were hazarding their lives in the service of the souls of the distressed and dying citizens of London,that the prime minister and his creatures,§ instead of mourning for the nation's sins, and meditating a reformation of manners, should pour out all their vengeance upon the non-conformists, in order to make their condition more insupportable. One would have thought such a judgment from heaven, and such a generous compassion in the ejected ministers, should have softened the hearts of their most cruel enemies; but the presbyterians must be crushed, in defiance of the rebukes of Providence. Bishop Kennet and Mr. Eachard would excuse the ministry, by alledging, that some of the old Oliverian officers were enlisted in the Dutch service; which, it true, was nothing to the body of the presbyterians, though lord Clarendon did what he could to incense the parliament, and make them believe they were in confederacy with the enemies of the government. In his harangue to the house, he says, "their countenances were more erect, and more insolent, since the beginning of the war than before; that they were ready, if any misfortune had befallen the king's fleet, to have brought the war into our fields and houses. The horrid murderers of our late royal master have been received into the most sacred councils in Holland; and other infamous persons of our nation are admitted to a share in the conduct of their affairs, with liberal pensions. Too many of his majesty's subjects have been enlisted in their service for a maintenance. Their friends at home made no doubt of doing the business themselves, if they could pitch upon a lucky day to begin the work. If you carefully provide for suppressing your enemies at home, you will find your enemies abroad more inclined to peace-" Is it possible that such a speech could proceed from the lips of a wise and faithful councellor, who was to ask for money to carry on the war? Could the chancellor think, that the way to conquer abroad was to divide and harrass the king's sabjects at home, in the midst of the distress of a terrible plague? He confessed afterwards, that he was most averse to this war, and abhorred it from his very soul; and yet he makes a handle of it to rain down vengeance on the presbyterians, who had no concern in it; but it hap* Eachard, p. 824.

§ Baxter's Life, part iii. p. 3.

pened to them as in popish countries, when any general calamity befals the people, it is imputed to too great an indulgence to heretics, and the vengeance is returned upon their heads. Bishop Burnet is of opinion that the Oxford act was rather owing to the liberty the non-conformists took in their sermons to complain of their own hardships, and to lament the vices of the court, as the causes of the present calamities. And supposing this to be true, their complaints were not without reason.

However, the load was to lie on the dissenting ministers, and therefore an act was brought into the house to banish them from their friends, which had the royal assent, October 31, 1665. It was entitled, An Act to restrain NonConformists from inhabiting Corporations; the preamble to which sets forth, "That divers parsons, and others in holy orders, not having subscribed the act of uniformity, have taken upon them to preach in unlawful assemblies, and to instil the poisonous principles of schism and rebellion into the hearts of his majesty's subjects, to the great danger of the church and kingdom. Be it therefore enacted, that all such non-conformist ministers shall take the following oath IA. B. do swear, that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the king;* and that I do abhor that traiterous position of taking arms by his authority, against his person, or against those that are commissioned by him, in pursuance of such commissions; and that I will not at any time endeavor any alteration of government either in church or state. And all such non-conformist ministers shall not, after the 24th of March, 1665, unless in passing the road, come, or be within five miles of any city, town corporate, or borough that sends burgesses to parliament; or within five miles of any parish, town, or place, wherein they have since the act of oblivion been parson, vicar, or lecturer, &c. or where they have preached in any conventicle on any pretence, whatsoever, before they have taken and subscribed the aforesaid

+ Ibid. p. 846.

A project was formed of imposing this clause on the whole nation, by requiring this oath of every subject. The point was so near being carried, that the bill brought in for the purpose was rejected by three voices only. Secret History of the Reign of Charles II. vol. ii. p. 172. note. Ed.

oath before the justices of peace at their quarter-sessions for the county, in open court; upon forfeiture for every such offence of the sum of forty pounds, one third to the king, another third to the poor, and a third to him that shall sue for it. And it is further enacted, that such as shall refuse the oath aforesaid shall be incapable of teaching any public or private schools, or of taking any boarders§ or tablers to be taught or instructed, under pain of forty pounds, to be distributed as above. Any two justices of peace, upon oath made before them of any offence committed against this act, are empowered to commit the offender to prison for six mouths, without bail or mainprize."

The earl of Southampton, lord Wharton, Ashley, Dr. Earl, bishop of Salisbury, and others, vehemently opposed this bill, out of compassion to the non-conformits, and as it enforced an unlawful and unjustifiable oath, which (as the earl of Southampton observed) no honest man could take; but the madness of the times prevailed against all reason and humanity. The promoters of the act were lord chancellor Clarendon, archbishop Sheldon, Ward the new bishop of Salisbury, and their creatures, with all that were secret favorers of popery (says bishop Burnet.) It was moved that the word legally might be inserted in the oath, before the word commissioned; and that before the words endeavored to change the government, might be inserted the word unlawfully; but all amendments were rejected; however, Bridgman, chief justice of the commonpleas, declaring that the oath must be so understood, Dr. Bates and about twenty others took it, to avoid the imputation of sedition; but they had such a lecture afterwards from the bench for their scruples, that they repented of what they had done before they went out of court. Mr. Howe, and about twelve in Devonshire, and a few in Dorsetshire, took the oath with a declaration in what sense and with what limitations they understood it.*

"This act seemed," it is justly observed, "to be the last step in the climax of intolerance; for to deprive men of the means of subsistence implies more deliberate eruelty, though it does not excite so much horror as fire and faggots." Secret History of the Reign of Charles II. vol. ii. p. 171, note. Ed.

