I know not How brings your Lordship to a Position of Assurance There have been indeed those whose Haughtiness of Mind bearing down all the Rest of their Faculties hath deceived them into a Superlative Idea of their being Above Apology they have perished in Falls Unnatural tho' not Unpitied But if a Bishop a Pattern of Humility One who to be Great among Us is to be our Minister shall Dare give it under his Hand that He always thought next to Committing Offences Nothing can be more Grievous to an Ingenuous Mind than to be put upon the Necessity of making Apologies In English no more but Owning a Miscarriage in Decency of Reasoning to Unload his Conscience if that be so very Grievous to the Ingenuous Mind of a Bishop I take his Apologies to be like his Compliances One the Result of more than Ignorance or Chance the Other of much less than Contrition and without charge upon my Self of any Disrespect either to his Quality or Function Conclude tho' with a Modesty even to Tameness of Expression that the Best and most Ingenuous Part of the Apology Lyes in Confessing the Necessity to make it To what Advantage might an Elaborate Man in Concern for the Injuries done his Country display this Abundant Paper How easily my Lord might a Pen if like yours Incapable of Parting with a Luxuriant Stroak for the sake of Persons or Families take down these Altars of Praise you have Built to Others Contriving to annex your self however without Detraction from the Merit due to any whomsoever I will reduce the Overflowings within Bank bring them to Fact and Qualifie the Magnificent Apology Shewing that your Better Understanding Proceeded not from Argument but Appearance terrible Aspect and dreadful Apprehension your own Words my Lord are very Dogmatical Full Satisfaction may seize People in Lightning and they may be Struck with the Convincing of Thunder Only by the way my Lord whereas you seem to intitle your self to something or other within Guess by incurring the Displeasure of our Two Last Kings in declining to Write against the States of Holland during the First and Second Dutch Wars I humbly desire if any thing in these Papers tempt your Lordship to a Third Apology or a Reply that you will please to let us know if they desired you to Write in Prose for neither of those Wars or Depredations afforded Subject Matter for one Paragraph of Truth How Specious soever the First might be rendred in the Frenchified Heat of our Honey Moon after the Restoration the Effect of Private Sentiments in Religion here tho' he seemingly took part with the Dutch against us I am sure No Man will say but the Second was an Apparent Violation of the Law of Nations the Triple League broke on our side with Grief be it remembred by Us and very unkind in your Lordship not to bury against all the Rules of Mutual Defence and Notwithstanding the most direct Warning of the Fatal Consequences of such a Breach that a Wise Man our Agent abroad could possibly insinuate To our Great Reproach my Lord Opening a Passage to the Common Disturber of Manking and for ought I know too great a Cause of all the Blood that has been and may be shed in Christendom from the Ravage of that Imperious Monarch of France beside a Subjugation of Us here to Popery and Slavery or the Inevitable Fury of a Civil War if in return of Good for Evil the Dutch had not Aided our Deliverance from the Influence of all those Pernicious Counsels and I make no doubt but your Lordship knew then as well as I do now that Invention must have been the Guide of your Undertaking and the Topick Dimunition of Glory if you had obeyed their Commands The Tenth Page of the Letter If 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 sometime after the Duke of Monmouth 's Overthrow and Execution that King James the Second required me to Vndertake such another Task and presently set about a Second Part To that purpose his Majesty gave me a sight of Multitudes of Original Papers and Letters together with the Confessions of several Persons then taken in England and Scotland who did seem to Outview 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 Honour and Worth touched in those Papers And by that time beginning Vehemently to Suspect Things were Running apace towards the Endangering our Laws and Religion I must say I could never 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 Six Weeks yet I chose rather to Suppress and Silence as much I could all that New Evidence which if openly produced would have blemished the Reputation of some Honourable Persons Answer Blemishes my Lord are from the Cause nor will I ask Pardon to say 'T is as necessary to live in the Disesteem of some as the Good Opinion of Others The Overthrow of the Duke of Monmouth was in the Name of King and if what our Neighbours assert to be Law in Scotland be Reason in England the late Kings assuming the Regal Power of this Protestant Kingdom being a Papist was in it self a Forfeiture of his Exercise of the Authority If the Eyes of the People had been as Open to apprehend it as his Chappel was Early to declare it their Hands had been Strong enough to