Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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A33415
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The Clergy's late carriage to the King considered in a letter to a friend, allowed to be published this 2d day of July, 1688.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing C4647; ESTC R37728
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3,427
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2
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THE Clergy's late Carriage TO THE KING CONSIDERED In a Letter to a friend Allowed to be Published this 2d Day of July 1688. SIR PErhaps I am in the wrong but I beg your Pardon if I can't think so when I don't know it On the contrary I grow more assured in my Opinion since t'other Night by all the Reflections I could make upon what past between us It seems I say unaccountable to Good Sense Duty Modesty and every thing that becomes a dutiful Subject to say nothing of the Christian that the King was not only not obey'd by the Clergy where it was no Sin to do it but where the Obedience was purely Ministerial Had it been to renounce their own Religion or to receive His it had been something but when it was to secure every Religion from Violence and Persecution Nay when it was a Declaration of His Mind about a good Work and not of Theirs No new Declaration of Liberty of Conscience but a Publication of what He had done last Year and that what was New in it was only the King's Resolution to have a Parliament next Winter in order to have that past into a Law which the Bishops seemed only to dislike for want of being done by Law and Still to resist their King and Head I say this is something surprizing In short the Declaration was in its first part meerly Historical what the King had done April 1687. the last part what He would do to wit have a Parliament in Novem. next at farthest to Establish this Liberty of Conscience And as this was in truth the Business of the Declaration the other but the Preface to it so with trouble I say it that this makes their Disobedience the more suspected and unreasonable for they refuse to tell the World the King would have a Parliament to confirm the Liberty which yet they profess to be for in Parliament I say this looks with an ill Air and carries too great a contradiction for Men of their Function and Learning and yet so it must be or they are insincere in their Petition But this is not all The Reverence these Gentlemen have always profest for the Monarchy Their Opinion of the mighty Power of it The Character they have fixt on those that have been scrupulous to obey it in Cases less clear then this is an aggravation of their Misfortune for at this rate no inseriour Minister is so much as obliged to report the Act of a Superiour if it is not suitable to his own Judgment A Clark of a Court may refuse to read an Inditement because he thinks the Man Innocent that is impeached at the Bar by it No Sheriff ought to read a Proclamation or execute an Offender unless his Judgment concur with that of the Prince or the Judge It carries what ever they think of it the power of Questioning the Commands of Superiours into all the capacities and relations of Life even where it is no matter of Faith. If I bid my Servant go tell a Man I deal with He has used me very dishonestly at this rate he may refuse for this reason That truly he has a better opinion of him and therefore won't go of my Errand Had the King set up for Law making or intended finally to abrogate Laws or suspend Laws made against any thing that was evil in it self or Laws that preserve Property instead of those that take it away or that it had touch't upon matters of Faith or the Worship of God or intrench't upon any Priviledge that belongs to the Church of England or if He had required them to read the Opinion of the Judges about the Dispencing Power or a Treatise in defence of it in order to Endoctrinate the People they might have had room for some Exception and yet in this latter Case perhaps they had been little more then Ministerial too But when it was only to tell his Subjects in the most effectual way more going to Church then to Market that whereas He did emit a Declaration in 1687. for Liberty of Conscience the Historical part He resolved in November next at farthest to hold a Parliament for the Confirmation of it Give me leave to say without offence It looks as if the Exception were a Cavil and not a Scruple By whom else should the Ecclesiastical Head speak to the Ecclesiastical Body for it therefore seems to me reasonable that they should have read it in their Churches because they are the State Meeting-Houses and the Clergy the State Mouthes Will they claim their Legal Priviledges and not bate an Ace of being the Church of England as by Law Established and yet refuse to let the Head speak by them the Mouth His mind to the People his Ecclesiastical Body Can this consist with Ecclesiastical Headship and Obedience where no Assent or Consent was exacted from them nor were they to require it of the People but as I said before a meer Report of the King's Mind referring to a publick future Act of which the Peoples Information was requisite for their own Benefit and Content as well as the Kings Service I say for the Clergy to refuse their Head and this Head too that they so generally and earnestly desire to wear upon their Shoulders and at this time of Day and about a thing they say they have a due tenderness too has an appearance as if they would widen Breaches and highten Animosities ay ripen and head them too instead of suppressing them I say it looks so for I would fain have a better opinion of their Loyalty and Conscience then to think they meant it However this Conduct goes too far thus to strive and chicane with their Prince and by popular pretences to raise themselves upon the breath of the Rabble above the duty they ow Him this is at least the appearance of Evil and unbecomes Men of Peace and Religion to be sure such as pretend to be the Successors of the Apostles that command Obedience for Conscience sake where Conscience was not imposed upon and has been pleaded by this very Clergy against Dissenters to urge their Conformity where matters of Faith and Worship to God were concerned Tho this I say and not Religion be the Case yet such is the Malice of the World as to say it and such has been their Weakness as to give occasion for it I confess that has been the uneasiest part to me that they have acted I mean their Mock Martyrdom to force Suffering and act it to a Farce What else can be their Blessing People ten deep of a side with Have a care of your Religion be faithful to your Religion the Lord strengthen you c. and whilst not one tittle of their Religion but the Liberty of other Mens was the Case What shall an honest Man think of this when the plain English of the matter was that they went to the Power for not reading a Declaration for settling of Liberty of Conscience by Law to hinder them from ever making Martyrs of other Men any more for Conscience sake This is the Point before God and Men after all the bustle their Non-resisting Principle has suffered them to make and 't is this I am scandaliz'd at to see a jest acted so much in Earnest and Religion made one and profain'd too by such forced pretences God give them Repentance and confirm the King in his wise course of Moderation For the Liberty when seftled will shame its Enemies and save and encrease the number of its Friends for what ever is suggested by ill Men 't is Liberty of Conscience that is aim'd at Liberty built upon a Rock and not a Sand To be fram'd to exclude any one Party from the Power of endangering the rest Can we honestly fear Popery should break this Liberty when it even becomes a security against the more refined Popery of the Church of England What will prevent the less cannot admit the greater The Net which will catch a little Fish will not let a greater pass How unjust therefore are the Jealousies of those and how impudent their Words that prejudge that matter and will not leave it to the only place where the Tryal of the sincerity of all Parties can be made I mean a Parliament To that time I refer the whole Controversy and do beg all Parties to prepare to make the Session happy in trying not how to divide but unite upon this great Point where if the Bishops shew their conversion to Liberty by a tenderness truly due to Conscience in every Party I shall heartily change the opinion their contrary practise for so many Years past has constrained me to entertain about them but till then I have greater reason to count their present Zeal A fit of Art than they have to suspect the Court of insincerity in the business of the present Declaration A thought that Seven Years ago would have been with them Insufferable in a Dissenter especially about any Act of power in the Clergy's favour What then can one call Their crime that in the name of Religion and Law can bring themselves to contest their Kings command upon his Judges Opinions in a case of so much mercy and goodness For such an one this is and the effect of it Heaven hath already blest It is what might have become the greatest and best of Princes of former Ages but it looks as if it had been reserved for the glory of him that now Sways the English Scepter and I confesss I can't refrain hoping this goodness of his will give Example even where his power can't give Law. London Printed for H. L. and I. K. and Sold by most Booksellers in London and Westminster