brought before him of some Anabaptists who had rushed into a church, and disturbed a congregation while they were receiving the sacrament, not without some violence, was minded to proceed severely against them; for he said it was intolerable for men, who pretended so highly to liberty of conscience, to go and disturb others, &c. But these were so supported by some great magistrates and officers, that a stop was put to his proceedings:-upon which he declared he would meddle no more with trials on the crown side. Yet, some time before the death of the usurper, many of the Antipædobaptists, as well as of the other separate parties that had raised him, fell into a dislike of him, and he of them; so far, that he, as one Captain Dean relates, cashiered several of them; and they, as the Lord Chancellor Clarendon relates, entered into several conspiracies to assassinate him. I have been advertised that I ought in this edition to insert, in order to their vindication, their address to king Charles II. recited by that noble Lord in the fifteenth book of his excellent History of the Rebellion. I will therefore give the substance of it in short; being sorry that it does not tend more to their credit than it does. They (as well as all the other parties of that time, except the churchinen) seem to have returned to their allegiance to the king, not out of conscience, but be cause they found themselves undone without him.

Several sorts and sects of men joined in the address ; but it was sent to the king, being then at Bruges, by a gentleman, an Antipædobaptist, of special trust among them. They recount how, under king Charles I. there had been many errors, excesses, irregularities, &c. as blots and stains upon the otherwise good government of that king; whom they own to have been of the best and purest morals of any prince that ever swayed the English sceptre: that the parliament had raised war to free him from evil counsellors: that they, among the rest, had on this account taken arms: and that, though they are since sensible that, under

pretence of reformation and liberty, the secret designs of wicked and ambitious persons had been hid, yet that they themselves had gone out, in the simplicity of their souls, having never had thoughts of casting off their allegiance, or extirpating the royal family, but only of restraining the excesses of government. Thus far, they say, they had gone right, and had as yet done nothing but what they thought themselves able to justify (strange that they could say this.) this.) But that, in all their motions since, they had been roving up and down in all the untrodden paths of fanatic notions; and now found themselves involved in so many labyrinths and meanders of knavery, that they know not how to extricate themselves.

"Into what crimes, impieties, and unheard- of villanies, have we (say they) been led, cheated, cozened, and betrayed by that grand impostor, that loathsome hypocrite, that detestable traitor, that prodigy of nature, &c. who now calls himself our Protector! - We have trampled under foot all authorities, we have laid violent hands upon our own sovereign, we have ravished our parliaments, put a yoke of iron on the necks of our countrymen, broken oaths, vows, covenants, engage ments, &c. lifted up our hands to Heaven deceitfully, and added hypocrisy to all our sins! We were sometimes wise to pull down; but we now want art to build: we were ingenious to pluck up; but have no skill to plant strong to destroy; but weak to restore. ther shall we go for help? if to parliament, they are broken reeds; if to the army, they are a rod of irou to bruise us; if to him who treacherously has usurped, and does traitorously exercise power over us, he says, "I have chastised you with whips, and will henceforward with scorpions.' At last we began to whisper among ourselves, why should we not return to our first husband?" &c.

Whi

And so (after many long turns of canting expressions) they come at last to this, that they find themselves engaged, in duty, honour, and conscience, to make this humble address, &c. but yet declare that,

lest they should seem altogether negligent of that first good cause which God had so eminently owned them in, &c. they think it necessary to offer the following propositions (which his lordship justly calls extravagant and wild ones); to which if his majesty would condescend, then they would hazard their lives to re-establish him.

1. That the king do resettle the long parliament, with the excluded members."

2. That he ratify all the concessions made by his father at the treaty in the Isle of Wight. [Now those concessions were (as this noble historian observes in another place, Book 16, Pag. 723, &c. ed. Ox.1706.) such as in truth did, with the preservation of the name and life of the king, near as much establish a republican government, as was settled after his murder; and such as his majesty yielded to with much less cheerfulness than he walked to the scaffold.]

