to the World as a Bloody Seditious Sect and Traiterous Obstructors of what all the Godly People of the Kingdom do earnestly desire for the establishing of Religion and Peace in that we stick at the Execution of the King while yet we are as they falsly affirm content to have him Convicted and Condemned all which we must and do from our Hearts disclaim before the whole World For when we did first engage with the Parliament which we did not till called thereunto we did it with Loyal Hearts and Affections towards the King and his Posterity not intending the least hurt to his Person but to stop his Party from doing further hurt to the Kingdom not to bring his Majesty to Justice as some now speak but to put him into a better Capacity to do Justice to remove the wicked from before him that his Throne might be established in Righteousness not to Dethrone and Destroy him which we fear is the ready way to the Destruction of all his Kingdoms That which put any of us on at first to appear for the Parliament was the Propositions and Orders of the Lords and Commons in Parliament June 10. 1642. for bringing in of Money and Plate c. Wherein they assured us that whatsoever should be brought in thereupon should be employed upon no other occasion than to maintain The Protestant Religion The Kings Authority and His Person in his Royal Dignity the Free Course of Justice the Laws of the Land the Peace of the Kingdom and the Priviledges of Parliament against any force which shall oppose them As for the present actings at Westminster since the time that so many of the Members were by force secluded divers imprisoned and others thereupon withdrew from the House of Commons and there being not that Conjunction of the two Houses as heretofore we are wholly unsatisfied therein because we conceive them to be so far from being warranted by sufficient Authority as that in our Apprehensions they tend to an actual Alteration if not Subversion of that which the Honourable House of Commons in their Declaration of April 17. 1646. have taught us to call the Fundamental Constitution and Government of this Kingdom which they therein assure us if we understand them they would never alter Yea we hold our selves bound in Duty to God Religion the King Parliament and Kingdom to profess before God Angels and Men That we verily believe that which is so much feared to be now in Agitation the taking away the Life of the King in the present way of Trial is contrary to the Word of God the Principles of the Protestant Religion never yet stained with the least drop of the Blood of a King the Fundamental Constitution and Government of this Kingdom as also to the Oath of Allegiance the Protestation of May 5.1641 and the Solemn League and Covenant from all or any of which Engagements we know not any Power on Earth able to absolve us or others Therefore according to our Covenant we do in the Name of the great God to whom all must give a strict account warn and exhort all who either more immediately belong to our respective Charges or any way depend on our Ministry or to whom we have administred the said Covenant that we may not by our Silence suffer them to run into that provoking Sin of Perjury to keep close to the ways of God and the rules of Religion the Laws and their Vows in their constant maintaining the true Reformed Religion the Fundamental Constitution and Government of this Kingdom as also in preserving the Priviledges of both Houses of Parliament and the Union between the two Nations of England and Scotland to mourn bitterly for their own Sins the Sins of the City Army People and Kingdom and the miscarriages of the King himself which we cannot but acknowledge to be many and great in his Government that have cost the Kingdoms so dear and cast him down from his Excellency into a horrid pit of Misery almost beyond Example and to pray that God would give him effectual Repentance and sanctifie that bitter Cup of Divine displeasure that Divine Providence hath put into his hand and also that God would restrain the Violence of men that they may not dare to draw upon themselves and the Kingdom the Blood of their Soveraign c. This was back't with a Letter to the General and his Council of War to the same effect and yet all this has not been sufficient to defend them from the malicious slanders of men that either were then unborn or had not the Courage to run those hazards for the sake of their unfortunate Prince as they did The deplorable Death of this King has been made great use of in the Late Reigns to run down Dissenters and to justifie those unmerciful Laws that have been made and executed against them and to make it the better serve such designs they have made the highest Panegyricks upon that Prince and his extraordinary Piety and Devotion in which they have commonly taken their Text out of ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ a Book which next to the Bible excell'd all others in pure Seraphick strains but alas the grave Cheat is at length discovered and though some men are very angry there