zeal both for civil and religious liberty, whose lenity toward their ancestors the Puritans still

celebrate in the highest strains,* used his utmost endeavours to confirm the king in the principles of Calvinism, to which he himself of the Rebellion, that "Abbot was a man of very was thoroughly attached. But scarcely had morose manners, and of a very sour aspect, which at the British divines returned from the synod of that time was called gravity." If, in general, we strike a medium between what Clarendon and Neal Dordrecht, and given an account of the laws say of this prelate, we shall probably arrive at the that had been enacted, and the doctrines that true knowledge of his character. See the History had been established by that famous assembly, of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 88; and Neal's History of when the king, and the greatest part of the the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 243. It is certain, that nothing can be more unjust and partial than Claren- episcopal clergy, discovered, in the strongest don's account of this eminent prelate, particularly terms, their dislike of these proceedings, and when he says, that "he neither understood nor re-judged the sentiments of Arminius, relating to garded the constitution of the church." But it is too the divine decrees, preferable to those of Gomar and of Calvin. This sudden change in

or Arminians, to mitigate the king's displeasure and antipathy against that party. In this letter, the archbishop represents Grotius (with whom he certainly was not worthy to be named, either in point of learning, sagacity, or judgment) as a pedant, and mentions, with a high degree of complacency and approbation, the absurd and impertinent judgment of some civilians and divines, who called this immortal ornament of the republic of letters, a smatterer and a simple fellow. See Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. p. 459.

*See Wood's Athenæ Oxoniens, t. í. p. 583.Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 242. -Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. i.

† See Heylin's History of the Five Articles.Neal, vol. ii. ch. ii. p. 117. The latter author tells us, that the following verses were made in England, with a design to pour contempt on the synod, and to turn its proceedings into ridicule:

