he writ on that occasion But finding that the Prince had already declared himself in those Matters he resolved to insist no further yet his Friend insinuating that he had still hopes to get a more distinct and satisfying Answer from a better hand though without naming the Person he attended the Issue and about the beginning of November almost three moneths after his first writing he received the Pensioner's Letter though he had not writ to him which is repeated again and again and in it an account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's Thoughts about the Repeal of the Tests and Penal Laws which he had not desired upon which he took some care to prevent the publishing of it But when he saw it in print he clearly perceived that it was printed in Holland and so wonders how the Pensioner could say that it was printed in England which he found in his printed Letter to Mr. d' Albeville He knows not upon what Provocation the Pensioner writ that Letter but in it he finds that he writ that he was desired by himself to give him an account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's Thoughts and that these pressing Desires were made to him by His Majestie 's Knowledg and Allowance this being so different from the Letters he had writ of which he is sure that the account he has given is true in every point he was forced to vindicate the King's Honour and his own Duty He writ not out of any curiosity to know their Highnesses Thoughts which were already known they having been signified to the Marquis of Albeville and therefore he had no Orders from the King for writing on that Subject but only a Permission to use his little Endeavors for the advancing of his Service but it was never moved to him to write either in the King's Name or in the Name of any of his Secretaries This is Mr. Stewart's Account in the first nine Pages of his Letter and is set down in his own words Now in opposition to all this it will appear from the following Extracts that Mr. Stewart writ to his Friend as the most proper Interpreter for addressing himself to the Pensioner that he repeated his Proposition frequently finding his Friend unwilling to engage in so Critical a matter He gives great Assurances of His Majesties Resolutions never to alter the Succession which is plainly the Language of a Treaty he presses over and over again to know the Prince's Mind whose concurrence in the Matter would be the best Guarentee of the Liberty He by Name desires his Letters may be shewed to the Prince and Princess of Orange though he says he only ordered them to be shewed to Friends at the Hague so it seems he has the modesty to reckon them among the number of his Friends but it is a question whether their Highnesses do so or not he says in one Letter That what he writ was from his Majesty himself and enlarges more fully on this in two other Letters and he desires that the Princes Answers with his Reasons might be understood which very probably gave the occasion to all the reasoning part of the Pensioner's Letter and it appears by that Letter that the Return to all this was expected by the King and in almost every Letter he presses for a Return And in Conclusion upon his receiving the Pensioner's Letter he expresses likewise a great sense of the Honour done him in it that he had so far complied with his Insignificant Endeavours he mentions his acquainting both the King and the Earls of Sunderland and Melfort with it and in another Letter after new Thanks for the Pensioner's Letter he laments that it was so long delayed But all these things will appear more evident to the Reader from the Passages drawn out of Mr. Stewart's own Letters which follow Mr. Stewart seems not to know upon what provocation the Pensioner writ to Mr. d' Albeville and yet the Pensioner had set that forth in the Letter it self for the Pamphlet entituled Parliamentum Pacificum that was licensed by the Earl of Sunderland contained such Reflections on his Letter to Mr. Stewart either as a Forgery or as a thing done without the Princess of Orange's knowledg that the Pensioner judged himself bound in honour to do himself right As for Mr. Stewart's criticalness in knowing that the Pensioner's Letter was first printed in Holland and his Reflection on the Pensioner for insinuating that the Letter was first printed in England it is very like that Mr. Stewart after so long a practice in Libels knows how to distinguish between the Prints of the several Nations better than the Pensioner whose course of Life has raised him above all such Practices But it is certain that wheresoever it was first printed the Pensioner writ sincerely and believed really that it was first printed in England This is all that seemed necessary to be said for an Introduction to the following Extracts July 12 1687. AND I assure you by all I can find here the Establishment of this equal Liberty is his Majesty's utmost Design I wish your People at the Hague do not mistake too far both his Majesty and the Dissenters for as I have already told you his Majesty's utmost Design and have ground to belive that his Majesty will preserve and observe the true Right of Succession as a thing most sacred so I must entreat you to remark that the Offence that some of the Church-of-England-Men take at Addressing seems to me unaccountable and is apprehended by the Dissenters to proceed so certainly from their former and wonted Spirit that they begin to think themselves in large more hazard from the Church of England's Re-exaltation than all the Papists their Advantages And next that the Prince is thought to be abused by some there to a too great Mislike of that which can never wrong him but will in probability in the Event be wholly in his own Power I hope you will consider and make your best use of these things I expect an account of this per first I mean an Answer to this Letter and pray improve it to the best Advantage The Second Letter without a Date THat it is a thing most certain that his Majesty is resolved to observe the Succession to the Crown as a thing most Sacred and is far from all thoughts of altering the same and that his Majesty is very desirous to have the Prince and Princess of Orange to consent to concur with him in establishing this Liberty So that upon the whole it may be feared that if the Prince continue obstinate in refusing his Majesty he may fall under suspitions of the greatest part of England and of all Scotland to be too great a Favourer of the Church of England and consequently a Person whom they have reason to dread And many think that this Compliance in the Prince might be further a wise part both as to the conciliating of his Majesty's greater Favour and
