that can satisfie his Conscience to do an action without consent which the nature of the Thing the Design and intention of the Command and the Sense of the People expound to be a Consent may I think as well satisfie himself with Equivocations and mental Reservation ANSWER Here is nothing still but barely repeated Supposition together with an open and glory'd in Confession of the Ingratitude of the generality of the Church of England than which he could not certainly have bestow'd a worse Character either upon himself or his Friends Since it was an Obstinate Ingratitude that no renewances of the King's Favours could reconcile to him as proceeding from a sowre Disgust that his Majesty had granted to others the same Liberty which they enjoy'd As if all Mankind besides them were bound to groan under the continual Yoak of their Penal Laws and Tests no less Rigorous and Uncharitable To the remainder of this part the Gentleman has form'd a very substantial Answer of himself I or says he LETTER There are two things to be answered to this which must be considered I. That the People understand our Minds and see that this is matter of Force upon us and meer Obedience to the King. ANSWER Then the Refusal was a work of Supererogation the People being better instructed than all their reading could teach them and then they must fall that way by going about to instruct them by their Obstinacy who were of opinion that their Obedience would have been a far better Admonishment To which he answers LETTER 1. That possibly the People do understand that the matter of the Declaration is against our Principles But is this any excuse that we read that and by reading recommend that to them which is against our own Consciences and Iudgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King commands it did we approve of the matter of it but to censent to teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault and People must be very good natur'd to think this an Excuse 2. It is not likely that all the people will be of a mind in this matter some may excuse it others and those it may be the most the best and the wisest man will condemn us for it and then how shall we justifie our selves against their Censures when the world will be divided in their Opinions the plain way is certainly the best to do what we can justifie ourselves and then let men judge as they please No men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great advantage of it against us and against our Church Religion others will severely condemn us for it censure us as false to our Religion and as betrayers both of Church and State and besides that it does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the opinion of the most charitable men can only be excused for what needs an excuse is either a fault or looks very like one besides this I say I will not trust mens Charity those who have suffered themselves in this Cause will not excuse us for fear of suffering those who are inclined to excuse us now will not do so when they consider the thing better and come to feel the ill consequences of it when our Enemies open their Eyes tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified which they will then tell us we ought to have seen before tho they were not bound to see it for we are to guide and instruct them not they us ANSWER Tempora mutantur nos mutamur in illis Time was when there was nothing more abominable more hainous or more cry'd down by the Gowned Clergy of England than Vox Populi now Vox populi is the only Suprema â—ex that guides them they have no other fears than of the Condemnations and Censures of Vox Populi Vox populi is Vox Dei and they dare not read the King's Declaration for fear of Vox populi And all this out of an Infallible Certainty that no people in England will be pleased with their reading the Declaration but their Enemies More than this they see ill Consequences in the Declaration and find Doctrines in the Declaration contrary to the Laws of God and the Land invisible however to all those vast numbers of lowd and thankful Addresters for the publishing of it Quick-sighted Synxes in their own Concerns but such as car'd so little for the Voice of the People that they never melted at the Groans of the People when they had the Scourge in their hands LETTER II. Others therefore think that when we read the Declaration we should publickly profess that it is not our own judgment but that we only read it in obedience to the King and then our reading it cannot imply our consent to it Now this is only Protestatio contra factum which all people will laugh at and scorn us for for such a solemn reading it in the time of Divine Service when all men ought to be most grave and serious and for from dissembling with God or Men does in the nature of the thing imply our approbation and should we declare the contrary when we read it what shall we say to those who ask us Why then do you read it But let those who have a mind try this way which for my part I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable provocation of the King than not to read it and I suppose those who do not read it will be thought plainer and honester men and will escape as well as those who read it and protest against it and yet nothing less than an express Protestation against it will salve this matter for only to say they read it meerly in obedience to the King does not express their dissent it signifies indeed that they would not have read it if the King had not commanded it but these words do not signifie that they disapprove of the Declaration when their reading it though only in obedience to the King signifies their approbation of it as much as 〈◊〉 can signifie a consent let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was called and then preached against it ANSWER Then it appears that the Declaration has been read and that by several Gentlemen of the Church of England also So that it appears that the reading of it is not of that dangerous Consequence to the Conscience as the Author of the Letter would pretend to For we are to have that charity for those that read it as for those that refused it that the forme had as much care for their Consciences as the latter Now then to what purpose all these Terrors and affrights of Conscience all this dread of the