much the custom of this writer, and others of his stamp, to give the denomination of latitudinarian indifference to that charity, prudence, and moderation, by which alone the best interests of the church (though not the personal views of many of its ambitious members) can be established upon firm and permanent foundations. Abbot would have been reckoned a good churchman by some, if he had breathed that spirit of despotism and violence, which, being essentially incompatible with the spirit and character of a people, not only free, but jealous of their liberty, has often endangered the church, by exciting that resentment which always renders opposition excessive. Abbot was so far from being indifferent about the constitution of the church, or inclined to the presbyterian discipline, (as the noble author affirms,) that it was by his zeal and dexterity that the clergy of Scotland, who had refused to admit the bishops as moderators in their synods, were brought to a more tractable temper, and affairs put into such a situation as afterwards produced the entire establishment of the episcopal order in that nation. It is true, that Abbot's zeal in this affair was conducted "Dordrechti Synodus, nodus; chorus integer, æger; with great prudence and moderation; and it was by Conventus, ventus; sessio, stramen. Amen!"* these that his zeal was rendered successful. Nor With respect to James, those who are desirous of have these his transactions in Scotland, where he forming a just idea of the character, proceedings, went as chaplain to the lord-treasurer Dunbar, been and theological fickleness and inconstancy of that sufficiently attended to by historians: they even seem monarch, must peruse the writers of English history, to have been entirely unknown to some, who have more especially Larrey and Rapin. The majority of pretended to depreciate the conduct and principles these writers tell us, that, toward the close of his of this virtuous and excellent prelate. King James, life, James, after having deserted from the Calvinists who had been so zealous a presbyterian in appear- to the Arminians, began to discover a strong proance before his accession to the crown of England, pensity toward popery; and they affirm positively, had scarcely set his foot out of Scotland, when he that he entertained the most ardent desire of bring. conceived the design of restoring the ancient form ing about an union between the churches of Engof episcopal government in that kingdom; and it was land and Rome. In this, however, these writers Abbot's conduct there that brought him to that high seem to have gone too far; for, though many of the favour with the king, which, in a short time, raised proceedings of this injudicious prince justly deserve him from the deanery of Winchester to the see of the sharpest censure, yet it is both rash and unjust Canterbury. For it was by Abbot's mild and pru- to accuse him of a design to introduce popery into dent counsels, that Dunbar procured that famous act England. It is not to be believed, that a prince, who of the general assembly for Scotland, by which it aspired to arbitrary power and uncontrolled domiwas provided, "that the king should have the call-nion, could ever have entertained a thought of subing of all general assemblies, that the bishops (or initting to the yoke of the Roman pontiff. The their deputies) should be perpetual moderators of the truth of the matter seems to be this, that, toward diocesan synods, that no excommunication should the end of his reign, James began to have less averbe pronounced without their approbation, that all sion to the doctrines and rites of the Romish church, presentations of benefices should be made by them, and permitted certain religious observances, that that the deprivation or suspension of ministers should were conformable to the spirit of that church, to be belong to them, that the visitation of the diocese used in England. This conduct was founded upon a should be performed by the bishop or his deputy only, manner of reasoning, which he had learned from and that the bishop should be moderator of all conseveral bishops of his time, that the primitive church ventions for exercisings or prophesyings (i. e. preach- is the model which all Christian churches ought to iming) within their bounds." See Calderwood's Trueitate in doctrine and worship: that, in proportion as History of the Church of Scotland, p. 588, 589. Hey, lin's History of the Presbyterians, p. 381, 382; and above all, Speed's History of Great Britain, book x. The writers who seem the least disposed to speak It would be a difficult, and indeed an impracfavourably of this wise and good prelate, bear testi- ticable task, to justify all the proceedings of this mony, nevertheless, to his eminent piety, his exem- || synod; and it is much to be wished, that they had plary conversation, and his inflexible probity and been more conformable to the spirit of Christian integrity; and it may be said with truth, that, if his charity, than the representations of history, imparmoderate measures had been pursued, the liberties tially weighed, show them to have been. We are of England would have been secured, popery dis- not, however, to conclude, from the insipid monkish countenanced, and the church prevented from run- lines here quoted by Dr. Mosheim, that the transacning into those excesses which afterwards proved so tions and decisions of that synod were universally injurious to it. If Abbot's candour failed him on condemned or despised in England. It had its partiany occasion, it was in the representations, which sans in the established church, as well as among the his rigid attachment, not to the discipline, but to the Puritans: and its decisions, in point of doctrine, were doctrinal tenets of Calvinism, led him to give of the looked upon by many, and not without reason, as Arminian doctors. There is a remarkable instance agreeable to the tenor of the book of articles estaof this in a letter of his to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated blished by law in the church of England. at Lambeth, the first of June, 1613, and occasioned by the arrival of Grotius in England, who had been expressly sent from Holland, by the Remonstrants,

any church approaches to this original standard of truth and purity, it must become proportionably

†This remark is confuted by fact, observation, and the perpetual contradictions that are observable in the conduct of men: besides, see the note *

1

XX. His son and successor Charles, who had imbibed his political and religious principles, had nothing so much at heart as to bring to perfection what his father had left unfinished. All the exertions of his zeal, and the whole tenor of his administration, were directed toward the three following objects: "The extending the royal prerogative, and raising the power of the crown above the authority of the law-the reduction of all the churches in Great Britain and Ireland under the jurisdiction of bishops, whose government he looked upon as of divine institution, and also as the most adapted to guard the privileges and majesty of the throne

