ADVERTISEMENT.
It will be found that in this Volume I have assigned a large space to the attempt at Comprehension in the year 1689—as it is a subject of present interest, and because the proceedings connected with it have been but inadequately described. An examination of the Bill introduced for the purpose to the House of Lords—a comparison of the Journals of both Houses, whence it appears that another Bill of the same kind was contemporaneously proposed in the House of Commons—the report of the proceedings of the Commissioners in 1689, published by order of the House of Commons in 1854—and a curious Diary preserved in Dr. Williams’ Library—together with other original sources of information, have enabled me to present a fuller, and, I hope, more accurate, account of that important but ineffective transaction than has hitherto appeared. As I believe the Lords’ Bill has never been printed, I have arranged for its insertion in the Appendix.
A large collection of Tracts in Dr. Williams’ Library, besides those in the British Museum and University Libraries—the Tanner MSS. at Oxford—the Strype and other collections belonging to the Sister University—and the Gibson Papers at Lambeth, have also afforded a number of new, if not important, illustrations touching the Nonjurors—the proceedings of Convocation—the Trinitarian controversies—the social life of the Clergy—and the character of the Nonconformist ministers.
I may add that in tracing the origin and progress of Religious Societies during the reign of William III., I have received most valuable assistance from the respected Secretaries of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, who have favoured me with interesting extracts from their earliest records.
My best thanks are also due to the Right Reverend the Bishop of Chester for a copy of the writ summoning Spiritual peers to Parliament. Sir John G. S. Lefevre, Clerk of the Parliaments, to whose usual courtesy I am indebted for a copy of the Comprehension Bill—Mr. Thoms, the Librarian of the House of Lords—the Librarians at Oxford, Cambridge, and Lambeth—the Rev. T. Hunter, librarian of Dr. Williams’ Library—and the Rev. D. Hewitt, of Exeter, have also laid me under obligations which I gratefully acknowledge.
I venture to add, that in this, as in my former volumes, I have endeavoured to maintain an honest impartiality in the estimate of characters and incidents, together with a firm attachment to my own religious and ecclesiastical principles. My aim throughout has been to promote the cause of truth and charity among Christian Englishmen.