DR. BURNETS Vindication of himself from the Calumnies with which he is aspersed, In a Pamphlet, entitled, Parliamentum Pacificum, licenced by the Earl of Sunderland, and printed, at London in March, 1688.  
A Silence for so many moneths, in which my name has been so much tossed in libels, as well as in Gazettes, has shewed the world, with how much uneasines I am drawn to say any thing, in my own defence, when so sacred a name has been made use of to give an authority to what has been said or done against me: A Christian cannot fail when he goes by so divine a pattern as our Saviour himself has set the world. He when he was accused, for a great while answered not a word, yet at last being required to do it by the High Priest, he spoken for himself: But when he was reviled, he reviled not again.  
In a humble Imitation of that Example, as I will return no reviling words, for all those that are so liberally thrown out upon me, so the Justifying of myself, being now become An Apology for the Protection that is granted me by the States of Holland,( whose subject I am) as well as for myself, I am in some sort forced, again to appear in my own Defence. If this Pamphlet had not carried such a licence as it has in its front, and if the States had not been worse used in it then I myself am, I had passed over all the malice that is in it, with the same silence that I have shewed on other occasions. But it being judged necessary that I should pled my own cause a little, since the Protection that the States give me has made it now likewise theirs, and that it may appear that they have no just reason to be ashamed of me, I shall answer all that relates to myself, except the foul language that is in it. But I will repeat nothing that was in the Paper that I published last June: in which I set down the first Citation, together with the Answer that I made to it, and my letters to the Earl of Midletoune, together with some reflections upon the whole matter, so I offer this only as a supplement to that Paper.  
I will begin with setting down the second Citation, after I have made this short remark on the first, that those very persons, for conversing with whom, I was accused in it, being now pardonned and in Scotland, the Government there, has a sure means in their hands, to know the falsehood of that accusation: so that those who offered those Informations against me, which gave the rise to all that has since followed, ought to be looked 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 Midleton, 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 be the Grace of God King of Great britain, France and Ireland defender of the Faith, to our Lovits: heralds/ pursuivants/ Macers and Messre at arms conjunctly and severally specially Constitute Greeting. Forsameikle as it is humbly meant et complained to us be our right trusty and familiar counsellor Sr. John Dalrymple the younger of Stair our Advocat for our Interest Upon Doctor Gilbert Burnet, That where by the common Law/ by the Acts of Parliament/ and the municipal laws of this kingdom/ the declining or impugning our sovereign 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 Scots-man by birth and education/ being cited at the peir and shore of Leith at the instance of our Advocat for several treasonable crimes to underly the law by virtue of particular Command from us direct to the Lords of our privy council/ and one act of our said privy council hereupon ordering our Advocat to Intent the process: Instead of appeiring before the Lords of Iusticiery Doctor Gilbert Burnet did writ 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 United Provinces falls to his Lordships share in the Ministry Therfore he makes the following Addresses to his Lordship/ and by him to us/ and gives one account that he is certiorat of the process of treason execute against him at the instance of our Advocat; And for answer there to the Doctor Wrytes/ that he hes be in 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 naturalised by the States of Holland, and that thereby during his stay there his allegiance is translated from us to the sovereignty 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 process/ 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 therefore desires that he may not be forced to it/ which is a direct declining of our Authority/ denying of his allegiance to us/ and asserting that his allegiance is translated from us to the sovereignty of the States of Holland, And a threatening us to expose/ traduce/ disparaged and bely our Government/ and the public Actings for twenty years past; Though 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 wee will acquieste and suffer the dearly natur of our royal authority and pass from the process 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 trial, 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. 2d, 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 practise of the Scottish Law, to find me Guilty upon this Citation. Upon my not appearance on the ninth 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, becasue they are published with the blast of a Horn; in which I am declared the Kings rebel: but this is not issued out upon the account of the matter in the Citation, of which no Cognisance has been taken: But only for my not appearance to offer myself to trial: and the operation of this in law, is only the putting me out of the Kings 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 Kings 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, then 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 virtue 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 myself 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 Kings Ministers in England, or to his Minister here: 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 Kings laws every one of his subjects, was warranted to seize 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 foreign Ministers ordinarily do, to be rightly informed of this matter, when he began to move in it. I applied myself immediately to the States of Holland, in order to my being Naturalised, 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 myself from it: but when a Marriage and a settlement in Holland, made it necessary for me to desire the Rights and privileges of the country, it cannot be thought strange if I petitioned for it: and the States, who know how long I had both lived and preached publicly 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 fastened 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 rhem, that it is yet too early to Persecute for matters of Religion, which import that my Enemys date 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 Midleton, 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 Kings displeasure:( de poor de s'attirer) certainly the Envoy was in hast, 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 Kings 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 increased by it: since the Envoy concludes the paragraph, by saying, that every one of the Kings subjects were warranted by his Laws, to seize on such here in what manner soever( a s'y emparer en quelque manner queen ce