the theological opinions of the court and cler- || terms. He left the constitution of England, gy, was certainly owing to a variety of rea- both ecclesiastical and civil, in a very unsetsons, as will appear evident to those who have tled and fluctuating state, languishing under any acquaintance with the spirit and transac-intestine disorders of various kinds. tions of these times. The principal one, if we are not deceived, must be sought in the plans of a farther reformation of the church of England, which were proposed by several eminent ecclesiastics, whose intention was to bring it to as near a resemblance as was possible of the primitive church; and every one knows, that the peculiar doctrines to which the victory was assigned by the synod were absolutely unknown in the first ages of the Christian church.* Be that as it may, this change was very injurious to the Puritans; for, the king being indisposed to the opinions and institutions of Calvinism, those sectaries were left without defence, and exposed anew to the animosity and hatred of their adversaries, which had been, for some time, suspended, but now broke out with redoubled vehemence, and at length kindled a religious war, whose consequences were deplorable beyond expression. In 1625 this prince died, of whom it may be observed, that he was the bitterest enemy of the doctrine and discipline of the Puritans, to which he had been in his youth most warmly attached; the most inflexible and ardent patron of the Arminians, in whose ruin and condem-qualities and great defects. The voice of jusnation in Holland he had been highly instrumental; and the most zealous defender of episcopal government, against which he had more than once expressed himself in the strongest pure and perfect; and that the Romish church retained more of the spirit and manner of the primitive church than the Puritan or Calvinist churches.Of these three propositions, the two first are undoubtedly true, and the last is evidently and demonstrably false. Besides, this makes nothing to the argument: for, as James had a manifest aver sion to the Puritans, it could, in his eyes, be no very great recommendation of the Romish church, that it surpassed that of the Puritans in doctrine and discipline.

and, lastly, the suppression of the opinions and institutions that were peculiar to Calvinism, and the modelling of the doctrine, discipline, ceremonies, and polity of the church of England, after the spirit and constitution of the primitive church." The person whom the king chiefly intrusted with the execution of this arduous plan, was William Laud, bishop of London, who was raised, in 1633, to the see of Canterbury, and exhibited in these high stations a mixed character, composed of great

tice must celebrate his fortitude, his erudition, his zeal for the sciences, and his munificence and liberality to men of letters; and, at the same time, even charity must acknowledge, with regret, his inexcusable imprudence, his excessive superstition, his rigid attachment to the sentiments, rites, and institutions of the ancient church, which made him behold the Puritans and Calvinists with horror,* and that violent spirit of animosity and persecution which discovered itself in the whole course of his ecclesiastical administration. This haughty prelate executed the plans of his royal master, *Dr. Mosheim has annexed the following note to and fulfilled the views of his own ambition, this passage: "Perhaps the king entered into these without using those mild and moderate meecclesiastical proceedings with the more readiness, when he reflected on the civil commotions and tu thods, which prudence employs in the prosecumults that an attachment to the presbyterian reli- tion of unpopular schemes. He carried things gion had occasioned in Scotland. There are also with a high hand: when he found the laws opsome circumstances that intimate plainly enough, that James, before his accession to the crown of posing his views, he treated them with conEngland, was very far from having an aversion to tempt, and violated them without hesitation; popery." Whoever, indeed, looks into the Histori-he loaded the Puritans with injuries and vexacal View of the Negotiations between the Courts of England, France, and Brussels, from the year 1592 to 1617, extracted from the manuscript State Papers of Sir Thomas Edmondes and Anthony Bacon, Esq., and published in 1749 by the learned and judicious Dr. Birch, will be persuaded, that, about the year 1595, this fickle and unsteady prince had really formed an intention of embracing the faith of Rome. See, in the curious collection now mentioned, the postscript of a letter from Sir Thomas Edmondes to the lord high treasurer, dated the 20th of December, 1595. We learn also, from the Memoirs of Sir Ralph Winwood, that, in 1596, James sent Mr. Ogilvie, a "Sincere he undoubtedly was, (says Mr. Hume,) Scottish baron, into Spain, to assure his catholic ma- and, however misguided, actuated by religious prinjesty, that he was then ready and resolved to em-ciples in all his pursuits; and it is to be regretted, brace popery, and to propose an alliance with that that a man of such spirit, who conducted his enterking and the pope against the queen of England. prises with such warinth and industry, had not enSee State Tracts, vol. i. p. 1. See also an extract of tertained more enlarged views, and embraced prina letter from Tobie Matthew, D. D. dean of Durham, ciples more favourable to the general happiness of to the lord-treasurer Burghley, containing an infor- human society." mation of Scotch affairs, in Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 201. Above all, see Harris' Hist. and Critical Acp. 262. count of the Life and Writings of James I., p. 29, note (N.) This last writer may be added to Larrey and Rapin, who have exposed the pliability and inconsistency of this self-sufficient monarch.