is no remedy for heat and ill Language will never retrieve its blasted Reputation only the best on 't is there is another of the same kind pourtraying his Unhappy Son in his Solitudes and Sufferings too and those that regret the Disparagement of the former may try whether they can support the Credit of the latter but the World I hope grows too wise to be enamoured of such Pageantry The Vindicator affirmed That it was by the Address and Interest of the Party called Presbyterian under God That King Charles the Second was restored and he adds the solemn Promises fair Words and great Assurances that were given them by the Church and Court Party upon the Treaty of Restoration are very well known and the speedy and bare-faced Violation of all is not to be parallell'd in Story which T. W. misreports as if the Vindicator had said that King Charles the Second was not to be parallell'd in Story tho' afterwards having cleared his Eyes he confesses these things are charged upon the Church and Court Party and how will be bring them off he says All is Fiction and Forgery for the King referr'd all to the Parliament and they re-established and Confirmed all things to the satisfaction of the Nation in General Well if we cannot prove these things to be true we will own the Forgery and submit to all the Reproaches this Gentleman can heap upon us I would feign know where the Fiction lies Were there no Promises made by the Court and Church Party or were they not broken It is strange we should be obliged to prove that such Promises were made when the Kings Declaration speaks it so plainly in these Words We do declare a Liberty to tender Consciences and
their Disciples and Followers who refusing to be called of that Sect yet participate too much with their Humours in maintaining the above-mentioned Errors and the King further adds I Protest upon my Honour I did not mean it generally of all those Preachers or others that like better the single Form of Policy in our Church than of the many Ceremonies of the Church of England or that are perswaded that their Bishops smell of a Papal Supremacy No I am so far from being contentious in these things that I equally love and honour the Learned and Grave Men of either Opinion And that those called Puritans at that time in England were not such Persons as are here described appears sufficiently from the earnest Endeavours both of the House of Commons and Lords of the Privy Council on their behalf and the different account they give of them who must needs be acknowledged very competent Judges and it is observable that the Familists in England took notice of this censure of the King 's Fuller Church Hist Book 10 p. 30. and in their Petition to him when he came into England they disown all Affinity with the Puritans and speak reproachfully of them under that Title themselves I hope this will abundantly acquit the Old English Puritans from being the Persons aimed at in those Royal Reflections and therefore notwithstanding any thing in that Book it may be very true that the Bishops flattered that King into an ill Opinion of them That some of our English Prelates endeavour'd to do very ill Offices betwixt the King and Presbyterian Party even before he came into England is most certainly true and it cannot be imagined that they would be less busie when they had him amongst them Bishop Bancroft was more than ordinary active in such Designs as appeared amongst other things by a Letter from one Norton a Stationer in Edenburgh directed for him and intercepted Calderwood's Hist of the Ch. of Scotland p. 248. upon Examination Norton acknowledged that he was employed by Bancroft to disperse certain Questions that tended to the Defamation of the Kirk and Presbyterial Government The same Bishop writ frequent Letters to Mr. Patrick Adamson the Titular Archbishop of St. Andrews which were many of them intercepted wherein he stirs him up to Extol and Praise the Church of England above all others and to come up to London Ibid. p. 259. assuring him that he would be very welcome and well rewarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury This Adamson had composed a Declaration which passed under the King's Name wherein the whole Order of the Kirk was greatly traduced and condemned The Commissioners of the General Assembly complained to the King of the many false Aspersions contained therein which were so shameful that the King disowned it and said It was not his doing but the Archbishops and prudently discarded that great Favourite and gave the Rents of the Bishoprick to the Duke of Lenox The poor Gentleman thus abandoned professes himself to be truly Penitent for what he had done and makes a full Recantation which he Subscribed in the presence of a great many Witnesses and directs it to the Synod conven'd at St. Andrew's Confessing That he had out of Ambition Vain-Glory and Covetousness undertaken the Office of an Archbishop That he had laboured to advance the King's Arbitrary Power in Matters of Religion and Protested before God that he was commanded