3. That he should set up an universal toleration of all religions.

4. Abolish all payment of tithes.

5. Pass a general act of oblivion.

The gentleman added, in a letter of his own, that he desired the sum of 2000 pounds to be remitted to him from the king; which sum, not being at that time in his majesty's power, this proposal came to nothing.

It was by reason of the increase which had been of this opinion in those times, that the Convocation which sat presently after the restoration of King Charles II. [1561] when they made a review of the Book of Common Prayer, found it necessary to add to it an office for the baptism of those who, having been born in those times, had not yet been baptized: whereof there were many that were now grown too old to be baptized as infants, and ought to make profession of their own faith. They give, in the preface to the said book, an account of the occasion that made this necessary then, though not formerly, in these words: -" Together with an office for the baptism of such as are of riper years; which, although not so necessary when the for

mer book was compiled, yet, by the growth of Anabaptism, through the licentiousness of the late times crept in among us, is now become necessary."

The parliament, assembled upon the said restoration, expressed the dislike the nation had conceived against the tenets and behaviour of these men, when making an act for the confirming all ministers in the possession of their benefices, how heterodox soever they had been, provided they would conform for the future, they excepted such as had been of this way.

It is to be noted, that when this opinion began first to increase, they did not all of them proceed to separation from the established church; they held it sufficient to declare their sentiment against infant baptism, to reserve their own children to adult baptism, and to be baptized with it themselves, without renouncing communion in prayers, and in the other sacrament with the Pædobaptists. In the year 1645 [1545], when Marshal had, in a sermon, objected to the Antipædobaptists the sin of separation, Tombs answers, That this was practised only by some; that it was the fault of the persons, not of the principle, of Antipædobaptism; that he himself abhorred it: and he quotes, as concurring with him, the Confession of Faith [1544], in the name of seven churches of Antipædobaptists in London, Art. 33.

*

But these that continued in communion were not for Oliver's turn. There was great care taken to instil into them principles of total separation, which proved too effectual; and within a while they did all, or almost all, renounce the settled congregations, and became great enemies to them:in which separation they do still, almost all, continue.

The present state of them is this:

They that are now, are as commendable as any other sort of men are, for a sober and grave, quiet and peaceable way of living: they profess obedience to magistrates; and they will commonly express a dis

* Examen, part 2, § 2.

like and abhorrence of those plunderings and other violences committed by some of their party, as well as by the rest of the army of that usurper aforesaid, of odious memory. They are particularly commended for maintaining their poor liberally (which is a way that never fails to attract the good-will of the multitude, and to make proselytes); as also for passing censures upon such members of their own congregations as live disorderly,

This character of obedient subjects is what they now own and profess; and what I hope is the real sentiment of most of them. One Mr. Hicks did indeed, about twenty years ago (if what was informed against him were true) give a most ugly and reproachful account of the whole body of this people as to this point.

There was at that time, 1683, a villanous conspiracy, headed by Shaftesbury, Monmouth, &c. against King Charles; either to murder, or at least to depose him. The conspirators sent their emissaries about, to see what numbers and parties of the people could be drawn in to join in the rebellion; and, amongst other discoveries made afterward of this treason, there was this following information, given upon oath, by one Mr. West of the Temple; which is printed in the account of that plot. Copies of Informations, p. 41:

"This examinant farther says, That Mr. Roe told this examinant, that he had discoursed with one Mr. Hicks, a tobacconist, an Anabaptist-preacher, a great ringleader of the Anabaptists; and that the said Hicks had told him that the Anabaptists could, and he believed, upon good consideration, would make up an army of 20,000 men; and 1500 of the 20,000 would be horse and though, perhaps, there would be a necessity of making use of some great men at the beginning (and this examinant thinks he mentioned the Duke of Monmouth); yet when the Anabaptists were once up, they would not lay down their arms till they had their own terms."