to some Words in the Proclamation that it was thought necessary to set them near one another that the Reader may be able to judge whether he is deceived by any false Quotations or not BY THE KING A PROCLAMATION JAMES R. JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all and sundry our good Subjects whom these Presents do or may concern Greeting We having taken into Our Royal Consideration the many and great Inconveniencies which have hapned to that Our Ancient Kingdom of Scotland of late Years through the different Persuasions in the Christian Religion and the great Heats and Animosities amongst the several Professors thereof to the ruine and decay of Trade wasting of Lands extinguishing of Charity contempt of the Royal Power and converting of true Religion and the Fear of GOD into Animosities Names Factions and sometimes into Sacriledge and Treason And being resolved as much as in us lies to unite the Hearts and Affections of Our Subjects to GOD in Religion to Us in Loyalty and to their Neighbours in Christian Love and Charity Have therefore thought fit to Grant and by Our Sovereign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all Our Subjects are to obey without Reserve do hereby give and grant Our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named with and under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations after mentioned In the first place We allow and tolerate the Moderate Presbyterians to Meet in their Private Houses and there to hear all such Ministers as either have or are willing to accept of Our Indulgence allanerly and none other and that there be not any thing said or done contrary to the Well and Peace of Our Reign Seditious or Treasonable under the highest Pains these Crimes will import nor are they to presume to Build Meeting Houses or to use Out-Houses or Barns but only to exercise in their Private Houses as said is In the mean time it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure that Field-Conventicles and such as Preach or Exercise at them or who shall any ways assist or connive at them shall be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity of our Laws made against them seeing from these Rendezvouses of Rebellion so much Disorder hath proceeded and so much Disturbance to the Government and for which after this Our Royal Indulgence for Tender Consciences there is no Excuse left In like manner We do hereby tolerate Quakers to meet and exercise in their Form in any Place or Places appointed for their Worship And considering the Severe and Cruel Laws made against Roman Catholicks therein called Papists in the Minority of Our Royal Grandfather of Glorious Memory without His Consent ☜ and contrary to the Duty of good Subjects by His Regents and other Enemies to their Lawful Sovereign Our Royal Great Grandmother Queen Mary of Blessed and Pious Memory wherein under the pretence of Religion they cloathed the worst of Treasons Factions and Usurpations and made these Laws not as against the Enemies of GOD but their own which Laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them or any of them ad terrorem only on Supposition that the Papists relying on an External Power were incapable of Duty and true Allegiance to their Natural Soveraigns and Rightful Monarchs We of Our certain Knowledge and long Experience knowing that the Catholicks as it is their Principle to be Good Christians so it is to be Dutiful Subjects and that they have likewise on all occasions shewn themselves Good and faithful Subjects to Us and Our Royal Predecessors by hazarding and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes in their defence though of another Religion and the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Council by our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power aforesaid suspend stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions made or executed against any of our Roman-Catholick Subjects in any time past to all Intents and Purposes making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned Pains or Penalties therein ordained to be inflicted so that they shall in all things be as free in all Respects as any of Our Protestant Subjects whatsoever not only to exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Nevertheless it is Our Will and Pleasure and we do hereby command all Catholicks at their highest pains only to exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields or to invade the Protestant Churches by force under the pains aforesaid to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-streets of any of Our Royal Burghs under the Pains above-mentioned And whereas the Obedience and Service of Our Good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance and Our Soveraignty and that no Law Custom or Constitution Difference in Religion or other Impediment whatsoever can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown or hinder Us from Protecting and Employing them according to their several Capacities and Our Royal Pleasure nor Restrain Us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them or vacuate or annul these Rights Heretable when they are made or conferred And likewise considering that some Oaths are capable of being wrested by Men of sinistrous Intentions a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty Do therefore with Advice and Consent aforesaid cass annull and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever by which any of Our Subjects are incapacitated or disabled from holding Places or Offices in Our said Kingdom or enjoying their Hereditary Rights and Priviledges discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming without our special Warrant and Consent under the pains due to the Contempt of Our Royal Commands and Authority And to this effect we do by Our Royal Authority aforesaid stop disable and dispense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths Tests or any of them particuarly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second the eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles the twenty first and twenty fifth Acts of that Parliament and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of Our late Parliament ☜ in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths or Tests therein prescribed and all others as well not mentioned as mentioned and that in place of them all Our good Subjects or such of them as We or Our Privy Council shall require so to do shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly
a Generous and Christian Temper can desire In short unhappy Counsels were followed and severe Laws were made But after all it was the Court Party that carried it for rougher Methods Some considerable Accidents not necessary to be here mentioned as they stopped the Mouths of some that had formed a wiser Project so they gave a fatal Advantage to angry and crafty Men that to our misfortune had too great a stroak in the conduct of our Affairs at that Time. This Spirit of Severity was heightned by the Practices of the Papists who engaged the late King in December 1662 to give a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Those who knew the Secret of his Religion as they saw that it aimed at the Introduction of Popery so they thought there was no way so effectual for the keeping out of Popery as the maintaining the Uniformity and the suppressing of all Designs for a Toleration But while those who managed this used a due reserve in not discovering the secret Motive that led them to it others flew into Severity as the Principle in vogue And thus all the slacknings of the rigour of the Laws during the first Dutch War that were set on upon the pretence of quieting the Nation and of encouraging Trade were resisted by the Instruments of an honest Minister of State who knew as well then as we do now what lay still at bottom when Liberty of Conscience was pretended VI. Upon that Minister's Disgrace some that saw but the half of the Secret perceiving in the Court a great inclination to Toleration and being willing to take Measures quite different from those of the former Ministry they entred into a Treaty for a Comprehension of some Dissenters and the tolerating of others And some Bishops and Clergy-men that were inferior to none of the Age in which they lived for true Worth and a right Judgment of Things engaged so far and with so much success into this Project that the Matter seemed done all things being concerted among some of the most considerable Men of the different Parties But the dislike of that Ministry and the Jealousy of the ill Designs of the Court gave so strong a Prejudice against this that the Proposition could not be so much as hearkned to by the House of Commons And then it appeared how much the whole Popish Party was allarmed at the Project It is well known with how much Detestation they speak of it to this day though we are now so fully satisfied of their Intentions to destroy us that the Zeal which they pretended for us in opposing that Design can no more pass upon us VII At last in the Year 1672. the Design for Popery discovering it self the End that the Court had in favouring a Toleration became more visible And when the Parliament met that condemned the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience the Members of the House of Commons that either were Dissenters or that favoured them behaved themselves so worthily in concurring with those of the Church of England for stifling that Toleration chusing rather to lose the benefit of it than to open a Breach at which Popery should come in that many of the Members that were of the Church of England promised to procure them a Bill of Ease for Protestant Dissenters But the Session was not long enough for bringing that to Perfection and all the Sessions of that Parliament after that were spent in such a continual struggle between the Court and Country-Party that there was never room given for calm and wise Consultations yet though the Party of the Church of England did not perform what had been promised by some leading Men to the Dissenters there was little or nothing done against them after that till the Year 1681 so that for about nine Years together they had their Meetings almost as publickly and as regularly as the Church of England had their Churches and in all that time whatsoover particular Hardships any of them might have met with in some corners of England it cannot be denied but they