must at least acquiesce tho they are not Infallible there being still a sort of an Appeal to be made to the Soveraign or the Supream Legislative Body so the Church has a Subaltern Jurisdiction but as the Authority of inferior 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 Subaltern Judg If they manifestly oppose themselves to the Scriptures which is the Law of Christians particular Persons may be supposed as competent Judges of that as in Civil Matters they may be of the Rebellion of the Judges and in that case they are bound still to maintain their Obedience to Jesus Christ in matters Indifferent Christians are bound for the Preservation of Peace and Unity to acquiesce in the Decision of the Church and in matters justly doubtful 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 Judg 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 there is a great deal of Sin and Vice still in the World so that it 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 Opinion 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 shews us that it must be in the Pope or is no where and another Party says 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 it 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 soever St. Peter may be supposed to have had the Scripture says 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 and Vote and what forfeits this Right and what numbers must concur in a Decision to assure us of the Infallibility of the Judgment 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 Emperor's Authority so it is certain none of them were present unless one or two of Persia at 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. Pallavicin's 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 New Testament he is involved in a Study that must cost a Man an Age to go thorow it and many of the Ages through which he carries this Enquiry are so dark and have produced so few Writers at least so few are preserved to our days that it is not possible to find 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
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
he gives to Church-men in his Epistles to Timotby 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 given V. There are some things very expresly taught in the New Testament such as the rules of a Good Life the Use of the Sacraments the addressing our selves to God for Mercy and Grace through 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 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 and 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 Jews 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 and to the judge in those days and that they were to declare what was right and 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 authorized 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 Saviour's 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 worship of another God might well pretend that he was not obliged to yield to the authority of our Saviour's Miracles without taking cognizance 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 Jews 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 Jeremy in particular opposing themselves to the whole body of them but we see likewise that for some considerable time before our Saviour's days 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 and freedom of their Faculties VII It seems Evident that the passage Tell the Church belongs only to the Reconciling of Differences that of Binding and of Loosing according to the use of those terms among the Jews 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 J signifies only that the Christian Religion was never to come to an end or to perish and that of Christs being with the Apostles to the end of the world imports only a special Conduct and Protection which the Church may always 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 't is 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 Judg for in that Great Day every one must answer to God according to the Talents that he had and all will be saved according to their Sincerity and with Relation to that Judgment there is no need of any other Judg but God. A second View of Religion is as it is a Body united together and by consequence brought under some Regulation And as in all States there are subaltern Judges in whose Decisions all
the Declaration it self pag. 9. for our Comedian maintains his Character still and scorns to speak of Establish'd Laws with any Decency here he puts in a paragraph as was formally marked which belonged to his Second Reason but it seems some of those to whom he has pawn'd himself thought he had not said enough on that head and therefore to save blottings he put it in here After that he tells the Gentry that Transubstantiation was a Notion belonging to the School-men and Metaphysitians and that he may bespeak their Favour he tells them in very soft words That their Learning was more polite and practicable in the Civil Affairs of Human Life to understand the Rules of Honour and the Laws of their Countrey the Practice of Martial Discipline and the Examples of Great Men in former Ages and by them to square their Actions in their respective Stations and the like But sure the Bishop is here without his Fiocco yet at least for Decency's sake he should have named Religion and Virtue among the proper Studies of the Gentry and if he dares not trust them with the reading the Scriptures yet at least they might read the Articles of our Church and hearken to the Homilies for tho it has been long one of the first Maxims that he has infused into all the Clergy that come near him that the People ought to be brought into an ignorance in matters of Religion that Preaching ought to be laid aside for a Preaching Church could not stand that in Sermons no points of Doctrine ought to be explained and that only the Rules of Human Life ought to be told the People yet after all they may read the short Articles and tho they were as blindly Implicit as he would wish them to be yet they would without more Enquiry find Transubstantiation to be condemned in them Next he Triumphs over the renouncing of it pag. 11. as too bold and too