have brought a General to Town then Confirming the Bill of Exclusion And placing the Crown where it now is The Generosity of Trust in the English towards their King at his First Accession to the Throne Over-ruling their Jealousie Reasonable from his Conduct of many Years before but Demonstration of Entire Affection to their Kings while any Tolerable Bounds will hold Them very Honourable in Them but very much to be Deplored was the End of that Duke Rebellion had been a Word in his Attainder if he had not taken upon him the Title of King that part of him which Died had perhaps been less than Execution and his Defeat not so much as an Overthrow King James my Lord made good that Cause by the Continuation of his own History to the time of his Departure and King William and Queen Mary whom God for ever preserve by Consent and Authority of the Estates have given it Immortality The Old Conspiracy is not a Language but in those Times when Judges deliver for Law that surprizing a Garrison apart from the King is an Overt Act
but they will not be Undone in Blind Dependance nor yield that the Private Conscience of the Bishop Or the Less will of the Priest shall be the Uncancellable Obligation upon all their Actions and the Unalterable Law of their Souls The presence of our Great and Brave Men in and about the Court of King's Bench at that Trial seemed a Kind of Parliament met to Defend the Church and State Awing the Trembling Mercenaries for Honorary and Judge are lost in the Abuse upon the Polluted Cushion even to Convulsion in Every Joint But the Invincible Arguments at the Bar you admire my Lord were only so many Gentlemen of the Robe with Brief in Hand and plain Law in their Mouths not a Syllable of Conjuration or The least depth of Mystery and Charm. When the Councel for the King to shew the Moderation of the Conspirators being content with Misdemeanour could no more resemble the Case to Treason than the New Councel for the People could Jest his Reverend Clients into Fornication by the Mercury of a False Step in the Church being Harlotry in Emblem When the highest Violation of Sacred Promise not to take Publick Advantage of what was owned in Private upon that express Condition With the careful Evidence of that Diligent Clerk of the Council could not furnish the Undaunted Jury you magnifie with the least ground of Fact to find a General Verdict against them nor a Line of Law from the Bench to direct a special one When the Salute upon their Acquittal was so much the Joy of our Hearts as to become loud Acclamation and if the Voice of the People be the Voice of God shook the Battlements of one Hall Piercing the inner Chambers of another and putting the Mis-led King in mind if not of the Day of Judgment at least of the Battle of D And that if one sort of Protestants Jealous of their Religion and Property from a Match with France Discontinuance of Parliaments for Thirteen Years together Imposing Arbitrary Taxes and Commissions And lastly having Occasion for a Parliament by hoping to suppress a damnable Popish Conspiracy in the power of his Cabinet Council lest the Parliament should be out of Humor and Grievances retard Benevolences If one sort of them in Fear of Popery Unseen had strength to hollow his Unhappy Father out of Three Kingdoms Popery and Slavery in Full View must of Necessity Unite Protestants of all Perswasions whatsoever against those Common Enemies who by playing Under-hand Games had prevailed upon the Generous Church of England to Disbelieve and from thence to Hate and Prosecute the Jealous Dissenter Managing them for Generations to the Tearing one another in Pieces and Promoting Divisions among themselves while the Papist wrought up his Design to seize both if the Great Restorer had not Interposed When the Conspirators run about Whitehall like Men in a Tempest and the Priests traversed the Park to St. James's like Ghosts for Consternation was in all their Looks and Leyburn the Titular crawling to Dinner bid the Fraternity Retrench for the Cause was lost If this be True my Lord and an Honest Description of that Cause without Rhetorick it follows That the more successfull the Step was to our Rescue the Plainer I have made it That Full Satisfaction seized your Lordship in Lightning and you were struck with the Convincing of Thunder The same Reasons of not hazarding your Preserment which made you remain in Court Writing Histories Acting in Commissions Suffering the Declaration to be Read in your Diocess of Rochester Ordering it to be Read in your Deanry of Westminster and staying to be the Last Man born from the Tables the very same Reasons my Lord of not hazarding your Preferment from the Protestant Quarter obliged you to withdraw from the Popish in that Critical Day of the Bishops Tryal And the lofty strains of Encomium upon the Bishops the Great Men of the Kingdom the Invincible Arguments of the Lawyers the Undaunted Jury the strong Fleet consisting of Twenty Sail and more when we were sure of the Seamen from their Irreconcileable Hatred to Popery and their Constant Fidelity to the Protestant Religion and Cause