England it will be a very heavy Imputation on us if it appears that though we held those Opinions as long as the Court and Crown have favoured us yet as soon as the Court turns against us we change our Principles XIV Here is the true Difficulty of this whole Matter and therefore it ought to be exactly considered 1. All general Words how large soever are still supposed to have a tacit Exception and Reserve in them if the Matter seems to require it Children are commanded to obey their Parents in all things Wives are declared by the Scripture to be subject to their Husband in all things as the Church is unto Christ And yet how comprehensive soever these words may seem to be there is still a Reserve to be understood in them and though by our Form of Marriage the Parties swear to one another till Death them do part yet few doubt but that this Bond is dissolved by Adultery though it is not named for odious things ought not to be suspected and therefore not named upon such occasions But when they fall out they carry still their own force with them 2. When there sems to be a Contradiction between two Articles in the Constitution we ought to examine which of the two is the most Evident and the most Important and so we ought to fix upon it and then we must give such an accommodating sense to that which seems to contradict it that so we may reconcile those together Here then are two seeming Contradictions in our Constitution The one is the Publick Liberty of the Nation the other is the renouncing of all Resistance in case that were invaded It is plain that our Liberty is only a thing that we enjoy at the King's Discretion and during his Pleasure if the other against all Resistance is to be understood according to the utmost Extent of the Words Therefore since the chief Design of our whole Law and of all the several Rules of our Constitution is to secure and maintain our Liberty we ought to lay that down for a Conclusion that it is both the most plain and the most important of the two And therefore the other Article against Resistance ought to be so softned as that it do not destroy us 3. Since it is by a Law that Resistance is condemned we ought to understand it in such a sense as that it does not destroy all other Laws And therefore the intent of this Law must only relate to the Executive Power which is in the King and not to the Legislative in which we cannot suppose that our Legislators who made that Law intended to give up that which we plainly see they resolved still to preserve entire according to the Ancient Constitution So then the not resisting the King can only be applied to the Executive Power that so upon no pretence of ill Administrations in the Execution of the Law it should be lawful to resist him but this cannot with any reason be extended to an Invasion of the Legislative Power or to a total Subversion of the Government For it being plain that the Law did not design to lodg that Power in the King it is also plain that it did not intend to secure him in it in case he should set about it 4. The Law mentioning the King or those Commissioned by him shews plainly that it only designed to secure the King in the Executive Power for the word Commission necessarily importts this since if it is not according to Law it is no Commission and by Consequence those who act in virtue of it are not Commissionated by the King in the Sense of the Law. The King likewise imports a Prince clothed by Law with the Regal Prerogative but if he goes to subvert the whole Foundation of the Government he subverts that by which he himself has his Power and by consequence he annuls his own Power and then he ceases to be King having endeavoured to destroy that upon which his own Authority is founded XV. It is acknowledged by the greatest Assertors of Monarchial Power that in some Cases a King may fall from his Power and in other Cases that he may fall from the Exercise of it His Deserting his People his going about to enslave or sell them to any other or a furious going about to destroy them are in the opinion of the most Monarchical Lawyers such Abuses that they naturally divest those that are guilty of them of their whole Authority Infancy or Phrenzy do also put them under the Guardianship of others All the Crowned Heads of Europe have at least secretly approved of the putting the late King of Portugal under a Guardianship and the keeping him still a Prisoner for a few Acts of Rage that had been fatal to a very few Persons And even our Court gave the first countenance to it though of all others the late King had the least reason to have done it at least last of all since it justified a younger Brother's supplanting the Elder yet the Evidence of the Thing carried it even against Interest Therefore if a King goes about to subvert the Government and to overturn the whole Constitution he by this must be supposed either to fall from his Power or at least from the Exercise of it so far as that he ought to be put under Guardians and according to the Case of Portugal the next Heir falls naturally to be the Guardian XVI The next Thing to be considered is to see in Fact whether the Foundations of this Government have been struck at and whether those Errors that have been perhaps committed are only such Malversations as ought to be imputed only to humane Frailty and to the Ignorance Inadvertencies or Passions to which all Princes may be subject as well as other Men. But this will best appear if we consider what are the Fundamental Points of our Government and the chief Securities that we have for our Liberties The Authority of the Law is indeed all in one word so that if the King pretends to a Power to dispense with Laws there is nothing left upon which the Subject can depend and yet as if the Dispensing Power were not enough if Laws are wholly suspended for all Time coming this is plainly a repealing of them when likewise the Men in whose Hands the Administration of Justice is put by Law such as Judges and Sheriffs are allowed to tread all Laws under-foot even those that infer an Incapacity on themselves if they violate them this is such a breaking of the whole Constitution that we can no more have the Administration of Justice so that it is really a Dissolution of the Government since all Trials Sentences and the Executions of them are become so many unlawful Acts that are null and void of themselves The next Thing in our Constitution which secures to us our Laws and Liberties is a Free and Lawful Parliament Now not to mention the breach of the Law of Triennial Parliaments it
Informations against me which gave the rise to all that has since followed ought to be lookt on as Calumniators and to be punished accordingly and if any ill chosen Expression had fallen from me in the Letter that I writ to the Earl of Middletoune the Privacy of the Letter the Respect that was in it and the Provocation that drew it from me an Accusation of High Treason which is now evidently made out to be a Calumny all these I say give me some reason to conclude that if a secret Animosity of some of my Enemies that have abused their Credit with the King to my Prejudice had not wrought more than a regard to Justice there had not been a second Prosecution when the first was found to be so ill grounded that they were forced to let it fall The Citation is in these Words JAMES by the Grace of God King of Great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith To our Lovits Heraulds Pursevants Macers and Messre at armes conjunctly and severally specially Constitute Greeting Forsameikle as it is humbly meant et Complaind to us be our right trusty and familiar Councellour Sir John Dalrymple the younger of Stair our Advocat for our Interest Upon Doctor Gilbert Burnet That wher by the Common Law by the Acts of Parliament and the municipall Lawes of this Kingdom the declyning or impugning our Soveraign Authority or putting Treasonable Limitations upon the Prerogatives of our Crown upon the native Allegiance due by any of our Subjects born Scots men whether residing within our Dominions or not are declared to be High Treason and punishable by the Pains due and determined in the Law for Treason Nevertheless it is of verity That Doctor Gilbert Burnet who is a Scotsman by Birth and Education being cited at the Peir and Shoar of Leith at the instance of our Advocat for several Treasonable Crimes to underly the Law by vertue of particular Command from us direct to the Lords of our Privy Council and ane Act of our said Privy Council hereupon ordering our Advocat to Intent the Proces Instead of appeiring before the Lords of Iusticiery Doctor Gilbert Burnet did write and subscribe a Letter dated at the Hague the third day of May last directed for the Earl of Middletoune one of our principal Secretaries of State for our Kingdom of England In the which the said Doctor shows that in respect the Affairs of the Vnited Provinces falls to his Lordships share in the Ministry Therefore he makes the following Addresses to his Lordship and by him to us and gives ane accompt that he is certiorat of the Proces of Treason execute against him at the instance of our Advocat And for answer thereto the Doctor Writes that he hes bein thretteen years out of the Kingdom of Scotland and that he is now upon the point of Marrying in the Netherlands and that he is Naturalized by the States of Holland and that thereby during his stay there his Allegiance is translated from us to the Soveraignity of the Province of Holland and in the end of his Letter he Certifies that if this decly natur be not taken of his hand to sist the Proces he will appeir in Print in his own Defence and will not so far betray his own Innocence as to suffer a thing of that nature to pass upon him In which he will make a recital of Affairs that hes passed these twenty years and a vast number of particulars which he believes will be displeasing to us and therfor desires that he may not be forced to it which is a direct declyning of our Authority denying of his Allegiance to us and asserting that his Allegiance is translated from us to the Soveraignty of the States of Holland And a threatning us to expose traduce disparage and bely our Government and the publict Actings for twenty years past Tho he acknowledges it will be displeasing to us Yet by a most Indiscret and Disloyal Insolence he threatens to do it in contempt Except forsooth we will acquiesse and suffer the derly natur of our Royal Authorite and pass from the Proces as having no Allegiance due to us from the Doctor c. After this follows the form of Law ordinary in such Citations by which I am required to appear on the 9th day of August in order to my Tryal which was to be six days after that under the Pains of being declared a Rebel and a Fugitive and all bears date the 10th of June 1687. I shall offer only two Exceptions to this in point of Form 1st there is no Special Law set forth here upon which I am to be Judged which as I am informed by those who understand the Law of Scotland makes the Citation null in point of Form since High Treason is a Crime of such a Nature that no Man can be concluded Guilty of it but upon a special Law. 2dly In Criminal matters no Proofs of any Writing upon the Similitude of Hands are so much as admitted by the Law of Scotland so that all such Proofs are only General Presumptions and therefore since there is no other Proof that can be pretended in this case it is not possible according to the grounds and practice of the Scottish Law to find me Guilty upon this Citation Upon my not appearance on the 9th day of August the matter was for some time delayed At last a Writ was issued out against me called in the Law of Scotland Letters of Horning because they are published with the blast of a Horn in which I am declared the King's Rebel but this is not issued out upon the account of the Matter of the Citation of which no Cognizance has been taken But only for my not appearance to offer my self to Tryal and the Operation of this in Law is only the putting me out of the King's Protection and the present Seizing on my personal Estate and after a year the Seizing any thing that I enjoy for Term of Life but this Writ does neither affect my Life nor my Posterity nor can an Estate of Inheritance be so much as Confiscated by it and tho the term Rebel is put in it that word is only a Form of Law for every man that does not pay his Debts is liable to such a Writ and he is declared the King's Rebel just as the Chancery in England issues out a Writ of Rebellion upon Contempts so that if the being called a Rebel in such a Writ gives the Government a right to demand me then every Man that retires into Holland either out of England or Scotland upon the account of a disorder in his Affairs may be demanded as soon as any such Writ goes out against him As for the matter of this Citation I said so much upon it in my former Paper that since no Answer has been made to that I do not think it necessary to say any more than what will occur to me in the account of the Progress of this
