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A61170
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The Bishop of Rochester's second letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's household
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Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing S5049; ESTC R15013
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15,012
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68
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I have now given your Lordship any satisfaction touching my fair Dealing in My Part of that Book I doubt not but what follows will give you more when I shall assure you of my having refused to Write a Continuation of the same History For my Lord it was some time after the Duke of Monmouth's Overthrow and Execution that King Iames the Second required me to undertake such another Task and presently to set about a Second Part. To that purpose His Majesty gave me a sight of multitudes of Original Letters and Papers together with the Confessions of several Persons then taken in England and Scotland who did indeed seem all to outvy one another who should reveal most both of Men and Things relating to the old Conspiracy as well as to the Duke of Monmouth's and the Earl of Argyle's Invasion But finding the Innocence of divers Persons of Worth and Honour touched in those Papers and by that time beginning vehemently to suspect things were running apace towards the endangering of our Laws and Religion I must say I never could be induced by all his Majesties reiterated Commands to go on with that Work. Instead of that tho' I had all the Materials for such a Narrative within my Power for above three Years and might easily have finished it in a Month or Six Weeks space yet I chose rather to Suppress and Silence as much as I could all that New Evidence which if openly produced would have blemished the Reputation of some Honourable Persons Give me leave My Lord only to add That I am confident there are several Original Papers still in being which would be more than enough to convince all impartial Men how Moderate and Tender I was in that Cause Next My Lord having mentioned my being concerned in the Commission for the Diocese of London in that I had the good Fortune to be join'd with an excellent Person my Lord Bishop of Peterborough And we can both truly say that as we enter'd into that Commission with my Lord of London's Good Will so we acted nothing in it without the greatest Respect to his Interest It is well known we continued all his Officers in the full Profits and Privileges of their Places We faithfully maintained the Rights of his Bishoprick and once in the Kings own Presence against his Majesties express Inclinations in a Business of no less Concernment than my Lord Mayor's Chapel We never Invaded any of my Lord Bishops Preserments that fell void in that Interval We dipos'd of none but according to his own Directions We used his Clergy with the same affectionate Care and Brotherly Love as He himself had done Who was on that Account as Dear to them as any Bishop in Christendom was to his Diocese And we Appeal to them whether we might not rather expect their Kindness and Thanks than suspect their Ill-will for all our Transactions with them Nor can this be thought a vain Boast to any Man who shall seriously reflect on the terrible Aspect of Things from Court upon the London-Clergy during the whole time of our exercising that Jurisdiction The Remembrance whereof makes me not doubt to affirm that if my Lord Bishop of Peterborough and I had not then stood in the Gap but some other Persons who were prepared to be thrust in upon our leaving that Commission had got it absolutely into their Power 't is possible the most Learned and Pious Clergy in the World had been somewhat otherwise imployed than they were and had been too much taken up in defending themselves from the violent Persecutions of the Popish Party to have leisure to confute and triumph over the Popish Cause as they entirely did in their admirable Writings to the Glory and Establishment of the Church of England My Lord to the truth of what I have here said concerning the Commission of London I have the Bishop of Peterborough ready to attest I should indeed be glad I could claim as just a share in another of his Lordships Meritorious Services to the Public as I may do in this But in that I cannot for 't is Evident the Seven Bishops whereof he was One had such an opportunity put into their Hands by God's Providence for the overthrow of Popery and Arbitrary Power by Their Sufferings for delivering their Sense of King Iames the Second's Declaration as 't is likely never any of the Episcopal Order had before and 't is to be hop'd will never have again This however I will say I had certainly added my self to their Number if I had then understood the Question as well as I did afterwards upon their Tryal where I was present in order to be a Witness in their behalf at the same time your Lordship and many other Noble Lords were there to give Countenance to so Good a Cause There it was My Lord that I was first convinced of the false Foundations and mischievous Consequences of such a Dispensing Power as that on which the Declaration was grounded So that I have ever since been perswaded that from that Petition of those Bishops so defended by the invincible Arguments of their Learned Council on that Day and so justified by the honest Verdict of their Undaunted Jury on the next Day from thence I say we may date the first great successful step that was made towards the rescuing of our Laws and Religion For my Part I must own I was so fully satisfied by the excellent â—leadings of those great Lawyers at that Tryal that I confess I never had till then so clear a Notion what unalterable Bounds the Law has fix'd between the Just Prerogatives of the Crown and the Legal Rights of the Subject And therefore from that very Day I hasten'd to make what Reparations I could for the Errors occasion'd by my former Ignorance and to act for the future what I always intended as became a true English Man. Nor was it long after that I met with a Signal Opportunity to put this my Purpose in practice For perceiving the Rage of the Popish Party against the Church of England was rather heightned than abated by my Lords the Bishops being acquitted and fearing the Ecclesiastical Commission was next to be Employed to wreak the Papists Revenge on the Orthodox Clergy when Westminster-Hall could not do it I presently resolv'd to Desert that Commission from whence I had often before Laboured and Intreated in vain to be fairly Dismiss'd And immediately I sent the Commissioners the following Letter whereof Your Lordship may remember I then presented you with a Copy as knowing how much You would be pleased with my other Friends at my forsaking that Board upon any Terms To the Right Honourable My LORDS His Majesties Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs c. MY LORDS I Most humbly intreat your Lordships favourable Interpretation of what I now write That since your Lordships are resolved to proceed against those who have not comply'd with the King's Commands in Reading His Declaration it is absolutely
