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
An Answer TO THE Bishop of ROCHESTER's Second LETTER AN ANSWER TO THE Bishop of Rochester's SECOND LETTER TO THE Earl of Dorset c. By an English-man LONDON Printed for A. Smith MDCLXXXIX AN ANSWER TO THE Bishop of Rochester's SECOND LETTER c. Right Reverend ACTS of Mercy descend with Power and come well Recommended from the Crown to be Received with the highest Gratitude by the People but Acts of Justice are our Lasting Securities And tho' we are Aptto pitty the Afflicted yet Publick Crimes require Publick and Real Expiations Such as I am from Observation and Good Wishes pretend to discern Safety and the Kingdom in a State of Recovery past danger of Relapse but Justice must be Vindicated There are Measures in proper Season Necessary for Confirming All least the Government seem Precarious and Desperate Persons having Screwed up the Preparatories for our Ruin to the height may discourage very Useful Subjects if instead of Effectual Attonements they shall be Able to Word Us into their Impunity In good Earnest my Lord nothing urges a Sensible Man more to speak his Mind Freely than while his Purse is draining or Blood letting out in the Rescue of his Fellow Subjects and the more remote they are the more at Heart it is with him to find the Enemies of his Country and their Peace at Home in Plenty and Ease scarce Tributary but Remaining in Preferment or Enjoying the Acquisitions of Rapine Ready perhaps for more upon the first Opportunity and in the mean time under the Tenderness of some Illustrious Spotless Friend between a Smile and Disdain laughing in their Sleeves at the Worshippers of Truth and despising the Companions of Honesty I am so much a Roman as to shed a Tear for an Acquaintance in Misery but cannot forget who Condemned a Son. When I hear it said Spare him for his Parts My Reply is Punish him the more and not make that which Explains his Condemnation the Reason of his Indemnity I can no more Excuse an Ill Man for his good Parts than I would be supposed to write against the Church of England in answering the Bishop of Rochester or to Arraign the Profession of the Law from whence so many of the Nobility are Descended in saying there have been Wicked Judges and as Bad Councellors The Text that informs me the Samaritan was Neighbour to the Traveller tells me likewise who was not He is my Neighbour who pours Oyl into my Wounds and my Friend that lets me retain the Image of God in the Freedom of a Man. Wit and Parts are of full Age at Five and Twenty and must form into Judgment with Reference to some Fundamental of Principle by Thirty otherwise it is an Escape if He runs not into Depravation and a narrow One if the publick Justice of his Country do's not at one time or other overtake his Extraordinary Actions I am therefore English-man enough to hope for Justice and Christian enough to desire it in Mercy yet so Exerted That she may shew her Head in this glorious Revolution and call to Account those Unfaithful Servants who Delivered up her Keys Notorious Offenders that broke in upon her Administration Pursuing her Assertors to destruction if the same God who many Thousand Years ago brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt had not Remembred Us in her Low Estate and Excited this Heroick Prince to Assist the Restoring our Paths in the Establishment of our Religion and Laws Secure for Ages Unless Divided through Prejudice and Trifling Disappointments instead of joining as one Arm against our Common Adversaries Abroad regardless of the whole We part into Contemptible Faction and Labour among our selves Or Frighted into a Stupidity at the Very Sight of our Escape we become Unserviceable to our own Advantages Or rather Degenerated by a Vicious Age we have lost our Courage and our Priests their Zeal If the Markets of Fortune do not take up our Thoughts the Fields of Honour are Open to all our Virtues The Desolation in Ireland calls for our Sharpest Resentment and the Outrage of France is a Scene Worthy our Gallantry Things like Men have their Climacterick they may out live but they shall Languish Periods also are set the Harvest of Impiety may be Ripe for the Avenger and the Visible Concurrence of Human Means is a Sign the Decree is gone out The Authorities are too many to be Repeated and discoursed upon in the Compass of a Letter but they are Known and Satisfactory to All whose Interest affection or long habit of maxim controuls not the Use of their Judgment And too strong to be confuted in a Day when the most Noble Part of Liberty the Dictates of Reason are allowed Vouching to Us That Kings by a General Derogation