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A30329
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A collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government written by G. Burnet.
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Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B5769; ESTC R32598
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57,102
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50
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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 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 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
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 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 Deposiâ—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 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