Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A47912
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A reply to the reasons of the Oxford-clergy against addressing
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing L1297; ESTC R21996
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10,863
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20
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Queen Elizabeth and King James and Charles I. relating to this very thing do sufficiently declare that such is the Plenitude and Fulness of the Kings Power in matters Ecclesiastical that he can by his Ecclesiastical Commissioners make new Laws concerning Rights and Ceremonies and impose new Articles on the Clergy requiring their Subscription on pains of Suspension and Deprivation Before the 13. Eliz. c. 12. Subscriptions were enjoyn'd by the Regal Power and tho this Statute requir'd Subscription yet it being to the Articles of Religion which only concern the Confession of the true Christian Faith and the Doctrin of the Sacraments compriz'd in a Book Imprinted and Entituled Articles c. 'T was deemed by the Bishops to be insufficient who therefore apply themselves to their Prince that by her Majesties Power Ecclesiastical they might enjoyn a fuller Subscription which accordingly they did appointing Subscription not only to the Articles of Faith and Doctrins of the Sacraments but unto the Government the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church and such as refused this larger Subscription tho they would readily subscribe as by the Statute requir'd were suspended and depriv'd And has not his present Majesty the same Power Queen Elizabeth had Why then may he not make new Laws about Ceremonies and require Subscription to new Articles Besides i'ts acknowledg'd that whatever Power Ecclesiastical the Popes did de facto exercise in this Kingdom according to the Canons that same Power de jure belongs to our Kings and ' it s also granted That the Canons of General Councils and the Decrees of the Roman Pontifs so far forth as they have been receiv'd by the Permission of our Kings and ancient Custom are still in force and that these Canons are daily violated by our Clergy cannot be denied especially in the matter of Pluralities which cannot be held but by a Dispensation from the King or at least by his confirming the Archbishops And will any say that tho the Dispensation by which any of our Clergy hold their Pluralities is deriv'd from the King yet the King cannot revoke them Or may not his Majesties Ecclesiastical Commissoners make Enquiry after those who have above 8 l. per Annum and by a Dispensation hold a Second Benefice and judge of the First Benefice not according to the Value in the Kings Books but according to the very Value of the Church as has been formerly adjudged or as is in the Argument for addressing may not the Treasury demand a Review of the First Fruits according to the full Value In a word may not the King send out a Quo Warranto against the Bishops and demand by what Power they hold Courts in their own Names and finding nothing but Prescription to be their Plea which can be no Bar against the King sufficiently humble our Clergy And seeing his Majesty notwithstanding the many Provocations he has met with from some of our Clergy is so far from Exercising this Power against our Church that on the contrary he is so unexpressibly gracious as to promise his Protection have we not the greatest Reason gratefully to acknowledge it to the King Their affirming these Addresses to copy out only Fanatical Loyalty and Gratitude is so very indecent that we think it unworthy of further Notice judging their Confidence also about the Impossibility of Repealing their Laws to bear some Proportion to the Extravagance of their Censure The PAPER SECONDLY That it seems our Duty to maintain Unity with our Bishop requiring it and perhaps expecting it upon our Canonical Obedience there being nothing praeter licitum honestum ANSWER As to the Bishop 't is conceiv'd that this is no Instance of Canonical Obedience nor is the Duty of our Unity with him apprehended to be such as disunites us from the most the best and soundest of the National Clergy who we think ought not and we believe will not move in an Affair which concerns the whole Church equally without their Metropolitan and his Bishops Neither hath our Bishop shewed any Pastoral Regard to us unless it be in a treating us like Children in a very weak and passive Minority by requiring our Submission to an Address formed and worded to our Hands without our Knowledge not leaving us the Liberty and thinking us able to express the Sense of our Acts or Hearts â—nd therefore till Bishops upon their Consecration declare what Faith they are of as they did in the Primitive Church for which the Reasons are the same as then to maintain Unity with a Bishop without Caution is a Principle that may lead us further than we ought to go REPLY 1. There being so much Reason why our Clergy ought to make their Address of Thanks to the King it would be very strange if such a Practice cannot be found amongst the Licita and Honesta of our Church and if it comes within this Pale and the Ordinary commands it it 's beyond us to conceive how Disobedience in the Clergy can escape the Guilt of Perjury For the Oath express'd in the Instrument of the Clergies Institution is in these words Te Primitùs de legitima Canonica Obedientia nobis Successoribus nostris in omnibus licitis honestis Mandatis per te praestanda exhibenda ad Sancta Evangelia ritè juratum admittimus So that they are sworn to perform Lawful and Canonical Obedience to their Ordinary in all his lawful and honest Mandates The Bishop then commands 'em to thank the King for his Grace and Clemency in a matter for which once heretofore they did it Is this Lawful or Unlawful Honest or Dishonest Not Unlawful nor Dishonest because when the King declared only to the Council he would protect the Church of England they then judg'd it their Duty now the King doth but make the same Declaration to the whole Kingdom and if not Unlawful and their Ordinary commands it they are bound by their Oath to obey how then can they disobey and not be at least forsworn But 2. How comes it to pass that their Obeying their Ordinary disunites 'em from the most the best and soundest of the National Clergy What! are the whole Clergy so insensible of the Kings Grace that they 'll not acknowledge it what a prodigious Change is this And why must they not rather regard their own Ordinary than the Sense of others If the matter requir'd be as we have prov'd it to be Lawful and Honest do they make nothing of an Oath and is Church-of England Unity in danger of being broken That surely is ominous and no doubt will open the Mouth both of Papist and Protestant Dissenter Is the Church of Englands Case so desperate that they must either be ungrateful to their Prince or be divided amongst themselves Furthermore 3. Their Bishop shews no Pastoral Regard to 'em unless it be in treating 'em like Children by requiring their Submission to an Address worded to their Hands not leaving 'em the
