First Paragraph of the Letter.

I think I should be wanting to my self at this time in my own necessary Vindication, should I forbear any longer to give my Friends a true Account of my Behaviour in the late Ecclesiastical Commission. Tho', I profess, what I shall now say, I only intend as a reasonable mitigation of the Offence I have given, not en­tirely to justifie my sitting in that Court, for which I acknowledge I have deservedly incur'd the Censure of many good Men. And I wish I may ever be able to make a sufficient a­mends to my Country for it.

Answer. No part of your Case, my Lord, will bear a Vindication; for how Plausible, soever, your Behaviour may have been in that Commission, the very Act of Compli­ance to serve under it, sunk you below the dignity of such an Expression: Instead of [Page 5] a Mitigation, it agravates the Offence, to say, you cannot entirely juistifie your sit­ting in that Court; when, sensible of the Action, and clothed with the Spirit of Hu­mility, you ought fairly to declare, you cannot in the least justifie sitting there; and so deservedly incur the Censure, not only of many Good, if such there be, but of all Honest Men. You have been bred to Learning, your Education, my Lord, is Evidence against you; you are a Bishop, a Shepherd, in a Trust of mighty Supervi­sion, Vigilancy and Courage are the Essen­tials of your Station. The Example is more dangerous in your Ability, than your Quality, capable of doing much good, or Hurt, as you are well, or ill inclin'd. Your Friend Cowley says, there are great Men, the labour of the Mother, the Works of Nature; and great Men, their own Labour, the effect of Art, and ought to be of Ho­nesty; there are, therefore, Lords pardo­nable, and there may be Lords unpardo­nable. If Ignorance of the Law be no di­rect excuse to any, that very Ignorance doubles the Crime in some; so that if the Lord, by the Chance-Stroke of Nature, [Page 6] happen to be guilty in conjunction with the Lord by the False-Stroke of Art, the judgement of the One, may be presumed to mislead the good manners of the O­ther, and the Professor to answer for the Courtier. I concur in your Wish, that you may ever be able to make sufficient Amends to your Country for it, the first step to which is a sufficient acknowledge­ment to your Country of it; Yet; I trust in the mercy of God who wrought our deliverance, in the Justice of the King, the great Instrument of it, and Wisdom of the most happy Parliament that ever sate in this Kingdom, who have Crowned it, and are so assiduous to secure it, that we shall not be, at the Expence of so many Milli­ons to rescue our selves, in the hands of Obnoxious Men again, but that satis­faction shall be taken of some, (the Dying not too nimble for us, nor the Living too bold for us) others obliged to undergo their Quarantine, and Provision made, that all of them may be disabled from ever doing their Countrey more such Audaci­cious Mischiefs.

The second Paragraph of the Letter.

Yet thus much, my Lord, I can justly al­ledge for my self, that the Commission was made, and my Name put into it, altogether without my knowledge, when I happened to be at Salisbury, holding an Archiepiscopal Visi­tation with the Bishop of Chichester, where, by God's blessing, we composed several old Dif­ferences, and Animosities, and restored Peace, and Unity to that Church.

Answ. I am willing to think some part of your time was spent in your Duty, and am heartily sorry, that any part of your time was spent so far out of it, as that abomi­nable Commission carried you. I believe also, not forgetting that Smart Escape of your Pen, the Otesian Villany, that the Bi­shop of Rochester was not in the Contrivance of the Commission; nor that your Lord­ship sollicited your Name into it: But they who had ingaged your Parts so often, and so deeply before, knew themselves beyond the Ceremony, of perswading you into their Service again. It looks like an Assurance of their Man, proof of Resignation, no Extenuation of the matter. At first, no [Page 8] doubt there was some labour with you be­hind the Curtain, for Men cannot easily depart from themselves, into Obsequious Bondage, Facing their Country in barbarous Adventures. There will be some struggle of Honour, if not of Conscience; And Di­vines were treated after the manner of Law­yers; We all know, that when a Judge, be­tween fear and shame, started at a farther degree of their Commands, so that there was occasion for another, the Course taken by the Workers of Iniquity, was to dive into the Opinion of the Counsellor, and having found or made him wicked, as them­selves, out they brought him, in Caparison, and up they set him, to give the Arbitrary Blow in the Formality of a Judge; Ado­red by the Profane Crowd, despised by the Brave, a Scandal to his Profession, a Tray­tor to his Country, the Murtherer of Men, and a Destroyer of Families.

