The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume III Part 34

[Footnote 453: The treaty between the Emperor and the States General is dated May 12. 1689. It will be found in Dumont's Corps Diplomatique.]

[Footnote 454: See the despatch of Waldeck in the London Gazette, Aug.

26, 1689; historical Records of the First Regiment of Foot; Dangeau, Aug. 28.; Monthly Mercury, September 1689.]

[Footnote 455: See the Dear Bargain, a Jacobite pamphlet clandestinely printed in 1690. "I have not patience," says the writer, "after this wretch (Marlborough) to mention any other. All are innocent comparatively, even Kirke himself."]

[Footnote 456: See the Mercuries for September 1689, and the four following months. See also Welwood's Mercurius Reformatus of Sept. 18.

Sept. 25. and Oct. 8. 1689. Melfort's Instructions, and his memorials to the Pope and the Cardinal of Este, are among the Nairne Papers; and some extracts have been printed by Macpherson.]

[Footnote 457: See the Answer of a Nonjuror to the Bishop of Sarum's challenge in the Appendix to the Life of Kettlewell. Among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library is a paper which, as Sancroft thought it worth preserving, I venture to quote. The writer, a strong nonjuror, after trying to evade, by many pitiable s.h.i.+fts the argument drawn by a more compliant divine from the practice of the primitive Church, proceeds thus: "Suppose the primitive Christians all along, from the time of the very Apostles, had been as regardless of their oaths by former princes as he suggests will he therefore say that their practice is to be a rule? Ill things have been done, and very generally abetted, by men of otherwise very orthodox principles." The argument from the practice of the primitive Christians is remarkably well put in a tract ent.i.tled The Doctrine of Nonresistance or Pa.s.sive Obedience No Way concerned in the Controversies now depending between the Williamites and the Jacobites, by a Lay Gentleman, of the Communion of the Church of England, as by Law establish'd, 1689.]

[Footnote 458: One of the most adulatory addresses ever voted by a Convocation was to Richard the Third. It will be found in Wilkins's Concilia. Dryden, in his fine rifacimento of one of the finest pa.s.sages in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, represents the Good Parson as choosing to resign his benefice rather than acknowledge the Duke of Lancaster to be King of England. For this representation no warrant can be found in Chaucer's Poem, or any where else. Dryden wished to write something that would gall the clergy who had taken the oaths, and therefore attributed to a Roman Catholic priest of the fourteenth century a superst.i.tion which originated among the Anglican priests of the seventeenth century.]

[Footnote 459: See the defence of the profession which the Right Reverend Father in G.o.d John Lake, Lord Bishop of Chichester, made upon his deathbed concerning pa.s.sive obedience and the new oaths. 1690.]

[Footnote 460: London Gazette, June 30. 1689; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary. "The eminentest men," says Luttrell.]

[Footnote 461: See in Kettlewell's Life, iii. 72., the retractation drawn by him for a clergyman who had taken the oaths, and who afterwards repented of having done so.]

[Footnote 462: See the account of Dr. Dove's conduct in Clarendon's Diary, and the account of Dr. Marsh's conduct in the Life of Kettlewell.]

[Footnote 463: The Anatomy of a Jacobite Tory, 1690.]

[Footnote 464: Dialogue between a Whig and a Tory.]

[Footnote 465: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Nov. 1697, Feb. 1692.]

[Footnote 466: Life of Kettlewell, iii. 4.]

[Footnote 467: See Turner's Letter to Sancroft, dated on Ascension Day, 1689. The original is among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library. But the letter will be found with much other curious matter in the Life of Ken by a Layman, lately published. See also the Life of Kettlewell, iii.

95.; and Ken's letter to Burnet, dated Oct. 5. 1689, in Hawkins's Life of Ken. "I am sure," Lady Russell wrote to Dr. Fitzwilliam, "the Bishop of Bath and Wells excited others to comply, when he could not bring himself to do so, but rejoiced when others did." Ken declared that he had advised n.o.body to take the oaths, and that his practice had been to remit those who asked his advice to their own studies and prayers. Lady Russell's a.s.sertion and Ken's denial will be found to come nearly to the same thing, when we make those allowances which ought to be made for situation and feeling, even in weighing the testimony of the most veracious witnesses. Ken, having at last determined to cast in his lot with the nonjurors, naturally tried to vindicate his consistency as far as he honestly could. Lady Russell, wis.h.i.+ng to induce her friend to take the oaths, naturally made as munch of Ken's disposition to compliance as she honestly could. She went too far in using the word "excited." On the other hand it is clear that Ken, by remitting those who consulted him to their own studies and prayers, gave them to understand that, in his opinion, the oath was lawful to those who, after a serious inquiry, thought it lawful. If people had asked him whether they might lawfully commit perjury or adultery, he would a.s.suredly have told them, not to consider the point maturely and to implore the divine direction, but to abstain on peril of their souls.]

