HANDBOUND AT THE

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS

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,

BISHOP BURNET'S

HISTORY

OF

HIS OWN TIME:

WITH THE

SUPPRESSED PASSAGES OF THE FIRST VOLUME,

AND NOTES

BY THE

EARLS OF DARTMOUTH AND HARDWICKE,

AND

SPEAKER ONSLOW,

HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.

To which are added

THE CURSORY REMARKS OF SWIFT, AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS.

rv\.X

VOL. IV.

OXFORD,

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. MDCCCXXIII.

1*13

THE

HISTORY

OF

MY OWN TIMES.

BOOK V.

Of the reign of king William and queen Mary.

JL NOW begin, on the first day of May, 1705, to 1689. prosecute this work a ; and have before me a reign, ofhthe°new that drew upon it an universal expectation of great reisn* things to follow, from such auspicious beginnings ; and from so general a joy as was spread over these x nations, and all the neighbouring kingdoms and states ; of whom, some had apprehended a general depression, if not the total ruin of the protestant religion : and all of them saw such a progress 2 made by the French in the design of enslaving the

a I wrote in the first volume published many things that he of this book, that I did not be- knew to be so. D. (It appears, lieve the bishop designedly pub- that the bishop had composed lished any thing he believed to some part of this volume as ear- be false; therefore think my- ly as the year 1701, by what he self obliged to write in this, says below at page 205.) that I am fully satisfied, that he

VOL. IV. B

2 THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689. rest of Europe, that the check which the revolution ~in England seemed to promise, put a new life in those, who before were sunk in despair. It seemed to be a double-bottomed monarchy, where there were two joint-sovereigns ; but those who knew the queen's temper and principles, had no apprehensions of divided counsels, or of a distracted government. The effects That which gave the most melancholy prospect king's iii was the ill state of the king's health, whose stay so long at St. James's without exercise or hunting, which was so much used by him that it was become necessary, had brought him under such a weakness, as was like to have very ill effects b : and the face he forced himself to set upon it, that it might not ap- pear too much, made an impression on his temper. He was apt to be peevish : it put him under a ne- cessity of being much in his closet, and of being silent and reserved; which, agreeing so well with his natural disposition, made him go off from what all his friends had advised, and he had promised them he would set about, of being more visible, open, and communicative. The nation had been so much accustomed to this, in the two former reigns, that many studied to persuade him, it would be ne- cessary for his affairs to change his way, that he might be more accessible, and freer in his discourse. He seemed resolved on it ; but he said, his ill health made it impossible for him to execute it : and so he went on in his former way, or rather he grew more

b The duke of Leeds told prehensive his martial temper

me, few of the English were would run the kingdom into a

concerned for his health, ex- great land army, which might

pecting a much milder reign have been avoided under her

under the queen ; and were ap- administration. D.

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY. 8

retired, and was not easily come at, nor spoke to. 1689. And in a very few days after he was set on the~ throne, he went out to Hampton-Court : and from that palace he came into town only on council days. So that the face of a court, and the rendezvous < usual in the public rooms, was now quite broke. This gave an early and general disgust. The gaiety and the diversions of a court disappeared. And, though the queen set her self to make up what was wanting in the king, by a great vivacity and cheer- fulness ; yet when it appeared that she meddled not in business, so that few found their account in mak- ing their court to her, though she gave a wonderful content to all that came near her, yet few came.

The king found the air of Hampton-Court agreed so well with him, that he resolved to live the great- est part of the year there. But that palace was so very old built, and so irregular, that a design was formed of raising new buildings there, for the king and the queen's apartments. This shewed a resolu- tion to live at a distance from London : and the enter- ing so soon on so expensive a building, afforded mat- 3 ter of censure to those who were disposed enough to entertain it. And this spread a universal discontent in the city of London. And these small and almost indiscernible beginnings and seeds of ill humour, have ever since gone on in a very visible increase and progress.