Baxter, part iii p. 3. Burnet, vol. i. p. 329. + Baxter's Life, part iii. p. 15. * Howe's Life, p. 41. VOL. IV. 56

But the body of the non-conformist ministers refused the oath, choosing rather to forsake their habitations, their relations, and friends, and all visible support, than destroy the peace of their consciences. Those ministers who had some little estate or substance of their own, retired to some remote and obscure villages, or such little market-towns as were not corporations, and more than five miles from the places where they had preached; but in many counties it was difficult to find such places of retirement; for either there were no houses untenanted, or they were annexed to farms which the ministers were not capable of using; or the people were afraid to admit the ministers into their houses, lest they should be suspected as favorers of nonconformity.§ Some took advantage of the ministers' necessities, and raised their rents beyond what they could afford to give. Great numbers were thus buried in obscurity, while others who had neither money nor friends, went on preaching as they could, till they were sent to prison, thinking it more eligible to perish in a gaol than to starve out of one; especially when by this means they had some occasional relief from their hearers, and hopes that their wives and children might be supported after their death. Many who lay concealed in distant places from their flocks in the day-time, rode thirty or forty miles to preach to them in the night, and retired again before daylight. These bardships tempted some few to conform (says Mr. Baxter,) contrary to their former judgments; but the body of dissenters remained stedfast to their principles, and the church gained neither reputation nor numbers.The informers were very diligent in hunting after their game; and the soldiers and officers behaved with great rudeness and violence. When they missed of the ministers, they went into the barns and out-houses, and sometimes thrust their swords up to the hilts in the hay and straw, where they supposed they might lie concealed; they made havoc of their goods, and terrified the women and children almost out of their lives. These methods of cruelty reduced many ministers with their families to the necessity of living upon brown rye-bread and water; but few were reduced to public beggary, (says Mr. Baxter*) the § Baxter, part iii. p. 4. Burnet, p. 331. + Baxter's Life, part iii. p. 15. * Page 4.

providence of God appearing wonderfully for their relief, in their greatest extremities.

And as if the judgments of heaven upon this nation were not heavy enough, nor the legislature sufficiently severe, the bishops must throw their weight into the scale; for in the very midst of the plague, July 7, 1665, archbishop Sheldon sent orders to the several bishops of his province to return the names of all ejected non-conformist ministers, with their places of abode, and manner of life; and the returns of the several bishops are still preserved in the Lambeth library.* The design of this enquiry was to gird the laws closer upon the dissenters, and to know by what means they earned their bread; and if this tender-hearted archbishop could have had his will, they must have starved, or sought a livelihood in foreign countries.

This year put an end to the life of Dr. Cornelius Burgess, a divine of the puritan stamp‡ educated at Oxford, and

* Comp. Hist. vol. iii. p. 279.

"If all the puritans," says Dr. Grey, "had been of his rebellious stamp, they had certainly been a wicked crew, but there was a great difference in puritans, some very good, and some very bad, as is justly observed by Mr. Fuller." In his first volume also, p. 268, the doctor impeaches the character of this divine, in the words of Eachard; who calls him "The seditious Dr. Burgess, and one of the greatest Bontefeus of the whole party, being the perpetual trumpeter to the most vio lent proceedings, a great instrument in bringing on the miseries of the nation; who died in great want and poverty, tormented and eaten up by a cancer in his neck and cheek-a fearful instance of rebellion and sacrilege." To these and other invectives of the archdeacon Eachard against Dr. Burgess, Dr. Calamy replied; but the reply goes chiefly to shew the archdeacon's partiality, by inveighing in this manner against Burgess, when the characters of some on the other side were open to similar charges. The fact, which seems to bear hard on the name of this divine is, that though he declared it "by no means lawful to alienate the bishop's lands from public and pious uses, or to convert them to any private person's property;" yet he gained so much as to grow rich by the purchase of them. After the restoration he lost all. This, Dr. Calamy thinks, might be allowed a sufficient punishment without branding his memory. What inconsistency or faults soever might be chargeable on Dr. Burgess, the interpretation which the archdeacon puts on his death deserves severe censure," as rash and presuming." This method gives a particular and invidious construction to events that arise from general laws, and equally befal the righteous and the wicked and it shews, how they who use it would direct, if it were in their power, the evils and calamities of life. It indicates as much a want of candor and generosity as of sound judgment. It appears from

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