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truth_n believe_v church_n know_v 4,058 5 4.1423 3 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A25586 An Answer to the city ministers letter from his country friend 1688 (1688) Wing A3400; ESTC R1145 4,132 4

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An Answer TO THE CITY MINISTERS LETTER FROM HIS COUNTRY FRIEND SIR IT is not for me now to acknowledge my private Debt to you for the favour of your Letter since the publick is as much concern'd in it as I and if I may judge of all by the compass of my Neighbourhood and Acquaintance I may assure you they are not insensible of your Obligation though they are ignorant of the Author The Country as far as my Intelligence reaches has followed the Example of the City and refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence according to a certain Order said to be the Kings which we in the Country can scarce believe to be His. For it has neither been signified to the Ordinaries according to the usual manner nor could those that dispersed it give any Account whence it came to them I have heard indeed that an Act of Council concerning it has been published in the Gazette which I never saw and if I had I should scarce have thought Authentick for I always took that Paper as for its Authority to have been all of a piece and that we were no more bound to take notice of any Order published there under any penalty then we are to believe all the News from Poland or Constantinople Nay though this Order had come to us in due form yet had we had great reason to suspect something of surreption and surprize upon his Majesty in this matter and that it could not proceed from his Majestys free and full consent for we cannot yet forget his repeated professions of kindness to us and of satisfaction in our Principles and Duty and having done nothing since which might forfeit his good Opinion we are unwilling to believe that it is His Majesties own mind and pleasure to load us with such an Order as we cannot execute with any congruity safety or good conscience For I. As to his Majesties Declaration We of all his Majesties Subjects are the least concern'd in it and with all duty be it spoken we cannot see that our legal Establishment receives any Addition by this Declaration For there are yet thanks be to God no Penal Laws to which our Congregations are obnoxious and therefore we do not stand in need of any Toleration Yet it is upon us onely that the Reading of it is imposed An Act which cannot well be construed otherwise than as a solliciting and tempting our own people to forsake our Communion If this Declaration must needs be read in any Religious Assemblies in reason surely it should be in those that wholely ow their subsistence to it It would better have become the Roman than the Protestant Chappels But in the Roman Church Indulgence hath another signification and belongs to those only that frequent their Churches but not to such as leave them for with them this is the only sin that is not capable of Indulgence But the Priests desire to be excus'd lest while they proclaim Toleration to others they bring an Interdict upon themselves Or why I pray was not Father Pen Ordered to publish it in his Meetings Or the worthy Mr. Lob the reputed Father of this Project why had not he the benefit of his own Invention and a Patent for being the sole Publisher of it within his own Pound Or why was not my Lord Mayors private and elect Congregation thought worthy of so great a grace Surely it is not to draw upon us the envy of the Dissenters that the honour of publishing this Declaration is impos'd upon us alone when it belongs to all other Communions in the Kingdom except our own and if we refuse it I hope it will be imputed to our Modesty for we are not ambitious of being impertinent or busie-bodies in other mens matters A certain person much greater than he deserves but perhaps not so high is said to have used the Words of Rabsh●keh upon this occasion That the Church of England Clergy should Eat their own Dung. Isa 36.12 This sentence might better have become a Messenger of the King of Assyria than a pretended Counsellor of our own Prince though some make a question to which King he belongs but God be thanked we are not yet so straitly besieg'd as to be reduc'd to that extremity and though by the permission of God We should be reduc'd to so miserable a condition We should I hope by the grace of God be content to endure that and worse extremities if possible rather than Betray or Surrender the City of God. But before that comes it is possible that the Throat that belch'd out this Nasty Insolence may be stopp'd with something which it cannot swallow II. Besides there are some Passages in the Declaration which in Conscience we cannot Read to our People though it be in the Kings Name for among others we are to Read these Words WE cannot but heartily wish as will easily be believed that all the People of our Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church Our People know too well the English of this and could not but be strangly surpriz'd to hear us tell them that it would be an acceptable thing to the King that they should leave the Truth and our Communion and turn Papists The Wish of a King when solemnly Declared is no light insignificant thing but has real influence and effect upon the minds of Men. It was but a Wish of Henry the Second that cut off Thomas Becket then Archbishop of Canterbury Councils and Courts of Justice too often bend to a Kings Wishes though against their own Inclinations as well as against their Rule And can we imagin that they can have no force at all upon the common people therefore we cannot in Conscience pronounce these words in the Ears of the People whose Souls are committed to our Charge For we should hereby lay a snare before them and become their Tempters instead of being their Instructers and in very fair and reasonable construction we shall be understood to sollicite them to Apostacy to leave the Truth of the Gospel for Fables and the mistakes of men a reasonable and decent Worship for Superstition and Idolatry a true Christian Liberty for the most intolerable Bondage both of soul and body If any will forsake our Doctrine and Fellowship which yet is not ours but Christs at their own peril be it But as for us We are resolv'd by the grace of God to lay no stumbling block in their way nor to be accessary to their ruin that we may be able to declare our integrity with S. Paul That we are pure from the blood of all men III. In the next place We are to declare in the Kings name That from henceforth the Execution of all and all manner of Penal Laws in matters Ecclesiastical for not coming to Church or not receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion established or for or by reason of the exercise of R●ligion in any manner whatsoever be immediatly Suspended and the farther