Establishment that our Religion has by Law so it is the main body of the Nation and all the Sects are but small and stragling Parties and if the legal Settlement of the Church is dissolved and that Body is once broken these lesser Bodies will be all at mercy and it is an easie thing to define what the Mercies of the Church of Rome are XIII But tho' it must be confessed that the Nonconformists are still under some Temptations to receive every thing that gives them present ease with a little too much kindness since they lie exposed to many severe Laws of which they have of late felt the weight very heavily and as they are men and some of them as ill-natured men as other People so it is no wonder if upon the first Surprises of the Declaration they are a little delighted to see the Church of England after all its Services and Submissions to the Court so much mortified by it so that taking all together it will not be strange if they commit some Follies upon this occasion Yet on the other hand it passes all imagination to see some of the Church of England especially those whose Natures we know are so particularly sharpned in the point of Persecution chiefly when it is levelled against the Dissenters rejoyce at this Declaration and make Addresses upon it It is hard to think that they have attained to so high a pitch of Christian Charity as to thank those who do now despitefully use them and that as an earnest that within a little while they will persecute them This will be an Original and a Master-piece in Flattery which must needs draw the last degrees of Contempt on such as are capable of so abject and sordid a compliance and that not only from all the true Members of the Church of England but likewise from those of the Church of Rome it self for every man is apt to esteem an Enemy that is brave even in his Misfortunes as much as he despises those whose minds sink with their Condition For what is it that these men would thank the King Is it because he breaks those Laws that are made in their favour and for their Protection and is now striking at the Root of all the legal Settlement that they have for their Religion Or is it because that at the same time that the King professes a Religion that condemns his Supremacy yet he is not contented with the Exercise of it as it is warranted by Law but carries it so far as to erect a Court contrary to the express words of a Law that was so lately made That Court takes care to maintain a due proportion between their Constitution and all their Proceedings that so all may be of a piece and all equally contrary to Law. They have suspended one Bishop only because he would not do that which was not in his power to do for since there is no Extrajudiciary Authority in England a Bishop can no more proceed to a Sentence of Suspension against a Clergy man without a Trial and the hearing of Parties than a Judge can give a Sentence in his Chamber without an Indictment a Trial or a Jury and because one of the Greatest Bodies of England would not break their Oaths and obey a Mandate that plainly contradicted them we see to what a pitch this is like to be carried I will not anticipate upon this illegal Court to tell what Judgments are coming but without carrying our Jealousies too far one may safely conclude that they will never depart so far from their first Institution as to have any regard either to our Religion or our Laws or Liberties in any thing they do If all this were acted by avowed Papists as we are sure it is projected by such there were nothing extraordinary in it but that which carries our Indignation a little too far to be easily governed is to see some pretended Protestants and a few Bishops among those that are the fatal Instruments of pulling down the Church of England and that those Mercenaries sacrifice their Religion and their Church to their Ambition and Interests this has such peculiar Characters of Misfortune upon it that it seems it is not enough if we perish without Pity since we fall by that hand that we have so much supported and fortified but we must become the Scorn of all the World since we have produced such an unnatural Brood that even while they are pretending to be the Sons of the Church of England are cutting their Mother's Throat and not content with Judas's Crime of saying Hail Master and kissing him while they are betraying him into the hands of others these carry their Wickedness further and say Hail Mother and then they themselves Murther her If after all this we were called on to bear this as Christians and to suffer it as Subjects if we were required in Patience to possess our own Souls and to be in Charity with our Enemies and which is more to forgive our False-Brethren who add Treachery to their Hatred The Exhortation were seasonable and indeed a little necessary for human Nature cannot easily take down things of such a hard digestion but to tell us that We must make Addresses and offer Thanks for all this is to insult a little too much upon us in our Sufferings And he that can believe that a dry and cautiously worded Promise of maintaining the Church of England will be religiously observed after all that we have seen and is upon that carried so far out of his Wits as to Address and give Thanks and will believe still such a man has nothing to excuse him from believing Transubstantiation it self for it is plain that he can bring himself to believe even when the thing is contrary to the clearest Evidence that his Senses can give him Si populus hic vult decipi decipiatur POSCRIPT THese Reflections were writ soon after the Declaration came to my Hands but the Matter of them was so tender and the Conveyance of them to the Press was so uneasie that they appear now too late to have one Effect that was designed by them which was the diverting Men from making Addresses upon it yet if what is here proposed makes Men become so far wise as to be ashamed of what they have done and is a means to keep them from carrying their Courtship further than good Words this Paper will not come too late AN ANSWER TO Mr. HENRY PAYNE's LETTER Concerning His MAJESTY's DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE Writ to the Author of The LETTER to a DISSENTER Mr. PAYNE I Cannot hold asking you how much Money you had from the Writer of the Paper which you pretend to Answer For as you have the Character of a Man that deals with both Hands so this is writ in such a manner as to make one think you were hired to it by the Adverse Party But it has been indeed so ordinary to your Friends to write in this manner of late
