must at least acquiesce tho they are not Infallible there being still a sort of an Appeal to be made to the Soveraign or the Supream Legislative Body so the Church has a Subaltern Jurisdiction but as the Authority of inferior Judges is still regulated and none but the Legislators themselves have an Authority equal to the Law So it is not necessary for the Preservation of Peace and Order that the Decisions of the Church should be Infallible or of equal Authority with the Scriptures If Judges do so manifestly abuse their Authority that they fall into Rebellion and Treason the Subjects are no more bound to consider them but are obliged to resist them and to maintain their Obedience to their Soveraign tho in other matters their Judgment must take place till they are reversed by the Soveraign The case of Religion being then this That Jesus Christ is the Soveraign of the Church the Assembly of the Pastors is only a Subaltern Judg If they manifestly oppose themselves to the Scriptures which is the Law of Christians particular Persons may be supposed as competent Judges of that as in Civil Matters they may be of the Rebellion of the Judges and in that case they are bound still to maintain their Obedience to Jesus Christ in matters Indifferent Christians are bound for the Preservation of Peace and Unity to acquiesce in the Decision of the Church and in matters justly doubtful or of small Consequence tho they are convinced that the Pastors have erred yet they are obliged to be Silent and to bear tolerable things rather than make a Breach but if it is visible that the Pastors do Rebel against the Soveraign of the Church I mean Christ the People may put in their Appeal to that great Judg and there it must lie If the Church did use this Authority with due Discretion and the People followed the Rules that I have named with Humility and Modesty there would be no great danger of many Divisions but this is the great Secret of the Providence of God that men are still men and both Pastors and People mix their Passions and Interests so with matters of Religion that there is a great deal of Sin and Vice still in the World so that it appears in the Matters of Religion as well as in other things but the ill Consequences of this tho they are bad enough yet are not equal to the Effects that ignorant Superstition and obedient Zeal have produced in the World witness the Rebellions and Wars for establishing the Worship of Images the Croissades against the Saracens in which many Millions were lost those against Hereticks and Princes deposed by Popes which lasted for some Ages and the Massacre of Paris with the Butcheries of the Duke of Alva in the last Age and that of Ireland in this which are I suppose far greater Mischiefs than any that can be imagined to arise out of a small diversity of Opinion and the present State of this Church notwithstanding all those unhappy Rents that are in it is a much more desirable thing than the gross Ignorance and blind Superstition that reigns in Italy and Spain at this day IX All these reasonings concerning the Infallibility of the Church signify nothing unless we can certainly know whither we must go for this Decision for while one Party shews us that it must be in the Pope or is no where and another Party says it cannot be in the Pope because as many Popes have erred so this is a Doctrine that was not known in the Church for a thousand years and that has been disputed ever since it was first asserted we are in the right to believe both sides first that if it is not in the Pope it is no where and then that certainly it it not in the Pope and it is very Incongruous to say That there is an Infallible Authority in the Church and that yet it is not certain where one must seek for it for the one ought to be as clear as the other and it is also plain that what Primacy soever St. Peter may be supposed to have had the Scripture says not one word of his Successors at Rome so at least this is not so clear as a matter of this Consequence must have been if Christ had intended to have lodged such an Authority in that See. X. It is no less Incongruous to say that this Infallibility is in a General Council for it must be somewhere else otherwise it will return only to the Church by some Starts and after long Intervals and as it was not in the Church for the first 320 years so it has not been in the Church these last 120 years It is plain also that there is no Regulation given in the Scriptures concerning this great Assembly who have a right to come and Vote and what forfeits this Right and what numbers must concur in a Decision to assure us of the Infallibility of the Judgment It is certain there was never a General Council of all the Pastors of the Church for those of which we have the Acts were only the Councils of the Roman Empire but for those Churches that were in the South of Africk or the Eastern Parts of Asia beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire as they could not be summoned by the Emperor's Authority so it is certain none of them were present unless one or two of Persia at Nice which perhaps was a Corner of Persia belonging to the Empire and unless it can be proved that the Pope has an Absolute Authority to cut off whole Churches from their right of coming to Councils there has been no General Council these last 700. years in the World ever since the Bishops of Rome have excommunicated all the Greek Churches upon such trifling Reasons that their own Writers are now ashamed of them and I will ask no more of a Man of a competent Understanding to satisfy him that the Council of Trent was no General Council acting in that Freedom that became Bishops than that he will be at the pains to read Card. Pallavicin's History of that Council XI If it is said That this Infallibility is to be sought for in the Tradition of the Doctrine in all Ages and that every particular Person must examine this Here is a Sea before him and instead of examining the small Book of the New Testament he is involved in a Study that must cost a Man an Age to go thorow it and many of the Ages through which he carries this Enquiry are so dark and have produced so few Writers at least so few are preserved to our days that it is not possible to find out their belief We find also Traditions have varied so much that it is hard to say that there is much weight to be laid on this way of Conveyance A Tradition concerning Matters of Fact that all People see is less apt to fail than a Tradition of Points of Speculation and yet we see very
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
