Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A33745
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An answer to a paper importing a petition of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and six other bishops, to His Majesty, touching their not distributing and publishing the late declaration for liberty of conscience
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Care, Henry, 1646-1688.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing C506; ESTC R5331
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17,718
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34
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serve at her Altar unless perhaps they coin a Distinction to Salve it And that the Church may be of one Opinion and the Church-men of another And then in Conscience their Obligation was higher for besides what I said before that the People are apter to follow Example than Precept every Man and even their Lordships with the rest is Party and privy to an Act of Parliament and bound in Conscience to the observance of it Nor is there either Bishop or Clergy-man in the Church of England who has not subscrib'd to the lawfulness of this Declaration's being read in the Church during the time of Divine Service As thus Every Clergy-man at the time of his Institution subscribes in a a Book kept for that purpose That the King's Majesty under God is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm And that the Book of Common-Prayer containeth nothing in it contrary to the Word of God. Now the Book of Common-Prayer as it is now used in and thro' the Church of England is Enacted by Authority of Parliament to be read in such Order and Form as is mentioned in the said Book And the Rubrick i. e. the Order and Form how those Prayers shall be read is to all intents and purposes as much Enacted as the Book its self And in that Rubrick next after the Nicene Creed in the Communion Service follow these words Then shall the Curate declare â—nto the People what Holy-days or Fasting-days are in the Week following to be observed c. And nothing shall be proclaimed or published in the Church during the time of Divine Service but by the Minister Nor by him anything but what is prescribed by the Rules of this Book Or enjoyned by the King or by the Ordinary of the Place Now when all Clergy-men have subscribed That the Book of Common-Prayer containeth nothing in it contrary to the Word of God and that the King has enjoyned That his Declaration be read in all Churches during the time of Divine Service these Subscriptions of theirs besides the Authority of King and Parliament conclude themselves from offering any thing against the Lawfulness of reading it as it had been enjoyn'd to them and the Rubrick requir'd of them And being so what Excuse can there be why they did not read it Or suppose that Clause Or enjoyned by the King had not been in the Rubrick as it was first inserted in this Act of Uniformity and every Man that was of the Convocation of 1661 knows by whom were none of the King's Declarations ever read in Churches and that during the time of Divine Service before that time I think there were and amongst many others that of the Declaration for Sports for one Or that the Ordinary of the Place had enjoyn'd the contrary ought not the King the Supreme Ordinary and as their Subscriptions farther acknowledge The Supreme Governor of this Realm under God to have been first obey'd I think he ought for the Authority of the Greater Supersedes the Lesser nor is there any Power in his Dominions but what is deriv'd from him And whatever Station the King has given them in the Church it is not to be presum'd he thereby lock'd out himself Nor must a Remark of the said Bishop of Chester in his Sermon before mention'd be forgotten here The Jews saith he say That the Keys of the Temple were not hung at the High Priest's Girdle but laid every night under Solomon ' s Pillow as belonging to his Charge The Moral of it holds true for when a Prince shall have little Authority in the Church it is not to be expected he should have much better in the State. And Lastly for their Lordships so far making themselves Parties to it as the Distribution and Reading of it c. must amount to in common and reasonable Construction A Clergy-man's meerly Reading the Common Prayer in his Church is no giving his Assent to it unless after his so Reading it he shall publickly and openly before the Congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the said Book Entituled The Book of Common-Prayer c. which necessarily implies that neither the Distributing nor Reading it c. can in common and reasonable Construction amount to the making the Publisher or Reader of it a Party to it The Apostle says Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And upon this the Bishop of Hereford grounds his Judgment for the Reading this Declaration The King saith he expresly commanding it to be read in all Churches without requiring him that reads it to declare either his Consent Assent