A LETTER sent to Dr. TILLOTSON several Months ago. And now made public, by reason the Author has not heard of any Discourse published since in Answer.  

To the Reader.  
THE Author of the following Letter sent the Original to Mrs. tillotson for her Husband, and a Copy of it to my Lady Derby, for the Princess of Orange, several Months ago; and when he writ it, he hoped the Members of Parliament would have been, against this Sessions, awakened by their Disappaintments and Taxes, to consider aright, what is the Present State of this miserable Nation, and how much worse is our future prospect; and had he found them in that Temper, and acting steadily for their Country, he had thoughts to have presented with his own hands, his Reasons, why he thinks they have wronged King James, over-rated their Disease, and mistaken their Cure; and he would also have given in Proposals, how the King may be restored, without hazard, either to our Religion or Property; and this the Author would have done, because he thinks, that if either Reason or Religion would prevail, such an Offer must have had some weight; but whilst the Whiggs as much Sacrifice their Understandings to support this Change, as the Tories did their Consciences to make it, a Man would bereckoned Mad that attempted in such a manner to reclaim such a set of Men, as have no more public Spirit, than what lies in wrangling for their particular Parties; or common sense, than what is proper to get into Pensions and Places, that, as the witty Sir Charles Sidley once said in the House, They may charge in armor. How wild a Project too would it be to offer Reason to Men that so little know their own Minds, that are so inconstant, as that what they pass unanimously one Sessions, they throw out the next, as they have done the Judges Bill? The Author would venture himself against great odds, if it was but an even Wager, that England might reap Good by so bold an Undertaking; for he sees Slavery coming on so fast, that he thinks Life will be a burden to an honest and free Spirit; yet nothing that Cato( were he here) could do or suffer, would repair our broken Constitution, unless God teaches our Senators more Wisdom, or is pleased to teach the People that a House of Commons may as scandalously abuse the Trust they repose in them, as some of his Ministers did King James; which that he may is the hearty Prayer of the Author, both for the sake of the English Liberties, and Protestant Religion; for the sake of the very Being of the one, and the Honour of the other.   

The LETTER.  
SIR,  
I Shall Preface what I am about to say, with an assurance that I have formerly had the greatest veneration for you, as well for your Piety as Good sense and Learning, that my Notions of Government are so large, that the first thing that I ever doubtfully examined, that had your Name affixed to it, was the Letter to my Lord Russel: but your Actions since do less quadrate with that O●inion, which I had of your sincerity, and seriously make me address myself to you, to know how you reconci●e your present actings, to the Principles either of natural or revealed Religion; especially, how you reconcile them to the Posisitions and Intentions of that Letter; and consequently, whether you have a belief of God, and a World to come.  
Sir, I think it a very extravagant maxim in Government, to affirm all Insurrections, which are only levelled at Reformation, and designed to correct maladministration and the Authors of them, and thereby( when the Common Methods are at a loss) to let the King know, what are the Measures of his government, the Voice and Interest of his People, that so Justice and Mercy may prevail against Illegal Courses and his flattering Minions, and that the Rights of his Crown, and the Privileges of his People, may be adjusted and preserved; I say, I think it an extravagant Position, to affirm, that what may be so conducive to public Peace, and the maintenance of a Constitution, and the general Ends of all Government, is Illegal; yet I have often thought, that the Oath that expects a Man should Swear it unlawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to rise in Arms against the King, or any Commissioned by him, intended to establish this wild Civil Article; and I thought your Lordship writ upon so solemn an occasion, designed to justify the Purport and Doctrine of that Oath; which was carrying Loyalty to a higher pitch than I ever thought necessary to make a Good Man, or a Good Christian.  
