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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57286	A Rowland for an Oliver: or, a sharp rebuke to a sawcy levite In answer to a sermon preach'd by Edward Oliver, M.A. before Sir Humphry Edwin late Lord Mayor of London, at St. Paul's Cathedral, on Sunday October 22. 1698. By a lover of unity.	Ridpath, George, d. 1726.	1699 (1699)	Wing R1462A; ESTC R219686	15,209	25

A Rowland for an Oliver Or a Sharp REBUKE TO A Sawcy Levite IN ANSWER To a Sermon Preach'd By EDWARD OLIVER M. A. Before Sir Humphry Edwin late Lord Mayor of London at St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday October 22. 1698. By a Lover of Vnity Printed in the year 1699. and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster AN ANSWER TO Mr. Oliver's Sermon IT was a Circumstance peculiar to the Deliverance of the Children of Israel out of Egypt that not so much as a Dog moved his Tongue against them and such a Circumstance perhaps as the Church is in no Age to expect the like The King and Parliament have thought fit to set the Dissenters at Liberty and to give them a Manumission from their more than Egyptian Taskmasters in which every true Protestant rejoic'd as hoping that it might be an effectual Preparative to unite Protestants among themselves at home and that it would tend to confirm and strengthen the Protestant Interest abroad But a certain Party of the Church of England have notwithstanding the concurrence of the greatest and best of her Bishops in settling the said Liberty by a Law been always uneasy and peevish since and constantly bawling against Dissenters and not content with a Badg of servitude still fix'd upon them by which they are excluded not only from all Ecclesiastical Preferments or Benefices but from all places of power and trust in the Civil Government nothing will satisfy them except they have liberty to bite and devour their dissenting Brethren as in former Reigns And it 's very well known not only what heavy Censures his Majesty has lain under by that Party because of his Fatherly Protection granted to Christians of all Denominations but what Obstruction they laid in the way of his Affairs in Council Parliament Army and Navy nay how uneasy the● have made him in his very Houshold so th●t it would seem highly necessary that a due Enquiry should be made by what secret Springs those Persons are acted that continue thus to foment Divisions amongst us It is worthy our observation that this spirit of Discord at home seems to be invigorated and gather strength at the same time when the spirit of Persecution rages afresh against the Protestants abroad It is not at all to be doubted but as C●in was stir'd up against his Brother Abel by that wicked one that all his Successors in Persecution are still influenc'd by that same malignant Spirit who hath been a Murderer from the beginning but at the same time it cannot be denied that Satan makes use of Men as his Instruments to sow division and discord Nor is it unworthy our Observation that as the Papists abroad and our implacable Ceremony-mongers at home have their Spirits fermented at one and the same time it is also in a great measure for one and the same Cause viz. because they cannot bring all Men to submit to their Ceremonies and Modes of Worship of human Institution and in truth of the two our English Formalists seem to be the least excusable because they own themselves not to be infallible disown human Tradition as a Rule of Faith and in all their Controversies with the Papists make use of the same Arguments against the Church of Rome that we make use of against the Ceremonies and Discipline of the Church of England They are still the more blame-worthy because formerly they laid the charge upon the Government that these things which are the subject of discord were still continued amongst us but now that we have a Prince who hath solicited that his Subjects might be united and those things that are the Cause of Contention remov'd they are so far from complying with him in it that they are ready to fly in his face upon that account This if we may believe Dr. Burnet the present Bishop of Salisbury who cannot be suspected of partiality in the case was far from being the temper of the Church of England-Bishops at least the best of 'em in Queen Elizabeth's days that Learned and Moderate Bishop in his Letters containing an Account of what seem'd most remarkable in Switzerland Italy c. p. 42. says He saw the Originals of Letters writ by several of the English Bishops to Bullinger at Zurich in Queen Elizabeth's time whereby it appears that the antient habits were preserv'd rather in compliance with the Queen than out of any liking they had to them That Bishop Jewel that great Ornament of the English Church in a Letter Feb. 8. 