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
the 16th of April in which he gives an account of the Bishop of Paris's passing thro' that Town who told him how precipitated the Sentence was that the Pope was indeed for a delay and if that had been granted only for six days the King would have submitted but the Imperialists would hear of none tho' when the Courier came a day after they were sorry for the hast they had made By all these Indications it appeared plainly that the Court of Rome was governed in this matter only by Political Motives and Maxims and therefore according to the Maxims of the Gallican Church set forth lately with so much Zeal by Mr. Talon in a matter of much less moment the King of England had no Reason to have any great Regard to the Judgments or Thunders of that Court. But as I hold my self infinitely obliged to Mr. le Grand for the Present he made me of so valuable a Book which affords me so many Confirmations of the most important parts of my History so I am extream sorry that he has been so far wanting to himself as to suppress them and that he has put me on so uneasie a thing as to make use of a Present that he made me so much to his disadvantage But in this case I must say magis amica veritas And tho' he thinks me to be extreamly jealous of the Honour of my Writings p. 2. yet if the Concerns of Religion did not enter in this case I could more easily abandon my own But I will not pursue this Censure further at present nor am I yet sure whether I will write more upon this Subject or not for till I see his other three parts and till I know what effects this has I can form no Resolution as to that matter In the mean while I beg your Pardon both for giving you so great a trouble and for addressing it to you in so Publick a manner For since I Censure a Book already Printed I thought it was necessary to do it in this manner I am Sir with all possible Respect At the Hague the 10th of May 1688. Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant G. BURNET A CENSURE OF Mr. DE MEAUX's HISTORY OF THE Variations of the Protestant Churches Together with some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand SIR YOU ask my Opinion of Mr. de Meaux's long expected Work And I will give it freely It seems he intends to let the World see that he can set forth the Reformation with as much Sincerity as he had formerly shewed in setting forth his own Doctrine and that he can shew as much Art in making the one appear Black as he had done to make the other appear Fair. Some of my Countrymen have of late exposed him in so severe a manner that his Credit in England was so much sunk before this new attempt that he has made upon it that there was no need of this Work to destroy it quite The truth is great Respect is due to his Age and Character But if he will lay himself too open and take so much pains to make himself be known he will compass it at last A Man of his Wit and Softness of Expression should have held himself to general Speculations in which a lively Fancy and a good Stile might have helped him out even when Truth failed him But of all the Men I know he should have avoided the most to meddle with Matters of Fact. For the gentlest Censure that can be past on his Performances that way is that some others furnish him with Extracts which he manages to the best advantage but without examining them Yet when Mr. Larogue had shewed him or at least had shewed it to all the World if he would not see it that there was not one single Passage of all those which he had with so much Pomp produced for justifying the taking away the Chalice that was either sincerely or pertinently made use of by him and it seems Mr. de Meaux himself was convinced of it since I have not heard that he has yet said one word to justify himself He should not have ventured again tho' he has returned with a particular degree of assurance to say in this Work that in the Primitive Church Men received the Sacrament either in the one or the other Species He may now perhaps say that he never Read Larague's Book with the same Truth that he writ to England that he had never seen F. Crasset's The Truth is Reason is a tame thing which bends easily to a Man of Wit and Fancy But Facts are sullen things they are what they are Wit has no place there but Boldness and Confidence can supply all defects Yet since Mr. de Meaux found that his under-work-men had dealt so ill with him he should have been more cautious in trusting them for the future And since even his most solemn Protestations have been laid open to the English Nation as having more of an Air of assurance than of a scrupulous Regard to Truth in them he ought to have taken a little more care of himself and of his Friends in England who have ill Success enough already in what they themselves have writ and in some small aid which he has sent them and therefore it is too cruel in him to give new occasions to those who will be sure to make the best of all that is given them for shewing the weakness of a Cause which how prosperous soever it may be in the hands of Dragoons yet has never had worse success than