Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A70712
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The New test of the Church of England's loyalty, examined by the old test of truth and honesty
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1687
(1687)
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Wing N781; ESTC R7988
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8,085
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14
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THE New TEST OF THE Church of England's LOYALTY Examined by the Old TEST OF Truth and Honesty LONDON Printed by R. G. 1687. THE NEW TEST OF THE Church of England's LOYALTY c. THE reason why the Church of England may above any Separatists from her appropriate to her self the Principles of true Loyalty is so apparent from her constant Practise and Doctrin that one would think this Scribler of the New Test never considered it at all though he tells us he hath often consider'd because he cannot find it For I challenge him or any man to shew me any that are not of her Communion not excluding even the Calves of the Hind the Sons of the Church of Rome it self that did constantly maintain the Doctrin of Non-resistance to the Supream Magistrate and practise according to it as our Church and her true Sons have always done Was there ever any such Doctrin as the Deposing of Kings the subjecting them to a foreign Bishop or to an Assembly at home the making them Trustees of the People or ascribing an Authority Co-ordinate to theirs in the Peoples Representatives the founding Dominion in Grace or Lastly owning a Power in the inferiour Magistrates to Act without or contrary to their Commission taught by our Loyal Mother and have not some or all of these been taught by some of the other Parties So that if they are Loyal it is no thanks to their Religion for it Have not all the other Parties acted according to these Antimonarchical principles Or can the worst of our Enemies with any truth accuse our Church or her true Followers of any such Actions But what saith this Test-maker can be more ridiculous then for such who cannot pretend to infallibility even in matters of Faith to assume to themselves an inerrability in civil Obedience Oh profound Sense and Reason what cannot Men be Loyal and Act according to their constant Principles of Loyalty without being infallible Or will not this Gentleman give us leave to be so kind to him or any of the Members of the Church of Rome as to think them indued with Loyalty without robbing their Holy Father the Pope of his Prerogative of Infallibility and ascribing part to his Sons Did ever any Man of the Church of England assume to himself an inerrability in his Obedience onely so long as he kept close to his Rule his Church hath given him I am sure on the contrary the Sons of that Church that assumes to her self Infallibilty in matters of Faith can never be indued with that singular Gift of Loyalty so long as they keep themselves out of the reach of the Anathema of their infallible Council of Lateran affix'd by an inerrable Canon upon all such as deny the Pope's power to depose Heretical Princes or Favourers of Hereticks So that I must needs own if they are Loyal their Loyalty far exceeds ours since they are Loyal at the peril of their immortal Souls whereas we can only venture our Temporal concerns for our Prince If therefore you will shew your selves truly Loyal in the next Address renounce that disloyal Canon of the Council of Lateran or else we must believe either that you are not Catholicks as in your Religion you love to be called or else do but serve a turn in your Pretences of Loyalty Out of his abundant kindness to the Members of the Church of England this Gentleman is pleased to allow them to have been Faithful and Serviceable to King Charles the First we are extreamly obliged to him for this so favourable a Concession and indeed I could not but have some thoughts of presenting an Address of thanks to him for it But that he hath saved me the trouble in so well explaining it For he tells us that this was only in our own defence and not joyning with the common Enemy to cut our own Throats nay further that the Ambition of our Church occasion'd the late War and the loss of the King's Life and Crown If so then our Church was serviceable to King Charles the First with a vengeance This me thinks looks something like a Dear-joye's Witticism or in plain English a down-right Bull that we should be serviceable to our King and yet occasion the loss of his Crown and Life But it is no matter what Contradictions he writes if he can but thereby bespatter the Church of England he knows he is to deal with a People of an implicit Faith that can swallow any Contradictions or false Stories Did ever any Man thus out-face the Sun as he hath done in these Aspersions Do not all Men that know any thing of the History of the late times know that if we of the Church of England would have joyn'd with the Rebels or but have owned the Usurpers Authority we might have enjoyed all our Rites and have expected much greater Preferments Was not this then very like consulting our own present Interest to suffer Sequestrations Decimations