cannot so readily guess If a Standard had been given of Opinions or Practices then one could have known how this might have been distinguished but as it lies it will not be easie to make the Discrimination and the declaring them all Immoderate shuts them out quite VI. Another Foundation laid down for Repealing all Laws made against the Papists is That they were enacted in King James the Sixth's Minority with some harsh Expressions that are not to be insisted on since they shew more the Heat of the Penner than the Dignity of the Prince in whose Name they are given out but all these Laws were ratified over and over again by King James when he came to be of full Age and they have received many Confirmations by King Charles the First and King Charles the Second as well as by his present Majesty both when he represented his Brother in the Year 1681. and since He himself came to the Crown so that whatsoever may be said concerning the first Formation of those Laws they have received now for the course of a whole hundred Years that are lapsed since King James was of full Age so many Confirmations that if there is any thing certain in Humane Government we might depend upon them but this new coined Absolute Power must carry all before it VII It is also well known that the whole Settlement of the Church-Lands and Tythes with many other things and more particularly the Establishment of the Protestant Religion was likewise enacted in King James's Minority as well as those Penal Laws so that the Reason now made use of to annul the Penal Laws will serve full as well for another Act of this Absolute Power that shall abolish all those and if Maxims that unhinge all the Securities of Humane Society and all that is sacred in Government ought to be look'd on with the justest and deepest Prejudices possible one is tempted to lose the Respect that is due to every thing that carries a Royal Stamp upon it when he sees such Grounds made use of as must shake all Settlements whatsoever For if a Prescription of 120 Years and Confirmations reiterated over and over again these 100 Years past do not purge some Defects in the first Formation of those Laws what can make us secure But this looks so like a Fetch of the French Prerogative Law both in their Processes with relation to the Edict of Nantes and those concerning Dependences at Mets that this seems to be a Copy from that famous Original VIII It were too much ill Nature to look into the History of the last Age to examine on what Grounds those Characters of Pious and Blessed given to the Memory of Q. Mary are built but since King James's Memory has the Character of Glorious given to it if the Civility due to the Fair Sex makes one unwilling to look into the one yet the other may be a little dwelt on The peculiar Glory that belongs to King James's Memory is that he was a Prince of great Learning and that he employed it chiefly in writing for Religion Of the Volume in Folio in which we have his Works two thirds are against the Church of Rome one part of them is a Commentary on the Revelation proving that the Pope is Antichrist another part of them belonged more naturally to his Post and Dignity which is the Warning that he gave to all the Princes and States of Europe against the Treasonable and Bloody Doctrines of the Papacy The first Act he did when he came of Age was to swear in Person with all his Family and afterwards with all his People of Scotland a Covenant containing an Enumeration of all the Points of Popery and a most solemn Renunciation of them somewhat like our Parliament Test His first Speech to the Parliament of England was Copious on the same Subject and he left a Legacy of a Wish on such of his Posterity as should go over to that Religion which in good manners is suppressed It is known King James was no Conqueror and that he made more use of his Pen than his Sword so the Glory that is peculiar to his Memory must fall chiefly on his Learned and Immortal Writings and since there is such a Veneration expressed for him it agrees not ill with this to wish that his Works were more studied by those who offer such Incense to his Glorious Memory IX His Majesty assures his People of Scotland upon his certain Knowledge and long Experience that the Catholicks as they are good Christians so they are likewise dutiful Subjects But if we must believe both these equally then we must conclude severely against their being good Christians for we are sure they can never be good Subjects not only to a Heretical Prince but even to a Catholick Prince if he does not extirpate Hereticks for their beloved Council of the Lateran that decreed Transubstantiation has likewise decreed That if a Prince does not extirpate Hereticks out of his Dominions the Pope must depose him and declare his Subjects absolved from their Allegiance and give his Dominions to another So that even his Majesty how much soever he may be a Zealous Catholick yet cannot be assured of their Fidelity to him unless he has given them secret Assurances that he is resolved to extirpate Hereticks out of his Dominions and that all the Promises which he now makes to these poor Wretches are no other way to be kept than the Assurances which the Great Lewis gave to his Protestant Subjects of his observing still the Edict of Nantes even after he had resolved to break it and also his last Promise made in the Edict that repealed the Edict of Nantes by which he gave Assurances that no Violence should be used to any for their Religion in the very time that he was ordering all possible Violences to be put in execution against them X. His Majesty assures us that on all occasions the Papists have shewed themselves good and faithful Subjects to him and his Royal Predecessors but how Absolute soever the King's Power may be it seems his Knowledge of History is not so Absolute but it may be capable of some Improvement It will be hard to find out what Loyalty they shewed on the occasion of the Gunpowder Plot or during the whole Progress of the Rebellion of Ireland if the King will either take the Words of King James of Glorious Memory or King Charles the First that was indeed of Pious and Blessed Memory rather than the Word of the Penners of this Proclamation it will not be hard to find occasions where they were a little wanting in this their so much boasted Loyalty and we are sure that by the Principles of that Religion the King can never be assured of the Fidelity of those he calls his Catholick Subjects but by engaging to them to make his Heretical Subjects Sacrifices to their Rage XI The King declares them capable of all the Offices and Benefices which he
to some Words in the Proclamation that it was thought necessary to set them near one another that the Reader may be able to judge whether he is deceived by any false Quotations or not BY THE KING A PROCLAMATION JAMES R. JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all and sundry our good Subjects whom these Presents do or may concern Greeting We having taken into Our Royal Consideration the many and great Inconveniencies which have hapned to that Our Ancient Kingdom of Scotland of late Years through the different Persuasions in the Christian Religion and the great Heats and Animosities amongst the several Professors thereof to the ruine and decay of Trade wasting of Lands extinguishing of Charity contempt of the Royal Power and converting of true Religion and the Fear of GOD into Animosities Names Factions and sometimes into Sacriledge and Treason And being resolved as much as in us lies to unite the Hearts and Affections of Our Subjects to GOD in Religion to Us in Loyalty and to their Neighbours in Christian Love and Charity Have therefore thought fit to Grant and by Our Sovereign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all Our Subjects are to obey without Reserve do hereby give and grant Our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named with and under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations after mentioned In the first place We allow and tolerate the Moderate Presbyterians to Meet in their Private Houses and there to hear all such Ministers as either have or are willing to accept of Our Indulgence allanerly and none other and that there be not any thing said or done contrary to the Well and Peace of Our Reign Seditious or Treasonable under the highest Pains these Crimes will import nor are they to presume to Build Meeting Houses or to use Out-Houses or Barns but only to exercise in their Private Houses as said is In the mean time it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure that Field-Conventicles and such as Preach or Exercise at them or who shall any ways assist or connive at them shall be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity of our Laws made against them seeing from these Rendezvouses of Rebellion so much Disorder hath proceeded and so much Disturbance to the Government and for which after this Our Royal Indulgence for Tender Consciences there is no Excuse left In like manner We do hereby tolerate Quakers to meet and exercise in their Form in any Place or Places appointed for their Worship And considering the Severe and Cruel Laws made against Roman Catholicks therein called Papists in the Minority of Our Royal Grandfather of Glorious Memory without His Consent ☜ and contrary to the Duty of good Subjects by His Regents and other Enemies to their Lawful Sovereign Our Royal Great Grandmother Queen Mary of Blessed and Pious Memory wherein under the pretence of Religion they cloathed the worst of Treasons Factions and Usurpations and made these Laws not as against the Enemies of GOD but their own which Laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them or any of them ad terrorem only on Supposition that the Papists relying on an External Power were incapable of Duty and true Allegiance to their Natural Soveraigns and Rightful Monarchs We of Our certain Knowledge and long Experience knowing that the Catholicks as it is their Principle to be Good Christians so it is to be Dutiful Subjects and that they have likewise on all occasions shewn themselves Good and faithful Subjects to Us and Our Royal Predecessors by hazarding and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes in their defence though of another Religion and the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Council by our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power aforesaid suspend stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions made or executed against any of our Roman-Catholick Subjects in any time past to all Intents and Purposes making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned Pains or Penalties therein ordained to be inflicted so that they shall in all things be as free in all Respects as any of Our Protestant Subjects whatsoever not only to exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Nevertheless it is Our Will and Pleasure and we do hereby command all Catholicks at their highest pains only to exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields or to invade the Protestant Churches by force under the pains aforesaid to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-streets of any of Our Royal Burghs under the Pains above-mentioned And whereas the Obedience and Service of Our Good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance and Our Soveraignty and that no Law Custom or Constitution Difference in Religion or other Impediment whatsoever can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown or hinder Us from Protecting and Employing them according to their several Capacities and Our Royal Pleasure nor Restrain Us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them or vacuate or annul these Rights Heretable when they are made or conferred And likewise considering that some Oaths are capable of being wrested by Men of sinistrous Intentions a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty Do therefore with Advice and Consent aforesaid cass annull and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever by which any of Our Subjects are incapacitated or disabled from holding Places or Offices in Our said Kingdom or enjoying their Hereditary Rights and Priviledges discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming without our special Warrant and Consent under the pains due to the Contempt of Our Royal Commands and Authority And to this effect we do by Our Royal Authority aforesaid stop disable and dispense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths Tests or any of them particuarly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second the eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles the twenty first and twenty fifth Acts of that Parliament and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of Our late Parliament ☜ in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths or Tests therein prescribed and all others as well not mentioned as mentioned and that in place of them all Our good Subjects or such of them as We or Our Privy Council shall require so to do shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly
