Sincerity that he endeavoured to perswade all others to rely as much on his Word as he himself did It is well known how fatal this Confidence was to him and see Meteren lib. 3. that two years after this that King sent over the Duke of Alva with that severe Commission which has been often printed in which without any regard had to the former Pacification or Promises the King declared that the Provinces had forfeited all their Liberties and that every man in it had forfeited his life and therefore he authorised that unmerciful Man to proceed with all possible Rigour against them It is also remarkable that that bloody Commission is founded on the King 's Absolute Power and his Zeal for Religion This is the only Edict that I know in which a King has pretended to Absolute Power before the two Declarations for Scotland in the year 1687. so whether they who penned them took their Pattern from this I cannot determine it I could carry this view of History much further to shew in many more Instances how little Protestants can depend on the Faith of Roman Catholicks and that their Condition is so much the worse the more pious that their Princes are As for what may be objected to all this from the present State of some Principalities or Towns in Germany or of the Switzers and Grisons it is to be considered that in some of these want of Power in the Roman Catholicks to do mischief and the other Circumstances of their Affairs are visibly the only Securities of the Protestants and whensoever this Nation departs from that and gives up the Laws it is no hard thing to guess how short-lived the Liberty of Conscience even tho' setled into a Magna Charta would be V. All that our Author says upon the General Subject of Liberty of Conscience is only a severe Libel upon that Church whose Principles and Practices are so contrary to it But the Proposition lately made has put an end to all this Dispute since by an Offer of Repealing the Penal Laws reserving only those of the Test and such others as secure the Protestant Religion the question is now no more which Religion must be tolerated but which Religion must reign and prevail All that is here offered in Opposition to that is that by this means such a number of Persons must be ruined Pag. 64. which is as severe a way of forcing People to change their Religion as the way of Dragoons I will not examine the particulars of this matter but must express my joy to find that all the Difficulty which is in our way to a happy quiet is the supplying such a number of men with the means of their subsistance which by the Execution of the Law for the Test must be taken from them This by all that I can learn will not come to near an Hundred Thousand Pound a year and indeed the supplying of those of the King's Religion that want it is a piece of Charity and Bounty so worthy of him that I do not know a man that would envy them the double of this in Pensions and if such a Sum would a little charge the King's Revenue I dare say when the Settlement of the Nation is brought to that single point there would not be one Negative found in either House of Parliament for the reimbursing the King So far are we from desiring either the Destruction or even the Poverty of those that perhaps wait only for an occasion to burn us I will add one bold thing further that tho' I will be no undertaker for what a Parliament may do yet I am confident that all men are so far from any desire of Revenge but most of all that the Heroical Minds of the next Successors are above it that if an Indemnity for that bold violation of the Law that has been of late both practised and authorised among us would procure a full Settlement even this could be obtained tho' an Impunity after such Transgressions is perhaps too great an Encouragement to offend for the future But since it is the Preservation of the Nation and not the ruine of any party in it that is aimed at the Hardiness of this Proposition will I hope be forgiven me It is urged pag. 63. that according to the Dutch Pattern at least the Roman Catholicks may have a share in Military Employments but the difference between our Case and theirs is clear since some Roman Catholick Officers where the Government is wholly in the Hands of of Protestants cannot be of such dangerous Consequence as it must needs be under a King that is not only of that Perswasion but is become nearly allied to the Society as the Liege Letter tells us VI. It is true our Author would perswade us that the King 's dispensing Power has already put an end to the Dispute and that therefore it is a seeming sort of Perjury see pag. 48. to keep the Justices of Peace still under an Oath of executing those Laws which they must consider no more Some Presidents are brought from former times pag. 22 23 24. of our Kings using the dispensing Power in Edward the Third Richard the Second Henry the Seventh Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth's time It is very true that the Laws have been of late broke through among us with a very high hand but it is a little too dangerous to upbraid the Justices of Peace with their Oaths lest this oblige them to reflect on so sacred an Engagement for the worthy Members of Magdalen Colledge are not the only Persons in England who will make Conscience of observing their Oaths so that if others are brought to reflect too much on what they do our Author's Officiousness in suggesting this to them may prove to be no acceptable piece of servce I will not examine all his Presidents we are to be governed by Law and not by some of the excesses of Government nor is the latter end of Edward the Third a time to be much imitated and of all the parts of the English History Richard the Second's Reign should be the least mentioned since those excesses of his produced so Tragical a Conclusion as the loss of his Crown and Life Henry the Sixth's feeble and imbroiled Reign will scarce support an Argument and if there were some excesses in Henry the Eighth's time which is ordinary in all great Revolutions he got all these to be either warranted or afterwards confirmed in Parliament And Q. Elizabeth's Power in Ecclesiastical matters was founded on a special Act of Parliament which was in a great measure repealed in the year 1641. and that Repeal was again ratified by another Act in the late King's time We are often told of the late King's repealing the Act concerning the Sise of Carts and Waggons but all Lawyers know that some Laws are understood to be abrogated without a special Repeal when some visible Inconvenience enforces it such as appeared in that
or in the way of War against their Neighbours to such a single Person or to such a Body of Men as they think fit to trust with this And in the management of this Civil Society great distinction is to be made between the Power of making Laws for the regulating the Conduct of it and the Power of executing those Laws The Supream Authority must still be supposed to be lodged with those who have the Legislative Power reserved to them but not with those who have only the Executive which is plainly a Trust when it is separated from the Legislative Power and all Trusts by their nature import that those to whom they are given are accountable even though that it should not be expresly specified in the words of the Trust it self IV. It cannot be supposed by the Principles of Natural Religion that God has authorised any one Form of Government any other way than as the general Rules of Order and of Justice oblige all Men not to subvert Constitutions nor disturb the Peace of Mankind or invade those Rights with which the Law may have vested some Persons for it is certain that as private Contracts lodg or translate private Rights so the Publick Laws can likewise lodg such Rights Prerogatives and Revenues in those under whose Protection they put themselves and in such a manner that they may come to have as good a Title to these as any private Person can have to his Property so that it becomes an Act of high Injustice and Violence to invade these which is so far a greater Sin than any such Actions would be against a private Person as the