the begetting of an understanding betwixt the King and the States and the Parliament will consent to the Liberty so much the rather that they have a Protestant Successor in prospect I cannot on these things make any Conclusion but simply leave them to your Reflection and the best use you please to make of them I will expect your Answer per first Windsor July 18. 1687. THE Hints that I gave you in my two former Letters I shall now explain more fully in this And therefore I heartily wish that the Prince and Princess may understand all that you think needful on this Subject it troubles his Majesty to find them so averse from approving this Liberty and concurring for its Establishment so that in truth I cannot see why their Highnesses should not embrace cheerfully so fair an Opportunity to gratify both his Majesty and the far greater and better part of the Nation Now upon the whole I expect that you will make all I have written fully known at the Hague especially with the Prince But the main thing I expect from you is to have your Mind whether or not his Highness may be so disposed as that a well chosen Informer sent to himself might perfect the work And this Answer I will expect per first where-ever the Prince be you know who are to be spoken and how I again entreat your Care and Dispatch in this with your Return London July 29. 1687. MIne of the 9 / 19 July with my last of the 26th July V. St. will I am sure satisfy you fully for therein I have indeed answered all can be objected and have given you such an Account of the Confirmation of all I have writ from his Majesty himself that I must think it a Fatality if your People remain obstinate And I again assure you if your People be obstinate it will be fatal to the poor Dissenters and I fear productive of Ills yet unheard of and therefore pray consider my Letters and let me know if there be any place to receive Information by a good hand but however let us endeavour Good all we can and I assure you I have my Warrant Haste your Answer Windsor Aug. 5. 1687. AND in a word believe me if the Prince will do what is desired it is the best Service to the Protestants the Highest Obligation on his Majesty and the greatest Advancement of his own Interest that he can think on but if not then all is contrary but pray haste an Answer Windsor Aug. 12. 1678. I Have yours of the 5 / 15 Instant long look'd for your Remark that you have received mine of the 26th of July but say nothing of that of the 19th which was my fullest and which I assure you was writ not only with permission but according to his Majesty 's Mind sufficiently expressed our Religion ought certainly to be dearer to us than all Earthly Concerns It is very true what you say that Mistakes about its Concerns especially in such a time may be of the greatest Importance which no doubt should perswade to a very scrupulous caution But yet I am satisfied that the simple representing of what was wrote to you which was all I required was no such difficult Task But to be plain with you as my Friend your return was not only long delay'd but I observe such a Coldness in it different from the strain of your former that I think I mistake not when I understand by your Letter more than you express I wish the P. may see or hear this from end to end London Aug. 22. 1687. I have yours of the 16th Instant When I said your last was more cool I meant not as to your Affection but as to your Diligence in that Affair for I am perswaded that the establishing of this Liberty by Law is not only the Interest of Protestant Dissenters above all others but that his Highness consenting to it would be its secure Guarantee both against Changes and Abuses As you love the quiet of good Men and me leave of Complements and Ceremonies and discourse his Highness of all I have written I am now hastning to Scotland but may return shortly for the King is most desirous to gain the Prince and he will be undoubtedly the best Guarantee to us of this Liberty and also to hinder all your Fears about Popery Newark Aug. 26. 1687. BUT now I must tell you that though I know to be my very good Friend yet he hath not answered my Expectation for you see that to seven of mine he gave me not one word of Answer although I told him that the Substance of them was writ by the King's Allowance and a Return expected by him besides the Answers he makes are either Generals or Complements whereas my desire was that the Prince should know things and that his Answer with his Reasons might be understood but my Friend has delayed and scruffed things From Scotland Septemb. 24. 1687. I Have yours of the 30th of August but have delayed so long to answer because I had written other Letters to you whereof I yet expect the Return my most humble Duty to my Friend at the Hague Edinburgh Octob. 8. 1687. AS for that more important Affair wherewith I have long troubled you I need add no more my Conscience bears me witness I have dealt sincerely for the freedom of Gospel I had certainly long ere now written to Pensioner Fagel were it not that I judged you were a better Interpreter of any thing I could say I know his real Concern for the Protestant Religion and shall never forget his undeserved Respects to me but alas that Providences should be so ill understood London Novemb. 8. 1687. I Have yours of the 1st of November the enclosed from the L. Pensionary surprize me with a Testimony of his Favour and Friendship and also of his sincere love to the Truth and fair and candid reasoning upon the present Subject of Liberty beyond what I can express he hath seriously done too much for me but the more he hath done in Compliance with my insignificant Endeavours the more do I judg and esteem his noble and zealous Concern for Religion and Peace which I am certain could only in this matter be his just Motive I hope you will testify to him my deep sense of his Favour and most serious profession of Duty with all diligence until I be in case to make his L. a direct return I shewed the Letter to my Lord Melfort who was satisfied with it London Novemb. 6. 1687. which it seems is by a Mistake of the Date I Have your last but have been so harrassed and toiled that I have not had time to write to you much less to my L. Pensionary yet since my last I acquainted the Earl of Sunderland with his Answer as the King ordered me but I see all hope from your side is given quite over and Men are become as cold in it here as you are positive there London