But, Sir, to lay your Letter aside at present, give me leave to examine this Revolution, with the most impar●ial desire of being informed; for I solemnly invoke God Almighty to attest, that my Non compliance with K. William and Q. Mary's Title and Administration, is founded upon Scruples of Conscience, to which I yet want satisfactory Answers. I am a Protestant of that size, that I hope God would enable me to undergo all the Persecution that the Malice of Men and Devils can invent, rather than one moment prostitute my Conscience, so far as to give any reasonable umbrage for Protestants to suspect, or Papists to hope, or could be made a Convert to the Church of Rome. I love my Country better than my Wife and Children; and certainly therefore so much that I would for no Interest in the World disquiet the present Settlement, if I thought it was fit for an honest Man to comply with it.  
I have no Personal Obligations to King James; and I thank God I. have an obstinate honesty, that will scarce allow me to be acceptable to any King. Whatever I have done, or shall do, for the exiled Prince, is upon mere Motives of Conscience. I have no reason to believe myself uncapable of being forgiven, or perhaps employed, under the present Government; my Relations and Friends are many of them violent, and almost all at least for it. But let us begin with the Revolution: I aclowledge Kinst James's Ministers gave great Provocations; I could have joined with any but a Foreigner to have rescued our Liberties; and yet I must as freely declare, I saw nothing done, that would have been too hard for a Parliamentary redress; or, at least, for the intrinsic Power of this iceland, the natural weight of those who are sensible of their Religion and Property: But I cannot tell how any Provocations, that were given the People of England, can justify the Invasion of a Nephew and a Son-in-law. I cannot tell by what distinctions in Morality, the Dutch could salue their denial, by their ambassador, that those Forces were designed for England; I cannot imagine what dispensation gave them and the Subjects of England liberty to tell so many things that were notoriously untrue, that They knew then to be untrue, and that have been much more apparently proved so by the sequel of things.  
Sure the Morality of the Decalogue is not abolished: Let us see how many of the Commandments are broken, Has not Mammon been made a God, and a Crown an Idol, to which the Prince of Orange and his Adherents have sacrificed the lives of many thousands of Men, as well as the reputation of our Religion, besides a vast Treasure, though it is not fit to be name after the other two Immolations? Have they not taken God's Name in vain, when they consecrated to the preservation of Religion, the Injuries and Violations of it, of which they have been guilty? I do not know whether you are a strict Sabatarian; I believe not, and will aclowledge I am none; but I think the Nation grossly perverts the ends of Humiliations and Fastings, and appointed-days for God's worship, whilst they pray to God to prosper any immoral enterprise? For God's sake, and the sake of your Soul, and the sake of your Queen's Soul, study the Fifth Commandment; though the performance of it has the promise of length of days in this Life, the breach of it( if any Religion be true) will plunge her into Miseries of a longer duration; She has partaken with Thieves and liars against her own Father; She is a Receiver of what has been by them from him wrongfully taken away, unless it can be proved that the Crown of England is Elective, the Kings of it punishable and deposeable? if this is right, you know, Sir, all our Law books are in the wrong, for they say, The King can do none, That he is not accountable to the People, collectively or representatively; and that the Monarchy of England is Hereditary. This is all in the Original Contract of our Statute Books, and Law Cases.  
Sir You know these things, you cannot pled ignorance, nor can you believe Abdication; you know the treatment the King had from the Prince of Orange, and his own Subjects, and cannot believe he voluntarily resigned: Are not then our Judges, our Juries, our Fleets, and our Armies, guilty of Murder, in opposing King James's return? Do'n't your Queen list so many assassins, whilst she Commissions them for that purpose? Is it not as unlawful to steal a Crown as a Trifle; and till they have recanted all the false Accusations which were countenanced by the Prince of Orange and his Princess, and were instrumental towards the getting of these Crowns, Do they not violate the Ninth Commandment. as well as Covet their Neighbours, their Fathers Goods? The Civil and Natural Obligations the Prince and Princess of Orange have to King James aggravate their Crime; and if it were not almost levity to say so here, I would add as another aggravation, their having coveted too many of King sares's Servants.  