VOL. II.-34

tions, and aimed at nothing less than their total extinction; he publicly rejected, in 1625, the Calvinistical doctrine of predestination, and, notwithstanding the opposition and remonstrances of Abbot, substituted the Arminian system in its place;‡ he revived many religious

* See Wood's Athenæ Oxon. t. ii. p. 55.-Heylin's Cyprianus Angelicus, or Hist. of Life and Death of Wm. Laud.-Clarendon's His. vol. i.

See Mich. le Vassor, Hist. de Louis XIII. tom. v.

This expression may lead the uninformed reader into a mistake, and make him imagine that Laud had caused the Calvinistical doctrine of the xxxix Articles to be abrogated, and the tenets of

ceremonies, which though stamped with the sanction of antiquity, were nevertheless marked with the turpitude of superstition, and had been on that account justly abrogated; he forced Arminius to be substituted in their place. It may

therefore be proper to set this matter in a clearer

light. In 1625, Laud wrote a small treatise to prove the orthodoxy of the Arminian doctrines; and, by his credit with the duke of Buckingham, had Arminian and anti-puritanical chaplains placed about the king. This step increased the debates between the Calvinistical and Arminian doctors, and produced the warmest animosities and dissensions. To calm these, the king issued out a proclamation, dated the 14th of January, 1626, the literal tenor of which was, in truth, more favourable to the Calvinists than to the Arminians, though, by the manner in which it was interpreted and executed by Laud, it was turned to the advantage of the latter. In this proclamation it was said expressly, "that his majesty would admit no innovations in the doctrine, discipline, or government of the church;" (N. B. The doctrine of the church, previously to this, was Calvinistical,) and therefore charges all his subjects, and especially the elergy, not to publish or maintain, in preaching or writing, any new inventions or opinions, contrary to the said doctrine and discipline established by law, &c." It was certainly a very singular instance of Laud's indecent partiality, that this proclamation was employed to suppress the books that were expressly written in the defence of the xxxix Articles, while the writings of the Arminians, who certainly opposed these articles, were publicly licensed. I do not here enter into the merits of the cause; I only speak of the tenor of the proclamation, and the manner of its execution.

bishops upon the Scots, who were zealously attached to the discipline and ecclesiastical polity of Geneva, and had shown, on all occasions, the greatest reluctance against an episcopal government; and, lastly, he gave many, and very plain intimations, that he looked upon the Romish church, with all its errors, as more pure, more holy, and preferable upon the whole to those Protestant churches which were not subject to the jurisdiction of bishops. By these his unpopular sentiments and violent measures, Laud drew an odium on the king, on himself, and on the episcopal order in general. Hence, in 1644, he was brought before the public tribunals of justice, declared guilty of high treason, and condemned to lose his head on a scaffold; which sentence was accordingly executed.

After the death of Laud, the dissentions that had reigned for a long time between the king and parliament, grew still more violent, and rose at length to so great a height, that they could not be extinguished but by the blood of that excellent prince. The great council of the nation, heated by the violent suggestions of the Puritans and Independents,* abolished episcopal government; condemned and abrogated every thing in the ecclesiastical establishment that was contrary to the doctrine, worship, and discipline of the church of Geneva; turned the vehemence of their opposition against the king himself, and, having brought him into their power by the fate of arms, accused him of trea son against the majesty of the nation; and, in 1649, while the eyes of Europe were fixed with astonishment on this strange spectacle, ordered him to be decapitated on a public scaffold. Such are the calamities that flow from religious zeal without knowledge, from that en

acknowledge, that, without enlarging the sense of the articles, the Arminians could not subscribe them consistently with their opinions, or without violat ing the demands of common candour and sincerity. See Burnet's remarks on the examination of his exposition, &c. p. 3..

