deliver up their Liberties to the See of Rome and if he condemns me for commending the Firmness of Judges in this Point it 's plain enough what he aims at And for a parting Blow he concludes that the whole Discourse is so very partial for Popular Elections and strains all Places to make it seem they had more Right than indeed they ever had that it seems writ to court the Favour of the People But if he would temper his Acrimony a little he would see that I have overthrown the Argument for popular Elections much more effectually than if I had entered into a long VVrangling about Matter of Fact I shew that they began not upon any divine Right but upon the Circumstances in which the Church was during the first three Centuries And that as soon as the Government became Christian the Town-Councils and Possessors of Lands took it out of the Hands of the Rabble which had not been observed by any that writ before me that I could fall on so that I think I have effectually overthrown any Argument that can be drawn from the Practices of that Time One thing I must observe that on which Side soever I may seem to write I must fall under his Displeasure for when I assert a Prince's Prerogative of extending the Regale to all the Churches of his Dominions he tells me of the Danger of a Popish Successour and if I acknowledg Matter of Fact as to popular Elections he says I write for the People I see I am irrecoverably lost with him but a Man must bear his Misfortunes with a patient and constant Mind The eighth Head is of divers Errours in Chronology which he is pleased to suppress tho it appears by his Inquiries into the History of the Vandals that he has a peculiar Talent in that Some Men always love to be tossing great Names and therefore he is ever frighting me with the Authority of Dr. Beveridg whom for his great Learning and rare Worth I esteem as much as any Man I know and he to his other excellent Qualities adds so generous and worthy a Disposition of Mind that he is not at all offended with those who cannot in every Point agree with him Therefore as long as I use that Liberty to which all that converse in Books have a Right of following what I think best grounded notwithstanding the learned Performances of worthy and great Men I am not at all afraid of incurring his Displeasure His last Exception falls on the Compositors and Correctors and therefore I am little concerned in it When he had thus performed this Piece of Discipline upon me in which if I have escaped without any harm done me I have somewhat else than him to thank for it he dresses up a new Scene that he may fall on me again and as if all that had been said were nothing he begins anew He leaves it to his Friend to communicate it to me or not when between them it was resolved to send it to the Press Then he makes his Conjectures about my Temper and says Perhaps I will despise it and study Revenge for this modest Admonition I confess I cannot admire it but I heartily pity him for writing it and do earnestly pray to God to inspire him and all Church men with a better Temper and this is all the Revenge I shall return on him But sure he has a peculiar Dictionary of English Words for himself when he calls this a modest Admonition Yet whatever he thinks of me it 's very evident from what follows that he thinks well of himself But to drop some Crumbs of Comfort as a little Oil after a severe Whipping he saies he is loth to believe that I should directly design Mischief to the Church and is willing enough to believe that this Piece was writ in haste and then he tells me on what Terms he may be confirmed in this favourable Opinion yet lest this Tenderness should make me too wanton he adds that if this modest Admonition does not work on me I must expect a rougher Hand But to this I gave my Answer in the Beginning of this Paper As for the Books that he enjoyns me to read if this is all the Penance he will lay on me I hope I may recover his Favour I have read and do much admire Dr. Beveridg his Vindication of the Apostolical Canons and am fully convinced by him that there was an Ecclesiastical Rule or Canon received in the Church before these Councils that met in the Beginning of the fourth Century But if I am not yet persuaded that that was put in Writing and in the same Form in which we now have it and instead thereof think it consisted rather in a Tradition and constant Practice I hope that excellent Person will be more favourable to me than to think the worse of me for it He next directs me to some Authors that have writ of the Right of Tithes but I wonder he did not name Dr. Comber his late celebrated Book on that Argument for whose Person and Writings I believe he has a singular Affection and Esteem yet I can assure him that tho that Book came into the World too late for instructing me before I writ concerning the Regale yet I have read it perhaps with as much Care and more impartiality than he used in reading mine and do look on it as a very learned Work and hope that worthy Doctor will not make War with me if I cannot be in all Things of his mind I think I have