publick Peace and Order is preferrable to all private Considerations whatsoever So that in Truth the Principles of Natural Religion give those that are in Authority no Power at all but they do only secure them in the Possession of that which is theirs by Law. And as no Considerations of Religion can bind me to pay another more than I indeed owe him but do only bind me more strictly to pay what I owe so the Considerations of Religion do indeed bring Subjects under stricter Obligations to pay all due Allegiance and Submission to their Princes but they do not at all extend that Allegiance further than the Law carries it And though a Man has no Divine Right to his Property but has acquired it by human means such as Succession or Industry yet he has a Security for the Enjoyment of it from a Divine Right so tho Princes have no immediate Warrants from Heaven either for their Original Titles or for the extent of them yet they are secured in the Possession of them by the Principles and Rules of Natural Religion V. It is to be considered that as a private Person can bind himself to another Man's Service by different degrees either as an ordinary Servant for Wages or as one appropriate for a longer time as an Apprentice or by a total giving himself up to another as in the case of Slavery in all which cases the general Name of Master may be equally used yet the degrees of his Power are to be judged by the nature of the Contract so likewise Bodies of Men can give themselves up in different degrees to the Conduct of others and therefore though all those may carry the same Name of King yet every ones Power is to be taken from the measures of that Authority which is lodged in him and not from any general Speculations founded on some Equivocal Terms such as King Sovereign or Sapream VI. It is certain that God as the Creator and Governour of the World may set up whom he will to rule over other Men But this Declaration of his Will must be made evident by Prophets or other extraordinary Men sent of him who have some manifest Proofs of the Divine Authority that is committed to them on such occasions and upon such Persons declaring the Will of God in favour of any others that Declaration is to be submitted to and obeyed But this pretence of a Divine Delegation can be carried no further than to those who are thus expresly marked out and is unjustly claimed by those who can prove no such Declaration to have been ever made in favour of them or their Families Not does it appear reasonable to conclude from their being in Possession that it is the Will of God that it should be so this justifies all Usurpers when they are successful VII The measures of Power and by consequence of Obedience must be taken from the express Laws of any State or Body of Men from the Oaths that they swear or from immemorial Prescription and a long Possession which both give a Title and in a long Tract of Time make a bad one became good since Prescription when it passes the Memory of Man and is not disputed by any other Pretender gives by the common Sense of all Men a just and good Title so upon the whole matter the degrees of all Civil Authority are to be taken either from express Laws immemorial Customs or from particular Oaths which the Subjects swear to their Princes this being still to be laid down for a Principle that in all the Disputes between Power and Liberty Power must always be proved but Liberty proves it self the one being founded only upon a Positive Law and the other upon the Law of Nature VIII If from the general Principles of Human Society and Natural Religion we carry this matter to be examined by the Scriptures it is clear that all the Passages that are in the Old Testament are not to be made use of in this matter of â—â—ther side For as the Land of Canaan was given to the Jews by an immediate Grant from Heaven so God reserved still this to himself and to the Declarations that he should make from time to time either by his Prophets or by the Answers that came from the Cloud of Glory that was between the Cherubims to set up Judges or Kings over them and to pull them down again as he thought fit Here was an express Delegation made by God and therefore all that was done in that Dispensation either for or against Princes is not to be made use of in any other State that is founded on another Bottom and Constitution and all the Expressions in the Old Testament relating to Kings since they belong to Persons that were immediately designed by God are without any sort of Reason applied to those who can pretend to no such Designation neither for themselves nor for their Ancestors IX As for the New Testament it is plain that there are no Rules given in it neither for the Forms of Government in general nor for the degrees of any one Form in particular but the general Rules of Justice Order and Peace being established in it upon higher Motives and more binding Considerations than ever they were in any other Religion whatsoever we are most strictly bound by it to observe the Constitution
with the King and what Hopes She gave the Party yet they did not so entirely espouse the King's cause but that they had likewise a flying Squadron in the Parliaments Army how boldly soever this may be denied by our Author for this I will give him a Proof that is beyond exception in a Declaration of that Kings sent to the Kingdom of Scotland bearing date the 21 of April 1643. which is printed over and over again and as an Author that writes the History of the late Wars has assured us the clean draught of it corrected in some places with the King 's own Hand is yet extant so that it cannot be pretended that this was only a bold Assertion of some of the Kings Ministers that might be ill affected to their Party In that Declaration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause and among other things to clear himself of that Imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him after many things said on that head these words are added Great numbers of that Religion have been with great Alacrity entertained in that Rebellious Army against us and others have been seduced to whom we had formerly denied Imployments as appears by the Examination of many Prisoners of whom we have taken twenty and thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion I hope our Author will not have the Impudence to dispute the Credit that is due to this Testimony but no Discoveries how evident so ever they may be can affect some sort of Men that have a Secret against blushing V. Our Author exhorts us to change our Principles of Loyalty and to take example of our Catholick Neighbours how to behave our selves towards a Prince that is not of our Perswasion But would he have us learn of our Irish Neighbours to cut our Fellow-subjects Throats and rebel against our King because he is of another Religion For that is the freshest Example that any of our Catholick Neighbours have set us and therefore I do not look so far back as to the Gunpowder-Plot or the League of France in the last Age. He reproaches us for failing in our Fidelity to our King. But in this matter we appeal to God Angels and Men and in particular to His Majesty Let our Enemies shew any one point of our Duty in which we have failed for as we cannot be charged for having preach'd any seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the preaching of the Duties of Loyalty even when we see what they are like to cost us The Point which he singles out is That we have failed in that grateful Return that we owed His Majesty for his Promise of maintaining our Church as it is established by Law since upon that we ought to have repealed the Sanguinary Laws and the late impious Tests the former being enacted to maintain the Usurpation of Queen Elizabeth and the other being contrived to exclude the present King. We have not failed to pay all the Gratitude and Duty that was possible in return to His Majesties Promise which we have carried so far that we are become the Object even of our Enemies Scorn by it With all Humility be it said that if His Majesty had promised us a farther Degree of his Favour