cially fo great a displeasure against me, as your letter expreffes, and that too for fuch a crime which I abhorre, no less than infincere dealing, and in the whole, I am fo unhappy as to be fuppofed guilty by your Grace, and to be treated by you as if I were. But I hope your Grace will have that charity for me, to believe me when I with all humble fubmiffion acquaint you, that I never had the originall you mention. And if I had had it, I know not the least temptation imaginable I could have had to have detained it. The onely copy I had I have fent, and I thought it was the same you meant, having, as I understood your letter, loft the other: and I fent it through the Bishop of Ely, because I was tender of giving you the trouble of a letter which might be spared, and I fent it with a particular circumstance of duty to your Grace, that my old friend must needs be very forgetfull, if he gave no better account who it was that brought it, or how it came to his hands. I confeffe I should have fent your paper fooner, and fo I had done, had not the perfons with whome my fecretary was to transact businesse disappointed us, and this, if it be a fault, I prefume is a venial one. But how much foever affured I am of my owne innocence, rather than tyre you with a tedious vindication of myfelfe, I choose to begge your pardon, as well as your benediction. "My good Lord, Your Grace's most obedient Son and Servant, "December 5th, 1687." *Round. p, 40. S CHAPTER XVIII. The King perfeveres in his measures for the establishment of Romanifm-Ken's fermon at Whitehall, for which he is reproved by James-His firm reply. HE year 1688 dawned upon England as the morning of an eventful ftruggle. Juft a century before, Philip of Spain had threatened the religion and liberties of England. But how different then was the fpirit of the fovereign. Elizabeth, devoted to the honour and interests of the Kingdom, and zealous for the Reformed faith, riding in ftate to review her armies at Tilbury, roused all claffes to the highest pitch of loyalty and patriotism. James, on the other hand, a penfioner of France, refolving to extirpate, as an obftinate herefy, the religion in which he had been brought up, and to bend his people to an arbitrary government, encamped his army on Hounslow Heath, that he might over-awe them into an unwilling obedience. The fame brave and vigorous fpirit animated the gentlemen, the clergy, and the people of England at each crifis. It is no vain boaft that in our complex fyftem the character of the English gentry moulds and governs fociety. Whatever violates the spirit of it offends the public mind. The Prince himself may not deviate from it ;-the lower claffes know how to appreciate it in those who are above them, and confefs to its influence; the ariftocracy, as a clafs, are its beft exemplars. It is true, indeed, that in every rank of life we have many shades of evil: in all nations the depraved will, the selfishness of the human heart, the deadening power of indulgence, exercise a fearful sway. Still,the character of the English Gentleman is a national character it cannot be defined, -it forms the standard which all aspire to, the claim that every man of birth or property afferts, and the denial of which touches him most nearly. Again, throughout the land, whether we regard rank, wealth, education, reach of intellect, purity of life, enlarged charity, the spirit of forbearance, the noiseless tenour of a Christian course, devoted loyalty, confiftent patriotism, it will be found that the Church of England (in its clofe union of Clergy and Laity) is the fanctuary of England, the poor man's refuge,-the rich man's fecurity, the Ægis of the throne. To all this James was utterly infenfible: his every measure was opposed to the vigorous good fenfe that characterized his people. He was completely under the dominion of a flock of foreign priests and Jesuits, who vied with each other in driving him forward to a pure defpotism, as the fureft means of establishing a Popish rule. At this period it was that Ken, once more, and for the last time, was appointed to preach the Lent sermon. It seems strange that one fo conftant to the interests of the Anglican Church, fo brave in her defence, so uncompromifing in the exercise of the pastoral liberty, fo unlikely to flatter, or to spare, should be permitted, at fuch a crisis, to denounce the errors of the Court re ligion, even within the King's Chapel. He came to London, that he might take his prescribed duty on "Paffion Sunday," the 1ft of April 1688. The knowledge that he was to be the Preacher drew together a vast concourfe of perfons, eager in this moment of excitement to hear the most eloquent of men, who would be sure to make a bold stand for the rights of the Church. Fearful accounts had come over of the defpotism established in Ireland by the new Lord Lieutenant, Tyrconnel. We may form fome judgment of this from the reckless measures to which he inftigated the Irish Parliament in the following year, when they paffed an Act to attaint two Archbishops, one Duke, feventeen Earls, feven Counteffes, eighteen Barons, thirty-three Baronets, fifty-one Knights, eighty-three Clergymen, two thousand and eighty-two Esquires and Gentlemen ;-all of them without a hearing adjudged guilty of high treason, and declared worthy to fuffer the pains of forfeiture and death.* The King already feemed prepared for the fame measures in Ireland, as Louis had perpetrated towards the Huguenots in France. He foon afterwards employed those two French barbarians, Rofen and Mammo, who had dragooned the Proteftants of Languedoc, and afterwards commanded the maffacres before Derry. Every faithful pastor, therefore, was bound to witnefs for the truth of the Anglican Church,-to run all risks, that he might keep the people ftedfast to their The State of the Proteftants of Ireland, under the late King James's Government. By Dr. William King, Archbishop of Dublin.-4to. 3rd Edition, 1691. faith. Ken could not be indifferent or paffive in such an emergency he might be refponfible, in his measure, for the ruin of all he held moft dear, if he abstained from explicitly warning his hearers of the prefent danger. His part was not to preach up rebellion against the royal authority, but to inculcate ftedfastness, and penitence for the public fins, which had called down the prefent judgments upon the nation. The scene in the Chapel at Whitehall on this occafion was an extraordinary one. "The Morning Sermon was preached by Dr. Stillingfleet, on the 10th Luke, 41, 42. The Holy Communion followed; but was fo interrupted by the rude breaking in of multitudes, zealous to hear the fecond fermon to be preached (in the afternoon fervice) by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, that the latter part of that Holy Office could hardly be heard, or the facred elements be distributed without great trouble."* The doors of the Chapel were not closed between the fervices, owing to the crowds who preffed in before the time to secure feats. At length the Princess Ann, with her attendants, having at the appointed hour taken her place in the Royal Gallery, on the left hand of the King's Chair, which was empty, and the prayers being ended, the Bishop went up into the pulpit. "He preached on 7th Micah, 8. 9. 10, † defcribing the calamity of the Reformed Church of Judah under the * Evelyn's Diary, Vol. i. p. 647. ↑ "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arife; when I fit in darkness, the Lord fhall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have finned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgement for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I fhall behold His Righteoufnefs." |