The first thing the king did was to choose a A new mi- ministry, and to settle a council. The earl .of"1 Shrewsbury was declared secretary of state, and had v the greatest share of the king's confidence. No exception could be made to the choice, except on account of his youth. But he applied himself to

B 2

4 THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689. business with great diligence, and maintained his "candour and temper with more reservedness than was expected from one of his age. It was for some time under consideration, who should be the other secretary ; at last the earl of Nottingham was pitch- ed on. He had opposed the settlement with great earnestness, in his copious way of speaking. But he had always said, that, though he would not make a king, yet, upon his principles, he could obey him better than those who were so much set on making one. The high church party did apprehend, that the opposition they had given the king's advance- ment, and the zeal that others had shewed for it, would alienate him from them, and throw him into other hands, from whom no good was to be expected for them : and they looked for severe revenges for the hardships they had put on these, in the end of king Charles's reign. This grew daily upon that party, and made them begin to look back toward king James. So, not to provoke so great a body too much, it was thought advisable to employ the The eari of earl of Nottingham. The great increase of chan-

Nottine- , _ .

ham's ad- eery business had made many apprehend, it was too niuch to be trusted to one person: so it was resolved

jJh? s° the to Put ^e Cnancer7 in commission : and the earl of Nottingham was proposed to be the first in the commission, but he refused it. So Maynard, Keck, and Rawlinson, three eminent lawyers, were made the three commissioners of the great seal. And soon after that, the earl of Nottingham was appointed se- cretary of state. This gave as much satisfaction to all the high party, as it begot jealousies and distrust in others. The one hoped for protection and favour by his means : they reckoned, he would infuse all

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY. 5

the prerogative notions into the king; and give him 1689- such a jealousy of every step that the others should"" make in prejudice of these, that from thence the king would see cause to suspect all the shew of kindness that they might put on to him, when at the same time they were undermining some of those prerogatives, for which the earl of Nottingham seemed to be so zealous. This had a great effect 4 on the king, who, being ignorant of our constitution, and naturally cautious, saw cause enough to dislike the heat he found among those, who expressed much zeal for him, but who seemed, at the same time, to have with it a great mixture of republican principles c. They, on the other hand, were much offended at the employing the earl of Nottingham. And he gave them daily cause to be more displeased at it : for he set himself with a most eager partiality against the whole party, and against all the motions made by them : and he studied to possess the king with a very bad opinion of them. And, whereas secretaries of state have a particular allowance for such spies as they employ to procure intelligence, how exact soever he might be in procuring foreign intelligence, he spared no cost nor pains to have an account of all that passed in the city, and in other

c I remember to have heard the others, yet as they were from a great personage, that zealous for monarchy, he thought when the earl of Sunderland they would serve his govern- came afterwards to be in king ment best : to which the earl William's confidence, and press- replied, that it was very true, ed him very much to trust and that the tories were better rely more upon the whigs than friends to monarchy than the he 'had done, the king said, he whigs were, but then his ma- believed the whigs loved him jesty was to consider that he best, but they did not love mo- was not their monarch. See narchy ; and although the to- in this copy and notes, page ries did not like him so well as 660 — 662, in this vol. O.

B 3

6 THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689. angry cabals : and he furnished the king very co- " piously that way; which made a deep impression on him, and had very bad effects. The earl of Danby was made marquis of Carmarthen, and president of the council: and lord Halifax had the privy seal. The last of these had gone into all the steps that had been made for the king, with great zeal, and by that means was hated by the high party, whom for distinction sake I will hereafter call tories, and the other whigs : terms that I have spoken much against, and have ever hated : but to avoid making always a longer description, I must use them ; they being now become as common as if they had been words of our language. Lord Halifax soon saw that his friendship with the whigs was not like to last long : his opposing the exclusion stuck still deep with them : and the business of the quo warrantors, and the delivering up of charters, was cast on him : the slowness of relieving Ireland was also charged on him ; he had for some time great credit with the king ; though his mercurial wit was not well suited with the king's phlegm. Lord Carmarthen could not bear the equality, or rather the preference that seemed to be given to lord Halifax : and therefore set on the storm that quickly broke out upon him d.

d Lord Halifax was not sen- ticular had done eminent ser-

sible of that equality or prefer- vices at the revolution, and

ence ; for he complained most could not with decency have

grievously to all his friends, that been left out. Lord Danby's

he found there was no contesting merit was great in concluding

against the merit of rebellion, the match with queen Mary,

D. I have always thought king without the knowledge and

William unjustly reflected upon, against the opinion of the duke

for taking some of the tories of York. H. (EARL OF HARD-

into his administration ; lord WICKE.) Halifax and lord Danby in par-

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY. 7

Lord Mordaunt was made earl of Monmouth, and 1 689.