with the Formidable Army the Honest and Conscientious part whereof was satisfied their Valour would be their Ruine Others applying the same Argument to the Tender part of themselves and most of the new raised Common Soulders such as never saw an Enemy but a Constable nor set Foot in a Garison but a Gaol In a word my Lord your Eloquence upon all Mankind who long before your Lordship quitted their Temporal Circumstances and took up the Cross satisfied that nothing in this World is an exchange for the Prospect of another beside the Honour of Avowing Just Principles are but so many Reflections upon your self and notwithstanding your Aiery Notion at the beginning of this Letter That nothing can be more Grievous in your Thoughts next to Committing Offences than Apologies no Remorse appearing in a Cursory perusal Yet in the Anatomy much less is to be found Laying about you upon any Terms whatsoever Catching at every thing from the First Dutch War to the Bishop's Trial and at every Body that can but carry his Head above Water and some as likely to drown in this Glorious but not so very Miraculous Revolution as your Lordship would perswade us to believe and write Us into for the sake of your Posthumous Conversion All this my Lord rises in a natural Remark upon the very words of your Letter to the rest of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners though Courtier-like written in the Contrary Stile And if the great Veneration I entertain for the Bishops of this Protestant Kingdom did not restrain me Comparing the Advice given by them to King James the Second and the Abhorrence refused which make so large a part of your Letter and so much insisted on with the Times of them when the Prince of Orange had been at the Credit of so many hundred thousand pounds to assist our Deliverance and ready to Sail with the Carriage of some of Them hitherto towards him and the Nation since he has made it good to us and we ought to throw our selves at his Feet in Duty and Acknowledgement becoming so great an Enterprize I could say much more than that The Divinity of Kings lies in the Humanity of their Actions That an Abhorrence at that time had been a Backsliding from the Protestant Religion and an Apostasie from the Understanding of those Great and Learned Men That the Advice it self came too late and the Merit impaired in the Unseasonable and Extraordinary Application Extraordinary because it is evident from your Letter It was of your own Seeking For though the King had sent for You yet nothing passed but general Expressions of Favour and Duty between You and in Fact the King had Altered his Mind and Resolved not to Enter into any Particulars with you if you had not made it your own Request to Him
that for the Diocess and was so Exact in pursuing my Lord of London's desires because to gratifie the pleasure of the Court you sate in the First Commission which was Illegal and the Act of Suspending my Lord of London therefore void In consequence all the Derivations were so too and the Commission for the Diocess to my Lord of Peterborough and your self being under the same Fate All you did was perhaps in strictness against Law and not only the more Inexcusable if you had acted without my Lord's Directions but Unsafe as to the Actions themselves if my Lord's Approbation had not warranted them into a Connivance so that Acting in Commission for the Diocess of London was in the Bishop of Peterborough as Publishing the Suspension was in the Dean of Paul's an Expedient of Necessity to chuse the least of Two Evils but more Amiss in you my Lord because you who sate in the Ecclesiastical Commission did it in confirmation of the great Evil which drew on the necessity of that The terrible Aspect of things from Court upon the London Clergy your standing in the Gap to hinder some other Persons prepared to be thrust in upon your leaving that Commission and if such Persons had got it Absolutely into their Power 't is possible that most learned and Pious Clergy had been somewhat otherwise Employed 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 can have no other meaning but that if the Papists had got the Diocess of London into their Power for nothing else can be collected from the word Absolutely with the Terrible Aspect of that Court which had no other Tendency 't is more than Possible for 't is Absolutely Certain that all those of the London Clergy who had Resolution of Adhering to the Protestant Religion that is All those who by a Vigorous and Ready Allegiance in Defence of the Protestant Religion now shall justifie to all the Protestants at home and abroad they would have forsaken their Livings then had been Deprived or otherwise Engaged in too much Persecution by the Popish Party to have leisure to confute the Popish Cause and to triumph over Both as they do now if they can see their Felicity But your Lordship's standing in the Gap to hinder those Persons who were prepared to take that Diocess Absolutely into their Power is not Discernible On the contrary Open War being proclaimed between the Two Parties All those Eminent Supervisors of the