■^ BEtlCElEV>V 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 ^ CALIFORNIA 
 
 ' 
 
■^- 
 

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO, 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE EJECTION OE THE PURITANS 
 
 FBOM THE 
 
 CHURCH OF EISTGLAND, 
 
 AND THE EFFORTS MADE TO RESTORE THEM, WITH A SKETCH OF 
 THEIR RISE. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. D. MOUNTFIELD, M.A., 
 
 Incumbent of Oxon, Salop. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 KENT & CO., 52, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 SHREWSBURY : J. 0. SANDFORD, HIGH STREET. 
 
 1862. 
 
LOAN STACK 
 

 TO THE 
 
 EEY. JAMES HILDYAED, B.D., 
 
 RECTOR OF INQOLD&BY, 
 
 in acknowledgment op his great and unwearying services 
 
 in promoting a relaxation of the 
 
 Act op Uniformity and Eevision of the Liturgy, 
 
 THESE pages 
 
 are dedicated by HIS sincere friend, 
 
 THE AUTHOK. 
 
 o47 
 
C ONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page. 
 
 BISE OF THE PURITANS. — SEVERITIES OF ELIZABETH AND WHITGIFT. — 
 laud's POLICY. — THE REBELLION. — ^PRESBYTERIANS AND INDEPEND- 
 ENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE RESTORATION. — THE PRESBYTERIANS CAJOLED. — THE HEALING DE- 
 CLARATION. — SAVOY CONFERENCE. — ACT OF UNIFORMITY. ... 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 BLACK BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. — THE 2000 CONFESSORS, BAXTER, HOWE, 
 PHILIP HENRY, GOUGE. — SHELDON, MORLEY, GUNNING. — THE MODER- 
 ATE CLERGY, SANDERSON, PEARSON, JEREMY TAYLOR. . . . , 69 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RISE OP THE LIBERAL OR LATITUDINARIAN PARTY. — SOUTHAMPTON, HALE, 
 WILKINS, BOYLE, TILLOTSON, STILLINGFLEET. — THE CLARENDON CODE. 
 — ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE THE PRESBYTERIANS* — ^THE LIBERAL CLERGY 
 AND THE HIGH-FLYERS. — DR. SAMUEL PARKER. , . . . 101 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 JAMES II. ENDEAVOURS TO INTRODUCE POPERY. — CHURCHMEN AND 
 DISSENTERS COALESCE. — SANCROFT's SCHEME FOR REVISING THE 
 PRAYER BOOK AND RESTORING DISSENTERS. — THE REVOLUTION. — 
 LORD NOTTINGAAM'S COMPREHENSION BILL. — FACTIOUS CONDUCT OF 
 THE HIGH CHURCH CLERGY. — THE LIBERAL CLERGY PROMOTED. — 
 THE LAST ATTEMPT TO RESTORE DISSENTERS DEFEATED BY CONVOCA- 
 TION. — SACHEVERELL. — CONCLUSION. .. .. .. ..124 
 
If it be eyinced tliat one heaven shall hold men of several opinions, if the 
 unity of faith be not destroyed by that which men call differing religions, 
 and if an unity of charity be the duty of us all, even towards persons that 
 are not persuaded of every proposition we believe, then I would fain know 
 to what purpose are all those stirs and great noises in Christendom. — 
 Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 What charter hath Christ given the church, to bind men up to more 
 than Himself hath done ? Or to exclude those from her society, who may 
 be admitted into heaven ? "Will Christ ever thank men at the great day 
 for keeping such out from communion with his church, to whom he v^ill 
 vouchsafe not only crowns of glory, but it may be aureoles too, if there 
 be any such things there ? — Stillingfleet. 
 
 The prudence and piety of [the blessed Apostles St. Paul and St. 
 John] those unerring guides of the church, themselves under the certain 
 guidance of the Spirit of truth, directed them to bring the things wherein 
 they would have Christians unite, within as narrow a compass as 
 possible, neither multiplying articles of faith nor rites of worship. 
 These two principles .... are both sufficient and necessary, 
 the apt and only means to heal and save us ; such as would effect our 
 cure, and without which nothing will. — Howe. 
 
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 atSE OF THE PURITANS. — SEVERITIES OF ELIZABETH AND WHITGIFT. — 
 laud's policy. THE REBELLION. — PRESBYTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS. 
 
 When Hooper, on presenting himself to Craiimer and Ridley, 
 for consecration to the bishopric of Gloucester, refused to wear 
 the vestments prescribed to be worn by bishops, he struck the 
 first note of that controversy, which agitated the Church until 
 the ejection of the Puritans at the Restoration of Charles II.^*' 
 Hooper, like many of the Reformers, regarded the Mass as 
 idolatry, and consequently the vestments which had been 
 worn by the Romish clergy, as idolatrous, and badges of 
 Antichrist ; even Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, in their last 
 days, spoke of them with contempt.-)- 
 
 When Mary came to the throne, many of the Reformers 
 fled to the Continent, where they probably imbibed from the 
 Swiss Protestants, that dislike of some of the features of the 
 Anglican Church, which they displayed on their return at the 
 accession of Elizabeth. They were much disappointed at the 
 sluggish manner in which that great Queen carried on the 
 Reformation ; especially did they dislike the vestments, the 
 
 * Heylyn calls Hooper the first Nonconformist in England. See also 
 Neal, vol. i. p. 60. 
 
 t Sampson told Cecil that he had at his ordination objected to the 
 apparel, but Cranmer and Eidley ordained him nevertheless. Neal, vol. i. 
 pp. 65y 170. Athense Oxon. Milton's Reformation in England, vol. i 
 p. 50. 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 use of which the Queen was unwilling to abolish. Even 
 Jewel, a moderate prelate, speaks of them as "theatrical 
 dresses," "relics of the Amorites ;" Grindal, Horn, Pilkington, 
 Sandys, Nowell, Parkhurst, Coverdale, were strongly averse to 
 them, and equally with the Puritans desired their disuse.* 
 I^or were these views confined to a few, they prevailed during 
 the early years of Elizabeth very extensively amongst the 
 parocliial clergy, and in the Universities. -j- At Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, and also at St. John's College, the fellows and 
 students to the number of three hundred, cast off their sur- 
 plices. J At Oxford, there were only three men who could 
 preach, and they were all Puritans. § Eminent preachers in 
 London inveighed against surplices, rochets, tippets, and 
 caps;** and so widely had these precise or puritanical feelings 
 spread, that a paper presented to Convocation proposing to 
 abolish the use of organs, the observance of saints' days, the 
 signing of the cross in baptism, &c., was rejected by a 
 majority of only one.f -f- 
 
 Elizabeth was altogether averse to the nakedness or simpli- 
 city to which so many of the Eeformers were desirous of 
 reducing the service of the Church ; but whilst she wisel}'- 
 refused to yield to their wishes, she unfortunately manifested 
 no tenderness towards those . who entertained scruples about 
 the vestments or ceremonies. But the harsh measures to which 
 Parker, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had recourse, instead 
 of producing the desired uniformity, irritated the Puritans, 
 
 * Zuiicli Letters, pp. 23, 40, 52, 55, 64, 66, 100, 142, 3 49, 177. 
 Baxter, part i. p. 32. Neal, vol. i. pp. 170, 173. 
 t Zurich Letters, p. 168. 
 X Life of "Whitgift, by Sir G. Paule, in Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. 
 vol. iii. p. 561. 
 
 § Athenoe Oxon, vol. i. pp. 374, 550. Neal, vol. i. p. 157. 
 
 ** Life of Whitgift, p. 560, note 2. 
 
 tt Strype, vol. i. pp. 499-506. 
 
11 
 
 end increased their popularity. Parker was succeeded m the 
 Primacy by Grindal, a man of different views. He had shewn 
 himself unwilling to deal rigorously with the Puritans ; and 
 soon fell under the Queen's displeasure for his spirited resis- 
 tance to her commands, requiring him to diminish the number 
 of preachers, and suppress certain religious meetings among 
 the clergy, known as prophesyings. By the Puritans he has 
 been held in reverence as their friend ; and in the next 
 century we find the High Church party stigmatising their 
 opponents as Grindalizers."^* On the death of Grindal, Whit- 
 gift — an upright man, free from covetousness, and on the 
 whole from sycophancy — ^became Archbishop of Canterbury ; 
 he thoroughly entered into the Queen's views, and for nearly 
 twenty years waged war with the obnoxious Puritans, f He 
 endeavoured with indomitable courage, and by innumerable 
 acts of oppression, to carry out the vain design of binding the 
 free spirit of the English nation to a rigid uniformity in 
 public worship. Armed with the tremendous powers of the 
 High Commission Court, he harra«sed the puritanical clergy ; 
 they were fined, and imprisoned; hundreds of them were 
 suspended and many deprived of their livings : at one time, it 
 was said, a thhd of the whole beneficed clergy were under 
 suspension for refusing to comply with the habits and cere- 
 monies of the Church. 
 
 The sagacious ministers of the Queen were alarmed at 
 Whitgift's violence ; Lord Burleigh remonstrated, hinted to 
 him that he resembled a Spanish inquisitor trapping his prey ; 
 
 * Milton calls Grindal "the best of the Reformers, who lost favour for 
 favouring the ministei's." Reformation of England, vol. i. p. lu. Collier's 
 Ecc. History, vol. vi. pp. 555, 557. 571. 630. 
 
 t Collier, vol. vii. pp. 1, 7. Grainger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 205» 
 
12 
 
 and the clerk of the Council told him plainly that he would by 
 such proceedings overthrow the Church.* 
 
 The policy pursued by Elizabeth towards the Puritans 
 proved an entire failure. At the end of her long reign we 
 find that the Puritans were more numerous, their influence 
 had spread, and their aversion was no longer confined to the 
 ceremonies, but extended to the whole government of the 
 Church. Exasperated by harsh treatment, a violent party had 
 grown up amongst them who demanded the overthrow of the 
 hierarchy, and blackened the characters of the prelates by 
 scurrilous pamphlets. The severities of forty years had 
 failed ; mildness and charity might have proved, more suc- 
 cessful, f 
 
 The great Protestant Queen was succeeded by a con- 
 temptible Scotch pedant, Whitgift was uneasy about the 
 " Scotch mist," as he called James ; the Puritans were full of 
 " brags," for the new King was thought to be a Presbyterian. 
 James had spoken in rather strong terms of the English 
 bishops and the Prayer Bopk. The latter he had called " an 
 evil said mass in English ;" the former he had classed with 
 Papistical prelates. J 
 
 The Puritans presented petitions to the King on his way to 
 London ; one was signed by eight hundred ministers, out of 
 twenty-five counties. Their requests were on the whole 
 
 *Aylraer, Bishop of London, was a far worse man than Whitgift, who 
 was a severe but upright prelate. Macaulay speaks, I think, very much 
 too severely of Whitgift. Collier, vol. vii. pp. 9, 10, 12. Neal, 
 
 vol. i. p. 423, note. Hallam, vol. i. pp. 200-203. 
 
 t Neal says there were about fifteen hundred Puritan ministers in the 
 Church at the close of Elizabeth's reign. Perhaps about one-third of them 
 were in favour of Presbyterianism. But they grew cool on this subject, and 
 most would have been satisfied with moderate Episcopacy. Neal, vol. i. 
 pp. 423, 507 ; vol. ii. preface, pp. 40 note, 442. Hallam, vol. i. p. 226. 
 
 l Whitgiffs Life, by Sir G. Paule, vol. iii. pp. 616, 617- Neal, vol. ii. 
 pp. 2, 3, 5. CoUier, vol. vii. p. 275. 
 
13 
 
 moderate, and most of them might have been granted with 
 advantage to Church and State. The King was not unwilling 
 to display his theological learning, and promised the Puritans 
 that there should be a conference between them and the 
 bishops. The conference took place at Hampton Court, 
 (1603) and lasted three days ; four ministers appeared for 
 the Puritans, one of whom. Dr. John Eeynolds, was the most 
 learned man in England.'^ Never did the bishops debase 
 themselves so much, as upon this occasion; towards the 
 Puritans they behaved with insolence, towards the King with 
 offensive servility. They flattered the poor conceited monarch ; 
 told him that he was a British Solomon, that never since 
 Christ's time had there been a King like him, and that un- 
 doubtedly he spoke by the special assistance of God's Spirit. 
 James dismissed the Puritans with a coarse speech, telling 
 them in his slobbering Scotch fashion, that if they did not 
 conform, he would " harrie them out of the land, or else do 
 worse, only hang them, that's all." No concessions were 
 made to win the Puritans, and thus this happy opportunity 
 of healing the Church's wounds was cast away, f 
 
 So ended the famous Hampton Court conference ; so will 
 end every conference in which Whitgifts and Bancrofts have 
 the sway. It is idle to say that concession would have been 
 of no avail, that some of the Puritans' requests were trifling, 
 others unreasonable. The answer is short ; concession was 
 not tried, reasonable requests were not granted, things indif- 
 ferent were still forced on tender consciences, the most 
 flagrant abuses in the Church still flourished. The severities 
 which had slackened under Whitgift, for in his latter days he 
 
 * Atlienae Oxon. Hallam's Literature of Europe, vol. i. p. 119. 
 t Secret Hist, of the Court and Reign of Charles IL, Yol. i. Introduc- 
 tion, p. 23, note. Hallam, vol. i p. 297. 
 
14 
 
 "became more moderate, and allowed many learned Puritans 
 liberty, so long as tliey did not openly disturb the Church,* 
 were resumed with terrible vigour by his successor Bancroft, -(• 
 whose little mind was intoxicated by the most extravagant 
 schemes of ecclesiastical aggrandizement. J 
 
 Tliis fiery and ambitious prelate, unrestrained by the wise 
 ministers who had surrounded Elizabeth, or by James, "who 
 was wallowing like a swine in the mire of his lust," cruelly 
 oppressed the Puritans ; hundreds fled from his fury to the 
 deserts of America, until, like his disciple Laud, he inter- 
 fered to stop the depopulation of the kingdom. 
 
 The temperate counsels of such sagacious statesmen as Bur- 
 leigh and WaLsingham, were scorned by the rulers of the 
 Church. They heeded not the warning voice of the great 
 Bacon, who whilst he censured the prejudices, the extrava- 
 gances and violences of the Puritans, at the same time plainly 
 condemned the persecuting spirit of the prelates, their resist- 
 ance to reforms and every improvement, their contempt for 
 foreign Protestants, their bad example. § 
 
 The severities of Bancroft failed, as had those of Parker 
 and Wliitgift. The syren Uniformity whose charms have 
 proved so fatal to church- rulers, was not yet won ; and when 
 our British Solomon, an habitual drunkard, liar, and swearer, 
 
 * Bishop Eudd states that there were divers hundreds so favoured. See 
 his speech in convocation, May 23rd, 1603. Whitgift's Life, pp. 592, 597. 
 Neal, vol. ii. preface, and pp. 28-31. 
 
 t " Compared with his successor Bancroft, Whitgift was a valuable 
 prelate." Neal, vol. ii. p. 25. 
 
 X Bancroft's attempts to prevent the courts of "Westminster Hall inter- 
 fering with the Spiritual Courts, seem to have attracted the attention of 
 Father Paul. That honest Churchman says in one of his letters — " I fear 
 for the English ; I hold in suspicion that great power of the bishops, though 
 in subjection to the King. I seem to see the horse saddled in England, 
 and think that before long, the old rider will mount." See Sir Michael 
 Foster's Examination of the Scheme of Church Power. 
 § Hallam, vol. i. pp. 327, 395, 396. 
 
15 
 
 died, the Puritans were the most powerful party in the 
 country.* 
 
 It was in this reign that a very important change took 
 place in the Church, which had a remarkable effect on the 
 Puritan controversy. During Elizabeth's time the dispute 
 had been concerning the ceremonies and government of the 
 Church ; in doctrines both prelates and Puritans were agreed ;-!- 
 all held A.ugustinian views, and all agreed in interpreting 
 the Articles of the Anglican Church in an Augustinian or 
 Calvinistic sense. J 
 
 But a new school of divines began to appear, and were 
 soon in high favour at court : they were at first known as Ar- 
 minians, then as Laudians, and a little before the Eevolution 
 as High Churchmen. Arminius, from whom they took their 
 name, was professor of divinity at Leyden, where he died 
 broken-hearted by the slanders and persecutions of the Cal- 
 vinists, whose system he had opposed.* 
 
 In England the old-fashioned divines who held what are 
 popularly called Calvinistic opinions, displayed towards the 
 Arminians an intolerant spirit. The pulpits resounded with 
 
 * Charles I. believed "there was not a wiser man since Solomon" than 
 his father. Clarendon's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 274. Mrs. Hutchinson's 
 Memoirs, pp. 58, 60, 66. Neal, vol. ii. pp. 40, 41, 58,-84. Hallam, vol. i. 
 pp. 227, 298, 394 Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. p. 157. Marsden's Early- 
 Puritans, p. 380. 
 
 t Bishop Pilkington writing to Gualter (1573) says — "The doctrine 
 alone they [the Puritans] leave untouched ; as to everything else they are 
 clamorous for its removal." Zurich Letters. 
 
 X See Bogers's Preface to his Treatise on the Thirty-nine Articles, 
 written in 1607, and his explanation particularly of the 17th Article. 
 
 * The writings of Arminius and his eminent disciple, Episcopius, and 
 probably the increasing study of the Greek fathers, mainly contributed to 
 the decline of Au^ustin's authority. Bayle's Hist. Dictionary, Articles 
 Arminius, Episcopius, and Vorstius. 
 
18 
 
 angry denunciations of the new heretics, as they were called ; 
 and the old controversies about ceremonies and bishops almost 
 ceased.* But the new heretics increased ; the most learned 
 divine of the Anglican Church adopted Arminianism ; and the 
 High Church party, notwithstanding the taunts of foes, that 
 they sign Predestinarian articles, claim to be the orthodox 
 portion of the Church. t The Puritans suspected that the 
 spread of the Arminians was owing to Court influence, 
 probably not altogether without reason, for they quickly 
 filled the high places of the Church. "What," said a 
 country gentlemen to Morley, afterwards Bishop of Win- 
 chester, " do the Arminians hold ? " " They hold," said 
 Morley, " the best bishoprics and deaneries in England. "J 
 
 The star of Augustin was on the wane. In England and 
 elsewhere, divines began to "bid John Calvin good night;'* 
 the institutes of Calvin, hitherto used in the Universities, lost 
 their authority ; and before the end of the seventeenth 
 century, the works of Episcopius had taken their place. § 
 
 * Clarendon's Hist., vol. i. pp. 156, 159, 163, 164. Sir Philip 
 Warwick's Memoirs, p. 90. Neal, vol. ii. p. 442 ; vol. iii. p. 27. 
 
 Potter's Letter to Vicars, in Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog., vol. ii. pp. 438, 
 439 ; and vol. iii. p. 283. Hnme's History, vol. vii. p. 272. Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson's Memoirs, pp. 47, 48, 58. Eushworth, Part I. p. 744. Speeches of 
 Rouse, Pym, and Sir R. Phillips, in the House of Commons, 1628. 
 
 t Baxter drily observes, " the doctrinal part of the articles, the Presby- 
 terians generally would subscribe to, but I see not how the reverend 
 brethren on the other side can." Baxter, part ii. p. 214. 
 
 So Lord Shaftesbury, in 1675, casts the 39 .articles into the teeth of the 
 bishops. *' He was extremely in the dark, to find the doctrine of Predestina- 
 tion in the 17th and 18th articles, to be owned by so few great doctors in 
 the Church." Letter from a person of quality, 1675. 
 
 X Clarendon's Life, vol. i. p. 50. Eemonstrance of the House of Com- 
 mons, 1628. 
 
 § " His works have been very much liked in England, by the Church- 
 men." Bavle on Episcopius. Hallam's Literature of Europe, vol. iii. 
 pp. 84,-89;* vol. iv. pp. 146-148. 
 
17 
 
 There was another important point on which the new school 
 differed from the Eeformers. They held that none but bishops 
 could under any circumstances ordain ministers in the Christian 
 Church, and that consequently those who had been ordained 
 in the Scotch and foreign Churches, which had no bishops, were 
 mere laymen.* The chief promoter, though not the originator 
 of these views, was Laud, who before he became Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, exercised a baleful influence in the Church and 
 State. The rapid spread of these new opinions, especially the 
 hateful alliance between the Laudian party and the Crown, 
 against the liberties of the people, alarmed the nation, and 
 immensely strengthened the Puritans. The House of Com- 
 mons voted that whosoever countenanced Popery or Arminian- 
 ism, which was supposed to lead to it, should be accounted a 
 public enemy. But the Neiles, Lauds, Mainwarings, and 
 Sibthorpes, encouraged the arbitrary designs of the Court, and 
 continued to drive the nation into the ranks of the Puritans. 
 When Neile and Andrewes, Bishops of Durham and Winches- 
 ter, were in attendance on James I,, the King asked them, 
 " Cannot I take my subjects' money when I want it, without 
 all this formality in Parliament f Neile readily replied, 
 " God forbid, Sir, but you should ; you are the breath of our 
 nostrils !" The King then turned to Andrewes, " Well, my 
 Lord, what say you V " Sir," he said, " I have no skill to 
 judge of Parliamentary cases." The King answered, " No put 
 off, my Lord; answer me presently!" '^ Then, Sir," replied 
 
 * This growing contempt for foreign Protestants was marked and 
 censured by Bacon. The Zurich Letters are the best proofs of the 
 
 affectionate feelings of the Eeformers for the foreign Protestants, whose 
 doctrines they considered to be identical with their own. Zurich Letters, 
 pp. 100, 131, 135, 169. Collier, vol. viii. pp. 166-172. Neal, vol. i. 
 p. 387, and preface to vol. ii. Baxter, part u. pp. 149, 206. Hallam, 
 vol. i. pp. 395-397. 
 
18 
 
 Andrewes, " I think it lawful for you to take my brother 
 !N'eile's money, for he offers it."* 
 
 The name Puritan had been hitherto applied to one who 
 was opposed to bishops or some ceremonies of the Church. 
 But the Laudian pe^rty began to fix it on all who held the old 
 fashioned Calyinistic opinions, or opposed their innovations 
 and arbitrary proceedings in Church or State. If a man refused 
 to dance round the village May-pole on Sundays, or discounte- 
 nanced the Sunday sports, which chiefly from political motives 
 Laud encouraged, or read the Bible in his family, or prayed at 
 home, or fasted, or went to a neighbouring parish to hear a 
 sermon, or reproved swearers and drunkards, or stood up for 
 the laws of his country and liberties of Parliament, he was 
 railed at as a Puritan, t 
 
 Laud now ruled in Church and State without a rival. 
 Seldom had there sat in the chair of Augustin so powerful a 
 prelate. J A splendid vision floated before the Primate's mind ; 
 the successor of Becket dreamt that the mitre might again 
 confront the crown, the crozier wave over its vassals as well as 
 the sceptre ; the high offices of the realm be in the hands of 
 the clergy ; canon law supreme ; Westminster Hall humbled ; 
 Puritans extirpated. Gorgeous ceremonies were revived ; 
 churches restored and exquisitely beautified with great zeal, 
 
 * Waller's Life, p. vi. (1727). 
 
 t Even Sanderson complains of being esteemed a Puritan ; and still more 
 strange, according to Barnabas Oley, Nicholas Ferrar was sometimes called 
 a Puritan. *• The Arminians," says Shirland, a member of the House of 
 Commons, " have involved all good true-hearted Englishmen and Christians 
 under the name of Puritans." Pari. History, vol. ii. p. 444- Parliament's 
 Eemonstrance. December 15th, 1642. Sir JB. Rudyard's speeches, Oley's 
 Life of George Herbert, vol. i. p. 107. Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, p. 22. 
 Baxter, part i. pp. 2, 3, 31, 32, 86. Clarendon's Hist., vol. iii. p. 292. 
 
 t Clarendon's Hist., vo^, i. pp. 159, 162, 264, 277 ; vol. iii. p. 364. 
 Collier, vol. viii. pp. 35, 42. 
 
19 
 
 but no prudence ; communion tables were removed to the east 
 end of the church, railed round, and called altars ; priests and 
 people were to bow to them as they entered and left the 
 church ; rich copes, costly altar-clothes, crucifixes, images, 
 pictures, and credence-tables were introduced. The Laudian 
 clergy performed the service in a strange way, "dopping, 
 ducking, and bowing, as though all made of joints ;" they 
 dressed in a peculiar style ; their priests' cloaks, enforced by 
 the Pope at Lambeth, under pain of ecclesiastical censure, were 
 ridiculed by the people, 
 
 "With, a Cardinal's cap, broad as a cart ■■wheel, 
 "With a long coat and cassock down to his heel. 
 See a new Churchman of the times, 
 0, the times ! the times, new Churchman !" 
 
 To repress Puritanism, irreligion was set up ; to fast was 
 more dangerous than to get drunk, to pray than to swear. 
 Sunday sports were encouraged ; the Puritans were struck with 
 horror when they beheld the bishops in the " shamefullest 
 and ungodliest way, pushing forward men to gaming, jigging, 
 wassailing, and mixed dancing on the day which God's law 
 and man's reason hath consecrated." The nation was scan- 
 dalized by the gorgeous plays and pastorals performed on 
 Sunday afternoons at Whitehall, when also persecution business 
 was transacted by Laud. Sermons full of raillery on Puritans, 
 and almost blasphemous adulation to the King, were preached 
 and cried up by the Court.* 
 
 All these proceedings were regarded as certain proofs of a 
 design to restore Popery, and produced great discontent ; yet 
 most of them were innocent, and some of them highly creditable 
 
 * See the extracts from Wren's, Sib thorp's, and Mainwaring's sermons, 
 given by Mr. Perry in his History of the Church, vol. i. pp. 358, 362, 366. 
 Baxter, part i. pp. 11, 33. Milton's Reformation, vol. i. pp. 40, 41, 
 
20 
 
 to Laud, for many churches were in a shamefully ruinous state, 
 the services probably slovenly performed, and certainly the 
 communion tables indecently used. Taken alone, they were 
 not sufficient to justify the popular impression ; but it is an 
 indisputable fact that the Laudian party made decided advances 
 towards the Church of Eome, which the Homilies of the 
 Anglican Church speak of as idolatrous, a foul, old, withered 
 harlot.* Auricular confession, penance, and absolution, were 
 recommended — ^to pray for the souls of the dead was lawful — 
 the Pope was no longer Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of 
 perdition, but the chief of bishops, to whom it pertained to 
 summon councils — monastic vows were defended — students at 
 the Universities weve recommended to study the fathers and 
 ancient councils, instead of Protestant divines. Laud publicly 
 declared that in the disposal of benefices, he should prefer 
 single before married priests. 'Not Protestants only but 
 Eoman Catholics also believed that this portion of the clergy 
 were bent on restoring Popery, f The Earl of Devonshire's 
 
 * The following ludicrous instance of the ceremoniousness which prevailed 
 under Laud, is related in the Nonconformists' Memorial. 
 
 A clergyman entering a church, went up to the chancel to how to the 
 altar, upon which a hoy was sitting. He seeing the priest make a low bow 
 thinks that it is a mark of respect to him, and bows in return ; three times 
 is the bow repeated by the priest and returned by the lad, who is mightily 
 astonished at such civility. 
 
 See the proceedings of the Lords' Committee, March 12th, 1641. A 
 paper in the Harleian Miscellany on the causes of the Civil "War. 
 
 Clarendon's History, vol. i. pp. 136, 168, 169, 172, 348, 496 ; vol. ii. 
 p. 29. Warwick's Memoirs, p. 81. Warburton's Notes on Clarendon. 
 Welwood's Memoirs. Canons of 1640 (Canon vii.) in Sparrow's Collection. 
 Collier, vol. viii. pp. 93 94, 180. Marsden's Early Puritans, p. 355. 
 Homily against peril of Idolatry. 
 
 t See the Instructions from the Pope to his Nuncio in England, in 
 Clarendon's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 44. May's Hist, of the Parliament, 
 Booki. pp. 19, 22, 24. Welwood's Memoirs. Collier, vol. viii. pp. 120- 
 122, 171, 172. Proceedings of Lords' Committee, March 12, 1641. Hal- 
 lam, vol. ii. p. 63. 
 
21 
 
 daughter having become a Romanist, was asked by Laud 
 the reason. '"Tis chiefly," she said, "because I hate to 
 travel in a crowd." Laud desired her to explain her mean- 
 ing. She replied — " I perceive your Grace and many others 
 are making haste to Rome, and therefore, in order to prevent 
 my being crowded, I have gone before you."* 
 
 As Laud and his party became more friendly to Rome, they 
 became more scornful towards the foreign Protestant churches. 
 The Cramners and Hoopers, the Jewels and Grindals of the 
 Reformation had taken sweet counsel with the Bucers and 
 Martyrs, the Bullingers and Gualters of the continent ; but 
 now the Laudian party accounted all churches which had 
 not bishops as no better than sacriligious laymen. Instruc- 
 tions were given to our ambassadors abroad, no longer to coun- 
 tenance such Puritanical rebels. In Prance, Lord Scudamore 
 withdrew from the Protestant Church at Charenton, and it 
 was industriously spread abroad that the Anglican Church did 
 not regard foreign Protestants as brethren. This, said Lord 
 Falkland, was an action as impolitic as ungodly, t 
 
 Nor was this the only measure by which Laud succeeded in 
 converting the foreign Protestants into enemies. He and his 
 creatures, particularly Wren and Neile, passionately and 
 furiously proceeded against the Prench, Dutch, and Walloon 
 congregations settled in London, Canterbury, Norwich, and 
 
 * Hume, vol. iv. p. 468. 
 t Clarendon says in a letter to Secretary Nicholas — " The English 
 church taught not such coyness towards the Eeformed churches ; you and 
 I, , if we were in Germany might, and I think ought to communicate with 
 the church of Luther with all charity and alacrity." From this and other 
 papers, it appears that Clarendon recognised the foreign Protestant 
 churches. Clarendon's State Papers, vol. ii. pp. 308, 317, 337, 401-404, 
 Clarendon's Hist. vol. iii. pp. 364-368. Collier, vol. viii. pp. 50, 56-58, 
 91, 100, 101. Milton's Reformation, vol. i. p. 38. Falkland's Speech on 
 Bishops. For Charles I.'s opinion on the Foreign Churches, see Claren- 
 don's State Papers, vol. ii. pp. 433^ 434. 
 
22 
 
 elsewhere ; treacherously breaking through the charters, by 
 which they had been protected.* 
 
 Whilst Laud was thus coquetting with Eome, disparaging 
 and alienating from us Protestant princes and commonwealths, 
 he was irritating the nobility by advancing the clergy to the 
 highest offices of the realm. He thought that temporal honours 
 and splendour would beget a reverence for his order ; they were 
 made justices of the peace ; they swarmed about the court ; 
 Juxon, Bishop of London, was created Lord High Treasurer of 
 England ; it was rumoured that Wren, Bishop of Norwich, 
 was to be made Secretary of State ; and Bancroft, Bishop of 
 Oxford, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The gentlemen of 
 England hated the little, low-bred, red-faced man, who swayed 
 and carried all things before him in the Privy Council and 
 High Court, •f and as the prelates rode to Westminster, people 
 merrily called them " The Church Triumphant." J Meanwhile 
 Laud was displaying his fierce, cruel character, by a furious 
 persecution of the Puritans. Great numbers of them forsook 
 their dear home, their friends and comforts, and fled for 
 refuge to the vast howling wildernesses of America, until Laud 
 in an evil hour for himself and his royal master procured an 
 order to prohibit their migration. § " They Avere persecuted in 
 the Bishop's Courts, fined, whipt, pilloried, imprisoned ; 
 
 * Clarendon's Ilist., vol. iii. pp. 364, 365. 
 f See Lord Digby's Speech, Nov. 9tli, 1640 — " Does not every Par- 
 liament man's heart rise to see the prelate's usurping," &c.; also Mrs. 
 Hutchinson's Memoirs. 
 
 X Laujd got also, says Clarendon, the Archbishop of St. Andrews made 
 Chancellor of Scotland, a thing not known since the Reformation ; 
 Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. pp. 152, 154, y,3, vol. iv. p. 437; May's Hist. 
 Book I. pp. 19, 22, 24; Milton's Reformation, vol. i. p. 43; Laud's Diary, 
 March 6th, 1635. 
 
 § Religion stands on tiptoe in our land, 
 Ready to pass to the American strand. 
 
 George Herbert. 
 Cromwell's Speech, Sept. 12th, 1654. Milton's Reformation, vol. i. pp. 37,39. 
 
23 
 
 they suffered barbarous mutilations, ear-croppings, nose slit- 
 tings, and brandings ; they could enjoy no rest, so that death 
 was better than life itself."* But oppression was producing its 
 bitter fruits. A vindictive spirit was spreading among the 
 people ; the disgusting mutilations inflicted on Prynne, Bast- 
 wick, and Burton, three noted Puritans, in the palace-yard at 
 Westminster, inflamed the multitudes who witnessed them ; 
 seditious libels were dispersed about London, menacing Laud 
 with destruction ; the mob full of fury, collected around Lam- 
 beth, breaking the windows, and threatening to pull the 
 Archbishop out of his palace. The rebellion was drawing 
 near, -f 
 
 In the year 1640, that memorable year in which Eng- 
 land, after a long period of oppression, rose up to regain her 
 liberties. Laud resolved to strike a blow, and rid the church 
 of the Puritan clergy, or silence their clamour for reforms. 
 
 To bishops, such as the early church possessed, the Puritans 
 did not generally object, but they thought that the prelates of 
 the Anglican Church did not resemble the Clements and Poly- 
 carps of ancient times, and it was well known that they looked 
 with little favour on Archbishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Chan- 
 
 * " In their High Commission and Star Chamber Courts, they lent themselves 
 to much sanguinary and oppressive work, ear-cropping, nose-slitting, ruinous 
 fining, and long imprisonment." Warburton's Memoirs of Prince Eupert. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, pp. 64, 66. Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. pp. 161- 
 163, 170. For the manner in which the Calvinistic clergy were vexed by 
 the Laudian bishops, see Bishop Hall's Observations in Wordsworth's Ecc. 
 Biog. vol. iv. pp. 288-290 ; also Wren's Articles, which are a choice 
 specimen of malice and tyranny. 
 
 t Clarendon admits that when Laud became Primate the nation was little 
 inclined to the Papist, and less to the Puritan. Collier is possessed with 
 Clarendon's idea, that if the persecution had been a little sharper, it would 
 have been successful. " Had not," he says, " the rebellion come on, Laud 
 would, in all likelihood, either have converted or crushed the Puritan sect." 
 Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. pp. 162, 163. Collier, vol. viii. p. 174. Welwood's 
 Memoirs, p. 36. Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs, p. 79. Warburton's Notes 
 on Clarendon. ]S"eal, vol. ii. pp. 277, 287. Baxter, part i. pp. 13, 14. 
 
24 
 
 cellors, &c.* An oath, therefore, was invented by the Convo- 
 cation, which met to frame canons, to be taken by all the 
 clergymen, schoolmasters, &c., that they approved the doctrine 
 and government of the Church, and would never ''consent to 
 alter the government by Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, &c,, as 
 it stands now established, and as by right it ought to stand." 
 Those who refused to take this astounding declaration, were to 
 be cast out of their livings. This audacious invasion of the 
 liberty and property of the subject, which was not without 
 precedent, is the last attempt made by the clergy to impose an 
 oath on Englishmen without the consent of Parliament, and 
 was the finishing stroke of a policy which aimed at reducing 
 men to an intolerable slavery, f The canons passed by Convo- 
 cation excited great dissatisfaction. Some said they made the 
 king an absolute monarch, J others objected to the offensive 
 ceremony of bowing to the altar, which they recommended ;§ 
 but all the Puritans were opposed to the "etcoetera oath," as 
 it was called. Many considered that Convocation had no 
 power to impose an oath on Englishmen ; others said that there 
 were some things in the church which they wished to see 
 reformed, and therefore could not swear that they would never 
 consent to alterations. The opposition increased ; moderate 
 
 * Baxter presses on Bishop Brownrigg "the practice of the Church till Cy- 
 prian's time, as a probable notice to us of what was the apostolical govern- 
 ment ; if you cast off the example of Cyprian's times, why use the argument 
 of antiquity for Episcopacy?" Although antiquity favours Baxter, it is 
 doubtful whether the Puritan form of Church government would have been 
 favourable to religious liberty — Baxter, part i. p. 178. 
 
 t Seethe canons of 1640, in Sparrow's Collection; they will satisfy most 
 men that Laud and his party regarded the king as independent of Parlia- 
 ment. The most important question raised by these canons, is the power of 
 Convocation to impose an oath, without consent of Parliament. Laud's 
 policy has, and always will have, many admirers amongst the clergy ; Con- 
 vocation is steadily advancing its old'pretensions, and writers such as Col- 
 lier, Walker, Carwithen, and others, claim for it the power of imposing 
 oaths. Collier, viii. pp. 180, 181. 
 
 X See the first of the canons of 1640. § Canon VII. 
 
25 
 
 Churclimen seeing the rising storm, pressed Laud to pause in 
 his mad career. Sanderson, one of the most learned divines 
 of the Anglican Church, called by Archbishop Usher, "the 
 judicious Sanderson," wrote to Laud, telling him that multi- 
 tudes of Churchmen, not of the preciser sort alone, but well- 
 affected and regular, tvould utterly refuse it, and the Church 
 be in danger.* The pious Bishop Hall would not tender it to 
 any of his clergy.t At last, the opposition becoming more 
 alarming, the nobility advised the King to interfere, and he 
 wrote to the stubborn Primate, forbidding it, for the present, 
 to be pressed.^ 
 
 One of Laud's early friends had foretold that if he went on 
 as he began, he would one day set the nation on fire. The 
 prophecy was fulfilled ; the nation was on fire ; the Great 
 Rebellion, as it is called, had commenced. 
 
