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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30322 An answer to a paper printed with allowance, entitled, A new test of the Church of England's loyalty Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1687 (1687) Wing B5759; ESTC R7109 8,966 8

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the King to encourage that Severity of which the Court seemed so fond that almost all People thought they had set it up for a Maxime from which they would never depart I will not pretend to excuse all that has been done of late years but it is certain that the most crying Severities have been acted by persons that were raised up to be Judges and Magistrates for that very end they were Instructed Trusted and Rewarded for it both in the last and under the present Reign Church-preferments were distributed rather as Recompences of this devouring Zeal than of a real Merit and men of more moderate Tempers were not only ill lookt at but ill used So that it is in it self very unreasonable to throw the load of the late Rigour on the Church of England without distinction but it is worse than in good manners it is fit to call it if this Reproach comes from the Court. And it is somewhat unbecoming to see that which was set on at one time disown'd at another while yet he that was the Chief Instrument in it is still in so high a post and begins now to treat the Men of the Church of England with the same Brutal Excesses that he bestowed so lately and so liberally on the Dissenters as if his design were to render himself equally odious to all Mankind III. The Church of England may justly expostulate when she is treated as Seditious after she has rendred the highest Services to the Civil Authority that any Church now on Earth has done She has beaten down all the Principles of Rebellion with more Force and Learning than any Body of men has ever yet done and has run the hazard of enraging her Enemies and losing her Friends even for those from whom the more learned of her Members knew well what they might expect And since our Author likes the figure of a Snake in ones Bosom so well I could tell him that according to the Apologue we took up and sheltred an Interest that was almost Dead and by that warmth gave it Life which yet now with the Snake in the Bosom is like to bite us to Death We do not say we are the only Church that has Principles of Loyalty but this we may say that we are the Church in the World that carries them the highest as we know a Church that of all others sinks them the lowest We do not pretend that we are Inerrable in this point but acknowledge that some of our Clergy miscarried in it upon King Edwards Death Yet at the same time others of our Communion adhered more steadily to their Loyalty in favour of Queen Mary than She did to the Promises that she made to them Upon this Subject our Author by his false Quotation of History forces me to set the Reader right which if it proves to the disadvantage of his Cause his Friends may thank him for it I will not enter into so tedious a digression as the justifying Queen Elisabeths being Legitimate and the throwing the Bastardy on Queen Mary must carry me to this I will only say that it was made out that according to the best sort of Arguments used by the Church of Rome I mean the constant Tradition of all Ages King Henry the VIII marrying with Queen Katherine was Incestuous and by Consequence Queen Mary was the Bastard and Queen Elisabeth was the Legitimate issue But our Author not satisfied with defaming Queen Elisabeth tells us that the Church of England was no sooner set up by her than She enacted those Bloody Cannibal Laws to Hang Draw and Quarter the Priests of the Living God But since these Lawes disturb him so much what does he think of the Laws of Burning the poor Servants of the Living God because they cannot give Divine Worship 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 Queen Elisabeth's 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 Lawes 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 matters 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 Priests disposed all the People that depended on them to submit to the Popes Authority in that Deposition and to reject the Queens These endeavours besides open Rebellions 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 Reign 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 declare 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 for 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 Di●loyalty 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 tho' 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 twisted with the King 's that Interest and Duty went together tho I will not go so far as our Author who says that the Law 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 Law● of Nature are perpetual and 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 Relief 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