I A. B. do acknowledge testifie and declare that JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c is rightful King and Supream Governour of these Realms and over all Persons therein and that it is unlawful for Subjects on any pretence or for any cause whatsoever to rise in Arms against Him or any Commissionated by Him and that I shall never so rise in Arms nor assist any who shall so do and that I shall never resist His Power or Authority nor ever oppose his Authority to his Person as I shall answer to God but shall to the utmost of my Power Assist Defend and Maintain Him His Heirs and lawful Successors in the exercise of their ABSOLUTE POWER and Authority against all Deadly So help me God. And seeing many of Our good Subjects have before Our Pleasure in these Matters was made publick incurred the Guilt appointed by the Acts of Parliament above mentioned or others We by Our Authority and Absolute Power and Prerogative Royal above-mentioned of Our certain Knowledge and innate Mercy Give Our ample and full Indemnity to all those of the Roman Catholick or Popish Religion for all things by them done contrary to Our Laws or Acts of Parliament made in any time past relating to their Religion the Worship and Exercise thereof or for being Papists Jesuits or Traffickers for hearing or saying of Mass concealing of Priests or Jesuits breeding their Children Catholicks at home or abroad or any other thing Rite or Doctrine said performed or maintained by them or any of them And likewise for holding or taking of Places Employments or Offices contrary to any Law or Constitution Advices given to Us or Our Council Actions done or generally any thing performed or said against the known Laws of that Our Ancient Kingdom Excepting always from this Our Royal Indemnity all Murders Assassinations Thefts and such like other Crimes which never used to be comprehended in Our General Acts of Indemnity And we command and require all Our Judges or others concerned to explain this in the most Ample Sense and Meaning Acts of Indemnity at any time have contained Declaring this shall be as good to every one concerned as if they had Our Royal Pardon and Remission under Our Great Seal of that Kingdom And likewise indemnifying Our Protestant Subjects from all Pains and Penalties due for hearing or Preaching in Houses Providing there be no Treasonable Speeches uttered in the said Conventicles by them in which case the Law is only to take place against the Guilty and none other present Providing also that they Reveal to any of our Gouncil the Guilt so committed As also excepting all Fines or Effects of Sentences already given And likewise indemnifying fully and freely all Quakers for their Meetings and Worship in all time past preceding the Publication of these Presents And we doubt not but Our Protestant Subjects will give their Assistance and Concourse hereunto on all occasions in their respective Capacities In consideration whereof and the ease those of Our Religion and others may have hereby and for the Encouragement of Our Protestant Bishops and the Regular Clergy and such as have hitherto lived orderly We think fit to declare that it never was Our Principle nor will We ever suffer violence to be offered to any Mans Conscience nor will We use force or Invincible Necessity against any Man on the Account of his Perswasion nor the Protestant Religion but will protect Our Bishops and other Ministers in their Functions Rights and Properties and all Our Protestant Subjects in the free Exercise of their Protestant Religion in the Churches And that We will and hereby Promise on Our Royal Word to maintain the Possessors of Church Lands formerly belonging to Abbeys or other Churches of the Catholick Religion in their full and free Possession and Right according to Our Laws and Acts of Parliament in that behalf in all time coming And We will employ indifferently all our Subjects of all Perswasions so as none shall meet with any Discouragement on the account of his Religion but be advanced and esteemed by Us according to their several Capacities and Qualifications so long as we find Charity and Unity maintained And if any Animosities shall arise as We hope in God there will not We will shew the severest Effects of Our Royal Displeasure against the Beginners or Fomenters thereof seeing thereby Our Subjects may be deprived of this general Ease and Satisfaction We intend to all of them whose Happiness Prosperity Wealth and Safety is so much Our Royal Care that we will leave nothing undone which may procure these Blessings for them And lastly to the End all Our good Subjects may have Notice of this Our Royal Will and Pleasure we do hereby command Our Lyon King at Arms and his Brethren Heraulds Macers Pursevants and Messengers at Arms to make Proclamation thereof at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh And besides the Printing and Publishing of this Our Royal Proclamation it is Our express Will and Pleasure that the same be past under the great Seal of that Our Kingdom per saltum ☞ without passing any other Seal or Register In Order whereunto this shall be to the Directors of Our Chancellary and their Deputies for writing the same and to Our Chancellor for causing Our Great Seal aforesaid to be appended thereunto a sufficient Warrand Given at Our Court at Whitehal the twelfth day of Febr. 1686 / 7. And of Our Reign the third year By His Majesties Command MELFORT GOD SAVE THE KING A LETTER Containing some REFLECTIONS On His MAJESTY's DECLARATION FOR LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE Dated the Fourth of April 1687. SIR I. I Thank you for the Favour of sending me the late Declaration that His Majesty has granted for Liberty of Conscience I confess I longed for it with great Impatience and was surprised to find it so different from the Scotch Pattern for I imagined that it was to be set to the Second Part of the same Tune nor can I see why the Penners of this have sunk so much in their Style for I suppose the same Men penned both I expected to have seen the Imperial Language of Absolute Power to which all the Subjects are to obey without Reserve and of the cassing annulling the stopping and disabling of Laws set forth in the Preamble and Body of this Declaration whereas those dreadful Words are not to be found here for in stead of repealing the Laws His Majesty pretends by this only to suspend them and tho' in effect this amounts to a Repeal yet it must be confessed that the Words are softer Now since the Absolute Power to which His Majesty pretends in Scotland is not founded on such poor things as Law for that would look as if it were the Gift of the People but on the Divine Authority which is supposed to be delegated to His Majesty this may be as well claimed in England as it
upon the Protestant Religion that is inconsistent with the Publick Peace will be pretended to shew that they are not persecuted for meer Religion In France when it was resolved to extirpate the Protestants all the Discourses that were written on that Subject were full of the Wars occasioned by those of the Religion in the last Age tho' as these were the happy Occasions of bringing the House of Bourbon to the Crown they had been ended above 80 Years ago and there had not been so much as the least Tumult raised by them these 50 Years past so that the French who have smarted under this Severity could not be charged with the least Infraction of the Law yet Stories of a hundred Years old were raised up to inspire into the King those Apprehensions of them which have produced the terrible Effects that are visible to all the World. There is another Expression in this Declaration which lets us likewise see with what caution the Offers of Favour are now worded that so there may be an Occasion given when the Time and Conjuncture shall be favourable to break thro' them all it is in these words So that they take especial Care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them which may any ways tend to alienate the Hearts of our People from us or our Government This in it self is very reasonable and could admit of no Exception if we had not to do with a set of Men who to our great Misfortune have so much Credit with his Majesty and who will be no sooner lodged in the Power to which they pretend than they will make every thing that is preached against Popery pass for that which may in some manner alienate the Subjects from the King. VI. His Majesty makes no doubt of the Concurrence of his two Houses of Parliament when he shall think it convenient for them to meet The Hearts of Kings are unsearchable so that it is a little too presumptuous to look into His Majesties secret Thoughts but according to the Judgments that we would make of other Mens Thoughts by their Actions one would be tempted to think that His Majesty made some doubt of it since his Affairs both at home and abroad could not go the worse if it appeared that there were a perfect Understanding between Him and His Parliament and that his People were supporting him with fresh Supplies and this House of Commons is so much at his devotion that all the World saw how ready they were to grant every thing that he could desire of them till he began to lay off the Masque with relation to the Test and since that time the frequent Prorogations the Closetting and the Pains that has been taken to gain Members by Promises made to some and the Disgraces of others would make one a little inclined to think that some doubt was made of their Concurrence But we must confess that the depth of His Majesty's Judgment is such that we cannot fathom it and therefore we cannot guess what his Doubts or his Assurances are It is true the words that come after unriddle the Mystery a little which are when His Majesty shall think it convenient for them to meet for the meaning of this seems plain that His Majesty is resolved that they shall never meet till he receives such Assurances in a new round of Closetting that he shall be put out of doubt concerning it VII I will not enter into the Dispute concerning Liberty of Conscience and the Reasons that may be offered for it to a Session of Parliament for there is scarce any one Point that either with relation to Religion or Politicks affords a greater variety of Matter for Reflection and I make no doubt to say that there is abundance of Reason to oblige a Parliament to review all the Penal Laws either with relation to Papists or to Dissenters but I will take the boldness to add one thing that the King 's suspending of Laws strikes at the root of this whole Government and subverts it quite for if there is any thing certain with relation to the English Government it is this that the Executive Power of the Law is entirely in the King and the Law to fortifie him in the Management of it has clothed him with a vast Prerogative and made it unlawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to resist