This manner of proceeding showed how difficult and arduous a thing it is to change systems of doctrine established by law, since neither Charles, who was by no means diffident of his authority, nor Land, who was far from being timorous in the use and abuse of it, attempted to reform articles of faith, that stood in direct opposition to the Arminian doc: trines, which they were now promoting by the warmest encouragements, and which were daily gaining ground under their protection. Instead of reforming the xxxix Articles, which step would have met with great opposition from the house of commons, and from a considerable part of the clergy and laity, who were still warmly attached to Calvinism, Laud advised the king to have these articles reprinted, with an ambiguous declaration prefixed to them, which might tend to silence or discourage the reigning controversies between the Calvinists and Arminians, and thus secure to the latter an unmolested state, in which they would daily find their power growing This renders it probable, that the declaration now under the countenance and protection of the court. mentioned (in which we see no royal signature, no This declaration, which, in most editions of the Com- attestation of any officer of the crown, no date, in mon Prayer, is still to be found at the head of the short, no mark to show where, when, or by what auarticles, is a most curious piece of political theology; thority it was issued out) was not composed in the and, if it had not borne hard upon the right of pri- reign of king Charles. Burnet, indeed, was of opinvate judgment, and been evidently designed to fa- ion, that it was composed in that reign to support vour one party, though it carried the aspect of a per- the Arminians, who, when they were charged with fect neutrality, it might have been looked upon as a departing from the true sense of the articles, anwise and provident measure to secure the tranquil-swered, "that they took the articles in their litelity of the church; for, in the tenor of this declara- ral and grammatical sense, and therefore did not tion, precision was sacrificed to prudence and ambi-prevaricate." But this reasoning does not appear guity; and even contradictions were preferred to consistent, clear, and positive decisions, that might have fomented dissensions and discord. The declaration seemed to favour the Calvinists, since it prohibited the affixing any new sense to any article: it also in effect favoured the Arminians, as it ordered all curious search about the contested points to be laid aside, and these disputes to be shut up in God's promises, as they are set forth to us in the holy scriptures, and in the general meaning of the articles of the church of England according to them. But what was singularly preposterous in this declaration was, its being designed to favour the Arminians, and yet prohibiting expressly any person, either in sermons or writings, from giving his own sense or comment as the meaning of the article, and ordering every one, on the contrary, to take each article in its literal and grammatical sense, and to submit to it in the full and plain meaning thereof; for certainly, if the 17th article has a plain, literal, and grammatical meaning, it is a meaning unfavourable to Arminianism; and bishop Burnet was obliged afterwards to

conclusive to the acute and learned author of the Confessional. He thinks it more probable that the declaration was composed, and first published, in the latter part of king James' reign; for though, says he, there be no evidence that James ever turned Arminian in principle, yet this was the party that adhered to him in his measures, and which it became necessary for him on that account to humour, and to render respectable in the eyes of the people by every expedient that might not bring any reflection on his own consistency. "And whoever (continues this author) considers the quibbling and equivocal terms in which this instrument is drawn, will, I am persuaded, observe the distress of a man divided between his principles and his interests, that is, of a man exactly in the situation of king James I. in the three last years of his reign." It is likely then, that this declaration was only republished at the head of the articles, which were reprinted by the order of Charles I.

The origin of this sect has been already mentioned.

thusiasm and bigotry which inspire a blind and || immoderate attachment to the external unessential parts of religion, and to certain doctrines ill-understood! These broils and tumults tended also unhappily to confirm the truth of an observation often made, that all religious sects, while they are kept under and oppressed, are remarkable for inculcating the duties of moderation, forbearance, and charity toward those who dissent from them; but, as soon as the scenes of persecution are removed, and they in their turn arrive at power and preeminence, they forget their own precepts and maxims, and leave both the recommendation and practice of charity to those who groan under their yoke. Such, in reality, was the behaviour of the Puritans during their transitory exaltation; they showed as little clemency and equity to the bishops and other patrons of episcopacy, as they had received from them when the reins of government were in their hands.* XXI. The Independents, who have been just mentioned among the promoters of civil discord in England, are generally represented by the British writers in a much worse light than the Presbyterians or Calvinists. They are commonly accused of various enormities, and they are even charged with the crime of parricide, as having borne a principal part in the death of the king. But whoever will be at the pains of examining, with impartiality and attention, the writings of that sect, and their confession of faith, must soon perceive, that many crimes have been imputed to them without foundation, and will probably be induced to think, that the bold attempts of the civil Independents (i. e. of those warm republicans who were the declared enemies of monarchy, and wished to extend the liberty of the people beyond all bounds of wisdom and prudence,) have been unjustly laid to the charge of those Independents whose principles were merely of a religious kind. The religious In