The third Paragraph of the Letter.

At my return from thence to London, I found I was appointed One in a New Commis­sion: But never could see a Copy of it, nor did [Page 9] I ever hear the Contents of it, or know the Pow­ers granted in it, till the Time of its being publickly opened at Whitehall; whither I was sent for, on purpose, in haste, that very Morn­ing from my House in the Countrey, being just come home from a Confirmation, and from pay­ing my Duty to her Royal Highness the Prin­cess of Denmark, at Tunbridge.

Answ. A Bishop of this Kingdom, no less Man, coming to London, found himself ap­pointed one in a New Commission! No matter what, but a New Commission, and my Lord was appointed to be One! down he goes into the Countrey, without hearing the Contents of it, or the Powers granted in it; but a new Commission, and my Lord was one! satisfied with himself, a Favourite to the Best of Kings, James the Just! Visits the believing World, makes his Court to Princes, takes a turn or two, upon the Walks of Tunbridge, that Parade of Gravity, and Thinking, and so home to his Countrey House, satisfied with himself, for my Lord was one. By that time the Commission is ripe, my Lord is sent for, Express, on pur­pose, in haste, that very morning from his [Page 10] Countrey-House, and for ought appears to the contrary, drove three quarters speed to the very Gates of Whitehall, lest he should come half a minute too late. For what? Truly, the no less Person than a Bishop came, Post-haste, to the no less wick­edness, than a Declaration of War, to root the Protestant Religion out of these King­doms, and by consequence out of the World. Was there ever such an Apology as this! That a Bishop should find himself appointed One in a New Commission, One, that he could never see a draught of, nor so much as be told the Contents of, or the least Item of the Powers granted in it, till it was pub­lickly opened at Whitehall to be executed, and he sent for, in haste, that very Morning (for the Conspiracy was in Travel, and could not be delivered till my Lord came) from his Country-House, to such a monstrous Birth; methinks, a Bishop of common Understan­ding should have been concern'd at the name of a New Commission, have pursued an Inquiry into the utmost drift of it, at least, have in some measure examined the Con­tents before he had gone into the Countrey, that so he might consider how to behave [Page 11] himself in the Commission, for the Kings Honour, if fit to be assisted, or to avoid it, if unlawful, and not come in that hasty manner to such an extraordinary design, as a New Commission must carry in the Belly of it; at a time, when every Protestant was supposed, from the whole Conduct at White­hall, to be upon his Guard. The poor Curate of Mark-Lane, the Curate of Timo­thy had more Honour, he sacrificed all, his utmost twenty pounds a year, stript himself, it may be, to the Skin, rather than betray his Profession, so far, as to read twenty lines of a Declaration at the Command of a Prince, who but a little before had threat­ned us to raise the Glory of the Kingdom higher than in the time of any of his An­cestors, by the same Measures that his Bro­ther Charles the Merciful, after the Dissolu­tion at Oxford, promised to Govern us by Law.

The fourth Paragraph of the Letter.

Upon the first publishing the Commission, I confess, through my Ignorance in the Law, I had little or no Objection in my Thoughts against [Page 12] the Legality of it; especially, when I considered that having past the Broad Seal, it must needs, according to my Apprehension, have been ex­amined, and approved in the King's Learned Council in the Law, Men generally esteemed of Eminent Skill in their Profession. Beside, I was farther confirmed (tho too rashly, I grant) in my Error, when I saw two Gentlemen of the Long Robe, Persons of the greatest Place and Authority in Westminster-Hall joyned with us; who I should have thought would never have ventured their Fortunes and Reputations by Ex­ercising a Jurisdiction that was Illegal.

