Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A35891
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A Dialogue between the Arch-B. of C. and the Bishop of Heref. containing the true reasons why the bishops could not read the declaration.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing D1326; ESTC R25371
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3,567
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2
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A Dialogue between the Arch-B of C. and the Bishop of Heref. Containing the true Reasons why the Bishops could not read the Declaration With Allowance July the 6th 1688 Cant. MY Lord I am glad to see you but I must deal plainly with you as Paul did with Peter and Rebuke you to your face for your late Schismatical carriage Hereford Your Grace startles me Cant. Nay my Lord you have startled me and the rest of my True-blue Brethren more by your unexpected Separation from our blessed Community For when we entred into an holy Consultation against the Lords Anointed saying Come Let us break his Royal Command and cast the cords of all Obligations to Obedience from us You proved a Dissenter in this matter and published your Reasons too for not bravely Disobeying as we did Whereby you have much damaged us We look for some satisfaction as to this great and weighty Point Heref. May it please your Grace I am very sorry if I have given you any just cause of Offence which yet I am not Conscious of I have done nothing but what was my Duty as a Christian in general and as a Member of the Church of England in especial from whom I have been taught to obey my Prince in all things that thwart not any declared Law of God which no body of any sense can say the Reading his Majesty's Declaration does therefore I was bound to an exact Compliance or else I could not have approved my self a True Son of the Church Cant. My Lord 'T is a sign you have been long in the Country you are so much a Stranger to our Intreagues here We know Reading the Declaration is in it self an harmless thing and the King ought to have been obeyed in it but our Circumstances were so extraordinary that we were forced to borrow a point of Obedience and we promise the King if He will take our Words to pay him double at another time when we have more heart to it As for instance If his Majesty did Oh! that he would forbear us and have patience with us till he Commanded us to enquire into our several Parishes what Dissenters were Inhabiting or Lodging there and return their Names that they might be forthwith Prosecuted against He should see what amends we would make him for the little Slip now in our hearty and affectionate Obeying such a for ever precious Order We would make our Sullen Tongue-ty'd Priests open wide their Jaws and cry aloud in the Publick Asiemblies Where the Word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him What dost Thou But to return My Lord to speak inter nos Our Controversie with you is not for obeying the Kings Command but for not Joyning with us We are laying our Heads together and makeing use of all the Wit and Policy we have and truly are bound to take up a little K. too upon Interest of some not far from us who have enough to spare to support the Grandeur of our declining Church And we verily thought we should have had your aid and assistance in this great Work. But you have finely given us the lurch Well 't is no matter I hope with what strength we have which I assure you is not small we shall do the thing without you You heard how well we came off the other day Heref. Yes May it please your Grace and I heard how Piously you came on For before your appearing at the Council Board your Grace and the other Reverend Bishops went to Prayer Now I have exactly read all the Prayers in our Rubrick and cannot find one Prayer proper to your Graces Condition at that juncture of time And I know 't is not your Graces Principle to use any other Prayer Cant. My Lord I am sorry you are so short-sighted I tell you there is a Prayer very pertinent to all our Conditions which we made use of and found great comfort and refreshment in Heref. Will your Grace vouchsafe to acquaint me with it for I cannot imagine what Prayer it should be Cant. My Lord 'T is in the beginning of the Liturgy and it seems to be Prophetically penn'd for our very Case at that time It runs in the language of Confession which best suited with us then For though we would not acknowledge our Crime to Man yet we confess'd our state to God according to the truth of it in the following Words We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep We have followed too much the Devices and Defires of our own hearts We have done those things which we ought not to have done and we left undone those things which we ought to have done especially the obeying our Sovereigns Just and most Righteous Command And there is no health in us and so the Lord have mercy upon us And a great deal of Mercy we have found in being delivered from our great and sad Calamity to the great Rejoycing of the Rabble and all the Scum of the City and not only so but a prodigious Miracle has been wrought for us in the midst of our Enemies to confirm the Truth of our Cause Such a Miracle as former Ages never saw and future Ages will very hardly believe Heref. If your Grace please I desire to know it I thought our Church lay'd no stress on Miracles Cant. I but my L. our Church being at a very low ebb the Pillars of it standing at the Barr and for a Miracle to be wrought at such a time and upon such an occasion we should be blind indeed if we did not take notice of it Heref. Will your Grace tell what it was Cant. To the Honour of our Cause the Glory of our Hierarchy the truth of our Constitution be it spoken The Lawyers Pockets which were ever as tenacious as the Strgian Lake could not hold our Guinea's as soon as they had done their Work they were compell'd by an unaccountable and more than common Magical Impetus contrary to the very nature of their Souls to return back their Wages their Stomachs on a sudden were so squeamish they could not beat the sight of our glittering Gold. Heref. This is strange indeed and may pass for a Miracle and so let it pass for me Will your Grace be pleased to tell me the Reasons of your not Reading the Declaration Was it really for fear of Popery getting uppermost Cant. No No My Lord We are not so weak as to have any apprehension of that only if we can and there are no Endeavours wanting gull the Mobilee into a belief that that is the great and true Reason it may do us no diskindness Heref. Then May it please your Grace was it because you scruple the Dispensing Power Cant. No indeed My Lord nor for that neither We are for Dispensing Power Exalting Power Stretching Power any Power always provided it be on our side only we thought this the plausiblest pretence for our Disobedience because we might fly to some Journals of Parliament for Refuge from the Storm of Royal Thunder Heref. If I may not be too bold with your Grace I would humbly beg you to tell me the Right Reasons You do not know what Influence they may have upon me Cant. Why then My Lord you shall have them First We were against Reading the Declaration because we had no band in the making of it nor was our Advice ever asked about it and it is the nature of we Prelates to oppose every thing that was not Originally hatched in our Noddles Secondly Because there runs such a Vein of Mercy and Tenderness throughout the Decla as is quite opposite to our former Practises and present Principles Indeed Solomon says a Kings Throne is established by Mercy But alas a Bishops Throne would quickly be ruin'd by it And tho we have often ventur'd shaking the Royal Throne by our irregular methods to preserve our selves yet now our heart-breaking Grief is that we have a Prince too Sagacious to commit his Scepter into our violent hands Thirdly The King has disobliged us and we had no other way to manifest our Resentments To your Tents O Israel had been too open and exposed us to present danger and therefore we thought it Prudence to begin with scrupling and questioning his Authority and if we escape as I don't much doubt it with this we may more confidently proceed to higher things afterwards Fourthly There is a necessity of our becoming Popular tho we heretofore so much reclaimed against it as matters now stand with us and there was no way to effect it like this For upon our refusing to Read the Declaration we could not but suppose we should be questioned for it then t was but giving out we were sufferring for the Protestant Religion because we would not joyn with the Papists as the Dissenter do at this day and the giddy-headed multitude we knew well enough would soon take the Alarm and cry us up to the Skies in their Huzzas These are the only men that stand up for the Protestant Religion we should all be Papists if it were not for such as these Now as we Projected we have gained the point of being the Moblies Darlings Fiftly We did not Read the Declaration because our Sovereigns Sentiments and ours are so vastly differing He is not for constraining Conscience ay but we are He is for no mans suffering for Religion but we are for every Bodies suffering that cannot come up to every Gim-crack of our Worship And hence it is against our Natures Consciences as well as Interest to read Liberty to those People whom we would always have kept in bondage unto us Heref. May it please your Grace if these be as believe they are the real reasons of your disobeying his Majesty's Command as to the Reading His most Gratious Declaration I must beg your pardon to remain in the choice I have made A true Son of the Church of England and an obedient Subject to the King my Master LONDON Printed for L. P. 1688.