prophane an Affront to Almighty God when men Abjure a thing which it is morally impossible for them to understand And he appeals to the Members of both Houses whom in a fit of Respect he calls Honourable after he had Reproach'd them all he could if they have any distinct Idea or Notion in their minds of the thing they here so Solemnly Renounce I do verily believe none of them have any distinct Notion of Transubstantiation and that it is not only Morally but Physically impossible for them to understand it But one would think that this is enough for declaring that they do not Believe it since the TEST contains no declaration concerning Transubstantiation it self whether it is a True or a False Doctrine but only concerning the Belief of him that takes it And if one can have no distinct Notion of it so that it is morally impossible for him to understand it he may very well declare That he does not believe it After a Farce of a slight Story he concludes that there seems to be nothing but a Prophane Levity in the whole matter and a shameless abuse put upon God and Religion to carry on the Wicked Designs of a Rebel-Faction For he cannot for his heart abate an ace of his Insolence even when he makes the King Lords and Commons the subject of his Scorn Certainly whatever his Character is it ought not to be expected that a man who attacks all that is Sacred under God and Christ should not be treated as he deserves it were a feeble weakness to have so great a regard to a Character that is so prostituted by him He tells us pag 47. That all parties agree in the thing and that they differ only in the word and manner and here he makes a long excursion to shew his Learning in tacking a great many things together which passes with Ignorant Readers as a mark of his great Reading whereas in this as well as in all his other Books in which any shews of Learning appear those who have searched into the Fountains see that he does nothing but gather from the Collection of others only he spoils them with the Levities of his Buffoon Stilo and which is worse with his Dis-ingenuity I leave all these matters to be examined by those who have leisure for it and that think him worth their pains But as for Transubstantiation the words that I have cited from out of our Articles shew plainly that it is rejected in our Church so that he is bound either to renounce it or to renounce our Church therefore all that shew he makes with our History comes to nothing since whatever he may say with relation to Edward the Sixth's Reign it cannot be denied but they were Enacted by the Convocation in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and they have been ever since the Doctrine of our Church so that without going further this is now our Doctrine and since Sa. Oxon carries the Authority of the Convocation so high he will find the Original Record of these Articles in Corpus-Christi Colledg in Cambridge subscribed by the Members of both Houses in which there is a much more Positive Decision than is in the Prints not only against Transubstantiation but against any Corporal or Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament And if he will give himself scope to rail at those who suppressed this I leave him to his Liberty But here is the formal decision of this Church and the pretending that there was no Evidence of Cranmer's Opinion but in an unknown Manuscript or a Famous Invisible Manuscript p. 49 47. when there are two Books writ on this matter by Cranmer himself and when all the Disputes in Queen Mary's time besides those that were both in Oxford and Cambridge in King Edward's time shew so clearly That this was his Doctrine is a strain becoming his Sincerity that gives this among many other Essays of the Trust that is due to him But it seems he thought that Dr. Tillotson Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Burnet besides some others whom he does not Name had not Reputation enough in the World and therefore he intended to raise it by using them ill which is all the effect that his Malice can have He had set on one of his poor underworkmen some years ago to decry the Manuscript which Dr. Stillingfleet had in his keeping for above Twenty Years and which Dr. Burnet had in his Hands for many months and which they shewed to as many as desired to see it but that had turned so much to his Shame that first vented the Calumny that it seems he summoned Sa. Oxon to appear his second in the Slander and he whose Brow is of so peculiar a Composition will needs bring it here tho ever so impertinently But I forgive the Hatred that he bears both to that Manuscript and to those Doctors since nothing could be less to the satisfacton of those for whom he published his Book than to see the Mature and Regular Methods in which the Reformation
Dr. Burnet's PAPERS THere have been so many Papers given out for mine which are not that in order to the preventing of Mistakes of that kind I have given Directions for the Publishing of this COLLECTION which contains none but those that were writ by me in single Sheets and are now put together by my Order G. BURNET A COLLECTION OF EIGHTEEN PAPERS Relating to the AFFAIRS OF Church State During the Reign of King JAMES the Second Seventeen whereof written in Holland and first printed there By GILBERT BURNET D. D. Licensed and Entred according to Order Reprinted at London for John Starkey and Richard Chiswell 1689. THE CONTENTS Of the following PAPERS 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 twenty eighth of April 1687. Pag. 1 Some Reflections on His Majesties Proclamation of the Twelfth of February 1686 / 7. for a Toleration in Scotland Together with the said Proclamation p. 10 A Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience dated the Fourth of April 1687. p. 25 An Answer to Mr. Henry Payne's Letter concerning His Majesties Declaration of Indulgence writ to the Author of the Letter to a Dissenter p. 38. An Answer to a Paper printed with allowance entitled A New Test of the Church of England 's Loyalty p. 45 The Earl of Melfort's Letter to the Presbyterian Ministers in Scotland writ in His Majesties Name upon their Address Together with sowe Remarks upon it p. 