had the free Exercise of their Religion at least in most parts VIII In the Year 1678 things began to change their face it is known that upon the breaking out of the Popish Plot the Clergy did universally express a great desire for coming to some temper in the Points of Conformity all sorts and ranks of the Clergy seemed to be so well disposed towards it that if it had met with a sutable Entertainment matters might probably have been in a great measure composed But the Jealousy that those who managed the Civil Concerns of the Nation in the House of Commons took off all that was done at Court or proposed by it occasioned a fatal Breach in our Publick Councils in which division the Clergy by their Principles and Interests and their Disposition to believe well of the Court were determined to be of the King's side They thought it was a Sin to mistrust the late King's Word who assured them of his steadiness to the Protestant Religion so often that they firmly depended on it and his present Majesty gave them so many Assurances of his maintaining still the Church of England that they believed him likewise and so thought that the Exclusion of him from the Crown was a degree of Rigor to which they in Conscience could not consent upon which they were generally cried out on as the Betrayers of the Nation and of the Protestant Religion Those who demanded the Exclusion and some other Securities to which the Bishops would not consent in Parliament looked on them as the chief hinderance that was in their way and the License of the Press at that time was such that many Libels and some severe Discourses were published against them Nor can it be denied that many Church-men who understood not the Principles of Human Society and the Rules of our Government so well as other Points of Divinity writ several Treatises concerning the measures of Submission that were then as much censured as their Performances since against Popery have been deservedly admired All this gave such a Jealousy of them to the Nation that it must be confessed that the Spirit which was then in fermentation went very high against the Church of England as a Confederate at least to Popery and Tyranny Nor were several of the Nonconformists wanting to inflame this dislike all secret Propositions for accommodating our Differences were so coldly entertained that they were scarce hearkned to The Propositions which an Eminent Divine made even in his Books writ against Separation shewed that while we maintained the War in the way of Dispute yet we were still willing to treat for that great Man made not those Advances towards them without consulting with his Superiors Yet we were then fatally given up to a Spirit of Dissention and tho the Parliament in 1680 entred upon a project for healing our Differences in which great steps were made to the removing of all the occasions of
going to Scotland according to the Tenour of this Citation does not flow from any sense of Guilt or Fear but meerly from those Engagements under which I am in Holland I hope my contradicting or refuting the Matters of Fact set forth in this Citation shall not be so maliciously perverted by any as if I meant to reflect either on His Majesty for writing to his Council of Scotland ordering this Citation to be made or on his Advocate for forming it and issuing it out But as I acknowledg that upon the Information it seems was offered of those Matters here laid against me it was very reasonable for His Majesty to order Justice to be done upon me so his Advocate in whose hands those Informations it seems are now put had all possible reason to lay them against me as he has done and therefore I will not pretend to make any Exception to the Laws and Acts of Parliament set forth in the first part of this Citation but I will only answer the matters of Fact laid to my charge and whatsoever I say concerning them does only belong to my false Accusers and therefore I hope they will not be look'd on as things in which even his Majesties Advocate but much less his Sacred Majesty is any way concerned I am first accused for having seen conversed with and held correspondence with the late Earl of Argyle and to make this appear the more probable the place is marked very Critically where I lived and where as it is pretended we met But it is now almost two Years since the late Argyle was taken and suffered and that a full account was had of all his secret Practices in all which I have not been once so much as mentioned tho it is now a Year since I have lived and preach'd openly in these Provinces The truth is that for nine Years before the late Earl of Argiles forfeiture I had no sort of correspondence with him nor did I ever see him since the Year 1676. After his escape out of Prison I never saw him nor writ to him nor heard from him nor had I any sort of Commerce with him directly nor indirectly the Circumstance of my House and the place in which I lived is added to make the thing look somewhat probable but tho it is very easy to know where I lived and I having dwelt in Lincolns-Inn-Fields the space of seven Years it was no hard matter to add this particular yet so Inconsiderate is the Malice of my Enemies that even in this it leads them out of the way for soon after Argile's Escape and during the stay that as is believed he made in London I had removed from Lincolns-Inn-Fields into Brook-buildings this makes me guess at the Informer who saw me often in the one House but never in the other and yet even he who has betraryed all that ever past between us has not Impudence enough to charge me with the least Disloyalty tho I concealed very few of my thoughts from him With this of my seeing the late Argile the Article of the Scandalous and Treasonable words pretended to be spoken by me to him against His Majesties Person and Government falls to the ground it is obvious that this cannot be proved since Argile is dead and it is not pretended that these words were uttered in the hearing of other Witnesses nor is it needful to add that His Majesty was then only a Subject so that any Words spoken of him at that time cannot amount to Treason but I can appeal to all those with whom I have ever conversed if they have ever heard me fail in the respect I owed the King and I can easily bring many Witnesses from several parts of Europe of the Zeal with which I have on all occasions expressed my self on those Subjects and that none of all those hard Words that have been so Freely bestowed on me has made me forget my Duty in the least I am in the next place accused of Correspondence with James Stewart Mr. Robert Ferguson Thomas Stewart William Denholm and Mr. Robert Martyn since my coming out of England and that I have entertained and supplied them in Forreign Parts particularly in the Cities of Amsterdam Rotterdam Leyden Breda Geneva or in some other parts within the Netherlands This Article is so very ill laid in all its branches that it shews my Enemies have very ill Informations concerning my most general Acquaintance since tho there are among those that are condemned for Treason some that are of my Kindred and ancient Acquaintance they have here cast together a Company of Men who are all James Stewart only excepted absolutely unknown to me whom I never saw and with whom I never exchanged one word in my whole life as far as I can remember one of them Mr. Robert Martyn was as I ever understood it dead above a Year before I left England as for James Stewart I had a general Acquaintance with him twenty Years ago but have had no Commerce with him now for many Years unless it was that I saw him twice by Accident and that was several Years before there was any Sentence past on him my Accusers know my Motion ill for I have not been in Breda these twenty three Years I setled in the Hague upon my coming into Holland because I was willing to be under the Observation of His Majesties Envoy and I chose this place the rather because it was known that none of those that lay under Sentences come to it I have never gone to Amsterdam or Rotterdam in secret and have never been there but upon my private Affairs and that never above a Night or two at a time and I have been so visible all the while that I was in those places that I thought there was not room left even for Calumny In the last place it is said that I have publickly and avowedly uttered several Speeches and Positions to the disdain of His Majesties Person Authority and Government and that I continue and persist in those Treasonable Practices This is so generally Asserted that it is enough for me to say it is positively false but I have yet clearer Evidence to the contrary of this I have preached a whole Sermon in the Hague against all Treasonable Doctrines and Practices and in particular against the Lawfulness of Subjects rising in Arms against their Soveraign upon the account of Religion and I have maintained this so oft both in publick and private that I could if I thought it convenient give Proofs of it that would make all my Enemies be ashamed of their Injustice and Malice The Witnesses cited against me are first Sir John Cochran whom I have not seen above these four Years last past and with whom I have had no sort of Commerce since I saw him It is almost two Years since he had his Pardon so it is probable he then told all that he has ever told concerning me and it is not likely that