now said enough to satisfy all disinteressed Persons and even the Animadvetrer or the Publisher themselves that there was no just Cause given by any Thing in my Book for such severe Censures as he fastens on me and I hope he is freed from the Apprehensions he seemed to be under lest Papists and others should take Advantage from any Faults in this Book to weaken the Credit of my other Pieces which honourable Compellation is bestowed on some Volums in Folio that have had the Luck not to be ill-received in the World But I hope the Credit not only of those Pieces but even of my Piece of the Regale shall not suffer much by the Performance of this Piece of his Animadversions So much I have thought fit to say in my own Vindication I hope all along I have not forgot the Caution that was given me of tempering my stile so that nothing of resentment should appear in it If any Thing has escaped me that savours of it it has fallen from me unawares and I humbly beg Pardon for it of the Person concerned FINIS
AN ANSWER TO THE Animadversions ON THE HISTORY OF THE Rights of Princes c. By GILBERT BURNET D. D. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXII AN ANSWER TO THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON THE HISTORY OF THE Rights of Princes c. WHen I first met with the Animadversions on my Book of the Regale I was not a little surprized to find so many things laid to my charge of which I never so much as suspected my self guilty and thought it very strange if I had so unhappily expressed my self in that Book that I had given any just occasion to such severe accusations I knew well my intentions were innocent and sincere and I thought my stile was not so dark or perplexed as to lead a Reader into such mistakes concerning my meaning But what darkness soever might be in my expressions I was very well assured I had none of those ill intentions with which these sheets charged me What faults soever I may be guilty of I am sure want of Integrity or Ingenuity in my Writings is none of them and for false Inferences I may through weakness of Judgement perhaps draw them But I am sure I neither affirm nor suggest any thing falsly and do think a lie in a Book is so much a greater sin than in discourse as it may last longer and deceive more And upon this point as I venture my Soul in relation to another World so I chearfully venture my reputation which is the valuablest thing I have in this if it can be made appear that I have shewed either in that criminal-Criminal-book or in any other I ever writ the least disingenuity want of integrity or falshood Finding my self so severely accused from the Press in a way so publick as that of two sheets sold about the streets and with care conveyed to such persons whose ill opinion might have a particular ill effect on me I could not be so over-charitable as not to think that the Writer or Publisher of this or both were not acted by so charitable and candid a Spirit as became men of their profession I found these sheets first in a Stationers shop and some hours after that I might not want the comfort of them they were left at my house by the Penny Post I wondred much to see a man that professeth a zeal for the Christian Religion act so manifestly against some of the plainest precepts of it For besides the railing and ill language in it and the uncharitable Inferences and Judgements that are made to my prejudice the manner of doing it is so directly contrary to our Saviours rule of speaking to our brother first in private and then in the presence of a few before we proceed publickly against him that in Charity to the Animadverter or the Publisher I am bound to think that he made no reflection on that precept while he wrote or published these sheets I speak of the Writer and Publisher as of two different persons because he who is generally supposed to be the Author did very seriously protest to one of the Right Reverend Fathers of the Church that whosoever was the Author of those sheets which he did not directly acknowledge was himself he did not intend to publish them till I had first seen them but that he had put them in the hands of another to have them communicated to me who without his knowledge published them and he expressed over and over again some trouble by reason of their being Printed in such a manner This I take as it was told without making any reflections on it It cannot be denied but his friend shewed an officious keenness in this matter and it is hard to tell whether in publishing them without his leave he shewed himself less his friend than mine and it was a strange piece of forwardness to Print such Animadversions without the Authors consent especially he being here in Town I had indeed upon another great occasion shewed how ready I was to receive corrections of such mistakes as I had made and how willing I was not only to submit to so kind a censure but publickly to own to the world both my own Errours and the obligations I lay under to that friendly and learned person who discovered to me some faults in the first Volume of my History of the