Answ. Here, Right Reverend, if the Robe worn by your Lordship did not confine to Solemnity, there is Room for more Wit than I have to dispose of: For, beyond all contra­diction, there was never a greater Satyr upon that King's Council in the Law, than to call them, Men generally esteem'd of Eminent Skill in their Profession; or more Jest upon Persons of the greatest Place, and Autho­rity in Westminster-Hall, at that time, than to term them Men of Fortune and Reputa­tion; you impose upon the World, my Lord, in the Minute you desire excuse, and [Page 13] think to write your self into Ignorance, by endeavouring to write others out of it. Sa­tyr, and Apology are repugnant. You are not so Ignorant, but to know the Inquiry was not after Skill, but Readiness; the Que­stion was not, what is Law? but, will you serve the King in his own way? There was possibly a skilful Wretch among them, whose Ambition might suppress his Honesty; but in general, the Men were not so Eminent. And for Reputation and Fortune, they (de­spicable Ingredients,) were as strange to the Persons of the greatest Authority and Place in Westminster-Hall, as the Bishop of Roche­ster must be unknown to all England, if he can perswade us into the Opinion of his Ig­norance, as to the Legality of an Ecclesi­astical Commission, by the Rule of Perswa­ding us out of our Senses, into the skill of the One, or the Reputation, and Fortune of the other.

The fifth Paragraph of the Letter.

And I believ'd I had reason to conclude that this very Argument might prevail also with [Page 14] some others of the Temporal Lords, that sate a­mong us, Particularly the Earl of Rochester, has often assured me, 'twas that which induc'd him to accept of the Commission, and that he did it, as I my self did, with a purpose of doing as much good, as we were able, and of hindring as much Evil, as we possibly could in that un­fortunate Juncture of Affairs.

Answ. I will not take upon me to argue for, or against the Earl of Rochester, but sure I am, that he who ventures his Temporal condition to save his Spiritual, is of much more Value, than he who ventures his Spiritual to save his Temporal. If the Earl of Rochester hazarded, and lost the first place of England, the Treasury, for the sake of the Protestant Religion, when the Forma­lity of a Conference might appear some kind of Contest with a King, a Brother-in-Law, and so great an Employment, that one Action shall be imputed to him for Righteousness in this World, and ought to stand in Ballance against any great oversight, because from the many Cases of History, informing that Lord, how dangerous it is [Page 15] for a Favourite, in a set Competition, to be Wiser than his Prince, much more, how Fa­tal to condemn his Religion, he could not but see his Fall in the Perseverance, and are therefore Irrefragable Arguments, that neither Ambition, Relation, nor Temporal Interest governed him.

But if the Bishop of Rochester put the Protestant Religion in danger, for an Hour, in servile Obedience to the Arbitrary Will of his Prince, the Presumption is Violent that he followed Humane Interest in the Compliance; especially if the Bishop had ne­ver been seen in any one important Self De­nial, for the sake of his Religion, that might stamp the Character upon him, of one that would not Act against his Conscience. Wherefore I think, the Spiritual Rochester can by no means assign Ignorance for Plea, with the same Application the Temporal Rochester may, if but for want of the Like Credentials, nor pretend to shelter himself under the same Paragraph of Umbrage, be­cause he never parted with the least Advan­tage, that ever came into Publick Dis­course, [Page 16] for the sake of his Religion.

