Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A56811
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The conformist's third plea for the nonconformists argued from the king's declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs : grounded upon the approved doctrine and confirmed by the authorities of many eminent fathers and writers of the Church of England / by the author of the two former pleas.
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Pearse, Edward, 1631-1694.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing P981; ESTC R11263
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89,227
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94
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these Passages to inform those who seem not to know or remember these things Yet I cannot go on without leaving some Animadversions and Remarks upon them 1. We might have seen the disagreeing Parties running into an Union under the King as their supream lawful Head and Governour The reputed Presbyterian comprehending a great powerful considerate substantial part of the Kingdom most close and deliberate in Counsel active in Endeavours fervent in Prayer with their Ministers for the Restauration of the King and the ancient Government watching all Opportunities and using all means to engage General Monk and his well disciplined and most Presbyterian part of the Army to declare for the restoring the secluded Members in order to a free Parliament and that in order to bring back the King The most eminent of the Royal Party declaring a Reconcilableness and Oblivion of all Sufferings acknowledging the Hand of God in them all And the King to compleat and perfect all by laying a Top-stone as well as the Foundation of the Temple of Peace gathers all Parties into himself some by Comprehension in a wider Constitution others by a safe indulgent Toleration which if granted had been desired by the least and most inconsiderable part of the Nation for the Dissenters had been fewer than now they are because abundance had been taken into the proposed Settlement The Sects have much encreased since that time of Papists if not other Denominations The King and his wise Council had a perfect full view of all Interests and did weigh out proper Preparatives for an healing Effect 2. It is a Shame and Grief to think that a divided Nation can be sooner composed and settled than a broken divided Church who have besides the Motives and Principles of Nature the most gracious Reconciler for their Law-giver the most perfect Laws of Love the most indulgent Government under the strict and indispensible Duty of Self-denial opposite to Self-seeking and should have the least Consideration and Regard of a wordly Interest because They that are of Christ they are not of this World and having nothing to do but to promote enlarge and build up Christ's Kingdom upon Earth and for all their Self-denial Services and Sufferings have the Promises of Eternal Life an everlasting Kingdom and Thrones in it It is a most afflicting Meditation that Church-Divisions are most difficultly healed What an humbling Thought is this that a temporal Interest divides wordly Men in whom Self prevails and yet worldly Men can unite under general Common Laws because it is their Interest to unite and yet they who of all Men are under the greatest Obligations to unite that declare they are not of this World that teach the way of Peace to others cannot find it themselves But it is not Religion and Light that divide but it is Darkness and the Spirit of this World If to us to live were Christ then Christian Faith and Love would make us more heavenly and by Consequence more united Popery could never have that Compass to work our Ruine in had we agreed as we should have done Pardon this Excursion I 'll return The Church is rent from the Top to the Bottom the King surveys it and hath a Proposal in his Mind which will not only repair the Breaches but propagate Religion as he often said he seems to be fond of it he speaks so often of it It was meditated and formed in his Royal Mind while he was in Breda that it may not be thought an hasty and immature Production he gives it full time and cherisheth it And what is it but his Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs It was beheld as the most Royal Issue of an happy Mind as the First-born of Church-Peace after the most affectionate Conjunction of a most well-come King to a Kingdom that longed for him Observe 1. He offers himself as an Umpire and Reconciler 2. He declares to his great Satisfaction and Comfort that while he was in Holland he found the principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinion full of Affection to him Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State neither Enemies to Episcopacy nor Liturgy but modestly desiring Alterations without shaking Foundations and to the same purpose over again pag. 8. 3. He thinks himself to be competent to make his Proposal and determine many things in difference as above-said and pag. 4. of the Declaration 4. He expressed some great Considence in the Bishops We have not the least doubt but that the present Bishops will think the present Concessions made by us to allay the present Distempers very just and reasonable and will very chearfully conform themselves thereto pag. 10. 5. He conjured all his loving Subjects to acquiesce in and submit to that his Declaration concerning those Differences pag. 18 19. 3dly You have read the King's Character of the Reforming Divines so I 'll call them rather than Presbyterian and they made it good they strictly followed the Orders in the King's Commission made their Exceptions which they were impowered to do explained and shewed the Reasonableness of them when answered they replied when called to dispute they disputed and when they saw all was but dashing against a Wall they petition for Peace both the King and Bishops Now to all them that speak slightly or scornfully These Men these kind of Men as if they were some Monsters rolling in a troubled Sea and not suffering the Ark of Christ's Church to rest here is some account if not Satisfaction given But after our great hopes of Church-Peace and Union what followed but a dismal Breach a Wound that lies a bleeding and they upon whom the Pinacles of the Temple fell and bruised and crushed are now instead of a cleanly Hospital to live in threatned with Bridewel and Prisons and with that dreadful Sentence of Abjuration And Christian Reader if you do as I do here Grief doth make you stop That any Magistrate that hath taken the Sacrament to prove himself a Protestant dare menace or admonish any Christian Minister to do what he cannot do or forswear his native Country And wo be to England when a Minister of Christ successful in his Work not imaginary but real shall be carried to the Sea-side and swear he will never return to his Native Country and that such Ministers shall not have as much as a mean House or Barn to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in But who made the Breach who hindred the hopeful Closure self-willed obstinate Nonconformists The Nonconformity to the Law of Love Peace Meekness Forbearance hath done the Mischief The King's Declaration would have done what the Act of Uniformity could not do but we may look and find the first Cause to lie between them both To lay this open compare but some words in the King's Commission with some of the Answers of the Anti-reforming Commissioners and then judg impartially The King according to his Declaration gave his Commission to an equal number of Divines of both