first commissioner of the treasury : and lord de la Mere, made earl of Warrington, was chancellor of the exchequer : lord Godolphin was likewise brought into the treasury, to the great grief of the other two ; who soon saw, that the king considered him more than them both. For, as he understood trea- sury business weU, so his calm and cold way suited the king's temper6. The earls of Monmouth and 5 Warrington, though both most violent whigs, be- came great enemies : the former was generous, and gave the inferior places freely ; but sought out the men, who were most noted for republican principles, for them all : and the other, they said, sold every thing that was in his power f. The privy council was composed chiefly of whigs.

Nothing gave a more general satisfaction than the The judges

. , ,. , . 11 • well chosen.

naming of the judges ; the king ordered every privy counsellor to bring a list of twelve : and out of these, twelve very learned and worthy judges were chosen. This nomination was generally well re- ceived over the nation. The first of these was sir John Holt, made lord chief justice of England, then a young man for so high a post, who maintained it all his time with a high reputation for capacity, in- tegrity, courage, and great despatch. So that since the lord chief justice Hale's time, that bench has not been so well filled as it was by him.

The king's chief personal favour lay between Ben-

c The treasury was ill com- He understood the treasury bu-

posed ; lord Godolphin was siness much the best. O. odious for having adhered to f A slight foundation to go

king James to the last, and upon for such a charge, and ab-

acted in the privy council, and solutely denied by the family. O.

debated against the abdication. Made earl after this, 8vo edit.

B 4

8 THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689. thinck and Sidney: the former was made earl of ~ Portland and groom of the stole, and continued for ten years to be entirely trusted by the king ; and served him with great fidelity and obsequiousness : but he could never bring himself to be acceptable to the English nation. The other was made first, lord Sidney, and then earl of Rumney : and was put in several great posts. He was made secretary of state, lord lieutenant of Ireland, and master of the ord- nance : but he was so set on pleasure, that he was not able to follow business with a due application £. The earls of Devonshire and Dorset had the white staffs : the first was lord steward, and the other was lord chamberlain : and they being both whigs, the household was made up of such, except where there were buyers for places, which were set to sale : and though the king seemed to discourage that, yet he did not encourage propositions that were made for the detecting those practices. Thus was the court, the ministry, and the council, composed. The ad- miralty was put in commission : and Herbert, made earl of Torrington, was first in the commission. He tried to dictate to the board : and, when he found that did not pass upon them, he left it : and studied all he could to disparage their conduct : and it was

g When he was made secre- could not think of a proper

tary of state, the duke of Leeds person at present, and knew he

told me he happened to go into was the only Englishman he

the king's closet soon after he could put in and out again

came out, and the king asked without disobliging of him.

him if he had seen the new se- The duke said he did not laugh

cretary; the duke answered, before, but could not forbear,

no, he met nobody but lord when he heard he was to be at

Rumney, (little thinking he the secretary's office, like a

could be the man.) The king footman at a play, to keep a

told him, he knew he would place till his betters came. D. laugh at his being so, but he

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY. 9

thought he hoped to have been advanced to that 1689. high trust alone.

The first thing proposed to be done was to turn The con-

,. ,. , vention

the convention into a parliament, according to the turned to a c precedent set in the year 1660. This was opposed parhament' by all the tories. They said, writs were indispens- able to the being of a parliament. And though the 6 like was done at the restoration, yet it was said, that the convention was then called when there was no king nor great seal in England : and it was called by the consent of the lawful king, and was done upon a true and visible, and not on a pretended ne- cessity: and they added, that after all, even then the convention was not looked on as a legal parliament : its acts were ratified in a subsequent parliament; and from thence they had their authority. So it was moved, that the convention should be dissolved, and a new parliament summoned: for in the joy which accompanied the revolution, men well affected to it were generally chosen : and it was thought, that the damp, which was now spread into many parts of the nation, would occasion great changes in a new election. On the other hand, the necessity of affairs was so pressing, that no time was to be lost : a delay of forty days might be the total loss of Ire- land ; and stop all our preparations at sea : nor was it advisable, in so critical a time, to put the nation into the ferment which a new election would occa- sion. And it was reasonable to expect, that those who had set the king on the throne would be more zealous to maintain him there, than any new set of men could possibly be : and those who submitted to a king, de facto, must likewise submit to a parlia- ment, de facto. So the bill passed : and a day was

