all its pomp and splendor", and the liturgy

to enslave the body and the soul.The same hopeful doctrine was got among some of the ambitious underclergy. One Thompson, of Bristol, said, "If he were as well satisfied of other things, as he was of justification, auricular confession, penance, extream unction, and crisme in baptism, he would not have been so long separated from the catholic church. And further affirmed, That the church of Rome was the true catholic church; and endeavoured to prove extream unction, and auricular confession, as well as he could, out of the Epistles."--Where things of this, and the like nature, are in vogue; popery will find a most ready admission! For popery is nothing more than a larger heap of these absurdities; mixed up by art, and supported by fraud and cruelty.

"The Church of England was restored--and none permitted to officiate in it, who could not comply with every punctilio of the ritual.] Charles I. had consented to acts for taking away the high commission court; and for disenabling all persons, in holy orders, to exercise any temporal jurisdiction or authority.

This was a great blow to the priesthood; and was a forerunner to the abolishment of the hierarchy by the parliament. But as the clergy love power; as for the most part they are greedy, or, at least, somewhat too desirous of those riches which they teach other people. to part with and despise; they, with a very ill grace, submitted to these laws, and plainly showed that they only did it because they could not help it. The restoration of episcopacy was, however, never out of the hopes of the ecclesiastical royalists; who were intent

* State Tracts, vol. II. p. 118.

and ceremonies restored with a high hand;

on keeping up the order by those means which prudence, and the situation of public affairs, dictated. Charles could not refuse to give some encouragement to men who had adhered, though unhappily, to the royal cause: and Hyde, who was a firm believer in the apostolical right of this form of church government, and hated heartily every other, was very much intent on it. Nor was much opposition made hereto, even by those who had been deemed its adversaries. The presbyterians, as I have observed, loved power; were enemies to freedom of enquiry, and fond of ecclesiastical revenues: though they thought a more equal distribution of them might and ought to be made, than had been in times past. Yea the bulk of them had no aversion to episcopal power and authority, provided such regulations had been made in fact, as were proposed in his majesty's declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs. And the liturgy, though long disused, would, on the same terms, have been submitted to by the far greater number of that perswasion.———But union was not what was desired : revenge was aimed at. Notwithstanding the merits of the party, the king's declarations, and the desires of the majority of the people in the kingdom; it was determined to make them feel the weight of power, and deprive them of the means of making further opposition to authority. For this end, the power of the clergy was again restored in consequence of which, the bishops took their seats in the house of lords; and promoted the cause of those to whom they owed, or from whom hoped, preferment.-Ecclesiastical jurisdiction was re

* See note 45; and Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, part II. p. 278–283.

and none permitted to officiate in pub

:

-vived; the oath ex officio only excepted-and an act passed for the "uniformity of public prayers, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies and for establishing the form of making, -ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons, in the church of England "."By this last act, it is enacted, "that the Book of Common Prayer shall be used by all ministers in public: that all who enjoy any ecclesiastical benefice, shall not only openly read, but publickly, before the congregation, declare their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book of Common Prayer." A declaration was also required from them, and even from public and private schoolmasters, that it was not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the king: that they abhorred the traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against his person, or against those that are commissioned by him: that they will conform to the liturgy, as then established: that they do hold, there lies no obligation upon them, or any other person, from the oath, commonly called the Solemn League and Covenant, to endeavour any change or alteration of government in church or state; and that the same was in itself an unlawful oath, and imposed upon the subjects of this realm against the known laws and liberties of the kingdom.- -It was moreover required, that all who held livings should be episcopally ordained; and no other form of common prayer in public be used, than what was contained in the said Book of Common Prayer.-All this was very strict.

a Stat. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 4. sect. 3. and 6.

lic who would not comply, in every puncti

But the act was passed, and it remained now only to conform, or resign their employments and maintenance. Such as could not do the former, had, however, some hopes given them, that the government would not rigorously insist on the execution of a law so disagreeable to the people in general, and so prejudicial to particular persons; many of whom, it was foreseen, would be distinguished by their piety, virtue, and integrity. But their hopes were ill-founded.The ruling clergy were determined now, if possible, to avenge themselves on those from whom they had received, as they thought, ill usage: and Hyde, always a bigot, fell in with their views and designs.-On the 24th of August, 1662, such of the ministers as thought it not proper to qualify themselves according to the law, left their livings. Their number has generally been computed at about two thousand; though lord Clarendon, with his wonted regard to truth, says, "that after some time, the number was very small, and of very weak and inconsiderable men, that continued refractory, and received no charge in the church: though it may," adds he, "without breach of charity, be believed, that many, who did subscribe, had thè same maliguity to the church, and to the government of it; and it may be did more harm, than if they had continued in their inconformity "." What his lordship means, I suppose, is, that many declared their assent and consent to things they did not wholly believe or approve that they thought many things might be altered for the better: and that impositions on men's -consciences were very grievous and abominable. And

Clarendon's Continuation, vol. II. p. 306.:

lio, with the directions of the ritual.-

if this be the meaning, there can be no doubt that it is true. Amidst many thousand divines, if they have indeed considered matters, there will be a very great variety of opinions: and the more freely they think, the less will they like the trammels of almost any establishment;though-for sundry reasons them thereunto moving-they have submitted to the same.

“There are many things in the church," said the late most ingenious and learned Dr. Middleton, "which I wholly dislike; yet while I am content to acquiesce in the ill, I should be glad to taste a little of the good, and to have some amends for that ugly assent and consent which no man of sense can approve b."- -Various have been the opinions that men, at different times, have passed on this act of uniformity. "It was no sooner published," says the writer just quoted, “than all the presbyterian ministers expressed their disapprobation of it with all the passion imaginable. They complained that the king had violated the promise made to them in his declaration from Breda, which was urged with great disingenuity, and without any shadow of right: for his majesty had thereby referred the whole settlement of all things, relating to religion, to the wisdom of parliament; and declared, in the mean time, that nobody should be punished or questioned for continuing the exercise of his religion in the way he had been accustomed to in the late confusions. And his majesty had continued this indulgence by his declaration after his return, and thereby fully complied with his promise from Breda; which he should indeed have violated, if he had now refused to

a

'Letter to lord Hervey, Sept. 13, 1736. MS. in my possession.