very shame the Convocation thought it necessary to make them But our Author finding all his arguings to be lost as in p 28. he betakes himself to a sham-plot against those that are not for Alterations as if because they said or rather he for them That they were not seasonable they had said the Parliament was illegal the Government precarious and the Laws no Laws it becomes not a Country-Minister to be a Minister of Satan in falsly accusing his Brethren who have all owned the present Authority and Laws and he that blames the want of Connexion in our Collects should have been more cautious then first to raise an Objection of his own and then infer from it such impertinent conclusions as may be mischievous to others But what think you says he if this Government sink I think our causless dissentions will be one of the greatest causes Who sunk the Government under the Royal Martyr Who had well nigh sunk it a second time under the late King to whom such multitude of Dissenters addressed Thanks for Suspending the Laws and promised to obey him without reserve we have had experience enough who they were that could after all their Pleas for Liberty part with their Consciences to save their Lives though with the loss of their Religion Laws and Liberty so as their Brethren might perish a little before them When therefore he would perswade us that we may have a new Law for the intended Establishment I think no Man will be perswaded to run such a risque for having many good Laws already for our Established Worship we may conclude that as to certainty the old are better Having thus treated the Members of the Convocation he takes his Farewel of them leaving them to their Couch and Consideration intimating that they are all become mighty Politicians or Tools for them that are so Who have been made and used as Tools by the late unhappy Politicians is as evident as any matter of fact can be and I wish I could leave this Country-Minister well in his Wits to consider whether he be not used as a Tool to destroy the Established Church by some who think themselves mighty Politicians Some REMARKS on a LETTER from a Member of the Convocation NO sooner had I finished my Remarks on the Letter of the Country Minister to a Member of the Convocation but I were encounter'd with another from a Member of the Convocation to his Friend in which I feared my Opinion would have been oppugned not only by a greater Authority but by sharper Arguments than any I had yet met with But having viewed his Weapons I found that they were flourished and glittered with a Rhetorical style yet they wanted that Logical strength that might enforce them This encouraged me to take my Pen in hand again and to enter the List against this Master of the Assembly for I considered that though his Weapons were keen yet the Arm that wielded them was but weak and it was no great danger to wrest them out of his hands and imploy them against himself His great flourish was A Necessity an absolute Necessity of yielding to many Alterations in our Established Worship This I thought might prove durum telum for Necessity hath no Law especially when it is Absolute then like the Absolute power it bears down all before it This lookt somewhat formidably for I considered that Necessity had destroyed many great and good Men. It was said of that great Hero the Earl of Strafford Illum non tulit Lex verum necessitas non habens Legem And of a greater than he we have a Law viz. of the Jews making and by that Law Oportet mori to dye and dye he did because it was expedient also for the People But that there was an Absolute necessity that Judas should betray his Master I can no more believe than that there is a Necessity That he who is a Member of the Church of Christ and hath familiarly eaten of her Bread and born the Bag too should lift up his heels and kick at her I considered therefore what kind of Necessity this might be for our Opponent grants there is no necessity in respect of the Church her self that she should make Alterations Because saith he p. 1. nothing is more dangerous to Religion than frequently to make Alterations 2. Because an unsteadiness though in Circumstantials only which are always alterable may become an Argument against the whole the Multitude not being able to judge what is Circumstantial and what is Essential in our Worship what is in the Power of the Church to alter and what is not and are apt to call every Alteration though in things indifferent and by variation of times made totally insignificant to be a change of Religion it self and so concluding that we have no firm bottom become Apostates from us to Popery or Atheism And therefore he thinks the Church of England may be justified that it hath not been forward on every demand of the Dissenters to unhinge those of her Communion but hath to the utmost resisted all Alterations hoping by other less dangerous Methods to heal the Divisions that are among us By this I perceived the Absolute necessity would not much affect the Church yet I considered farther whether there were an Absolute