* Beside Clarendon and the other writers of English history already mentioned, see Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. and iii.

dependents derived their denomination from the following principle, which they held in common with the Brownists;-that every Christian congregation ought to be governed by its pear, almost every where, under the most unfavourfollowed as the surest guides, the Independents ap able aspect. It must indeed be candidly acknowledged, that, as every class and order of men consist the independent sect has been likewise dishonoured of persons of very different characters and qualities, by several turbulent, factious, profligate, and flagitious members. But if it be a constant maxim with the wise and prudent, not to judge of the spirit and of a handful of its members, but from the manners, principles of a sect from the actions or expressions customs, opinions, and behaviour of the generality of those who compose it, from the writings and dis avowed forms of doctrine, and confessions of faith, courses of its learned men, and from its public and I make no doubt that, by this rule of estimating matters, the Independents will appear to have been unjustly loaded with so many accusations and reproaches.

We shall take no notice of the invidious and severe animadversions that have been made upon this religious community by Clarendon, Echard, Parker, and so many other writers. To set this whole mat ter in the clearest and most impartial light, we shall confine ourselves to the account of the Independents given by a writer, justly celebrated by the English themselves, and who, though a foreigner, is gene of the British nation, its history, parties, sects, and rally supposed to have had an accurate knowledge revolutions. This writer is Rapin de Thoyras, who, (in the twenty-first book of his History of England) represents the Independents under such horrid codeserve to enjoy the light of the sun, or to breathe lours, that, were his portrait just, they would not the free air of Britain, much less to be treated with indulgence and esteem by those who have the cause of virtue at heart. Let us now examine the account which this illustrious historian gives of this sect. He declares, in the first place, that, notwithstanding all the pains he had taken to trace out the true origin of it, his inquiries had been entirely fruitless; searches, I have not been able to discover, precisely, his words may be thus translated: "After all my rethe origin of the Independent sect, or faction." It is very surprising to hear a man of learning, who had employed seventeen years in composing the History of England, and had admittance to so many rich and famous libraries, express his ignorance of a matter, about which it was so easy to acquire ample information. Had he only looked into the work of the learned Hornbeck, entituled, Summa Controversiarum, lib. x. p. 775, he would have found, in a moment, what he had been so long and so laboriously seeking in vain. Rapin proceeds to the doctrines and opinions of the Independents, and begins this part of his work by a general declaration of their tendency to throw the nation into disorder and combustion. He says, "It is at least certain, that their principles were* very proper to put the kingdom

†This sect is of recent date, and still subsists in England; there is, nevertheless, not one, either of the ancient or modern sects of Christians, that is less known, or has been more loaded with groundless aspersions and reproaches. The most eminent English writers, not only among the patrons of episcopacy, but even among those very presbyterians with whom those sectaries are now united, have Dr. Mosheim's defence of the Independents thrown out against them the bitterest accusa- is certainly specious; but he has not sufficiently distions and severest invectives that the warmest in- tinguished the times; and he has, perhaps, in defend dignation could invent. They have not only been ing them, strained too far that equitable principle, represented as delirious, mad, fanatical, illiterate, that we must not impute to a sect any principles factious, and ignorant both of natural and revealed that are not contained in, or deducible from, their religion, but also as abandoned to all kinds of wick-religious system. This maxim does not entirely anedness and sedition, and as the only authors of the odious parricide committed on the person of Charles I. And as the writers who have given these representations, are considered by foreigners as the best and most authentic narrators of the transactions that passed in their own country, and are therefore * Durell, (whom, nevertheless, Louis de Moulin,|| the most zealous defender of the Independents, commends on account of his ingenuity and candour,) in his Historia Rituum Sanctæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, c. i. p. 4, expresses himself thus: "Fateor, si atrocis illius tragœdiæ tot actus fuerint, quot ludicrarum esse solent, postremum fere Independentium fuisse;adeo ut non acute magis, quam vere, dixerit L'Estrangius noster, Regem primo a Presbyterianis interemtum, Carolum deinde ab Independentibus interfectum.