soit) in what manner soever does always, on such occasions, signify 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, aclowledge me to be their Subject: but if I have by printing of that or any other Paper, made myself 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 enter into the prosecutions of Justice, and to that Court I most humbly submit myself, and acknowledge, that if I cannot justify myself 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 Envoys 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 Envoy's Memorials being red 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 Kings 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 Kings Leave. As for my being a Rebel; I could answer nothing to that, till I saw the judgement 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 myself to a trial, 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 naturalised 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 trial, 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 Rebells; 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 satisfy all persons. 1. No Sentence is either passed or produced against me: for I am not declared by any judgement either rebel or Fugitive, and by the 7th Article all Condemnations ought to be notified by public 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 flys 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 Capacity to be either the Kings rebel or Fugitive. And the point of Naturalising Strangers, is now such an universal practise, that the right of granting it, is inseparable from sovereign Power: so that either the States have this Right or they are no more a free and sovereign State. And the obligations of honour that all sovereigns come under to protect those whom they naturalise, 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 Naturalised Strangers 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 to lay to my charge; and they having Naturalised me, if they should with-draw their Protection, before I had forsoired it by any illegal Action of mine, they should make a Breach upon the public 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 Rebells 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 Common-wealth, 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 privileges 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 trial 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 sovereignty: 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 myself on my being supported in opposition to the Envoys memorial, I stayed 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 Country, a mistrusting the Protection of my sovereigns, 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 risk of all that with which I am threatened, than show the least unbecoming fear. I thank God I may make use of that common but Noble expression, that I am neither afraid to die, nor ashamed to live. I will not go further into dark thoughts, tho I know enough 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 any to my prejudice: for it is with them, as with Blasphemy or Heresy, which are very odious words; but if mens passions carry them to apply these to the most Innocent things, they lose that force which is in them, and this will make the ancient observation return into mens minds, that Treason was become the crime of those ( qui ab omni crimine innoxii erant) who were free from all crimes; so when all this prosecution is so slightly founded, I make no doubt that the world will do me Justice in it; and I can as little doubt, that if my cause could be so fairly represented to His Majesty, that he might see it without those false colours with which the Malice of my Enemies darken it, he who has of Late shewed a disposition to receive even into his favour those who were formerly esteemed, both his Fathers Enemies, his Brothers and his own, would return to juster and softer thoughts of me. For since I have done nothing that deserves his displeasure, it would be a greater crime, then any of which I stand accused, to think that it would be lasting.  
This Author lays several Papers to my charge; but he does not prove that they were writ by me: and I do not think myself obliged to satisfy every spiteful man, that will fasten all such things upon me, as he thinks will render me odious. I did solemnly purge myself of the matters laid to my charge in the first Citation: but I said then, that I would not give my Enemies the satisfaction of doing that any more; or of clearing myself, as oft as they should think fit to lay any thing to my charge: so when there is any thing brought against me in a legal way, I make no doubt but that I shall be able either to clear myself of it, or to justify myself in it; But since this Author thought fit to fasten so many Papers on me which I have not owned, he should in common equity and decency, have taken some notice of a Discourse which I have owned: and that was my Preface to Lactantius's book of the Death of the Persecutors; in which I had pleaded against Persecution, perhaps with more force than most of those who have of late undertaken the Argument: I carried the point so far, as to include even the Papists, in that General Toleration which I recommended. This I had writ before either the Kings Declaration appeared, or that the Proceedings against me were begun: but tho the state of Affairs with relation to myself, was upon that altered, and the point was so tender, that I had reason to apprehended it might offend many of my Brethren and best Friends, at a time when I had no Reason to make Enemies to myself, yet I published it, without altering it in any one thing. In the circumstances in which I was, I could do nothing more to show how far I was from desiring to embroil matters then when I touched so nice a matter, with so much plainness. As for all the other Reproaches with which he pursues me, I think it below me to answer such a scribbler but for the sake of the licence, I take the liberty to say, that I am not afraid, neither of the Calumnies, nor the Violences of my Enemies. I lived many Years in England under a great deal of displeasure from the Court, and yet there never was found the least appearance of any Guilt in me, with relation to the Government. Many of my friends have had pardons, and by consequence did very probably discover all they knew of me: for I have been credibly Informed, that many have been Interrogated, and some under Torture with relation to me: but there never appeared the least shadow of a guilty Compliance with ill Principles: not only was I free from accession to ill things, I was free also even from faults of Omission, with relation to the public; for I never failed as oft as I saw the least occasion for it, to bear down all things that tended to disturb the public Peace, and this both in Books, in Sermons, and in private Conversation: and I have Compurgators in this matter, that are beyond exception, as well as above Scandal. I do not carry this matter further, tho I could say that which might cover all my Enemies with shane: and which will perhaps appear to their amazement when they may have put an end to my being in this world.  
