when Dr. Cox, afterward bishop of Ely, came with a new detachment from England, he interrupted the public service by answering aloud after the minister, which occasioned such a disturbance and division as could never be healed. Mr. Knox and Mr. Whittingham, with one half of the congregation, being obliged to remove to Geneva, Dr. Cox and his friends kept possession of the church at Frankfort, till there arose such quarrels and contentions among themselves, as made them a reproach to the strangers among whom they lived. Thus the separation began.

When the exiles, upon the accession of queen Elizabeth, returned to England, each party were for advancing the Reformation according to their own standard. The queen, with those that had weathered the storm at home, were only for restoring king Edward's liturgy, but the majority of the exiles were for the worship and discipline of the foreign churches, and refused to comply with the old establishment, declaiming loudly against the Popish habits and ceremonies. The new bishops, most of whom had been their companions abroad, endeavoured to soften them for the present, declaring they would use all their interests at court to make them easy in a little time. The queen also connived at their nonconformity, till her government was settled, but then declared roundly, that she had fixed her standard, and would have all her subjects conform to it; upon which the bishops stiffened in their behaviour, explained away their promises, and became too severe against their dissenting brethren.

In the year 1564, their lordships began to shew their authority, by urging the clergy of their several diocesses to subscribe the Fiturgy, ceremonies, and discipline, of the church; when those that refused were first called Puritans, a name of reproach derived from the Cathari, or Puritani, of the third century after Christ, but proper enough to express their desires of a more pure form of worship and discipline in the church. When the doctrines of Arminius took place in the latter end of the reign of James I. those that adhered to Calvin's explication of the five disputed points were called Doctrinal Puritans; and at length, says Mr. Fuller, the name was improved to stigmatize all those who endeavoured in their devotions to accompany the minister with a pure heart, and who were remarkably holy in their conversations. A Puritan therefore was a man of severe morals, a Calvinist in doctrine, and a Nonconformist to the ceremonies and discipline of the church, though they did not totally separate from it.

The queen, having conceived a strong aversion to these people, pointed all her artillery against them; for besides the ordinary *Church History, b. 9. p. 76. and b. 10. p. 100.

courts of the bishops, her majesty erected a new tribunal, called the court of High Commission, which suspended and deprived men of their livings, not by the verdict of twelve men upon oath, but by the sovereign determination of three commissioners of her majesty's own nomination, founded not upon the statute laws of the realm, but upon the bottomless deep of the canon law; and instead of producing witnesses in open court to prove the charge, they assumed a power of administering an oath ex officio, whereby the prisoner was obliged to answer all questions the court should put him, though never so prejudicial to his own defence: if he refused to swear, he was imprisoned for contempt; and if he took the oath, he was convicted upon his own confession.

The reader will meet with many examples of the high proceedings of this court, in the course of this history; of their sending their pursuevants to bring ministers out of the country, and keeping them in town at excessive charges; of their interrogatories. upon oath, which were almost equal to the Spanish inquisition; of their examinations and long imprisonments of ministers without bail, or bringing them to a trial; and all this not for insufficiency, or immorality, or neglect of their cures, but for not wearing a white surplice, for not baptizing with the sign of the cross, or not sub-, scribing to certain articles that had no foundation in law. A fourth part of all the preachers in England were under suspension from one or other of these courts, at a time when not one beneficed clergyman in six was capable of composing a sermon. The edge of all those laws that were made against Popish recusants, who were continually plotting against the queen, was turned against Protestant Nonconformists; nay, in many cases they had not the benefit of the law; for as lord Clarendon rightly observes, queen Elizabeth carried her prerogative as high as in the worst times of king Charles I. "They who look back upon the council-books of those times (says his lordship), and upon the acts of the Starchamber then, shall find as high instances of power and sovereignty upon the liberty and property of the subject, as can be since given. But the art, order, and gravity, of those proceedings (where short, severe, constant rules, were set, and smartly pursued, and the party felt only the weight of the judgment, not the passion of his judges) made them less taken notice of, and so less grievous to the public, though as intolerable to the person."

*

These severities, instead of reconciling the Puritans to the church, drove them farther from it; for men do not care to be beat from their principles by the artillery of canons, injunctions, and penal

Vol. 1. 8vo. p. 72.

laws; nor can they be in love with a church that uses such methods of conversion. A great deal of ill blood was bred in the nation by these proceedings; the bishops lost their esteem with the people, and the number of Puritans was not really lessened, though they lay concealed, till in the next age they got the power into their hands, and shook off the yoke.