than that of which the Law had assured us it might have been expected that our return should have been a degree of Obedience beyond that which was required by Law so that the return of the Obedience injoined by Law answers a Promise of a Protection according to Law Yet we carried this matter further for as was set forth in the beginning of this Paper we went on in so high a pace of Compliance and Confidence that we drew the Censures of the whole Nation on us Nor could any Jealousies or Fears give us the least Apprehensions till we were so hard pressed in matters of Religion that we could be no longer silent The same Apostle that taught us to honour the King said likewise that we must obey God rather than man. Our Author knows the History of our Laws ill for besides what has been already said touching the Laws made by Queen Elizabeth the severest of all our Penal Laws and that which troubles him and his Friends most was past by K. James after the Gunpowder-Plot a Provocation that might have well justified even greater Severities But tho' our Author may hope to impose on an ignorant Reader who may be apt to believe implicitly what he says concerning the Laws of the last Age yet it was too bold for him to assert that the Tests which are so lately made were contrived to exclude the present King when there was not a Thought of Exclusion many years after the first was made and the Duke was excepted out of the Second by a special Proviso But these Gentlemen will do well never to mention the Exclusion for every time that it is named it will make People call to mind the Service that the Church of England did in that matter and that will carry with it a Reproach of Ingratitude that needs not be aggravated He also confounds the two Tests as if that for Publick Imployments contained in it a Declaration of the King 's being an Idolater or as he makes it a Pagan which is not at all in it but in the other for the Members of Parliament in which there is indeed a Declaration that the Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry which is done in general terms without applying it to His Majesty as our Author does Upon this he would infer That his Majesty is not safe till the Tests are taken away but we have given such Evidences of our Loyalty that we have plainly shewed this to be false since we do openly declare that our Duty to the King is not founded on his being of this or that Religion so that His Majesty has a full Security from our Principles tho' the Tests continue since there is no reason that we who did run the hazard of being ruined by the Excluders when the Tide was so strong against us would fail his Majesty now when our Interest and Duty are joyned together But if the Tests are taken away it is certain that we can have no Security any longer for we shall be then laid open to the Violence of such restless and ill-natured men as the Author of this Paper and his Brethren are VI. The same reason that made our Saviour refuse to throw himself down from the Roof of the Temple when the Devil tempted him to it in the vain Confidence that Angels must be assistant to him to preserve him holds good in our Case Our Saviour said Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And we dare not trust our selves to the Faith and to the Mercies of a Society that is but too well known to the World to pretend that we should pull down our Pales to let in such Wolves among us
our Contest the Leaders of the Dissenters to the amazement of all Persons made no account of this and even seemed uneasy at it of which the Earl of Nottingham and Sir Thomas Clarges that set on that Bill with much Zeal can give a more particular account All these things concurred to make those of the Church of England conclude a little too rashly that their Ruin was resolved on and then it was no wonder if the Spirit of a Party the remembrance of the last Wars the present prospect of Danger and above all the great favour that was shewed them at Court threw them into some angry and violent Counsels Self-preservation is very natural and it is plain that many of them took that to be the case so that truly speaking it was not so much at first a Spirit of Persecution as a desire of disabling those who they believed intended to ruin them from effecting their Designs that set them on to all those unhappy things that followed They were animated to all they did by the continued Earnestness of the King and Duke and their Ministers That Reproach of Justice and of the Profession of the Law who is now so high was singled out for no other end but to be their Common-Hangman over England of whom the late King gave this true Character That he had neither Wit Law nor Common Sense but that he had the Impudence of ten carted Whores in him Another Buffoon was hired to plague the Nation with three or four Papers a Week which to the Reproach of the Age in which we live had but too great and too general an effect for poisoning the Spirits of the Clergy But those who knew how all this was managed saw that it was not only set on but still kept up by the Court. If any of the Clergy had put preached a word for Moderation he had a chiding sent him presently from the Court and he was from that day marked out as a disaffected Person and when the Clergy of London did very worthily refuse to give Informations against their Parishioners that had not always conformed the design having been formed upon that to bring them into the Spiritual Courts and excommunicate them and make them lose their Right of Voting that so the Charter of London might have been delivered up when so many Citizens were by such means shut out of the Common-Council We remember well how severely they were censured for this by some that are now dead and others that are yet alive I will not go further into this matter I will not deny but many of the Dissenters were put to great Hardships in many parts of England I cannot deny it and I am sure I will never justify it But this I will positively say having observed it all narrowly that he must have the brow of a Jesuit that can cast this wholly on the Church of England and free the Court of it The beginnings and the progress of it came from the Court and from the Popish Party and though perhaps every one does not know all the Secrets of this matter that others may have found out yet no Man was so ignorant as not to see what was the chief Spring of all those irregular Motions that some of us made at that time so upon the whole matter all that can be made out of this is that the Passions and Infirmities of some of the Church of England being unhappily stirred up by the Dissenters they were fatally conducted by the Popish Party to be the Instruments in doing a great deal of Mischief IX It is not to be doubted but though some weaker Men of the Clergy may perhaps still retain their little peevish Animosities against the Dissenters yet the wiser and more serious Heads of that great and worthy Body see now their Error they see who drove them on in it till they hoped to have ruined them by it And as they have appeared against Popery with as great a strength of Learning and of firm Steadiness as perhaps can be met with in all Church-History so it cannot be doubted but their Reflections on the Dangers into which our Divsions have thrown us have given them truer Notions with relation to a rigorous Conformity and that the just Detestation which they have expressed of the Corruptions of the Church of Rome has led them to consider and abhor one of the worst things in it I mean their Severity towards Hereticks And the ill use that they see the Court has made of their Zeal for supporting the Crown to justify the Subversion of our Government that is now set on from some of their large and unwary Expressions will certainly make them hereafter more cautious in meddling with Politicks the Bishops have under their Hands both disowned that wide extent of the Prerogative to the overturning of the Law and declared their Disposition to come to a Temper in the matters of Conformity and there seems to be no doubt left of the Sincerity of their Intentions in that matter