him whereas on the other Hand the Legislative Power is not so entirely in the King but that the Lords and Commons have such a share in it that no Law can be either made repealed or which is all one suspended but by their Consent so that the placing this Legislative Power singly in the King is a Subversion of this whole Government since the Essence of all Governments consists in the Subjects of the Legislative Authority Acts of Violence or Injustice committed in the Executive part are such things that all Princes being subject to them the Peace of Mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any Pretence taken from any ill Administrations in which as the Law may be doubtful so the Facts may be uncertain and at worst the Publick Peace must always be more valued than any private Oppressions or Injuries whatsoever But the total Subversion of a Government being so contrary to the Trust that is given to the Prince who ought to execute it will put Men upon uneasie and dangerous Inquiries which will turn little to the Advantage of those who are driving Matters to such a doubtful and desperate Issue VIII If there is any thing in which the Exercise of the Legislative Power seems Indispensible it is in those Oaths of Allegiance and Tests that are thought necessary to qualifie Men either to be admitted to enjoy the Protection of the Law or to bear a Share in the Government for in these the Security of the Government is chiefly concerned and therefore the total extinction of these as it is not only a Suspension of them but a plain Repealing of them so it is a Subverting of the whole Foundation of our Government For the Regulation that King and Parliament had set both for the Subjects having the Protection of the State by the Oath of Allegiance and for a share in Places of Trust by the Tests is now pluckt up by the Roots when it is declared That these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken or subscribed by any Persons whatsoever for it is plain that this is no Suspension of the Law but a formal Repeal of it in as plain Words as can be conceived IX His Majesty says that the Benefit of the Service of all his Subjects is by the Law of Nature inseparably annexed to and inherent in his Sacred Person It is somewhat strange that when so many Laws that we all know are suspended the Law of Nature which is so hard to be found out should be cited but the Penners of this Declaration had best let that Law lie
Sincerity that he endeavoured to perswade all others to rely as much on his Word as he himself did It is well known how fatal this Confidence was to him and see Meteren lib. 3. that two years after this that King sent over the Duke of Alva with that severe Commission which has been often printed in which without any regard had to the former Pacification or Promises the King declared that the Provinces had forfeited all their Liberties and that every man in it had forfeited his life and therefore he authorised that unmerciful Man to proceed with all possible Rigour against them It is also remarkable that that bloody Commission is founded on the King 's Absolute Power and his Zeal for Religion This is the only Edict that I know in which a King has pretended to Absolute Power before the two Declarations for Scotland in the year 1687. so whether they who penned them took their Pattern from this I cannot determine it I could carry this view of History much further to shew in many more Instances how little Protestants can depend on the Faith of Roman Catholicks and that their Condition is so much the worse the more pious that their Princes are As for what may be objected to all this from the present State of some Principalities or Towns in Germany or of the Switzers and Grisons it is to be considered that in some of these want of Power in the Roman Catholicks to do mischief and the other Circumstances of their Affairs are visibly the only Securities of the Protestants and whensoever this Nation departs from that and gives up the Laws it is no hard thing to guess how short-lived the Liberty of Conscience even tho' setled into a Magna Charta would be V. All that our Author says upon the General Subject of Liberty of Conscience is only a severe Libel upon that Church whose Principles and Practices are so contrary to it But the Proposition lately made has put an end to all this Dispute since by an Offer of Repealing the Penal Laws reserving only those of the Test and such others as secure the Protestant Religion the question is now no more which Religion must be tolerated but which Religion must reign and prevail All that is here offered in Opposition to that is that by this means such a number of Persons must be ruined Pag. 64. which is as severe a way of forcing People to change their Religion as the way of Dragoons I will not examine the particulars of this matter but must express my joy to find that all the Difficulty which is in our way to a happy quiet is the supplying such a number of men with the means of their subsistance which by the Execution of the Law for the Test must be taken from them This by all that I can learn will not come to near an Hundred Thousand Pound a year and indeed the supplying of those of the King's Religion that want it is a piece of Charity and Bounty so worthy of him that I do not know a man that would envy them the double of this in Pensions and if such a Sum would a little charge the King's Revenue I dare say when the Settlement of the Nation is brought to that single point there would not be one Negative found in either House of Parliament for the reimbursing the King So far are we from desiring either the Destruction or even the Poverty of those that perhaps wait only for an occasion to burn us I will add one bold thing further that tho' I will be no undertaker for what a Parliament may do yet I am confident that all men are so far from any desire of Revenge but most of all that the Heroical Minds of the next Successors are above it that if an Indemnity for that bold violation of the Law that has been of late both practised and authorised among us would procure a full Settlement even this could be obtained tho' an Impunity after such Transgressions is perhaps too great an Encouragement to offend for the future But since it is the Preservation of the Nation and not the ruine of any party in it that is aimed at the Hardiness of this Proposition will I hope be forgiven me It is urged pag. 63. that according to the Dutch Pattern at least the Roman Catholicks may have a share in Military Employments but the difference between our Case and theirs is clear since some Roman Catholick Officers where the Government is wholly in the Hands of of Protestants cannot be of such dangerous Consequence as it must needs be under a King that is not only of that Perswasion but is become nearly allied to the Society as the Liege Letter tells us VI. It is true our Author would perswade us that the King 's dispensing Power has already put an end to the Dispute and that therefore it is a seeming sort of Perjury see pag. 48. to keep the Justices of Peace still under an Oath of executing those Laws which they must consider no more Some Presidents are brought from former times pag. 22 23 24. of our Kings using the dispensing Power in Edward the Third Richard the Second Henry the Seventh Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth's time It is very true that the Laws have been of late broke through among us with a very high hand but it is a little too dangerous to upbraid the Justices of Peace with their Oaths lest this oblige them to reflect on so sacred an Engagement for the worthy Members of Magdalen Colledge are not the only Persons in England who will make Conscience of observing their Oaths so that if others are brought to reflect too much on what they do our Author's Officiousness in suggesting this to them may prove to be no acceptable piece of servce I will not examine all his Presidents we are to be governed by Law and not by some of the excesses of Government nor is the latter end of Edward the Third a time to be much imitated and of all the parts of the English History Richard the Second's Reign should be the least mentioned since those excesses of his produced so Tragical a Conclusion as the loss of his Crown and Life Henry the Sixth's feeble and imbroiled Reign will scarce support an Argument and if there were some excesses in Henry the Eighth's time which is ordinary in all great Revolutions he got all these to be either warranted or afterwards confirmed in Parliament And Q. Elizabeth's Power in Ecclesiastical matters was founded on a special Act of Parliament which was in a great measure repealed in the year 1641. and that Repeal was again ratified by another Act in the late King's time We are often told of the late King's repealing the Act concerning the Sise of Carts and Waggons but all Lawyers know that some Laws are understood to be abrogated without a special Repeal when some visible Inconvenience enforces it such as appeared in that
mistaken Act concerning Waggons so the King in that case only declared the Inconvenience which made that Law to be of it self null because it was impracticable It is true the Parliament never questioned this a man would not be offended if another pulled a Flower in his Garden that yet would take it ill if he broke his Hedge and in Holland to which our Author's Pen leads him often when a River changes its course any man may break the Dike that was made to resist it yet that will be no warrant to go and break the Dike that resists the Current of the same River So if a dispensing Power when applied to smaller Offences has been passed over as an excess of Government that might be excusable tho' not justifiable this will by no means prove that Laws made to secure us against that which we esteem the greatest of Evils may be superseded because twelve Men in Scarlet have been hired or practised on to say so the Power of pardoning is also unreasonably urged for justifying the Dispensing Power the one is a Grace to a particular Person for a Crime committed whereas the other is a warrant to commit Crimes In short the one is a Power to save Men and the other is a Power to destroy the Government But tho' they swagger it out now with the Dispensing Power yet rode caper vitem may come to be again in season and a time may come in which the whole Party will have reason to wish that some hair-brained Jesuits had never been born who will rather expose them not only to the Resentments but even to the Justice of another season in which as little regard will be had to the Dispensing Power as they have to the Laws at present then accept of reasonable Propositions VII Our Author's Kindness to the States of Holland is very particular and returns often upon him and it is no wonder that a State setled upon two such Hinges as the Protestant Religion and publick Liberty should be no small Eye sore to those who intend to destroy both So that the slackning the Laws concerning Religion and the invading that State seem to be Terms that must always go together In the first War began the first slackning of them and after the Triple Alliance had laid the Dutch asleep when the second War was resolved on which began with that Heroical Attempt on the Smyrna Fleet for our Author will not have the late King's Actions to be forgotten at the same time the famous Declaration suspending the Laws in 1672. came out and now again with another Declaration to the same purpose we see a return of the same good Inclinations for the Dutch tho' none before our Author has ever ventured in a Book licensed by my Lord President of the Council to call that Constitution pag. 68. A Revolt that they made from their lawful Prince and to raise his stile to a more sublime Strain he says pag. 66. That their Commonwealth is only the Result of an absolute Rebellion Revolt and Defection from their Prince and that the Laws that they have made were to prevent any casual return to their natural Allegiance And speaking of their Obligation to protect a Naturalized Subject he bestows this Honour on them as to say pag. 57 58. Those that never yet dealt so fairly with Princes may be suspected for such a superfluous Faith to one that puts himself upon them for a Vassal Time will shew how far the States will resent these Injuries only it seems our Author thinks that a