high had more Heat than Decency in it And indeed all this was so very extraordinary that if She was not acted by a Principle of Conscience She could make no Excuse for her Conduct There appeared such peculiar Marks of Affection and Heartiness at every time that the Duke was named whether in drinking his Health or upon graver Occasions that it seemed affected And when the late King himself whose Word they took that he was a Protestant was spoke of but coldly the very Name of the Duke set her Children all on fire this made many conclude that they were ready to sacrifice all to him for indeed their Behaviour was inflamed with so much Heat that the greater part of the Nation believed they waited for a fit opportunity to declare themselves Faith in Jesus Christ was not a more frequent Subject of the Sermons of many than Loyalty and the Right of the Succession to the Crown the Heat that appeared in the Pulpit and the Learning that was in their Books on these Subjects and the Eloquent Strains that were in their Addresses were all Originals and made the World conclude That whatever might be laid to their charge they should never be accused of any want of Loyalty at least in this King's time while the remembrance of so signal a Service was so fresh When His Majesty came to the Crown these men did so entirely depend on the Promise that he made to maintain the Church of England that the doubting of the performance appeared to them the worst sort of Infidelity They believed that in His Majesty the Hero and the King would be too strong for the Papist and when any one told them How weak a tie the Faith of a Catholick to Hereticks must needs be they could not hearken to this with any patience but looked on his Majesties Promise as a thing so Sacred that they imploy'd their Interest to carry all Elections of Parliament-men for those that were recommended by the Court with so much Vigour that it laid them open to much Censure In Parliament they moved for no Laws to secure their Religion but assuring themselves that Honour was the King's Idol they laid hold on it and fancied that a publick reliance on his Word would give them an Interest in His Majesty that was Generous and more sutable to the Nobleness of a Princely Nature than any new Laws could be so that they acquiesced in it and gave the King a vast Revenue for life In the Rebellion that followed they shewed with what Zeal they adhered to His Majesty even against a Pretender that declared for them And in the Session of Parliament which came after that they shewed their disposition to assist the King with new Supplies and were willing to excuse and indemnifie all that was past only they desired with all possible Modesty that the Laws which His Majesty had both Promised and at his Coronation had Sworn to maintain might be executed Here is their Crime which has raised all this Out cry they did not move for the Execution of Severe or Penal Laws but were willing to let those sleep till it might appear by the behaviour of the Papists whether they might deserve that there should be any Mitigation made of them in their Favour Since that time our Church men have been constant in mixing their Zeal for their Religion against Popery with a Zeal for Loyalty against Rebellion because they think these two are very well consistent one with another It is true they have generally expressed an unwillingness to part with the two Tests because they have no mind to trust the keeping of their Throats to those who they believe will cut them And they have seen nothing in the Conduct of the Papists either within or without the Kingdom to make them grow weary of the Laws for their sakes and the same Principle of common Sense which makes it so hard for them to believe Transubstantiation makes them conclude That the Author of this Paper and his Friends are no other than what they hear and see and know them to be II. One Instance in which the Church of England shewed her Submission to the Court was that as soon as the Nonconformists had drawn a new Storm upon themselves by their medling in the matter of the Exclusion many of her zealous Members went into that Prosecution of them which the Court set on foot with more Heat than was perhaps either justifiable in it self or reasonable in those Circumstances but how censurable soever some angry men may be it is somewhat strange to see those of the Church of Rome blame us for it which has decreed such unrelenting Severities against all that differ from her and has enacted that not only in Parliaments but even in General Councils It must needs sound odly to hear the Sons of a Church that must destroy all others as soon as it can compass it yet complain of the Excesses of Fines and Imprisonments that have been of late among us But if this Reproach seems a little strange when it is in the Mouth of a Papist it is yet much more provoking when it comes from any of the Court. Were not all the Orders for the late Severity sent from thence Did not the Judges in every Circuit and the Favourite Justices of Peace in every Sessions imploy all their Eloquence on this Subject The Directions that were given to the Justices and the Grand Juries were all repeated Aggravations of this Matter and a little Ordinary Lawyer without any other visible Merit but an outragious Fury in those Matters on which he has chiefly valued himself was of a sudden taken into His Majesties special Favour and raised up to the Highest Posts of the Law. All these things led some of our Obedient Clergy to look on it as a piece of their Duty to the King to encourage that Severity of which the Court seemed so fond that almost all People thought they had set it up for a Maxim from which they would never depart I will not pretend to excuse all that has been done of late years but it is certain that the most crying Severities have been acted by Persons that were raised up to be Judges and Magistrates for that very end they were Instructed Trusted and Rewarded for it both in the last and under the present Reign Church Preferments were distributed rather as Recompences of this devouring Zeal than of a real Merit and men of more moderate Tempers were not only ill lookt at but ill used So that it is in it self very unreasonable to throw the load of the late Rigour on the Church of England without distinction but it is worse than in good manners it is fit to call it if this Reproach comes from the Court. And it is somewhat unbecoming to see that which was set on at one time disowned at another while yet he that was the Chief Instrument in it is still in so high a Post and begins
the Council of Scotland that Husbands should be fined for their Wives not going to Church tho' it was not founded on any Law. And of all Men living he ought to be the last that should speak of the taking away of Estates who got a very fair one during the present Reign by an Act of Parliament that attainted a Gentleman in a Method as new as his Stile is upon this ground that two Privy Counsellors declared they belived him guilty He will hardly find among all the Maxims of those Protestant persecuting Kings any one that will justifie this It seems the New Stile is not very copious in Words since Doctrine is three times repeated in so short a Letter He tells them that their Doctrine must tend to cause all the Subjects to walk obediently now by obediently in this Stile is to obey the Absolute Power without reserve for to obey according to Law would pass now for a Crime This being then his meaning it is probable that the Encouragements which are necessary to make His Majesty continue the happiness of his Subjects will not be so very great as to merit the perpetuating this Favour There is with this a heavy charge laid upon them as to their Practice that it must be such as shall be most pleasing to his Majesty for certainly that can only be by their turning Pastpis since a Prince that is so zealous for his Religion as His Majesty is cannot be so well pleased with any other thing as with this Their concurring with the King to remove the Penal Laws comes over again for tho' Repetitions are Impertinencies in the Common Stile