from the Laws they are Trusted to Support may Distress Themselves It is not Impossible but Liberty Regained in One Quarter of the World may sound Charmingly into Another and Wisdom Prevail against Bigotry to an Empty Name Constitution of Government and Ancient Laws may gain a Preference before the Will or Empire and Considerate People groaning under Heavy Burthens if a Friendly Hand appears to Ease then Shoulders may incline to throw them down and hearken after a clear Possession of Religion and Property with Old Age under their own Vines and Fig-Trees rather than Fatigue in Slavery to be Driven up and down as Chaff by the Breath of Lust and Training up their Children from Generation to Generation to Pall Untimely Sacrifices to the Wild Efforts of Ambition Nor is any Prince so far above the Reach of Fate but if the Happy and Wise Restorer prove Comprehensive to Fix Nations upon their Respective Solid Interests Uniting Contraries as in the Body of Man so to Ballance and from thence to Work up one mighty Compound in the Bodies of State but the Nursery of the Cardinal may happen to End in Convincing the Oppressor The Time I parted with to Undress the Commissioner in my Last my Lord was to come the Better at the Adviser in This and tho' I might reduce the Historian to another Character with Ease yet taking no Pleasure in Accusation I will consider some Paragraphs in the beginning of your Second introducing me to your Notions of Councel at the Latter End and refer all the Rest to Those who more Concern'd in the Reflections may if they think Fit find a more Compendious Way of Answer The First Paragraph of the Letter 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 a
of Treason to destroy the Person of a King within the Statute of 25 Ed. 3d. What greater Invasion can there be than when Judges shall Force in upon Express Words of Law and Kill a Man by a Rule of Court. The Statute says That if any Person beyond Sea at the time of an Outlawry for High Treason surrenders himself within a Year after he shall have leave to Traverse the Indictment upon which the Outlawry is grounded and be admitted to Tryal What can be inferred from these Words but if the King will Execute him upon that Outlawry he must have Patience till the Year Expires Otherwise a Fair Tryal must be allowed for who can tell but it may come into his Heart to deliver himself to Justice according to the Forms of that Law the very last Point of the Year And are not those Invading Judges whom the Law Trusts not only to be Councel for the Prisoner but directs them to expound all Penal Laws most Beneficially in favour of Life to send a Subject in Cool Blood Nay which is worse to force the Natural Born Subject of a Free State out of their own Dominions send him out of the World upon these Terms and Sanctifie it with the Name of an Execution this my Lord is Invasion also and Conspiracy Or when the Law is Positive that Men must be tryed in the County where the Facts are Committed and be Executed in the same County where they receive Judgment for the Prerogative Dealers to gratify the Vain Humour of a King and Mount a Chief Justice only to send a Wretch contrary to Law to be put to Death at the Head of a Regiment in Terror forsooth that the Rest may continue more Unlawfully together than he Deserted them These are Invasions my Lord that have been may encountred with that which is no Invasion but Reprisal of the People's Rights and Liberties Such Invasions as made the Renowned Hales Foreseeing our Dangers from Colour of Law say The Twelve Red-coats in Westminster-Hall where capable of Doing the Nation more Violence than Twenty Thousand in the Field But my Lord if so soon after that Kings Ascending the Throne as the Unfortunate Duke of Monmouth's Last Return into England you began Vehemently to suspect Things were Running apace towards the Endangering Our Religion and Laws so that you could not be induced by all his Majesties reiterated Commands to go on with the Work of History because you must have Blemished the Reputation that is Libelled the Innocence of some Persons of Honour One would think That Vehemence of Suspicion might have grown into Satisfaction in less than Three Years and your Lordship have broke loose from the Conspirators long before the Tryal of the Bishops The Twelfth page of the Letter Next my Lord having mentioned my being concerned in the Commission for the Diocess of London in that I had the good Fortune to be Joyned with an Excellent Person my Lord Bishop of Peterborough And we can both truly say that as we entered 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 their Full Profits and Priviledges of