Princes but of Personal and peculiar merit and exemplary frequent fatigues and hazzards and lovely deportments on the confines of life and death for the glory of your Countrey which your R. H. valued above your Life and present and hereditary greatness as much as many mean and vulgar spirits do below their petty selfends and differences And that great sight cannot easily depart from my remembrance of your serene Magnanimity and cheerful unconcernedness on Quarter Deck June 3d. 1665. which betoken'd to my hopes a great distance of dangers from your R. H. even then when Roaring deaths hail'd thick about your R. Person aod besprinkled your Buff with the blood of your ever memorable Companions that fell by you Such contempt of Death and the Pomp and Glory of this World for the defence of your King and Country being a lively resemblance of that true Christian Charity which doth the like for Christ and souls and fits the understanding to receive and embrace the truth And I have just cause often to bless God for a kind of publick reward then of my many Prayers in private for your R. H. which was my chief and sole Armour in your defence that your R. H. should observe and declare it as an Omen of Victory annext to the publick Service and Exhortation performed by me the even before the fight by your R. H. appointment that one of the greatest Ships of the Enemy should take fire in that moment in the sight of both Fleets reported to be one of the number that were particularly bound to destroy you And why should I distrust in God or the power of truth or the success of sincere Love and Loyalty but that these my prostrate sentiments proved and preferred through much patience before all the offers of this World may not contribute with the Prayers of all good Christians and farr greater Abilities and Councels and the consideration and candor of your R. H. own breast and Princely Loyalty to God and Truth the greatest of all to beget that satisfaction and stability in your R. H. as may kindle more Bon-fires in our Streets than did that your renowned Victory Quinctius the Roman General proclaiming in the Name of the Senate by sound of Trumpet unexpected Liberty to all the Cities of Greece then newly Conquered as the Nation met to begin their Olimpick-games did so discompose and lick up all their inclinations after their sports with the suddainness of the good tydings that when they could believe it to be true they could think on nothing else And rushing one upon another with excess of joy and thankfulness to kiss his hands and to cast their Crowns and Garlands at his feet went nigh to put him in manifest danger of his Life with their Crowd and immoderate Transports that forgot all manners and distance had not his great strength of body and the Vigour of his years being 33 saith Livy and some Content and satisfaction to observe whence their Rudeness sprang served to Rescue him from the danger of too great love Such a Jubile to our Britain and such a lovely danger to your R. H. as may be gather'd from the General pulse the dismission of some soruples would soon produce which many suspect and fear but I never did nor can before a special declaration being so over-ruled to the contrary by your Princely Wisdom and justice for what greater violation of the Law of Nations can there be to the dissolution of all Faith and Truth among men whereon Allegiance to Princes and the Peace of the World hang than openly or secretly to oppose or prejudice a Religion professed before it be Renounced or wherein can the Catholick plaister of dispensation to equivocate mend the matter with Generous and sober understandings whereby the soul is licences'd to be damn'd to save the skin Least therefore by any pretence or whisper of Right or colour of conscience wherein all the fear can lye your R. H. should be mis-led to espouse unnaturally a Forreign and wrong Superiour to the mauifest dethroning of our right Mother Church of Britain more Ancient as well as more sound and Orthodox than the other I have leaveing all speculative controversies and hard questions to Schollers and Students throughly handled one Practical point of plain Right and Title or meum and tuum or the Pretences and Immunities of both Churches which will give great light if not a final end to all the rest and which all sorts of men as well Lay as Clergy are bound to know upon their Duty and Allegiance to God and their Country and justice and civility to their Neighbours least they be betrayed by willful ignorance to aid an Usurper against the Right Heir wherein no more learning or Logick is required to master and understand the point but so much temper and judgment as serves to hear an Evidence and discern between soul and Body or God and Creature or Christianity and Heathenism or Loyalty and Treason and to lay hand upon heart and to follow either the Laws of God and Man whereby all men are Rul'd or fate and Providence whereby they are Over-rul'd But whether in Gods mercy or