I have ever gone by the Principles in which I was bread up at first, under a Father that from first to last, adhered to the Kings Cause, without so much as one stumble, or making even an Address of Civility to his Enemies: but was as much an Enemy to Arbitrary Power, as he was to Rebellion, and thought it was as base and unwarrantable a thing, for Subjects to give up their just and legal Rights, as ir was for them to fly out upon every pretended violation of them. In these Principles I have fortified myself, by study and observation; and I may Love them, for they have stood me very Dear. I went no further than to assert an obedience and submission according to law when I was employed to assert the laws of Scotland, against those who studied to overturn them, in which it was thought I did the Government some service, and for which the late King was pleased to thank me. It is true, I never could descend to the Methods of aspiring to Preferment that are expected in some Courts: but if this made some look on me as Sullen or affencted, yet it might have freed me from the Imputations of being malcontent, when there are many Vouchers for me, who know that I avoided all Preferment as Industrously, as the most ambitious do court it. I came under ill Characters both In the Court, and elsewhere, because first and last I was always against the Prosecution of the Dissenters: and I always thought that greater endeavours ought to have been used for the Composing of the small Differences among ourselves, and that greater gentleness ought to be expressed even to those who could not be brought within any terms of reconciliation. These were my only Crimes and Heresies; and for these Opinions I was represented as a favourer of the Kings and the Churches Enemies. And therefore it cannot but seem strange, that I, who was hardly used upon those accounts, should be now singled out to be the chief Instance of an unrelenting severity. The designs against my Person, seem not enough to satisfy that Malice that works so quick against me, but they must lash out on my goad name, and my Reputation, which I confess is the greater trial of the two to my Patience: but tho with relation to God I must Lay my hand on my mouth, and say, that I am the Chief of sinners; yet as to all men I may boldly say, What have I done? I hope God will not Lay to the charge of my Enemies, all those Slanders and all that Injustice with which they have prosecuted me.  
This Author and some others have often given it out as if I had Betrayed a Master, and I may expect the next time, that they will say, that I Murdered my Father; for the one is as true as the other. I never had a Master but the King for the whole course of my life raised me above the serving of any Subject. A Design proposed to me, by one that is now dead, and therefore shall not be name by me, of bringing in an Army out of Scotland for the spoiling and subduing of England, gave me a just horror at the proposition, and I did all I could to withstand it. The same great Person did quickly take up such a Jealousy of me, that he did all he could to ruin me, tho His present Majesty, who had then the Goodness for me to endeavour to pacify him, owned to me that he could see nothing in his hatred of me, but a violent Passion: Yet he was resolved to throw me in a Prison where very Probably I had languished away the rest of my life, if the King, that now is, had not been so gracious to me as to warn me of my danger: which made me leave Scotland: and after I had suffered near two years, all that Wrath armed with Power, could do to me, at last while I was under one of the sharp effects of that great Ministers anger, I  told a person of Honour that which I believed was one of the grounds of it. That Gentleman set this so about, that as he himself was a Member of the House of Commons, so it was known to a great many others; upon which I was sent for by the House; I declined for four several times, to say what had been proposed to me: and at last being threatened to be prosecuted by the House of Commans as an enemy to the Nation, I was thus unwillingly brought to own it. But that Great Man fell no sooner under an eclipse of favour then, tho I had felt the weight of his Credit for seven years together, I made not only all the steps necessary for a reconciliation, but I engaged some then in Favour, so far into his Interests, that he expressed a very thankful acknowledgement of it, and a perfect Reconciliation with me: Tho upon some reasons of his own our meeting was not thought convenient: and his own Nephew, who being now of the Roman Communion, is a Witness, to whom I may the more freely appeal, brought me very kind Messages from him, and signified them to me after his death.  
As for all the other things that can be objected to me, I pass them over, as things which can very little hurt me. This Author it seems pities Varillas's defeated Condition, who as my friends from Paris writ to me, does not so much as pretend to justify himself of all those gross errors of which I have discovered him Guilty; but says, he has received an order from the King to Insist no more in the Dispute, in which he and I were engaged. Our Author will be a very fit person to succeed to that Despicable Writer; who fancies that I contradict myself, in setting forth. Q. Maries Clemency in one place, and yet showing in another how unmerciful she shewed her self towards those that were condemned of Heresy. The best Natures in the World can be corrupted by a false Religion: and they being once possessed with cruel principles, the more pious they are, they will be the more true to the Doctrines of their Church; and by consequence, they will execute all its severe Decrees with an unrelenting Rigour. And we have clear Instances of this in the Age in which we live; of Princes whose Inclinations to Clemency, are as well known as the Severities to which the credit of the Society has carried them are Deplorable.  
There is another spiteful Insinuation with which I shall conclude my Apology: This Author finding that the Matters of State, for which he had accused me, were not like to blemish me much, resolved to try what he could do in a subject of another nature, which was indeed above him: for tho it seems he is entertained to scribble upon the politics, yet the matters of Divinity probably do not lye within his Province; but it seems he thought that any thing was to be ventured on that might Defame me. He represents me as an Enemy to the Divinity of Jesus Christ, because of the various readings of a verse in S. John's Epistle, that I gave from some Ancient Manuscripts, which I saw in my Travels. And these men who have of late studied to make all the world either Deists or Socinians, if they cannot make them Papists, by representing that unless we believe the Infallibility of the Church, we cannot upon good grounds, believe either the Christian Religion or the Mysteries of it, and this with so much heat and Industry, as if their design were to have us to be any thing rather than Protestants, yet will accuse some of our Church of those Doctrines, against which we have writ with greater force than any of our Calumniators.( For we have Accusers of the other side too.) All the Fathers that writ against the Arians believed those Mysteries, tho they never cited that passage, from which it was reasonable to conclude, that it was not in their Bibles, otherwise it is not to be imagined, that such men as St. Athanase and St. Austin should not have mentioned it; now the many other places of Scripture that determine me to believe the Divinity of the Saviour of the world, are so clear, that I believe it equally well, whether this passage be acknowledged to be genuine or not. But having for some years taken pleasure to compare Manuscripts, those of the Holy Scriptures were naturally the most looked into by me: and since a man that has but a transcient view of M. SS. cannot stay to examine them in many passages, that passage being the most Important of all that are controverted, I turned always to it, and have given the account of what I saw sincerely, both for it and against it. For I have learned from Job, not to lye for God, since truth needs no support from falsehood; And I may well forgive those of a Church, who have built so much upon Forgeries, and Conterfeited Pieces, to be angry with me, forgiving so sincere an account as I did of a matter of fact. But that Divine Saviour whom I adore Daily as God equal with the Father, knows the Injustice that is done me, in this as well as in the other false accusations with which my Enemies study to blacken me: I can assure them, that I have that detestation of all Idolatry and of theirs in particular, that I should never adore him as I do, if I did not think him to be by Nature God, over all, blessed for ever.  
