A collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government written by G. Burnet.

A collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government written by G. Burnet.

Table of contents

Title page

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A Letter, containing some Remarks on the two Papers, writ by his late Majesty King Charles the Second, concerning Religion.

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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 28th of April 1687.

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SOME REFLECTIONS On his Majesty's PROCLAMATION Of the 12th of February 1686/7 for a Toleration in Scotland, together with the said Proclamation.

By the King. A PROCLAMATION.

A LETTER, Containing some REFLECTIONS On His MAJESTIES DECLARATION For LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE. Dated the Fourth of April, 1687.

POSTSCRIPT.

An ANSWER To Mr. Henry Payne's LETTER, Concerning His Majesty's DECLARATION of INDULGENCE, Writ to the Author of the Letter to A Dissenter.

THE EARLE of MELFORT's LETTER To the Presbyterian-Ministers IN SCOTLAND, Writ in his Majesty's Name upon their Address; Together with some Remarks upon it.

The Earle of Melfort's Letter.

REMARKS.

AN ANSWER To A PAPER Printed with Allowance, Entitled, A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty.

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A Collection of PAPERS AGAINST POPERY AND Arbitrary Government.

Written by G. BVRNET, D. D.

Printed at Amsterdam, and sold by J. Robinson in London, MDCLXXXIX.

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A Letter, containing some Remarks on the two Papers, writ by his late Majesty King Charles the Second, concerning Religion.

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SIR,

I thank you for the two Royal Papers, that you have sent me: I had heard of them before, but now we have them so well attested, that there is no hazard of being deceived by a false Copy: you expect that in return, I should let you know, what Impression they have made upon me. I pay all the reverence that is due to a Crown'd Head, even in Ashes; to which I will never be wanting: far less am I capable of suspecting the Royal Attestation that accompanies them; of the truth of which I take it for granted no man doubts; but I must crave leave to tell you, that I am confident, the late King only copied them, and that they are not of his composing: for as they have nothing of that free Air, with which he expressed himself; so there is a Contexture in them, that does not look like a Prince; and the beginning of the first shewes it was the effect of a Conversation, and was to be communicated to another: so that I am apt to think they were composed by another, and were so well relished by the late King, that he thought fit to keep them, in order to his examining them more particularly: and that he was prevailed with to Copy them, lest a Paper of that nature might have been made a crime, if it had been found about him written by another hand: and I could name one or two Persons, who as they were able enough to compose such Papers, so had power enough over his Spirit to engage him to Copy them, and to put themselves out of danger by restoring the Original.

You ought to address your self to the learned Divines of our Church, for an answer to such things in them as pussle you, and not to one that has not the honour to be of that Body; and that has now carried a Sword for some time, and imploys the leasure that at any time he enjoyes, rather in Philosophical and Mathematical Enquiries, than in matters of Controversy. There is indeed one Consideration that determined me more easily to comply with your desires, which is, my having had the honour to discourse copiously of those matters with the late King himself: and he having proposed to me some of the particulars that I find in those Papers, & I having said several things to him, in answer to those Heads, which he offered to me only as Objections, with which he seemed fully satisfied, I am the more willing to communicate to you, that which I took the liberty to lay before his late Majesty on several occasions: the particulars on which he insisted in discourse with me, were the uselesness of a Law without a Judge, and the neecssity of an infallible Tribunal to determine Controversies ▪ to which he added, the many Sects that were in England, which seemed to be a necessary consequence of the Liberty that every one took to interpret the Scriptures: and he often repeated that of the Church of Englands arguing, from the obligation to obey the Church, against the Sectaries, which he thought was of no force, unless they allowed more Authority to the Church than they seemed willing to admit, in their Disputes with the Church of Rome. But upon this whole Matter I will offer you some Reflections, that will, I hope, be of as great weight with you, as they are with my self.

I. All Arguments that prove upon such general Considerations, that there ought to be an Infallible Judge [Page] named by Christ, and clothed with his Authority, signify nothing, unless it can be shewed us, in what Texts of Scripture that nomination is to be found; and till that is shewed, they are only Arguments brought to prove that Christ ought to have done somewhat that he has not done. So these are in effect so many Arguments against Christ, unless it appears that he has authorised such a Iudge: therefore the right way to end this dispute, is, to shew where such a Constitution is authorised: So that the most that can be made of this is, that it amounts to a favorable presumption.

II. It is a very unreasonable thing for us to form Presumptions, of what is, or ought to be, from Inconveniences that do arise, in case that such things are not: for we may carry this so far, that it will not be easie to stop it. It seems more sutable to the infinite Goodness of God, to communicate the knowledge of himself to all Mankind, and to furnish every Man with such assistances as will certainly prevail over him. It seems also reasonable to think, that so perfect a Saviour as Iesus Christ was, should have shewed us a certain Way, and yet consistent with the free Use of our Faculties, of avoiding all sin: nor is it very easy to imagine, that it should be a reproach on his Gospel, if there is not an Infallible Preservative against Errour, when it is acknowledged, that there is no infallible Preservative against Sin: for it is certain, that the one Damns us more Infallibly, than the other.

III. Since Presumptions are so much insisted on, to prove what things must be appointed by Christ; it is to be considered, that it is also a reasonable Presumption, that if such a Court was appointed by him, it must be done in such plain terms that there can be no room to question the meaning of them: and since this is the hinge upon which all other matters turn, it ought to be expressed so particularly, in whom it is vested, that there should be no occasion given to dispute, whether it is in One Man or in A Body; and if in a Body, whether in the Majority, or in the two thirds, or in the whole Body unanimously agreeing: in short, the Chief thing in all Governments being the Nature and Power of the Judges, those are always distinctly specified; and therefore if these things are not specified in the Scriptures; it is at least a strong Presumption, that Christ did not intend to authorise such Judges.

IV. There were several Controversies raised among the Churches to which the Apostles writ, as appears by the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians and Colossians, yet the Apostles never make use of those passages that are pretended for this Authority to put an end to those Controversies; which is a shrewd Presumption, that they did not understand them in that sense in which the Church of Rome does now take them. Nor does St. Paul in the directions that he gives to Church-men in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus, reckon this of submitting to the directions of the Church for one, which he could not have omitted, if this be the true meaning of those disputed passages: and yet he has not one word sounding that way, which is very different from the directions which one possessed with the present, view that the Church of Rome has of this matter must needs have givē.

V. There are some things very expresly taught in the N. Testament, such as the rules of a Good Life, the Use of the Sacraments, the addressing our selves to God for Mercy and Grace, thro the Sacrifice that Christ offered for us on the Cross, and the Worshipping him as God, the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection of our Bodies and Life Everlasting: by which it is apparent, that [Page] we are set beyond doubt in those matters; if then there are other passages more obscure concerning other matters, we must Conclude, that these are not of that Consequence, otherwise they would have been as plainly revealed as the others are; but above all, if the Authority of the Church is delivered to us in disputable terms, that is a just prejudice against it, since it is a thing of such Consequence, that it ought to have been revealed in a way so very clear and past all dispute.

VI. If it is a presumption for particular persons to judge concerning Religion, which must be still referred to the Priests & other Guides in sacred matters; this is a good Argument to oblige all Nations to continue in the Established Religion, whatever it may happen to be; and above all others, it was a convincing Argument in the mouths of the Jewes against our Saviour. He pretended to be the Messias, and proved it both by the prophesies that were accomplished in him, and by the Miracles that he wrought: as for the Prophesies, the Reasons urged by the Church of Rome will conclude much stronger, that such dark Passages as those of the Prophets were, ought not to be interpreted by Particular persons, but that the Exposition of these must be referred to the Priests and Sanhedrin, it being expresly provided in their law (Deut. 17.8.) That when controversies arose, concerning any cause that was too intricate, they were to go to the place which God should choose, and to the Priests of the tribe of Levi, & to the judge in those daies, & that they were to declare what was right, & to their decision all were obliged to submit, under pain of death: so that by this it appears, that the Priests in the Jewish Religion were authorised in so extraordinary a manner, that I dare say the Church of Rome would not wish for a more formal testimony on her behalf: As for our Saviours Miracles, these were not sufficient neither, unless his doctrine was first found to be good: since Moses had expresly warned the people (Deut. 13.1.) That if a Prophet came and taught them to follow after other Gods, they were not to obey him, tho he wrought miracles to prove his Mission, but were to put him to death: So a Jew saying, that Christ, by making himself one with his father, brought in the wors [...]hip of another God, might well pretend that he was not obliged to yield to the authority of our Saviours Miracles, without taking cognisance of his doctrine, and of the Prophesies concerning the Messias, and in a word, of the whole matter. So that, if these Reasonings are now good against the Reformation, they were as strong in the mouths of the Iewes against our Saviour: and from hence we see, that the authority that seems to be given by Moses to the Priests, must be understood with some Restrictions; since we not only find the Prophets, and Ieremy in particular, opposing themselves to the whole body of them, but we see likewise, that for some considerable time before our Saviour's dayes, not only many ill-grounded traditions had got in among them, by which the vigour of the moral law was much enervated, but likewise they were also universally possessed with a false notion of their Messias; so that even the Apostles themselves had not quite shaken off those Prejudices at the time of our Saviour's Ascension. So that▪ here a Church, that was still the Church of God, that had the appointed means of the Expiation of their sins, by their Sacrifices and Washings, as well as by their Circumcision, was yet under great and fatal Errors, from which particular persons had no way to extricate themselves, but by examining the Doctrine and texts of Scripture, and by judging of them according to the Evidence of Truth, and the force & freedom of their Faculties.

[Page]VII. It seems Evident, that the passage [Tell the Church] belongs only to the Reconciling of Differences: [...]hat of [Binding & of Loosing,] according to the use of those terms among the Iews, signifies only an Authority that was given to the Apostles, of giving Precepts, by which men were to be obliged to such Duties, or set at liberty from them: and [the gates of Hell not prevailing against the Church] signifys only, that the Christian Religion was never to come to an end, or to perish: & that of [Christs being with the Apostles to the end of the world] imports only a special Conduct & Protection which the Church may alwayes expect, but as the promise, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee; that belongs to every Christian, does not import an infallibility: no more does the other: And for those passages concerning [the spirit of God that searches all things] it is plain, that in them St. Paul is treating of the Divine inspiration, by which the Christian Religion was then opened to the world; which he sets in opposition to the wisdom or Philosophy of the Greeks; so that as all those passages come far short of proving that for which they are alledged, it must at least be acknowledged, that they have not an evidence great enough to prove so important a truth, as some would evince by them; since 'tis a matter of such vast consequence, that the proofs for it must have an undeniable Evidence.

VIII. In the matters of Religion two things are to be considered, first, the account that we must give to God, and the Rewards that we expect from him: and in this every man must answer for the sincerity of his heart, in examining divine Matters, and the following what (upon the best enquiries that one could make) appeared to be true: and with relation to this, there is no need of a Iudge ▪ for in that Great Day every one must answer to God according to the talents thar he had, and all will be saved according to their [...]incerity; and with relation to that judgement, there is no need of any other judge but God. A Second view of Religion, is as it is a Body united together, & by consequence brought under some regulation: and as in all States, there are subalterne Iudges, in whose decisions all must at least acquiesce, tho they are not infallible, there being still a sort of an appeal to be made to the soveraigne or the supream legsliative Body; so the Church has a Subalterne Iurisdiction: but as the Authority of Inferiour 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 subalterne Iudge: if they manifestly oppose themselves to the Scriptures, which is the Law of Christians, particular persons may be supposed as competent Iudges of that, as in Civill Matters they may be of the Rebellion of the Iudges, and in that case they are bound still to mantain their Obedience to Iesus Christ. In matters Indifferent, Christians are bound, for the Preservation of Peace and Unity, to acquiesce in the Decisions of the Church, and in matters justly doubtful, [Page] 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 Iudge, 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 as there is a great deal of Sin and Vice still in the World, so that 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 Opinions: 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 shewes us, that it Must be in the Pope, or is no where, and another Party sayes 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 is 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 so ever St. Peter may be supposed to have had, the Scripture sayes 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 & Vote, and what forfeits this right, and what numbers must concur in a Decision, to assure us of the Infallibility of the Iudgment. 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 Emperours Authority, so it is certain none of them were present: unless one or two of Persia at [Page] 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. Pallavicins 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 N. Testament, he is involved in a study that must cost a Man an Age to go thro it; and many of the Ages, thro which he caries this Enquiry, are so dark, and have produced so few Writers, at least so few are preserved to our dayes, that it is not possible to [...] 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 near the Age of the Apostles, contrary Traditions touching the Observation of Easter, from which we must conclude, that either the Matter of Fact of one side, or the other, as it was handed down, was not true, or at least that it was not rightly understood. A Tradition concerning the Use of the Sacraments being a visible thing, is more likely to be exact, than a Speculation concerning their nature; and yet we find a Tradition of giving Infants the Communion, grounded on the indispensible necessity of the Sacrament, continued a thousand Years in the Church. A Tradition on which the Christians founded their Joy and Hope, is less like to be changed, than a more remote Speculation, and yet the first Writers of the Christian Religion had a Tradition handed down to them by those who saw the Apostles, of the Reign of Christ for a thousand Years upon Earth; and if those who had Matters at second hand from the Apostles, could be thus mistaken, it is more reasonable to apprehend greater errours at such a distance. A Tradition concerning the Book of the Scriptures is more like to be exact, than the Exposition of some passages in it; and yet we find the Church did unanimously believe the Translation of the 70. Interpreters to have been the effect of a miraculous Inspiration, till St. Ierome examined this Matter better, and made a New Translation from the Hebrew Copies. But which is more then all the rest, It seems plain, that the Fathers befor the Council of Nice believed the Divinity of the Son of God to be in some sort Inferiour to that of the Father, and for some Ages after the Council of Nice, they believed them indeed both equal, but they considered these as two different Beings, and only one in Essence, as, three men have the same humane Nature in common among them; and that as one Candle lights another, so the one flowed from another; and after the fifth Century the Doctrine of one Individual Essence was received. If you will be farther informed concerning this, Father Petau will satisfy you as to the first Period before the Council of Nice, and the learned Dr. Cudmorth as to the second. In all which particulars it appears, how variable a thing Tradition is. And upon the whole Matter, the examining Tradition thus, is still a searching among Books, and here is no living Judge.