The Good you urge to have done, was Evil in you all, because unjust in the Foun­dation; the Evil you did, was much more Evil in you, my Lord, because of the Good you might properly have wrought out of that very Evil: Not by accepting the Com­mission with purpose of doing what Good you could, and hindering as much Evil in the Subservient way of your latter Para­graphs, but opposing the Commission it self, a first, a second, a third time, and so left them; been earnest and forward in your protestation, preparing your self to declaim strenuously against it, Asserting your Reli­gion, like a Bishop, in a Just foresight of Evil to come, and taking the freedom of St. Paul to plead for God against the Idolatrous design, maintaining the Liberty you are re­quired to stand fast in. This was your Du­ty, my Lord, and the Good ought to have been wrought by a Bishop out of the Evil of the Commission, thanking God for the Opportunity he had given you to appear in defence of the Christian Faith; to manifest [Page 17] your contempt of Ease, Pleasure, Life it self, accounting all things but Dung, and Dross, compared with the Excellency of the Know­ledge of Christ your Master. And if your Heart, through Natural Infirmity, or Tem­porary Delights, had failed you, Retired to your Closet, down upon your Knees, have humbled your self before him, adoring his Divine Bounty in Grace of Inclination, and besought him to remove from before your Eyes the Prospect of any Felicity, that stood between you and your Resolution, in his Service; have turned to the Life and Death of some Primitive Christian Bishop, whose Example might support your Spirits; Or it may be, my Lord, not to despise poor Fox, your Book of Martyrs, if that Manual of Popish Clemency durst be seen in your Study, might have shewn you, about a do­zen or two, of your Country-men of the meaner sort, upon a Page, Coblers, Weavers, and such like Weaklings, in a Chain tied to a stake, kissing the Post, rejoicing in the Flame, and blessing the Day that God had vouchsafed to single them out to bear Testi­mony against the Persecution of Princes. [Page 18] This, my Lord, was the least of your Duty, and I believe had been performed, if the Temporalties of the Episcopacy, to say no­thing severe, had not gained time upon the Spiritualty of the Bishop.

The sixth Paragraph of the Letter.

As for my own part, I was startled when I perceived my Lord of Canterbury scrupled to be present with us; whose Example, 'tis true, I ought rather to have followed, than the grea­test Lawyers, in all matters of Conscience. Yet I hope, his Grace will excuse me, if I declare, that I did not at first know, He made a matter of Conscience of it; Nor did I understand his Grace took Exception at the Lawfulness of the Commission it self, till after my Lord of Lon­don was Cited, and had Appeared and Answe­red, and the unjust Sentence had past upon Him.

Answ. The Scruples of that Arch-Bishop have been my great Satisfaction, and are now as much my Trouble. I am not wor­thy, but as hearty to Remove the Latter, as [Page 19] I was ever ready to Justifie his Former; with reference to that Commission his Grace be­hav'd himself like the Metropolitan of all England to refuse Attendance, and you had appear'd a worthy Suffragan, if the Coun­tenance of his Disdain had rais'd you up to a Defiance; You ought, my Lord, to have argued against, what he thought below him to take notice of. Vindicating, at once, a Temper in him, Suitable to the Apostolick See, and in your self, to the Sincerity of a Protestant Bishop; that is, an humble great­ness of Mind explained in Him by the mode­sty of Not Appearing, and Christian Forti­tude in You by the Vigour of Opposing.

If after my Lord of London had been cited and appeared, you had consulted his Grace how to carry your self at the next meeting, and followed his Advice, such a Retrieve might have been an Apology for the Surprise in your First sitting there; but to let the Cita­tion, Appearance, Answer, Sentence, and All be over, All past, my Lord, before you could move from Westminster to Lambeth, let a Bi­shop be affronted in an Unjust Sentence, be­fore [Page 20] you would vouchsafe cross the Thames to understand why my Lord of Canterbury' your Metropolitan, disowned the Commissi­on, puts your Case beyond Scruple and Star­tle, into Wilfulness Prepense, and me, almost, beyond reasoning into Astonishment; De­monstration it self, that you took care not to approach his Grace's Exceptions to the Lega­lity of the Commission, lest they should prove too clear for your Unlawful Obedi­ence to the pleasure of the King, or rather, lest he should tell your Lordship, you under­stood the Illegality of it beyond any Excuse of Ignorance, if you made your Conscience a Slave to his Power. No, my Lord, Igno­rance was to be reserved against a wet day, and might serve well enough to Charm a Good natured, Unthinking, Lethargick Peo­ple, Easie to be pacified, a little whining will melt them down, if ever they are redeemed into a capacity of demanding Justice, but, at present, Unshaken Loyalty, is the word, and I must On. Thus, it seems to me, your Lord­ship debated with your self, and came to a Resolution of Owning the Court to the de­gree of a Sentence, ratifying your Devotion [Page 21] to the King, and giving the Conspirators assurance thereby, that allowing you the fa­vour of a State Vote in particulars, (which they had no occasion for) in general no Pro­ject of theirs was too open for your Com­pliance, and, with the help of your many precedent Instances of Submission, putting Us out of doubt that you saw Heaven at the remote end of the Glass; could not endure the Frowns of your Prince, tho' all the Laws of the Land warranted you against them, be­cause you saw those Laws languishing under the weight of Dispensation, nor hazard your Preferment for the sake of the best Church in the World, because you thought her ex­piring.