their Places We faithfully maintained the Rights of his Bishopprick and Once in the Kings own Presence against his Majesties Express Inclinations in a business of no less Concernment than my Lord Mayor 's Chappel We never invaded any of my Lord Bishops Preferments that fell Void in that Interval We disposed 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 Diocess 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 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 Answer I am apt to think the Bishop of Peterborough had as far my Lord of London's Good-will in that Commission as was possible for so Faithful a Bishop to consent that any but himself should execute his Trust because from the Character of that Bishop he might under the Necessity of his Affairs hope for Performance and Good Offices but your Lordship of Rochester who sate Illegally in the Grand Commission and in Favour at Court have no reason to flatter your self but the Appearance of my Lord of London's Good-will toward you in the matter was Prevention And we to whose Reading you issue out this Manifesto can take it for no other than a Continuance of your Regard for that Commission which suspended him The Jurnal you present us with of Eine Carriage c. during the time of your exercising that Jurisdiction with the Excellent Bishop of Peterborough has this Melancholy in it too my Lord That the Excellencies of my Lord of Peterborough one way compared at that time with your Excellencies another it may be thought his Excellency carried in the Medium Nor yet could you have done otherwise for the most Pious and Learned Clergy in the World must have concluded you quite out of the Protestant Religion if you had not maintained the Rights of the Bishoprick in the inferiour Respects you mention and every Body living beside would have believed you gone into Utter Darkness or in very great and Personal Hatred to the Bishop of London if a Suspension from which an ordinary submission would discharge him as you have said should lay his Lordship so low in your Esteem Or so Immediate in your Fear of displeasing the Court as to turn out his Officers and Abandon him to that Extremity or render him so Obnoxious as not to be consulted in the disposal of his Vacant Preferments Especially when the Papists did not value what Heretick you put in so the Game was kept on till the Managers were ready to Sweep and Distinguish at once But a Thinking Man my Lord will summ up all this and resolve from it That you sate Knowingly in the Ecclesiastical Commission because you acted Discreetly in
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
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
share in one or two other Public Affairs of the late Times as obliges me to a second Defence Though I have always thought that next to the Committing Offences nothing can be more grievous to an Ingenuous Mind than to be put upon the Necessity of making Apologies Answer Upon what Terms the Powerful Earl of Dorset admitted your Person accepted and recommended your Plea is strange to none who have the Honour to know that Lord the Strength of his Unquestionable Judgment gave Way to the Object of his Compassion But if his Lordship had vouchsafed me leave to Publish such a Plea a Thought would have come in my Head that he put me upon my Country and the most I could hope from his Indulgence was that if they found me Guilty of Ignorance he would not Trouble himself to Charge me with more Understanding than my Present Circumstances required and from that Minute should have determined with what regard to move towards his Lordship in a Second For tho' Easy to be intreated is the very Note of Greatness and from the Consideration of Infirmity the worst of Men sink gently with them nor is Disdain to be seen in their Countenances without a Line of Charity Yet on the other side my Lord the Uncorrect Looseness of Argument Profanes Honour and Care is to be taken by Men of Talent least the Dignity of the Patronage lessen in the Presumption of the Client Not that the Gravity of your Pen ought to approach his Lordship with the Ceremony of an Ambassador nor yet my Lord after a Daub of vain Complement with such an Indifference or Negligence of Hand as if your Design was upon the Quality not the Authority you Address to A Meen between both agreeable to the Case with respect to the Person Soft but withal Masculine is far better Written to a Lord than It was my chance I know not How to have a share c. That Language cannot Usher an Apology with Reputation into the Opinion of the most Uncurious I fancy after one Letter with so much Ignorance in it such was my Unhappiness to