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truth_n	according_a	church_n	doctrine_n	2,019	5	6.0761	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30377	A letter to Mr. Thevenot containing a censure of Mr. Le Grand's History of King Henry the Eighth's divorce : to which is added, a censure of Mr. de Meaux's History of the variations of the Protestant churches : together with some further reflections on Mr. Le Grand / both written by Gilbert Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Thevenot, Leonard.	1689 (1689)	Wing B5823; ESTC R10814	39,569	68

all we live under a Legal Government by which even our Kings are bound so that any Order that comes from them whether in Matters Temporal or Spiritual that is not founded on Law or that is contrary to it is null of it self The King's Supremacy among us amounts to no more than that the Execution of the laws that relate to Religion and to the Persons of Church men belongs to our Kings And all the difference between the French Constitution and ours as to this is that whereas the French King Acts Arbitrarily in those Matters ours are limited by Law. So that if a Clergy-man is legally proved to be guilty of a Crime our King indeed orders the Law to pass upon him in his Courts of Justice But the King can shut up no Clergy-men in Prisons or detain them there during Pleasure We do not know what those Letters of the Cachet are nor the Exiles or Imprisonments which go according to the Pleasure of a King and the Directions of a Father Confessor We retain the Freedome of the Elections of our Bishops there being only a Temporal punishment laid on us by Law if we do not follow the King's Recommendation And except in Matters of Marriages an Appeal from the Spiritual Court is scarce ever heard of in England And even when an Appeal is brought it is to be Judged by Delegates that are named by the King's Authority a considerable number of whom are always Bishops Nor have our Parliaments or our Princes medled any other way in Matters of Religion but that they have given the Civil Sanction to the Propositions made by the Church and this is that which all Christian Princes do in all places so that after all the Clamour that is made on our being Subjected to the Civil Power it is certain that the Gallican Church is much more Subject to it than we are And yet these Men who have abandoned all the Immunities of the Church Reproach us with Thomas Becket tho' there is not one of them that dares make any one of those steps which procured to him his Saintship These Men do also swear the Oath that is in the Pontifical to the Pope of which Mr. Claud put Mr. de Meaux in mind long ago but he is Wiser than to take any notice of a thing which he knows he cannot answer for I would gladly see how they observe any one of all the Articles that are in that Oath Mr. de Meaux is offended at Cranmer for the Protestation that he made explaining to what degree he thought himself bound to observe it and yet tho' he and his Brethren swore it it does not appear that it makes any great impression on their Consciences They are resolved to have no regard to it only they cannot endure Cranmer's Honesty for protesting to that purpose But if they fail in this part of their Oath they have been most exactly true to another Branch of it which obliges them to Persecute Hereticks to the utmost of their Power Thus it appears how just it was for Mr. de Meaux to apprehend that we should Recriminate And that in all points the Recrimination falls much heavier on their Church than the Charge it self can fall on ours He takes notice of an Objection that he finds I made upon the Subject of those prejudices which is that if we enter on a Personal Dispute concerning the Reformers the worst things that even their Enemies can lay to their charge come far short of those Enormous Crimes of which even their own Historians confess their Popes to have been Guilty and that some times in a Series of many Ages together in which not so much as one good Pope Interveened so uninterrupted was that Succession Now Popes being according to the general Doctrine of that Church the Infallible Oracles of Truth and the Universal Bishops and according to all the rest of their Communion they being the Heads of the Church Christ's Vicars and the Centers of Unity they are much more concerned in all that relates personally to their Popes than we are in the Lives of our Reformers All that Mr. de Meaux says to this is that the Reformers are the Authors of our Sect and that therefore we are more immediately concerned in them But it seems Mr. de Meaux understands the Principles of the Reformation very ill We own no Sect but that of which Jesus Christ is the Author And we have no other Interest in the Reformers but that they were Instruments by whose Means the World was awakened to Read the Scriptures and to examine Matters of Religion And that they discovered many things of which the World was formerly ignorant and in which the Clergy studied still to keep them in a blind Subjection to them and since they found too much advantage in those Corruptions to be willing to part with them the Reformers went on in their Discoveries and at length by the Blessing of God and the Labours of the Reformers as well as by the Persecution of their Enemies this Work had so great a Progress that it will still be reckoned one of the wonders of Providence But after all the Reformers were only the Instruments of opening this Light but not at all the Authors of our Sect so that we are no other way concerned in them but that we gratefully acknowledge their Labours and honour their Memory And what Mistakes Weaknesses or Passions soever may have mixed with their Conduct this proves nothing but that they were Men and were Subject both to Sin and to Errour Mr. de Meaux is also at a great deal of pains to shew how unsteady the Protestants have been in setling some Notions in particular the manner of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament and the true Notion of a Church on which he enlarges himself very copiously But is it possible that he is so ignorant either of Antiquity or of the Age of the School-Men as not to know how long they were before they setled on almost all the Notions of Divinity F. Petaw can inform him how dark the Fathers of the first three Centuries were even in their Idea's of the Trinity and it were easie to shew that even after the Definition of the Council of Nice it was long before they setled on the same Notion of the Unity of the Divine Essence with that which has been received now for many Ages in the Church It were easy to shew how even the so much cited and admired Saint Austin differed from himself in his Disputes with the Manicheans the Donatists and the Pelagians and that one sees in his works very different Notions not only of the Freedom of the Will but even of the Nature of the Church When he writ against the Donatists who had contrary to all Reason broke the Peace of the Church he raised the Unity of the Church and the submission to the visible Authority that was in it very high But when he writ against the Pelagians the