they are Flowers in the new one In Conclusion he tells them That the King expects that they will continue their Prayers for him yet this does not agree too well with a Catholick Zeal for the Prayers of damned Hereticks cannot be worth the asking for the third time he tells them to look well to their Doctrine now this is a little ambiguous for it may either signifie that they should study the Controversies well so as to be able to defend their Doctrine solidly or that they should so mince it that nothing may fall from them in their Sermons against Popery this will be indeed a looking to their Doctrine but I do not know whether it will be thought a looking well to it or not He adds That their Example be influential I confess this hard new word frighted me I suppose the meaning of it is That their Practice may be such as that it may have an Influence on others yet there are both good and bad Influences a good Influence will be the animating the People to a Zeal for their Religion and a bad one will be the stackning and softning of that Zeal A little more clearness here had not been amiss As for the last Words of this Letter That all these are his Majesty's Commands it is very hard for me to bring my self to believe them For certainly he has more Piety for the Memory of the late Martyr and more regard both to himself to his Children and to his People than to have ever given any such Commands In order to the communicating this Piece of Elegance to the World I wish the translating it into French were recommended to Mr. d' Albeville that it may appear whether the Secretary-Stile will look better in his Irish-French than it does now in the Scotch-English of him who penned it REFLECTIONS ON A PAMPHLET Entitled PARLIAMENTUM PACIFICUM Licensed by the EARL of SVNDERLAND AND Printed at London in March 1688. I. PEace is a very desirable thing yet every State that is peaceable is not blindly to be courted An Apoplexy is the most peaceable State in which a Man's Body can be laid yet few would desire to pacifie the Humours of their Body at that rate An Implicite Faith and Absolute Slavery are the two peaceablest things that can be yet we confess we have no mind to try so dangerous an Experiment and while the Remedies are too strong we will chuse rather to bear our Disease than to venture on them The Instance that is proposed to the Imitation of the Nation is that Parliament which called in the late King and yet that cannot so much as be called a Parliament unless it be upon a Commonwealth Principle That the Sovereign Power is radically in the People For its being chosen without the King 's Writ was such an Essential Nullity that no subsequent Ratification could take it away For all People saw that they could not depend upon any Acts past by it and therefore it was quickly dissolved and ever since it has been called by all the Monarchical Party a Convention and not a Parliament But now in order to the courting the Common-wealth Party this is not only called a Parliament but is proposed as a Pattern to all others from the beginning to Page 19. II. But since this Author will send us back to that Time and since he takes it so ill that the Memory of the late King should be forgotten let us examine that Transaction a little and then we shall see whether it had not been more for His Honour to let it be forgotten The King did indeed in his Declaration from Breda promise Liberty of Conscience on which he insisted in a large and wise Declaration set out after he was setled on the Throne but after that he had got a Parliament chosen all of Creatures depending on himself who for many years granted him every thing that he desired a severe Act of Uniformity was passed and the King's Promise was carried off by this That the King could not refuse to comply with so Loyal a Parliament It is well enough known that those who were then secretly Papists and who disguised their Religion for many Years after this as the King himself did to the last animated the Chief Men of our Church to carry the Points of Uniformity as high as was possible and that both then and ever since all that proposed any Expedients for uniting us or as it was afterwards termed for Comprehending the Dissenters were represented as the Betrayers of the Church The Design was then clear to some that so by carrying the Terms of Conformity to a great rigidity there might be many Nonconformists and great occasion given for a Toleration under which Popery might insensibly creep in For if the Expedients that the King himself proposed in his Declaration had been stood to it is well known that of the Two thousand Consciencious Ministers as he calls them pag. 14. by an Affectation too gross to pass on them that were turned out above Seventeen hundred had staid in Their Practices had but too good Success on those who were then at the Head of our Church whose Spirits were too much soured by their ill usage during the War and whose Principles led them to so good an Opinion of all that the Court did that for a great while they
Paganism had been still the Legal Religion notwithstanding its falshood and though the Truth of the Christian Religion is the only ground upon which we believe it yet it must become Legal as well as it is true before we can claim the Protection of the Law and the Government that has secured it to us so that to fight against Popery where that is the Establish'd Religion is as certainly a Sin as it is a Debt that we owe our Religion and Country to fight for the Protestant Religion when the Law is for it and illegal Violence is imployed to pull it down 6. The Reflector's Common-place-stuff with relation to the Dispensing Power has been so oft exposed that it scarce deserves a Review The Obligation of all Laws depends on the force of the Penalties against Trangressors so that the Dispensing with Penal Laws carries in it the Dispensing with all Laws whatsoever and by this Doctrine the whole Frame and Security of our Government is at the King's Discretion Nor will that distinction of malum in se and malum prohibitum save the matter unless all the World were agreed upon the point What things are evil of themselves and what not In the sense of a Papist all the Laws against their Religion are so far from being Obligatory of their own Nature that they are impious Attempts upon that Authority which they think infallible Therefore all the distinction that is offered to save us from the exorbitancy of this Dispensing Power as if it could not reach to things that are evil of themselves is of no force unless a measure were laid down in which both Protestants and Papists were agreed concerning things that are good or evil of themselves For instance Murther is allowed by all to be evil of it self yet if the Extirpation of Hereticks is a Duty incumbent on a Catholick King as we are sure it is then a Commission given to destroy us would be a justifiable Action and so the Laws against Murder and Manslaughter might in that case be dispensed with since the killing of Hereticks is by the Doctrine of Papists only Malum prohibitum and not malum in se 7. Our Author might have spar'd his Rhetorick how well soever he loads it upon the Head of Persecution and Liberty of Conscience if it had been but for this Reason that it discover'd too plainly who it was that wrote these Reflections which perhaps he may have