[Footnote 468: See the conversation of June 9. 1784, in Boswell's Life of Johnson, and the note. Boswell, with his usual absurdity, is sure that Johnson could not have recollected "that the seven bishops, so justly celebrated for their magnanimous resistance to arbitrary power, were yet nonjurors." Only five of the seven were nonjurors; and anybody but Boswell would have known that a man may resist arbitrary power, and yet not be a good reasoner. Nay, the resistance which Sancroft and the other nonjuring bishops offered to arbitrary power, while they continued to hold the doctrine of nonresistance, is the most decisive proof that they were incapable of reasoning. It must be remembered that they were prepared to take the whole kingly power from James and to bestow it on William, with the t.i.tle of Regent. Their scruple was merely about the word King.

I am surprised that Johnson should have p.r.o.nounced William Law no reasoner. Law did indeed fall into great errors; but they were errors against which logic affords no security. In mere dialectical skill he had very few superiors. That he was more than once victorious over Hoadley no candid Whig will deny. But Law did not belong to the generation with which I have now to do.]

[Footnote 469: Ware's History of the Writers of Ireland, continued by Harris.]

[Footnote 470: Letter to a member of the Convention, 1689]

[Footnote 471: Johnson's Notes on the Phoenix Edition of Burnet's Pastoral Letter, 1692.]

[Footnote 472: The best notion of Hickes's character will be formed from his numerous controversial writings, particularly his Jovian, written in 1684, his Thebaean Legion no Fable, written in 1687, though not published till 1714, and his discourses upon Dr. Burnet and Dr.

Tillotson, 1695. His literary fame rests on works of a very different kind.]

[Footnote 473: Collier's Tracts on the Stage are, on the whole his best pieces. But there is much that is striking in his political pamphlets.

His "Persuasive to Consider anon, tendered to the Royalists, particularly those of the Church of England," seems to me one of the best productions of the Jacobite press.]

[Footnote 474: See Brokesby's Life of Dodwell. The Discourse against Marriages in different Communions is known to me, I ought to say, only from Brokesby's copious abstract. That Discourse is very rare. It was originally printed as a preface to a sermon preached by Leslie. When Leslie collected his works he omitted the discourse, probably because he was ashamed of it. The Treatise on the Lawfulness of Instrumental Music I have read; and incredibly absurd it is.]

[Footnote 475: Dodwell tells us that the t.i.tle of the work in which he first promulgated this theory was framed with great care and precision.

I will therefore transcribe the t.i.tle-page. "An Epistolary Discourse proving from Scripture and the First Fathers that the Soul is naturally Mortal, but Immortalized actually by the Pleasure of G.o.d to Punishment or to Reward, by its Union with the Divine Baptismal Spirit, wherein is proved that none have the Power of giving this Divine Immortalizing Spirit since the Apostles but only the Bishops. By H. Dodwell." Dr.

Clarke, in a Letter to Dodwell (1706), says that this Epistolary Discourse is "a book at which all good men are sorry, and all profane men rejoice."]

[Footnote 476: See Leslie's Rehearsals, No. 286, 287.]

[Footnote 477: See his works, and the highly curious life of him which was compiled from the papers of his friends Hickes and Nelson.]

[Footnote 478: See Fitzwilliam's correspondence with Lady Russell, and his evidence on the trial of Ashton, in the State Trials. The only work which Fitzwilliam, as far as I have been able to discover, ever published was a sermon on the Rye House Plot, preached a few weeks after Russell's execution. There are some sentences in this sermon which I a little wonder that the widow and the family forgave.]

[Footnote 479: Cyprian, in one of his Epistles, addresses the confessors thus: "Quosdam audio inficere numerum vestrum, et laudem praecipui nominis prava sua conversatione destruere... c.u.m quanto nominis vestri pudore delinquitur quando alius aliquis temulentus et lasciviens demoratur; alius in eam patriam unde extorris est regreditur, ut deprehensus non eam quasi Christia.n.u.s, sed quasi nocens pereat." He uses still stronger language in the book de Unitate Ecclesiae: "Neque enim confessio immunem facet ab insidiis diaboli, aut contra tentationes et pericula et incursus atque impetus saeculares adhuc in saeculo positum perpetua securitate defendit; caeterum nunquam in confessoribus fraudes et stupra et adulteria postmodum videremus, quae nunc in quibusdam videntes ingemiscimus et dolemus."]

[Footnote 480: Much curious information about the nonjurors will be found in the Biographical Memoirs of William Bowyer, printer, which forms the first volume of Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the eighteenth century. A specimen of Wagstaffe's prescriptions is in the Bodleian Library.]

