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A67210
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An answer to A letter from Dr. Bray directed to such as have contributed towards the propagating Christian knowledge in the plantations. By Joseph Wyeth.
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Wyeth, Joseph, 1663-1731.
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1700
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Wing W3758; ESTC R221264
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13,288
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of his or her Religion or the free Exercise thereof within this Province otherwise than is provided for in this Act that such Person or Persons so offending shall be compell'd to pay treble Damages to the Party so Wronged or Molested c. Whosoever that is not strangely bigotted to Persecution and Imposing must upon reading of this Law agree with the Doctor in his Character of the People of Maryland They are says he generally observed to be a People of quick Letter p. 2. Parts and good Intellectuals I am sure to me this is an Argument that they are so For in this Law they secured a Scirpture Belief and preserv'd a Liberty which the Apostle hints at when he says Who art thou that judgest another Man's Servant To his own Master be standeth or falleth Yea he shall be Rom 14. 4. holden up For God is able to make him stand In this they did very prudently For hereby all Professors of Christianity stood upon the same foot of Advantage none as Christian had Power of Imposing a Maintenance from others each were free to establish Churches and maintain Ministers if they would for themselves And if those who Labour in the Word and Doctrine Labour in a Gospel Spirit and Live according they need never fear but the People they Labour amongst will chearfully supply their Necessities for which they have the Promise of Jesus Christ if they have Faith enough to depend upon it But to proceed This Legal Security and some other Previous Advantages was both Incouragement and Protection for some early Planters to settle in that Province among which with the Doctor 's leave some not of the Latest nor most Inconsiderable were Quakers whose Christian Sobriety and Rational Diligence has been of no small Advantage to the publick Advantage of that Province as well as the increasing Revenue of this Crown The first their Ingenuous Neighbours will acknowledge and of the last there are some Witnesses here who also are much better Judges than the Doctor what Prejudice both to the Revenue of this Crown and the Good of that Province their removal would be But that I may if posible open the Doctor 's Eyes in this Question I will set before them a short Scheme and Estimate of that Violation which has repeatedly been offered to the Priviledges of the Law before-mentioned and which has been as often refused to be Confirm'd by the Government here In order to which I must first acquaint my Reader That the Law of Maryland for Religion before-mentioned did continue to be the Peoples common Land-mark of Liberty from the date of its Confirmation till Anno 1692. at which time some either not liking their common Freedom of Religion with the rest of the Inhabitants or else not willing to Maintain singly their own Chargeable Clergy did with the hepl of the then Governour Coply get an Act to Impose upon all others to Maintain them and was entituled An Act for the Service of Almighty God and Establishment of the Protestant Religion c. This was sent over hither for to be confirmed but when tender'd to the King and Concil for that end which was five Years after it was brought over but was kept Dormant because that till it was disallowed it had the Force of a Law and accordingly they made Distraints by Vertue of it it was disallowed as contrary to the Law of Religion above cited and the Repeal sent over This did not discourage that Party but that they procur'd another Act of the same Title and to the same purpose and sent it over to be Confirm'd This also the King in Council disallowed Anno. 1699. At the time when this Repeal and Disallowance was sent over Doctor Bray also went and did so effectually bestir himself that with the Assistance of the Clergy c. they in Contradiction to the repeated Disallowance of the King and Council to their Law have again renewed the said Act in Substance and have made the Title yet narrower than the two former They were for the Establishment of the Protestant Religion but this is for the Establishment of Religion in this Province according to the Church of England The first it 's true was the most Charitable Title but yet it serv'd to the same purpose and was expounded as the last In this Law among other things after their former Patterns it is enacted That for the Incouragement of faithful and able Ministers labouring in the Work of the Gospel to come and reside in this Province instead of such Tythes usually in England as aforesaid a Tax or Assessment of 40 l. of Tobacco per Poll be Yearly and every Year successively levied upon every Taxable Person within each respective Parish within this Province By Taxable Persons is understood all Males of sixteen Years and upwards to sixty of white Persons and all both Men and Women Blacks of the like Ages Now for the drawing of the Scheme and Estimate which I promised I shall suppose for with respect to Number I can do no more unless I had the Assistance of the Doctor 's Tabula Prima c. of which more anon that the Heads of Families who differ in Worship from Episcopacy their Children and Servants both White and Black which are Taxable may be in Number 6000. and I think I am not much mistaken in this Supputation because the Doctor in his Circular Letter to the Clergy of Maryland at the end of his piece entituled Apostolick Charity printed this Year 1700. hath these words Especially the Papists and Quakers which I understand are numerous amongst you which intimate there are others who differ from them though these named may be most numerous the Yearly Assessment of these at 40 l. of Tabacco per Poll valuing the Tabacco communibus annis at a Penny a Pound tho' some Years since 1692. it has been double that Price it amouts to One Thousand Pound Sterling a Year Which is no inconsiderable Sum to be taken and distrained Annually for eight Years as this has been on pretence for the Service of Almighty God by colour of Laws disallowed by Authority But as the Assessments above-mentioned of 40 l. of Tobacco per Poll hath been gathered by Laws disallowed so it is some degree of Injustice to constrain even those who owned their Ministry to give them such a certain Portion which Assessments being added to the former will make up according to the Information I have a Sum three times the former the whole Number of Taxable Persons being supposed to be about 24000. by which Computation 4000 Pounds Sterling a Year has been taken or distrained for 8 Years for the Clergy of that Province The Total of which Sum is 32000 Pounds and the Doctor tells us there is but 16 Ministers and the Churches but lately built and that to the great Charge of the Governour Nicholson and the Country  l. That it has been to their great Charge is likely very true for if