Informations against me which gave the rise to all that has since followed ought to be lookt on as Calumniators and to be punished accordingly and if any ill chosen Expression had fallen from me in the Letter that I writ to the Earl of Middletoune the Privacy of the Letter the Respect that was in it and the Provocation that drew it from me an Accusation of High Treason which is now evidently made out to be a Calumny all these I say give me some reason to conclude that if a secret Animosity of some of my Enemies that have abused their Credit with the King to my Prejudice had not wrought more than a regard to Justice there had not been a second Prosecution when the first was found to be so ill grounded that they were forced to let it fall The Citation is in these Words JAMES by the Grace of God King of Great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith To our Lovits Heraulds Pursevants Macers and Messre at armes conjunctly and severally specially Constitute Greeting Forsameikle as it is humbly meant et Complaind to us be our right trusty and familiar Councellour Sir John Dalrymple the younger of Stair our Advocat for our Interest Upon Doctor Gilbert Burnet That wher by the Common Law by the Acts of Parliament and the municipall Lawes of this Kingdom the declyning or impugning our Soveraign Authority or putting Treasonable Limitations upon the Prerogatives of our Crown upon the native Allegiance due by any of our Subjects born Scots men whether residing within our Dominions or not are declared to be High Treason and punishable by the Pains due and determined in the Law for Treason Nevertheless it is of verity That Doctor Gilbert Burnet who is a Scotsman by Birth and Education being cited at the Peir and Shoar of Leith at the instance of our Advocat for several Treasonable Crimes to underly the Law by vertue of particular Command from us direct to the Lords of our Privy Council and ane Act of our said Privy Council hereupon ordering our Advocat to Intent the Proces Instead of appeiring before the Lords of Iusticiery Doctor Gilbert Burnet did write and subscribe a Letter dated at the Hague the third day of May last directed for the Earl of Middletoune one of our principal Secretaries of State for our Kingdom of England In the which the said Doctor shows that in respect the Affairs of the Vnited Provinces falls to his Lordships share in the Ministry Therefore he makes the following Addresses to his Lordship and by him to us and gives ane accompt that he is certiorat of the Proces of Treason execute against him at the instance of our Advocat And for answer thereto the Doctor Writes that he hes bein thretteen years out of the Kingdom of Scotland and that he is now upon the point of Marrying in the Netherlands and that he is Naturalized by the States of Holland and that thereby during his stay there his Allegiance is translated from us to the Soveraignity of the Province of Holland and in the end of his Letter he Certifies that if this decly natur be not taken of his hand to sist the Proces he will appeir in Print in his own Defence and will not so far betray his own Innocence as to suffer a thing of that nature to pass upon him In which he will make a recital of Affairs that hes passed these twenty years and a vast number of particulars which he believes will be displeasing to us and therfor desires that he may not be forced to it which is a direct declyning of our Authority denying of his Allegiance to us and asserting that his Allegiance is translated from us to the Soveraignty of the States of Holland And a threatning us to expose traduce disparage and bely our Government and the publict Actings for twenty years past Tho he acknowledges it will be displeasing to us Yet by a most Indiscret and Disloyal Insolence he threatens to do it in contempt Except forsooth we will acquiesse and suffer the derly natur of our Royal Authorite and pass from the Proces as having no Allegiance due to us from the Doctor c. After this follows the form of Law ordinary in such Citations by which I am required to appear on the 9th day of August in order to my Tryal which was to be six days after that under the Pains of being declared a Rebel and a Fugitive and all bears date the 10th of June 1687. I shall offer only two Exceptions to this in point of Form 1st there is no Special Law set forth here upon which I am to be Judged which as I am informed by those who understand the Law of Scotland makes the Citation null in point of Form since High Treason is a Crime of such a Nature that no Man can be concluded Guilty of it but upon a special Law. 2dly In Criminal matters no Proofs of any Writing upon the Similitude of Hands are so much as admitted by the Law of Scotland so that all such Proofs are only General Presumptions and therefore since there is no other Proof that can be pretended in this case it is not possible according to the grounds and practice of the Scottish Law to find me Guilty upon this Citation Upon my not appearance on the 9th day of August the matter was for some time delayed At last a Writ was issued out against me called in the Law of Scotland Letters of Horning because they are published with the blast of a Horn in which I am declared the King's Rebel but this is not issued out upon the account of the Matter of the Citation of which no Cognizance has been taken But only for my not appearance to offer my self to Tryal and the Operation of this in Law is only the putting me out of the King's Protection and the present Seizing on my personal Estate and after a year the Seizing any thing that I enjoy for Term of Life but this Writ does neither affect my Life nor my Posterity nor can an Estate of Inheritance be so much as Confiscated by it and tho the term Rebel is put in it that word is only a Form of Law for every man that does not pay his Debts is liable to such a Writ and he is declared the King's Rebel just as the Chancery in England issues out a Writ of Rebellion upon Contempts so that if the being called a Rebel in such a Writ gives the Government a right to demand me then every Man that retires into Holland either out of England or Scotland upon the account of a disorder in his Affairs may be demanded as soon as any such Writ goes out against him As for the matter of this Citation I said so much upon it in my former Paper that since no Answer has been made to that I do not think it necessary to say any more than what will occur to me in the account of the Progress of this
Dr. Burnet's PAPERS THere have been so many Papers given out for mine which are not that in order to the preventing of Mistakes of that kind I have given Directions for the Publishing of this COLLECTION which contains none but those that were writ by me in single Sheets and are now put together by my Order G. BURNET A COLLECTION OF EIGHTEEN PAPERS Relating to the AFFAIRS OF Church State During the Reign of King JAMES the Second Seventeen whereof written in Holland and first printed there By GILBERT BURNET D. D. Licensed and Entred according to Order Reprinted at London for John Starkey and Richard Chiswell 1689. THE CONTENTS Of the following PAPERS REasons against the repealing the Acts of Parliament concerning the Test Humbly offered to the Consideration of the Members of both Houses at their next Meeting on the twenty eighth of April 1687. Pag. 1 Some Reflections on His Majesties Proclamation of the Twelfth of February 1686 / 7. for a Toleration in Scotland Together with the said Proclamation p. 10 A Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience dated the Fourth of April 1687. p. 25 An Answer to Mr. Henry Payne's Letter concerning His Majesties Declaration of Indulgence writ to the Author of the Letter to a Dissenter p. 38. An Answer to a Paper printed with allowance entitled A New Test of the Church of England 's Loyalty p. 45 The Earl of Melfort's Letter to the Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland writ in His Majesties Name upon their Address Together with sowe Remarks upon it p. 56 Reflections on a Pamphlet entitled Parliamentum Pacificum licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and printed at London in March 1688. p. 65 An Apology for the Church of England with relation to the Spirit of Persecution for which she is accused p. 83 Some Extracts out of Mr. James Stewart's Letters which were communicated to Mijn Heer Fagal the States Pensioner of the Province of Holland Together with some References to Master Stewart's printed Letter p. 97 An Edict in the Roman Law in the twenty fifth Book of the Digests Title 4. Sect. 10. as concerning the visiting of a Big-bellied-Woman and the looking after what may be born by her p. 110 An Enquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supreme Authority and of the Grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for Subjects to defend their Religion Lives and Liberties p. 119 A Review of the Reflections on the Prince of Orange's Declaration p. 133 The Citation of Gilbert Burnet D. D. to answer in Scotland on the Twenty seventh of June Old Stile for High Treason Together with his Answer And Three Letters writ by him upon that Subject to the Right Honourable the Earl of Middletoun His Majesty's Secretary of State. p. 145 Dr. Burnet's Vinication of himself from the Calumnies with which he is aspersed in a Pamphlet entitled Parliamentum Pacificum Licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and printed at London in March 1688. p. 172 A Letter containing some Remarks on the Two Papers writ by His late Majesty King Charles the Second concerning Religion p. 188 An Enquiry into the Reasons for abrogating the Test imposed on all Members of Parliament offered by Sa. Oxon. p. 200 A Second Part of the Enquiry into the Reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for abrogating the Test Or an Answer to his Plea for Transubstantiation and for acquitting the Church of Rome of Idolatry p. 215 A Continuation of the Second Part of the Enquiry into the Reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for the abrogating of the Test relating to the Idolatry of the Church of Rome p. 229 REASONS Against the Repealing the ACTS of PARLIAMENT Concerning the TEST Humbly offered to the Consideration of the MEMBERS of BOTH HOUSES at their next Meeting on the Twenty eighth of April 1687. I. IF the just Apprehensions of the Danger of Popery gave the Birth to the two Laws for the two Tests the one with relation to all Publick Employments in 73. and the other with relation to the Constitution of our Parliaments for the future in 78. the present Time and Conjuncture does not seem so proper for repealing them unless it can be imagined that the danger of Popery is now so much less than it was formerly that we need be no more on our guard against it We had a King when these Laws were enacted who as he declared himself to be of the Church of England by receiving the Sacrament four times a Year in it so in all his Speeches to his Parliaments and in all his Declarations to his Subjects he repeated the Assurances of his Firmness to the Protestant Religion so solemnly and frequently that if the saying a thing often gives just reason to believe it we had as much reason as ever People had to depend upon him and yet for all that it was thought necessary to fortifie those Assurances with Laws and it is not easie to imagine why we should throw away those when we have a Prince that is not only of another Religion himself but that has expressed so much steadiness in it and so much zeal for it that one would