not who thought Dr. Tillotson deserved the Praises he has given him I should be sorry that an Apostate and an Apostate by his own Confession should be his Encomiast and transmit his Memory to Posterity For Divines that contradict themselves and their most serious Doctrines which they pressed upon the Consciences of Men as he hath done are always to be Suspected and as for himself he above all others hath brought upon himself the Fate of Cassandra and is not to be believ'd when he speaks Truth upon his own Authority And if what I have hitherto said will not justifie the Severity of this Censure I hope what I am going to write will In his first Letter to my Lord Middleton bearing Date the 27th of May 1687. he tells his Lordship That few have preacht more than himself against all sorts of Treasonable Doctrines and Practices and particularly against the Lawfulness of rising in Arms upon account of Religion I have preacht a whole Sermon at the Hague saith he against all Treasonable Doctrines and Practices and in particular against the Lawfulness of Subjects rising in Arms against their Sovereigns upon the account of Religion and I have maintained this both in Publick and Private so that I could if I thought it convenient give Proofs of it that would make all my Enemies ashamed As often as I have talked with Sir John Cochran I took occasion to repeat my Opinion of the Duty of Subjects to submit and bear all the ill Administration that might be in the Government but never to rise in Arms upon that Account And in his third Letter to his Lordship bearing Date Hague 27. June 1687. he concludes with these Words But to the last Moment of my Life I will pay all Duty and Fidelity to his Majesty And yet before the Date of these Letters wherein he makes such high and solemn Professions of his Principles of Loyalty and of his Duty to the King he was engaged in one of the Deepest and most Heinous Treasons that Subject was ever engaged in against his Sovereign I mean in perswading the Princess of Orange to Consent to the unnatural Invasion of her Father's Kingdom by the Prince which then was resolv'd upon and with him to take his Crown if the Invasion should succeed This he thought so meritorious and honourable a Piece of Service that soon after he came to London he could not deny himself the Satisfaction of telling some Friends That he was the Man pitcht upon to break the Design of deposing the King her Father to her Royal Highness Two Years before the Revolution and that he gained her Consent upon Condition that the Prince might assume the Royal Power with her and be Crowned before her He told it to this purpose in the Deanry-house of St. Pauls and for the Truth of it I appeal to the then Dean of that Church Dr. Stillingfleet and to the worthy Bishop of Peterborough I mean Dr. White who was present when he spoke to that Effect and I make bold to mention his good Name because he hath spoken of it in many Places and to this Authority I could add that of a Right honourable Person of great Esteem in whose Hearing he spake in another Place to the same purpose Let this be written upon his Monument and embalm his Memory to Posterity That he was the Man who perswaded the yet innocent Daughter Absalon like to conspire the Destruction of her Father and to seize his Throne This he did against a King who according to his own Expression of the King his Father was by a (a) Serm. on the 30 of January 1674. p. 7. Tract of undisputed Succession what Saul was by immediate Revelation God's Anointed And after he had done it he again promised Fidelity to him to the last Moment of his Life and after that again invaded his Kingdom and used him the worst of all his Enemies I have been told that he was a Year in overcoming that unhappy Princess into this unnatural Resolution and if any one desire to know what Arguments and of what Sort he used to pervert her I am of Opinion he may find them in a French Book called Le Salut de la France which was written by Mounsieur Jurieu a French Minister to perswade the Dauphin of France to whom it is addressed to dethrone his Father They were both great Acquaintance one with the other both lived together in Holland both great Enthusiasts both acted with the utmost Revenge against their respective Sovereigns both engaged in the Interests of the Confederacy and it would be very strange if two such Wits and Incendiaries so agreeing in their Temper Design and their way of Writing should not jump in their Arguments on this Subject At the same time he was at work with the Princess he wrote many Seditious Libels to disaffect the People of these Kingdoms against the King contrary not only to his professed Fidelity but to the Respect he had before pretended was due to Crown'd Heads In his (b) P. 6. Reflections on Varillas he pretends That the sublime Character of a Crowned Head laid a restraint on those Groans which he would otherwise vent in behalf of the French Refugees And in his Letter to Mounsieur Thavenot he is very severe upon M. le Grand for speaking hardly of our Henry VIII telling him That there is a Reverence due to the Ashes of Kings which ought to make us speak of their Faults in the safest Words and avoid such reproachful ones as Lying and Imposture To which M. le Grand cries out in