Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A25575
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An answer to the Bishop of Rochester's first letter to the Earl of Dorset, &c. concerning the late ecclesiastical commission by an Englishman.
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Englishman.; Charlton, Mr.; Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713. Letter from the Bishop of Rochester to ... the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing A3388; ESTC R15480
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10,664
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36
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of hindring as much Evil as we possibly could in that unfortunate Juncture of Affairs Answ. I will not take upon me to argue for or against the Earl of Rochester but sure I am that he who ventures his Temporal condition to save his Spiritual is of much more Value than he who ventures his Spiritual to save his Temporal If the Earl of Rochester hazarded and lost the first place of England the Treasury for the sake of the Protestant Religion when the Formality of a Conference might appear some kind of Contest with a King a Brother-in-Law and so great an Employment that one Action shall be imputed to him for Righteousness in this World and ought to stand in Ballance against any great oversight because from the many Cases of History informing that Lord how dangerous it is for a Favourite in a set Competition to be Wiser than his Prince much more how Fatal to condemn his Religion he could not but see his Fall in the Perseverance and are therefore Irrefragable Arguments that neither Ambition Relation nor Temporal Interest governed him But if the Bishop of Rochester put the Protestant Religion in danger for an Hour in servile Obedience to the Arbitrary Will of his Prince the Presumption is Violent that he followed Humane Interest in the Compliance especially if the Bishop had never been seen in any one important Self Denial for the sake of his Religion that might stamp the Character upon him of one that would not Act against his Conscience Wherefore I think the Spiritual Rochester can by no means assign Ignorance for Plea with the same Application the Temporal Rochester may if but for want of the Like Credentials nor pretend to shelter himself under the same Paragraph of Umbrage because he never parted with the least Advantage that ever came into Publick Discourse for the sake of his Religion The Good you urge to have done was Evil in you all because unjust in the Foundation the Evil you did was much more Evil in you my Lord because of the Good you might properly have wrought out of that very Evil Not by accepting the Commission with purpose of doing what Good you could and hindering as much Evil in the Subservient way of your latter Paragraphs but opposing the Commission it self a first a second a third time and so left them been earnest and forward in your protestation preparing your self to declaim strenuously against it Asserting your Religion like a Bishop in a Just foresight of Evil to come and taking the freedom of St. Paul to plead for God against the Idolatrous design maintaining the Liberty you are required to stand fast in This was your Duty my Lord and the Good ought to have been wrought by a Bishop out of the Evil of the Commission thanking God for the Opportunity he had given you to appear in defence of the Christian Faith to manifest your contempt of Ease Pleasure Life it self accounting all things but Dung and Dross compared with the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ your Master And if your Heart through Natural Infirmity or Temporary Delights had failed you Retired to your Closet down upon your Knees have humbled your self before him adoring his Divine Bounty in Grace of Inclination and besought him to remove from before your Eyes the Prospect of any Felicity that stood between you and your Resolution in his Service have turned to the Life and Death of some Primitive Christian Bishop whose Example might support your Spirits Or it may be my Lord not to despise poor Fox your Book of Martyrs if that Manual of Popish Clemency durst be seen in your Study might have shewn you about a dozen or two of your Country-men of the meaner sort upon a Page Coblers Weavers and such like Weaklings in a Chain tied to a stake kissing the Post rejoicing in the Flame and blessing the Day that God had vouchsafed to single them out to bear Testimony against the Persecution of Princes This my Lord was the least of your Duty and I believe had been performed if the Temporalties of the Episcopacy to say nothing severe had not gained time upon the Spiritualty of the Bishop The sixth Paragraph of the Letter As for my own part I was startled when I perceived my Lord of Canterbury scrupled to be present with us whose Example 't is true I ought rather to have followed than the greatest Lawyers in all matters of Conscience Yet I hope his Grace will excuse me if I declare that I did not at first know He made a matter of Conscience of it Nor did I understand his Grace took Exception at the Lawfulness of the Commission it self till after my Lord of London was Cited and had Appeared and Answered and the unjust Sentence had past upon Him. Answ. The Scruples of that Arch-Bishop have been my great Satisfaction and are now as much my Trouble I am not worthy but as hearty to Remove the Latter as I was ever ready to Justifie his Former with reference to that Commission his Grace behav'd himself like the Metropolitan of all England to refuse Attendance and you had appear'd a worthy Suffragan if the Countenance of his Disdain had rais'd you up to a Defiance You ought my Lord to have argued against what he thought below him to take notice of Vindicating at once a Temper in him Suitable to the Apostolick See and in your self to the Sincerity of a Protestant Bishop that is an humble greatness of Mind explained in Him by the modesty of Not Appearing and Christian Fortitude in You by the Vigour of Opposing If after my Lord of London had been cited and appeared you had consulted his Grace how to carry your self at the next meeting and followed his Advice such a Retrieve might have been an Apology for the Surprise in your First sitting there but to let the Citation Appearance Answer Sentence and All be over All past my Lord before you could move from Westminster to Lambeth let a Bishop be affronted in an Unjust Sentence before you would vouchsafe cross the Thames to understand why my Lord of Canterbury ' your Metropolitan disowned the Commission puts your Case beyond Scruple and Startle into Wilfulness Prepense and me almost beyond reasoning into Astonishment Demonstration it self that you took care not to approach his Grace's Exceptions to the Legality of the Commission lest they should prove too clear for your Unlawful Obedience to the pleasure of the King or rather lest he should tell your Lordship you understood the Illegality of it beyond any Excuse of Ignorance if you made your Conscience a Slave to his Power No my Lord Ignorance was to be reserved against a wet day and might serve well enough to Charm a Good natured Unthinking Lethargick People Easie to be pacified a little whining will melt them down if ever they are redeemed into a capacity of demanding Justice but at present Unshaken Loyalty is the word and I must On. Thus it
