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A25527
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An Answer to A letter from a minister to a person of quality, showing some reasons for his non-conformity
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1679
(1679)
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Wing A3317; ESTC R15207
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17,472
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9
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swallow a Steeple either with the Spire downward lest it should prick their Conscience nor with the Tower lest the Weather Cock should appear at top and shew how the wind blows as I think the Story is fasten'd on A. B. Yet shall make no scruple of swallowing Church and Church Land nay if they are not belied have already divided the spoil and taken into their possession the houses of God not considering that as the Psalmist expresses it Ps 83.13 God hath already once made them like a wheel and as the stubble before the wind that they are not yet so sure of the time but that the wheel that lifts them up may bring them down If I say the contrary things to what I wish they were not guilty of be our unpardonable crimes we must we cannot but own and glory in our Infirmities But that I may not any longer detain your Ladyship from a particular Reply to the Letter which I profess to dedicate to you as the Minister doth his leaving it to your impartial judgment to determine of the Reasons he offers for his Non-Conformity which he grounds upon as he calls them Three grand Declarations requir'd to be made by all those who will conform the first concerning the Book of Common Prayer the second concerning taking up Arms against the King the third concerning the Solemn League and Covenant with reference to all which saith he especially the first and last I have had hitherto insuperable Objections against the making any such Declaration And in all these I shall follow him step by step in what he objects and argues against them Onely I cannot but observe the Pomp in which he dresses his Scruples and that though one of them be against the very Fundamentals not onely of ours but all Government I mean that of Taking up Arms against the King which in truth is to make good the Lawfulness of the Solemn League and Covenant 't is necessary he should assert The Covenant in its nature and design and as 't was applied and made use of by the first Contrivers of it having a direct tendency to Rebellion and for them that inbottom upon Rebellion in the State to profess and defend Schism in the Church is but suitable to the Synod's Principle of Disobedience from whom both proceed This being observ'd I now go on to trace him in the distinct Paragraphs of his Letter in the third of which he sets forth that the first Declaration concerning the Book of Common Prayer is to be made in these very words viz. I A. B. do declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book entituled The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the form or manner of making ordaining and consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons Madam here is required assent and consent yea unfeigned assent and consent and that it may be is one of his chief Scruples that he may not prevaricate with Authority were there allow'd but a little Equivocation in the case and the Dissenter permitted to give an assent and consent which were not unfeigned the Task had not been so intolerable but to require such an assent and consent as thus searches men to the bottom and beats the Hypocrite out of all his Subterfuges who can bear it And that not onely in this Book of Common Prayer but in the Book of God it self for so he argues in the fourth Paragraph telling us That he questions whether many a sober man would not scruple to declare so much concerning any copy of the Bible now extant in the world in any language whatever even the Originals themselves not excepted which by transcribing may have their faults and therefore every thing contained in them not to be unfeignedly assented and consented unto But to see then on how weak a foundation his Argument stands viz. 1. That to assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by this Book c. is to assent and consent to any Errata or faults that may escape in the transcribing the true copy 'T is I confess a new way of reasoning and such as I think a man of understanding cannot be in the least guided by for by that means there 's nothing in the world the most undoubted Articles of our Faith and unquestion'd Fundamentals of Religion I need give no other Instance than himself doth in the Bible which contains these that ought to be assented and consented to but 't is trivial to insist on such a Cavil and therefore I shall leave this to every man to consider with himself whether in matters of another nature and of the most weight concern in this World such as our Lives and Fortunes we do not think we may safely assent and consent to the contents of any writings that pass an Estate confirm our Liberties and Properties unless we likewise subscribe to the Errata which in the frequent copying out and transcribing the Records or Enrolled Deeds may happen 't is absurd to call those Errata the contents of such writings and if they were so yet neither would such a scruple affect us here because to what is contain'd is added likewise what is prescrib'd in and by the Book and unless A. B. can shew that the Errata are likewise prescrib'd in and by the Book that there is some Rubric to confirm them his Argument I am asham'd to give it that name will be altogether Captious and Nugatory Again 2. He insinuates that for any persons to require assent and consent in this manner is to suppose themselves Infallible this is the sum of his 5th Paragraph But how odious an inference is this and how destructive of the Reason of all Laws Must not by this Argument every Lawgiver be suppos'd to be infallible the end of all whose injunctions are to be assented and consented to and if Men refuse to yield the obedience requir'd they know and are to abide by the Punishment or Sanction of the Law and yet never any yet urged that against their Laws And is it any more that is done here we require not this assent and consent from all that will be Christians the Declaration reaches not Men in their private capacity but only such as shall desire to come into any public charge in the Church and if it be necessary there should be a Rule for Uniformity they thought so I am sure who devis'd and impos'd their Directory 't is necessary that Men subscribe to it subscribe to it not as an absolute Rule of Conscience but as a Rule of Peace and Order and this is all the Church requires that they so far submit their Will and Vnderstanding to their Governors as for these ends