 Parliament met Nov. 3rd, 1640 ; it was that Long Parlia- 
 ment which began so well, and ended so ill. The great 
 patriots were there ; in counsels as yet undivided, animated by 
 one lofty purpose, to deliver their beloved country from the 
 civil and religious tyranny which it had been suffering. § There 
 
 * Nalson's Collection, I. p 497. Baxter, part i. pp. 15, 16. Neal, vol. ii. 
 pp. 336. t See 'his Observations on his Life, and Letter to a 
 
 friend, both reprinted in Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. vol. iv. pp. 289, 293. 
 
 X An instance of the crushing despotism of Laud is to be found in the 
 Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 117. The King was at York, whither 
 Dr. Burgess, a Puritanical clergyman, went to present a petition from his 
 brethren, (I suppose against the Canons ;) when the Council in London 
 heard of it, they instructed Windebank to write to the King, recommend- 
 ing him to commit Burgess, and any petitioners, close prisoners for their 
 
 3y. Windebank's Letter is da " " 
 Hist. vol. i. pp. 252, 260. 
 
 § According to Clarendon, all except Lords Say and Brook in the House 
 of Lords, and Nathaniel Fiennes, St. John, and Vane in the Commons, were 
 attached to the Church. 
 
 Baxter says, that the members of the Long Parliament living in 1673 
 profess that they know of but one Presbyterian in the House :at the beginning. 
 Baxter, part i. pp. 31, 34 ; part iii. pp. 41, 149. Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. 
 pp. 240, 322-326, 329, 330, 347 note f, 355-357, 40b-410, 53G ; vol. iii. 
 p. 312. Keal, preface to vol. ii. and p. 444. 
 C 
 
 insolency. Windebank's Letter is dated Sept. 18th, 1640. Clarendon's 
 
26 
 
 were Lord Falkland, Joliii Hampden, Lord Bigby, Hollis, Sir 
 B. Rudyard, Grinistone, Selden, " the glory of the English 
 nation," with those other powerful lawyers, whom Laud had 
 arrogantly sought to humble, Pym, M^aynard, Coke, AVhite- 
 lock, Langhorne, Bagshawe, Glynne,* and one Oliver Crom- 
 well, with a "thread-bare coat, and a greasy hat."+ These great 
 men condemned with virtuous indignation the insolence an-d 
 tyrannies of the Laudian prelates. Lord Falkland, whilst 
 eloquently defending the venerable order of bishops, rebuked 
 those prelates who had so grievously abused their sacred 
 function. They had, he said, brought superstition and scandal 
 into the church, — ^had slackened the union between us and 
 foreign Protestants, an impolitic as well as an ungodly act, — 
 had sheltered Papists, and ruined Protestants for scruples, — 
 had cared more for conformity to some ceremonies than to 
 (Christianity, — had suppressed preachers, and like the dog in 
 the fable, would neither preach themselves nor let others 
 preach, — had cried up the sacredness of tithes and priests, — 
 had brought in as much of Popery, and destroyed as much of 
 the Gospel as they cO'Uld, without bringing themselves in 
 danger of the Law, — had been betrayers of our rights and 
 liberties, — and, in short, not content with arbitrary power in 
 ecclesiastical matters, had grasped at an equal power in 
 temporals. Lord L>igby, also a Royalist, was more severe on 
 the Laudian prelates. He said, no one was more aware than 
 himself of heavy grievances in the church, no one more 
 anxious to clip the wings of the prelates, by which they had 
 mounted to such insolence ; none had been able to escape 
 
 * The lawyers were hostile to the Laudian bishops, *' who had shewed 
 eontcmpt for the supreme courts of law, and thereby made the lawyers very 
 undcvoted to them." Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. p. 496., vol. ii. p. 29. Sir 
 i'hilip Warwick's Memoirs, p. 81. 
 
 t South's Sermon at Westminster, Feb. 22na, 1684. 
 
27 
 
 their vengeance : was there a man of tender conscience, him 
 they loaded with unnecessary impositions ; was there a man 
 of a legal conscience, him they nettled with innovations, 
 and fresh introductions to Popery; was there a man of an 
 humble spirit, him they trampled to dirt in their pride ; was 
 there a man of a proud spirit, him they have bereft of reason, 
 with indignation at their superlative insolence ; was there a 
 man faithfully attached to the rights of the Crown, how has he 
 been galled by their new oath ; was there a man that durst 
 mutter against their insolencies, he may inquire for his lugs ; 
 they have brandished not only the spiritual sword of St. 
 Peter, but the material one too, and cut off ears ; let us 
 reform these things, and reduce bishops to their primitive 
 standard, but let us not extirpate them.* 
 
 ParHament proceeded in a most judicious manner to redress 
 the grievances of the nation. They swept away those 
 engines of arbitrary power, the Star Chamber, and High Com- 
 mission Courts ; they pronounced the late oath and canons 
 illegal, and to preserve the liberties of the people from the 
 encroachments of ecclesiastics, declared that the clergy had no 
 power to make laws for the church without the consent of 
 Parliament ;t they impeached Laud of High Treason, and re- 
 leased his victims from the dungeons in which they were 
 rotting. Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick returned from their 
 distant prisons ; they entered London in a sort of triumph ; 
 great multitudes of people accompanied them, with rosemary 
 and bays in their hats, crying in the greatness of their joy, 
 
 * Nalson's Collection, vol. ii. pp. 211, 276. Eushworth, part iii. 
 vol. i. Neal, vol. ii. pp. 391-405. 
 
 t The Commons came to these resolutions coneerning the canons, nullo 
 contradiccnte ; the Lords concurred. In thdr Eemonstrance of the State 
 of the Kingdom, (1642), the Commons say, " The canons and the power of 
 canon-making are blasted by the vote of both houses." See PaLl, Illst. 
 vol. ii. pp. 826, 863. Paxtor, part i. ;>. 27. 
 
" Welcome liome, welcome home, God bless you, God be 
 thanked for your return." Hie hated Laudian clergy dare 
 scarcely officiate in their churches; as they walked through 
 the streets, they were taunted as Popish priests, Caesar's friends.* 
 
 The misguided King now saw his error. He was willing^ 
 he said, that some law might be made to give liberty to 
 tender consciences, in matters indifferent ;t he promoted 
 moderate divines to bishoprics,^ and instructions were given 
 for a revision of the Prayer Book. Laud, quailing at the 
 storm, directed Sanderson, with two assistants, to make some 
 safe alterations in the Prayer Book, and remove or leave 
 indifferent those pitiful ceremonies which for eighty years the 
 rulers of Church and State had been forcing on the Puritans. 
 At the end of five months Sanderson's reforms were com- 
 pleted. § But concessions came too late ; the nation was 
 drifting into civil war. For eighty years had the Puritans 
 been harassed and oppressed ; James had driven them from his 
 presence with an insolent threat ; Charles had sought to root 
 them out as noxious weeds ; and the result of all these oppres- 
 sions and severities and cruelties was that England was Puritan. 
 
 The struggle between the King and Parliament now com- 
 mences ; the nation resounds with arms. Eupert and his troop 
 of horse fly about the country ; insolent, debauched soldiers, — 
 " dammes" as the people called them from their common oath, — 
 plunder and abuse noted Puritan ministers as rebels ; the 
 Parliamentary troops, equally ill-treat the Royalist clergy, as 
 
 * Athense Oxon, Prynne. Neal, vol. ii. p. 372. Fox's Hist. pp. 8-10. 
 Baxter, part i. pp. 16, 26. 
 
 t See the Declaration to tlie People, 1641. Clarendon's Hist. vol. ii. p. 142. 
 
 X Prideaux, Winniff, Brownrigg, Henry King, and Westfield, of the 
 Puritanical school, were made bishops ; and Usher was appointed to Car- 
 lisle. Clarendon's Hist. vol. ii. p. 25. Collier, vol. viii. pp. 198, 240, 241. 
 Athenae Oxon, Articles King and Prideaux. Neal, vol. ii. p. 480. 
 
 § Sanderson's Life by Walton, in Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. vol. iv. 
 pp. 420, 421.' 
 
29 
 
 malignants.* The Parliament finding iteelf hard pressed by 
 the King, seeks assistance ; the Scotch Presbyterians are called 
 in "to the help of the Lord against the mighty ;" they march into 
 England with their " solemn league and covenant," stuck upon 
 their pikes ; the reforms proposed by the moderate bishops and 
 divines, Usher, Williams, Morton, Hall, Sanderson, Prideaux, 
 are abandoned, and revolution commences ; the Anglican Church 
 is overthrown, and through the interest of the Scotch, Presby- 
 terianism becomes supreme ; Laud is murdered ; and the clergy 
 driven from their livings .t Some of them probably were no 
 loss to their parishes, being drunkards, swearers, ignorant as 
 well as ungodly ; but others were good men, holy and learned, 
 who had done no man wrong, a Hammond, a Jeremy Taylor, a 
 Prideaux, a Hall, a Nicholas Ferrar; these men were treated with 
 remorseless bigotry, insulted, robbed, beggared, imprisoned,^ — 
 sixteen hundred in all, according to some, two thousand four 
 hundred, according to others ; the use of the Prayer Book was 
 prohibited, and in fact the whole frame-work of the Anglican 
 church destroyed. § But the true authors of its sufferings were 
 
 * Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, pp. 94, 95. Anthony a Wood's Life, 
 p. vii. Baxter, part i. pp. 44, 45. Neal, vol. iii. p. 24. Warbur- 
 ton's Memoirs of Kupert, &:c., vol. i. p. 390. 
 
 t The settling of Presbyterianism, says Kennet, was by the fear and love 
 of the Scotch army ; when they left, rigid Presbjrterianism died. " Over- 
 doing," says Baxter, " is the ordinary way of undoing. Interest forced or led 
 Parliament to call in the Scots, and Presbytery came in with them." 
 Baxter, part i. pp. 27, 48 ; part ii. p. 369 ; part iii. p. 149. Sanderson's 
 Life in Wordsworth's Ecc^ Biog. vol. iv. p. 419. 
 
 X " Have they not by imprisonments or threats, muzzled the mouths of the 
 most grave and learned preachers of London ? '' Rupert's Declaration, given 
 in Warburton's Memoirs, voL ii. p. 122. Bishop Hall's Hard Measure. 
 Lives of Hammond, Sanderson, &c. Pepys's Life, vol. i. p. 257, 
 
 § The sufferings of the Puritans through the reigns of Elizabeth, James L 
 and Charles J. were greater than those of Churchmen during the rebellion. 
 Bramhall and Heylyn state that there were many more ejected by the Presby- 
 terians, than had been by the bishops. But it must De remembered that 
 some were ejected for notorious immorality, and cannot be considered mar- 
 tyrs ; nor were the jails crowded by Churchmen during the rebellion, as they 
 uad been bj Puritans, nor do I know of one instance of a Churchman being 
 
30 
 
 the Bancrofts, Neiles, Lauds, Mainwarings, Sibthorpes, Wren^^ 
 Montagues, Heylyns, with their slavish sermons and speeches^ 
 their obstinate resistance to reforms, their scorn for other Protes- 
 tant churches, their arrogance and tyranny, their branding-irons 
 and barbarities, cowing the free spirit of our forefathers, pre- 
 sumptuously checking the ancient laws, labouring to exempt 
 priests from the magistrate, slighting the majesty of Parliament, 
 and seeking to thrust the laity under a despotic monarch, that 
 they might more easily become their own slaves. It was these 
 things which drove the nobles, gentry, yeomen, and traders of 
 England into rebellion and Puritanism.* 
 
 branded, or having his ears cut off, or his nose slit. We cannot know with 
 any accuracy the numher of clergymen ejected by the Parliament ; they were 
 deprived at different times and for different causes ; some for refusing the 
 " solemn league and covenant," a solemn iniquity; some for refusing the 
 engagement ; some for vice and ignorance ; and some for what was called 
 *' malignancy," that is attachment to their Church and King. Baxter 
 says, that as far as he knew, six to one at least, if not more of the sequestered 
 clergy were proved insufficient or scandalous or both ; most of them were 
 gross drunkards, &c. ; a few civil men who assisted in the wars against Par- 
 liament, and set up bowing to altars and such like innovations were ejected. 
 Fuller is less favourable, for whilst he admits that many scandalous ministers 
 were deservedly punished, and " much corruption let out, so at the same 
 time the veins of the English Church were also emptied of much good 
 blood." Neal seems to think that the number of ejected clergy was about 
 1600 ; and taking Nalson's list as a basis for calculation, that is the number ; 
 other lists give 1726 and 1800, Walker repeats Gauden's statement that 
 7000 were ejected, but cannot support it, for he gives two lists, one of the 
 ejected clergy, the other of the livings from which they were ejected ; the 
 former contains, I think, about 1400 names, the latter about 2700. A fifth 
 of the income was allowed for the support of the ejected clergymen's families* 
 Collier, vol. viii. pp. 262, 263, 375. Baxter, part i. pp. 74, 95 ; part iii. 
 p. 98. Clarendon's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 363. Neal, vol. iii. pp. 
 124-127. Hallam, vol. ii. pp. 164-166. 
 
 * Sir Matthew Hale says, I am confident that had the bishops laid aside 
 some ceremonies that were of no great moment in themselves and were too 
 strictly imposed, the State, civil and ecclesiastical, would never have been 
 convulsed, nor episcopacy ever been brought low. Charles IT. said the 
 bishops had ruined his father. Very remarkable is the conversation related 
 by Hyde, between Sir Edmund Verney, the King's standard»-bearer, and 
 himself. "I will deal freely with you," said Sir Edmund, "I have no 
 reverence for the bishops, for whom this quarrel subsists." " Yet," says 
 Clarendon, " his affection for the Church has never been disputed.'* 
 Clarendon's Life, vol. i. pp. 134-136. Baxter, part iii. p. 41. Milton's 
 ^ " ' " PP- 43-44. 
 
3J 
 
 The Putitans or Presbyterians, as they were henceforth called, 
 shewed themselves apt imitators of the prelates. The episcopal 
 arts begin to bud afresh, exclaims the indignant Milton, they 
 who of late were little better than silenced from preaching, 
 seek to silence us from reading except what they please. The 
 gentlemen of Cheshire complained to Parliament, that instead 
 of twenty-six bishops, there was now a pope in every 
 parish, for every minister exercises purely papal jurisdiction. 
 ** And every hamlet 's governed. 
 By 's hoUness, the Church's head."* 
 
 The rigid Presbyterians clamoured for the suppression of sects 
 and schisms, declaimed against what they called the damnable 
 doctrines of toleration and liberty of conscience ; and during 
 their brief supremacy, laboured to establish a spiritual tyranny 
 as intolerable as that of Laud. They denounced in most violent 
 language, the notion that all men should enjoy liberty of con- 
 science. Toleration, they said, was a root of gall and bitterness, 
 — a door to libertinism and profaneness, — foul poison. A 
 leading Presbyterian minister writes thus : " Toleration will 
 spoil any church and government. If Presbyterial government 
 be settled, and a toleration be given in this land, that will mar 
 all" Again, " I humbly beseech the Parliament seriously to 
 consider the depths of Satan in this design of a toleration ; how 
 this is now the last plot and design, — it is his masterpiece for 
 England." He calls toleration an innocent-looking devil, and 
 concludes with these words : " FarcAvell, the Lord keep thee 
 and all thine from all evil : and especially from noon-day devils, 
 which walk about in this place, and in these times ; from the 
 errors of Anabaptists, &c. ; toleration of sects and schisms, under 
 pretence of liberty of conscience."f Another writer says : " To 
 
 * Hudibras, part i. canto iii. Areopagitica, vol. i. pp. 314, 315. Re- 
 monstrance from Cheshire gentlemen. 
 
 f Antapologia, by Thomas Edwards, minister of the Gospel, 1644. 
 
32 
 
 let men serve God according to the persuasion of their own 
 consciences, is to cast out one devil that seven worse may enter." 
 In 1647, the London Presbyterian ministers put forth a 
 ** testimony against the errors, heresies, and blasphemies of these 
 times, and the toleration of them." Uhe last error against wliich 
 they bear witness is the " error of toleration," and they com- 
 plain of this as a great grievance, "that men should have liberty 
 to worship God in that way and manner, as shall appear to theui 
 most agreeable to the word of God."* 
 
 The bigotry of the Presbyterians provoked the army, which 
 was chiefly composed of Independents. Those grim soldiei's had 
 not been fighting at Edge Hill, Newbury, Marston Moor, and 
 ISTaseby for ship money, or other merely civil immunities, but 
 for that which is above all liberties, " liberty to know, to utter, 
 and to argue freely according to conscience, "t The army, or its 
 master, Cromwell, expelled the Presbyterians from Parliament, 
 beheaded the King, and established a Eepublic. The Independ- 
 ents claim the high honour of being the earliest to assert and 
 practice the great principles of religious toleration j to them or to 
 the Baptists the honour seems to belong.^ Put though they 
 were much in advance of the Presbyterians, their views were 
 still very imperfect, as is shewn, not only by their conduct in 
 ]^ew England, where they were dominant, and where they 
 
 * This testimony was approved by 360 Presbyterian ministers. In 1648, 
 the Presbyterians persuaded Parliament to pass a law against heretics, by 
 which all who maintain certain opinions, which are specified, were to be 
 put to death. ' This awful law was never enforced, although the Presbyterians 
 eagerly pressed Cromwell to take away the life of a harmless man, John 
 Biddle, who held Arian views. — See the life of Biddle, in the Biog. Brit, 
 vol. ii. p. 306, note n. Neal, vol. iii. pp. 274, 280-289, 360, 458. 
 Firmin's Life, p. 7. Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, pp. 199, 210, 232, 234, 
 242, 250, 264, 269, 284, 363. See also Selden's and Wkitelocke's speeches 
 on the Presbyterians, in Whitelocke. 
 
 t Areopagitica, vol. i. 325. 
 
 X In 1614 a treatise in favour of toleration appeared, called " Religious 
 Peace, by Leonard Busher." In 1615 the Anabaptists boldly claimed the 
 right of every man to judge for himself. Neal, vol, iii. pp. 516, 530. 
 
33 
 
 persecuted, but also at home. Even Dr. Owen, "the patriarch of 
 Independency,"* who wrote so well on the subject of toleration, 
 could sentence two Quaker women to be whipped out of Oxford ;t 
 and neither he nor his brethren would tolerate Papists, Arians, 
 Quakers, and Socinians.J 
 
 Presbyterianism, as it flourished in Scotland, § happily never 
 took root in England ; it was a stranger here. So that, though 
 the Puritans were henceforth "called by the vulgar, Pres- 
 bjrterians, and they submitted to the Scotch system, yet 
 they were for moderate episcopacy." || The Presbyte- 
 
 ♦ Milton was unwilling to tolerate Popery and open superstition. 
 Areopagitica, vol. i. p, 328. So in his treatise on civil power in Ecclesi- 
 astical Causes, he says, but with evident hesitation, he will not plead for 
 Popery and Idolatry. f Neal, vol. iv. p. 282. 
 
 X One of Cromwell's Parliaments appointed some Presbyterian and 
 Independent divines to determine what were the fundamentals of Christianity. 
 This was, as Baxter says, a ticklish business, and as it throws light on the 
 progress of liberal views, I have thought it desirable to notice it in this note. 
 Baxter at once proposed that the Apostles' Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten 
 Commandments should be offered to Parliament, as containing all things 
 necessary to salvation. Dr. Owen and Dr. Cheynell objected, saying Papists 
 and Socinians wiU subscribe all this. Baxter replied, so much the better, 
 and so much the fitter it is to be the matter of our concord. He was, how- 
 ever, over-ruled, and twenty articles were forwarded to Parliament, the effect 
 of which would have been to exclude from toleration Papists, Arians, 
 Socinians, Quakers, and many others. Baxter, part ii. pp. 197-205. 
 Neal, vol. iv. pp. 97-101. 
 
 § Scotch Presbyterianism was a tyranny, compared with which that of the 
 Anglican prelates was mild. The laird of Drum being threatened with ex- 
 communication by the persecuting Presbytery said to them, — ^While you hold 
 the reins, there is no indulgence for neither minister nor laird, no condition 
 or sex ; you complain of the pomp and grandeur and titles of the bishops, 
 but you have exceeded them ; your little finger has been heavier than the 
 weight of the episcopal body ; the Kirk is hardened against compassion, its 
 strongest arguments are the pike and musket. Collier, vol. viii. pp. 370-373. 
 See also the treaty of the Scotch with the King, Dec. 26th, 1647, in 
 Clarendon's History, vol. v. p. 533. 
 
 II ** In the county of Worcester," Baxter says, " he knew of but one Pres- 
 byterian. Almost all that were called Presbyterians, were before the wars 
 Conformists, they esteemed the moderate bishops, Davenant, Hall, Usher, 
 Morton. I know not of two Non-Conformists in a county ; but they disliked 
 and resisted the Book of Sports, &c. There was but one Presbyterian known 
 in all the Parliament. The truth is, Presbytery was not, at the beginning 
 of the wars, known in England, except among a few studious scholars, nor 
 well by them." Baxter, part i. pp. 33, 34, 97, 146 ; part ii. pp. 41, 146. 
 Clarendon's History, vol. v. p. 338. 
 
34 
 
 lian or Puritan clergy were a respectable body of men ; they 
 were strict in their lives, zealous pastors, and able preachers. 
 But they were narrow-minded and intolerant, very apt to think 
 that no one could get to heaven except in one way, which was 
 their way, and struggled against Cromwell's liberal design of 
 establishing liberty of conscience.* Speaking accurately, there 
 was until the Eestoration, no Established Church ; the benefices 
 were held by Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, and 
 Baptists, t 
 
 * Cromwell was a man of large and liberal views. Undoubtedly he 
 treated the Anglican Church with great severity ; but churchmen were 
 his active political enemies, continually engaged in conspiracies and assassina- 
 tion-plots. Yet Gunning and other clergymen officiated as openly as Dis- 
 senters did after the revolution. Guizot's History of Oliver Cromwell, 
 vol. ii. pp. 110, 111, 154, 155. Baxter, part i. pp. 46, 48, 50, 51, 53; 
 part ii. p. 214. 
 
 t Warburton says, " The Presbyterian was to all intents and purposes the 
 Established religion during the Commonwealth." With this Hallam dis- 
 agrees ; for if benefices were held by Independents and Baptists, and the 
 Presbyterians could not exercise coercive discipline, how can Warburton's 
 assertion be correct .!* Hallam ii. p. 200, note c. Baptists held benefices, 
 for they were excepted by the Convention Parliament, when they secured 
 other Incumbents. See 12 Car. ii. cap. 19. 
 
35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE RESTORATION. — THE PRESBYTERIANS CAJOLED. — THE HEALING DECLAR- 
 ATION. — SAVOY CONFERENCE. — ACT OF UNIFORMITY. 
 
 The death of Oliver Cromwell was expected to be followed 
 by tumults and confusions ; but Richard succeeded his father 
 without a murmur of opposition. All men wondered to see 
 things so quiet; the Royalists were amazed.* The young 
 exiled King and his courtiers were sadly disappointed at the 
 unexpectedly tranquil state of England. Though in deep 
 poverty, Charles II. kept up the form of a Court during his 
 exile. B[e had his Lord Chancellor, Chancellor of the Exche- 
 quer, Privy Counsellors, and Secretaries of State ; though 
 not one of His Majesty's servants had a pistole in his pocket. 
 To Mr. Secretary Nicholas, who had been complaining of want 
 of money, Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, 
 writes, " I want shoes and shirts, and the Marquis of Ormond is 
 in no better condition."-]- Hyde was the King's chief adviser; 
 he had distingushed himseK in the beginning of the Long 
 Parliament as a patriot ; but like the Ealklands and Southamp- 
 tons was offended by the excesses of the Puritans. Exile and 
 sharp poverty had extinguished the remains of his patriotism ; 
 and now his aim was to restore Church and State to the condi- 
 tion in which they were before the meeting of the Long 
 Parliament. Charles 11. was entirely guided by this able, 
 
 * Baxter, part i. p. 100. 
 t Clarendon's State Papers, yoI. iii. pp. 174, 229. 
 
36 
 
 faithful, and on the whole virtuous minister, to whom he wil- 
 lingly left the affairs of the kingdom, that he might attend to 
 others of a different kind, for he had already abandoned 
 himself to Lucy Barlows, Catherine Pegs, and Elizabeth 
 Killigrews. It is hard to say what Charles's religious 
 views were, further than that he thought God would make 
 no man miserable for taking a little pleasure. The Scotch 
 pressed him to abide by the covenant which he had taken ; the 
 Eoman Catholics endeavoured' to make him a proselyte ; Hyde 
 and Ormond laboured to preserve him steady to the Anglican 
 Church. The careless King listened to all, and scandalized all 
 by the number and publicity of his amours. 
 
 England soon found how great a man it had lost in Oliver 
 Cromwell ; the tranquillity of his son's first days of power was 
 soon broken j affairs began to fall into utter anarchy, " all was 
 confusion, no government, no magistrate, the Parliament turned 
 out by the army, and the soldiers quarrelling among them- 
 selves."* The army dissolved the Parliament, restored the 
 contemptible Eump amidst the scorn of the people, pulled 
 down Eichard Cromwell, dissolved the Eump, set up a Council 
 of State, again restored the Eump, in short disgusted the nation, 
 and prepared the way for the triumphant restoration of the 
 King.f A general rising was proj ected by the Presbjrterians, who 
 with very few exceptions were in favour of a limited monar- 
 chy,J and Cavaliers ; but the latter were dispirited by repeated 
 failures, and left the former to fight alone. They were quickly 
 
 * Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 306. 
 
 t Collier, vol. viii. p. 382. Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, pp. 336-360. 
 
 X "The Presbyterians," writes Bordeaux to Mazarin, "who are now 
 
 predominant, do not wish the King of England to return unconditionally." 
 
 There were extremely few Eepublicans amon^ the Presbyterians ; their 
 
 {olitical views were more just and sound than their ecclesiastical views,_ The 
 ndependents were generally Eepublicans. See Mrs. Hutchinson's 
 
 Memoirs, pp. 296-299, 303, 305, 322. Clarendon's History, vol. vii. 
 p. 376. Guizot's History of the Restoration, vol. ii. p. 351. 
 
37 
 
 suppressed ; yet nothing daunted, the Presbyterian ministers 
 persevered in rousing the loyalty of the nation. They did not 
 conceal their aversion to the Eepublican Government, " prayed 
 very seditiously in their pulpits," and told the people that it 
 was their duty to return to their allegiance. " Leave the game 
 in our hands," said HoUis, one of the Presbyterian leaders, to 
 the Cavaliers, "we alone have any chance."* The Presby- 
 terians were encouraged in their labours by solemn promises 
 from the Cavaliers of love and charity ; letters were received 
 from Dr. Morley, then with the King, declaring that all modera- 
 tion was intended ; that any episcopacy how low soever would 
 be accepted; that Archbishop Usher's moderate scheme or Bishop 
 Hall's, was all that was intended; that there should be no perse- 
 cuting Lord Bishops, no great revenues, no godly able ministers 
 displaced, much less silenced, no unworthy men put in, no 
 thoughts of revenge for anything past, but all should be equal. t 
 When Monk, upon whom all eyes were now fixed, reached 
 London, the ministers waited on him, urged him to cast aside 
 the reserve which he had maintained, and declare for the 
 King.:): The zealous labours of the Presbyterians were not 
 in vain. After some vacillation, and much lying, Monk 
 cautiously took measures for restoring to Parliament the 
 Presbyterian members who had been expelled by Oliver 
 Cromwell. The poor old Rump, which had been restored by 
 the RepubKcan party, was sitting ; they were in the agonies of 
 despair, suspecting Monk's real intentions, yet unable to resist 
 him. The secluded members returned ; once more the 
 Presbyterians were supreme; and the Republic was at an end.§ 
 
 * Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, pp. 333, 346, 362, 363, Clarendon's 
 
 History, vol. vii. pp. 322, 332, 333, 439-441. Guizot's History of the 
 
 Restoration, vol. ii. p 15. Baxter, part ii. pp. 207, 214. 
 
 t Baxter, part ii. p. 208. 
 
 X Baxter, part ii. p. 214. Fox's Hist, of James II. p. 19. 
 
 ^ Guizot's Hist, of the Restoration, vol. ii. pp. 140, 141. 
 
38 
 
 Some of the Presbyterians wished at once to restore the King, 
 under sufficient securities for the laws and liberties of the 
 nation; but the Long Parliament had become odious; the 
 people were impatient for its dissolution ; the streets were 
 crammed with multitudes crying out for " A Free Parliament, 
 a Free Parliament." " Pray be quiet," said Monk, " you shall 
 have a Free Parliament." The famous Long Parliament, whose 
 end was as impatiently wished for as its beginning devoutly 
 prayed for, was dissolved, and the writs for a Free Parliament 
 issued.* There were great rejoicings when it was known that 
 a free Parliament was to be called. In the city the bells were 
 ringing ; London " looked as if it had been in a flame by the 
 bonfires, which were prodigiously great, at which rumps of 
 beef were roasted." From London to Land's End bonfires 
 were blazing on the hills. t " In Oxford, the bells rang and 
 bonfires were made, and some rumps and tayles of sheep were 
 flung into a bonfire. Dr. John Palmer, a great rumper- warden 
 of All Souls, had a rumpe thrown up from the streets at his 
 windowes."t 
 
 The reaction in favour of the King was now steadily 
 increasing. As the hopes of the Cavaliers rose, they began to 
 threaten revenge. The more cautious Eoyalists were alarmed 
 at these imprudences, and hastened to disown such un- 
 charitable sentiments. The vigilant Hyde instructed his agents 
 to sharply rebuke these " Eanters."§ He writes to one of his 
 correspondents, probably Barwick : — Some of your divines 
 have been using menaces and threats ; the least offence should 
 not be given ; they should teach others by their example and 
 doctrine, to make better use of their late suff'erings than to 
 
 * Clarendon's Hist. vol. vii. pp. 418, 419. 
 
 f Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. pp. 453-457. 
 
 t Anthony Wood's Life, vol. i. p. 40. 
 
 § Clarendon Tapers, vol. ii. pp. 713, 716, 722, 727. 
 
39 
 
 rotain any bitterness or iincliaritableness in tlieir hearts; 
 the King is really troubled at these excesses, and commands 
 that all good and prudent men should endeavour to extinguish 
 jealousies and apprehensions, that Church and State may be 
 happily settled. This letter was circulated amongst the 
 Eoyalists, by Barwick, who also wrote to his friends, regretting 
 that charity had been forgotten. He reminds them that the 
 Avant of this great virtue was the original of all their sufferings, 
 that without it the unhappy differences cannot be composed, 
 and concludes by hinting how useful it would be for the 
 nobility and chief gentry in the several counties, '* to make 
 some public declaration of their willingness to forget what is 
 past, and lay aside all animosities for the future, and freely 
 acquiesce in what the Parliament shall do, ill order to a happy 
 settlement. "I The Royalist nobihty, gentry, and clergy about 
 London, published a declaration in which "they sincerely 
 professed that they reflected on their past sufferings as from 
 the hand of God ; and, therefore, did not cherish any violent 
 thoughts or inclinations against any persons whatsoever." 
 They further pray, that when Church and State shall be built 
 up again, "all mention of parties and factions, and all rancour 
 and animosities, may be thrown in and buried like rubbish 
 under the foundation." Similar declarations were published 
 by the Cavaliers in Dorset, Somerset, and other counties.§ 
 
 Extraordinary pains were taken to allay the rising suspicions 
 of the Presbyterians. Foreign Protestant ministers wrote to 
 Baxter and his friends, assuring them that Charles was an 
 excellent prince, and a sound Protestant. Even Hyde blushed 
 not to proj^agate falsehoods, and deceive the nation as to the 
 
 X Somers Tracts. 
 
 § Clarendon Papers, vol. iii. pp. 713, 722, 727, 731, 732. Clarendon's 
 Hist. Yol. vii. pp. 471-173. Sir Phillip SYarwick's Memoirs, pp. 464, 4C5. 
 
40 
 
 real character of the King ; he declared him to be the best of 
 Protestants, the best of Englislinien.* Dr. Morley, afterwards 
 Bishop of Winchester, was sent over by iHyde ; he had fre- 
 quent meetings with the city clergy who were Presbyterian, 
 and promised that all former offences and animosities should be 
 forgotten, that there should be henceforth meekness, charity, 
 and moderation. He reported to Hyde the results of his 
 labours : — The moderate Presbyterians were agreeable to 
 bishops, provided tliey could not act arbitrarily or tyrannically, 
 and also to the Liturgy, with some little alterations, and 
 liberty to use extempore prayers on special occasions ; the 
 chief difficulty was concerning ordination ; but he had thought 
 of two expedients ; the Presbyterians wanted a Conference, 
 but he told them it would be better to refer their differences to 
 a Synod and Free Parliament. He assured them that the 
 King was fully sensible of what they had done in producing 
 the great and happy change in his affairs, that he doubted not 
 but they would do much more for him, and he " was sure they 
 would have no cause to repent of it." We shall see whether 
 Baxter and his friends had "no cause to repent of it." 
 Everything was done " to sweeten the crabbed Presbyterians." * 
 " I hope," writes Barwick to Hyde, " no acts or artifices are 
 omitted to dispose them, for their own sakes, as much as is 
 possible to repair the ruins they have made.":|: 
 
 !Monk was in secret communication with the King ; and 
 before the meeting of the new Pai'Hament had admitted Sir 
 
 * Tlie Eai'l of Southampton afterwards expressed resentment at the 
 deception of Clarendon. Evelyn was deceived, as appears by his curious 
 tract in reply to the *• News from Brussels" ; bitter and bad as this last is, 
 it is nearer the truth than Eveh-n's. See both in the Somers Collection. 
 
 731, 736, 738, 744. 
 
 Clarendon Papers, vol. iii. p. 541. 
 
 X Clarendon Pagers, vol. iii. pp. 720, 722, 723, 
 lUpin's Hist. vol. li. p. 613. Carte's Ormond Letters, vol. ii. p. 337. 
 Marvell's Works, vol. ii. p. 212. Burnet's Hist of his Own Time, vol. i. 
 p. 150. 
 
41 
 
 John Greimlle, the king^s af[[eiil^ to a pimie intenriev. 
 Monk, who was a modezate 'Pte^bjiamai, aod had ieecni> 
 mended that modeiate Pzesbyterianisoi shonld he estahlished,* 
 adriaed Chadea to send him a letter to he pieaeiited to Pailia' 
 ment^ in whJeh were to he laid down ihe haaesof tiie lii^s 
 Beatoiation. Hyde aeecsdii^^eoiDposed the iDjaldedaiation, 
 sent it to Monk, who ordered GfcnriDe to ke^ it until the 
 jfToper moment amTed for its pfodneticn. Hoi warn the 
 celehrated declaration from Breda^ We shall see how tiiis 
 royal charter was ohserred. 
 
 The Preshytenans were now l es m i ui ig ponession of power 
 all OTer the conntry ; they oeenpied the hesi Mrings in Londom 
 and elsewhere ; they possessed the TTniyeraities and the chief 
 garriBons, and in the Conrention Parliament as it was called, — 
 not heing snmmoned hy the king's writ, — Uicjwere powafoLf 
 A few days after the meeting of the Conrention Parliament, 
 the royal declaration from Breda was read; there was a great 
 shont of joy thron^ont the Hoose ; Ae two Houses inrited 
 the king to retom ; and the ancient constitution was re- 
 established. The clause concerning religion mns thns : " We 
 do declare a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man 
 shall be disqmeted or called in question for difference of 
 opinion in matters of religion, which do not disturb the peaee 
 of the kingdom ; and that we shall be zea^ to etnsent to 
 snch an Act of Parliament as npon matore delibraalioii diall he 
 offered to ns, for the foil granting that indulgence." 
 
 ♦ " Modaate, aotrigid, r ie il ijl aka lU M uummt ," he wai to ttc B«p 
 
 aft vcKBt to be Ae wmt^ iMfifeinit nd •^ttr^Mf wsw to fke CSoBch's 
 ■rttlwnrt" ODcadoars Hirt. i«L Tii. f. 415. 
 
 «The VaAjteaam wae,im Moalf s ofnioa, Oe anit pova^aidl, 
 pohs^iiyflieMMtaalianlpnty.'' GnsoTs Hkt. voL iL p. 15. 
 
 t ''The TnAjteaaas are a«nr ia poaean of the s^preae pow." 
 Bordenx to Maaria. GiozoTs Hist roLii. pp. 140, 141. ChreadaaTs 
 EM, Tol. TiL p. 481. 
 D 
 
42 
 
 On the 8tli of May, the sun rose with unusual splendour; 
 the propitious omen brought tears of joy to the eyes of the 
 loyal ; for on that day Charles II. was proclaimed king of 
 England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, ** Calamy, Eeynolds, 
 Manton, and other leading Presbyterian ministers went over to 
 Holland and waited on the king ; they assured him of their 
 loyalty, that they laboured for his restoration, that they were 
 no enemies to moderate Episcopacy, but only desired liberty in 
 some things which they considered unlawful, and hoped that 
 he would not direct his chaplains to use the surplice and 
 read the whole of the Liturgy, lest the people might take 
 offence. The king received them kindly, acknowledged their 
 services, said that he had no intention of imposing hard 
 conditions, and embarrassing their consciences, and that he had 
 referred the settling all differences to the Parliament. But his 
 majesty decidedly rejected their advice as to the surplice and 
 Prayer Book, — he would not be restrained himself, he said, but 
 would enjoy the liberty that he gave to others. t He never 
 denied them a private audience ; and so delighted them by a 
 prayer which they overheard him offering up in an adjoining 
 room, — that the Lord would give him an humble, meek, 
 forgiving spirit, — that one of the ministers lifted up his hands 
 to heaven, and blessed God that he had given, them a praying 
 king. The Presbyterians returned and repeated to their 
 brethren the king's encouraging promises of peace.:}: 
 
 On the 29th of May, 1660, Charles II. rode into London, 
 " the bells ringing, the ways strewed with flowers, the streets 
 hung wdth tapestry, the fountains running with wine, trumpets, 
 music, and myriads of people shouting with inexpressible joy." 
 
