prejudice against these Laws that the very making of them discovered a particular Malignity against His Majesty and therefore it is ill Manners to speak for them The first had perhaps an Eye at his being then Admiral and the last was possibly levelled at him though when that was discovered he was excepted out of it by a special Proviso And as for that which past in 73 I hope it is not forgot that it was enacted by that Loyal Parliament that had setled both the Prerogative of the Crown and the Rites of the Church and that had given the King more Money than all the Parliaments of England had ever done in all former Times A Parliament that had indeed some Disputes with the King but upon the first step that he made with relation to Religion or Safety they shewed how ready they were to forget all that was past as appeared by their Behaviour after the Triple Alliance And in 73 though they had great cause given them to dislike the Dutch War especially the strange beginning of it upon the Smirna Fleet and the stopping the Exchequer the Declaration for Toleration and the Writes for the Members of the House were Matters of hard Digestion yet no saoner did the King give them this new assurance for their Religion then though they had very great Reasons given them to be jealous of the VVar yet since the King was Engaged they gave him 1200000 Pounds for carrying it on and they thought they had no ill Penniworths for their Money when they carried home with them to their Countries this new Security for their Religion which we are now desired to throw up and which the Reverend Judges have already thrown out as a Law out of date If this had carried in it any new piece of Severity their Complaints might be just but they are extream tender if they are so uneasie under a Law that only gives them Leisure and Opportunities to live at Home And the last Test which was intended only for shutting them out from a share in the Legislative Body appears to be so just that one is rather amased to find that it was so long a doing than that it was done at last and since it is done it is a great presumption on our Understandings to think that we should be willing to part with it If it was not sooner done it was because there was not such cause given for Jealousie to work upon but what has appeared since that time and what has been Printed in his Majesties Name shews the World now that the Jealousies which occasion'd those Laws were not so ill grounded as some well meaning Men perhaps then believed them to be But there are some times in which all Mens Eyes come to be opened IX I am told some think it is very indecent to have a Test for our Parliaments in which the King's Religion iâ— accused of Idolatry but if this reason is good in this particular it will be full as good against several of the Articles of our Church and many of the Homilies If the Church and Religion of this Nation is so formed by Law that the King's Religion is declared over and over again to be Idolatrous what help is there for it It is no other than it was when His Majesty was Crowned and Swore to Maintain our Laws I hope none will be wanting in all possible Respect to his sacred Person and as we ought to be infinitely sorry to find him engaged in a Religion which we must believe Idolatrous so we are far from the ill manners of reflecting on his Person or calling him an Idolator for as every Man that reports a Lye is not for that to be called a Lyar so that tho' the ordering the Intention and the prejudice of a misperswasion are such abatements that we will not rashly take on us to call every Man of the Church of Rome an Idolater yet on the other hand we can never lay down our Charge against the Church of Rome as guilty of Idolatry unless at the same time we part with our Religion X. Others give us a strange sort of Argument to perswade us to part with the Test they say The King must imploy his Popish Subjects for he can trust no other and he is so assured of their Fidelity to him that we need apprehend no Danger from them This is an old Method to work on us to let in a sort of People to the Parliament and Government since the King cannot trust us but will depend on them so that as soon as this Law is repealed they must have all the Imployments and have the whole Power of the Nation lodged in their hands this seems a little to gross to impose even on Irish-men The King saw for many Years together with how much Zeal both the Clergy and many of the Gentry appeared for his Interests and if there is now a Melancholy Damp on their Spirits the King can dissipate it when he will and as the Church of England is a Body that will never Rebell against him so any Sullenness under which the late Administration of Affairs has brought them would soon vanish if the King would be pleas'd to remember a little what he has so often promised not only in Publick but in Pivate and would be contented with the Exercise of his own Religion without imbroiling his whole Affairs because F. Petre will have it so and it tempts Englishmen to to more than ordinary degrees of Rage against a sort of Men who it seems can infuse in a Prince born with the highest Sense of Honour possible Projects to which without doing some Violence to his own Royal Nature he could not so much as hearken to if his Religion did not so fatally muffle him up in a blind Obedience But if we are so unhappy that Priests can so disguise Matters as to mis-lead a Prince who without their ill Insluences would be the most Glorious Monarch of all Europe and would soon reduce the Grand Lauis to a much humbler Fgure yet it is not to be so much as imagined that ever their Arts can be so unhappily successful as to impose on an English Parliament composed of Protestant Members Some REFLECTIONS on His Majesties Proclamation of the Twelfth of February 1686 7 for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Pro-Proclamation I. THe Preamble of a Prâ—clamamaâ—ion is fst writ in hast and is the flourish of some waâ—tâ—n Pen but one of such an Extraordinary 〈◊〉 as this is was probably more severely Examined there is a new designation of his Majesties Authority here set forth of his Absolute Power which is so often repeated that it deserves to be a little searched into Prerogative Royal and Soveraign Authority are Terms already received and known but for this Absolute Power as it is a new Term so those who have coined it may make it signifie what they will The Roman Law speaks of Princeps Legibus solutus and Absolute