And now to conclude, if men will not receive this Vindication of myself, with the Justice that is due to me, I humbly commit my cause to him who judges righteously; who sees all things, and who will bring to light the hidden things of dishonesty: and who will either compass me with his favour as with a shield, and cover me from the rage of my Enemies or if he lets me fall into their hands, will accept of the sacrifice of my life that I offer to him, and receve me into his presence where I shall be at quiet, and safe both from the Strife of tongues and from the pride of man.  
GILBERT BURNET.  
FINIS.   

REFLECTIONS On A PAMPHLET, Entitled, PARLIAMENTUM PACIFICUM. licenced by the Earl of Sunderland, and printed at London in March, 1688.  
I. PEace is a very desirable thing, yet every State that is peaceable is not blindly to be courted. An Apoplexy is the most peaceable State, in which a mans Body can be laid: yet few would desire to pacify the humours of their Body at that rate. An implicit Faith and Absolute Slavery are the two peaceablest things that can be; yet we confess, we have no mind to try so dangerous an Experiment: and while the Remedies are too strong, we will choose rather to bear our Disease, than to venture on them. The Instance that is proposed, to the Imitation of the Nation, is, that Parliament which called in the late King: and yet that cannot so much as be called a Parliament, unless it be upon a Commonwealth Principle, that the sovereign Power is radically in the People: for its being chosen without the Kings Writ, was such an Essential Nullity, that no subsequent Ratification could take it away: for all People saw, that they could not depend upon any Acts passed by it: and therefore it was quickly dissolved: and ever since it has been called by all the Monarchical Party, A Convention, and not a Parliament. But now in order to the Courting the Commonwealth Party, this is not only called a Parliament, but is proposed as a Pattern to all others, from the beginning to page. 19.  
II. But since this Author will sand us back to that time,& since he takes it so ill that the Memory of the late King should be forgotten. Let us examine that Transaction a little, and then we shall see whether it had not been more for his Honour to let it be forgotten. The King did indeed in his Declaration from Breda promise Liberty of Conscience, on which he insisted in a large and wise Declaration, set out after he was settled on the Throne: but after that he had got a Parliament, chosen all of Creatures depending on himself, who for many years granted him every thing that he desired, a severe Act of Uniformity was passed: and the Kings Promise was carried off by this, that the King could not refuse to comply with so loyal a Parliament. It is well enough known, that those who were then secretly Papists, and who disguised their Religion for many years after this, as the King himself did to the last, animated the Chief-men of our Church, to carry the points of Uniformity as high as was possible; and that both then, and ever since, all that proposed any expedients for uniting us( or as it was afterwards termed, for comprehending the Dissenters) were represented as the Betrayers of the Church. The Design was then clear to some; that so by carrying the Terms of Conformity to a great rigidity, there might be many Nonconformists, and great occasion given for a Toleration, under which Popery might insensibly creep in: for if the Expedients that the King himself proposed in his Declaration, had been stood to, it is well known, that of the 2000. Conscientious Ministers, as he calls them pag. 14. by an Affectation too gross to pass on them, that were turned out, above 1700. had stayed in. Their Practices had but too good success on those who were then at the Head of our Church: whose Spirits were too much foured by their ill usage during the War, and whose Principles lead them to so good an opinion of all that the Court did, that for a great while they would suspect nothing. But at the same time that the Church Party, that carried all before them in that Parliament, were animated to press things so hard, the Dissenters were secretly encouraged to stand out: and were  told, that the King's Temper and Principle, and the Consideration of Trade would certainly procure them a Toleration: and ever since, that Party that thus had set us together by the ears, has shifted sides dexterously enough; but still they have carried on the main Design, which was to keep up the Quarrel in the Intervals of Parliament, Liberty of Conscience was in vogue; but when a Session of Parliament came, and the King wanted Money, then a new severe Law against the Dissenters was offered to the angry men of the Church Party, as the price of it; and this seldom failed to have its effect: so that they were like the Jewels of the Crown, pawned when the King needed Money, but redeemed at the next Prorogation. A Reflection then that arises naturally out of the proceedings in the year 1660. is, that if a Parliament should come, that would copy after that pattern, and repeal Laws and Tests: The Kings offers of Liberty of Conscience, as may indeed be supposed, will bind him till after a short Session or two such a meritorious Parliament should be dissolved, according to the precedent in the year 1660. and that a new one were brought together by the same Methods of changing Charters and making returns, and then the Old Laws de Heretico comburendo might be again revived, and it would be said, that the King's Inclinations are for keeping his Promise and Granting still a Liberty of Conscience, yet he can deny nothing to a Loyal and catholic Parliament.  