think we should rather now seek a further Security than throw away that which we already have II. Our King has given such Testimonies of his Zeal for his Religion that we see among all his other Royal Qualities there is none for which he desires and deserves to be so much admired Since even the Passion of Glory of making himself the Terrour of all Europe and the Arbiter of Christendom which as it is natural to all Princes so must it be most particularly so to one of his Martial and Noble Temper yields to his Zeal for his Church and that he in whom we might have hoped to see our Edward the Third or our Henry the Fifth revived chuses rather to merit the heightning his degree of Glory in another World than to acquire all the Lawrels and Conquests that this low and vile World can give him and that in stead of making himself a Terrour to all his Neighbours he is contented with the humble Glory of being a Terrour to his own People so that in stead of the great Figure which this Reign might make in the World all the News of England is now only concerning the Practices on some fearful Mercenaries These things shew that his Majesty is so possessed with his Religion that this cannot suffer us to think that there is at present no danger from Popery III. It does not appear by what we see either abroad or at home that Popery has so changed its nature that we have less reason to be afraid of it at present than we had in former times It might be thought ill nature to go so far back as to the Councils of the Lateran that decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks with severe Sanctions on those Princes that failed in their Duty of being the Hangmen of the Inquisitors or to
the Council of Constance that decreed That Princes were not bound to keep their Faith to Hereticks tho' it must be acknowledged that we have extraordinary Memories if we can forget such things and more extraordinary Understandings if we do not make some Inferences from them I will not stand upon such inconsiderable Trifles as the Gunpowder-Plot or the Massacre of Ireland but I will take the liberty to reflect a little on what that Church has done since those Laws were made to give us kinder and softer thoughts of them and to make us the less apprehensive of them We see before our eyes what they have done and are still doing in France and what feeble things Edicts Coronation Oaths Laws and Promises repeated over and over again prove to be where that Religion prevails and Louis le Grand makes not so contemptible a Figure in that Church or in our Court as to make us think that his Example may not be proposed as a Pattern as well as his Aid may be offered for an Encouragement to act the same things in England that he is now doing with so much applause in France and it may be perhaps the rather desired from hence to put him a little in countenance when so great a King as ours is willing to forget himself so far as to copy after him and to depend upon him so that as the Doctrine and Principles of that Church must be still the same in all Ages and Places since its chief pretention is that it is infallible it is no unreasonable thing for us to be afraid of those who will be easily induced to burn us a little here when they are told that such fervent Zeal will save them a more lasting burning hereafter and will perhaps quit all scores so entirely that they may hope scarce to endure a Singing in Purgatory for all their other Sins IV. If the severest Order of the Church of Rome that has breathed out nothing but Fire and Blood since its first formation and that is even decried at Rome it self for its Violence is in such credit here I do not see any inducement from thence to persuade us to look on the Councils that are directed by that Society as such harmless and inoffensive things that we need be no more on our guard against them I know not why we may not apprehend as much from Father Petre as the French have felt from Pere de la Chaise since all the difference that is observed to be between them is that the English Jesuit has much more Fire and Passion and much less Conduct and Judgment than the French has And when Rome has expressed so great a Jealousie of the Interest that that Order had in our Councils that F. Morgan who was thought to influence our Ambassadour was ordered to leave Rome I do not see why England should look so tamely on them No reason can be given why Card. Howard should be shut out of all their Councils unless it 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 reconcile 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 Book of Statutes never yet repealed that have declared over and over again all Commerce with the Court and See 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 them from being ever forgot seems to call for another Method of Proceeding The President they have set must be fatal either to them or us For if twelve Men that get into Scarlet and Furs 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 questioned 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 arguing as theirs is who because the Church of England acknowledges that the Chuurch 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 called them so seldom from their Studies and if Practice is thought often hurtful to 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 paid for their Furs In short we now see how they have merited their Preferment and they may yet expect a further Exaltation 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 to destroy them But what an Infamy will it lay upon the Name of an English Parliament if instead of calling those Betrayers of their Country to an account they should go by an after-game to confirm what these Fellows have done VI. The late Conferences with so many Members of both Houses will give such an ill-natured piece of Jealousie 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 in 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
was in Scotland and the pretension to Absolute Power is so great a thing that since His Majesty thought fit once to claim it he is little beholden to those that make him fall so much in his Language especially since both these Declarations have appeared in our Gazettes so that as we see what is done in Scotland we know from hence what is in some Peoples Hearts and what we may expect in England II. His Majesty tells his People that the perfect Enjoyment of their Property has never been in any Case invaded by him since his coming to the Crown This is indeed matter of great Encouragement to all good Subjects for it lets them see that such Invasions as have been made on Property have been done without His Majesty's knowledge so that no doubt the continuing to levy the Customs and the Additional Excise which had been granted only during the late King's Life before the Parliament could meet to renew the Grant was done without His Majesty's knowledge the many Violences committed not only by Soldiers but Officers in all the Parts of England which are severe Invasions on Property have been all without his Majesty's knowledge and since the first Branch of Property is the Right that a Man has to his Life the strange Essay of Mahometan Government that was shewed at Taunton and the no less strange Proceedings of the present Lord Chancellor in his Circuit after the Rebellion which are very justly called His Campagne for it was an open Act of Hostility to all Law and for which and other Services of the like nature it is believed he has had the Reward of the Great Seal and the Executions of those who have left their Colours which being founded on no Law are no other than so many Murders all these I say are as we are sure Invasions on Property But since the King tells us that no such Invasions have been made since he came to the Crown we must conclude that all these things have fallen out without his Privity And if a Standing Army in time of Peace has been ever look'd on by this Nation as an Attempt upon the whole Property of the Nation in gross one must conclude that even this is done without His Majesty's knowledge III. His Majesty expresses his Charity for us in a kind Wish That we were all Members of the Catholick Church In return to which we offer up daily our most earnest Prayers for him That he may become a Member of the truly Catholick Church for Wishes and Prayers do no hurt on no side But His Majesty adds That it has ever been his Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in Matters of meer Religion We are very happy if this continues to be always his Sense but we are sure in this he is no obedient Member of that which he means by the Catholick Church for it has over and over again decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks It encourages Princes to it by the Offer of the Pardon of their Sins it threatens them to it by denouncing to them not only the Judgments of God but that which is more sensible the loss of their Dominions and it seems they intend to make us know that part of their Doctrine even before we come to feel it since tho' some of that Communion would take away the Horror which the Fourth Council of the Lateran gives us in which these things were decreed by denying it to be a General Council and rejecting the Authority of those Canons yea the most learned of all the Apostates that has fallen to them from our Church has so lately given up this Plea and has so formally acknowledged the Authority of that Council and of its Canons that it seems they think they are bound to this piece of fair dealing of warning us before hand of our Danger It is true Bellarmin says The Church does not always execute her Power of Deposing Heretical Princes tho' she always retains it one Reason that he assigns is Because she is not at all times able to put it in execution so the same Reason may perhaps make it appear unadvisable to extirpate Hereticks because that at present it connot be done but the Right remains entire and is put in execution in such an unrelenting manner in all Places where that Religion prevails that it has a very ill Grace to see any Member of that Church speak in this strain and when neither the Policy of France nor the Greatness of their Monarch nor yet the Interests of the Emperour joined to the Gentleness of his own Temper could withstand these Bloody Councils that are indeed parts of that Religion we can see no Reason to induce us to believe that a Toleration of Religion is proposed with any other Design