 * Clarendon Papers, vol. iii. pp. 742, 743. 
 t Clarendon's Hist. vol. vii. pp. 501-503. Collier, vol. viii. pp. 383, 
 384. 
 
 % Baxter, part ii. p. 218. Neal, vol. iv. pp. 252-254. 
 
43 
 
 It seemed, as the king merrily said, that it was nobody's fault 
 
 but his own that he had remained so long abroad when all 
 
 mankind wished him so heartily at home.^* All the island 
 
 began to grow mad, says Mrs. Hutchinson ; some people, it is 
 
 said, died from excessive joy. Old William Oughtred, the 
 
 mathematician, was lying on his bed very sick ; he heard that 
 
 the king had returned, and asked his friend, " And are ye sure 
 
 he is restored 1 Then give me a glass of sack to drink liis 
 
 majesty's health ;" and then he died.+ The London ministers 
 
 attended the king, and presented him with a richly adorned 
 
 Bible, which he told them should be the rule of his actions ; 
 
 and forthwith commenced his connection with Barbara Palmer. 
 
 Ten of the leading Presbyterian ministers were placed on the 
 
 list of the king's chaplains.;]: 
 
 There was now a glorious opportunity of healing the Puritan 
 
 dispute, and enlarging the foundations of the N'ational Church. 
 
 A century had passed since the Eeformation ; it had been a 
 
 century of wearying controversy between prelates and Puritans ; 
 
 all that could be said by either party had been said ; both had 
 
 suffered ; neither were without faults ; and as promises had 
 
 been given that the past shall be buried, and there shall be 
 
 henceforth moderation, meekness, and charity ; there seems 
 
 nothing to hinder a speedy and happy settlement of the affairs 
 
 of the church. But the tide of popular feeling was now 
 
 setting in strong against Puritanism, and in a few weeks after 
 
 the Restoration, the once powerful Presbyterians were so 
 
 unpopular that their ministers could scarce venture into the 
 
 streets without being insulted. Their windows were broken, 
 
 their psalm-singing was drowned by the blowing of horns ; it 
 
 became the fashion to revile the snivelling, canting, rebellious 
 
 * Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 310. Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 2. 
 t Aubrey's Lives. Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, pp. 358-362. 
 p. 218. Eehard's History, p. 771. 
 
u 
 
 Presbyterians, a generation of vipers, unlikely to escape the 
 damnation of hell ; the ballad singers sung up and down the 
 streets ribald rhymes on the late times and the actors therein. 
 This violent reaction was noticed with pleasure by the Court, 
 and perhaps suggested the treacherous policy which was hence- 
 forth pursued towards the Presbyterians.* 
 
 There soon appeared in the Convention-Parliament two 
 parties, the Presbyterian or moderate, and the Court party, who 
 were in favour of what Clarendon calls '' the old principles of 
 Church and State, "t The moderate party were anxious to 
 effect a settlement of the ecclesiastical affairs of the nation ; 
 but the Cavaliers, instructed by Hyde, a master in Parlia- 
 mentary tactics, perplexed and obstructed them.J However, 
 after some opposition from the Cavaliers, an Act was passed 
 for restoring the ejected clergy, and confirming those who 
 possessed benefices, of which there was no other legal claimant. 
 This was a wise measure ; by it all the ejected clergy were 
 restored, including those who had been ejected for scandalous 
 offences, whom the Puritars unreasonably thought should not 
 have been restored. § A bill for settling religion was intro- 
 duced, and the second reading was fixed for June 30th, 1660 ; 
 it was postponed to July 2nd, and again to July 6th. It was 
 then read a second time, and referred to a Grand Committee 
 for Religion, which was ordered to meet every Monday. At 
 the first meeting of this ^Committee there was a long debate; it 
 
 * Baxter says, that those men are reprovable, who say that nothing but 
 deceit and juggling was from the beginning intended ; the prelatic party, 
 until they saw the reaction were glad of the terms of the Declaration of 
 Breda. Baxter, partii. pp. 287, 376. Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, p. 366. 
 Neal, vol. iv. p. 325. 
 
 t Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. pp. 16, 17. 
 j Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 17. 
 
 5 Xeal speaks of it as a most monstrous thing that scandalous clergy 
 should be restored. Hyde disliked the Act for obvious reasons. See his 
 Speech, Sept. 13th, 1660. Neal. vol. iv. pp. 261, 312. Clarendon Papers, 
 vol. iii. p. 747. Collier, vol. viii. p. 404. Kapin, vol. ii. p. 621. 
 
45 
 
 was proposed to adjourn ; this was opposed by others. The 
 speakers waxed warm, for an hour they remained in the dark ; 
 candles were then allowed to be brought in ; twice were they 
 blown out, but the third time they were preserved, though 
 amidst great disorder. The struggle lasted until ten o'clock, 
 when it was voted, that the king should be desired to select a 
 number of divines, to whom the matter might be referred, and 
 the Committee adjourn till the 23rd of October next.* 
 
 It is possible, and it is charitable to think, that Hyde had 
 been sincere in his negociations with the Presbyterians before 
 the Eestoration; but it scarcely can be doubted, that now 
 he and his friends had formed the intention of breaking 
 faith with them.t The Presbyterians were uneasy, and 
 pressed the King to interpose and settle the differences in 
 the church. Charles good-humouredly told them that to effect 
 a settlement each party must give up something, that so they 
 might meet in the middle ; and it should not be his fault, he 
 said, if they were not brought together. Old Mr. Ash, much 
 reverenced for his simplicity and holiness, burst out into tears 
 of joy, and expressed the gladness which his majesty's words 
 had put into his heart. J After much writing and going to and 
 fro, the king, as head of the church, said he would publish a 
 declaration containing the concessions which he thought should 
 be made. On the 25th of October, 1660, the anxiously- 
 expected declaration appeared, it caused great joy to all 
 moderate men, breathing, says Bishop Kennet, " a spirit of 
 truth and wisdom and charity above any one public profession 
 
 * Journal of the Commons, and Pari. Hist. Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 139. 
 t Hyde's party had promised to abide by the decision of this Parliament. 
 See Dr. Morley's Letter to Hyde, written at the time the elections were 
 being made, April 3rd, 1660, in the Clarendon Papers, p. 722. See also the 
 king's answer to the Presbyterian ministers at Breda, and Clarendon's 
 Life, vol. ii. p. 139. 
 
 X Baxter, part ii. pp. 231, 234. Pepys's Diary, vol, i. p. 85. 
 
46 
 
 that was ever yet made in matters of religion." Another 
 learned churchman says, that next to the Bible he adores this 
 admirable declaration, which would have established a firm 
 and lasting concord.* The moderate Puritans were delighted ; 
 and great was the applause bestowed upon this Healing 
 declaration.t Baxter, who had almost despaired of union, 
 hearing the king's declaration, cried in the streets, stepped 
 into a coffee-house to read it ; as he read, he wondered, he 
 says, how came it to pass, but was exceeding glad, for now 
 the terms were such as honest, sober ministers might accept 
 He went to Lord Chancellor Hyde, heartily thanked him, and 
 rejoiced to see factions and parties swallowed up in union, and 
 contentions turned to brotherly love and concord. But the 
 yearnings of this generous man after Catholic communion were 
 laughed to scorn by men whose consciences were seared, and 
 hearts hardened. J Bishoprics were offered to the leading Pres- 
 byterians. Baxter refused the bishopric of Hereford, that he 
 might have more influence in inducing all his brethren to com- 
 ply. Eeynolds at once accepted the bishopric of Norwich. 
 Calamy was offered the bishopric of Lichfield. Doctor Manton 
 accepted the living of Covent Garden from the Earl of Bedford, 
 and was offered the deanery of Eochester ; Dr. Bates the 
 deanery of Lichfield ; Mr. Bowles the deanery of York ; they 
 were not without suspicions that some deception was being 
 practiced on them, but were willing to accept these high posts 
 when the Healing declaration became law. The Presbyterian 
 ministers of London drew up an address of thanks, and, with 
 the learned Matthew Poole at their head, waited upon the king, 
 by whom they were most graciously received. " Gentlemen," 
 said Charles, in his usual pleasant way, " I will endeavour to give 
 
 * Kennet's Hist. vol. iii. p. 246. Echard's Hist, p. 781. 
 t Ralph's Hist. vol. i. pp. 19, 20. Baxter, part ii. pp. 284, 366. 
 Liugard's Hist, vol, xii. p. 27. t Baxter, part ii. p. 279. 
 
47 
 
 you all satisfaction, and to make you as liappy as myself * The 
 House of Commons waited upon his Majesty, and returned 
 thanks for his gracious declaration. Their Speaker said — He 
 could not express the great joy and thankfulness of the Com- 
 mons, for his majesty's labour and pains, repairing and 
 making up our breaches and unhappy differences. His Majesty 
 had provided, in his gracious declaration, which had given 
 general satisfaction, strong meat for those able to bear it, and 
 milk for tender babes, dispensing with conformity in some 
 things indifferent. The Commons are unanimous in giving 
 thanks, and have ordered a Bill to be drawn. Your Majesty 
 hath not only Jacob's voice, but Jacob's hands ; you have 
 spoken kindly to your people, and you have handled them 
 gently ; may you have Jacob's blessing ; let your people serve 
 you, and let the nations of the earth bow down before you ; 
 those that curse you, let them be cursed, and they that bless 
 you, let them be blessed. J 
 
 In accordance with the order of the House the leader of the 
 moderate church party, the excellent Sir Matthew Hale, whose 
 large heart was rejoicing at the liberal concessions of the king, 
 brought into the Commons a Eill to pass the declaration into 
 law. The disputes which for well-nigh a century had rent the 
 church were about to be healed, and the Puritans of England 
 dwell at peace in the church of their forefathers. But over 
 this bright scene a dark cloud creeps. Hyde, now Earl of Cla- 
 rendon, and the bishops, dislike the concessions which the king 
 has made ; instructions are given to the Court party ; Sir 
 Matthew Hale is taken out of the way by being raised to be 
 Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and on the 28th of November, 
 after a long adverse speech from Morrice, one of the Secretaries 
 
 * Neal, vol. iv. p. 309. Athenas Oxon., Manton. 
 J Ralph's Hist. voL i. p. 25. 
 
48 
 
 of State, the Bill embodying Charles's declaration is thrown 
 out on its second reading, by a majority of 26 in a House of 
 340. It is clear now that Clarendon and his friends were 
 merely amusing the Presbyterians, until it was safe to drop 
 the mask.* 
 
 In this declaration the king promised that as the Presbyte- 
 rians objected to several things in the Prayer Book, it should 
 be reviewed. Accordingly next year (March 25th, 1661) a 
 commission was issued to twelve bishops and twelve Presby- 
 terians, with nine assistant divines on each side. They were 
 to review the book of Common Prayer, to consider all the 
 objections which had been raised against it, and make such 
 reasonable and necessary alterations " as shall be agreed upon 
 to be needful and expedient for the giving satisfaction 
 to, tender consciences, and the i*estoration of peace and unity." 
 The commission was to last four montlis, and they were to 
 meet at the lodgings of the Bishop of London, in the Savoy ; 
 hence this is called the Savoy Conference. On the part of the 
 Presbyterians, Baxter and Calamy were the leaders ; on the 
 Episcopal side, Sheldon and Morley. Baxter acted impru- 
 dently, he asked for too much; Sheldon acted with gross 
 unfairness, baffled the Presbyterians, and shewed on the first 
 day they met, his determination that the Conference should 
 be a failure. To waste time, for the delay as Bishop Short 
 says, could hardly be accidental, no meeting was appointed 
 until three weeks had been lost. Their first meeting was on 
 
 * Ralph says, had there been sincerity in this Healing declaration, a 
 general union might then have been obtained, but one of the Secretaries^ of 
 State, it was presumed, by command opposed it, upon which a negative 
 ensued, and it was heard of no more. Ealph's Hist. vol. i. pp. 20-25. 
 Secret Hist, of Charles II. vol. i. pp. 32, 33, 89. Kennet's Hist. vol. iii. 
 p. 246, note b, and p. 252, note a. Burnet's Hist, of his Own Time, 
 vol. i. pp. 305, 307. Neal, vol. iv. p. 307. Clarendon's Life^ voL 2, p. 143. 
 See the preface to Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. p. 21. 
 
49 
 
 April 15th. The Archbishop of York opened the proceedings 
 by stating that he knew little about the business, and that he 
 should therefore leave it to Sheldon, Bishop of London, who 
 had the king's instructions. The Archbishop never spoke 
 again at any of the meetings ; probably he did not fall in 
 with the views of Sheldon and that party, for he was a quiet 
 peaceable man, and supposed to incline to Puritanism.* 
 
 Sheldon opened the business by proposing that Baxter and his 
 friends should put down in writing all their objections, as well 
 as the additions and alterations which they desired. To this 
 the Presbyterians objected, and humbly prayed for a friendly 
 conference in order to come to an agreement as to what conces- 
 sions could be made on each side. But Sheldon and his party 
 would not hear of this ; they were resolved not to treat the Pres- 
 byterians as equals ; they knew that the Ministers who once had 
 so powerfully acted on the people were at their mercy ; and the 
 mercies of angry ecclesiastics are cruel. The effect of Sheldon's 
 proposal was what he intended it to be. It divided the 
 Presbyterians ; some were for insisting only on a few important 
 matters, believing that if they were gained and a comprehension 
 effected, it would be easy to settle other disputed points ; 
 unfortunately this prudent advice was not followed, through the 
 fault of Baxter it is generally supposed. He persuaded his party 
 to put down all their objections, and offer all the alterations 
 which seemed to them desirable, although he acknowledges that 
 he saw the trap laid for them by Sheldon. -j- In about three 
 weeks they completed their paper of exceptions. It was sent 
 in May 4th. The Bishops were frightened at its length, and 
 Sheldon was enabled to succeed in that which was his design 
 from the beginning, — not to make any concession, any attempt 
 
 * Kennet's History, vol. iii. p. 253. Baxter, pp. 305, 363. 
 t Baxter's defence is that Sheldon commanded them to deliver all their 
 exceptions. 
 
50 
 
 to promote union. !N"ay, lie confessed thus much a short time 
 afterwards, for he said to Lord Manchester : " Now we know 
 their minds, we'll make them all knaves if they conform." The 
 commission directed that some additional forms should be drawn 
 up. The Presbyterians assigned this task to Baxter, and again 
 did Baxter shew himself to be wanting in those qualities which 
 were needed in dealing with men, like Sheldon, quick to take 
 advantage of the mistakes and faults of their adversaries. He was 
 guilty of what some call a piece of insolence.* It was certainly 
 a foolish and even presumptuous act; instead of drawing up 
 a few additional forms, he composed in fourteen days an entirely 
 new Prayer Book, which he called " The Eeformed Liturgy." 
 This proceeding had, as we might expect, a most mischievous 
 effect. Burnet says, nothing gave the Bishops so great an 
 advantage over Baxter and his party, as their offering a new 
 Liturgy. Whatever Baxter's object was, he shewed a sad want 
 of common sense. As soon as the Reformed Liturgy was re- 
 ceived by the Bishops, it was rejected without examination. 
 "With the paper of objections, the Presbyterians sent a petition 
 to the Bishops, begging them with great earnestness not to force 
 upon them the ceremonies to which they object, and using a 
 variety of arguments to induce the Bishops to charitably bear 
 with the infirmities of the weak, saying, " Grant us but the free- 
 dom which Christ and his Apostles left to the churches ; use 
 necessary things as necessary, and unnecessary things as un- 
 necessary." The Presbyterians having delivered their papers, 
 retired, and anxiously awaited the reply of the Bishops. This 
 was the critical time of the Conference ; it was now in Sheldon's 
 power to gain the moderate Puritans. And nothing can be plainer 
 than the directions given in the Scriptures for the treatment of 
 weak consciences ; but there is no truth which men will not 
 ♦ Wheatly on the Prayer-Book, p. 30. 
 
51 
 
 dispute, no precept which they mil not disregard if it thwarts 
 their interests or passions. When the reply came, instead of 
 being as the ministers were expecting, a list of the concessions 
 which the bishops were willing to make, it proved to be 
 a reply to their exceptions, and did not contain one con- 
 cession which the opposite party cared for. Papers went 
 backwards and forwards, sharp things were said on both 
 sides ; Sheldon was obstinate and unyielding ; Eaxter by 
 nature hasty and impetuous, indignant at the treachery 
 and ingratitude of the prelates, indulged in threatening, 
 contemptuous, irritating language. Thus matters stood, each 
 party angry and exasperated with the other. Ten days more 
 and the commission expired. The Presbyterians again re- 
 quested that there might be a friendly conference as the 
 best means of coming to an agreement. This request when 
 made at the first meeting, Sheldon had peremptorily refused, 
 but now he granted it. When they met, the Ministers desired 
 the Bishops to give their opinions on the alterations and addi- 
 tions which had been suggested, declaring what they allowed and 
 what they disallowed. But the Bishops refused to give their 
 opinion on the papers that had been sent. They then asked 
 the Bishops to go over the points in dispute, and declare how 
 much they could abate, and what alterations they could yield 
 to. To this moderate, reasonable request, again did Sheldon and 
 his party give a decided refusal. The baffled ministers again, 
 and again urged the words of the king's commission. In the 
 Healing declaration the king had said, " since we find some 
 exceptions made against several things therein, [the Prayer 
 Book,] we will appoint an equal number of learned divines of 
 both persuasions to review the Book of Common Prayer, and to 
 make such alterations as shall be thought most necessary /'^ 
 * 7tli clause of the King's declaration. 
 
52 
 
 and the words of the commission were still more explicit, they 
 were to " advise and consult upon and about the several objec- 
 tions and exceptions which shall now be raised against the same, 
 and, if occasion be, to make such reasonable and necessary- 
 alterations, corrections, and amendments, as shall bo agreed 
 upon to be needful and expedient for the giving satisfaction 
 unto tender consciences, and the restoring and continuance of 
 peace and unity in the churches under his majesty's protection 
 and government." " These words," say the Ministers, "imply 
 that some alterations must be made." The Bishops answer : 
 Yes, necessary alterations and such as should be agreed on, but 
 we don't consider them necessary until you prove them neces- 
 sary, and we don't agree upon them. The Ministers reply to 
 this unworthy quibble : "We are called together to make such 
 alterations as are necessary to satisfy tender consciences / we are 
 to consult on the means, and if you, the Bishops, will not agree 
 upon anything we suggest, the conference is a sham, all our 
 meetings are but trifling and useless. The Bishops stick to their 
 text : Prove your alterations to be necessary. After wrangling 
 for some time about this word necessary, a disputation was 
 agreed upon, after the manner of the schools. Three on each 
 side were chosen to manage the dispute, but it was chiefly 
 carried on by two men, " the most unfit to heal matters and the 
 fittest to widen them," Baxter and Gunning. There was much 
 logic, — ^keen, sharp arguing — ^for these intellectual duellists were 
 well matched in debating powers. Of course no good result could 
 follow from such an absurd proceeding ; and after many inter- 
 ruptions, the debate ended abruptly amidst great confusion. 
 Towards the close of this sham conference, a sensible proposal 
 was made by some important personage, that Baxter and his 
 party should put down those points on which they considered 
 forcing compliance was sinful. They mentioned eight, and in 
 
53 
 
 not one 0} those eight points would the Sheldonian party make 
 any concession.''^ 
 
 As the Hampton Court Conference had ended, so ended the 
 Savoy Conference, so will end ever}^ conference in which Shel- 
 dons and Morleys have the rule. The promises of charity and 
 moderation made but twelve months before, were violated ; the 
 meekness then affected was exchanged for a scornful smile. 
 The times had changed. " Let it be as God will," said Mrs. 
 Hutchinson to one of Clarendon's followers, when pleading for 
 her husband. He, smiling at her, replied, " It is not now as 
 God will, but as we will."-!- 
 
 When the Savoy Conference had come to an end, the Presby- 
 terians again tried the Lord Chancellor, and prayed him to use 
 his power to pass the Healing declaration into law, or advise 
 them in what way they were to proceed. Clarendon promised to 
 present an address from them to the king : accordingly the address 
 was drawn up and presented. In it they give an account of 
 their proceedings, and further express themselves thus : " "We 
 must needs believe that when your majesty took our consent to 
 a Liturgy, to be a foundation that would infer our concord, you 
 meant not, that we should have no concord but by consenting 
 to this Liturgy, without any considerable alteration. And when 
 you comforted us with your resolution to draw us together, by 
 yielding on both sides what we could, you meant not that we 
 should be the boat and they the bank that must not stir. And 
 when your majesty commanded us by your letters patent to 
 treat about such alterations as are needful or expedient for giving 
 satisfaction to tender consciences, and the restoring and con- 
 
 * Marvell's Works, vol. ii. p. 500. Burnet, vol. i. Kennet's 
 History, vol. ill. Baxter, part ii. ; part iii. p. 104, and Appendix viii. 
 p. 121. Secret History of Charles II. vol. i, pp. 149, 349. Neal, 
 vol. iv. pp. 337-345. Collier, vol. viii. 
 
 t Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, p. 381. Hallam, vol. ii. 320, 336. 
 
54 
 
 tinuance of peace and unity, we rest assured that it was not 
 your sense, that those tender consciences were to be forced to 
 practice all which they judged unlawful, and not so much as a 
 ceremony abated them ; or that our treaty was only to convert 
 either part to the opinion of the others." They conclude by 
 beseeching the king that the Healing declaration might be 
 established, so that piety and peace may flourish.* But all 
 their entreaties were of no avail, their fate was already decided 
 upon, and the House of Commons had commenced that career 
 of vindictive fury, which for ten years they pursued without 
 remorse. 
 
 Some important events had been meanwhile occurring, which 
 will explain the indignant, despairing, threatening language 
 which Baxter had been using in the late Conference. The 
 Convention Parliament was dissolved, Dec, 1660. Clarendon 
 had experienced some difficulty in managing it ; and as he could 
 not trust it to pass the severe acts which he was meditating 
 against the Presbyterians, his object, as he scarcely conceals, was 
 to amuse them until another Parliament more suited to his 
 purpose could be assembled.t The new Parliament met May 
 8th, 1661. It lasted eighteen years ; and for the first ten years 
 of its existence proved itself the blindest, the most bigoted, 
 intolerant, slavish Parliament, that ever met in this country. J 
 It contained only fifty-six of the Presbyterian or moderate 
 party ; most of the others were red-hot Cavaliers, many were 
 more violent even than Clarendon. It was elected according 
 to the wishes and by the influence of the Court ; in a word, 
 says Eapin, it was composed by Clarendon, prime minister. 
 It is asserted that one hundred of them were in constant pay, 
 
 * Baxter, part ii. pp. 367, 368. 
 
 t Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. pp. 17, 139, 143. Secret History, vol. i. 
 pp. 32, 33, 89. 
 
 I North's Examen, pp. 361, 426, lyord CampMl's Lives of the Lord 
 Chancellors, vol, iii, p. 205. Clarendon's Life, vol. ii, pp. 260, 273, 
 
55 
 
 receiving large sums from the exchequer ; they were called 
 the Cluh of Voters, and this Parliament is known as the 
 Pensioned Parliament.* 
 
 Clarendon now saw that it was safe to cast off the mask, — 
 the king was seated on the throne of his ancestors, — ^the church 
 restored to her ancient privileges, — Cromwell's terrible army- 
 was disbanded, — the Presbyterians had become unpopular, and 
 above all, a Parliament had assembled eager for revenge. At 
 the opening of the new Parliament, he recommended seditious 
 preachers to be suppressed. A few days after, (May 1 6th, 1661,) 
 the House of Commons resolved that all members should take 
 the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England 
 on pain of expulsion. Before the close of the year. Clarendon's 
 famous " Corporation Act " was passed, expelling all JN'oncon- 
 formists from corporations, — an act contrary to the assurances 
 given by Morley and Clarendon, — contrary to the king's promise 
 that no man was to be molested on account of liis religion, — 
 contrary to the plainest principles of justice and religion. 
 There was a strong disposition to renew the Laudian tyran- 
 nies, and revive the odious Star Chamber. " Things goe very 
 well on in the Houses of Parliament," writes the Dean of Dur- 
 ham to a friend, " I believe you will hear of a repeal of all acts 
 made in the Long Parliament ; and then the Starre Chamber, 
 and High Commission will return of course, "-f- But this divine's 
 pleasant anticipations Avere not realized ; Laud and the brand- 
 ing irons did not return ; the noses and ears of Englishmen 
 were henceforth safe. The Puritans, alarmed at the black 
 storm that was gathering over them, flew now to one great 
 man, now to [another, and sometimes promises were made 
 
 * Eapin, vol. ii. p. 625. Sir Thos. Brown's Works, vol. i. p. 8. Lord 
 King's Life of Locke, p. 137. Pari. Hist., vol. iv. p. 178. 
 
 t Letter from Sudbury, Dean of Durham, to Dr. Basire, April ] 1th, 
 1663. — See Basire's Correspondence. 
 
56 
 
 that the king would interpose, and by an indulgence protect 
 them from persecution. But Clarendon was preparing for his 
 next blow ; it shall be effectual, mercy and truth shall be 
 forgotten, malevolence and perfidy shall carry the day.* 
 
 With the Pensioned Parliament assembled the Convocation 
 of the Clergy ; and such care was taken in keeping out and 
 getting in members, that Sheldon and Morley were able to carry 
 all their plans. Although many of the Presbyterians had been 
 ejected from their livings in consequence of the old incumbents 
 being alive, and others prevented voting, the Presbyterian 
 ministers in London Avere strong enough to return Calamy and 
 Baxter by three voices ; but Sheldon chose two others, so they 
 had no seats in Convocation. -f- Sheldon and his party had 
 already agreed upon their plans. A worthy clergyman out of 
 Huntingdonshire, one Dr. Allen, who had come up to attend 
 Convocation, earnestly urged Sheldon to reform the Prayer 
 Book, and remove the exceptions of the Presbyterians, Sheldon 
 quietly told liim there was no need to trouble himself further 
 about that, as they had resolved upon their measures. J During 
 the adjournment of Parliament and Convocation, the Bishops 
 were employed in revising the Prayer Book. They were not 
 all of one mind j some, whom Clarendon says were the most 
 experienced and wise men, were for making no alterations but 
 adhering to the old Prayer Book ; a second party were anxious 
 to conciliate ; but there was a third party who were resolved to 
 gratify their bad passions by inserting in the Liturgy reflections 
 on the Puritans. § On Nov. 21st, 1661, the king's letter was 
 
 * Sir Thomas Brown's "Works, vol. i. p. 14. 
 + Kennet, vol. iii. p. 251, note a. Baxter, part ii. pp. 333-334. 
 Neal, vol. iv. p. 350. Barnet, vol. i. p. 316. 
 
 t Calamy's Life of Baxter, p. 160 
 § Clarendon's language is most strange, he lets the truth escape from 
 him in one passage, and in the next endeavours to destroy its effect. — See 
 Clarendon's Life, pp. 278-282. 
 
57 
 
 read in the Upper House, authorising Convocation to make altera- 
 tions in the Prayer Book, and in one month the whole was finished 
 and subscribed Dec. 20th, 1661, thus confirming the remark 
 made by Sheldon, that matters had been already agreed upon. 
 When the alterations (there were six hundred) appeared, it was 
 found that whilst the public were reckoning on some conciliatory 
 changes, Sheldon and Morley had not only made no concessions 
 but had seized the opportunity to make the Prayer Book more 
 distasteful to the Puritans than before. * The deception whi(5h 
 Sheldon and Morley practiced did not escape observation, and 
 was afterwards flung in their faces. Lord Shaftesbury said — 
 under the advantage of a pretence well-known to us all, of 
 making such alterations as might the better unite us, the Liturgy 
 was made the other day, more different from the dissenting Protes- 
 tants ; and there is scarce one alteration, but widens the breach, f 
 Their mode of dealing with the Apocrypha is the most remark- 
 able specimen of this wicked schismatical spirit. The Presby- 
 terians strongly objected to lessons being read from the 
 Apocryphal books, and had petitioned that lessons from 
 Canonical books should be substituted. This very moderate 
 request was not only rejected, but it was proposed in Convocation 
 that some more of the Apocryphal books should be read, such 
 as the History of " Bel and the Dragon," " Susannah and the 
 Elders," and this proposal was carried. Andrew Marvell tells 
 us, that after a long tug about that matter in Convocation, 
 a jolly doctor came out, his face radiant with joy, and with 
 
 * This is admitted by those who have no sympathies with the Puritans. 
 Alexander Knox says, "a revision of the Liturgy being called for, the revisers 
 seized the opportunity contrary to what the public was reckoning upon, to 
 make our formularies not more Puritanic but more Catholic." Dr. Cardwell 
 admits that " there was a distinct and settled desire to exclude the Puritans 
 from the church." Baxter says they " made things far harder and heavier 
 than before." Baxter, part ii. pp. 3Q9, 384, 427, Knox's iiemains, vol. i. 
 pp. 59-61. 
 
 t Letter from a person of quality. 1675. 
 
58 
 
 exultation cried, "We have carried it for Bel and the 
 Dragon."* One of the alterations caused much profane jesting. 
 The prayer for the High Court of Parliament was now intro- 
 duced into the Prayer Book, in which prayer the king is styled 
 " our most religious king." This expression gave great offence, 
 and must have astonished the profligate king and his witty 
 friends, who " often asked him what must all his people think 
 when they heard him prayed for as their most religious king."t 
 Besides marks of an angry anti-Puritan spirit, our Prayer Book 
 bears traces of the haste with which it was pushed through 
 Convocation, for, in truth, " the time was too short for the 
 revision ."j: 
 
 Under such adverse circumstances was the Prayer Book 
 revised for the fourth time ; and has never been altered 
 since. 
 
 The Convocation having reviewed the Book of Common 
 Prayer, thie next step was to authorise and legalise its use. In 
 order to prepare the nation for the severe measure which was 
 about to be introduced into Parliament, sham plots were got up 
 in several counties ; reports were spread about that the Presby- 
 terians were conspiring ; the king went down to the House and 
 recommended his faithful Commons to watch carefully these 
 wicked people, " who labour day and night to disturb the public 
 peace."|| Whereupon Sir John Pakington and some other 
 country squires inflame the House with accounts of the dangerous 
 Presbyterian plots down in Worcestershire and elsewhere. The 
 
 * The Rehearsal Transprosed, p. 500. Clarendon had, when a 
 Eeformer, doubted the propriety of reading the apocryphal books. See his 
 letter to Dr. Creighton, in Clarendon State Papers, vol. iii. p. 335. 
 
 t He was known to be a libertine, gambler, and infidel. Guizot's Hist, 
 of the Restoration, vol. i. p. 190. Burnet, vol. i. p. 314, 
 J Lathbury's History of Convocation, p. 390. 
 
 II Rapin, vol, ii. pp. 627, 629. Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, 
 pp. 391, 392. 
 
59 
 
 fiery Cavaliers were ready for any act of vindictiveness and the 
 common talk amongst the leading churchmen was, — ''We will 
 have an Act that shall reach every Puritan in the kingdom, 
 and if any of the rogues stretch their consciences and try to 
 remain in the church, we will insert other conditions and 
 subscriptions." It will be understood that the Act of Uniformity 
 passed in Elizabeth's time, was now in force. Sheldon feared 
 that unless this Act were set aside, many of the Puritans would 
 remain in the church, and for this reason the Earl of Northum- 
 berland's proposal, that Queen Elizabeth's Act and the old 
 Prayer Book should be adhered to, was under specious pretences 
 rejected."* Sheldon and his party, therefore, introduced into 
 a new Act of Uniformity clauses which they knew would gall 
 the Puritans, and drive most of them from the church.t In 
 the House of Lords the new Act of Uniformity had neither 
 a smooth nor a rapid progress. Its cruel object was apparent, 
 and though it had, says Ealph, the dead weight of the bishops 
 in its favour, several amendments were carried rendering it less 
 severe. The Lords shewed some concern for tender consciences, 
 and inserted a proviso giving to the ministers who were to be 
 cast out of their livings, one-fifth of the income for their support, 
 following the example of Elizabeth when she enforced her Prayer 
 
 * The Puritans were quite aware of the prelates motives ; they said — 
 The prelates feared that the old conformity would not serve turn ; they have 
 added such new materials of set purpose, which keep out a thousand at least 
 that would have yielded to the old conformity. Baxter, part ii. p. 294. 
 
 t The bishops instead of using any moderate softening measures had got 
 the Act of Uniformity so worded by Keeling the lawyer, that the terms of 
 conformity were made harder than before." Oldmixon, p. 506. Echard 
 says : "No doubt its severity was promoted by some, to keep out certain, 
 who, thej thought, did not deserve to enter the church." Again, " The 
 Act was framed with as much skill and exactness as it well could be, for 
 introducing strict conformity, and excluding those mischiefs that had crept 
 in and overturned the church." Echard's History, pp. 799, 802. Life of 
 Philip Henry, p. 195. Baxtei', part ii. p. 384. Clarendon's Life, vol, 
 ii. pp. 287, 292. Calamy's Baxter, p. 170. 
 
60 
 
 Book ; Cromwell also, had done the same.* But when the 
 Bill went down to the Commons, Clarendon himself tells us that 
 every man, according to his passion, thought of adding somewhat 
 to it, that might make it more grievous to somebody whom he 
 did not love. The mitigations of the Lords were highly dis- 
 pleasing to the Commons ; they rejected them all ; nothing 
 should interfere with the fulness of their revenge. A confer- 
 ence between the two Houses followed. The Lords appealed to 
 the king's declaration from Breda, in which he^ had promised a 
 liberty to tender consciences^ and that no man was to be dis- 
 quieted on account of his religion. The Commons resorted to 
 contemptible equivocation and falsehood. They said — " tender 
 consciences " did not refer to the ministers, but to the flocks, 
 the former were misleaders, the latter misled. This bold lie 
 was followed by despicable sophistry ; they pleaded that the 
 king had limited his promise to opinions which do not disturb 
 the peace of the kingdom, and subject to the "consent of 
 Parhament." The debate was long ; at length Clarendon, who 
 says that he " would have been glad that the Act had not been 
 clogged with many of those clauses," came with the whole power 
 of the Court to the aid of the Commons. The Lords gave way, 
 and the Bill finally passed by a small majority. f The Act was 
 to come into operation on St. Bartholomew's Day following 
 (August 24th, 1662). This day was chosen for the malignant 
 purpose of depriving the ministers of the year's income, as the 
 
 * Collier, speaking of Cromwell's Act, says, " If must be said, these 
 usurpers did not plunder and persecute without some resemblance of compas- 
 sion ; for, by the Act, a fifth part of the profits of the benefice is allowed to 
 the wives and children of ejected ministers." The fifth, however, was not 
 always paid. See Bishop HaU's Hard Measure. Heber's Life of Jeremy 
 Taylor, p. 20. Collier, vol. viii. p. 375. Baxter, part i. p. 97. 
 
 t Ralph's Hist., vol. i. p. 59. Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. pp. 286-296, 
 302. Burnet, vol. i. p. 317. Oldmixon, p. 506. Lingard's History, 
 vol. xii. pp. 44, 45. 
 
61 
 
 tithes were due at Michaelmas (September 29th).* Thus were 
 the solemn promises of Clarendon and Morley that there should 
 be moderation and charity, — thus were the declarations pub- 
 lished by the Eoyalists, that all animosities should be forgotten, 
 no uncharitableness retained, and no revenge attempted, — thus 
 were the promises of the king to the Presbyterians that he 
 would impose no hard conditions upon their consciences, — thus 
 was the Declaration from Breda, the compact between the king 
 and the Presbyterians, the royal charter, on the faith of which 
 Charles had ascended the throne, — shamefully violated, f Not 
 only was the Act of Uniformity a violation of promises and 
 pledges, an unwise and wicked retaliation most alien to 
 the spirit of Christianity j it was revenge taken upon men, 
 few of whom were responsible for any severities which had 
 been suffered by the Anglican clergy, and certainly had 
 been the chief instruments in placing the king upon the 
 throne. They had kindled the loyalty of the nation, prayed, 
 exhorted, and fought for Charles, when the Cavaliers could not, 
 or would not, raise an arm. Charles, when annoyed with the 
 bishops, did not hesitate to taunt them with their ingratitude 
 to the men to whom they owed their restoration to power .J 
 
 * Although the Commons were such violent haters of the Puritans, they 
 were not favourable to Laud's opinions and practices ; for, suspecting, not 
 without reason, that the alterations which the clergy had been making in the 
 Prayer Book were in that direction, a motion was made that they should be 
 debated, and it was only by the narrow majority of six that they Avere 
 allowed. Journals of the Commons, April 16th, 1662. See also Proctor 
 on the Book of Common Prayer, p. 132, note 3, and page 133, note 2. 
 
 t The king was restored " more perhaps upon the confidence of his 
 declarations and promises from Breda, than any other human means." 
 Preface to the fia:st edition of Clarendon's Hist., 1702. That Charles 
 recognised the Declaration from Breda as a compact is proved by his speech, 
 July 8tb, 1661, in which he also reminds the Commons of the declaration 
 which many of them had made, to renounce all animosities. Clarendon's 
 Life, vol. ii. p. 261. 
 