Judgment we are to be freed or continued under our fears and anxieties to the fixed and resolved in Faith it signifies no more than putting on a Winter or a Summer habit either the militant Garb of Patience to our great reward and comfort and your great account which alone can abate it or the triumphant of thanksgiving to the mutual solace and bliss of both But as for the weaker flock whereof Paternal Princely bowels and pastoral charge are ever the most tender with what security and content will they lye down beside the still waters in green Pastures When they shall have such a Shepheard to be their guard and back and a terrour much less a harbour to the Roman Wolves that would devour them How will the Mountains skip like Rams and our little Hills Like Lambs Great and unparallel'd was our joy for your R. Brothers Restoration and your own together to your Antient Rights and Dignities over us that the whole Nation seem'd like men that Dream'd but so great is the sense and fear of Spiritual Slavery upon them and their Children more insupportable than any Temporal which it also may draw along with it that the joy of that day is like to be but a Dream indeed compared to those exultations and full content and streins of hearty Triumphs if heart-strings can hold that shall break out in every street and corner of the whole Nation with Bon-fires and Feasts and praises reaching up to Heaven and thence to earth again in the responses of Angels to our Anthems at the day of your return from the danger of errour to our Church and our Blessing and the Truth That your R. H. will be more glorious in the end than in the beginning after Victories over temptations and Deceitful Guides like the Sun after an Eclipse
Elymas the Sorcerer OR A MEMORIAL Towards the DISCOVERY Of the Bottom of this Popish-PLOT And how far his R. HIGHNESS's Directors have been Faithful to his Honour and Interest or the Peace of the NATION Publish'd upon occasion of a Passage in the Late Dutchess of YORK's Declaration for changing her RELIGION BY THO JONES sometime Domestick and Naval Chaplain to his R. Highness the Duke of York Cur aliquid vidi Cur noxia Lumina feci 2 Cor. 12 9. My Strength is made perfect weakness LONDON Printed for H. Jones MDCLXXXII A Memorial towards the Discovery of the Original of this Popish-Plot c. MOnsieur Maimbourg in his History of Calvinisme very lately put out this present year 1682 in several Editions recites therein with great Catholick boast and hopes A Declaration of her late Highness the Dutchess of York of the Reasons and Motives she had to change her Religion I regarded one passage therein more upon my own experience than the credit of a Stranger which justified a suspition I endur'd long trouble for many years to adhere to out of fidelity to my Church and Country though severely lash'd with the Imputations of Pride and disobedience for it for which I am to bless The passage is this J'ay este particulierement fortement convaincue de la presence reele de Jesus-Christ au Saint Sacrement de l' Autel de l'infaillibilite de l' Eglise de la Confession de la priere pour les morts J'ay voulu conferer de ces marieres par maniere dentretien avec les deux plus habiles Evesques que nous ayons en Angleterre tous deux m'ont avoue ingenument qu'ily a bien des choses dans l'Eglise Romaine qu'il seroit a desirer que l' Eglise Anglicane eust toujours observees comme la Confession qu'on ne scauroit desavouer que â—ieu mesme n'ait commandee la priere pour les morts qui est une des plus authentiques les plus anciennes pratiques de la Religion Chrestienne que pour eux ils s'en servoient en particulier sans en faire une profession publique Comme je pressois un de ces Evesques sur les autres points de concroverse principalement sur la presence reele de Jesus Christ au Saint Sacrament de l' Autel il me repondit librement que s'il estoit Catholique il ne voudroit pas changer de Religion mais qu'ayant este eleve dans une Eglise dans laquelle il croyoit avoir tout ce qui estnecessaire au salus y ayant receu son Baptesme il ne croyoit pas la pouvoir quitter sans un grand scandale Tout ce discours neservit qu'a augmenter le desir ardent que j'avois de me rendre Catholique je sentis des peines interieures d'horribles inquietudes ensuite de la conversation que j'eus avec ces deux Evesques I was particularly and strongly convinced of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar of the Infallibility of the Church Confession and Prayer for the Dead I was willing to conferr of these matters by way of Discourse with the Two most able Bishops that we have in England and both confest to me ingeniously That there are many things in the Church of Rome which it was to be wished that the Church of England had still observed as Confession which it could not be denied but that God had commanded it and Prayer for the Dead which is one of the most authentick and Antient Practices of the Christian Religion but as to themselves they made use