Their Piety and Vertue and the prospect that they now have of suffering themselves put us beyond all doubt as to their Sincerity and if ever God in his Providence brings us again into a settled State out of the Storm into which our Passions and Folly as well as the Treachery of others has brought us it cannot be imagined that the Bishops will go off from those moderate Resolutions which they have now declared and they continuing firm to them the weak and indiscreet Passions of any of the Inferior Clergy must needs vanish when they are under the Conduct of wise and worthy Leaders And I will boldly say this that if the Church of England after she has got out of this Storm will return to hearken to the peevishness of some four Men she will be abandoned both of God and Man and will set both Heaven and Earth against her The Nation sees too visibly how dear the dispute about Conformity has cost us to stand any more upon such Punctilios and Those in whom our Deliverance is wrapt up understand this matter too well and judg too right of it to imagine that ever they will be Priest-ridden in this point So that all Considerations concur to make us conclude that there is no danger of our splitting a second time upon the same Rock and indeed if any Argument were wanting to compleat the certainty of this Point the wise and generous Behaviour of the main Body of the Dissenters in this present Juncture has given them so just a Title to our Friendship that we must resolve to set all the World against us if we can ever forget it and if we do not make them all the returns of Ease and Favour when it is in our Power to do it X. It is to be hoped that when this is laid together it will have that effect on all sober and true Protestants as to make them forget the little angry Heats that have
Paganism had been still the Legal Religion notwithstanding its falshood and though the Truth of the Christian Religion is the only ground upon which we believe it yet it must become Legal as well as it is true before we can claim the Protection of the Law and the Government that has secured it to us so that to fight against Popery where that is the Establish'd Religion is as certainly a Sin as it is a Debt that we owe our Religion and Country to fight for the Protestant Religion when the Law is for it and illegal Violence is imployed to pull it down 6. The Reflector's Common-place-stuff with relation to the Dispensing Power has been so oft exposed that it scarce deserves a Review The Obligation of all Laws depends on the force of the Penalties against Trangressors so that the Dispensing with Penal Laws carries in it the Dispensing with all Laws whatsoever and by this Doctrine the whole Frame and Security of our Government is at the King's Discretion Nor will that distinction of malum in se and malum prohibitum save the matter unless all the World were agreed upon the point What things are evil of themselves and what not In the sense of a Papist all the Laws against their Religion are so far from being Obligatory of their own Nature that they are impious Attempts upon that Authority which they think infallible Therefore all the distinction that is offered to save us from the exorbitancy of this Dispensing Power as if it could not reach to things that are evil of themselves is of no force unless a measure were laid down in which both Protestants and Papists were agreed concerning things that are good or evil of themselves For instance Murther is allowed by all to be evil of it self yet if the Extirpation of Hereticks is a Duty incumbent on a Catholick King as we are sure it is then a Commission given to destroy us would be a justifiable Action and so the Laws against Murder and Manslaughter might in that case be dispensed with since the killing of Hereticks is by the Doctrine of Papists only Malum prohibitum and not malum in se 7. Our Author might have spar'd his Rhetorick how well soever he loads it upon the Head of Persecution and Liberty of Conscience if it had been but for this Reason that it discover'd too plainly who it was that wrote these Reflections which perhaps he may have e're long some Reasons to wish it were not so well known as he has taken pains to do by his luxuriant Stile All that can be said on this Head belongs very pertinently to the Consideration of a Parliament but is very improperly urged in favour of the bloodiest of all Persecutors who could not begin their breaking in upon our Laws and our Religion more dextrously than at this of Liberty of Conscience tho they themselves had been the Authors of all the Severities that had been acted among us and intended by this shew of Ease to bring us under all the Cruelties of an Inquisition which is one of the inseparable Perquisites of that bloody Religion 8. The greatest part of the Invasions made on our Government that are set forth in the Prince's Declaration are acknowledged to be such by our Reflector But he thinks they are now redressed The High Commission is at an end Magdalen Colledge is restor'd If the King had of his own motion and from a sense of the justice of the thing done all this while he apprehended no danger and if he had brought the Authors of those Pernicious Councils to condign Punishment then it had been more reasonable to value those Acts of Justice by which the former Violences had been in some measure repaired but what is done in the present Circumstances shews only a meanness of Spirit and a feebleness in the Government And some Mens Tempers are too well known to suffer us once to doubt of their returning back to all their former Violences and of their carrying them on to greater Excesses if God for the sins of the Nation should blast this Glorious Undertaking And if the Charters are now restor'd we know by the Proceedings of the late Regulators of Corporations that it was far from their thoughts but a little while ago so that this is likewise an effect of the present Fear they are under and it shews that after all their Huffings during their Prosperity they sink under Dangers as much as others whose Memory they are so careful to blemish how much soever they are beholden to them It is here said that most of the Charters were taken away in the late King's time But as it is well known under whose Influence the last years of the late Reign were conducted so the limiting the Elections to a speical number contrary to Custom and Prescription was the Invention of the present Reign 9. But if the Reflector will not justify every thing that the Government has done and thinks the present state of things could hardly bear so gross an Abuse yet he insists often upon this that these Illegal things were fit for the Consideration and the Redress of a Parliament and that they do not justify the Prince of Orange's Attempt But the Prince's Design is only to see a Free Parliament Chosen and Assembled according to Law. For our Author and his Complices for he reckons himself in the Ministry § 23. when he names the things objected against the Ministry as objected against us had taken such care to keep off a Parliament and to overturn all Corporations to corrupt all Elections and to provide for false Returns by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors that we were out of all hopes or rather out of a possibility of ever seeing a Free Parliament again so that any nearer Prospect that we now have of one is wholly owing to the Prince's Undertaking and indeed what is given us at present is done with so ill a Grace and the Popish and corrupt Ministry is still preserved and cherished with so particular a Confidence that they seem to have a mind to make the Nation see that all is done so grosly that those who are cheated by it will have no excuse for their Folly since the trick is acted with too bare a face to pass on any 10. The Reflector thinks that the Prince ought to have complained to the King of these Abuses though in other places of this Paper he pretends that the Prince was not a proper Judg in those Matters he aggravates the Prince's breaking with an Uncle and a Father-in-Law without warning given Indeed if this were the Case all that could be said upon it was that he had copied from the Pattern that was set him in 1672 in that famous Attempt on the Sinirna Fleet What Complaints the Prince made or what encouragement he had to make any and how they were entertain'd and answer'd are domestick matters of which the World knows little since all that has appear'd in publick was