III. We pay all possible respect to the King; and have witnessed how much we depended on his Promises, in so signal a manner, that after such real Evidence all words are superfluous. But since the King has shewed so much zeal, not only for his Religion in general, but in particular for that Society, which of all the other Bodies in it, we know is animated the most against us, we must crave leave to speak a little freely, and not suffer ourselves to be destroyed by a compliment. The Extirpation of heretics, and the Breach of Faith to them, have been decreed by two of their General Councils, and by a Tradition of several Ages; the Pope is possessed of a Power of dissolving all Promises, Contracts and Oaths; not to mention the private Doctrines of that Society, that is so much in favour, of doing ill that good may come of it, of using Equivocations and Reservations, and of ordering the Intention. Now these Opinions as they have never been renounced by the Body of that Church, so indeed they cannot be, unless they renounce their Infallibility, which is their Basis, at the same time. Therefore tho a Prince of that Communion, may very sincerely resolve to maintain Liberty of Conscience, and to keep his word, yet the blind Subjection into which he is brought by his Religion, to his Church, must force him to break thro all that, as soon as the Doctrine of his Church is opened to him; and that Absolution is denied him, or higher threatenings are made him; if he continues firm to his merciful Inclinations. So that supposing His Majesties Piety to be as great as the Iesuites Sermon, on the 30. of january lately printed, carries it, to the uttermost possibility of Flesh and Blood, then our Fears must still grow upon us, who know what are the Decrees of that Church; and by consequence we may infer to what his Piety must needs carry him: as soon as those things are fully opened to him, which in respect to him, we are bound to believe are now hide from him.  
IV. It will further appear, that these are not injust Inferences: if we consider a little what has been the Observation of all the Promises made for Liberty of Conscience to heretics by R. catholic Princes, ever since the Reformation. The first was, the Edict of Passow in Germany, procured chiefly by Ferdinands means, and maintained indeed Religiously by his Son Maximilian the Second, whose Inclinations to the Protestant Religion made him be suspected for one himself: but the Iesuites insinuated themselves so far into his younger Brothers Court, that was Archduke of Geats, that this was not only broken by that Family, in their Share, but tho Rodolph and Mathias were Princes of great Gentleness, and the latter of these, was the Protector of the States in the beginning of their War with King Philip the Second, yet the violence with which the House of Grats was possessed, overturned all that: so that the breaking of the Pacificatory Edicts was begun in Rodolph's time, and was so far carried on in Mathias's time, that they set both Bohemia and Hungary in a flamme; and so begun that long War of Germany. 2. The next Promise for Liberty of Conscience was made by Queen Mary of England, but we know well enough how it was observed: the Promises made by the Queen Regent of Scotland, were observed with the same Fidelity: after these came the Pacificatory Edicts in France, which were scarce made when the Triumvirate was formed to break them. The famous Massacre of Paris was an Instance never to be forgot of the Religious Observance of a Treaty, made on Purpose to lay the Party asleep, and to bring the whole Heads of it into the Net, this was a much more dreadful St. Bartholomew than that on which our Author bestows that epithet pag. 15. and when all seemed settled by the famous Edict of Nantes, we have seen how restless that Party, and in particular the Society, were till it was broken; by a Prince, that for thirty years together had shewed as great an aversion to the Shedding of Blood, in his Government at home, as any of his Neighbours can pretend to:& who has done nothing in the whole Tragedy that he has acted, but what is exactly comform to the Doctrine& Decrees of his Church: so that it is not himself, but his Religion, that we must blame for all that has fallen out in that Kingdom. I cannot leave this without taking notice of our Author's Sincerity, who page. 18. tells us of the Protestants entering into their League in France, when it is well known that it was a League of Papists against a Protestant Successor, which was afterwards applied to a Popish King, only because he was not zealous enough against heretics. But to end this List of Instances at a Country to which our Author bears so particular a kindness; when the duchess of Parma granted the Edict of Pacification, by which all that was past, was butted; and the Exercise of the Protestant Religion was to be connived at for the future: King Philip the Second did not only ratify this, but expressed himself so fully upon it to the Count of Egmont, who had been sent over to him, that the easy Count returned to Flanders so assured of the King's Sincerity, that he endeavoured to persuade 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 authorized that unmerciful man to proceed with all possible rigor 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 show in many more Instances, how little Protestants can depend on the Faith of Ro. catholics: 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 Switsers and Grisons; it is to be considered, that in some of these want of power in the Ro. catholics 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 settled 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, page. 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 subsistence, 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 authorized 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 ruin 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 Ro. catholics may have a Share in Military Employments, but the difference between our Case and theirs is clear: since some Ro. catholic Officers, where the Government is wholly in the Hands of Protestants, cannot be of such dangerous consequence, as it must needs be under a King that is not only of that persuasion, but is become nearly allied to the Society as the Liege Letter tells us.  