but either to divide us or to lay us asleep till it is time to give the Alarm for destroying us IV. If all the Endeavours that have been used in the last four Reigns for bringing the Subjects of this Kingdom to a Unity in Religion have been ineffectual as His Majesty says we know to whom we owe both the first Beginnings and the Progress of the Divisions among our selves the Gentleness of Queen Elizabeth's Government and the numbers of those that adhered to the Church of Rome made it scarce possible to put an end to that Party during her Reign which has been ever since restless and has had credit enough at Court during the three last Reigns not only to support it self but to distract us and to divert us from apprehending the danger of being swallowed up by them by somenting our own Differences and by setting on either a Toleration or a Persecution as it has hapned to serve their Interests It is not so very long since that nothing was to be heard at Court but the supporting the Church of England and the extirpating all the Nonconformists and it were easie to name the Persons if it were decent that had this ever in their Mouths but now all is turned round again the Church of England is in disgrace and now the Encouragement of Trade the Quiet of the Nation and the Freedom of Conscience are again in vogue that were such odious things but a few years ago that the very mentioning of them was enough to load any Man with Suspicions as backward in the King's Service while such Methods are used and the Government is as in an Ague divided between hot and cold Fits no wonder if Laws so unsteadily executed have failed of their Effect V. There is a good Reserve here left for Severity when the proper Opportunity to set it on presents it self for His Majesty declares himself only against the forcing of Men in Matters of meer Religion so that whensoever Religion and Policy come to be so interwoven that meer Religion is not the Case and that Publick Safety may be pretended then this Declaration is to be no more claimed so that the fastning any thing
forgotten among the rest for there is a scurvy Paragraph in it concerning Self-preservation that is capable of very unacceptable Glosses It is hard to tell what Section of the Law of Nature has mark'd out either such a Form of Government or such a Family for it And if his Majesty renounces his Pretensions to our Allegiance as founded on the Laws of England and betakes himself to this Law of Nature he will perhaps find the Counsel was a little too rash But to make the most of this that can be the Law of Nations or Nature does indeed allow the Governours of all Societies a Power to serve themselves of every Member of it in the cases of extream Danger but no Law of Nature that has been yet heard of will conclude that if by special Laws a sort of Men have been disabled from all Imployments that a Prince who at his Coronation swore to maintain those Laws may at his pleasure extinguish all these Disabilities X. At the end of the Declaration as in a Postscript His Majesty assures his Subjects that he will maintain them in their Properties as well in Church and Abby-Lands as other Lands But the Chief of all their Properties being the share that they have by their Representatives in the Legislative Power this Declaration which breaks thro' that is no great Evidence that the rest will be maintained And to speak plainly when a Coronation Oath is so little remembred other Promises must have a proportioned degree of Credit given to them As for the Abbey-Lands the keeping them from the Church is according to the Principles of that Religion Sacriledge and that is a Mortal Sin and there can no Absolution be given to any who continue in it And so this Promise being an Obligation to maintain men in a Mortal-Sin is null and void of it is self Church-Lands are also according to the Doctrine of their Canonists so immediately Gods Right that the Pope himself is only the Administrator and Dispenser but is not the Master of them he can indeed make a truck for God or let them so low that God shall be an easie Landlord but he cannot alter God's Property nor translate the Right that is in him to Sacrilegious Laymen and Hereticks XI One of the Effects of this Declaration will be the setting on foot a new run of Addresses over the Nation For there is nothing how impudent and base soever of which the abject Flattery of a slavish Spirit is not capable It must be confest to the Reproach of the Age that all those strains of Flattery among the Romans that Tacitus sets forth with so much just Scorn are modest things compared to what this Nation has produced within these seven Years only if our Flattery has come short of the Refinedness of the Romans it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed Fulsomness The late King set out a Declaration in which he gave the most solemn Assurances possible of his adhering to the Church of England and to the Religion established by Law and of his Resolution to have frequent Parliaments upon which the whole Nation fell as it were into Raptures of Joy and Flattery But tho' he lived four Years after that he called no Parliament notwithstanding the Law for Triennial Parliaments and the manner of his Death and the Papers printed after his Death in his Name have sufficiently shewed that he was equally sincere in both those Assurances that he gave as well in that relating to Religion as in that other relating to frequent Parliaments yet upon his Death a new set of Addresses appeared in which all that Flattery could invent was brought forth in the Commendations of a Prince to whose Memory the greatest kindness can be done is to forget him And because his present Majesty upon his coming to the Throne gave some very general Promise of Maintaining the Church of England this was magnified in so extravagant a strain as if it had been a security greater than any that the Law could give tho' by the regard that the King has both to it and to the Laws it appears that he is resolved to maintain both equally Since then the Nation has already made it self sufficiently ridiculous both to the present and to all succeeding Ages it is time that at last men should grow weary and become ashamed of their Folly. XII The Nonconformists are now invited to set an Example to the rest and they who have valued themselves hitherto upon their Opposition to Popery and that have quarrelled with the Church of England for some small Approaches to it in a few Ceremonies are now sollicited to rejoyce because the Laws that secure us against it are all plucked up since they enjoy at present and during pleasure leave to meet together It is natural for all men to love to be set at ease especially in the matters of their Consciences but it is visible that those who allow them this favour do it with no other design but that under a pretence of a General Toleration they may introduce a Religion which must persecute all equally It is likewise apparent how much they are hated and how much they have been persecuted by the Instigation of those who now court them and who have now no Game that is more promising than the engaging them and the Church of England into new Quarrels And as for the Promises now made to them it cannot be supposed that they will be more lasting than those that were made some time ago to the Church of England who had both a better Title in Law and greater Merit upon the Crown to assure them that they should be well used than these can pretend to The Nation has scarce forgiven some of the Church of England the Persecution into which they have suffered themselves to be cousened tho' now that they see Popery barefac'd the Stand that they have made and the vigorous opposition that they have given to it is that which makes all men willing to forget what is past and raises again the Glory of a Church that was not a little stained by the Indiscretion and Weakness of those that were too apt to believe and hope and so suffered themselves to be made a Property to those who would now make them a Sacrifice The Sufferings of the Nonconformists and the Fury that the Popish Party expressed against them had recommended them so much to the Compassions of the Nation and had given them so just a Pretension to favour in a better time that it will look like a Curse of God upon them if a few men whom the Court has gained to betray them can have such an ill Influence upon them as to make them throw away all that Merit and those Compassions which their Sufferings have procured them and to go and court those who are only seemingly kind to them that they may destroy both them and us They must remember that as the Church of England is the only
malicious and soon-discovered Artifices of one that knew that She had ordered the Letter and that thought himself safe in this Disguise in the discharging of his Malice against her So ingratefully is she required by a Party for whom she had expressed so much Compassion and Charity This Author Pag. 53. thinks it is an indecent forecast to be always erecting such Schemes for the next Heir both in Discourse and Writing as seem almost to calculate the Nativity of the present and he would almost make this High-Treason But if it is so there were many Traitors in England a few Years ago in which the next Heir though but a Brother was so much considered that the King himself look'd as one out of Countenance and abandoned and could scarce find Company enough about him for his Entertainment either in his Bed-Chamber or in his Walks when the whole Dependance was on the Successor so if we by turns look a little at the Successor those who did this in so scandalous a manner ought not to take it so very ill from us In a melancholy State of things it is hard to deny us the Consolation of hoping that we may see better Days But since our Author is so much concerned that this Letter should not be in any manner imputed to the Princess it seems a little strange that the Prince is so given up by him that he is at no pains to clear him of the Imputation For the happy Union that is between them will readily make us conclude that if the Prince ordered it the Princess had likewise her share in it I find but one glance at the Prince in the whole Book Pag. 52. when the Author is pleasing himself with the hopes of Protection from the Royal Heir out of a sense of Filial Duty He concludes Especially when so nearly allied to the very Bosom of a Prince whose way of Worship neither is the same