Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A33215
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A paraphrase with notes upon the sixth chapter of St. John with a discourse on humanity and charity / by W. Claget.
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Clagett, William, 1646-1688.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing C4389; ESTC R24224
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72,589
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201
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your Policy found it expedient to imitate you as far as Truth and Christian Charity would permit them And this may suffice also to apologize for my using it in my Preface It now remains Sir that I speak to another thing which seem'd to disturb you which is Whether I am a Lay-man or a Clergy-man For I find you wavering about it and therefore I 'll endeavour to fix you tho' in a doubtful case Why should not Charity have inclin'd you that brag of so much to believe me when I profess my self a Lay-man Well but I speak so like a Clergy-man so almost in the very Words and Phrases of a Doctor of my Church and another Doctor mention'd in your Last Reâ—ly that you cannot but take what I say for Church-sence dropping through a Lay-Pen Sir I must needs thank you for the Honour you do me in taking me to speak like such great Men but I have not Vanity enough to believe that I do Yet thus much I 'll confess that I desire to live no longer than I can if not speak yet love and admire the Church of England-Sence But is it impossible for a Lay-man to speak like a Clergy-man Does Holy Orders make such a difference Or do you imagine I have never read any of our Churches Writers Why may not then my Mind be tinctured by them And so what I speak or write bear some resemblance to them Is there not many a Son like his Father And how do you know but I am the Son of a Clergy-man and so by Blood derive something of their way of Writing But to make an end I fancy Sir that you or whoever was the Author of the First Part of the Papist Misrepresented c. and some others of your Church have found to your Grief and Shame that either of these Doctors you speak of could if they had pleas'd to have undertaken so mean a Work have writ another sort of a Preface than I have done to the disadvantage of the French Popery now imitated in England Let the meanness of the Performance prevail over you to believe that neither of them made it But indeed you are injurious to them to fancy they would be guilty of such indirect dealing No no Sir the Divines of the Church of England have a better Cause they need use no Arts or Tricks no feign'd Miracles no bold Untruths no malicious Whispers and Slanders to support and defend it nor put Shams upon the World This Practice is none of theirs and if you please that may be added as a Mark to prove ours a True Church And indeed I could easily perswade my self to believe that your own Practice and that of your Party was in your Thoughts when this Fancy entred into your Brain But in a word and to put you out of pain about these two Doctors for I cannot blame you for dreading them I do assure you that neither of them made that Preface and once more that I who now write this Letter am a Lay-man and writ that Preface such as ' t is And if I could but be infallibly certain that the old Popery was alter'd in the point of Malice Revenge and seeking occasion against those who never so little oppose or hinder the Designs of Rome I would give you entire satisfaction in this Particular and not only tell you my Name but where I live But because I cannot get out of my Thoughts some late Actions and that hard Usage of the brave Author of Wholsom Advices c. I fear lest Old Popery may be practic'd upon me too and therefore think it but common Prudence to conceal my self For to tell you true I am not yet weary of that little Happiness I enjoy But Sir you make your Misrepresenter tell the World that I am dabling out of my Element by which one would think that after all you believ'd I am a Lay-man Well but how out of my Element May not a Lay-man tell Truth and do good to his Neighbour's Soul Is God's Spirit is all Knowledge limitted to Holy Orders Because there are some Functions appropriated to Clergy-men such as Administring the Sacraments c. does it therefore follow that a Lay-man may neither write nor discourse of any Matters of Religion Pray Sir does that Command Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self oblige Lay-men as well as Clergy-men If it does and since I may edifie my self why I beseech you not another And can a Man express his Charity to his Neighbour in a higher manner than in Spiritual Things But the Arguments are infinite which might be us'd in this Case And therefore I shall only ask you whether Tertullian and Origen and many other of the Ancient Fathers writ not about Religion when they were Lay-men Nay more did not Pope Adrian and Pope Nicholas admit Laymen into Councils And pray what was Picus Mirandula but an Earl and meer Lay-man and Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellor of England But above all what was that Prince who wrote against Luther for which the Pope thought fit to bestow the Title of Defender of the Faith upon him But indeed why should it seem strange that you and your Church should find fault with Lay-men's medling in Controversies of Religion especially against you when you dare totally bar Lay-mens reading the Holy Scriptures for which they have a Command from God Search the Scriptures and perswade them to put out their Eyes and throw away their Reason which God and Nature has given them to be their Guide through this deceitful World And yet I dare say that if a Lay-man would undertake so knotty a piece of Work as to write in Defence of your Church that you would not tell him that he was dabling out of his Element tho' he were no better than a Profligate Poet. I pass over your unhandsom Language and 't is below me to return it But I cannot but stand amaz'd to find a Member of the Church of Rome and a Maintainer of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation make his Misrepresenter say That the Protestant Teachers know the People they have to deal with That their discerning Faculties are stupify'd That they 'll pass over fifty Contradictions without once stumbling and that there 's no fear of enquiring How can this be No Sir the Teachers of the Church of England are not guilty of this Tyranny We are Members of a Church that invites all her Children to the highest Attainment of Knowledge and teaches them that a reasonable Service is the most acceptable to God and imposes nothing upon them that either destroys or contradicts their Reason and Senses that not only allows her Children to read the Holy Scriptures but beseeches them to do it provided they do it with a modest Dependence on their lawful Teachers for the sence of some Texts which may not be so clear to Persons who are unacquainted with the Proprieties of the Languages in which the Holy Scriptures were writ and the Customs