their defence rested upon its proper grounds. The petition, their counsel then maintained, was neither false nor libellous : it was humbly and respectfully expressed, and presented privately, in the exercise of their right as subjects, of their duty as bishops. The charge against them was for attempting to diminish the King's prerogative: the only part of his prerogative to which the petition referred was his dispensing power; and that was a power they contended which the King of England neither did nor could possess. Such a power would strike at the very foundation of all the rights, liberties, and properties of the subject. If the King might suspend the laws of the land concerning religion, there was no other law which he might not suspend; and if he might suspend all the laws, in what condition then were the subjects? all at his mercy. The King's legal prerogatives were as much for the advantage of his subjects as of himself, and no man disputed them; but they who attempted thus to extend his prerogative beyond what was legal, did him no service. The laws which were now in question were the great bulwark of the reformed religion. They are in truth, said Sergeant Pemberton, that which fenceth the religion and Church of England, and we have no other human fence besides. They were made upon a foresight of the mischiefs that had, and might come by false religions in this kingdom; and they were intended to defend the nation against them, and to keep them out: particularly to keep out the Romish religion, which is the very worst of all religions. By the law of all civilized nations, said Somers, "if the prince require something to be done which the person who is to do it takes to be unlawful, it is not only lawful, but his duty rescribere principi. This is all that is done here, and that in the most humble manner that can be thought of. Seditious the petition could not be, because it was presented to the King in private and alone: false it could not be, because the matter of it was true. There could be nothing of malice, for the occasion was not sought, the thing was pressed upon them; and a libel it could not be, because the intent was innocent, and they kept within the bounds set by the act of Parliament that gives the subject leave to apply to his Prince by petition when he is aggrieved."

The Chief Justice, Sir Robert Wright, declared the petition

libellous; of the three puisne judges, Allybone delivered the like opinion: Holloway and Powel pronounced it to be no libel, and the latter stated in strong terms that the King possessed no dispensing power, and therefore, that the Declaration, being founded upon the assumption of such a power, was illegal. The trial lasted the whole day, and at evening the jury retired. They were persons in respectable circumstances, and fairly chosen; for James made no attempt to control or pervert the course of justice. They were loud and eager in debate during great part of the night; food and drink, according to custom, were not allowed them, and when they begged for a candle to light their pipes, that indulgence was refused. At six in the morning the single juryman who had till then held out, (and who is said to have been the King's brewer,) yielded to the determination of his fellows, and a verdict of not guilty was returned. It was received with a shout which seemed to shake the Hall. The people had not conducted themselves with propriety during the trial; they had insulted the witnesses for the prosecution, and evinced a temper ready for greater outrages. Their exultation was unbounded now; and the acquittal was announced in the city by acclamations of tumultuous and triumphant joy, which outstripped the speediest messengers. The Prelates, with a feeling of becoming gratitude, went immediately to Whitehall Chapel to return thanks; all the churches were filled with people who crowded to them for the same intent; the bells rung from every tower, every house was illuminated, and bonfires were kindled in every street. Medals were struck in honour of the event, and portraits hastily published, and eagerly purchased, of men who were compared to the Seven Golden Candlesticks, and called the Seven Stars of the Protestant Church.

The King was in the camp at Hounslow when the verdict was pronounced, and asking the cause of a stir among the soldiers, was told it was nothing but their rejoicing for the acquittal of the Bishops. "Do you call that nothing?" he replied; "but so much the worse for them!" His presence in some degree repressed them; but no sooner had he left the camp, than they set up a shout, which if farther evidence had been needful might have told him how impossible it was for him to overthrow the laws and the religion of England. His eyes

were not yet opened to his danger; and persisting in his purpose, he dismissed the two Judges who had delivered their opinion in favour of the Bishops, and required, through the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the names of all the clergy who had omitted to read his Declaration. This was so far from intimidating them, that even of those who had read it, no small proportion declared from the pulpit their disapprobation of what they had read. And upon this occasion Sprat, the Bishop of Rochester, who had hitherto acted in the Commission, withdrew from it, saying in a letter he could act in it no longer for though he had obeyed the order of council himself, thinking himself bound in conscience so to do, he doubted not that those who had not obeyed, acted upon the same principle of following their conscience, and he would rather suffer with them, than concur in making them suffer. This conduct in a prelate who had been thought too pliant to the court, made the Commissioners adjourn, and events soon put an end to that illegal jurisdiction.