have still as melancholy an answer to this as I have had to all the former Applications I have made I must maintain my Innocence the best way I can in which I will never forget that vast Duty that I owe His Majesty whatsoever I may meet with in my own particular If there is any thing either in the Inclosed Paper or in this Letter that seems a little too vehement I hope the provocation that I have met with will be likewise considered for while my Life and Reputation are struck at and while some here are threatning so high a man must be forgiven to shew that he is not quite unsensible tho my Duty to the King is Proof against all that can ever be done to provoke me yet I must be suffered to treat the Instruments and Procurers of my disgrace who are contriving my destruction with the plainness that such Practices draw from me I will delay Printing any thing for a fortnight till I see whether your Lordship is like to receive any Order from His Majesty relating to him who is May it please your Lordship Your Lordships c. At the Hague the 17. of May Old St. 1687. My Third Letter to the Earl of Middletoune May it please your Lordship I Venture once more to renew my Addresses to your Lordship before I Print the Paper that I sent you by my last of the 17. of May together with the Two Letters that I writ you for I find it necessary to add this and that it go with the rest to the Press I am told that great Advantages have been taken upon an Expression in my First Letter in which I writ that by my Naturalization during my stay here My Allegiance was translated from His Majesty to the Soveraignty of this Province as if this alone was crime enough and I hear that some who have been of the Profession of the Law are of this Mind I indeed thought that none who had ever pretended to study Law or the general Notions of the Entercourse among Nations could mistake in so clear a Point I cautioned my words so as to shew that I considered this Translation of my Allegiance only as a temporary thing during my stay here And can any man be so ignorant as to doubt of this Allegiance and Protection are things by their natures reciprocal since then Naturalization gives a Legal Protection there must be a return of Allegiance due upon it I do not deny but the root of Natural Allegiance remains but it is certainly under a suspension while the Naturalized Person enjoys the Protection of the Prince or State that has so received him I know what a Crime it had been if I had become Naturalized to any State in War with the King but when it was to a State that is in Alliance with him and when it was upon so just a ground as my being to be married and setled in this State as it could be no Crime in me to desire it so I having obtained it am not a little amazed to hear that any are so little conversant in the Law of Nations as to take Exceptions at my words Our Saviour has said that a man cannot serve two Masters and the nature of things say that a man cannot be at the same time under two Allegiances His Majesty by Naturalizing the Earl of Feversham and many others of the French Nation knows well what a right this gives him to their Allegiance which no doubt he as well as many others have sworn and this is a translating their Allegiance with a Witness That Lord was to have commanded the Troops that were to be sent into Flanders in 1678. against his Natural Prince and yet tho' the Laws of France are high enough upon the points of Soveraignty it was never so much as pretended that this was a Crime And it is so much the Interest of all Princes to assure themselves of those whom they receive into their Protection by Naturalizing them since without that they should give Protection to so many Spies and Agents for another Prince that if I had not very good ground to assure me that some have pretended to make a Crime out of my Words I could not easily believe it My Lord this is the last trouble that I will give your Lordship upon this Subject for it being now a month since I made my first Address to you I must conclude that it is resolved to carry this matter to all Extremities and Mr. d' Albevilles Instances against me and the Threatnings of some of his Countreymen make me conclude that all my most humble Addresses to His Majesty are like to have no other effect but this that I have done my duty in them so that it seems I am to be judged in Scotland I am sorry for it because this must engage me in a defence of my self I mean a Justification of my own Innocence which I go to much against my heart but God and man see that I am forced to it and no Threatnings of any here will frighten me for I will do that which I think fit for me to do to day though I were sure to be assassinated for it to morrow but to the last moment of my Life I will pay all Duty and Fidelity to His Majesty My Lord I am with a profound respect Your Lordships c. At the Hague the 6. of June Old St. 1687. ADVERTISEMENT WHen I had resolved on the Printing these Papers and was waiting till the day should come to which I was cited I received a new Advertisement that the first Citation was let fall and that I was cited of new to the 15 of August to Answer to the Crimes of High Treason upon the account of two Heads in my first Letter to the Earl of Middletoune The one is that I say that by my Naturalization I am loosed from any Allegiance to His Majesty and the other is that I threaten His Majesty with the Printing and Discovering of Secrets that have been long hid If after what I have hitherto met with there were room left for new Surprises this would have been a very great one Those who have advised the King to this way of Proceeding against me shew that they consider very little the Reputation of His Majesty's Justice and so I be but Sacrificed they do not care how much the Kings Honour suffers in it for First after a Citation of High Treason which has made so much noise that is let fall Which is plainly to confess that there is no truth in all those Matters that were laid to my Charge and then where is the Justice of this way of Proceeding to Summon a Man to appear upon the pretence of Crimes of which they know him to be Innocent But this new matter is of such a Nature that it is not easy for me to find words soft enough to speak of it with the decency that becomes me This is now more the Cause of
Informations against me which gave the rise to all that has since followed ought to be lookt on as Calumniators and to be punished accordingly and if any ill chosen Expression had fallen from me in the Letter that I writ to the Earl of Middletoune the Privacy of the Letter the Respect that was in it and the Provocation that drew it from me an Accusation of High Treason which is now evidently made out to be a Calumny all these I say give me some reason to conclude that if a secret Animosity of some of my Enemies that have abused their Credit with the King to my Prejudice had not wrought more than a regard to Justice there had not been a second Prosecution when the first was found to be so ill grounded that they were forced to let it fall The Citation is in these Words JAMES by the Grace of God King of Great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith To our Lovits Heraulds Pursevants Macers and Messre at armes conjunctly and severally specially Constitute Greeting Forsameikle as it is humbly meant et Complaind to us be our right trusty and familiar Councellour Sir John Dalrymple the younger of Stair our Advocat for our Interest Upon Doctor Gilbert Burnet That wher by the Common Law by the Acts of Parliament and the municipall Lawes of this Kingdom the declyning or impugning our Soveraign Authority or putting Treasonable Limitations upon the Prerogatives of our Crown upon the native Allegiance due by any of our Subjects born