his Note upon that Passage Behold this Man who fills England and France with the most Seditious and Outragious Libels that were ever made against any Prince speaking at this rate And I say behold this Man with all his Fidelity to his own King and all the Respect he had professed to Crown'd Heads treating his own Sovereign as if he had not been anointed with Oyl At Exeter he would not let them say the Morning and Evening Prayer for the King's Majesty at Salisbury he sat down when it was said and at another Place in their March when a Noble Lord out of Respect to his Master 's Crown'd and Hoary Head asked him this Question with disdain What then must we do with the King He presently answered He must be deposed He must be deposed At St. James's he took upon him to require Mr. West whom I ought to mention with Honour to leave off praying for him and the Prince of Wales (a) See Tempora Mutantur p. 5. for whom though he had often prayed by Name in the Chapel Royal at the Hague yet in his Measures of Submission and Obedience he calls him a base Imposture for which if Men do not God in his appointed time will call him unto Judgment In his (b) P. 167. History of the Rights of Princes he calls the War which the Children of King Lewis began against their
which I commiserate from my heart but am much more concerned that you do not leave the World in a Delusion and false Peace to the hindrance of your Eternal Happiness I heartily Pray for you and beseech your Lordship to believe that I am with the greatest Sincerity and Compassion in the World My Lord Your Lordships most Faithful and Afflicted Servant J. Tillotson Printed for R. Baldwin 1683. No. IV. To the KING' 's most Excellent Majesty James the Second c. The Humble Address of the Bishops and Clergy of the City of London WE your Majesties most humble and Dutiful Subjects do heartily condole your Majestie 's loss of so dear a Brother of Blessed Memory And do thankfully adore that Divine Providence which hath so Peaceably setled your Majesty our Rightful Sovereign Lord upon the Throne of your Ancestors to the joy of all your Majesties good Subjects And as the Principles of our Church have taught us our Duty to our Prince so we most humbly thank your Majesty for making our Duty so Easie and pleasant by your gracious assurance to defend our Religion established by Law which is dearer to us than our Lives In a deep sence whereof we acknowledg our selves for ever bound not only in Duty but gratitude to contribute all we can by our Prayers our Doctrine and Example to your Majesties happy and prosperous Reign And with our most sincere promises of all Faith and Allegiance do humbly implore the Divine goodness to preserve your Majesties Person and to establish your Throne in this World and when he shall be pleased to Translate you hence to bestow on you an Eternal Crown of Life and Glory No. V. IN the Name of God Amen Before the Lord Jesus Christ Judge of the Quick and Dead We long since became bound by Oath upon the sacred Evangelical Book unto our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England That we as long as we lived shall bear true Allegiance and fidelity towards him and his Heirs succeeding him in the Kingdom by just Title Right and Line according to the Statutes and Custom of this Realm have here taken unto us certain Articles subscribed in form following to be proponed heard and tryed before the just Judge Christ Jesus and the whole World But if which God forbid by force Fear or violence of wicked Persons we shall be cast in Prison or by violent Death be prevented so as in this world we shall not be able to prove the said Articles as we wish Then we do appeal to the high Celestial Judge that he may judge and discern the same in the day of his supream Judgment First we depose say and except and intend to prove against Henry Darby commonly called King of England himself pretending the same but without all Right and Title thereunto and against his adherents fautors Complices that they have ever been are and will be Traytors Invaders and Destroyers of God's Church and of our Sovereign Lord Richard late King of England his heirs his Kingdom and Common-wealth as shall hereafter manifestly appear In the Second Article they declare him Forsworn Prejured and Excommunicate for that he conspired against his Sovereign Lord King Richard In the Fourth they recite by what wrong illegall and false means he exalted himselfe into the Throne of of the Kingdom and then describing the miserable State of the Nation which followed after his Usurpation they again pronounce him Perjured and Excommunicate In the Fifth Article they set forth in what a Barbarous and inhuman manner Henry and his Accomplices Imprisoned and Murthered K. Richard and then cry out wherefore O England arise stand up and avenge the Cause the Death and injury of thy King and Prince If thou do not take this for certain that the Righteous God will Destroy thee by strange Invasions and foreign Power and avenge himself on thee for this so horrible an Act. In The Seventh they depose against him for putting to Death not only Lords Spiritual and other Religious Men but also divers of the Lords Temporal there Named for which they pronounce him Excommunicate In the Ninth they say and depose that