to animadvert more feverely upon us hereafter, when our Affiftance may be thought less neceffary, and the Succefs of this chargeable War fhall fo far answer your Hopes and Defires, that you fhall think yourselves under a settled and permanent Security, not to be dangerously interrupted, either at Home, or from Abroad?

My Ls, we have thought ourselves under fome Obligation to make fome Enquiry into these two Points impartially, that we might take the more fteady Refolutions of paying our juft Acknowledgments (in fome Measure) proportionable to the Benefit received, even with a due Regard to your Ls good Intentions.

In order to fatisfy ourselves concerning the firft Point we have taken into our Confideration (as being nearest at Hand) with how much Zeal the Bill against Occafional Conformity was promoted in the laft Seffions, and how narrowly it then efcaped being paffed into an Act; we confider'd that the H of C being the great Representatives of the Nation, it seemed to be the universal Defire of the People that the Bill fhould pafs; it came up to your Lps Houfe with a kind of Judente Populo, and the Queen herfelf, being not only profeffedly of the Church of England, as by Law established, and had given repeated Affurances of fupporting that Church by all reasonable Methods that could be propofed, but fhe feemed very defirous and folicitous that the former Bill (at least) fhould have paffed; yet notwithstanding all this (and more that might be faid) they both miscarried in your Houfe. It is certain, that your Lps Goodnefs, in Concurrence with the Divine Providence, warded this dangerous Blow from us. But, My L-s, we must acknowledge ourselves ftruck with a kind of Admiration, when we confider'd how great a Majority of the Ls S joined with your good L- -ps in our Prefervation.

We

-ps:

It is true, we ever looked upon your Lps and valued you as Perfons indued with all the Qualifications becoming your great Characters. know you to be eminently pious, just, and honourable; and in short, most worthy of the Honours you poffefs, and the high Places you fill: But give me leave to fay, that Learning, especially in ecclefiaftical and spiritual Matters, feems to be more particularly the Partage of the Ls the BThey are the Perfons appointed (as they say) by Divine Institution, to be our Spiritual Guides, they are our Spiritual Governors, they have their Cities and their ftrong Holds, they are fortify'd with ftrong Bulwarks and Ramparts, well garnish'd with Store of Ecclefiaftical Canons, heavy charged with Ecclefiaftical Cenfures, and Penal Laws; they have their inferior Officers, their Deans and Chapters, and many others too well known among us; they had long kept up their darling perfecuting Power, and all thefe furnished, and preferved to them by Law.

Now, my L-s, it feems wonderful in our Eyes, how it fhould come to pass, that these very Lords, the Bishops, fhould voluntarily, and against the Senfe of the whole Nation, difmantle their own Garrifons, throw down their own Bulwarks, and permit us, who had been looked upon as their

Enemies,

Enemies, and had been the chief Objects of their perfecuting Power, to enter in among them (not to fay upon them) by the fame Breach which they themfelves had made. This Amufement of ours This Amusement of ours was raifed by fo much the more, by how much they feemed to have acted contrary to the univerfal Senfe and Practice of all Mankind; no Rule or Principle has been adher'd to with lefs Exception to it, than that of being true to our own Intereft, whether in fingle Perfons, or Societies, in Spiritual, or in Civil Affairs; and yet, my Ls, (if we may believe their own Friends) after fourfcore Millions given to preserve their Church, and one of the best Bills brought in to defend it, that this Bill fhould be thrown out by the Bps themfelves, who were looked upon as its great Confervators, feems (as we faid) to contradict the most natural, and, by Confequence, the most unqueftionable Principle of Mankind.

For our own Parts, we fhall make no Difficulty to affure your L-ps that we have been, and are, and fhall be eternally true to our own Interest ; and tho' we have fometimes remonstrated against Acts of Conformity and Uniformity in other Cafes, yet no Society of Men are more uniform in maintaining this Principle than ourselves, whether we regard our temporal or our fpiritual Concerns. What Interpretation then shall we make of fo unprecedented, and unaccountable an Action? We have thought fometimes (upon this Occafion) that thofe great, pious, and learned Men, the L-s S——————1, might be touched with a true Senfe of our Merits, as well as of the Purity of our Doctrine, who are now admitted into their Communion: And indeed, my L—s, (fpeaking without Vanity) we may prefume to say, that we are not altogether undeferving this Mark of Juftice and Gratitude, which we hope your L- -ps had in your Thoughts, when you twice caft out the Bill of Occafional Conformity.