 X Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 475. Baxter, part ii. p. 340. 
 
 Echard's History, p. 771. Lingard, vol. xii. p. 107. 
 
62 
 
 Tlie famous Andrew Marvell, who was a member of this 
 Parliament, has given us his opinion of the conduct of the 
 leading churchmen at the Eestoration. Writing about 1672, 
 he says : " If there had been a little moderation and temper, 
 the Nonconformists could not stick out ; but so far from 
 moderation, some contrived that there should be no abatement ; 
 on the contrary, several unnecessary additions were made, only 
 because they would be more ungrateful to the JSTonconformists. 
 To shew that they were cunning, even revengeful men, they 
 drilled things on, till they procured a law, wherein, besides the 
 conformity of former times, new conditions were imposed on 
 holders of livings, such as they knew that the Nonconformists 
 would rather forsake their livings than swallow/'* The remark 
 of one of the ejected clergy on the Act of Uniformity is worthy 
 of notice. He said, " Before the wars [between the king and 
 Parliament] the Puritans generally made a shift to conform and 
 come into the Church, notwithstanding the hard usage they 
 foresaw they were likely to meet with ; but to prevent this 
 afterwards, the new barriers or fortifications were erected by 
 the Act of Uniformity to keep them out." Locke writes to 
 the same effect, and the opinion of this phHosopher will be 
 conclusive with all, save the successors of Lauds and Sheldons, — 
 " That Bartholomew-Day was fatal to our church and religion, 
 throwing out a very great number of worthy, learned, pious, and 
 orthodox divines, who could not come up to the things in the 
 Act of Uniformity."-!- Bishop "Warburton condemned the Act 
 of Uniformity as opposed to the spirit of the gospel. He says, 
 " It would be hard to say who are most to blame, those who 
 oppose established authority for things indifferent, or that 
 authority which rigidly insists upon them, and will abate 
 
 * The Rehearsal Transprosed, p. 212. ' 
 t Letter from a person of quality. 1675» 
 
63 
 
 notliing for the sake of misinformed consciences. I say it would 
 be hard to solve this, had not the apostle done it for us, where 
 he says, * "We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of 
 the weak, and not to please ourselves.' I myself, says he, do 
 so, and all for the gospel's sake. This is the man who tells us 
 he had fought a good fight, and overcome. And we may believe 
 him, for in this contention he is always the conqueror who 
 submits."* The clauses introduced into the Act of Uniformity 
 to expel the Puritans were these : — 
 
 I. All persons having any cure of souls or ecclesiastical 
 dignity, were to be ordained by a bishop. This was a new 
 feature in the church of England, says Clarendon, for there had 
 been many holding benefices, in the most flourishing time of 
 the church, who were ordained in France and Holland. The 
 Puritans, who had entered the ministry during the wars, had 
 been ordained by presbyters, and to re-ordination they strongly 
 objected. When Morley was negociating with the Presby- 
 terians before the Restoration, he had suggested an expedient, 
 to which probably most of the Puritans Avould have consented ; 
 and in the Lords, when this clause was being debated, it was 
 urged in defence that the hypothetical form might be used. 
 But notliing more was heard of these expedients, f 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury in 1675, speaking of the Act of 
 Uniformity, said, " We unchurched all the foreign Protestants 
 that have not bishops, though the contrary was both allowed 
 and practiced from the beginning of the Reformation, till this 
 
 * Marsden'sHist. of tbe later Puritans, p. 456. 
 t BramTiall, the Primate of Ireland, was displaying tact and some 
 moderation in dealing with this difficulty, and succeeded in winning many of 
 the Irish Presbyterians. Biographia Britanniea, vol. ii. p. 569, note r. 
 Birch's Life of Tillotson, pp. 171, 176. Six years after the passing of the Act 
 of Uniformity, an expedient was agreed upon with regard to the re-ordination 
 by Bishop Wilkins. Sir Matthew Hale, TiUotson, and Stillingfleet, on the 
 part of the church; and Baxter, Bates, and Manton, on the part of the 
 Puritans- 
 
64 
 
 Act, and several bishops made of such as were never ordained 
 priests by bishops."* 
 
 II. All ministers and schoolmasters were required to declare 
 " that it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take 
 arms against the king ; " and, further, they were to declare that 
 the " Solemn League and Covenant " was an unlawful oath, 
 binding no one who had taken it. Tlie Puritans thought the 
 first declaration to be destructive of the right of telf-defence ; 
 to be a sacrificing of all that was dear and valuable, their estates, 
 their liberties, their lives, to the will of the prince. They 
 could not renounce " the Solemn League and Covenant," for 
 although some of them had not taken it, and more of them were 
 all along against the imposing it ; yet to determine for all that 
 took it, that they were not bound by it, they thought 
 unwarrantable. + These disgraceful political declarations were 
 inserted by the Commons, after long . and passionate debates. 
 Clarendon appears not to have approved of them, and tells us, 
 that they added to the displeasure and jealousy against the 
 bishops, by whom they were thought to be prepared, and com- 
 mended to their party in the Lower House. J 
 
 III. All ministers were required to declare their "unfeigned 
 assent and consent to all and everything contained and prescribed 
 in and by the Book " of Common Prayer. It made a great 
 noise, says Clarendon, and they all '' cried out that it was a 
 snare to catch them, to say that which could not consist with 
 
 * Letter from a person of quality. 1675. Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. 
 pp. 288-290. 
 
 t The Solemn League and Covenant, devised by the Scotch Presby- 
 terians and adopted by the Parliament in 1643, had been the tyrannical 
 instrument by which many of the church clergy had been turned out of their 
 livings ; it was now used to ruin the Puritans. Burnet, vol. i. p. 313, 
 Collier, vol. viii. p. 262. D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft, vol. i. p. 28. 
 Calamy's Baxter, p. 541. 
 
 X Clarendon's Life, pp. 291, 292, 303. Baxter, part i. pp. 64, 65, 
 part ii. p. 387- 
 
65 
 
 their consciences." They were content to read the Prayer 
 Book ; but declaring their unfeigned assent and consent to 
 everything contained and prescribed therein, would imply, they 
 said, that they were convinced that it was so perfect that nothing 
 therein could be amended. They could not with a safe con- 
 science make such a declaration concerning any human com- 
 position ; nay, they thought a man could not say so much even 
 of the translation of the Eible, which contained, as all allowed, 
 mistakes and faults.* The majority of the Puritans considered 
 that this declaration pledged him who made it, to an absolute 
 approval of and belief in every line and word in the Prayer 
 Book. John Eay, Pellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who 
 was well known in his day by his philosophical writings, an 
 intimate friend of Tillotson and Bishop Wilkins, in whose palace 
 at Chester he often stayed, being pressed to take a living, declined, 
 saying : " I use the Prayer Book, and approve of it as a form, 
 but I cannot declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and 
 everything in it."f The ejected rector of Ubley, in Somerset- 
 shire, has left his reasons for refusing to make this declaration. 
 He says, that after having read books, meditated, and con- 
 ferred with others, he betook himself, on August 21st, to 
 extraordinary supplication to God, to guide and establish 
 him. The issue was, that whatever might be the conse- 
 quences, he could not take the declaration. He was 
 not against forms of prayer, he could use many things 
 prescribed in the Prayer Book : but to declare his unfeigned 
 assent and consent to all and everything contained in it, was 
 what he could not do. Of the Prayer Book, he says : " I bless 
 God it is so good, but yet it might be better. It is true, that I 
 have read most of the Common Prayer Book, and so might do 
 
 * Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 290. Calamy's Baxter, p. 504. 
 t Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. i. p. 214. Nicholls's Literary Anec- 
 dotes, vol. i. p. 143. 
 
66 
 
 it again ; but it is one thing to read a considerable part 
 and another to declare an unfeigned assent and consent to every- 
 thing."* The Latitudinarian or Liberal clergy took the declara- 
 tion, looking upon it as an innocent promise to conform to the 
 Prayer Book.t Patrick, afterwards Bishop of Ely, says in his 
 Autobiography : At Bartholomew's Day, 1662, all beneficed 
 persons were " to comform to the Book of Common Prayer, 
 which I procured and read, and expressed my assent and 
 consent to the use of it^ August 17th; and subscribed before 
 the Bishop on the 18th at Kingston." Bishop Morley, talking 
 one day with an ejected minister, asked him why he could not 
 conform : the minister replied, that it was on account of the 
 assent and consent to everything in the Prayer Book ; the 
 Bishop said : "You must not philosophize upon the words assent 
 and consent. — no more was intended than that the person so 
 declaring, intended to read the hooh ; and, therefore, if you 
 would make the declaration in the words prescribed in the Act, 
 and then say, that thereby you mean no more than that you 
 would read the Common Prayer, I would admit you into a 
 living, "t 
 
 But not only did the Puritans object to this mischievous 
 declaration in which they were abundantly justified if their 
 interpretation was right, they further complained of the short- 
 ness of the time allowed them for deliberation. The new Prayer 
 
 * Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. ii. p. 381. 
 t The meaning of this declaration (which is still required from all clergy- 
 men) is doubtful, for the Act explains it as an assent and consent to the use of 
 all things in the Prayer Book ; whereas the declaration itself seems to imply, 
 as Baxter and his fnends considered, an entire approval of all its contents. 
 An attempt was made in the House of Lords, July 25th, 1663, to put upon 
 it this explanation, that it "be understood only as to practice and obedience." 
 Not one bishop objected, but the Duke of York (the head of the Roman 
 Catholic party) and thirteen lords protested. The Commons rejected the 
 clause. — See Speaker Onslow's Notes in Burnet, vol. i. pp. 312, 318. 
 Baxter, part ii. pp. 389, 427. 
 
 X Autobiography of Symon Patrick. Nonconformists' Memorial, 
 vol. ii. p. 24. 
 
67 
 
 Book contained six hundred alterations, — alterations wHcli are 
 allowed to be anti- Puritan and effected stealthily, — and it was 
 so long being printed, that it was not published until August 
 6th, on which day it was advertised as "now perfectly 
 and exactly printed, the price of which book is ordered to be 
 but six shillings, ready bound." The consequence of this was, 
 " that of the 7000 ministers who kept their livings, few, except 
 those who were in or near London, could possiby have a sight 
 of the book with its alterations, till after they had declared 
 their assent and consent to it."* This is confirmed by Burnet 
 and Locke ; the former tells us that few of the Prayer Books 
 were ready for sale when Bartholomew's Day arrived j many 
 left their livings, as they could not with a safe conscience 
 subscribe to a book that they had not seen j " some made a 
 journey to London on purpose to see it. With so much 
 precipitation was that matter driven on, that it seemed expected 
 that the clergy should subscribe impHcitly to a book they had 
 never seen. This was done by too many, as I was informed by 
 some of the bishops." J To the same effect is Locke's testi- 
 mony ; he says, " so great was the zeal, and so blind the 
 obedience, that if you compute the time in passing this Act, 
 with the time allowed for the clergy to subscribe the Book of 
 Common Prayer, you shall plainly find that it could not be 
 printed and distributed, so as one man in forty could have seen 
 and read the Book they did so perfectly assent and consent 
 to."§ Mr. Steele, vicar of Hanmer, in Flintshire, said in his 
 farewell sermon, he was silenced and turned out for not declar- 
 ing his unfeigned assent to a book which he never saw nor 
 could see. 1 1 Archdeacon Hare speaks thus of this declaration : 
 
 * Baxter Appendix, viii. p. 121. Calamy's Baxter, p. 502. 
 
 X Burnet, vol. i. p. 318. 
 
 § A letter from a person of quality. 1675. 
 
 II Life of Philip Henry, p. 119. 
 
68 
 
 " This straitwaistcoat for men's consciences could scarcely have 
 been devised, except by persons themselves of seared consciences 
 and hard hearts, — by persons ready to gulp down any oath 
 without scruple about more or less." And Hallam says, this 
 declaration seems to " amount, in common use of language, to a 
 complete approbation of an entire volume, such as a man of 
 sense hardly gives to any book."* 
 
 ♦ The objections of the Puritans to this mischievous declaration, are 
 justified by the use which Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, made of it. When 
 he was a member of the Commission of 1689 to revise the Prayer Book, one 
 of his objections to making alterations was, that the clergy had given their 
 assent and consent to all things in the Prayer Book. See l)iary of the pro- 
 ceedings of the Commissioners of 1689, published by the order of the House 
 of Lords, 1854, p. 96. Hallam, vol. ii. p. 338. 
 
69 
 
 CHAPTEE HI. 
 
 BLACK Bartholomew's day. — the 2000 confessors, Baxter, howe, 
 
 PHILIP henry, gouge, SHELDON, MORLEY, GUNNING. — THE MODERATE 
 CLERGY, SANDERSON, PEARSON, JEREMY TAYLOR. 
 
 St. Bartholomew's Day was already famous in the annals 
 of religious bigotry. The Presbyterians remembered that 
 ninety years before had the Protestants of Paris been 
 massacred, and they " compare the one to the other." They 
 had frequent meetings for consultation; and from many a 
 parsonage there went up earnest, solemn prayers to the 
 Searchers of hearts, that He would guide and support them 
 in this time of great trouble. And God gave them grace to 
 witness to the world, that there were men who did not hold 
 with Sheldon, that religion was a matter of policy, but 
 something to be suffered for, and even died for, if there be 
 need. Some of their prayers and meditations are preserved, 
 shewing them to be God-fearing men, and earnest above all 
 things to have a conscience void of offence toward God and 
 man. " The Lord keep me in this critical time ;" " Lord, 
 lead me Dot into temptation," are the devout ejaculations of 
 the holy Philip Henry.* One good man's mother pressed him 
 to conform to the Act, and remain in his living : '' Mother," 
 he said, " if I want bread you can help me ; but if I go against 
 my oath, and have a guilty conscience, you cannot." Well- 
 meaning friends pressed them to stretch their consciences and 
 think of their families. An Ormsldrk man said to his vicar : 
 " Ah ! Mr. Heywood, we would gladly have you preach still 
 * Life of Philip Henry, p. 116. 
 
70 
 
 in the church !" '* Yes," said the vicar, " I would gladly 
 preach, if I could do it mtli a safe conscience." "Oh, sir," replied 
 the man, " many a one makes a great gash in his conscience, 
 cannot you make a little nick in yours."* The struggle was 
 doubly keen in the case of those who had families. At Bas- 
 church, near Shrewsbury, the minister was Edward Laurence j 
 he had a wife and ten children, eleven strong arguments, he 
 said, for conforming. Neighbours asked him how he would 
 maintain his family, if he did not conform ; he replied, 
 " They must all live on Matthew, the 6th chapter, 25th verse : 
 * Take nc thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye 
 shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.' " 
 John Hicks, brother of the well-known dean, said, when 
 asked the same question, " Should I have as many children 
 as that hen has chickens, (pointing to one that had a good 
 number of them), I should not question but God would 
 provide for them all." One asked his wife her advice, the 
 brave woman replied, " Satisfy God and your own conscience, 
 though you expose me to bread and water." Another said, 
 " God feeds the young ravens. He will feed my children." 
 Amongst the papers of Samuel Birch, vicar of Bampton, 
 Oxfordshire, one is found, called, " Humble Address to my 
 Lord, July 30th, 1662." These are some extracts : " I do not 
 beg for riches, honours, great places, or a pleasant life, for 
 myself or mine. I beg Thy grace in Christ that we may 
 
 be kept from scandal to religion As for my 
 
 provision, my God, I never had any considerable estate, and 
 yet I never wanted. I depend on Thy promise, and have 
 reason to trust Thee. My God, I beg thy direction in this 
 great business, and beseech Thee to shew me what is fully 
 pleasing to Thee, and enable me to do it, for my Lord Jesus's 
 * Nonconformist's Memorial, vol. ii. pp. 102, 230. 
 
. ' 71 
 
 sake, my Saviour and blessed Redeemer. Amen."* The 
 rector of Great Bolas, in Shropshire, has thus recorded the 
 result of his thoughts : " I solemnly profess, in the presence of 
 the great God, before whom I must shortly give an account of 
 my words and actions, that, in my most impartial judgment, 
 after all the light that I can get by reading, praying, thinking, 
 and discoursing with above twenty judicious and solid divines 
 of both persuasions, I look upon it my duty not to conform ; 
 and whatever becomes either of myself or family, as I cannot 
 force my judgment, so I will not dare to force my conscience, "t 
 There is preserved the written soliloquy of the rector of 
 Carsington, Derbyshire, when debating with himself whether 
 he could conform. Thus does he address his soul : " It is 
 not, my soul, a light matter that thou art now employed in ; 
 it is not the maintenance of family, wife, and children, that 
 are the main things in this inquiry ; — it^s the glory of God, 
 the credit and advantage of religion, the good of the flock 
 committed to thy keeping, thy ministry, thy conscience, thy 
 salvation, and the salvation of others, that must cast the scale 
 and determine thy resolution. I charge thee, my soul, to 
 lay aside all prejudices, prepossessions, and respects to, or 
 sinister conceptions of, men of the one or the other party. 
 Let the word of God be umpire. Lead me, Lord, by Thy 
 counsel : make Tliy way plain before me ; Lord, shew me Thy 
 way, and, through grace, I will say. It shall be my way. And 
 canst thou, O my soul, think of laying down thy ministry upon 
 a light occasion ? Take heed, lest, if like Jonah thou over- 
 runnest thy embassy through discontent, thou be fetched back 
 with a storm. If men be Pharaoh's taskmasters, and impose 
 such burdens as thou mayst even groan under ; if they be only 
 
 * Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. ii. pp. 288, 303, 320. 
 t Calamy's Baxter, p. 351. 
 
72 
 
 burdens and not sins, they must be borne, and not shaken 
 off."* Thus does this good man, on this knees in the presence 
 of his God, reason on this question. These are not the words 
 of factious, peevish humoursome men, who rushed lightly and 
 unadvisedly into damnable schism. 
 
 As soon as the fatal Act of Uniformity passed, Baxter 
 withdrew from the ministry, preaching his farewell sermon at 
 Blackfriars, London, May 25th, 1662. He retired to the village 
 of Acton, near London, where he remained some years enjoying 
 the society of his friend, the devout Sir Matthew Hale. It was 
 his custom, he says, to preach, between the public services, in 
 his house, taking the people with him to the church morning 
 and evening ; Sir Matthew marking, in an open manner, his 
 approval of this course. There, in the parish church of Acton, 
 were to be seen sitting "next seats together," the greatest lawyer 
 of his time, and the author of the " Saints' Everlasting Eest" 
 and more than a hundred other books, — as well as one of the 
 most j)Owerful preachers of the age, — listening to the curate, a 
 weak, dull young man, that spent most of his time in alehouses. t 
 But some of the other leading Puritan ministers made a last 
 attempt to avert the blow, and obtained an interview with the 
 king. Touched by their moving prayers, he told them " he 
 had great compassion for them, and was heartily sorry that 
 Parliament had been so severe towards them," and promised 
 that he would do all he could to protect them. The Presby- 
 terians departed with their spirits raised, and described in 
 glowing terms the kind expressions of his majesty. The king 
 was at Hampton Court, where the Council were summoned to 
 meet three days before the fatal day, to consider the matter. 
 Sheldon, not yet being a Privy Councillor, had not, it is said, 
 
 « Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. i. p. 309. 
 t Calamy's Baxter, p. 591. Baxter's Letter to Mr. Stephens. Baxter, 
 part ii. p. 440. 
 
73 
 
 a summons ; he had, however, heard of what was in contem- 
 plation ; and at the Council the Presbyterians found their 
 enemy. 
 
 " The bishops were very much troubled that these fellows 
 should still presume to give his majesty so much vexation," and 
 declared that they were for executing the Act. Sheldon most 
 copiously and eloquently argued against repealing so sacred a 
 law, passed with so much deliberation, and with so great 
 approbation of good men. Clarendon thought the king had 
 better keep his promise, though he was sorry he had made it. 
 After much debate, Sheldon's arguments prevailed. The king 
 retracted his promise, returned to the bewitching company from 
 which it was hard to tear him : the bishops departed full of 
 satisfaction at the king's resolution, and not a little displeascid 
 at their friend, the Lord Chancellor's conduct ; the law must 
 take its course, and the sword go through the land.* 
 
 The fatal day drew near. On the preceding Sunday, the 
 leading Presbyterian ministers — Manton, Bates, Jacomb,Calamy, 
 Mead, and others — preached their farewell sermons. The 
 churches, and in some cases the churchyards, were full ; the 
 people crowding round the doors, and clinging to the windows 
 to hear the farewell words of those who had faithfully and 
 zealously ministered unto them the word of life. " What mean 
 ye, to weep and break my heart ? " cried out one of the 
 preachers, as he heard the sobs of his congregation. At last the 
 fatal day arrived, — Black Bartholomew's Day, (Aug. 24, 1662,) 
 S, day of lamentation, and mourning, and woe, — when 2000 
 honest, conscientious men, were cast out of the church.t They 
 
 * EalpU's Hist. vol. i. p. 76. Baxter, part ii. p. 429. Kennet's Hist, 
 vol. ill. p. 257. Carte's Life of Ormond, vol. ii, p. 260. Burnet, vol. i. pp. 
 
 263, 331. Eapin, vol. ii. p. 633. Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. pp. 299-304. 
 
 t Eapin, vol. ii. p. 632. Burnet, vol. i. p. 319. Preface to 
 
 Calamy's Baxter. Preface to Nonconformists' Memorial. Echard, 
 
 p. S02. Baxter, part ii. p. 385. 
 F 
 
74 
 
 went out not knowing whither they went ; they bid farewell to 
 the comfortable parsonage and the pleasant orchard and the 
 well-stocked garden j but they found in one of the Psalms for 
 the day words which gave them comfort : "I called upon the 
 Lord in trouble, and the Lord heard me at large. The Lord is 
 on my side, I will not fear what man doeth unto me." " Our 
 sins," said Philip Henry, " have made this one of the saddest to 
 England since the days of Edward the Sixth ; but even this is 
 for our good, though we know not how, nor which way."* 
 John Locke says, " Bartholomew's Day was fatal to our church 
 and religion, in throwing out a very great number of worthy, 
 learned, pious, and orthodox divines."t 
 
 Thus were the Puritans cast out of the national church, and 
 England is this day suifering the consequences of that cruel, 
 treacherous, vindictive, and schismatical Act. 
 
 Some of the ejected ministers were for going to Holland, 
 some to the American Colonies, but most remained at home 
 under promise of being favoured. In the pulpits they were 
 reviled as schismatics ; on the stage they were ridiculed as 
 canting hypocrites ; in the streets they were insulted by the 
 mob. They betook themselves to various employments ; some 
 became lawyers, some practised as apothecaries, some were 
 sheltered by the liberal-minded nobility and gentry, and some 
 had to gain a livelihood by hard labour, of which here is one 
 instance. J A Wiltshire gentleman, upon his wife lying danger- 
 
 ♦ Life of Philip Henry, p. 1 1 6. 
 t Echard admits that " It caused great numbers of good as well as 
 turbulent ministers to quit their preferments, that it bare bard on the good. 
 There were some who would by their piety and learning have been orna- 
 ments to the Church." Echard, pp. 799, 803. Collier speaks of the ejected 
 ministers in the following charitable language: "The misfortune of their 
 persuasion cannot be remembered without regret; those who quit their 
 interest are certainly in earnest, and deserve a charitable construction ; mis- 
 takes in religion are to be tenderly used, and conscience ought to be pitied 
 when it cannot be relieved." — ColUer, vol. viii. p. 436. 
 
 t Burnet, vol. i. p. 333. Neal, vol. iv. pp. 387, 389. 
 
76 
 
 ously ill, sent for the clergyman. When the messenger reached 
 the vicarage, the parson was just going out with the hounds, 
 and sent word that he would come when the hunt was over. 
 The gentleman was expressing his anger at this message, when 
 the servant said, " Sir, our shepherd, if you will send for him, 
 can pray very well ; we have often heard him at prayer in the 
 field." The shepherd was sent for, and asked if he did or could 
 pray, to which he replied, " God forbid, sir, that I should live 
 one day without prayer ; " upon which he was desired 
 to pray for the sick lady. The gentleman was so struck with 
 his language, that when they rose from their knees he asked 
 him what he had been ; the shepherd confessed that he was one 
 of the ejected ministers, and had been obliged to have 
 recourse to this employment for a living. " Then you shall be my 
 shepherd/^ said the gentleman. A chapel was built on the 
 estate, and there the minister preached. He had been 
 educated at Oxford, and known throughout the University 
 as a good Hebrew scholar.* Some of them underwent great 
 sufferings. The vicar of Walton-on-Thames was one, having a 
 wife and four little children. One morning after he had prayed 
 with his family, his children asked for their breakfast ; but the 
 poor man had none for them, nor money to buy food. They 
 all burst into tears. A knock was heard at the door, the wife 
 went to open it ; the visitor asked her if she was the mistress, 
 and finding that she was, put a paper into her hand ; upon 
 opening it they found it contained forty pieces of gold, and 
 soon after a man came with a horse-load of provisions. They 
 never knew their kind benefactor. A similar circumstance 
 occurred to Henry Erskine ; he was the youngest of thirty- 
 three children born to his father. After his ejection from a 
 living in Northumberland, one morning his family were quite 
 * Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. ii. p. 503^ 
 
76 
 
 without food. Whilst the father was endeavouring to comfort 
 them, they heard a man outside calling them to help him off 
 with his load, upon which they went out, took the sack from 
 the horse's back, and found it full of meal and flesh.* Many 
 hundreds of the ministers, Baxter tells us, with their wives 
 and children, had neither house nor bread. A churchman, 
 living at the time, gives us this account : " Though they were 
 as frugal as possible they could hardly live ; some lived on 
 little more than brown bread and water ; many had but eight 
 or ten pounds a year to maintain a family, so that a piece of 
 flesh has not come to one of their tables in six weeks' time ; 
 their allowance could scarce afford them bread and cheese. 
 One went to plough six days, and preached on the Lord's Day. 
 Another was forced to cut tobacco for a livelihood." Brief 
 and vivid is the description which Howe gives of their 
 sufferings : " Many of them live upon charity ; some of them 
 with difficulty getting, and others (educated to modesty) with 
 greater difficulty, begging their bread."t 
 
 Numerous acts of kindness towards the ejected ministers 
 were shown by clergy and laity. It is highly honourable to 
 the nobility, that many of them were averse to the harsh treat- 
 ment of the Nonconformists. A nobleman, speaking of the 
 declaration of assent and consent required by the Act of 
 Uniformity, said : "I confess I should scarcely do so much for 
 the Bible, as they require for the Common Prayer." Another, 
 after trying in vain to persuade a clergyman to remain in his 
 living, said, with a sigh, " I wish it had been otherwise, but 
 they were resolved either to reproach you or undo you." 
 Several of the ejected ministers found a home in the mansions 
 of the nobility, or were supported by the gifts of their wealthy 
 
 * Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. ii. pp. 254, 452. 
 t Life of Howe, p. 160. 
 
77 
 
 friends. Some of the clergy displayed a generous spirit towards 
 the ejected ministers ; in several cases the new incumbent 
 being unmarried, allowed his predecessor to remain in the 
 vicarage, and became his lodger. Edward Stillingfleet, then 
 rector of Sutton, in Bedfordshire, sheltered at least one of the 
 ejected ministers in his rectory ; for another, he took a large 
 house in his parish, and converted it into a school, where 
 he taught for some years ; others he helped in various ways. 
 
 Of course, amongst 2000 men there were various opinions. 
 The majority would have been satisfied \vith a few concessions, 
 which the church could have made mthout sacrificing 
 her doctrines or discipline ; one-half would have remained 
 in the church, as the earlier Puritans had done, if no fresh 
 burdens had been laid upon them ; some were violent, whom 
 the church could not gain without giving up her Liturgy 
 and her Episcopal polity. The friends of the Puritans have 
 not failed to censure their faults. Sir Matthew Hale con- 
 demned their tendency to attach too much importance to 
 little matters, "They were good men, but they had narrow 
 souls." Tillotson thought they placed " too much religion in 
 little distinctions and singularities ;" they were " honest and 
 sincere in the main, and at the bottom, though misled and 
 held under almost invincible prejudices." We may agree 
 with Locke, that they were "worthy, learned, pious, and 
 orthodox divines," but neither the early nor the later Puritans, 
 had shewn themselves to be men of enlarged minds.* 
 
 It will help towards forming a right estimate of the exceeding 
 sinfulness of Sheldon's conduct, if something is said of the 
 
 * Even Mrs. Hutchinson accuses them of esteeming the cut of the hair, 
 dress, &c., of more importance than due. One of them would not allow 
 her husband to be religious, " because his hair was not in their cut, nor his 
 
 words in their phrase, and he would continue a gentleman." Memoirs, 
 pp. 99, 143. See the notes to Hudibras, canto i. lines 9, 1 
 Life of Sir Matthew Hale. Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 399. 
 
rs 
 
 leading Puritans, whom he drove out of the church. Their 
 leader was Richard Baxter ; yet he was deficient in several 
 qualities needed for such a post. He was too hasty, too fond 
 of nice and subtle distinctions. Patient Dr. Sanderson, — as 
 Isaac Walton calls him, — a man inclined to mild measures^ 
 eomplained of his conduct at the Savoy Conference :^ 
 and Clarendon said to him, "If you had been as fat as Dr. 
 Manton, all might have gone on well ;" to which Baxter 
 replied, " If your lordship could teach me the art of growing 
 fat, you should find me not unwilling to leam by any good 
 means. "t Burnet says, that " he was most unhappily subtle- 
 and metaphysical ; and Tillotson thought him too much bent 
 on making his own opinions " the rule and standard for all 
 other men's.'' We can understand from these testimonies, 
 that Baxter had " an unfortunate propensity for multiplying 
 and aggravating the points in dispute." But his failings are as 
 nothing, when compared with his great and noble qualities. 
 As a preacher, Baxter had no equal ; — (except that tinker, 
 to hear whom prate, twelve hundred people would gather 
 together early in the dark winter mornings, — John Bunyan) ; 
 his eloquence was of the most fervid and impassioned kind, 
 which has caused it to be compared to a tempest. He wrote 
 more sermons, engaged in more controversies, and wrote more 
 books, than any Nonconformist of his age. He belonged to no 
 party, sided with no faction, but describes himself as a mere 
 catholic, owning good wherever he found it ; he was neither 
 
 * Life of Dr. John Owen, p. 107. Life of Sanderson, in Wordsworth's 
 Ecc. Biog. vol. iv. p. 458. 
 
 t In 1680, Bishop Lloyd invited Howe to meet him, in order to 
 ascertain what concessions would satisfy the Nonconformists. Howe asked 
 if he should bring Baxter with him ? But this the Bishop positively 
 forbade. Howe then proposed Dr. Bates; and was answered, "that no 
 man could be more proper." Life of Howe, p. 271. Baxter, part ii. 
 pp. 364, 365. 
 
79 
 
 a Calvinist nor an Arminian. Churchmen did not like him, 
 because he would not conform to the church ; and Dissenters 
 considered that he was too favourable to the church. He was 
 a man of a most comprehensive spirit ; he thought that the 
 Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and Ten Commandments, contained 
 all that is necessary to salvation.* To shew his Catholic 
 spirit, he said, he would hold communion with all branches of 
 the church, if no sinful act were made a condition; so he 
 would go occasionally to the churches of the Lutherans, Greeks, 
 or Abassines, if he were in those countries, t On the subject 
 of oaths and declarations, his views were enlightened ; he 
 thought them " snares to the conscience ;" it were better for 
 men not to take them, but when taken, men should be careful 
 to keep them.:|: He was honoured by Archbishop Usher ; 
 Sir Matthew Hale and Boyle were his dear friends ; and 
 men of all parties speak of his writings in the highest terms. § 
 Doddridge says : " Baxter is my particular favourite. It is 
 impossible to tell how much I am charmed with the devotion, 
 good sense, and pathos, which is everywhere to be found in 
 him." Bishop Wilkins says : " Mr. Baxter had cultivated 
 every subject he had handled, and if he had lived in the 
 primitive times, he had been one of the Fathers of the 
 Church." When Boswell asked Dr. Samuel Johnson what 
 works of Baxter he should read, the doctor answered, " Read 
 any of them, they are all good." Isaac Barrow, pronounces 
 
 * Baxter says of himself, that he plunged very early into controversies, 
 reading the schoolmen, which -were suited to his disposition, Aquinas, Scotus, 
 Durandus, Ockam, and their disciples. Part i. pp. 6, 97 ; part iii. pp. 103, 
 182. Burnet, vol. i. p. 309. Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 401. Neal, 
 vol. iv. p. 347. 
 
 t Baxter, part i. pp. 64, 65, 130, 133 ; part ii. pp. 198, 437. 
 
 X "Needless oaths, and covenants, and professions are more useful 
 to Satan as engines to tear, than to the church as means of concord." 
 Baxter, Appendix, p, 132, 
 
 § His works are stated by Calamy as more than 120, besides prefaces to 
 various books. Baxter, part i. p. 114 ; Appendix, p. 123. 
 
80 
 
 this judgment : "His practical writings were never mended, 
 and his controversial ones seldom confuted."* 
 
 Although Baxter was the man to whom the Presbyterians 
 paid most deference, he seems not to have been so highly- 
 esteemed by churchmen as Manton, or Bates, or Calamy,t 
 Dr. Manton, a round, plump, jolly man, was more popular 
 with the church party than lean Baxter ; he was rector of 
 St. Paul's, Co vent Garden, London, and, like Dr. Bates, " was 
 high in the esteem of the Earl of Bedford, Earl of Manchester, 
 and other noble persons." Archbishop Usher called him "a 
 voluminous preacher ;" his sermons were long and sometimes 
 above the people. On one occasion he had been preaching 
 before the Lord Mayor, and was walking home in the evening, 
 when a poor man followed him, and asked him if he was the 
 gentleman who had preached before the Lord Mayor. He 
 replied, he was. " Sir," said the man, " I came with hopes of 
 getting some good to my soul, but I was greatly disappointed, 
 for I could not understand a great deal of what you said ; you 
 were quite above me." The doctor replied with tears, 
 " Friend, if I did not give you a sermon, you have given me 
 one, and by the grace of God, I will never play the fool to 
 preach before my Lord Mayor in such a manner again.":}: He 
 
 * Grainger's Biog. Hist, and Biog. Brit. Article, Baiter. Judgment 
 of several learned men concerning the Kev. Mr. Baxter. 
 
 t Baxter has been disparaged by some churchmen, and despised by 
 dissenters. Echard says : " Baxter was inferior to several of his brethren 
 in temper, judgment, and learning." Echard, p. 787. Kennet says : he 
 was " by education much inferior to many of his other brethren." Kennet, 
 vol. iii. p. 253. Mr. Palmer, the writer of the Nonconformists' Memorial, 
 complains of "those more knowing dissenters, who cannot mention the 
 name of Baxter without a sneer, nor hear him quoted without the suspicion 
 of heresy." vol. ii. p. 542. 
 
 X Lord Bolingbroke, writing to Swift, says " My next shall be as long 
 as one of Dr. Manton's sermons, who taught my youth to yawn, and 
 prepared me to be a High Churchman, that I might never hear him read, 
 nor read him more." Athense Oxon. Grainger's Biog. Hist. Noncon- 
 formists' Memorial, vol. i. p. 140. 
 
81 
 
 died in 1677, his funeral being attended, according to one who 
 was present, "with the vastest number of ministers of all 
 persuasions, that ever I saw together in my life, walking in 
 pairs, a Conformist with a Nonconformist. "* Dr. Bates was 
 rector of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London, and was con- 
 sidered the most polished preacher of his day. He might 
 have had any bishopric in the kingdom, if he would conform. 
 " He had a catholic spirit, and was for an union of all visible 
 Christians, upon moderate principles and practices. As long 
 as there was any hope, he made vigorous efforts for a compre- 
 hension." Calamy was more followed than any other London 
 minister. His week-day lecture ''was attended by many persons 
 of the greatest quality ; there being seldom so few as sixty 
 coaches." He had a chief hand in the restoration of the king, 
 but was flung into N'ewgate and suffered indignities, like many 
 of his brethren. 
 
 Amongst the moderate men who were driven out of the church 
 on St. Bartholomew's Day, there was no one superior to John 
 Howe for intellectual gifts. t He was the minister of Great 
 Torrington, in Devonshire. In his farewell sermon, he told his 
 people, who were all in tears, that " he had consulted his con- 
 science and could not be satisfied with the terms of conformity 
 fixed by law." J Whilst chaplain to Cromwell, he had oppor- 
 tunities of serving the persecuted Episcopal clergy ; and so 
 unselfish was he, that Cromwell said to him, " You have ob- 
 tained many favours for others ; I wonder when the time is to 
 come that you will solicit anything for yourself or your family." 
 Out of many of his kind acts, one is characteristic of his genial, 
 
 * Diaiy of Thoresby, vol. i. p. 7. 
 t Dr. John Owen was equal to Baxter and Howe in many respects, 
 but the Independents, whose champion he was, did not expect to be compre- 
 hended in the Church of England. 
 
 X Life of Howe, p. 134. 
 
liberal disposition. In 1 683, Cromwell appointed a committee 
 to examine all candidates for the ministry. Amongst others 
 who had to come before these Triers, as they were called, was 
 that worthy humourist, Dr. Thos. EuUer. He applied to Howe 
 for advice, saying, " You may observe, sir, that I am a somewhat 
 corpulent man, and I am to go through a very straight passage ; 
 I beg you would be so good as to give me a shove, and help me 
 through." Howe gave him a shove, by telling him what answer 
 to make to one of the subtle questions which the Triers were 
 apt to put, and the worthy Fuller passed satisfactorily. 
 
