generally nothing lefs at heart than to prevent fuch prophanations. I am fure, the way to prevent them is not what fome have propofed, to make it a fufficient qualification for an office if the facrament be received in any place of religious worhip; for this propofal would only extend thofe prophanations to conventicles as well as churches, and by that means rather propagate than diminish the scandal. The refult of thefe inquiries is, that, fince wherever we caft our eyes, within the church or without it, at home or abroad, no undertaker can be found likely to engage in fuch a work, there is no ground to fufpect it was ever intended; malice might raise the report, and folly might spread it; but it is too grofs to impofe upon any but thofe who are weak enough to be alarmed with the news of a fecond invafion *. I had lately printed here. To that letter, though your lordship ufed to anfwer all mine without delay, I had no manner of return. I heard indeed, foon after I had written to you, of what had happened on St. Andrew's day laft at Avignon §, but I did not think a change of religion made any change in the forms of civility; and therefore I still wondered at your filence. Perhaps a reflection on your not having confulted me in that great affair, though I was the only bishop of the church of England on this fide the water, might make you thy of writing to me on any other account, and willing to drop the correfpondence. You may remember, my lord, that when you first retired from the K. at Pifa, and when you afterwards left Rome and went to Avignon; on both these occafions you opened to me by letter the reafon of your conduct, and gave me an oppor tunity by that means of expreffing my thoughts to you in the manner I used always to do, that is, frankly and without referve.— In this laft ftep, my lord, you have acted far otherwife; and yet in this I had moft reason to expect, that you would not merely have informed me of what had paft, but even confulted me before you took your full and final refolution. This refers to an invafion projected about 1708. Indorfed "Paris, March 3, 1732;" the day it was received by Lord In verness, not that on which it was written. The bishop died Feb. 15; and a let ter from him, written after the fecond day of that month, has been already print ed in vol. I. p. 295. The pretent one is probably of ftill later date, and, ner vous as it is, may be the laft he ever wrote. The zeal fo eminently confpicuous in it for the Proteftant religion is an irrefragable anfwer to the calumny of his having been inclined to Popery. As to his political attachments, they by no means prove his having been engaged in a conspiracy against England. By being banished, he was ablolved from his allegiance. The piece he had "lately printed was the "Vindication, &c.” in vol. I. p. 278. Paris, 1731. Lord Invernets's abjuration of Protestantism. My My character and course of studies fo, if his caufe fhould prove de fperate for a time, you might find your way back again into his fervice, when it would be no longer reckoned prejudicial to his affairs. any qualified me much better for fuch an application, than for paffing my judgment in matters of ftate and political managments. If your lordship entertained doubts concerning your fafety in that religion wherein you had been bred, I might perhaps, upon your propofing them, have been fo happy as to have folved them, and fhewn you that whatever reason you might have, as to this world, for quitting the communion you were of, you had none, you could have none, as to another. Since you were not pleafed to give me an occafion of writing to you at this time, I have determined to take it, and to purfue my former method of telling you, with fuch plainnefs as perhaps nobody elfe will, what the world fays of your late conduct. My lord, they who fpeak of it moft foftly, and with greateft regard to your lordship, fay, that it is a coup de defefpoir; and that your lordship perceiving the prejudices of the K's Proteftant fubjets to run high against you, fo that you would never be fuffered to be about his perfon and in the fecret of his affairs with their confent, was refolved to try what could be done by changing fides, and whether you might not at long run be able to gain by one party what you had loft by another. They reprefent you as thinking the K's reftoration not foon likely to happen; and therefore as refolved, fince you were obliged to live in exile in Roman Catholic countries, to make the best of your circumftances, and recommend yourself, as much as you could, to the natives; that VOL. XXVI. And they quote fome words, which they fay fell from your lordship, to this purpose "That fince you faw nothing was likely to be done for the K. you thought it high time to take care of your foul." I hope in God they belye you, fince it gives us, who are at a distance from the fecret of affairs, but a very dif couraging profpect of the K's reftoration, of the probability or improbability of which you, my lord,. must be allowed a mote competent judge. And withal, fuch a faying carries in it fomething more difhonourable to your lordfhip, fince it implies, that, had the restoration been near and probable, you would not have troubled your head about matters of religion, but fuffered your foul to fhift for itself. They who thus interpret your laft ftep proceed further, and fay, that you intended by that means, if you could not find your way again into the ge neral and open management of the K's affairs, at leaft to have that part of them attached to you which related to foreign princes and courts, to whom what you had done must have rendered you grateful; and thus, while your brother-in-law fhould have the care of the domeftic correfpondence, and you all the reft, the whole would have run in proper channels. They affirm, that even upon your firt coming back to the K. from Pifa there was a general expectation at Rome, encouraged by the court of Rome M itfelf, itself, that you would then have declared yourself a Roman Catholic, and that it was prevented only by the reprefentations made at that time to your disadvantage from the K's friends, which occafioned your abrupt retreat to Avignon, and they fuppofe fome private audiences you had at that time tended to this point; that happened then to be defeated, and the declaration itself was postponed to a more convenient opportunity, This indeed clathes a little with the former fcheme mentioned. God forbid I fhould expofe* either of them! I do not, I