to write that Declaration by the Chancellor the Secretary and another great Courtier and that he was more busie with some Bishops in England in Prejudice of the Discipline of the Kirk partly when he was there and partly by Mutual Intelligence than became a good Christian much less a Faithful Pastor c. Now although the King fondly adhered to such kind of Men whilst he hoped to advance his Prerogative thereby yet when he began to perceive the ill Effects of such Conduct Ibid. Preface he still deserted them and in those prudent Intervals would freely declare his good Opinion of the Presbytery and their Form of Government particularly in the National Assembly 1590. He thank'd God that he was King of such a Country wherein says he there is such a Church even the sincerest Church on Earth Geneva not excepted seeing they keep some Festival Days as Easter and Christmas and what have they for it As for our Neighbours in England their Service is an ill mumbled Mass in English they want little of the Mass but the Liftings Now I charge you my good People Barons Gentlemen Ministers and Elders that you all stand to your Purity and Exhort the People to do the same and as long as I have Life and Crown I will maintain the same against all deadly Nay Calder p. 473. when he took his leave of Scotland upon the Union of the two Kingdoms he solemnly promised the Ministers of the Synod of Lothian that he would make no Alterations in their Discipline but when he came up to London those who had been tampering with him and his Courtiers before had a fair opportunity to accomplish their Design which was the utter Abolition of the Presbytery in Scotland and the Suppression of the Puritans in England And saith my Author as soon as the English Prelates had got King James amongst them R. Baylie's Vindication and Answer to the Declarat p. 11. they did not rest till Mr. Melvill and the Prime of the Scots Divines were called up to London and only for their Just Defence of the Truth and Liberties of Scotland against Episcopal Usurpations were either Banish'd or Confin'd and so sore Oppressed that it brought many of them with Sorrow to their Graves and the whole Discipline of the Church was over-thrown notwithstanding the King 's parting Promise to the contrary The Nonconformists in England were so far from being brought over by the Severities of the former Reign that they drew up a Petition about this time Signed by Seven hundred and fifty Ministers desiring Reformation of certain Ceremonies and Abuses in the Church which Fuller gives us at large this was designed to have been presented before the Conference at Hampton-Court but was deferr'd till after The Relation of this so much talk'd of Conference as Fuller reports it out of Barlow is justly suspected of great Partiality and the Historian himself speaks doubtfully of it and yet even in that we have a plain Indication of what temper the Court and Bishops were It looks very odd that when the King had allow'd several of Dr. Reynold's Exceptions he should threaten if they had no more to say He would make them to Conform or hurry them out of the Land or do worse a poor business for a Prince to menace his own Subjects for Non-conformity to that which himself had formerly called an Ill-mumbled Mass in English and even now acknowledged wanted some Reformation But we have this Matter set in a truer Light by Mr. Patrick Galloway in his Account of it
to him The Marshal only made it his Request that he would not trouble him for holding him so long in Restraint forasmuch as he was a Poor Man and had many Children and did only follow the Orders of his Superiours in what he had done Mr. Yarranton told him He did freely forgive him These dangerous Plotters being now at Liberty they depart every Man to his own Home and were never prosecuted or further questioned about this Matter There was no need of that for the Contrivers had now obtained their End which was to possess the King and Parliament that it was absolutely necessary to make some severe Act against this restless sort of Men who not contented with the King 's Gracious Pardon were always Plotting to disturb the Government Accordingly when the Parliament met together upon the 20th of November 1661. to which time they were Adjourned the King makes a Speech to them wherein are these words My Lords and Gentlemen I Am Sorry to find that the General Temper and Affections of the Nation are not so well Composed as I hoped they would have been after so signal Blessings of God Almighty upon us all and after so great Indulgence and Condescentions from me towards all Interests there are many wicked Instruments still as active as ever who labour Night and Day to disturb the Publick Peace and to make People jealous of each other it may be worthy of your Care and Vigilance to provide proper Remedies for Diseases of that Kind and if you find new Diseases you must find new Remedies c. No sooner was this Parliament in their geers Note this was before the Sham was discovered to Mr. Yarranton but Sir J. P. one of the