1566 wishes that the Vestments together with all the other Remnants of Popery might be thrown out of their Churches and out of the Minds of the People and laments the Queen's fixedness to them In January that same year Bishop Sands wrote to the same purpose Contenditur de Vestibus papisticis utendis vel non utendis dabit Deus his quoque finem Horn Bishop of Winchester July 16. 1565. regrets the Act concerning Habits and expresses some hopes that it might be repeal'd next Session of Parliament if the Popish Party did not hinder it In many Letters on that subject 't is asserted that both Cranmer and Ridly intended to procure an Act for abolishing the Habits Bishop Grindal in a Letter of Aug. 27. 1566 writes that all the Bishops who had been beyond Sea at their return dealt with the Queen to let the matter of the Habits fall but she continued inflexible and Cox Bishop of Ely one of the most violent Men of the time in one of his Letters bewails the aversion they found in the Parliament to reform those abuses Then by the Testimony of these Great Men who may well be called the Fathers of the Church of England it appears the things in controversy betwixt us are Popish Remnants and that the Popish Party did then hinder the Acts concerning them to be repeal'd And it is very well known that these things have been continued ever since and some Additions made to them by the Influence of the Popish Party who were rampant in the beginning of Charles the First 's Reign and had no little Interest at Court and in obtaining the Act of Uniformity after the Restoration of K. Charles II. This being uncontrovertibly true we have reason to believe that the same Party in concert with the Jacobites are still the Incendiaries and make it their business to add Fuel to our Flames but we have this Happiness that they cannot now as formerly make Tools of the Court and by his Majesty's prudent Conduct the highest places in the Church are many of them fill'd with Persons of a more generous and Christian Temper than to comply with such angry ill-natur'd Men that would again sacrifice the peace of the Nation to their own peevish humours It remains then that the Tools they now work upon are some of the inferiour Clergy and such of the dignified ones as are perhaps discontented that they are not elevated to an higher Dignity from them or the

professed Jacobites proceed those virulent Invectives that have of late by a superfoetation of Malice been brought forth into the world against Dissenters by the timing of the thing it would seem they have a design to render them odious and obnoxious to the ensuing Parliament and if they can but prevail to have their Liberty taken off or restrain'd then they know that the Nation must be unavoidably thrown into new Convulsions that a great part of the Subjects who have been so useful and well affected to the present Government will be thereby deliver'd up into the hands of their and its implacable Enemies that the Episcopal Party in Scotland who are avowed Enemies to his Majesty's Person and Government will be thereby encourag'd to embroil that Kingdom afresh that the People of the North of Ireland to whom all Britain ows so much will also come under the lash and so by an universal Confusion at home whilst the Protestants are ungratefully persecuted by their Allies abroad the way will be pav'd for the return of the late King James This appears plainly to be the natural Tendency of those ill-tim'd Divisions that are so industriously fomented amongst us To this end are all those Alarms to the true Sons of the Church directed and their imminent danger from the Presbyterians their Imperium in Imperio and the erecting of their Classes inculcated What a dreadful noise for this end have some Persons made about a harmless Letter directed from a Presbyterian Minister in Newbury to another importing a design among the Protestant dissenting Ministers throout this Kingdom to advance the Interest of Religion and Reformation of Manners What malicious Reflections have there been made upon that Letter by men of different Kidneys What frightful Ideas do some men endeavour to possess the minds of the Nation with against the Presbyterians in a late virulent Pamphlet call'd An Apology for the English Presbyterians What strange Insinuations and imbittered Reflections does that Libel contain against the Church of Scotland and the Classical Presbyterians and who can doubt of the mischievous