[Page]XII. If then the Authority that must decide Controversies, lies in the Body of the Pastors scattered over the World, which is the last retrenchment, here as many and as great Scruples will arise, as we found in any of the former Heads. Two difficulties appear at first view, the one is, How can we be assured that the present Pastors of the Church are derived in a just Succession from the Apostles: there are no Registers extant that prove this: So that we have nothing for it but some Histories, that are so carelesly writ, that we find many mistakes in them in other Matters; and they are so different in the very first links of that Chain, that immediatly succeeded the Apostles, that the utmost can be made of this is, that here is a Historical Relation somewhat doubtful; but here is nothing to found our Faith on: so that if a Succession from the Apostles times, is necessary to the Constitution of that Church, to which we must submit our selves, we know not where to find it: besides that, the Doctrine of the necessity of the Intention of the Minister to the Validity of a Sacrament, throws us into inextricable difficulties. I know they generally say, that by the Intention they do not mean the inward Acts of the Minister of the Sacrament, but only that it must appear by his outward deportment, that he is in earnest going about a Sacrament, and not doing a thing in jest; and this appeared so reasonable to me, that I was sorry to find our Divines urge it too much: till turning over the Rubricks that are at the beginning of the Missal, I found upon the head of the Intention of the Minister, that if a Priest has a Number of Hoslies before him to be consecrated, and intends to consecrate them all, except one, in that case that Vagrant exception falls upon them all: it not being affixed to any one, and it is defined that he consecrates none at all. Here it is plain, that the secret Acts of a Priest can defeat the Sacrament ▪ so that this overthrows all certainty concerning a Succession: But besides all this, we are sure, that the Greek Churches have a much more uncontested Succession than the Latines: So that a Succession cannot direct us. And if it is necessary to seek out the Doctrines that are universally received, this is not possible for a private Man to know. So that in Ignorant Countries, where there is little Study, the People have no other certainty concerning their Religion, but what they take from their Curate and Confessor: since they cannot examine what is generally received. So that it must be confessed that all the Arguments that are brought for the necessity of a constant infallible Iudge, turn against all those of the Church of Rome, that do not acknowledge the Infallibility of the Pope: for if he is not Infallible, they have no other Iudge, that can pretend to it. It were also easy to shew, that some Doctrines have been as Universally received in some Ages, as they have been rejected in others ʒ which shews, that the Doctrine of the present Church is not alwayes a sure measure. For five Ages together, the Doctrine of the Popes Power to depose Heretical Princes was received without the least Opposition: and this cannot be doubted by any that knows what has been the State of the Church since the End of the eleventh Century: & yet I believe, few Princes would allow this, notwithstanding all the concurring Authority of so many Ages to fortify it. I could carry this into a great many other Instances, but I single out this, because it is a point in which Princes are naturally extream sensible.

Upon the whole Matter, it can never enter into my mind, that God, who has made Man a Creature, that naturally enquires and reasons, and that feels as sensible a pleasure when [Page] he can give himself a good account of his actions, as one that sees, does perceive in comparison to a blind man that is led about; and that this God, that has also made Religion on design to perfect this humane Nature, and to raise it to the utmost height to which it can arrive, has contrived it to be dark, and to be so much beyond the penetration of our Faculties, that we cannot find out his mind in those things that are necessary for our Salvation: and that the Scriptures, that were writ by plain men, in a very familiar stile, and addrest without any discrimination to the Vulgar, should become such an unintelligible Book in these Ages, that we must have an Infallible Iudge to expound it: and when I see not only Popes, but even 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.

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THis Letter came to London with the return of the first Post after his late Majesties Papers were sent into the Countrey; some that saw it, liked it well, and wished to have it publick, and the rather, because the Writer did not so entirely consine 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 aggreeing 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.

FINIS.

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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 28th of April 1687.

Printed in the Year 1687.

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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 28th 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 Emploiments 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 fortify those assurances with Laws: and it is not easy to imagin, 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 5th revived, chooses 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, instead 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 instead of the great Figure, which this Reign might make in the World, all the news of England is now only concerning the practises on some fearful Mercenaries. [Page] These things shew, that His Majesty is so possessed with his Religion, that this cannot suffer us to think, that there is at present no danger from Popery.

III. It does not appear, by what we see, either abroad or at home, that Popery has so changed its nature, that we have less reason to be afraid of it at present, than we had in former times. It might be thought ill nature to go so far back, as to the Councils of the Lateran, that decreed the extirpation of Hereticks, with severe Sanctions on those Princes that failed in their Duty, of being the Hangmen of the Inquisitors; or to the Council of Constance, that decreed, that Princes were not bound to keep their faith to Hereticks; thô it must be acknowledged, that we have extraordinary Memories if we can forget such things, and more extraordinary Understandings if we do not make some inferences from them. I will not stand upon such inconsiderable Trifles as the Gunpowder Plot, or the Massacre of Ireland; but I will take the liberty to reflect a little on what that Church has done since those Laws were made, to give us kinder and softer thoughts of them, and to make us the less apprehensive of them. VVe see before our eyes what they have done, and are still doing in France; and what feeble things Edicts, Coronation Oaths, Laws and Promises, repeated over and over again, prove to be, where that Religion prevails; and Louis le Grand makes not so contemptible a Figure in that Church, or in our Court, as to make us think, that his example may not be proposed as a Pattern, as well as his aid may be offered for an encouragement, to act the same things in England, that he is now doing with so much applause in France: and it may be perhaps the rather desired from hence to put him a little in countenance, when so great a King as ours is willing to forget himself so far as to copy after him, and to depend upon him: so that as the Doctrine and Principles of that Church must be still the same in all Ages and Places, since its chief pretension is, that it is infallible, it is no unreasonable thing for us to be afraid of those, who will be easily induced to burn us a little here, when they are told, that such fervent zeal will save them a more lasting burning hereafter, and will perhaps quit all scores so entirely, that they may hope scarce to endure a Singing in Purgatory for all their other Sins.

IV. If the severest Order of the Church of Rome, that has breathed out nothing but Fire and Blood since its first formation, and that is even decryed at Rome it self for its Violence, is in such credit here; I do not see any enducement from thence to persuade us to look on the Councils that are directed by that Society, as such harmless and inoffensive things, that we need be no more on our guard against them. I know not why we may not apprehend as much from Father Petre, as the French have felt from Pere de la Chaise, since all the difference that is observed to be between them, is, that the English Jesuite has much more Fire and Passion, and much less Conduct and Judgment than the French has. And when Rome has expressed so great a Jealousy of the Interest that that Order had in our Councils, that F. Morgan, who was thought to influence our Ambassadour, was ordered to leave Rome, I do not see why England should look so tamely on them. No reason can be given why Card. Howard should be shut out of all their Councils, unless it be, that the Nobleness of his Birth, and the Gentleness of his Temper, [Page] are too hard even for his Religion and his Purple, to be mastered by them. And it is a Contradiction, that nothing but a Belief capable of receiving Transubstantiation can reconcile, to see Men pretend to observe Law, and yet to find at the same time an Ambassadour from England at Rome, when there are so many Laws in our Book of Statutes, never yet repealed, that have declared over and over again all Commerce with the Court and See of Rome to be high Treason.

V. The late famous Judgment of our Judges, who knowing no other way to make their Names immortal, have found an effectual one to preserve them from being ever forgot, seems to call for another Method of Proceeding. The President they have set must be fatal either to them or us. For if 12 Men, that get into Scarlet and Furrs, have an Authority to dissolve all our Laws, the English Government is to be hereafter lookt at with as much scorn, as it has hitherto drawn admiration. That doubtful VVords of Laws, made so long ago, that the intention of the Lawgivers is not certainly known, must be expounded by the Judges, is not to be questioned: but to infer from thence, that the plain VVords of a Law, so lately made, and that was so vigorously asserted by the present Parliament, may be made void by a Decision of theirs, after so much Practice upon them, is just as reasonable a way of arguing, as theirs is, who because the Church of England acknowledges, that the Church has a Power in Matters of Rites and Ceremonies, will from thence conclude, that this Power must go so far, that thô Christ has said of the Cup, drink ye all of it, we must obey the Church when she decrees, that we shall not drink of it. Our Judges, for the greater part, were Men that had past their Lives in so much Retirement, that from thence one might have hoped, that they had studied our Law well, since the Bar had called them so seldom from their Studies: and if Practice is thought often hurtful to speculation, as that which disorders and hurries the Judgment, they who had practised so little in our Law, had no byass on their Understandings: and if the habit of taking Money as a Lawyer is a dangerous preparation for one that is to be an incorrupt Judge, they should have been incorruptible, since it is not thought, that the greater part of them got ever so much Money by their Profession, as pay'd for their Furrs. In short, we now see how they have merited their Preferment, and they may yet expect a further Exaltation, when the Justice and the Laws of England come to be in hands, that will be as careful to preserve them, as they have been to destroy them. But what an Infamy will it lay upon the Name of an English Parliament, if instead of calling those Betrayers of their Countrey to an account, they should go by an after-game to confirm what these Fellows have done.

VI. The late Conferences with so many Members of both Houses, will give such an ill-natured piece of Jealousy against them, that of all Persons living, that are the most concern'd to take care how they give their Votes, the VVorld will believe, that Threatnings and Promises had as large a share in those secret Conversations, as Reasoning or Persuasion: and it must be a more than ordinary degree of Zeal and Courage in them, that must take off the Blot, of being sent for, and spoke to, on such a subject and in such a manner. The worthy Behaviour of the Members in the last Session, had made the Nation unwilling to remember the Errors [Page] committed in the first Election: and it is to be hoped, that they will not give any cause for the future to call that to mind▪ For if a Parliament, that had so many Flaws in its first Conception, goes to repeal Laws, that we are sure were made by Legal Parliaments, it will put the Nation on an Enquiry that nothing but necessity will drive them to. For a Nation may be laid asleep, and be a little cheated; but when it is awakned, and sees its danger, it will not look on and see a Rape made on its Religion and Liberties, without examining, from whence have these Men this Authority? they will hardly find that it is of Men; and they will not believe that it is of God. But it is to be hoped, that there will be no occasion given for this angry question which is much easier made than answered.

VII. If all that were now asked in favour of Popery, were only some Gentleness towards the Papists; there were some reason to entertain the Debate, when the Demand were a little more modest: If Men were to be attainted of Treason, for being reconciled to the Church of Rome, or for reconciling others to it; if Priests were demanded to be hanged, for taking Orders in the Church of Rome; and if the two thirds of the Papists Estates were offered to be levied, it were a very natural thing to see them uneasy and restless: but now the matter is more barefaced; they are not contented to live at ease, and enjoy their Estates; but they must carry all before them: and F. Petre cannot be at quiet, unless he makes as great a Figure in our Court, as Pere de la Chaise does at Versailles.

