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Probably , according to a recent instance of royal abttndaace , he had a Dutch * an English , a Scottish , if not an Irish heart . Then , after detailing the ceremony of tendering the coronation oath , as described b y Smoltett , the Almanack thus proceeds : " But when the Earl came to this part of the said oa * b , * we shall be careful to root out all heretics and enemies of the true worship pi God , that shall be
convicted by the true Kirk of God , of the aforesaid crimes , out of our lands and empire of Scotland , ' the King declared that he did not mean * by these words that he was under aijy obligation to become a persecutor . To which the Commissioners , being authorized by the States of Scotland , made answer , that neither the meaning
of the oath , or the law of Scotland , did Import it , since by the said law no man was to be persecuted for his private opinion , and that even obstinate and convicted heretics were only to be denounced rebels or out-Jawed , wheFeby their moveable estates were confiscated . Whereupon the King declared again , that he took the oath in that sense , and called for
witnesses , the Commissioners and others present . " In a " Preface to the third edition " of bis Pastoral Care , written ( 1713 ) in his 70 th year , Bur net remarks that
"the breaches on a rnarr * s liberty or goods , are as really persecution , as that which strikes at his person . They may be ; in some instances , more uneasy ; as a single death is not so formidable , as to l > e forced to live under
great necessities , perkaps with a numerous family / ' He adds , that , " if we judge of this matter hy our Saviour s rule , of doing' to others what we would have others do to us , our consciences would soon decide the question ; if we will but honestly ask ourselves how we would have those of
another religion deal with us , if we were living in countries where we must depart from the legal establishment , t f we do truly follow the dictates of our conscience . " I beg leave to recommend these last thoughts of one who ha < J witnessed so much pretended liberality and real
injustice , to any of your readers , n one can yet be $ > urkd atuonff tijem , who would leave to the magistrate a cure o / 8 Qufo or wbo can contemplate such wrxmgp ag those lewilw and * Judicially mfHcted on the ^ 9 /< rflfanHy , without Mushing for the ignonmee or ^ . the
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hypocrisy , the heads or the hearts , # f our State-Christians . Yet , according to King William ' s definition of persecution , which forms a fine illustration , by contrast , of an Apostle's ** royal law , according- to the Scripture , " though he engaged , by the soleumity of an o » th , to denounce , as rebels , all whom tbs
Ktrh ' should declare to be heretics ; to expatriate them by an outlawry , and to beggar them , with their families , by a confiscation ; yet , after inflicting these sufferings , he was not to " become a persecutor" unless he had
persecuted a man " for his pr ivate opinion . " Such a folly , whatever a crowned head might expect to accomplish , an Inquisitor , I am persuaded , never attempted ; convinced , however
reluctantly , that the wary possessor of a private opinion might fearlessly defy him to " take vengeance on the mind . " Beheld on tbe homely page of the mere annalist , and not as adorned by am historian ' s nattering pencil , Wiluara III . was little more than a soldier of
fortune , till he received , from a grateful nation , the crown © f . England , a munificent reward for having driven away his justly despised and deserted father-in-law . A passage of an earlier date in " the Royal Alnaapack , "
discovers , that , like other soldiers , he could employ the argument of force in other places besides the field » £ battle , and that he had landed in England guflLcrieutly prepared to " beeome a persecutor . " At the same time it is
rmnvtifying- to see , in the author of the Pastoral Care , a political priest , or rather an avant-courier of military outrage ; while the extraordinary s / cenBy as I had occasion to remark in another place , exhibits the distressing dilemma of an established clergy placed between a royal authority % to which they had vowed obedience , and the
law of tfie sword which answered their juat pLea of conscience with the old conclusive argument vcb victis . " The Royal Almanack , " aftear relatkig , " Nov . 8 , 1688 , " that " the Prince of Orange na&d $ a very splendid entry into Exeter with his arniy , " thus displays ( p . 254 ) the " little triurnpj ^ a ^ which immediately succeeded :
" Nov . 9 , 1688 , Dr . Bujrnet was sent to the Cathedral of Exeter to order the priest * and vkiafS oot to pmy for t $ ie pretended Pjince of PPalts ; and th ? & * mp day his Highness went to the safcLCathc-
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King fPiHiam . no Friend to Religious Liberty . 71
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1822, page 71, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2509/page/7/
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