Soveraign's Faith to protect the Subject is a superfluous thing a Faith to Hereticks is another superfluous thing so that two Superfluities one upon another must be all that we are to trust to But I must take notice of the variety of Methods that these Gentlemen use in their Writings Here in England we are always upbraided with the Revolt of the Dutch as a scandalous Imputation on the Protestant Religion and yet in a late Paper entituled An Answer to Pensioner Fagel's Letter the Services that the Roman Catholicks did in the beginning of that Commonwealth are highly extolled as signal and meritorious upon which the Writer makes great Complaints That the Pacification of Gaunt and the Union at Utrecht by which the free Exercise of their Religion was to be continued to them was not observed in most of the Provinces But if he had taken pains to examine the History of the States he would have found that soon after the Union made at Utrecht the Treaty at Collen was set on foot between the King of Spain and the States by the Emperor's Mediation in which the Spaniars studied to divide the Roman Catholicks of these Provinces from the Protestants by offering a Confirmation of all the other Priviledges of these Provinces excepting only the Point of Religion which had so great an Effect that the Party of the Malcontents was formed upon it and these did quickly capitulate in the Walloon Provinces and after that not only Barbant and Flanders capitulated but Reenenburgh that was Governour of Groening declared for the King of Spain and by some Places that he took both in Friseland and Over-Issel he put these Provinces under Contribution Not long after that both Daventer and Zutphen were betrayed by Popish Governours and the War was thus brought within the Seven Provinces that had been before kept at a greater distance from them Thus it did appear almost every where that the hatred with which the Priests were inspiring the Roman Catholicks against the Protestants disposed them to betray all again to the Spanish Tyranny The new War that Reenenburgh's Treachery had brought into these Provinces changed so the State of Affairs that no wonder if this produced a change likewise with relation to that Religion since it appeared that these Revolts were carried on and justified upon the Principles of that Church and the general Hatred under which these Revolts brought the Roman Catholicks in those Out Provinces made the greater part of them to withdraw so that there were not left such numbers of them as to pretend to the free Exercise of their Religion But the War not having got into Holland and Utrecht and none of that Religion having revolted in those Provinces the Roman Catholicks continued still in the Country and tho' the ill Inclinations that they shewed made it necessary for the publick Safety to put them out of the Government yet they have still enjoyed the common Rights of the Country with the free Exercise of their Religion But it is plain that some men are only waiting an opportunity to renew the old Delenda est Carthago and that they think it is no small step to it to possess all the World with odious Impressions of the Dutch as a rebellious and perfidious State and if it were possible they would even make their own Roman Catholick Subjects fancy that they are persecuted by them But tho' men may be brought to believe
in which we are and it is plain that the Rules serve in the Gospel can be carried no further It is indeed clear from the New Testament that the Christian Religion as such gives us no grounds to defend or propagate it by force It is a Doctrine of the Cross and of Faith and Patience under it And if by the order of Divine Providence and of any Constitution of Government under which we are born we are brought under Sufferings for our professing of it we may indeed retire and fly out of any such Country if we can but if that is denied us we must then according to this Religion submit to those Sufferings under which we may be brought considering that God will be glorified by us in so doing and that he will both support us under our Suffering and gloriously reward us for them This was the State of the Christian Religion during the three first Centuries under Heathen Emperors and a Constitution in which Paganism was establish'd by Law. But if by the Laws of any Government the Christian Religion or any Form of it is become a part of the Subjects Property it then falls under another Consideration not as it is a Religion but as it is become one of the principal Rights of the Subjects to believe and profess it and then we must judg of the Invasions made on that as we do of any other Invasion that is made on our other Rights X. All the Passages in the New Testament that relate to Civil Government are to be expounded as they were truly meant in opposition to that false Notion of the Jews who believed themselves to be so immediately under the Divine Authority that they could not become the Subjects of any other Power particularly of one that was not of their Nation or of their Religion therefore they thought they could not be under the Roman Yoke nor bound to pay Tribute to Caesar but judged that they were only subject out of Fear by reason of the Force that lay on them but not for Conscience sake And so in all their Dispersion both at Rome and elsewhere they thought they were God's Freemen and made use of this pretended Liberty as a Cloak of Maliciousness In opposition to all which since in a course of many Years they had asked the Protection of the Roman Yoke and were come under their Authority our Saviour ordered them to continue in that by his saying Render to Cesar that which is Cesar 's and both St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans and St. Peter in his general Epistle have very positively condemned that pernicious Maxim but without any formal Declarations made of the Rules or Measures of Government And since both the People and Senate of Rome had acknowledged the Power that Augustus had indeed violently usurped it became Legal when it was thus submitted to and confirmed both by the Senate and People and it was established in his Family by a long Prescription when those Epistles were writ So that upon the whole matter all that is in the New Testament upon this Subject imports no more but that all Christians are bound to acquiesce in the Government and submit to it according to the Constitution that is setled by Law. XI We are then at last brought to the Constitution of our English Government So that no general Considerations from Speculations about Soveraign Power nor from any Passages either of the Old and New Testament ought to determine us in this Matter which must be fixed from the Laws and Regulations that have been made among us It is then certain that with Relation to the Executive part of the Government the Law has lodged that singly in the King so that the whole Administration of it is in him but the Legislative Power is lodged between the King and the two Houses of Parliament so that the Power of making and repealing Laws is not singly in the King but only so far as the two Houses concur with him It is also clear that the King has such a determined extent of Prerogative beyond which he has no Authority As for Instance If he levies Mony of his People without a Law impowring him to it he goes beyond the Limits of his Power and asks that to which he has no Right So that there lies no Obligation on the Subject to grant it and if any in his Name use Violence for the obtaining it they are to be looked on as so many Robbers that invade our Property and they being violent Aggressors the Principle of Self-Preservation seems here to take place and to warrant as violent a Resistance XII There is nothing more evident than that England is a Free Nation that has its Libertits and Properties reserved to it by many positive and express Laws If then we have a Right to our Property we must likewise be supposed to have a Right to preserve it for those Rights are by the Law secured against the Invasions of the Prerogative and by consequence we must have a Right to preserve them against those Invasions It is also evidently declared by our Law that all Orders and Warrants that are issued out in opposition to them are null of themselves and by consequence any that pretend to have Commissions from the King for those Ends are to be considered as if they had none at all since those Commissions being void of themselves are indeed no Commissions in the Construction of the Law and therefore those who act in virtue of them are still to be considered as private Persons who come to invade and disturb us It is also to be observed that there are some Points that are justly disputable and doubtful and others that are so manifest that it is plain that any Objections that can be made to them are rather forced Pretences than so much as plausible Colours It is true if the Case is doubtful the Interest of the publick Peace and Order ought to carry it but the Case is quite different when the Invasions that are made upon Liberty and Property are plain and visible to all that consider them XIII The main and great Difficulty here is that though our Government does indeed assert the Liberty of the Subject yet there are many express Laws made that lodg the Militia singly in the King that make it plainly unlawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or any Commissioned by him And these Laws have been put in the Form of an Oath which all that have born any Employment either in Church or State have sworn and therefore those Laws for the assuring our Liberties do indeed bind the King's Conscience and may affect his Ministers yet since it is a Maxime of our Law that the King can do no Wrong these cannot be carried so far as to justify our taking Arms against him be the Transgressions of Laws ever so many and so manifest And since this has been the constant Doctrine of the Church of
Dr. Burnet's PAPERS THere have been so many Papers given out for mine which are not that in order to the preventing of Mistakes of that kind I have given Directions for the Publishing of this COLLECTION which contains none but those that were writ by me in single Sheets and are now put together by my Order G. BURNET A COLLECTION OF EIGHTEEN PAPERS Relating to the AFFAIRS OF Church State During the Reign of King JAMES the Second Seventeen whereof written in Holland and first printed there By GILBERT BURNET D. D. Licensed and Entred according to Order Reprinted at London for John Starkey and Richard Chiswell 1689. THE CONTENTS Of the following PAPERS REasons against the repealing the Acts of Parliament concerning the Test Humbly offered to the Consideration of the Members of both Houses at their next Meeting on the twenty eighth of April 1687. Pag. 1 Some Reflections on His Majesties Proclamation of the Twelfth of February 1686 / 7. for a Toleration in Scotland Together with the said Proclamation p. 10 A Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience dated the Fourth of April 1687. p. 25 An Answer to Mr. Henry Payne's Letter concerning His Majesties Declaration of Indulgence writ to the Author of the Letter to a Dissenter p. 38. An Answer to a Paper printed with allowance entitled A New Test of the Church of England 's Loyalty p. 45 The Earl of Melfort's Letter to the Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland writ in His Majesties Name upon their Address Together with sowe Remarks upon it p. 56 Reflections on a Pamphlet entitled Parliamentum Pacificum licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and printed at London in March 1688. p. 65 An Apology for the Church of England with relation to the Spirit of Persecution for which she is accused p. 83 Some Extracts out of Mr. James Stewart's Letters which were communicated to Mijn Heer Fagal the States Pensioner of the Province of Holland Together with some References to Master Stewart's printed Letter p. 97 An Edict in the Roman Law in the twenty fifth Book of the Digests Title 4. Sect. 10. as concerning the visiting of a Big-bellied-Woman and the looking after what may be born by her p. 110 An Enquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supreme Authority and of the Grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for Subjects to defend their Religion Lives and Liberties p. 119 A Review of the Reflections