Knights for Worcestershire with open mouth informs them of a dangerous Presbyterian Plot that was on foot that many of the chief Conspirators were now in Prison at Worcester The like Information was given by some of their Members that Served for Oxfordshire Herefordshire Staffordshire and other places yea this was the general Vogue Some say but by a very few Votes as may appear by the Printed Pamphlets of those times Hereupon a Bill of Uniformity was excogitated and carried on in the Parliament and passed that Sessions I have done with the First Part of this Sham Plot when I have added a Passage or two more concerning Mr. Yarranton As soon as he was Discharged as before he goes up to London and prevails with the Lord of Bristol to acquaint the King with the great wrong he had received and with the wicked Contrivance of some of his Ministers by Sham-Plots to divide the King from his People and his People from one another Hereupon an Order of Council was directed to the Deputy-Lieutenants of Worcestershire that were then in and about London to appear before the Council and to give an Account of this Matter They seemed to clear themselves from being concerned therein and desired such as were in the Country might be consulted The next Post they inform their Brethren in the Country how Matters stood before the Council and that the Lord of Bristol did Patronize Mr. Yarranton upon this Sir J. W. one of the Deputy-Lieutenants hastens up to London and brings with him one Hales an Attorney his Kinsman and Tenant now living in Tenbury which Hales with a Constable of St. Mary Overies and one Halborn a Waterman now living in Pepper-Alley in Southwark Arrested Mr. Yarranton when he was Bowling in Winchester-Park for High Treason and being further assisted by some of the Horse-Guards then in Southwark conveyed him in Halborn's Boat to White-Hall where he was that Night in Custody but on the Morrow the Earl of Bristol sent the King 's Privy Seal to a Friend of Mr. Yarranton's who brought it to him wherein it was declared That it was the King's Pleasure he should Travel where he pleased and not to be molested by any Person whatsoever without a Special Warrant from the King Mr. Yarranton seeing how Matters went in London resolved to return again into the Country where he prosecuted Major Wild and others for Imprisoning of him wrongfully but within Six Months after a Design is laid by some of the Criminals in the former Sham-Plot to Suborn Persons to Swear against him that he had spoken Treasonable Words against the King and the Government the Witnesses were one Dainty a Mountebank formerly an Apothecary in Derby who afterwards acknowledged that he had Five Pounds for his Pains The other Witness lived in Wales and went by two Names this was done at the Assizes in Worcester the Bill being found by the Grand Jury Twisden then Judge Mr. Yarranton put himself upon his Trial and though he did not except against any one of his Jury yet upon a full Hearing of the Case they presently acquitted him to the great disappointment of the designing Gentlemen This Narrative Mr. Yarranton Published under his own Hand and I never could understand that any Answer was made to it and by mentioning the Names of Persons then living and therein appealing to them it appears to be of undoubted credit and if any shall take upon them to contradict it there are so many of the Persons concerned still alive as are sufficient to make out the truth and certainty of it This Act of Uniformity which was gained by such an Infamous Stratagem Some of the Ejected Ministers had been Sufferers for the King as Mr. Cook Mr. Harrison Mr. Kirby Mr. Seddan sent up Prisoners about Sir Geo. Booth's Attempt Collection of Debates p. 212. obliged all Ministers to Subscribe to the Book of Common-Prayer by Bartholomew-Day upon pain of Deprivation ab officio beneficio which about Two thousand Ministers could not do and were accordingly ejected and it is a wonder that all the Ministers in England were not Silenced by it for it is a known and certain Truth that the Liturgy with its new Alterations to which they assented came not out of the Press till about Bartholomew-Eve so that all those that Conformed excepting perhaps one or two in London Subscribed to they knew not what and thus the Effects of that Edict were as scandalous as the cause and rise of it An honourable Member of the House of Commons observed in Parliament in the Year 1680. If the Laws against Dissenters were projected in favour of the Protestant Religion it is strange they were so promoted as many Members now here that Served in that Parliament do remember by Sir Thomas Clifford Sir Solomon Swale and Sir Roger Strickland who have all since appeared to be Papists When the lamentable Effects of this Act began to appear more visible every day than other and the King was sensible how they had been cheated into it by a pretended Plot the Forgery whereof was now discovered He set forth the very same Year Decem. 26. his Declaration of Indulgence and in February next when the Parliament was met Journal of the House of