necessity from any Precept that did oblige the Church to make Alterations in the external Parts or Rites of Worship and I found she had a Power by Precept to see that all things be done decently and according to her Order and Appointment and another Precept That the People should Obey those that had the Rule over them And accordingly the most Primitive Church of which we read Acts 2.45 Continued daily with one accord in the Temple and in the Apostle's Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayer Nor would St. Paul endure any Contention about Circumstantials contrary to the Custom of the Church 1 Cor. 11.16 Nor can I see this Absolute necessity in the things that are to be altered because they are confessed to be in their own nature indifferent and when they fall under a Precept of those whose proper work it is to injoyn them we cannot without Disobedience to our lawful Governors reject them Neither can this Necessity affect the Persons for whose sake the Alterations are desired because if there be nothing sinful in our Communion it is sinful to separate from it besides the Dissenters would take it ill of any Man that should say they cannot be saved in that way of Worship which they have chosen for themselves and then there is no Absolute necessity for the Church to alter her Constitutions to gain them to her Communion In a Church where Salvation is to be had we ought to abide notwithstanding some inconvenient circumstances whose Amendment is desirable Though there were great Disputes in the Primitive Church about the Place of Worship Circumcision and Meats and Days yet was there no Separation And
the constant Voice of the Church was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let ancient Customs prevail But here Absolute necessity is urged for Alterations because all other means have been tried and prove ineffectual to heal our Divisions To which I Answer 1. The Acts for Uniformity were much more effectual than any Alterations that the Church can justly make will be seeing the Dissenters have declared they will not be satisfied with the Alterations of our Ceremonies c. but expect greater matters than the Church can grant 2. Experience shews that they will not acquiesce in such Alterations as may be granted 3. Because it was not for want of success that Toleration was granted against the Act for Uniformity but because it was too successful and the Common Enemies of our Church perceiving the good effects of that Act which had well nigh reduced the whole Nation to an Uniformity with their joynt Interest procured a Toleration and it needs no proof That if the Act for Uniformity hath made one Dissenter Toleration and Alterations have made hundreds so that as there is no Necessitas praecepti neither is there Necessitas medâ—i to obtain the Ends which this Author proposeth And thus we have put off the first blow of this Absolute necessity and the second will be as easily warded for if there be no Absolute necessity to make any Alterations then 't is not absolutely necessary that we should make them now For there is no necessity that we should expose our selves to that reproach which is endeavoured to be fixed on some of us of being Ecclesiastical Tinkers who undertaking to mend one hole do usually make two or three We have by standing our ground put to flight one formidable Enemy and is there an Absolute necessity that by giving ground we should bring our selves under the Power of another And such an Enemy as our Author says did once and therefore may be suspected of doing it again take shelter in the Camp of out Common Enemy and joyned with the Papists against us endangering the Church and State to utter turn p. 3. This methinks should blunt the edge of his Absolute necessity Page 3. The Author makes the excepted Passages in our Liturgy and the Ceremonies in our Worship the whole Origine of our Divisions As if the whole blame lay on the Church whereof be is an Eminent Minister As if the Ignorance of some Dissenters and the interest and Obstinacy or others that know more were in no manner culpable no not though they rail at our Ceremonies as Superstitious and our Bishops as Antichristian and Tyrannical and condemn not our Liturgy only but our Use of our Lord's-Prayer And our Author contrary to his hounden Duty administers incouragement to some of these while he reflection the Penal Laws and Church-censures which he says have 〈…〉 and increased the Mischiefs which they endeavoured to remove and that they were executed with an unjustifiable Severity Though if they had been legally executed against the Papist and such Dissenters as joyned with them it might have prevented that greater Severity which was exercised against some whole Colledges and the Seven Famous Bishops who were sent to the Tower in order to their and in them to the destruction of our Religion Laws and Liberties which by their Constancy they preserved to us however apt we are to despise them and deal with them as in Forty Two they were dealt with by the Scottish and Dissenters Malice What tho' there be