thereof in private without making publick profession thereof As I pressed one of these Bishops upon the other points of Controversy and principally on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar he answered me freely that were he a Catholick he would not change Religion but that having been educated in a Church in which he believed there was all that was necessary to Salvation and there having received his Baptisme he thought he could not quit it without great Scandal All this discourse served but to increase the Ardent desire which I had to become a Catholick and I felt inward Pains and horrible disquiets after the conversation I had with these Two Bishops The Author of the Apology in behalf of the Papists Printed in 1666 who well knew me and the cause of my sufferings dropt an Early Intimation of the like Import We dare with submission say Let a Publick Invitation be put up against any Party whatsoever Nay against the Reverend Bishops themselves and some malicious in his Lordships sense Informer or other will alledge that which may be far better to conceal There are but few to be found so forsaken of God and their own Reasons as are not able to discern and allow that Secret Enemies are far more dangerous to all Men and Communities than open and profesl'd and that Men hate to be betrayed worse than to be Destroyed They therefore that countenance or cover the Masquerade Enemies of the Church of England prove themselves to be of the same pernicious conspiracy the greater they are in Place and Power the greater is the danger to the Publick from them and their detection therefore the greater service and Glory Her late Highness expresses not what Bishops those Two were in Particular whom all sober Protestants must look on as the betrayers of her Soul and this Church It seems duty and fidelity to our Church and Nation to contribute Intelligence and Observations to detect them farther They are not in Reason Fathers who are condemned Persons in Law And the danger and scandal of their ill example is the less because they never shewed so much Learning and Integrity as to justifie before the world their new Perswasions by Pen or open Practice or Resignation A Papist or a Mahometan that is sincere and Resolute in the profession of his errour shews more Religon and vertue than the most Reverend two fac'd Renegado that 's false to his Faith and trust and Countrey for wordly Interest And Indeed he that is so false to himself will hardly be true to any other Therefore Campanella advises to chuse for confessor non qui te diligit sed qui diligit animam Suam such who loves his own Soul not thee To these Judas's amongst our Apostles is cheiflly owing the present misery and Redivision of these flourishing Kingdoms by new Fears and fewds and not a little perhaps to the Eternal Frailties of great ones that had rather be Pleas'd than Lovd How happy were it for the Nation if such carnal compliers for the sake of Grandeur were as hateful to our Princes as they are to God and the rest of Mankinde I have no better account to give to God and the World of the latter part of my life than some zeal and Adventures against such Betrayers which
Innocence nor Submission nor Intercession nor satisfaction nor the Example of His Majesty in Pardoning nor any method whereby God is reconciled to man or men to one another could in Seven years appease or reconcile If it be expected that I am to bear false Testimony against my self and acknowledge my self guilty where I know and am known to be innocent to justify any thereby that have accused me wrongfully and against their knowledge of my innocence to my Prince and Master meerly to prevent the effects of his fresh favour towards me or for some other intrigue then I plainly declare that I hold this to be unnatural and slavish and sinful for me to do and Satanical for any to expect it And do remit and quit the hopes of your Highnesses favour if it is to be obtain'd upon no other terms Nevertheless in common ordinary justice between any Master and Servant your Highness may well grant me these Three requests following which I humbly make to your Highness 1. My arrear of Salary and also of Chamber Rent which are about â— l. for I have not had 6 d. allowed me from my Living these 2 or 3 years to buy me Bread nor the Liberty of my calling to Earn it 2. Your Highness Pass Certificate or dimissory letter to look out a New Patron for otherwise men fear and shun me for fear of some personal displeasure in your Highness towards me 3. Some Equitable Compensation for my detriment and loss for it is well known that I am in all probability about 600 l. per annum the worse by accepting your Hignesses Service and waving the present Primate of Irelands and about 500 l. out of Purse the worse by the Living in Wales and the snares and contrived troubles that attend it more intollerable than Death lasting upon me about 7 years which is Life in Law under the Pretences of a Reading-Pew and rash words manag'd by Power against me And I shall c. I added to Sir A. A. to make him witness of this Address That I am and was of opinion ever from 1665. that the true causes of my Troubles were not any of those things Objected against me by my Lord of Winton or any other but my excecuting her late Highnesses Orders against Popery in her Family and my beginning to be considerable in his Higenesses Favour after my attendance at Sea The Dukes Answer to me by Sir A. A. and my Lord C. August 14. 