Lords Dit Merc. 18. Feb. 1662. in his Speech to both Houses told them He was willing to set bounds to the Hopes of some and the Fears of others that in his own Nature he was an Enemy to all Severity for Religion and Conscience how mistaken soever it be and wish'd he had a Power of Indulgence to use upon such Occasions The House of Lords ordered a Bill to be brought in to enable the King to grant Licences to such of His Majesties Subject of the Protestant Religion Ibid. Die Veneris 13. die Martii Commons Journal Die Mercur. 25. die Feb. 15 Car. 2. of whose inoffensive and peaceable Disposition His Majesty should be perswaded to enjoy and use the Exercise of their Religion and Worship though differing from the Publick Rule but the House of Commons when it came before them divided upon it No's 161 Yea's 119. and so it was rejected and greater Severity used than before In the Year 1665. That dreadful Plague in London drove a great many Ministers out of the City and left open a Door for some Nonconformists to Preach in their Pulpits and Men being a little startled and their Spirits softened by that Stupendious Judgment of God there was a Connivance and Private Meetings were set up and multiplied greatly In the Year 1667. The King in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament Die Lunae 10 die Febr. thus express'd himself One thing more I hold my self obliged to recommend unto you at this present which is That you would seriously think of some Course to beget a better Union and Composure in the Minds of my Protestant Subjects in Matters of Religion whereby they may be induced not only to submit quietly to the Government but also chearfully give their Assistance to the Support of it But there was nothing done at that time towards it In 1672. The King again gives Liberty of Conscience upon what design Conjectures were various many believed it to be in favour of Popery but others said the Papists had as much Liberty before being generally winked at and the Penal Laws wholly turn'd upon Protestant Dissenters However the House of Commons took notice of it and would not allow the King any Power to Dispense with the Laws and yet were grown so sensible of the Hardships put upon Dissenting Protestants that a Bill was brought in in favour of them and passed the House and was sent up to the House of Lords and it is verily believed had passed them too but for want of time In 1675. The Parliament met again in which the Church and Court Party laid aside their Zeal against Popery and all the Cry was against Dissenters and a Bill that was Voted in the former Session for Marrying our Princes only to Protestants was carried in the Negative by the Unanimous Vote of the Bishops Bench and rejected And a Test brought in requiring all Officers in Church and State and all Members of both Houses to take this following Oath I A. B. do Declare That it is not Lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking up Arms by his Authority against his Commission or against those that are Commissioned by him in pursuance of such a Commission And I do Swear that I will not at any time endeavour the Alteration of the Government either in Church or State The learned and weighty Reasons that were brought against this Bill by the Country Lords as they were then distinguished from those of the Court and Church we have published by one of the protesting Peers in the same Year This lasted five days before it was committed to a Committee of the whole House They Pleaded against it as a Breach of the Privilege of Peerage that it was in Effect to establish a Standing Army by Act of Parliament That if whatever is done by the King's Commission may not be opposed by his Authority then a Standing Army is Law when ever the King pleases That it struck at the very Root of our Constitution obliging every Man to Abjure all Endeavours to alter the Government in the Church without regard to any thing that Rules of Prudence in the Government or Christian Compassion to Dissenters or the Necessity of Affairs at any time may require The Names of those Noble Peers that with so much hazard to their own Persons endeavoured to stem that impetuous torrent are Buckingham Bridgwater Winchester Salisbury Bedford Dorset Denbigh Pagett Hallifax Howard Mohun Stamford Clarendon Grey-Roll Say Seal Wharton Bristol Aylesbury Audley Fitzwater But all was in vain for says our Honourable Author the Earl of Winchelsea put an End to the Debate and the Major Vote Ultima ratio Senatuum Conciliorum carried the Question as the Court and Bishops would have it and all they could do was to enter their Protests against it and were menaced for so doing And thus with Wind and Tide our Church-men bore down furiously upon the Dissenters and all that durst but seem favourable to them for two or three Years together till the Popish Plot broke out in 1678. which gave such an Alarm to the Nation as reduced some Men to their Wits and others to their Wits-end Now the Humour was diverted another