CHAP. IX.

FROM THE KING'S DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE TO THE POPISH PLOT IN THE YEAR 1678.

1672.

THE French king having prevailed with the English court to break the triple alliance, and make war with the Dutch, published a declaration at Paris, signifying that he could not, without diminution of his glory, any longer dissemble. the indignation raised in him, by the unhandsome carriage of the states-general of the United Provinces, and therefore proclaimed war against them both by sea and land. In the beginning of May, he drew together an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, with which he took the principal places in Flanders, and with a rapid fury overran the greatest part of the Netherlands. In the beginning of July he took possession of Utrecht, a city in the heart of the United Provinces, where he held his court, and threatened to besiege Amsterdam itself. In this extremity the Dutch opened their sluices, and laid a great part of their country under water; the populace rose, and having obliged the states to elect the young prince of Orange stadtholder, they fell upon the two brothers Cornelius and John de Wit, their late pensionary, and tore them to pieces in a barbarous manner. The young prince, who was then but twenty-two years old, used all imaginable vigilance and activity to save the remainder of his country; and like a true patriot declared, he would die in the last dike, rather than become tributary to any foreign power. At length their allies came to their assistance, when the young prince, like another Scipio, abandoning his own country, besieged and took the important town of Bonne, which opened a passage for the Germans into

were also for the ordination of elders, singing of psalms and hymns in public worship; laying on of hands on the newly baptized, and anointing the sick with oil, and did not limit their commuuion to an agreement with them in their sentiments on baptism. He bore his last illness with great patience, and under the acutest pains would bless God, and say, "he would not entertain one hard thought of God for all the world," and could scarcely be restrained from acts of devotion, and from expressing his sentiments of zeal and piety.-Dr. Grey, after Wood, has vilified Mr. Powell by retailing the falsehoods of a piece entitled, Strena Vavasoriensis. Crosby's History, vol. 1. p. 373, &c. Life and Death of Vavasor Powell.-ED.

Flanders, and struck such a surprise into the French, whose enemies were now behind them, that they abandoned all their conquests in Holland, except Maestricht and Grave, with as much precipitance as they had made them.

These rapid conquests of the French opened people's mouths against the court, and raised such discontents in England, that his majesty was obliged to issue out his proclamation, to suppress all unlawful and undutiful conversation, threatening a severe prosecution of such who should spread false news, or intermeddle with affairs of state, or promote scandal against his majesty's counsellors, by their common discourse in coffee-houses, or places of public resort. He was obliged also to continue the exchequer shut up, contrary to his royal promise, and to prorogue his par liament till next year, which he foresaw would be in a flame at their meeting.

During this interval of parliament, the declaration of indulgence continued in force, and the dissenters had rest; when the Presbyterians and Independents, to shew their agreement among themselves, as well as to support the doctrines of the Reformation against the prevailing errors of Popery, Socinianism, and infidelity, set up a weekly lecture at Pinners'-hall, in Broad-street, on Tuesday mornings, under the encouragement of the principal merchants and tradesmen of their persuasion in the city. Four Presbyterians were joined by two Independents to preach by turns, and, to give it the greater reputation, the principal ministers for learning and popularity were chosen as lecturers; as Dr. Bates, Dr. Manton, Dr. Owen, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Collins, Jenkins, Mead, and afterward Mr. Alsop, Howe, Cole, and others; and though there were some little misunderstandings at their first setting out, about some high points of Calvinism, occasioned by one of Mr. Baxter's first sermons, yet the lecture continued in this form till the year 1695, when it split upon the same rock, occasioned by the reprinting Dr. Crisp's works. The four Presbyterians removed to Salters'hall, and set up a lecture on the same day and hour. The two Independents remained at Pinners'-hall, and when there was no prospect of an accommodation, each party filled up their numbers out of their respective denominations, and they are both subsisting to this day.

Among the Puritan divines who died this year, bishop

Wilkins deserves the first place; he was born at Fawsley in Northamptonshire, in the house of his mother's father, Mr. J. Dod the decalogist, in the year 1614, and educated in Magdalen-hall under Mr. Tombes.* He was some time warden of Wadham-college, Oxford, and afterward master of Trinity college, Cambridge, of which he was deprived at the Restoration, though he conformed. He married a sister of the protector's Oliver Cromwell, and complied with all the changes of the late times, being, as Wood observes, always puritanically affected: but for his admirable abilities, and extraordinary genius, he had scarce his equal. He was made bishop of Chester 1668; and surely, says Mr. Echard, the court could not have found out a man of greater ingenuity and capacity, or of more universal knowledge and understanding in all parts of polite learning. Archbishop Tillotson, and bishop Burnet, who were his intimates, give him the highest encomium; as, that he was a pious Christian, an admirable preacher, a rare mathematician, and mechanical philosopher; and a man of as great a mind, as true judgment, as eminent virtues, and of as great a soul, as any they ever knew. He was a person of universal charity, and moderation of spirit; and was concerned in all attempts for a comprehension with the dissenters. He died of the stone in Dr. Tillotson's house in Chancery-lane, November 19, 1672, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.