10 THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689* set for the call of both houses, and for requiring the

members to take the oaths.

some bi- Eight bishops absented themselves, who were the par- Bancroft of Canterbury, Thomas of Worcester, Lake of Chichester, Turner of Ely, Lloyd of Nor- wich, Ken of Bath and Wells, Frampton of Gloces- ter, and White of Peterborough. But in the mean while, that they might recommend themselves by a shew of moderation, some of them moved the house of lords, before they withdrew from it, for a bill of toleration, and another of comprehension h : and these were drawn and offered by the earl of Not- tingham : and, as he said to me, they were the same that he had prepared for the house of commons in king Charles's time, during the debates of the ex- clusion : but then things of that kind were looked on as artifices, to lay the heat of that time, and to render the church party more popular. After those motions were made, the bishops that were in the house withdrew : Bancroft, Thomas, and Lake, never came : the two last died soon after. Ken was a man of a warm imagination : and at the time of the king's first landing, he declared heartily for him, and advised all the gentlemen that he saw, to go and join with him. But during the debates in the convention, he went with great heat into the notion 7 of a prince regent. And now, upon the call of the house, he withdrew into his diocese. He changed his mind again, and wrote a paper, persuading the clergy to take the oaths, which he shewed to Dr.

h (Of these eight, five were against popery, had professed

amongst those excellent pre- their willingness, that favour

lates, who, in the late reign, should be shewn to dissenters.) when they stood in the gap

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY.

11

Whitby, who read it, as the Dr. has told me often. His chaplain, Dr. Eyre, did also tell me, that he came with him to London, where at first he owned he was resolved to go to the house of lords, and to take the oaths l. But the first day after he came to town, he was prevailed on to change his mind : and he has continued ever since in a very warm opposi- tion to the government k. Bancroft went on in his unactive state, still refusing the oaths, but neither acting nor speaking, except in great confidence, to any against their taking them ]. These bishops did one thing very inconsistent with their other actions, and that could not be easily reconciled to the rules of good conscience. All presentations are directed to bishops or to their chancellors. But, by a general

1689.

1 (The bishop had been con- stantly assured, that king James had, by a special instrument, made over the kingdom of Ire- land to the French king. See the Biographia Britan. vol. vi. artic. Ken.)

k Ken had been chaplain to the princess of Orange at the Hague, and sent back upon some disgust the prince took to him, (for the marriage of Zu- lestein with Mrs. Wroth, a maid of honour,) but retained a most profound respect and zeal for the princess, which induced him to move in the convention, that they should in the name of God, go out and proclaim her. How he reconciled that to his future doctrine and behaviour, nobody could ever understand. He was extremely devout and passionate, with little learning or judgment, and the personal

aversion he had to king Wil- liam seemed to be the chief motive for all his actions. Queen Mary said she knew he had a great desire to be a mar- tyr, but he should not be grati- fied in her time. D. (Zuyles- tein had seduced the young lady by a promise of marriage. See Biogr. Britan. as above.)

1 It was a very tender matter. They perhaps thought it was enough to keep their own scru- ples and conscience to them- selves, and not to be an ob- struction to others who could comply. This did not look like faction then, and some of them, it has been said, had the same temper afterwards. O. (The pious bishop Sanderson acted in the like cautious way re- specting the oath of engage- ment in the time of the com- monwealth.)

12 THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689. agreement in the year 1660, the bishops resolved to ~~ except out of the patents, that they gave their chan- cellors, the power of giving institution into cures, which, before that, the chancellors were empowered to give in the bishops' absence. Now the bishops were bound to see that the clergy, before they gave them institution, took the oaths to the government. In order therefore to decline the doing this, and yet avoid the actions of quare impedit, that they would be liable to, if they did not admit the clerks pre- sented to them, they gave new patents to their chan- cellors, empowering them to give institution ; which they knew could not be done, but by tendering the oaths. So they gave authority to laymen, to admit men to benefices, and to do that which they thought unlawful, as was the swearing to an usurper against the lawful king. Thus it appeared how far the en- gagement of interest and parties can run men into contradictions.