way and a year or two spent in searching into the depth of the Design and while some zealous Protestants were diligently employed in tracing out the Plot others that called themselves by the same Name were as busie by their Counter-mines and Counter-paces to spoil the track and make it undiscernable In the mean while the Dissenters were pretty easie the Meetings encreased and were greatly frequented And there being now a Parliament of true Englishmen they ordered a Bill to be brought into the House of Commons for the Uniting of Protestants and in their Journals we have this Resolve That it is the Opinion of this House that the Prosecution of Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakning of the Protestant Interest an Encouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of this Kingdom But as the Plot died Persecution revived New Sham-plots were forged and fastened upon Presbyterians Then was our Land stained with the No blest and most Innocent Blood of Essex Russel Sidney c. whose invaluable Lives were sacrificed to the Lusts of Papists and Tories whilst Ecclesiasticks sung Te Deum and the injured Nation durst scarcely be seen to lament their fall When the Duke of York arrived at the Crown the Stream of Persecution was very strong and violent and all men thought the unhappy attempt of the Duke of Monmouth would have made it rage more furiously when almost all the Gentlemen in England that were counted Whiggs were under Confinement but not long after a Declaration was set forth for a General Liberty of Conscience I am sure it was unexpected by the generality of Dissenters it found some of them in Prison
exprest far different Sentiments concerning us and we hope we shall never do any thing to forfeit their Friendly respect but be always as ready to return as receive it I must not omit what this Gentleman has replyed to the Vindicator concerning the Penal Laws as they have been executed upon Protestant Dissenters He pretends they reclaimed many and did a great deal towards bringing English Protestants to Uniformity it was well he did not say to Unity for that had been one of the grossest Fallacies in the World And I will not deny but that many Dissenters went to Church when they had no where else to go their Ministers being some in Prison others beyond Sea and many not daring to shew their Heads and perhaps some of them were forced by those severe Proceedings to comply further than their Consciences could well allow and such kind of Conversions the French Dragoons may boast of too but it is nevertheless certain that these things tend to alienate the Minds of Men one from another and the present numbers of Dissenters may convince him such Methods will never effect a general Unity and it was some years ago observed in Parliament by an Honourable Person That neither the Oxford Act 1680. Coll. of Debates p. 211. nor that of the thirty fifth of the Queen nor any other had ever been executed in favour of the Church that Dissenters were as many if not more than ever And the present Bishop of Worcester will tell this Gentleman Charge in his Primary Visitation p. 25 26. That distance and too great stiffness of behaviour towards Dissenters have made some of them more their Enemies than they would have been That Persecution was a Popular Argument for them the Complaining side having always the most pitty but now that is taken off says he you may deal with them upon more equal Terms Some think Severity makes men consider I am afraid it heats them too much and makes them too violent and refractory That this Gentleman may see that not the Vindicator only but the most eminent Fathers of the Church of England condemn the Severities that have been used towards Protestant Dissenters and how unbecoming as well as imprudent a thing it is in him to justifie them I shall leave their own Words to his Consideration The present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who Honours the Metropolitane See more than he can be honoured by it in a Fast Sermon before the Queen Sept. 16 1691. speaking of the Clergy expresses himself thus And it can never be sufficiently lamented no though it were with Tears of Blood that we whose particular Charge and Imployment it is to build up the Souls of men in a Holy Faith and in the Resolution of a good Life should for want of due Instruction and by the Dissolute and Profligate Lives of too many amongst us and by inflaming our needless differences about lesser things have so great a hand in the pulling down Religion and in betraying the Souls of men c. The Bishop of Worcester in his Visliation Charge acknowledges that the Persecution of Dissenters was promoted by the Papists his Words are I hope they are now convinced that the Persecution which they complained lately so much of was carried on by other men and for other designs than they would then seem to believe Indeed we always thought the Papists had the chief hand in it and we are glad others begin to see it None has spoke more freely to this matter than the Bishop of Sarum