56 Reflections on a Pamphlet entitled Parliamentum Pacificum licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and printed at London in March 1688. p. 65 An Apology for the Church of England with relation to the Spirit of Persecution for which she is accused p. 83 Some Extracts out of Mr. James Stewart's Letters which were communicated to Mijn Heer Fagal the States Pensioner of the Province of Holland Together with some References to Master Stewart's printed Letter p. 97 An Edict in the Roman Law in the twenty fifth Book of the Digests Title 4. Sect. 10. as concerning the visiting of a Big-bellied-Woman and the looking after what may be born by her p. 110 An Enquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supreme Authority and of the Grounds upon which it may be lawful or necessary for Subjects to defend their Religion Lives and Liberties p. 119 A Review of the Reflections on the Prince of Orange's Declaration p. 133 The Citation of Gilbert Burnet D. D. to answer in Scotland on the Twenty seventh of June Old Stile for High Treason Together with his Answer And Three Letters writ by him upon that Subject to the Right Honourable the Earl of Middletoun His Majesty's Secretary of State. p. 145 Dr. Burnet's Vinication of himself from the Calumnies with which he is aspersed in a Pamphlet entitled Parliamentum Pacificum Licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and printed at London in March 1688. p. 172 A Letter containing some Remarks on the Two Papers writ by His late Majesty King Charles the Second concerning Religion p. 188 An Enquiry into the Reasons for abrogating the Test imposed on all Members of Parliament offered by Sa. Oxon. p. 200 A Second Part of the Enquiry into the Reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for abrogating the Test Or an Answer to his Plea for Transubstantiation and for acquitting the Church of Rome of Idolatry p. 215 A Continuation of the Second Part of the Enquiry into the Reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for the abrogating of the Test relating to the Idolatry of the Church of Rome p. 229 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 Twenty eighth 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 Employments 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 fortifie those Assurances with Laws and it is not easie to imagine 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 Fifth revived chuses 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 in stead 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 in stead of the great Figure which this Reign might make in the World all the News of England is now only concerning the Practices on some fearful Mercenaries 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
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 hapned to that Our Ancient Kingdom of Scotland of late Years through the different Persuasions in the Christian Religion and the great Heats and Animosities amongst the several Professors thereof to the ruine 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 lies 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 Sovereign 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 ways assist or connive at them shall be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity of our Laws made against them seeing from these Rendezvouses 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 Grandfather of Glorious Memory without His Consent ☜ and contrary to the Duty of good Subjects by His Regents and other Enemies to their Lawful Sovereign Our Royal Great Grandmother 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 Allegiance 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 faithful 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 and 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 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 from 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 particuarly 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 His 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 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 and 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 and 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 Gouncil 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 Abbeys 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 employ 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 Brethren Heraulds Macers Pursevants and Messengers at Arms to make 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 Deputies 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. 1686 / 7. And of Our Reign the third year By His Majesties Command MELFORT GOD SAVE THE KING A LETTER Containing some REFLECTIONS On His MAJESTY's 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 Style 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 in stead 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
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
in which we are and it is plain that the Rules serve in the Gospel can be carried no further It is indeed clear from the New Testament that the Christian Religion as such gives us no grounds to defend or propagate it by force It is a Doctrine of the Cross and of Faith and Patience under it And if by the order of Divine Providence and of any Constitution of Government under which we are born we are brought under Sufferings for our professing of it we may indeed retire and fly out of any such Country if we can but if that is denied us we must then according to this Religion submit to those Sufferings under which we may be brought considering that God will be glorified by us in so doing and that he will both support us under our Suffering and gloriously reward us for them This was the State of the Christian Religion during the three first Centuries under Heathen Emperors and a Constitution in which Paganism was establish'd by Law. But if by the Laws of any Government the Christian Religion or any Form of it is become a part of the Subjects Property it then falls under another Consideration not as it is a Religion but as it is become one of the principal Rights of the Subjects to believe