IX. PROTEC TORATE, English gentlemen who felt that they represented CHAPTER three nations was not so easily subdued. Cromwell wished them to enter upon the affairs of the country; they made it their first business to inquire upon A.D. 1654. what authority they had been convened. Who was Cromwell-who his military council; and what submission was due to them? The protector foresaw the storm and endeavoured to avert it. He repeated the experiment of administering a declaration compelling the house to profess allegiance to his protectorate. A considerable number refused and were excluded by his soldiers; but the rest were after all unmanageable. His constitution had provided that the parliament should sit at least five months before it could be dissolved. But Cromwell was impatient. He amended the constitution by the calendar, and at the expiration of five lunar months summoned them to meet him in the painted chamber; harangued them for several hours in a long and tedious speech; upbraided them with every political transgression; flung out accusations of parricide and high treason; and concluded thus: "I think it my duty to tell you that it is not for the profit of these nations nor for the common and public good for you to continue here any longer, and therefore I do declare unto you that I dissolve this parliament."* It is creditable to English historians that this audacious act waited two hundred years for its panegyrist. The records of despotism afford neither interest * Whitelocke, p. 599. This speech, which, from its rambling and desultory character, seems to have been taken down verbatim, occupies thirteen folio columns. IX. PROTEC- CHAPTER nor variety. Cromwell and his officers were absolute, more absolute than any of the Tudors, and there followed four years of silence. Puritanism A.D. 1654. on the whole was buoyant, but it was not without its discontents. Cromwell, but for his consummate selfishness, would have been a friend to liberty, at least in religion. But the presbyterians were indignant because he took no pains to promote their interests; the independents thought him almost an atheist because he befriended the jews and sanctioned the translation of the koran. The sectaries and levellers abhorred him as a tyrant. Of all persuasions the quakers seem to have liked him best. He loathed oppression except when he himself was the oppressor, and they found in him almost their only friend. Yet had Cromwell's life been prolonged ten years, England might have fallen into a state of spiritual anarchy not less disastrous to the interests of religion than the vile profligacy which succeeded at the restoration. For he extended as far as possible to men of all opinions, provided they were both earnest and sincere, not merely toleration but preferment. Hence the standard of truth became in popular estimation, even in essential points, uncertain. A national church would soon have been impossible, and a national endowment would not have long survived. The farmer who pays tithes in two neighbouring parishes where the clergy contradict each other soon arrives at the conclusion that in one or other his money is misspent ; and, unless deeply imbued with religious principle, he conducts his argument through a second stage, and concludes that religion being so IX. TORATE, uncertain he may withhold the support of its mi- CHAPTER nisters. Yet Baxter, insensible to these conclusions, being consulted by the protector, was anxious to PROTECestablish a national church upon the simple basis A.D.1654. of the Lord's prayer, the two ancient creeds, and the ten commandments. "Why," exclaimed his friends, "this will admit socinians and papists!" "So much the better," he replied; "that is an argument in favour of the scheme. If they teach false doctrine it is the business of the executive government to punish them. But devise what tests you will, some heretics will always subscribe to them." It is well for England that his associates in this affair had more good sense than Baxter. The line he would have drawn between the legislative and executive government was childish and impracticable. The office of the executive was, according to his theory, to interpret and expound the principles, few and meagre as they were, of the legislative department. This could only have been done either by confirming the titles of all those who subscribed, which was simply to do nothing, or by adding tests and explanations which immediately became a substantial addition to the articles imposed. So that in the course of time one of two alternatives must have occurred; papists and socinians must have possessed the benefices of the church undisturbed, or an ecclesiastical chancery with its complicated judgments and cumbrous precedents, all having the force of law, must have been called into existence. On this supposition Baxter's ideal church would have become within twenty years more impregnable to a tender conscience than CHAPTER any church in christendom. IX. TORATE, It may be worth while to mention the names of the committee to PROTEC- whom Cromwell had committed the task of deterA.D. 1654-8. mining the fundamentals of the future church of England. Ussher was the first, but he declined, as Baxter somewhat peevishly remarks, because of his age and his unwillingness to wrangle with such men as were to join with him. The rest were, Marshall, Rayner, Cheynell, Goodwin, Owen, Nye, Simpson, Vines, Manton, Jacombe, and Baxter. Nothing further appears to have been done in this matter.* The independents were now at the zenith of their power. They enjoyed Cromwell's favour and more of the national regard than their rivals the presbyterians. The triers had made room for many of them in the vacant benefices. Their conduct shews that the turbulence they had witnessed, and in no small degree assisted in producing, had at length chastised their spirit and taught them forbearance and the love of peace. They obtained from Cromwell permission to hold an independent synod in the Savoy, in October 1658. Their session was not long; for, as they took the Westminster assembly for their guide in all questions of doctrine, a few omissions and amendments, chiefly referring to the points at issue between the rival churches, was all that was required. To the Westminster confession a chapter was added "of the gospel and the grace thereof," and an appendix " on the constitution of a christian church," in which the independent scheme is of course maintained. But the reader who is * Baxter, i. p. 198. IX. PROTEC anxious to know what profound learning, with equal CHAPTER powers of reasoning, can advance in behalf of this form of government will read Owen's enquiry into TORATE, the origin and order of evangelical churches; a A.D.1654-8. treatise which scarcely shrinks from a comparison with Hooker, and ought indeed to be read along with it.* The preface to the declaration of their faith and order issued by the Savoy divines breathes a noble spirit of charity and moderation; though a churchman may feel himself aggrieved that the hierarchy and common prayer-book are still spoken of as "grievous to God's people." Of the differences between the presbyterians and themselves they say, that "these are differences between fellow-servants, neither of them having authority from God or man to impose their opinions one more than another."+ There is some exaggeration in the statement of a great historian that the independents were always the steadfast friends of liberty, but certainly they were always in advance of other parties. But Cromwell's life was drawing to a close. In 1656 he called together another parliament and his former difficulties at once confronted him. Again he had recourse to his stale expedient. He excluded all whom he disliked, and the list included every member who had the least claim to be considered a man of honour or a patriot. The excluded members published an impassioned protest. This man, they said, hath assumed an absolute, arbitrary, sovereignty as if he came down from the throne of God: by *An enquiry into the original nature, &c. of Evangelical churches. By John Owen, D.D., 1681. † A declaration of the faith and order, &c. of the congregational churches in England, agreed upon, &c.. 1658. CC |