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| [Dialogue VI.] On the Constitution of the English Government. SIR J. MAYNARD, MR. SOMERS, BP. BURNET. | 9 |
| [Dialogues VII,][VIII.] On the Uses of Foreign Travel. LORD SHAFTESBURY, MR. LOCKE. | 85 |
| [XII Letters] On Chivalry and Romance. | 231 |
DIALOGUE VI.
ON THE
CONSTITUTION
OF THE
ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.
BETWEEN
SIR JOHN MAYNARD, MR. SOMERS,
AND
BISHOP BURNET.
DIALOGUE VI.
ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.
SIR JOHN MAYNARD, MR. SOMERS,
BISHOP BURNET.
TO DR. TILLOTSON.
Our next meeting at Sir John Maynard’s was on the evening of that day, when the war was proclaimed against France[1]. What the event of it will be, is a secret in the counsels of Providence. But if the goodness of our cause, his Majesty’s known wisdom and ability, and, above all, the apparent zeal and firmness of all orders amongst us in support of this great undertaking, may give a prospect of success, we cannot, I persuade myself, but indulge in the most reasonable hopes and expectations.
Perhaps, the time is approaching, my dear friend, which the divine goodness hath decreed for putting a stop to that outrageous power, which hath been permitted for so long a course of years to afflict the neighbouring nations. It may be, the season is now at hand, when God will vouchsafe to plead the cause of his servants, and let this mighty persecutor of the faithful know that he may not be suffered any longer to trample on the sacred rights of conscience. He may be taught to feel, that the ravages he hath committed in the fairest provinces, and the cruelties he hath exercised on the best subjects, of his own kingdom, have at length awakened the divine displeasure against him. And he may live to find in our great prince (raised up, as I verily believe, to this eminence of place and power to be the scourge of tyrants, and the vindicator of oppressed nations) an insurmountable bulwark against that encroaching dominion, which threatens to deform and lay waste the rest of Europe.
I have already lived to see those providences, which may encourage a serious and good mind to believe that some great work is preparing in our days. I was very early in my life a witness to the high measures which were taken and carried on by an intolerant hierarchy, acting in subserviency to an arbitrary court, in mine own country of Scotland. And I have lamented the oppression in which good men were held for conscience sake in all the three kingdoms. How far this tyranny was carried, and how near we were brought to the destruction of all our civil and religious rights, need not be told, and the occurrences of the two last reigns will not suffer to be forgotten. It is sufficient to observe, that when the danger was now brought to a crisis, and the minds of all men were filled with the most alarming apprehensions, it pleased God to rescue us, in a moment and by the most astonishing display of his goodness, from the impending ruin. Our chains fell off at once, as by a miracle of mercy. Our civil rights have been restored. And the legal toleration[2], we have just now obtained in consequence of the new settlement, hath put us into possession of that religious liberty, which, as men, as Christians, and as Protestants, we cannot but esteem the first of all public blessings.
And who knows but that, in the gracious designs of Heaven, the same hand which hath redeemed these nations from the yoke of slavery and of Rome, may be now employed to shake it off from the necks of our Protestant brethren on the continent[3]? The world hath seen how long and how severely they have groaned under that intolerant power, with which we are now at war. When the violences of the late reign had driven me into a sort of voluntary exile, and in the course of it I traversed some of those unhappy provinces of France, which were most exposed to the rigours of persecution[4], how have these eyes wept over the distresses of the poor sufferers, and how hath my heart bled for the merciless cruelties which I every where saw exercised upon them! The fury which appeared on that occasion, was so general and so contagious, that not only priests and court sycophants, but men of virtuous minds and generous tempers, were transported, as it were, out of their proper nature, and seemed to divest themselves of the common notices and principles of humanity.
In this fiery trial it hath pleased God to exercise the faith and virtues, and, as we may charitably hope, to correct the failings and vices, of his poor servants. His mercy may now, in due time, be opening a way for them to escape. And from the prosperous beginning of this great work, what comfortable presages may we not, in all humility, form to ourselves of still further successes?
We have a prince on the throne exactly qualified for the execution of this noble enterprise; of the clearest courage and magnanimity, and a wisdom tried and perfected in that best school, of Adversity; of dispositions the most enlarged to the service of mankind; and even quickened by his own personal resentment of former injuries to retaliate against their common oppressor.