 Howe was remarkable for his " latitude and catholicity;" his 
 Arminian views caused him to be an object of suspicion to some 
 of the Nonconformists. On one occasion, his friend Bishop 
 Wilkins expressed surprise that he being Latitudinarian did not 
 conform. He replied that it was his latitude that made him a 
 ITonconformist.* He was highly regarded by the liberal church 
 divines, Tillotson, "Wilkins, Whichcot, Kidder, Fowler, and 
 such men. Like his friends Henry More and Cudworth, — the 
 leaders of the Cambridge or Platonic School, — he was an ardent 
 admirer of Plato, " the great pagan theologue," as he calls him. 
 So much respected was Howe, that when in Ireland, the bishop 
 of the diocese, with the full concurrence of the archbishop, 
 allowed him to preach in any church in the diocese, t It is 
 said of him, " He never made an enemy, and never lost a 
 friend."J In all his writings, there is hardly one extravagant 
 or fanatical expression ; his style is bad, but his thoughts are 
 sublime. Never was there a more amiable controversialist 
 than Howe ; Stillingfleet had him once for an opponent, and so 
 charmed was he with his gentleness, that he confessed " he 
 discoursed more like a gentleman than a divine, without any 
 
 * Howe's Life, p. 106. f Howe's Life, p. 176. 
 
 X Even that splenetic party-writer, "Wood, has not one ill-word for 
 Howe. Athense Oxon, Howe. 
 
83 
 
 mixture of rancour or sharpness." In 1684, Barlow, Bishop of 
 Lincoln, published a violent address to his clergy, on the neces- 
 sity of enforcing the laws against the lironconformists. Howe 
 wrote to him a most beautiful letter, concluding with expressing 
 his belief that he "should meet him [the bishop] one day in that 
 place where Luther and Zuinglius were well agreed."* When 
 he and his brethren were suffering the heaviest persecution, he 
 wrote of his persecutors these words : " I feel within myself an 
 unfeigned love and high estimation of divers of them, account- 
 ing them pious, worthy persons, and hoping to meet them in the 
 all-reconciling world." How beautiful ! The all-reconciling 
 world ! Such was Howe, the most philosophic, the most 
 majestic of Puritan divines. t 
 
 Some writers have considered Philip Henry the most attractive 
 character among the Nonconformists, and admit that his exclusion 
 from the church was one of the evils resulting from the Act of 
 Uniformity. J He was the minister of Worthenbury, near 
 Wrexham ; a meek, patient, pure-minded man ; cheerful 
 under persecutions, forgiving to his enemies ; in short, a very 
 faithful follower of his blessed Master. His worst enemies 
 said, his only fault was, that he was a Nonconformist. Before 
 the fatal St. Bartholomew's Day, he spent many days in prayer 
 and fasting; his nonconformity "was no rash act, but deli- 
 berate, and well-weighed in the balance of the sanctuary." 
 He read many books, he consulted eminent divines ; at Oxford, 
 he counselled with Fell, afterwards Bishop of Oxford ; at 
 Chester, he discoursed with the dean and principal clergy, but 
 
 * It is impossible to describe the gentleness of Howe's letter in reply to 
 Stillingfleet's sermon on " The Mischief of Separation." See Howe's Life, 
 pp. 254 to 266, 311. 
 
 t Robert Hall was an enthusiastic admirer of Howe. He said, " I 
 have derived more benefit from the works of Howe, than from those of all 
 other divines put together." Howe's Life, p. 323. Noble's Continuation 
 of Grainger, vol. ii. p. 150. | Carwithen's Hist. Church, vol. ii, p. 327. 
 
84 
 
 found their great argument to be, that if he did not conform 
 he would lose his preferment. This great argument did not 
 satisfy Philip Henry; much less did another. They said, 
 " You are a young man, and are you wiser than the king and 
 bishops?" Wiser than Eang Charles TL, Clarendon, and 
 Sheldon ! What presumption ! Yet the good man remained 
 unsatisfied, and made this entry in his diary : " God grant, I 
 may never be left to consult with flesh and blood in such 
 matters;" again, *'The Lord shew me what he would have 
 me to do, for I am afraid of nothing but sin."* His scmples 
 remaining, he was silenced on St. Bartholomew's Day. " The 
 will of the Lord be done," he writes. His reasons for not 
 conforming were these : He would not submit to be re- 
 ordained ;t and he could not declare his assent and consent to 
 everything in the Prayer Book, " for he thought that thereby 
 he should receive the Book itself, and every part thereof, 
 rubrics and all, both as true and good." He thought men 
 ought to enjoy the liberty which Christ has bought, and not 
 to be tied up by " snares and bonds." He would often say, 
 " Oaths are edge-tools, and not to be played with." After his 
 ejection, he attended his parish church and persuaded others to 
 do the same, " for still," saith he, " the Lord loveth the gates 
 of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob, and so do I." 
 For some years he preached only in a private manner, but 
 comforted himself by saying, that he had an opportunity of 
 instructing and exhorting those that were in company with 
 him, when walking to church. As he was regular in his 
 attendance at church, so he was careful to be at " the begin- 
 ning of the service, which he attended upon with reverence and 
 
 * Life of Philip Henry, pp. 109, 117. 
 t Dr. George Hall, the bishop of his diocese, confirmed him in his 
 objection by his unwarrantable conduct, in requiring the Puritans formally 
 to renounce their Presbyterian orders. — See the debate in the Lords on the 
 clause requiring Episcopal Ordination. Life of Philip Henry, p. 117. 
 
85 
 
 devotion ; standing all the time, even while the chapters were 
 read^ He diligently wrote the sermons ; always staid if the 
 ordinance of haptism was administered, but not if there was a 
 wedding." If the sermon is a good one, he thanks God for it \ 
 if it is a weak one, he says, " That's a poor sermon indeed out 
 of which no good lesson may be learned." One Sunday after- 
 noon, much was said in the sermon to prove the dissenters 
 schismatics, in a damnable state. When he came immediately 
 after to preach at his own house, before he began his sermon, 
 he said : " Perhaps some of you may expect now that I should 
 say something in answer to what we have heard, by which we 
 have been so severely charged, but truly, I have something 
 else to do ; and so without any further notice taken of it, 
 went on to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified." When he 
 preached, he usually prayed to God to bless the parish 
 minister, to whom he called himself an assistant in promoting 
 the common salvation of souls. His sou, Matthew Henry, 
 tells us that he " was a man of no party ; true catholic 
 Christianity was his very temper and genius." f He used to 
 say, " I am too much a catholic, to be a Roman Catholic." 
 The famous saying of Augustine was much admired by him : 
 " Let there be in things necessary, unity ; in things un- 
 necessary, liberty ; in all things, charity ; then, there need 
 not be in every punctilio, uniformity." Eor twenty-seven years 
 did he pray and labour for conciliatory measures, most earnestly 
 desiring to be restored to the church. At the revolution 
 (1689) he hoped that moderate dissenters would be taken into 
 the church, but when he heard the clergy saying, " As oaths, 
 subscriptions, and ceremonies, were imposed only to keep out 
 such men, they would never consent to their removal to let 
 
 ♦ Life of Philip Henry, pp. 123, 134. 
 t Preface to Philip Henry's Life, p. 7. 
 
86 
 
 them in again," he quite despaired, for **he saw himself 
 perfectly driven from them."* 
 
 Perhaps a still more remarkable instance of the successful 
 operation of the Act of Uniformity, — ["We will have an Act 
 so framed as will reach every Puritan in the kingdom]" — is 
 the case of Thomas Gouge. He had been appointed in Laud's 
 time vicar of St. Sepulchre's, London, where he remained 
 twenty-four years, discharging the duties of that large and 
 populous parish with exemplary zeal and fidelity. It was his 
 practice to catechize in the church, every morning throughout 
 the year, his poorer parishioners, especially the aged, who had 
 most leisure, -j- He was very diligent and charitable in visiting 
 the sick and destitute, giving away large sums of money. 
 When his parishioners were out of employment, " he set them 
 at work upon his own charge, buying flax and hemp for them 
 to spin, and what they spun he took off their hands, paying 
 them for their work, and then got it wrought into cloth, and sold 
 it as he could, chiefly among his friends, himself bearing the 
 whole loss." Those who were intimate with him say, that they 
 never saw anything in his conversation or conduct, deserving 
 blame. He so much disliked noise, and shew, and stir, in doing 
 good, that if his charities were mentioned, he would rather im- 
 pute them to any who had the least hand or part in them, than 
 assume anytliing himself. He was a man of a meek and quiet 
 spirit, always cheerful and always kind, free from all anger and 
 bitterness, ready to embrace and oblige all men ; allowing others 
 to differ from him, even in opinions that were very dear to him. 
 He loved all men who did fear God and work righteousness, 
 
 * Life of Philip Henry, pp. 153, 196. 
 
 t For a full account of this excellent man, see Tillotson's Sermon "at 
 the Funeral of the Rev. Mr. Thos. Gouge." Sermon xxiii. in vol, i. 9th 
 edition, 1728. Baxter, part iii. pp. 148, 190, 
 
87 
 
 however much they might differ from him in things less neces- 
 sary. When St. Bartholomew's Day came, he could not satisfy 
 himself about the new terms of communion, and retired from 
 his living, saying in his quiet, meek way, " There is no need of 
 me here in London, where there are so many worthy ministers. 
 I may do as much or more good in another way, which can give 
 no offence ;" hut he continued to attend the church, and em- 
 ployed himself in doing good. " He sustained much loss by the 
 great fire of London, so that he had but «£150 per annum left ; 
 and even then he constantly disposed of £100 in works of 
 charity," The manner in which he spent a portion of this 
 money, seems rather odd for a schismatic. He, with the aid of 
 some pious friends, causes to be printed, 8000 copies of the 
 Bible and Prayer Booh in the Welsh language ; also the Church 
 Catechism, and The Whole Duty of Man.^ Taking a supply 
 of these books, *' he always once, but usually twice, a year, at 
 his own charge, travelled over a great part of Wales, none of 
 the best countries to travel in," to distribute them. Whilst the 
 benevolent old man (past three score years and ten) was giving 
 away Bibles and Prayer Books, Church Catechisms and the 
 Whole Duty of Man, he was excommunicated '' for preaching 
 occasionally, though he went constantly to the parish churches 
 and communicated there." What amazing folly ! What exceed- 
 ing wickedness, to drive out of the church these patterns of 
 primitive Christianity ! 
 
 Turning from these holy men, it will be but just to name the 
 leaders of the two parties in the church, those who promoted 
 and those who opposed the expulsion of the Puritans. The 
 historian of the Puritans, in considering who were the authors 
 and promoters of the fatal Act of Uniformity, gives the first 
 
 * Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. vol. iv. p, 330, The Life of Thomas Firmin, 
 p. 43, Edition 1791. 
 
88 
 
 place to Clarendon, and the second to Sheldon.* Yet it must 
 be remembered that Clarendon did not approve of all the 
 clauses in the Act of Uniformity, was not probably in favour 
 of the alterations made by the bishops in the Prayer Book, and 
 firmly opposed the vindictive efforts of the royalists in other 
 respects. His guilt consists in the deception which he prac- 
 tised on the Presbyterians, in violating the compact made with 
 them in the declaration from Breda, in baffling the Convention- 
 Parliament and procuring the rejection of the Healing 
 declaration, in not restraining the church party, and finally, in 
 giving such men as Sheldon and Morley, their power for 
 mischief His conduct in civil, was much more respectable 
 than in church matters ; for his ecclesiastical measures are a 
 series of political blunders, and evidences of a growing bigotry. 
 His friend, the virtuous Lord Southampton, said of him, " He 
 is a true Protestant, and an honest Englishman, and while he 
 enjoys power, we are secure of our laws, liberties, and religion. "t 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury was Juxon. He was with 
 Charles I. at his death, who called him that good man, and 
 such he seems to have been. The mildness of his temper, the 
 gentleness of his manners, and the integrity of his life, gained 
 him universal esteem ; and even the haters of prelacy could 
 not hate Juxon. In the long Parliament, when Bishops were 
 most unpopular, no complaint was made against him ; he was 
 never molested, and remained in his palace at Fulham, re- 
 spected by all. The great and good Lord Falkland was wont 
 
 * Collier says : " The rhetoric and interest of this great minister 
 [Clarendon] might possibly make an impression on both Houses, and oc- 
 casion the passing the Act." Collier, vol. viii. p. 434. Neal, vol. iv. p. 
 379. 
 
 t " It is to his memory," says Burnet, " that we owe being a free 
 people, for he with his two great friends, the Duke of Ormond and the Earl 
 of Southampton, checked the forwardness of some who were desirous to load 
 the Crown with prerogative and revenue." State Trials, vol. v. p. 838. 
 Clarendon's Life, vol. 2, pp. 278, 280. Fox's Hist. p. 22. 
 
to say — He never knew any one that a pair of lawne sleeves 
 had not altered from himself, but only Bishop Juxon ; he was 
 neither ambitions before he became a bishop, nor proud after.* 
 He was a peaceable man, and told one of the ejected ministers 
 " he was not for going high against the Presbyterians."t 
 
 The man who played the leading part in ecclesiastical affairs 
 at the Restoration was Sheldon. If at that time Clarendon 
 carried the crown in his pocket, Sheldon had the keys of the 
 church. J Before the wars he was chaplaiu to Lord Coventry, 
 who recommended him to King Charles I. as a man well versed 
 in politics. His loyalty brought upon him ill-usage from the Long 
 Parliament ; and when at the Restoration, he was placed on the 
 pinnacle of power, being made Bishop of London, and shortly 
 after on the death of the aged Juxon, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, he seemed more intent on revenging his own wrongs, 
 than healing the church's wounds. It can scarcely be said that 
 Sheldon betrayed the Presbyterians ; yet an honourable man 
 would have considered liimself pledged to fulfil the Royalist 
 declarations, that there should be no revenge attempted, and all 
 animosities should be forgotten. And independently of these 
 promises, we expect to see in clergymen something of the spirit 
 of Christianity. But Sheldon's conduct at the Savoy Confer- 
 ence, — the Act of Uniformity, the blame of which fell heaviest 
 on Sheldon, — the unrelenting cruelty with which he hounded 
 on the clergy by his circular letters, to fresh persecutions of the 
 
 * Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. p. 576. 
 
 t The character given of him by Sir Philip "Warwick, is fully justified 
 by impartial writers. See Warwick's Memoirs, pp, 100 — 104. Grainger's 
 Biog. Hist. Baxter, part i. p. 25 ; part ii. p. 433. 
 
 :j: Isaac Walton, writing about 1678, says that Sheldon was appointed 
 by the king to recommend clergymen for the vacant bishoprics. Pepys, in 
 1 662, speaks of him as " now one of the most powerful men in England 
 with the king." Lord Dartmouth says, that he was known to be Clarendon's 
 creature. Kennet, vol. iii. p. 267. Life of Seth Ward, by Dr. W. Pope. 
 Burnet, vol. iv. p. 608. 
 Q 
 
. 90 
 
 IvToiiconformists, — are not only shameful violations of the 
 promises made to the Presbyterians, but awful examples of the 
 slight depth to which the spirit of religion had penetrated into 
 his heart. Sheldon had no private vices ; he was neither 
 unchaste, intemperate, nor covetous ; he was generous, courte- 
 ous, and affable ; his polished manner pleased all who had 
 intercourse with him. Sir Francis Wenman used to say " He 
 was born and bred to be Archbishop of Canterbury."* At the 
 time of the Great Plague (1665) he distinguished himself by his 
 charitable exertions for the poor suff'erers. He rivalled in his 
 munificence the great prelates of the middle ages, for his account 
 book, found at his death, shewed that his gifts in seventeen years 
 amounted to the splendid sum of £66,000. As a theologian he 
 takes no position, and in every particular except munificence is 
 inferior to those great divines who make his time the Augustan 
 age of the Anglican church. Though well versed in politics, 
 he was no statesman, being imbued with the passions and pre- 
 judices of his day, short-sighted, and narrow-minded. His 
 ruling passion was detestation of the Puritans, whom he con- 
 sidered plagues and pests to the church. His chaplain and 
 panegyrist, Dr. Samuel Parker, tells us that "he freed the 
 Church of England from these plagues for many years," and 
 " guarded every pass and avenue with such diligence " that all 
 the efforts of the schismatics to be received into the church again 
 were baffled, f When the Act of Uniformity was being dis-- 
 cussed, the Earl of Manchester said, " I am afraid the terms are 
 so hard that many of the ministers will not comply." Sheldon 
 replied, " I am afraid they will." On another occasion, when 
 
 * Clarendon's Life, vol. i. p. 49. 
 t Burnet says, that the blame of all this fell heaviest on Sheldon. 
 Oldmixon also speaks of Sheldon as the prime mover in the Act of Uniformity. 
 "To him the Protestant religion, and English liberty, are indebted for the 
 Act of Uniformity and other' stinging Acts against Dissenters." Oldmixon, 
 p. ol5. Bnrnet, vol. i. p. 319. 
 
91 
 
 !Dr. Allen said, " It is pity the door of the church is 
 so strait ; " Sheldon answered, " It is no pity at all ; if we 
 had thought so many "of them would have conformed, we 
 would have made it straiter."* But his schismatical and 
 persecuting policy, sprung more from political motives, and 
 dislike of the manners of the Puritans, than from religious 
 bigotry ; for he seemed not, says Burnet, to have a deep sense 
 of religion, if any at all, speaking of it as an engine of govern- 
 ment and a matter of policy. He was indifferent to men's 
 theological opinions, saying, the chief point of religion was a 
 good life ; if men led upright, sober, chaste lives, then, but 
 not till then, they might look upon themselves as religious ; 
 otherwise it would signify nothing what form of religion they 
 followed or to what church they belonged. He did not, says 
 his chaplain, set so much value on prayers as others did ; was 
 unwilling to cant much about religion, and liked not people of 
 over strict lives,t whom he had no mind to imitate. Bishop 
 Henchmau recommending a clergyman to him for preferment, 
 the archbishop said : " I believe your lordship is mistaken in 
 the man, I doubt he is too puritanical ;" whereto the bishop 
 replied : "I assure your grace he is not ; for he will drink a 
 glass of wine freely. "J He was a facetious man, fond of 
 drollery, especially at the expense of the Puritans. When a 
 Mr. Hickeringill was ordained to a cure in Colchester, a place 
 notorious for Puritanism, Sheldon pleasantly told him, that he 
 must break his shins there in breaking the ice, and it was 
 but a just penance for his youthful pranks, in being a soldier 
 
 * Calamy's Baxter, pp. 170, 181. Neal, vol. iv. p. 379. 
 
 t Burnet, speaking of the heavenly-minded Leighton, says : " Sheldon 
 did not much like his great strictness, in which he had no mind to imitate 
 him," Parker's Commentaries. Burnet, vol. i. pp. 235, 303 Biog. 
 
 Brit. Article, Sheldon. 
 
 X Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. ii. p. 25. ' 
 
and seaman, under the two great Hectors of Europe, CromweU 
 and Charles Gustavns.* During that time of sin and shame, 
 when the court swarmed with women who had no virtue, and 
 men who professed no religion, with Barbara Palmers and ISTell 
 Gwynns, Buckhursts and Sedleys, so that a clergyman declared 
 he thought " hell was broke loose," Sheldon was then dispensing 
 splendid hospitality at Lambeth. Every morning the arch- 
 bishops, chaplains, and gentlemen officers met in a sort of 
 still-house, where a good woman provided them such liquors as 
 they liked best ; this room they called their coffee-house. 
 In the common hall of that noble palace, every day a sumptu- 
 ous dinner was spread ; bishops and persons of quality were 
 there, the high tory magnates of the day, secretaries of state, 
 judges, his grace's chaplains and officers. After the good 
 cheer, the archbishop rose, and retired to his withdrawing 
 room ; the chaplains and gentlemen officers to their lodgings^ 
 to drink and smoke.t It was a favourite amusement in those 
 days to mimic the Puritans. Pepys, dining at Lambeth, 
 witnessed a performance of this kind. He says, ^' A noble 
 house, and well-furnished with good pictures and furniture, 
 and noble attendance and good order, and a great deal of 
 company though an ordinary day ; and exceeding great cheer, 
 nowhere better, or so much, that ever I think I saw for an 
 
 ordinary table Most of the company gone, and 
 
 I going ; I heard by a gentleman of a sermon that was to be 
 there, and so I stayed to hear it, thinking it serious, till by 
 and by the gentlemen told me it was a mockery, by one Cornet 
 Bolton, a very gentleman-like man, that behind a chair did 
 pray and preach like a Presbyter Scot, with all the possible 
 imitation in grimaces and voice, and his text about the 
 
 * Thoresby's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 15. Baxter, part iii. p. 141. 
 t Life of Anthony Wood, Aug. 25th, 1669, Feb. 9th, 1671. Lives of 
 the Norths, vol. i. p. 150, vol. iii. pp. 307, 310. 
 
93 
 
 hanging up their harps upon the willows, and a serious good 
 sermon too, exclaiming against bishops, . . . till it made 
 us all burst ; but I did wonder to have the bishop at this time 
 to make himself sport with things of this kind, but I perceive 
 it was shewn him as a rarity, and he took care to have the 
 room-door shut; but there were about twenty gentlemen 
 there."* This is a curious scene for an archbishop's palace ; 
 even Pepys, who was by no means puritanically inclined, 
 wondered at it — Cornet Bolton preaching with all possible 
 grimaces on hanging their harps upon the willows, till it made 
 us all burst, our drollery-loving archbishop taking care to have 
 the room-door shut — no more need be said of Sheldon. 
 
 Morley was the next most influential man, Clarendon^s 
 particular friend, to whose daughter Anne, afterwards first 
 wife of James II., he had acted as confessor from the time she 
 was twelve years old. It was Morley who had been so busy 
 before the Eestoration amongst the Presbyterians, talking 
 about moderation and charity, assuring them that all differences 
 would be settled in a National Synod and free Parliament, 
 that the king knew how much they had done for him, and he 
 was " sure they would have no cause to repent of it." Having 
 hugged and caressed the Presbyterians, he, like Clarendon, 
 dropped the mask when it was safe to do so, and went heartily 
 into Sheldon's plans.*!- He was first made Bishop of Worces- 
 ter, and in 1662, translated to Winchester, Charles remarking, 
 ^ he would be none the richer for it." It is pleasant to be 
 able to say, that Morley, as he grew older, professed a desire 
 that the Presbyterians should be restored ; and became more 
 moderate, of which several instances are recorded. He could 
 
 * Pepys's Diary, vol. ii. p. 342. Baxter, part iii. p. 15. Aubrey's 
 Iiv«s, Article Petty. 
 
 t Clarendon Papers, pp. 722, 728, 738, Burnet, vol. i. pu 537. 
 
94 
 
 speak of his old tutor, a noted Puritan minister,* as an 
 " honest man," taking care to add " Tvho is now in heaven ;" 
 he would kindly talk to the ejected ministers, and endeavour 
 to win them back to the church. He became averse to per- 
 secution, as appears from the following incident : — The zealous 
 mayor of some country town, desiring to distinguish himself 
 during his year of office, consulted the Bishop as to what 
 method he should take, eJGfectually to root out the " fanatics ;" 
 the Bishop made no reply, but politely ordered a glass of 
 canary. Our zealous mayor then repeated his question, to 
 which the Bishop gave no particular answer, but ordered 
 another glass of canary. Several times did the mayor put the 
 question, and each time a glass of canary was ordered. At last, 
 when the company who had been present had withdrawn, the 
 venerable Bishop, for he was now grown old, gravely advised 
 the mayor, " To let these people live quietly, in many of whom 
 he was satisfied there was the true fear of God ; and who were 
 not likely to be gained by rigour and severity." 
 
 Gunning was, alter Morley, the most active in the Savoy 
 Conference ; he stuck at nothing, says Baxter, spoke the most 
 frequently of all, being a good debater, and a man of extensive 
 reading. His life was strict, and mortified ; like Laud he was 
 zealous for the revival of ancient ceremonies, and customs, holy 
 water, lights, &c., saying the church 'ought to have more 
 ceremonies, not fewer. He was noted as a preacher, being 
 much run after by the ladies, " because," as Charles used to 
 say, •' they did not understand him."f Pepys heard him 
 
 * Mr. John Dod, author of " Dod's Sayings," who instructed Morley 
 in Hebrew. A sheet of his sayings was often pasted on the walls of cottages 
 in the last century. One of Dod's sayings was, " Sanctified afflictions are 
 spiritual promotions." 
 
 t When young North preached before the king at Newmarket, one of 
 the ladies being asked how she liked the sermon said, " He was a handsome 
 man, and had pretty doctrine." Lives of the Norths, vol. iii. p. 312. 
 Burnet, vol. ii. p. 428. Baxter, part ii. pp. 340, 364. 
 
95 
 
 preach on one occasion at St. Paul's, and says, " I did liear 
 him tell a story, which he did persuade us to beUeve to be 
 true, that St. John and the Virgin Mary did appear to 
 Gregory, a bishop, at his prayers, to be confirmed in the faith, 
 which I did wonder to hear from him."* Gunning was a 
 persecutor to the end of his days ; and in his theological 
 zeal, sometimes forgot his dignity. On one occasion he 
 challenged all dissenters to a public controversy, appointing 
 three days for the disputation. On the first day he dealt with 
 the Presbyterians and Independents ; on the second, with the 
 Baptists ; on the third, with the Quakers, who had collected in 
 such numbers, and railed at him so effectually, that he retreated 
 to his palace, followed by a multitude of people, who plucked 
 his sleeves, crying, " The hireHng fleeth ! the hireling fleeth !" 
 He would go to the meetings of dissenters to break them up ; 
 and once sat on the bench of magistrates at the Quarter 
 Sessions, expecting some dissenters to be fined; but the 
 chairman would inflict no fine, saying to the Bishop, " If we 
 would have good neighbours, we must be such ourselves." 
 
 The most devoted followers and supporters of Sheldon and 
 Morley were Henchman, Gunning, Pierce, Barwick, Thorndike, 
 Sparrow, and Peter Heylyn; this last had been Laud's 
 favourite chaplain ; his active malice was useful to that prelate 
 in his Star Chamber prosecutions. All of these men had more 
 or less of Laud's vindictive, persecuting spirit. 
 
 Of the bishops who took part in the Savoy Conference, 
 Sanderson and Cosins were the most learned. Sanderson, 
 Bishop of Lincoln, had been at the beginning of the ware a 
 church reformer, and was much esteemed by the Long 
 Parliament for his learning and virtue. The lawn sleeves may 
 have lessened, as they commonly do, his reforming tendencies, 
 * Pepys's Diary, vol. i. p. ] 26. 
 
yet still lie was inclined to moderation.* On tlie evening after 
 the royal assent was given to the Act of Uniformity, he said to 
 a clergyman who was with him, " that more was imposed on 
 ministers than he wished had been." He sent for a clergyman 
 in his diocese whom he esteemed, and earnestly pressed him to 
 remain in his living ; when he found that the clergyman could 
 not satisfy himself on several points, the bishop lamented it, 
 saying, that he was sorry some things were carried so high, 
 "which should not have been, if he could have prevented 
 it."f A short time before his death, " he made it his request 
 that the ejected ministers might be used again ; but his 
 request was rejected by them that had outAvitted him, aa 
 being too late. "J 
 
 Cosins, Bishop of Durham, was better acquainted with the 
 Fathers, Councils, and Canons, than most of the church 
 divines engaged in the Savoy Conference; his ecclesiastical 
 views were high, and he said some severe things, but was more 
 famihar and affable than the other bishops, and willing to 
 make some concessions. He was a man of a free, generous 
 disposition, and lived like a prince at Durham, where the 
 cathedral service was maintained in something of its ancient 
 splendour. The richly-embroidered copes and vestments, the 
 tapers and basins upon the high altar, the pictures, troubled 
 exceedingly the Puritanic mind.§ He treated several of the 
 ejected ministers with courtesy and kindness. He expressed 
 
 ♦ He, with Usher, Hall, Prideaux, "Williams, and others, drew up a 
 scheme of church-reform by order of the House of Lords. March 12th, 1641. 
 Collier, vol. viii. p. 198. 
 
 t Neal, vol. iv. p. 379. 
 
 X He died a few months after the Act of Uniformity was passed. Baxter, 
 p. 363. 
 
 § Pepys, writing to a friend in 1682, says, that he had been at Durham, 
 " where the bishop seems to live more like a prince of this, than a preacher 
 the other world." Correspondence of Pepys, vol. ii. p. 62. Thoresby's 
 Diary, vol. i. pp. 46^ 61. 
 
97 
 
 to the minister of Bishop's Auckland his willingness to ordain 
 hiin privately, if he woidd conform, and in a form to which 
 many Presbyterians had no objection. " When Dr. Cart- 
 wright took occasion, in the presence of Bishop Cosins, to 
 reflect upon Mr. Lomax, a Nonconformist minister, which was 
 at that time very customary, the bishop said to him, ' Doctor, 
 hold your tongue ; for to my certain knowledge John Lomax 
 is a learned man.' "'^ In his will these words occur : " I take 
 it to be my duty, and that of all the bishops and ministers of 
 the church, to do our utmost endeavour, that at last an 
 end may be put to the differences of religion, or at least that 
 they may be lesseiied."t 
 
 Dr. John Pearson, afterwards Bishop of Chester, gained the 
 esteem of the Presbyterians, by his conduct at the Savoy Con- 
 ference. He disputed, says Baxter, accurately, soberly, and 
 calmly, and procured himself a great deal of respect from the 
 ministers ; and a persuasion, that had he been independent he 
 would have been for peace ; and that if all had been in his 
 power, it would have gone well ; he was the strength and honour 
 of the bishops' cause, but the ministers doubted whether he 
 heartily maintained it. An incident occurred during the Con- 
 ference, which indicates a liberal tendency in this great divine. 
 When Baxter and his party were stating the old Puritan griev- 
 ance, of being compelled to kneel at the reception of the Lord's 
 Supper, Pearson replied, that the Prayer Book did not exclude 
 those who did not kneel ; but Morley would not allow such a 
 
 * Heynolds, Bishop of Norwich, hearing some young clergymen laughing 
 at one of the ejected ministers, rehuked them, saying, " He has more solid 
 divinity in his little finger, than all of you have in your bodies." Noncon- 
 formists' Memorial, vol. i. p. 489 ; vol. ii. p. 275. 
 
 t Cosins was esteemed by the Nonconformists. In the Nonconformists* 
 Memorial, he is called " a prelate of great integrity, how high soever his 
 notions were as to ecclesiastical polity." Baxter, p. 363. Neal, vol. iv. 
 p. 396. 
 
98 
 
 liberal construction, and insisted on the exclusive sense.* Burnet 
 speaks of him in very high terms : " He was in all respects the 
 greatest divine of the age ; a man of great learning, strong rea- 
 son, and a clear judgment." His book on the Apostles' Creed 
 is one of the most finished theological works in our language, -f 
 
 There were several bishops who disapproved of the Act of 
 Uniformity. Laney, Bishop of Peterborough, visiting his dio- 
 cese a short time before St. Bartholomew's Day, told some of 
 his clergy that he must enforce the Act, adding, " not I, but the 
 law." He afterwards told a clergyman who had some scruples, 
 that " he could look through his fingers," and he allowed a 
 worthy Nonconformist to continue preaching for some years 
 near his residence. Herbert Crofts, Bishop of Hereford, was a 
 conscientious, charitable, and pious man, " a sincere Protestant, 
 and a true son, if not a father, of the Church of England." He 
 said, "he wished the church doors were wider," and in 1675, 
 wrote a short pamphlet in favour of moderation, which was 
 attacked with fury and bitterness by the High Church zealots. J 
 
 There was at this time no lack of great and good men in the 
 church, whose works are monuments of their piety, their elo- 
 quence, their learning. The church had sustained a great loss 
 in the death of Dr. Henry Hammond. Upon the same day on 
 which the Parliament met that restored the king, this devout 
 
 * Baxter, pp. 346, 364. 
 
 t Pearson edited and wrote a preface to The Golden Remains of the 
 ever-memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eton ; in the preface Pearson states that 
 " his high veneration" for Hales prompted him to the work. One of Hales's 
 sayings was : "I would renounce the religion of the Church of England 
 to-morrow, if it obliged me to believe that any other Christians would be 
 damned ; and nobody would conclude another man to be damned, who did 
 not wish him so." Athenge Oxon. Stillingfleet's Irenicum. Eehearsal 
 Transprosed. Clarendon's Life, vol. i. p. 53. 
 
 + It is caUed " The Naked Truth." See ''- Mr. Smirke ; or, the Divine 
 in Mode," which is a reply from Andrew Marvell to an attack upon it. 
 Evelyn's Diary, Feb. 20th, 1676; Athenge Oxon, Baxter, part iii. pp. 109, 
 175. 
 
99 
 
 Christian and learned divine was taken to his rest. It was 
 intended to make him. Bishop of "Worcester, and as he was a 
 moderate man, it was thought that he would have been in favour 
 of healing measures ; for he said, that twenty years' calamity 
 should have taught men more charity and brought them to 
 repentance and brotherly love.* He held the new high views 
 concerning the divine right of bishops ; yet, says Baxter, I took 
 his death for a great loss, for his piety and wisdom would sure 
 have hindered much of the violence that followed, t And it 
 cannot be doubted that such would have been the case, for thus 
 did this holy man pray in his last sickness : " Lord, let no 
 unreasonable stiffness of those that are in the right, no perverse 
 obstinacy of those that are in the wrong, hinder the closing of 
 
 our wounds Molhfy all exasperated minds, take 
 
 off all animosities and prejudices, contempt and heartburnings, 
 and by uniting their hearts prepare for the reconciling their 
 opinions.":}: 
 
 Of all the clergy, no one had so strong a claim to high 
 preferment as Jeremy Taylor. He had been one of the late 
 king's chaplains, and had suffered much for his loyalty to his 
 church and king, having never bowed the knee to Baal-Cromwell, 
 Baal-Covenant, or Baal-Engagement. In learning, he had only 
 one equal amongst the old clergy, Sanderson ; in eloquence, he 
 has never been excelled. Some of his greatest pieces had 
 already appeared, proving him to be the most splendid luminary 
 that had adorned the Anglican church. He was a man of blame- 
 less life and ardent piety, and in every way fitted to occupy the 
 highest place in the church ; but the writer of the Liberty of 
 
 * Burnet, vol. i. p. 304. Fell's Life of Hammond. Baxter, part ii. 
 pp. 210, 338. 
 
 t Baxter, part i. p. 97 ; part ii. pp. 149, 208, 210. 
 
 X See Hammond's Works for the two excellent prayers composed on his 
 death-bed, giyen at the end of the first volume, 1684. 
 
100 
 
 Prophesying, — a defence of Religious Liberty, only inferior to 
 the Areopagitica, the most splendid of Milton's prose works, — 
 was banished to an obscure bishopric in Ireland ; whether his 
 liberality or piety were the cause, it is hard to say.* 
 
 * Heber suggests that Charles might wish^a man of Taylor's piety, at a 
 safe distance ; perhaps Sheldon liked him as little as he did Leighton. 
 
101 
 
 CHAPTEB IV. 
 
 RISE OF THE LIBERAL OR LATITUDTNARIA.N PARTY. — SOUTHAMPTON, HALE, 
 
 WILKIN8, BOYLE, TILL0T80N, STILLINGFLEET. THE CLARENDON CODE. 
 
 ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE THE PRESBYTERIANS. — THE LIBERAL CLERGY 
 AND THE HIGH-FLYERS. — DR. SAMUEL PARKER. 
 
 The statesmen and divines who were opposed to the narrow 
 and intolerant policy of Clarendon and Sheldon, were too few 
 to render their opposition effectual, but they were men of great 
 weight, and through their influence, liberal views made steady 
 progress in the Anglican church. The originators and earliest 
 disciples of the liberal or latitudinarian school, from which 
 came forth our Tillotsons, Lockes, and Hoadleys, were, — Selden, 
 whose motto, " Above all things. Liberty," written in the fly- 
 leaf of his books, tells of the unq[uenchable love of mental 
 freedom, which glowed within him, — Lord Falkland — his friends 
 the immortal Chillingworth and the ever-memorable John 
 Hales, —and Jeremy Taylor, who in his famous work, The 
 Liberty of Prophesying, proves that the fundamental doctrines 
 of Christianity are few, and contained in the Apostles' Creed.* 
 
 At the Eestoration there was a small band of illustrious men, 
 who had imbibed liberal views, — Sir Matthew Hale, Bishop 
 Wilkins, Cudworth, Henry More, Whitchcot, the Hon. Eobert 
 Boyle, Patrick, TiUotson, and Stillingfleet. They were mostly 
 Cambridge men, and generally admirers of Plato. 
 
 * Hales's tract on Schism, appeared in 1636 ; Chillingworth' s great 
 work, The Religion of Protestants a Safe "Way to Salvation, in 1638; The 
 Liberty of Prophesying, in 1647. Lord Falkland propably derived his 
 liberalism from the continental writers. Aubrey's Lives, Falkland and 
 Hales, Athense Oxon and Fasti. Clarendon's Life, vol. i. pp. 53, 92, 
 Hallara's Literature of Europe, vol. viii. pp. 72-80, 105-115, 660. Bayle's 
 Hist. Diet. Daille. Tillotson's Works, vol. iii. p. 443. 
 
