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A34754
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The countrey-minister's reflections on the city-ministers letter to his friend shewing the reasons why we cannot read the King's declaration in our churches.
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Countrey minister.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing C6561; ESTC R7155
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9,928
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10
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Very good What then I may not Read any thing in the Church but what I approve But are not the People Judges for themselves of what you Read It is not your Reading a thing in the Church that Determines the People unless they pay the Clergy a greater Deference than they deserve After all your Reading and Teaching too be it in a Sermon of your own making which no doubt you prefer much above His Majesty's Declaration Protestants will not follow your Conduct any farther than they are Convinced it is good A Man is not Determined by what he hears otherwise than by the Evidence he hath concerning it Now it would almost tempt People to believe the Declaration hath so much Reason and Light accompanying it as Our Clergy cannot well Answer and that therefore they are afraid to read it least the People should be Convinced and not follow their Conduct so servilely as they would have them But Why may I not then Read a Homily for Transubstantiation or Invocation of Saints if the King sends me such Let the Question be Whether every thing Read in the Church be a part of Divine Service And then if you Consider and Answer it sedately you will find your own Question Resolved If you can prove the Declaration to be contrary to the Word of God I will have no further Contest with you about Reading it in the Church I wish no humane Orders were imposed upon Ministers to be Read in the Church But if any Persons have right to enjoyn them to Read such Orders there certainly the KING has much more The King intends Our Reading this Declaration should signifie to the Nation Our Consent and Approbation of it What have Clergy-men to do to pry into the King's secret Intentions The Declaration speaks plainly for it self But the Dâ—claration does not want Publishing How can you tell that Must the Clergy or His Majesty judge when His Declaration is sufficiently made known But this is designed to serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which the Clergy generally refused though it was only to thank the King for His Gracious Promises Renewed to the Church of England Many of the Clergy have been looked upon a great while as Persons Addicted beyond Measure to flatter their Prince and behold all on a sudden they are become Rude towards him or worse if they may not have leave to Mischief their Dissenting Neighbours they will not thank their Prince for renewed Promises to Protect and Maintain them Was ever ill Manners and Ingratitude towards a Prince thus rudely and disingeniously boasted of Who can think these Persons apprehend themselves to be in danger of falling without Pity who brag thus openly of their Stoutness that they would not so much as give their Prince Thanks for the most Gracious Promise he could make them You say It does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the Opinion of the most Charitable Man can only be Excused In this I think you are very much in the Right I wish the Multitude to whom your Letters are sent may fix their Hearts on this pertinent Passage No Charity can Excuse at present a great many of your former Practises nor will they find any Excuse at last if not timely repented of If you had hitherto Acted by this Rule you would never have needed to fear your Fall with Contempt or without Pity You mention the Book of Sports which wâ—â— ordered to be read in Churches I will not say how strict the greatest Church-men were for Reading of it nor how well it did Comport with the Fourth Command I only enquire whether the present KING has not as much Right and Power to Order his Declaration to be Read in Churches as King Charles the 1st had to order the Book of Sports to be Read there And which of these two did Thwart the Holy Scriptures most You say It is against the Constitution of the Church of England It is to teach an Vnlimited and Vniversal Toleration which was Declared in Parliament Illegal in 1672 and has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages The King's Authority to make Injunctions and Orders has been heretofore cryed up as a main part of the Constitution of the Church of England How comes this Change all on a sudden But what is this Universal Toleration No more but this That no one Party of His Majesty's Subjects shall be trusted with a Power to destroy all the Rest Will nothing serve your turn unless you may continually render your selves grievous to your Fellow Subjects Must none live and enjoy the comfortable Influences of Society and Government but those who will entirely surrender themselves blindly to your Dictates Methinks Sober Understanding and good Clergy-men should be afraid lest any of that which was Levi's Reproach should be a Brand upon them The Instruments of Cruelty are in their Habitation Oh! My Soul come not thou into their Secret Gen. 49. 5 6. I will not intermeddle with Parliaments but only say They are not always of one and the same mind and Time was when many of the Clergy of the Church of England talked very contemptibly of some of them But in that you say It has been Condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages this wants Proof If it be well considered the Christian Church will be found to thrive best under such an Universal Toleration as Constantine did grant before Ease Pleasure and Wealth had Corrupted the Bishops Hence the Proverb Golden Priests and Wooden Chalices Golden Chalices Wooden Priests till the Clergy grew Negligent and Haughty under Constantines Reign It is certain the Orthodox had no Humane Penal Laws whereby to punish Hereticks Say you 1. It is to Teach my People they need never come to Church more To what an Extravagant Indecency towards both their Prince and their Church will the Affection of Tyrannizing over others Transport some Church-men Could any Enemy of the Church of England have advanced any thing more to Her Discredit than to say Her Members are under no Obligation to attend on Her Ministry but what arises from Force and Penal Laws Why may not People have your leave as well as their KING 's to go not only to Conventicles but to the Mass till they are convinc'd that they do ill in going thither It is much better becoming a Minister of Religion to Convince such by Scripture and Reason that their Worship is false then to Contend to have them cast into Prison and by Fines and Confiscations to Compel them against their Conscience to come to Church for their Presence there is no more pleasing to God nor Beneficial to their own Souls whilst their Minds are elsewhere than it would be if they were at a Conventicle or at Mass 2. It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom Who are they that thus thought formerly Surely none of