e're long some Reasons to wish it were not so well known as he has taken pains to do by his luxuriant Stile All that can be said on this Head belongs very pertinently to the Consideration of a Parliament but is very improperly urged in favour of the bloodiest of all Persecutors who could not begin their breaking in upon our Laws and our Religion more dextrously than at this of Liberty of Conscience tho they themselves had been the Authors of all the Severities that had been acted among us and intended by this shew of Ease to bring us under all the Cruelties of an Inquisition which is one of the inseparable Perquisites of that bloody Religion 8. The greatest part of the Invasions made on our Government that are set forth in the Prince's Declaration are acknowledged to be such by our Reflector But he thinks they are now redressed The High Commission is at an end Magdalen Colledge is restor'd If the King had of his own motion and from a sense of the justice of the thing done all this while he apprehended no danger and if he had brought the Authors of those Pernicious Councils to condign Punishment then it had been more reasonable to value those Acts of Justice by which the former Violences had been in some measure repaired but what is done in the present Circumstances shews only a meanness of Spirit and a feebleness in the Government And some Mens Tempers are too well known to suffer us once to doubt of their returning back to all their former Violences and of their carrying them on to greater Excesses if God for the sins of the Nation should blast this Glorious Undertaking And if the Charters are now restor'd we know by the Proceedings of the late Regulators of Corporations that it was far from their thoughts but a little while ago so that this is likewise an effect of the present Fear they are under and it shews that after all their Huffings during their Prosperity they sink under Dangers as much as others whose Memory they are so careful to blemish how much soever they are beholden to them It is here said that most of the Charters were taken away in the late King's time But as it is well known under whose Influence the last years of the late Reign were conducted so the limiting the Elections to a speical number contrary to Custom and Prescription was the Invention of the present Reign 9. But if the Reflector will not justify every thing that the Government has done and thinks the present state of things could hardly bear so gross an Abuse yet he insists often upon this that these Illegal things were fit for the Consideration and the Redress of a Parliament and that they do not justify the Prince of Orange's Attempt But the Prince's Design is only to see a Free Parliament Chosen and Assembled according to Law. For our Author and his Complices for he reckons himself in the Ministry § 23. when he names the things objected against the Ministry as objected against us had taken such care to keep off a Parliament and to overturn all Corporations to corrupt all Elections and to provide for false Returns by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors that we were out of all hopes or rather out of a possibility of ever seeing a Free Parliament again so that any nearer Prospect that we now have of one is wholly owing to the Prince's Undertaking and indeed what is given us at present is done with so ill a Grace and the Popish and corrupt Ministry is still preserved and cherished with so particular a Confidence that they seem to have a mind to make the Nation see that all is done so grosly that those who are cheated by it will have no excuse for their Folly since the trick is acted with too bare a face to pass on any 10. The Reflector thinks that the Prince ought to have complained to the King of these Abuses though in other places of this Paper he pretends that the Prince was not a proper Judg in those Matters he aggravates the Prince's breaking with an Uncle and a Father-in-Law without warning given Indeed if this were the Case all that could be said upon it was that he had copied from the Pattern that was set him in 1672 in that famous Attempt on the Sinirna Fleet What Complaints the Prince made or what encouragement he had to make any and how they were entertain'd and answer'd are domestick matters of which the World knows little since all that has appear'd in publick was
Author and some others have often given it out as if I had Betrayed a Master and I may expect the next time that they will say that I Murdered my Father for the one is as true as the other I never had a Master but the King for the whole course of my Life raised me above the serving of any Subject A design proposed to me by one that is now Dead and therefore shall not be named by me of bringing in an Army out of Scotland for the Spoiling and Subduing of England gave me a just horror at the Proposition and I did all I could to withstand it The same great Person did quickly take up such a Jealousy of me that he did all he could to ruin me tho His present Majesty who had then the Goodness for me to endeavour to Pacify him owned to me that he could see nothing in his hatred of me but a violent Passion Yet he was resolved to throw me in a Prison where very probably I had languished away the rest of my Life if the King that now is had not been so gracious to me as to warn me of my Danger which made me leave Scotland and after I had suffered near two years all that Wrath armed with Power could do to me at last while I was under one of the sharp effects of that great Minister's anger I told a Person of Honour that which I believed was one of the grounds of it The Gentleman set this so about that as he himself was a Member of the House of Commons so it was known to a great many others upon which I was sent for by the House I declined for four several times to say what had been proposed to me and at last being threatned to be prosecuted by the House of Commons as an Enemy to the Nation I was thus unwillingly brought to own it But that Great Man fell no sooner under an Eclipse of Favour then tho I had felt the weight of his Credit for seven years together I made not only all the steps necessary for a Reconciliation but I engaged some then in Favour so far into his Interests that he expressed a very thankful acknowledgment of it and a perfect Reconciliation with me Tho upon some Reasons of his own our Meeting was not thought convenient and his own Nephew who being now of the Roman Communion is a Witness to whom I may the more freely appeal brought me very kind Messages from him and signified them to me after his Death As for all the other things that can be objected to me I pass them over as things which can very little hurt me The Author it seems pities Varillas's defeated Condition who as my Friends from Paris write to me does not so much as pretend to justify himself of all those gross Errors of which I have discovered him Guilty but says he has received an Order from the King to insist no more in the Dispute in which he and I were engaged Our Author will be a very fit Person to succeed to that Despicable Writer who fancies that I contradict my self in setting forth Q. Maries Clemency in one place and yet shewing in another how Unmerciful she shewed her self towards those that were condemned of Heresy The best Natures in the World can be corrupted by a false Religion