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summer months, had concentrated his army in September at Wellington, for the first time, when "his Majesty made this speech to his soldiers: Gentlemen,-You have heard these Orders read. It is your part, in your several places, to observe them exactly. The time cannot be long before we come to action; therefore you have the more reason to be careful and I must tell you, I shall be very severe in the punishing of those, of what condition soever, who transgress these Instructions. I cannot suspect your courage and resolution: your conscience and your loyalty hath brought you hither, to fight for your religion, your King, and the laws of the Land. You shall meet with no enemies but traitors; most of them Brownists, Anabaptists, and Atheists; such who desire to destroy both Church and State, and who have already condemned you to ruin for being loyal to Us. That you may see what use I mean to make of your valour, if it please God to bless it with success, I have thought fit to publish my resolution to you in a Protestation; which, when you have heard me make, you will believe you cannot fight in a better quarrel, in which, I promise to live and die with you.' "" a His Majesty's restriction of his "enemies" to the parties named, is somewhat astounding, all things considered; for what was become even of all the Puritans or Presbyterians? Could it be, that they were merged among the "Atheists ?" His Majesty placed those kindly in the rear, the furthest off, while he assigned the van to others who carried into the battle fully as much "conscience" as he ascribes to his supporters in his camp. We ask, for these, only an equitable allowance; believing that not even "Brownists" would resist "the ordinance of God," if the crime of resistance had not been provoked by such an outrageous abuse of "the sword" of magistracy as drew down the visible vengeance of the Almighty on the chief abusers of His sacred "ordinance;" and that if "atheists" were indeed instruments in His hand, "God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another." c

We regret to be obliged to state, that notwithstanding his Majesty had a few days previously, protested solemnly against the charge, yet on the 23rd of October, he avowed, in a Declaration, his having accepted the service of "some few" Papists of " eminent abilities in command and conduct."d The Parliament having their apprehensions, had contracted a closer connexion with the Scots. They had written to the General Assembly, which was to meet in July, acquainting them with the crisis of their affairs, and that they had been interrupted in the promotion of "a due reformation, both in Church and State," by the plots and practices of "a malignant party of Papists and ill-affected persons." It is said, we believe inadvertently, that the "advice and assistance" of the Assembly was desired, on this occasion: but it does not appear in the correspondence preserved in the "Printed Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland;"f where, however, the Assembly "do most willingly offer their prayers and uttermost endeavours for furthering so great a work." 8 They commend their own

Commissioners "for beginning the work of reformation at the Uniformity of Kirk-government: for what hope can there be of Unity in religion, of one Confession of faith, one Form of worship, and one Catechism, till there be first one Form of Ecclesiastical Government ?" They assumed what they found to be erroneous, that "the Prelatical hierarchy being put out of the way, the work will be easy, without forcing of any conscience, to settle, in England, the government of the Reformed Kirks by Assemblies." Taking, too, to themselves perpetuality, jure Divino, they profess to "long extremely for the day when Kings and Parliaments shall join for bringing to pass so great, so good a work:" when "all wars and commotions ceasing, all superstition, idolatry, sects, and schisms," shall be "removed!" a Such is but another exposure of the vanity of human wishes and expectations: the Parliament, with more wisdom, replied that this is "hardly to be obtained punctually and exactly," but hoped that there might be "a free communion in all holy exercises and duties of worship;" for the "attaining whereof" they intended an Assembly of godly and learned Divines, so soon as the royal assent could be obtained.

A measure of the Commons, carried in a large house, by a hundred and fifty nine to a hundred and forty eight, November the 22nd, was a Remonstrance in which they embodied elaborately a catalogue of the grievances during the course of the past fifteen years. No other reason presents itself for this enumeration and present promulgation of what had already been partially or wholly accommodated, but the lively feeling of distrust which the House entertained about the continuance of what had been adjusted, and about the safety of themselves and their cause, if both were not fenced round with double and treble securities. They assure his Majesty, herein, that, "It is far from our purpose or desire to let loose the golden reins of Discipline and Government in the Church; to leave private persons, or Particular Congregations to take up what form of Divine service they please: for," say they, "we hold it requisite that there should be throughout the whole realm a conformity to that order which the laws enjoin, according to the Word of God." How far they were, at present, from possessing a liberal and correct knowledge of the principles of religious freedom, this passage evinces; but that they entertained a determination to meliorate the condition of those who sought to worship their Maker agreeably to what such considered to be the dictates of conscience, is evident where they say, "We desire to unburden the consciences of men, of needless and superstitious Ceremonies, suppress Innovations, and take away the monuments of Idolatry." To effect this intended reformation, they add, "We desire there may be a general Synod of the most grave, pious, learned, and judicious Divines of this Island, assisted with some from foreign parts professing the same religion with us, who may consider of all things necessary for the peace and good government of the Church, and represent the result of their consultations unto the Parliament, to be there allowed of and confirmed, and receive the stamp of authority." Dissensions grew out of this Remonstrance, and the accompanying b Rushworth, vol. v. p. 391.

* P. 130, 131.