Reformation of this Church I confess the stile of these Animadversions had nothing of the gentleness and good breeding which was in the other Animadversions and as much as the one exceeded the other in the matter being really well founded so much did it also in all respects shew the worthiness the exactness and the candour of the Writer which I confess do not appear so very evidently in this And I must say if it was intended I should have seen it first and so have been gained by it to have retracted what was amiss the stile was not well considered For he that reproves and corrects as a Brother with design to gain ground on him to whom he offers such admonitions ought to gild the pill and do somewhat to temper the aversion that is too natural to all men for such discoveries As soon as I went home and had got among my Books I turned to the places for which I was accused and quickly found there was no cause given for all those Tragical complaints and that notwithstanding the discipline that was so liberally bestowed on me there were only two places in which there was the least colour of advantage against me The one was that I cited a Capitular of Charles the Great 's that was not full to the point and forgot to refer to another that was much fuller The other was that I had taken Zonaras's words too large and that what he had said was neglected by the greater number of the Bishops I cited as if all the Bishops had neglected it These being the only two passages for which I could censure my self I did take heart a little and presently writ a particular Answer to the Animadversions in which there was mixed such a sharpness of stile that how much soever I had been provoked to it yet I could not think it any way becoming my profession to publish it with so much acrimony which I thought might be more easily forgiven in that Paper that was intended to be seen only by some few and in particular by him that was supposed to be the Author of them for I was not unwilling that he might see what I could in Reason and Justice say in my own defence and in answer to him though upon other reasons I did not think it convenient to publish it to the world in that stile In the beginning of his Paper I am told that there are so many things that seem amiss in my Book that it would be extreamly tedious to set them all down and that therefore some general hints and a few instances are only pickt out This I confess I
look on as an artifice too common to work much on any person and therefore I do believe the Animadverter has done his worst yet lest I should fall asleep upon this confidence I am told in the end that if I do not speedily correct in a second Impression what is amiss in the first I may look for some rougher hand but what hand can be rougher that keeps the Kings Peace and does not use a Cudgel or a Brick-bat I do not imagine For how I can be used more sharply in words than when I am taxed with want of Integrity and Ingenuity of falshood and sedition and being an Enemy to the Government both in Church and State I cannot readily apprehend But I thank God I have learnt to bear ill language and unjust dealing without making the ordinary returns I will not pretend with the Philosopher to say If an Ass kick shall I kick again but I hope I may be allowed to learn of our Saviour who when he was reviled reviled not again and since he has commanded his Disciples to pray for them that despitefully use them I shall make no other return to all those reproaches but to pray God to inspire both the Animadverter and the Publisher with a better temper and to make them consider well when they bring their gift to the Holy Altar whether before they offer or consecrate it they ought not to do somewhat previous to it for the satisfaction of one whom without any cause that I know of they have treated not as a Brother but as an Enemy I once intended to publish no answer at all but to rest satisfied with the Vindication which I offered to a few of my Friends and to the sight of such as desired it having laid my answer in a Stationers shop where any that were curious might find it I was firmly resolved against saying any thing in Print at all for I thought in a time of common danger we had something else to be busied about than the engaging in personal matters by which the Enemies of the Church might have the diversion of seeing us employ the Press one against another and I had some time ago freely and of my self promised to some of my superiours that if any thing in my Book should draw forth an Answer from any of the friends of the Church I should sit silent and leave what I had written to stand or fall according to the strength that was in it This I meant only of such a fair answer as might have been expected from a Scholar or a Divine and therefore I did not conceive my self bound by it when I was so openly and violently traduced yet I was so exact to what I had seemed to promise that I would say nothing of this matter till one of the Right Reverend Fathers of the Church told me it was necessary for me to free my self of those imputations and he