VI. It is true, our Author would persuade 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, p. 22, 23, 24. of our Kings using the dispensing power in Edward the 3d, Richard the 2d, Henry the 7th, Henry the 8th, Edward the 6th, and Q. Elisabeth's time. It is very true, that the laws have been of late broken 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 college 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 Authors officiousness in suggesting this to them may prove to be no acceptable piece of service. 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 2ds 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 6ths feeble and embroiled Reign will scarce support an Argument; and if there were some excesses in Henry the 8ths time, which is ordinary in all great Revolutions, he got all these to be either Warranted, or afterwards confirmed in Parliament. And Q. Elisabeths 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 Kings time. We are often  told, of the late King's Repealing the Act concerning the size of Carts and Wagons: 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 mistaken Act concerning Wagons: so the King in that case only declared the Inconvenience which made that Law to be of itself null because it was Impracticable: It is true, the Parliament never questioned this: a man would not be offended if another pulled a flower in his garden, that yet would take it ill if he broken his hedge: and in Holland, to which our Authors pen leads him often, when a river changes its course, any man may break the Dike that was made to resist it, yet that will be no warrant to go, and break the Dike that resists the current of the same River: so if a dispensing power when applied to smaller offences, has been passed over, as an excess of Government, that might be excusable, tho not justifiable, this will by no means prove, that Laws made to secure us against that which we esteem the greatest of evils may be superceded, because twelve men in Scarlet have been hired or practised on to say so, the power of pardoning is also unreasonably urged for justifying the dispensing power; the one, is a grace to a particular person for a crime committed, whereas the other is a warrant to commit crimes: in short, the one is a power to save men, and the other is a power to destroy the Government. But tho they swagger it out now with the Dispensing power, yet road caper vitem may come to be again in season: and a time may come, in which the whole party will have reason to wish that some hare-brained jesuits had never been born, who will rather expose them not only to the Resentments, but even to the Justice of another season, in which as little regard will be had to the dispensing power, as they have to the Laws at present; then accept of reasonable propositions.  
VII. Our Author's kindness to the States of Holland, is very particular, and returns often upon him; and it is no wonder that a State settled upon two such hinges, as the Protestant Religion and public Liberty, should be no small eyesore, to those who intend to destroy both. So that the slackening the Laws concerning Religion, and the Invading that State, seem to be Terms that must always go together. In the first War began the first slackening of them And after the Triple Alliance had laid the Dutch asleep, when the second War was resolved on, which began with that Heroical Attempt on the Smirna Fleet( for our Author will not have the late Kings Actions to be forgotten) at the same time the famous Declaration suspending the Laws in 1672. came out: And now again with another Declaration to the same purpose, we see a return of the same good Inclinations for the Dutch, tho none before our Author has ever ventured in a Book licensed by My Lord President of the Council, to call their Constitution, page. 68. A Revolt that they made from their Lawful Prince, and to raise his style to a more sublime strain, he says P. 66. that their Commonwealth is only the result of an absolute Rebellion, Revolt and Defection from their Prince, and that the laws that they have made, were to prevent any Casual return to their natural allegiance. And speaking of their Obligation, to protect a Naturalised Subject, he bestows this Honour on them, as to say, Pag. 57, 58. Those that never yet dealt so fairly with Princes, may be suspected for such a superfluous Faith to one that puts himself upon them for a Vassal. Time will show how far the States will resent these Injuries: only, it seems our Author thinks, that a sovereigns Faith to protect the Subject is a superfluous thing; a Faith to heretics is another superfluous thing: so that two Suiperfluities, one upon another, must be all that we are to trust to. But I must take notice of the variety of Methods, that these Gentlemen use in their Writings. Here in England, we are always up braided with the Revolt of the Dutch, as a scandalous Imputation on the Protestant Religion: and yet in a late Paper, entitled, an Answer to Pensioner Fagel's Letter, the Services that the Roman catholics did, in the beginning of that Commonwealth, are highly extolled as signal and meritorious: upon which the Writer makes great Complaints, that the Pacification of Gaunt, and the Union at Utrecht, by which the free Exercise of their Religion was to be continued to them, was not observed in most of the Provinces: But if he had taken pains to examine the History of the States; he would have found, that soon after the Union made at Utrecht, the Treaty at colen was set on foot, between the King of Spain and the States, by the Emperors Mediation, in which the Spaniards studied to divide the Ro. catholics of these Provinces from the Protestants, by offering a Confirmation of all the other privileges of these Provinces, excepting only the point of Religion: which had so great an effect, that the Party of the Malcontents was formed upon it: and these did quickly Capitulate in the Walloon Provinces, and after that not only Brabant and Flanders Capitulated, but Reenenburgh that was governor of Groening, declared for the King of Spain, and by some Places that he took both in friesland and Over-Issel, he put these Provinces under Contribution: Not long after that both Deventer and Zutphen were betrayed by Popish Governours: and the War was thus brought within the seven Provinces, that had been before kept at a greater distance from them. Thus it did appear almost every where, that the hatred with which the Priests were inspiring the R. catholics against the Protestants, disposed them