A Cessation of all Severities against them, is that to which the Nation would more easily submit; but it is their Behaviour that must create them the continuance of the like Compassion in another Reign. If a restless and a persecuting Spirit were not inherent in that Order, that has now the Ascendant, they would have behaved themselves so decently under their present Advantages, as to have made our Divines, that have charged them so heavily, look a little out of countenance: and this would have wrought more on the good Nature of the Nation, and the Princely Nobleness of the Successors whom we have in view, than those Arts of Craft and Violence, to which we see their Tempers carry them even so early, before it is yet time to show themselves. The Temper of the English Nation, the Heroïcal Vertues of those whom we have in our Eyes, but above all, our most holy Religion, which instead of Revenge and Cruelty, inspires us with Charity and Mercy, even for Enemies, are all such things, as may take from the Gentlemen of that Religion all sad apprehensions, unless they raise a Storm against themselves, and provoke the Iustice of the Nation to such a degree, that the Successors may find it necessary to be just, even when their own Inclinations would rather carry them to shew Mercy. In short, they need fear nothing but what they create to themselves: so that all this stir that they keep for their own Safety, looks too like the securing to themselves Pardons for the Crimes that they intend to commit.

[Page]VIII. I know it is objected as no small prejudice against these Laws, that the very making of them discovered a particular Malignity against His Majesty, and therefore it is ill Manners to speak for them. The first had perhaps an Eye at his being then Admiral: and the last was possibly levelled at him: thô when that was discovered, he was excepted out of it by a special Proviso. And as for that which past in 73, I hope it is not forgot, that it was enacted by that Loyal Parliament, that had setled both the Prerogative of the Crown and the Rites of the Church, and that had given the King more Money than all the Parliaments of England had ever done in all former Times. A Parliament that had indeed some Disputes with the King, but upon the first step that he made with relation to Religion or Safety, they shewed how ready they were to forget all that was past: as appeared by their Behaviour after the Triple Alliance. And in 73, thô they had great cause given them to dislike the Dutch war, especially the strange beginning of it upon the Smirna Fleet: and the stopping the Exchequer, the Declaration for Toleration, and the writs for the Members of the House, were Matters of hard Digestion; yet no sooner did the King give them this new Assurance for their Religion then, thô they had very great Reasons given them to be jealous of the war, yet since the King was engaged, they gave him 1200000 Pounds for carrying it on; and they thought they had no ill Penniworths for their Money, when they carried home with them to their Countreys this new Security for their Religion, which we are desired now to throw up, and which the Reverend Iudges have already thrown out, as a Law out of date. If this had carried in it any new piece of Severity, their Complaints might be just; but they are extream tender, if they are so uneasy under a Law that only gives them Leisure and Opportunities to live at home. And the last Test, which was intended only for shutting them out from a share in the Legislative Body, appears to be so just, that one is rather amased to find that it was so long a doing, than that it was done at last: and since it is done, it is a great presumption on our Understandings to think, that we should be willing to part with it. If it was not sooner done, it was because there was not such cause given for Jealousy to work upon: but what has appeared since that time, and what has been printed in his late Majesties name, shews the World now, that the Iealousies which occasioned those Laws, were not so ill grounded, as some well meaning Men perhaps then believed them to be. But there are some times in which all Mens Eyes come to be opened.

IX. I am told, some think it is very indecent to have a Test for our Parliaments, in which the King's Religion is accused of Idolatry; but if this reason is good in this particular, it will be full as good against several of the Articles of our Church, and many of the Homilies. If the Church and Religion of this Nation is so formed by [Page] Law, that the King's Religion is declared over and over again to be Idolatrous, what help is there for it? It is no other, than it was when His Majesty was Crowned, and Swore to maintain our Laws.

I hope none will be wanting in all possible respect to his sacred Person; and as we ought to be infinitly sorry to find him engaged in a Religion, which we must believe Idolatrous, so we are far from the ill manners of reflecting on his Person, or calling him an Idolater: for as every Man that reports a Lye, is not for that to be called a Lyar; so thô the ordering the Intention, and the prejudice of a mispersuasion are such abatements, that we will not rashly take on us to call every Man of the Church of Rome an Idolater; yet on the other hand, we can never lay down our Charge against the Church of Rome as guilty of Idolatry, unless at the same time we part with our Religion.

X. Others give us a strange sort of Argument, to perswade us to part with the Test; they say, the King must imploy his Popish Subjects, for he can trust no other; and he is so assured of their Fidelity to him, that we need apprehend no Danger from them. This is an odd Method to work on us, to let in a sort of People to the Parliament and Government, since the King cannot trust us, but will depend on them: so that as soon as this Law is repealed, they must have all the Imployments, and have the whole power of the Nation lodged in their hands; this seems a little too gross to impose, even on Irishmen. The King saw for many Years together, with how much Zeal both the Clergy, and many of the Gentry appeared for his Interests; and if there is now a Melancholy Damp on their Spirits, the King can dissipate it when he will; and as the Church of England is a Body that will never rebel against him, so any Sullenness, under which the late Administration of Affairs has brought them, would soon vanish, if the King would be pleas'd to remember a little what he has so often promised, not only in Publick but in Private; and would be contented with the Excercise of his own Religion, without imbroiling his whole Affairs, because F. Petre will have it so: and it tempts Englishmen to more than ordinary degrees of Rage, against a sort of Men, who it seems, can infuse in a Prince, born with the highest sense of Honour possible, Projects, to which without doing some Violence to his own Royal Nature, he could not so much as hearken to, if his Religion did not so fatally mufle him up in a blind Obedience. But if we are so unhappy, that Priests can so disguise Matters, as to mislead a Prince, who without their ill Influences would be the most Glorious Monarch of all Europe, and would soon reduce the Grand Louis to a much humbler figure; yet it is not to be so much as imagined, that ever their Arts can be so unhappily successful, as to impose on an English Parliament, composed of Protestant Members.

FINIS.

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SOME REFLECTIONS On his Majesty's PROCLAMATION Of the 12th of February 1686/7 for a Toleration in Scotland, together with the said Proclamation.

I. THe Preamble of a Proclamation, is oft writ in hast, and is the flourish of some wanton Pen: but one of such an Extraordinary nature as this is, was probably more severely examined; there is a new designation of his Majesties Authority here set forth of his Absolute Power, which is so often repeated, that it deserves to be a little searched into. Prerogative Royal, and Soveraign Authority, are Termes already received and known; but for this Absolute Power, as it is a new Term, so those who have coined it, may make it signify what they will. The Roman Law speaks of Princeps Legibus solutus, and Absolute in its natural signification, importing the being without all Ties and Restraints; then the true meaning of this seems to be, that there is an Inherent Power in the King, which can neither be restrained by Lawes, Promises, nor Oaths; for nothing less than the being free from all these, renders a Power Absolute.

II. If the former Term seemed to stretch our Allegeance, that which comes after it, is yet a step of another nature, tho one can hardly imagine what can go beyond Absolute Power; and it is in these Words, Which all our Subjects are to obey without reserve. And this is the carrying obedience many sises beyond what the Grand Seigneur has ever yet claimed: For all Princes, even the most Violent pretenders to Absolute Power, till Lewis the Great's time, have thought it enough to oblige their Subjects to submit to their Power, and to bear whatsoever they thought good to impose upon them; but till the Days of the late Conversions by the Dragoons, it was never so much as pretended, that Subjects were bound to obey their Prince without Reserve, and to be of his Religion, because he would have it so. Which was the only Argument that those late Apostles made use of; so it is probable this qualification of the duty of Subjects was put in here, to prepare us for a terrible le Roy le veut; and in that case we are told here, that we must obey without reserve; and when those severe Orders come, the Privy Council, and all such as execute this Proclamation, will be bound by this Declaration to shew themselves more forward than any others, to obey without reserve: and those poor pretensions of Conscience, Religion, Honour, and Reason, will be then reckoned as reserves upon their obedience, which are all now shut out.

III. These being the grounds upon which this Proclamation is founded, we ought not only to consider what consequences are [Page] now drawn from them, but what may be drawn from them at any time hereafter; for if they are of force, to justify that which is now inferred from them, it will be full as just to draw from the same premises an Abolition of the Protestant Religion, of the Rights of the Subjects, not only to Church-Lands, but to all Property whatsoever. In a word, it asserts a Power to be in the King, to command what he will, and an Obligation in the Subjects, to obey whatsoever he shall command.

IV. There is also mention made in the Preamble of the Christian Love and Charity, which his Majesty would have established among Neighbours; but another dash of a Pen, founded on this Absolute Power, may declare us all Hereticks; and then in wonderful Charity to us, we must be told, that we are either to obey without Reserve, or to be Burnt without Reserve. We know the Charity of that Church pretty well: It is indeed Fervent and Burning: and if we have forgot what has been done in former Ages, France, Savoy, and Hungary, have set before our eyes very fresh instances of the Charity of that Religion: While those Examples are so green, it is a little too imposing on us, to talk to us of Christian Love and Charity. No doubt his Majesty means sincerely, and his Exactness to all his Promises, chiefly to those made since he came to the Crown, will not suffer us to think an unbecoming thought of his Royal Intentions; but yet after all, tho it seems by this Proclamation, that we are bound to obey without Reserve, it is hardship upon hardship to be bound to Believe without Reserve.

V. There are a sort of People here tolerated, that will be very hardly found out: and these are the Moderate Presbyterians: Now, as some say, that there are very few of those People in Scotland that deserve this Character, so it is hard to tell what it amounts to; and the calling any of them Immoderate, cuts off all their share in this Grace. Moderation is a quality that lyes in the mind, and how this will be found out, I cannot so readily guess. If a Standard had been given of Opinions or Practices, then one could have known how this might have been distinguished; but as it lyes, it will not be easy to make the Discrimination; and the declaring them all Immoderate, shuts them out quite.

VI. Another Foundation laid down for repealing all Laws made against the Papists, is, that they were enacted in K. Iames the Sixth's Minority: with some harsh expressions, that are not to be insisted on, since they shew more the heat of the penner, than the Dignity of the Prince, in whose name they are given out; but all these Laws were ratifyed over and over again by K▪ Iames, when he came to be of full Age: and they have received many Confirmations by K. Charles the First, and K Charles the Second, as well as by his present Majesty, both when he represented his Brother in the year 1681. and since he himself came to the Crown: so that whatsoever may be said concerning the first Formation of those Laws, they have received now for the course of a whole hundred years, that are lapsed since K. Iames was of full Age, so many Confirmations, that if there is any thing certain in Humane Government, we might depend upon them; but this new coyned Absolute Power must carry all before it.

VII. It is also well known, that the whole Settlement of the Church Lands and Tythes, with many other things, and more particularly the Establishment of the Protestant Religion, was likewise enacted in K. Iames's minority, as well as those Penal Laws: so that the Reason now made use of, to annul the Penal Laws, will serve full as well, for another Act of this Absolute Power, that shall abolish all those; and if Maximes that unhinge all the Securities of Humane Society, and all that is sacred in Government, ought to be lookt on with the justest and deepest prejudices possible, one is tempted to lose the respect that is due to every thing that carrys a Royal stamp upon it, when he sees such grounds made use of, as must shake all Settlements [Page] whatsoever; for if a prescription of 120. years, and Confirmations reiterated over and over again these 100. years past, do not purge some Defects in the first Formation of those Laws, what can make us secure: but this looks so like a Fetch of the French Prerogative Law, both in their processes with Relation to the Edict of Nantes, and those concerning Dependences at Mets, that this seems to be a Copy from that famous Original.

VIII. It were too much ill nature to look into the History of the last Age, to examine on what grounds those characters of pious and blessed given to the Memory of Q. Mary are built; but since K. James's Memory has the character of glorious given to it, if the civility due to the fair sex makes one unwilling to look into the one, yet the other may be a little dwelt on. The peculiar Glory that belongs to K. James's Memory, is, that he was a Prince of great Learning, and that he imployed it chiefly in writing for his Religion: of the Volume in folio, in which we have his works, two thirds are against the Church of Rome; one part of them is a Commentary on the Revelation, proving that the Pope is Antichrist; another part of them belonged more naturally to his Post and Dignity; which is the warning that he gave to all the Princes and states of Europe, against the Treasonable and bloody Doctrines of the Papacy. The first Act he did when he came of Age, was to swear in person with all his family, and afterwards with all his people of Scotland, a Covenant, containing an Enumeration of all the points of Popery, and a most solemn renunciation of them, somewhat like our Parliament Test: his first Speech to the Parliament of England was Copious on the same subject: and he left a Legacy of a Wish on such of his posterity as should go over to that Religion, which in good manners is suppressed. It is known, K. Iames was no Conquerour, and that he made more use of his Pen than his Sword: so the Glory that is peculiar to his Memory must fall chiefly on his Learned and Immortal Writings: and since there is such a Veneration expressed for him, it agrees not ill with this, to wish, that his Works were more studied by those who offer such Incense to his Glorious Memory.