Allowing or Liking it I would gladly know how this is contrary to the Word of God Shew it me Or if as it is said this Dispensing Power be contrary to the Laws of the Land as is declared in the Parliament 1662 and 1672 is it contrary to the Law of God Shew it me pag. 5 6. Or that to read any thing in the House of God is declaring my Consent to it pag. 8. No certainly pag. 9. for in the reading this Declaration there is no Doctrin taught only matter of Fact declared and perchance to try my Obedience pag. 10. And done out of pure Obedience to my King upon God's Command and to so good an End as the preserving Truth and Peace among us Which if we lose on this Occasion they will have much to answer for who are the Authors of it pag. 13. Besides whom there are several other Bishops of the Church of England who have obey'd his Majesty's Commands in it albeit they may not have so publickly declar'd it And having said so much to the Matter of the Paper I think I may well pass the Prayer of it That his Majesty will be Graciously pleas'd not to insist upon the Distribution and Reading that Declaration And therefore upon the whole If this Declaration had not been thought fit to have been distributed as enjoyn'd less ought the said Paper to have been dispersed privately and by such previous disposition stoll'n the Form of the Design into the Matter it was to work on And considering the Evils we had pass'd and that the Kingdom wanted a Lenitive not a Corrosive least of all ought The People on the wall to have been har'd with new Jealousies The People I say who need more a Ballance than a Fly somewhat to moderate not multiply their Motion In short Trust is the Sinew of Society which is the right Object of true Policy and Distrust a disbanding of it The King as he has more than once acknowledg'd the Church of England ' s Loyalty has as often declar'd that He will Protect and Maintain His Archbishops Bishops and Clergy and all other His Subjects of the Church of England in the free Exercise of their Religion as by Law Established And in the quiet and full Enjoyment of all their Possessions without any Molestation or Disturbance whatsoever The King has said it and shall he not perform it He has pledg'd his Royal Word and shall we doubt the Truth of it It is not with God that he should lye nor with his Vicegerent that he should be chang'd And therefore let us as his Majesty by this his Declaration Conjures us lay aside all private Animosities and groundless Jealousies Let us Fear God and Honor the King and not discover the falsness of our own Hearts by distrusting our Prince's In a word Let every Man in his Station contribute his Mite to the Peace and Greatness of his Country Let him shew his Love to God in his Obedience to his Prince And let no Man by setting up Conscience against Duty run the hazard of dashing the First Table against the Second FINIS 4 Inst 5. Idem 362. 25 E. 3. c. 24. 8 Eliz. c. 1. 1. Inst 134. Lord Bacon's Essay of Subjection Glan l. 7. c. 1. Tract l. 5. 427. Ductor dub fol. 606. Heylin's Life of A. B. Laud. 209. Id. Ductor Dub. 608. 4 Inst 285. 1 Inst 94 97. Id. Duct Dub. f. 136 531. 9 Coke 68. 10 Coke 70. 22 E. 3. 3. Stan. Pl. Cor. 162. 1 Inst 97. Epist 12. 4 Inst 11. Crook Jac. 37. Moore 755. 4 Inst 322. 25 H. 8. c. 19. Serj. Rolle's Abridg. 2 part Ti ' Prerog 180. Id. Tit. Prerog Trin. 2. Jac. 2. in B. R. His Coronation Sermon pag. 27. His Sermon on that occasion p. 13 14. Ecclesiastical Canons 16â—â— Art. 36. Pag. 15. Vid. Act of Uniformity before every Common-Prayer-Book Par. 3 4. His late Discourse on this occasion
guide them by their Example into the way of Peace His Name is The Prince of Peace His Sermon on the Mount was The Gospel of Peace The Blessings in it are to The Poor in Spirit The Meek The Merciful The Peace-makers c. His Life was one continued Practise of it And his last Legacy to his Disciples was Peace He gave to Caesar the things that were Caesars and that Tribute which yet was the product of an Absolute Power he not only paid it without disputing the Authority but commanded it to others And tho' the Imperial Power after his Death was of the same Absoluteness yet St. Paul says not the Senate had declar'd it Illegal but calls it The Ordinance of God and enjoyns Subjection to it What the Apostles in their time were the same ever and now challenge the Governors of all Churches next and under Kings they are in the stead of God to the People and where they make a false Step what wonder if the unthinking People forget the Precept and take after the Example They see nothing but sub imagine lusca by twilight and conceive according to the colour of those Rods are cast before them They hear a noise but know not whence it cometh or whether it goeth and run away the Cry without so much as laying a Nose to the Ground for 't What made the People set up Adoniah against David's disposition of the Crown to Solomon Abiathar the High Priest was in the Head of them What made the Nobles break the Yoak The Prophets had Prophesi'd falsly the Priests applauded