flamed by a fanatical host of Independent lay preachers. Officers, and even privátes, collected congregations in the open fields, and vented their wild absurdities in the churches adjacent to their quarters. From the military, this enthusiasm spread to their constant admirers, the fair sex; who, in defiance of the law of delicacy and decency, and of the apostolic declaration, that it is a shame for a woman to speak in the churches, allowed free efflux to that volubility of nonsense which they imagined to proceed from the workings of the spirit.

XIII. Although an army, wrought up to a pitch of frenzy by these declamations, carried, soon after, the victory of Naseby, the Parliament looked with terror on the career of so fanatical'a body, and passed an ordinance for the suppression of lay preaching. A former ordinance directing the London presbyters to confer orders, was now revived, with the view of supplanting the military preachers: and an order was issued by the Parliament, for the settlement of a new discipline, to take place of episcopacy, which had been now for some time overthrown. This latter injunction was directed to the Westminster divines: and gave rise to warm debates, both in the Assembly and Parliament, concerning all the points in dispute among the several religious parties. An attention to their arguments will be more serviceable in disclosing their principles, than any statement of them offer

ed in detail. The three points in dispute related to ordination, to synodical assemblies, and to church censures or the power of the keys. The Presbyterians began, in a singular contradiction, with asserting the power of ordination by divine right; at the same time recognizing the validity of all ordinations conferred according to the former usage of the English church. An objection was made by the Erastians to the claim of divine right. They were indifferent as to the form of government, and would submit to any that might be proposed by the state: yet they hinted, commenting on a passage in Timothy, that though elders might ordain elders, it did not follow that they could ordain bishops. The Independents set up a counter divine-right, in favour of election, previous to ordination, by each particular church. This occasioned a debate, in which Timothy, Titus, and Apollos, were cited as examples of pastors ordained without a previous call from a congregation. It was urged, that as the call of a flock was affirmed to constitute the pastor, and the autho. rity of that pastor was denied extension beyond his flock, each new election of a minister to a different church must be attended with a new ordination and again, since the church must, in all cases, precede the pastor, an Independent minister could not plant new churches. The congregationalists replied, that Timothy and Titus (they said nothing of Apollos) were extraordinary offi

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cers: that, in general, it was absurd to elect a man without his having a peculiar province for exertion; and that, though they did not deem reordination necessary on a new call, they could figure in their minds no strong objection to it. They agreed to imposition of hands, provided it conveyed no power of office. The Presbyterians carried the divine right in the assembly, the seven Independent divines entering a protest. On the question of synodical assemblies, the Presbyterians asserted that subordination is implied in the passage, Matt. xviii. 15, 16, 17, where there is a reference, first to several witnesses, and afterwards to the church at large: and in Acts, xv. 2, where the church of Antioch confesses the superior jurisdiction of the church of Jerusalem. But the Independents replied, that a synod of presbyters. is no where denominated a church; and that the reference of Antioch to Jerusalem was merely for advice, not for judicial determination. The first church of Jerusalem was assembled in one place, consisting only of 120 members, Acts, i. 15; ii. 1; iv. 6. The members of this church were all, with one accord, in Solomon's porch, Acts, v. 12. It was the whole multitude of the disciples ther, that chose the deacons, Acts, the return of Paul and Barnabas, th still in one place, Acts, xv. Apostles, elders, and whole these with other ministerst

*

this it is inferred, that in the primitive church, the election of the congregation was the call to the ministry, and that no vestige of classes and synods can be traced *. As the Jewish Sanhedrim was proposed as a model for the presbytery, Lightfoot, and other Hebraists inclined to the Independent principle; observing that the judges 'of inferior courts went to Jerusalem only for advice, and were not subject to the control of the Sanhedrim. Selden, at the head of the Erastians, disapproving of all spiritual jurisdiction, expounded the passage, Deuter. xvii. 12, as signifying, that he who would not yield obedience to the priest, should die by the sentence of the judge, in opposition to the Presbyterian doctrine, that the priest held one court, and the judge another.

The Presbyterians carried this point in the Assembly. The Independents dissenting, complained of the neglect of their remonstrances; and still affirmed that the divine right of church government remained with each congregation. In the House of Commons, the Scotch commissioners, and the small party of their friends, were anxious to carry, by surprise, measures thus far successful; but the Erastians and Independents smoked this design, and Glyn speaking one hour, and Whitlock another, with studious prolixity against the jus divinum, the house was filled in the mean time, and the clause was accordingly lost.

*Lightfoot's Rem. p. 17.

The commissioners, sorely vexed, stirred up petitioners in their favour but every solicitation was disregarded:; jealousy was sown between the Parliament and the city; and they high Presbyterian cause was ruinedul-luminamud to at le

One last point remained for the discussion of the Assembly and Parliament: namely, excommunication, or what was termed the power of the keys. Here, as in the former instances, the Presbyterians had triumphed in the Assembly but the Erastians and Independents uniting their forces, prepared for a trial of strength with them in Par Jiament. The Presbyterians affirmed, that the key's of the kingdom of heaven had been committed by Christ to officers of the church : and they consequently laid claim to the power of excommunication, not soliciting it as a boon from the favour of the legislature, but demanding it jüre divino. The Independents claimed a like jus divinum for the whole brotherhood in each particular congregation; though without the sanction of civil penalties: while the Erastians insisted on laying the communion entirely open; and referring all crimes solely to the civil magistrate.

- Selden exhibited his stores of theological know ledge, as chief advocate of the Erastian principles. He observed, that no law existed for 4000 yearsuspending any persons from religious exercise Pagans, it is true, were prohibited from e passover; but these were of a differen