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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
B04997 A dialogue betwixt Jack and Will, concerning the Lord Mayor's going to meeting-houses with the sword carried before him, &c. Ridpath, George, d. 1726. 1697 (1697) Wing R1416A; ESTC R229659 6,501 16

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in Circumstantials as if they had been Hereticks Schismaticks and God knows what thought fit to take those Edg-tools out of the hands of a set of Men that know not how to use them but to the wrong of their Neighbours and to throw the Nation into Convulsions and have granted Liberty to our Brethern to worship God in the very same Ordinances that we do tho they don't observe all those Modes and Forms which by our selves are accounted in different Jack How do you mean ind●fferent Is it a thing indifferent to observe the Directions and Commands of the Church that 's fine Work indeed VVill. By Indifferent I mean a thing that may be done or left undone and so the Law means otherwise it would never have left me at my Liberty to go to a Meeting where there are no Ceremonies or to a Church where there are Ceremonies Jack I am sure the Church is Apostolical and enjoin'd those things upon her Members on pain of Excommunication both as to Belief and Practices if we may believe her Canons VVill. Thou art in a grand Mistake Jack I grant you there was once such a Set of men as arrogated to themselves the Name of the Church that did so but you know that the greatest Divines of the Church of England did always account those things indifferent even in Queen Elizabeth's time Read but the Lord Bishop of Salisbury's Letters and you will there find plain Proofs of it under the Hands of our greatest Bishops to the Divines in Switzerland and for what hath been done since you know that it was a Court and a Popish Faction that enjoin'd those things on such and such Penalties merely to widen the Differences amongst Protestants that they might swallow up both our Religion and Liberties but the Church of England hath altered her Mind since Jack How the Church of England alter'd her mind What d' ye make her akin to Mahomet as if her Religion depended upon the Moon and were as changeable as she VVill. Prethee not so fast Jack I know what I say the Church of England hath alter'd her mind oftner than once and no Disgrace to her neither Protestants hold no Church nor Council Infallible we have indeed an infallible Rule the Scriptures but so long as we are clogg'd with Humanity we are either like to come short of it or shoot beyond it and in both these Cases must alter our mind or set our selves in opposition to the Almighty Jack This is Fanatical Cant. When did the Church of England alter her Mind VVill. Nay Jack if you be so forgetful I 'll tell you The Church of England in Queen Elizabeth's time prayed her to cut off Mary Queen of the Scots the Heir apparent or presumptive at least to the Crown and a Crown'd Head too because she was at the Head of a Popish Plot. In Charles the Second's Time the Church of England damn'd all them that were but for excluding the Duke of York upon the like Account In Queen Elizabeth's time the Church of England made an Act of Parliament that the King and Parliament might limit and alter the Succession it is the 13th of Eliz. as I take it In Charles the First and Second's time they accounted it damnable doctrine to recede in the least from the Hereditary Line-Succession In Charles the First and Second's time she held it damnable not to believe the Doctrines of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance and all her Clergy were sworn to it in her Sense but in the End of James the Second's Reign when he came to touch their own Copy-hold then the Church bellow'd so loud that she was heard as far as the Hague she put on a blue Cloak and Jack-boots and fought against her Soveraign with Jack and Spear and after all settled King Villiam our present glorious Monarch on the Throne contrary to all her former avow'd Principles So that you must either own that the Church of England hath alter'd her Mind or declare your self a rank Jacobite and disown any Church but their Faction and to tell you the truth it 's that wretched Cabal that blows all these Sparks of Contention among the hot-headed Party of our Church and I know you keep Company with them Jack Thou hast said a great deal to convince me but pray le● me see how the Church of England hath alter'd her Mind as to that Point of the Dissenters VVill. Why they alter'd it in giving them their Liberty by a Law whereas they formerly persecuted them Jack How strangely do you talk It was the Parliament that gave them the Liberty and not the Church if she had done it it must have been by Convocation VVill. Nay Jack you talk strangely and not I. Is not all the People of England represented by the Parliament Jack Who doubts that Will. Is not the Church then represented in Parliament Jack That 's another thing The Church is the Bishops and their Clergy VVill. Grant it be so The Bishops you know do actually sit in Parliament in the House of Lords so that you must own the Church is well enough represented there where all her Fathers meet and you likewise know that the Clergy as Freeholders have their Votes in chusing Members of the House of Commons so that there the Clergy is sufficiently represented nay better and more universally than in any Convocation Then you know the Laity of the Church is truly represented in Parliament whereas they have no Room in the Convocation which is only the Officers of the Church and can no more be call'd the Church it self then Officers without Souldiers can be call'd an Army So that when you inveigh against the Liberty given to our Dissenting Brethren you inveigh against the Church of England her self who by her Bishops and other Representatives in Parliament have granted them that Liberty And though they have reserv'd the Sacramental Test as a Quit-rent to make all those who come into any Place of Power and Trust acknowledge their being Members of that Body of Protestants who are known by the Name of the Church yet they have not restrain'd any of those members from frequenting other Meetings where the Doctrine of the Church is preach'd either with or without the Ensigns and Badges of their Office So that those Gentlemen who by their Order would go to restrain an Act of Parliament might do well to consider how they will be able to justifie themselves if the Parliament should call them in question for it which they are more like to do than to turn his Lordship out for acting conformably to the Law and the Practice of other Corporations to whom London ought rather to set a Pattern for asserting the Liberties of the Subject then to follow them Jack Nay now thou speakest big VVill. ill I have reason for what I say It s the Parliament that hath settled the Limits of our Church and given her all the Authority he has otherwise 't is a mere Bull to