Sancroft did not rest satisfied with his deliverance, in the belief that he had sufficiently discharged the duty of his high station. He had shown himself ready to suffer, and he now came forward with equal resolution to act. Admonitions to the Clergy were issued by him through their respective Bishops, in which they were enjoined four times at least a year, according to the canon, to "teach and inform the people, that all usurped and foreign jurisdiction had been for most just causes taken away and abolished in this realm," and that no subjection was due to it, or to any who pretended to act by virtue of it; but "the King's power being in his dominions highest under God," the instructions were, that "they upon all occasions persuade the people to loyalty and obedience to his Majesty in all things lawful, and to patient submission in the rest, promoting, as far as in them lay, the public peace and quiet of the world. They were to caution them against all seducers, and especially against Popish emissaries, who were now in great numbers gone forth, more busy and active than ever; and to impress upon them that it was not enough for them to be members of an excellent Church, rightly and duly reformed both in faith and worship, unless they also reformed and amended their own lives, and so ordered their conversation in all things, as becomes the gospel of Christ. And

forasmuch as those Romish emissaries, like the old Serpent, are wont to be most busy and troublesome to our people at the end of their lives, labouring to unsettle and perplex them in time of sickness, and at the hour of death; that therefore all who have the cure of souls be more especially vigilant over them at that dangerous season; that they stay not till they be sent for, but inquire out the sick in their respective parishes, and visit them frequently, that they examine them particularly concerning the state of their souls, and instruct them in their duties, and settle them in their doubts, and comfort them in their sorrows and sufferings, and pray often with them and for them; and by all the methods which our Church prescribes, prepare them for the due and worthy receiving of the Holy Eucharist, the pledge of their happy resurrection: thus with their utmost diligence watching over every sheep within their fold, (especially in that critical moment,) lest those ravening wolves devour them." Lastly, they were charged to walk in wisdom toward those who were not of their communion, conferring with them in the spirit of meekness, and seeking by all good ways and means to win them over; more especially with regard to their brethren the Protestant Dissenters, " that upon occasion offered they visit them at their houses, and receive them kindly at their own, and treat them fairly wherever they meet them, discoursing calmly and civilly with them; persuading them, if it may be, to a full compliance with our Church; or at least that whereto we have all attained, we may all walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing.' And in order hereunto, that they take all opportunities of assuring and convincing them, that the Bishops of this Church are really and sincerely irreconcileable enemies to the errors, superstitions, idolatries, and tyrannies of the Church of Rome; and that the very unkind jealousies which some have had of us to the contrary, were altogether groundless. And in the last place, that they warmly and most affectionately exhort them to form with us a daily fervent prayer to the God of Peace, for the universal blessed union of all reformed churches, both at home and abroad, against our common enemies that all they who do confess the holy name of our dear Lord, and do agree in the truth of his holy word, may also meet in one holy communion, and live in perfect unity and godly love."

The more moderate and reasonable Dissenters were now awake to their danger: they saw the condition of the French Protestants, and perceived that nothing but the calm and steady opposition of the Church of England prevented the Romanists from regaining a supremacy which they were as ready as ever to abuse; for they had abated nothing of their fraud, their intolerance, or their inhumanity. The better part, therefore, felt now how much more important were the points on which they agreed with the Church, than those on which they differed; and the scheme of comprehension was revived with less improbability of success than on any former occasion. But the course of events brought on a more violent crisis than Sancroft, who had this scheme at heart, could approve; and the circumstances which ensued made him who was most desirous of healing one schism, unhappily the head of another. Men who were more of statesmen than divines, and who had less confidence than Sancroft in the cause, and in the strength of unyielding principles, were in correspondence with the Prince of Orange; and preparations were made in Holland for an expedition, on which the fate of the Protestant cause depended. When James received the first certain intelligence of this danger, he turned pale, and the letter dropped ⚫ from his hand. The fear, indeed, which then possessed him, was manifested as plainly by his conduct as in his countenance; he published a Declaration that he would preserve the Church of England inviolable, that he was willing the Romanists should remain excluded from Parliament, and that he was ready to do every thing else for the safety and advantage of his loving subjects. He sent also for the Bishops, whom, as persons lying under his marked displeasure, he had not seen since their trial, and receiving their general expression of duty, assured them of his favour. The interview ended in this; but the Bishops requested Sancroft to obtain for them a second audience, in which they might address the King as plainly and sincerely as their duty and his danger required.

They were introduced by Sancroft with a speech not unworthy of the occasion. Illness had prevented him from attending on the former summons; but he had heard, he said, from the King himself, and from his reverend Brethren, that nothing had passed further than general expressions of his Majesty's gracious