ple, were now again introduced; conformity paid to such people should not be allowed by the justices in the accounts of the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, because such persons who never come to the parish-church, ought not to be reckoned of the parish."This order was so acceptable to the king, that his majesty thanked the justices for it. -Dr. Pope tells us, "that bishop Ward was for the act against conventicles, and laboured much to get it pass, not without the order and direction of the greatest authority, both civil and ecclesiastical, not out of enmity to the dissenters persons, as they unjustly suggested, but of love to the repose and welfare of the government: for he believed if the growth of them were not timely suppressed, it would either cause a necessity of a standing army to preserve the peace, or a general toleration; which would end in popery, whither all things then had an apparent tendency, That act had this effect: it shewed the dissenters were not so numerous and considerable as they gave themselves out to be, designing thereby to make the government believe it was impracticable to quell them; for where this act was duly executed, it put an end to their meetings, as it was evident in his diocese: for in Salisbury there was not one conventicle left; and but a few in the skirts of Wiltshire bordering upon Somerset, where, for want of a settled militia, by reason of the non-age of the duke of Somerset, the lord-lieutenant of that county, they sometimes met in woods; but, upon complaint, their meetings were suppressed, and his majesty was pleased to own and accept this as good service to the publick, and to encourage the Gazette, No. 1660. in all points to them was enacted; and cruel laws, barbarously executed, were bishop in it."—"When the priest turns atheist," it is natural to suppose, that he will labour to get and execute such laws as these! but all such as believe the great truths of religion, will execrate and abhor them, and the authors of them. "God and nature seem to delight in variety; and in making men and women, all in the world, of different features, ayres, dimensions, complexions, &c. And how do we know that Almighty God is so much displeased with variety of opinions, also, as some men imagine? Though we have different physiognomies, and different eye-sights; yet we all continue to be men. And though we have different judgments, minds, and opinions; some more clear, and some more purblind; yet we may all continue Christians. But suppose other men do not (cannot for their lives) see so well as we, or so well as the synod, or the magistrate: must we therefore pull out or put out their eyes; deliver them to the devil first, and then to the goal, and after all to the pit of hell; and for expedition-sake thither with the more speed (until the writ de hæretico comburendo was cancell'd) with fire and faggot?"-Thus spoke an honest ecclesiastic of those times. And honest Andrew Marvel, who also lived in them, and with indignation saw the spirit of them, declared, "that it was no great adventure to say, that the world was better ordered under the antient monarchies and commonwealths; that the number of virtuous men was then greater; and that the Christians found fairer quarter under those, than among themselves. Nor a Life of Ward, p. 68. Naked Truth, part ii. 2d edit. p. 12. means made use of to induce men to com ply" with a form of church government, hath there any advantage accrued unto mankind, from that most perfect and practical model of human society, except the speculation of a better way to future happiness, concerning which the very guides disagree, and of those few that follow, no man is suffered to pass without paying at their turnpikes. All which hath pro ́ceeded from no other reason, but that men, instead of squaring their governments by the rule of Christianity, have shaped Christianity by the measures of their government; have reduced that strait line by the crooked; and, bungling divine and human things together, have been always hacking and hewing one another, to frame an irregular figure of political incongruity." Whatever has been the behaviour of men called Christians, and dignified and distinguished by titles denoting high pretensions to sanctity," we ought in justice,' with lord Lyttleton, " to own, that no book, that ever was writ by the most acute free-thinkers, is so repugnant to priestcraft, to spiritual tyranny, to all weak superstitions of every kind, to all that can tend to disturb or to prejudice human society, as that which they so much affect to despise," and which persecutors have impiously dared to vouch as authority in behalf of their barbarities. 13 Cruel laws were made use of in Scotland, to induce men to comply with modes and forms of religion.] The Scots had been eminently loyal, as appears from the foregoing notes, to Charles II. They had ventured their lives and fortunes in his cause; and, after that, * State Tracts in the time of Charles II. vol. I. p. 80. fol. Lond. 1693. Dialogues of the Dead, p. 207. 8vo. Lond. 1760. to which they had a fixed, natural aversion. very unwillingly submitted to the yoke of their conquerors. Awed by armies, forts, and garrisons, they dared not again recur to arms: but they spoke in the most intelligible manner in behalf of their king, and wished his return in no very obscure terms. The preachers, in particular, were bold; and relying on the place in which they spake, and the esteem in which their function was held by their auditors, they uttered their thoughts freely concerning his majesty's right, though in guarded expressions.-Captain Langley, in a letter to Thurloe, dated Leith, Sept. 30, 1658, says, "Sir, as to that of the Scots blessing God, that he had heard them in some things, they spake it mystically; for just as the news came of the death of his H. [Oliver], they declared a fast to be kept the saboath following, and spake those words as a motive to incorage the people to keep the day. That they dailie pray for their king in such terms as these: That the Lord would be merciful to the exiled, and all those that are in captivitie; and that once more he would cause them to return with sheaves of joy. And some speak in plainer terms against the government. They pray under the terms of being delivered from the yoke of Pharoah, Egyptian bondage, or the task-master of Egypt, &c. They use several imprecations; praying for the confusion of all tyrants, and from enemies, and all their oppressors and afflictors, &c desiring God to cut them off, to shorten their time, thereby hasting their deliverance, and giving ease to his people, meaning themselves, &c. Thus they speake; but so ambiguously, that they can evade, if questioned; yet so plainly, that the whole people knows their meaning: soe that the premises considered, it is easy to under Great complaints hereupon followed, stand that they praysed God, that he had heard them in taking away his highness, which they take to be the beginning of what God hath further to do for them, as to that deliverance they further expect and pray for; promising the people, that God will yet bring forth further deliverance to them." In this spirit they continued till the Restoration; when their hopes of happiness by his majesty were quickly put an end to, and Charles proved infinitely more their oppressor and persecutor, than the commonwealth of England, or Cromwell.-By virtue of a letter from the king, a proclamation was issued by the privycouncil, for establishing episcopacy in Scotland. This was confirmed by the parliament in 1662, who, in imitation of the English, enacted also a declaration to be subscribed, wherein the solemn league and covenant were termed unlawful, and their obligation said to be void. Ministers who chose not to receive admission and collation from bishops, as few of them did, were sentenced by acts of council to banishment; and such as would not attend their successors, were heavily fined, according to their circumstances. That these are no calumnies, will appear from the act of council against ministers, dated Edinburgh, Dec. 7, 1665, in which "the lords of his majesty's privycouncil do command and charge all ministers that have relinquished, or been deposed from their ministry, by their ordinary, within forty days, to remove themselves, their families and goods belonging to them, out of their respective parishes where they were incumbents, and not to reside within twenty miles of |