[Footnote 481: Cibber's play, as Cibber wrote it, ceased to be popular when the Jacobites ceased to be formidable, and is now known only to the curious. In 1768 Bickerstaffe altered it into the Hypocrite, and subst.i.tuted Dr. Cantwell, the Methodist, for Dr. Wolfe, the Nonjuror.

"I do not think," said Johnson, "the character of the Hypocrite justly applicable to the Methodists; but it was very applicable to the nonjurors." Boswell asked him if it were true that the nonjuring clergymen intrigued with the wives of their patrons. "I am afraid," said Johnson, "many of them did." This conversation took place on the 27th of March 1775. It was not merely in careless tally that Johnson expressed an unfavourable opinion of the nonjurors. In his Life of Fenton, who was a nonjuror, are these remarkable words: "It must be remembered that he kept his name unsullied, and never suffered himself to be reduced, like too many of the same sect to mean arts and dishonourable s.h.i.+fts." See the Character of a Jacobite, 1690. Even in Kettlewell's Life compiled from the papers of his friends Hickes and Nelson, will be found admissions which show that, very soon after the schism, some of the nonjuring clergy fell into habits of idleness, dependence, and mendicancy, which lowered the character of the whole party. "Several undeserving persons, who are always the most confident, by their going up and down, did much prejudice to the truly deserving, whose modesty would not suffer them to solicit for themselves...... Mr. Kettlewell was also very sensible that some of his brethren spent too much of their time in places of concourse and news, by depending for their subsistence upon those whom they there got acquainted with."]

[Footnote 482: Reresby's Memoirs, 344]

[Footnote 483: Birch's Life of Tillotson.]

[Footnote 484: See the Discourse concerning the Ecclesiastical Commission, 1689.]

[Footnote 485: Birch's Life of Tillotson; Life of Prideaux; Gentleman's Magazine for June and July, 1745.]

[Footnote 486: Diary of the Proceedings of the Commissioners, taken by Dr. Williams afterwards Bishop of Chichester, one of the Commissioners, every night after he went home from the several meetings. This most curious Diary was printed by order of the House of Commons in 1854.]

[Footnote 487: Williams's Diary.]

[Footnote 488: Williams's Diary.]

[Footnote 489: Ibid.]

[Footnote 490: See the alterations in the Book of Common Prayer prepared by the Royal Commissioners for the revision of the Liturgy in 1689, and printed by order of the House of Commons in 1854.]

[Footnote 491: It is difficult to conceive stronger or clearer language than that used by the Council. Touton toinun anagnosthenton orisan e agia sunodos, eteran pistin medeni ekseinai prospherein, egoun suggraphein, e sunt.i.thenia, para ten oristheisan para ton agion pateron ton en te Nikaeon sunegthonton sun agio pneumati tous de tolmontas e sunt.i.thenai pistin eteran, egoun prokomizein, e prospherein tois ethegousin epistrephein eis epignosin tes agetheias e eks Ellinismou e eks Ioudaismon, i eks aireseos oiasdepotoun, toutous, ei men eien episkopoi i klerikoi, allotrious einai tous episkopon, tes episkopes, kai tous klerikous ton kliron ei de laikoi eien, agathematizesthai--Concil. Ephes. Actio VI.]

[Footnote 492: Williams's Diary; Alterations in the Book of Common Prayer.]

[Footnote 493: It is curious to consider how those great masters of the Latin tongue who used to sup with Maecenas and Pollio would have been perplexed by "Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth;" or by "Ideo c.u.m angelis et archangelis, c.u.m thronis et dominationibus."]

[Footnote 494: I will give two specimens of Patrick's workmans.h.i.+p. "He maketh me," says David, "to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters." Patrick's version is as follows: "For as a good shepherd leads his sheep in the violent heat to shady places, where they may lie down and feed (not in parched but) in fresh and green pastures, and in the evening leads them (not to muddy and troubled waters, but) to pure and quiet streams; so hath he already made a fair and plentiful provision for me, which I enjoy in peace without any disturbance."

In the Song of Solomon is an exquisitely beautiful verse. "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love." Patrick's version runs thus: "So I turned myself to those of my neighbours and familiar acquaintance who were awakened by my cries to come and see what the matter was; and conjured them, as they would answer it to G.o.d, that, if they met with my beloved, they would let him know--What shall I say?--What shall I desire you to tell him but that I do not enjoy myself now that I want his company, nor can be well till I recover his love again."]

[Footnote 495: William's dislike of the Cathedral service is sarcastically noticed by Leslie in the Rehearsal, No. 7. See also a Letter from a Member of the House of Commons to his Friend in the Country, 1689, and Bisset's Modern Fanatic, 1710.]

[Footnote 496: See the Order in Council of Jan. 9. 1683.]