And first, I ask Pardon of God and the King, for having violated my Loyalty, by taking most abominable Oaths in Defence of Usurpation, against my Lawful Sovereign King James the Third.
And as I ask Pardon of all Persons whom I have injur’d or offended, so I do especially desire Forgiveness of all those whom I have scandaliz’d by pleading Guilty. I am sensible that it is a Base and Dishonourable Action; that it is inconsistent with my Duty to the King, and an entire Surrender of my Loyalty. Human Frailty, and too great a Desire of Life, together with the Persuasions of several who pretended to be my Friends, were the Occasion of it. I trust God of his infinite Mercy, upon my sincere Repentance, has forgiven me; and I hope all good Christians will.
REMARKS.
Since the Author owns, that several of his Sins were of a Publick Nature, he ought to have been very particular and exact in the Enumeration of them; but he mentions only two, viz. his taking what he calls most abominable Oaths in Defence of Usurpation, and his pleading Guilty to his Indictment.
He must be a very superficial Reader, who does not observe, that these things, which Mr. Paul calls Sins, were attended with others of as heinous and publick a Nature; of which he says not one Word. For his taking the Oaths, if he thought them abominable, was not only a Crime against his pretended Lawful Sovereign, King James III. but a dreadful mocking of God, and treacherous Imposition upon the present Government, and his Country; and so much the more, that he continu’d in this abominable Practice till the time the Rebellion broke out: and it was aggravated by this heinous Circumstance, That he went from the very Pulpit in which he preach’d by the Authority of the present Government, to join those who rose in Arms against it. Had he been a sincere Penitent, such hateful Prevarication with God and Man must have star’d him in the Face, and call’d for an express and humble Acknowledgment of it; whereas he confines his Repentance to what he did against the Loyalty which he fancies he ow’d the Pretender.
One might have expected, from a true and ingenuous Penitent, an Account of the Reasons why he calls the present Government an Usurpation: for tho perhaps he might think, that the Word of a dying Priest was Authority enough for the Bigots of his Party, he ought to have consider’d, that others would expect very strong and convincing Arguments to prove, that his single Judgment should be prefer’d not only to that of our present Legislature, but of all our Parliaments; who, ever since we were a Nation, have asserted it to be their indisputed Right to dethrone Tyrants, and to settle the Succession in such a manner as they thought most conducible to preserve the Liberties of the People. Nothing can be more evident than this in all our Histories and Acts of Parliament before the Reformation; and he must have been prodigiously ignorant, if he did not know that. It has been the Practice, as well as the Principle of the Church of England since she became Protestant: For all the World knows, that in the beginning of the Reformation, under Henry VIII. she own’d the Power of Parliaments, in settling the Succession, about which there were several Acts made in his Reign. In that of his Son, King Edward VI. it appears plain enough that the leading Protestants were of the same mind, when they agreed to set aside his Popish Sister Queen Mary, and to settle the Crown on Lady Jane Grey. And ’tis as well known, that the famous Martyr, Bishop Ridley, did openly preach against Queen Mary’s Title, at Paul’s-Cross.
In Queen Elizabeth’s Reign it appears, by the Records of Parliament, that the Bishops of the Church of England did unanimously agree not only to set aside the Title of Mary the Popish Queen of Scots, who was next Heiress to the English Crown; but also to take off her Head, because of her Plots against Queen Elizabeth. ’Tis no less evident, from the History of that Reign, That the Bishops and Clergy of England enabled the Queen, by their Purses and otherwise, to support the Protestants of France and the Netherlands, who had taken Arms against their Tyrannical Sovereigns; and also those of Scotland, who had dethron’d the Mother, and set up the Son. In the Reign of King James I. the Church of England concurred in like manner to support the Protestants of the United Netherlands and Germany against their Tyrannical Princes; and they continu’d the same Endeavours in the Reign of King Charles I. when even Archbishop Laud, the Idol of our High-Church Clergy, concurred in granting Subsidies for the Support of the French Protestants, who were in Arms against their persecuting Sovereign. What the Church of England did towards dethroning King James II. for his Tyranny, is too late to be forgot; and Mr. Paul cannot but know, that she annually thanks God in her Office on the 5th of November, for bringing over the Prince of Orange, and making all Opposition fall before him, till he became our King and Governour. This, no doubt, he frequently concurred in; and had his Jacobite Repentance been sincere, he ought to have acknowledg’d that as publickly as the other things, which he thought it his Duty to declare in the Face of the World.
Upon the whole, it appears to be of too great Importance for the Speech-makers to think, that Mr. Paul’s bare Assertion, without any Argument, was sufficient to weigh down such a Train of Authorities.
His begging Pardon of those whom he has scandaliz’d by pleading Guilty, is the Form which the Ghostly Fathers of the Rebels have put into all their Mouths; as appears by Lord Derwentwater’s Speech, &c. But since he calls this a base and dishonourable Action, inconsistent with his Duty to the King, and an entire Surrender of his Loyalty; it deserv’d a greater Act of Contrition, than to ascribe it barely to human Frailty, a too great Desire of Life, and the Persuasion of pretended Friends. Here again he shews himself a very loose Protestant, when he relies upon his own Repentance, without one word of our Saviour’s Merits for a Pardon at the hands of God.
The SPEECH.