saints expunged from the calendar; that the cross in baptism, the surplice, and the posture of kneeling at the sacrament, should not in future be insisted on; that the word Minister should be introduced in the place of Priest; that fasts in Lent should not consist in abstinence from meats; and that sponsors in baptism should not be held essential. They submitted, that reordination, where presbyters had imposed hands, should be conditional; and pronounced the damnatory clause in the Athanasian Creed to be applicable only to those who denied the substance of the Christian religion. Among these proposed changes, a few might perhaps be expedient; others were useless; and many highly objectionable. But the Tories so far succeeded in alarming the public mind, that little could be expected from Convocation by the schemers of this conciliatory plan. No disposition being manifested by that body to innovate in the forms of the Church, or to meet the Nonconformists with concessions, "the King," says Neale, "seeing they would do no good, prevented them from doing mischief, by prorogations for a course of ten years." He adds, in his old way, that the Bill of Comprehension. would have brought over three fourths of the Dissenters.

We cannot regret that the scheme proved thus abortive; for, however desirable compre

hension may be held, it is not to be purchased by the sacrifice of important points. A church having a discipline varying with its parishes, or yielding to each idle, capricious objection of Dissenters, in the vain hope of conciliating those who would regard each concession as an acknowledgment of weakness and a symptom of fear, on which they might rise to fresh encroachments and demands, could have neither harmony nor stability. No man could tell for two days together, or in two parts of the same country, what was the precise belief and discipline of his church. If points of difference be essential, they ought on no account to be conceded; and if otherwise, the Dissenters ought, as good subjects, to conform. As to kneeling at the sacrament and the cross in baptism, they were then, as formerly, mere pretences; and they would perhaps have been granted, had any real good been foreseen from such concession *. VI. Foiled in this attempt, William was ne

* One cause of the failure of this Bill of Comprehension was the temporizing conduct of many among the clergy, who silently permitted the six months allowed for taking the oaths to pass by, and thus retained their livings; for it was feared, that the Nonjurors might increase their party with these malcontents, by professing a friendship to the old Liturgy in opposition to the new one.

The King was willing to remove the sacramental test, in regard to eligibility to offices of trust, as far as related to Dissenters; but he continued resolute in the exclusion of Papists.

vertheless successful in his endeavours to relieve Dissenters from the operation of the Act of Uniformity, and other laws passed under the Stewart dynasty, which was effected by the celebrated Toleration Act. By this bill, no penal laws for punishing absence from the church could operate against Dissenters, provided they took the oaths to government, sub scribed the doctrinal articles of the Church, worshipped with open doors, and paid tithes, with other parochial duties. They were farther permitted to serve parish offices by deputy This Act was extended to Anabaptists and Quakers, who were simply required to profess belief in the Trinity and the Holy Scriptures. Even Catholics, though not mentioned, reaped in this Act the benefit of William's tolerant disposition t. The Socinians were alone excluded. This Act has enabled Nonconformists to worship God unmolested, agreeably to their several views; but it has generated or encouraged that endless variety of religious sects, and

Vide Neale, vol. iv. Appendix. Burnet's Own Times, vol. ii. p. 23.

4

"The King," says Burnet, vol. iii. p. 16, "advised gentleness towards the Papists, lest they should stir up a new league; nor could he protect the Protestants in Germany, &c.` if he did not cover from severities the Catholics at home. Thus i the Papists secretly enjoyed the benefits of the Toleration Act.

those capricious subdivisions of opinion in matters of faith, which have converted England into a religious Babel, and, by furnishing an occasion of sarcastic reproach, form no slight obstacle to the advance of the reformed doctrines in Ca-' tholic countries.

The benefits of the Act of Toleration were extended to the Church of Scotland, which was permitted to follow the ecclesiastical discipline" of Geneva; being thus exempted from episcopal jurisdiction, and from the forms of worship prescribed by the English Liturgy. The Corporation and Test Acts, having been omitted in the Bill, remain still in force.

VII. 1691. While William was thus endeavouring to reconcile religious differences, the Ex-bishops continued, in many angry publications, to maintain the doctrine of non-resistance, expecting to be hailed with the same acclamations which had crowned their conscientious sufferings during the late reign. They were answered by their successors in the prelacy; who endeavoured to turn their own doctrine against themselves, by affirming that the duty of "subjection to the powers that be," enjoined the taking of oaths to the new government. But it was ably replied, that this principle would extend to the renunciation of all oaths of submission, and to continual acknowledgment of the last among twenty usurpers; like the spaniel who would follow the

murderer of his master. This acrimony was particularly retorted against Sherlock, who had been formerly one of the bitterest enemies of the Revolution, but had taken the oaths on the accession of William. As the chief aim of these attacks made by the Nonjuring party, was to depreciate and discredit the existing government, a proclamation was issued, enjoining magistrates to apprehend all who should disseminate sedition, whether by their writings or discourses. Thus, as often happens, was the violence of opposition converted into the tyranny of power; and the friends of the Revolution opposed those principles on which they had acted, and those measures which had brought their scheme to perfection.

VIII. 1694. It was desirable, on the deprivation of Sancroft, that so important a station as the Primacy should be occupied by a man of moderate views; and Tillotson was prevailed on, though with some difficulty, to accept an office, which he foresaw would greatly disquiet the tranquillity of his declining years. But though well adapted by his mildness to heal the prevalent dissensions in religion, the High Tory party, asserting the invalidity of parliamentary deprivation, regarded him in the light of an usurper. This opposition preyed deeply on his spirits, and the short space of two years released him from his disquietudes.