Dr. Burnet AGAINST Mr. Thevenot and Mr. Le Grand A LETTER TO Mr. THEVENOT Containing A CENSURE of Mr. Le Grand's HISTORY OF King Henry the Eighth's Divorce To which is Added A CENSURE of Mr. de Meaux's HISTORY OF THE Variations of the Protestant Churches Together with Some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand Both Written By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed for Iohn Starkey and Richard Chiswell MDCLXXXIX A LETTER TO Mr. THEVENOT Containing a Censure of Mr. Le Grand's History of K. Henry the Eighth's Divorce SIR INstead of offering you all those expressions of Respect which on many accounts are so justly due to you I shall satisfy my self at present with this one which is That I consider you as a Person of so much Probity and Sincerity that notwithstanding all the difference of Perswasion that is between you and me yet I can make an Appeal to you and refer my self to your Decision in the Contests that are like to be between Mr. le Grand and me in a Subject that has a great Relation to Matters of Religion Matters of Opinion and the Inferences and Speculations that arise out of Matters of Fact appear indeed differently to Men according to their various apprehensions of things While Matters of Fact have but one face and appear the same to all who desire to find out Truth And therefore since our Dispute is like to run wholly on Matters of Fact I know I run no hazard when I apply my self to you as an Arbiter While I was last at Paris I was so happy as to have the Honour of waiting sometimes on you and saw how just a Title you had to the Esteem and Admiration which is so universally paid you I had in my own particular all possible Reason to acknowledge the high Civilities that you put on me and among others the trouble that you put your self to in bringing Mr. le Grand and me to a Conference before your self and Mr. Auzout I confess I apprehended that I had a man to deal with from whom nothing was to be expected but fair dealing A Man that lived in the House of one that was no less Eminent for his Sublime Vertue than for those high Employments thro' which he has gone one that was much with that Learned and Worthy Gentleman Mr. Bulteau and that saw often the Famous Mr. Baluze whose Sincerity is equal to his Learning which is one of the greatest things of the Age and that valued himself on Mr. Thevenot's Friendship seemed to be such an Antagonist as one would have wisht for I will not put you on so uneasy a thing as the remembring the poor and inconsiderable things that were proposed in your hearing of which you were both so weary and for which you owned your selves so much ashamed not only to me when Mr. le Grand was gone but to a great many others You seemed fully fatisfied that all he proposed deserved not to be mentioned and that such as it was it was fully answer'd by me Mr. Auzout indeed desired me not to boast much of what had past with which it was very easy for me to comply for to tell you freely I did not find that my Antagonist was such a Person that a Victory over him afforded matter for a Triumph and in the account that I found it convenient to give of a part of our Conversation in my Remarks on Mr. Varillas I managed Mr. le Grand with all the Respect that he could have expected from me but if hereafter I touch him a little more sensibly he has none to blame for it but himself I can very easily bear all his Reflections on me p. 30. for my Ignorance and want of Capacity and in particular for my Ignorance of the History and Laws of England p. 2 and 3. This comes soon after a very high and undeserved Commendation that he had given of me and it seems he himself thought I did not deserve it since he changed his Stile so soon It is too common Artifice to pass upon me to give a Man a good Title to reproach another by introducing those Injuries with high Commendations But I must be contented with my small measure of Knowledge and the low degree of Capacity that belongs to me and I have the more Reason to bear with my own defects at present since I have to do with one of so moderate a Talent as Mr. le Grand shews himself to be I wish only that those who desire to be rightly informed of the famous Transaction now in Dispute will be at the pains to read Sander's History and mine and next to examine Mr. le Grand's History and then I am confident that they will conclude that there must be some Errour in the Printing of the Title Page in which there is mention made of a Defence of Sander's and a Refutation of my History for the bulk of his work does so agree with mine except in some places where he uses an Art for which I do not envy him that I am tempted to think that in Writing it he intended to make good his offer made in your hearing that he would furnish me with a vast number of Papers for the Confirmation of my Work. I have yet only seen his first part so I cannot imagine how he can justify Sanders having given him quite up in the whole thread of his History The whole Story of Anne Bullen and all the Branches of it are abandoned which yet was the chief thing aimed at by Sanders as being a nullity in Q. Elizabeth's Title and by consequence an encouragement to Rebellion The Decretal Bull is confessed the Behaviour of Sir Thomas More is not insisted on by our Author In short if one will examine about eighty Errours for which I have charged Sander's History in my Appendix he will find above seventy of my contradictions of Sanders confirmed by Mr. le Grand which will be easily made appear if this Work of his is judged of that importance as to deserve a more particular censure I say nothing of his manner of Writing for that will offer it self to every Reader who must needs find in him more of the Stile of one that pleads a Cause than of one that undertakes to relate Matters An earnestness in proving and an injuriousness of Stile are indecencies that are scarce to be forgiven to one that pretends to be an Historian And there is somewhat that is Sacred even in the Ashes of Crowned Heads that claims a Modesty of Stile So that even when they are censured softer words than Lies and Impostures ought to be sought for And the chief point in this whole Matter being whether the King's Cause ought not to have been judged rather in England and by his own Clergy than at Rome The supporting the Pope's pretensions in opposition to this as it agrees very ill with the Principles of the Gallican Church so it seems