1673. The Duke is willing but is not able to do any thing for you but as the Bps direct him c. I delivered likewise to Sir A. A. a Certificate of Mr. Wren Secretary to the late Chancellor Hide touching my Actings and sufferings in times of Usurpation as also a state of my Accounts and arrears which I left with him A Letter to the Bishop of Winton July 6. 75. My Lord YOU were pleased for some occult cause to continue an endless enmity against me now about Ten years like the Goddess in the Poets quam nec longa Dies Pietas nec mitigat ulla c. though Innocent and Infinitely an unequal Match to your Lordship and all along kneeling to your Power Neither do I remember any advantage or Victory you ever gain'd over me but when I laid down my defence and guard at your feet trusting to your Lordship and your R. Brethrens words and Counsel out of entire respect to your Dignities and Persons and being now necessitated to be Plt. and to take a little benefit of the Law against you you presently take Sanctuary in your Priviledges against me tho' in a controversy first begun by your Lordship And after disowning your Messages by Mr. Markham and Mr. J. Apothecary through your Secretary which they still avow you lately sent another to me by my R. Diocesan the Bp. of Bangor which if it be stood to by your Ldp. or Rightly understood by me implies that your Ldp. is willing to forgive me your verdict Moneys if I acknowledge that I wrong'd your Ldp. which signifies to me in effect that if I wrongfully accuse my self to justifie your Ldp. who have so accused me to the Duke to my greater prejudice than you are now able to repair that then your Ldp. will bestow that Monys upon me which you declared at Kings-Beneh and by other Acts and Deeds to have bestowed on Bangor Church My Lord I am ready to do my Duty without Hire and any thing Else to recover your Ldps. Peace and Charity but sin as you find in my Letter by Mr. Markham for your Ldps satisfaction My Ld. I have lately made 2 or 3 requests to his Highness that his Highness would be pleased to pay me the remaining part of my Salary and Grant me a Dimissory Letter or recommend me to some new Patron that he would make me some equitable reparation for my great detriment occasioned by his Service and Favour His Highnesses gratious Answer was that he could do nothing for me but as he was directed by the Bps. meaning I suppose your Ldp. I hope therefore that if your Ldp. will not allow his Highness to readmit me to his favour which his Higness ever was and is willing to that you will not Ecclipse his justice from July 6. 75. Your most Humble Servant Tho. Jones For the Right Reverend Father in God George Lord Bishop of Winton at his House in Chelsey these with Reverence The Bishop return'd Answer to this Letter by Mr. Isaac W. to Dr. J. that I might have my Moneys restor'd and what else I desir'd if I submitted to him Some Submissions tendered in the Controversy about Reading Pew THe Bishop in his answer upon Oath Affirming he never gave me order to Publish the Curate seat as unfit to prevent all colour of Disobedience I desired my Advocate to draw such a submission as might fully satisfie the Bishop of Bangor and Sir Leolin Jenkins who it enuously appeared against me at Doctors Commons though neither Judge nor Advocate in the Cause but as Amicus Curiae as he term'd it whereupon Dr. L. Now Sir R. L. Drew for me this draught ensuing of which he said no Person or Court on Earth could require more And this I did because Sir Leolin told me the Duke was offended with me because I submitted not to the great Bishops nor to my own Diocesan As the case stands between my Lord Bishop of Bangor and Mr. Jones Rector of Landurnog He having published at the Altar his Diocesan s Order for Condemning the Reading Seat in the Church of Landurnog as undecent and inconvenient which Order his Diocesan denieth in his Answer in the Arches Court to have given him This is humbly proposed in behalf of Mr. Jones as a way to extinguish all Imputations of Disobedience and to end all differences between his Diocesan and him viz. in regard he is convinced in his Conscience that he published but the Truth he may be allowed to declare it at the same