and profess it and then we must judg of the Invasions made on that as we do of any other Invasion that is made on our other Rights X. All the Passages in the New Testament that relate to Civil Government are to be expounded as they were truly meant in opposition to that false Notion of the Jews who believed themselves to be so immediately under the Divine Authority that they could not become the Subjects of any other Power particularly of one that was not of their Nation or of their Religion therefore they thought they could not be under the Roman Yoke nor bound to pay Tribute to Caesar but judged that they were only subject out of Fear by reason of the Force that lay on them but not for Conscience sake And so in all their Dispersion both at Rome and elsewhere they thought they were God's Freemen and made use of this pretended Liberty as a Cloak of Maliciousness In opposition to all which since in a course of many Years they had asked the Protection of the Roman Yoke and were come under their Authority our Saviour ordered them to continue in that by his saying Render to Cesar that which is Cesar 's and both St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans and St. Peter in his general Epistle have very positively condemned that pernicious Maxim but without any formal Declarations made of the Rules or Measures of Government And since both the People and Senate of Rome had acknowledged the Power that Augustus had indeed violently usurped it became Legal when it was thus submitted to and confirmed both by the Senate and People and it was established in his Family by a long Prescription when those Epistles were writ So that upon the whole matter all that is in the New Testament upon this Subject imports no more but that all Christians are bound to acquiesce in the Government and submit to it according to the Constitution that is setled by Law. XI We are then at last brought to the Constitution of our English Government So that no general Considerations from Speculations about Soveraign Power nor from any Passages either of the Old and New Testament ought to determine us in this Matter which must be fixed from the Laws and Regulations that have been made among us It is then certain that with Relation to the Executive part of the Government the Law has lodged that singly in the King so that the whole Administration of it is in him but the Legislative Power is lodged between the King and the two Houses of Parliament so that the Power of making and repealing Laws is not singly in the King but only so far as the two Houses concur with him It is also clear that the King has such a determined extent of Prerogative beyond which he has no Authority As for Instance If he levies Mony of his People without a Law impowring him to it he goes beyond the Limits of his Power and asks that to which he has no Right So that there lies no Obligation on the Subject to grant it and if any in his Name use Violence for the obtaining it they are to be looked on as so many Robbers that invade our Property and they being violent Aggressors the Principle of Self-Preservation seems here to take place and to warrant as violent a Resistance XII There is nothing more evident than that England is a Free Nation that has its Libertits and Properties reserved to it by many positive and express Laws If then we have a Right to our Property we must likewise be supposed to have a Right to preserve it for those Rights are by the Law secured against the Invasions of the Prerogative and by consequence we must have a Right to preserve them against those Invasions It is also evidently declared by our Law that all Orders and Warrants that are issued out in opposition to them are null of themselves and by consequence any that pretend to have Commissions from the King for those Ends are to be considered as if they had none at all since those Commissions being void of themselves are indeed no Commissions in the Construction of the Law and therefore those who act in virtue of them are still to be considered as private Persons who come to invade and disturb us It is also to be observed that there are some Points that are justly disputable and doubtful and others that are so manifest that it is plain that any Objections that can be made to them are rather forced Pretences than so much as plausible Colours It is true if the Case is doubtful the Interest of the publick Peace and Order ought to carry it but the Case is quite different when the Invasions that are made upon Liberty and Property are plain and visible to all that consider them XIII The main and great Difficulty here is that though our Government does indeed assert the Liberty of the Subject yet there are many express Laws made that lodg the Militia singly in the King that make it plainly unlawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King or any Commissioned by him And these Laws have been put in the Form of an Oath which all that have born any Employment either in Church or State have sworn and therefore those Laws for the assuring our Liberties do indeed bind the King's Conscience and may affect his Ministers yet since it is a Maxime of our Law that the King can do no Wrong these cannot be carried so far as to justify our taking Arms against him be the Transgressions of Laws ever so many and so manifest And since this has been the constant Doctrine of the Church of