with the National here and in whose Countries all Religions have been ever alike tolerated The Phrase of so near an Alliance to the very Bosom of a Prince is somewhat extraordinary An Author that will be florid scorns so simple an Expression as married he thought the other was more lofty But the matter of this Period is more remarkable it intimates as if the Prince's way of Worship was so different from ours tho we hear that he goes frequently with the Princess to her Chappel and expresses no aversion to any of our Forms tho he thinks it decent to be more constantly in the Exercises of Devotion that are authorised in Holland And as for that that all Religions have been ever alike tolerated there it is another of our Author's flights I do not hear that there are either Bonzis or Bramans in Holland or that the Mahometans have their Mosques there And sure his Friends the Roman Catholicks will tell him that all Religions are not alike tolerated there Thus I have followed him more largely in this Article than in any other it being that of the greatest Importance by which he had endeavoured to blast all the good effects which the Pensioners Letter has had among us IX I have now gone over that which I thought most important in this Paper and in which it seemed necessary to inform the Publick aright without insisting on the particular Slips of the Author of it or of the Advantages that he gives to any that would answer him more particularly I cannot think that any Man in the Nation can be now so weak as not to see what must needs be the effect of the Abolition of the Test after all that we see and hear it is too great an Affront to Mankind to offer to make it out A Man's Understanding may really mislead him so far as to make him change his Religion he remaining still an honest Man but no Man can pretend to be thought an honest Man that betrays the legal and now the only visible Defences of that Religion which he professes The taking away the Test for publick Employments is to set up an Office at Father Peter's for all Pretenders and perhaps a Pretender will not be so much as received till he has first abjured so that every Vacancy will probably make five or six Profelites and those Protestants who are already in Employments will feel their ground quickly fail under them and upon the first Complaint they will see what must be done to restore them to favour And as for the two Houses of Parliament as a great Creation will presently give them the Majority in the House of Lords so a new set of Charters and bold Returns will in a little time give them likewise the Majority in the House of Commons and if it is to be supposed that Protestants who have all the Security of the Law for their Religion can throw that up who can so much as doubt that when they have brought themselves into so naked a condition it will be no hard thing to overturn their whole Establishment and then perhaps we shall be told more plainly what is now but darkly insinuated to us by this Author that the next Heir seems still to be so nearly related to this State. AN APOLOGY FOR THE CHURCH of ENGLAND With Relation to the Spirit of PERSECUTION For which She is accused I. ONE should think that the Behaviour of the English Clergy for some Years past and the present Circumstances in which they are should set them beyond Slander and by consequence above Apologies yet since the Malice of her Enemies works against her with so much Spight and since there is no Insinuation that carries so much Malice in it and that seems to have such colours of Truth on it as this of their having set on a severe Persecution against the Dissenters of being still sour'd with that Leaven and of carrying the same implacable Hatred to them which the present Reputation that they have gained may put them in a further capacity of executing if another Revolution of Affairs should again give them Authority set about it it seems necessary to examine it and that the rather because some aggravate this so far as if nothing were now to be so much dreaded as the Church of England's getting out of her present Distress II. If these Imputations were charged on us only by those of the Church of Rome we should not much wonder at it for though it argues a good degree of Confidence for any of that Communion to declaim against the Severities that have been put in Practice among us since their little Finger must be heavier than ever our Loins were and to whose Scorpions our Rods ought not to be compared yet after all we are so much accustomed to their Methods that nothing from them can surprise us To hear Papists declare against Persecution and Jesuits cry up Liberty of Conscience are we confess unusual things yet there are some degrees of Shame over which when People are once passed all things become
so familiar to them that they can no more be put out of countenance But it seems very strange to us that some who if they are to be believed are strict to the severest Forms and Sub-divisions of the Reformed Religion and who some Years ago were jealous of the smallest steps that the Court made when the danger was more remote and who cried out Popery and Persecution when the design was so mask'd that some well-meaning Men could not miss being deceived by the Promises that were made and the Disguises that were put on that I say these very Persons who were formerly so distrustful should now when the Mask is laid off and the Design is avowed of a sudden grow to be so believing as to throw off all Distrust and be so gulled as to betray all and to expose us to the Rage of those who must needs give some good words till they have gone the round and tried how effectually they can divide and deceive us that so they may destroy us the more easily this is indeed somewhat extraordinary They are not so ignorant as not to know that Popery cannot change its Nature and that Cruelty and Breach of Faith to Hereticks are as necessary parts of that Religion as Transubstantiation and the Pope's Supremacy are If Papists were not Fools they must give good Words and fair Promises till by these they have so far deluded the poor credulous Hereticks that they may put themselves in a posture to execute the Decrees of their Church against them and though we accuse that Religion as guilty both of Cruelty and Treachery yet we do not think them Fools so till their Party is stronger than God be thanked it is at present they can take no other method than that they take The Church of England was the Word among them somst Years ago Liberty of Conscieece is the Word at present and we have all possible reason to assure us that the Promises for maintaining the one will be as religiously kept as we see those are which were lately made with so great a profusion of Protestations and shews of Friendship for the supporting of the other III. It were great Injustice to charge all the Dissenters with the Impertinencies that have appeared in many Addresses of late or to take our measures of them from the impudent strains of an Alsop or a Care or from the more important and now more visible steps that some among them of a higher form are every day making and yet after all this it cannot be denied but the several Bodies of the Dissenters have behaved themselves of late like Men that understand too well the true Interest of the Protestant Religion and of the English Government to sacrifice the whole and themselves in Conclusion to their private Resentments I hope the same Justice will be allowed me in stating the matter relating to the so much decried Persecution set on by the Church of England and that I may be suffered to distinguish the Heats of some angry and deluded Men from the Doctrine of the Church and the Practices that have been authorized in it that so I may shew that there is no reason to infer from past Errors that we are incurable or that new Opportunities inviting us again into the same Severities are like to prevail over us to commit the same Follies over again I will first state what is past with the Sincerity that becomes one that would not lie for God that is not afraid nor ashamed to confess Faults that will neither aggravate nor extenuate them beyond what is just and that yet will avoid the saying of any thing that may give any cause of Offence to any Party in the Nation IV. I am very sorry that I must confess that all the Parties among us have shewed that as their turn came to be uppermost they have forgot the same Principles of Moderation and Liberty which they all claimed when they were oppressed If it should shew too much ill nature to examine what the Presbytery did in Scotland when the Covenant was in Dominion or what the Independents have done in New-England why may not I claim the same priviledg with relation to the Church of England if Severities have been committed by her while she bore Rule yet it were as easy as it would be invidious to shew that both Presbyterians and Independents have carried the Principle of Rigor in the point of Conscience much higher and have acted more implacably upon it than ever the Church of England has done even in its angriest fits so that none of them can much reproach another for their Excesses in those matters And as of all the Religions in the World the Church of Rome is the most persecuting and the most bound by her Principles to be unalterably cruel so the Church of England is the least persecuting in her Principles and the least obliged to repeat any Errors to which the Intrigues of Courts or the Passions incident to all Parties may have engaged her of any National Church in Europe It cannot be said to be any part of our Doctrine when we came out of one of the blackest Persecutions that is in History I mean Queen Mary's we shewed how little we retained of the Cruelty of that Church which had provoked us so severely when not only no Inquiries were made into the illegal Acts of Fury that were committed in that persecuting Reign but even the Persecutors themselves lived among us at Ease and in Peace and no Penal Law was made except against the publick Exercise of that Religion till a great many Rebellions and Treasons extorted them from us for our own Preservation This is an Instance of the Clemency of our Church that perhaps cannot be matched in History and why should it not be supposed that if God should again put us in the state in which we were of late that we should rather imitate so noble a Patern than return to those Mistakes of which we are now ashamed V. It is to be considered that upon the late King's Restauration the remembrance of the former War the ill usage that our Clergy had met with in their Sequestrations the angry Resentments of the Cavalier Party who were ruined by the War the Interest of the Court to have all those Principles condemned that had occasioned it the heat that all Parties that have been ill-used are apt to fall into upon a Revolution but above all the Practices of those who have still blown the Coals and set us one against another that so they might not only have a divided Force to deal with but might by turns make the Divisions among us serve their Ends All these I say concurred to make us lose the happy Opportunity that was offered in the Year 1660 to have healed all our Divisions and to have triumphed over all the Dissenters not by ruining them but by overcoming them with a Spirit of Love and Gentleness which is the only Victory that
