Upon the first intelligence King James received of an intended invasion by the Prince of Orange; among great numbers of Papists, to increase his troops, he gave commissions to several Presbyterians; some of whom had been officers under the Rump; and particularly he placed one Richards, a noted Presbyterian, at the head of a regiment; who had been governor of Wexford in Cromwell’s time, and is often mentioned by Ludlow in his Memoirs.  This regiment was raised in England against the Prince of Orange:  the colonel made his son a captain, whom I knew, and who was as zealous a Presbyterian as his father.  However at the time of the prince’s landing, the father easily foreseeing how things would go, went over, like many others to the prince, who continued him in his regiment; but coming over a year or two after to assist in raising the siege of Derry, he behaved himself so like either a coward or a traitor, that his regiment was taken from him.

I will now consider the conduct of the Church party, during the whole reign of that unfortunate king.  They were so unanimous against promising to pass an act for repealing the Test, and establishing a general liberty of conscience; that the king durst not trust a parliament; but encouraged by the professions of loyalty given him by his Presbyterian friends, went on with his dispensing power.

The Church clergy, at that time are allowed to have written the best collection of tracts against Popery that ever appeared in England; which are to this day in the highest esteem.  But, upon the strictest enquiry, I could never hear of above one or two papers published by the Presbyterians at that time upon the same subject.  Seven great prelates (he of Canterbury among the rest) were sent to the Tower, for presenting a petition, wherein they desired to be excused in not obeying an illegal command from the King.  The Bishop of London, Dr. Compton,[10] was summoned to answer before the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs, for not suspending Dr. Sharp[11] (afterwards Archbishop of York) by the King’s command.  If the Presbyterians expressed the same zeal upon any occasion, the instances of it are not as I can find, left upon record, or transmitted by tradition.  The proceedings against Magdalen College in Oxford, for refusing to comply with the King’s mandate for admitting a professed Papist upon their foundation, are a standing proof of the courage and firmness in religion shewn by that learned society, to the ruin of their fortunes.  The Presbyterians know very well, that I could produce many more instances of the same kind.  But these are enough in so short a paper as I intend at present.

[Footnote 10:  Henry Compton (1632-1713), educated at Oxford, was created Bishop of London in 1675.  During the Revolution of 1688 he conveyed the Princess Anne from London to Nottingham.  After, he crowned her Queen of England.  He was the author of a few works of little importance, such as the “Treatise on the Holy Communion.” [T.S.]]