102 
 
 The highest in rank of the more liberal minded men, was 
 the Earl of Southampton. He and Clarendon were the chief 
 ministers of the king, but he is said to have been a lazy man, 
 and let Clarendon have too much his own way. He was a man 
 of high honour, great virtue, and one of the very few Eoyalists 
 who preserved a just regard for the liberties of the people. He 
 was not believed by the bishops, says Clarendon, to have an 
 affection keen enough for the government of the church j and 
 the disgust which a man of his sentiments must have felt at the 
 proceedings in church and state, is said to have determined him 
 to quit the king's service.* When the king was restored, he 
 wished " the design that had been much talked of during the 
 wars, of moderating matters, both with relation to the govern- 
 ment of the church, and the worship and ceremonies j " to be 
 carried out. He was annoyed with Clarendon for giving way 
 to the bishops, and for some time there was a coldness between 
 these two statesmen, f 
 
 The most eminent member of the liberal party was Sir 
 Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England, ** allowed on all 
 hands to be the most profound lawyer of his time. "J He had 
 enjoyed the honour aiid advantage of being the intimate friend 
 of Selden, from whom he may have derived his aversion to 
 restraints upon religious freedom ; oaths and declarations, he 
 thought, entangled the conscience. He was a devout church- 
 man, and for forty years never neglected attending church on 
 Sunday. In his advice to his grandchildren, he says, *'At 
 church, let your carriage be decent and reverend ; sitting at 
 
 * Fox's Hist, of James II. p. 23. 
 
 t A pleasing instance of his consistency is to be found in Clarendon's 
 Hist., vol. i. p. 442. Burnet, vol. i. p. 390. Clarendon's Life, vol. iii. 
 p. 788. Fox's Hist, of James II. pp. 22, 23. 
 
 X These are the words of Roger North, whose Tory principles lead him 
 to depreciate Hale. Lives of the Norths, vol. i. p. 121. Yet see the 
 Examen, p. 530. 
 
103 
 
 sermon with your hat off; kneeling upon your knees at 
 prayers ; and standing up at the Creed and Gloria Patri, and 
 at the reading of any part of the canonical Scriptures ; this 
 hath been my custom for forty years in aU times." On Christ- 
 mas-day, for which he had much reverence, he regularly 
 received the Lord's Supper, and for many years wrote some 
 verses on the birth of the Saviour to express the great joy 
 which was in his heart. But he was so averse to hypocrisy 
 and cant, that he concealed his private devotions, and would 
 seldom speak about the practical part of religion, which 
 somewhat troubled his friend Baxter, until he discovered the 
 true cause. His most intimate friend was Bishop Wilkins, 
 but he associated with most of the latitudinarian divines ; 
 and with Baxter loved to converse on metaphysical subjects. 
 He foresaw tlie dangers attending the Eestoration, and has 
 recorded the evils which would probably follow, in a paper 
 written a few days before the return of the king.* He says, 
 "We are like foolish passengers in a storm, that when the 
 boat reels too much on one side, run all to the other ; which doth 
 not cure but increase the danger. At the beginning of the 
 troubles, there was too much splendour and formality, &c. ; 
 our ecclesiastical government was too tyrannical and sharp, 
 and our cure was to have none at all." He feared that the 
 Restoration would carry men into insolence and insultation 
 over the oppressed party ; that men would become proud, 
 vain, loose and profane, insulting, vindictive, justifying 
 themselves by saying, — "It is but a just retribution," — and 
 resort to extreme measures. How these fears were fulfilled, 
 we have seen.t Whilst he blamed the Puritans for being too 
 
 * See his " Considerations concerning the present and late occurrences, 
 &c., Way 13th, 1660." It is given in Williams's Life of Sir Matthew 
 Hale. 
 
 t See the two papers Considerations, &c., and Observations, &c., in 
 Williams's Life of Sir Matthew Hale. 
 
104 
 
 eager and warm, breaking the cliiircli for little tilings, he 
 considered that men of tender consciences should not be forced 
 to practice that which they believed to be sinful. He held, 
 as Jeremy Taylor and Baxter, that the fundamental doctrines 
 of Christianity are few and intelligible, and contained in the 
 Apostles' Creed. He censured on the one hand those rash 
 people who unchurch aU the reformed churches which have 
 not bishops, revile pious !N'onconformists, and cry up ceremo- 
 nies as if aU religion consisted in them ; and on the other, 
 those extreme dissenters who cry down the established church 
 as popish or anti-christian, and despise churchmen as formalists, 
 without the power of godliness. The Act of Uniformity grieved 
 him ; he thought that many of the Presbyterians had merited 
 highly in the business of the king's restoration, and at least 
 deserved that the terms of conformity should not be made 
 harder than before. It was sad to him, to see so many worthy 
 ministers silenced, the church weakened, Papists strengthened, 
 the cause of piety and love greatly wronged and hindered. 
 He helped the suffering ministers ; and abhorred the profane 
 scorn and wit with which the Sheldonian clergy treated them. 
 He was desirous that a new Act of Uniformity should be 
 passed, for, as though he had the gift of prophecy, he said, — 
 " The Act of Uniformity will never heal the English nation."* 
 Wilkins, Sir Matthew Hale's intimate friend, was the most 
 honest and liberal man, who was raised to the episcopal bench, 
 until the Revolution. He made Wadham College Oxford, of 
 which he was warden during the Rebellion, famous ; and 
 advanced to a high pitch the study of astronomy in the 
 University. At his house met Boyle, Wren, Ward, Wallis, and 
 the other founders of the Royal Society, to make philosophical 
 
 ♦ Sir Matthew Hale's " Nature of True Religion." Burnet's Life of 
 Sir Matthew Hale. Baxter, part. iii. pp. 47, 48, 176, 181. 
 
105 
 
 experiments. His works are chiefly on pliilosopliical subjects, 
 one of which on the iDOSsibility of a passage to the moon, 
 occasioned the Duchess of Newcastle to say to him, " Doctor, 
 where am I to find a place for baiting at, in the way up to that 
 planet ]" "Wilkins replied, " Madam, of all other people in the 
 world, I never expected that question from you, who have built 
 so many castles in the air, that you may be every night at one 
 of your own."* At the Eestoration he was deprived of the 
 Mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge, to which Eichard 
 Cromwell had advanced him. Having married the sister of 
 Oliver Cromwell, and being noted for his liberal principles, 
 Clarendon and Sheldon would bestow upon him no preferment; 
 and thus one of the first philosophers in England was for a time 
 in as low a condition as he could be. But in 1668 the Duke 
 of Buckingham setting up as the patron of Liberty of Conscience, 
 recommended him to the king, who, notwithstanding Sheldon's 
 opposition, made him Bishop of Chester. A person asked 
 Sheldon to recommended him to Wilkins for a place, " No," 
 replied the archbishop, '* that I can by no means do ; it would 
 be a very unreasonable thing in me to desire a favour from one 
 whose promotion I opposed." I will be no richer, Wilkins was 
 wont to say, and he was as good as his word. The lawn sleeves 
 made no change in him ; he remained the same liberal, honest 
 man, opposing persecution, and refusing to join the dead 
 weight as the bishops were called by the anti-court peers. He 
 said to Bishop Cosins, on one occasion, "While you, my lord, 
 are for setting the top on the piqued end downward, you 
 won't be able to keep it up any longer than you continue 
 whipping and scourging ; while I am for setting the broad 
 end downward, and so it will stand of itself." He tried 
 to undo the Act of Uniformity, but the bishops were 
 
 * Granger's Biog. History. 
 
106 
 
 against liiiii and he gained nothing but their dislike and 
 abuse. Bishop Burnet says, he was a man of as great a mind, 
 as true a judgment, as eminent virtues, and of as good a soul, 
 as any he ever knew. Sir Peter Pett describes him, as an 
 ornament of his University, and the English nation, and one 
 who adorned the gospel itself by his great intellectual and 
 moral endowments. Anthony Wood, with all his Tory pre- 
 judices, allows that he was a person endowed with rare gifts, 
 a noted theologist and preacher, a curious critic in several 
 matters, a great promoter of the new philosophy and mathe- 
 matics, as any of his time ; and I cannot say that there was 
 anything deficient in him but a constant mind and settled 
 principles ; the great men of the church as Sheldon, Fell, 
 Dolben, &c., did malign him in their discourse, for his waver- 
 ing and unconstant mind in religion.* 
 
 The Hon. Eobert Boyle was another eminent member of the 
 liberal party. He and Bishop Wilkins were the chief founders 
 of the Royal Society ; and he devoted his life to the promo- 
 tion of the new philosophy. He had a profound veneration 
 for the Deity, so that he would never mention His sacred 
 Name without a pause, in which practice he was so exact, 
 that he was not known once to fail in it. His main 
 design in his philosophical researches, was to raise in himself 
 and others high thoughts of the wisdom, greatness, and 
 goodness of the Deity. He thought that Christianity was in- 
 tended to purify the hearts and govern the lives of men ; and 
 therefore loved not those disputes about lesser matters in which 
 Christians were engaged. He spoke with great zeal against per- 
 secution on account of religion, and it much grieved him to see 
 the severities practiced towards those who dissented from the 
 church, for though he did agree with the church of England, he 
 
 * Athenae Oxon. Burnet's Life of Hale, Baxter, part iii. p. 22. 
 
107 
 
 was for moderation, and thought that tender consciences ought 
 not to be forced. He had no narrow, ilKberal thoughts in 
 religion, and was much troubled at the disputes and divisions 
 among Christians. The liberal design of Boyle and Sir Peter 
 Pett, at the time of the Restoration, deserves to be mentioned. 
 " Mr. Boyle and Sir Peter, discoursing of the severities practiced 
 by the bishops towards the Puritans in the reign of Charles I., 
 and of those which were returned upon the Episcopal divines 
 during the following usurpations ; and being apprehensive, that 
 the restored clergy might be tempted by their late sufferings to 
 such a vindictive retaliation as would be contrary to the true 
 measures of Christianity and politics, they came at last to an 
 agreement, that it would tend to the public good, to have some- 
 thing written and published in defence of liberty of conscience." 
 Accordingly, two tracts were written, one by Sir Peter Pett, 
 the other by Dr. Thomas Barlow ; the latter was not published, 
 *' because as, on the one hand, it would not, how strong soever 
 its reasonings were, be sufficient to restrain the rigorous 
 measures resolved upon against the ITonconformists j so, on 
 the other, it might expose the doctor to the resentment of his 
 brethren."* 
 
 Tillotson and Stillingfleet, who at the Eestoration were 
 young men, became the chiefs of the latitudinarians as they 
 rose in the church ; and were most maligned by the Sheldon 
 party and the Roman Catholics, f In the same year in which 
 the fatal Act of Uniformity passed, re-appeared Stillingfleet's 
 first work, the " Irenicum ; or, a Weapon-Salve for the 
 Church's Wounds." The learning, the moderation, the rea- 
 soning of this remarkable treatise, make it a masterpiece. In 
 
 ♦ Birch's Life of Boyle. Athenae Oxen, Pett ; and Fasti, Boyle. 
 
 t Stillingfleet was the object of Dry den's sarcasm in the Hind and 
 Panther. 
 
108 
 
 the preface he speaks of the mischief of forcing men to observe 
 rites and ceremonies at which they scruple. " Christ's design 
 was to ease men of their former burdens, and not to lay on more. 
 He that came to take away the insurmountable yoke of Jewish 
 ceremonies, certainly did never intend to gall the necks of the 
 disciples -with another instead of it. . . . "Would there ever 
 be the less peace and unity in a church, if a diversity were 
 allowed as to practices supposed indifferent 1 The unity of the 
 church is an unity of love and affection, and not a bare uniformity 
 of practice or opinion. The latter is extremely desirable in a 
 church ; but as long as there are several ranks and sizes of men 
 in it, very hardly attainable, because of the different persuasions 
 of men's minds as to the lawfulness of the things required." It 
 was a bold act for a young man, to publish such liberal sentiments 
 as these, when "the road to preferment lay another way ;" his 
 merits however were noticed by the moderate church party, for 
 he was appointed by Sir Harbottle Grimstone, preacher at the 
 Rolls Chapel ; and Lord Southampton presented him to the 
 rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn ; his next preferment was 
 procured for him by Lord Shaftesbury ;* at the Revolution he 
 and other liberal divines were raised to the Episcopal bench. 
 
 The Act of Uniformity was to the Nonconformists the 
 beginning of sorrows ; in 1664 the Conventicle Act passed, 
 suppressing seditious conventicles, as private religious meetings 
 were insultingly called ;+ and this was followed by the Five- 
 Mile Act, by which the Nonconformist ministers were obliged 
 to take an oath, " I do swear that it is not lawful, upon any 
 pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the king, &c., and I 
 will not at any time endeavour any alteration of government 
 
 * See the Bisliop of Lincoln's Letter to Lord Shaftesbury, in Lord 
 King's Life of Locke, p. 194. 
 
 t Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 421. Hallam, vol. ii. p. 349. 
 
109 
 
 either in church or state." Those who refused to take this 
 infamous oath, and write themselves slaves, were not to come 
 mthin five miles of any city, corporation, or place where they 
 had preached.* This ingeniously cruel statute, promoted by 
 " our great bishop," as Locke calls Sheldon, was warmly 
 opposed by the Earl of Southampton. He said that no 
 honest man could take the oath required from Nonconformist 
 ministers, for though he had always been firm to the church, 
 yet, as things were managed, he did not know but he himself 
 might see cause to endeavour an alteration. " I will not be 
 sworn," exclaimed our free-spirited English Earl, " not to take 
 away Epi&copacy."f Dr. Earl, Bishop of Salisbury, also 
 opposed it ; and dying a short time after the passing of the 
 Act, some bigots reckoned his death just for opposing it.:}: 
 
 The Eive-Mile Act is the last of Clarendon's code. He was 
 hated by the Court for his virtues ; and his haughty dictatorial 
 conduct had made him a host of enemies. It is remarkable 
 that when this great patron of persecution was disgraced, the 
 Nonconformists whom he had so grievously wronged were not 
 eager for his fall, and some were his friends. § 
 
 After Clarendon's banishment, || the king, professing a desire 
 
 * Baxter, part iii. pp. 3-5. 
 
 t Burnet, vol. i. p. 390. Baxter, part lii. p. 3, Letter from a person 
 of quality, 1675. 
 
 X He had been sub-tutor to Cbarles II., who esteemed him more than 
 any of the other clergy, as he never could hear of or see anything amiss in 
 him ; he vras a charitable, sweet-tempered, forgiving man. See the 
 character given by Isaac Walton, in his Life of Hooker, of this amiable 
 bishop. Burnet, voL i. p. 390. Calamy's Baxter, p. 584. Neal, vol. iv. 
 p. 417. 
 
 § Baxter, part iii. p. 20. 
 
 II Sheldon and those of the bishops who were attached to Clarendon 
 were in disgrace. The following extracts from the diary of Pepys will 
 explain the state of affairs at this time : 
 
 Nov. 21st, 1667. — Only three bishops for Clarendon's commitment, 
 Reynolds, Cosins, and another. 
 
 Dec. 21st, 1667. — The archbishop (Sheldon) no more at the cabal. 
 
 Dec. 23rd, 1667. — Bishops of Winchester, Rochester, and some other 
 
110 
 
 to bring back the ITonconforniists to tbe churcli, Lord-Keeper 
 Bridgman, Bishop Wilkins, Tillotson, Stillingiieet, and Burton 
 on the part of the church ; Baxter, Bates, and Manton, on the 
 part of the Presbyterians, had several meetings, and at last 
 agreed upon a scheme, (1668). The particulars were laid 
 before Sir Matthew Hale, who drew up a bill to be presented 
 to the ensuing Parliament, which Lord-Keeper Bridgman 
 promised to support with all his power. But no sooner was it 
 known that such a bill was to be laid before Parliament, than 
 a great outcry was raised by Clarendon's friends that the 
 church was in danger, and about to be undermined and 
 ruined. It was said, that it was below the dignity of the 
 church to offer concessions, — that it was better to have the 
 Puritans out of the church as a schism, than in it as a faction, 
 disturbing it and dividing it, — that no one could tell where 
 concessions would end if once the church began making them. 
 It soon became plain, from this clamour, that the bill would be 
 lost The Commons met, and after " mightily and generally 
 inveighing" against the project, passed a resolution that no bill 
 for the comprehension of dissenters should be received. "^ 
 Had this bill been carried, about 1400 of the Puritan ministers 
 would have returned to the church. 
 
 great prelates are suspended, — a cloud upou the archbishop, — ^heavy blow 
 to the clergy. 
 
 Dec. 27th, 1667.— (Sir W. Coventry) tells me that my Lord of Canter- 
 biu-y is a mighty stout man, and a man of a brave, high spirit, and cares not 
 for this disfavour that he is under at Court, knowing that the king cannot 
 take away his profits during his hfe, and therefore do not value it. 
 
 Jan. 1st, 1667-8. — They did talk much of the disgrace the archbishop 
 is fallen under with the king, and the rest of the bishops also. 
 
 * Collier says : " "When the House sat, the Episcopal party crushed the 
 design, and carried a vote against bringing in a bill of this nature." Collier, 
 vol. viii. p. 452. Pepys has this entry. Mar. 10th, 1667-8. ^ " He tells me, 
 
 540. Eapiu, vol. ii. p. 653. 
 
Ill 
 
 111 1 670, Morley and some of the other bishops talked about 
 restoring the Presbyterians, but nothing was done. The zeal 
 of the Commons was not yet grown cool ; they renewed the 
 Conventicle Act, and made it more severe.* In the Lords, 
 Bishop Wilkins opposed it ; the king had asked him to be 
 quiet, but he replied that as an Englishman and bishop, he 
 had a right to speak and vote, and should not conceal his 
 opinion. Sheldon zealously promoted these measures ; and on 
 no single occasion do we find him restraining the cold-blooded 
 persecution which was now carried on, a persecution which 
 Hallam thinks may have been more extensively felt than that 
 in the time of Charles I.t But a few years later, the Com- 
 mons seem to have become aware of their folly, for in 1673, 
 they resolved, without one dissentient voice, that a bill should 
 be brought in for the ease of dissenters ; it passed the Lower 
 House, notwithstanding some mournful predictions that the 
 kingdom might be endangered and put in an uproar, that the 
 2000 preachers and 10,000 more might come with arms in 
 their hands. J But it was either defeated in the Lords by 
 ■Sheldon and his followers, or lost through the prorogation 
 which soon followed. The bishops, according to Locke, were 
 frightened at the progress of Popery, but when their fright 
 passed away, thej instructed their party to revive the old 
 persecutions of the Protestant dissenters. |1 
 
 This was followed by another attempt to restore the Presby- 
 terians (1673). Lord Orrery asked Baxter to draw up some 
 
 * Baxter, part iii. pp. 83, 84. 
 
 t Hallam, vol. ii. pp. 350, 353. Neal, vol. iv. p. 444, Baxter, part 
 iii. p. 74. 
 
 X See the Speeches of Sir John Buncombe, and Sir J ohn Birkenhead. 
 The former gentleman api)ealed to know " if there were anything in 
 England of persecution to dissenters." Pari. Hist. 
 
 11 Pari. Hist. Collier, vol. viii. p. 457. Neal, vol. iv. p. 536. Baxter, 
 part iii. p. 103. Hallam, vol. ii. p. 394. Letter from a person of quality. 
 W75, 
 
112 
 
 proposals, wliicli being shewn to Morley, who had again in- 
 timated his wish that something should be done to heal the 
 breach, were not approved, and the matter came to an end. A 
 short time after, a bill was drawn up by some leading men in 
 the House of Commons ; but when it was shewn to Morley, he 
 urged them to withdraw it.* To prove, however, that he was 
 willing to make some concession, he introduced into the House 
 of Lords a bill to take away the declaration of " assent and 
 consent ; " but the other bishops opposed it, and it was lostt 
 As the danger of Popery increased, Morley and some other 
 bishops professed to be anxious to take in the Nonconformists, j: 
 Tillotson and Stillingfieet again met Baxter, with Bates, Manton, 
 and Matthew Pool (1675) ; a scheme was agreed upon which 
 Baxter requested should not be shewn to Morley, " as likest to 
 frustrate it," but to Bishop Pearson, a sober, learned man, and 
 Bishop Ward. But all their labours were in vain, for Tillotson 
 wrote to Baxter saying, — He had spoken to Seth Ward, but 
 found that several things could not be obtained ; he was un- 
 willing that his name should be used, for although he most 
 heartily desu'ed an Accommodation, and would always endeavour 
 it, yet it would be a prejudice to himself and do no good ; there 
 was no chance of the scheme passing without the concurrence 
 of the king and a considerable part of the bishops, which for the 
 present he saw little reason to expect. § 
 
 * This bill, like the preceding one, was to abolish all oaths, declarations, 
 and subscriptions required from the clergy, except the oaths of supremacy 
 and allegiance, and subscription to the thirty-nine articles, according to the 
 13th of Elizabeth. 
 
 t Baxter, part iii. p. 140. 
 
 X Baxter considered that these professions on the part of Morley were a 
 trick ; partly to divert from himself and the bishops the odium which their 
 persecuting proceedings were drawing upon them, and partly to enable him 
 by having a hand in the negociations, to be better able to frustrate them. 
 Baxter, part iii. p. 157. 
 
 ^ Birch's Life of Tillotson, pp. 43, 44. Memoir of Tillotson, m 
 Woi-dsworth's Ecc. Biog. Baxter, part iii. p. 157. 
 
113 
 
 In 1680, Stillingfleet invited Howe and Bates, to meet 
 Tillotson and Bishop Lloyd, at his house ; the bishop, who had 
 declined meeting Baxter, was unable to attend, and the matter 
 fell to the ground * The nation at this time was in a highly- 
 excited state on the subject of Popery ; now came into use the 
 terms Whigs and Tories ; the people forbidden to hum the 
 Pope, gratified their Protestant zeal by drowning him. The 
 clergy thought the knife of the Papists at their throats ; and 
 the Commons seemed anxious to make friends \vith the Non- 
 conformists. They appointed a committee, who agreed to a bill 
 for " uniting His Majesty's Protestant subjects." It was read for 
 the first time Dec. 21st, 1680; but meeting with opposition, 
 another was substituted for it, exempting dissenters from cer- 
 tain penalties, which passed both Houses, and afterwards dis- 
 appeared in a mysterious manner, the king disliking it.f The 
 objections which were brought against this attempt to draw in 
 dissenters were the same as before ; and the foolish old cries 
 were raised. J The church was in danger, — ^it would be pulled 
 down, — concessions would increase the boldness of dissenters, 
 a sort of people not to be iniled or advised by the king or 
 fathers of the church, — once begin to yield, and an utter 
 subversion would follow, — dissenters should be forced to yield 
 to the church, not the church to dissenters. This bill of union 
 was not heartily supported by the Nonconformists, because, 
 says Baxter, they found the bill would not go, or if it passed 
 
 * Life of Howe, p. 271. 
 t It was said that one of the king's natural sons was standing by the 
 tahle playing with it, and that he was told to take it away. Kennet says, 
 " The majority of the House fell in heartily with this bill of comprehension." 
 But Ralph seems to think, from its being introduced so near to the close of 
 the session that "it was one of those parliamentary fire-works that are 
 occasionally let off, only to make a noise and expire." Kennet, vol. iii. 
 p. 382. Rapin, vol. ii. p. 719. Echard, p. 999. Anthony k "Wood's 
 Life, p. xcvi. 
 
 + Pari. Hist., Dec. 21st, 1680. 
 
114 
 
 the Commons, it would have been thrown out by the bishops.* 
 This was the last attempt in Charles II.'s reign to restore the 
 Presbyterians. Twenty years had now passed, since the ejection 
 of the Puritans ; and men began to despair : "I have no good 
 hopes of this matter," TiUotson writes to Eobert Nelson, " till 
 minds of men become more calm." 
 
 These schemes of comprehension only aimed at restoring 
 those of the ejected ministers who were Presbyterian, as the 
 Episcopal Nonconformists were commonly called. The few 
 of the 2000 who were Independents regarded with no favour 
 the efforts of Baxter, Bates, and Manton, whom they knew 
 were dissenters only in name. They called the Presbyterians 
 lukewarm temporizers, — men of too large principles, — ^men who 
 supt the anti-Christian pottage, though they would not eat the 
 flesh. The Independents were more rigid Calvinists, more 
 exclusive in their terms of church communion than the Pres- 
 byterians, averse to an established church, but in favour of 
 Toleration. The Presbyterians, on the contrary, were in 
 favour of union with the National church, but averse to 
 Toleration, and probably brought upon themselves additional 
 suffering by refusing to concur in a toleration of the Eoman 
 Catholics. If we, says Baxter, would have but opened the 
 door to let the Papists in, we might in all likelihood have had 
 our parit The sharp persecutions, however, which the Pres- 
 byterians suffered in common with other Nonconformists, from 
 the Eestoration to the Kevolution, unsealed their eyes, and 
 purged out of them the old leaven of intolerance. 
 
 The excellent men who promoted the attempts to enlarge 
 
 * TiUotson, writing to his friend Eobert Nelson, says, the Bill of Union 
 pleased neither the bishops nor dissenters. Burnet says : "To the amaze- 
 ment of all people, the ISonconformists neglected the bill." Burnet, vol. ii. 
 p. 267. Birch's Life of ToUotson, pp. 81, 82. Neal, vol. iv. p. 581. 
 
 t Baxter, part iii. pp. 23, 86, 43, 84. 
 
115 
 
 the church were assailed in bitter terms by their brethren. 
 But the liberal churchmen, though the minority, were in 
 learning and in virtue decidedly superior to their assailants. 
 Their attachment to the church was sincere and strong ; their 
 lives were irreproachable, their sermons and writings did 
 honour to the church, and upheld its character in the worst 
 of times. Happily, says Baxter, the parish churches of 
 London had the best and ablest of the clergy in them, 
 especially Stillingfleet, Tillotson, White, Outram, Patrick, 
 Whitchcot, &c. The N'onconformists confessed that the Whig 
 churchmen did the church most service, and the !N'onconfor- 
 mists most hurt. A leading Nonconformist, writing in 1680, 
 says : Several bishops and doctors of the church of England, 
 as Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Tillotson, Dr. StiUingfleet, Dr. Patrick, are 
 acknowledged to be persons of great learning, worth, and piety, 
 and uphold the hierarchy and the church. N"eal allows that 
 " the THlotsons, Stillingfleets, Whitchcots, Wilkins, Cudworths, 
 &c., were men of the first rank for learning, sobriety, and 
 
 virtue but their numbers were few, because 
 
 the road to preferment lay another way."* They were sneered 
 at as latitudinarians, because they were in favour of allowing 
 liberty or latitude to men in things indifferent. They saw 
 with regret the bitterness with which churchmen and dis- 
 senters contended about a rite, a vestment, a gesture ; and 
 though they themselves had no prejudices against the decent 
 rites and ceremonies of the church, they would not for the 
 sake of uniformity sacrifice unity. In truth, they had " a 
 lofty disdain of those trifling subjects" which were dividing 
 men agreed in the essentials of religion, and their generous 
 minds longed to see such men as Baxter, Howe, Philip Hen^y, 
 and Manton, ministering at the altars of the national church. 
 * Kennet, vol, iii, p. 370, note a. Neal, vol. iy, p. 397. 
 
116 
 
 This was their crime, and for this they were reviled as trim- 
 mers, — Grindalizers, — no lovers of the church,* — wolves in 
 sheep's clothing, — designing hypocrites, — betrayers and under- 
 niiners of the church, — men who smile in your face, when about 
 to cut your throat, — men who handled the church with the 
 hands of Esau, but now speak with the voice of Jacob, — ^men 
 who trim and trick, play fast and loose, — who under their 
 beloved moderation, in a creeping, whining, sanctified dialect, 
 aim at encouraging and supporting dissenters, and on behalf of 
 their old Puritan friends pimp for bills of union, comprehension 
 or toleration ; good had it been for the church of England, and 
 perhaps for themselves too, that they had never been born. 
 The churches of moderate clergymen were conventicles. 
 Moderation was declaimed against with so much zeal and 
 fierceness, that it seemed to be considered the sum of all vices j 
 it was denounced as vile cant, — ^venomous gibberish, — a word 
 to gull and manage the rabble, — ^the prescription of spiritual 
 quacks and mountebanks for skinning over the church's 
 wounds, — a harmless gilded word, covering the worst of designs 
 against the best of churches. In such terms were the moderate 
 and liberal-minded members of the church, and their struggles 
 against the intolerant policy of the times, reviled.t 
 
 The immediate effects of Sheldon's policy are to be seen in 
 the opinions and practices which prevailed in the church from 
 Black Bartholomew's Day to the Revolution. An inferior body 
 of men rushed into the places of the ejected ministers. The 
 
 * Wood, speaking of Hales' s Tract on Schism, says : "It hath given 
 great advantage and use to some that have not loved, nor are lovers of the 
 Church of England, as E. S. (Edward Stillingfleet) in his Irenicum." 
 Athense Oxon, vol, iii. p. 414. Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 391. 
 
 t See South's Sermons, particularly those on " The fatal influence of 
 words and names falsely applied," part i. ; and " False methods of church 
 ^vernment exploded," in which is the description of a conforming Puritan. 
 Kennet, vol. iii. p. 410, notes a and b. 
 
117 
 
 liberal clergy were depressed, and benefices heaped by the bushel 
 on the favoured ones. The aspirants for preferment found that 
 the quickest way to rise was to cringe to the bishops and 
 great men, revile dissenters, rail at their liberal brethren, 
 denounce the whigs, and cry up the king. The higher clergy 
 set an ill example, idling in London, dancing attendance at some 
 great man's levee, snatching at every piece of preferment that 
 fell vacant, to add to those they already possessed, leaving their 
 spiritual duties to be performed by half-starved curates.* 
 Bribes for preferment, it is said, were not uncommon. t *' All 
 promotions," writes Andrew Marvell, " spiritual and temporal, 
 pass under the cognizance of the Duchess of Cleveland." The 
 bishops offended men by their covetousness ; great wealth 
 flowed into their coffers, yet they often held with their 
 bishoprics, a deanery, a comfortable prebendary, together with 
 a good fat parsonage, and perhaps half a dozen sinecures ; the 
 drudgery of praying and preaching was left to curates hired at 
 the smallest wages. J Charles himself complained of the clergy. 
 He said, there would be no dissenters if the clergy lived well, 
 and went about their parishes, but they were ambitious, 
 scandalous, and covetous ; they thought of nothing but to get 
 good benefices, and to keep a good table. § Learning was 
 neglected. At Hereford and Worcester cathedrals lay valuable 
 jnanuscripts, untouched and useless ; the clergy cared not for 
 
 * Lives of the Norths, vol. ii. p. 246. Baxter, part iii. p. 147. 
 Whiston's Memoirs of Dr. Clarke. 
 
 t An instance is given in Nelson's Life of Bull. Marvell says, too 
 many of the clergy are reported to do this. See the account of Bishop 
 Wood in Athenoe Oxon, and D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft. 
 
 X Sir Thos. Brown's works, vol. i. p. 203, Marvell's Letters to his 
 Constituents. Basire's Correspondence, pp. 230,231. Baxter, part iii. 
 p. 141. 
 
 § Baxter's letter to Mr. Stephens. Ellis's Original Letters, 2nd series, 
 vol. iv. p. 26. Burnet, vol. i. p. 448. Pepys's Diary, Feb. 16th, 1668. 
 Locke's Journal, Aug. 2nd, 1680. 
 
118 
 
 such tilings.* The scholars at Oxford spent their time in 
 ale-houses, taverns, and coifee-houses ; learning declined in the 
 University, hut drinktug and Toryism flourished. One of the 
 colleges was inhabited only by a few families, to keep it from 
 ruin. The "Whigs regarded Oxford as a dangerous place, and 
 feared to send their sons, lest they should become Papists and 
 Tories. A Mr. Parkinson was expelled for Whiggism ; Locke 
 was basely deprived of his studentship ; and the Whigs run 
 down. Drunken riots were too frequent.t White Kennet, 
 then a noted Tory, found one evening some scholars engaged in 
 a drinking bout, whom he reprimanded for keeping such late 
 hours ; one of them said suddenly, " You will excuse us ; we 
 were now met to drink prosperity to the church ; to which you 
 can have no objection." He answered with a solemn air, 
 " We are to pray for the church, and to fight for the church, but 
 not to drink for the church. "J The most servile doctrines were 
 preached ; the king was above the law ; the people were his 
 property whom he might rob, wrong, and slay, as he pleased. 
 To say that " the anointed of the Lord, the breath of our nos- 
 trils," who is " not only the ordinance, but the gift of God," 
 might be resisted on any pretence whatever, was impious, 
 infamous, seditious, heretical, damnable, blasphemous. § Sprat, 
 the pliant Bishop of Eochester, called Charles II., a god-Hke 
 man. The most enlightened clergy, as Tillotson and Burnet, 
 thought it not lawful, on any occasion, to take up arms against 
 
 * Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. pp. 55Qj 557. Hearne's Account of Anthony 
 a Wood. 
 
 t Anthony a Wood's Life, pj). 73, 76, 79, 80, 87, 88, 89, 91, 94, 97, 98, 
 99, 105. AthensB Oxon, Parkinson, 
 
 X Nicholls's Literary Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 393. 
 
 § See "The judgment and decree of the University of Oxford," July 21, 
 1683. Address of the University of Cambridge, Sept. 18th, 1680. Form 
 of Prayer for Sept. 9th, 1683. Kennet, vol. iii. p. 410. South's Sermon 
 «' on the Martyrdom of Charles I., preached shortly after the Kestoration." 
 Baxter, part ii. p. 367. 
 
119 
 
 the kingj and in vain tried to bring the partriotic Lord William 
 Eussell to their mind.* The Prayer Book was made an idol, 
 as though " it had dropped down from heaven, and had been 
 framed by a synod of archangels." One divine declared " that 
 there was not one tittie of it, but it was dictated by the Holy 
 Ghost," proving his assertion from the first prayer in the 
 Marriage Service, t To inflame men's minds against Whigs, 
 moderate churchmen, and dissenters, was to act "as true sons of 
 Holy Mother Church." The Tory clergy abhorred, as they did 
 the devil and his angels, those troublesome folks, the Whigs, 
 who cantingly professed to love the king, but would not give 
 him money. t The Puritans were an inexhaustible subject of 
 merriment, not in conversation only, but even in the pulpit. 
 Their demure looks, their up- turned eyes, their squinting, their 
 hands crossed upon the breast, their wry mouths, their affected 
 gesticulation, their nasal twang, their groanings, their canting 
 phrases, their hypocrisy, were topics on which the high-flying 
 royalists were never weary of dilating. The sermons were full 
 of girds against the snivelling saints, — the precise fellows, who 
 like Pharisees, made long prayers, and felt the pulse of a holy 
 sister. § These schismatics, fanatics, rebels, must be dealt with 
 
 * Lord John Eussell's Life of Lord "William EusseU. Granger's 
 Biog. Hist., Sprat. 
 
 t A certain good archdeacon went al)Out town and country preaching 
 from the text, " The cloke that I left at Troas. . . . , and the hooks, 
 but especially the parchments ;" in which he found the whole Liturgy, the 
 Canonical habits, and all the equipage of a Conformist. The Rehearsal 
 Transprosed, p. 166. 
 
 X Life of Dr. John North, vol. iii. p. 358. Sir M. Hale's Nature of 
 True Religion. 
 
 § The sermons of the witty but profane South, abound in sarcasms 
 against Puritans and moderate churchmen. See those " On confidence in 
 Prayer," " Good intentions no excuse for bad actions," and " The duties of 
 the Episcopal function." See also the letter from Dr. Wallis to Boyle, 
 giving an account of the proceedings at Oxford at the opening of the 
 Sheldonian Theatre. Evelyn's Diary, July 9th and lOtb, 1669. Thoresby's 
 Diary, vol. i. p. 53. Fasti Oxon. 
 
120 
 
 rigorously, chastised and scourged, fined, imprisoned, ruined, 
 banished ; to introduce them into the church, would he to 
 bring back a plague into her bowels, to tolerate them was to 
 permit a plague to rage around her. They were seditious, — ' 
 the devils proxies, — a generation of vipers who may rend again 
 the bowels of Church and State, — ^notorious seducers fit to be 
 transported * " Cure them," said a preacher before the House 
 of Commons, " by vengeance, teach them by scourges or 
 scorpions, and open their eyes with gall."f But the magistrates 
 after a time grew weary of persecuting the dissenters. Twelve 
 or thirteen of the bishops dining with the Sheriff of London, 
 the conversation was about the dissenters, and the necessity of 
 rigorously executing the laws against thorn, upon which the 
 Sheriff said : " We cannot trade with our neighbours one day, 
 and send them to gaol the next."t The Vicar of Newcastle, 
 writing to a friend says : " I verily beleeve that my endeavour to 
 suppresse conventicles both by preaching and complaining, and 
 writing, is the originall of that disgust which I dayly heare 
 the magistrates have conceived against mee."|| 
 
 A leading man among these fiery divines, a man in whom 
 Sheldon delighted, was Dr. Samuel Parker. He had been 
 bred among the Puritans. At Oxford, he was " one of the 
 straitest of the sect ;" at Bess Hampton's prayer meetings and 
 
 * Thoresby's Diary, vol. i. pp. 29, 34, 62, 73, 109, 143 ; vol.ii. p. 419. 
 Basire's Correspondence, p. 232, 233, 271-273, 277, 279. 
 
 t The Bible was thought to justify such violence. The Vice-Chancellor 
 of Oxford (about 1670) came to a fanatic's house, and found people praying : 
 he bade them attend St. Mary's Church in the king's name, (the beadle said 
 he would drive them in the devil's name) saying, he had thus converted 
 hundreds into churchmen at Reading. The people reason with him, upon 
 which the Vice-Chancellor justified himself by these words : (Luke xiv. 23) 
 " Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." See Milton's 
 Civil Power in Ecc. Causes. About 1672 the liecorder of London openly 
 said, that it would never be well in England until the Spanish Inquisition 
 was set up. Baxter, part iii. pp. 141, 142, 177, 187. 
 X Calamy's Baxter, p. 607. 
 II Basire's Correspondence, pp. 279, 280. 
 