undertook that my superiors should not be ill satisfied with it if I wrote without reflection or sharpness of stile Upon this Encouragement I now publish my answer and shall observe that caution so carefully that I will rather give the Reader cause to complain that I write flat than sprinkle it with that Salt which is thought necessary to give some relish to this dull sort of writing And if those that read what I wrote first thought it too sharp I am confident they will rather think this is too much in the other extream I do not affect Satyre nor am I so much concerned in what censures may pass upon me as to endeavour to redeem my self from them by any methods which are not sutable to the gravity and gentleness that become my Profession I now come to the Animadversions themselves The first thing objected to me is that the greatest part of the instances in the former and latter parts of my book are borrowed from De Marca and that I disguise them as if I had taken them from the Originals I do not deny that I read De Marca very carefully but he must needs know if he has compared the Quotations that I have searched the Originals themselves And indeed I do not remember of any one Quotation in that whole book taken from second hand which I do not cite as from that hand For this he first cites page 27 28 29 30. compared to De Marca page 383. In all which there are but ten Quotations of which four are not mentiond by De Marca so that here are but six Quotations that he can pretend are from him He again cites Page 205. 210. and refers me to De Marca 439. and 442. Page 205. there are four Quotations of which three are not cited by De Marca and for the fourth if he will come to my closet he may see my mark on the book from which I vouch it Page 210. there are but two Quotations one is from Balusius notes upon De Marca and the other is from Goldastus which though I have not by me yet I compared it exactly so this charge comes to nothing His next charge is that page 16. I had asserted with De Marca that there was no set quantity for the Christians oblations but forgot to observe from him that Irenaeus said they exceeded the tenth part of their Revenues I assert no such thing from De Marca but from St. Paul that he set no rate on them And it was not necessary that I should vouch Irenaeus from De Marca when in that very page I cite his own words that the Christians did not give less than the Iews who gave Tithes but converted all they had to Religious uses and I do not see how necessary it was for me to say that De Marca had observed this The second head of my Accusation is of those passages wherein I have mistaken the words or the sense I shall not criticize about the mistaking of words which may be miscited but not mistaken He tells me he could at least produce 40 examples of this but in great tenderness for me he gives 7 for the specimen so the other 33 are to be judged by these The first is page 13. He accuses me for saying that mention is made of Elections by the People in the Second and Sixth Canons of the Council of Nice and affirms that mention is made of them in neither of those Canons I see no way of conviction but to consider the Canons themselves In the Second mention is made of some things that were done against the Ecclesiastical Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the urgency of men and they instance it in two particulars the one is that they brought those who were newly converted from Heathenisme to be baptized the other is that as soon as they were baptized they used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to promote or bring or advance to a Bishoprick or Presbyterate Now though these words alone might perhaps be wrested to another sense yet if we compare them
Tythes must be every one of them in a state of damnation For the last of these I am not very sollicitous but for the former I will not easily drink in such a damning Doctrine Page 117. He accuses me for gathering some odd pretences to give reason why Tythes were easier to the Iews than to us He says I urge the vast number of the Priests and one would think that the thirtieth part of a Nation which was the lowest proportion of the Tribe of Levi had a right to a greater portion than the six hundredth part He also says that I urge the fruitfulness of their Land and the barrenness of ours which he adds I drew from the Quakers Books but I can assure him if he will believe me I never read one of them on this Argument I think it is no such Mystery but that any Man might have hit on it that a fruitful Land may pay a greater Rate than a barren But I have given no advantage to the Quakers for their unjust Robbery of Church-men or rather the robbing of God in detaining that which the Law provides for them which it might well do tho there were no antecedent divine Right making it necessary and the Law which is the Measure of Property having determined this the denying to pay it is as much Injustice as robbing on the High-way the Sin of which is not one Jot the less tho no Man can make out his Title to his Goods from a divine Right And