Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
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A67872
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Fourteen papers
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B5794; ESTC R23746
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134,299
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83
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reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves and though they desire Ease and Liberty they are not willing to have it with such apparent hazard of Church and State I am sure that tho' we were never so desirous that they might have their Liberty and when there is opportunity of shewing our inclinations without danger they may find that we are not such Persecutors as we are represented yet we cannot consent that they should have it this way which they will find the dearest Liberty that ever was granted This Sir is our Case in short the Difficulties are great on both sides and therefore now if ever we ought to besiege Heaven with our Prayers for Wisdom and Counsel and Courage that God would protect his Church and Reformed Christianity against all the devices of their Enemies Which is the daily and hearty Prayer of SIR Your Friend and Brother May 22. 1688. POSTSCRIPT I Have just now seen H. Care 's Paper called The Publick Occurrences which came out to day and cannot but set you right as to his News about the Reading of the Declaration on Sunday He tells you That several Divines of the Church of England in and about this City eminent for their Piety and Moderation did yesterday Read his Majesties late Declaration in their Churches according to the Order in that behalf but some to the great surprize of their Parishioners were pleased to decline it You in the Country are from this Account to believe that it was Read here by the generality of the Clergie and by the eminent Men among them But I can and do assure you that this is one of the most impudent Lyes that ever was printed For as to this City which hath above a Hundred Parishes in it it was Read only in Four or Five Churches all the rest and best of the Clergy refusing it every where I will spare their Names who read it but should I mention them it would make you who knows this City a little heartily to deride H. C's Account of them And for the Surprize he talks of the contrary of it is so true that in Wood-street where it was Read by one Dr. M. the People generally went out of the Church This I tell you that you may be provided for the future against such an impudent Lyar who for Bread can vouch and put about the Nation the falsest of things I am Yours An ANSWER to the City Minister's 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 alwaies 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 than 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 Majesty's free and full consent for we cannot yet forget his repeated professions of kindness to us and of saitisfaction in cur 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 of 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 owe 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 freequent 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 Mayor's 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 Rabshakeh upon this occasion That the Church of England Clergy should eat their own Dung. Isa. 36. 12. This sentence might better have beome a Messenger of the K of Assyria than a pretended Counsellour 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