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A25584
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An ansvver to the city-conformists letter from the country clergy-man, about reading His Majesties declaration. With allowance.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing A3399A; ESTC R214872
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4,764
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10
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AN ANSWER TO THE City-Conformists Letter FROM THE Country Clergy-man About Reading His Majesties DECLARATION With Allowance LONDON Printed by Mary Thompson at the Entrance into the 〈…〉 near Charing-Cross 1688. The Country Clergy-Man's Answer to the City Conformists Letter c. SIR YOU tell me you do not wonder at my Concern for finding an Order of Council publish'd in the Gazette for reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience But I must assure you that when I heard that the London Clergy refus'd to read it I cou'd not forbear Wondering That there was an Order given for the Reading it did at first surprise me for the Reasons of it did not immediately occurr to my Thoughts But that any of the Clergy especially the Right Reverend Fathers the Bishops decline the Publishing of it surprises me more and the Reasons they give most of all There is I confess a great deal in what you have on the entrance of your Letter suggested For to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to profess the Romish Faith and therefore no hurt in reading it and to suffer for such a Refusal is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the lawful Commands of our Prince Thus much you think will be the sense of some And there is so much cause to move the considering mind to conclude thus that I think you right in your Notion of it and do further believe that not the Complying but the Refusal to comply with this Order on the Grounds you do will provoke all Good Men to despise and hate us For 1. Hitherto the Government has been a Screen between our Clergy and the Censures of the People There are Laws against Dissenters we cou'd say and Laws must be observ'd We had no hand in the making of those Laws and cou'd wish 'em alter'd but 't was not in our power to do it This has been the way we were forc'd to take to the end we might be secur'd from the Peoples Rage and Clamour which by this means always past over us and lighted on the Government But now the Government being for a Remove of those Laws the Clergies stickling so very much for their Continuance exposes us and we shall not be able to say it is the Government but 't will be said it is the Clergy that were for the Making as well as Execution of Penal Laws Besides 2. You do hereby put us out of a Capacity of vindicating our selves from the Reproach of being Persecutors Hitherto we have been able with some plausibleness to say That none were punish'd for their Religion or their Consciences but for their Faction their Sedition and Rebellion Our Laws declar'd the matters Religious for which any fell under their Lash to be a Crime against the Civil State. And 't was for that the Papists and Phaenaticks suffer'd His Majesties Grand-father of Blessed Memory insists on this and so did Sir Edw. Coke But now His Majesty distinguishing between matters of mere Religion and those other Religious matters that are so blended with the Civil State that the Error in Religion is a Crime against the Government is resolv'd to do his part towards the separating the one from the other and to extend Liberty to all in matters of mere Religion but no further Our opposition therefore unto this will insinuate into the minds of the People that we do in good earnest desire that Laws may be continued in force against men for matters of mere Religion whereby we shall be inevitably involv'd in the odious Reproach of being Persecutors of Godly Conscientious Men. But 3. The insisting on the Illegality of the Dispensing power as a Reason of the Refusal is one of the most impolitick things in the World. For 1. We have hereby lost that Interest we had all along in the favour of the Prince If we will be just in our acknowledgments we must confess that we had been long ago a lost Church had we not the Crown on our side to support us It is the Monarch that has been the Bulwark of the Church of England and we by asserting the Prerogative which comprehends within it the Dispensing power gain'd an Interest in him who on all occasions hazarded himself for our Defence The Bishop asserted the Prerogative and the Prerogative preserv'd the Bishop And the Bishops by opposing Prerogative have broke down the Bulwark of our Church And tho' with Grief yet in Truth we may say Our Glory is gone our Strength is departed You have now made a Divorce between the Crown and the Church of England-Mitre and must never more expect to be the Darling of a Crown'd-Head No Prince can take pleasure in those that have contrary to their avow'd Principles without any just provocation as you have done broke the Crown in pieces 2dly We have Condemn'd our selves and justify'd the Dissenters in this The Reason why we have for many years together Represented the Dissenters even from the Pulpit to be Men of Factious Seditious and Rebellious Principles was grounded on their Narrowing the Prerogative and Limiting the Monarchy which we said they did by refusing to Declare that they wou'd not value such Commissions as were granted by the Imperial Power the Prorogative more than the King's Authority which is the Laws of the Land. We were sensible of the Mischief of the old Puritanick Doctrine that made the Law to be the Mouth of the King and held that the King was Obey'd and Fought for when 't was against His Person if 't was in Defense of the Politick Laws and we clearly saw that there was no other way to obviate the Mischief of this their Seditious Doctrine but by inventing and imposing the Declaration of Abborrence which all the Clergy Subscribe and in which they Declare That those Commissions that are given out by the Imperial Power contrary to the Law must be much more deferred unto than the Law of the Land and that all those that hold the contrary are for the Trayterous Position But by this Opposition to His Majesty's Declaration we regard not the Imperial Law no nor the Exercise of the Royál Power tho' agreeable to our Laws And contrary to our Solemn Vows and Declarations have set up the King's Authority above His Regal Power and as one of our Divines very lately do make the Law the Mouth of the King and aver That our Obedience must not be to the Private but Publick Declaration of His Will whereby we run so far as to justifie that Parliament which Fought against His Majesty's Royal Father whom notwithstanding His engaging to the loss of His Life in our Quarrel we now condemn and Publish to the World That the Dissenters were all along in the right We cannot now say that the Dissenters were Factious Seditious and Rebellious heretofore but by Condemning our selves for such at this time 4ly In a word you have by this Act exposed our Ministry to the greatest