been among us and even to forget the Injuries that have been done us all that we do now one against another is to shorten the work of our Enemies by destroying one another which must in Conclusion turn to all our Ruin. It is a mad Man's Revenge to destroy our Friends that we may do a pleasure to our Enemies upon their giving us some good words and if the Dissenters can trust to Papists after the usage that the Church of England has met with at their Hands all the Comfort that they can promise themselves when Popery begins to act its natural part among us and to set Smithfield again in a Fire is that which befell some Quakers at Rome who were first put in the Inquisition but were afterwards removed to Bedlam so tho those false Brethren among the Dissenters who deceive them at present are certainly no Changlings but know well what they are doing yet those who can be cheated by them may well claim the priviledg of a Bedlam when their Folly has left them no other Retreat XI I will not digress too far from my present purpose nor enter into a discussion of the Dispensing Power which was so effectually overthrown the other day at the King's Bench Bar that I am sure all the Authority of the Bench it self is no more able to support it Yet some late Papers in favour of it give me occasion to add a little relating to that Point It is true the Assertor of the Dispensing Power who has lately appeared with Allowance pretends that it can only be applied to the Test for Publick Imployments for he owns that the Test for both Houses of Parliament is left entire as not within the compass of this extent of the Prerogative But another Writer whom by his Sense we must conclude an Irish Man by his Brow a Jesuit and by the bare designation in the Title Page of James Stewart's Letter a Quaker goes a strain higher and thinks the King is so absolutely the Sovereign as to the Legislative part of our Government that he may dissolve even the Parliament Test so nimbly has he leap'd from being a Secretary to a Rebellion to be an Advocate for Tyranny He fancies that because no Parliament can bind up another therefore they cannot limit the Preliminaries to a subsequen Parliament But upon what is it then that Counties have but two Knights and Burroughs as many that Men below such a value have no Vote that Sheriffs only receive Writs and return Elections besides many more necessary Requisites to the making a legal Parliament In short if Laws do not regulate the Election and Constitution of a Parliament all these things may be overthrown and the King may cast the whole Government in a new Mould as well as dissolve the Obligation that is on the Members of Parliament for taking the Test It is true that as soon as a Parliament is legally met and constituted it is tied by no Laws so far as not to repeal them But the Preliminaries to a Parliament are still Sacred as long as the Law stands that settled them for the Members are still in the quality of ordinary Subjects and not entred upon their share in the Legislative Power till they are constituted in a Parliament legally chosen and lawfully assembled that is having observed all the Requisites of the Law. But I leave that impudent Letter to return to the most modest Apology that has been yet writ for the Dispensing Power It yields that the King cannot abrogate Laws and pretends only that he can dispense with them And the distinction it puts between Abrogation and Dispensation is that the one is a total Repeal of the Law and that the other is only a slackning of its obligatory Force with Relation to a particular Man or to any Body of Men so that according to him a simple Abrogation or a total Repeal is beyond the compass of the Prerogative I desire then that this Doctrine may be applied to the following words of the Declaration from which the Reader may infer whether these do import a simple Abrogation or not and by Consequence if the Declaration is not Illegal We do hereby further declare that it is our Royal Will and Pleasure that the Oaths commonly called the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and also the several Tests and Declarations shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken declared or subscribed by any Person or Persons whatsoever who is or shall be imployed in any Office or Place of Trust either Civil or Military under us or in our Government This is plain English and needs no Commentary That Paper offers likewise an Expedient for securing Liberty of Conscience by which it will be set beyond even the Dispensing Power and that is that by Act of Parliament all Persecution may be declared to be a thing Evil in it self and then the Prerogative cannot reach it But unless this Author fancies that a Parliament is that which those of the Church of Rome believe a General Council to be I mean Infallible I do not see that such an Act would signify any thing at all An Act of Parliament cannot change the Nature of Things which are sullen and will not alter because a hard Word is clap'd on them in an Act of Parliament nor can that make that which is not Evil of it self become Evil of self For can any Act of Parliament make the Clipping of Mony or the not Burying in Wollen evil of it self Such an Act were indeed null of it self and would sink with its own weight even without the burden of the Prerogative to press it down and yet upon such a Sandy Foundation would these Men have us build all our Hopes and our Securities Another Topick like this is that we ought to trust to the Truth of our Religion and the Providence and Protection of God and not lean so much to Laws and Tests All this were very pertinent if God had not already given us humane Assurances against the Rage of our Enemies which we are now desired to abandon that so we may fall an easy and cheap Sacrifice to those who wait for the favourable Moment to destroy us By the same Reason they may perswade us to take off all our Doors or at least all our Locks and Bolts and to sleep in this exposed Condition trusting to God's Protection The Simily may appear a little too high though it is really short of the Matter for we had better trust our selves to all the Thieves and Robbers of the Town who would be perhaps contented with a part of our Goods than to those whose Designs are equally against both Soul and Body and all that is dear to us XII I will only add another Reflection upon the renewing of the Declaration this Year which has occasioned the present Storm upon the Clergy It is repeated to us that so we may see that the King continues firm to the Promises he made
Authority and Princely Power the Happiness Stabilitie and Quyetness of Our Subjects do depend Hes most perfidiously and treasonably presumed to commit and is guilty of the Crimes above mentioned in sua far as Archbald Campbel sometime Earl of Argyle James Stewart Sone to Sir James Stewart sometime Provost of Edinburgh Mr. Robert Ferguson sometime Chaplain to the late Earl of Shaftsbury Thomas Stewart of Cultness William Denholn sometime of Westsheils Master Robert Martin sometime Clerk to our Iustice-Court and several other Rebells and Traitors being most justy by our high Courts of Parliaments and Iustice Court Forfaulted for the Crimes of Treason and fled to our Kingdom of England and to Holland Flanders Geneva and several other places The said Doctor Gibert Burnet did upon the First Second and remanent days of the Month of January February and remainent Months of the Year one thousand six hundred eighty two one thousand six hundred eighty three one thousand six hundred eighty four or January February March or Aprile one thousand six hundred eighty five Converse Correspond and Intercommon with the said Archbald late Earl of Argyle a Forfaulted Traitor and that within the said Doctor Burnet his Dwelling-Hous in Lincolns-Inne Fields near the Plow-Inn in our City of London or Suburbs thereof or some other part or place within our Kingdom of England Defamed Sclandered and Reproached and Advisedlie spoke to the Disdain and Reproach of our Person Government and Authority wrote several Letters and receaved Answers thereto from the said Forfaulted Traitor when he was in Holland or elsewhere expressely contrary to his Duty and Allegeance to Vs his Soveraign Lord and King. And suklick upon the first second and third dayes of the Months of May June July August September October November and December one thousand six hundred eighty five and upon the first second and third dayes of the Moneths of January February and remanent Moneths of the Year one thousand six hundred eighty six and first second and third dayes of the Moneths of January February March one thousand six hundrd eighty seven or any or other of the dayes of any or other of the said Moneths or Years The said Doctor Gilbert Burnet did most treasonable Recept Supplied Aided Assisted Conversed and Intercomoned with and did Favours to the said James Stewart Mr. Robert Ferguson Thomas Stewart William Denholm and Mr. Robert Martyn forfaulted Traitors and Rebells in the Cityes of Rotterdam Amsterdam Leyden Breda Geneva or some other part or place within the Netherlands or elsewhere publickly and avowedly uttered several Speeches and Positions to the Disdain of our Person Authority and Government continues and persists in such undutiful and treasonable Practises against Vs and Our Government We being his Soveraign Lord and Prince expreslie contrair to his Allegeance and Duty By committing of the whilk Crimes above specifyed or either of them the said Doctor Burnet is guilty and