Deposition in the Arches taken January 1669. Inter Jones Appellant Ridge Jones Episcopum Bangor Appellat touching the rise and Occasion of the Action of Scandalum Magnatum in the Courts Temporal and controversies about Reading Pew in Courts Ecclesiastical THe said Appellant the Third day of October last was Twelve-month went to the said Simon Lloid's House to wait on the Bishop and render him an account of the Letter he had formerly received from him whereby the appellant was requir'd to read in the most usual Reading seat in the Church and being asked by the Bishop why he did not obey the said Letter of his the Appellant answered he did obey him by Reading where his Predecessors Rectors of the said Parish had formerly Read whereupon the Bishop said he intended the Curat 's seat the Appellant replied his Lordship had condemned the same as unfit and undecent giving him to understand where and when and upon what account which the said Appellant Related to the Effect following that is to say for that he had acquainted his Lordship that some of the most Eminent Persons in the Parish had complained unto him they could neither see nor hear him read in the said Curates Seat and withal that he had Forty Shillings given him by a Person of Quality in or about St. Jams's Court to be disposed off in the said Church to supply what was wanting therein and that after the Bishop had Enquired what was wanting therein and being told by the appellant the Curat 's seat was undecent and dislik'd and complain'd of as aforesaid his Lordship Ordered the Appellant to publish the unfitness thereof and that the Parish should erect a new Decent Seat more towards the Body of the Church and that such as should be aggrieved thereat should repair to his Lordship to Ruthin where a Correction or Visitation was to be kept to give him the reason of their grievance and also that the Parish should contribute Twenty Shillings more to the said Forty Shillings for the Purpose aforesaid which publication the said Simon Lloyd said was not true saying we should have heard of it if it had been so or words to that Effect whereupon the Bishop asked the Appellant whether he had such Order under his Hand And the Appellant answering he had not under his hand but by word of Mouth the Bishop replyed and said I deny I gave you such Order my Word shall be taken before your Oath meaning the said Appellants and told the said Appellant Three times over he Lyed and said unto him you must contend with great Bishops I will Order you whereupon the Appellant said that the Bishop of Winchester had provok'd his Lordship against him for he the said Bishop of Winchester said to his Lordship in presence of the Appellant that he the Appellant was the Erranst Rogue in England or else he the said Bishop was use him accordingly when he comes to his Living which sayings or words to that Effect the Bishop of Bangor did then admit where spoken by the Bishop of Winchester wherupon the Appellant desired to be Examined before some competent Judicatory touching a great concern of the Church of England to which the Bishop answered and said what will you make me an Informer or the like Effect past then between them And further saith and believes it to be true that the said Bishop long before this causless Trouble and Molestation sent his Chaplains Gethin and Lloyd unto him desiring him to Exchange his Rectory for another Benefice the said Bishop would give for it which offer the Appellant refusing was the occasion of his Persecution as this deponent verily believes and the said Bishop having often times decalred a liking to the said Rectory as this Deponent was credibly informed by several of the best of the Parish by all which proceedings and practices it is manifest what wrong the Appellant hath had Occasioned as this Deponent believes for refusing to Exchange his Rectory aforesaid and lastly this Deponent saith and believeth that the said Appellant did not at at all disobey the Bishops Commands but in respect of the Contradictions thereof he knew not how to obey him without displeasing or rendring himself Guilty of Publishing an untruth at the Altar which if the Appellant had yeilded unto this Deponent believes the Bishop would soon have taken the Advantage thereof to expell him his Rectory so much desir'd by the Bishop and if this Deponent had not been Privy to most of the aforesaid proceeding he would hardly have believed a Reverend Person would have acted such things William Jones Gentleman When I could not prevent the trouble to prevent the scandal of this Controrversy on my side I declared in my Church on a Sunday about the the latter end of October 1668. That it was the Duty of a Clerk by his Oath to be Obedient to his Diocesan That I left Reading in the Curate Seat in Obedienceto my Diocesan who judg'd it Unfit to Read Prayers in That I continued to Read Prayers in this Upper Seat in obedience to my Diocesans present monition to Read Loco consueto maxime Convenienti in the Accustom'd and most convenient place as all of you agree this Seat to be that I was ready and willing to Officiate in any other Third place the Bishop and the Parish shall agree which declaration is attested by Numbers of my Parishoners upon their Oaths in the Arches ut supra Yet by the