the Sin of this is so much the greater as the robbing God must be greater than the robbing a private Person Page 118 he accuses me for affirming falsely concerning us and the Iews that the same Rule was applied to all tho I grant that the Iews Tithe was but a fifth Part and know that the Christians was but a tenth So here I lie against my Conscience I will not say this is a willful Mistake in him but I am sure it is a gross one for the all to whom I say the same Rule was applied does not belong to Jews and Christians but to the Northern and barren Climates where the Returns are not above ten five and in some not above three And for the kindness of his Censure I leave it to his own Conscience to consider how far he is bound to ask God Pardon for it Pag. 172. He condemns me for my Criticism about the Term Bishoprick Anno 1077 and says that I bring Proof that it was earlier used and yet all that Proof is the Title of a Chapter where it is once used and every Body knows that Titles we reset before Books or Chapters some Ages after they were written Page 199. He accuses me for saying that Kings might begin the Seizure of the Goods of deceased Bishops as representing the People who before might make those Seizures and whereas the Poor at first made them he argues that the Kings could not be supposed to represent the Poor But since I pretend only in this Matter to proceed upon Conjecture any Errour I may be guilty of ought to be easily forgiven me and I tell what might have fallen out in Fact and not what is to be defended in Right It is probable as long as the Bishops were poor the poor only spoiled their Goods but when they grew rich it is like enough others might have mixed with the poor in these Spoils and that might have invited the Officers of Princes first to seize on them Page 320 He accuses me for saying that there was nothing so dedicated under the New Testament as was under the Old and cites that of Ananias and Saphira But certainly great Difference is to be made between a voluntary Dedication and a divine Appointment and between the Laws of God that cannot be repealed but by the same Authority that first enacted them and human Laws that are still subject to the supream legislative Power But his last Instance makes Amends for all the Defects in the former This Nation has been under great Apprehensions of Popery many Expedients have been proposed and the Dangers have been much considered and nothing has been more seriously examined by both King and Parliament for some Years but none of them were so wise as to foresee one Danger with which he frights me Because I determined that a Popish Prince may extend the Regale to all Churches in his Dominions and this he thinks an unseasonable Assertion to publish here in England as our Case stands with respect to the next in Succession But if this be all the Danger he apprehends he may go to bed and sleep very securely for the Regale is already in the Crownhere and has been for some Ages extended to all the Churches in England So the next Prince can add nothing to what the Crown is already vested with The sixth Head for which I come under his Discipline is the many gross Reflections on the Clergy both ancient and modern which he thinks prodigiously strange and especially in this Age and that the rather that the Ground of many of the Accusations is false and to bring this to Instances he complains that Page 26 I inveigh against the Corruptions of the Church in the Beginning of the fourth Century and yet acknowledg that the better and sounder Part did still prevail in publick Synods from which he inferrs that if the major Part was good there was no Ground for that Invective Yet any that reads that Passage will hardly find much of Invective in it and it 's far short of what might have been cited from Nazianzen and Chrysostom whose Credit he would be sure to magnify if it made for him The running backward and forward as they did in the fundamental Points of Faith will justify a far severer Character than I give of them and may not a Church be corrupted tho the Majority continues sound Nor can we judge of the Majority of a Church by the Majority of a Synod for all Bishops did not come to every Synod And I may likewise add that many will be guilty of ill Practices that have not the Face to defend them when they come to be examined Page 33 He accuses me for calling Constantius a superstitious weak Man upon the Credit of Marcellin a Pagan Writer How judicious a Writer he is all learned Men know and that Passage I refer to has been cited by many of the greatest Men of this and the former Age. Nor was it quoted by me as a Proof but as an excellent Saying The Law Constantius made for Churchmen by which the driving of Trade and Merchandize among Clergy-men was set on and encouraged was severely censur'd by St. Ierome one of the best Men of that Age who saw the ill Effects it had But he says I represent Martel as a brave Man who robbed the Church Do I say any Thing in Commendation of him for his Vertues I only speak of his good Conduct and great Success in his Wars and if