Give us Leave therefore to remind your Lps of fome few remarkable Instances wherein we have been highly Serviceable to the Church of England; we fhall not go beyond the Memories of fome now living, nor the Knowledge of any that has been never fo little acquainted with our modern. Hiftories: We shall therefore date our Services from the Beginning to the End of the Reign of King Charles the First.

It is well known, how that unfortunate Prince (being much influenced, as 'twas thought, by the Queen and the Priefts which he had about her) became univerfally obnoxious to his People, upon the Pretence of his being (at least) popishly affected. The often fufpending the penal Laws in Favour of Priefts Convict, and other Favours fhewn to Papists encreased the Peoples Fears and Jealoufies, together with their Animofities, till at last he was look'd upon to be a very Papift himfelf, and most of the Lds S-1 popishly affected: We befeech your L-ps to recollect with yourselves, who or what Party it was, that delivered your Church and the People from that moft imminent Danger of (the worst of all Evils) Popery. Who they were that ventur'd their Lives and Fortunes, and the Lofs of their dearest Blood, for your Security; and (in a Word, G 2 when

when all other Means feemed either impracticable, or unfatisfactory) who they were that brought that unhappy Prince to the Scaffold, rather than fuffer Popery to over-run the Proteftant Church of England? We could remind the Ls the B-s alfo, of fome of their own Predeceffors who came much to the fame End, upon the fame Account; and left there fhould remain any Relicks of Popery among them, to the Disturbance or Danger of the Church of England, who were they, my Ls, that turned their whole Order and Ordination out of Houfe and Home (as we fay) for the Prefervation of the whole Body, which had not yet been tainted with that dangerous Infection of Popery.

We beseech your Lps to remember alfo, whether during the Government of the Protector, Popery was not perfecuted with more Violence than ever, and whether the Church of England, or the People, had any Manner of Apprehenfion of Popery during his whole Adminiftration.

We acknowledge, my Ls, that we have fince been much cenfured by fome among ourfelves, for being in thofe Days over officious in the Pursuit of your Security, and that Things were carried on with too much Violence, even to the last Extremity, it is true, thefe hard Cenfures grated a little upon us, especially from People who had reaped the Benefit of our Mifcarriages. But, my Ls, to make fome Atonement for what might have been done before amifs, please to confider again, who it was that restored and fettled his Son, King Charles II. upon the Throne! We must ever own, that (howfoever he treated his old Friends) he was ever grateful to us; we were put into Places of Truft, Honour, and Profit, and during our Administration of Affairs, we were fo folicitous for the Establishment and Glory of the Church of England, that we permitted the good B-ps to be recalled and feated in their Places, and their Lands (which had been alineated, and bought by fome of our own Party for valuable Confiderations, tho' we were but in a Manner their Truftees) to be reftored gratis to them.

Thefe, my L-s, were our juft and generous Proceedings in Relation to the Church of England, till at laft, that very Church (forgetting the Obligation fhe had to us) their L-ps got fo much Credit with that King, (which they used to our Deftruction) that his Majefty turned us all out of his Favour and Employments, fet the Church of England Party over our Heads, and at laft (taking the Advantage by Quo Warranto's and Forfeiture of Charters) he had made fuch large Steps towards the new modelling the Government, that our Destruction feemed almost inevitable, when it pleafed God to take him into another World. This, my L-s, is Matter of Fact, and truly known to you all.

Upon the Death of King Charles II. his only Brother, the Duke of York, known by many, and believed by all, to be a zealous Papift, yet, by the general Confent of the Church of England, as well as of ourselves, he was admitted, proclaimed, and crowned King of England, and anointed by the Hand of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury himself; all Things went profperously with that Prince for the first Year of his Reign; your Lps and

the

the Parliament stuck clofe to him; but his Majefty, having duly and well confidered our former Behaviour and Deferts, and being of a Principle averse to Perfecution for Confcience Sake, in Matters purely fpiritual, (which he had learnt from our Saviour himself and his Apoftles) he demanded of his Parliament, (after a Manner a little more peremptory than ufual) that the Penal Laws might be taken off, that Liberty of Confcience might be granted in a parliamentary Way; and in order to facilitate this, his Majefty thought fit to put out his Royal Declaration in Favour of Liberty of Confcience, enjoining the Bishops to read, or caufe it to be read, in their feveral Dioceffes all over the Kingdom, that his People might know (as it were from his own Mouth) the Truth and Sincerity of his pious Intentions.

