He has very mercyfull inclinations, when one submitts wholly to him, but is severe enough to those that oppose him and speeks of all people with a sharpness, that is not suitable to the greatness of a Prince.
He is apt to believe what is told him, so that the first impression goes deepest, for he thinks all apologies are lies.
He is very kind to those he loves, but never thinks of doeing any thing for them, so that, if they can find things for themselves, he will easily enough grant them, but he never setts himself to find out any thing for them.
He thinks that God will never damn a man for allowing himselfe a little pleasure. He has formed an odd idea of the Goodness of God in his mind; he thinks, to be wicked and to design mischief, is the only thing that God hates, and has said to me often, that he was sure, he was not guilty of that.
I think I have gone pretty far and scarce know how I should scape under the present Chief Justice,* if this should happen to be seased [seized] on.
abridged, original spelling
* Sir George Jeffreys (1648-1689) held the office of Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from September 1683 to 1685, and then served as Lord Chancellor until 1688, when he fled with James II to France. As Recorder of London, Jeffreys had prosecuted several of Burnet’s friends in the aftermath of the Rye House Plot (1683); following Monmouth’s Rebellion (1685), he pursued the rebels with such ferocity — three hundred cruel executions took place, and other suspects were transported to the West Indies — that his court was dubbed the Bloody Assizes. The name ‘Judge Jeffreys’ has since become a byword for judicial persecution and savage sentencing.