the Realm of England never Flourished nor Prospered after he Tyrannically took upon him the Government of it And in the Last they Depose and protest for themselves and K. Richard and his Heirs the Clergy and Commonwealth of the whole Realm that they intended neither in word nor deed to offend any State of men in the Realm but to prevent the approaching Destruction of it and beseeching all men to favour them and their designs whereof the First was to Exalt to the Kingdom the true and lawful Heir and him to Crown in Kingly Throne with the Diadem of England No. VI. THat all Parliaments and Ambitious selfe seekers in them who under pretence of publick Reformation Liberty the Peoples ease or welfare have by indirect Surmise Policies Practices Force and new Devices most Usurped upon the Prerogatives of their Kings or the Persons Lives Offices or Estates of such Nobles great Officers and other Persons of a contrary Party whom they most dreaded maligned and which have imposed new Oaths upon the Members to secure perpetuate and make irrevocable their own Acts Judgments and unrighteous Proceedings have always proved most abortive successless pernicious to themselves and the activest Instruments in them The Parliaments themselves being commonly totally repealed null'd and the Grandees in them suppressed impeached condemned destroyed as Traytors and Enemies to the Publick in the very next succeeding Parliaments or not very long after That Kings Created and set up meerly by Parliaments and their own Power in them without any true Hereditary Title have seldom answer'd the Lords and Commons Expectations in the Preservation of their just Laws Liberties and Answers to their Petitions yea themselves at last branded for Tyrants Traytors Murderers Usurpers Their Posterities impeached of High-Treason and disinherited of the Crown by succeeding Kings and Parliaments of c. From these Three last Observations we may learn that as Parliaments are the best of all Courts and Councils when duly Summoned Convened Constituted Ordered and kept within their Legal Bounds So they become the greatest Mischiefs and Grievances to the Kingdom when like the Ocean they overflow their banks or degenerate and become through Sedition Malice Fear or Infatuation by Divine Justice promoters of corrupt sinister Ends or Accomplishers of the private Designs and ambitious Interests of particular Persons under the disguise of Publick Reformation Liberty Safety and Settlement No. VII ALtho' it can no way be doubted but that His Majesty's Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way Compleat by the Death of His most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony and Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such Cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this Occasion testify their Duty and Respect And since the Armed Violence and
notice of For P. Paulo was himself one of the Seven there being but Six employed by the Senate besides Paulo and the Seven Divines with much Zeal and was very prudently conducted by them In order to the advancing of it King James ordered his Ambassador to offer all possible Assistance and to accuse the Pope and the Papacy as the chief Authors of all the Mischiefs of Christendom P. Paulo and the Seven Divines pressed Mr. Bedel to move the Ambassador to present King James's PREMONITION TO ALL CHRISTIAN PRINCES AND STATES then put in Latin to the Senate and they were confident it would produce a great Effect But the Ambassador could not be prevailed with to do it at that Time and pretended that since St. James's day was not far off it would be more proper to do it on that day If this was only for the sake of a Speech that he had made on the Conceit of St. James's Day and King James's Book with which he had pretended to present it it was a Weakness never to be excused But if this was only a Pretence and that there was a Design under it it was a Crime never to be forgiven All that Bedel could say or do to perswade him not to put off a Thing of such Importance was in vain and indeed I can hardly think that Wootton was so weak a Man as to have acted Sincerely in this Matter Before St. James's Day came the Difference was made up and the happy Opportunity was lost so that when he had his Audience on that Day in which he presented the Book all the Answer he could get was That they thanked the King of England for his good Will but they were now reconciled to the Pope It may be easily imagined what a Wound this was to his Chaplain Behold here a Story as false as formal and great pity it is that Sir H. Wootton's Heir if any such be alive now to represent him should not have the Benefit of an Action against our Historian to repair the Honour of his Ancestor which is so deeply wounded by him For if this Story were punctually true it would not bear the severe Reflections which he hath made upon Sir H. for it because he might not think fit to follow his Chaplain's Advice without order from the King his Master which he might hope to receive before St. James's Day and yet for private Reasons not think sit to tell his Chaplain the Reason of his Delay But the Story must needs be false because the King's Book of which he makes mention was not then extant For the Pope and the Venetians were