X. A.D. 1661. rehearsal of their discontents would be unwise; and CHAPTER so it proved; for the clamour was immediately raised that nothing would satisfy the presbyterians: CHAS. II. and yet in truth they only repeated their old demands for a moderate episcopacy, a revised liturgy, a purer discipline, and more liberty in private worship and occasional extempore prayer. But that which in the general estimation was the most injurious to them was an entirely new liturgy, drawn up by Baxter within a fortnight, on an emergency which was not, though it should have been, foreseen. In answer to their objections to the prayer book, their opponents not unreasonably called on them to propose another; and Baxter undertook the task. He had, he tells us, but few books, no assistance, and little prospect of success; his liturgy, therefore, must be regarded with forbearance. It amends some errors and supplies some deficiencies, a tone of exalted piety pervades it, and disputed points are kept as much as possible in the back ground; but as a national liturgy it is utterly defective in depth, in dignity, in force, and in variety. Baxter admits its imperfection. He drew up and presented this, he says, only because it was necessary that something must be done. But the levity with which the ancient formularies were treated in this attempt to supersede them by a fortnight's work and by the labour of a single hand, was more injurious to the presbyterians than all the arguments of their opponents. It was at the Savoy conference that doctrinal objections to the prayer book were for the first time advanced. The baptismal service was the field on A.D. 1661. CHAPTER which a battle was begun which still rages with X. unabated heat. The presbyterians thought it a CHAS. II. doubtful question whether it was lawful to baptize the children of ungodly parents; and they desired that they might not be compelled to baptize the children until the parents had made "due profession of their repentance;" and they requested that it might be left to the parents to decide whether sponsors should appear or not. Upon the interrogatories addressed to the sponsors they make this comment : "We know not by what right the sureties do promise and answer in the name of the infant it seemeth to us also to countenance the anabaptistical opinion of the necessity of an actual profession of faith and repentance in order to baptism. That such a profession may be required of parents in their own name, and now solemnly renewed when they present their children to baptism, we willingly grant; but the asking of one for another is a practice whose warrant we doubt of." The petition in the collect, that the child may receive remission of sins by spiritual regeneration, "seeming inconvenient; we desire," they say, "it may be changed into this: may be regenerated and receive remission of sins." And upon the thanksgiving, “that it has pleased thee to regenerate this infant by thy Holy Spirit," they comment thus: "We cannot in faith say that every child that is baptized is regenerated by God's holy Spirit ; at least it is a disputable point, and therefore we desire that may be otherwise expressed." Their comments upon the catechism explain more fully the nature of their objections to the baptismal service, and it X. A.D. 1661. shew their whole extent. "We conceive," they CHAPTER say, "that the answer, 'in my baptism, I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor CHAS. II. of the kingdom of heaven,' might be more safely expressed thus: wherein I was visibly admitted into the number of the members of Christ, the children of God, and the heirs (rather than inheritors) of the kingdom of heaven."" And more generally they express their wish "that the entering of infants into God's covenant may be more warily expressed, and that the words may not seem to found their baptism upon a real actual faith and repentance of their own; and that a promise may not be taken for a performance of such faith and repentance and especially that it be not asserted that they perform these by the promise of their sureties, it being to the seed of believers that the covenant of God is made, and not (that we can find) to all that have such believing sureties who are neither parents or proparents of the child." They offer, in conclusion, two questions to be considered, for which every intelligent churchman and every pious parent owes them at least the gratitude which is due to those who attempted to confer advantages which have never been received. They suggest, first, whether there should not be a more distinct and full explication of the creed, the commandments, and the Lord's prayer; secondly, whether it were not convenient to add (what seems to be wanting) somewhat particularly concerning the nature of faith, of repentance, the two covenants, of justification, sanctification, adortion, and regeneration." FF X. A.D.1661. CHAPTER byterians; fresh plots were spoken of; there was a design upon the king's life; there was a project to CHAS. II. overturn the government; and Baxter himself was a party to it. A new persecution broke out. The magistrates in the west of England indicted at one quarter sessions upwards of forty nonconformist clergy who did not use the prayer book. All those whom the triers had presented were of course dismissed from their livings. Preaching in private houses was again denounced, and those who neglected their parish churches and strayed after other preachers were threatened with such discipline as Laud had once enforced.* The threat was not an empty one. In every county obsequious magistrates were ready to enforce it; and, as at the close of all unsuccessful revolutions, some of those who had been forward in rebellion concealed their shame or atoned for their delinquency by turning upon their old associates: the bitterest persecutors were the recreant puritans. But to this year of vengeance we are indebted for our acquaintance with a man of rare gifts and stedfast courage; and for a book of singular pretensions, resplendent with the rays of genius. John Bunyan, a tinker and a tinker's son, pursued his humble craft at Elstowe near Bedford. In appearance he was a formidable man; tall and swarthy, with limbs well knit together, an expressive countenance, shrewd and stern, a piercing eye and a spacious forehead; and to complete the picture he wore the hair upon his upper lip, after the manner of the ancient Britons, as an admirer tells us. He had *Neal, vol. iv. chap. 6. X. CHAS. II. A.D. 1661 been one of Cromwell's soldiers; and, what was rare CHAPTER in that army, he was godless and audaciously profane. The perils of a soldier's life him no gave disturbance, but some of its hair-breadth escapes deeply touched him. One night he should have stood sentry at the siege of Leicester, when a companion of his volunteered to take his place and was shot. Bunyan trembled as he thought how near he had been to death, and how unfit he was to die; and the impression never left him. Soon afterwards he met with a spiritual guide in one whose character was in many respects not unlike his own. Gifford, the baptist minister of Bedford, had been a major in the king's army: for an attempt to revive the royal cause after the war had closed, he, with several others, was sentenced to the gallows. He escaped his fate, the night before he was to have suffered, as others have done, through the courage and sagacity of a sister who contrived to make the keepers drunk. He fled to Bedford and practised physic, leading a most wicked life. Happening to look into one of Bolton's works his conscience was awakened, and a change took place within him the reality of which we have no right to question. He became the pastor of some ten or twelve families; Bunyan was amongst the first fruits of his ministry, and upon his death, in 1656, succeeded to his office. Bunyan, of course, was an early victim to the persecution of 1661. It was not to be endured that the travelling tinker who had fought under Cromwell should preach at Bedford. He was had up before the justices, and if his sermons were like his answers to the court, the number of his enemies and their |