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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30368	An enquiry into the reasons for abrogating the test imposed on all members of Parliament offered by Sa. Oxon.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5813; ESTC R4008	13,002	8

Transubstantiation to be condemned in them Next he Triumphs over the renouncing of it pag. 11. as too bold and too prophane an Affront to Almighty God when men Abjure a thing which it is morally impossible for them to understand And he appeals to the Members of both Houses whom in a fit of Respect he calls Honourable after he had Reproach'd them all he could if they have any distinct Idea or Notion in their minds of the thing they here so Solemnly Renounce I do verily believe none of them have any distinct Notion of Transubstantiation and that it is not only Morally but Phisically impossible for them to understand it But one would think thet this is enough for declaring that they do not Believe it since the TEST contains no declaration concerning Transubstantiation it self whether it is a True or a False Doctrine but only concerning the Belief of him that takes it And if one can have no distinct Notion of it so that it is morally impossible for him to understand it he may very well declare That he does not believe it After a Far●e of a ●light Story he concludes that there seems to be nothing but a prophane Levity in the whole mat●er and a shameless abuse put upon God and Religion to carry on the Wicked Designs of a Rebel-Faction For he cannot for his heart abate an ace of his Insolence even when he makes the King Lords and Commons the subject of his sco●● Certainly whatever his Character is it ought not to be expected that a man who attacks all that is sacred under God and Christ should not be treated as he deserves it were a feeble weakness to have so great a regard to a Character that is so prostituted by him He tells us pag. 47. That all Parties agree in the thing and that they differ only in the word and m●nner and here he makes a long excursion to shew his Learning in tacking a great many things together which passes with Ignorant Readers as a mark of his great Reading whereas in this as well as in all his other Books in which any shews of Learning appear those who have searched into the Fountains see that he doe● nothing but gather from the Collection of others onl● he spoils them with the Levities of his Bu●●o●n-Stile and which is worse with his Dis-ingenuity I leave all these matters to be exa●ined by those who have leisure for it and ●hat think him worth their pains But asfor Tra●substantiation the words that I have cited from out of our Articles shew plainly that it is rejected in our Church so that he is bound either to renounce it or to renounce our Church therefore all that shew he makes with our History comes to nothing since whatever he may say with relation to Edwar● the Sixth's Reign it cannot be denied but they were Enacted by the Convocation in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and t●ey have been ever since the Doctrine of our Church so that without going further this is now our Doctrine and since Sa. Oxon carries the Authority of the Convocation so high he will find the Original Record of these Arti●les in Corpus-Christi College in Cambridge subscribed by the Members of both Houses in which there is a much more Positive Decision then is in the Prints not only against Transub●tantiation but against any Corporal or Real Pre●●●ce of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacra●●●● And if he will give himself scope to rail at those who suppressed this I leave him to his Liberty But here is the formal decision of this Church and the pretending that there was no Evidence of Cranmer's Opinion but in an unknown Manuscript or a famous Invisible Manuscript p. 49 47. when there are two Books writ on this matter by Cranme● himself and when all the Disputes in Queen Mary's Time besides those that were both in Oxford and Cambridge in King Edward's Time shew so clearly That this was his Doctrine is a strain becoming his Since●ity that gives this among many other Essays of the Trust that is due to him But it seems he thought that Dr. Tillotson Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Burnet besides some others w●om he does not Name had not Reputation enough in the World and therefore he intended to raise it by using them ill which is all the effect that his Malice can have He had set on one of his poor under-workmen some years ago to decry the Manuscript which Dr. Stillingfleet had in his keeping for above Twenty Yea●s and which D● Burnet had in his Hands for many months and which ●hey shewed to as many as desired to see it but th●t had turned so much to his Shame that first vented the Calumny that it seems he summoned Sa. Oxon to appear his Second in the Slander and he whose Brow is of so peculiar a Composition will needs bring it here tho ever so impertinently But I forgive the Hatred that he bears both to that Manúscript and to those Doctors since nothing could be less to the Satisf●ction of those for whom he published his Book then to see the Mature and Regular Methods in which the Reformation was advanced For the Bishops and Divines were appointed to Examine all Points with much Care and to bring every man His Opinion in Writing all which were compared very faithfully and upon these the Decisions were made There are many other Papers yet extant which by comparing the Hands shew these to be Originals and they were in the Salisbury Family probably ever since they were at first brought together Their Ancestor the Lord Burghly who was Secretary of State in Edward the Sixth's time gathered them up and as appears in a Letter ●nder his own Hand yet extant he had 6 or 7 Vol●mes of them of which Dr. Stilling fleet had only two but Dr. Burnet saw two more of these Volumes The History of the Reformation sells still so well that