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A47752
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Querela temporum, or, The danger of the Church of England in a letter from the Dean of ----- to ----- Prebend of.
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Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing L1142; ESTC R7679
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24,869
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29
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Querela Temporum OR THE Danger of the Church of England In a LETTER from the Dean of to Prebend of Dear SIR LET me employ some few Moments in venting my Thoughts to you at a distance upon that Subject which has taken up so many of our Hours while we were together The Impression grows stronger upon me now that I am alone and left to the mercy of tormenting Reflections The Ruin which you and I have often bemoaned visibly threatning our Church is exceedingly magnify'd and imbitter'd to me and must be to us all when we sadly consider how we have been led on in our Simplicity like the Men that followed Absalom to be the Instruments of our own Destruction And have been engaged so far in it before we were aware that we are now afraid to look back though we are astonish'd to think what the end of all may be I am sufficiently assured That much the greatest part of the Clergy have come in to the Government as you and I have done out of a Prospect to preserve the Church For if all had stuck out we did dreadfully approhend that the Presbyterians considering our King's Education and Biass that way and their great Merit in the Revolution for we were but drawn in and that late by a seeming necessity and unwillingly Our Reluctance which we could not conceal and at first many of us did not desire to conceal it was the publick Discourse of the Nation and so much taken notice of that the Act imposing the Oaths did not suppose that all the Clergy would take them and therefore left a Provision for a certain Number of such of them as should refuse the Oaths which I am heartily sorry has not been apply'd and those of us who took the Oaths did it with such Distinctions and Declarations and Salvos as made it plain to all the World That we were not hearty in it but had a doubting which is a resisting Conscience Whereas the Presbyterians and Common-wealth men with some Atheists and Latitudinarians who call'd themselves of our Church though no otherwise than because it was Established by Law were at the bottom of the whole Contrivance of the Revolution and Derided us to see into what a Noose they had brought us that we knew not what to Resolve upon Whether to venture the Reproach of the Nation by a Change of Principles at least as it would be thought and to go in to the Government or to leave K. William wholy in their hands who brought him in and to run the hazard of all the Consequences would follow from his looking upon the Church of England as his Enemies and the Presbyterians as the only Church which would stick by him I say these Considerations joyned with his own Inclination and the little Zeal of the Generality of the Laity for any Church or Religion farther than suited with their Interests made us to apprehend That if we had not taken the Oaths the whole Church might have been over-turn'd all at once and Presbytery or Something like it sâ—t up in its Place as has been done in Scotland When these Considerations had determined us in this matter we were not yet without great Fears what might be the Consequence on the other hand that K. William could not possibly but see that our Conversion was Forced and Counterfeit and would as such Conversions always do make us greater Enemies to him than we were before And that therefore having served his Ends by us he would watch his time to destroy us That he might compass it more easily though may be not so speedily by our Compliance having by that made us cheap and broken our Authority with the People And O my Friend how has he succeeded in that If that was his Design I believe no Age can produce so sudden and great a Change as 'twixt the Affections of the People to us at this time and what they were while King James was here I am sure it is a changed World with us whatever it may be to others We were then Hosanna'd and now it is next door to Crucify while they cannot refrain shewing a Concern and Reverence for our Depriv'd Brethren So that it is plain the Cause of our Contempt is our Compliance with those who do now Reproach us And it is needless to argue That they are in the same Fault and were first in the Fault and drew or forced us in They say we were their Guides and ought to have led them and not to have been led by them They think it no great matter for them to be in a Fault they think they have a Privilege to be less strict than the Clergy and to be severe upon our Miscarriages seems in some sort a Vindication at least an Alleviation of their own Which though a very bad Argument yet we suffer under it And it terrifies me to consider how much we may yet suffer by it when I reflect that the Inclination of the People was made a sufficient Pretence to Root out Episcopacy in Scotland notwithstanding that the Prince of Orange's Declaration to that Kingdom from the Hague before he came over bound him to preserve their Church as then Established by Law as well as ours If you think that the Inclinations of the People can never be made a Pretence against Episcopacy in England you will alter your Opinion when you see how little Reason there was for that Pretence in Scotland as it is made fully appear in the Defences and Apologies of the Episcopal Church of Scotland which have been printed Here since this Revolution Which also give an Account by what Means and Methods a Convention was obtained there which should Vote against Episcopacy As to the first The Inclinations of the People take the Account given in one of their Apologies which was Digested into Ten Questions and printed Here An. 1690. which informs us That the Nobility of the Kingdom a very few not above a Dozen excepted had all sworn the Oath commonly called the Test wherein all Fanatical Principles and Covenant Obligations were Renounced and Abjured That not one of Forty of the Gentry but had sworn it also and that not Fifty Gentlemen in all Scotland out of the West did upon the Induldence Granted by King James An. 1687. forsake their Parish Churches to frequent Meeting Houses That the Generality of the Commons live in Cities and Market Towns that all who could be of the Common Council in such Corporations or were able to follow any ingenuous Trade were obliged to take the Test and had generally done it That the Clergy stood all for Episcopacy there being of about a Thousand scarcely Twenty Trimmers betwixt the Bishop and the Presbyterian Moderator Which Twenty together with all the Presbyterian Preachers could not make up the Fifth part of such a Number as the other Side amounted to That in all the Universities there were not Four Masters Heads or Fellows inclined to Presbytery That the