and they being once possessed with cruel Principles the more Pious they are they will be the more true to the Doctrines of their Church and by consequence they will execute all its severe Decrees with an unrelenting Rigour And we have clear Instances of this in the Age in which we live of Princes whose Inclinations to Clemency are as well known as the Severities to which the Credit of the Society has carried them are Deplorable There is another spiteful Insinuation with which I shall conclude my Apology This Author finding that the Matters of State of which he had accused me were not like to Blemish me much resolved to try what he could do in a Subject of another Nature which was indeed above him for tho it seems he is entertained to Scribble upon the Politicks yet the matters of Divinity probably do not lie within his Province but it seems he thought that any thing was to be ventured on that might Defame me He represents me as an Enemy to the Divinity of Jesus Christ because of the various readings of a verse in St. John's Epistle that I gave from some Ancient Manuscripts which I saw in my Travels And these men who have of late studied to make all the World either Deists or Socinians if they cannot make them Papists by representing that unless we believe the Infallibility of the Church we cannot upon good grounds believe either the Christian Religion or the Mysteries of it and this with so much Heat and Industry as if their design were to have us to be any thing rather than Protestants yet will accuse some of our Church of those Doctrines against which we have writ with greater force than any of our Calumniators For we have Accusers of the other side too All the Fathers that writ against the Arians believed those Mysteries tho they never cited that Passage from which it was reasonable to conclude that it was not in their Bibles otherwise it is not to be imagined that such Men as St. Athanase and St. Austin should not have mentioned it now the many other places of Scripture that determine me to believe the Divinity of the Saviour of the World are so clear that I believe it equally well whether this passage be acknowledged to be genuine or not But having for some years taken pleasure to compare Manuscripts those of the Holy Scriptures were naturally the most looked into by me and since a Man that has but a transcient View of M. SS cannot stay to examine them in many Passages that Passage being the most Important of all that are controverted I turned always to it and have given the account of what I saw sincerely both for it and against it For I have learned from Job not to lye for God since truth needs no support from falshood And I may well forgive those of a Church who have built so much upon Forgeries and Counterfeit Pieces to be angry with me for giving so sincere an account as I did of a Matter of Fact. But that Divine Saviour whom I adore daily as God equal with the Father knows the Injustice that is done me in this as well as in the other false Accusations with which my Enemies study to blacken me I can assure them that I have that Detestation of all Idolatry and of theirs in particular that I should never adore him as I do if I did not think him to be by Nature God over all blessed for ever And now to conclude if Men will not receive this Vindication of my self with the Justice that is due to me I humbly commit my Cause to him who judges righteously who
some Bodies that pass for General Councils have so expounded many Passages of it and have wrested them so visibly that none of the Modern Writers of that Church pretend to excuse it I say I must freely own to you that when I find I need a Commentary on dark Passages these will be the last Persons to whom I will address my self for it Thus you see how fully I have opened my mind to you in this matter I have gone over a great deal of Ground in as few Words as is possible because hints I know are enough for you I thank God these Considerations do fully satisfy me and I will be infinitely joyed if they have the same effect on you I am yours THis Letter came to London with the return of the first Post after his late Majesties Papers were sent into the Country some that saw it liked it well and wished to have it publick and the rather because the Writer did not so entirely confine himself to the Reasons that were in those Papers but took the whole Controversy to task in a little compass and yet with a great variety of Reflections And this way of examining the whole Matter without following those Papers word for word or the finding more fault than the common concern of this Cause required seemed more agreeing to the Respect that is due to the Dead and more particularly to the Memory of so great a Prince but other Considerations made it not so easy nor so adviseable to procure a License for the Printing this Letter it has been kept in private Hands till now those who have boasted much of the Shortness of the late Kings Papers and of the Length of the Answers that have been made to them will not find so great a Disproportion between them and this Answer to them An ENQUIRY into the Reasons for Abrogating the TEST imposed on all Members of Parliament Offered by Sa. Oxon. WHen the Cardinals in Rome go abroad without Fiocco's on their Horses heads it is understood that they will be then Incognito and they expect nothing of that Respect which is payed them on other Occasions So since there is no Fiocco at the Head of this Discourse no Name nor Designation it seems the Writer offers himself to be examined without those nice regards that may be due to the Dignity he bears and indeed when a Man forgets what he is himself it is very natural for others to do it likewise It is no wonder to see those of the Roman Communion bestir themselves so much as they do to be delivered from the Test and every thing else that is uneasy to them and tho others may find it very reasonable to oppose themselves in all the just and legal ways that agree with our Constitution to this Design yet it is so natural to all that are under any Pressure to desire to get free from it that at the same time that we cannot forbear to withstand them we cannot much condemn them but it raises nature a little to see a Man that has been so long fatned with the Spoils of our Church and who has now got up to a degree so disproportioned to his Merit to turn so treacherously upon it If he is already weary of his comfortable importance and will here give her into the Bargain and declare himself no Body will be surprized at the change of his Masque since he has taken much pains to convince the World that his Religion goes no deeper than his Habit yet tho his Confidence is of a piece with all his other Virtues few thought it could have carried him so far I confess I am not surprized but rather wonder to see that others should be so for he has given sufficient warning of what he is capable of he has told the World what is the worst thing that Dr. Burnet can do p. 50. But I am sure the Dr. cannot be quit with him to tell what is the worst thing that he can do it must needs be a very fruitful sancy that can find out all the degrees of wickedness to which he can go and tho this Pamphlet is a good Essay of his Talent that way yet that Terra Incognita is boundless In the title Page it is said that this was first writ for the Author 's own