IX. His Maj. assures his people of Scotland, upon his certain knowledge and long Experience, that the Catholicks, as they are good Christians, so they are likewise Dutiful subjects: but if we must believe both these equally, then we must conclude severely against their being Good Christians; for we are sure they can never be Good Subjects, not only to a Heretical Prince, but even to a Catholick Prince, if he does not extirpate Hereticks; for their beloved Council of the Lateran, that decreed Transubstantiation, has likewise decreed, that if a Prince does not extirpate Hereticks out of his Dominions, the Pope must depose him, and declare his Subjects absolved from their Allegeance, and give his Dominions to another: So that even His Majesty, how much soever he may be a Zealous Catholick, yet cannot be assured of their fidelity to him, unless he has given them secret assurances, that he is resolved to extirpate Hereticks out of his Dominions; and that all the Promises which he now makes to these poor wretches are no other way to be kept, than the assurances which the Great Lewis gave to his Protestant Subjects, of his observing still the Edict of Nantes even after he had resolved to break it, and also his last promise made in the Edict, that repealed the Edict of Nantes, by which he gave Assurances, that no Violence should be used to any for their Religion, in the very time that he was ordering all possible Violences to be put in execution against them.

X. His Majesty assures us, that on all occasions the Papists have shewed themselves Good and faithfull subjects to him and his Royall Predecessors; but how Absolute soever the Kings Power may be, it seems his knowledge of History is not so Absolute, but it may be capable of some Improvement. It will be hard to find out what Loyalty they shewed on the occasion of the Gunpowder Plot, or during the whole progress of the [Page] Rebellion of Ireland; if the King will either take the words of K. Iames of Glorious Memory, or K. Charles the first, that was indeed of pious and blessed Memory, rather than the word of the penners of this Proclamation, it will not be hard to find occasions where they were a little wanting in this their so much boasted Loyalty: and we are sure, that by the Principles of that Religion, the King can never be assured of the Fidelity of those he calls his Catholick Subjects, but by engaging to them to make his Heretical Subjects Sacrifices to their Rage.

XI. The King declares them capable of all the Offices and Benefices which he shall think fit to bestow on them, and only restrains them from invading the Protestant Churches by force: so that here a door is plainly opened for admitting them to the exercise of their Religion in Protestant Churches, so they do not break into them by force; and whatsoever may be the sense of the term Benefice in its antient and first signification, now it stands only for Church Preferments; so that when any Churches, that are at the Kings gift, fall vacant, here is a plain intimation, that they are to be provided to them; and then it is very probable, that all the Lawes made against such as go not to their Parish Churches, will be severely turned upon those that will not come to Mass.

XII. His Majesty does in the next place, in the vertue of his Absolute Power / Annull a great many Laws, as well those that established the Oaths of Allegeance and supremacy, as the late Test, enacted by himself in person, while he represented his Brother: upon which he gave as strange an Essay to the World of his Absolute Iustice in the Attainder of the late Earl of Argile, as he does now of his Absolute Power in condemning the Test it self; he also repeals his own Confirmation of the Test, since he came to the Crown, which he offered as the clearest Evidence that he could give of his Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion, and by which he gained so much upon that Parliament, that he obtained every thing from them that he desired of them; till he came to try them in the Matters of Religion. This is no extraordinary Evidence to assure his People, that his Promises will be like the Lawes of the Medes and Persians, which alter not; nor will the disgrace of the Commissioner that enacted that Law, lay this matter wholly on him; for the Letter, that he brought, the Speech that he made, and the Instructions which he got, are all too well known to be so soon forgotten: and if Princes will give their Subjects reason to think, that they forget their promises, as soon as the turn is served for which they were made, this will be too prevailing a temptation on the Subjects to mind the Princes promise as little as it seems he himself does; and will force them to conclude, that the truth of the Prince, is not so Absolute as it seems he fancies his power to be.

XIII. Here is not only a repealing of a great many Lawes, and established Oaths and Tests, but by the Exercise of the Absolute Power / a new Oath is imposed, which was never pretended to by the Crown in any former time; and as the Oath is created by this Absolute Power / so it seems the Absolute Power must be supported by this Oath: since one branch of it, is an obligation to Maintain His Majesty and his Lawfull Successors in the exercise of this their Absolute Power and Authority against all deadly, which I suppose is Scotch for Mortalls: now to Impose so hard a yoke as this Absolute Power on the Subjects, seems no small stretch; but it is a wonderfull exercise of it to oblige the Subjects to defend this: it had been more modest, if they had been only bound to bear it, and submit to it: but it is a terrible thing so far to extinguish all the remnants of naturall Liberty, or of a legall Government, as to oblige the Subjects by Oath to maintain the exercise of this, which plainly must destroy themselves: for the short execution by the Bow-strings of Turkey, or by sending orders to men to return in their heads, being an exercise of this Absolute Power / it is a litle hard to make men swear to maintain the King in it: and if [Page] that Kingdom has suffered so much by the many Oaths that have been in use among them, as is marked in this Proclamation, I am affraid this new Oath will not much mend the matter.

XIV. Yet after all, there is some Comfort; his Majesty assures them, he will use no Violence nor force, nor any Invincible Necessity to any man on the account of his Persuasion: It were too great a want of respect to fancy, that a time may come in which even this may be remembred, full as well, as the Promises that were made to the Parliament after His Majesty came to the Crown: I do not, I confess, apprehend that; for I see here so great a caution used in the choice of these words, that it is plain, very great Severities may very well consist with them: It is clear, that the generall words of Violence and Force are to be determined by these last of Invincible Necessity / so that the King does only promise to lay no Invincible Necessity on his Subjects; but for all Necessities, that are not Invincible, it seems they must expect to bear a large share of them; Disgraces, want of Imployments, Fines, and Imprisonments, and even Death it self are all Vincible things to a man of a firmness of mind: so that the Violences of torture, the Furies of Dragoons, and some of the Methods now practised in France, perhaps may be Included within this Promise; since these seem almost Invincible to humane nature, if it is not fortified with an Extraordinary measure of Grace: but as to all other things, His Majesty binds himself up from no part of the Exercise of his Absolute Power by this Promise.

XV. His Majesty orders this to go Immediately to the Great Seal, without passing thro the other Seals: now since this is counter-signed by the Secretary, in whose hands the Signet is, there was no other step to be made but thro the Privy Seal; so I must own, I have a great curiosity of knowing his Character in whose hands the Privy Seal is at present; for it seems his Conscience is not so very supple, as the Chancellors and the Secretaryes are; but it is very likely, if he does not quickly change his mind, the Privy Seal at least will very quickly change its Keeper; and I am sorry to hear, that the L. Chancellor and the Secretary have not another Brother to fill this post, that so the guilt of the ruin of that Nation, may lie on one single Family, and that there may be no others involved in it.

XVI. Upon the whole matter, many smaller things being waved, it being extream unpleasant to find fault, where one has all possible dispositions to pay all respect; we here in England see what we must look for. A Parliament in Scotland was tryed, but it proved a little Stubborn; and now Absolute Power comes to set all right; so when the Closetting has gone round, so that Noses are counted, we may perhaps see a Parliament here, but if it chances to be untoward, and not to obey without Reserve / then our Reverend Iudges will copy from Scotland, and will not only tell us of the Kings Imperial Power, but will discover to us this new Mystery of Absolute Power, to which we are all bound to obey without Reserve.

These Reflexions refer in so many places to some words in the Proclamation, that it was thought necessary to set them near one another, that the Reader may be able to Judge, whether he is deceived by any false Quotations or not.

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By the King. A PROCLAMATION.

JAMES R.

JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God, King of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c To all and sundry our good Subjects, whom these presents do or may concern, Greeting. We having taken into Our Royal Consideration the many and great inconveniencies which have happened to that Our Ancient Kingdom of Scotland of late years, through the different perswasions in the Christian Religion, and the great Heats and Animosities amongst the several Professors thereof, to the ruin and decay of Trade, wasting of Lands, extinguishing of Charity, contempt of the Royal Power, and converting of true Religion, and the Fear of GOD, into Animosities, Names, Factions, and sometimes into Sacriledge and Treason. And being resolved as much as in Us lyes, to unite the Hearts and Affections of Our Subjects, to GOD in Religion, to Us in Loyalty, and to their Neighbours in Christian Love and Charity. Have therefore thought fit to Grant, and by Our Souveraign Authority, Prerogative Royal, and Absolute Power, which all Our Subjects are to obey without Reserve; Do hereby give and grant Our Royal Toleration, to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named, with, and under the several Conditions, Restrictions, and Limitations after-mentioned. In the first place, We allow and tolerate the Moderate Presbyterians, to Meet in their Private Houses, and there to hear all such Ministers, as either have, or are willing to accept of Our Indulgence allanerly, and none other, and that there be not any thing said or done contrary to the Well and Peace of Our Reign, Seditious or Treasonable, under the highest Pains these Crimes will import; nor are they to presume to Build Meeting-Houses, or to use Out-Houses or Barns, but only to exercise in their Private Houses, as said is: In the mean time, it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure, that Field Conventicles, and such as Preach, or Exercise at them, or who shall any way [...] assist or connive at them, shall be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity of our Laws made against them, seeing from these Rendezvouzes of Rebellion, so much Disorder hath proceeded, and so much Disturbance to the Government, and for which after this Our Royal Indulgence for tender Consciences there is no excuse left. In like manner, we do hereby tolerate Quakers to meet and exercise in their Form, in any Place or Places appointed for their Worship. And considering the Severe and Cruel Laws, made against Roman Catholicks (therein called Papists) in the Minority of Our Royal Grand Father of Glorious Memory, ☜ without His Consent, and contrary to the Duty of good Subjects, by His Regents, and other Enemies to their Lawful Soveraign, Our Royal Great Grand Mother Queen Mary of blessed and pious Memory, wherein under the pretence of Religion, they cloathed the worst of Treasons, Factions, and Usurpations, and made these Laws, not as against the Enemies of GOD, but their own; which Laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them▪ or any of them ad terrorem only, on Supposition, that the Papists relying on an External Power, were incapable of Duty, and true Allegeance to their Natural Soveraigns, and Rightful Monarchs; We of Our certain Knowledge, and long Experience, knowing that the Catholicks, as it is their Principle to be Good Christians, so it is to be dutiful Subjects; and that they have likewise on all occasions shewn themselves Good and faithfull Subjects to Us, and Our Royal Predecessors, by hazarding, and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes, in their Defence (though of another Religion) & the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws: Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Council, by Our Soveraign Authority, Prerogative Royal, and Absolute Power, aforesaid▪ Suspend, Stop and disable all Laws, or Acts of Parliament, Customs or Constitutions, made [Page] or executed against any of our Roman-Catholick Subjects, in any time past, to all Intents and Purposes, making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned, Pains or Penalties therein ordained to be inflicted, so that they shall in all things be as free in all Respects as any of Our Protestant Subjects whatsoever, not only to exercise their Religion, but to enjoy all Offices, Benefices and others, which we shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming: Nevertheless, it is Our Will and Pleasure, and we do hereby command all Catholicks at their highest Pains, only to exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels; and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields, or to invade the Protestant Churches by force, under the pains aforesaid, to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively; nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-streets of any of Our Royal Burghs, under the Pains above-mentioned. And whereas the Obedience and Service of Our Good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance, and Our Soveraignty, and that no Law, Custom or Constitution, Difference in Religion, or other Impediment whatsoever, can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown, or hinder Us fiom Protecting, and Employing them, according to their several Capacities, and Our Royal Pleasure; nor Restrain Us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them, or vacuate or annul these Rights Heretable, when they are made or conferred: And likewise considering, that some Oaths are capable of being wrested by Men of sinistrous Intentions, a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty; Do therefore, with Advice and Consent aforesaid, cass, annull and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever, by which any of Our Subjects are incapacitated, or disabled from holding Places, or Offices in Our said Kingdom, or enjoying their Hereditary Rights and Priviledges, discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming, without our special Warrant and Consent, under the pains due to the contempt of Our Royal Commands and Authority. And to this effect, we do by Our Royal Authority aforesaid, stop, disable, and dispense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths, Tests, or any of them, particularly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second; the eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament; the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles; the twenty first and twenty fifth Acts of that Parliament, and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of Our late Parliament, ☜ in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths, or Tests therein prescribed, and all others, as well not mentioned as mentioned, and that in place of them, all Our good Subjects, or such of them as We or Our Privy Council shall require so to do, shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly▪ I A. B. do acknowledge / testifie and declare / that JAMES the Seventh, by the Grace of God, King of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. is rightful King, and Supream Governour of these Realms, and over all Persons therein; and that it is unlawful for Subjects, on any pretence, or for any cause whatsoever, to rise in Arms against Him, or any Commissionated by Him; and that I shall never so rise in Arms, nor assist any who shall so do; and that I shall never resist [...]is Power or Authority, nor ever oppose his Authority to his Person, as I shall answer to God; but shall to the utmost of my power Assist, Defend, and Maintain Him, His Heirs and lawful Successors, in the exercise of their ABSOLUTE POWER and Authority against all Deadly. So help me God. And seeing many of Our good Subjects have, before Our Pleasure in these Matters was made publick, incurred the Guilt appointed by the Acts of Parliament above-mentioned, or others; We, by Our Authority, and Absolute Power and Prerogative Royal above-mentioned, of Our certain Knowledge, and innate Mercy, Give Our ample and full Indemnity to all those of the Roman-Catholick or Popish Religion, for all things by them done contrary to Our Laws or Acts of Parliament, made in any time past, relating to their Religion, the Worship and Exercise thereof, or for being Papists, Jesuits, or Traffickers, for hearing, or saying of Mass, concealing of Priests or Jesuits, breeding their Children Catholicks at home or abroad, or any other thing, Rite or Doctrine, said, performed, or maintained by them, or any of them: And likewise, for holding or taking of Places, Employments, or Offices, contrary to any Law or Constitution, Advices given to Us, or Our Council, Actions done, or generally any thing performed or said against the known Laws of that Our Ancient Kingdom: Excepting always from this Our Royal Indemnity, all Murders, [Page] Assassinations, Thefts, and such like other Crimes, which never used to be comprehended in Our General Acts of Indemnity. And we command and require all Our Judges, or others concerned, to explain this in the most Ample Sense & Meaning Acts of Indemnity at any time have contained: Declaring this shall be as good to every one concerned, as if they had Our Royal Pardon & Remission under Our Great Seal of that Kingdom. And likewise indemnifying Our Protestant Subjects from all Pains and Penalties due for hearing or Preaching in Houses; Providing there be no Treasonable Speeches uttered in the said Conventicles by them, in which case the Law is only to take place against the Guilty, and none other present; Providing also that they Reveal to any of Our Council the Guilt so committed; As also, excepting all Fines, or Effects of Sentences already given. And likewise Indemnifying fully and freely all Quakers, for their Meetings and Worship, in all time past, preceding the Publication of these Presents. And we doubt not but Our Protestant Subjects will give their Assistance and Concourse hereunto, on all occasions, in their respective Capacities. In consideration whereof, and the ease those of Our Religion, and others may have hereby, and for the Encouragement of Our Protestant Bishops, and the Regular Clergy, and such as have hitherto lived orderly, We think fit to declare, that it never was Our Principle, nor will We ever suffer Violence to be offered to any Mans Conscience, nor will We use force, or Invincible Necessity against any Man on the Account of his Perswasion, nor the Protestant Religion, but will protect Our Bishops and other Ministers in their Functions, Rights and Properties, and all Our Protestant Subjects in the free Exercise of their Protestant Religion in the Churches. And that We will, and hereby Promise, on Our Royal Word, to maintain the Possessors of Church Lands formerly belonging to Abbays, or other Churches of the Catholick Religion, in their full and free Possession and Right, according to Our Laws and Acts of Parliament in that behalf in all time coming. And We will imploy indifferently all our Subjects of all Perswasions, so as none shall meet with any Discouragement on the account of his Religion, but be advanced, and esteemed by Us, according to their several Capacities and Qualifications, so long as We find Charity and Unity maintained. And if any Animosities shall arise, as We hope in God there will not, We will shew the severest Effects of Our Royal Displeasure against the Beginners or Fomenters thereof, seeing thereby Our Subjects may be deprived of this general Ease and Satisfaction, We intend to all of them, whose Happiness, Prosperity, Wealth and Safety, is so much Our Royal Care, that we will leave nothing undone which may procure these Blessings for them. And lastly, to the End all Our good Subjects may have Notice of this Our Royal Will and Pleasure, we do hereby command, Our Lyon King at Arms, and his Brethern Heraulds, Macers, Pursevants and Messengers at Arms, to make timous Proclamation thereof at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh; And besides the Printing and Publishing of this Our Royal Proclamation, it is Our express Will and Pleasure, that the same be past under the great Seal of that Our Kingdom per saltum, without passing any other Seal or Register.☜ In Order whereunto, this shall be to the Directors of Our Chancellary, and their Deputes for writing the same, and to Our Chancellor for causing our Great Seal aforesaid, to be appended thereunto, a sufficient Warrand.