Imprimatur W. CANT March 27 1689 THE Bishop of Rochester's SECOND LETTER To the Right Honourable The Earl of Dorset and Middlesex LORD-CHAMBERLAIN OF His MAJESTY's Houshold In the Savoy Printed by Edward Iones MDCLXXXIX THE Bishop of Rochester's SECOND LETTER To the Rig ht Honourable The Earl of Dorset and Middlesex c. MY LORD I Cannot in Good Manners make my Address to your Lordship in another Letter without premising my most Humble Thanks for your favourable Acceptance of the former and for your kind Recommendation of my Plea to Men of Honour and Goodness by the Powerful Authority of your Approving it And now My Lord since you have in so generous a Manner admitted me once to be your Client I am come again to put my whole Cause into your Hands For it was my Chance I know not how to have such a share in One or Two other Public Affairs of the late Times as obliges me to make a Second Defence Though I have always thought that next to the committing Offences nothing can be more Greivous to an Ingenuous Mind than to be put upon the necessity of making Apologies However upon the Encouragement your Lordship has given Me I take the boldness to say that in the Matters about which I trouble you this once more I trust I have good Ground for an honest and open Vindication of my self The One was My Part in King Charles the Second's Declaration touching the Conspiracy the other was My acting in the Commission for the Diocese of London during the Suspension of my Lord Bishop But then my Lord after my Apology I shall crave leave to add that which needs None I mean an Account of what past between King Iames and some of the Bishops a little before the late wonderful Revolution which tho' the Circumstances of it are not so generally known as they ought to be yet I am sure had a very considerable effect for the benefit both of Church and State in that Critical time And therein I may presume to say that I had some part So that when I come to that perhaps I shall be able to Speak more freely and shall venture to insist upon it as a manifest proof to the World that the Bishops had then as difficult a Post to Maintain and Maintain'd it as firmly as any other Order of Men in the Kingdom could do Theirs for preserving the Liberties and Properties of the Subject as well as the Interest of the Protestant Religion First my Lord as for the Book of the Conspiracy 't is true I have often heard that some Noble and Eminent Persons whose Kindred or Friends were unhappily concern'd in the Subject of that History had entertain'd a prejudice against me thereupon But to them I shall make this equitable Request that they would suspend any farther Censure of me for what I did write till they shall be fairly informed how much there is that I have not written I will not deny that it was at the Request or rather the Command of King Charles the Second that I drew up a Relation of that Plot And to that end I had free liberty to consult the Paper-Office and Council-Books whence I was plentifully furnish'd with such Authentic Materials either of Papers Printed by Authority or of Sworn Depositions and Confessions as have been always thought the best Ground for an Historian to work upon But now my Lord I can still allege That tho' a vast heap of such Matter was immediately supplied to my hands and tho' I often received earnest Messages and some Sharp words from that gentle King to quicken my Slowness yet more than twelve Months had past before I could be brought to put Pen to Paper out of my Natural Aversion to any Business that might reflect severely upon any Man my own Inclination rather leading me to the other Extream that is Rather to Commend too much what in the least seems Well-done than to Aggravate what is Ill-done by others However upon King Charles's frequent Commands and continued Importunity I did at length obey and the rather because I had formerly somewhat incurr'd that King 's and his Brother's Displeasure by my declining to write against the States of Holland during the time of the First and Second Dutch-Wars Being thus over-persuaded I made my Collections and Presented them to that King Which his Majesty having himself perused was pleased to direct me to put them into the Hands of the Lord Keeper North who carefully Read and Corrected what I had done and added divers matters of Fact which had escaped my Observation Thus the Work stood in Preparation for the Press when the deplorable Death of that King hapned And shortly after King Iames the Second calling for the Papers and having read them and Altered divers Passages caused them to be printed by his own Authority as is to be seen before the Book But now my Lord I can truly declare that during my composing those Collections I earnestly requested King Charles the Second and your Lordship knows as well as any Man how agreeable such a Request was to the Benign Temper of that King I requested him I say that few or no Names of Persons should be mentioned whatever probable suggestions might be against them but only such upon whom public Judgment had passed which it could be to no purpose for me to conceal I could indeed have wish'd that my Lord Russel's and some other Names of Persons of Honour might have been of the Number to be omitted upon that very account But 't was none of my fault that they were not I could not hinder nor did I in the least contribute to their Fall. Nay I lamented it especially my Lord Russel's after I was fully convinc'd by Discourse with the Reverend Dean of Canterbury of that Noble Gentleman's great Probity and Constant Abhorrence of Falshood But that was a good while after All that I did was the Publishing or rather indeed the putting together methodically what before was sufficiently published in printed Papers that were Licensed And out of them to draw the Substance of a Declaration of State in Vindication of that which the Authority of the Nation at that time called The Public Justice of the Kingdom But my Lord to return to what I was saying King Charles having granted my desire of Concealing divers Names according to this Allowance I proceeded leaving out some and abbreviating others endeavouring all along to spare Parties and Families and particular Persons as much as would be allowed All which may be demonstrated from the Copies of the Depositions as they went out of my hands where there were several Names visibly marked by my own Pen to be passed by in the Publication So that if some Indifferent Man should now compare the Informations as they are in Print with the Originals in the Secretary's or the Paper-Office he would it may be be apter to suspect Me of Connivance than of Calumny on that side If