to betray all again to the Spanish Tyranny. The new War that Reenenburgh's. Treachery had brought into these Provinces, changed so the state of affairs, that no wonder if this produced a change likewise with Relation to that Religion, since it appeared that these Revolts were carried on, and justified upon the Principles of that Church: and the general hatred under which these Revolts brought the Ro. catholics in those Out Provinces, made the greater part of them to withdraw: so that there were not left such numbers of them as to pretend to the free exercise of their Religion. But the War not having got into Holland and Utrecht; and none of that Religion having revolted in those Provinces, the Ro. catholics continued still in the country: and tho the ill Inclinations that they shewed, made it necessary for the public Safety, to put them out of the Government, yet they have still enjoyed the common Rights of the country, with the free Exercise of their Religion. But it is plain, that some men are only waiting an Opportunity to renew the old Delenda est carthago: and that they think it is no small step to it, to possess all the World with odious Impressions of the Dutch, as a Rebellious and perfidious State: and if it were possible, they would even make their own Ro: catholic Subjects. Fancy that they are persecuted by them: but tho men may be brought to believe Transubstantiation, in spite of the Evidence of Sense to the contrary; yet those that feel themselves at ease, will hardly be brought to think that they are persecuted, because they are  told so in an ill writ Pamphlet. And for their Rebellion, the Prince that is only concerned in that, finds them now to be his best Allies and Chief Supports, as his predecessors acknowledged them a Free State almost an Age ago. And it being confessed by the Historians of all sides, that there was an express proviso, in the Constitution of their Government, That if their Prince broken such and such Limits, they were no more bound to obey him, but might resist him; and it being no less certain, that King Philip the Second authorized the Duke of Alva to seize upon all their privileges, their resisting him, and maintaining their privileges, was without all dispute a justifiable Action: and was so esteemed by all the States of Europe; and in particular here in England, as appears by the Preambles of several Acts of Subsidy that were given the Queen in order to the assisting the States, and as for their not dealing Fairly with Princes, when our Author can find such an Instance in their History, as our attempt upon their Smirna Fleet was, he may employ his Eloquence in setting it out: and if notwithstanding all the Failures that they have felt from others, they have still maintained the public Faith, our Author's rhetoric will hardly blemish them. The Peace of Nimmegen and the abandoning of Luxemburgh are perhaps the single Instances in their History, that need to be a little excused. But as the vast expense of the late War brought them into a Necessity that either knows no Law, or at least will harken to none, so we who forced them to both, and first sold the Triple Alliance, and then let go Luxemburgh, do with a very ill grace, reproach the Dutch for these unhappy steps to which our Conduct driven them.  
VIII. If a strain of pert boldness runs thro this whole Pamphlet, it appears no where more Eminently, than in the Reflections the Author makes on Mr. Fagel's Letter: He calls it, page. 62, a pretended Piece, and a Presumption not to be soon pardonned, in prefixing to a surreptitious and unauthorised Pamphlet the reverend name of the Princess of Orange: which in another place( page. 72.) he had reason to imagine, was but a Counterfeit coin, and that those Venerable Characters were but Politically feigned, and a Sacred Title given to it without their Authority. All this coming out with so solemn a Licence, has made me take some pains to be rightly informed in this matter: those whom I consulted, tell me, they have discoursed the Pensioner himself on this Subject; who will very shortly take a sure Method to clear himself of those Imputations, and to do that right to the Prince and Princess, as to show the World that in this matter he acted only by their order. For as Mr. Stewarts Letter, drew the Pensioner's Answer from him, so this Paper licenced as it is, will now draw from him a particular recital of the whole Progress of this Matter. Mr. Albeville knows, that the Princess explained herself so fully to him in the month of May and June 1687. upon the Repeal of the Test, that he himself has acknowledged to several persons, that tho both the Prince and Princess were very stiff in that matter; yet of the two, he found the Princess more inflexible. Afterwards when Mr. Stewart by many repeated Letters pressed his Friend to renew his Importunities to the Pensioner for an Answer; He having also said in his Letters, that he writ by the King's Order and Direction; upon this the Pensioner having consulted the Prince and Princess, drew his Letter first in Dutch, and communicated it to them, and it being approved by them, he turned it into Latin: but because it was to be shewed to the King, he thought it was fit to get it to be put in English, that so their Highnesses might see that Translation of his Letter, which was to be offered to His Majesty: and they having approved of it, he sent it with his own in Latin, and it was delivered to the King. This account was given me by my Friend, who added that it would appear ere long in a more Authentical manner: and by this I suppose the Impudence of those men does sufficiently appear who have the brow to publish such stuff, of the Falsehood of which they themselves are well assured: and therefore I may well conclude that My Lord Presidents Licence was granted by him, with that carelessness with which most Books are red and licenced. Our Author pretends, that he cannot believe that this Letter could flow from a Princess of so sweet a temper, page. 62. and yet others find so much of the sweetness of her Temper in it, that for that very reason, they believe it the more easily to have come from her. No passion nor indiscreet zeal appears in it: and it expresses such an extended Charity and Nobleness of Temper, that these Characters show it comes from one that has neither a narrowness of Soul, nor a sourness of Spirit. In short, She proposes nothing in it, but to preserve that Religion, which She believes the true one: and that being secured, She is willing that all others