Mr. Joseph Caryl, M. A. the ejected minister of St. Magnus, London-bridge, was born of genteel parents in London, 1602, educated in Exeter-college, and afterward preacher of Lincoln's-inn; he was a member of the assembly of divines, and afterward one of the triers for approbation of ministers; in all which stations he appeared a man of great learning, piety, and modesty. He was sent by the parliament to attend the king at Holmby-house, and was one of their commissioners in the treaty of the Isle of Wight. After his ejectment in 1662, he lived privately in London, and preached to his congregation as the times would permit; he was a moderate Independent, and distinguished himself by his learned exposition upon the book of Job.t He died uni

* Athen. Oxon. p. 505.

+ This work was printed in two volumes folio, consisting of upwards of six hundred sheets: and there was also an edition in twelve volumes 4to. "One just remark (says Mr. Granger) has been made on its utility, that it is a very sufficient exercise for the virtue of patience, which it was chiefly intended to inculcate and improve." Granger's History of England, vol. 3. p. 313. 8vo. note.-ED.

versally lamented by all his acquaintance February 7, 1672-3, and in the seventy-first year of his age.*

Mr. Philip Nye, M. A. was a divine of a warmer spirit: he was born of a genteel family 1596, and was educated in Magdalen-college,† Oxford, where he took the degrees. In 1630 he was curate of St. Michael's Cornhill, and three years after fled from bishop Laud's persecution into Holland, but returned about the beginning of the long-parliament, and became minister of Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire. He was one of the dissenting brethren in the assembly, one of the triers in the protector's time, and a principal manager of the meeting of the Congregational messengers at the Savoy. He was a great politician, insomuch that it was debated in council, after the Restoration, whether he should not be excepted for life; and it was concluded, that if he should accept or exercise any office ecclesiastical or civil, he should, to all intents and purposes in law, stand as if he had been totally excepted. He was ejected from St. Bartholomew behind the Exchange, and preached privately, as opportunity offered, to a congregation of dissenters till the present year, when he died in the month of September, about seventy-six years old, and lies buried in the church of St. Michael's Cornhill, leaving behind him the character of a man of uncommon depth, and of one who was seldom if ever outreached.‡

When the king met his parliament February 4, 1673, after a recess of a year and nine months, he acquainted them with the reasonableness and necessity of the war with the Dutch, and having asked a supply, told them," he had found the good effect of his indulgence to dissenters, but that it was a mistake in those who said, more liberty was given to Papists than others, because they had only freedom in their own houses, and no public assemblies; he should therefore take it ill to receive contradiction in what he had done; and to deal plainly with you (said his majesty), I am resolved to stick to my declaration." Lord-chancellor Shaftesbury seconded the king's speech, and having vindicated the indulgence, magnified the king's zeal for the church of England

* Calamy, vol. 2. p. 7. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. 1. p. 121.

+ Mr. Nye was entered a commoner of Brazen-nose, July 1615, aged about nineteen years; but making no long stay there, he removed to Magdalen-hall, not MagdaWood's Athen. Oxon. vol. 2. p. 368.-ED. Palmer, vol. 1. p. 86.

len-college. Dr. Grey; and Calamy, vol. 2. p. 29.

and the Protestant religion. But the house of commons declared against the dispensing power, and argued that though the king had a power to pardon offenders, he had not a right to authorize men to break the laws, for this would infer a power to alter the government; and if the king could secure offenders by indemnifying them beforehand, it was in vain to make any laws at all, because, according to this maxim, they had no force but at the king's discretion. But it was objected on the other side, that a difference was to be made between penal laws in spiritual matters and others; that the king's supremacy gave him a peculiar authority over these, as was evident by his tolerating the Jews, and the churches of foreign Protestants.— To which it was replied, that the intent of the law in asserting the supremacy was only to exclude all foreign jurisdiction, and to lodge the whole authority with the king; but that was still bounded and regulated by law; the Jews were still at mercy, and only connived at, but the foreign churches were excepted by a particular clause in the act of uniformity; and therefore, upon the whole, they came to this resolution February 10, "That penal statutes in matters ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by act of parliament; that no such power had ever been claimed by any of his majesty's predecessors, and therefore his majesty's indulgence was contrary to law, and tended to subvert the legislative power, which had always been acknowledged to reside in the king and his two houses of parliament." Pursuant to this resolution, they addressed the king February 19, to recall his declaration. The king answered, that he was sorry they should question his power in ecclesiastics, which had not been done in the reigns of his ancestors; that he did not pretend to suspend laws, wherein the properties, rights, or liberties, of his subjects were concerned, nor to alter any thing in the established religion, but only to take off the penalties inflicted on dissenters, which he believed they themselves would not wish executed according to the rigour of the law.* The commons, perceiving his majesty was not inclined to desist from his declaration, stopped the money-bill,+ and *Echard, p. 889. Burnet, vol. 2. p. 72, 73.

The remarks of Mr. Gough here are just and weighty; "The conduct of the commons in this case hath procured the general voice of our historians in their favour; and it must be acknowledged that they acted consistently with their duty in opposing the infringement of the constitution.-Yet as the king's apparent inclination