NIHIL OPINIONIS GRATIA OMNIA CONSCIENTIÆ FACIAM. NOT TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF ONE A PUBLIC TESTIMONY TO HIS MEMORY IN THE DIOCESE OF JEREMY TAYLOR, D.D. AND HAVING PRESIDED FOR SEVEN YEARS IN THAT SEE, IN THE 55TH YEAR OF HIS AGE: LEAVING BEHIND HIM A RENOWN, SECOND TO THAT OF NONE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS SONS RICH IN WORTHIES HATH BROUGHT FORTH. AS A BISHOP DISTINGUISHED FOR MUNIFICENCE AND VIGILANCE TRULY EPISCOPAL, TO EARNESTNESS OF DEVOTION, UPRIGHTNESS OF PRACTICE, A POWERFUL ASSERTOR OF EPISCOPAL GOVERNMENT, AND AN ABLE EXPOSER OF THE ERRORS OF THE ROMISH CHURCH; IN HIS MANNERS A PATTERN OF HIS OWN RULES AND A FOLLOWER OF THE GREAT EXEMPLAR OF SANCTITY, AS PORTRAYED BY HIM IN THE PERSON OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. READER, THOUGH IT FALL NOT TO THY LOT TO ATTAIN THE INTELLECTUAL EXCELLENCE THOU MAYEST RIVAL HIM IN THAT WHICH WAS THE HIGHEST SCOPE EVEN OF HIS AMBITION, THIS TABLET WAS INSCRIBED M.DCCC.XX VII. Accession of the King. Earl of Clarendon Lord Lieutenant. Unhappiness of the reign of King James II. THE day, which witnessed the accession of King James the Second to the throne, was one of melancholy foreboding to the Churches of England and Ireland; and the announcement of the event, which, on its being notified in Dublin, was, by order of the Duke of Ormonde, immediately proclaimed with the usual solemnity, was received with as much sorrow of heart and dejection of countenance, on the part of the members of the Irish Church, as if they at that time foresaw, what was no doubt in the apprehensions and fears of many, the calamities and unhappiness of the ensuing reign. But God is merciful: Its duration. and, if He suffered a sanguinary Mary, or an arbitrary and bigoted James, to afflict his Church, He limited the dominion of each to a period of brief duration. The reign, on which we are now entering, though King's accession. Earl of Claren don, Lord Lieutenant. abundant in affliction to the Church of Ireland more especially, whilst it lasted, was confined to three years and ten months in England, and legally in Ireland likewise: but unhappily extended in the latter country to about five years and five months. King James ascended the throne on the 6th of February, 1685. The withdrawal of the Duke of Ormonde from the Lord Lieutenantcy of Ireland soon followed in regular course: whereupon the Lord Primate and the Earl of Granard became nominally the lords justices. But the powers of the government were in reality, not in their hands, but in those of Colonel Talbot, afterwards Earl of Tyrconnel, a Papist, who was lieutenant-general of the army. And by his authority, not only the English militia were deprived of their arms, but the English in the army began also to be dismissed, under pretence of their being either Oliverians, or their descendants. But the hopes of the members of the Church were, not long after, revived by the appointment of a new Lord Lieutenant in the person of Henry, earl of Clarendon and they were withal encouraged by reflecting on the king's repeated promises of preserving the Church, and governing by the laws of the land, and by the sacred and solemn obligation, which he had incurred, of the Coronation Oath. A report, indeed, was industriously circulated by the Papists, that the new Viceroy was of their communion. But this error, whether voluntary or accidental, was soon corrected: and all men were convinced, that, if the Lord Lieutenant did not succeed in supporting the English interest, and the welfare of the Church, the failure would be attributable to the defect, not of inclination, but of power. |