Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A50967
|
The minister's reasons for his not reading the kings declaration, friendly debated by a dissenter.
|
Dissenter.
|
1688
(1688)
|
Wing M2195; ESTC R10242
|
25,456
|
24
|
the 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 but by the Method before prescribed especially iâ— such a case as is before us wherein you say It may be no fault to consent to the Declaration for if the Matter be so doubtful in it self as that it cannot be any otherwise determined to be either Good or Evil then by every Mans private Judgment by such a Rule as What is not of Faith is Sin you have exceeded your Bounds in prescribing a general Rule concerning it as a like Obligatory upon all Ministers IX You say I take the Declaration to be a contradiction of the Doctrine of our Church by Law Fstablished Oâ—r Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of thanks which our Clergy generally Resused tho it was onely to thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in his Declaration which was much more Innocent then to Publish the Declaration it self in our Churches I think my self bound in Conscience not to Read it because I am Bound in Conscience not to approve it It s against the Constitution of the Church of England which is Established by Law and to which I have Subscribed and am therefore bound in Conscience to Teach nothing contrary to it while this obligation lasts Your Terms are so general and the sâ—nse of your Arguments are so Ambiguous that tho I labour to Pick out your true meaning I am afraid of mistaking it if I do so pray R 〈…〉 iâ—ie me Candidly and Friendly because the manner of your Express 〈…〉 your self and not any wilful Error in 〈◊〉 is the cause of it You take the Declaration to be a Contradiction of the Doctrine of your Church by Law Established In what Sence shall I take your say so Is the whole and every part of the Declaration contrary to all and every part of your Doctrine by Law Established This cannot be your Meaning because you take Notice of the Kings Gracious Promises Renewed to the Church of England I can find none of the Thirty-Nine Articles Contradicted nor any of your Religious Constitutions Invaded by any thing in the Kings Declaration But Your Doctrines your Service your Ceremonies remain all the same as they were Settled and Exhibited to the late King Charles the Second by the Presidents Bishops and Clergy of Both Provinces with the same Civil Sanction for the use of them that Ever they had And besides that they are neither contradicted nor Invaded The Royal promise you mention is to Protect and Maintain his arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops and Clergy and all other His Subjects of England in the Free Exertise of their Religion as by Law Established and therefore if you would Free your Self from all Suspition of Prevarication in this Point Its incumbent on You first to shew wherein the Kings Declaration Contradicts it self and then wherein in particular 〈◊〉 Coatradicts your Doctrine and Invades your Constitution For till then your telling openly That You take the Declaration in General to be a Contradicton and against the Constitution of the Church of England in General may be taken as Intended by You to Amuse and not to Edify your Reader But what is it you mean when you say Your Reading must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which your Clergy generally Refused Did His Majesty Require You should Thank Him for his Declaration as He does that you should Read it did you Refuse to Obey Him in that tho' as you say It was more Innocent than the Other as you do in this Is this Intended as a Memorial of unmannerly Disobedience at First and undutiful Carriage at Last or what is that you signify by your Resusing to Thank Him which must now be Recompenced by Reading Do you think His Command to Publish His Declaration is of no more Weight in point of State than your passing of a complement with His Majesty in Giving Him Thanks or that the Thing He designed in His Command was principally to Solve the Want of your thankful Addresses Let me tell you this is not only a streign of Levity in Interpreting the Reason of the Royal Precept for your Reading His Declaration in your Churches unbecoming your Gravity but a Surmize of a more Dangerous consequence The King Commanded that you should Publish His Declaration in your Churches that All His Loving Subjects might Know the Contents of it And you Insinuate to them That it is to Serve instead of a thankful Addressing which before you Refused But you pass from this to Matter of Conscience and herein you shew your Self more Subtle in your Distinction of Conscience then the Learned Bishop Sanderson in all his Praelections on this Subject For you seem to have a Politick Conscience not to do any thing which by consequence may Hurt your Interest or as you Term it the Church and herein your Conscience is Guided by a frequent Review and Must ' ring up the Numbers on both sides How many may be for and how many may be against your Reading and finding by the Computation you make that the greatest Number of your supposed Friends will be Disobliged by your Reading and that more may be against it than for it This Governs you to make as much Conscience of Reading the Declaration as of Doing the most Immoral Action in Nature Your Second Distinction is of a Temporary Conscience which is to Last as long as the Obligation of your Subscription to that you call the Constitution of the Church of England lasts By what means you will reckon your selves Discharged of this Temporary Obligation of Conscience I cannot divine unless you Reckon that perhaps you may be Absolved from it by an Act of Convocation or Statute-Law But then here lies the Difficulty with me Because Your Third Distinction of the Obligation of Conscience seems to be of such a permanent Nature as no Law of Convocation or Parliament any more than the Kings Prerogative can Absolve you from For this I take to be the Genuine Sense of this sort of Conscience you mention in contradistinction from the other That you are Bound in Conscience not to Read the Kings Declaration because you are bound in Conscience not to Approve it And If you make the Invariable Law or Revealed Will of God the Rule of your Consciencious Approving or not Approving the Matter of the Kings Declaration You cannot in my Apprehension any more Approve of it or Consent to the Reading of it if it should be Established by A Convocation or Statute-Law the Law of God and the Matter remaining the same as now they are than you can Do it at the Command of the Kings Royal Will. Tenthly Possibly the People understand that the Matter of the Declaration is against Our Principles But is this any Excuse that we Read and by reading Recommend that to them which is against our Censcience and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King Commands it did we approve of the