The King of England does every thing by his Officers; they are impeachable, they are punishable; the King( who we always said, was not so) is dethroned; whilst those are employed in this Government, who were the Disgraces and Instruments of the last: But I do'n't intend a Libel, and therefore will not enter into an Account of such Matters; I will neither give the present Ministers their Characters, nor show how little, as mere Men and Subjects, we are the better for the Change. But I fear whoever reflects without heat, or bias, upon what I have said; will find we have lost at least Nine of the Ten Commandments, which is exexceeding Popery in our Index Expurgatorius with a Witness.  
But to come to your more particular case, I beseech you to publish some Discourse( if you can clear things) to demonstrate either your Repentance of what you writ to my Lord Russel, or the Reasons that make that, and what you now do consistent; and that you, with the usual solidity with which you treat upon other. Subjects, justify the proceedings, and explain the Title of K. William; I know no Body has a stronger and clearer Head, and if you have Truth on your side, you can writ unanswerable. God's Glory, the Reputation of the Protestant Religion is at stake; your own Good Name calls for it; and more especially because you have accepted a most Reverend and Devout Man's archbishopric; a Man that has given Testimony how unalterably he is a Protestant! A Sufferer formerly for the Laws and Church of England; a Sufferer for those very Principles upon which that Letter to my Lord Russel was writ; for those very Principles which you disputed for,( when he was about to Communicate) when he had so short a time to live; nay, you remembered him of, even upon upon the Scaffold, with the dreadful Commination of Eternal Wo.  
Really, Sir, if there be any Truth, if there be any Virtue, if there be any Religion, What shall we say to these things? What will you say to them? You must be at the pains to clear this matter, that we may not believe the Boundaries of Right and Wrong, the measures of Violence and Justice, quiter taken away, that we may not be tempted to Speculative, and from thence to Practical Atheism. This Change has made many sober Men Sceptical, and gone farther towards eradicating, all the Notions of a Deity, than all the Labours of Hobbs and Epicurus; and your part in it has, I must confess, more staggerd me, than any one thing else; I have been ready to suspect, that Religion itself was a Cheat, and that it was a defect in my Understanding, that I could not see through it; for I think, if I can know my Right Hand from my Left, our present Government stands upon Foundations that contradict all those Discourses, which you, as well as others, have lent to Passive● Obedience.  
The excessive Value I have for you, for your Knowledge, your judgement, your loathness of Spirit, your Moderation, and many other great Qualities, that have signalized your Name, once made you one of the greatest Ornaments of the Christian Church, one of the greatest Exemplars of sound Morality, and all that Philosophers call virtue, make what seems to me an apostasy from what you Preached and Writ, pretended to believe, and would have others believe, shake me so violently in the first Credenda of Religion, that I beseech you, if you think it necessary upon no other accoant, that you will publish such a Discourse at least for the satisfaction of mine, and the Consciences of many others, who I can assure you of my own knowledge, lye under the same Scruples with myself, have the same Scruples in relation to the Government, and the same Temptations, to question Religion itself upon your account: It is the interest of the Government to satisfy such Men, and if you think that we ought particularly and privately to apply ourselves to you, our number is so great, that it would be too constant a trouble for any one Man to undergo; nor can we safely debate a point of this Nature; nor can you expect Men should trust themselves under the Protection of your Honour, whilst they th●●k you have in the Face of the World, so grossly prevaricated both from that and what ought to be a Principle of a higher Nature, the dictates of your own Conscience.  
We would as soon deliver our Reasons at the Door of a House of Commons, and I am not sure that the same Spirit of integrity, which has hindered me from succumbing under what we think an Usurpation, will not the next time there is an Assembly there carry me that length,( if I dont in the mean time publicly hear from you.) I beg of God Almighty( in whose Being I bless his Name I yet believe) to lay a happy constraint upon me, to do what may be most for his Glory, and the Good of these Nations; and I earnestly supplicate him, that he will enable me to suffer whatever may be necessary for those great ends, and that he will incline you either to publish your Reasons or Repentance: To his Blessed Guidance and Protection I hearty recommend you.  

This was sent to Dr. Tillotson.    
FINIS.