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and judicial power of bishops in the House of Peers, in parliament, is a great hinderance to the discharge of their spiritual functions, prejudicial to the commonwealth, and fit to be taken away by bill." On the following day a similar vote was passed respecting their being in the commission of the peace, or having any judicial power in the Star Chamber, or in any civil court, and, on the 26th of the same month, their employment as privy councillors, or in any other temporal offices, was also condemned." *

On this resolution a bill was founded, the object of which was to exclude the bishops from the legislature, and to disqualify them from all administrative offices of a similar kind. After encountering a strong opposition in the House of Lords, it was met by four resolutions, the purpose of which was, to exclude the clergy from the Star Chamber, the Privy Council, and other secular offices, but to continue to them their privilege of sitting in the Upper House; the Commons objected to this exception, and the bill was ultimately lost. A second and more sweeping measure was within a few days brought under the consideration of the House of Commons; it contemplated no less than "the utter abolishing and taking away of all archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries; deans, deans and chapters; archdeacons, prebendaries, chanters, canons, and all other their under officers." Political events, however, interposed delays, which led to the abandonment of this measure, though the spirit by which it was dictated remained unimpaired.

Next followed an impeachment, in the name of the Commons, of thirteen of the bishops, for having made and promulgated, in the convocation of 1640, divers canons, hostile "to the King's prerogative, to the fundamental laws and statutes of the realm, to the rights of Parliament, and to the property and liberty of the subject." But here again.

* Dr. Price's History of Protestant Nonconformity, vol. ii. p. 178.

the supporters of episcopacy adopted the victorious policy of delay, and at once balked and exasperated the resolves of the people.

Meanwhile the controversial writings of Milton, which have already been noticed, had produced a marked effect upon the parliament and the country; and in so far as they argumentatively demolished episcopacy, they had been hailed with delight by the Presbyterians, both Scotch and English, whose repugnance to that form of church government had been confirmed and intensified, in the one case by the outrages which had been committed on a religion intertwined with the deepest sentiments of nationality; and in the other, by those almost vindictive feelings which persecution engenders, and which piety itself has seldom prevailed to control.

Unhappily for the cause of religious freedom in this and, perhaps, in every subsequent age, the bitter aversion of the Presbyterians to episcopacy was unconnected with any enlarged love of religious freedom, and extended with sectarian acrimony to Christians of every communion but their own. The prevalent sentiments of that denomination shall be described in the language of Dr. Price; and in quoting it, I take the opportunity of saying that his history of Protestant Nonconformity, by its great research, its judicious discrimination, the enlightened views which it exhibits, and the expansive candour and catholicity of sentiment which pervades it, commends itself as by far the most valuable work we possess in this department of ecclesiastical literature. "The Scotch," the Doctor observes, "were bigotedly devoted to the Presbyterian form of ecclesiastical government. It had been erected on the ruins of Popery by Knox, the most fearless and masculine of modern reformers, and had been endeared to the nation by the fearful struggle which they made on its behalf. What James had contemplated, Charles commissioned Laud to achieve; and the disciples of Presbytery groaned beneath

his heartless policy. The sufferings inflicted in the cause of episcopacy naturally engendered an unconquerable aversion to it. The people loathed it as a disguised and virulent form of Popery, and at length wrested from the reluctant hand of Charles the recognition of their beloved and more simple polity. Unhappily, however, the Presbyterians of Scotland had not learned wisdom from their sufferings. Their passions were inflamed without their views being rectified; and they came forth from the school of adversity as narrow-minded and intolerant as any of the bishops. Hence arose a great difficulty in the negociations of the Parliament with their brethren in Scotland."