Given at Our Court at Whitehal the twelfth day of Febr. 168 [...]. and of Our Reign the third year.

By His Majesties Command MELFORT.

God save the King.

FINIS.

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A LETTER, Containing some REFLECTIONS On His MAJESTIES DECLARATION For LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE. Dated the Fourth of April, 1687.

SIR,

I. I Thank you for the Favour of sending me the late Declaration that His Majesty has granted for Liberty of Conscience. I confess, I longed for it with great Impatience, and was surprised to find it so different from the Scotch Pattern; for I imagined, that it was to be set to the second part of the same tune: nor can I see why the Penners of this have sunk so much in their stile; for I suppose the same men penned both. I expected to have seen the Imperial Language of Absolute Power, to which all the Subjects are to obey without reserve; and of the cassing, annulling, the stopping, and disabling of Laws set forth in the Preamble and body of this Declaration; whereas those dreadful words are not to be found here: for instead of repealing the Laws, His Majesty pretends by this only to suspend them; and tho in effect this amounts to a repeal, yet it must be confessed that the words are softer. Now since the Absolute Power, to which His Majesty pretends in Scotland, is not founded on such poor things as Law; for that would look as if it were the gift of the people; but on the Divine Authority, which is supposed to be delegated to His Majesty, this may be as well claimed in England as it was in Scotland: [Page] and the pretension to Absolute Power is so great a thing, that since His Majesty thought fit once to claim it, he is little beholding to those that make him fall so much in his Language; especially since both these Declarations have appeared in our Gazettes; so that as we see what is done in Scotland, we know from hence what is in some peoples hearts, and what we may expect in England.

II. His Majesty tells his people, that the perfect Injoyment of their Property has never been in any Case invaded by him since his coming to the Crown. This is indeed matter of great Incouragement to all good Subjects; for it lets them see, that such Invasions, as have been made on Property, have been done without His Majesties knowledge: so that no doubt the continuing to levy the Customes and the Additional Excise (which had been granted only during the late Kings Life,) before the Parliament could meet to renew the Grant, was done without His Majesties knowledge; the many Violences committed not only by Soldiers, but Officers, in all the Parts of England, which are severe Invasions on Property, have been all without His Majesties knowledge; and since the first Branch of Property is the Right that a man has to his Life, the strange Essay of Mahometan Government, that was shewed at Taunton; and the no less strange proceedings of the present Lord Chancellour, in his Circuit after the Rebellion (which are very justly called His Campagne, for it was an open Act of Hostility to all Law) and for which and other Services of the like nature, it is believed he has had the reward of the Great Seal, and the Executions of those who have left their Colours, which being founded on no Law, are no other than so many Murders; all these, I say, are as we are sure, Invasions on Property; but since the King tells us, that no such Invasions have been made since he came to the Crown, we must conclude that all these things have fallen out without his Privity. And if a standing▪ Army, in time of Peace, has been ever lookt on by this Nation as an Attempt upon the whole Property of the Nation in gross, one must conclude, that even this is done without His Majesties knowledge.

III. His Majesty expresses his Charity for us in a kind wish, that we were all Members of the Catholick Church; in return to which we offer up daily our most earnest prayers for him, that he may become a Member of the truly Catholick Church: for Wishes and Prayers do no hurt on no side: but His Majesty adds, that it has ever been his Opinion, that Conscience ought not to be constrained, nor people forced in matters of meer Religion. We are very happy if this continues to be always his sense: but we are sure in this he is no obedient Member of that which he means by the Catholick Church: for it has over and over again decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks. It encourages Princes to it, by the Offer of the Pardon of their Sins; it threatens them to it, by denouncing to them not only the Judgments of God, but that which is more sensible, the loss of their Dominions: and it seems they intend to make us know that part of their Doctrine even before we come to feel it, since tho some of that Communion would take away the Horror which the Fourth Council of the Lateran gives us, in which these things were decreed, by denying it to be a General Council, and rejecting the Authority of those Canons, yet the most learned of all the Apostates that has fallen to them from our Church, has so lately given up this Plea, and has so formally acknowledged the Authority of that Council, and of its Canons, that it seems they think they are bound to this piece of fair dealing, of warning us before hand of our Danger. It is true Bellarmin sayes, The Church does not always execute her Power of deposing Heretical Princes, tho she always retains it: one reason that he assigns, is, because she is not at all times able to put it in execution: so the same reason may perhaps make it appear unadviseable to extirpate Hereticks, because that at present it cannot be done; but the Right remains entire; and is put in execution in such an unrelenting manner in all places where that Religion [Page] prevails, that it has a very ill Grace, to see any Member of that Church speak in this strain: and when neither the Policy of France, nor the Greatness of their Monarch, nor yet the Interests of the Emperour joyned to the Gentleness of his own temper, could withstand these Bloody Councils, that are indeed parts of that Religion, we can see no reason to induce us to believe, that a Toleration of Religion is proposed with any other design but either to divide us, or to lay us asleep, till it is time to give the Alarm for destroying us.

IV. If all the Endeavours, that have been used in the last four Reigns, for bringing the Subjects of this Kingdom to a Unity in Religion have been ineffectual, as His Maj. says; we know to whom we owe both the first beginnings and the progress of the Divisions among our selves; the Gentleness of Q. Elisabeth's Government, and the numbers of those that adhered to the Church of Rome, made it scarce possible to put an end to that Party during her Reign, which has been ever since restless, and has had credit enough at Court during the three last Reigns, not only to support it self, but to distract us, and to divert us from apprehending the danger of being swallowed up by them, by fomenting our own Differences, and by setting on either a Toleration, or a Persecution, as it has hapned to serve their Interests. It is not so very long since, that nothing was to be heard at Court but the supporting the Church of England, and the Extirpating all the Nonconformists: and it were easy to name the persons, if it were decent, that had this ever in their Mouths; but now all is turned round again, the Church of England is in Disgrace; and now the Encouragment of Trade, the Quiet of the Nation, and the Freedom of Conscience are again in Vogue, that were such odious things but a few years ago, that the very mentioning them was enough to load any man with Suspitions as backward in the King's Service, while such Methods are used, and the Government is as in an Ague, divided between hot and cold fits, no wonder if Laws so unsteadily executed have failed of their effect.

V. There is a good reserve here left for Severity when the proper Opportunity to set it on presents it self: for his Majesty Declares himself only against the forcing of men in matters of meer Religion: so that whensoever Religion and Policy come to be so interwoven, that meer Religion is not the case, and that Publick Safety may be pretended, then this Declaration is to be no more claimed: so that the fastning any thing upon the Protestant Religion, that is inconsistent with the Publick Peace, will be pretended to shew that they are not persecuted for meer Religion. In France, when it was resolved to extirpate the Protestants, all the Discourses that were written on that Subject were full of the Wars occasioned by those of the Religion in the last Age, tho as these were the happy Occasions of bringing the House of Bourbon to the Crown, they had been ended above 80. years ago, and there had not been so much as the least Tumult raised by them these 50. years past: so that the French, who have smarted under this Severity, could not be charged with the least Infraction of the Law: yet Stories of a hundred years old were raised up to inspire into the King those Apprehensions of them, which have produced the terrible effects that are visible to all the World. There is another Expression in this Declaration, which lets us likewise see with what Caution the Offers of Favour are now worded, that so there may be an Occasion given when the Time and Conjuncture shall be favourable to break thro them all: it is in these words, So that they take especial Care that nothing be preached or taught amongst them, which may any ways tend to alienate the Hearts of our People from us or our Government. This in it self is very reasonable, and could admit of no Exception, if we had not to do with a set of men, who to our great Misfortune have so much Credit with His Majesty, and who will be no sooner lodged in the Power to which they pretend, than they will make every thing that is [Page] preached against Popery pass for that which may in some manner alienate the Subjects from the King.

VI. His Majesty makes no doubt of the Concurrence of his Two Houses of Parliament, when he shall think it convenient for them to meet. The Hearts of Kings are unsearchable; so that it is a little too presumptuous to look into His Majesties Secret Thoughts: but according to the Judgments that we would make of other mens Thoughts by their Actions, one would be tempted to think, that His Majesty made some doubt of it, since his Affairs both at home and abroad could not go the worse, if it appeared that there were a perfect understanding between Him and his Parliament, and that his People were supporting him with fresh Supplies; and this House of Commons is so much at his Devotion, that all the world saw how ready they were to grant every thing that he could desire of them, till he began to lay off the Mask with relation to the Test, and since that time the frequent Prorogations, the Closetting, and the Pains that has been taken to gain Members, by Promises made to some, and the Disgraces of others, would make one a little Inclined to think, that some doubt was made of their Concurrence. But we must confess, that the depth of His Majesties Judgment is such, that we cannot fathom it, and therefore we cannot guess what his Doubts or his Assurances are. It is true, the words that come after unriddle the Mystery a little, which are, when His Majesty shall think it convenient for them to meet: for the meaning of this seems plain, that his Maj. is resolved, that they shall never meet, till he receives such Assurances, in a new round of Closetting, that he [...]hall be put out of doubt concerning it.