Influence of the Two great Bishops and their Creatures Sir Leolin Jenkyns B. R. and others I was condemned and censured ab Officio beneficio at the Arches and Delegates as well as at the Court of Bangor and no acknowledgement of a Possible mistake would be admitted to restore me unto my calling unless I did confess and acknowledg an absolute disobedience to my Diocesan which I knew whither it tended and I resolved to appeal to Heaven by patient suffering against such Diabolical contrivance as it seem'd to me till God relieved me by the Death of my Diocesan and an Act of Grace in 1672. whereby both Censures and the conditional costs were extinguished as the Bishop of R. acknowledged being the only Judge Delegate saving one other surviving and favouring at first my Diocesans-side but yet my present Diocesan insisted I should take Absolution before I Officiated in his Diocess which I ever refused to do before either the Act of Oblivion or the Death of my former Bishop because Innocent My Diocesan chusing rather to proceed against me in the matter of the Reading Pew than to assist me to be Examin'd touching the Churches Danger which I suspected Hearing of the Meeting of another Bishop in the Neighbourhood I delivered to both the following Paper May 26. 1669. Mr. Jones his Case Rector of Landurnog in Wales Chaplain attending his Royal Highness at St. James and abroad humbly presented to the Right Reverend Fathers in God the Bishops of Bangor and St. Asaph
I have preferred before all worldly offers and Peace I should therefore hide my Candle under a Bushel If I did not give some acount and communicate to the world these ensuing Passages at east which have passed from me to his R. H. Chaplains and Officers and several Reverend Bishops before and long before Maimbourg's Book came out which I humbly recommend to all true hearted and Generous Sons and Fathers of the Church of England to peruse and freely to judge of their own and countries concerns and my weak but sincere Endeavours as their Consciences shall direct being ever firm to their Loyal Communion and resolv'd through Gods Grace to persevere though with some difference from other pretenders or this Invincible infirmity as always to believe though never much for Persecution any R. Bishop who were false to his Church where he enjoys such maintenance and honour to deserve Hanging infinitely better than any lawless trayterous Jesuit who would avowedly destroy it out of Blind Zeal and sidelity to his own A Letter to Doctor W. Chaplain to his R. H. Dated April the 5th 1682. Reverend Sir YOu have had now time enough from February 23 and some of your Brethren in the same mystery monish'd alike much longer space to consult your Duty and safety I shall not and I think ought not to publish any of your Letters that you have or may send in answer without your leave and desire nor my second part as yet consisting of more particulars from first to last as long as I find so little exception against the first or indeed none at all that either is or can be with any Truth Which I see no reason therefore why I may not Print as well for publick Information and Benefit with submission to be tendered above all smaller respects as for necessary Private vindication of my good name before I dye which next to good Conscience hath an Immortal Spiritual existance to be fairly preserved in minds against all Temporal hindrance as also for a Lawful and laudable Interest and fellow-feeling from Innumerable True Protestants throughout the Nation upon knowledge of my Case which by two much Patience and tenderness toward unnatural and disguis'd Beings I have so long disregarded and wav'd Because you may apprehend me as an Enemy for minding and setting you upon ungrateful Truth I shall therefore forbear to advise you But the Apostle directs us to suffer if Gods will be so in a good work rather than in an Evil And I take it to be a better work to contribute to save Church and Countrey though with Trouble and Danger than to be wanting to either with Peace and Plenty Which choice hath been my support and solace for many years against the subtel and Merciless assaults and pressures of Catholick Zeal trampling Antichristianly as usual upon the Laws of God and Man on Faith and Truth and Conscience and Honour and Civility and Humanity and fair and Generous Hostility For what greater satisfaction to a Subject or Glory to a Prince let France now be judge than to be Gods Instruments to deliver our Church and Country from Spiritual Captivity or what greater blot or Curse than to be Slaves to Knaves to betray a delivered Nation anew into it If I therefore reccomend to you the same hazards and comforts I my self have chosen and preferred before all offers and Sums and greater Princely favour and Interest than all can well pretend to wherein can you complain of any unworthiness in me but that I have discharged the part of an honest and a Loyal Subject and because Protestant is not so pleasing to you of your Dated April 5. 