Your Ls remember very well, that the Bishops generally refused to read, or cause his Majefty's Declaration to be read, which was a Kind of Spiritual R-lion; and that the Bishops incurred a Premunire for their Difobedience to their fupreme Ordinary, and in a moft particular Manner, Head of their Church, over all Things, and in all Cafes, and over all Perfons, Ecclefiaftical as well as Temporal. Their Lps could not, or ought not to be ignorant, that all Sovereign Powers have an undoubted Right and Authority within their own Dominions, to command or reftrain whatsoever is not pofitively forbidden or commanded by the exprefs Law of God. They might have confulted the learned Grotius, a Proteftant, upon this Point, in his Treatife, De Imperio fummarum Poteftatum circa Sacra, where he declares pofitively for what has been already faid, and gives many Examples, both of Pagan as well as Chriftian Emperors, who have, by their own Authority, and de Jure, commanded or forbidden Things in Ecclefiaftical Affairs, which were not contrary to the exprefs Law of God; and this had been frequently done, as a Right inherent in the Pagan Emperors, even among their Chriftian Subjects; fo that their Lps would have ftood Self-condemned before all the World, if they had not found out (by their quick and exquifite Sense in fuch Cafes) that this Declaration fmelled rank of Popery.

Now it was, that the fuper-imminent Danger of Popery began to touch their Lps; Popery was in our Councils, Popery was in our Houses, Popery was a-top of our Houfes, and a profeffed Papist at the Head over all. Several of the Bishops were fummoned before the King and Council, and admonished of the Premunire they had incurred. They adhered to their Difobedience; upon which they were informed, that they must give in Bail, or at least pass their Words, that they would fubmit to a Trial at Common Law, at the King's-Bench Bar. They refufed; upon which they were told, that by the Courfe of Law they would be committed to Prison, and earnestly defired not to bring Things to Extremity; this is what they would be at, and accordingly fome of them were fent to the Tower.

We all know, my L--s, how heinously this was taken, as the Effect of Popery, and its Design to destroy the Church of England; the whole Body, generally speaking, refented this Act to the laft Degree, and look'd upon it as an open Invafion upon their Church. The Bps themselves managed

the

the Order for their Imprisonment with all the aggravating Circumftances imaginable, the better to raise the Indignation of the People against Popery and a Popish King. They turned off their Servants, fold their Goods, took their laft Farewell of their Friends, and made their laft Wills and Teftaments, as if they had gone directly to Martyrdom, in Defence of their Church, against the visible and violent Invafion of Popery upon the Nation.

Your Lps muft need know how active we were, (contrary to our own Intereft, and the Gratitude we owed the King, who then, and afterwards, fuffered for our Sakes) your Lps, I fay, muft needs know how we cryed up the Zeal of the Bishop's for the Support of the Proteftant Religion, how we clamoured against the Violence done to their facred Order by a Popish King, and his Popish Council; how we animated our own Party, and encouraged yours, and at length, when their Lps were brought to their Trials at the King's- Bench Bar, let it never be forgotten how our Party filled the Palace-Yard, and Westminster-Hall itself, how we made a Lane for the towering Bishops to come, as it were in Triumph, to their Trials, and how we ourselves, who had never as yet bowed the Kree to Baal, yet nevertheless, upon this Occafion, we fell all down upon our Stumps, and received the Bleffing which their good L- ps generously gave us, when upon another Occasion we should as foon have received holy Water from the Hand of an Idolatrous Papift; fo we ftuck at nothing to fecure the Church of England from this preffing Danger of Popery.

Soon after this, when their Lps were at Liberty, and had gained this Point, but ftill wonderfully apprehenfive of Popery, one of them, to gether with fome of the L-s Tal, invited the P of O into England, to be their Saviour and Protector against Popery. This appears by his Highness's Declaration, which could not contain any Untruth. ́ ́ All this while we concurred with their L- -ps, we never abandoned them, and were ourselves a Kind of a Guard to defend their facred Perfons, until at length (to pass by many material Circumftances) his Highness landed, the King retired, was made a Prifoner, and at laft made his Efcape into France. Now it was that several of the Nobility and Clergy affembled at Guildhall, in the City of London, where our Party was moft prevalent, and there folemnly invited the P of O to Town, in order to take the Protection of Othe Church and State upon himself. So zealous were their Lps to prevent the great Danger of Popery, and to establish their own Security by our Affiftance, that they did not fo much as reflect that they invited a Prince to protect their Church, who was a reputed Ey to it, and a natural born Dutchman, and a St (tho' a Pce) to a Commonw-th (always our most powerful R-al, and oftentimes our declared E-y) to defend our Liberties and Properties, and to advance the Honour, Wealth, Trade and Profperity of a Nation which they always hd.

We defire your L ps to confider after what Manner we gave you this our confiderable and feasonable Affiftance, not as heretofore, by running into open Rebellion for your Sakes, we had been fufficiently fnubbed for that by

yourselves;