Plunderings Imprisonments nay Death it self rather then Act against our Duty to our Prince Is it not as visible as the Sun that the first pretence for the late War was for securing of Property and that Religion was but made a stalking Horse to catch the Rabble How then was the Ambition of our Church the occasion of it But Oh the admirable Loyalty of the Romanists That served the King without any Prpspect of advantage to themselves Nay when their Services were rejected by the King and their Persons banished from his Presence Did not the Rebellious party cry out against Popery and pretend that they only designed to secure the Nation against Papists they knew or at least at first believed as he saith they should meet with no quarter from the Rebels and therefore where should they fly for safety to the Royal party but as soon as His Majesty was forced by his Parliament to discard them and that they saw the other party would receive them how many of them Listed themselves under their Banners And Vid. the Works of K. Charles the Martyr fol. 323. All Men know the great numbers of Papists which serve in their the Rebells Army Commanders and others and hath not Old Peter Du Moulin long since asserted and offered to prove it by undoubted Evidence that a Jesuit at the very execution of his late Majesty K. Charles the First was seen amongst the Rebels throwing up his Cap for Joy insulting in the most barbarous manner over that poor Prince in his last Tragick Exit So true is it That never any of that Communion served that Party This infallible Author is resolved he will do the Church of England's business for Loyalty and therefore he rakes up all the odious Acts that ever have been done since the infancy of our Church as he words it p. 4. in fine and very obligingly fathers them upon her Of all which the Scotch Answer viz. Bellarmine thou lyest is a sufficient confutation For as for that that she the Church
him nor had not so much Gratitude to take off the Sanguinary Laws and the Test at his request But Good Sir if our Parliament of England will not do this what is it to the Church of England Why must the Church answer for the Acts of the State or why is it Ingratitude or Disloyalty to secure our selves against Popish Priests who hold there is no Faith to be kept with us and teach this Doctrine to all sorts of Persons Why I pray you is it not more Ingratitude and Disloyalty in the Church of Rome to a Prince that hath been so prodigiously kind to her to venture these Kingdoms for her sake not to take off that Bull that hinders them from Communicating with the Church of England and Pius Quartus his Creed and the Injunction of Subscribing to it which would go very far in Uniting the two Churches If this be not ingratitude in her still to keep her Post why is it in the Church of England to do the same Let us see the Pope and Clergy of Rome set us this Example of Gratitude and this may be a great inducement to our Church and Nation to follow it Suppose a Man hath good flights of Pidgeons in his Dove-house and loves them well and therefore hath provided such a Trap as he hath experienc'd does keep out the Vermin that otherwise would creep in and destroy his Pidgeons would you not think him a Mad man or else very willing to suffer his innocent Doves to be utterly destroyed that should take away his Trap and thereby give leave to all the devouring Weezles Polcats Hawks Owles Buzzards and Carrion-crows to come in amongst them and not only disturb but destroy them at their pleasure If the Test be so Ungrateful and Disloyal a thing to our Church why is not the Test in France which was a Pattern to ours nay doth far exceed it for the Right Heir to the Crown is excluded there without taking it a greater sign of Ingratitude and Disloyalty in the Church of Rome But this Test was contrived by Shafsbury and design'd against the King himself ibid. p. 6. Was it so why then do you throw it upon the Church of England is the Church of England to answer for Shaftsbury's inventions who was her greatest Enemy but however to give the Devil his due how can this Test be design'd against the King when the Royal Family are particularly exempted from taking it which was on purpose so contriv'd by the Loyal Church-men in the Parliament to secure the Succession in a right Line But the House of Commons made an Adress to his Majesty that none should be Employed who were not capacitated by the said Laws and Test i.e. in short Your Majesty must have none either in the Army or as Court but such as really believe and will swear to it that you are an Idolater These are his words ibid. p. 6. Why in the first place such as will swear c. The Oaths that are required by the Test are only the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance Now why any should be trusted with the Power of the Nation who will not swear Fealty to the Government my dull Politicks I confess cannot understand As for the renouncing of Transubstantiation a bare Declaration and Subscription without Swearing is all that the Test it self doth command But this it is for a Man to write as he believes by an implicit Faith i.e. to take things upon Trust without any Examination and to set them down for Truths