are they of the Church of England but when they will be Studying the Points of Royal Declarations which are Acts of State will be making their Pulpits the Stages of Farce and Satyr will be Interloping and Intruding into State Affairs which nothing at all concern them when they will be Teaching the King the Judges Deputy Lieutenants and all other Magistrates their Duties This is that which renders the Ministry before mentioned or any Ministry in the World Ridiculous And it is to be feared The City-Clergyman has not altogether freed himself from that Contempt in calling the Reading of the Declaration a Betraying of the Church by Undue Complyances and then Complementing the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation to Justifie his Ridiculous Language and all this to gain Popularity or to preserve the Possession of his Living under the Name of the Protestant Religion for he must not take it amiss That others dive with the same severity into his Meaning as he dives into the King's Intentions LETTER There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final Ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will Discourage or Provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any Man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by Reading the Declaration Have we not Reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already Suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a Fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any Reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Region and Interest I think I ought to make as much Conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral Action in Nature ANSWER Here we find him talking as if the Final Ruine of the Church of England lay upon the Church of England-mens Reading or Not Reading the Declaration and that by Not Reading it they had saved the Palladium's and Ancilia of their Religion And all these Rodomontado's upon bare Suppositions and Imaginations no ways compatible to Reason for it is not Rational to Believe That the Nobility and Gentlemen of England when they delivered their Sentiments contrary to what was Proposed to them concerning the Test for as to the Penal Laws 't is well known Their Judgments are much more Remiss did what they did for Fear of being Condemned by the Levites whom they feed 'T is therefore a Presumption in the City-clergyman to arrogate in the Plural Number such a Power over the Nobility and Gentry as if they were bound to Justifie his and his Friend 's particular Acts of Disobedience and could not be Safe in their Resolutions unless they were Obstinate What was proposed to the Nobility and Gentry was one thing what was commanded them was another and there is a great Difference between not Consenting to a Proposal and not Submitting to a Sovereign Command LETTER To say that these mischievous Consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary Consequences as Natural Causes have Necessary Effects because no Moral Causes act necessarily Reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the Consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be consider'd they are in this case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extremely averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather than comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a Complyance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Iesuites may find some salvo for the Kings Conscience and persuade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the as probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to Read it ANSWER These are all meer Comments and Descants of the City-Clergyman upon the Honour and Conscience of his Majesty and the evil design of the Declaration upon the Church of England drawn from Probabilities of the evil consequences of Repealing the Penal Laws and Test which the Church of England must no more part with then the Iews with their Ark without exposing themselves to utter ruine and destruction For the charitable Clergyman takes no care of any other part of the Protestant Religion so the Church of England be secure To all which if he would have but vouchsaf'd to have read the Declaration he might have found an Answer shining fully out and dispelling all the Fogs and Mists of his Probable Consequences in His Majesty's own words where he declares a second time That ever since His granting the Indulgence he has made it His principal Care to see it preserved without distinction And farther adds his Resolutions To use His utmost Endeavours to Establish Liberty of Conscience on such just and equal foundations as will render it unalterable and seoure to All People the free Exercise of their Religion for ever But this will not serve the City-Clergy-man's turn he must have the Rains of Temporal as well as Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in his own hand and drive on for ever or else there is nothing to