satisfaction and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern But the words are certainly wrong placed for the truth of the matter is That it was Written for the Author 's own benefit and that it is now published for the satisfaction of all others whom it may concern in some sense perhaps it was written for the Author 's own satisfaction for so petulant and so depraved a mind as His is capable of being delighted with His Treachery and a poor Bishoprick with the addition of a Presidentship being too low a prize for His Ambition and Avarice He resolved to assure Himself of the first great Bishoprick that falls the Liege Letter lets us see how far the Jesuits were assured of Him and how much courted by Him and that He said That none but Atheists supported the Protestant Religion now in England yet how many soever of these may be among us He is upon the point of lessening their number by one at least and he takes care to justifie the hopes which these Father 's conceived of Him. They are severe Masters and will not be put off with secret Civilities lewd Jests Entertainments and Healths drank to their good Success so now the Price of the Presidentship is to be pay'd so good a Morsel as this deserved that Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tillotson Dr. Burnet and some other Divines should be ill used and He to preserve the Character of Drawcansir which is as due to Him as that of Bays falls upon the Articles of the Church and upon both Houses of Parliament It is Reproach enough to the House of Lords that He is of it but it is somewhat new and a Character becoming Sa. Oxon to arraign that House with all the Insolence to which he can raise his wanton Pen. Laws that are in being are treated with respect even by those who move for their Repeal but our Drawcansir scorns that modest strain he is not contented to arraign the Law but calls it Barbarous and says That nothing can be more Barbarous and Prophane than to make the renouncing of a Mystery so unanimously received a State Test pag. 133. pag. 64. But he ought to have avoided the word Prophane since it leads men to remember that he had taxed the Praying for the King as under God and Christ as Crude not to say Prophane when in the Prospect he had then 36 of a Bishoprick he raised the King above Christ but now another Prospect will make him sink him beneath the Pope who is but at best Christ's Vicar But this is not all there comes another Flower that is worthy of him he tells us That the TEST was the
relate to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and the Doctrine of the Church of England as well as of the other Reformed Churches I have not loaded this Paper with Quotations because I intended to be short but I am ready to make good all the matters of fact asserted in it under the highest pains of Infamy if I fail in the performance and besides the more Voluminous works that have been writ on this subject such as Albertine's Claud's Answer to Mr. Arnaud and F. Nonet Larrogue's History of the Eucharist there have been so many learned Discourses written of late on this Subject and in particular two Answers to the Bishops Book that if it had not been thought expedient that I should have cast the whole matter into a short Paper I should not have judged it necessary to trouble the world with more Discourses on a subject that seems exhausted I will add no more but that by the next I will give another Paper of the same Bulk upon the Idolatry of the Church of Rome A Continuation of the Second Part of the ENQUIRY into the Reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for Abrogating the TEST Relating to the Idolatry of the Church of Rome THE words of the Test that belong to this Point are these The Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous Upon which our Author fastens this Censure That since by this the Church of Rome is charged with Idolatry which both forfeits Mens Lives here and their Salvation hereafter according to the express words of Scripture it is a damnable piece of Cruelty and Uncharitableness to load them with this Charge if they are not guilty of it and upon this he goes to clear them of it not only in the two Articles mentioned in the Test the Worship of Saints and the Sacrifice of the Mass but that his Apology might be compleat he takes in and indeed insists chiefly on the Worship of Images tho that is not at all mentioned in the Test He brings a great many Quotations out of the Old Testament to shew the Idolatry prohibited in it was the worshipping of the Sun Moon and Stars or the making an Image to resemble the Divine Essence upon which he produces also some other Authorities And in this consists the Substance of his Plea for the Church of Rome But upon all this he ought to have retracted both the License that himself gave some years ago to Dr. Stillingfleets Book Of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome and his own hasty Assertion in condemning both Turk and Papist as guilty of Idolatry the one for worshipping a leud Impostor and the other for worshipping a senseless piece of Matter Def. of his Eccl. Pol. p. 285 286 It seems he is now convinced that the latter part of this Charge that falls on Papists was as false as the former that falls on the Turks certianly is for they never worshipped Mahomet but hold him only in high Reverence as an extraordinary Prophet as the Jews do Moses It is very like that if the Turks had taken Vienna he would have retracted that as he has now in effect done the other for I believe he is in the same Disposition to reconcile himself to the Mufti and the Pope but the Ottoman Empire is now as low as Popery is high so he will brave the Turk still to his Teeth tho he did him wrong and will humble himself to the Papist tho he did him nothing but right but now I take leave of the Man and will confine my self severely to the matter that is before me And I. How guilty soever the Church of Rome is of Idolatry yet the Test does not plainly assert that for there is as great a difference between Idolatrous and Idolatry as there is in Law between what is Treasonable and what is Treason The one Imports only a worship that is conformable to Idolatry and that has a tendency to it whereas the other is the plain Sin it self there is also a great deal of difference between what is now used in that Church and the Explanations that some of their Doctors give of that usage We are to take the usage of the Church of Rome from her Publick Offices and her authorised Practices so that if these have a Conformity to Idolatry and a tendency to it then the words of the Test are justified what Sense soever some learned Men among them may put on these Offices and Practices therefore the Test may be well maintained even tho we should acknowledg that the Church of Rome was not guilty of Idolatry II. If Idolatry was a Crime punishable by Death under the Old Testament that does not at all concern us nor does the Charge of Idolatry authorise the People to kill all Idolaters unless our Author can prove that we believe our selves to be under all the Political and Judiciary Precepts of the Law of Moses and even among the Jews the Execution of that severe Law belonging either to the Magistrate or to some authorised and inspired Persona who as a Zealot might execute the Law when the Magistrate was wanting to his