Nalson's "Collection," vol. ii. p. 705.

c

Petition, between the two Houses, which induced the Commons to commence a system of agitation among the populace; and the pulpits were converted into drums ecclesiastic, as they were wont to be by their inveterate opponents. Attack and defence, oppression and resistance, are commutable terms; but to decide in all cases, to whom is to be ascribed the one or the other of them, is not always practicable in times of commotion; what reproach is the due of either party, each must endure: Iliacos intra muros peccatur, et extra. Hume admits that the views of the Commons were more "solid and profound," but he describes their language to be "severe and indecent." By what process of reasoning, what deduction of inferences, what peculiarity of penetration, he was enabled to conclude that the Commons "were therefore resolved, if possible, to excite" the king "to some violent passion, in hopes that he would commit indiscretions of which they might take the advantage," surpasses our faculty of apprehension, if the passage were penned with any other design than to appear to account for the appalling indiscretion into which Charles had already irretrievably fallen. "The Queen and the ladies of the Court" urged him on towards destruction, instead of restraining that "fatal impetuosity" which was the precursor of so lamentably disastrous an issue.

The founders of those Civil liberties which their posterity enjoy, had already committed oversights, and were now themselves carried away with precipitancy; yet who shall venture to deny the fact, that they were on all occasions placed in circumstances of peculiar imminence and urgency ?d The fruits of this great struggle are our heritage and our boast. The King, it is said, "never took up a position from which he was not forced to recede," while the advance of the Parliament "was made with a steady unerring pace; which proved, at once, superior sagacity and power."

b

Chap. Iv. an. 1641.

Hor. Ep. ii. lib. 1. "How is the following diversity of judgment to be accounted for? Hallam writes thus, "The temperate and constitutional language of the royal declarations and answers to the House of Commons in 1642, known to have proceeded from the pen of Hyde; as superior to those on the opposite side in argument as they were in eloquence." P. 612. Mackintosh, or Lardner, the continuator of his History, 1835. 12mo. vol. v. p. 298, writes, "The King's papers, drawn up by Clarendon, have been pronounced, by one writer after another, greatly superior to those of the Commons: .. Clarendon's drafts,.. exhibit only diffuse rhetoric and flimsy dialects, approaching to pettyfogging; while the papers of the Parliament were no less remarkable for frankness, point, and brevity."

4 See Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 518, 519.-"If any one have a desire of more particular information, there were so many books then written, as will sufficiently give it them and although those of our enemies are all fraught with abominable lies, yet if all ours were supprest, even their own writings, impartially considered, would be a sufficient chronicle of their injustice and oppression!" Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. vol. i. p. 104.

Lardner's Cont. of Mackintosh, vol. v. p. 302. Whatever be the impression which might have been made by the former note from Lardner, we shall avail ourselves of the noble writer's authority, when recording his judgment concerning the members generally of his own Profession, and the relative importance of their position in the State. On having recorded the proceedings in the House of Commons, that they pressed that the impeached Bishops "might be sequestered from the [Upper] House, till they should be brought to judgment;" Clarendon goes on to say, "And for this, they found Lawyers in their House, who, prostituting the dignity and learning of their profession to the cheap and vile affectation of popular

CHAP. XLIII.

COTTON'S CONSTITUTION OF A CHURCH;-HIS ANSWER TO BALL.

BREWSTER.

Notwithstanding the surrounding din of arms, there were even now those who sought to "exalt" the Lord their God, and "worship at His applause, were not ashamed to aver custom and law for their senseless proposition." This is in keeping with his design, to make right wrong, when it should be expedient: but now comes what demands the most considerate attention, because it lets in a flood of light which shows that disaffection had not become rampant in the Church alone, but that it had spread in the same degree among that learned profession whose ordinary boast it is that the "essence of reason" is concentrated in the products of their labours and the results of their wisdom! We shall see presently, to what a height animosity had grown "between some great Lawyers and some great Churchmen:" and this is the subject demanding that attention we require, for whether by accident or artifice, yet so it is that in all discussions, private or public, touching the ill favour of the Bishops in those times, the Puritans ! the Puritans! the Separatists, the Fanatics! constitute the one cry which carries away the judgment of the unwary, and precludes the inquiry at large, How came those Bishops and their predecessors to conduct themselves so as to create a fatal schism in the educated body they were appointed to govern; and, moreover, to provoke the "animosity" of that other body whose distinctive appellation is "Learned"?

Where "judgment" should have been looked for, "behold oppression ;" where "righteousness, behold a cry!" Isai. v. 7. This is verified on the unquestionable authority of Hyde himself, he who came to be the head of his order,—Lord High Chancellor of England.

