BOOK II. gratulated the sovereign on his having seen the disputing age, in which every unclean beast defiled the temple, pass away; on his having restored the government and patrimony of the church; and on his being about to pass an act for order and uniformity in worship, to which he hoped the God of order would dispose the nation to conform itself. Clarendon, as usual, cited learned authors, and indulged in old similitudes, and could not but hope, that the return of the bishops, with their wonted hospitality, to their several homes in the provinces, would tend to neutralize the teaching of men who were more disposed to respect their old errors than to repent of their evil deeds, and to dispose the laity who had strayed to return to the bosom of their dear mother the church.' Of all people, according to his lordship, the English people would be the most insensible to benefits, if blessings of all kinds, in such extraordinary multitude, should fail to produce a universal contentedness and satisfaction, visible in the looks, and thoughts, and 'words, and action of the whole nation.' His majesty sat enthroned and robed in the upper house as these words were uttered. The bishops were present in their lawn; the peers in suits of their ancient bravery; and the commons stood uncovered below the bar, as the sovereign received, in its turn, the great Act of Uniformity, and by pronouncing the words, Le Roy le veult,' gave origin to a future in English history, in the midst of which we are at this day, and the fruit of which is still largely to come.

CHAPTER IX.

The Independents in relation to the Act of Uniformity.

HE attempts towards a compromise related in CHAP. IX. the preceding chapters were made by the Presbyterians. In those proceedings, extending as they do over nearly two years, there is scarcely an allusion to the Independents, or to the other sects. What was the position of the Congregationalists at this juncture? What were their expectations?

church In

The reader has seen the grounds of difference between The Statethe Presbyterians and the Independents, and how the dependents. latter rose to power in place of the former. It will be remembered that the Independents in the Assembly of Divines were not the advocates of an unrestricted religious liberty. This party, the moderate Independents as they may be called, continued to the time of the Restoration, and continued to be strong. Its representatives in the assembly were its representatives still, and with those persons we must class such men as Owen, and Gale, and Howe. In the judgment of this party, it became the magistrates, not only to protect the peaceable in their religious exercises, but, within certain

BOOK II. limits, to encourage and diffuse the profession of the

Protestant religion, as it was then generally recognised and defined. A state church should be broad and liberal, but the idea of such a church was by no means repugnant to their thoughts. The authority of the magistrate was not to be pleaded against the authority of Christ-in other words, the conscience of the state was not to give law to the conscience of the individual. But there was much, it was concluded, which the magistrate might do, without violating that great principle; and what might be thus done, they were willing to see done.

One of these men, reasoning with his Presbyterian brethren, says, 'It is a great question among our brethren, 'whether this traditio Satano was not peculiar to the apostles. And if it prove so, then non-communion < will prove to be the utmost censure the church now 'hath. What if they will not regard your deliver'ing them up to Satan? You say you will then com'plain to the magistrate. This power must come in to 'make them regard what the church doth. As for sub'jection to the magistrate, there we are upon equal 'ground. If he will interpose, he may second the sen'tence of judging men subverters of the faith, if with'drawing communion from them, and we must still be subject here to suffer what is inflicted, if we cannot do 'what is required. Only we do not go so far as some 'do in this thing; whereas they lay a law upon the con'science of magistrates, that they are bound to assist the 'decrees of the church, taking cognizance only of the fact, that the church hath decreed, not inquiring into 'the nature of the things; we dare not lay any such bond on the conscience of the magistrate, but say that he is to assist the church, both in the knowledge of

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'what the church has done, and the knowledge of the CHAP. IX. 'nature of the thing. Seeing every private man hath

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power to be judge of his own act, it were a great misery

upon those who have power over them to be denied ' this power.**

Dr. Owen, immediately after the death of Charles I., taught that the magistrate should take care that the people have places of worship, and a faithful ministry :† Greenhill, another Independent, delivered his judgment on this topic, about the same time, in the following terms: 'It is one thing to restrain men's practices which ' are idolatrous, blasphemous, against pure worship, the power of godliness, and the peace of the state-another 'to force men to that which their judgment and con'science are against. I pleaded not even for a tole'ration of all, but only that those whose lives are holy, 'peaceable, and differ in judgment from others in some 'things, may not be forced to conform or depart.'‡

according to

Petition and

Advice.

In 1657, the parliament then sitting presented its Toleration Humble Petition and Advice' to the Protector, in which the Humble they urged that a confession of faith should be agreed upon by his highness and the parliament, to be published as the faith of these nations.' This faith was to be substantially the faith known as that of the reformed churches; and the men holding it, though differing from each other in matters of worship and discipline,' were to be deemed alike eligible to any office in the state, either civil or ecclesiastical. Popery and prelacy were excepted from this scheme-on grounds both political and ecclesiastical in both cases. But this project was frustrated by the dissolution of the parliament. As a *Irenicum. By Jeremiah Burroughs, 47. + Works, xv. 20.

Greenhill's Ezekiel, Preface,
Q

Meeting of the Inde

the Savoy,

1658.

BOOK II. Scheme of religious liberty it would have been imperfect; but it was large and generous compared with anything of that nature which had hitherto come from a parliament. In the following year, Mr. Griffith, preacher at the pendents in Charter House, was instructed by the government to convene an assembly of representatives from the Congregational churches of England. The intention in this proceeding was, that a declaration of the faith and order of the Independent churches might be drawn up and made public. The delegates met on the 29th of September. But the Protector had died on the third of that month. What this assembly might have been if the Protector had lived we can only conjecture. Many seem to have concluded that in his absence little could be done, and there were cautious men among the Congregationalists who had learnt to distrust all such centralized forms of power. The two hundred delegates who assembled, gave a fair expression to the opinion and feeling of the Independents, but in respect to numbers they were by no means an adequate representation.

The meet

ing approves

settlement.

Dr. Owen, Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Nye, Bridge, the present Caryl, and Greenhill, and Tomes, Jessey, and Dyke, who were Baptists, were the committee appointed to prepare the intended Declaration. On the theological articles it will be enough to say that they were such as would be accounted in that age moderately Calvinistic. The portions of the paper chiefly interesting to us are those which relate to the supposed duty of the magistrate towards religion. The delegates are manifestly agreed in recognising what they call the present settlement,' as an adjustment of the relations between religion and the state to which no scriptural or reasonable exception could be taken. This settlement, it will be remembered, gave