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A30455
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Six papers by Gilbert Burnet.
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Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing B5912; ESTC R26572
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63,527
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69
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think of the Laws of Burning the poor Servants of the Living God because they cannot give Divine Wership to that which they believe to be only a Piece of Bread The Representation he gives of this part of our History is so false that tho upon Q. Elizabeths coming to the Crown there were many Complaints exhibited of the illegal Violences that Bonner and other Butchers had committed yet all these were stifled and no Penal Laws were Enacted against those of that Religion The popish Clergy were indeed turned out but they were well used and had Pensions assigned them so ready was the Queen and our Church to forgive what was past and to shew all Gentleness for the future During the first thirteen Years of her Reign matter went on calmly without any sort of Severity on the account of Religion But then the restless spirit of that Party began to throw the Nation into violent Convulsions The Pope deposed the Queen and one of the Party had the Impudence to post up the Bull in London upon this followed several Rebellions both in England and Ireland and the Papists of both Kingdoms entred into Confederacies with the King of Spain and the Court of Rome the Preists disposed all the people that depended on them to submit to the Popes Authority in that Disposition and to reject the Queens These endeavours besides open Rebelion produced many Secret Practices against her Life All these things gave the rise to the severe Laws which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her raign A War was formed by the Bull of Deposition between the Queen and the Court of Rome so it was a necessary Piece of Precaution to decleare all those to be Traitors who were the Missionaries of that Authority which had stript the Queen of hers yet those Laws were not executed upon some Secular Priests who had the Honesty to condemn the Deposing Doctrine As fâ—r the unhappy Death of the Queen of Scotland it was brought on by the wicked Practices of her own Party who fatally involved her in some of them She was but a Subject here in England and if the Queen took a more Violent way than was decent for her own Security here was no Disloyalty nor Rebellion in the Church of England which owed her no sort of Allegeance IV. I do not pretend that the Church of England has any great cause to value her self upon her Fidelity to King Charles the First thoâ— our Author would have it pass for the only thing of which She can boast for I confess the cause of the Church was so twiâ—â—ed with the King`s that Interest and Duty went together tho` I will not go so far as our Author who says that the Lavs of Nature dictates to every Individual to fight in his own Defence This is too bold a thing to be delivered so crudely at this time The Laws of Nature are perpetual can never be cancelled by any special Law So if these Gentlemen own so freely that this is a Law of Nature they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much lest She fly to the Reliefe that this Law may give her unless she is restrained by the Loyalty of our Church Our Author values his Party much upon their Loyalty to King Charles the first but I must take the Liberty to ask him of what Religion were the Irish Rebells and what sort of Loyalty was it that they shewed either in the first Massacre or in the progress of that Rebellion Their Messages to the Pope to the Court of France and to the Duke of Larrain offering themselves to any of these that would have undertaken to protect them are acts of Loyalty which the Church of England is no ways in clined to follow and the Authentical Proofs of these things are ready to be produced Nor need I add to this the hard terms that they offered to the King and their ill usage of those whom he Imployed I could likewise repress the Insolence of this Writer by telling him of the Slavish Submissions thattheir Party made to Cromwel both Father and son As for their Adhering to King Charles the first there is a peculiar Boldness in our Authors Aâ—â—ertâ—on who says that they had no Hope nor Interest in that Cause The State of that Court is not so quite forgot but that we do well remember what Credit the Queen had with the King and what Hopes She gave the Party yet they did not so entirely espouse the Kings Cause but that they had likewise a flying Squadron in the Parliaments Army how â—oldly soever this may be denyed by our Author for this I will give him a proof that is beyond exception in a Declaration of that Kings sent to the Kingdom of Scotland baring date the 21 of April 1643. which is printed over and over again and as an Author that writes the History of the late Wars had assured us the clean draught of it corrected in some places with the King 's own Hand is yet extant so that it cannot be pretended that this was only a bold Assertion of some of the Kings Ministers that might be ill affected to their Party In that Declaration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause and among other things to clear himself of that Imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him after many things said on that head these words are added Great numbers of that Religion have been with great Alacâ—ity entertained in that Rebellious Army against us and others have been seduced to whom we had formerly denyed Imployments as appears by the Examination of many Prisoners of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion I hope our Author will not have the Impudence to dispute the Credit that is due to this Testimony but no Discoveries how evident soever they may be can affect some sort of men that have a Secret against blâ—shing V. Our Author exhorts us to charge our Principles of Loyalty and to take Example of our Catholick Neighbours how to behave our selves towards a Prince that is not of our Perswasion But would he have us learn of our â—ish Neighbours to cut our Fellow Subjects Throats and rebel against our King because he is of another Religion for that is the freshest Example that any of our Catholick Neighbours have set us and therefore I do not look so far back as to the Gunpowder-plot or the League of France in the last Age. He reproabhes us for failing in our Fidelity to our King But in this matter we appeal to God Angels and Men and in particular to His Majesty Let our Enemies shew any one Point of our Duty in which we have failed for as we cannot be charged for having preacht any Seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the Preaching of the Duties of Loyalty even when we see what they are like to
