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
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
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