AN ANSWER TO A LETTER FROM A Minister to a Person of Quality shewing some Reasons for his Non-Conformity AMongst the many Licencious Papers which Seditious and Designing men in this present and sad Juncture of Affairs so industriously spread abroad I find one with this Title A Letter from a Minister to a Person of Quality shewing some Reasons for his Non-Conformity and should admire how a Person of those moderate Pretensions as A. B. if I mistake not my Initial Letters hath for these several years affected to be esteemed should chuse to appear in such Company But that as it begins to be visible this seems to him and others of the same Leven to be the time to unmask themselves and shew that they are still true to the Solemn League and Covenant which how tender soever they are of renouncing it yet were not at all so when they had Power or rather Force to impose it But an intended Reformation and Purity of Religion must answer all Pleas and with Jehu they doubt not to call in others to see their zeal for the Lord though it be as his was in slaying his Master And 't is not so far out of the memory of Man to charge them with having done that once and to implore the Divine Goodness that it may never be in their Power I doubt 't is too much in their Wills to do it again However I cannot but mind them that these were the same Scruples of Non-Conformity which prepared their Consciences for it and let men dispute matters as they please let them with Hazael when the Prophet wept because of the evil he knew he would do the children of Israel that their strong holds he would set on fire and their young men would slay with the sword and would dash their children and rip up their women with child let them I say with Hazael receive their rediction of their Barbarities with the Indignity he did viz. Are we dogs that we should do this great thing 2 Kings 8.11 12 13. Yet there is nothing can more probably convince them to be such than their present barking and I heartily pray God it may not too soon come to worrying the flock 'T is the Shepherd alas they at present run so fierce at but the Sheep Fleece and Flesh too must not expect to be free from their ravenous Jaws Experti loquimur and this I am bold to charge upon the Zeal of these men who according to the account S. Paul gives of such 't would be too severe to transcribe their whole Character let them that are at leisure peruse it 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5. creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts Onely I could hope better of the Person of Quality whoever she be to whom he pretends to direct his Letter and as to one of whom I have such hopes I shall presume to dedicate this following Reply beseeching her and all true Christians that they henceforth be no more children toss'd to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 that as 't is in the foregoing Verse they would seriously bethink themselves that the way to come unto a perfect man unto the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ is to be in the unity of the faith and as the Apostle adjures them by all the names and motives of kindness Phil. 2.1 2 3. that must be by doing nothing through strife or vain glory which did men really lay aside could they at such a time as this especially when the Religion of Christ is in so great jeopardy then the Protestant Faith lies at stake and we know not how soon our Candlestick may be remov'd I am â—â—e we have Enemies enough to attempt it and what is worse Sins enough to deserve it open the breach â—â—der and pride themselves in increasing the Confusion This Madam is what I cannot but recommend 〈◊〉 â—our serious thoughts and leave it to your own Conscience to make the judgment whether had A. B. â—â—â—â—â—r weight of Arguments than I hope to make appear he hath it had been I will not say pious but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ble to blow that Coal that cannot but give new warmth to the common Adversary and increase his Pleasure in seeing his Plot thrive by our Counsels and our selves both confounded by it Madam I cannot but speak my Fears I cannot but naturally dread that the same Causes should have the same Effects How much Rome hath already triumph'd in our Divisions nor doth it heal our breach that they have as great ones among themselves our late Troubles are too sad an Instance and that they are carrying on the same Design that 't is all one to them whether we fall by their or our own hand nay this is the more glorious effect of their Subtilty we need make no doubt at all Nor can it be any Aspersion or Calumny to load our Dissenting Brethren with this Odium when 't is easie to prove that in all their Divisions and Subdivisions from the Presbyterian Independent Anabaptist Fifth Monarchy Men down to the Quaker the Priests and Jesuits of the Romish Church have been the Engins on which all their dangerous Counsels have still moved and so easie a thing is it for these Deceivers to transform themselves back again into what they were before they appeared under these Vizors that I must confess 't is what I have often thought and said to those I have convers'd with that Rome can never succeed in England but under the Mask of Non-Conformity That considering to do our selves that right we are in our Temper and Climate a serious religious People there can never be any Method so succesful for the Factors of Rome as to bring us over to themselves by teaching us to fasten the name of Papist upon the conscientious Conformist by crying down the Church of England under the name of being Popishly inclin'd though she be indeed the onely Bulwark to defend us from it The Church which the Romanists above all dread and oppose as most sure to such Principles as can never stoop to her Errors And if it be a fault that with reference to that Vnity which is neither found among the Papists or Non-Conformists if it be a crime that we cannot but be Loyal to our Prince that we cannot but live in charity towards our Neighbours that we cannot but desire that our Religion in the publick Offices of it should be intelligible neither in an unknown Language with the Papists nor as the uncertain sound of the Trumpet in the ex tempore Effusions of the Non-Conformists If it be a fault that no Pretence of Grace can teach us to Out men of their lawful Inheritances that nothing can tempt us to Sacrilege things from which I wish either Papist or Non-Conformist could clear themselves If they that cannot