design of all this malicious Clamor when they know that the Papists and Jacobites raise the Hue and Cry on the one hand and L. and F. with Sir R. L. raise it on the other what pleasant game would it afford to the French King and the late King James to see the Church of England set on by this means to hunt down the Presbyterians they are indeed the noblest Quarry but if the wild Boar get once into the Forest can the other Parties hope to escape Yes why not L. would once more be of the Cabinet Council at Whitchal and the Cardinal Protector of those of his Order But I shall leave that honest Triumvirate to go on with their Consult in High-Holborn and heartily wish that none of 'em may ever have occasion to go any higher I return again to our Church of England Friends it being high time to give one of 'em a Rowland for his Oliver It seems if Youngsters be once advanc'd to Fellowships in Colledges and honour'd to wear Scarfs as Noblemen's domestick Chaplains and to this have added the Title of Master of Arts that they may then take the liberty to preach what they please and to reflect upon those who have the Liberty of their Worship allowed them by Law as well as themselves whether that be answerable to that deference to Magistrates which Mr. Oliver preaches up so much in his Sermon to throw such squint Reflections upon our Legislators and to upbraid one of the greatest Magistrates of the Nation to his face for doing that which is allow'd both by the Laws of God and the Land let him look to it If his Heat had not been greater than his Judgment he ought to have consider'd that one of the chief Arguments for Ceremonies was that being indifferent in themselves yet when commanded by the Magistrate they ought to be complied with this he will find to have been the opinion of those great Bishops formerly mentioned in Q. Elizabeth's time as will appear by the Letters before quoted Mr. Powel de adiaphoris Tilen's Parenaesis Paybody's Apology c. and therefore seeing the Magistrate hath taken off those Laws that enjoin'd the practise of those indifferent Ceremonies according to that Argument no man is now oblig'd to comply with them Therefore as Mr. Oliver's Reflections savour nothing of that Universal Charity he tells us our Blessed Redeemer came into the World to Teach ●he cannot expect tha● his Doctrine will be able to remove the stiff Prejudice of those he pretends to Convince as our Saviour's Doctrine convinc'd the S●mir●t ●n Woman Page 3 of his Sermon he says Though I believe there is ●either Jew nor Samaritan to convince in this Audi●ory yet we have th●se I fear s●metimes to deal with who ●●de such a M●d●y of Religion that they are near as danger 〈◊〉 to the Tru●h of it For so do●●ine Romanists confound their Will-worship and Ido●a●ry with the Essentials of Christianity that they take b●th from its Truth and Spiritual●ty So do oth●r Dissenters from us mistake the true Notion of its Spirituality that they d●●rgute from the very Essentials of our most Holy Rel●gi●n and would go a●out to perswade us its Truth consist●d in meer Aivy Notions and Wild Enthusiamsms By Mr. Oliver's leave it seems there was something of a Jew in the Pulpit lif there was none in the Auditory for he seems himself to be for some of the Jewish Ceremonies and perhaps it may be no diskindness to him if he did a little partake of their Circumoision too for his Heat certainly wants a Cooler and that would do it for so●e day●●t least Whethe● he has any thing of the loose Temper of the Samaritan Woman in his Text or not I know not but something of her Ignorance I am sure he has and if to that he will add her Confession of Sins he may plead a Right to that Advantage which he tells us pag●● Ig●orance and a Confession of Sins have above an affected prete●●● to Knowledge and ● Counterfeited Z●al Well it seems he thought he had some Papists and Dissenters in his Auditory the Truth of which I know not for indeed I was not there to see but I am of Opinnion there was something of a Papist in the Pulpit too ●n for I find him a mighty Zealot for those Ceremonies which we have so lately heard some of Queen Elizabeth's ●●●●ops accounted Popish 〈◊〉 And others of his ●●rty have acknowledged That the Ceremoies are i●convenient but yet to be obser●●d for ●o●●e and that Offence and hindrance to Edification do arise from those Ceremonies according to Dr. Burgess in his Answer to the Reply Pref. p. 43. And Mr. Sprint Reply to the Answer p. 270. And Cassand Anglican pag. 46. Came●● a Man of great Note and Friend to our Author's way says expresly in his Popish Prejudices c. 10. That so admirable was the simplicity