of late in England The Calumnies of Cochlee Florimond de Raimond and other Writers of the last Age were already revived and put in more Modern French by Maimbourg and Varillas who have not failed to tell the Tale over again in the best Language and with the best Grace they could so that it was a little below Mr. de Meaux's Greatness to come after them in a design which has succeeded so ill with them It is true he has much more Wit and gives a better Air to the Malice that he bears the Reformed Churches who have done nothing to provoke him if it was not that they chuse rather to take that to be Doctrine of his Church which they found both in the Decrees of their Councils the Publick Offices and the Chief Writers of Controversy that have explained those Matters ever since the Dispute was first set on foot than the new Tour that he has thought fit to give it In short he is in ill Humour because his Exposition was not successful enough to save his Church the Infamy of the Dragoons Hinc illae lachrimae and therefore he has now gathered together all that the Writers of the last Age had set forth and added to that all the Extracts that his tools could furnish him with that so he might Triumph over us with as much Scorn as Malice He mixes all along with it the Flowers of a melting and
Knowledge were yet imperfect suitable to the Age in which he lived if he did not all of the sudden emancipate himself All these things might induce Cranmer to continue in the exercise of many Rites to which he had been long accustomed after they were softned with some Corrections and Explanations hoping at last to engage the whole Nation into an unanimous Reformation If in all these things the grounds he went on are not so sure as to warrant all he did yet in that dawn of Light a complyance upon such Considerations is not so heinous a thing but that he who was guilty of it may yet be well reckon'd among the greatest Men that have been in the Church Since the Judgments that we make of Men ought to be formed neither upon some slips they may have made on the one hand nor upon some great Actions on the other but upon the whole thread and course of their Lives And as to Cranmer there appeared in him so much Candor and Sincerity so great a contempt of the World and such a neglect of his Family such a Spirit of Gentleness and Charity both to those who differed from him and even to his Enemies such a simplicity of Spirit that he would never enter into the Intrigues and Factions of Court. Such a constant application to the finding out of Truth and such a plainness in acknowledging Mistakes and submitting himself to the Correction of others so much Humility and Modesty during one and twenty years Greatness and such an unblemished Purity as to his Personal Deportment that even the Libels of that time durst not attempt upon it All these of which I had such copious Discoveries appeared so extraordinary to me that I was not affraid to mix with them all the instances of Humane Frailty that I found in him If I had writ as most of those in the Church of Rome do that publish Lives I should have assumed the Impudence to have denied some things and to have passed over others And at least I should have suppressed a great many things that were never known before I published them But I write not for Parties or Persons I write for Truth 's Sake and so was not affraid to shew even the weak sides of our Reformers This is one of the unsearchable depths of Divine Providence to let the Man appear even when God shews himself And with how much indignation soever Mr. de Meaux rejects the consideration that I offered of S Peter's Denial to soften the Censure of Cranmer's fall yet I return to it and take the Liberty to say that considering it was in our Saviour's own Presence who had so lately warned him of it and who had parted with his Disciples in so ravishing a manner giving them such elevating Instructions and ending these with so inflaming a Prayer who was also upon the point of Offering up himself a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World And whose ill usage from his Persecutors ought in a most particular manner to have softned and melted his Disciples who saw it Besides that nothing could more betray the Reputation of our Saviour's Innocency than his being denied by one of his Disciples which lookt as if he was ashamed of him And after all that the Temptation was so weak the Accusation of a Maid and some that stood near her and that the Denial was confirmed with Oaths and Imprecations I still doubt if Cranmer's Fall is capable of so many aggravations and therefore as the meanness of Man and the greatness of God and of his Grace appeared in S. Peter's Fall and in his Repentance and his being afterwards restored to that sublime Dignity from which he had fallen so I doubt not but that God suffered Cranmer in his old Age after a long and hard Imprisonment and that he had seen some of his Brethren burnt before his Eyes to fall that so he might by his Mighty Power raise him again and in him teach us to cease from Man for wherein is he to be accounted of and that such as glory