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driven from the court-a fresh testimony to the popery of both the sovereign and the primate !'

Franciscus de Clarâ, a Franciscan, whose real name was Christopher Davenport, published, at this juncture, an Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, with a view to reconcile the English and Roman churches; but it pleased neither party. In 1637, not less than 11,970 popish recusants were numbered in the twenty-nine southern counties of England *.

A singular treaty was formed in 1646, between Ormond on the part of the King, and the Irish Catholics, by the terms of which they were to enjoy unlimited toleration, access to all places of trust in the council and army, seats in parliament, and discharge from the oath of supremacy. All this is precisely what is now demanded for that body, as strict justice and complete toleration: yet Mr. Neale, the friend of liberty of conscience, terms the articles of the treaty scandalous, and asks angrily, "Was this the way in which the monarch showed his sincerity, as a protector of the Protestant religion ?"

XXVII. Few Acts of Parliament, connected with our subject, could be passed in a reign wherein few parliaments were assembled; for the ordinances of the two houses, which have been al

* Clarendon, vol. i. P. 148..

ready specified, were not parliamentary acts. Two acts, inflicting penalties on the violators of the Lord's Day, and one against drunkenness; one requiring Papists to attend their parish-church; and one transferring matters of perjury from the Starchamber, on its abolition, to the courts of common law, may serve to illustrate the history of these troubled times.

XXVIII. One principal ornament of the period. we have been considering, was that learned Talmudist, the elder Buxtorf. In the humbler, but more useful walk of practical divinity, Laud published the posthumous sermons of his friend Andrews; and Herbert wrote two valuable summaries of the pastoral duties, the Country Parson and the Priest to the Temple; the former in prose, the other quaintly versified. In 1642 died Crisp, an eminent Antinomian divine.

The literary merits of Lightfoot, Coleman, and Selden, have already been sufficiently developed.

The Psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins being complained of as unpoetical, Rouse's version was substituted in their place.

XXIX. When a country is invaded, parties are blended and forgotten in a general spirit of patriotism. But no sooner does the common enemy cease to be an object of apprehension, than the internal factions return to their respective standards. Thus the minority in the House of Commons, during the first years of Charles's reign,

were united by the tie of animosity towards episcopacy and thus, when they carried their point by the establishment of presbyterianism, the common denomination of Puritans branched into Presbyterians and Independents. This, therefore, is the proper occasion for detailing the history, and examining the principles, of these two sects,

PRESBYTERIANISM.

While the early English reformers adopted moderation as their motto, and only aimed at expunging the gross corruptions of Popery, Calvin in Geneva, A. D. 1541, and Knox and Melvil in Scotland, a short time afterwards, being men of more ardent tempers, conceived that the reformed religion would be more pure the further it receded, in all respects, from the church of Rome: from Antichrist, from the mystery of iniquity, and from the whore of Babylon. Hence they effected an innovation in church-government as well as in doctrine; maintaining, that, agreeably to the model of the primitive church, the Christian ministry ought to consist of but a single order. Calvin, however, at first affirmed *, that a threefold ministry was commended to us in the Sacred Writings, although afterwards this doctrine was suppressed and denied. According to the Presbyte

*. Calvin. Instit. 1. iv. c. 4, § 1.

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rians, there is no foundation in Scripture for a distinction between the offices of bishop and presbyter nor does either the high antiquity or the universality of that distinction afford any good reason why it should not be abolished. The original government of the church was conducted by presbyteries, or associations of ministers, no one among whom was superior to another, save him who was appointed as chairman or moderator. This officer, at first temporary, and afterwards permanent, it is admitted by both the doctors Hill and Campbell *, was converted into a regular bishop so early as the second century.

Geneva and Holland are the chief seats of presbyterianism on the continent. In Scotland, after a contest of a century with episcopacy, it was settled, in 1688, as the established religion.

Presbyterianism appeared in England, in 1572, when Field established the order of Wandsworth, in Surry. Their numbers were swelled by many Non-conformists, returning, at different times, from Geneva and Holland, whither they had fled to avoid the Marian persecution. Attachment to this mode of religion gained further ground in consequence of the supposed connexion between episcopacy and arbitrary power; while the Scotch covenanters infected numbers of the English Puritans with a keen desire to imitate the discipline

* Theolog. Instit. p. 167; and Lect. on Eccles. Hist. vol. i. Fuller, cent. 16, p. 103.

of Geneva. Gathering strength in Parliament, they at length overturned the hierarchy. We may observe, that zeal for communicating what was thought truth, was not the only motive which impelled the Scots to exasperate the English discontents: they apprehended that if Charles should make a compromise with the Parliament, he would revoke the concessions unwillingly granted in the north. As the ministers of the Assembly maintained the divine right of presbyterianism, which they held to be derived from Christ and his Apostles, episcopacy itself could not be more obnoxious to the other sectarists. Presbyterianism in England, however, was marked by one essential distinction from the same mode of religion in Scotland: that of acknowledging the subjection of the church to the civil power in spiritual matters. When in power, the Presbyterians denied the Independents 2 separate worship; but their sway of intolerance was soon terminated by Cromwell, who subjected England to the management of a body of commissioners, partly Presbyterians and partly Independ ents*. Episcopacy returned with Charles II. and, being reinstated in power, passed the act of uniformity, by which 2000 ministers, attached to

That is a lame argument which is drawn from the charitable indulgence of an adversary. At Uxbridge, the sufficiency of Presbyterian ordination was maintained, from the recen acknowledgment of the validity of Presbyterian baptism i France and the Low Countries, by the English bishers

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