82. For the Reverend Dr. Chaplain to his R. H. Rector of near Malborough Christian Friend THO. JONES Another to the same Person Dated February 1681. Reverend Sir I Suppose I have given sufficient proof to you and the world of patience and quietness under long hard usage from 1664 to this present without the passion of a Troden Worm Not for want of life or sence but out of regard and tenderness to Adversaries and Desertors and a dumb grief and astonishment at the sad condition of this Chuch upon its recovery to have as I much suspected disguised Wolves amongst its chief Pastors and Watchmen not to be concealed without great danger nor discovered without greater scandal and confusion The oppression it self though reaching not directly to blood but to several more precious Lives was not so fore and insupportable as the unkindness and treachery and the everlasting wrath and reprobation that attended it without bounds or Sun-sets or any visible cause or Provocation the Spirit and cloathing of Calvin dexterously concealing from me and others the killing Red Letter within Neither was it a pleasant Riddle to find the Fathers of my own Church to Execute Popish threats and predictions against me and that in a mysterious prevalent opposition to his R. Highness who overruled several times for me against them and his late Duchess and Commanded me to depend upon his favour and protection to the end in so much that my Lord of W. sent for me on purpose to declare that the Dutchess desired him to trouble me no more because the Duke was so firm unto me and desired me to acquiesce and he would acquiesce and being taken off my watch and guard I was immediately destroyed for my Faith Neither was it easie then with me to believe what principles might necessitate or legitimate such methods till subsequent revolts gave some light first of her late Highness wondered at in 1670. by her Father in his Letters and foretold by me to several Private Friends in 1666. from some passages in concurrence with him and my Lord of W. to suppress and discourage and at last to Sacrifice me to some of the other Chappel at St. James's for no other cause but my executing her Orders against Popery in her Family whereby I conjectured and inferred her own Religion would be her next oblation But that of his Highness when rumoured shortly after I could not so easily believe because he was or seemed ignorant of their designs and defended me against their assaults though his Guiders and Directors unless it may be thought that they who were able to make him quit his Promises might also be able to make him quit his Faith taking an old Proverb to their assistance My Mother loves to be killed The pain and smart of suffering being well over and worn out by long use and familiarity the unfading comforts of Integrity remain And I bless God that he hath given me Grace to chuse Affliction rather than Sin and to suffer in Innocence and for no other cause but my fidelity to this Apostolical Protestant Church providentially Restored and Re-established by our Renowned Princes of Brittish Line which God may order for its strength in his time and that I was no Scandal or Stumbling-block to my Prince by carnal complyance with his frailties for
advantage but adhear'd to my duty and truth against all Temptations of worldly interest and Dignity on the one hand and extreamest hardships on the other that the adverse dissenting party cannot boast that none of the Church of England are so firm against Popery as themselves Though I doubt not there are many thousand right Sons of this Church in obscurity and many in dignity that have the same Integrity though not the same circumstances and tryal believing the Truth by private Christians may be better defended by patience and trust in God than by discontents and its effects though all must confess that Persons in publick Trust may and ought to proceed by other measures for the just defence of themselves and their Dependants as the fear and courage of all Creatures is not the same when they have or have not young ones to defend And I found much Art and Endeavours used to deprive me of the honour of my Sufferings and the credit of my Testimony by misrepresenting me to my Prince and Master and to the World in characters not what themselves believed but what he or they might hate or despise 1. That I was a Presbyterian and an Enemy to the Governours and Government of this Church upon which issue I desired a Tryal but this they soon waved it being known unto them by Testimonials upon my admission to his R. H. Service and otherways how I acted and suffered upon the contrary principle being Episcopally Ordained in 1654. and procuring others of Parts and Fortunes to be then so Ordained with considerable Service to this Church and check to its Adversaries and greatest Regicides in the times of Usurpation though not so violent as the mode is after they were down And though I had the honour to use a Phrase and perhaps