VII. I will not enter into the dispute concerning Liberty of Conscience, and the Reasons that may be offered for it to a Session of Parliament; for there is scarce any one point, that either with relation to Religion, or Politicks, affords a greater variety of matter for Reflection: and I make no doubt to say, that there is abundance of Reason to oblige [...] Parliament to review all the Penal Laws, either with relation to Papists, or to Dissenters: but I will take the boldness to add one thing, that the Kings's suspending of Laws strikes at the root of this whole Government, and subverts it quite: for if there is any thing certain with relation to the English Government, it is this, that the Executive Power of the Law is entirely in the King; and the Law to fortify him in the Management of it has clothed him with a vast Prerogative, and made it unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to resist him: whereas on the other hand, the Legislative Power is not so entirely in the King, but that the Lords and Commons have such a share in it, that no Law can be either made, repealed, or which is all one suspended, but by their consent: so that the placing this Legislative Power singly in the King, is a subversion of this whole Government; since the Essence of all Governments consists in the Subjects of the Legislative Authority; Acts of Violence or Injustice, committed in the Executive part, are such things that all Princes being subject to them, the peace of mankind were very ill secured if it were not unlawful to resist upon any pretence taken from any ill Administrations, in which as the Law may be doubtful, so the Facts may be uncertain, and at worst the publick Peace must alwayes be more valued than any private Oppressions or Injuries whatsoever. But the total Subversion of a Government, being so contrary to the Trust that is given to the Prince who ought to execute it▪ will put men upon uneasy and dangerous Inquiries: which will turn little to the Advantage of those who are driving matters to such a doubtful and desperate issue.

VIII. If there is any thing in which the Exercise of the Legislative Power seems Indispensable, it is in those Oaths of Allegeance and Tests, that are thought necessary to Qualify men either to be admitted to enjoy the Protection of the Law, or to bear a share in the Government; for in these the Security of the Government is chiefly concerned; and therefore the total extinction [Page] of these, as it is not only a Suspension of them, but a plain repealing of them, so it is a Subverting of the whole Foundation of our Government: For the Regulation that King and Parliament had set both for the Subjects having the Protection of the State by the Oath of Allegeance, and for a share in places of trust by the Tests, is now pluckt up by the roots; when it is declared, that these shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken, or subscribed by any persons whatsoever: for it is plain, that this is no Suspension of the Law, but a formal Repeal of it, in as plain Words as can be conceived.

IX. His Majesty says, that the Benefit of the Service of all his Subjects is by the Law of Nature Inseparably annexed to and inherent in his Sacred Person. It is somewhat strange, that when so many Laws, that we all know are suspended, the Law of Nature, which is so hard to be found out, should be cited; but the Penners of this Declaration had b [...]st let that Law lie forgotten among the rest; for there is a scurvy Paragraph in it, concerning self Preservation, that is capable of very unacceptable Glosses. It is hard to tell what Section of the Law of Nature has markt out either such a Form of Government, or such a Family for it. And if His Majesty renounces his Pretensions to our Allegeance as founded on the Laws of England, and betakes himself to this Law of Nature, he will perhaps find the Counsel was a little too rash; but to make the most of this that can be, the Law of Nations or Nature does indeed allow the Governours of all Societies a Power to serve themselves of every Member of it in the cases of extream Danger; but no Law of Nature that has been yet heard of will conclude, that if by special Laws, a sort of men have been disabled from all Imployments, that a Prince who at his Coronation Swore to maintain those Laws, may at his pleasure extinguish all these Disabilities.

X. At the end of the Declaration, as in a Postscript, His Majesty assures his Subjects, that he will maintain them in their Properties, as well in Church and Abbey Lands, as other Lands: but the Chief of all their Properties being the share that they have by their Representatives in the Legislative Power; this Declaration, which breaks thro that, is no great Evidence that the rest will be maintained: and to speak plainly, when a Coronation Oath is so little remembred, other Promises must have a proportioned degree of Credit given to them: as for the Abbey Lands, the keeping them from the Church is according to the Principles of that Religion Sacriledge; and that is a Mortal Sin, and there can no Absolution be given to any who continue in it: and so this Promise being an Obligation to maintain men in a Mortal Sin, is null and void of it self: Church-Lands are also according to the Doctrine of their Canonists, so immediatly Gods Right, that the Pope himself is only the Administrator and Dispencer, but is not the Master of them; he can indeed make a truck for God, or let them so low, that God shall be an easy Landlord: but he cannot alter Gods Property, nor translate the Right that is in him to Sacrilegious Laymen and Hereticks.

XI. One of the Effects of this Declaration, will be the setting on foot a new run of Addresses over the Nation: for there is nothing how Impudent and base soever, of which the abject flattery of a Slavish Spirit is not capable. It must be confest, to the reproach of the Age, that all those strains of flattery among the Romans, that Tacitus sets forth with so mueh just Scorn, are modest things, compared to what this Nation has produced within these seven years: only if our Flattery has come short of the Refinedness of the Romans, it has exceeded theirs as much in its loathed Fulsomness. The late King set out a Declaration, in which he gave the most solemn Assurances possible of his adhering to the Church of England, and to the Religion established by Law, and of his Resolution to have Frequent Parliaments; upon which the whole Nation fell as it were into Raptures of Joy and Flattery: but tho he lived four Years after that, he called no Parliament, notwithstanding the Law for Triennial Parliaments: and the [Page] manner of his Death, and the Papers printed after his Death in his Name, have sufficiently shewed, that he was equally sincere in both those Assurances that he gave, as well in that Relating to Religion, as in that other Relating to Frequent Parliaments; yet upon his Death a new set of Addresses appeared, in which all that Flattery could Invent was brought forth, in the Commendations of a Prince, to whose Memory the greatest kindness can be done, is to forget him: and because his present Majesty upon his coming to the Throne gave some very general Promise of Maintaining the Church of England, this was magnified in so Extravagant a strain, as if it had been a Security greater than any that the Law could give: tho by the regard that the King has both to it and to the Laws, it appears that he is resolved to maintain both equally: since then the Nation has already made it self sufficiently ridiculous both to the present and to all succeeding Ages; it is time that at last men should grow weary, and become ashamed of their Folly.

XII. The Nonconformists are now invited to set an Example to the rest: and they who have valued themselves hitherto upon their Opposition to Popery and that have quarrelled with the Church of England, for some small Approaches to it, in a few Ceremonies, are now solicited to rejoyce, because the Laws that secure us against it, are all plucked up: since they enjoy at present and during pleasure leave to meet together. It is natural for all men to love to be set at ease, especially in the matters of their Consciences; but it is visible, that those who allow them this favour, do it with no other design, but that under a pretence of a General Toleration, they may Introduce a Religion which must persecute all equally: it is likewise apparent how much they are hated, and how much they have been persecuted by the Instigation of those who now Court them, and who have now no game that is more promising, than the engaging them and the Church of England into new Quarrels: and as for the Promises now made to them, it cannot be supposed that they will be more lasting than those that were made some time ago to the Church of England, who had both a better Title in Law and greater Merit upon the Crown to assure them that they should be well used than these can pretend to. The Nation has scarce forgiven some of the Church of England the Persecution into which they have suffered themselves to be cosened: tho now that they see Popery barefaced, the Stand that they have made, and the vigorous Opposition that they have given to it, is that which makes all men willing to forget what is past, and raises again the Glory of a Church that was not a little stained by the Indiscretion and Weakness of those, that were too apt to believe and hope, and so suffered themselves to be made a Property to those who would now make them a Sacrifice. The Sufferings of the Nonconformists, and the Fury that the Popish Party expressed against them, had recommended them so much to the Compassions of the Nation, and had given them so just a pretension to favour in a better time, that it will look like a curse of God upon them, if a few men, whom the Court has gained to betray them, can have such an ill Influence upon them as to make them throw away all that Merit, and those Compassions which their Sufferings have procured them; and to go and court those who are only seemingly kind to them, that they may destroy both them and us. They must remember that as the Church of England is the only Establishment that our Religion has by Law; so it is the main body of the Nation, and all the Sects are but small and stragling parties: and if the Legal Settlement of the Church is dissolved, and that body is once broken, these lesser bodies will be all at Mercy: and it is an easy thing to define what the Mercies of the Church of Rome are.

XIII. But tho it must be confessed, that the Nonconformists are still under some Temptations, to receive every thing that gives them present ease, with a little too much kindness; since they lie exposed to many severe Laws, of which they have of late felt the weight very heavily, and as they are men, and some [Page] of them as ill Natured men as other people, so it is no wonder if upon the first surprises of the Declaration, they are a little delighted, to see the Church of England, after all its Services and Submissions to the Court, so much mortified by it; so that taking all together it will not be strange if they commit some Follies upon this occasion. Yet on the other hand, it passes all imagination, to see some of the Church of England, especially those whose Natures we know are so particularly sharpned in the point of Persecution, chiefly when it is levelled against the Dissenters, rejoyce at this Declaration, and make Addresses upon it. It is hard to think that they have attained to so high a pitch of Christian Charity, as to thank those who do now despitefully use them, and that as an earnest that within a little while they will persecute them. This will be an Original, and a Master piece in Flattery, which must needs draw the last degrees of Contempt on such as are capable of so abject and sordid a Compliance, and that not only from all the true Members of the Church of England, but likewise from those of the Church of Rome it self; for every man is apt to esteem an Enemy that is brave even in his Misfortunes, as much as he despises those whose minds sink with their Condition. For what is it that these men would thank the King? Is it because he breaks those Laws that are made in their Favour, and for their Protection: and is now striking at the Root of all the Legal Settlement that they have for their Religion? Or is it because that at the same time that the King professes a Religion that condemns his Supremacy, yet he is not contented with the Exercise of it as it is warranted by Law, but carries it so far as to erect a Court contrary to the express words of a Law that was so lately made: That Court takes care to maintain a due proportion between their Constitution and all their proceedings, that so all may be of a piece, and all equally contrary to Law. They have suspended one Bishop, only because he would not do that which was not in his Power to do: for since there is no Extrajudiciary Authority in England, a Bishop can no more proceed to a Sentence of Suspension against a Clergy-man without a Tryal, and the hearing of Parties, than a Judge can give a Sentence in his Chamber without an Indictment, a Tryal, or a Iury: and because one of the Greatest Bodies of England would not break their Oaths, and obey a Mandate that plainly contradicted them, we see to what a pitch this is like to be carried. I will not Anticipate upon this illegal Court, to tell what Iudgments are coming, but without carrying our Iealousies too far, one may safely conclude, that they will never depart so far from their first Institution, as to have any regard, either to our Religion, or our Laws, or Liberties, in any thing they do. If all this were acted by avowed Papists, as we are sure it is projected by such, there were nothing Extraordinary in it: but that which carries our Indignation a little too far to be easily governed, is to see some Pretended Protestants, and a few Bishops, among those that are the fatal Instruments of pulling down the Church of England, and that those Mercenaries Sacrifice their Religion and their Church to their Ambition and Interests; this has such peculiar Characters of Misfortune upon it, that it seems it is not enough if we perish without pity, since we fall by that hand tha [...] we have so much supported and fortifyed, bu [...] we must become the Scorn of all the world since we have produced such an unnatural Brood, that even while they are pretending to be the Sons of the Church of England, are cutting their Mother's Throat: and not content with Judas's Crime, of saying, Hail Master, and kissing him, while they are betraying him into the hands of others; these carry their Wickedness further, and say: Hail Mother, and then they themselves Murther her. If after all this we were called on to bear this as Christians, and to suffer it as Subjects, if we were required in Patience to possess our own Souls, [...]nd to be in Charity with our Enemies; and which is more, to forgive our False Brethren, who add Treachery to their Hatred; the Exhortation were seasonable, and indeed a little necessary▪ for humane Nature cannot easily take down things of such a hard digestion: but to tell u [...] [Page] that we must make Addresses, and offer Thanks [...]or all this, is to Insult a little too much upon [...]s in our Sufferings: and he that can believe [...]hat a dry and cautiously worded promise of maintaining the Church of England, will be Religiously observed after all that we have [...]een, and is upon that carried so far out of [...]is Wits as to Address and give Thanks, and will believe still, such a man has nothing to [...]xcuse him from believing Transubstantiation [...] self; for it is plain that he can bring himself [...]o believe even when the thing is contrary to [...]he clearest Evidence that his senses can give [...]im.

Si populus hic vult decipi decipiatur.

