Richard West (priest)

[8] At the time of its appearance it was attributed by some to William Lloyd the bishop of Worcester, who made political use of it in Worcestershire against the Tory Sir John Pakington, 4th Baronet, in 1702.

[11][12] In January 1710 the Winchester MPs Lord William Powlett and George Rodney Brydges together organised support in Parliament, to thank West for a sermon in which he had stated that in the English Civil War the faults were on both sides.

[13][14][15] It had proved controversial in its views (pan-Protestant, Whig, and in favour of continuing the War of the Spanish Succession), and required a vote in Parliament before it was printed.

[16] J. P. Kenyon writes that West's sermon was in fact moderate in its Whiggism, in comparison with that of William Stephens on the same occasion ten years before, but the vote on it, at 124 to 105, was close.

[17] Despite his reputation as an intemperate Whig who had defended the execution of Charles I,[8] West continued to preach on public occasions.