some few that are really but causlesly offended at our Ceremonies must we for their sakes give offence to the Church of God we have found concerning the greatest part of the Dissenters that it is not their Cannot but their Will not that keeps them from our Communion and when their Interest and Advantage requires it they can Conform And what necessity is there that for the sake of a few ignorant or peevish and unsatisfiable persons that will not be pleased with all that we can do we should confirm them in their obstinacy by yielding and complying with their humors Who were not offended at the excepted passages of our Liturgy and Ceremonies onely but at Episcopacy at our Doctrine at the whole Liturgy and even at our Lord's Prayer which they disused The next for which he says there was a pressing necessity is the late Act for Toleration for which he gives these Reasons 1. Because the Dissenters were driven to take shelter in the Camp of our common Enemy and joyn with the Papists Or rather the Papists by the Toleration sheltred themselves under the Dissenters However it is a good confession of this Author and shews that they who strained at a Gnat could swallow Camels And though one Parliament passed an Act for Toleration yet another gave such Arguments against it as are not yet nor I believe can be answered which are lately Printed in a Tract entituled An Answer to the Letter for Toleration p. 28. Nor is it evident that by the Act for Toleration the Dissenters are put on as good a bottom of Legal Right as the Church is for it is well known by what means and for what end a Toleration hath been more than once obtained which Coleman's Letters do testifie and Toleration implies somewhat more culpable than the Established Government and never deserved the like protection having been often rejected And whereas he desires a reason from him that can give it Why we should not abate a few excepted passages in our Liturgy and two or three Ceremonies I Answ Because as hath been often said the giving up of these will give the Dissenters no satisfaction and because the Remedy hath been worse than the Disease i. e. the retaining of our Ceremonies and excepted passages never caused so much Impiety so many Sects and Errors as the laying them aside hath done the Twenty Years War from 40 to 60 and the Thirty Years Animosities last past had other Causes than what he very unbecoming a Member of the Church and as he calls himself one of the Convocation terms Trifles and p. 6. A Bone of Contention The Covenant shews what caused that War the destruction of Episcopacy Root and Branch the setting up of Presbytery the dividing of the Revenues of the Church among themselves c. When therefore he calls that unreasonable Rigor which enjoyned Uniformity in our Worship he reflects on the Act for Uniformity and the Canons of the Church to which he hath subscribed so that he and his Brethren are more like to lose their Reputation with the People tho' he would cast all the Odium upon us whom he expects and endeavours to make to be abhorred of the Nation as the Common Enemies of its Peace and be treated accordingly in every Parish where we live Did we contend against the Arrians says he p. 7. we would not yield them a Letter to end the whole Controversie And are not the Arrians coming in when the Athanasian Creed is so ridicul'd as
VOX CLERI OR THE Sense of the Clergy Concerning the Making of ALTERATIONS IN THE ESTABLISHED LITVRGY WITH REMARKS on the Discourse concerning the Ecclesiastical COMMISSION and several Letters for ALTERATIONS To which is Added An Historical ACCOUNT OF THE Whole PROCEEDINGS OF THE Present Convocation My Son fear thou the LORD and the King and meddle not with them that are given to Change Prov. xxiv xxi Ipsa mutatio consuetudinis etiam quae adjuvat utilitate novitate perturbat August ad Januarium Epist 118. Cap. 5. Licensed and Entred according to Order London Printed and are to be sold by R. Taylor near Stationers-hall 1690. THE AUTHOR'S PROTESTATION TO cure the Prejudices with which too many are already prepossessed and to prevent the growth and mischievous effects which they may produce I have thought it necessary for the security of my self and Brethren to declare what our Perswasions are as to the Present Government both in Church and State And first we have by our Oaths promised to bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King and Queens Majesties And the whole Clergy have renewed their Allegiance to their Majesties and their adherence to the Church as Established in their late Address of Thanks c. in these words Whereby we doubt not but the Interest of the Protestant Religion in all other Protestant Churches which is dear to us will be better secured c. So that whoever do represent them as enemies either to the Church or State or any Protestant Churches do falsly and maliciously reproach them or interpret that to be their sin which is their bounden duty and care and if these be our faults I hope there is no sort of people who joyn with us in living in obedience to the Laws