be done They are like Caesar contemning all Superiors and like Rompey disdaining all Equals A passionate conceit of their own Perfection above all other which no Man of common sense can be reconcil'd to and a convincing Argument that those Persons must have but little or no Conscience themselves who with so much vigor and obstinacy labour to uphold a Civil Persecution of Penal Laws and Tests so directly opposite to all the Dictates of Conscience and Reason LETTER The most material Objection is That the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a Persecuting Spirit Now I wonder Men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are Wise and Considering are sensible of the Snare themselves and though they desire Ease and Liberty they are not willing to have it with such apparent hazard of Church and State I am sure that though we were never so desirous that they might have their Liberty and when there is opportunity of shewing our Inclinations without danger they may find that we are not such Persecutors as we are represented yet we cannot consent that they should have it this way which they will find the dearest Liberty that ever was granted ANSWER After his Complements put upon the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation the Author of the Letter descends to scrape a new acquaintance with the Dissenters and fain would draw them into his Belief upon a very odd surmise that they are now in some kind of manner reconcil'd But the Complement is at such a remote distance that he betray'd his Politicks to court them at such an indifferent rate And indeed his Expressions are so obscure that if this Church of England Man is so nice that he dare not trust the King upon such clear and solemn Promises the Dissenters who have had such severe Experience of their Favours have much less reason to credit the forc'd Complement of the City-Clergyman This is only to be wonder'd at that the City-Clergyman should make the King so dear a Seller of Liberty of Conscience when there was no Price could purchase it from the Persecution of the Penal Law-Men his undoubted Brethren LETTER This Sir is our Case in short the Difficulties are great on both sides and therefore now if ever we ought to besiege Heaven with our Prayers for Wisdom and Counsel and Courage that God would protect his Church and Reformed Christianity against all the devices of their Enemies Which is the daily and hearty Prayer of SIR Your Friend and Brother May 22. 1688. ANSWER Being thus come from his Politicks to his Prayers 't is time to leave him not doubting but if his Prayers be Just they will be heard if not neither his Letter nor his Prayers will signifie any thing POSTSCRIPT I Have just now seen H. Care 's Paper called The Publick Occurrences which came out to day and cannot but set you right as to his News about the Reading of the Declaration on Sunday He tells you That several Divines of the Church of England in and about the City eminent for their Piety and Moderation did Yesterday Read His Majesty's late Declaration in their Churches according to the Order in that behalf but some to the great surprize of their Parishioners were pleased to decline it You in the Country are from this Account to believe that it was Read here by the generality of the Clergy and by the eminent Men among them But I can and do assure you that this is one of the most impudent Lyes that ever was printed For as to this City which hath above a Hundred Parishes in it it was Read only in Four or Five Churches all the rest and best of the Clergy refusing it every where I will spare their Names who Read it but should I mention them it would make you who know this City a little heartily to deride H. C's Account of them And for the Surprize he talks of the contrary of it is so true that in Wood-street where it was Read by one Dr. M. the People generally went out of the Church This I tell you that you may be provided for the future against such an impudent Lyar who for Bread can vouch and put about the Nation the falsest of things I am Yours ANSWER The City-Clergyman has given the Lye to the Author of the Publick Occurrences It were to be wish'd that the Author had nam'd all the rest besides those we already know that were so Loyal as to Read the Declaration If they were not so numerous as they are said to be in the Occurrences we wish they had been as many in number as their Loyalty required But we leave this for the Author himself to do himself Justice by a more particular Answer FINIS
are now to be the Deciders of this Controversie who indeed but the Soveraign Authority in the person of the King who is Gods Vicegerent and to whom for that very reason unless they will deprive him of that supream Dignity all other persons are bound to submit there being no higher Tribunal upon Earth to give a more Authentic Determination And therefore it was that Cicers in his Oration for Cluentius tell us that the Supream Magistrate is the Judge of the Laws and the cheif Interpreter of the Law we only the Servants of the Law that we may be free Which being so true as it is what must be thought of them that set up an Interpretation of their own against the Interpretation of the Soveraign Magistrate But the City Clergyman goes on with a very quaint Distinction LETTER Indeed let mens private opinions be what they will in the nature of the thing he that reads such a Declaration to his People teaches them by it For is not Reading Teaâ—â—ing Suppose then I do not consent to what I read yet I consent