comes Dictator like to dictate to His Majesty How much Honour he would gain by this one Act of Piety in reinstating the Suspended Bishops in their former Capacities and that it would be as much as that he gain'd by his Atchievements of his Arms when he passed the Boyne I believe the Author is in one of the Railing Fits we read of wherein Men imagine themselves Kings or a Stage above them he is so free with one in that high Elevation Pray how comes he to know better than the King himself which is the properest way to gain Honor A Prince that has in all the great Actions of his Life been in quest of it should methinks know at least as well the Paths of Honor as a little private Gentleman in the Country or a few Curates or Parsons whose Brat he has Father'd It would indeed be a Metaphy sick kind of Honor to reinstate Men in a Capacity the Parliament has Incapacitated them for especially when they will not so much as give the least Assurance of their owning the Government that 's desir'd to shew them such a Favour and to break a Solemn Sanction for their Sakes But when our Author speaks of the reinstating the Suspended Bishops its being an Act of Piety I cannot but laugh at the Poor Notions of such Bigotted Creatures as he I would fain know where this Act of Piety lyes and if
it be an Act of Piety it must be a Duty and then instead of Petitioning the King to do it they should have sent in some of their Dissenting Clergy I mean Dissenting from the Present Settlement not the Church to let His Majesty see the great Hazard of omitting such a necessary and binding Duty What narrow and rediculous Notions have some People of Acts of Piety sure it 's in their opinion another great Act of the same Nature for our Author to come the length of Lambeth from his Cell in Gloucestershire meerly to seek the Fatherly Blessing of the Holy Blessed c. Primate as he calls him as being of a greater Value than those of others that have taken the Oaths and concur'd with the Present Settlement Our Author 's mentioning the Honour His Majesty acquir'd in passing the Boyne puts me in mind of the great Expectations we were in at that time of the Efficacy this Success of the Kings might have had upon the Consciences of our Suspended Clergy For we were of Opinion that it might have prov'd a Convincing Argument to remove the Scruples that could not be overcome at any time before But we are mistaken for once tho we have yet some weak Glimpse of Hopes That the Subduing of Limerick and the rest of Ireland beyond the Channon may help to open some Peoples Eyes once for all Who knows but the Sees of the Suspended Bishops may be left vacant till that time and then they may be reinstated in them without the Necessity of an Address from our Gloucester Grand-Jury or an Apology from our Author But Alas we have mistaken mightily our Author and his Partners in this Address we thought they had been Men a little out of the Road of the World and through their Confinement to the Country little acquainted with what passed on the publick Theatre which we deem'd was the reason of their venturing upon such a rediculous Address No the Gentlemen are extraordinarily acquainted at Rome and they are intimately conversant in the Popes Pallaces and in the Colledge of Cardinals For it 's there he finds the News of the Bishops Suspension was joyfully received Yea they have Advice thence That the General of the Jesuits receiv'd the Express with Triumph and surprizing Pleasure The Truth is one would be almost ready to think our Gloucester Grand-Jury had kept Correspondence with Rome and with no less than The Pope the Colledge of Cardinals and the General of the Jesuits yea that they had sent this Express our Author mentions But really I am willing to acquit the Honest Gentlemen of any such Correspondence and I believe their Acquaintance at Rome but small they talk so rediculously of things there It 's true if any body has been at the pains to talk of the Suspended Bishops at Rome they might indeed Laugh at the Measures of some Men who made a great Noise once for the Liberty and Religion of their Country and when it came to be vindicated in a publick Settlement turn'd about they neither know well whither nor wherefore I am of the Opinion we here at London would laugh heartily at the Folly of any of the Cardinals at Rome that should not concur heartily with any thing that might confirm or establish their own Order and Church but should stand out against it without telling the World wherefore And therefore we must upon the like Score even allow them to laugh at some of us here in England But at Rome there will be more laughing at some People I have Characteriz'd than at the rest of England for their Measures towards them The Italians are generally wiser than to laugh at what they would do themselves if they were in the same Case And if our Author be so well acquainted there pray let him acquaint us where in all that Country he has met with any of the Clergy enjoying their Offices and Benefices without acknowledging the Government where they lye He Summs up his Pamphlet with a New Rapsody of ill Words and hot Calumnies against the Dissenters and all them that have condemn'd the Gloucester Address for he puts them two always in one bottom The Truth is I am wearied with this Stuff and must even leave the Gentleman to fetch his Breath a little after so violent a Vomit least by stirring up this envenom'd Matter I make my self Sick as well as he But if any of the Dissenters be at pains to throw away as much time as to answer such Silly Accusatrons they may for me for I am neither concern'd nor have time to do it FINIS