Scorn and Contempt For how can any wise Man reflected on what has been the burden of our Preaching for many years together in the Defence of the Prerogative and see how we have at once given the Lye to all and regard us any more That we have as the Embassadors of Christ and in the Name of the Lord Publish'd so very much in the Exalting the Prerogative under the Notion of Divine Truth and now pretend that we are bound in Conscience boldly to contradict all is such a Soliscim as will render it impossible for Men of Candor and Integrity to entertain any tollerable Thoughts of us or our Ministry And those very Gentlemen which have wheedl'd you into this Snare will neglect and scorn you The Reasons you give for your Refusal make our Case the more deplorable You in the first place take it for granted That no Church of-England-Man can approve of the Declaration And then add That Reading it is an Overt-Act of Approbation And to declare otherwise is Protestatio contra Factum And the very Reading it will influence the Multitude to do their utmost that Penal Laws and Tests be taken off and do what will Reflect on those Noble-Men and Gentry that have lost their Places for being against it This is the Sum of what you say To which I will distinctly Reply 1st To what you take pro confesso None of our Clergy approve of the Declaration I Answer That many sober Men amongst us do approve both of the Liberty of Conscience and of the Dispensing-Power And there is not that Clergy-Man this day in England who has not Exalted the Regal Power much higher than the Law of the Land and are bound to regard the King 's Private Command as they do His Private Commission more than His Authority or which is the same the Law of the Land. Thus much all our Clergy before their Institution and Induction have solemnly declar'd And no other Reason can be assign'd for our dislike of the Declaration but this That we are against Liberty of Conscience It is the King 's Dispensing with those Laws that are made against Dissenters that displeases you And seeing when a Law is made it must be put in Execution or there must be a Suspending the Execution by a dispensing-Dispensing-Power or a Repeal Those who are against the Repeal as you undoubtedly are and also against the Dispensing with those Laws must be for their Execution i. e. for the filling of our Goals with Dissenters Riffling their Houses Ruining their Families and destroying their Persons This must be the thing aim'd at by those who cannot approve of the King's Declaration for Liberty And seeing this is the thing you wou'd be at how can you expect the Dissenters shou'd trust you Or how can you without blushing say you are for due tenderness to Dissenters even when you will rather suffer your selves than that the Dissenters enjoy the least ease 2dly To the Second Reading is not an Overt-Act of Approving Don't you remember how many invidious Excommunications have been sent down unto us to Publish which we have done without making our selves a Party Or can you forget the Distinction we have us'd to escape the Censure of the Phanaticks about being Consenters to every thing that we Subscribe unto We consent to the Use but not the Sayings And if Using the Common-Prayer-Book which is done by Reading be not Consenting how comes it to pass that Reading in the present Case must be Consenting Furthermore 3dly To Read it and at the same time to Dissent is not Protestatio contra Factum There is a difference between Reading that is the Factum and Consenting and Protesting against Consenting is not Protestatio contra Factum To Read it and Protest against Reading is Protestatio contra Factum But to Read and Protest you do not Consent is not such a Protestation But 4ly Reading the Declaration will influence the People from taking off the Penal Laws and Tests And I am of your Opinion in this for let the Multitude but understand that the Test-Laws shall continue until we have better security for our Religion our Civil Rights and Properties which is the thing His Majesty declares and it 's not to be doubted but every Man of Sense will be for taking off the very Tests But you mistake when you add That the taking off the Test is opening the door to let in Popery to the Ruine of the Church of England For we need not fear Popery unless the Papists have Power enough to drive us to their Religion by Persecution And the taking off the Tests on the Terms His Majesty Proposes will give us greater security against Persecution than now we have A Legal Establishment which His Majesty offers our Church will give us such a Security as will please this whole Nation At present our Security is erected on the Spoils of a great part of the Kingdom who are hereby disquieted For our Safety lies in this That no one but a Church-Man be legally interested in the Favour of his Prince or in the Advantages of the Government All others must for their Consciences be in constant Danger of inevitable Ruine On which occasion we have been look'd on as the Common Enemy to their Peace But let our Security be such as hurts not the Consciences nor Estates of others which may be by taking off Penal Laws and Tests the Bond of Contention will be remov'd and what is frightful in our Church will disappear We shall be look'd on as a Sister and be Treated accordingly And to the end that we may be Secur'd from any Dangers that may be supposed to arise from the Roman Catholicks we shall have a double Advantage In the first place we shall have a new Law confirming us in the free Exercise of our Religion and full Enjoyment of our Possessions And in the next place By putting it out of the Power of any one Party to Persecute the other we shall be out of the Power of Popish Persecutions And to prevent any change on this Law we shall have the help of all the Dissenting-Protestants to joyn with us who will be affraid any Alteration should be made on it lest thereby they also lose their Security Which Security once obtain'd will be most grateful unto the Nobility and Gentry you mention Thus Sir I have freely open'd my self unto you Praying Almighty God to give our Right Reverend Fathers more Wisdom that They may not be impos'd on by those who love 'em not but may suddainly be brought to that Temper which is necessary towards the Healing our Breaches and the Establishing the Peace of our Israel FINIS