Upon the bishops refusing the oaths, a bill was brought into the house of commons, requiring all persons to take them by a prefixed day, under seve- ral forfeitures and penalties. The clergy that took them not were to fall under suspension for six months, and at the end of those, they were to be de- prived. This was followed with a particular eager- ness by some, who were known enemies to the church : and it was then generally believed, that a great part of the clergy would refuse the oaths. So they hoped to have an advantage against the church by this means. Hambden persuaded the king to add a period to a speech he made, concerning the affairs of Ireland, in which he proposed the admitting all

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY. 13

protestants to serve in that war m. This was under- 1689. stood to be intended for taking off the sacramental" test, which was necessary by the law to qualify men for employments, and was looked on as the chief se- 8 curity the church of England had, as it excluded dissenters from all employments. And it was tried, if a bargain could be made, for excusing the clergy from the oaths, provided the dissenters might be ex- cused from the sacrament. The king put this into his speech, without communicating it to the min- istry : and it had a very ill effect. It was not only rejected by a great majority in both houses ; but it very much heightened the prejudices against the king, as bearing no great affection to the church of England, when he proposed the opening such a door, which they believed would be fatal to them. The rejecting this, made the act imposing the oaths to be driven on with the more zeal. This was in debate when I came into the house of lords : for i was made Ward, bishop of Salisbury, died this winter : many saiis°bPu^. spoke to the king in my favour, without my know- ledge. The king made them no answer. But a few days after he was set on 'the throne, he of his own motion named me to that see : and he did it in terms more obliging than usually fell from him. When I waited on the queen, she said, she hoped I would now put in practice those notions with which

m This has been supposed to by the king when he came to

be John Hampden, called the parliament on March i6th, to

younger Hampden, (son of Ri- pass the act for suspending the

chard, afterwards chancellor of Habeas Corpus act; and that it

the exchequer.) See the for- seems incredible his majesty

mer vol. 539, for his character. took such a step without the

O. (Ralph, in the second vol. participation of his ministry,

of his History of England, says. See p. 67 — 69.) that this measure was proposed

14 THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

I had taken the liberty often to entertain her. All the forms of the conge d'elire, and my election, were carried on with despatch. But a great difficulty was in view. Bancroft would not see me; and he re- fused to consecrate me. So by law, when the man- date was brought to him, upon not obeying it, he must have been sued in a premunire : and for some days he seemed determined to venture that : but as the danger came near, he prevented it, by granting a commission to all the bishops of his province, or to any three of them, in conjunction with the bishop of London, to exercise his metropolitical authority dur- ing pleasure. Thus he did authorize others to con- secrate me, while yet he seemed to think it an un- lawful act. This was so mean, that he himself was ashamed of it afterwards. But he took an odd way to overthrow it: for he sent for his original war- rant : and so took it out of the office, and got it into his own hands.

I happened to come into the house of lords, when two great debates were managed with much heat in it. The one was about the toleration and compre- hension, and the other was about the imposing the oaths on the clergy. And I was engaged at my first coming there, to bear a large share in both. Debates That which was long insisted on, in the house of 5 lords, was, that instead of the clause positively en- acting, that the clergy should be obliged to take the oaths, the king might be empowered to tender them, 9 and then the refusal was to be punished according to the clause, as it stood in the act. It was thought, such a power would oblige them to their good be- haviour, and be an effectual restraint upon them : they would be kept quiet at least by it : whereas, if

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY. 15

they came under deprivation, or the apprehensions 1689. of it, that would make them desperate, and set them ~~ on to undermine the government. It was said, that the clergy, by the offices of the church, did solemnly own their allegiance to God, in the sight of all their people ; that no oath could lay deeper engagements on them than those acts of religious worship did : and if they should either pass over those offices, or perform them otherwise than as the law required, there was a clear method, pursuant to the act of uniformity, to proceed severely against them. It was also said, that in many different changes of go- vernment, oaths had not proved so effectual a secu- rity as was imagined n : distinctions were found out, and senses were put on words, by which they were interpreted so as to signify but little, when a govern- ment came to need strength from them : and it ill became those, who had formerly complained of these impositions, to urge this with so much vehemence. On the other hand, it was urged, that no man ought to be trusted by a government, chiefly in so sacred a concern, who would not give security to it ; espe- cially, since the oath was brought to such low and general terms. The expedient that was proposed would put a hardship upon the king, which was al- ways to be carefully avoided. The day prefixed was at the distance of some months : so that men had time sufficient given them to study the point : and, if in that time they could not satisfy themselves, as to the lawfulness of acknowledging the government, it was not fit that they should continue in the high- est posts of the church. An exception of twelve