might glory in the Lord and not in Man. As for the difference that is alledged as to the Time that the one was but for a moment and that the other lasted longer it is to be consider'd that our Saviour lookt presently at Saint Peter and the Authority of that look together with the Divine Vertue that might accompany it and the Crowing of the Cock were such extraordinary Motives that it had been a wonder indeed if Saint Peter had resisted them and we may Charitably believe that if Cranmer had been blessed with such awakening Motives he had likewise Repented sooner than he did So that upon the whole matter I do not see any one Action in all Cranmer's Life unless it be his consenting to the Divorce of Anne of Cleve in which it does not appear that he adhered strictly to a Principle of Conscience tho' it is a question if that Principle was always well measured or not But that is nothing to the probity of the man so long as he adheres to that which he thinks right And even in that of Anne of Cleve as it was the body of the Popish Clergy that did it so that his part was only a giving a too feeble consent so he believing that Marriage was no Sacrament might think it subject to Political Regulations especially when it was not consummated so that the rights of Nature did not seem concerned Whether this is to be defended or not I will not determine But certainly this is not so odious a matter as Mr. de Meaux would make it appear to be And for his dissolving the Marriage of Anne Bullen the Record of that Sentence is lost so that we do not know what it was that she confessed and therefore here Mr. de Meaux studies to defame Cranmer upon conjecture and yet I suppose that he himself would think that he met with hard measure if he were censured much less condemned upon Reports Presumptions or Conjectures As for all the good Characters that Mr. de Meaux gives of our Sinods I shall only crave leave to tell him that if one would examine not only the Councils of Trent and Florence or to go a little higher the second Council of Nice and some antienter Assemblies as he has done ours they would find not only Intrigues Weaknesses and Passions but down right Impostures in them In short it has appeared that Man was Man even in the best Ages and in the most Celebrated Assemblies of the Church and I will not stick to own it freely that if I had not a great Veneration for the first four General Councils for the sake of the Truths that they decreed I should never pay them much when I consider their Method of Proceeding which appears but too evidently to those who have read the Journals of the third and fourth and if we Judge of the first by the mutual Complaints which they exhibited to Constantine and
the Holy Eucharist in two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject with a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument by W. Wake Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead By W. Wake M. A. An Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England 4to An Abridgment of the Prerogatives of St. Ann Mother of the Mother of God with the Approbations of the Doctors of Paris thence done into English with a PREFACE concerning the Original of the Story The Primitive Fathers no Papists in Answer to the Vindication of the Nubes Testium to which is added a Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints in Answer to the Challenge of F. Sabran the Jesuit wherein is shewn That Invocation of Saints was so far from being the Practice that it was expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers 4to An Answer to a Discourse concerning the Coelibacy of the Clergy lately Printed at Oxford 4to The Virgin Mary Misrepresented by the Roman Church in the Traditions of that Church concerning her Life and Glory and in the Devotions paid to her as the Mother of God. Both shewed out of the Offices of that Church the Lessons on her Festivals and from their allowed Authors Dr. Tenison's Sermon of Discretion in giving Alms. 12mo A Discourse concerning the Merit of Good Works The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome demonstrated in some Observations upon the Life of Ignatius Loyola Founder of the Order of Jesus A Vindication of the Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England 4to The Texts which the Papists cite out of the Bible for Proof of the Points of their Religion Examined and shew'd to be alledged without Ground In twenty five distinct Discourses viz. Popery not founded in Scripture The Introduction Texts concerning the Obscurity of Holy Scriptures Of the Insufficiency of Scripture and Necessity of Tradition Of the Supremacy of St. Peter and the Pope over the whole Church In two Parts Of Infallibility Of the Worship of Angels and Saints departed In two parts Of the Worship of Images and Reliques Of the Seven Sacraments and the Efficacy of them In two Parts Of the Sacrifice of the Mass In two Parts Of Transubstantiation Of Auricular Confession Of Satisfactions In two Parts Of Purgatory In two Parts Of Prayer in an unknown Tongue In two Parts Of Coelibacy of Priests and Vows of Continence In two Parts