An Answer TO THE Bishop of ROCHESTER AN ANSWER TO THE Bishop of Rochester's FIRST LETTER TO THE EARL of DORSET c. Concerning the Late ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION By an Englishman Lege REX LONDON Printed for W. Haight in Bloomsberry 1689. AN ANSWER TO THE Bishop of Rochester's First Letter to the Earl of Dorset c. Right Reverend I Had not given my self the trouble of reading your First had it not been for your Second nor the World the trouble of reading this if the Apologist had not set up for an Adviser Nor do I presume to answer your Letters to the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex as such but appearing in publick they become Appeals to the People and in that respect as one of your fellow Subjects my Lord I take the liberty of saying Your Two Apologies need a Third If the acceptance of your first Letter by that Noble Lord gave you Encouragement to a Second yet certainly you ought to have confined your self Strictly to your own Particular without so early attempting to plead for all the Criminals of the Nation in the debate of a general Oblivion Or at least have reserved your Florid Maxims to a place where the Bishop hopes to be distinguished from the Commissioner But to close your Acknowledgment with a design to over-rule and lead others into your Opinion when notwithstanding your most meritorious Services the best of your Argument lies in Excuse through Weakness and being your self Mis-led is so far from a state of Mortification that the Good Nature of the Englishman you would insinuate your Case into cannot digest your Pretence to Affliction without first Undressing your Apologies To which end I have read them more than once considered them Naked neither sent to nor accepted by Greatness and desirous to convince your Lordship of the necessity of a Third lay before you these Remarks upon your First Previous only in my way to the latter part of your Second and rising Obvivious Unprejudiced with the Sincerity of a plain ordinary Man and no Dealer in the Art of Language For beside the Aversion I have to all Flights where the condition of any person may be at Stake my Temper inclines me wholly to Things for they will not long endure to be Ill Administred and not to perishing Words and the Vanity of Address I love Virtue in a good Garb and delight to see it well treated by the World but am not ashamed of it in Rags nor afraid of it in Poverty being taught to Want as to Abound Clear Inflexible Honesty and that Eternal Frame of mind which Tacitus mentions in the Life of Agricola and you lessen into the innocent Character of Honest Hardiness meaning perhaps Fool Hardiness are of greater Esteem with me tho' a Foot and in Dirt than all the Pageantry of Circumstance the Son of Adam can loose himself in Or the most exalted Figure in Humanity upon the dishonourable terms of a Mean Shift and the Ignoble Surrender of his Better Understanding to the Extravagant Desires Or the Vain Imaginations of any Prince whatsoever First Paragraph of the Letter I think I should be wanting to my self at this time in my own necessary Vindication should I forbear any longer to give my Friends a true Account of my Behaviour in the late Ecclesiastical Commission Tho' I profess what I shall now say I only intend as a reasonable mitigation of the Offence I have given not entirely to justifie my sitting in that Court for which I acknowledge I have deservedly incur'd the Censure of many good Men. And I wish I may ever be able to make a sufficient amends to my Country for it Answer No part of your Case my Lord will bear a Vindication for how Plausible soever your Behaviour may have been in that Commission the very Act of Compliance to serve under it sunk you below the dignity of such an Expression Instead of a Mitigation it agravates the Offence to say you cannot entirely juistifie your sitting in that Court when sensible of the Action and clothed with the Spirit of Humility you ought fairly to declare you cannot in the least justifie sitting there and so deservedly incur the Censure not only of many Good if such there be but of all Honest Men. You have been bred to Learning your Education my Lord is Evidence against you you are a Bishop a Shepherd in a Trust of mighty Supervision Vigilancy and Courage are the Essentials of your Station The Example is more dangerous in your Ability than your Quality capable of doing much good or Hurt as you are well or ill inclin'd Your Friend Cowley says there are great Men the labour of the Mother the Works of Nature and great Men their own Labour the effect of Art and ought to be of Honesty there are therefore Lords pardonable and there may be Lords unpardonable If Ignorance of the Law be no direct excuse to any that very Ignorance doubles the Crime in some so that if the Lord by the Chance-Stroke of Nature happen to be guilty in conjunction with the Lord by the False-Stroke of Art the judgement of the One may be presumed to mislead the good manners of the Other and the Professor to answer for the Courtier I concur in your Wish that you may ever be able to make sufficient Amends to your Country for it the first step to which is a sufficient acknowledgement to your Country of it Yet I trust in the mercy of God who wrought our deliverance in the Justice of the King the great Instrument of it and Wisdom of the most happy Parliament that ever sate in this Kingdom who have Crowned it and are so assiduous to secure it that we shall not be at the Expence of so many Millions to rescue our selves in the hands of Obnoxious Men again but that satisfaction shall be taken of some the Dying not too nimble for us nor the Living too bold for us others obliged to undergo their Quarantine and Provision made that all of them may be disabled from ever doing their Countrey more such Audacicious Mischiefs The second Paragraph of the Letter Yet thus much my Lord I can justly alledge for my self that the Commission was made and my Name put into it altogether without my knowledge when I happened to be at Salisbury holding an Archiepiscopal Visitation with the Bishop of Chichester where by God's blessing we composed several old Differences and Animosities and restored Peace and Unity to that Church Answ. I am willing to think some part of your time was spent in your Duty and am heartily sorry that any part of your time was spent so far out of it as that abominable Commission carried you I believe also not forgetting that Smart Escape of your Pen the Otesian Villany that the Bishop of Rochester was not in the Contrivance of the Commission nor that your Lordship sollicited your Name into it But they who had ingaged your Parts so often and so deeply