have Share c. A Style more becoming your Condition my Lord than Chance or I know not how in another More pressing into the Good Nature of the English-man because the One has in it a Symptom of Reluctancy the Other of Force or Disaffection and Looks as if the Man was Still the same Inward which Heaven forbid but our Redemption against his Will had put him to the Necessity of Apology for his Share in the Enslaving Us. It was your Chance you know not how in your Sleep it may be to have a great many Papers Conveyed under your Pillow which made you Dream of Black-birds and Gold-finches of Goose Quills and Crow Quills Assassinations and Bow upon Bow where the Steeple of Bow brought in the Story of the Cross-Bow and a Thousand Fantastio Miscellanies the Ramble of a Mercurial Working-Brain And from the Natural Aversion you have to any Business that may Reflect Severely your Inclination rather leading you 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 For instance my Lord Tarentum in your Satyr upon the French Historiographer where you bring in the Presbyterians pleasing Themselves with Expectation of Religious Liberty from a Share they had in the Restoration of Charles the Second or Troubled at Forgetting the Promise of Breda and from the Innate Healing Quality you are indued with rather to commend too much what in the least seems well done than to aggravate what is ill done by others Charity all over you submit to honour them as thus far Contributory to the Blessed Work That if they had not Driven him Out he had never been restored From that natural Aversion you have to Reflect your Inclination we all know leading you to Panegyrick between sleeping and waking your Lordship Writ That which King James the Second Calling for the Papers and having Read them and Altered divers Passages not Telling Us what those Alterations are but no doubt for the Good of the Protestant Religion Caused to be Printed by his own Authority Perfectly against your Will as to be seen before the Book and in every Line of it your Lordship being wholly Passive and rather bearing a Share of Grief for the Victims than Contributing to the Fall of their Honours the Dearest part of Them after Dispatching their Bodies and Came Out under the Name of History deserving another Denomination And when the Benign Virulency of your Wit had pursued Men with Uncharitable Characters beyond Death with more Delight than Constraint of Mind Et quae Poeticis magis Decora Fabulis quam Incorruptis rerum gestarum Monument is tradenda fuerunt no sooner is the Artillery turned but you are in Passion for my Lord Russel you Lamented after you had been Fully Convinc'd by Discourse with the Reverend Dean of Canterbury of that Noble Gentleman's great Probity and Constant Abhorrence of Falsehood Delicate Words But that was a good while after you say such was your Ignorance of the Upright but Obscure Lord. Russel your Lordship who had liv'd so many Years about the Town could not be Convinced of his Probity till after he had suffered Martyrdom any more than you understood his Grace of Canterbury took Exception to the Legality of the Ecclesiastical Commission till after my Lord of London had been Cited Appeared had Answered and the Unjust Sentence past upon him Ignorance and Chance by your own Account have carried the Ascendant over the Last Scenes of your Life my Lord in a wonderful Manner But a Reader less Tender than your Answerer tho' he would not altogether disown the Philosophy that Accident governs the World Adding in Subordination to Providence for Chance makes Cases here Engaging Men for the better Connection in Support of Societies to Mutual Obligation by unexpected Standing in Need One of Another Yet by the Course of your Actions from the time of a Certain Sermon for which you had No Thanks and from whence such is the Curse of Variance between a King and Subjects the People receive the Banished from Court and the Court Embraces the Disregarded by the People some derive your Advancement and Others your Misfortune From that Hour my Lord to the day of the Bishops Tryal above Eight Years in a State of Ignorance and Chance as you carelesly alledge but of most Dangerous Observance as Sense interprets such a Reader my Lord would sooner imagine the Parts were made for the Sake of the Representer knowing how well they Suited his Genius to Describe them than that Chance brought your Lordship so often and so Artificially upon the Stage He that with a Common Eye looks into this your Second Letter shall find in it Expostulation no Apology Raised above that by the First Admittance Remorse Vanishes the least Shadow of Condescension to Chance and