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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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adhered to his Majesty even against a Pretender that declared for them And in the Session of Parliament which came after that they shewed their disposition to assist the King with new Supplies and were willing to Excuse and indemnifie all that was past only they desired with all possible Modesty that the Laws which His Majesty had both promised and at his Coronation had Sworn to maintain might be Exâ—cuted Here is their Crime which has raised all this Out-cry They did not move for the Exâ—cution of â—evere and penal Laws but were willing to let those sleep till it might appear by the Behaviour of the Papists whether they might deserve that there should be any Mitigation made of them in their Favour Since that time our Church-men have have been constant in mixing their Zeal for their Religion against Popery with a Zeal for Loyalty against Rebellions because they think these two are very well consistent one with another It is true they have generally expressed an unwillingness to part with the two Tests because they have no mind to trust the keeping of their Throats to those who they believe will cut them and they have seen nothing 〈◊〉 the conduct of the Papists either â—â—thin or without the Kingdom to make them grow weary of the Laws for their sakes and the same principle of common sense which make it so hard for them to believe Transubstantiation makes them conclude that the Author of this Paper and his Friends are no other than what they hear and see and know them to be II. One instance in which the Church of England shewed her Submission to the Conrt was that as soon as the Nonconformists had drawn a new Storm upon themselves by their medling in the matter of Exclusion many of her Zealous Members went into that Prosecution of them which the Court set on foot with more Heat than was perhaps justifiable in it self or reasonable in those Circumstances but how censurable soever some angry men may be it is somewhat strane to see those of the Church of Rome blame us for it which has decreed some unrelenting Severities against all that differ from her and has enacted that not only in Parliaments but even in General Councils It must needs sound odly to hear the Sons of a Church that must destroy all others as soon as it can compass it yet complain of the Excesses of Fines and â—mprisonments that have been of late among â—s But if this Reproach seems a little strange when it is in the Mouth of a Papist it is much more provoking when it comes from any of the Court. Were not all the Orders 〈◊〉 late Severity sent from thence Did not the Judges in every Circuit and the Favourite Justices of Peace in every Sessions imploy all their Eloquence on this Subject The Directions that were given to the Justices and the Grand Iuries were all repeated Aggravations of this Matter and a little Ordinary Lawyer without any other Visible Merit but an Outragious Fury in those Matters on which he has chiefly valued himself was of a sudden taken in his Majesties special Favour and raised up to the Highest Posts of the Law All these things led sâ—me of our Obedient Clergy to look on it as a piece of their Duty to 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 Seveâ—ities have been acted by persons that were raised up to be Judges and Magistrates for that very end they were Instructed Trâ—sted and Rewarded for it both in the last and under the pâ—esent Reign Church-preferments were distinguished rather as Recompences of this devouring Zeal than of a real Merit and men of more mode ate 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 disowned 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 Seditinus 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 Rebellon with more Force and Learning than any Body of men has 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 Apoâ—ogue 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 that we are the only Church that has the 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 ftedily to their Loyalty in favour of Q. Mary that She did to the Promises that she made to them Upon this Subject our Aurhor 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 Elizabeths 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 Eighth marrying with Queen Catherine was Incesâ—uous and by consequence Q. Mary was the Bastard â—â—d Queen Elizabeth was the Legitimate Issue But our Author not satisfied with defaming Queen Elizabeth 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 Laws 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 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