led into all This was a V. CHAS. I. A.D. 1646-8. fore his congregation. He entered Nottingham one CHAPTER Sunday morning, and as he looked down from the neighbouring hill upon the great church, he felt, he says, that it was required of him to cry against that idol temple and the worshippers therein. The preacher in his sermon taught the people that all doctrines, religions, and opinions were to be tested by the written word. Hearing this, Fox cried out, "Oh no, it is not the scripture, but it is the Holy Spirit by which the holy men of God gave forth the scriptures, whereby opinions, religions, and judgments are to be tried. This it was that truth and the knowledge thereof." * dangerous error, as well as an act of great indecency; for if this doctrine were correct, our last appeal on doubtful questions would be, not to the bible, but to ourselves-not to the written word, authenticated as it is by miracles and prophecy, and bearing on every page the signature of God, but to those unauthenticated impressions on the mind which each private christian may consider to be divine. Fox was seized and immediately imprisoned in the common jail, and would have suffered from the fury of the people; but fortunately colonel Hutchinson was at that time the governor of Nottingham castle: he dispersed the crowd, who would have destroyed quakerism in the bud together with its founder, with a troop of soldiers.† Fox was at length released and immediately renewed his uncouth ministry at Woodhouse, entering the church and declaring the truth, as he believed, to the priest and people. The congregation fell upon him, and * Sewell, p. 21. † Mrs. Hutchinson, Memoirs, p. 226, R A.D. 1646-8. At Twycross an infuriate CHAPTER beat him with their hands, sticks, and bibles; they V. then dragged him to the stocks and assembled round CHAS. I. him with their horsewhips. But the magistrates interfered and released him with many threatenings. The rude people had their revenge, however, and stoned him out of the town. At Market-Bosworth he was stoned again. man rushed on him with a naked sword. "Alas! poor creature," he exclaimed, "what wilt thou do with thy carnal weapon, which is no more to me than a straw ?" and the man dropped his sword at At Derby he was committed to prison for blasphemy; and here he lay for a year and a half, issuing from his cell solemn warnings against oppressors, and letters of advice and consolation to his friends. When he was released, quakerism had taken firm root in England, the dynasty of Cromwell was at hand, and under him religious persecution in a great measure ceased. once. Meanwhile the independents were gradually rising into power, and the presbyterians to the same extent were losing it. The elections which took place at the close of the war gave the independents a large majority in the house of commons; and at the same time, in contempt of the self-denying ordinance, restored many of the officers of the army to seats in that assembly. All of these were opposed to the presbyterians, whom the revolution had now left behind. Many of them were Cromwell's private friends. At this period we begin to take leave of the presbyterian party. They soon cease to be important, absorbed in other sects or driven from the field. Yet we cannot see them retire without a V. CHAS. I. A.D. 1646 -8. strong feeling of respect. They failed, indeed, CHAPTER because they were at once rash and timid. They created an appetite for change which they were afraid to gratify. By overthrowing episcopacy they alienated the moderate men; by refusing to overthrow the regal institutions they disappointed the violent; and there was no considerable party between these two on whom to rest; for the friends of presbyterianism, those who would have thought it worth a revolution to establish a presbytery, were few indeed. Thus presbyterianism fell by aiming at once at too little and too much. A less scrupulous party might have been more successful, a less honest one might have been more secure. Yet we should be unjust to withhold the praise which is due to the men who once had the moulding of the religion of England in their hands. They were as free from personal ambition, at least in its baser forms, as any great party of laymen or ecclesiastics has ever been; they were zealous for religion; their clergy preached and laboured in their parishes with a warmth and an ability, and frequently with a success, that has not often been surpassed; the parliament in the most anxious periods of the war had never forgotten the spiritual wants of the country. The house of commons in 1645 voted an enquiry into the state of religion and the best methods of promoting it: a committee was ordered, and it seems to have pursued its task with diligence. In the midst of the political storm which shook it to its centre, there were times when the presbyterian parliament exhibited a sublime repose. Its V. A.D. 1646-8. CHAPTER solemn fasts and its days of thanksgiving were frequently and fervently observed; and all other CHAS. I. cares were lost, as far as the penetration of man could see, in the discharge of those acts of piety which are due to God. Besides the stated fast, every enterprise was preceded by days of deep humiliation. Every victory was celebrated with thanksgivings. Not only the greater battles, but the sieges of castles and private houses, as one by one they fell into the hands of the parliamentary forces-Bristol, Belvoir castle, Lathom-house, and Basing-house-were devoutly acknowledged with national thanksgivings. The proceedings of the Westminster assembly were carefully reviewed from day to day; and the most urgent public business was suspended to discuss a new version of the psalms in metre, to prevent the circulation of an incorrect translation of the bible, or to buy a manuscript. No pains were spared to fill vacant benefices with pious ministers. The difficulty was great and many parishes were grievously neglected. To a great extent this was inevitable. If the parish minister was a puritan, he fled or was imprisoned when the royalists approached; if he was an episcopalian, the same thing happened when the parliament's army made its appearance. Many pulpits were vacant, many parishes relapsed into barbarism and heathen ignorance. The parliament rigidly enforced the covenant, and this increased its difficulties. It obliged the new incumbents, as well as the new members of the house of commons, to embrace it; thus excluding many upright men from the service of the country both in church and state. V. Still, neglect of the interests of religion cannot be CHAPTER charged upon the presbyterians while they held the reins of power in England. They did not encourage an ignorant or an idle ministry; they did not permit a scandalous life. The condition of the church of England was at this time deplorable. Throughout the war episcopalians had been regarded as the enemies of the popular cause and treated accordingly. War calculates roughly, and takes no account of lesser differences. The church of England was already divided into those two parties which, under the designation of high and low church, still continue. There were the Laudians on the one hand, and the church puritans on the other. In their reverence for episcopacy and their love for the institutions of the book of common prayer they had a common bond; in their views of christian doctrine they had a mutual quarrel. The Laudians connected justification with the sacraments; the church puritans with faith alone. The Laudians delighted in the pomp and glitter with which, in submission to the tastes and passions of queen Elizabeth, the reformers had consented to invest it; the church puritans regarded these outward splendours with jealousy, as savouring of the church of Rome. The Laudians had long enjoyed the favour of the court, and devoted themselves to the support of its prerogative. The church puritans had dwelt for nearly a century beneath its frown, and were little anxious to extend its power. In 1642, when the revolution opened, they filled the house of commons; yet in 1648, when the war had come to an end, they were to be found, so far CHAS. I. A.D. 1646-8. |