in his Observations upon Ridleys Letter to Hooper P. 4. he puts this Objection But when the Clergy of the Church of England saw that good and great Men and the glorious Martyrs of Jesus Christ such as Hooper was were offended with these Ceremonies they should have used their utmost endeavours to have gotten them discharged by Law as they were impos'd by Law and not have left them to remain as a standing offence and a perpetual stumbling block to all others of Hoopers mind Now to this he Answers This I confess would be an Objection very much to the Prejudice of the Church of England could it not be truly said that the Clergy did heartily endeavour to procure this ease to scrupulous Consciences though without success for all the eminent Bishops of England in Queen Elizabeths time did labour in this Point and could not prevail with the Queen to Consent to it And a little further blaming the Nonconformists for crying out so much of Persecution excuses it thus If any man take my right hand and therewith bruise and batter my left hand is my right hand therefore become a Persecutor Is it not really persecuted as well as the other and has it not a fellow-feeling and share of the Misery and in his Exhortation to Peace and Union God be thanked for it that there is an End put to all Persecution in matters of Religion P. 27. and that the first and chief right of Humane Nature of following the dictates of Conscience in the Service of God is secured to all men amongst us and that we are freed I hope for ever of all the Remnants of the worst part of Popery I mean the Spirit of Persecution The Seven Bishops in their Petition to the late King declared they would not be wanting in due Tenderness to Dissenters but willingly come to such a temper as should be thought fit when the matter should come to be considered and settled in Parliament and Convocation and about the time of the P. of Orange's Landing all their discourse was of Union Comprehension insomuch as that a Reverend Prelate told a dissenting Minister He need never to fear Persecution from the Church of England again adding If any such thing should ever happen let me be accounted a false Prephet I hope these Gentlemen will not give us occasion to say as Demades the Orator was wont to say of the Athenians That they never came to consult of Peace nisi atrati but in Mourning under some Publick Calamity or Danger Our gracious Soveraign when P. of Orange in his Declaration promised to endeavour a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters and to cover and secure all those who would live peaceably under the Government from all persecution upon the account of their Religion and has all along strictly adhered to that Royal Promise and Design and in pursuance thereof encircled with his Lords and Commons in Parliament has given us our present Indulgence as that which the Wisdom of the Nation judged the likeliest way to Unite us all in Interest and Affection and I hope the Sentiments of all these will more than ballance what our Gentleman has offered to Vindicate the Execution of the Penal Laws and he must be a man of more than ordinary assurance that durst take upon him to oppose his private peevish opinion to such an august and venerable Determination This Gent. as well as
from London to the Presbytery of Edenburgh Calder p. 474. after it was Revised by the King 's own Hand The words are Beloved Brethren after my hearty Commendations these Presents are to shew you that I received Two of your Letters One directed to His Majesty the other to my Self for my Perusal the same I read closed and three days before the Conference delivered into His Majesties Hand and received it back again after some short Speeches upon those words in your Letter the Gross Corruptions of this Church which were then expounded and I was assured all Corruptions dissonant from the Word of God or contrary thereunto should be amended The Twelfth of January was the day of Meeting at which time the Bishops were call'd upon and gravely desired to advise upon all the Corruptions of this Church in Doctrine Ceremonies and Discipline and as they would answer it to God in Conscience and to His Majesty upon their Obedience that they should return the Third day after which was Saturday Accordingly they returned to His Majesty and when the Matter was propounded to them as before they answered All was Well And when His Majesty with great fervency brought instances to the contrary they upon their Knees with great earnestness craved that nothing should be altered lest the Popish Recusants punished for Disobedience and the Puritans punished by Deprivation ab officio beneficio for Nonconformity should say they had just Cause to insult upon them as Men who had endeavoured to bind them to that which by their own Mouths now was confess'd to be Erroneous After five Hours Dispute had by His Majesty against them and his resolution for Reformation intimated to them they were dismissed for that day c. but it appears by the result their importunity overcame him at last