Scots men whether residing within our Dominions or not are declared to be High Treason and punishable by the Pains due and determined in the Law for Treason Nevertheless it is of verity That Doctor Gilbert Burnet who is a Scotsman by Birth and Education being cited at the Peir and Shoar of Leith at the instance of our Advocat for several Treasonable Crimes to underly the Law by vertue of particular Command from us direct to the Lords of our Privy Council and ane Act of our said Privy Council hereupon ordering our Advocat to Intent the Proces Instead of appeiring before the Lords of Iusticiery Doctor Gilbert Burnet did write and subscribe a Letter dated at the Hague the third day of May last directed for the Earl of Middletoune one of our principal Secretaries of State for our Kingdom of England In the which the said Doctor shows that in respect the Affairs of the Vnited Provinces falls to his Lordships share in the Ministry Therefore he makes the following Addresses to his Lordship and by him to us and gives ane accompt that he is certiorat of the Proces of Treason execute against him at the instance of our Advocat And for answer thereto the Doctor Writes that he hes bein thretteen years out of the Kingdom of Scotland and that he is now upon the point of Marrying in the Netherlands and that he is Naturalized by the States of Holland and that thereby during his stay there his Allegiance is translated from us to the Soveraignity of the Province of Holland and in the end of his Letter he Certifies that if this decly natur be not taken of his hand to sist the Proces he will appeir in Print in his own Defence and will not so far betray his own Innocence as to suffer a thing of that nature to pass upon him In which he will make a recital of Affairs that hes passed these twenty years and a vast number of particulars which he believes will be displeasing to us and therfor desires that he may not be forced to it which is a direct declyning of our Authority denying of his Allegiance to us and asserting that his Allegiance is translated from us to the Soveraignty of the States of Holland And a threatning us to expose traduce disparage and bely our Government and the publict Actings for twenty years past Tho he acknowledges it will be displeasing to us Yet by a most Indiscret and Disloyal Insolence he threatens to do it in contempt Except forsooth we will acquiesse and suffer the derly natur of our Royal Authorite and pass from the Proces as having no Allegiance due to us from the Doctor c. After this follows the form of Law ordinary in such Citations by which I am required to appear on the 9th day of August in order to my Tryal which was to be six days after that under the Pains of being declared a Rebel and a Fugitive and all bears date the 10th of June 1687. I shall offer only two Exceptions to this in point of Form 1st there is no Special Law set forth here upon which I am to be Judged which as I am informed by those who understand the Law of Scotland makes the Citation null in point of Form since High Treason is a Crime of such a Nature that no Man can be concluded Guilty of it but upon a special Law. 2dly In Criminal matters no Proofs of any Writing upon the Similitude of Hands are so much as admitted by the Law of Scotland so that all such Proofs are only General Presumptions and therefore since there is no other Proof that can be pretended in this case it is not possible according to the grounds and practice of the Scottish Law to find me Guilty upon this Citation Upon my not appearance on the 9th day of August the matter was for some time delayed At last a Writ was issued out against me called in the Law of Scotland Letters of Horning because they are published with the blast of a Horn in which I am declared the King's Rebel but this is not issued out upon the account of the Matter of the Citation of which no Cognizance has been taken But only for my not appearance to offer my self to Tryal and the Operation of this in Law is only the putting me out of the King's Protection and the present Seizing on my personal Estate and after a year the Seizing any thing that I enjoy for Term of Life but this Writ does neither affect my Life nor my Posterity nor can an Estate of Inheritance be so much as Confiscated by it and tho the term Rebel is put in it that word is only a Form of Law for every man that does not pay his Debts is liable to such a Writ and he is declared the King's Rebel just as the Chancery in England issues out a Writ of Rebellion upon Contempts so that if the being called a Rebel in such a Writ gives the Government a right to demand me then every Man that retires into Holland either out of England or Scotland upon the account of a disorder in his Affairs may be demanded as soon as any such Writ goes out against him As for the matter of this Citation I said so much upon it in my former Paper that since no Answer has been made to that I do not think it necessary to say any more than what will occur to me in the account of the Progress of this
Affair Mr. d' Albeville his Majesties Envoy did in the Month of July last put in a Memorial against me which being already in Print I shall only offer here the abstract of it In the Preamble it sets forth That whereas I had obtained Letters of Burgership in the Town of Amsterdam In the Vertue thereof these Letters being presented to the States of Holland by the said Town I had obtained the Protection of the States with which I was not satisfied but by my Libels I defamed the King and his Government of which it offered two Instances one that I represented my self as Persecuted upon the account of Religion which was so false that all Religions were tolerated by the King. The other was that I pretended that my life was in danger for which If I had any grounds I ought to have represented it to the King's Ministers in England or to his Minister bere and that it was Notorious that the greatest of all Criminals were in safety here for fear to draw upon themselves his Majesties displeasure who abhors such practices tho by the King's Laws every one of his subjects was warranted to seise on them here in what manner soever Upon all which it concluded That the States ought to punish both me and my Printer without naming him I hope I may without being wanting to the respect due to his Character make some observations on this It is well known that I was never made Burgess of Amsterdam so that all the Preamble falls and it appears that the Envoy has not taken the pains that forraign Ministers ordinarily do to be rightly informed of this matter when he began to move in it I applied my self immediately to the States of Holland in order to my being Naturalized and in my Petition I set forth the Reason of it which ever since Solons Laws has been thought the justest ground for it and that was a Marriage and this was no pretended colour for I was contracted the same day I had lived before that a year at the Hague and I saw clearly a storm coming upon me yet I had used no precaution to cover my self from it but when a Marriage and a settlement in Holland made it necessary for me to desire the Rights and Priviledges of the Countrey it cannot be thought strange if I petitioned for it and the States who know how long I had both lived and preached publickly at the Hague under the eyes of two of the Kings Ministers one after another saw no sort of reason so much as to deliberate upon my petition but granted it to me as a thing of course As for the matter that His Majesties Envoy objected to me I said nothing in the paper I printed but what plainly contradicts the first point my words relating to it are that it is yet too early to set on a Persecution for matters of Religion and therefore Crimes against the State must be pretended and fastned on those whom these men intend to destroy Now it is plain that by these men I intend those who had Informed against me the matters that are in the first Citation and that being let fall as a Calumny too gross to be any longer supported I had all reason to pass that censure on these men But these words cannot be supposed to have any