to the Justices of Peace at their Sessions to Licence Teachers and Preachers as it is in the Act of Toleration 24 May 89. prim Guliel Mar. This has render'd our Church a perfect Cypher And if any or all of our Flocks should Desert us to morrow and go over openly to the Dissenters we have no Power left us by this Act to restrain any of them by Ecclesiastical Censures or any other way and the whole Nation have Liberty to believe any of their Communions to be as safe a way to Heaven as our own And they have made full use of that Liberty For how many do we meet with who do not believe it And think it a thing indifferent which of our Churches they go to as they term the Dissenters and ours They think them all to be Churches and the Law giving equal Liberty to All who dare quarrel with any for taking that Liberty to go to Any or All of these Churches Who can say the Parliament has done Ill For if Episcopacy be not Jure Divino why are they bound to set it up more than Presbytery Independency Quakerism or any other Sort Why have we made such Contests about it these Ages past But if it be Jure Divino then it is out of the Parliaments Power to Abolish it or even to Dispence with or Tolerate any other Form of Government in the Church So that we must either Condemn what they have done in Scotland and in England too by this Toleration or otherwise we must give up our Jure Divino Right which we have endeavour'd to hold out so long against the Dissenters and profess to hold hereafter by no other Tenure than that of an Act of Parliament which now Grants equal Liberty to the Dissenters as to our selves But this Law does not only proclaim Liberty and Indemnity but proposes Rewards and Advantages to all who shall leave us Any of any Sort in Orders or out of Orders who please to set up for Teachers are by this Act exempted from serving upon Juries or from being Church wardens Overseers of the Poor or any other Parochial or Ward Office or other Office in any Hundred of any Shire City Town Parish Division or Wapentake And these being Offices of Charge and Trouble we shall be in a little time left to serve our selves or the whole Burthen lie upon those Few whom their Neighbours will call Fools for not easing themselves of it as they have done The Effect of this may not appear considerably at first But when the Taxes have Reduc'd more to Poverty and the Envy and Spite to see their richer Neighbours excused may operate more than we are yet well aware If you think that no such Inconsiderable People will be allow'd of for Preachers The Act excepts none And the Allowance is Granted to the Justices of Peace And there is no stint of Number I can tell you an Instance came in my way at the Easter Sessions 92. in St. Albans there came three poor Fellows for Licences to be Preachers Two of them set their Marks instead of their Names for they could neither Read nor Write and they had their Licences And one of them being after Return'd upon a Jury pleaded his Privilege as a Preacher by the Act and had it allow'd him Nor indeed can the Justices Refuse either to give them Licences or allow them the Privileges granted by the Act. One of these Preachers Names I remember was one Bocket he lives in St. Stephen's Parish near St. Albans and is a Ditcher and Day-Labourer There are many such Examples through the Kingdom We may now see where our Authority is going not to mention Christianity at this Rate That Bocket is now as Legal a Teacher as the Archbishop of Canterbury This Brother is a fair Indication of the Inclinations of the Parliament towards us of their Zeal to support the Authority and the Reputation of our Church Well But they have left us in Possession of the Rents and Revenues of the Church That is indeed All that we have left And how long shall we keep that when the only Ground and Foundation of it is gone that is The Authority and Discipline of the Church and the supposed Necessity there is of our Church This is all the Ground and Reason there is for supporting and maintaining our Church more than any other Church or for having any Church more than no Church If none of them be Necessary or ours no more than another why should we expect to Enjoy such great Riches more than others The Nation is not or soon may come not to be in a Condition to allow such great Pensions when they are meerly Honorary and of no Necessity to the Nation The Bishops Lands as now in Scotland may be sold either for the Carrying on the War or to Reward many of those Necessitous and Sacrament taking Fanaticks for Places of Advantage There is no other visible Fund for them and they Expect it and refrain not sometimes to Express it Our Titles being Jure Divino will not do The Impropriations have spoil'd that The Church though over-run with Errors was in far greater Authority and Reverence than now when Henry the Eighth seized her Revenue and had more and greater Friends to stand by her The Pope and all the then Christian Princes did Detest his Act as Sacrilegious and were highly Concern'd to have it Rectified And it was thought abominable by all England except those among whom he Divided the Spoil But is there one Man in the World would be Concern'd for us or Pity us if we lost all Yet the Inclinations of the People is all we pretend to Trust to How have I heard some repeat with Pleasure that Prophecy which they ascribe to old Merlin Henry the Eighth pull'd down Abbys and Cells But Henry the Ninth will pull down Churches and Bells By Churches and Bells they understand the Episcopal Church and Ceremonies and there has been enough done in Scotland to fulfil the Prophecy but that it was spoke of England And they think that Henry the Ninth and the time is now come I lay not stress upon these sort of Prophesies but they shew the Inclinations of the People when they are pleased and no body displeased with Trumping up such stuff upon us Add to this whatever stress you will lay upon the confident Boasting of those Dissenters who are most in K. Will 's Interest and Councils that all will be their own they make no doubt of it only they would manage as they think wisely and worm us out by Degrees They told us from the Beginning of this Revolution that K. William would take his time to bring them into the chief Places and Offices of Trust which we Thought in our Honey Month to be nothing but the vain Humour of that Party and to create Jealousies betwixt the King and us when we were endeavoring to exceed one another in our Caresses which if they were meant