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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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be that the Nobleness of his Birth and the Gentleness of his Temper are too hard even for his Religion and his Purple to be mastered by them And it is a Contradiction that nothing but a Belief capable of receiving Transubstantiation can recoucile to see Men pretend to observe Law and yet to find at the same time an Ambassadour from England at Rome when there are so many Laws in our Pook of Statutes never yet Repealed that have declared over and over again all Commerce with the Court and Sâ—e of Rome to be High Treason V. The late famous Judgment of our Judges who knowing no other way to make their Names immortal have found an effectual one to preserve â—hem from being ever forgot seems to call for another Method of Proceeding The Pâ—esident they have set must be Fatal either to them oâ—â—ns For if Twelâ—e Men that get into Scarlet and Fuâ—s have an Authority to dissolve all our Laws the English Government is to be hereafter lookt at with as much Scorn as it has hitherto drawn Admiration That doubtful Words of Laws made so long ago that the intention of the Lawgivers is not certainly known must be expounded by the Judges is not to be question'd but to infer from thence that the plain Words of a Law so lately made and that was so vigorously asserted by the present Parliament may be made void by a Decision of theirs after so much Practice upon them is just as reasonable a way of Aâ—puing as theirs is who because the Church of England acknowledges that the Church has a Power in Matters of Rites and Ceremonies will from thence conclude that this Power must go so far that tho Christ has said of the Cup Drink ye all of it we must obey the Church when she decrees that we shall not drink of it Our Judges for the greater part were Men that had past their Lives in so much Retirement that from thence one might have hoped that they had studied our Law well since the Bar had â—alled them so seldome from their Studies and if Practice is thought often hurâ—ful â—o Speculation as that which disorders and hurries the Judgment they who had practised so little in our Law had no byass on their Understandings and if the habit of taking Money as a Lawyer is a dangerous preparation for one that is to be an incorrupt Judge they should have been incorruptible since it is not thought that the greater part of them got ever so much Money by their Profession as pay'd for their Furs In short we now see how they have merited their Preferment and they may yet expect a further Exalcation when the Justice and the Laws of England come to be in hands that will be as careful to preserve them as they have been no destroy them But what an Infamy will it lay upon the Name of an English Parliament if instead of calling those Betrayers of their Countrey to an account they should go by an after-game to confirm what these Fellows haâ—e done VI. The late Canferences with so many Members of both houses will give such an ill-natured piece of Jealousy against them that of all Persons living that are the most concern'd to take care how they give their Votes the World will believe that Threatnings and Promises had as large a share in those secret Conversations as Reasoning or Persuasion and it must be a more than ordinary degree of zeal and Courage in them that must take off the Blot of being sent for and spoke to on such a subject and such a manner The worthy Behaviour of the Members in the last Session had made the Nation unwilling to remember the Errors committed in the first Election and it is to be hoped that they will not give any cause for the future to call that to mind For if a Parliament that had so many Flaws in its first Conception goes to repeal Laws that we are sure were made by Legal Parliaments it will put the Nation on an Enquiry that nothing but necessity will drive them to For a Nation may be laid asleep and be a little cheated but when it is awakned and sees its danger it will not look on and see a Rape made on its Religion and Liberties without examining from whence have these Men this Authority they will hardly find that it is of Men and they will not believe that it is of God But it is to be hoped that there will be no occasion given for this angry question which is much easier made than answered VII If all that where now asked in favour of Popery were only some Gentleness towards the Papists there were some reason to entertain the Debate when the Demand were a little more modest If Men were to be attainted of Treason for being Reconciled to the Church of Rome or for Reconciling others to it If Priests were demanded to be hanged for taking Orders in the Church of Rome and if the two thirds of the Papists Estates were offered to be Levied it were a very natural thing to see them uneasy and restless but now the matter is more barefaced they are not contented to live at ease and enjoy their Estates but they must carry all before them and F. Petre cannot be at quiet unless he makes as great a Figure in our Court as Pere de la Chaise does at Versailles A Cessation of all Severities against them is that to which the Nation would more easily submit but it is their Behaviour that must create them the continuance of the like Compassion in another Reign If a restless and a persecuting Spirit were not inherent in that Order that has now the Ascendant they would have behaved themselves so decently under their present Advantages as to have made our Divines that have charged them so heavily look a little out of countenance and this would have wrought more on the good Nature of the Nation and the Princly Nobleness of the Successors whom we have in view than those Arts of Craft and Violence to which we see their Tempers carry them even so early before it is yet time to show themselves The Temper of the English Nation the Heroical Vertues of those whom we have in our Eyes but above all our most holy Religion which instead of Revenge and Cruelty inspires us with Charity and Mercy even for Enemies are all such things as may take from the Gentlemen of that Religion all sad apprehensions unless they raise a Storm against themselves and provoke the Iustice of the Nation to such a degree that the Successors may find it necessary to be Iust even when their own Inclinations would rather carry them to shew Mercy In short they need fear nothing but what they create to themselves so that all this stir that they keep for their own Safety looks too like the securing to themselves Pardons for the Crimes that they intend to commit VIII I know it is objected as no small