culpable of the Crime of High Treason and is Art and Part thereof which being found be any Inquest he ought and should to suffer Forfaulture of Life Land and Goods to the Terror and Example of others to commit the like hereafter Our Will is theirfore and we charge you straitlie and Command that incontinent this our Letter seen yee pass and in our Name and Authority Command and Charge the said Doctor Gilbert Burnet above complained upon be sound of Trumpet with displayed Coat and using other Solemnities necessar to come and find sufficient Caution and Sovertie acted in our Books of Adjournal that he shall compeir before our Lords Iustice General Iustice Clerk and Commissioners of Iusticiary within the Tolbuith or Criminal Court-hous of Edinburgh the twentie sevinth day of June next to come in the hour of Caus there to underlie the Law for the Crymes above mentiond and that under the Paines contained in the new Acts of Parliament And that yee charge him personally if he can be apprehended and falizeing thereof at his dwelling-hous and be open Proclamation at the Mercat Cross of the head Burgh of the Shyre Stewartis Regalitie and other Iurisdiction where he dwells to come and find the said Sovertie acted in manner forsaid within six dayes if he be within this our Kingdom and if he be out with the Samyue that ye command and charge him in manner forsaid be open Proclamation at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh Peer and Shoar of Leith to come and find the said Sovertie within threescore dayes next after he is charged be you thereto under the Paine of Rebellion and putting of him to our Horne Whilst six and threescore dayes respectively being by-past and the said Sovertie not being found nor no Intimation made be him to you of the finding thereof that ye incontinent thereafter denunce him our Rebel and put him to our Horne Escheat and inbring all his moveable Goods and Geir to our use for his Contemption and Disobedience And if he come and find the said Sovertie Intimation alwayes being made be him to yow of the finding thereof that summond and Assyse hereto not exceeding the number of fourtie fyve Persons together with such Witnesses who best know the Veritie of the Premisses whose Names shall be given you in Roll subscribed by the said Complautor Ilk Person under the paine of one hundred Merks And that ye within fiftein dayes after his denunciation for not finding of Caution caus registrate thir Our Letters with your Executions thereof in Our Books of Adjournal conforme to the Act of Parliament made there-anent According to Iustice as ye will answer to Vs thereupon the whilk to doe Committs to yow conjunctly and severallie Our full Power be thir Our Letters delyvering them be yow duelie Execute and Indorsat again to the bearer Given under Our Signet at Edinburgh the nynteinth day of Aprile and of Our Reign the third Year 1678. Ex deliberatione Dominorum Commissionariorum Justiciarii sit subscribitur Signed 19. Apryle 1687. THO. GOFDONNE The Witnesses against Dr. Gilbert Burnet are Sir John Cochran of Ockiltree John Cochran of Wattersyd Mr. Robert West Lawyer Englishman Mr. Zachary Bourne Brewer Englishman Mr. William Carstaires Preacher Robert Baird Merchant in Holland Mr. Richard Baxter Preacher AN ANSWER TO THE Criminal Letters issued out against me I Look upon it as a particular Misfortune that I am forced to answer a Citation that is made in his Majesty's Name which will be ever so sacred with me that nothing but the sense of an Indispensable Duty could draw from me any thing that looks like a contending with that sublime Character I owe the Defence of my own Innocence and of my Reputation and Life to my self I owe also to all my Kindred and Friends to my Religion as I am a Christian and a Protestant and to my Profession as I am a Church-man and above all to His Majesty as I am his born Subject such a Vindication of my Loyalty and Integrity as may make it appear that my not
the Reflections that I have already mentioned To the second I said I could not be a Fugitive since I had come out of Scotland fourteen years ago and after eleven years stay in England had come out of it three years ago by the King's leave As for my being a Rebel I could answer nothing to that till I saw the Judgment that had passed upon me but I was now the Subject of the States and as I humbly claimed their Protection so I pretended to no Protection against Justice but offered my self to a Tryal if any thing was laid to my charge This being reported to the States of Holland they were so far satisfied with my Answer that the substance of it was put in the form of an Answer to the two Memorials The whole amounts to this that I was become their subject by being naturalized before this process was begun against me so that I am now under their Protection But if there is any thing to be objected to me that can bear a Tryal they will give order that full and speedy Justice shall be done upon it in the Court of Holland Upon this a 3d Memorial was given in to which the Articles of the Treaty between the King and the States were annexed relating to Fugitives and Rebels and it was said in it that the States were bound to execute these with relation to me without taking upon them to examine the grounds upon which the sentence was past And because here lies the strength of the whole matter I shall offer such Considerations upon it as will I hope satisfie all persons 1. No Sentence is either passed or produced against me for I am not declared by any Judgment either Rebel or Fugitive and by the 7th Article all Condemnations ought to be notified by publick and Authentical letters which must be understood of a Record of the sentence that ought to be produced whereas there is nothing shewed in my case but only a Memorial 2. All Treaties especially in the odious parts of them are to be understood according to the common acceptation of the terms contained in them and not according to the particular forms of any Courts of Justice the common acceptance of Fugitive is a man that flies away after a crime committed from the prosecution of Justice and a Rebel in the common acceptation is a man that has born Arms against his Prince since then I am not so much as charged with either of these I cannot be comprehended in the Article of the Treaty for this must be the only sense according to which the States are bound to deny harbour to Declared Rebels and Fugitives 3. That which puts an end to the whole matter is that before I writ that Letter upon which I am now prosecuted I was become a Subject of the States and by Consequence was no more in a Capacsty to be either the King's Rebel or Fugitive And the point of Naturalizing Strangers is now such an universal Practice that the right of granting it is inseperable from Soveraign Power so that either the States have this Right or they are no more a Free and Soveraign State. And the obligations of honour that all Soveraigns come under to protect those whom they naturalize against every thing but their own Justice is no dark point of Law but is that which every Prince knows and practices as oft as there is occasion for it The King of France has used all the Naturalized Srangers in the same manner that he has used his own subjects in the point of Religion and tho the French Protestants that are gone into England are according to the severity of the Edicts passed against them made Criminals for flying out of that Kingdom so that according to the Letter of those Edicts they are Fugitives yet the King has received them all owned them for his Subjects naturalised some and supplied others of them by a Bounty truly worthy of so great a Prince and if the King does this to those of another Religion that do fly out of the Dominions of a Prince with whom he is in peace The States could not with any colour of reason refuse to Naturalise me who am of their own Religion when after so long a stay among them it appeared that the King had nothing ro lay to my charge and they having Naturalised me if they should withdraw their Protection before I had forfeited it by any illegal Action of mine they should make a Breach upon the Publick Liberty upon which their Government is chiefly founded And it is to be observed that the Treaty between the King and them as to the Articles concerning Rebels and Fugitives is Reciprocal as all the Ancient Treaties between the Crown of England and the Princes of these Provinces before the formation of the Commonwealth ever were as to this particular so that they can be no more bound to the King by it than the King is bound to them Now let us suppose that the King Naturalises a Dutchman by which he is admitted to all the Priviledges of an Englishman if the Dutch should after that condemn this person as guilty of Rebellion the King could not upon the States demanding of him deliver him up or banish him at his pleasure since this cannot be done arbitrarily to any Englishman without a legal tryal by his Peers and therefore it is plain that my case does not at all fall within the Articles of the Treaty so that in this whole matter the States have acted as a free State that was careful to maintain its Honour and to assert its being an Independent Soveraignty and for my own part I can appeal to all the Members of the States of Holland if I made any applications to them as if I would value my self on my being supported in opposition to the Envoy's Memorial I staid at home while the thing was under consultation without making Addresses to any one of them as to my own particular It is true I would not withdraw of my own accord from my own house which I thought would have been a forsaking the Rights of the Countrey a mistrusting the Protection of my Soveraigns as well as my own Innocence and an abandoning of the post in which God by his Providence has placed me And I am resolved rather to run the risque of all that with which I am threatned than show the least unbecoming fear I thank God I make use of that common but Noble expression that I am neither afraid to dye nor ashamed to live I will not go further into dark thoughts tho I know enough of of the contrivances against me by an order of men whose souls are as black as their Habits Tho for a great while I thought that the meanness of my person was such that even success in any design against me could not have counterballanced the Infamy of it Thus I hope those hard words of high treason or Rebellion will make no impressions on