"And here I cannot but with grief and wonder remember the virulency and animosity expressed at that time upon all occasions, by many of good knowledge, in the excellent and wise Profession of the Common Law, towards the Church and Churchmen; taking all opportunities uncharitably to improve mistakes into crimes, and unreasonably to transfer and impute the follies and faults of particular men to the malignity of their order and function; and so, whet and sharpen the edge of the Law to wound the Church in its Jurisdiction, and at last to cut it up by the roots and demolish its foundation. It cannot be denied, that the peevish spirits of some clergymen have taken great pains to alienate that Profession from them; and others, as unskilfully-finding that in former times, when the religion of the State was a vital part of its policy, many Churchmen were employed eminently in the civil Government of the kingdom-imputed their wanting those ornaments their predecessors wore to the power and prevalency of the Lawyers, of whom some principal men, in all times, they could not but observe to have been their avowed enemies; and so, believed the straitening and confining the Profession of the Common Law must naturally extend and enlarge the Jurisdiction of the Church. Thence arose their bold and unwarrantable opposing and protesting against Prohibitions and other proceedings at Law, on the behalf of Ecclesiastical Courts; and the procuring some orders and privileges from the King, on the behalf of the Civil Law, even with an exclusion of the other as the Archbishop of Canterbury prevailed with the King, to direct 'That half the Masters of the Chancery should be always Civil Lawyers,' and to declare' That no others, of what condition soever, should serve him as Masters of Request :' all which was a great mistake. For, besides, the stopping Prohibitions was an envious breach upon the justice of the kingdom, which at some time or other will still be too hard for the strongest opposers and oppressors of it; I could never yet know, why the Doctors of the Civil Law were more of kin to the Bishops, or the Church, than the Common Lawyers were? To say, that their places were in the Bishops' disposal, as chancellors, commissaries, and the like; and therefore that their persons were more like to be at their disposal too; at least, to pay them greater reverence; concludes nothing for the Clergy had opportunity enough to oblige and create an equal dependence from the Pro

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footstool." For this purpose some of them found means to obtain help from afar. Application had been made, we are told, by "several of the leading members in both Houses of Parliament," to one, at least, of the voluntary exiles from that abounding tyranny which had made the cries of its victims mount to the very heavens, and invoke the compassion of the only" KING" who could "command deliverances," to "return to his native country." But the privations and security of an uncultivated foreign land were sweet and consoling to all who, with Cotton, could say from observation and experience, that the Ecclesiastical Courts at home, were "dens of lions," and "mountains of leopards." Those, he said, who have to do with them "have found them to be markets of the sins of the people; the cages of uncleanness; the forgers of extortion; the tabernacles of bribery; and, contrary to the end of Civil government." e On declining the solicitation to return when "the snare of the fowlers" was "broken," it was, perhaps, that he transmitted certain of his manuscripts adapted to existing exigences; among which, might be "The True Constitution of a Particular Visible Church, proved by Scripture: Wherein is briefly Demonstrated by Questions and Answers, What Officers, Worship, and Government, Christ hath Ordained in His Church. By that Reverend Learned Divine, Mr. John Cotton, B. D., and Pastor of Boston in New England.-Jer. 1. 5.-Lond. 1642." 4to. pp. 13. g

This work is without preface, or other introduction. Under the question, "How is the public worship of God to be ordered and administered in the Church ?" and after that, relating to Prayer; and, in one

fession of the Common Law; and I am persuaded the stewardships to Bishops and of the lands of the Church, which were to be managed by the rules of Common Law, were not much inferior in profit to all the Chancellorships in England. And then, if, where the policy may consist with justice, it is no ill measure in making friendships to look into and compare the power of doing hurt or doing good; it is apparent that the Civil Law in this kingdom had not, in the least degree, the ability to help or to hurt the Church in any exigency, as the Common Law had; whose professors had always by their interests, experience, and reputation, so great an influence upon the civil state, upon Court and Country, that they were notable friends or enemies. And the dependence of the Church as to their inheritance and estates-except their minute tithes-was entirely upon the Law; being only determinable by those rules by which they have seldom received eminent injustice. And truly, I have never yet spoken with one Clergyman who hath had the experience of both litigations, that hath not ingenuously confessed' He had rather in the respect of his trouble, charge, and satisfaction to his understanding, have three suits depending in Westminster Hall than one in the Arches', or any Ecclesiastical Court." History of the Rebellion. vol. i. pt. ii. bk. iv. p. 305.

a Psal. xcix. 5.

b Psal. xliv. 4.

e Mather's Hist. of New Eng. Bk. iii. p. 20—23, e Brook's Hist. Purit. vol. iii. p. 155.

d Sol. Song. iv. 8. f Psal. cxxiv. 7.

Reprinted under the title of "The Doctrine of the Church, to which are committed the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Wherein is demonstrated by way of Question and Answer, What a Visible Church is, according to the Order of the Gospel: And, What Officers, Members, Worship and Government, Christ hath ordained in the New Testament. By that Reverend and Learned Divine, Mr. John Cotton, B. D., and Teacher of the Church in Boston, in New England.-The second Edition. Printed according to a more exact Copy. The marginal Proofs, in the former Edition misplaced, being herein placed more directly; and many other faults both in the Line and Margent are here corrected: and some few Proofs and Words are added in the margent, for the better preventing or satisfying of some doubts in some Controversial Points. Lond. 1643. 4to. pp. 13.