it with their Hands and a foolish People lov'd to have it so Or what made the Jews who had so often acknowledg'd our Savior turn head against him and crucifie him The Chief Priests the Scribes and Elders had possess'd the People that the Romans would come and take away their City Thus we see what Influence Great Men have upon the heedless Multitude and therefore how wary ought they to be how they give them the least Example of Disobedience for it is seldom seen but where the one Disputes the other Cavils and where their Leaders make but a Shrug at the Government the People think it high time to be Mending it Our own Histories are as one Example of it or if they run narrow Tacitus may be believ'd of his Erant in Officio qui mallent mandata Imperantium interpretari quam exequi There were saith he some in Power that were more for Commenting than Executing the Emperor's Directions Nor are Disputes or Excuses of less danger for it is a kind of shaking off the Yoke and an Essay of Disobedience especially if in those Disputings they which are for the Direction speak fearfully and tenderly and those that are against it audaciously And if by such means a Fire break out in the State 't will want no Fuel when 't is kindled from the Altar And for the Time of their Presenting it I shall consider it as it may respect the present Circumstances of the Kingdom or that half scantling of time they gave his Majesty to consider of their Excuses As to the former the glut of Reformers in Edward the Sixth's time was great and the Qualifications so indifferent that the Church of England has ever since labor'd under it and the same Elements that compounded her half destroy'd her For as the Laws not the Doctrin brought them first together they no sooner found themselves streightned in the One than they made it up with the Other and Themselves somewhat in the Broils that were otherwise nothing in the Peace of the State. These Humors during Her and King James's Reign lay fermenting in the Body but in his Son 's broke out into a Pestilence The Crown sell the Church follow'd it and the most diligent Enquirer might have sought England in her self yet miss'd her till at last it pleas'd Him whose only it is to still the raging of the Sea to say to the Madness of the People Huc usque nee ultra His late Majesty King Charles the Second was Restor'd and so little averse were the Catholic Lords to the Church of England that their Votes which otherwise might have kept them out brought them once more into the House of Peers nor were they scarce warm in their Seats before the Act of Uniformity was pass'd and driven with that Violence that it had like to have overturn'd all agen The Dissenters were not fit for Employ they had Mony in their Purses and the World was wide enough The Catholic Lords were less to be trusted they cumber'd the Ground and 't was but fit they were down There remain'd nothing but to cast out the Heir and then the Inheritance would be the easier divided And here also it pleas'd God to appear in the Mount He pluck'd him out of the deep Waters and set him on the Throne of his Ancestors And as he came to the Crown thro' the greatest of Difficulties he has been preserv'd in it by no less a Providence He stifl'd two Serpents in the Cradle of his Empire and in a three-years Government conquer'd all Example in His own And now when our troubl'd Waters had begun to settle again what need of whistling up the Winds for another Storm When the Wounds of the Kingdom were almost clos'd what Charity was it to unbind them too soon or under pretence of easing the Patient to set them bleeding afresh In a word when the Brands of our late Rebellions lay smother'd in their almost forgotten Embers what prudence was it to rake them into another Flame I see little of the Dove in it and am loth to say too much of the Serpent And for that half scantling of time they gave his Majesty to consider of their Excuses it seems here also that the Spirit of Direction like Baal in the Kings was some way or other out of the way The Declaration was no new thing it had been published the 4th of April 1687 and his Majesty had receiv'd the general Acknowledgments of the Kingdom for it which argu'd their Satisfaction in it The Corn was in the Ground and now if ever was the time to sow Tares and therefore to prevent their choaking it His Majesty the 27th of April 1688 which was one full year and three weeks after enforces his first Declaration and commands it to be read in all Churches within Ten miles of London on the 20th and 27th of May and in all other the Churches thro' the Country on the 3d and 10th of June following time enough one would think to have consider'd the Matter so as to have given the King some time to have advis'd Whereas on the contrary they make no scruple of it till the 18th of May about 10 at Night and then the 19th being a Day appointed for Hunting they present the Paper before mention'd as well knowing that if his Majesty had an Inclination of Countermanding his Declaration he was so straitned in