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
infallible Iudge to expound it and when I see not only Popes but even some Bodies that pass for General Councils have so expounded many passages of it and have wrested them so visibly that none of the modern Writers of that Church pretend to excuse it I say I must freely own to you that when I find that I need a Commentory on dark passages these will be the last persons to whom I will address my self for it Thus you see how fully I have opened my mind to you in this matter I have gone over a great deal of ground in as few words as is possible because hints I know are enough for you I thank God these Considerations do fully satisfie me and I will be infinitely joyed if they have the same effect on you I am yours THis Letter came to London with the return of the first Post after his late Majesties Papers were sent into the Countrey some that saw it liked it well and wished it to have it publick and the rather because the Writer did not so entirely confine himself to the Reasons that were in those Papers but took the whole Controversy to task in a little compass and yet with a great variety of Reflections And this way of examining the whole matter without following those Papers word for word or the finding more fault than the common concern of this Cause required seemed more agreeing to the respect that is due to the Dead and more particularly to the Memory of so great a Prince but other Considerations made it not so easie nor so adviseable to procure a License for the Printing this letter it has been kept in private hands till now those who have boasted much of the Shortness of the late Kings Papers and of the length of the Answers that have been made to them will not find so great a disproportion between them and this Answer to them The Citation of Gilbert Burnet D. D. To Answer in Scotland on the 27th June O'd Stile for High Treason Together with his Answer and Three Letters wriâ— by him upon that Subject to the Right Honourable the Earl of Midletoune his Majesties Secretary of State I Know the Disadvantages of pleading ones Innocence especially when he is prosecuted at the suit of his Natural Prince to whom he owes so profound a Duty and this has kept me so long in a respectful silence after I had seen my Name in so many Gazettes aspersed with the blackest of all Crimes but there is both a time to be silent and a time to speak and as hitherto I have kept my self within the bounds of the one so I do now take the Liberty which the other allows me but I was not hitherto silent where I ought to speak for I have made many humble Addresses to His Majesty by the Earl of Midletoune his Secretary of State hoping that my Innocence joyned with my must humble Duty would have broke through all those Prejudices and false Informations with which my Enemies had possessed His Majesty against me Upon the first Notice that I had of His Majesties having writ to the Privy-Council in Scotland ordering Process to be issued out against me for High-Treason I writ my First Letter in that I could enter into no particulars for in the Advertisement that was sent me it was said that there was no special Matter laid to my Charge in the King's Letter Some days after that I received a Copy of my Citation to which I presently writ an Answer and sent that with my Second Letter to the same Noble Person to both these Letters I received no Answer but I was advertised that some Exceptions were taken at some words in my First Letter and this led me to write my Third Letter for explaining and justifying those words I have kept my self thus within all those Bounds that I thought my Duty set me and am not a little troubled that I am now forced to speak for my self I have delayed doing it as long as I had any reason to hope that my Justification of my self was like to produce the effect which I most humbly desired and which I expected but now the Day of my Appearance being come in which it is probable Sentence will pass against me since I have had no Intimations given me to the Contrary I hope it will not shew either the least impatience or the want of that Submission which I have on all occasions payed to every thing that comes to me from that Authority under which God had placed me that I publish these Papers for my own Vindication If it had been only in defence of my Life and Reputation that I had been led to appear in such a manner I could have more easily restâ—ained my self and have lest these to be Sacrifices to the Unjust Rage of those who have so far prevailed on His Majesties readiness to believe them as to drive this matter so far but the Honour of that Holy Religion which I profess and the Regard I bear to that Sacred Function to which I am dedicated lay such Obligations on me that I am determined by them to declare my Innocence to the World which I intend to do more copiously within a little while but in the mean time I hope the following Papers will serve to shew how clear I am of all the Matters that are laid to my Charge There is one Particular which is come to my Knowledge since I writ my Answer that will yet more evidently discover my Innocence I have receiv'd certain informations from England that both Sir Iohn Cochran and his Son and Mr. Baâ—ter have declared upon many Occasions and to many Persons that they cannot imagin how they come to be Cited as Witnesses against me that they can scarce believe it can be true since they know nothing that can be any way to my Prejudice and that they must clear me of all the Matters objected to me in this Citation and the Two Witnesses that as it seems are citkd for that Article that relates to Holland have solemnly declared that they know nothing relating to me or to the Matters specified in this Citation which one of them has signifyed to my Self in a Letter under his hand so that the Falsehood of this Accusation is so Evident that it serves to discover the Folly as well as the impudence of those who have contrived it But it is yet too early to set on a Persecution for Matters of Religion therefore Crimes against the State must be pretended and fastned on those whom these Men intend to destroy And as foul and black Scandals are invented to defame me and put in the mouths of those who are ready to believe and report every thing that may disgrace me without considering that they do a thing that is as unbecoming â—hem as it is Base and injust in it self so all Arts are used to destroy me but I trust to the Protection of that Great God who sees