on the Prince of Orange's Declaration p. 133 The Citation of Gilbert Burnet D. D. to answer in Scotland on the Twenty seventh of June Old Stile for High Treason Together with his Answer And Three Letters writ by him upon that Subject to the Right Honourable the Earl of Middletoun His Majesty's Secretary of State. p. 145 Dr. Burnet's Vinication of himself from the Calumnies with which he is aspersed in a Pamphlet entitled Parliamentum Pacificum Licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and printed at London in March 1688. p. 172 A Letter containing some Remarks on the Two Papers writ by His late Majesty King Charles the Second concerning Religion p. 188 An Enquiry into the Reasons for abrogating the Test imposed on all Members of Parliament offered by Sa. Oxon. p. 200 A Second Part of the Enquiry into the Reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for abrogating the Test Or an Answer to his Plea for Transubstantiation and for acquitting the Church of Rome of Idolatry p. 215 A Continuation of the Second Part of the Enquiry into the Reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for the abrogating of the Test relating to the Idolatry of the Church of Rome p. 229 REASONS Against the Repealing the ACTS of PARLIAMENT Concerning the TEST Humbly offered to the Consideration of the MEMBERS of BOTH HOUSES at their next Meeting on the Twenty eighth of April 1687. I. IF the just Apprehensions of the Danger of Popery gave the Birth to the two Laws for the two Tests the one with relation to all Publick Employments in 73. and the other with relation to the Constitution of our Parliaments for the future in 78. the present Time and Conjuncture does not seem so proper for repealing them unless it can be imagined that the danger of Popery is now so much less than it was formerly that we need be no more on our guard against it We had a King when these Laws were enacted who as he declared himself to be of the Church of England by receiving the Sacrament four times a Year in it so in all his Speeches to his Parliaments and in all his Declarations to his Subjects he repeated the Assurances of his Firmness to the Protestant Religion so solemnly and frequently that if the saying a thing often gives just reason to believe it we had as much reason as ever People had to depend upon him and yet for all that it was thought necessary to fortifie those Assurances with Laws and it is not easie to imagine why we should throw away those when we have a Prince that is not only of another Religion himself but that has expressed so much steadiness in it and so much zeal for it that one would think we should rather now seek a further Security than throw away that which we already have II. Our King has given such Testimonies of his Zeal for his Religion that we see among all his other Royal Qualities there is none for which he desires and deserves to be so much admired Since even the Passion of Glory of making himself the Terrour of all Europe and the Arbiter of Christendom which as it is natural to all Princes so must it be most particularly so to one of his Martial and Noble Temper yields to his Zeal for his Church and that he in whom we might have hoped to see our Edward the Third or our Henry the Fifth revived chuses rather to merit the heightning his degree of Glory in another World than to acquire all the Lawrels and Conquests that this low and vile World can give him and that in stead of making himself a Terrour to all his Neighbours he is contented with the humble Glory of being a Terrour to his own People so that in stead of the great Figure which this Reign might make in the World all the News of England is now only concerning the Practices on some fearful Mercenaries These things shew that his Majesty is so possessed with his Religion that this cannot suffer us to think that there is at present no danger from Popery III. It does not appear by what we see either abroad or at home that Popery has so changed its nature that we have less reason to be afraid of it at present than we had in former times It might be thought ill nature to go so far back as to the Councils of the Lateran that decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks with severe Sanctions on those Princes that failed in their Duty of being the Hangmen of the Inquisitors or to
the Council of Scotland that Husbands should be fined for their Wives not going to Church tho' it was not founded on any Law. And of all Men living he ought to be the last that should speak of the taking away of Estates who got a very fair one during the present Reign by an Act of Parliament that attainted a Gentleman in a Method as new as his Stile is upon this ground that two Privy Counsellors declared they belived him guilty He will hardly find among all the Maxims of those Protestant persecuting Kings any one that will justifie this It seems the New Stile is not very copious in Words since Doctrine is three times repeated in so short a Letter He tells them that their Doctrine must tend to cause all the Subjects to walk obediently now by obediently in this Stile is to obey the Absolute Power without reserve for to obey according to Law would pass now for a Crime This being then his meaning it is probable that the Encouragements which are necessary to make His Majesty continue the happiness of his Subjects will not be so very great as to merit the perpetuating this Favour There is with this a heavy charge laid upon them as to their Practice that it must be such as shall be most pleasing to his Majesty for certainly that can only be by their turning Pastpis since a Prince that is so zealous for his Religion as His Majesty is cannot be so well pleased with any other thing as with this Their concurring with the King to remove the Penal Laws comes over again for tho' Repetitions are Impertinencies in the Common Stile they are Flowers in the new one In Conclusion he tells them That the King expects that they will continue their Prayers for him yet this does not agree too well with a Catholick Zeal for the Prayers of damned Hereticks cannot be worth the asking for the third time he tells them to look well to their Doctrine now this is a little ambiguous for it may either signifie that they should study the Controversies well so as to be able to defend their Doctrine solidly or that they should so mince it that nothing may fall from them in their Sermons against Popery this will be indeed a looking to their Doctrine but I do not know whether it will be thought a looking well to it or not He adds That their Example be influential I confess this hard new word frighted me I suppose the meaning of it is That their Practice may be such as that it may have an Influence on others yet there are both good and bad Influences a good Influence will be the animating the People to a Zeal for their Religion and a bad one will be the stackning and softning of that Zeal A little more clearness here had not been amiss As for the last Words of this Letter That all these are his Majesty's Commands it is very hard for me to bring my self to believe them For certainly he has more Piety for the Memory of the late Martyr and more regard both to himself to his Children and to his People than to have ever given any such Commands In order to the communicating this Piece of Elegance to the World I wish the translating it into French were recommended to Mr. d' Albeville that it may appear whether the Secretary-Stile will look better in his Irish-French than it does now in the Scotch-English of him who penned it REFLECTIONS ON A PAMPHLET Entitled PARLIAMENTUM PACIFICUM Licensed by the EARL of SVNDERLAND AND Printed at London in March 1688. I. PEace is a very desirable thing yet every State that is peaceable is not blindly to be courted An Apoplexy is the most peaceable State in which a Man's Body can be laid yet few would desire to pacifie the Humours of their Body at that rate An Implicite Faith and Absolute Slavery are the two peaceablest things that can be yet we confess we have no mind to try so dangerous an Experiment and while the Remedies are too strong we will chuse rather to bear our Disease than to venture on them The Instance that is proposed to the Imitation of the Nation is that Parliament which called in the late King and yet that cannot so much as be called a Parliament unless it be upon a Commonwealth Principle That the Sovereign Power is radically in the People For its being chosen without the King 's Writ was such an Essential Nullity that no subsequent Ratification could take it away For all People saw that they could not depend upon any Acts past by it and therefore it was quickly dissolved and ever since it has been called by all the Monarchical Party a Convention and not a Parliament But now in order to the courting the Common-wealth Party this is not only called a Parliament but is proposed as a Pattern to all others from the beginning to Page 19. II. But since this Author will send us back to that Time and since he takes it so ill that the Memory of the late King should be forgotten let us examine that Transaction a little and then we shall see whether it had not been more for His Honour to let it be forgotten The King did indeed in his Declaration from Breda promise Liberty of Conscience on which he insisted in a large and wise Declaration set out after he was setled on the Throne but after that he had got a Parliament chosen all of Creatures depending on himself who for many years granted him every thing that he desired a severe Act of Uniformity was passed and the King's Promise was carried off by this That the King could not refuse to comply with so Loyal a Parliament It is well enough known that those who were then secretly Papists and who disguised their Religion for many Years after this as the King himself did to the last animated the Chief Men of our Church to carry the Points of Uniformity as high as was possible and that both then and ever since all that proposed any Expedients for uniting us or as it was afterwards termed for Comprehending the Dissenters were represented as the Betrayers of the Church The Design was then clear to some that so by carrying the Terms of Conformity to a great rigidity there might be many Nonconformists and great occasion given for a Toleration under which Popery might insensibly creep in For if the Expedients that the King himself proposed in his Declaration had been stood to it is well known that of the Two thousand Consciencious Ministers as he calls them pag. 14. by an Affectation too gross to pass on them that were turned out above Seventeen hundred had staid in Their Practices had but too good Success on those who were then at the Head of our Church whose Spirits were too much soured by their ill usage during the War and whose Principles led them to so good an Opinion of all that the Court did that for a great while they