Duty So that this was writ invidiously only as it seems to inflame the Papists the more against us But the same Calvinist Prince that has expressed so just an Aversion to the repealing the Test has at the same time shewed so merciful an Inclination towards the Roman Catholicks that of all the Reproaches in the World one that intended to plead for that Religion ought to have avoided the mentioning of Blood or Cruelty with the greatest care III. It is true we cannot help believing that Idolatry is a damnable Sin that shuts Men out of the Kingdom of Heaven and if every Sin in which a Man dies without Repentance does it much more this which is one of the greatest of all Sins But yet after all there is Mercy for Sins of Ignorance upon Mens general Repentance and therefore since God alone knows the degrees of Mens Knowledg and of their Ignorance and how far it is either Affected on the one hand or Invincible on the other we do not take upon us to enter into Gods Secrets or to Judg of the Salvation or Damnation of particular Persons nor must we be byassed in our Enquiry into the nature of any Sin either by a fond regard to the State of our Ancestors or by the due respect that we owe to those who are over us in Civil Matters In this Case things are what God has declared them to be we can neither make them better nor worse than he has made them and we are only to Judg of things leaving Persons to the merciful as well as the just and dreadful Judgment of God. IV. All the stir that our Author keeps with the examining of the Idolatry committed by
with the King and what Hopes She gave the Party yet they did not so entirely espouse the King's cause but that they had likewise a flying Squadron in the Parliaments Army how boldly soever this may be denied by our Author for this I will give him a Proof that is beyond exception in a Declaration of that Kings sent to the Kingdom of Scotland bearing date the 21 of April 1643. which is printed over and over again and as an Author that writes the History of the late Wars has assured us the clean draught of it corrected in some places with the King 's own Hand is yet extant so that it cannot be pretended that this was only a bold Assertion of some of the Kings Ministers that might be ill affected to their Party In that Declaration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause and among other things to clear himself of that Imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him after many things said on that head these words are added Great numbers of that Religion have been with great Alacrity entertained in that Rebellious Army against us and others have been seduced to whom we had formerly denied Imployments as appears by the Examination of many Prisoners of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion I hope our Author will not have the Impudence to dispute the Credit that is due to this Testimony but no Discoveries how evident so ever they may be can affect some sort of Men that have a Secret against blushing V. Our Author exhorts us to change our Principles of Loyalty and to take example of our Catholick Neighbours how to behave our selves towards a Prince that is not of our Perswasion But would he have us learn of our Irish Neighbours to cut our Fellow-subjects Throats and rebel against our King because he is of another Religion For that is the freshest Example that any of our Catholick Neighbours have set us and therefore I do not look so far back as to the Gunpowder-Plot or the League of France in the last Age. He reproaches us for failing in our Fidelity to our King. But in this matter we appeal to God Angels and Men and in particular to His Majesty Let our Enemies shew any one point of our Duty in which we have failed for as we cannot be charged for having preach'd any seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the preaching of the Duties of Loyalty even when we see what they are like to cost us The Point which he singles out is That we have failed in that grateful Return that we owed His Majesty for his Promise of maintaining our Church as it is established by Law since upon that we ought to have repealed the Sanguinary Laws and the late impious Tests the former being enacted to maintain the Usurpation of Queen Elizabeth and the other being contrived to exclude the present King. We have not failed to pay all the Gratitude and Duty that was possible in return to His Majesties Promise which we have carried so far that we are become the Object even of our Enemies Scorn by it With all Humility be it said that if His Majesty had promised us a farther Degree of his Favour than that of which the Law had assured us it might have been expected that our return should have been a degree of Obedience beyond that which was required by Law so that the return of the Obedience injoined by Law answers a Promise of a Protection according to Law Yet we carried this matter further for as was set forth in the beginning of this Paper we went on in so high a pace of Compliance and Confidence that we drew the Censures of the whole Nation on us Nor could any Jealousies or Fears give us the least Apprehensions till we were so hard pressed in matters of Religion that we could be no longer silent The same Apostle that taught us to honour the King said likewise that we must obey God rather than man. Our Author knows the History of our Laws ill for besides what has been already said touching the Laws made by Queen Elizabeth the severest of all our Penal Laws and that which troubles him and his Friends most was past by K. James after the Gunpowder-Plot a Provocation that might have well justified even greater Severities But tho' our Author may hope to impose on an ignorant Reader who may be apt to believe implicitly what he says concerning the Laws of the last Age yet it was too bold for him to assert that the Tests which are so lately made were contrived to exclude the present King when there was not a Thought of Exclusion many years after the first was made and the Duke was excepted out of the Second by a special Proviso But these Gentlemen will do well never to mention the Exclusion for every time that it is named it will make People call to mind the Service that the Church of England did in that matter and that will carry with it a Reproach of Ingratitude that needs not be aggravated He also confounds the two Tests as if that for Publick Imployments contained in it a Declaration of the King 's being an Idolater or as he makes it a Pagan which is not at all in it but in the other for the Members of Parliament in which there is indeed a Declaration that the Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry which is done in general terms without applying it to His Majesty as our Author does Upon this he would infer That his Majesty is not safe till the Tests are taken away but we have given such Evidences of our Loyalty that we have plainly shewed this to be false since we do openly declare that our Duty to the King is not founded on his being of this or that Religion so that His Majesty has a full Security from our Principles tho' the Tests continue since there is no reason that we who did run the hazard of being ruined by the Excluders when the Tide was so strong against us would fail his Majesty now when our Interest and Duty are joyned together But if the Tests are taken away it is certain that we can have no Security any longer for we shall be then laid open to the Violence of such restless and ill-natured men as the Author of this Paper and his Brethren are VI. The same reason that made our Saviour refuse to throw himself down from the Roof of the Temple when the Devil tempted him to it in the vain Confidence that Angels must be assistant to him to preserve him holds good in our Case Our Saviour said Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And we dare not trust our selves to the Faith and to the Mercies of a Society that is but too well known to the World to pretend that we should pull down our Pales to let in such Wolves among us