reconciled in (a) Bed Hist of the Ven. Interd p. 218. April 1607. and the King's Premonition came not out till 1609. Nor will it help him to say That this was only a Mistake of the Premonition for the Apology which was Reprinted with it and to which in the King 's own Phrase it was a Preamble For the first Edition of the Apology was as little extant before the Reconciliation mentioned as the Premonition For that which occasioned the King's Writing the Apology as himself tells us was the Two Breves sent over by the Pope and Cardinal Bellarmin's Letter and the later of the Breves bears date from Rome but in August 23 1607. and the Letter September 28 following By which it appears that the Reconciliation was made several Months before either of these were written and longer before they could come to the King's hand longer yet before he could finish the Apology in English and again longer before it could be put into Latin From whence it appears That this fine told Story which so dishonours the Memory of Sir H. Wootton to Honour that of his Chaplain is a pure Fiction and as much the Birth of some Bodies Brain as ever any Thing the Vanity of Varillas wrote was his But to go on with the Inventions of our Historian p. 17. he saith That P. Paulo might never be forgot by Bedel he gave him his Picture the invaluable Manuscript of the History of the Council of Trent together with the History of the Interdict and of the Inquisition No Body doubts of Father Paul's Kindness to Mr. Bedel but it will appear that these Tokens of it are more than questionable from what follows First as to his Picture he that reads his Life will scarce believe he was so forward to give his Picture or that he had it to give (a) Life of Father Paul Lond. p. 76. For he would never let his Picture be drawn from the Natural notwithstanding it were desired by Kings and great Princes And although many of his Pictures go abroad for Originals yet they are all but Copies of one which is said to be in the Gallery of a great King which was taken against his Will and by a Stratagem But for himself this may give Assurance that he did not endure to have his Picture drawn because in the last Years of his Life being intreated by the most illustrious and excellent Dominico Molin and likewise by his Confident Fra. Fulgentio being set on to beseech him yet it could not be obtained so much as to give a famous Painter leave to take his Picture though he was promised he should not sit above an Hour Whosoever considers this Account and more to the same purpose in the same Place must needs think that the Father had no Picture of himself to give Mr. Bedel Indeed there is mention of an Original Picture of the Fathers sent by (b) Bedel's Life p. 255. Sir H. Wootton to Dr. Collins but by the Account I have given out of the Father's Life which was written by a great Friend of his it must have been that which he saith was in the Gallery of a great King or one taken by the like Stratagem Secondly as to the History of the Council of Trent it was not extant when Mr. Bedel left Venice as may be gathered from a Letter of (c) Reliq Wootton p. 493. Sir H. Wootton's written in 1619. or perhaps 1618. wherein it is mentioned as a work then in hand or but newly finished whereas Bedel left Venice in 1610. Thirdly as to the History of the Interdict it was indeed lent by the Father at Venice to Mr. Bedel but with this Condition as he himself tells us in the Epistle prefixt to the Translation that he should not transcribe it and if he had given it to him when he parted with him there is no doubt but Bedel would also have mentioned that Lastly for the History of the Inquisition there are some Passages in it which shew plainly That it was not then in Being For there is mention made in it not only of Things which happen'd in 1610. just upon the return of Mr. Bedel but also 1607. which appears not to be a Mistake in the Print by a Character there added that it was 48 Years after 1569. which makes the Year 1610. Page 18. he saith
added preserve its self by means so evidently contrary to the very Nature and End of Religion This is Dr. Tillotson's fam'd Character of Religion and not to descant in long Applications upon it I desire my Reader to consider if it is not as applicable to the New as to the Old Fifth of November and the Worthies of the Protestants as well as the Popish Religion who conspired against James the Second as these did against James the First Tell me O ye Worthies of the Church of England who have hazarded your Lives and Fortunes to preserve our Religion Is it more lawful to Plot and Rebel for holy Church of England than for holy Church of Rome And is it not as much Priestcraft in our Divines to applaud you as Worthies for so doing as it was in the Pope to compare the Duke of Guise and his Partizans to those Jewish Worthies Jephtha Gideon and the Maccabees and do you not despise them for their sordid Flattery of you in open Contradiction to their own Doctrines and the Principles of that Religion which they pretend still to profess May I not say with Dr. Till against himself (a) Serm. Vol. 3. p. 77. That a Miracle is not enough to give Credit to a Man who teaches Things so contrary to the Nature of Religion and that (b) P. 20. the Heathen Philosophers are better