those who Taught loudly and in Prints solemnly Authorized That Acts of Parliament were Acts of Grace that the Princes Power could not be bounded if there be any remaining who were always of another Opinion they may pretend the same things now as heretofore But for such Persons as have been Instruments of Wrong and Mischief to borrow such Notions from others before they have Renounced their former Avowed Principles and satisfied for their Injuries they have done They can have nothing to Alledge for themselves which can justifie them in this present Affair 3. It is to Recommend to Our People the Choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws Is not this to Recommend the Clergy as Persons of great Tenderness toward the People You would never permit them to be Quiet as long as it was in your Power to make them Uneasy You would now perswade them that the Nobility and Gentry are as much against the People's Ease as you are for which I suppose some of them will return you no Thanks and now you will not Read the King's Declaration to your People because it teacheth them how they may provide for their own Ease so as to live peaceably among themselves and securely under His Majesty's Tender and Equal Care for them all 4. It is to Condemn all those great and Worthy Patriots of their Countrey who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The Favour of their Prince and a great many Honourable and Profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and PenalLaws which they apprehend Destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion And he who can in Conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing Your Reading the Declaration doth no more condemn those who approve not of the King's Intentions therein Explained than your refusing to Read it doth Condemn the KING A good Conscience should be very Dear to every Man I think no Man should Act in direct Opposition to an Erring Conscience till he can be better Instructed Those that do really Apprehend that taking away Penal Laws will be Destructive to the Church of England and Protestant Religion ought not to Interest themselves for the taking them away But I do not understand why both these may not be sufficiently secured by other means than by putting a Power in the Hands of one Party of His Majesty's Subjects to ruine all the rest whether such a Security may not be found out will be best Determined when considered by the Wisdom of the Nation when met and in a Capacity to Repeal some Old and make other New Laws as Emergencies may require Now let any Rational Man judge Whether notwithstanding all your Arguments a Conscientious Man who does not scruple to Read the King's Declaration may not scruple at many things which you have done formerly and at your striving to keep your selves still in a Capacity to do the like for the future You say Reading the Declaration will Render your Persons and Ministry infinitely Contemptible Infinite Contempt is huge Contempt indeed I acknowledge Ministers ought to behave themselves so as that they be neither Blamed nor Contemned There is scarce any thing makes a Minister more justly contemptible than Encouraging Immoralities Flattering and Soothing great Men and shewing a Domineering Temper and Insatiable Cruelty where they can have an Opportunity to Exercise it Let such as have been Guilty of these or the like Crimes reflect on themselves and Repent and they need not fear Contempt for Reading the Declaration Nothing will so Effectually tend to the Final Ruine of the Church of England because Our Reading will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Churches Friends In that You except not one of her Friends you horridly affront them all by the Character you give them for you herein suppose them all to be either very Timerous very Testy or very Ignorant Persons But I think you are greatly out and lay abundantly more Weight on the Clergies Reading the Declaration than it will bear For whether you Read or no such as are judicious and good Friends to the Church will be firm to Her and to their Religion and till you prove that nothing can secure the Religion of our Church but these Penal Laws and Tests your dismal Consequence vanishes into Nothing The Church of England may be kept upon Her true Foundation and I hope Penal Laws have not much to do there and be by Law secured in all Her Rights from being hurt by any other Parties if these LAWS and TESTS be Repealed And she will be never the less Beautiful and Prosperous because the Power which she has used to hurt others is taken out of her hands But how does your Reading Contribute so mightily to a Repeal when all that hear it are at Liberty to judge for themselves Your Way of Discoursing as you do about Reading the Declaration would tempt one to think that you are of Opinion either that the Declaration is Attended with such convincing Reason as will certainly satisfie People as soon as they hear it or else that nothing is necessary in any Point to Determine and fix People's Minds and Judgments but only to have such a thing Read by the Minister in the Church Your Answer to the Objection you raise touching Dissenters is very Faint Say you When there is an Opportunity of shewing Our Inclinations without Danger they may find We are not such Persecutors as we are Represented Though they are not to be Compared with the Nobility and Gentry yet one would think one Positive Promise might have been by you on this Occasion afforded them What signifies They may find that which they could never yet find For as oft as you have been Tryed hitherto you have as soon as ever you were in a Capacity proved Unfaithful to them They have felt the Weight of your Fingers There neither has been nor is any need of others to Represent to them what Persecutors you have been and may be found again if you have Opportunity of shewing your Inclinations without Danger for ought that you have hitherto Manifested to the contrary For here is not a Word of any positive Respect or Tenderness towards them Is there a Change wrought in your Inclinations without any Sence of the Wrong you have done Here is not a Syllable of any Relenting at your former Severities your Letter abounds with Flattery towards the Nobility and Gentry Repeated many times over but not a tittle of any Care you have taken that the Dissenters may have their Liberty As oft as it hath been granted by Royal Dispensations you have been angry at it as oft as it has been propos'd in Parliament you have Oppos'd it So that you might have Omitted this Objection you have raised concerning the Dissenters and have passed them over in Silence as a People whose Anger or Friendship you have no regard to unless after you made the Objection you had vouchsafed to have Answered it also more to their Satisfaction You Conclude with a very honest Proposal of Prayer with which I heartily Concur and Pray That every Party of Professed Christians may upon all Occasions approve themselve Persons of True Piety Moderation and Real Fidelity Allowed to be Publish'd this 9th Day of July 1688. LONDONâ— Printed for E. Reyner and W. Faulkner and are to be Sold by most Booksellers