POSTSCRIPT.

THese reflections were writ soon after the Declaration came to my hands, but the Matter of them was so tender, and the Conveyance of them to the Press was so uneasy, that they appear now too late to have one effect that was Designed by them, which was, the diverting men from making Addresses upon it; yet if what is here proposed makes men become so far wise as to be ashamed of what they have done, and is a means to keep them from carrying their Courtship further than good words, this Paper will not come too late.

FINIS.

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An ANSWER To Mr. Henry Payne's LETTER, Concerning His Majesty's DECLARATION of INDULGENCE, Writ to the Author of the Letter to A Dissenter.

Mr. PAYNE,

I Cannot hold asking you, how much Money you had, from the Writer of the Paper, which you pretend to Answer: for as you have the character of a man that deales with both hands, so this is writ in such a manner as to make one think you were hired to it, by the Adverse Party: but it has been indeed so ordinary to your Friends, to write in this manner of late, that the Censures upon it are divided, both fall heavy: some suspect their Sincerity others accuse them for want of a right Understanding: for tho all are not of the pitch of the Irish Priests Reflections, on the Bp of Bath and Wells's Sermon, which was indeed Irish double refined; yet both in your Books of Controversy, and Policy, and even in your Poems, you seem to have entred into such an inter-mixture with the Irish, that the thread all over is Linsey-woollsey. You acknowledge that the Gentleman whom you answer has a Polite Pen, and that his Letter is an Ingenious paper, and made up of well-Composed Sentences and Periods. Yet I believe he will hardly return you your Complement. If it was well writ, your Party wants either Men or Judgment extreamly, in allowing you this province of answering it. If the Paper did you some hurt, you had better have let the Town be a litle pleased with it for a while; and have hoped that a litle time or some new paper (tho one of its force is scarce to be expected) should have worn it out, then to give it a new luster by such an Answer.

The Time of the Dissenters Sufferings, which you lengthen out to 27 years, will hardly amount to seven. For the long Intervals it had, in the last Reign, are not forgot: and those who animated the latest and severest of their sufferings are such, that in good manners you ought not to reflect on their Conduct. Opium is as certain a poison, tho not so violent, as Sublimate; and if more corrosive Medicines did not work, the Design is the same, when soporiferous ones are used: since the Patient is to be killed both ways: and it seems that all that is in debate is, which is the safer: the accepting a present ease when the ill intent with which it is offered, is Visible, is just as wise an [Page] action, as to take Opium to lay a small Distemper when one may conclude from the dose, that he will never come out of the Sleep. So that after all, it is plain on which side the Madness lies. The Dissenters for a little present ease, to be enjoyed at Mercy, must concur to break down all our hedges, and to lay us open to that Devouring Power, before which nothing can stand that will not worship it.

All that for which you reproach the Church of England amounts to this, that a few good words, could not persuade her to destroy her self; and to Sacrifice her Religion and the Laws to a party that never has done nor ever can do the King half the service that she has rendred him. There are some sorts of propositions that a man does not know how to answer: nor would he be thought Ingratefull who after he had received some Civilities from a person to whom he had done great service, could not be prevailed with by these so far as to spare him his Wife or his Daughter. It must argue a peculiar degree of confidence to ask things, that are above the being either askt or granted. Our Religion and our Government are matters that are not to be parted with to shew our good breeding: and of all men living you ought not to pretend to Good Manners, who talk as you do, of the Oppression of the last Reign. When the King's Obligations to his Brother, and the share that he had in his Councils, are considered; the reproaching his Government, has so ill a grace, that you are as Indecent in your Flatteries as Injurious in your Reflections. And by this gratitude of yours to the Memory of the late King, the Church of England may easily Infer, how long all her Services would be remembred, even if she had done all that was desired of her.

I would fain know which of the Brethren of the Dissenters in forreigne Countries sought their Relief from Rebellion. The Germans Reformed by the Authority of their Princes, so did the Swedes, the Danes, and like wise the Switsers. In France they maintained the Princes of the Blood against the League: and in Holland the Quarrell was for Civil liberties; Protestant and Papist concurring equally in it. You mention Holland as an Instance that Liberty and Infallibility can dwell together: since Papists there shew that they can be friendly neighbours, to those whom they think in the wrong: It is very like they would be still so in England, if they were under the lash of the law, and so were upon their good behaviour, the Goverment being still against them: and this has so good an effect in Holland, that I hope we shall never depart from the Dutch Pattern: some can be very Humble Servants that would prove Imperious Masters. You say that Force is our only Supporter: but tho there is no force of our side at present, it does not appear that we are in such a tottering condition, as if we had no Supporter left us. God and Truth are of our side: and the indiscreet use of Force, when set on by our Enemies, has rather undermined than supported us. But you have taken pains to make us grow wiser, and to let us see our Errors, which is perhaps the only obligation that we owe you; and we are so sensible of it, that without examining what your Intentions may have been in it, we heartily thank you for it.

I do not comprehend what your quarrell is at the squinting Term of the next heir, as you call it; tho I do not wonder that squinting comes in your mind whensoever you think of HER; for all people look asquint at that which troubles them: and [Page] her being the next heir is no less the delight of all good men, than it is your affliction: all the pains that you take to represent her dreadful to the Dissenters, must needs find that credit with them, that is due to the Insinuations of an Enemy. It is very true, that as she was bred up in our Church, she adheres to it so Eminently, as to make her to be now our chief Ornament as we hope she will be once our main Defence. If by the strictest form of our Church you mean an Exemplary Piety, and a shining Conversation, you have given her true Character: But your designe lies another way to make the Dissenters form strange Ideas of her, as if she thought all Indulgence to them Criminal: But as the Gentleness of her nature is such, that none but those who are so guilty, that all mercy to them would be a Crime, can apprehend any thing that is terrible, from her, so as for the Dissenters, her going so constantly to the Dutch and French Churches shews, that she can very well endure their Assemblies, at the same time that she prefers, ours. She has also too often expressed her dislike at the heats that have been kept up among us concerning such Inconsiderable Differences, to pass for a Bigot or a persecutor in such matters: and She sees both the mischief that the Protestant Religion has received from their subdivisions, and the happiness of granting a due Liberty of Conscience, where she has so long lived, that there is no reason to make any fancy that she will either keep up our Differences, or bear down the Dissenters with Rigor. But because you hope for nothing from her own Inclinations, you would have her terrified with the strong Argument of Numbers, which you fancy will certainly secure them from her recalling the favour. But of what side soever that Argument may be strong, sure it is not of theirs who make but one to Two hundred: and I suppose you scarce expect that the Dissenters will rebel, that you may have your Masses, and how their numbers will secure them, unless it be by enabling them to Rebell, I cannot Imagine: this is indeed a squinting at the Next Heir, with a witness, when you would already muster up the Troops that must rise against her. But let me tell you, that you know both Her Character and the Prince's very ill that fancy, they are only to be wrought on by Fear. They are known to your great grief; to be above that: and it must be to their own Mercifull Inclinations, that you must owe all that you can expect under them, but neither to their fear nor to your own Numbers. As for the hatred and Contempt, even to the degree of being more Ridiculous then the Mass under which you say Her way of Worship is in Holland, this is one of those figures of speech that shew how exactly you have Studied the Jesuites Moralls. All that come from Holland, assure us, that she is so Universally beloved and esteemed there, that every thing that she does, is the better thought of even because she does it. Upon the whole matter, all that you say of the Next Heir, proves too truly that you are that for which you reproach the Church of England, a Disciple of the Crown only for the loaves; for if you had that respect which you pretend for the King, you would have shewed it more upon this occasion.

Nor am I so much in love with your stile, as to imitate it, therefore I will not do you so great a pleasure, as to say the least thing that may reflect on that Authority, which the Church of England has taught me to reverence even after all the Disgraces [Page] that she has received from it: and if she were not Insuperably restrained by her Principles, instead of the Thin Muster with which you reproach her, she could soon make so thick a one as would make the Thinnes of yours, very visible upon so unequall a division of the Nation: But she will neither be threatned nor laughed out of her Religion and her loyalty: tho such insultings as she meets with, that almost pass all humane Patience, would tempt men that had a less fixed principle of submission, to make their Enemies feel to their cost, that they owe all the Triumphs they make, more to our Principles, than to their own Force. Their laughing at our Doctrine of non resistance, lets us see, that it would be none of theirs under the Next Heir, at whom you Squint, if the strong Argument of Numbers made you not apprehend that Two Hundred to one would prove an Unequal Match.

As for your Memorandums, I shall answer them as short as you give them

1. It will be hard, to persuade people, that a Decision in favour of the Dispencing Power, flowing from Judges that are both made, and payed, and that may be removed at pleasure, will amount to the recognising of that Right by law.

2. It will be hard to persuade the world, that the Kings adhering to his Promises, and his Coronation Oath, and to the known Lawes of the land, would make him Felo de se. The following of different methods were the likelier way to it, if it were not for the Loyalty of the Church of England.

3. It will be very easy to see the use of continuing the Test by Law; since all those that break thro it, as well as the Judges, who have authorised their Crimes, are still liable for all they do: and after all your huffing, with the Dispencing Power, we do not doubt but the apprehension of an after reckoning sticks deep somewhere, you say, it may be supposed, that the aversion of a Protestant King to the Popish party, will sufficiently exclude them, even without the Test. But it must be confessed, that you take all possible care, to confirm that Aversion so far, as to put it beyond a it may be supposed. And it seems you understand Christs Prerogative, as wel as the Judges did the Kings, that fancy the Test is against it: it is so suteable to the nature of all Governments, to take Assurances of those who are admitted to Places of Trust, that you do very ill to appeal to an Impartial consideration, for you are sure to lose it there.

Few English men, will believe you in earnest when you seem zealous for publick liberty, or the Magna Charta: or that you are so very apprehensive of Slavery: And your Friends must have very much changed both their Natures and their Principles, if their conduct does not give cause to renew the like Statutes against them, even tho they should be repealed in this Reign, notwithstanding all your confidence to the contrary. I will still believe that the strong Argument of Numbers will be always the powerfullest of all others with you: which as long as it has its Force, and no longer, we may hope to be at quiet. I concurre heartily with you in your Prayers for the King, tho perhaps I differ from you in my Notions, both of his Glory and of the Felicity of his People: and as for your own particular, I wish you would either not at all Imploy your Pen, or learn to write to better purpose: but tho I cannot admire your Letter, yet I am

YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT T. T.

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THE EARLE of MELFORT's LETTER To the Presbyterian-Ministers IN SCOTLAND, Writ in his Majesty's Name upon their Address; Together with some Remarks upon it.

The Earle of Melfort's Letter.

Gentlemen;

I Am commanded by his Majesty, to signify 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 Glory of God) hath been his Majesty's 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 Maxime was to undoe 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 th [...]se are his Majesty's Commands.

Sic subs. MELFORT.

REMARKS.

THe Secretary hand is known to al 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 [Page] 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, & 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 easy thing, unless he could first perpetuate himself. Now tho his Majesty's Fame will be certainly immortal, yet to our great Regret his Person 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 Secretaries used the modest Words of proposing or recommending; but he who in a former Essay of this Stile, told us of his Majesty's 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 shal 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 Perpetuity will be of a shrort continuance. He in the next place, mentions the Liberty or Toleration granted by the King. Liberty is not so hard a Word, but that it might be understood without this Explanation or Toleration, unless the Secretary Stile either approaches to the Notary Stile in some nauseous Repetitions, or that he would intimate by this, that all the Liberty that is left the Subjects is comprehended in this Toleration. And indeed, after Absolute Power was once asserted, it was never fit to name Liberty without some restriction. After this comes a stately Period, The Enemies to him, to you, and to this Toleration. Yet I should be sorry if it were true; for I hope there are many Enemies to this Toleration, who are neither Enemies to the King, nor to these Addressers; and that on the contrary they are Enemies to it, because they are the best Friends that both the King and the People have. It is now no secret, that tho' both the Prince and Princess of Orange, are great Enemies to Persecution, and in particular to all Rigour against the Presbyterians, yet they are not satisfied with the way in which this Toleration is granted. But the reckoning of them as Enemies either to the King or the People, is one of the Figures of this Stile, that will hardly pass: and some will not stick to say, that the Writer of this Letter, has with this dash of his Pen, declared more Men Enemies to the King, than ever he will be able to make Friends to him. He tells them next, that these Enemies will be using all endeavours to infringe the same. This is also a strong Expression. We know the use of the Noun Infraction, but Infringe is borrowed from the Notaries; yet the plain sense of this seems to be, that those Enemies will disturb the Meetings, of which I do not hear any of them have the least thought, yet by a secret Figure of the Secretary Stile, perhaps this belongs to all those who either think that the King cannot do it by Law, or that will not give their Vote to confirm it in Parliament: but I am not so well acquainted with all the Mysteries of this Stile, as to know its full depth.