to teach my People what I read and herein is the evil of it for it may be it were no fault to consent to the Declaration but if I Consent to teach my People what I do not consent to my self I am sure that is a great one And he who can distinguish between consenting to read the Declaration and consenting to teach the People by the Declaration when reading the Declaration is teaching it has a very subtile distinguishing Conscience Now if consenting to read the Declaration be a consent to teach it my People then the natural Interpretation of Reading the Declaration is That he who Reads it in such a solemn teaching-manner Approves it If this be not so I desire to know why I may not read an Homily for Transubstantiation or Invocation of Saints or the worship of Images if the King sends me such good Catholic Homilies and commands me to read them And thus we may instrust our People in all the points of Popery and recommend it to them with all the Sophistry and artificial Insinuations in obedience to the King with a very good Conscience because without our consent If it be said this would be a contradiction to the Doctrine of our Church by Law Established so I take the Declaration to be And if we may read the Declaration contrary to Law because it does not imply our consent to it so we may Popish Homilies for the bare reading them will not imply our consent no more than the reading the Declaration does But whether I consent to the Doctrine or no it is certain I consent to teach my People this Doctrine and it is to be considered whether an honest man can do this ANSWER The first Question here is Whether a man that consents to read consents to teach Or rather Whether Teaching and Reading be all one Certainly no man of reason but will believe the City-Clergy-man was very hard put to it to lay the stress of a Refusal to obey the Command of Soveraign Authority upon a Cavill about the signification of a word or two Who could have imagin'd it would ever have been requisite for the Council to have consulted a Tribunal of Grammarians to obviate such an Objection as this before they issu'd forth the Order for Reading the Declaration But whether Teaching and Reading be all one is nothing here to the purpose For there is not any thing as yet appears in the Letter which proves the Declaration unlawful to be read Which he ought first to have done before he had gone about to split the signification of Words to gratifie a Conscience therefore squeamish because over-surfeited with the Kings Favours For there is no Person in England ought to uphold that Law which the King condemns if it be not in it self unjust and contrary to the Union of Mankind For the Introducing of Popery into England or the Abolishing of any Laws that may prevent it if it be the Will and Pleasure of the Soveraign Government is no more Illegal in it self than it was for the United Netherlands to abolish Popery and introduce the Protestant Religion into their Dominions contrary to the Constitutions of the Empire and the Laws of Spain So that this City-Clergyman moves all this while upon an Assertion That the Declaration is Illegal and contrary to the Law of the Land. For if the King of England may be depriv'd of his undoubted Right of Altering Repealing or Suspending such Laws as are inconsistent with those Maxims of Rule which he proposes at his coming to the Crown and which he finds destructive to the greatest part of his Subjects he loses one of the greatest Advantages which he enjoys to pursue those Methods of Government which he deems most proper for the renowning his Reign in future History So much the more hard when the only means which he accounts most proper for his purposes shall be condemn'd for Unlawful by a nice Splitter of Verbal signification And yet the distinction of Reading and Consenting is not so difficult as he pretends For Consent is an agreement of Thoughts as well as Words But a man may read the Story of Bell and the Dragon in the Church and yet not agree it to be Orthodox Nor can a man by reading be said to teach his People unless he inculcates what he reads by Instruction for tho' Instruction comprehends Reading Reading does not comprehend Instruction Which is the reason there are so many ignorant Persons in the world to whom the Bible and the Creed it self are read every Sunday in the Year and yet at the Years end they are not able to tell ye whose Son Iesus Christ is or who was Solomon's Father And whereas he says the King might as well command him to read a Homily for Transubstantiation as the Declaration the Inference is false The one being an Actual Invasion upon the Articles of the Church of England from which the Declaration upon the Word of a King is the very thing that secures him the other only a Civil Duty requir'd in Obedience to the King's Command and the Refusal of it only a piece of Fineness to render the King's Authority and his Proceedings suspected to the People LETTER Thirdly I suppose no man will doubt but the King intends that our Reading the Declaration should signifie to the Nation our Consent and Approbation of it for the Declaration does not want Publishing for it is sufficiently known already but our Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which the Clergy generally refused tho it was only to Thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in his Declaration which was much more innocent than to publish the Declaration it self in our Churches This would perswade one that the King thinks our reading the Declaration to signifie our Consent and that the People will think it to be so And he