The latter insisted on the ecclesiastical government of England being conformed to their own platform, and required the enforcement of penal laws against all Dissenters. The General Assembly, in a communication to the English Parliament, after referring to the request of the Scotch commissioners, in the late treaty for peace, "That in all His Majesty's dominions there might be one confession of faith, one directory of worship, one public catechism, and one form of church government;" and that, "the names of heresies and sects, puritans, conformists, separatists, anabaptists, &c., which do rend asunder the bowels both of kirk and kingdom," might be suppressed, proceeded to declare that they are encouraged to renew the proposition made by the forenamed commissioners, for beginning the work of reformation at the uniformity of kirk government. "For what hope," say they, can there be of unity in religion, of one confession of faith, one form of worship, and one catechism, till there be first one form of ecclesiastical government: yea, what hope can the Kingdom and Kirk of Scotland have of a firm and durable peace, till the prelacy, which hath been the main cause of their miseries and troubles, first and last, be plucked up, root and branch, as a plant which God hath not planted, and from which no better fruit can be expected, than such sour grapes as this

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day set on edge the kingdom of England? The prelatical hierarchy being put out of the way, the work will be easy, without forcing any conscience, to settle in England the government of the reformed kirks of assemblies."

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In conformity with an agreement made between the Parliament and the Scotch Presbyterians, the memorable Westminster Assembly was convened in the summer of 1643. In this the Presbyterians were predominant, alike in numbers and in parliamentary and popular influence, and the intolerance of their proceedings was such, as to convince all true lovers of freedom that their ascendency, in place of the episcopal hierarchy, would be not an emancipation, but a change of yokes and taskmasters. They aimed," says Dr. Price, "at power rather than at liberty; and in resisting the encroachments of the hierarchy, sought to establish that of the kirk. Could they have effected their object, an ironhearted uniformity would have been imposed on the nation. The rites of religion would have been enforced with minute scrupulosity; but its generous impulses and voluntary movements would have been wholly crushed. Baxter was not insensible to this defect, and he has portrayed it with a fidelity which gives the greater weight to his approving testimony. Happily for the interests of religion, there was another party in the assembly, the members of which added to the personal virtues and ministerial diligence of the presbyterians more expansive views and a more liberal creed. They were known by the name of Independents, and had for some time a very arduous and perplexing duty to perform. Their numbers were at first so limited, as to present but little ground to hope that they would be able successfully to resist the scheme of the presbyterians; but what they wanted in numerical strength was supplied by the consummate skill and ability of their leaders."

It was during the session of the Westminster Assembly, thus composed, whose proceedings were characterized by + History of Protestant Nonconformity, p. 254.

"extremes of folly and wisdom, of enlightened discussion and of narrow-minded bigotry," that the success of the royal arms compelled the parliamentary leaders to seek the support of the Scotch, who regarded the civil war as a religious struggle. The result of the negotiation between the parliamentary leaders and the Scottish presbyterians was the instrument, commonly known as the Solemn League and Covenant, a master-piece of spiritual despotism, which, after having been subscribed by the Parliament and the Westminster Assembly, was ordered to be enforced upon the whole community, lay and clerical, civil and military, and the names of all recusants to be returned to the government. To complete the intolerance of the presbyterian party, dominant alike in the assembly and the parliament, the new directory, as it was called, was issued under the sanction of both those bodies. The object of this despotic measure was, to suppress the Book of Common Prayer, and to enforce that perfect uniformity of religious observance and worship, at which the presbyterians both in England and Scotland had so long been aiming. The temper in which the directory was enforced may be judged of by the orders issued in August, 1645. In dismissing this humiliating portion of our history, I anticipate the course of events to indicate that point at which, when any despotic power arrives, it o'erleaps itself," and hastens to its downfall. I refer to the parliamentary ordinance passed on the 2nd of May, 1648, through the influence of the presbyterians, against blasphemy and heresy. It enacted, that all persons who, "by preaching, teaching, printing, or writing," denied the existence or attributes of God, the deity of the Son or Holy Spirit, the existence of two natures in Christ, the efficacy of his atonement, the canonical authority of the books of the Old and New Testament, the resurrection of the body, or the certainty of a future judgment, should, upon conviction, if the error were not abjured, "suffer the pains of death, as in the case of felony, without benefit of the clergy."

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* See Dr. Price's Hist. of Prot. Nonconformity, vol. ii. p. 338, et al.

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