There comes next a long period of 50 words, for I was at the pains to count them all, which seemed a little too prolix for so short a letter, especially in one that writes after the French pattern. But as ever the Happiness of his Subjects, Standing in Liberty of Conscience, and the Security of their Properties, next the Glory of God, hath been his Majesty's great End; So he Intends to continue, if he have all suteable Encouragement and Concurrence from you, in your Doctrine and Practice. The putting ever at the beginning of the Period, and at so great a Distance from that to which it belongs, is a new beauty of Stile. And the Standing of this Happiness, makes me reflect on that which I hear a Scotch Preacher [Page] delivered in a Sermon, that he doubted this Liberty would prove but like a Standing Drink. The King's receiving suteable Encouragement from his Subjects, agrees ill with the height of Stile that went before, of appointing what the Parliament must do. Kings receive returns of Duty and Obedience from their Subjects; but hitherto Encouragement was a word used among Equals: the applying it to the King, is a new figure. A man not versed in the Secretary Stile would have expressed this matter thus. His Majesty has ever made the Happiness of his Subjects, which consists in Liberty of Conscience, and the Security of Property, his great end, next to the Glory of God: and he intends to do so still, if he receives all suteable returns from you in your Doctrine and practice. I have marked this the more particularly, to make the difference between the Common and the Secretary Stile the more sensible. But what need is there of the Concurrence of the Addressers, with the King, if he appoints the next Parliament to take off all the Penal Laws. Must we likewise believe that His Majesty's Zeal for the Happiness of his Subjects, depends on the Behaviour of These Addressers: and on the Encouragement that he receives from them, so that he will not continue it, unless they Encourage him in it. This is but an Incertain tenure, and not like to be perpetual. But after all the Secretary Stile is not the Royal Stile, so notwithstanding this beautiful Period, we hope our Happiness is more steady, than to turn upon the Encouragings of a few Men: otherwise if it is a standing Happiness yet it is a very tottering one. The Protestant Penal Statutes, is another of his Elegancies: for since all the Penal Laws as well those against Papists, as those against Dissenters, were made by Protestant Parliaments, one does not see how fitly this Epithete comes in here; another would have worded this, thus, the Penal Statutes made against Protestants. But the new Stile has figures peculiar to it self, that pass in the Common Stile for Improprieties.

This Noble Lord is not contented to raise His Majesty's Glory above all other Catholick Kings, in this grant of Liberty or Toleration, in which there is no competition to be made; for tho the Most Christian King, who is the Eldest son of that Church, has indeed executed her Orders in their full extent of severity, yet His Majesty, who is but the Cadet in that Churche's Catalogue of honour, it seems does not think that he is yet so much beholding to his Mother as to gratify her by the Destruction of his People: yet I say, as if this were too little, the King's Glory is here carried farther, even above the Protestant Kings, who have gone before him: whose Maxime was to undo you, by Fining, Confining and taking away your Estates, and to harrass you in your Persons, Liberties and Priviledges. Here is an honour that is done the King's Ancestors by one of his Secretaries, which is indeed new, and of his own Invention: the Protestant Kings can be no other than the Kings Brother, his Father, and his Grandfather. Kings shut out Q. Elisabeth, who might have been brought in if the more general term of Crowned heads had been made use of; but as the Writer has ordered it, the satyr falls singly on the King's Progenitors: for the Papers that were found in the Strong Box, will go near to put the late King out of the list of Protestant Kings: so that this Reproach lies wholly on the King's Father and his Grand-father. It is a little surprising, after all the Eloquence that has been Imployed to raise the Character of the late Martyr to so high a pitch, that one of his Sons Secretaries should set it under his hand in a letter that he pretends is written by the King's Commands, that he made it a Maxime to undo his People. The Writer of this Letter should have avoided the mentioning of fines, since it is not so long, since both He and his Brother valued themselves on a point that they carried in 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 [Page] living he ought to be the last that should speak of the taking away 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 Councellours declared, they believed him guilty. He will hardly find among all the Maximes of those Protestant Persecuting Kings any one that will Justify 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 Pomer 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 Papists: 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 signify, 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 slackning and sofning 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 penne dit.

FINIS.

[Page]

AN ANSWER To A PAPER Printed with Allowance, Entitled, A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty.

I. THe Accusing the Church of England of Want of Loyalty, or the putting it to a new Test, after so fresh a one, with relation to His Majesty, argues a high degree of Confidence in him who undertakes it. She knew well what were the Doctrines and Practices of those of the Roman Church, with Relation to Hereticks; and yet She was so true to her Loyalty, that She shut her eyes on all the Temptations, that so just a fear could raise in her: and She set her self to support His Majesties Right of Succession, with so much Zeal, that She thereby not only put her self in the power of her Enemies; but She has also exposed her self to the Scorn of those who insult over her in her Misfortune. She lost the Affections even of many of her own Children; who thought that her Zeal for an Interest, which was then so much decry'd, was a little too fervent: and all those who judged severely of the proceedings, thought that the Opposition which She made to the side that then went so 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, Sh [...] 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 [Page] 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 Lawes to secure their Religion; but assuring themselves, that Honour was the Kings 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 suteable 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 Indemnify 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 Outcry; 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 [...]ust 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, [Page] 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 Maxime, 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, disown'd at another; while yet he that was the Chief Instrument in it is still in so high a post; and begins now to treat the Men of the Church of England, with the same Brutal Excesses, that he bestowed so lately and so liberally on the Dissenters; as if his design were to render himself equally odious to all Mankind.

III. The Church of England may justly expostulate when she is treated as Seditious, after she has rendred the highest Services to the Civil Authority, that any Church now on Earth has done: She has beaten down all the Principles of Rebellion, with more Force and Learning, than any Body of men has ever yet done; and has run the hazard of enraging her Enemies, and losing her Friends, even for those, from whom the more learned of her Members knew well what they might expect. And since our Author likes the figure of a Snake in ones Bosom so well; I could tell him, that according to the Apologue, we took up and sheltred an Interest, that was almost Dead, and by that warmth gave it Life, which yet now with the Snake in the Bosom, is like to bite us to Death. We do not say, we are the only Church that has Principles of Loyalty; but this we may say, that we are the Church in the World that carries them the highest; as we know a Church that of all others sinks them the lowest. We do not pretend that we are Inerrable in this point, but acknowledge that some of our Clergy miscarried in it upon King Edwards Death: Yet at the same time, others of our Communion adhered more steadily to their Loyalty in favour of Queen Mary, than She did to the Promises that she made to them. Upon this Subject our Author by his false Quotation of History, forces me to set the Reader right, which if it proves to the disadvantage of his Cause, his Friends may thank him for it. I will not enter into so tedious a digression as the justifying Queen Elisabeths being Legitimate, and the throwing the Bastardy on Queen Mary must carry me to; this I will only say, that it was made out, that according to the best sort of Arguments used by the Church of Rome, I mean the constant Tradition of all Ages, King Henry the VIII. marrying with Queen Katherine, was Incestuous, and by Consequence Queen Mary was the Bastard, and Queen Elisabeth was the Legitimate issue. But our Author not satisfied with defaming Queen Elisabeth, tells us, that the Church of England was no sooner set up by her, than She enacted those Bloody Cannibal Laws, to Hang, Draw and Quarter the Priests of the Living God: But since these Lawes disturb [Page] him so much, what does he think of the Laws of Burning the poor Servants of the Living God, because they cannot give Divine Worship to that which they believe to be only a Piece of Bread? The Representation he gives of this part of our History, is so false, that tho' upon Queen Elisabeth's coming to the Crown, there were many Complaints exhibited of the Illegal Violences that Bonner and other Butchers had committed, yet all these were stifled, and no Penal Lawes were enacted against those of that Religion. The Popish Clergy were indeed turned out; but they were well used, and had Pensions assigned them; so ready was the Queen and our Church to forgive what was past, and to shew all Gentleness for the future. During the first thirteen years of her Reign, matters went on calmly, without any sort of Severity on the account of Religion. But then the restless spirit of that Party, began to throw the Nation into violent Convulsions. The Pope deposed the Queen, and one of the Party had the Impudence to post up the Bull in London; upon this followed several Rebellions, both in England and Ireland, and the Papists of both Kingdoms entred into Confederacies with the King of Spain and the Court of Rome; the Priests disposed all the People that depended on them, to submit to the Popes Authority in that Deposi [...]ion, and to reject the Queens: These endeavours, besides open Rebellions, produced many Secret Practices against her Life. All these things gave the rise to the severe Laws, which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her Reign. A War was formed by the Bull of Deposition, between the Queen and the Court of Rome, so it was a necessary Piece of Precaution, to declare all those to be Traitors who were the Missionaries of that Authority which had stript the Queen of hers: yet those Laws were not executed upon some Secular Priests who had the Honesty to condemn the Deposing Doctrine. As for the Unhappy Death of the Queen of Scotland, it was brought on by the wicked Practices of her own Party, who fatally Involved her in some of them; She was but a Subject here in England; and if the Queen took a more Violent way, than was decent for her own Security, here was no Disloyalty nor Rebellion in the Church of England, which owed her no sort of Allegeance.

IV. I do not pretend that the Church of England has any great cause to value her self upon her Fidelity to King Charles the First, tho' our Author would have it pass for the only thing of which She can boast: for I confess, the cause of the Church was so twisted with the King's, that Interest and Duty went together: tho I will not go so far as our Author, who says, that the Law of Nature dictates to every Individual to fight in his own Defence: This is too bold a thing to be delivered so crudely at this time. The Laws of Nature are perpetual, and can never be cancelled by any special Law: So if these Gentlemen own so freely, that this is a Law of Nature, they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much, lest She fly to the Relief that this Law may give her, unless she is restrained by the Loyalty of our Church. Our Author values his Party much upon their Loyalty to King Charles the First: but I must take the Liberty to ask him, of what Religion were the Irish Rebells; and what sort of Loyalty was it, that they shewed either in the first Massacre, or in the progress of that Rebellion? Their Messages to the Pope, to the Court of France, and to the Duke of Lorrain, offering themselves to any of these, that would have undertaken to protect them, are Acts of Loyalty, which the Church of England is no way inclined to follow: and the Authentical Proofs of these things are ready to be produced. Nor need I add to this, the hard terms that they offered to the King, and their ill usage of those whom he Imployed. I could likewise repress the Insolence of this Writer, by telling him of the Slavish Submissions that their Party made to Cromwel, both Father and Son. As for their Adhering to King Charles the First, there is a peculiar [Page] Boldness in our Authors Assertion, who says, that they had no Hope nor Interest in that Cause: The State of that Court is not so quite forgot, but that we do well remember what Credit the Queen had with the King, and what Hopes She gave the Party; yet they did not so entirely espouse the Kings Cause, but that they had likewise a flying Squadron in the Parliaments Army, how boldly soever this may be denyed by our Author; for this I will give him a proof, that is beyond exception, in a Declaration of that King's, 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 denyed 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 soever 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 preacht any Seditious Doctrine, so we are not wanting in the Preaching of rhe 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 Elisabeth; 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 injoyned 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. [Page] Our Author knows the History of our Laws ill; for besides what has been already said, touching the Laws made by Queen Elisabeth, the severest of all our Penall 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 Imp [...]se 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 a 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 Solicitations 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 [Page] 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 Maximes. 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 Maximes in the World, there is none more hurtful to the Government, in our present Circumstances, than the saying, that the Kings 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.

FINIS.

Information about this book

Title statement

A collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government written by G. Burnet.

Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.

Edition statement

1689

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A30329

ID [STC]

Wing B5769

ID [STC]

ESTC R32598

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

12725526

ID [OCLC]

ocm 12725526

ID [VID]

66365

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early English books online.

Notes

(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A30329)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 66365)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1522:7)

Source

— A collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government written by G. Burnet., Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715..

Extent

49 p. in various pagings.

Printed at Amsterdam, and sold by J. Robinson in London,. [Amsterdam] :: MDCLXXXIX [1689]. ("Reasons against the repealing the acts of Parliament concerning the test" has special t.p. and 1687 imprint date.) (Imperfect: pages cropped with slight loss of print.) (Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York.) (A letter, containing some remarks on the two papers, writ by His late Majesty King Charles the Second, concerning religion -- Reasons against the repealing the acts of Parliament concerning the test -- Some reflections on His Majesty's Proclamation -- By the King, a proclamation -- A letter, containing some reflections on His Majesties Declaration for liberty of conscience -- An answer to Mr. Henry Payne's Letter concerning His Majesty's declaration of indulgence -- The Earle of Melfort's Letter to the Presbyterian ministers in Scotland -- An answer to a paper printed with allowance, entitled, A new test of the Church of England's loyalty.)

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