relation to the King unless in that part of them that it is yet too early to Persecute for matters of Religion which import that my Enemies dare not attempt to carry his Majesty to that so that this period in my paper is evidently contrary to the Inference that is drawn from it The 2d point is no better grounded since I published nothing relating to the Danger in which I was but my Letters to the Earl of Middleton so that I had begun my Complaints to him but I was never encouraged to go to the naming of particulars As for that period that the greatest of Criminals are here safe from such Attempts for fear of drawing upon themselves the King's displeasure de peur de s'attirer certainly the Envoy was in haste when he drew it for the want of a clear sense in it is such that it cannot be carried off by an Ignorance of the French tongue since sure those Criminals are not afraid to Draw upon themselves the King's displeasure by attempting on themselves So that some such words as these all his Majesties good subjects avoiding such practices for fear of drawing upon themselves his Displeasure must be supposed to make the period Clear sense But if I had any apprehensions of Danger before this Memorial they are justly encreased by it since the Envoy concludes the paragraph by saying that every one of the King's subjects were warranted by his Laws to seise on such here in what manner soever a s'y emparer en quelque maniere que ce soit in what manner soever does always on such occasions signifie either Dead or Alive Now when the Kings Envoy did in a Memorial to the States which was afterwards printed assert that this was Law It is easy to Infer from hence what just apprehensions this might suggest to me As for his desire to have me Punished for that Libel he did in that Appeal which he made to the Justice of the States acknowledge me to be their Subject but if I have by printing of that or any other Paper made my self liable to the punishment of the States the Complaint ought to have been made in the form of Law to the Court of Holland as it would be in England to the Kings Bench since the States themselves do not not enter into the prosecutions of Justice and to that Court I most humbly submit my self and acknowledg that if I cannot justify my self of every thing that can be laid to my Charge they ought to punish me with the utmost severity of Justice Since a man of my Profession as he ought to be an Example for his good behaviour so he ought to be made an Example of Justice when he brings himself within the compass of the Law. This was the first step that was made in my affair which lay in this state till the Envoy's return from England in December last upon which he gave in a long Memorial of which I was made one Article He set forth that I being now Judged a Rebel and Fugitive in Scotland the States were bound to deliver me up or to banish me out of their Dominions and so he demanded that this might be executed Upon this I was called before some of the Deputies of the States and both the Envoys Memorials being read to me I was required to offer what I had to say upon them I could not but first take notice of the great difference that was between them The first complaining of me as a subject of the States and demanding that I might be punished by them and the second demanding me as the King 's Subject To the first I answered according to
the Reflections that I have already mentioned To the second I said I could not be a Fugitive since I had come out of Scotland fourteen years ago and after eleven years stay in England had come out of it three years ago by the King's leave As for my being a Rebel I could answer nothing to that till I saw the Judgment that had passed upon me but I was now the Subject of the States and as I humbly claimed their Protection so I pretended to no Protection against Justice but offered my self to a Tryal if any thing was laid to my charge This being reported to the States of Holland they were so far satisfied with my Answer that the substance of it was put in the form of an Answer to the two Memorials The whole amounts to this that I was become their subject by being naturalized before this process was begun against me so that I am now under their Protection But if there is any thing to be objected to me that can bear a Tryal they will give order that full and speedy Justice shall be done upon it in the Court of Holland Upon this a 3d Memorial was given in to which the Articles of the Treaty between the King and the States were annexed relating to Fugitives and Rebels and it was said in it that the States were bound to execute these with relation to me without taking upon them to examine the grounds upon which the sentence was past And because here lies the strength of the whole matter I shall offer such Considerations upon it as will I hope satisfie all persons 1. No Sentence is either passed or produced against me for I am not declared by any Judgment either Rebel or Fugitive and by the 7th Article all Condemnations ought to be notified by publick and Authentical letters which must be understood of a Record of the sentence that ought to be produced whereas there is nothing shewed in my case but only a Memorial 2. All Treaties especially in the odious parts of them are to be understood according to the common acceptation of the terms contained in them and not according to the particular forms of any Courts of Justice the common acceptance of Fugitive is a man that flies away after a crime committed from the prosecution of Justice and a Rebel in the common acceptation is a man that has born Arms against his Prince since then I am not so much as charged with either of these I cannot be comprehended in the Article of the Treaty for this must be the only sense according to which the States are bound to deny harbour to Declared Rebels and Fugitives 3. That which puts an end to the whole matter is that before I writ that Letter upon which I am now prosecuted I was become a Subject of the States and by Consequence was no more in a Capacsty to be either the King's Rebel or Fugitive And the point of Naturalizing Strangers is now such an universal Practice that the right of granting it is inseperable from Soveraign Power so that either the States have this Right or they are no more a Free and Soveraign State. And the obligations of honour that all Soveraigns come under to protect those whom they naturalize against every thing but their own Justice is no dark point of Law but is that which every Prince knows and practices as oft as there is occasion for it The King of France has used all the Naturalized Srangers in the same manner that he has used his own subjects in the point of Religion and tho the French Protestants that are gone into England are according to the severity of the Edicts passed against them made Criminals for flying out of that Kingdom so that according to the Letter of those Edicts they are Fugitives yet the King has received them all owned them for his Subjects naturalised some and supplied others of them by a Bounty truly worthy of so great a Prince and if the King does this to those of another Religion that do fly out of the Dominions of a Prince with whom he is in peace The States could not with any colour of reason refuse to Naturalise me who am of their own Religion when after so long a stay among them it appeared that the King had nothing ro lay to my charge and they having Naturalised me if they should withdraw their Protection before I had forfeited it by any illegal Action of mine they should make a Breach upon the Publick Liberty upon which their Government is chiefly founded And it is to be observed that the Treaty between the King and them as to the Articles concerning Rebels and Fugitives is Reciprocal as all the Ancient Treaties between the Crown of England and the Princes of these Provinces before the formation of the Commonwealth ever were as to this particular so that they can be no more bound to the King by it than the King is bound to them Now let us suppose that the King Naturalises a Dutchman by which he is admitted to all the