Dr. Fuller observes That whereas before this Conference it was disputable whether the North where he long lived or the South whither he lately came would prevail most on the King's Judgment in Church Government now this Question was clearly decided I hope now the Vindicator may be allowed to have some Grains of Shame and Modesty common to Humane Nature though he ventured to say That the English Prelates flattered King James into an ill Opinion of the Puritans and the thing is not so plain or known a Contradiction as the Citizen pretends and for him to tell the World at this time a day of the famous Piety and Virtue of that Prince is ridiculous enough Alas the History of his Reign is too well known his Contending with Parliaments his Encouraging of Papists his Secret Articles upon the Treaties with Spain and France his greedy Desire of Arbitrary Power his Prostituting the Honours and Wasting the Treasures of the Nation after a most inglorious manner produced those ill Effects under which these Kingdoms have laboured and languished ever since till by the late happy Revolution our Antient Rights and privileges were raised out of the Grave recognised and settled upon their true Basis once more The Unhappy Government of K. Charles the First is now sufficiently Unveiled especially by Rushworth's Impartial Collections The Vindicator briefly hinted at those Irregular and Arbitrary Practices that forced the Parliament to take up Arms for the Defence of their Liberties and for rescuing the King out of the hands of those Councellors that had so fatally misled him T. W. calls this Notorious Calumny and says he could answer all the Instances particularly but he refers to the Rolls and Acts of Parliament The Vindicator is willing to joyn issue with him here and appeals to the several Petitions Remonstrances and Speeches made in Parliament as they stand upon Record in the Journals of both Houses and they are now made so publick that no Man but one who has no Reputation to lose would have offered to deny that which all the Nation that can read Books know to be true And I will also tell him that there is not one passage mentioned by the Vindicator concerning the Male Administration of that King but what he may find in the Supplement to Baker 's Chronicle a History never suspected for Disloyalty but evidently partial the other way The Vindicator renew'd the Challenge to Name four Persons in that Parliament Dr. Burnet tells us the Duke of Hamilton was dissatisfied with the Courses some of the Bishops had followed before the Troubles began and could not but impute their first rise to the Provocations that had been given by them Memoirs p. 408. that were not in full Communion with the Church of England when the War began It is true many of them that were for Episcopacy were highly offended at the Behaviour of some of the Bishops as appears by the Speeches of the Lords Falkland and Digby both great Royalists and for my part I desire no other Evidence of the intolerable Usurpations of the Laudensian Party than what those Noble Lords have given us which being now in so many Hands by the Publishing the third part of Rushworths Collections I will not transcribe The Nonconformists indeed generally joyned with the Parliament in that Cause which was doubtless as just and necessary when first undertaken as ever was carried upon the Point of a Sword But that it was without the least design upon the Kings Person their Solemn League and Covenant plainly proves and the many Declarations and Remonstrances which they afterwards made when they saw new designs laid and pursued In the Year 1648. When the Republican Faction was at the highest the Ministers called Presbyterian in and about London fearing that which afterwards happened boldly Published a Vindication of themselves and Exhortation to the People part of which I shall here Transcribe to let the World see how shamefully they have been abused about the Death of that King their Words are these To this Vindication we are compell'd at this time Vindicat. of the Minist Printed for T. Underhil Ann. 1648. Subscribed by C. Burgess D. D. W. Gouge D. D. E. Stanton D. D. T. Temple D. D. G. Walker E. Calamy B. D. J. Whitaker D. Câ—wdrey W. Spurstow L. Seaman D. D. Sim. Ashe T. Case N. Proffect T. Thorowgood E. Corbet H. Roborough A. Jackson J. Nalton T. Cawton C. Offspring Sa. Clark Io. Wall F. Roberts M. Haviland J. Sheffield W. Harrison W. Jenkin J. Viner E. Blackwel J. Cross J. Fuller W. Taylor P. Witham Fra. Peek Ch. 〈◊〉 J. Wallis T. Watson T. Bedford W. Wickins T. Manton D. D. Tho. Gouge W. Blackmore R. Mercer R. Robinson J. Glascock T. Whately J. Lloyde J. Wells B. Needler N. Staniforth S. Watkins J. Tice J. Stileman Jos Ball. J. Devereux P. Russel J. Kirby A. Barham because there are many who very confidently yet most unjustly charge us to have been formerly instrumental toward the taking away the Life of the King and because also there are others who in their Scurrilous Pasquils and Libels as well as with their Virulent Tongues represent us