11 And is it not true ? It is not swearing to it, that must the integrity of government, and be its defence. O.

16 THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689. was proposed, who should be subject to the law, ~ upon refusing the oaths, when required to it by the king ; but that was rejected : and all the mitigation that was obtained, was a power to the king to re- serve a third part of the profits of any twelve bene- fices he should name, to the incumbents who should be deprived by virtue of this act : and so it passed. I was the chief manager of the debate in favour of the clergy, both in the house of lords and at the conferences with the commons. But, seeing it could not be carried, I acquiesced the more easily; be- cause, though in the beginning of these debates I was assured, that those who seemed resolved not to take the oaths, yet prayed for the king in their cha- pels ; yet I found afterwards this was not true, for 10 they named no king nor queen, and so it was easy to guess whom they meant by such an indefinite de- signation. I also heard many things, that made me conclude, they were endeavouring to raise all the op- position to the government possible. An act of The bill of toleration passed easily. It excused

toleration. ,. n .

dissenters from all penalties, for their not coming to church, and for going to their separate meetings. There was an exception of Socinians : but a provi- sion was put in it in favour of quakers : and, though the rest were required to take the oaths to the go- vernment, they were excused, upon making in lieu thereof a solemn declaration. They were to take out warrants for the houses they met in : and the justices of peace were required to grant them. Some pro- posed, that the act should only be temporary, as a ne- cessary restraint upon the dissenters, that they might demean themselves so as to merit the continuance of it, when the term of years now offered should

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY.

17

end. But this was rejected : there was now an uni- 1659. versal inclination to pass the act : but it could not ~" be expected, that the nation would be in the same good disposition towards them at another time. I shewed so much zeal for this act, as very much sunk my credit, which had risen from the approbation I had gained, for opposing that which enacted the taking the oaths. As for the act of comprehension, some progress was made in it. But a proviso was A motion

/v* i .... n for a com-

onered, that, m imitation of the acts passed in king prehension. Henry the eighth and king Edward the sixth's time, a number of persons, both of the clergy and laity, might be empowered to prepare such a reformation of things, relating to the church, as might be offered to king and parliament, in order to the healing our divisions, and the correcting what might be amiss or defective in our constitution p. This was pressed

P By the constitution of the church of England it is, that the supreme legislative power of the church is in king, lords, and commons in parliament. And it is the same with re- gard to the king's supremacy, whose ecclesiastical jurisdiction and authority is an essential part of our church constitution, renewed and confirmed by par- liament, as the supreme legis- lature of the church, which has the same extent of true power in the church of England, as any church legislature ever had ; and may therefore censure, ex- communicate, deprive, degrade, &c. or may give authoritative directions to the officers of the church, to perform any of them ; and may also make laws and canons to bind the whole church

VOL. IV.

as they shall judge proper, not repugnant to the laws of God or nature. Nay, the laity in England cannot otherwise be bound but by parliament, who have a right (when they think proper) to the advice and as- sistance of the convocations, or the true parliamentary meetings of the clergy, by the prtemuni- entes clause in the parliamentary writs to the bishops, if the one or the other or both should be then assembled. The last has been long disused. See the Jour- nal of the House of Commons of the 1 3th — 1 6th of April, 1689, ist of March, 1710. 1712. 1713. The legislature of the primitive church was in the whole body, and afterwards had many variations in its con- stituents, and may still vary

