*

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ral they should prefer for themselves, and earnestly recommend to others. The great piety and worth of the men who formed the foreign protestant establishments, were certainly great recommendations to the establishments themselves. And, therefore, some of the exiles, who were in the sentiments of these divines, being freed from popish persecutions, upon their return to England, thought our Reformation would never be perfect, till their brethren likewise had adopted all which they themselves had seen carried on so happily and successfully abroad. It must be owned, that they did not enough consider the difference of people, of state, of numbers, and extent. small church, like a small territory, may be governed well by a system, which might throw a larger into all manner of confusion. They quarrelled, therefore, first with the clerical habits: And if the dispute could have ended by concession, it surely is but of little consequence what garments men might wear. Let every thing be done decently and in order; and then, whether ministers wear black coats or white, gowns or cloaks, bands or no bands (which are a modern invention of happy uniformity), surplices or none at all; they may join with their people, or with their brethren at large, in supplicating the divine blessing, and may expect to find it. But, as one difference unhappily generates another, the ceremonies became the next subject of open disputation; and, then quickly afterwards, the discipline or episcopal establishment of the church itself. There were various opinions and wishes, upon all these points, among those who professed their discontent. And O that a veil of obscurity could be thrown over the many animosities among good and excellent men, which these outward affairs occasioned in our land, to the diversion and scorn of the papists, and to the disquietude and spiritual hindrance of the protestant world! It may candidly be believed, that these otherwise valuable persons did not foresee the evils which might and did ensue from these litigations (though they really were foretold above sixty years before they

came

In honour of the moderation and catholicism of the great foreign Protestants, it must be mentioned, that they have uniformly expressed much veneration for our English establishment, and a hearty desire of fraternal concord. The learned reader may see many testimonies of this kind, collected by Spanheim in his Misc. Sacr. Antiq. col. 1244, &c. And our greatest and best divines here have formerly declared the same kindness and respect for the evangelical churches abroad.

came to pass)" Evils, which were then more easy for them to prevent, than for their posterity to remedy." Let me only add as a matter of truth, without meaning to give offence, that there were some great faults on both sides; first, because they quarrelled about indifferent things: and next, because in their heat neither party were properly disposed to yield in any respect or to comply with the other. If the churchmen enforced the legal discipline with the arm of power, some of the puritans pushed their favourite platform in the spirit of perverseness, and were as wanting in moderation of language, as the others possibly could be in mildness and forbearance. Both parties urged every thing to the extreme, instead of seeking, what wise and good men above all others should seek, some happy medium in which they might join. Whatever unreasonable was desired on one side, or unreasonably retained on the other, cool men might have debated with decency, and gracious men have concluded with harmony. They would have rendered in such an event, the opposition of mere opposers quite inexcusable. It is always easy indeed to find matters of separation; but it requires more than natural skill (though it be natural interest and happiness) to discover the point of union, and a very great measure of Christian patience and selfdenial to concur therein, when it is found.

3. When parties were thus unhappily formed, the warm censures on both sides soon widened the breach, and gave birth to distinguishing names. Those who adhered to the foreign discipline were called Precisians and Puritans, which, in a good sense, are titles of honour to the children of GOD, but, in the evil one, were sounds of opposition to an ecclesiastical constitution. After a season, many moderate churchmen who valued the essentials of religion above all forms, and who therefore could not join in the common vehemence, and much less in the departure from the great common principles which afterwards followed, were also dignified by these denominations. At this time, however, there was a general agreement in all the great principles of the gospel. The dispute (it may be said) was not about the food, but about the dish which should hold it. At length, towards the end of the reign of King James the First, other principles began to creep in. Their vigour, if not their rise in our church, are generally and justly imputed to Dr. Laud. This prelate, the son of a clothier at Reading, had raised himself by the patronage of the famous Duke of Buckingham, to the direction

direction of church affairs; and being himself an Arminian and full of his order, he took care to introduce such men and measures, as might promote his designs of disseminating his principles, and of exalting the splendour of the hierarchy. This ambitious and haughty spirit did infinite mischief, and farther enlarged the breaches, which were but too wide already. He was the first who indulged the humour of setting the church above her own articles, and of bringing her nearer to the suspicious neighbourhood of Rome: And he was assisted in this by a Romish renegado, the Archbishop of Spalato, who first gave the name of doctrinal Puritans to those truest sons of the church, who abhorred Arminianism. His inventions and ceremonies might have been pitied for their nonsense, if they had not deserved hatred from the rigour with which he enforced, them. But, though rigid in the idle adjustments of bowing to the altar and at the name of Jesus, and in turning the people's faces to the east while the creed was repeating, with such like insipid trifles, he was lax enough in more important things. The Book of Sports, and the prohibition of afternoon sermons on the Lord's Days, are a striking specimen of the Arminian morality. I would not mean to say, that Laud himself was an immoral man, in the common use of the term; but he certainly had neither the spirit of an humble Christian, ner the temper of a true father in the church of GOD: Nor indeed had he the learning and other abilities of a great divine. His political aim (for it surely cannot be called religious) was to form a reunion or coalition with Rome; and to accomplish this design it was necessary to remove that capital barrier, the xxxix Articles, so long and so firmly established by law. If that proud church could have submitted in some points, he seemed to endeavour after such concessions in ours, as might draw her as near to the other as the times might allow. It would have been a more gracious pursuit to have studied the concord of the protestant churches, than to have formed such worldly combinations of ecclesiastical pride. Church union, as well as all other, is indisputably good; but not upon the demolition of essential truths, nor upon such gross corruptions, as put to hazard the very vitals of Christianity.