been among us and even to forget the Injuries that have been done us all that we do now one against another is to shorten the work of our Enemies by destroying one another which must in Conclusion turn to all our Ruin. It is a mad Man's Revenge to destroy our Friends that we may do a pleasure to our Enemies upon their giving us some good words and if the Dissenters can trust to Papists after the usage that the Church of England has met with at their Hands all the Comfort that they can promise themselves when Popery begins to act its natural part among us and to set Smithfield again in a Fire is that which befell some Quakers at Rome who were first put in the Inquisition but were afterwards removed to Bedlam so tho those false Brethren among the Dissenters who deceive them at present are certainly no Changlings but know well what they are doing yet those who can be cheated by them may well claim the priviledg of a Bedlam when their Folly has left them no other Retreat XI I will not digress too far from my present purpose nor enter into a discussion of the Dispensing Power which was so effectually overthrown the other day at the King's Bench Bar that I am sure all the Authority of the Bench it self is no more able to support it Yet some late Papers in favour of it give me occasion to add a little relating to that Point It is true the Assertor of the Dispensing Power who has lately appeared with Allowance pretends that it can only be applied to the Test for Publick Imployments for he owns that the Test for both Houses of Parliament is left entire as not within the compass of this extent of the Prerogative But another Writer whom by his Sense we must conclude an Irish Man by his Brow a Jesuit and by the bare designation in the Title Page of James Stewart's Letter a Quaker goes a strain higher and thinks the King is so absolutely the Sovereign as to the Legislative part of our Government that he may dissolve even the Parliament Test so nimbly has he leap'd from being a Secretary to a Rebellion to be an Advocate for Tyranny He fancies that because no Parliament can bind up another therefore they cannot limit the Preliminaries to a subsequen Parliament But upon what is it then that Counties have but two Knights and Burroughs as many that Men below such a value have no Vote that Sheriffs only receive Writs and return Elections besides many more necessary Requisites to the making a legal Parliament In short if Laws do not regulate the Election and Constitution of a Parliament all these things may be overthrown and the King may cast the whole Government in a new Mould as well as dissolve the Obligation that is on the Members of Parliament for taking the Test It is true that as soon as a Parliament is legally met and constituted it is tied by no Laws so far as not to repeal them But the Preliminaries to a Parliament are still Sacred as long as the Law stands that settled them for the Members are still in the quality of ordinary Subjects and not entred upon their share in the Legislative Power till they are constituted in a Parliament legally chosen and lawfully assembled that is having observed all the Requisites of the Law. But I leave that impudent Letter to return to the most modest Apology that has been yet writ for the Dispensing Power It yields that the King cannot abrogate Laws and pretends only that he can dispense with them And the distinction it puts between Abrogation and Dispensation is that the one is a total Repeal of the Law and that the other is only a slackning of its obligatory Force with Relation to a particular Man or to any Body of Men so that according to him a simple Abrogation or a total Repeal is beyond the compass of the Prerogative I desire then that this Doctrine may be applied to the following words of the Declaration from which the Reader may infer whether these do import a simple Abrogation or not and by Consequence if the Declaration is not Illegal We do hereby further declare that it is our Royal Will and Pleasure that the Oaths commonly called the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and also the several Tests and Declarations shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken declared or subscribed by any Person or Persons whatsoever who is or shall be imployed in any Office or Place of Trust either Civil or Military under us or in our Government This is plain English and needs no Commentary That Paper offers likewise an Expedient for securing Liberty of Conscience by which it will be set beyond even the Dispensing Power and that is that by Act of Parliament all Persecution may be declared to be a thing Evil in it self and then the Prerogative cannot reach it But unless this Author fancies that a Parliament is that which those of the Church of Rome believe a General Council to be I mean Infallible I do not see that such an Act would signify any thing at all An Act of Parliament cannot change the Nature of Things which are sullen and will not alter because a hard Word is clap'd on them in an Act of Parliament nor can that make that which is not Evil of it self become Evil of self For can any Act of Parliament make the Clipping of Mony or the not Burying in Wollen evil of it self Such an Act were indeed null of it self and would sink with its own weight even without the burden of the Prerogative to press it down and yet upon such a Sandy Foundation would these Men have us build all our Hopes and our Securities Another Topick like this is that we ought to trust to the Truth of our Religion and the Providence and Protection of God and not lean so much to Laws and Tests All this were very pertinent if God had not already given us humane Assurances against the Rage of our Enemies which we are now desired to abandon that so we may fall an easy and cheap Sacrifice to those who wait for the favourable Moment to destroy us By the same Reason they may perswade us to take off all our Doors or at least all our Locks and Bolts and to sleep in this exposed Condition trusting to God's Protection The Simily may appear a little too high though it is really short of the Matter for we had better trust our selves to all the Thieves and Robbers of the Town who would be perhaps contented with a part of our Goods than to those whose Designs are equally against both Soul and Body and all that is dear to us XII I will only add another Reflection upon the renewing of the Declaration this Year which has occasioned the present Storm upon the Clergy It is repeated to us that so we may see that the King continues firm to the Promises he made
being above three Years since we had a Session that enacted any Law Methods have been taken and are daily a taking that render this impossible Parliaments ought to be chosen with an entire Liberty and without either Force or Preingagements whereas if all Men are required before-hand to enter into Engagements how they will vote if they are chosen themselves or how they will give their Voices in the electing of others This is plainly such a preparation to a Parliament as would indeed make it no Parliament but a Cabal if one were chosen after all that Corruption of Persons who had preingaged themselves and after the Threating and Turning out of all Persons out of Imployments who had refused to do it And if there are such daily Regulations made in the Towns that it is plain those who manage them intend at last to put such a number of Men in the Corporations as will certainly choose the Persons who are recommended to them But above all if there are such a number of Sheriffs and Mayors made over England by whom the Elections must be conducted and returned who are now under an Incapacity by Law and so are no legal Officers and by consequence those Elections that pass under their Authority are null and void If I say it is clear that things are brought to this then the Government is dissolved because it is impossible to have a Free and Legal Parliament in this state of things If then both the Authority of the Law and the Constitution of the Parliament are struck at and dissolved here is a plain Subversion of the whole Government But if we enter next into the particular Branches of the Government we will find the like Disorder among them all The Protestant Religion and the Church of England make a great Article of our Government the latter being secured not only of old by Magna Charta but by many special Laws made of late and there are particular Laws made in K. Charles the First and the late King's Time securing them from all Commissions that the King can raise for Judging or Censuring them If then in opposition to this a Court so condemned is erected which proceeds to judg and censure the Clergy and even to disseise them of their Free-holds without so much as the form of a Trial though this is the most indispensible Law of all those that secure the Property of England and if the King pretends that he can require the Clergy to publish all his Arbitrary Declarations and in particular one that strikes at their whole Settlement and has ordered Process to be begun against all that disobey'd this illegal Warrant and has treated so great a number of the Bishops as Criminals only for representing to him the Reasons of their not obeying him If likewise the King is not satisfied to profess his own Religion openly though even that is contrary to Law but has sent Ambassadors to Rome and received Nuncio's from thence which is plainly Treason by Law If likewise many Popish Churches and Chappels have been publickly opened if several Colledges of Jesuits have been set up in divers parts of the Nation and one of the Order has been made a Privy Counsellor and a principal Minister of State And if Papists and even those who turn to that Religion though declared Traitors by Law are brought into all the chief Imployments both Military and Civil then it is plain That all the Rights of the Church of England and the whole Establishment of the Protestant Religion are struck at and design'd to be overturn'd since all these Things as they are notoriously illegal so they evidently demonstrate That the great Design of them all is the rooting out of this Pestilent Heresy in their Stile I mean the Protestant Religion In the next place If in the whole course of Justice it is visible that there is a constant practising upon the Judges that they are turned out upon their varying from the Intentions of the Court and if Men of no Reputation nor Abilities are put in their places If an Army is kept up in time of Peace and Men who withdraw from that illegal Service are hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law which by consequence are so many Murders and if the Souldiery are connived at and encouraged in the most enormous Crimes that so they may be thereby prepared to commit greater ones and from single Rapes and Murders proceed to a Rape upon all our Liberties and a Destruction of the Nation If I say all these things are true in Fact then it is plain that there is such a Dissolution of the Government made that there is not any one part of it left sound and entire And if all these things are done now it is easy to imagine what may be expected when Arbitrary Power that spares to Man and Popery that spares no Heretick are finally established Then we may look for nothing but Gabelles Tailles Impositions Beneviolences and all sorts of Illegal Taxes as from the other we may expect Burning Massacres and Inquisitions In what is doing in Scotland we may gather what is to be expected in England where if the King has over and over again declared that he is vested with an Absolute Power to which all are bound to obey without reserve and has upon that annulled almost all the Acts of Parliament that passed in K. James I. Minority though they were ratified by himself when he came to be of Age and were confirmed by all the subsequent Kings not excepting the present We must then conclude from thence what is resolved on here in England and what will be put in Execution as soon as it is thought that the Times can bear it When likewise the whole Settlement of Ireland is shaken and the Army that was raised and is maintained by Taxes that were given for an Army of English Protestants to secure them from a new Massacre by the Irish Papists is now all filled with Irish Papists as well as almost all the other Imployments it is plain that not only all the British Protestants inhabiting that Island are in daily danger of being butchered a second time but that the Crown of England is in danger of losing that Island it being now put wholly into the Hands and Power of the Native Irish who as they formerly offered themselves up sometimes to the Crown of Spain sometimes to the Pope and once to the Duke of Lorrain so are they perhaps at this present treating with another Court for the Sale and Surrender of the Island and for the Massacre of the English in it If thus all the several Branches of our Constitution are dissolved it might be at least expected that one part should be left entire and that is the Regal Dignity And yet even that is prostituted when we see a young Child put in the Reversion of it and pretended to be the Prince of Wales concerning whose being born of the Queen there appear