of the Land and in the Communion of the Church will entertain those Prejudices and hard thoughts of us which some that are enemies to both have from the Press and from their Pulpits scandalously suggested against us to draw an Odium on the Consultations of the whole Clergy in Convocation and to incense the people against them as enemies to peace and reconciliation I only crave this kindness from those that are influenced with these reports 1. To consider what our Adversaries report of us And 2ly what may be the reason of such reports The Author of the second Letter reflected on in the following Discourse relating to the Convocation hath these expressions concerning such as are not for Alterations Pag. 6. I expect no less than that they become abhorred of the whole Nation and as the common enemies of its peace be treated accordingly in every Parish where we live among them P. 5. That we have maintained Trifles with unreasonable Rigor And P. 6. we have already lost our reputation with the people by insisting too rigorously on those things P. 9. That there is an obligation upon us of coming to a change not to be resisted without guilt P. 20. That we are a base and false sort of men that can promise in adversity and forget all when that is over P. 22. That we shall lose the people of the Land and give our Adversaries advantage over us to our utter ruin P. 15. That the People are overthrown by Excommunications for a penny or two-penny cause That we shall totally extinguish all Convocations for the future and therefore he desires them to consider whether the Church of England is now met together only to be Felo's de se and not to mention all his vile insinuations that in P. 25. contains as much spite and venom as he could hold without breaking such saith he as are most perversely bent against reason and conscience to do all the wickedness they can to gratifie a peevish humour With these things he asperseth the whole Clergy in general cloathing them as the Persecutors of old did the Christians in Bears and Lions Skins and so exposed them to be devoured by such creatures But this Author comes to Particulars And P. 25. says of the suspended Bishops whom he acknowledgeth as their greatest enemies must that they are excellent men yet says if they should not consent to Alterations The resentment of the State will be heavy on them as enemies to them and us so as they will be immediately crush'd and fall to nothing And more particularly he thus reflects on our worthy Prolocutor as a man worthy of the death of the greatest Criminal For thus he saith of him We have no reason to thank him for his Speech or his Motto the last of which I suppose pleased him best because it carried a double stab with it the one against the Church the other against his greatest Benefactor to promote him in it Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum But 2ly What is the cause of all this bitter zeal and inveterate malice it is only because he fancieth they will not consent to such Alterations as shall be proposed to them but first it may well be supposed that neither he nor they do yet know what Alterations will be for none have been as yet proposed to them and therefore to hang and draw before any crime be alledged against them is a most barbarous practice especially for one that is of the same Communion with them and upon those whom he acknowledgeth to be such excellent men his Fathers and his Brethren But thus did his Predecessors heretofore destroy the Church by such malicious insinuations from groundless fears and jealousies as the Jews did Crucifie our Saviour Venient Romani They will bring in Popery But when the Church hath defeated that Engine and made it wholly useless by rooting up the very foundations of Popery such men must have recourse to other inventions And the noise of Persecution is raised against them that they have been and would be again if they had power as great Persecutors as the Heathen Emperors were but this clamor the present Bishop of Salisbury with some others have silenced proving undeniably that the Church of England had neither the temper nor the power to be of a Persecuting spirit And now the Cry is That she is of a peevish and obstinate humour that against Reason and Conscience hinders peace and reconciliation and in sum saith our Author That she is afraid of losing her Church power and Church-promotions though all the Nation knows with what general unanimity and Christian resolution the Clergy hazarded all their Promotions by refusing to publish the late Kings Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and suspending the Penal Laws which now their enemies plead for in compliance with the present juncture of Affairs and is as evident as any matter of fact can be and little less evident is it who they are that gape for the Preferments which other men have signally deserved and are legally possessed of if this be not enough wholly to cure the prejudices which have been insinuated into the Minds of over-credulous and inconsiderate Men yet I hope that which follows