Casuists than he This he said of the Jesuists and the Casuists of the Church of Rome for maintaining the Lawfulness of deposing Kings and subverting Government and yet without Blushing he maintained the Lawfulness of this in commending you But this is but one Instance of acting in contradiction to his own Doctrine when the appointed time of tryal came there are many more so well known that I need not mention them For indeed his whole Practice since the Revolution hath been one Series of Apostacy and by which he hath not only dishonoured his Memory and made all his other Good be evil spoken of but been a Scandal to our holy Church and Religion to which our Preacher saith he was such an Honour given the Enemies of them great occasion to Triumph their best and most stedfast Friends great occasion of Grief and Shame And lastly tempted loose and unprincipled Men to turn Atheists and ridicule our Priesthood and Religion and this he hath been told of in such different manners that I do not wonder (c) Fun. Serm. p. 27. it sank deep into him and had such influence upon his Health I cannot imagine but that one Letter which was sent to his Lady for him superscribed for Dr. Tillotson must needs disquiet him very much if he received it and read it It is written throughout with a serious Air and every Line of it speaks to his Conscience and because I know the worthy Gentleman who wrote it and that it is a full and clear Proof of what I have said I present my Reader but more especially the Preacher of his Funeral Sermon with a few Paragraphs of it if he will have the Patience to read them It begins thus (d) Letter p. 2. Sir I shall preface what I am about to say with an Assurance That I have formerly had the greatest Veneration for you as well for your Piety as good Sense and Learning that my Notions of Government are so large that the first Thing I ever doubtfully Examined that had your Name affixed to it was your Letter to my Lord Russel But your Actions since do less quadrate with that Opinion and seriously make me address my self to you to know how you reconcile your present Actings to the Principles either of Natural or Revealed Religion especially how you reconcile them with the Positions and Intentions of that Letter and consequently whether you have a Belief of God and the World to come (a) P. 5. But to come to your more particular Case I beseech you to publish some Discourse if you can clear Things to demonstrate either your Repentance of what you wrote to my Lord Russel or the Reasons that make that and what you now do consistent and that you with the usual Solidity with which you treat upon other Subjects justify the Proceedings and explain the Title of K. W. I know no Body hath a stronger and clearer Head and if you have Truth on your Side you can write unanswerably God's Glory and the Reputation of the Protestant Religion is at Stake Your own good Name calls for it and more especially because you have accepted a most Reverend and Devout Man's Archbishoprick A Man who hath given Evidence how unalterably he is a Protestant A Sufferer formerly for the Laws and Church of England and a Sufferer for those very Principles upon which that Letter to my Lord was written for those very Principles which you disputed for when he had so short a time to Live Nay which you remember'd him of even upon the Scaffold with the dreadful Commination of eternal Woe Really Sir if there be any Truth if there be any Vertue if there be any Religion what shall we say to these Things What will you say to them You must be at the Pains to clear this matter that we may not believe the Boundaries of Right and Wrong the Measures of Violence and Justice quite taken away that we may not be tempted to (b) P. 7. speculative and from thence to practical Atheism This Change has made many sober Men sceptical and gone further towards the eradicating all the Notions of a Deity than all the Labours of Hobs and your part in it hath I confess more stagger'd me than any one Thing else I have been ready to suspect That Religion it self was a Cheat and that it was a Defect in my Un-Understanding that I could not look through it For I think if I can know my Right-hand from my Left our present Government stands upon Foundations that contradict all those Discourses which you as well as others have lent to Passive Obedience The excessive Value I have for you for your Knowledg your Judgment your largeness of Spirit your Moderation and many other great Qualities that have signaliz'd your Name once made you one of the greatest Ornaments of the Christian Church Apostacy from what you preached and wrote pretended to believe and would have others believe shake me so violently in the first Credenda of Religion That I beseech you if you think it necessary upon no other Account that you will publish such a Discourse at least for the Satisfaction of mine and other Men's Consciences who I can assure you of my own Knowledg lie under the same Scruples with my self have the same Scruples in relaion to the Government and the same Temptations to question Religion it self upon your Account (a) P. 8. I beg of God Almighty to lay an happy constraint upon me â—o do what may be most for his Glory and the Good of these Nations and I earnestly supplicate him that