Church who continued in Court were so far Endearing the Conspiracy on the Popish Side as to weaken the Protestant by going on with the Impracticable Distinction of Protestant Loyalty against Protestant Religion while the Papists made it their Business to single out the Flower of our Patriots in Church and State hunting them down with Renegades and Masqueraders of our own Faith to Death and Obscurity as well for their Entertainment as Interest Fifteenth Page of the Letter I should be glad I could claim as just a share in another of his Lordship's meritorious services to the Publick 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 the sense of King James the Second's Declaration as 't is likely never any of the Episcopal Order had before and 't is to be hoped 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 Witness in their Behalf at the same time when 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 convinc'd 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 the Bishops so defended by the Invincible Arguments of the Learned Councel on that Day and so justified by the Honest Verdict of the 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 Religion and Laws For my part I must ever own I was so Fully satisfied by the excellent Pleadings of those great Lawyers at that Trial that I confess I never had till then so clear a Notion what unalterable Bounds the Law has fixt between the just Prerogatives of the Crown and the Legal Rights of the Subjects and therefore from that very day I hastned to make all the Reparations I could for the Errors occasioned by my former ignorance and to act for the future what I always intended as became a True Englishman Answer You are in the right My Lord to say The truth of an Englishman consists in the Reality of his Actions it gives me notice at the same time not to depend upon his Glistering Sentences nor be deceived by his plausible Apologies For if any but the Bishop of Rochester himself should tell me He had added to the number of the Petitioning Bishops if he had understood the Question I would answer it with a Smile The Bishop of Rochester had the same Organs disposing and Methods of Advice to inform his Judgment as the other Bishops had If to say no worse his Courage to Adhere had been the same and to add these words As well as I did afterwards upon their Trial is Ignorance repeated Ignorance upon Ignorance to the last Minute The Bishops maintained their Post with Honourable but not Unexampled Constancy and the Impudence of the Jesuite was no Diminution to the Credit of their Fortitude The Kingdom stood as Firm to Them the Warrant of Their Commitment was also in it self a Warrant for Correcting that Vagabond and a Pass for their Religion to Travel No sooner were their persons in the Tower but we were ready for the Field to Extricate them not only from the Present difficulties they laboured under and Convince your Lordship the Protestant Religion and Interest was no Forsaken Cause but to Clear them at Once from the Enemies of their Religion and the Rivals to their Possessions I hope their Lordships will prove Firm to Us and their Bishopricks now as in a chearful Allegiance No longer Puzling our Enjoyment with Unaccountable Reserves nor make Us such Cruel Returns as to suffer the Profound Respect we have for Them to Object against the Security of Our Selves It is the happiness of the Church of England that her Proselytes are not Slaves they Reverence their Spiritual Guides and Honour their Faithful Advisers the least distance between them is the Torment of their Lives
And so very Unseasonable that if I had been in the Place of such preliminary Consultation I should humbly have Offered That my Lords the Bishops would please to refer his Majesty to his Popish Councils by which he had for so many Years been conducted rather than so late have thought it any Service to the Protestant Religion and Interest voluntarily to inform him how he might Amuse the People with more vain Promises Unspirit their Hopes and Disappoint the Expedition Leaving Us a Reproach to our own sense a Certain Prey to our Mortal Enemies and the Disdain if not the Danger of Christendom And if I had found your Lordship in the Advice who had so often Exercised your Parts for Them before notwithstanding your Letter to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners should readily have thought It proceeded from your Lordship as One rather Willing to Compound for a present Safety upon Imaginary Conditions than venture Calling to Account in a Manlike Reformation which can never be without some Stroaks and more Marks of Impartial Justice For my Lord tho' Moderation is Healing yet the Body having been grievously Wounded and Unable to discharge the Offices of a Political Life when the Physicians with regard to the Constitution have taken care to obviate the danger of Feaver or other Distemper the First Applications are Corrosive Laying open and Probing of Wounds by declaring Crimes and designing Persons is necessary Proud Flesh must be taken off whether by Fine Degradation or Confiscation and