18

THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689. with great earnestness by many of the temporal lords. I at that time did imagine, that the clergy would have come into such a design with zeal and unanimity: and I feared this would be looked on by them, as taking the matter out of their hands : and for that reason I argued so warmly against this, that it was carried by a small majority to let it fall. But I was convinced soon after, that I had taken wrong measures ; and that the method proposed by these lords was the only one like to prove effectual : but this did not so recommend me to the clergy, as to balance the censure I came under, for moving, in another proviso of that bill, that the subscription,

with the consent of the several communities. If this distinc- tion of legislature in the par- liament be true, (and I am not the first who has mentioned it,) the church of England is freed from the imputation of being a creature only of the state, which by some sects of Christians has been often and much objected to, and makes it to be agreeable to Mr. Lock's notion, indeed demonstration, " that matters " of mere religion are absolute- " ly independent of the civil " magistrate, as such." Where ecclesiastical jurisdictions have cognizance of temporal matters, they are thus far civil courts; and so vice versa. The king is said in our law to be mixta persona, as it regards his su- premacy, in the execution of all civil and ecclesiastical juris- diction ; and so is the parlia- ment a mixed legislature. As to which or what is the best church constitution, I say no- thing here. But this may be

said, that no church power what- soever, or wheresoever placed, legislative or otherwise, can have any right to the sanction of civil punishments ; nor ought they to be, or any temporal dis- advantages. All religions ought to have their free course, where they interfere not with the peace and rights of human society: of such, the civil power is to endow one, and to protect all. See Mr. Lock's Treatises of Government and Toleration. The convocation can by their ca- nons bind only their own body. They are in the nature of by- laws ; and this is now fully set- tled by a solemn determination in the king's bench, made in my lord Hardwick's time there. O. (What is here asserted respect- ing the right of the legislature to excommunicate the members of the church, and to degrade its clergy, or to command the officers of the church so to act, is not admitted by the church itself to be compatible with

OF K. WILLIAM AND Q. MARY. 19

instead of assent and consent, should only be to sub- 1639. mit with a promise of conformity 4. There was a pro- ~~ viso likewise, in the bill, for dispensing with kneel- 11 ing at the sacrament, and being baptized with the sign of the cross, to such as, after conference upon those heads, should solemnly protest, they were not satisfied as to the lawfulness of them. That con- cerning kneeling occasioned a vehement debate: for, the posture being the chief exception that the dis- senters had, the giving up this was thought to be the opening a way for them to come into employ- ments. Yet it was carried in the house of lords. And I declared my self zealous for it. For since it was acknowledged that the posture was not essential in itself, and that scruples, how ill grounded soever, were raised upon it, it seemed reasonable to leave the matter as indifferent in its practice as it was in its nature.

Those who had moved for this bill, and after- wards brought it into the house, acted a very disin- genuous part : for, while they studied to recommend themselves by this shew of moderation, they set on their friends to oppose it : and such as were very sincerely and cordially for it were represented as the enemies of the church, who intended to subvert it. When the bill was sent down to the house of commons, it was let lie on the table r. And, instead

the powers given by our Saviour their bishoprics.)

to those officers. It was not pre- 1 See the Journal of the

tended, that the bishops who House of Lords of the 25th of

were deprived after the revolu- July, 1663, and my collection of

tion, were degraded from their the lords' protests, in which

orders, (if that is meant by the there is not one bishop,

term degrading,) or ceased to be r See the Journal of the

bishops, although deprived qf House of Commons of the Qth,

THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN

1689. of proceeding in it, they made an address to the king, for summoning a convocation of the clergy to attend, according to custom, on the session of par- liament. The party that was now beginning to be formed against the government, pretended great zeal for the church ; and declared their apprehen- sions that it was in danger, which was imputed by many to the earl of Nottingham's management. These, as they went heavily into the toleration, so they were much offended with the bill of compre- hension, as containing matters relating to the church, in which the representative body of the clergy had not been so much as advised with.

Nor was this bill supported by those who seemed most favourable to the dissenters : they set it up for a maxim, that it was fit to keep up a strong faction both in church and state s ; and they thought it was

1 3th, and i6th of April, 1689, and also of the ist of March, 1710. O.

8 A false and foolish notion, the artifice of weak and mean politicians; who value them- selves upon small cunning, and think, or hope at least, that it will be deemed wisdom. They are often as wicked as they are weak, and are generally the pests of government. Voltaire, in one of his English letters, has a re- finement very agreeable to his character, " That if there was but one religion in England, the people would be slaves : if two only, they would be cut- ting one another's throats. But all being allowed the people, they are free and quiet." The Christian reli- gion has been and is preserved

in the world by churches, but not always the true spirit of Christianity. Some individuals in every sect have it, and are not they the elect ? Persecuted churches have most of devo- tion, and established churches most of persecution : all have the last in some degree, (when they