God and the Laws have given us legal Security and His Majesty has promised to maintain us in it and we think it argues no Distrust either of God or the Truth of our Religion to say that we cannot by any Act of our own lay our selves open and throw away that defence Nor would we willingly expose His Majesty to the unwearied Sollicitations of a sort of men who if we may judge of that which is to come by that which is past would give him no rest if once the restraints of Law were taken off but would drive matters to those Extremities to which we see their Natures carry them head long VII The last Paragraph is a strain worthy of that School that bred our Author he says His Majesty may withdraw his Royal Protection from the Church of England which was promised her upon the account of her constant Fidelity and he brings no other Proof to confirm so bold an Assertion but a false Axiome of that despised Philosophy in which he was bred Cessante causa tollitur effectus This is indeed such an Indignity to His Majesty that I presume to say it with all humble reverence these are the last persons whom he ought to pardon that have the boldness to touch so sacred a point as the Faith of a Prince which is the chief Security of Government and the Foundation of all the Confidence that a Prince can promise himself from his People and which once blasted can never be recovered Equivocations may be both taught and practised with less danger by an Order that has little Credit to lose but nothing can shake Thrones so much as such treacherous Maxims I must also ask our Author in what point of Fidelity has our Church failed so far as to make her forfeit her Title to His Majesties Promises For as he himself has stated this matter it comes all to this The King promised that he would maintain the Church of England as established by Law. Upon which in Gratitude he says That the Church of England was bound to throw up the Chief Security that she had in her Establishment by Law which is that all who are intrusted either with the Legislative or the Executive parts of our Government must be of her Communion and if the Church of England is not so tame and so submissive as to part with this then the King is free from his Promise and may withdraw his Royal Protection tho' I must crave leave to tell him that the Laws gave the Church of England a Right to that Protection whether His Majesty had promised it or not Of all the Maxims in the World there is none more hurtful to the Government in our present Circumstances than the saying that the King's Promises and the Peoples Fidelity ought to be reciprocal and that a Failure in the one cuts off the other for by a very natural Consequence the Subject may likewise say That their Oaths of Allegeance being founded on the Assurance of His Majesties Protection the One binds no longer than the Other is observed and the Inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible if the Loyalty of the so much decryed Church of England does not put a stop to them THE EARL of MELFORT's LETTER TO THE PRESBYTERIAN-MINISTERS IN SCOTLAND Writ in his Majesties Name upon their ADDRESS Together with some Remarks upon it The Earl of Melfort's Letter Gentlemen I Am commanded by His Majesty to signifie unto you his gracious acceptance of your Address that he is well satisfied with your Loyalty expressed therein for the which he resolves to perpetuate the Favour not only during his own Reign but also to lay down Ways for its Continuance and that by appointing in the next ensuing Parliament the taking off all Penal Statutes contrary to the Liberty or Toleration granted by him His Majesty knows that Enemies to Him to You and this Toleration will be using all Endeavours to infringe the same but as ever the Happiness of his Subjects standing in Liberty of Conscience and the Security of their Properties next the Golry of God hath been his Majesties great end so he intends to continue if he have all sutable Encouragement and Concurrence from you in your Doctrine and Practice and therefore as he hath taken away the Protestant Penal Statutes lying on you and herein has walked contrary not only to other Catholick Kings but also in a way different from Protestant Kings who have gone before him whose Maxim was to undo you by Fining Confining and taking away your Estates and to harrass you in your Persons Liberties and Priviledges so he expects a thankful acknowledgment from you by making your Doctrine tend to cause all his Subjects to walk obediently and by your Practice walking so as shall be most pleasing to His Majesty and the concurring with him for the removing these Penal Statutes And he further expects that you continue your Prayers to God for his long and happy Reign and for all Blessings on his Person and Government and likewise that you look well to your Doctrine and that your Example be influential All these are His Majesties Commands Sic subs MELFORT REMARKS THE Secretary Hand is known to all the Writing Masters of the Town but here is an Essay of the Secretary's Stile for the Masters of our Language This is an Age of Improvements and Men that come very young into Imployments make commonly a great Progress therefore common things are not to be expected here it is true some Roughnesses in the Stile seem to intimate that the Writer could turn his Conscience more easily than he can do his Pen and that the one is a little stiffer and less compliant than the other He tells the Addressers That His Majesty is well satisfied with their Loyalty contained in their Address for the which he resolves to perpetuate the Favour It appears that the Secretary-Stile and the Notary-Stile come nearer one another than was generally believed For the which here and infringe the same afterwards are Beauties borrowed from the Notary-Stile The foresaid is not much courser The King 's perpetuating the Favour is no easie thing unless he could first perpetuate himself Now tho' His Majesties Fame will be certainly immortal yet to our great Regret his Peron is mortal so it is hard to conceive how this Perpetuity should be setled The Method here proposed is a new Figure of the Secretary-Stile which is the appointing in the next ensuing Parliament the taking off all Penal Laws All former Secretarie used the modest Words of proposing or recommending that he who in a former Essay of this Stile told us of His Majesties Absolute Power to which all the Subjects are to obey without reserve furnishes us now with this new term of the King 's appointing what shall be done in Parliament But what if after all the Parliament proves so stubborn as not to comply with this Appointment I am afraid then the Perpetual will