enjoy all the Liberties of Subjects, and the Freedoms of Christians. Here is Sweetness of Temper and Christian Charity in their fullest extent. The other Reason is so mysteriously expressed, that I will not wrong our Author by putting it in any other words than his own, page. 62. She is certainly as little pleased to promote any thing to the disturbance of a State, to which She still seems so nearly related. She seems still, are two significant words, and not set here for nothing. She seems( in his opinion) only related to the Crown; that is, She is not really so: but there is something that these Gentlemen have in reserve to blow up this seeming Relation. And She seems still, imports that tho this apparent Relation is suffered to pass at present, yet it must have its period: for this seems still can have no other meaning. But in what does She promote the disturbance of the State, or patronize the Opposers of her Parents? as he says afterwards,( ibid.) Did She Officiously interpose in this matter, or was not her sense asked? And when it was asked, must She not give it according to her Conscience? She is too perfect a pattern in all other things, not to know well how great a respect and submission She owes her Father: but She is too good a Christian, not to know that her duty to God must go first: and therefore in matters of Religion when her mind was asked, She could not avoid the giving it according to her Conscience, and all the invidious Expressions which he fastens on this Letter, and which he makes so many Arguments, to show that it could not flow from her, are all the malicious and soon discovered Artifices, of one that knew that She had ordered the Letter, and that thought himself safe in this disguise, in the discharging of his malice against her. So ingratefully is She requited by a party for whom She had expressed so much Compassion and Charity. This Author, page. 53. thinks, it is an Indecent forecast to be always erecting such Scheams for the next Heir, both in Discourse and Writing, as seem almost to calculate the Nativity of the present: and he would almost make this High Treason. But if it is so, there were many Traitors in England a few years ago; in which the next Heir, tho but a Brother, was so much considered, that the King himself looked as one out of countenance and abandoned; and could scarce find Company enough about him for his entertainment, either in his Bedchamber or in his Walks; when the whole dependence was on the Successor: so if we by turns look a little at the Successor, those who did this in so scandalous a manner, ought not to take it so very ill from us. In a Melancholy State of things, it is hard to deny us the consolation of hoping that we may see better Days. But since our Author is so much concerned, that this Letter should not be in any manner imputed to the Princess, it seems a little strange, that the Prince is so given up by him, that he is at no pains to clear him of the Imputation. For the happy Union that is between them, will readily make us conclude, that if the Prince ordered it, the Princess had likewise her Share in it. I find but one glance at the Prince in the whole Book, page. 52. when the Author is pleasing himself with the hopes of Protection from the Royal Heir out of a sense of Filial Duty: He concludes, Especially when so nearly allied to the very Bosom of a Prince whose way of worship neither is the same with the National here, and in whose Countries all Religions have been ever alike tolerated. The Phrase of so near an Alliance to the very Bosom of a Prince, is somewhat extraordinary: An Author that will be florid, scorns so simplo an Expression as married: he thought the other was more lofty. But the matter of this Period is more remarkable: it intimates as if the princes way of Worship was so different from ours: tho we hear that he goes frequently with the Princess to her chapel: and expresses no aversion to any of our Forms, tho he thinks it decent to be more constantly in the Exercises of Devotion that are authorized in Holland: and as for that, that all Religions have been ever alike tolerated there, it is another of our Authors flights. I do not hear that there are either Bonzis or Bramans in Holland, or that the Mahometans have their Mosques there: And sure his Friends the Rom. catholics will tell him, that all Religions are not alike tolerated there. Thus I have followed him more largely in this Article, than in any other, it being that of the greatest Importance, by which he had endeavoured to blast all the good effects which the Pensioners Letter has had among us.  
IX. I have now gone over that, which I thought most Important in this Paper: and in which it seemed necessary to inform the public aright, without insisting on the particular Slips of the Author of it, or of the Advantages that he gives to any that would answer him more particularly. I cannot think that any man in the Nation can be now so weak, as not to see what must needs be the effect of the Abolition of the Tests: after all that we see and hear, it is too great an Affront to Mankind to offer to make it out. A mans understanding may really misled him so far as to make him change his Religion, he remaining still an honest Man: but no man can pretend to be thought an honest Man, that betrays the Legal, and now the only Visible Defences of that Religion which he professes. The taking away the Test for public Employments, is to set up an Office at F. Peters's for all Pretenders: and perhaps a Pretender will not be so much as received, till he has first abjured: so that every Vacancy will probably make five or six proselytes: and those Protestants who are already in Employments, will feel their ground quickly sail under them, and upon the first complaint, they will see what must be done to restore them to favour. And as for the two Houses of Parliament, as a great Creation will presently give them the Majority in the House of Lords: so a new set of Charters, and bold Returns, will in a little time give them likewise the Majority in the House of Commons: and if it is to be supposed that Protestants, who have all the Security of the Law, for their Religion, can throw that up; who can so much as doubt that when they have brought themselves into so naked a condition, it will be no hard thing to overturn their whole Establishment: and then, perhaps we shall be  told more plainly, what is now but darkly insinuated to us, by this Author: that the Next Heir seems still to be so nearly related to this State.  
FINIS.