being above three Years since we had a Session that enacted any Law Methods have been taken and are daily a taking that render this impossible Parliaments ought to be chosen with an entire Liberty and without either Force or Preingagements whereas if all Men are required before-hand to enter into Engagements how they will vote if they are chosen themselves or how they will give their Voices in the electing of others This is plainly such a preparation to a Parliament as would indeed make it no Parliament but a Cabal if one were chosen after all that Corruption of Persons who had preingaged themselves and after the Threating and Turning out of all Persons out of Imployments who had refused to do it And if there are such daily Regulations made in the Towns that it is plain those who manage them intend at last to put such a number of Men in the Corporations as will certainly choose the Persons who are recommended to them But above all if there are such a number of Sheriffs and Mayors made over England by whom the Elections must be conducted and returned who are now under an Incapacity by Law and so are no legal Officers and by consequence those Elections that pass under their Authority are null and void If I say it is clear that things are brought to this then the Government is dissolved because it is impossible to have a Free and Legal Parliament in this state of things If then both the Authority of the Law and the Constitution of the Parliament are struck at and dissolved here is a plain Subversion of the whole Government But if we enter next into the particular Branches of the Government we will find the like Disorder among them all The Protestant Religion and the Church of England make a great Article of our Government the latter being secured not only of old by Magna Charta but by many special Laws made of late and there are particular Laws made in K. Charles the First and the late King's Time securing them from all Commissions that the King can raise for Judging or Censuring them If then in opposition to this a Court so condemned is erected which proceeds to judg and censure the Clergy and even to disseise them of their Free-holds without so much as the form of a Trial though this is the most indispensible Law of all those that secure the Property of England and if the King pretends that he can require the Clergy to publish all his Arbitrary Declarations and in particular one that strikes at their whole Settlement and has ordered Process to be begun against all that disobey'd this illegal Warrant and has treated so great a number of the Bishops as Criminals only for representing to him the Reasons of their not obeying him If likewise the King is not satisfied to profess his own Religion openly though even that is contrary to Law but has sent Ambassadors to Rome and received Nuncio's from thence which is plainly Treason by Law If likewise many Popish Churches and Chappels have been publickly opened if several Colledges of Jesuits have been set up in divers parts of the Nation and one of the Order has been made a Privy Counsellor and a principal Minister of State And if Papists and even those who turn to that Religion though declared Traitors by Law are brought into all the chief Imployments both Military and Civil then it is plain That all the Rights of the Church of England and the whole Establishment of the Protestant Religion are struck at and design'd to be overturn'd since all these Things as they are notoriously illegal so they evidently demonstrate That the great Design of them all is the rooting out of this Pestilent Heresy in their Stile I mean the Protestant Religion In the next place If in the whole course of Justice it is visible that there is a constant practising upon the Judges that they are turned out upon their varying from the Intentions of the Court and if Men of no Reputation nor Abilities are put in their places If an Army is kept up in time of Peace and Men who withdraw from that illegal Service are hanged up as Criminals without any colour of Law which by consequence are so many Murders and if the Souldiery are connived at and encouraged in the most enormous Crimes that so they may be thereby prepared to commit greater ones and from single Rapes and Murders proceed to a Rape upon all our Liberties and a Destruction of the Nation If I say all these things are true in Fact then it is plain that there is such a Dissolution of the Government made that there is not any one part of it left sound and entire And if all these things are done now it is easy to imagine what may be expected when Arbitrary Power that spares to Man and Popery that spares no Heretick are finally established Then we may look for nothing but Gabelles Tailles Impositions Beneviolences and all sorts of Illegal Taxes as from the other we may expect Burning Massacres and Inquisitions In what is doing in Scotland we may gather what is to be expected in England where if the King has over and over again declared that he is vested with an Absolute Power to which all are bound to obey without reserve and has upon that annulled almost all the Acts of Parliament that passed in K. James I. Minority though they were ratified by himself when he came to be of Age and were confirmed by all the subsequent Kings not excepting the present We must then conclude from thence what is resolved on here in England and what will be put in Execution as soon as it is thought that the Times can bear it When likewise the whole Settlement of Ireland is shaken and the Army that was raised and is maintained by Taxes that were given for an Army of English Protestants to secure them from a new Massacre by the Irish Papists is now all filled with Irish Papists as well as almost all the other Imployments it is plain that not only all the British Protestants inhabiting that Island are in daily danger of being butchered a second time but that the Crown of England is in danger of losing that Island it being now put wholly into the Hands and Power of the Native Irish who as they formerly offered themselves up sometimes to the Crown of Spain sometimes to the Pope and once to the Duke of Lorrain so are they perhaps at this present treating with another Court for the Sale and Surrender of the Island and for the Massacre of the English in it If thus all the several Branches of our Constitution are dissolved it might be at least expected that one part should be left entire and that is the Regal Dignity And yet even that is prostituted when we see a young Child put in the Reversion of it and pretended to be the Prince of Wales concerning whose being born of the Queen there appear