4. During all these innovations and distractions, a great majority of excellent men were found in and adhered to the establishment and its form of sound doctrines; but as such were removed by death, their places were care

fully

fully filled by persons who were otherwise minded. Among the former, Usher, Davenant, Hall, Bedell, Ward, Willet, and several others, are names to be remembered, with the most venerating affection, for whatever can be found gracious or valuable among men. Laud and his

associates, to their lasting infamy, not only opposed churchmen of their complexion, but seemed fond to have them stigmatized with the names of Puritans and Calvinists, and set them up as marks of odium and contempt. Where people cannot reason, they are often able to rail. On the other hand, the parties, who had divided from the church in discipline, warmly espoused her principal articles, and increased their friends and abettors even among the moderate churchmen, who looked upon Laud and his friends as persons who wese subverting the church itself, or who certainly were introducing principles which could only end in the subversion of those already established. Many of these Puritans were men of great parts and indisputable piety. If they wanted moderation, the whole age wanted it too: It was a day of heat and contention, which the inflammatory spirit of Laud was very ill calculated to cool. Hildersham, Dod, Charnock, Sibbes, Reynolds, Manton, Poole, with many others, are names, which would do honour to any church or country.

5. In the midst of these ecclesiastical agitations, the providence of GOD, in justice to the sins of the nation (at the head of which I reckon the ungrateful abuse of the reformation, and our general unthankfulness for so great a mercy,) permitted the rise of those political animosities, which ended in a dreadful civil war, and in the overthrow of the whole constitution both in church and state. The popular leaders, who were generally averse to Laud and his measures, espousing the party which opposed the established discipline, and which was now grown strong by accessions of churchmen themselves, through the increase of stupid or dangerous innovations, mixed, and increased the evil by their adoption of these religious dissensions. On the other side, the court was at no pains to conciliate; or, at least, some of those who followed its views, used all imaginable means, whatever was their design, to aggravate the public distractions. Lord Falkland, Sir Edward Hyde (afterwards the great Earl of Clarendon), with a few others, were illustrious exceptions. To its misfortune or disgrace it must also be said, that most of the profligate and unprincipled people of the age became

of

of its party; and these endeavoured to honour their own licentiousness, by opposing it to the severe and exact deportment of those whom they seemed glad to condemn as their enemies. But (as Baxter, who was an eye-witness to these facts, justly observes) it was the ruin of the king and the church, that this immoral party was encouraged by the great leaders in the country against the others; as it might very naturally have been expected. "The debauched rabble through the land, (says he) emboldened by the gentry on the king's side, and seconded by the common soldiers of his army, took all that were called Puritans for their enemies: And though some of the king's gentry and superior officers were so civil, that they would do no such thing, yet that was no security to the country, while the multitude did what they list: So that if any one was noted for a strict and famous preacher, or for a man of a precise and pious life, he was either plundered or abused, and in danger of his life: So that if a man did but pray in his family, or were but heard to repeat a sermon or sing a psalm, they presently cried out, Rebels, Roundheads; and all their money and goods that were portable proved guilty, how innocent soever they were themselves. I suppose this was kept from the knowledge of the king, and perhaps of many sober Lords of his Council For few could come near them; (and it is the fate of such not to believe evil of those that they think are for them, nor good of those that they think are against them.) But, upon my certain knowledge, this was it that filled the armies and garrisons of the parliament with sober pious men." The weight which these gave in the scale, was decisive: And a melancholy crisis ensued, contrary to the wishes of good and moderate people of all denominations. So dangerous a thing is it to put any cause to issue upon the sword, which is usually swayed by men, who feel their own consequence too much upon such occasions, and who have generally motives enough of their own to use it for themselves!

6. Under the usurpation, there was scarce the existence of a regular establishment either civil or ecclesiastical; and it was with some difficulty, that there was such a thing agreed upon as a stated ministry. Where all are allowed to act, and where the number is permitted to stand for the wisdom of heads, it is not to be expected, that any cordial or extensive agreement can ensue. However, the Arminian system was generally out of counte

*Baxter's Life, B. i. p. 44.

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