The seventh Paragraph of the Letter.

For it was on the very day the Commission was open'd, immediately, as I remember, after it was read, that my Lord of London was infor­med against for not suspending Doctor Sharp, which, tho' it exceedingly surpriz'd me at first, yet observing with what heat the Prose­cution was like to be carried on against him, [Page 22] that very Consideration did the more incline me to Sit and Act there, that I might be in some Capacity of doing Right to his Lordship. And whether I did him any Service through the whole Process of his Cause, I leave it to my Lord to judge. That I gave my Positive Vote for his Acquittal, both the Times when his Su­spension came in question, I suppose I need not tell the world.

Answer. The Persecution of the Bishop of London could be no Surprise, that Diocesan having been found in a watchfulness too ex­act for the bearing of a Papist. He knew God was no Respecter of Persons, and had told the Duke of York so, by inviting him to the Sacrament in our Church, thereby confirming Our Discovery of a Religion that kept him, not only, from all Commu­nion with Us, after the first Discovery, but from all Charity toward Us for it; a Religi­on, which hath wrought all the Evils these three Kingdoms have endured from the Re­formation to this hour, and may quickly double upon us, in a return of Blood and Confusion, if Surprises and Scruples shall [Page 23] pass for National Apologies. That Disco­very, my Lord, raised a subject matter for Displeasure in his Breast, who wanted no­thing but the Title of King then, and when God permitted him, as a Judgment for our Sins, to take possession of the Crown after­wards, would have been much more than so. And there it lodged till the Plot had occasion to make use of it; then Out it came under another Notion, but might, indeed, surprise any Man, that so mean a Cause, as the not su­spending Doctor Sharp, should bring to light that secret of Indignation (Visible in For­giving the One, and Persecuting the Other) So that, my Lord, if you were exceedingly surprised, that Very Exceeding ought to have Spirited your Lordship to some Honest, Able Adviser; And if you did observe with what Heat the Persecution was like to be car­ried on against him, that very consideration ought to have engaged you not to sit, nor act there; And that you might be in the better capacity of doing my Lord of London right, you ought to have joined in Aver­ring his Plea, protesting against the Juris­diction; And you could do him no other [Page 24] service through the whole Process of his Cause, for there was no process of Cause be­yond that Plea.

Your Vote of Acquittal was insignificant, if not prejudicial. They had set Protestant a­gainst Protestant before, the care was now to divide the Church against it self. An Ec­clesiastical Commission could have no co­lour without some Ecclesiastical Persons. It was Art enough to bring a Bishop to judge a Bishop, they could not expect to find him Theirs in the immediate Sentence. And yet, if upon an easie Judgment made of things, Precipitation was then apparently their Ru­ine, all that restrained them were so far wi­ser for them, than they were for themselves, and so much the more Our Enemies. If the Judges had unanimously driven every Per­son and Matter into Condemnation, the pro­ceeding had been too Gross, and Unpalla­table; but sure of a Plurality upon a stress, by the mixture of the Men, with Bishops and Lawyers, to support the Foundation of the design, Liberty of Assent or Dissent, see­med a kind of Pro and Con, which kept in [Page 25] sight a Form of Justice, enough to amuse us, tho no Realities at bottom to preserve us.