I do not believe Mr. Chiswell the Printer of it has made any present to this Reasoner to raise its price for to attack it with so much malice and yet not to offer one Reason to lessen its Credit is as effectual a Recommendation as this Author can give it He pretends that Dr. Burnets Design was to make Cranmer appear a meer Sacrame●tarian as to Doctrine as he had made him appear an Erastian as to Discipline and he thinks the vain Man was flattered into all the pains he took that he might give Reputatio● to the Errours of his Patrons and that those two grand Forgeries are the grand Singularities of his History and the main things that gave it Popular Vogue and Reputation with his Party So that were these two blind Stories and the Reasons depending upon them retrenched it would be like the shaving off Samsons hair and destroy all the strength peculiar to the History But to all this stuff I shall only say 1. That the Charge of Forgery falls back on the Reasoner

of the Bishops this Law was consented to by them in the House of Lords But what shame is due to him who has treated that Venerable Bench and in particular his Metropolitan in so scurrilous a manner The Order has much more cause to be ashamed of such a Member tho if there are two or three such as he is among the Twenty six they may Comfort themselves with this That a dozen of much berter Men had one among them that I confess was not much worse if it was not for this That he let the price of his Treachery fall much lower than Sa. Oxon does who is still true to his Old Maxim that he delivered in Answer to one who asked him What was the best Body of Divinity which was That that which could help a man to keep a Coach and six Horses was certainly the best But now I come to Examine his Reasons for abrogating the TEST The first is That it is con●rary to the Natural Rights of Peerage and turns the Birth-Right of the English Nobility into a Precarious Title which is at the mercy of every Faction and Passion in Parliament and that therefore how useful soever the TEST might have been in its season it sometime must prove a very ill President against the Right of Peerage and upon this he tells a story of a Protestation made in the House of Lords against the TEST that was brought in in 1675 together with the Resolution of the House against that Penalty upon the Peers of loosing their Votes in case of a Refusal he represents this as a Test or Oath of Loyalty against the Lawfulness of taking Arms upon any pretence whatsoever against the King. But in Answer to all this one would gladly know what are the Natural Rights of Peerage and in what Chapter of the Law of Nature they are to be found for if those Rights have no other Warrant but the Constitution of this Government then they are still subject to the Legislative Authority and may be regulated by it The Right of Peerage is still in the Family only as the exercise of it is limited by the Law to such an Age so it may be suspended as oft as the Publick Safety comes to require it even the indelible Character it self may be brought under a total Suspension of which our Author may perhaps afford an instance at some time or other 2. Votes in either House of Parliament are never to be put in Ballance with Establish'd Laws these are but the Opinions of One House and are changeable 3. But if the TEST might have been useful in its Season one would gladly see how it should be so soon out of Season for its chief Use being to Secure the Protestant Religion in 1678. it does not appear That now in 1688. the Dangers are so quite dissipated that there is no more need of Securing it In one Sense we are in a Safer Condition than we were then for some False Brethren have shewed themselves and have lost that little Credit which some unhappy Accidents had procured them 4. It was not the Loyalty in the TEST of the Year 1675. that raised the greatest Opposition to it but another part of it That they should never Endeavour any Alteration in the Government either in the Church or State. Now it seemed to be an unreasonable Limitation on the Legislative Body to have the Members engaged to make no Alteration And it is that which would not have much pleased those For whose Satisfaction this Book is published The second Reason was already hinted at of its dishonourable Birth and Original pag. 10. which according to the decency of his stile he calls the first Sacrament of the Otesian Villany pag. 9. This he aggravates as such a Monstrous and Inhuman piece of Barbarity as could never have entred into the thoughts of any man but the infamous Author of it this piece of Elegance tho it belongs to this Reason comes in again in his Fourth Reason Pag. 6. and to let the House of Lords see their Fate if they will not yield to his Reasons he tells them that this will be not only an Eternal National Reproach but such a blot upon the Peers that no length of time could wear away nothing but the Universal Conoagration could destroy which are the aptest Expressions that I know to mark how deeply the many blots with which he is stigmatized are rooted in his Nature The wanton man in his Drawcansir humor thinks that Parliaments and a House of Peers are to be treated by him with as much Scorn as is justly due to himself But to set this matter in its true Light it is to be remembred that in 1678. there were besides the Evidences of the Witnesses a great many other Discoveries made of Letters and Negotiations in Forreign Parts chiefly in the Courts of France and Rome for Extirpating the Protestant Religion upon which the Parts that was most united to the Court set on this Law for the Test as that which was both in it self a just and necessary Security for the Establish'd Religion and that would probably lay the fermentation which was then in the Nation 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 Kings 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 than 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