VII. 1667. revere as its father, was appointed justice clerk, BOOK and the people were pleased and gratified, when a judicial office so important and dangerous, was conferred on the most upright, and accomplished character which the nation produced. The appearance of a Dutch fleet in the Forth, while the commissioner was absent in the North, and the army uselessly employed in the West, afforded a decent pretext for the removal of Rothes. After exciting a false alarm, the fleet departed to rejoin De Ruyter, and to assist him in burning the shipping in the river Thames. The absence of Rothes and the army, at a time when the coasts were insulted and the country endangered, was aggravated by Lauderdale to accelerate his removal; and he was deprived of his numerous offices, the treasury, the command of the army, and the presidency of the council; but he retained the office of chancellor which was confirmed for life. A milder administration succeeded. The nation began to breathe again under Tweedale, Kincardine, and Sir Robert Murray, and enjoyed for a time, if not the blessings of liberty, the benefits at least of an humane and impartial government.44 peace. When the army was withdrawn from the West, Bonds of and disbanded on a peace, some security was required on the removal of military force. The prelates who demanded that the declaration should still be exacted, expected a fruitful source of per 44 Kirkton, MS. 68. Burnet, i. 350-5. Wodrow, i. 271. VII. 1668. BOOK secution from the refusal of the presbyterians to abjure the covenant. The ministry recommended a milder expedient, that suspected persons should enter into bonds, instead of religious tests, for the preservation of public peace. The interposition of a private contract to secure the public tranquillity, may appear to derogate from the dignity of government; but the bonds of peace were requisite to appease the jealous apprehensions of the court; and as they were accompanied by an ample indemnity, they were generally preferred to religious tests, except by a few who scrupled to profess obedience to iniquitous laws.45 Attempt on The apostasy of Sharp had excited such deep resentment, his rigors had inspired such implacable revenge, that it is not surprising if, among a persecuted sect, and a fanatical party, some attempted to perpetrate a deed of which few disapproved. While sitting in his coach by day, in the public streets, a pistol was discharged at his person, through Honyman, the bishop of Orkney's cloak, while ascending the carriage; but the bishop's arm intercepted the balls. Such was the hatred of the archbishop, that the assassin was permitted to cross the street and to escape through a lane. On disengaging himself from his disguise, he returned to the crowd; and, notwithstanding the most vigilant search, remained undiscovered, till recognized six years afterwards by Sharp himself. The outcry 45 Kirkton, MS. 287. Burnet, i. 376. VII. 1668. against the covenanters was renewed, and Hony. BOOK man, whose arm was shattered by the bullets, languished for a few years and died of the wound. For a time, the primate affected a transient lenity, but as such an atrocious deed must exasperate the mind, no real moderation was inspired by his escape.46 hension of The humane design to relieve the presbyterians, Comprewas retarded, not discouraged by the attempt on sects attempted. Sharp. The scandalous lives, and the ignorance of the western clergy were notorious, and the people were agitated and inflamed by a hot, itinerant race of youthful preachers, whose fiery polemics required a present remedy, more efficacious than persecution could afford. An accommodation with the presbyterians was attempted by Leighton, while the situation of the church might admit of an easy comprehension of sects. The prelates, intent on the acquisition of power, had introduced no material innovation in its worship or its rites. Its worship was still extemporary, or in some congregations was exchanged for a portion of the liturgy; the sacramental rites were administered without kneeling, or the sign of the cross; and as the surplice, the altar, and the offensive ceremonies of the preceding reign were not generally revived, an uniform mode of worship was not difficult to be restored.47 The chief obstacle, and 46 Burnet, i. 471. Kirkton, MS. 71. 47 Sir George Mackenzie's Works, ii. 343. Skinner's Hist. ii. 467. BOOK almost the only source of defection, was the goVII. vernment of the church, which, according to 1669. Leighton's scheme of comprehension, was to be restored to its former situation in the reign of James. The bishops were to relinquish their negative, and not to ordain without the concurrence of the presbytery; and their authority was to be reduced to little more than a right to preside in ecclesiastical courts. The presbyterian clergy were to be replaced and relieved from canonical oaths, and permitted, on their ordination or return to their presbyteries, to exonerate their conscience by a protestation against the precedence of the bishops, to which they submitted only for the sake of peace. Leighton, whose proposals were moderate, yet artful to an extreme, expected that the protestations would soon be forgotten, and represented to his own order, that their authority would easily be recovered, without the danger of a schism, when the present generation had sunk into the grave. But the prelates were not more unwilling to unlock the gates, than the presbyterians to enter within the pale of the established church. The latter were apprehensive of the same consequences which Leighton anticipated, that if the people were once accustomed to the name of prelates, presbytery would expire with the present generation, and therefore they preferred a separate, precarious existence, as a persecuted sect, to a secure and honourable, but obscure asylum, during the remain VII. 1669, der of their lives. The people were industriously BOOK impressed with their fears; touch not, taste not, handle not, was their favourable text against religious communion with an hostile sect. The accommodation was protracted by fruitless conferences, in which their scrupulous obstinacy was generally blamed; but when their church had been deprived so lately of a legal establishment, it is not surprising that in the true spirit of sectaries, they declined a comprehension which must have soon extinguished their religion and their name.48 gence. A partial indulgence proposed at the same time Indulby Tweedale, would have proved a more efficacious remedy, had it been extensively adopted, or even steadily pursued. A part of the ejected clergy was permitted to officiate in vacant churches, and a small salary was promised to others who remained unprovided. The wages of silence were rejected, or rather were never paid: but the indulgence was at first so acceptable, that at different times above forty ministers were restored to their churches; and their labours were at first so successful, that the people endeavoured, in other parishes, to purchase the resignation of the episcopal incumbents. But the exiled and ejected clergy, inveighed at an indulgence from which they were excluded themselves. In a few years, their publications and sermons against an Erastian dependence on the civil 48 Burnet, i. 362. 400. 402-33. Kirkton, MS. 42. Wodrow, i. 334. Appendix, 132. |