House of Commons which was Published by Order of their Speaker Jan 10. 1680 Wherein it was resolved to be the Opinion of that House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws was at that time Grievous to the Subject a Weakening of the Protestant Interest an Encouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Your next Assertion is That an unlimited and universal Toleration has been Condemned by the Christian Churches in All Ages If you mean by this that the Christian Churches in All Ages did Assume to themselves a Power of Judging and Jurisdiction over all men that were without the Church or that the Church in all Ages did by Temporal Penalties constrain men to come into the Church or when they were there to Worship contrary to their Consciences or to Abide there when they had no Heart to do so but would Forsake their Faith their Profession or their Christian Doctrine and Conversation and also their Assemblys I think you are very much mistaken in the Christian Doctrine and Practise of the Churches in the primitive Ages Surely I may say in this as in the Rest Shew me an Apostolical Authority for such a Practise And I have so much the more Reason to insist upon this Because Christs Disciples in the primitive Age were All Volunteers Suitable to the Doctrine which Our Lord and his Apostles Taught Repentance from Dead Works and Faith in the Son of God which are Convictions and Operations upon the Mind of Man and necessary Qualifications to the being of a True Christian and the profession of them to the being of a Visible Christian and the Doctrine of Self-Denial to his Continuance in his Profession The Doctrine is plain Whosoever Will let him take of the Water of life Freely You will not Come to me that you may have life and when many of those who for some time professed to be our Lords Disciples went back and Walked no more with him That which was the Ground of the Others perseverance was that with him were the words of Eternal Life and that they Believed and knew that He was the Christ the Son of the Living God and that therefore there was none Else to whom they could Go The Apostle Foretels us That in the Latter Times some would Depart from the Faith Giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils That there would be Mâ—ckers Walking after their own Ungodly Lusts that such They were who being sensual and having not the Spirit seperated themselves and the Apostle John says Expressly that in his day there were Many Antichrists who went out from us that is from the Apostles and Churches but they were not of us For if they had been of us they would have Remained with us But They went out that it might be made Manifest they were not All of us And this the Apostle makes as the Characteristical Note by which he Knew it was the Last time Now as I cannot find the I east Mention in any One word Doctrine or Precept that any persons were or should be Compelled by Outward Force to come or continue in the Christian Church in the First Age so neither can it be agreeable to the Mind of Our Lord that any persons should be Compelled by Temporal Penalties so to do against their Minds in After Ages Unless you can shew us that the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles are not the same in After Ages that they were when they were first delivered Say you 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 Does any thing of this kind Flow naturally from the King's Declaration Does that Engage or Incline you or any Man else to teach any Doctrine contrary to his own Sentiment I take it rather to be an Encouragement to do and say sincerely what they apprehend and believe to be the Will of God relating to the Worship of himself and that your Leave is neither Asked nor Granted in my going from your Church further than this That if I be Excommunicate by you for it you cannot thereupon by your Certificate obtain as formerly the Writ De Excommunicato Capiendo to make me a perpetual Prisoner whilst the King is pleased to Suspend the Execution of that Penalty The Declaration does not Teach any of your Hearers that they need not come to Church and Worship God any more there in that Way and Manner if in their Own Consciences they are Convinced they ought so to do It does not Forbid your Teaching or Reading to your People any Doctrines or Homilies Approved of by the Church of England Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions which she Enjoyned to be Read in your Churches Four Times in a Year or any thing Else by which they may be Instructed in the knowledge or discharge of their Duty to God in your Churches You greatly undervalue your Ministry and Doctrine to suppose that there are no Arguments to prevail with your People to come to your Church but only Temporal Scourges For if you have the Truth of God on your side as no Humane Law can Alter the Nature of it so you are at Liberty notwithstanding any thing in the Declaration to Preach it to your People The Declaration is an Incitement to all the King's Subjects to Worship God and no enticement for any of them to forsake his Worship and that they may respectively serve God as the Christian Religion teaches in Holiness and Righteousness without fear His Majesty promises Equal Protection to all who do worship God in such Way and Manner as each of them Understand and Believe it is his Will they should do And in the first place gives the Royal Countenance and Protection to All of the Church of England in their worshiping of God in their Churches as by Law Established So that you make a wrong Gloss upon the Declaration in insinuating that it Teacheth your People that they need never to come to Church more or that they have the King 's Free Leave or Yours contrary to their own Minds and Consciences to forsake the Church or to go to a Conventicle or to Mass For there is nothing in the Declaration that requires gives Leave or Countenance to any man to forsake that Religion and way of Worship to which his Conscience obliges him or to Dissemble and play the Hypocrite in forsaking of any one way and in appearance to adhere to another if he do it not in sincerity but against his Mind and Conscience But we are now come to another Point at which you seem to stick more than at all the rest Say you 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 Let this Matter then as you say in your Letter