the sole honour and danger of expressing at Assizes in the way of my Calling my detestation of the Murder of the King and the oppression of his Party c. And owned my Principles before the Bloody Judge concerned when I was then call'd before him yet I found more clearness and humanity from him than from your Enigmatical Party for he offered me protection in my Calling and Principles on condition I medled not with State-matters as he stiled those publick Sins Neither was it unknown to them that his Highness writ in my behalf for the Deanry of St. Asaph upon such merits attested by the Bishop himself and the chiefest of those parts where the passages are yet well known and remembred while some of you perhaps in your more safe recess abroad through distrust in God or discontent Bartered some of the Articles of your Faith for your worldly convenience or Revenge and I Expected not to be accounted a Presbyterian for adhearing faithfully to the Church of England against Popery by any true Protestancy yet always believed Protestants of your Stamp with our unreclaimable Dissenters did Equally promote the Designs of Rome with or against their Wills as outwitted or trappaned by their contrary Passions And perhaps some of your chiefs have Artificially promoted and indulged this their dissent and separation so useful to Papists in dividing Protestancy and so befriending Athiests in slighting our Liturgy and publick worship and Ministry when at the same time they might be thought to wish them but one neck from their good will And I was denied the same time the benefit of the false accusations that cloathed me in their Skin The next Objection that I heard did Alienate both their Highnesies from me was my denying the Sacrament to the Family on Assention day 1666 because the Dutchess was not there to receive and that therefore I scorned to give it to the Rest And the Testimony of Several Persons of quality and vertue who then and there at the time in question Actually Received the Sacrament at my hands and are still Living and remembring would hardly suffice for your Party my Accusers knew the truth as well as any of them and that they had excluded me from all manner of Officiating before the Dutchess long before and the small interuption that was about half a minute between the first and second Service was from the contrivance I observed of many of you together making use of the Sacrament when you wanted other means to destroy your Brother This also was waved however now and then insisted on and alledg'd in private behind my Back by your Party against their Consciences when they had no other answer to make to a Question asked them Why did the Duke cast off such a Servant The Third exception they had a mind to insist on but that it could not brook Examination was for speaking Irreverently of the Bishop of Winton's prohibiting my Preaching at Sea but this also was solemnly waved by him before the late Arch-Bishop at the Dean of the Chappels Lodgings at White-Hall There being a manifest Treachery in the Informer who perverted my words and design and a great irregularity in that action of my Lord of Wintons against the Fleet-Statute which required Preaching and the Seamen's needs and good Example in the Fleet and against particular Orders to the contrary from his Highness through his Almoner to me and being in no trust or superiority over me in Relation to the Sea only out of a particular pique against me for no Cause but what you know and I suspect yet the only pretence for my ruine at first was my want of submission to this charge which himself had wav'd neither was I wanting to ask his pardon for any occasion of displeasure given him howsoever being desired and commanded thereto by the D. my Diocesan and a great Friend I heard of some other general Exceptions against me that I was Proud and Turbulent but for no particular Reason as I could ever learn but that I was not so humble and Peaceable as to connive and consent to suffer this Church to be wrong'd and undermin'd but was steddy and Faithful in my Post and Trust which was the Reason perhaps that on falslly swore for your Party that I delighted to contend with great Bishops who yet lived not long after it to enjoy the Interest and benefit of his Swearing For I had declared to the contrary that I delighted not to contend with great or small or equal with my Reasons for each Another and not the least was that I should call Mr. M. a Court Jack-pudding and I confess I told him that drollery was not wit but a Jack-Pudding dialect when I observed him countenanc'd to Buffoon and abuse me and also my Man daily and publickly when I was at the same time as frequently extold by the Duke and Dutchess but the Gentleman since asked me forgiveness ond confessed his wrong and who had set him on c. shewing more signs of true Christianity and a sense of Conscience then I observed in the Holiest of your Party who wanted the Manners and Loyalty that is observed in Noah who curst not