The reputation of the church of England has been very much advanced of late years, by the suspension of the penal laws, and the legal indulgence granted to Protestant dissenters. Long experience has taught us, that uniformity in doctrine and worship, enforced by penal laws, is not the way to the church's peace; that there may be a separation from a true church without schism; and schism within a church, without separation; that the indulgence granted by law to Protestant Nonconformists, which has now subsisted above forty years, has not been prejudicial to church or state, but rather advantageous to both; for the revenues of the established church have not been lessened; a number of poor have been maintained by the dissenters, which must otherwise have come to the parish; the separation has kept up an emulation among the clergy; quickened them to their pastoral duty, and been a check upon their moral behaviour; and I will venture to say, whenever the separate assemblies of Protestant Nonconformists shall cease, and all men be obliged to worship at their parish churches, that ignorance and laziness will prevail among the clergy; and that the laity in many parts of the country will degenerate into superstition, profaneness, and downright atheism. With regard to the state; it ought to be remembered, that the Protestant dissenters have always stood by the laws and constitution of their country; that they joined heartily in the glorious revolution of king William and queen Mary, and suffered for their steady adherence to the Protestant succession in the illustrious house of his present majesty, when great numbers that called themselves churchmen were looking another way; for this, the Schism-bill and other hardships were put upon them, and not for their religious differences with the church; for if they would have joined the administration at that time, it is well known they might have made much better terms for themselves but as long as there is a Protestant dissenter in England, there will be a friend of liberty, and of our present happy constitution. Instead therefore of crushing them, or comprehending them within the church, it must be the interest of all true lovers of their country, even upon political views, to ease their complaints, and to support and countenance their Christian liberty.

For though the church of England is as free from persecuting principles as any establishment in Europe, yet still there are some

grievances remaining, which wise and good men of all parties wish might be reviewed; not to mention the subscriptions which affect the clergy; thereis the act of the twenty-fifth of king Charles II. for preventing dangers arising from Popish recusants, commonly called the Test-act," which obliges, under very severe penalties, all persons [of the laity] bearing any office, or place of trust or profit (besides taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribing a declaration against transubstantiation), to receive the. sacrament of the Lord's supper according to the usage of the church of England, in some parish church, on a Lord's day, immediately after divine service and sermon, and to deliver a certificate of having so received it, under the hands of the respective ministers and churchwardens, proved by two credible witnesses. upon oath, to be recorded in court." It appears by the title of this act, and by the disposition of the parliament at that time, that it was not designed against Protestant Nonconformists; but the dissenters in the house generously came into it to save the nation from Popery; for when the court, in order to throw out the bill, put them upon moving for a clause to except their friends, Mr. Love, who had already declared against the dispensing power, stood up, and desired that the nation might first be secured against Popery, by passing the bill without any amendment, and that then, if the house pleased, some regard might be had to Protestant dissenters; in which, says Mr. Echard, he was seconded by most of his party.* The bill was voted accordingly, and another brought in for the ease of his majesty's Protestant dissenting subjects, which passed the commons, but before it could get through the lords, the king came to the house and prorogued the parliament. Thus the Protestant Nonconformists, out of their abundant zeal for the Protestant religion, shackled themselves, and were left upon a level with Popish

recusants.

It was necessary to secure the nation against Popery at that time, when the presumptive heir of the crown was of that religion; but whether it ought not to have been done by a civil rather than by a religious test, I leave with the reader. The obliging all persons in places of civil trust to receive the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper, seems to be a hardship upon those gentlemen, whose manner of life loudly declares their unfitness for so sacred a solemnity, and who would not run the hazard of eating and drinking unwor thily, but that they satisfy themselves with throwing off the guilt upon the imposers. Great Britain must not expect an army of saints; nor is the time yet come, when all her officers shall be peace,

Echard's Church History, ad ann. 1672-3.

and her exactors righteousness. It is no less a hardship upon a great body of his majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, who are qualified to serve their king and country, in all offices of civil trust, and would perform their duty with all cheerfulness, did they not scruple to receive the sacrament after the usage of the church of England, or to prostitute a sacred and religious institution, as a qualification for a civil employment. I can see no inconvenience either to church or state, if his majesty, as the common father of his people, should have the service of all his subjects, who are willing to swear allegiance to his royal person and government; to renounce all foreign jurisdiction, and to give all reasonable security not to disturb the church of England, or any of their fellow. subjects, in the peaceable employment of their religions or civil rights and properties. Besides, the removing this grievance would do honour to the church of England itself, by obviating the charge of imposition, and by relieving the clergy from a part of their work, which has given some of them very great uneasiness: but I am chiefly concerned for the honour of religion and public virtue, which are wounded hereby in the house of their friends. If therefore, as some conceive, the sacramental test be a national blemish, I humbly conceive, with all due submission, the removal of it would be a public blessing.

The Protestant Nonconformists observe with pleasure the right reverend fathers of the church owning the cause of religious liberty, "that private judgment ought to be formed upon examination, and that religion is a free and unforced thing." And we sincerely join with the lord bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, in the preface to his excellent Vindication of the Miracles of our Blessed Saviour,* "in congratulating our country on the enjoyment of their civil and ecclesiastical liberties within their just and reasonable bounds, as the most valuable blessings;" though we are not fully satisfied with the reasonable of those bounds his lordship has fixed. God forbid that any among us should be patrons of open profaneness, irreligion, scurrility, or ill manners, to the established religion of the nation; much less that we should countenance any who blasphemously revile the founder of it, or who deride whatsoever is sacred! No; we have a fervent zeal for the honour of our Lord and Master, and are desirous to " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints" with all sorts of spiritual weapons; but we do not yet sce a necessity of stopping the mouths of the adversaries of our holy religion with fines and imprisonments, even though, to their own infamy and shame, they treat it with indecency: let scandle and ill manners be punished as they deserve, but let not men be terri* Pref. p. viii.