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A50340
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Remarks from the country, upon the two letters relating to the convocation and alterations in the liturgy
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Maurice, Henry, 1648-1691.; Basset, Joshua, 1641?-1720.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing M1369; ESTC R10680
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13,458
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20
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State I may ask one Question on the behalf of those Reverend Persons against whom every Ass is now lifting up his Heels Are our Directors sure that they have in their Project of Alterations hit the temper promised by the Bishops If a Project formed I know not where nor by whom has not the fortune to be approved must the Clamour of the People be raised against the Bishops as a Base False sort of Men who can promise fair in times of Adversity and forget all performances when they are over I wish indeed that the times of Adversity were over with those Good Men that they may be able to perform their Vows but there is one circumstance of the time of the Petition generally forgot All the Penal Laws for the security of the Church of England against Papists and other Dissenters were then in full force against these the Dispensing Power was directed and in the behalf of these the Bishops did Petition but now all those Laws as far as they concern the Dissenters in their private capacity are Repealed the greatest part of the Dissenters are not capable of any other temper than Toleration which they all have and the Presbyterians who alone of all our Sects are capable of uniting with a National Church are so for from desiring an accommodation that they are raising new Objections against Conformity and standing off at greater distance than ever Their very sitting still at this time without offering any Proposals for Union while Churchmen are wrangling with one another about giving them satisfaction declares plainly that they are resolved to stick to their own way after all the Alterations we shall be able to make So that I do not see what those Bishops if their Authority were still entire could possibly do further to make good the temper which they promised Not a Season says the Minister what because the Enemy is withdrawn shall we devour one another P. 27. This is doubtless an Eloquent vehemence if I were worthy to reach the sense of it devour one another God bless us we are not such Canabals sure I cannot devise how this should come in unless it slipp'd from some Scripture Common-place-Book made in the time of Vavasor and Lunsford But are we yet without danger Now because the Man to his Friend represents the dangers more sensibly we 'll take his Description We have a formidable Enemy in our Neighbourhood who thinks of nothing less than of subjugating these Three Kingdoms to his Absolute Tyranny his greatest hopes for our destruction is our Divisions among our selves these make us unable to resist him with that success c. Is there any Prophesy I pray for it is not Civil to ask this Gentleman for Reason that Duke Schomberg cannot Reduce Ireland unless the Cross in Baptism be taken away Or will not our Fleet engage the French except Presbyterian Ordinations made in defiance of Bishops and Episcopacy be allowed Have the Quakers promised to Fight if we Reform the Kalendar Or will not the Independants and Presbyterians strike one Stroke but under the Banner of the New Reformed Church of England provided always it be not a Cross Is there no way of joining in Fight and Paying Taxes without this Church Union so much talked of by us and never so much as mentioned by the Dissenters Indeed Sir the Dissenters are much to blame if after so ample Toleration that as you observe has put them upon as good a bottom of Legal Right and Protection as the Church of England they refuse to assist the Government unless the poor defective Common-Prayer be put into a state of Perfection This Church of England is certainly under the Dominion of the most unfortunate of all the Planets for whoever miscarries she must bear the Blame If a Frigat be cast away the Winds and the Sea though subject to no Actions in our Courts are absolved and the faults layed upon our Rigours much harder than the Marble Rocks of Plymouth If a Disease in the Camp render our Army unfit for Action the Church of England is the cause because she does not unite all Protestants If a Commissary Victuals not the Camp sufficiently and a French Apothecary provides not proper Drugs O the lamentable Divisions and Distractions of the Church and State and our Stiff Church-men will never come to a healing temper I have heard some Learned Men say that the Primitive Christians were in their time in the same office of Blame-beating that we are now if the Roman Arms wanted success some Oracle spoke Away with these Atheistical Christians If the Year was unfruitful Hang up the Christians Let the Dissenters or the Moderate Men say what they please of Bishops and Liturgies and Ceremonies this one thing at least we may be allowed to have common with the Primitive Church I have almost filled up my sheet though I write in short hand and therefore cannot now give you my reasons at length why I think this an unfit Time for Alterations if any at all were to be thought of I will only hint them to you In the first place the Dissenters do not seem to be in any