Paganism had been still the Legal Religion notwithstanding its falshood and though the Truth of the Christian Religion is the only ground upon which we believe it yet it must become Legal as well as it is true before we can claim the Protection of the Law and the Government that has secured it to us so that to fight against Popery where that is the Establish'd Religion is as certainly a Sin as it is a Debt that we owe our Religion and Country to fight for the Protestant Religion when the Law is for it and illegal Violence is imployed to pull it down 6. The Reflector's Common-place-stuff with relation to the Dispensing Power has been so oft exposed that it scarce deserves a Review The Obligation of all Laws depends on the force of the Penalties against Trangressors so that the Dispensing with Penal Laws carries in it the Dispensing with all Laws whatsoever and by this Doctrine the whole Frame and Security of our Government is at the King's Discretion Nor will that distinction of malum in se and malum prohibitum save the matter unless all the World were agreed upon the point What things are evil of themselves and what not In the sense of a Papist all the Laws against their Religion are so far from being Obligatory of their own Nature that they are impious Attempts upon that Authority which they think infallible Therefore all the distinction that is offered to save us from the exorbitancy of this Dispensing Power as if it could not reach to things that are evil of themselves is of no force unless a measure were laid down in which both Protestants and Papists were agreed concerning things that are good or evil of themselves For instance Murther is allowed by all to be evil of it self yet if the Extirpation of Hereticks is a Duty incumbent on a Catholick King as we are sure it is then a Commission given to destroy us would be a justifiable Action and so the Laws against Murder and Manslaughter might in that case be dispensed with since the killing of Hereticks is by the Doctrine of Papists only Malum prohibitum and not malum in se 7. Our Author might have spar'd his Rhetorick how well soever he loads it upon the Head of Persecution and Liberty of Conscience if it had been but for this Reason that it discover'd too plainly who it was that wrote these Reflections which perhaps he may have e're long some Reasons to wish it were not so well known as he has taken pains to do by his luxuriant Stile All that can be said on this Head belongs very pertinently to the Consideration of a Parliament but is very improperly urged in favour of the bloodiest of all Persecutors who could not begin their breaking in upon our Laws and our Religion more dextrously than at this of Liberty of Conscience tho they themselves had been the Authors of all the Severities that had been acted among us and intended by this shew of Ease to bring us under all the Cruelties of an Inquisition which is one of the inseparable Perquisites of that bloody Religion 8. The greatest part of the Invasions made on our Government that are set forth in the Prince's Declaration are acknowledged to be such by our Reflector But he thinks they are now redressed The High Commission is at an end Magdalen Colledge is restor'd If the King had of his own motion and from a sense of the justice of the thing done all this while he apprehended no danger and if he had brought the Authors of those Pernicious Councils to condign Punishment then it had been more reasonable to value those Acts of Justice by which the former Violences had been in some measure repaired but what is done in the present Circumstances shews only a meanness of Spirit and a feebleness in the Government And some Mens Tempers are too well known to suffer us once to doubt of their returning back to all their former Violences and of their carrying them on to greater Excesses if God for the sins of the Nation should blast this Glorious Undertaking And if the Charters are now restor'd we know by the Proceedings of the late Regulators of Corporations that it was far from their thoughts but a little while ago so that this is likewise an effect of the present Fear they are under and it shews that after all their Huffings during their Prosperity they sink under Dangers as much as others whose Memory they are so careful to blemish how much soever they are beholden to them It is here said that most of the Charters were taken away in the late King's time But as it is well known under whose Influence the last years of the late Reign were conducted so the limiting the Elections to a speical number contrary to Custom and Prescription was the Invention of the present Reign 9. But if the Reflector will not justify every thing that the Government has done and thinks the present state of things could hardly bear so gross an Abuse yet he insists often upon this that these Illegal things were fit for the Consideration and the Redress of a Parliament and that they do not justify the Prince of Orange's Attempt But the Prince's Design is only to see a Free Parliament Chosen and Assembled according to Law. For our Author and his Complices for he reckons himself in the Ministry § 23. when he names the things objected against the Ministry as objected against us had taken such care to keep off a Parliament and to overturn all Corporations to corrupt all Elections and to provide for false Returns by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors that we were out of all hopes or rather out of a possibility of ever seeing a Free Parliament again so that any nearer Prospect that we now have of one is wholly owing to the Prince's Undertaking and indeed what is given us at present is done with so ill a Grace and the Popish and corrupt Ministry is still preserved and cherished with so particular a Confidence that they seem to have a mind to make the Nation see that all is done so grosly that those who are cheated by it will have no excuse for their Folly since the trick is acted with too bare a face to pass on any 10. The Reflector thinks that the Prince ought to have complained to the King of these Abuses though in other places of this Paper he pretends that the Prince was not a proper Judg in those Matters he aggravates the Prince's breaking with an Uncle and a Father-in-Law without warning given Indeed if this were the Case all that could be said upon it was that he had copied from the Pattern that was set him in 1672 in that famous Attempt on the Sinirna Fleet What Complaints the Prince made or what encouragement he had to make any and how they were entertain'd and answer'd are domestick matters of which the World knows little since all that has appear'd in publick was
and the Act was so little acceptable to him whom he calls its Author that he spake of it then with Contempt as a Trick of the Court to lay the Nation too soon asleep The Negotiations beyond Sea were too evidently proved to be denied and which is not yet generally known Mr. Coleman when Examined by the Committee of the House of Commons said plain enough to them that the Late King was concerned in them but the Committee would not look into that matter and so Mr. Sacheverill that was their Chair-man did not report it yet the thing was not so secret but that one to whom it was trusted gave the late King an Account of it who said That he had not heard of it any other way and was so fully convinced that the Nation had cause given them to be jealous that he himself set forward the Act and the rather because he saw that the E. of S. did not much like it The Parliament as long as it was known that the Religion was safe in the King 's Negative had not taken any great care of its own Constitution but it seemed the best Expedient that could be found for laying the Jealousies of His late Majesty and the apprehensions of the Successor to take so much care of the two Houses that so the Dangers with which men were then allarm'd might seem the less formidable upon so effectual a security and thus all the stir that he keeps with Perjury and Imposture ought to make no other impression but to shew the wantonness of his own Temper that meddles so boldly with things of which he knew so little the true Secret For here was a Law passed of which all made great use that opposed the Bill of Exclusion to Demonstrate to the Nation that there could be no danger of Popery even under a Prince of that Religion but as he would turn the matter it amounts to this That that Law might be of good use in that season to lay the Jealousies of the Nation till there were a Prince on the Throne of that Communion and then when the turn is served it must be thrown away to open the only door that is now shut upon the Re-establishment of that Religion This is but one hint among a great many more of the state of Affairs at the time that this Act of the TEST was made to shew that the Evidence given by the Witnesses had no other share in that matter but that it gave a rise to the other Discoveries and a fair Opportunity to those who knew the secret of the late King's Religion and the Negotiation at Dover to provide such an effectual Security as might both save the Crown and secure the Religion and this I am sure some of the Bishops knew who to their Honour were faithful to both The third Reason he gives for Repealing the Act is the Incompetent Authority of those who Enacted it for it was of an Ecclesiastical nature and here he stretches out his Wings to a Top-flight and charges it with nothing less than the Deposing of Christ from his Throne the disowning neglecting and affronting his Commission to his Catholick Church and entrenching upon this sacred Prerogative of his Holy Catholick Church and then that he might have occasion to feed his spleen with railing at the whole Order he makes a ridiculous objection of the Bishops being present in the House of Lords that he might shew his respect to them by telling in a Parenthesis that to their shame they had consented to it But has this Scaramuchio no shame left him Did the Parliament pretend by this Act to make any Decision in those two Points of Transubstantiation and Idolatry Had not the Convocation defined them both for above an Age before In the 28th Article of our Church these words are to be found Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthrows the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many superstitions and for the Idolatry of the Church of Rome that was also declared very expresly in the same body of Articles since in the Article 35 the Homilies are declared to contain a godly and wholesom Doctrine necessary for those times and upon that it is judged that they should be read in the Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People And the Second of these which is against the Peril of Idolatry aggravates the Idolatry of that Church in so many particulars and with such severe Expressions that those who at first made those Articles and all those who do now sign them or oblige others to sign 'em must either believe the Church of Rome to be guilty of Idolatry or that the Church of England is the Impudentest Society that ever assumed the Name of a Church if she proposes such Homilies to the People in which this Charge is given so home and yet does not believe it her self A man must be of Bays's pitch to rise up to this degree of Impudence Upon the whole matter then these points have been already determined and were a part of our Doctrine enacted by Law All that the Parliament did was only to take these out of a great many more that by this Test it might appear whether they who came into either House were of that Religion or not and now let our Reasoner try what he can make out of this or how he can justify the Scandal that he so boldly throws upon his Order as if they had as much as in them lay destroyed the very being of a Christian Church and had profanely pawned the Bishop to the Lord and betrayed the Rights of the Church of England as by Law Established in particular as well as of the Church Catholick in general p. 8 9. All this shews to whom he has pawned both the Bishop and the Lord and something else too which is both Conscience and Honour if he has any left When one reflects on two of the Bishops that were of that Venerable Body while this Act passed whose Memory will be blessed in the present and following Ages those two great and good Men that filled the Sees of Chester and Oxford he must conclude that as the World was not worthy of them so certainly their Sees were nor worthy of them since they have been plagued with such Successors that because Bays delights in figures taken from the Roman Empire I must tell him that since Commodus succeeded to Marcus Aurillius I do not find a more incongrous Succession in History With what sensible regret must those who were so often edified with the Gravity the Piety the Generosity and Charity of the late Bishop of Oxford look on when they see such a Harleguin in his room His Fourth Reason is taken from the uncertainty and falsehood of the matters contained in