AN ANSWER TO A LETTER FROM Dr. BRAY Directed to such as have contributed towards the Propagating Christian Knowledge IN THE PLANTATIONS By JOSEPH WYETH LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-street 1700. AN ANSWER TO A LETTER From Dr. BRAY. BEing one of those who are heartily Desirous that Christian Knowledge be propageted in the Plantations and have in my small proportion contributed thereto I suppose my self to come within the compass of the Doctor 's Direction and as such have some kind of Right to Read and Consider his Letter and also to Reply to it upon finding him either Mistaken or Partial and I cannot avoid thinking he is both Partial in attemptiug to break the common Liberty of the people of Maryland for the private Advantage of a few Clergy-men Mistaken not only in calling his Attempt by the glorious Title of Promoting Christian Knowledge but also in the Way and Means to effect it and therefore have given my self the trouble of the following Papers to contribute yet farther if it may be to undeceive any who may be misled by the Doctor 's Letter which I shall consider chiefly under two General Heads First With respect to the Design Secondly The Method by him proposed to carry on and effect the Design First The Design it self The Doctor p. 1. and in his first Paragraph says is for the Destruction of the Powers of Darkness and the Enlargement of Christ's Kingdom in his Majesty's Plantations This Design when real and not pretended only is a Design so Noble Just and Honourable that it is worthy the hearty Encouragement of all Faithful Christians and all such cannot but think themselves engaged to Contribute according to their several Capacities for the effecting of it because that in the Progress of this Work it makes Governours and Government Secure and Easie it makes Families Sober and Industrious it makes Societies Pleasant and Profitable in fine it makes all Happy by taking from the several Orders of Men that irregular Passion which is the ground both of Sin and Strife But as best things when corrupted prove the worse by adding Malignity to their Degeneracy so the noblest of Designs may be pretended to cover very contrary Intentions Thus the Doctor under the specious Pretence of the Destruction of the Powers of Darkness hath plainly endeavoured the Destruction of the Power of Christian Liberty and under the pretence of Enlarging Christ's Kingdom hath shewn his zealous endeavour for the Enlarging Anti-scriptural Hierarchy and Secular Power in the Person of the Priest not barely to the prejudice of Christian Knowledge but positively against the end and design of the Gospel of Peace which Jesus Christ is the Author of and which the Apostles preached And therefore it cannot be unacceptable to every Contributer to the Advancement of Christian Knowledge to see the Fallacy of the Pretence detected by shewing that instead of that Excellent Design the bottom is as the Apostle has it to seek their own and not the things which are Jesus Christ's Phil. 2. 21. As to the first of these viz. the Destruction of the Power of Christian Liberty the Doctor has plainly shewn his Endeavour and Aim in these words Now that the Quakers are openly and the Papists more covertly making their utmost Efforts Letter p. 1. Art 3. against the Establishment of our Church by false Representations at home of the Numbers and Riches of their Party and by insinuating that to Impose upon them an established Maintenance for the Clergy would be prejudicial to the Interest of the Province by obliging so many weathly Traders to remove from thence the Falsity of which they the Clergy thought me best able to make appear The Apostles when they established Churches in the Faith they tell us They delivered them the Decrees for to keep that Acts 16. 4. were ordained of the Apostles and Elders which were at Jerusalem These Decrees were few and short and among them there is no mention of imposing a Maintenance I will recite them It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you Acts 16. 28 19. no greater Burthen than these necessary things That ye abstain from Meats offered to Idols and from Blood and from things Strangled and from Fornication From which if you keep your selves ye shall do well Fare ye well And if the Doctor had sought the Establishment of his Church by the delivering of these Decrees and pressing with the greatest Earnestness the necessity of a Holy Life he might rest himself most firmly assured that the Quakers never did nor will ever oppose such an Apostolick Establishment But if the Establishment of his Church must be upon the Ruine of the Temporal Estates of those who agree not with him in Worship in removing that Security which the Priviledges of their first Settlements and the Sanction of a Law hath given them He ought not to take it ill that we openly oppose that As for any Covert Opposition or any Opposition at all made by Papists to the Doctor 's Establishment I known of none nor cannot at present find a reason why they should disagree unless it were upon the Question Who shall be the Receivers of the Maintenance But with this I care not now farther to trouble my self but shall proceed to shew that this Christian Liberty which the Doctor would now destroy was very earlily provided for by a Law made in that Province and confirmed by the Government here and bears date the 6th of August 1650. which Law is entituled A Law of Maryland for Religion In which among other things it is said And whereas the inforcing the Conscience in matters of Religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous Consequence in those Commonwealths where it hath been practised and for the more quiet and peaceable Government of this Province and the better to preserve mutual Love and Unity amongst the Inhabitants here Be it therefore also by the Lord Proprietary with the Advice and Assent of this Assembly Ordained and Enacted except as in this present Act is before declared and for forth that no Person or Persons within this Province or the Islands Ports Harbours Creeks or Havens thereunto belonging professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall not from henceforth be any ways troubled molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her Religion nor in the free Exercise thereof within this Province or the Islands thereunto belonging nor any way compell'd to the Belief or Exercise of any other Religion against his or her Consent And after a Clause for the Security of the Civil Government it goes on And that all and every Person and Person that shall presume contrary to this Act and the true Intent and Meaning thereof directly or indirectly either in Person or Estate wilfully to Wrong Disturb Trouble or Molest any Person or Persons whatsoever within this Province professing to belive in Jesus Christ for or in respect