the Jews under the Old Testament supposing it were all true will serve no more for acquitting the Church of Rome than a Plea would avail a Criminal who were arraigned of High Treason for Coyning Money or for Countefeiting the Kings Seal in which one should set forth that High Treason was the Murdering the King or the levying War against him and that therefore the Criminal who was guilty of neither of these two ought to be acquitted Idolatry as well as Treason is a comprehensive Notion and has many different Branches so that tho the worshipping the Host of Heaven or the worshipping an Image as a Resemblance of the Divinity may be acknowledged to be the highest degrees of Idolatry yet many other Corruptions in the worship of God are justly reducible to it and may be termed not only Idolatrous but Idolatry it self V. Our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount has shewed us how many sins are reducible to the Second Table of the Law besides those of Murder Adultery c. that are expresly named in it and tho the Jews in that time having delivered themselves entirely from the sin of Idolatry to which their Fathers were so prone gave him no occasion of commenting on the first and second Commandment yet by the parity of things we may conclude that many sins are reducible to them besides those that are expresly named And tho we have not so compleat a History of the Idolatry of the Neighbouring Nations to Judea before the Captivity yet we do certainly know what was the Idolatry of which the Greeks and Romans were guilty when the New Testament was writ And tho the greatest part of the New Testament is written chiefly with relation to the Jews whose freedom from Idolatry gave no occasion to treat of it yet in those few passages which relate to the Heathen Idolatry then on foot the holy Writers retain the same phrases and stile that were used in the Old Testament which gives us just reason to believe that the Idolatry was upon the matter and in its main strokes the same under both and if so then we have a door opened to us to discover all our Author 's false Reasonings and upon this discovery we shall find that all the Inspired Writers charged the Heathen Worship with Idolatry not so much with relation to the glosses that Philosophers and other political men might put on their Rites but with relation to the practice in it self VI. But since Idolatry is a sin against a moral and unchangeable Law let us state the True Notion of the right VVorship of God and by Consequence of Idolatry tho this is done with that exactness by the worthy Master of the Temple that it should make a man afraid to come after him Our Ideas of God and the homage of VVorship and Service that we offer up pursuant to these are not only to be considered as they are just thoughts of God and Acts suitable to those thoughts but as they are Ideas that tend both to elevate and purifie our own natures for the thoughts of God are the seeds of all Truth and Virtue in us which being deeply rooted in us make us become conformable to the Divine Nature So that the sin of Idolatry consists in this that our Ideas of God being corrupted he is either defrauded of that honour which tho due to him is transferred to another or is dishonoured by a worship that is unsuitable to his nature and we also by forming wrong Ideas of the object of our VVorship become corrupted by them Nothing raises the soul of Man more than sublime thoughts of God's Greatness and Glory and nothing perfects it more than just notions of his VVisdom and Goodness On the contrary nothing debases our natures more than the offering our VVorship and Service to a Being that is low and unworthy of it or the depressing the supream Being in our thoughts or worship to somewhat that is like our selves or perhaps worse Therefore the design of true Religion being the forming in us such notions as may exalt and sanctify our natures as well as the raising a Tribute to the Author of our being that is in some sort worthy of him the sin of Idolatry is upon this account chiefly forbidden in Scripture because it corrupts our Ideas of God and by a natural tendency this must likewise corrupt our natures when we either raise up an Idol so far in our thoughts as to fancy it a God or depress God so far as to make him an Idol for these two Species of Idolatry have both the same effect on us And as a wound in a Man's vitals is much more destructive than any how deep and dangerous soever that is in his limbs since it is possible for him to recover of the one but not of the other so Idolatry corrupts Religion in its source Thus Idolatry in its moral and unchangeable nature is the Honouring any Creature as a God or the Imagining that God is such a being as the other Creatures are and this had been a sin tho no Law against it had ever been given to mankind but the light and law of nature VII But after all this there are different degrees in this sin for the true notion of God being this that he comprehends all perfections in his essence the ascribing all these to a Creature is the highest degree of Idolatry but the ascribing any one of these Infinite perfections or which is all one with relation to our actions the doing any thing which Imports or is understood to Import it is likewise Idolatry tho of a lower degree of guilt so likewise the Imagining that the true God is no other than as an Idol represents him to be is the highest degree of the other species of Idolatry but the conceiving him as having a Body in which his Eternal mind dwells or fancying that any strange Virtue from him dwells in any Body to such a degree as to make that Body the proper object of Worship unless he has assured us that he is really united to that Body and dwells in it which was the case of the Cloud of Glory under the Old Testament and much more of the humane nature of Christ under the New this is likewise Idolatry For in all these it is plain that the true Ideas of God and the Principles of Religion are corrupted VIII There are two principles in the nature of man that make him very apt to fall into Idolatry either inward or outward The first is the weakness of most peoples minds which are so sunk into gross phantasms and sensible objects that they are scarce capable to raise their thoughts to pure and spiritual Ideas and therefore they are apt either to forget Religion quite or to entertain it by objects that are visible and sensible the other is that mens appetites and passions being for the most part too strong for them and these not being reconcilable to the true Ideas of a