121 
 
 sermons, no one was more constant. He was a rifijid faster, 
 and belonged to th.e grewellersy'^ and was esteemed one of the 
 preciousest young men in the University. Coming to Lon- 
 don about the time of the Eestoration, he found Puritanism 
 going out of fashion ; in a short time his eyes were opened, 
 and as he pretended, he was delivered from the unhappy pre- 
 judices under which he had been labouring, for which he gave 
 God thanks. This ecclesiastical weathercock now veered com- 
 pletely round, and henceforward became a great droller upon 
 the Puritans. His first production appeared in 1665, which he 
 dedicated to Sheldon, and was rewarded by being appointed 
 one of his chaplains ; he Was thus placed on the high road to 
 preferment. In 1669, our chaplain wrote a virulent book 
 against the Dissenters, which was followed by his advance to 
 the Archdeaconry of Canterbury. In 1671, he published his 
 defence of this last work, and was rewarded with another piece 
 of preferment, being made Prebendary of Canterbury. In 
 1672, a still more scurrilous attack on N'onconformists ap- 
 peared, f — the substance, it is said, of sermons preached at 
 Lambeth, and in the same year he was rewarded by the Arch- 
 bishop with the rectories of Ickham and Chartham, Kent. 
 Prosperity made the man insolent ; " if he chance but to 
 sneeze, he prays that the foundations of the earth be not 
 
 * Bess Hampton was an old lady, at whose house in Oxford many rigid 
 young Puritans were in the habit of meeting. They were called *'grewellers," 
 because of their " feeding on thin broth, made of oatmeal and water only." 
 Athense Oxon. Parker. 
 
 t He now met with a man more than his match in wit, the famous 
 Andrew Marvell, who, disgusted with his insolence, •' took him to task, to 
 clip his wings." Marvell handled him so successfully, that from the king 
 down to the tradesmen, all were laughing at Parker. Mortified at his 
 defeat, he withdrew from town, and wrote nothing more until Marvell 
 was dead. Mr. Carwithen says : " It is the opinion of Whigs only, that 
 Marvell was superior to Parker even in wit." He forgets what SAvift says : 
 " We still read Marvell' s answer to Parker with pleasure, though the book 
 it answers is sunk long ago." See Swift's Apology for the Tale of a Tub. 
 I 
 
122 
 
 shaken f he swaggered about the streets of London in cassock 
 and gown, and was "so lifted up with pride that he was insuf- 
 io.rable to all that came near him." No writer of the 
 tlay equalled in profanity, scurrillity, and buffoonery, the 
 Archbishop's chaplain. Nonconformists he calls, villains, — 
 hypocrites, — sons of Belial, — rebels, — schismatics, — gi'eatest 
 heretics, — old boyes to be lashed out of their peevishness. Dr. 
 John Owen, the honoured chief of the Independents, he calls 
 " the great bell-wether of disturbance and sedition — a viper, so 
 swollen with venom, that it must either burst or spit its poison." 
 Tender consciences must be restrained with more peremptory 
 and unyielding rigour, than naked and unsanctiiied villany, — 
 peevish principles about religion must be suppressed more than 
 the foulest crimes of immorality, — princes may with less hazard 
 give liberty to men's vices and debaucheries than to their con- 
 sciences, — there is little difference between a tender conscience 
 and a soft head, — weakness of conscience proceeds from want 
 of wit. These six lines he recommended as more useful than 
 all the Puritan sermons : 
 
 By the Liturgy, daily pray, 
 
 So pray and prcaise God every day ; 
 
 The Apostles' Creed, believe also, 
 
 Do as you would be done unto ; 
 
 Receive the Sacrament as well as you can, 
 
 This is the whole duty of man. 
 
 One of his profane sayings was, " The king was indeed under 
 God, yet he was not under Christ, but above Him." Hooker is a 
 name reverenced by most churchmen; Parker calls him " a long- 
 winded old fellow." He thought little of prayers or any exer- 
 cises of devotion, which he seldom attended, for " as to religion 
 he was rather impious." Such was the man honoured by Shel- 
 
123 
 
 don's friendship, created his chaplain, Archdeacon of Canterhury, 
 Prebendary of Canterbury, Rector of Ickham, and Rector of 
 Chartham.* 
 
 * Sheldon " honoured him, not only by patronage, but with friendship." 
 Carwithen's Hist. vol. ii p. 494. Baxter, part iii. pp. 41, 42, 106, 141. 
 Athenae Oxon. Parker. Burnet, vol. i. p. 541 ; vol. iii. p. 137. Life of 
 Dr. John Owen, p. 89. Calamy's Baxter, p. 590. D'Oyly's Life of San- 
 crofb, vol. i. p. 237. For a full account of this degraded man's life and 
 writings, see " The Rehearsal Transprosed." For other specimens of Shel- 
 don's chaplains, see Baxter, part ii. p. 374. Noble's continuation of 
 Granger, vol. iii. p. 76. Dove's Life of Marvell, p. 39. 
 
124 
 
 CHAPTEE y. 
 
 JAMES TI. ENDEAVOURS TO INTRODUCE POPERY. — CHURCHMEN AND 
 DISSENTERS COALESCE. — BANCROFT'S SCHEME TOR REVISING THE 
 PRAYER BOOK. AND RESTORING DISSENTERS. THE REVOLUTION. — 
 
 LORD Non Ingham's comprehension bill. — factious conduct of 
 
 THE HIGH CHURCH CLERGY. — THE LIBERAL CLERGY PROMOTED. — THE 
 LAST ATTEMPT TO RESTORE DISSENTERS DEFEATED BY CONVOCATION. 
 — SACHEVERELL. — CONCLUSION. 
 
 When James II. ascended the throne, gloomy was the state 
 of the nation ; almost every living soul cried at the death of 
 Charles, not so much from sorrow for him as from dread of 
 James.* The Whigs were vanquished ; the dissenters crushed ; 
 Lord William Eussell and Algernon Sidney had been slain ; no 
 Hampden dared to raise his voice in defence of the rights of 
 the subject ; the nation was couching down like a broken- 
 spirited beast, ready to receive any burden which its Eoyal 
 master chose to lay upon it. The Tories were pleased with 
 their new king, whom they could trust more than his fickle 
 brother, t The pulpits of the church were ringing with the 
 senseless doctrines of passive obedience, non-resistance, the 
 divine right of an hereditary monarch. Sancroft had succeeded 
 Sheldon ; he was a pious, conscientious man, but timid, irre- 
 solute, and retiring. The Duke of York had put him forward 
 against Compton, Bishop of London, thinking him less likely 
 to interfere with the design of introducing Popery. J " The 
 dissenters expected not only greater severities and rigours, 
 than before, but concluded they should, if it were possible, be 
 extirpated." 
 
 * Lives of the Norths, vol. ii. p. 109. Thoresby's Diary, vol. i. p. 80. 
 
 t Thoresby's Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 54, 80. Fox's Hist., p. 77. 
 Lives of the Norths, vol. ii. pp. 109, 116-121; vol. iii. p. 157. North's 
 Examen, p. 647. 
 
 X Anthony a "Wood's Life, Dec. 29th, 1677. Welwood'8 Memoirs. 
 Lives of the Norths, vol. ii. p. 127. 
 
125 
 
 The king, in his first speech to the Privy Council, promised 
 to defend and support the church of England. The declaration 
 was received with extravagant joy. Bancroft, with some of the 
 bishops, threw themselves at his majesty's feet, and thanked 
 him for his " admirable declaration, which we ought to write 
 down in letters of gold, and engrave on marble."'* The Univer- 
 sities hastened to assure the king, that they would obey him 
 *' without limitations or restrictions." An eminent London 
 clergyman, Dr. Sharp, exclaimed in his pulpit, *' as to our 
 religion, we have the word of the king, which (Avith reverence 
 be it spoken) is as sacred as my text." The common phrase 
 was, " We have now the word of a king, and a word never yet 
 broken." Not only the clergy, but large numbers of church 
 layruen were infected with slavish principles, and would have 
 concurred in establishing arbitrary government under a 
 Protestant sovereign.t But fortunately for this country, James 
 II. was a member of the church of Rome, and too zealous a 
 
 * The Appendix to Clarendon's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 472. As 
 the king advanced in his progress towards arbitrary power, some of the clergy 
 became more servile. Cartwright, Dean of Ripon, preaching on Feb. 6th, 
 1685, taught the people that no one should resist or question the king, 
 " Who questioned Saul for slaying the priests, and revolting to idolatry? 
 The king may make use of this prerogative, as God does of His Omnipotence 
 upon some extraordinary occasion." In another sermon, he says : " The 
 king's promises are free donatives, and ought not to be too strictly examined 
 or urged ; and that they must leave his majesty to explain his own meaning 
 in them." The king was so delighted with this audacious assertion, that be 
 made him Bishop of Chester. 
 
 On May 12th, 1685, Sherlock preached before the Commons on " The 
 Divine right of kingly government." In the same year, the Dean of Bristol 
 told his congregation that they must obey the king without any limit, and 
 suffer patiently oppression, "^ing James shall be known in the ages to come 
 by this appellative of King James the Just, the Prince of his Word." In 
 the same year. Felling preached a similar sermon in Westminster Abbey 
 The preacher at the Chapel Royal said, " the Church teacheth subjection and 
 loyalty without any reserve.''* 
 
 t Hallam, vol. ii. p. 411. Rapin, vol, ii. p. 741. Burnet, vol.iii.p. 7. 
 Neal, vol. v. p. 2, Kennet, vol. lii. p. 441. Correspondence of Pepys, 
 vol. ii, p. 65. Sharp's Life, vol, i. p. 64. Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. i. 
 pp. 109-112. 
 
126 
 
 member to allow the Anglican cliiirch to remain undisturbed. 
 He broke with the church ; that led to his own ruin and Eng^- 
 land's deliverance. When the rebellion of Monmouth was 
 crushed, James soon discovered his design of introducing 
 Popery, as well as arbitrary power. Great was the perplexity 
 of the men who had been insisting on the senseless plea of a 
 I)ivine right.* They now found that he who would be the 
 king's frifend, must be the church's enemy. The Tories were 
 too firmly attached to Protestantism to aid James in restoring 
 Popery. James cast off his old friends and thought that he 
 could destroy the religious as well as the civil liberties of the 
 people ; he persuaded himself that the days of the Anglican 
 church were numbered. When the daughter of Waller the poet 
 was about to be married to a clergyman, the king sent a 
 message to him, "that he wondered he could have any 
 thoughts of marrying his daughter to a falling church." 
 Waller made answer, " Sir, the king does me very great 
 honour to take any notice of my domestic affairs ; but I have 
 lived long enough to observe that this falling church has got 
 a trick of rising again." f 
 
 Eneouraged by the king, the Jesuits and priests became 
 uncommonly bold and active. Romish books and pamphlets 
 against the church were sold on every stall, cried about by 
 hawkers in tlie streets, thrown into houses, sent by penny 
 post bundles over the kingdom, brought into coffee houses. 
 The priests of the foreign ministers catechized English chil- 
 dren, tampered with dying persons, argued in hackney coaches, 
 baptized children against the parents' wish.:}: 
 
 Alarmed at James's attacks upon the church, the London 
 
 * Welwood's Memoirs, pp. 150, 151. Fox's Hist. p. 39. AUibon's 
 charge in Giitch's Collection. Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 159.. 
 t Waller's Life, p. 38. 
 X Glitch's Collection, yoI. i. No. 43, 
 
127 
 
 divines preached with boldness against the errors of Rome. 
 ]N'ow did the men who had been reviled and sneered at as 
 trimmers — the church's treacherous undermining friends — your 
 liberal clergy— sons of latitude — broadway clergy, — stand forth, 
 and gain immortal honours by their courage and learning and 
 eloquence. Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Tenison, Patrick, Wake, 
 Whitby, Sharp, Williams, Burnet, Fowler, with Atterbury, 
 Sherlock, Aldrich, and others, battled with Rome, and drove 
 her defenders from the field. The pious Bishop Ken distin- 
 guished himself by his eloquent sermons against Popery, and 
 people crowded from all quarters to hear him.* The king was 
 angry with the church of England men, upon whom he had 
 boasted he could depend ; and too well had they supported 
 him and his brother in their sanguinary measures. When 
 Burnet once told him, that he being a Papist could not reign 
 in quiet, he quickly answered, " Does not the church of Eng- 
 land maintain the doctrine of non-resistance and passive 
 obedience."t Compton, bishop of London, won immense 
 applause by his spirited conduct ; he was called the Protestant 
 Bishop. The king discoursing with him on some tender 
 subjects, was so much displeased with his answers that he said, 
 " He talked more like a colonel than a divine." Compton had 
 been in the army, and replied, " His majesty did him honour 
 in taking notice of his having formerly drawn his sword in 
 defence of the constitution, and that he should do the same 
 again if he lived to see it necessary. "J 
 
 * Evelyn's Diary, Marcli 10th, 20th; April 1st, 1687. Baxter, part 
 iii. p. 85. Nicholls's Literary Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 394. Dryden's Hind 
 and Panther, part iii. 
 
 t Speech of Burnet at Sacheverell's Trial. State Trials. Lives of the 
 Norths, vol, i. p. 313 ; voL iii. pp. 268-270. See James's First Speech to 
 his Privy Council. 
 
 t Ellis's Original Letters, vol. iv. p. 84. Granger's Biog. Hist. 
 
128 
 
 Ihe enraged priests of Eome advised the king to prohibit 
 the clergy from preaching on controversial subjects. Silenced 
 in their pulpits, the church of England heroes betake them- 
 selves to the press. Every week some able tract against Eome 
 appearexi from the pens of these masters of the English 
 language ; the nation was astonished at the superiority of the 
 Anglican clergy, A gentleman writing to his friend says, 
 " The bishop of London's fame runs high in the vogue of the 
 people, the London pulpits ring strong peals against Popery; 
 and I have lately heard there never were such eminently able 
 men to serve in those cures."* 
 
 There was now open war between the king and the church. 
 It was therefore determined that the dissenters should be 
 gained to support the king's designs. The judges were in- 
 structed to revile the church ; she was held up as a cruel 
 and bloody church. The cruelties which the clergy had 
 committed upon the ^S^onconfomiists, was a common topic of 
 conversation with the king. He discoursed admirably to the 
 Oxford men, told them to live in love and charity, to put 
 away pride, be humble, charitable, and love one another. 
 Dissenters were encouraged to tell of the persecutions they had 
 endured, t Philip Henry among others was asked to give an 
 account of his sujfferings ; he said, all the country knew how 
 his goods had been carried away, but to give any particular 
 account he declined, having " long since, from his heart, 
 
 * Wol wood's Memoirs, p. 174. EUis's Letters, vol. iv. p. 84. Burnet, 
 vol. iii. pp. 98, 99. Evelyn's Diary, Marcli 7th & 14th, June 20th, 1686, 
 March 10th and 2ath, 1687, April 1st, 1687. Neal, vol. v. p. 14. Kennet's 
 Hist. vol. iii. p. 452. Sharp's Life, vol. i. pp. 48, 49. 
 
 t For references to the sufferings endured hy dissenters, see Thoreshy's 
 Diary. Dec. Slst, 1681 ; Jan. 1st, May 13th, July 4th and 5th, July 9th, 
 Aug. 6th, Oct. Slst, 1682; Feb. 10th, Oct. 6th, 1683. 
 
129 
 
 forgiven all the agents, instruments, and occasions of it ; and 
 having purposed never to say anything more of it."* 
 
 The king's next step was to issue " a declaration for liberty 
 of conscience," by which the penal laws in matters eccle- 
 siastical were immediately suspended, and all men allowed " to 
 meet and serve God after their own way and manner." (April 
 4th, 1687.) Many dissenters were caught by the bait, and 
 presented addresses of thanks to the king in the same fulsome 
 terms that had been used by churchmen. " The indulgence 
 gave us ease," writes a ]N"onconformist, " though we dreaded a 
 snake in the grass, "t Five bishops were so base as to 
 persuade their clergy to thank the king for promising to 
 protect the established church. Dr. Samuel Parker, Sheldon's 
 profane chaplain, who had been made Bishop of Oxford by 
 James, and now preparing to turn Papist as Popery was in 
 power, tried to induce his clergy to do the same, but mthout 
 success, for not one would sign. Baxter was liberated from 
 the prison where he had been lying for two years. Howe 
 returned from Holland ; but before he left, the sagacious 
 Prince of Orange warned him of the king's design, and 
 implored him to urge upon the dissenters to be very sparing 
 of their " congratulatory addresses." J There was a meeting 
 of the London dissenting ministers to consider the course they 
 should take. Howe declared against the power which the 
 king claimed of suspending laws : Dr. Daniel Williams said, 
 
 * See the account of James's visit to Oxford, in Anthony a Wood's Life. 
 Life of Philip Henry, p. 191. Letters from Dr. Sykes to Dr. Charlett, 
 Sept. 7th and Sept. 9th, 1687. Judge AUibon's Charge; paper No. 61, 
 and p. 304 in vol. i. Gutch's Collection. 
 
 t Thoresby's Diary, vol. i. p. 186. Echard's Hist. p. 1085. Kennet's 
 Hist. vol. iii. p. 489. Evelyn's Diary, June 16th, 1687. Burnet, vol. iii. 
 p. 174. 
 
 ■^ X "Welwobd's Memoirs, p. 180. Ellis's Letters, vol. iv. p. 98. Original 
 Letters, Dr. Sykes to Dr. Charlett, Nov. 16th, 1687. Echard's Hist, 
 p. 1086. Kennet's Hist. vol. iii. p. 490, note c. Life of Howe, p. 346. 
 
130 
 
 he would rather lose liis liberty, and return to his former 
 bondage, than give up the constitution and support the king's 
 claim to set aside the laws of the land : the meeting was 
 generally of the like opinion. There was at the same time a 
 meeting of the city clergy, waiting to know the result. Howe 
 made known the views of his brethren; the court was dis- 
 pleased, and the clergy encouraged by their patriotism.* An 
 ejected minister was known to have kept a list of those 
 Nonconformists who had suffered since the Restoration. Tlie 
 niggardly king — who would wear an old coarse French hat 
 edged with a little bit of lace not worth a groat — offered a 
 thousand guineas for the manuscript ; the generous dissenter 
 declined the offer, he would not blacken the church to promote 
 Popery. 
 
 The clergy began to open their eyes and repent of their 
 folly in keeping out of the church and persecuting [Noncon- 
 formists. Some, says Welwood, who had been zealous in 
 persecuting dissenters, now saw their error too late, and found 
 they had been used as tools by the Romish party to prevent 
 the dissenters uniting with the church, llie dissenters were 
 convinced that the design of the king was to destroy the 
 church first, and them afterwards. Churchmen and dissenters 
 drew nearer and nearer as the danger increased. A few 
 violent dissenters continued to support the king, but they had 
 no influence ; they were ridiculed as " the Pope's journeymen." 
 It was a comical sight to see Lobb the Presbyterian, and 
 Father Petre the Jesuit, as great intimates as if they were of 
 the same society. To prevent the dissenters joining the 
 court, a letter, which had been approved by some eminent 
 dignitaries in the church, was published and dispersed through- 
 out the kingdom. No name was attached to it, but it was 
 * Life of Howe, p. 348. Neal, vol. v. p. 37. 
 
131 
 
 known to be from the pen of one of the most accomplished 
 statesmen of the day — the Marquis of HaKfax. It thus warns 
 the dissenters against their new friends : — Eome does not only 
 disHke your liberty, but by its principles cannot allow it. You 
 are therefore hugged now, only that you may be the better 
 squeezed another time ; the other day you were the sons of 
 Belial, now you are angels of light. Take warning by the 
 mistake of the church of England, when after the Eestoration 
 they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to 
 them, that it made them forget their interest, and sacrifice it to 
 their revenge. If it be said the church is only humble when 
 it is out of power, the answer is, that is uncharitable, and an 
 unseasonable triumph ; if the church would comply with the 
 court, she could turn all the thunder upon yourselves, and 
 blow you oif the stage with a breath. The church is now 
 convinced of its error, — the bishops are no longer rigid pre- 
 lates, — all former haughtiness towards you is for ever extin- 
 guished, and the spirit of persecution is turned into a spirit of 
 peace, charity, and condescension j there is a general agreement 
 of thinking men, that we must no more cut ourselves off from 
 foreign Protestants, but enlarge our foundations.'^ 
 
 So runs this masterly letter ; the dissenters were satisfied, 
 determined to stand or fall with the church. 
 
 The gloomy bigot rushes on to his ruin ; the hour of Eng- 
 land's deliverance from Stuart tyranny draws near. On May 
 4th, 1688, the king published an order that his illegal decla- 
 ration of liberty of conscience should be read by the clergy in 
 time of divine service. The clergy were amazed ; if they read 
 the declaration the church was lost ; if they refused, they 
 would be cast out of their livings. They must either eat their 
 own words, and give up the divine right, which they had been 
 * Welwood's Memoirs, pp. 168, 169. Pari. Hist. Appendix, vol. iv. 
 
132 
 
 senselessly proclaiming ; or betray the church, as some of them 
 had the constitution.* The bishops generously interposed, and 
 took upon themselves the responsibility, by refusing to send 
 the declaration to their clergy. Archbishop Sancroft hastily 
 summoned some of the bishops and leading London divines to 
 meet at Lambeth. Amongst other arguments in favour of 
 reading the declaration, it was said. Dissenters would think 
 that the clergy refused to read it from an unwillingness to shew 
 tenderness towards them. It was answered, *' Dissenters had 
 never such assurances from churchmen of their inclination of 
 tenderness to them, as they then received." f In the famous 
 petition of the seven bishops to the king, they declared that 
 their unwillingness to publish the declaration was not "from 
 any want of tenderness to dissenters, in relation to whom we 
 are willing to come to such a temper as shall be thought fit, 
 when the matter shall be considered and settled in Parlia- 
 ment and Convocation." Some sneered at the fine promises 
 of the bishops ; it was said. : " They promise to come to a 
 temper, but it is only such an one as they themselves should 
 settle in Convocation." Churchmen denied this; one con- 
 fidently declared that the bishops will perform all their 
 promises, and that they will firmly carry out their moderate 
 resolutions, and not yield to the passions of any of the inferior 
 clergy, " I will boldly say, that if the church of England, after 
 she has got out of this storm, will return to hearken to the 
 peevishness of some sour men, she will be abandoned both of 
 God and man, and will set heaven and earth against her." 
 The Bishop of St. Asaph, passing through Oswestry, sent for 
 the Independent minister : " You and we," he said, " are 
 brethren ; we have indeed been angry brethren, but we have 
 seen our folly, and are resolved, if ever we have it in our 
 
 * See a firm letter from a clergyman to Pepys, refusing to read the 
 declaration. Pepys's Life, vol. ii., p. 12o. f Echard's History, p. 1101. 
 
133 
 
 power, to shew that we will treat you as brethren." Four 
 days before the trial of the seven bishops, one of them told 
 young Henry Wharton, " if himself and his brethren should 
 escape the present rage of the Papists, they were resolved to 
 use their utmost endeavours to purge the church from all 
 corruptions ; to procure the admission of the sober and pious 
 dissenters into the church, a thing so much wished for."* 
 
 The clergy, before the acquittal of the seven bishops, were 
 expecting to be ruined. Howe was dining with Dr. Sherlock, 
 then Master of the Temple ; the conversation was on the 
 imminent danger with which the church was threatened. Sud- 
 denly Sherlock asked Howe, what he thought the dissenters 
 would do, should the livings of the church become vacant, and 
 be offered to them. Howe thought that the doctor's fears would 
 not be realised ; but Sherlock said, the bishops now imprisoned 
 in the tower will certainly be cast ; the rest of the clergy who 
 had so generally refused to read the declaration would be 
 deprived of their livings, which must be offered to Noncon- 
 formists, " and who knows," he concluded, " but Mr. Howe 
 may be offered the place of Master of the Temple." Howe 
 replied at some length ; if the place were offered him, he might 
 not decline altogether such an opportunity of usefulness, if it 
 were offered on such terms as he could conscientiously accept, 
 hut as for the emolument, he should have nothing to do loith it, 
 except to convey it to its legal ovmer. Sherlock was delighted, 
 rose from his chair, embraced him, and told him "how rejoiced 
 he was to find him that ingenuous, honest man he had always 
 supposed him to be."f 
 
 * D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft, vol. ii. p. 134. 
 t Howe related this occurrence to a dignitary of the church, to whom 
 Sherlock was well known. " Sir," replied the dignitary, " you must give mc 
 leave to say, that if you had studied the case for seven years together, you 
 could not have said anything which had been more to the purpose, or more 
 to Dr. Sherlock's satisfaction." Life of Howe, pp. 350, 35L Welwood's 
 Memoirs, p. 183. 
 
134 
 
 On June 30th, 1688, the bishops were acquitted; "bonfires 
 "were made that night, and bells rung," for the triumph of the 
 church was felt to be the triumph of the nation. When the 
 bishops waited upon the king after their acquittal, people were 
 suspicious, and feared that they might be drawn into compli- 
 ances with the king. To allay these groundless fears, an account 
 of their interview w^ith his majesty was written by Dr. Sherlock, 
 concluding with tliese words : " I do assure you, and I am cer- 
 tain I have the best grounds in the world for my assurance, 
 that the bishops will never stir one jot from their petition j but 
 that they will, whenever that happy opportunity shall offer 
 itself, let the Protestant dissenters find that they will be better 
 than their word given in their famous petition."* It was often 
 said, *' If ever God should deliver us out of our present distress, 
 we would keep up our domestic quarrels no more." The dis- 
 senters acknowledged the firm and dignified stand which the 
 London divines had made against Eome. They confessed that 
 they had wronged the bishops in accusing them of being inclined 
 to Popish principles. Even the Scotch Presbyterians revered 
 them. There was every prospect now of a re-union of church- 
 men and Puritans, and it was pretty generally agreed, that the 
 ceremonies which had been the cause of so much mischief, should 
 no longer be forced upon those who objected to thenLf It was 
 visible to all the nation, says Wake, Bishop of Lincoln, that 
 the more moderate dissenters were generally so well satisfied 
 with that stand which our divines had made against Popery, 
 and the many unanswerable treatises they had published in 
 confutation of it, as to express an unusual readiness to come 
 
 ♦ Sherlock's account of the proposals of the bishops to the king. Ken- 
 net's History, vol. iii. p. 621, note d. 
 
 t Echard's Hist., p. 1107. D'Oyly's Life of Bancroft, vol. i. p. 325. 
 Rapin's Hist., vol. ii. pp. 755, 758, 770. Sir G. Mackenzie's letter to 
 Sancroft, in Gutch's Collection. Ellis's Letters, 2nd series, pp. 108, 109. 
 
135 
 
 into us.* The primate was touched by the patriotism of the 
 dissenters. He calls them his Protestant brethren, differing 
 from us in lesser matters, but holding with us the substance of 
 Eeformed Christianity — children of the same father, who should 
 join and assist one another, and be united, if we cannot in fellow- 
 ship, in Christian affection and charity. His articles of advice to 
 the clergy (July 16th, 1688) breathe a charitable spirit. In the 
 letter which accompanied the articles the attention of the clergy 
 is called to the zeal the Archbishop expresses against Eome on 
 the one hand, " and the unhappy differences that are among 
 Protestants on the other." In the eleventh of these articles, 
 the clergy are exhorted to " have a very tender regard to our 
 brethren, the Protestant dissenters," — to visit them, receive 
 them kindly, — treat them fairly,— discourse Avith them calmly 
 and civilly, — to persuade them (if it may be) to a full compli- 
 ance with the church, — to convince them that the bishops are 
 irreconcilable enemies to Rome, — to affectionately exhort them 
 to prayer, for the blessed universal union of all reformed 
 churches both at home and abroad against common enemies, 
 that all they who confess the name of the Lord "may meet in 
 one holy communion, and live in perfect unity and godly love."f 
 Thus was the persecuting policy which had prevailed from the 
 l^storation repudiated ; the forcing, chastising, lashing, scourg- 
 ing system, had for a time no defender. The principles of the 
 the liberals were triumphant ; the Act of Uniformity was 
 emphatically condemned. 
 
 The bishops were now resolved to repair the mischief of 
 Black Bartholomew's Day. The Archbishop and clergy of 
 
 * Wake's Speech at Sacheverell's Trial. 
 
 t Sec a remarkable paper of Sancroft's, draught of answer to the four 
 titular bishops, in Gutcli's Collection, vol, i., and another paper in p. 366. 
 Echard's Hist. p. 1107. D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft, vol. ii. pp. 319, 324, 
 2^5, 
 
136 
 
 London had several conferences with the chief of the dissenting 
 ministers. Bancroft at once proceeded to draw out a scheme, 
 by which the moderate dissenters might be taken into the 
 church of England. He was convinced that there had been 
 a sad mistake made at the Restoration, and foreseeing that 
 some great political change was drawing near, he was resolved 
 that another such hapj^y opportunity of perfecting the Prayer 
 Book, and strengthening the church by gaining dissenters, 
 should not be lost. The Archbishop took one part of the 
 scheme ; to Dr. Patrick he committed another ; the revision of 
 the Prayer Book he referred to Dr. Sharp, Dr. Moore, and a 
 select number of divines. The design was this : to amend the 
 discipline of the church, to review and enlarge the Liturgy, 
 and to propose to Convocation and Parliament, that those 
 ceremonies which were allowed to be indifferent should not be 
 forced upon those who had prejudices against them. * 
 
 But whilst this excellent scheme was being worked out, 
 important political events occurred which prevented the Arch- 
 bishop bringing it to a completion. The nation could no 
 longer bear with the misrule of James II. To Holland men 
 looked for deliverance ; earnest invitations were sent to 
 WiUiam, Prince of Orange, to interfere and preserve our 
 liberties and religion. On 'Nov, 5tli, 1688, the Prince landed 
 in England. In the next month, James fled, and we were 
 delivered from a race whose rule had been one continued 
 invasion of our rights and liberties. Englishmen were not to 
 be slaves to princes or priests. The Lords and Commons 
 
 * The only account of Bancroft's scheme is that given hy Dr. William 
 "Wake, when Bishop of Lincoln, in his speech in the House of Lords, at the 
 trial of Dr. Sacheverell, March 17th, 1710. There is mention of it in 
 " A letter from a divine to a member of Parliament, in defence of the bill for 
 uniting Protestants," licensed April 1st, 1689. This is the treatise to which 
 Wake refers in his speech. Kennet's Hist. vol. iii. p. 588, note a. 
 D'Oyly's Life of Bancroft, vol. i. p. 326. Hallam, vol. iii. p. 172. Echard's 
 Hist. p. 1107. Ellis's Letters, vol. iv. p. 117. 
 
137 
 
 invited the Prince of Orange to take upon himself the adminis- 
 tration of affairs, and thanked him for coming to rescue this 
 nation " from the miseries of popery and slavery." On Ash- 
 Wednesday (Feb. 13th), 1689, the crown was tendered to the 
 Prince and Princess of Orange, and on the same day they were 
 proclaimed King William III. and Queen Mary. 
 
 There was again " a glorious opportunity of reconciling all 
 moderate dissenters to the communion of the church of England, 
 which might have been happily effected if this extraordinary 
 juncture had been well-managed and improved." William had 
 already promised, with the concurrence and at the request of 
 the leading churchmen, to " use his endeavours to bring about 
 the so much desired union between the church of England and 
 the dissenters." The dissenters publicly expressed their wish 
 for union with the cliurch. A large number of them waited 
 upon the king, and presented to him an address, in which they 
 express their desire and hope, that the king will use his 
 authority to establish a firm union between Protestants in 
 matters of religion. The king replied, " Whatever is in my 
 power shall be employed for obtaining such an union among 
 you." Still more strongly did they express the same wish in 
 their speech to the queen, in which they said, " We humbly 
 desire your majesty will be pleased by your wisdom and 
 goodness, to compose the differences between your Protestant 
 subjects, in things of less moment concerning religion. We 
 hope those reverend persons who conspire with us in the main 
 end, the glory of God, and the public good, will -consent to the 
 terms of union, wherein all the reformed churches agree." 
 The queen replied, " I will use all endeavours for the obtaining 
 an union that is necessary for the edifying of the cliurch." 
 Their majesties were in favour of Bancroft's scheme, and 
 "openly espoused the design :" the most eminent clergy had 
 
138 
 
 pledged themselves to accomplish it, but they were again to be 
 thwarted by men who boasted themselves to be the church's 
 friends, and have ever been her worst enemies.* 
 
 The part which Sancroft played at the Eevolution was not 
 a glorious one. His conduct in the hour of the church's great 
 peril was heroic, and if there had been need, he would have 
 willingly shed his blood in her defence. He was a good, but 
 not a great man, and could not free himself from those 
 unconstitutional principles which held in bondage so many 
 churchmen. Since the flight of James, he seemed to be in a 
 maze. His friends pressed him to wait upon the Prince of 
 Orange, or send some message to him, " but he was positive 
 not to do it." Lord Clarendon, son of the great Lord 
 Clarendon, and the bishops, urged him to attend the meeting 
 of the Lords, but he steadily refused ; he would do nothing, 
 say nothing. On January 3rd, 1689, Lord Clarendon and Dr. 
 Tenison were dining at Lambeth. They spoke to him of the 
 approaching meeting of the Lords and Commons, and asked 
 him "whether he would not think of preparing something 
 against that time in behalf of the dissenters." Dr. Tenison 
 added, it would be expected that something should be off'ered 
 in fulfilment of the declaration made in the petition of the 
 seven bishops. The archbishop said, "he knew well what 
 was in their petition ; and he believed every bishop in 
 England intended to make it good when there was an oppor- 
 tunity of debating those matters in Convocation ; but till 
 then, or without a commission from the king, it was highly 
 penal to enter upon church matters ; but, however, he would 
 have it in his mind, and would be willing to discourse with 
 any of the bishops or clergy thereupon, it they came to him ; 
 
 * Kennet's Hist. vol. iii. p. 558. Calamy's Baxter, p. 636. Wake's 
 Speech in the House of Lords, at Sacheverell's Trial. 
 
139 
 
 though, he believed the dissenters would never agree among 
 themselves with what concessions they would be satisfied." 
 Dr. Tenison replied, " he thought so too, but the way to do 
 good was, for the bishops to endeavour to get such concessions 
 settled in Parliament, which, lohether accented hy the dis- 
 senters or not, would he good for the church.^' The archbishop 
 answered, " that when there was a Convocation, those matters 
 would be considered of ; and in the meantime he knew not 
 what to say, but that he would think of what had been 
 offered by us."* It appears from this conversation, which is 
 characteristic of Bancroft's timorous disposition, -f that he had 
 not yet come to a decision on that part of his scheme which 
 related to the concessions to be made to dissenters ; but Dr. 
 Tenison's sound advice was not without effect, for a few days 
 after, there was a meeting of some of the leading churchmen, 
 to consult about such concessions as might bring in dissenters. 
 There were present, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Stillingfleet, 
 Tillotson, Tenison, Patrick, and Sharp ; these two last-named 
 divines were employed by Sancroft in drawing out the scheme 
 of comprehension, and probably the others were also. The 
 Bishop of St. Asaph stated, that they had the archbishop's 
 leave to proceed ; the result was, says Patrick, " We agreed 
 that a bill should be prepared to be offered to Parliament by 
 the bishops." The bill was drawn out in ten or eleven heads. :]: 
 As Sancroft had resolved not to take the oaths to the new 
 sovereigns, and persevered in his refusal to attend the House 
 of Lords, the Comprehension Bill and Toleration Bill were 
 moved for by some of the bishops, and offered to the House 
 of Lords by the Earl of ISTottingham. This nobleman was a 
 
 * Diary of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, Jan. 3rd, 1689. 
 t Another instance of his timid disposition is mentioned by Evelyn in 
 his Diary, May 12th, 1686. 
 
 % Autobiography of Patrick, Jan. 14th, 1688. 
 
140 
 
 Tory, a High Cliurchman,* and one of tlie few statesmen wlio 
 served King William honestly. The title of the bill is, " An 
 Act for the uniting of their majesties' Protestant subjects fi 
 it passed the Lords after some alterations, and was sent to the 
 Commons. Hiere it met with a treatment which astonished 
 and mortified its promoters, for it was not only opposed by the 
 men who had driven the Puritans out of the church, and 
 resisted every attempt to restore them ; it was neglected by those 
 who where favourable to tli« dissenters. These Whigs reasoned 
 in this manner : If this bill passes, two thirds of the dissenting 
 ministers will enter the church. In becoming churchmen 
 they will become probably Tories, and thus we shall lose a 
 large body of our supporters ; further, the church will become 
 so strong, and dissent so weak, that the Toleration Act will be 
 endangered.^ Had the Whigs been united, the bill would 
 have been carried, for the extreme Tory party were a minority 
 in the House. Lord jS'ottingham's friends seeing that by this 
 coalition the bill would be defeated, availed themselves of the 
 suggestion that the bill should lie on the table until the clergy 
 had an opportunity of declaring their opinions. " The pro- 
 position was received with general aAJclamation. The Tories 
 were well pleased to see such honour done to the priesthood. 
 
 * The term High Church was not yet in common use. South, in 1698, 
 complains of those who are for strict conformity to the rules of the church, 
 being called " of late," High Churchmen, and those of the contrary way 
 are " sanctified by the fashionable, endearing name of Low Churchmen, not 
 from their aftecting a lower condition in the church than others, since none 
 lie so low but they can look as high : but from the low condition which the 
 authors of this distinction would fain bring the church itself into." — Epistle 
 Dedicatory to the Archbishop of Dublin, 
 
 t The bill is fully described by Lord Macaulay ; he examined the only 
 copy in existence, which, he observes "has been seen by only two or three 
 persons now living." It is in the archives of the House of Lords. Macau- 
 lay's Hist. vol. iv. p. 93. 
 