merely relate them, and having done fo, leave it to your lordship to make fuch use of them as you in your wisdom thall judge proper. There are others, my lord, that reflect on your conduct ftill more unkindly, and put it in a more odious light; there are thefe (nor are they few) who are fo preju diced against you as to fuppofe (for none of them have pretended to prove) that you have played the fame game as my Lord Mar did, had a fecret understanding with the minifters on the other fide, and received the reward of it; these men, being, as they are, your profeffed enemies, flick not to fay, that fince you could not any longer derive merit to your felf from your management near the K. you were refolved to do as much mischief as you could to his affairs at parting, by an action which naturally tended to raile in the minds of his Proteftant fubjects fuch difadvantageous opinions of him as I need not ex plain, fuch as of all others will have the greateft influence toward hindering his reftoration. They confider your lordship as one that has ftudied 'your master's temper, and perfectly knows it: as one that never did any thing but what you judged would be perfectly agreeable to him, nothing but with his privity and by his direction. In this light, my lord, when they fee what you have lately done, it is no wonder if they draw ftrange inferences from it, and impute to your lordship views which your heart, I hope, abhors. But they will certainly perfift in that way of thinking, if they find that your lordship has full credit with the K. and a thare in his confidence; and this, even at this diftance, my lord, will in a little time appear to watchful obfervers, They lay it is a fare rule, not to do that which our worst enemies, provided they are wife and underftand their own intereft, would above all things have us do; and yet your lordthip, they think, has acted after that manner on the prefent occafion, there being nothing that could either gratify your enemies more, or difplease your friends (fuch, I mean, as are alfo enemies and friends to the r- caufe) than the ftep you have taken, and they will not believe, but that if you had meant the K. as well as you ought to do, this fingle confideration would have reftrained you. They urge, that the difficulties into which the K. is brought by this means are exceeding great. Let him be ever fo well perfuaded of your civi Probably "fuppofe." lities, lities, integrity, and zeal; he yet cannot make a free ufe of them, without exciting new jealoufies, on very tender points, and in very honeft hearts, where one would with that they might by all poflible means be allayed. Let him have been ever fo much a ftranger to what paffed at Avignon till it was over, be cannot yet prudently declare himself on that head, becaufe of the inconveniencies with which fuch a declaration, in his prefent circumftances, will be attended on the one fide, as his total filence will be liable to mifconftructions, on the other every way this affair will perplex him with refpect to the different interefts he has feparately to manage. Abroad, if he were thought to be at the bottom of it, it might do him no harm; at home it certainly will, and there his great intereft lies to which he is, above all others, to attend. Nor will the judgment be paffed on this occafion in hafte, fince it cannot be formed on any thing now given out, but will depend on future facts and appearances. I have made little mention all this while of what your lordship may think a full answer to all thefe reflections and refinements, that you have followed a motion of confcience in what you have done, and depended on that for your juftification. It may, my lord, and I hope will, juftify you before God, if you fincerely acted on that principle; but as for men, the misfortune is (and I beg your lordship's pardon for venturing to tell you fo) that no perfon, whom I have feen or heard of, will allow what you have done to be the effect of conviction. In that cafe, they fay, you would have proceeded otherwife than merely by advifing with thofe into whofe communion you were haftening especially fince it is fuppofed that your lordship has not fpent much time in qualifying yourself for the difcuffion of fuch points by a perufal of books of controversy, Men, they fay, of fincerity and truth are often kept in a religion to which they have been accuftomed, without enquiring ftrictly into the grounds of it; but feldom any man, who has a fense of piety and honour, quits a religion in which he has been educated, without carefully confidering what may be faid for and against it. Men indeed may be fometimes enlightened and convinced of all at once by an over ruling impreffion from above. But, as thefe cafes are exceeding rare, fo I need not tell your lordship that in yours they that object to your proceedings are by no means difpofed to make you fuch allowances. They think that, had you aimed only at fatisfying your confcience, you might have done what you did in a more private manner, and enjoyed the benefit of it in fecret, without giving a public and needlefs alarm; but, when you chofe St. Andrew's day for entering on the work, Chriftmas day for compleating it, and the Pope's inqui fitor at Avignon to receive your abjuration, they conclude that you intended to make a eclat, and to give notice to all the world of * Probably abilities; but the communicator of the letter would not venture to make any alteration, your your embracing a different com munion; which might be useful indeed with regard to fome political views, but could not be neceffary toward fatisfying those of mere confcience. Thefe, my lord, are the reflections which have been made in various converfations, where I was prefent, on the fubject of what lately paffed at Avignon. Many of them cannot be more unwelcome to you than they are to me, who fuffer in a caufe which fuch fteps are far from promoting. I am mortified, my lord, to fee it thus go backward, instead of for ward, and have a right to expres my own free fenfe in fuch a cafe, though I have in this letter chiefly reprefented the fenfe of others; lofers muft have leave to fpeak, and therefore I make no apology for the freedom I have taken. You feem to have approved it on other occafions; and will not, I hope, blame it on this, when it is equally intended for your information and fervice. At the distance we are now, and are likely to continue, I know not how to offer a better proof of the regard with which I am, my lord, &c. . FR. ROFFIS, THE |