A REPLY TO THE REASONS OF THE Oxford-Clergy AGAINST ADDRESSING Publish'd with Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1687. A REPLY TO THE REASONS of the OXFORD-CLERGY AGAINST ADDRESSING SIR THE Copy you sent us of some Reasons for Addressing with an Answer to 'em and several Arguments against it drawn up by the Oxford-Clergy doth most extreamly afflict and surprise us for what Man of Sense could in the least imagine that our Clergy who once had obtain'd the highest Applauses for their Loyalty should at last do any thing that may seem to justifie the Insinuations of those who always said That Church-of-England-Loyalty would continue no longer than the Prince was of their Religion For now it looks as if our Loyalty must be no longer liv'd than our Church is in a Flourishing State why else do our Clergy thus Remonstrate against rendring His Majesty their humblest Thanks for the Assurances He has given 'em of Protection in the Free Exercise of our Religion and in the full Enjoyment of their Ecclesiastical Possessions Don't they know that they are owing to His Majesty's Grace for this much and that unless His Majesty had embrac'd that most Christian and Heroic Principle That Conscience ought not to be constrain'd and had also excell'd all his Royal Predecessors in Clemency he could never forgive the Church of England by whom so many Sanguinary Laws have been made against Men of His Religion or have forborn the Exercising that Prerogative in Matters Ecclesiastical which our Church hath often recogniz'd to be Inherent in the Crown and by which our Church may be in a great measure Legally subverted What then can be more manifest to a Person of the least Thoughtfulness than that Our Church is infinitely oblig'd to His Majesty for Her present Standing Or what more certain than that She is most disingenuously ungrateful if She acknowledges not so much This Paper therefore which is sent abroad on purpose to ensnare the Members of our Church must not escape our Animadversions and that we may the more effectually prevent it s design'd Mischief we will lay down every Argument in the Words of the Paper and endeavor that our discussing 'em may be with the greatest Evenness and Moderation In the First place then we must make our Remarks on the Method taken to abuse the Reader by proposing but Two Considerations and that very lamely too for Addressing but as many more with all the Advantages imaginable against It thereby tempting the Unwary to conclude That the rendring His Majesty their Thanks was a thing most Ridiculous However we 'll propose those feeble Arguments that are for Addressing with the Clergys Answer and try whether it 's so easie a Matter to blow 'em off the Stage as these Gentlemen would have us think Reasons for this Address may be Two. FIRST That it may continue His Majesty's Favor and the Omission may irritate the Treasury to demand a Review of the First-fruits to the full Ualue upon the Fifth Bond. The CLERGIES ANSWER As to the Kings's Favor if the known Loyal Principles and Practices of the Church of England which evidenc'd themselves one would think so acceptable to this Prince in the Instance of the Exclusion and Monmouth will not secure us so not this Address which only copies out Fanatical Loyalty and Gratitude can continue it Yet our Thanks at this time might not seem improper if the Favor of continuing the Laws to us which perhaps with all the Endeavors to the contrary cannot be Repeal'd were as great as the Repealing those for the Dissenters Sake which the Presbyterian and Independent Addresses say His Majesty will engage His Parliament to and for which they principally give Thanks OUR REPLY 1. These Gentlemen think they have done enough already to merit the Continuance of His Majesty's Favor because some of 'em were against the Bill of Exclusion and endeavor'd the Suppression of Monmouth not considering how many of our Communion were the Active Persons both in the Matter of the Exclusion and Monmouth It 's true at that time some were very Loyal and but some Consult the late King 's Narrative and observe the Rise and Progress of that Conspiracy and you will find 't was from First to Last begun and carried on by Church of England Men For tho the Fanatics had their Hand in it yet they were not the Only nor the Chief Actors If you go back so far as the Excluding Parliament they were Five to One Church of England Men. Or if you look on the Contests about the Sheriffs you will find the Church of England to be the Chief in that Transaction and in truth no one that had been a Dissenter could act as a Sheriff or Common-Council-Man until he had forsaken his Communion with the Dissenters and incorporated himself with our Church So that whatever they did in these Public Capacities they did it not as Dissenters but as Members of the Church of England Come nearer home to the late Rebellion and consider who were the Heads of it and 't will appear that they were of the Church of England Or go down to Winchester where were above Four hundred of the Meaner sort and except Twenty or Thirty all declare themselves to be of the Church of England Or read Julian a Church of England Divine in which the Doctrin of Non-resistance is so much exploded and you may soon be convinc'd that the whole is said for Resistance is only for the Encouragement of Church of England Men to fight in Defence of the Religion by Law Establish'd not a Word to affect a Dissenter whose Religion is by Statute-Laws condemn'd So that our Church must take the Shame of all these things to her self and confess she has more reason to insist on his Majestie 's Grace than her own Merit for the continuance of the King's Favour But 2. It is granted by these Gentlemen That if the Favor of continuing the Laws to us were as great as the repealing those against the Dissenters it might not be improper to give Thanks So that it s confessd to be but just in the Dissenters to make their Addresses And we doubt not but that we shall make it manifest that such is the present State and Constitution of the Church of England that it 's as much in the Power of the King to humble our Clergy as 't is to comfort the Dissenter and that our Clergy are as much owing to the Kings Grace for the present exercise of their Religion and Enjoyment of their Possessions as the Dissenters are for the Indulgence We mention not this to lessen his Majestie 's Favor to the Dissenter but that you may see the Transcendency of the Kings Grace to our Church The several Acts of Parliament recognizing the King's Supremacy in matters Ecclesiastical the Doctrin of the Church of England seen in her Articles and the Histories of