Priviledges of an Englishman if the Dutch should after that condemn this person as guilty of Rebellion the King could not upon the States demanding of him deliver him up or banish him at his pleasure since this cannot be done arbitrarily to any Englishman without a legal tryal by his Peers and therefore it is plain that my case does not at all fall within the Articles of the Treaty so that in this whole matter the States have acted as a free State that was careful to maintain its Honour and to assert its being an Independent Soveraignty and for my own part I can appeal to all the Members of the States of Holland if I made any applications to them as if I would value my self on my being supported in opposition to the Envoy's Memorial I staid at home while the thing was under consultation without making Addresses to any one of them as to my own particular It is true I would not withdraw of my own accord from my own house which I thought would have been a forsaking the Rights of the Countrey a mistrusting the Protection of my Soveraigns as well as my own Innocence and an abandoning of the post in which God by his Providence has placed me And I am resolved rather to run the risque of all that with which I am threatned than show the least unbecoming fear I thank God I make use of that common but Noble expression that I am neither afraid to dye nor ashamed to live I will not go further into dark thoughts tho I know enough of of the contrivances against me by an order of men whose souls are as black as their Habits Tho for a great while I thought that the meanness of my person was such that even success in any design against me could not have counterballanced the Infamy of it Thus I hope those hard words of high treason or Rebellion will make no impressions on
Lion and that is your very Image in all things What follows is too immodest to be translated Concerning the Interpretation of Laws and that they ought to be expounded not strictly by the Words or Cases put in them but by the Equity and Reason of them Cicero writes thus lib. 2. de Inventione Causae rationes afferentur quare quo consilio sit ita in lege ut sententia voluntate scriptoris non ipsa solum Scripturae causa confirmatum esse videatur Legis scriptorem certo ex ordine Judices certa aetate praeditos constituisse ut essent non qui scriptum suum recitarent quod quivis puer facere posset sed qui cogitationem assequi possent voluntatem interpretari Nullam rem neque legibus neque scriptura ulla denique ne in sermone quidem quotidiano atque imperiis domesticis rectè posse administrari si unusquisque velit verba spectare non ad voluntatem ejus qui verba habuerit accedere Judex is videtur legi obtemperare qui sententiam ejus non qui Scripturam sequatur Leges in consilio scriptoris utilitate communi non in verbis consistere Idcirco de hac re nihil esse scriptum quod cum de illa esset scriptum de hac is qui scribebat dubitaturum neminem judicabat Postea multis in legibus multa esse praeterita quae idcirco praeterita nemo arbitretur quod ex caeteris de quibus scriptum sit intelligi possint Let the Grounds and Reasons be shewed that it may appear upon what Design the Law was so and so made that so it may appear what is enacted not only from the Words of the Law but from the Will and Design of the Law-giver The Law-givers have ordained Judges to be chosen out of a certain Rank of Men and of a determined Age that so there might be Persons appointed who should not only repeat the Letter of the Law which any Child may do but should be able to find out the Design of the Law-giver and explain it according to his Will. If one will only have regard to the Words and not to the Mind of him that uttered them it will not be possible to order Matters aright neither by Law nor by any sort of Writing nor indeed by any sort of Discourse And this will appear in the whole Business of the World and even in Domestick Matters That Judg obeys the Law more who pursues the Design of it than he who has regard only to the Words of it Laws consist not in the Words in which they are conceived but in the Intent of the Makers of them and are to be explained by the Good of the Publick for which they are made Nothing is specified in the Law concerning such a Case because the Law-giver who mentioned another Case in the Law could not but conclude that the one being expressed no Body could doubt of the other For after all there are many Cases that seem to be omitted in many Laws which yet we ought not to think omitted because we may easily see what we ought to think of them from those Cases that are mentioned in the Law. The greatest part of his Oration for Caecina is to the same purpose and among many others these words are remarkable Cum voluntas consilium sententia interdicti intelligatur impudentiam summam aut stultitiam singularem putabimus in verborum errore versari rem causam utilitatem communem non relinquere folum sed etiam prodere Juris igitur retineri sententiam equitatem plurimum valere oportere an verbo ac litera jus omne torqueri vos statuite utrum utilius esse videatur When we once comprehend the Reasons the Design and the Intent of a Law it is either great Impudence or great Folly to let our selves be misled by any Ambiguity in the words for this is not only to forsake but to betray the true Ends of the Law and the Good of the Publick Do you therefore that are the Judges consider which is best Whether the Design of the Law ought to be observed and to be explained according to Equity or whether Justice it self ought to be perverted by adhering to the Words and Letter of the Law AN ENQUIRY Into the Measures of SUBMISSION TO THE SUPREAM AUTHORITY And of the Grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for Subjects to defend their Religion Lives and Liberties THis Enquiry cannot be regularly made but by taking in the first place a true and full view of the nature of Civil Society and more particularly of the nature of Supream Power whether it is lodged in one or more Persons I. It is certain That the Law of Nature has put no difference nor subordination among Men except it be that of Children to Parents or of Wives to their Husbands so that with Relation to the Law of Nature all Men are born free and this Liberty must still be supposed entire unless so far as it is limited by Contracts Provisions or Laws For a Man can either bind himself to be a Servant or sell himself to be a Slave by which he becomes in the power of another only so far as it was provided by the Contract since all that Liberty which was not expresly given away remains still entire so that the Plea for Liberty always proves it self unless it appears that it is given up or limited by any special Agreement II. It is no less certain that as the Light of Nature has planted in all Men a Natural Principle of the love of Life and of a desire to preserve it so the common Principles of all Religion agree in this that God having set us in this World we are bound to preserve that Being which he has given us by all just and lawful ways Now this Duty of Self-preservation is exerted in Instances of two sorts the one are in the resisting of violent Aggressors the other are the taking of just Revenges of those who have invaded us so secretly that we could not prevent them and so violently that we could not resist-them In which cases the Principle of self-Preservation warrants us both to recover what is our own with just Damages and also to put such unjust Persons out of a Capacity of doing the like Injuries any more either to our selves or to any others Now in these two Instances of Self-Preservation this difference is to be observed that the first cannot be limited by any slow Forms since a pressing Danger requires a vigorous Repulse and cannot admit of Delays whereas the second of taking Revenges or Reparations is not of such haste but that it may be brought under Rules and Forms III. The true and Original Notion of Civil Society and Government is that it is a Compromise made by such a Body of Men by which they resign up the Right of demanding Reparations either in the way of Justice against one another