Disposition to an Accommodation having never made any Proposals either to the Commissioners or Convocation 2. The Condition they are in at present by the Act of Toleration raises their expectations too high to be satisfied with any reasonable Terms 3. The abolishing of Episcopacy by their Brethren of Scotland may encourage them here to think of such matters as can never be the fruits of a Treaty and perhaps to dream of a second Conquest 4. Their insolence in all places since this Revolution declares them to be above the humble Dispensation of an amicable Composure 5. The great men that influence them will always think it their interest to keep them separate from the Church for so they will be most for their turn and therefore will never suffer them to joyn with us or should they come in will always keep them up as a separate Party within the Church 6. Several of the most considerable among them have declared they will never think of treating unless their Orders are allowed and then too they will insist upon the Point of Episcopacy 7. The Church of England Men do not seem to be in a Disposition for altering at this Time for they find themselves insulted and oppressed in all parts of the Kingdom where the moderate Men are got into Power and Commission 8. The Clergy are alarmed with the Destruction of Episcopacy in Scotland and think they have reason to be jealous that now the Presbyterians of England hold intelligence with the Scots because they have always corresponded 9. Our Lay-men find Dissenters even in this State of Separation to have the Preference and upon a new Model they may have reason to suspect that the Proselites may pass for the only Church-men and then Veteres migrate Coloni 10. There seems to want a Plenitude of Authority in the
Convocation to enact these Alterations the Archbishop of Canterbury and Five of his Suffragans Persons of great Consideration and credit in the Church lying at present under an incapacity The Objection about their Schism is nothing but a Calumny of their Enemies and shall have no Answer from me because it is not agreeable to my temper to give it such an Answer as it deserves But certainly an Archbishop the Praeses natus of the Convocation and Five Bishops of the Province must needs be missed in the House consisting of but Two and Twenty It is not enough to say that it is a Legal House without them for a House of Commons of Forty Persons is a Legal House but there would be great exceptions if Three times the number and no more should take upon them to Repeal a Statute or alter common Law And in this Jealousy that one Party has of another it appears odly that this time of all others should be thought most proper to introduce Alterations of such a consequence as these appear to be at the first view 11. The Kingdom is yet in such a ferment and many things so unsetled that to change now in the Church is like altering Military Exercise in the midst of a Battle or cavining a Ship in a Storm The most proper time for Alterations in Religion is that which is most calm when the Spirits of Men run low when there is a mutual confidence between parties when they all conspire in one desire of accommodation and when the Ecclesiastical Authority that is to Enact them is entire not only in respect of the Law but of Common Opinion And whether these circumstances belong to the present time you will easily discern I will conclude with answering Two Arguments in the Letters which I had almost forgot The First is that if we do not make Alterations most certainly the Parliament will and we may provoke them by our stiffness to follow the Example of Scotland It is a strange confidence and scarce of English growth to declare so certainly before-hand what our Parliament will do These Gentlemen will pardon me if I should think the Parliament something wiser than them and cannot apprehend any thing from them that may prove for the prejudice of the established Church and to the dissatisfaction of the generality of the Kingdom For the Example of Scotland we despise the Threatning I have read of an Owl that appeared in a Roman Councel and frighted the whole Assembly but our Church of England Convocations are not so easily scared This is the third Time that Episcopacy has been abolished in Scotland we know it to have revived twice and we still believe 〈◊〉 Resurrection The second Argument is that the King is desirous of these Alterations and the Church of England cannot but be safe in his hands This is an Argument I must acknowledge my self to be unable to answer yet I know that the King's Name and the King's Money are often used without his knowledge but because I cannot reply directly I will plead the Priviledge of Old Age and tell you a short Story In the Beginning of King James the First 's Reign the Presbyterians of this Kingdom entertained violent hopes of an Ecclesiastical Revolution and gave out every where that the King having been bred in Scotland in the Presbyterian way was desirous of a change in favour of it A great Number of Conformists and much a greater Number than have yet appeared for this new Project joyned with the Non conformists defamed the Common-Prayer beyond Measure declared they could never subscribe again though they had done it several Times before You know the Issue they found themselves mistaken in the King's Inclinations the moderate Men were glad to be reconciled to their Common-Prayer and the Church outlived the too hasty Triumphs of her Enemies and the Treachery of her pretended Friends FINIS