But suppose now the worst that can be that it was Literally true as he would have it What harm would it be to his Majesty to be served by none but such as believe and will swear that he is an Idolater if they are all such as the Sons of the Church of England who do believe and think themselves bound to serve him faithfully though he really was not only an Idolater but an Heathen Is he not far safer in such hands than in the hands of such who though they think him not an Idolater yet if they think him an Heretick or a favourer of Hereticks may think themselves bound to destroy him especially if a Foreign Power shall give them Authority as too many Popes have done even against those Princes that have professed the Roman Religion Lastly who is there of the Church of England that because he himself doth not believe Transubstantiation does therefore think that the King does not or that will pronounce him an Idolater for Worshiping that which he believes is God Since then Slandering and Mis-representation will not do the Gentleman proceeds in the next place Pag. 7. to Wheedling but the best on 't is he hath made a Rod for his own Britch and his own Words reflect more upon his own Church than ours for is it not a delicate innocent Church that cannot be safe but in a fortified place It is a great Argument of her modesty to own her self weak and unable to subsist without a Law to burn Hereticks or what is worse to clap them up and stifle them or starve them or wrack them to death in the Inquisition who cannot conform to all their Superstitions Prayer Fasting Mortification of the Flesh and other Austerities are not it seems so proper means to remove her Fears and Jealousies but She must have a Coercive Power even over Kings themselves The Primitive Christians flourished for three hundred years under Persecution but yet their number increased more in three years in Constantine's Reign than almost in all the three hundred years before If this Church be from God it will-stand hath not the Apostolical Church nay the only Catholick Church as Rome stiles it self the assistance of the Holy Ghost who is to continue with the true Church till the end of the World Why then doth not She who pretends to be the Mother-Church of all others set her Children an Example in the discarding her Sanguinary Laws against all Hereticks and granting a full Liberty of Conscience to all sorts of Men If She would do this by her Success therein we should the better judge the Expediency of it for our selves if She will not do this and afford Protestants Places of Profit and Honour why should we take off our Laws for their Sakes who will abate nothing for ours Pag. 8. He acts the Divine and would fain urge Transubstantiation for a probable Doctrine because of the many Wise and Learned that believe it or at least pretend to do so By the same Argument he might as well prove Mahometism to be a probable Opinion for there are many Wise Men nay some Learned men amongst the Turks as well as amongst the Papists Whom he reflects upon by his new Tenet which makes it Idolatry to adore the Divine Body of Chirst whether there be a Transubstantiation or not I am not able to judge for I assure him this is the first time I ever heard of this Opinion It cannot be the Church of England's nor the infallible Parliaments as he calls it for the Reason that is given by our Rubrick is because the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural Substances and therefore may not be adored c. In the last Place he proceeds to give us Advice but the Advice of Enemies is always dangerous to be taken and surely none more dangerous than this viz. That the Loyal Church of England should change her old Principles of Loyalty and learn of her Catholick Neighbours how to behave her self towards Princes What Principles would he have us change and for what Would he have us renounce our constant Principle of Non-resistance to Princes and change it for that of the deposing Doctrine Would he have us learn of our Neighbour-catholicks how to make Holy Leagues against our King and to murder our Royal Masters but he proceeds Or She must give his Majesty leave not to nourish a Snake in his Bosome but to withdraw his Protection from such as withdraw their Fidelity This part of his Advice we are ready to take for we are not for restraining of Princes nor would we desire him to nourish Snakes in his own Bosome such Raviliacks and Jaques Clements I mean who carry a mortal Sting full of deadly Poyson against Princes even in their very Principles and have always shown it upon all opportunities in their Actions Neither are we against his withdrawing his Protection from such as cease to be Loyal nor are we for his protecting such as never were so such as his Wise and Learned Grand-father James the First said were never to be obliged by Benefits May his Majesty find his new Friends and Converts that he hath endeavour'd so highly to oblige by his Toleration to be as True and Loyal to him as his old Friends of the Church of England are and always were and may God Almighty preserve him to protect all his Subjects and then we shall not regard the grinning Threatnings and snarling Insinuations of any scribling Animals FINIS