Of the Visibility of the Church Of Merit of Good Works Two Tables to the whole will shortly be published A Brief Declaration of the Lords Supper Written by Dr. Nocholas Ridley Bishop of London during his Imprisonment with some other Determinations and Disputations concerning the same Argument by the same Author To which is annexed an Extract of several Passages to the same purpose out of a Book Intituled Diallaction written by Dr. Iohn Poynet Bishop of Winchester in the Reigns of Ed. 6. and Q. Mary 4to An Historical Discourse concerning the Necessity of the Minister's Intention in Administring the Sacraments A Discourse concerning Penance shewing how the Doctrine of it in the Church of Rome makes void true Repentance A Continuation of the state of the Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome Being a full account of the Books that have been of late written on both sides By William Wake M. A. 4to A Discourse of the Pope's Supremacy Part I. in answer to a Treatise intituled St. Peter's Supremacy faithfully discuss'd according to the Holy Scripture and Greek and Latine Fathers and to a Sermon of St. Peter preached before the Queen Dowager on St. Peter and St Paul's day by Tho. Godden D. D. IVLIAN the Apostate Being a short account of his Life the Sense of the Primitive Christians about his Succession and their Behaviour towards him Together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism By Sam. Iohnson Iulian's Arts to undermine and extirpate Christianity Together with Answers to Constantius the Apostate and Iovian by Sam. Iohnson The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuites Seminary Priests Recusants the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgments and Resolutions of the Judges with other Observations thereupon By William Cawley Esq fol. Books Written by Dr. Gilbert Burnet His History of the Reformation of the Church of England in II. Vol. fol. Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England 40. History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands 120. Life of William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland together with the Letters betwixt Him and Wadsworth about Religion A Collection of Seventeen Tracts and Sermons written betwixt the years 1678. and 1685. to which is added Two Tracts by another Hand Viz. The History of the Powder Treason and an Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuites dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Plot 1679. Lately Published Reflexions on the Relation of the English Reformation put out by Ob. Walker at Oxon. Animadversions on the Reflexions upon Dr. Burnet's Travels 120. Reflexions on a Paper intitled his Majesties Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester Enquiry into the present State of Affairs and in particular whether we owe Allegiance to the King in these Circumstances And whether we are bound to Treat with Him and call Him back or no His Sermon before the Prince of Orange 23d Decem. 1688. His Thanksgiving Sermon before the Commons for the Deliverance of the Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power by the Prince of Orange's Means 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 A Collection of Eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the Reign of King Iames the Second Seventeen whereof written in Holland and first Printed singly there now published here by the Author to distinguish them from those falsly attributed to his Name Dr. Iohn Lightfoot's Works in II. Vol. fol. together with his Life An Explication of the Catechism of the Church of England viz. The Creed Lords Prayer Ten Commandments and the Sacraments in 4. Volumes Folio By Gabr. Towerson D. D. Disquisitiones Criticae de variis per diversa Loca Tempora Bibliorum editionibus 4o Dr William Cave's Lives of the Ancient Fathers in the IV. first Centuries in II. Vol. Primitive Christianity or the Religion of the Ancient Christians in the first Ages of the Gospel A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church by Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs Dr. William Burton's several Discourses of Purity Charity Repentance and other Practical Subjects in 2 Vol. Oct. Reflexions upon the Books of the Holy Scripture to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion in Two Parts Oct. By. Mr. Alix Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria à Christo nato usque ad Saeculum XIV Facili Methodo digesta Qua de Vita illorum ac Rebus gestis de Secta Dogmatibus Elogio Stylo de Scriptis genuinis dubiis suppositiis ineditis deperditis Fragmentis deque variis Operum Editionibus perspicue agitur Accedunt Scriptores Gentiles Christianae Religionis Oppugnatores 〈◊〉 Saculi Breviarium Inseruntur suis locis Veterum aliquot Opuscula Fragmenta tum Graeca tum Latina hactenus inedita Praemissa denique Prologomena quibus plurima ad Antiquitatis Ecclesiasticae studium spectantia 〈◊〉 Opus Indicibus necessariis instructum Autore GVILIELMO CAVE SS Theol Profes Caâ—â—ico Windesoriensi Accedit ab Alia Manu Appendix ab 〈◊〉 Saculo XIV ad Annum usque MDXVII Fol. 1689.