Gangrene prevented by Death Banishment or other Disability according to the wisdom of Parliament In the beginning of a Persecution an Honest Man in a Lawful Employment may with Anxiety submit to a Rash Action in hopes to hinder worse but he must quickly repair by a Good one or withdraw not presuming to go on under Colour to Mitigate the Violence of Times For his Early Departure may Nip a Conspiracy in the Bud Stagger the Design and save a Nation Whereas if he Continues among them the Plot gathers Strength while his Reputation is a Snare to the Weaker He that remains in a Station of Evil pretending to keep out a Worse Man than himself greatly aggravates his Crime Apology is gone in the very Capacity to Distinguish for he makes his Judgment Stoop to his will and Honesty Slave to Ambition But your Streamer my Lord is an Admirable Spark He that God help him was in the middle of the Stream poor wretch when the Tide turn'd so Violently against Our Establisht Church and State No warning for he never heard of the name of Admiral parted with rather than take one Test and a Proviso obtained to secure Passage to the House of Lords in another but was driven down by Chance I Know not How Lower than he expected The Turn was so Sudden before he could resist the Current or get to Shore otherwise we had been Sure of him for all the World Knows his Heart was with Us. That Man has nothing to do but Apologise for a Stream He got off as soon as he Could thinks to be at rest under an Act of Oblivion and it may be Fifty thousand Pounds or such a Trifling Sum from half a Crown to dry himself with If that will pass for an Apology upon my word my Lord one Streamer shall Outlive Five hundred Porpoises and a Stemmer of Tides is a Goose to him It is so far from being well that so many forsook not the True Interest of the Nation 't is a Shame that so many Did but when I consider again that true Protestant was a mark of Reproach I wonder we have so many Left. It is happy so many preserv'd their Integrity and wretched so many Betra'yd it That so many Stood Unmov'd by the Importunity of their King whom they were Bred up to Honour and in all things Else to Obey and Pity their Honour was not Sooner Consulted in their Obedience In Sense of Humane Frailty many Infirmities are to be Overlook'd but Ignorance is no Common Plea for Those who are Known to be Able nor Chance and Surprise where the Province is Care If it be a great Crime in a Centinel to Sleep at his Post 't is Unpardonable to take Opiate and True only to Preferment Stupify all the Rest of his Qualifications False Steps are to be Considered Heat of Spirit may carry the Undiscerning Loyalty of Youth out of the way for a while Or a Dazle from the Sun may intoxicate him but Temper is expected in Ripeness of Judgment and Firmeness of Wisdom from Age. It may be thought some kind of Merit or some Degree of Innocence not to make more False Steps in a Slippery Ground that is Where Arbitrary Dominion has gained the Point and from general Consent as to a Conqueror ready Obedience is Yielded to the Inconstant Motions of Unlimited Power But when the Prerogative is labouring to break in up-upon the Fences of Known and Written Laws he is an Ill Husband that does not Endeavour to transmit that most Sacred part of his Inheritance the Rights and Liberties of his Countrey to Posterity Free from Incumbrance as the Sweat the Honesty and the Blood of his Ancestors Secured and left to him And if he that Assists the Betraying those Rights who with Ignorance and Chance Sets up for Innocence Merit or Thanks Imputes all to Slippery Ground and 't is well 't is no worse Gentlemen Take it as you find it be contented and mend for the Future if he be Excusable with such an Apology there may be Room for our Enemies to dispute our Deliverances and Our Friends to question the Just Sense we have of it Compliance looks very well meaning because All are not Inflexible and Allowance may be given to Better Understanding But he that Complies in all Times and Causes Or he that Complies with many Bad Causes Or the many Labours of one Bad Cause if Great or Learned in the Eyes of the People is a Dangerous Creature for the Powerful Argument of Private Advantage with such an Example draws in the Numbers The First is neither True nor of Reputation to Any Cause and the Last makes a Good One Suspicious unless some Extraordinary Act of Purgation assures him and much more is required than Breaking Loose from Ecclesiastical Commissioners at the last Minute when they were Ready to part by Consent and the Conspirators behind the Curtain only directed them like Generals to draw up seemingly to Face the whole Body of the Clergy to secure an Orderly Retreat in the Shape of Adjournment with no more intent to meet again the Fourth of December than they designed to Establish Liberty of Conscience by a Religious Magna Charta or than they were so vain as to think tho' the Dissenters accepted a Liberty of Worship they would ever consent to Repeal the Tests or were able to Compass it Effectually for them if they were so Ill inclined but as I have said in my