Thus far, my Lord, I have kept Com­pany with your Letter, Paragraph by Pa­ragraph, and, if I do not mistake, think ful­ly signified my Affliction for your Lord­ship, that you should expose to the World your No Vindication, in so imaginary a Confession, and have brought your Apolo­gy to Judgement, where you hurried the Bishop of London into that unjust Sentence, resolving your Venial Ignorance into Mor­tal Presumption, I say, you, my Lord, upon this distinction, that when a Court is Legal, every Man shall account for his own Opi­nion, whether of unqualifying Ignorance, or Wickedness; so that if an Arbitrary desire, or notorious Weakness in the Major Number of the Judges over-rule the Less, yet that less shall stand, when the Majority shall fall; Nor, with allowance against Infallibility, shall a Judge, if in his turn of Place, finding the Plurality, by their Opinions delivered, to be against his, be thought to maintain [Page 26] the Doctrine of the Bow-string, if wanting some Heights of daring Honesty, he shall rather be silent; And tho', for a Judge to say, I doubt, without Reasons, is no better in strictness than sitting Mute, where the Natu­ral Life of Man, or the Political Life of a Nati­on, is at stake; yet it will be Cruelty to think, the Doubter does not appear an unsatisfied Judge; And in the Morning of a Persecu­tion, it may be thought some Test of his Aversion to Evil; tho' not of firm Inte­grity, and Purity from Crime, if he adjourn himself to a short season of Retreat, or be admitted (considering the Vast Catalogue of Men) to tempt his Quietus by a handsome Carriage in a second Cause; For the Foun­dation of the Court being Just, there is Room for Apology, that he continues a­mong them to do what Good, and prevent what Evil he can. But if a Court be Il­legal, not well Constituted, and Erected, every Arbitrary Proceeding shall stand in charge against all the Judges, without re­gard had to any Affirmative, or Negative in a particular, because the Illegality be­ing in the Frame, the very Act of joining [Page 27] with it, incorporates a Man to the Guilt of it, and renders a Bishop as Censurable, in being Ecclesiastical, as it can do a Lawyer, because a Commission; and, as I think, with deference to the Wiser of Mankind, it ought not, in any high degree, to do a Lay-man, whose Obedience may, without stram of thought be easily supposed to de­pend upon the judgment of the Profes­sors.

All that looks like Repetition is too much. Upon the whole matter, therefore, of your First Letter, my Lord, what remains of it, is, with me, but what I call in the begin­ning of mine, An Ignoble Surrender of your Better Understanding to the Extravagant Desires, and the Vain Imaginations of your Prince. And tho' every Paragraph follow­ing, nay, every Line in every Paragraph, is liable to Refutation upon the Head, Mean Shift; yet my Intention being against you, as an Adviser in the Second, not directly against you as a Commissioner in this, I will carry it on no farther, desirous not to im­prove [Page 28] a Charge so heavy in it self; But conclude thus, The Commission was a Dra­goon Commission, no Moot Case among the principal Lawyers, but a condemned, abrogated, and exploded Case among the Meanest; And that your Lordship not pro­testing against the Court, when the Bishop of London's Plea brought the Jurisdiction, regularly into Examination, without any Voluntary of your Own, tho' the last was your Duty, and ought to have been your Strict Inquiry; Yet that Notice divested you of all manner of Pretence to Igno­rance, and a full stop should have been made; So that, all those reiterated Acts of Subserviency you claim under, are but so many deplorable Instances of a wretch­ed Compliance; And, how contrary soe­ver to the Humour of the COURT your Votes were in particular; Yet, for as much as every Sentence was Irregular, every Decree Extravagant, All Prosecu­tions Unjust, for they had no cogni­uisance of any Cause; And that my Lord of London, by refusing to buy off the Su­spension [Page 29] at so dear a Rate, as the Prostitu­tion of his Conscience to an Inglorious Submission, might fully convince you, how stedfast a Bishop ought to be in a Good Cause. Your breaking lose from the Com­mission, at a time when the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom were so disgra­ced, they could do no less by all the Rules of Honour, and Honesty, than U­nite into a general dissatisfaction, that their Gallantry might cover the rest from the impending Storm, and that all the Cler­gy of the Land had, as it were one Man, denyed Obedience to the Arbitrary Com­mands of the King, in not reading a De­claration: And the whole Body was rea­dy to take Wing in Defence of the Protestant Religion, and Interest, upon the first Opportunity, in a stand of Men, to favour their Conjunction: Your Retreat then, my Lord, and what you call joyning your self to the Honest Cler­gy again, was, in truth, but a steal­ing your self away from the rest of your Bretheren, the Commissioners, in the [Page 30] Hour of Danger, and so far from an Apology, That, if others are no Wiser than I, you deserve a Reward.