be that the Nobleness of his Birth and the Gentleness of his Temper are too hard even for his Religion and his Purple to be mastered by them And it is a Contradiction that nothing but a Belief capable of receiving Transubstantiation can recoucile to see Men pretend to observe Law and yet to find at the same time an Ambassadour from England at Rome when there are so many Laws in our Pook of Statutes never yet Repealed that have declared over and over again all Commerce with the Court and Sâ—e of Rome to be High Treason V. The late famous Judgment of our Judges who knowing no other way to make their Names immortal have found an effectual one to preserve â—hem from being ever forgot seems to call for another Method of Proceeding The Pâ—esident they have set must be Fatal either to them oâ—â—ns For if Twelâ—e Men that get into Scarlet and Fuâ—s have an Authority to dissolve all our Laws the English Government is to be hereafter lookt at with as much Scorn as it has hitherto drawn Admiration That doubtful Words of Laws made so long ago that the intention of the Lawgivers is not certainly known must be expounded by the Judges is not to be question'd but to infer from thence that the plain Words of a Law so lately made and that was so vigorously asserted by the present Parliament may be made void by a Decision of theirs after so much Practice upon them is just as reasonable a way of Aâ—puing as theirs is who because the Church of England acknowledges that the Church has a Power in Matters of Rites and Ceremonies will from thence conclude that this Power must go so far that tho Christ has said of the Cup Drink ye all of it we must obey the Church when she decrees that we shall not drink of it Our Judges for the greater part were Men that had past their Lives in so much Retirement that from thence one might have hoped that they had studied our Law well since the Bar had â—alled them so seldome from their Studies and if Practice is thought often hurâ—ful â—o Speculation as that which disorders and hurries the Judgment they who had practised so little in our Law had no byass on their Understandings and if the habit of taking Money as a Lawyer is a dangerous preparation for one that is to be an incorrupt Judge they should have been incorruptible since it is not thought that the greater part of them got ever so much Money by their Profession as pay'd for their Furs In short we now see how they have merited their Preferment and they may yet expect a further Exalcation when the Justice and the Laws of England come to be in hands that will be as careful to preserve them as they have been no destroy them But what an Infamy will it lay upon the Name of an English Parliament if instead of calling those Betrayers of their Countrey to an account they should go by an after-game to confirm what these Fellows haâ—e done VI. The late Canferences with so many Members of both houses will give such an ill-natured piece of Jealousy against them that of all Persons living that are the most concern'd to take care how they give their Votes the World will believe that Threatnings and Promises had as large a share in those secret Conversations as Reasoning or Persuasion and it must be a more than ordinary degree of zeal and Courage in them that must take off the Blot of being sent for and spoke to on such a subject and such a manner The worthy Behaviour of the Members in the last Session had made the Nation unwilling to remember the Errors committed in the first Election and it is to be hoped that they will not give any cause for the future to call that to mind For if a Parliament that had so many Flaws in its first Conception goes to repeal Laws that we are sure were made by Legal Parliaments it will put the Nation on an Enquiry that nothing but necessity will drive them to For a Nation may be laid asleep and be a little cheated but when it is awakned and sees its danger it will not look on and see a Rape made on its Religion and Liberties without examining from whence have these Men this Authority they will hardly find that it is of Men and they will not believe that it is of God But it is to be hoped that there will be no occasion given for this angry question which is much easier made than answered VII If all that where now asked in favour of Popery were only some Gentleness towards the Papists there were some reason to entertain the Debate when the Demand were a little more modest If Men were to be attainted of Treason for being Reconciled to the Church of Rome or for Reconciling others to it If Priests were demanded to be hanged for taking Orders in the Church of Rome and if the two thirds of the Papists Estates were offered to be Levied it were a very natural thing to see them uneasy and restless but now the matter is more barefaced they are not contented to live at ease and enjoy their Estates but they must carry all before them and F. Petre cannot be at quiet unless he makes as great a Figure in our Court as Pere de la Chaise does at Versailles A Cessation of all Severities against them is that to which the Nation would more easily submit but it is their Behaviour that must create them the continuance of the like Compassion in another Reign If a restless and a persecuting Spirit were not inherent in that Order that has now the Ascendant they would have behaved themselves so decently under their present Advantages as to have made our Divines that have charged them so heavily look a little out of countenance and this would have wrought more on the good Nature of the Nation and the Princly Nobleness of the Successors whom we have in view than those Arts of Craft and Violence to which we see their Tempers carry them even so early before it is yet time to show themselves The Temper of the English Nation the Heroical Vertues of those whom we have in our Eyes but above all our most holy Religion which instead of Revenge and Cruelty inspires us with Charity and Mercy even for Enemies are all such things as may take from the Gentlemen of that Religion all sad apprehensions unless they raise a Storm against themselves and provoke the Iustice of the Nation to such a degree that the Successors may find it necessary to be Iust even when their own Inclinations would rather carry them to shew Mercy In short they need fear nothing but what they create to themselves so that all this stir that they keep for their own Safety looks too like the securing to themselves Pardons for the Crimes that they intend to commit VIII I know it is objected as no small