 X Such seem to me to have been their motives. Bogue and Bennett's 
 Hist, of Dissenters, vol. i. p. 217. See Speaker Onslow's noie on Burnet's 
 account of this matter. Macaulay's Hist. vol. iv. p. 100. 
 
141 
 
 Those Whigs who were against the Comprehension Bill were 
 well pleased to see it laid aside, certainly for a year, probably 
 for ever. Those Whigs who were for the Comprehension Bill 
 were well pleased to escape without a defeat." The Lords and 
 Commons addressed the king, praying him to summon the 
 Convocation ; and Lord Nottingham's Comprehension Bill was 
 not again mentioned.* The Toleration Act, the Magna Charta 
 of religious liberty, received the royal assent, May 24th, 1689. 
 Whilst the Comprehension Bill was before Parliament, 
 Tillotson, who had great influence with the king, " who used to 
 call him the honestest man and the best friend that ever he had 
 in his life," advised William to try another method for accom- 
 plishing the object. He reminded him that the Papists re- 
 proached the church of England with being founded on Parlia- 
 mentary authority, and therefore recommended that his majesty 
 should grant a royal commission, consisting of the most eminent 
 clergy, to consider of some methods for healing the church's 
 wounds, and establishing a durable peace ; the recommenda- 
 tions of these commissioners, he advised, should be laid before 
 Convocation and Parliament. Upon this advice the king acted ; 
 ten bishops and twenty eminent divines were authorised to 
 revise the Liturgy, and consider some other ecclesiastical 
 matters. Tillotson was one of the most amiable of men, and he 
 thought that the clergy would, after their recent danger, be 
 more kindly disposed towards dissenters, and be willing to fulfil 
 the promises which had been made when the church was 
 struggling with Rome. Never was any one more mistaken. 
 Burnet, as soon as he heard that the Convocation were to be 
 
 * "Whilst this bill was passing the Lords, Locke wrote to Limborch, 
 March 12th, 1689, saying the " clergy were no great friends to it." See 
 his Familiar Letters to his Friends, at the end of vol. iii. of his "Works, 1722. 
 Macaulay's Hist. vol. iv. p. 116. Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 163. 
 Calamy's Baxters p. 654. Burnet, vol. iv. p. 17-21. Hallam, vol. iii. p. 173. 
 
142 
 
 summoned, said to Lord Halifax, in his blunt way, ^'it would 
 be the utter ruin of the Comprehension scheme." Lord Halifax 
 agreed with him, for he knew the church people would never 
 receive the Presbyterians among them. Burnet and Halifax 
 were right. As the fear of Popery passed away, the old ran- 
 corous evil spirit returned ; and the disciples of Sheldon again 
 made themselves heard. Every day the outcry against altering 
 the Liturgy, and admitting dissenters into the church became 
 louder. The Universities took fire : the angry men of Oxford 
 again calumniated the moderate churchmen as Latitudinarians, 
 Socinians : the parochial clergy followed in the same strain. 
 They said, — the church is going to be ruined, undermined, 
 subverted, — ^if alterations are commenced, no one can tell where 
 they will stop, — ^frequent changes would make people lose their 
 esteem for the Prayer Book, — making concessions would be a 
 confession that the church had been hitherto in the wrong, — 
 better to have a scliism without the church, than a faction 
 within it, — ^the oaths, subscriptions, and ceremonies were im- 
 posed only to keep out the Puritans, we will never consent 
 to their removal to let them in again, — the six hundred altera- 
 tions made at the Eestoration were rejected with scorn, and had 
 no effect, we cannot expect such persons to be satisfied,* — 
 dissenters were now tolerated, they should be content, — they 
 
 * It is scarcely necessary to point out the contradiction between this 
 assertion, and the admission that at the Restoration new terms were imposed 
 for the purpose of driving out the Puritans. The truth is, no concessions 
 have been made to the Puritan portion of the church since 1552. Neal 
 may be allowed to speak for the Puritans ; of Elizabeth's alterations in 
 1559, he says, "no alterations were made in favour of those who now began 
 to be called Puritans ;" again, he says of her Prayer Book, " it was hardly 
 equal to that which was set out by King Edward VI." in 1552. The few 
 changes made by James I. in 1604, " were (to use the present learned 
 Bishop of Llandaflfs words) certainly not calculated to place the Puritan or 
 low church party in more favourable circumstances." The changes in 
 1661 were, as has been said, undoubtedly anti-Puritan. All church legis- 
 lation since the beginning of Elizabeth's reign has been adverse to the 
 Puritans. 
 
143 
 
 were not agreed among themselves as to what they wanted, — 
 the king was a Presbyterian, and about to betray the church 
 in England as he had done in Scotland, — the English Presby- 
 terians would be as intolerant, if they got the upper hand, as 
 their Scotch brethren, who were insulting and persecuting the 
 Episcopal clergy in that country. Such were the cries raised 
 by the men, who became known about this time, as High 
 Churchmen. 
 
 There was, however, one objection, and only one, of consider- 
 able weight. It was said, — ^if extensive alterations are made in 
 the Liturgy, the clergy who are intending to refuse the oaths to 
 "William and Mary, wiU pretend that they still stick to the 
 ancient church of England, and to the old Prayer Book, in 
 opposition to those who adopt the revised one. It is probable 
 that the non-jurors would have set up this specious pretext for 
 a schism. The simple and moderate bill of Lord Nottingham 
 was not open to this objection ;* for it did not alter the Liturgy, 
 but merely removed the mischievous declaration of assent and 
 consent to the Prayer Book, required by the Act of Uniformity 
 and made indifferent the ceremonies to which dissenters 
 generally objected. The neglect which Lord IS'ottingham's bill 
 received was the fatal mistake ; for it was evident from the 
 cries now raised that the clergy would never consent to enlarge 
 the church. 
 
 * It is said, that tlie non-jurors hoped that the Liturgy might be 
 altered, that they might have an excuse for a schism ; yet Sancroft approved 
 of Jjord Nottingham's bill, which was moved for by the non-juring bishops. 
 After the bill had passed the Lords, Sancroft gave no sign against it, as 
 appears from the conversation between him, the bishop of St. Asaph, and 
 Evelyn, in Evelyn's Diarj^, April 12th, 1689. Kennet's Hist. vol. iii. pp. 
 591, 799. Burnet, vol. iv. pp. 50, 52, 54, 57, 59. Calamy's Baxter, pp. 
 658, 659, 660. Birch's Life of Tillotson, pp. 164, 181, 183. The case of 
 Protestant dissenters represented and argued, by J ohn Howe, 1689. The 
 non-jurors themselves soon altered the Liturgy; even in 1690 a Liturgy 
 drawn up for Jacobite families appeared. Kennet's Hist, p. 615, note b. 
 
144 
 
 The commissioners appointed by King William to revise tlie 
 Prayer Book were, with few exceptions, of the Latitudinarian 
 school — ^the disciples of Selden, Falkland, Hales, Chillingworth 
 and Jeremy Taylor, whose principles were now victorious. 
 They were a body of divines, the honour and glory of their 
 country, and now were raised to the high places of the church. 
 The episcopal bench has never since or before been filled with 
 so many liberal men. Tillotson was made Archbishop of 
 Canterbury ; Stillingfleet, Burnet, Patrick, Fowler, Sharp, 
 Denison, Eadder, became bishops. Tillotson and Stillingfleet 
 had been engaged in most of the unsuccessful attempts that had 
 been made since the Eestoration, to enlarge the communion of 
 the church. There were many points of resemblance in the 
 lives of these two great men. Tillotson was five years older 
 than Stillingfleet : Cambridge had the honour of rearing them : 
 they were ordained within a short time of each other : they 
 were soon close friends, hiring the Mansion-house at Cheshunt, 
 to live " there together in summer-time : " in 1 672, Tillotson 
 became Dean of Canterbury, five years afterwards, Stillingfleet 
 Dean of St. Paul's : at the Eevolution the former was raised to 
 the Archbishopric of Canterbury, the latter to the Bishopric of 
 Worcester: Tillotson died in 1694, five years afterwards, 
 Stillingfleet followed " They were lovely and pleasant in their 
 lives, and in their death they were not divided."* 
 
 But all their labours were in vain. There was spreading 
 through the clergy, an angry, discontented spirit. Within a 
 month after James fled, they " began to change their note, both 
 in pulpit and discourse, on their old passive obedience, "t Al- 
 though the clergy, except about four hundred, took the oaths 
 
 * Anthony a Wood's Life, p. 96. Thoresby's Diary. Sharp's Life, 
 Yol. i. p. 48. Tillotson's Life in Ecc. Biog. Preface of Baxter's Life, 
 t Evelyn's Diary, Jan. 29th, 1689. 
 
145 
 
 of allegiance to William and Mary, the hearts of many of them 
 were with James. They had no love for the deliverer whom 
 the Almighty had raised np to rescue from destruction, our 
 liberties and religion. The Revolution disgusted them : all the 
 slavish principles which for years they had been preaching, 
 were repudiated by the nation : they whispered sedition, " we 
 have forty thousand men to bring King James back : " they 
 were exasperated by the taunts of those who had not taken the 
 oaths, who sneered at them as "a jolly pack of swearers." Thus 
 the parochial clergy were not sorry of an opportunity of shewing 
 their power by thwarting the wishes of the king, and returned 
 men to Convocation whose only recommendation seems to have 
 been, that they would oppose every proposal which the royal 
 commissioners might make to them.* 
 
 Henry, Earl of Clarendon, with his brother, the Earl of Roches- 
 ter, were men of great influence with the clergy : the latter, 
 by interest and education, a favourer of the servile principles 
 prevalent in the church. Being uncles to the queen, they ex- 
 pected high offices to be ofi'ered to them. In this they were 
 disappointed, and now they were gratifying their revenge by 
 using their influence to defeat the scheme. Clarendon at one 
 time appears to have been not unfavourable to some measure 
 for drawing into the church moderate dissenters, but he soon 
 returned to his intolerant views, and is described by a writer of 
 the day, as " a true son of the church of England, a lover of the 
 regular clergy, "f Cornbury, the seat of Lord Clarendon, lies 
 at a convenient distance from Oxford, the head quarters of 
 the opposition ; he was frequently there, and had oppor- 
 
 * Lord Macaulay observes that there was only one man of any note as 
 a scholar returned by the parochial clergy. 
 
 t Wood's Fasti, vol. iv. p. 229. 
 
146 
 
 tunities of animating the clergy in their opposition to the 
 scheme of comprehension.* 
 
 The Convocation met in I^ovember. The bishops and the 
 moderate clergy, as well as the king, wished Tillotson to be 
 chosen prolocutor, or speaker ; he was proposed by Sharp ; but 
 the Lords Clarendon and Rochester had found a man in Oxford 
 ready for their purpose, who was put forward in opposition to 
 Tillotson, this was Dr. Jane. He was the chief promoter of the 
 famous Oxford decree in 1683, " against certain damnable doc- 
 trines," which had hung in triumph in the Colleges and Halls 
 of Oxford, and was soon alter the Revolution privately removed. 
 The intrigues of Clarendon and Rochester were successful; their 
 disappointed ambition was gratified j Jane was elected by a 
 majority of two to one ; Tillotson, who even in September thought 
 that the clergy would make concessions, was now undeceived.t 
 Jane, on being presented to Compton, Bishop of London, made 
 the customary speech in Latin, extolling the church of England 
 as being perfect, and intimating that he and his brethren were 
 unwilling to make any changes. Compton replied ; he told 
 them that they should show charity and indulgence to dis- 
 senters, as the bishops and clergy had promised in the time of 
 King James, and exhorted them to unanimity and concord. J 
 
 * From his conversation with the archbishop on Jan. 3rd, I conclude 
 that he was favourable to the comprehension scheme. On March 11th, he 
 makes this entry in his diary : "In the evening I went to see Lord Abing- 
 don ; my lord was much concerned for the church, and very angry at the 
 biU of comprehension. The Bishop of St. Asaph went with me ; he is deep 
 in that comprehending project." On April 25th, Dr. Tenison was with 
 him, " we had much discourse about the designed comprehension, which I 
 wonder so good a man should be fond of." See also his diary, Jan. 14th, 
 and Nov. 17th, 1689. Fox's Hist. p. 79. See Anthony ^ Wood's Life 
 for instances of Clarendon's influence at Oxford. 
 
 t Birch gives a copy of a paper which Tillotson sent to Lord Portland : 
 it is called, " Concessions which will probably be made by the church of 
 England for the union of Protestants ; which I sent to the Earl of Portland 
 by Dr. Stillingfleet, Sept. 13th, J689." ^harp's Life, vol. i. p. 106. 
 Baxter, part iii. p. 177. "' 
 
147 
 
 rrom the beginning to the end, " they displayed in everything 
 a factious temper, which held the very names of concession and 
 conciliation in abhorrence,"* The bishops wished in their 
 address to the king, to acknowledge the "great deliverance 
 Almighty God wrought for us, by your means, in making you 
 the blessed instrument of preserving us from falling under the 
 cruelty of Popish tyranny." To their shame be it said, that the 
 clergy refused to thank King WilUam for the hazard he had 
 run, in coming to rescue us from slavery. + Nothing that the 
 bishops did pleased them ; they treated the Bishop of London 
 mth indignity ; they would listen to no arguments ; dead to 
 honour, they basely refused to fulfil the promises which had 
 been made, when the fear of Popery was at its height j and 
 succeeded by contemptible tactics, not omitting falsehood,J 
 in defeating this last attempt to revise the Prayer Book, and 
 enlarge the basis of the national church. 
 
 There was a bad spirit abroad in the church, ambitious, 
 factious, intolerant, calumnious. § Good men were grieved to see 
 it. Archbishop Sharp spoke of the failure of the comprehension 
 
 * The railing at dissenters was soon resumed by the high church clergy. 
 Thoresby's Correspondence, July 26th, 1694. Hallam, vol. iii. p. 173. 
 
 t Compare the address proposed by the bishops, with that presented to 
 the king ; the latter is, as Lord Macaulay calls it, cold, hard, and ungracious. 
 Kennet's Hist., vol. iii. p. 593. Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 188. Burnet, 
 vol. iv. p. 57. Harleian Miscellany, p. 492. Burnet's Speech at Sacheverell's 
 trial. 
 
 X Bishop Patrick says in his Autobiography : " They said their Speaker 
 was not come, which afterwards we found to be false. "We gave up several 
 things rather than contend with them any longer." Thoresby's Diary, 
 vol. i. p. 408. 
 
 § The bitter, angry spirit of the opponents to alterations in the Liturgy 
 and " the inviting of dissenters," may be understood by the following speci- 
 men of theological bitterness, from the pen of a leading man amongst them, 
 (the Rev. Thomas Long,) who wrote warmly against the scheme. It is an 
 Epitaph on Richard Baxter, " Here lies Richard Baxter, a militant divine, a 
 reformed Jesuit, a brazen heresiarch> and the chief of schismatics, whose itch 
 of disputing begat, whose humour of writing nourished, and whose intem- 
 perate zeal in preaching brought to its utmost height, the leprosy of the 
 church ; who dissented from those with whom he most agreed — from himself, 
 as well as aU other Nonconformists, past, present, and to come ; the sworn 
 
148 
 
 scheme with deep concern. Bishop Patrick " was concerned to 
 find so little of a spirit of unity and concord." He was weary 
 of the contention, and said with David, " that I had wings 
 like a dove, for then I would flee away, and be at rest." " Foi 
 the divisions of Eeuben, there were great searchings of heart."* 
 TiUotson, full of that charity which hopeth all things, did not 
 yet despair; writing to Frederick Spanheim, (Feb. 6th, 1691,) 
 he says, — Stillingfleet and very many others, the glories and 
 ornaments of our church, have strong inclinations to peace and 
 concord ; a union between the church and dissenters should 
 not be attempted at present, but we ought to wait, till the times 
 grow more disposed for peace, a period which, I presage, is not 
 far distant, f Bates had done all he could to promote a " com- 
 prehension as long as there was any hope, but at last, he saw 
 there was none, till God should give a more suitable spirit to 
 all concerned." Howe, himself calm amidst the fierce strife of 
 tongues, spoke words of peace and love ; he put forth " Humble 
 requests both to Conformists and Dissenters," persuading both 
 to charity, and " bend towards one common course, that there 
 may at length cease to be any divided parties at all." There 
 are, he says, different tastes in meats and drinks, we need not 
 then wonder that men have different tastes in the externals of 
 religion. Let us not despise each other for differing in lesser 
 matters, but endeavour to promote true reformed Christianity, 
 
 enemy of kings and bishops, and in himself the very bond of rebels ; who was 
 born, through seventy years and eighty books, to disturb the peace of the 
 kingdom, and twice to attempt the ruin of the church of England ; in the 
 endeavour of which mighty mischiefs he fell short. For which, thanks be 
 to God." Biog. Brit., vol. ii. p. 18. Hallam, vol. iii. p. 197. 
 
 * See the supplementary account at the end of Bishop Patrick's 
 Autobiography. Sharp's Life, vol. 1. p. 143. Thoresby's Diary, vol. i. 
 p. 400. 
 
 t Queen Mary had received from Spanheim, a treatise in favour of union 
 between the church and dissenters, which she put into TiUotson' s hands ; he 
 wrote to Spanheim expressing his approval of the treatise. Birch's Life of 
 TiUotson, pp, 233, 234. 
 
149 
 
 the simple, primitive, lovely religion of Christ, and not of this 
 or that party. " Let ns show ourselves men and manly 
 Christians, not swayed by trifles and little things, as children 
 by this or that dress, or mode, or form of our religion."* But 
 the latitudinarianism of Howe was little relished in those days 
 of savage controversy. Philip Henry had been earnestly desir- 
 ous that the union of the churchmen and dissenters might now 
 be accomplished. He had prayed constantly for it, he had used 
 all endeavours, " as he had opportunity, that there might be 
 some liealing methods found out and agreed upon." But 'when 
 he heard the cry of the clergy, that the Puritans should not be 
 let in again to disturb the church, the good man despaired, for 
 " he saw himself perfectly driven from them." 
 
 The !N'onconformists had not been relieved many months from 
 persecution, before a bitter quarrel sprung uj) among themselves. 
 The fault was chiefly with the Lidependents, who attacked the 
 Presbyterians with extraordinary fierceness, denouncing them as 
 Arminians, underminers of the gospel, heretics. Dr. Daniel 
 Williams they accused of Socinianism, and drove liim, with 
 Howe, Bates, and other excellent men, away from the Hall where 
 the London dissenting ministers preached. Had a few conces- 
 sions been made whilst this dreadful controversy was raging, 
 most of the Presbyterians would have joined the church, but it 
 was as Lord Halifax said, the church people would rather turn 
 Papists than admit the Presbyterians among them. Thousands, 
 says Thoresby, might have been gained to the church by a few 
 concessions. -f The Convocation was not allowed to sit again 
 
 * Life of Howe, pp. 373, 377, 379, 381, 382, 384. 
 t Bogue and Bennett, in their History of Dissenters, lay the largest 
 share of the blame on the Independents, and some on the Baptists. "With 
 them agree Burnet, Palmer, and Rogers ; from these authors I have drawn 
 my conclusions. — See Bogue and Bennett's History, vol. i. pp. 402, 403, 405, 
 407, 418. Thoresby's Diary, vol i. p. 374. Burnet vol. iv. pp. 444, 445, 
 Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. i. p. 415, vol ii. pp. 147, 641, 642. Life 
 of Howe, pp. 389, 393, 395, 399 to 403. 
 
150 
 
 until 1700 ; Archbishop Tillotson, and his successor Archbishop 
 Tenison, with the moderate party, hoping that men would be- 
 come in time more calm, but the hope was not realised. The 
 seventeenth century passed away, and still the same angry 
 passions raged. The Lower House of Convocation increased in 
 factiousness, aimed at an independence of the State, and treated 
 the bishops with insolence ; at length, in 1717, its violence 
 provoked the government to prorogue it, and it has never again 
 had a license to proceed to business.* 
 
 Even twenty years after the revolution, Sancroft's design of 
 reconciling dissenters was attacked with undiminished fury by 
 the famous Dr. Sacheverell. He was a man much like Dr. 
 Samuel Parker, conceited, insolent, scurrilous, and ambitious, 
 with a very small measure of religion, virtue, learning, or good 
 sense. f On November 5th, 1709, being invited to preach in 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, before the Lord Mayor, he considered it 
 his duty to blow a trumpet in Sum, and open the eyes of the 
 
 * Almost all the speakers chosen hy the Lower House were violent, 
 factious men ; none of them, except Atterbury, were noted for great abilities. 
 What can we think of men who chose for their prolocutor, a base, ungrateful 
 man like "Woodward, in preference to Beveridge, a pious, learned, and 
 moderate high churchman ? What can we think of men who appointed 
 Dr. Binks as their prolocutor, a man who had preached a sermon before them, 
 in which he contrasted our Saviour's sufferings with those of King Charles 
 I., giving the preference to the king's ? A member of the House of Commons 
 called it a " blasphemous sermon ; " Burnet says its expressions were in- 
 decent. Kennet's Hist. vol. iii. pp. 594, 799, 800, 842, 855. Burnet, vol. 
 iv. p. 509—614; vol. v. pp. 66, 67, 69, 193, 297 ; vol. vi. pp. 52, 112. 
 Hallam, vol. iii. pp. 174, 244, 247. Lathbury's Hist, of Convocation, pp. 
 278, 308, 332. Thoresby's Diary, vol. i. pp. 359, 408. 
 
 t The Bishop of Lichfield refused to ordain him a priest " because of 
 his ignorance and rude behaviour.'' The Bishop of Oxford writing to the 
 Bishop of Lichfield, says, " He is really proud, and thinks too well of him- 
 self, which I have often told him in plain terms, and with as much severity 
 as I could, though to little purpose. I am sorry to see the follies of the boy 
 grow up with the man. I cannot think he will now presume to offer him- 
 self to me, or any other bishop than your lordship, for priest's orders ; but 
 if he do, I am sure I will not lay my hands upon him." Kennet's Hist, 
 vol. iii. p. -747, note a. 
 
151 
 
 deluded people'^ to the manner in which, the church was being 
 ruined by the Bishops, Whigs, Low Churchmen and 
 Dissenters. He says, " A man must be very weak, or 
 something worse, that thinks or pretends that dissenters 
 are to be gained or won over by any other grants and 
 indulgences than giving up our lohoU Constitution." f The 
 attempt to draw in dissenters is '''spiritual legerdemain, 
 fallacious tricking, and double dealing." He calls union, com- 
 prehension, and moderation, " canting expressions, they mean 
 nothing but getting money and preferment, by holding in with 
 persons of all parties and characters, halting between a diver- 
 sity of opinions, and reconcihng God and BeUal." He reviles 
 Archbishop Grindal as "a false son of the church, a perfidious 
 prelate," and denounces as a " false brother," him who should 
 dare to " lay open all those sacred boundaries of the church, to 
 let in all sectarists and schismatics, of whatsoever wild, romantic, 
 or enthusiastic notions, so as to make the house of God not 
 only a den of thieves, but a receptacle of legions of devils." 
 Having poured forth a torrent of abuse in language sometimes 
 too gross to be repeated, " upon the false brethren," who are 
 plainly the bishops and other chief persons in church and 
 state, J he thus proceeds to speak of the comprehension 
 scheme : — " This was indeed the ready way to fill the house of 
 God, but with what 1 With pagan beasts, instead of Christian 
 sacrifices, with such unhallowed, loathsome, and detestable 
 guests as would have driven out the Holy Spirit of God, with 
 indignation. This pious design of making our house of prayer 
 a den of thieves, of reforming our church into a chaos, is well 
 known to have been attempted several times in this kingdom, 
 
 * See the dedication of his sermon on "The perils of false brethren," to 
 Sir G. Garrard. 
 
 t Sermon on " The perils of false brethren," p. 42, in " The Trial of 
 Dr. Sacheverell, printed for Jacob Tonson, 1710." 
 
 X See Sacheverell's Trial, pp. 36, 37, 41. 
 
152 
 
 and lately within our memory, when all things seemed to favour 
 it, but' that good Providence, which so happily interposed, 
 against the ruin of our church, and blasted the long projected 
 scheme of the ecclesiastical Achitophels. A scheme so mon- 
 strous, so romantic, and absurd, that it is hard to say whether 
 it had more of villany or folly in it, and which even the sectarists 
 of all sorts (who will not be satisfied with anything less than 
 sovereignty)* exploded and laughed at as ridiculous and im- 
 practicable. It was doubtless a wise way to exemplify our 
 hrotlierhj love and charity jor the souls of men, to put both 
 them and ourselves into a gulf of perdition, by throwing up the 
 essentials of our faith, and the uniformity of our worship."t In 
 reply to this " high nonsense," as Addison called it. Dr. William 
 Wake, then Bishop of Lincoln, and afterwards Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, explained and defended in the House of Lords, 
 Sancroft's scheme, and the design of the divines appointed by 
 King WiUiam to revise the Liturgy, of whom he spoke in these 
 high and just terms : — ^They were a set of men than which tliis 
 church was never, at any one time blessed with either wiser or 
 better, since it was a church, . . . and a design that I am 
 persuaded would have been for the interest and peace of our 
 ehureh and state had it been accomplished. J But the majority 
 
 * A similarly absurd statement is made by Roger North : " Almost 
 anything of ceremony or form had been yielded to them, if it would have 
 been accepted ; but nothing less than episcopacy, root and branch, would 
 content them ; and upon that point they broke, and set up a separation." 
 North's Examen, page 437. 
 
 t He then says, that as " these false brethren " failed in carrying the 
 Conventicle into the Church, they are now resolved to bring the Church into 
 the Conventicle. Having failed by comprehension to pull down the church, 
 they seek by moderation to blow her up. Comprehension is open violf.nce, 
 moderation is secret treachery. — Sacheverell's Trial, p. 41. 
 
 X Speech of Dr. W. "Wake, Bishop of Lincoln, in the House of Lords, 
 on March 17th, 1710. SachevereU's trial produced good, it was a great 
 opportunity for the "Whigs to defend the glorious Revolution, and caused 
 JBisliop Wake to give the only account we have of Sancroft's scheme for 
 revising the Liturgy and admitting dissenters into the church. I find no 
 mention made of this part of Sacheverell's sermon, by the managers on the 
 part of the Commons, except a passing allusion by Mr. Thompson. 
 
163 
 
 of the clergy were with Sacheverell, they rallied round him as 
 the champion of the church, and replied with alacrity to his 
 summons to ^^put on the lohole armour of God.""^- Forty thou- 
 sand copies of his worthless sermon were sold : the Tories 
 thought it deserved a bishopric, were in high glee, and inflamed 
 the nation, with the cry " The church in danger ;"t the Whigs 
 foolishly condemned it to be burnt. He was immediately after 
 his trial, presented to a valuable living in Shropshire ;J his 
 journey to take possession of it was a display of insolence on his 
 part, and folly on the part of those who adored him. Thousands 
 of men flocked out of the towns to meet him : to kiss his hand 
 was an honour eagerly struggled for by the bhnd multitude : 
 a glimpse of " the ever-blessed wig of the holy man " was an 
 event to be remembered with gratitude. As Sacheverell's 
 opinions were those of the clergy, it was useless to expect that 
 they would take any measures either to revise the Liturgy or 
 enlarge the church. § 
 
 Baxter and Howe and Philip Henry, and all that genera- 
 
 * See Sacheverell's Letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, speaking 
 of himself as representing the University. The violence of the High 
 Church party may he understood hy their conduct towards "White Kenuet, 
 who became a "Whig. They represented him as Judas Iscariot, in a picture 
 of the Last Supper, in Whitechapel church, placed over the altar by the 
 Eector.— NichoUs's Literary Anecdotes, vol. i, pp. 140, 397. Noble's Biog. 
 Hist. vol. iii. pp. 88, 110. 
 
 t Mr. Harley, afterwards Lord Oxford, was at dinner at his house in 
 Herefordshire, when he received a packet from London telling him of 
 Sacheverell's sermon ; he snapped his fingers and cried out with exultation, 
 " The game is up, get the horses ready immediately !" and at once he set 
 forth for London. Nicholls's Literary Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 68. 
 
 X Selattyn, near Oswestry. 
 
 § Sacheverell's Trial. Burnet, vol. v. pp. 420, 422, 430, 435 ; vol. vi. 
 pp. 9, 10 ; and Lord Dartmouth's note, p. 165. History of Shrewsbury, 
 note. Letters of Eminent Men : Smith to Hearne, Feb. 8th, 1707 ; Hearne 
 to Anstis, July 18th, 1714; and Hearne's Diary, p. 201. Thoresby's 
 Correspondence, vol. ii. pp. 232, 248. Flying Post, July 20th, 1710. 
 Post Boy, Mar. 24th, Dec. 15th, 1713. Burnet's and Talbot's Speeches at 
 Sacheverell's Trial. 
 
154 
 
 tion passed away, and their successors, satisfied with the 
 Toleration Act, ceased to strive for union with tlie church. 
 
 The fever and excitement of the seventeenth century were 
 succeeded by the lethargy of the eighteenth ; the great contro- 
 versies which had agitated church and state died away ; in our 
 stately English Temple there was silence, when men slumbered 
 and slept, until the voice of John Wesley, — the grandson of 
 one of the ministers ejected at the Restoration, — was 
 heard, awaking the sleepers to spiritual activity.* Then, 
 when men awoke, they felt the restraints of THE ACT OF 
 UNIFORMITY. 
 
 Thus have three glorious opportunities of healing old disputes 
 and enlarging the foundations of the national church, — the first 
 at the accession of James I., the second at the Restoration, the 
 third at the Revolution, — ^been neglected; they have passed 
 away for ever ; none such will occur again. Thus were Baxter, 
 Howe, Philip Henry, Manton, Bates, Calamy, Jacomb, Flavel, 
 Charnock, Newcomen, Spurstow, AUein, Matthew Poole, 
 Samuel Clarke, Gouge, and a host of pious men driven out of 
 the church of England. Thus did disastrous councils prevail, 
 — the Liturgy was reviewed by men whose minds were ex- 
 asperated by recent sufferings, and whose consciences were dull 
 and hearts hard, — the church was narrowed when it should 
 have been enlarged, — new shackles were imposed on men's 
 minds instead of old ones being struck off, — the clergy of the 
 foreign reformed churches were excluded from the pulpits of 
 
 * Jolin Westley, or Wesley, (the son of the Puritan rector of Char- 
 mouth, in Dorsetshire,) was ejected by the Act of Uniformity, from Whit- 
 church, in the same county. His son was Samuel, the rector of Epworth, 
 and father of the famous John AVesley. Athenae Oxon, voh iy. p. 503. 
 Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 307, note. Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. i. 
 p. 478. 
 
155 
 
 the Anglican churcli, — and it was vainly thought that tlie free 
 people of England would worship God in a strictly uniform 
 fashion. Thus were the attempts made by the wise and good 
 to restore the Puritans, defeated by the prevalence of the same 
 unhalloAved temper which blinded men to the wickedness and 
 folly of ejecting them. An injury has been inflicted upon the 
 church, which no legislation can repair. Yet, though we can 
 no longer hope to see the people of England restored to the 
 communion of the established church, much may be done to 
 enlarge and strengthen it. The provisions of the fatal Act of 
 Uniformity should be carefully examined ; and it is impossible 
 to desire a more fitting time than the present, for discussing 
 this subject. We live in those calmer times for which good 
 men longed but never saw, when the vile passions of former 
 days no longer rage. The subject will be brought before the 
 country by Lord Ebury, who has laid upon the table of the 
 House of Lords two bills ; by one he proposes to remove the 
 mischievous declaration* required from the clergy of assent and 
 
 * It may interest my readers, to compare the declarations wMck have 
 been proposed as substitutes for the subscriptions, &c., at present required 
 from the clergy. Through the courtesy of one of the peers, I have obtained 
 a copy of Lord Nottingham's Bill (1689) ; the declaration proposed (as a 
 substitute for present siibscriptions, &c.,) is as follows : " I, A. B., do submit 
 to the present constitution of the church of England. I acknowledge that 
 the doctrine of it contains in it all things necessary to salvation, and I will 
 conform m.yself to the worship and the government thereof as established by 
 law, and I solemnly promise in the exercise of my ministry to preach and 
 practice according thereunto." Tillotson proposed the following : "I, A. B,, 
 do submit to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the church of England, 
 as it shall be established by law, and promise to teach and practice accord- 
 ingly." Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 169. The declaration proposed by 
 Bishop Wilkins or Sir Matthew Hale (1668), is as follows : " I, A. B., do 
 hereby profess and declare, that I do approve the doctrines, worship, and 
 government established in the church of England, as containing all things 
 necessary to salvation ; and that I will not endeavour by myself or any other, 
 directly or indirectly, to bring in any doctrine contrary to that which is so 
 established : and I do hereby promise, that I will continue in the communion 
 of the church of England, and will not do anything to disturb the peace 
 thereof." Lord Ebury's Speech in the House of Lords, May 8th, 1860, 
 p. 10. Stniingfleet's Irenicum. 
 
156 
 
 consent to the Prayer Book ; by the other he aims at giving 
 more elasticity to the services of the church. How far Lord 
 Ebuiy may succeed in effecting those very desirable changes, 
 depends much on the course adopted by the bishops. But 
 whatever may be the issue, he will have this satisfaction, that he 
 has expressed his own sympathy 'with, those illustrious statesmen 
 and divines who struggled, though unsuccessfully, against the 
 schismatical, hard policy of the Eestoration. It is no mean hon- 
 our to be classed with the Southamptons, Hales, Tillotsons, and 
 Stillingfleets, of those days ; and there can be no nobler objects 
 to strive after than the relief of men's consciences, and the 
 vindication of the justice of this generation, by the substitution 
 for the unrighteous act of a profligate age, of one bearing the 
 name of our beloved Queen, than whom no monarch more 
 virtuous ever reigned over the empire of Great Britain. 
 
 J. O. SANDFOBD, PRINTER, HIGH STREET, SHREWSBURY. 
 
157 
 
 THE FOLLOWING EDITIONS HAVE BEEN USED FOR 
 REFERENCES :— 
 
 Baxter's Life and Times, 1696. 
 
 Basire's Correspondence, 1831. 
 
 Birch's Life of Tillotson, 1753. 
 
 Biographia Britannica, second edition. 
 
 Browne's (Sir Thos.) Works, 1836. 
 
 Burnet's History of Ms Own Time, 1823. 
 
 Calamy's Abridgment of Baxter, 1702. 
 
 Cart's Life of Ormond, 1736. 
 
 Carwithen's History of the Church of England, 1849. 
 
 Clarendon's State Papers, 1767-86. 
 
 Clarendon's Life, written by himself, 1761. 
 
 Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, 1826. 
 
 Collier's Ecclesiastical History, 1845. 
 
 Correspondence and Diary of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, 1828. 
 
 Echard's History of England, 1720. 
 
 Ellis's Original Letters, second series, 1827. 
 
 Evelyn's Memoirs and Diary, 1818. 
 
 Fox's History of James II., 1808. 
 
 Granger's Biographical History of England, 1779. 
 
 Guizot's History of Richard Cromwell and the Restoration, 1856. 
 
 Gutch's Collectanea Curiosa, 1781. 
 
 Hale (Sir Matthew) Life of, by Williams, 1835. 
 
 Hallam's Constitutional History of England, 1855. 
 
 Hallam's Literature of Europe, 1837-39. 
 
 Harleian Miscellany, 1793. 
 
 Heber's Life of Jeremy Taylor, prefixed to his works, 1828. 
 
 History of Dissenters, by Bogue and Bennet, 1808. 
 
 Howe's Life, by Henry Rogers, 1836. 
 
 Hutchinson's (Mrs.) Memoirs, 1806. 
 
 Kennet' s History of England, 1719. 
 
 Lathbury's History of the Convocation, 1842. 
 
 Letters by Eminent Persons and Aubrey's Lives, 1813. 
 
158 
 
 Life of Philip Henry, by Matthew Henry, 1765. 
 
 „ Dr. John Owen, prefixed to his works, 1850. 
 Lingard's History of England, 1823-31. 
 Locke's Life, by Lord King, 1829. 
 Macaulay's History of England, 1859. 
 Marsden's History of the Early Puritans, 1853. 
 
 M ), Later Puritans, 1852, 
 
 Marrell's Works, 1776. 
 Milton's Prose Works, 1806. 
 Neal's History of the Puritans, 1793-1797. 
 NichoUs's Literary Anecdotes, 1812-15. 
 Noble's Continuation of Granger, 1806. 
 Nonconformists' Memorial, 1775. 
 North's Examen, 1740. 
 North's Lives of the Norths, 1826. 
 Oldmixon's History of England, 1730. 
 Patrick's Autobiography, 1839. 
 Pepys's Memoirs, 1825. 
 
 „ Life and Correspondence, 1841. 
 Ralph's History of England, 1744. 
 Eapin's History of England, 1733. 
 Eushworth's Collections, 1680-3 701. 
 Sancroft's Life, by D' Oyly, 1821. 
 Secret History of Charles II., 1792. 
 Sharp's Life, by Newcome, 1825. 
 Somers Tracts, 1795. 
 Sparrow's Collection of Canons, 1684. 
 State Trials, 1776-81. 
 Thoresby's Diary, 1830. 
 Thoresby's Letters, 1832. 
 Warwick's Memoirs, 1813. 
 Waller's Life, 1727. 
 Welwood's Memoirs, 1718. 
 Wood's Athenae Oxonienses, 1813-20. 
 Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, 1839, 
 Zurich Letters, Parker Society. 
 
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