I was heartily sorry to see all this, though it was no other than was to be suspected, by his late Majesty's too great indifference, neglect, and course of life, that he had been perverted, and for secular respects only professed to be of another belief, and thereby giving great advantage to our adversaries, both the Court and generally the youth and great persons of the nation becoming dissolute and highly profane. God was incensed to make his reign very troublesome and unprosperous, by wars, plagues, fires, loss of reputation by an universal neglect of the public for the love of a voluptuous and sensual life, which a vicious Court had brought into credit. I think of it with sorrow and pity, when I consider how good and debonair a nature that unhappy Prince was; what opportunities he had to have made himself the most renowned King that ever swayed the British scepter, had he been firm to that Church for which his martyred and blessed father suffered; and had he been grateful to Almighty God, who so miraculously restored him, with so excellent a religion; had he endeavored to own and propagate it as he should have done, not only for the good of his kingdom, but of all the Reformed Churches in christendom, now weakened and near ruined through our remissness and suffering them to be supplanted, persecuted, and destroyed, as in France, which we took no notice of. The consequence of this, time will show, and I wish it may proceed no further. The emissaries and instruments of the Church of Rome will never rest till they have crushed the Church of England, as knowing that alone to be able to cope with them, and that they can never answer her fairly, but lie abundantly open to the irresistible force of her arguments, antiquity and purity of her doctrine, so that albeit it may move God, for the punishment of a nation so unworthy, to eclipse again the profession of her here, and darkness and superstition prevail, I am most confident the doctrine of the Church of England will never be extinguished, but remain visible, if not eminent, to the consummation of the world. I have innumerable reasons that confirm me in this opinion, which I forbear to mention here.
In the meantime, as to the discourse of his Majesty with Mr. Pepys, and those papers, as I do exceedingly prefer his Majesty's free and ingenuous profession of what his own religion is, beyond concealment upon any politic accounts, so I think him of a most sincere and honest nature, one on whose word one may rely, and that he makes a conscience of what he promises, to perform it. In this confidence, I hope that the Church of England may yet subsist, and when it shall please God to open his eyes and turn his heart (for that is peculiarly in the Lord's hands) to flourish also. In all events, whatever does become of the Church of England, it is certainly, of all the Christian professions on the earth, the most primitive, apostolical, and excellent.