swer here the purpose to which it is applied. The religious system of a sect may be in itself pacific and innocent, while incidental circumstances, or certain associations of ideas, may render that sect more turbulent and restless than others, or at least involve it in political factions and broils. Such perhaps was the case of the Independents at certain periods, and more especially at the period now under consideration. When we consider their religious form of government, we shall see evidently, that a principle of analogy (which influences the senti ments and imaginations of men much more than is generally supposed,) must naturally have led the greatest part of them to republican notions of civil government; and it is farther to be observed, that, from a republican government, they must have expected much more protection and favour, than from a kingly one. When these two points are consider

own laws, without depending on the jurisdic-||rity of synods, presbyteries, or any ecclesiastition of bishops, or being subject to the autho- cal assembly composed of the deputies from

in a flame; and this they did effectually." What nionem profitemur, et, quantum in nobis est, colitruth may be in this assertion, will be seen by what mus." It clearly appears from this declaration, that, follows. Their sentiments concerning government instead of differing totally from all other Christian were, if we are to believe this writer, of the most societies, it may rather be said of the Independents, pernicious kind, since, according to him, they want- that they perfectly agreed with the far greater part ed to overturn the monarchy, and to establish a de- of the reformed churches. To show, as he imagines, mocracy in its place: his words are, "With regard by a striking example, the absurdity of their relito the state, they abhorred monarchy, and approved gion and worship, our eminent historian tells us, only a republican government." I will not pretend that they not only reject all kind of ecclesiastical to deny, that there were among the Independents government, but, moreover, allow all their members several persons who were unfriendly to a kingly go- promiscuously, and without exception, to perform in vernment; persons of this kind were to be found public the pastoral functions, i. e. to preach, pray, among the Presbyterians, Anabaptists, and all the and expound the Scriptures; his words are, "They other religious sects and communities that flourishwere not only averse to episcopacy and the ecclesied in England during this tumultuous period; but I astical hierarchy," (this charge is true, but it may want to see it proved, in an evident and satisfactory equally be brought against the Presbyterians, Brownmanner, that these republican principles were em-ists, Anabaptists, and all the various sects of Nonbraced by all the Independents, and formed one of conformists,) "but they would not so much as the distinguishing characteristics of that sect. There endure ordinary ministers in the church. They is, at least, no such thing to be found in their public maintained, that every man might pray in public, writings. They declared, on the contrary, in a pub-exhort his brethren, and interpret the Scriptures, aclic memorial drawn up by them in 1647, that, as ma- cording to the talents with which God had endowed gistracy in general is the ordinance of God, "they him. So with them every one preached, prayed, addo not disapprove any form of civil government, but monished, interpreted the Scriptures, without any do freely acknowledge, that a kingly government, other call than what he himself drew from his zeal bounden by just and wholesome laws, is both allow- and supposed gifts, and without any other authority ed by God, and also a good accommodation unto than the approbation of his auditors." This whole men." I omit the mention of several other circum- charge is evidently false and groundless. The Indestances which unite to prove that the Independents pendents have, and always have had, fixed and regu were far from looking with abhorrence on a monar- lar ministers, approved by their people; nor do they chical government. allow to teach in public every person who thinks himself qualified for that important office. The cele brated historian has here confounded the Independents with the Brownists, who, as is well known, permitted all to pray and preach in public without distinction. We shall not enlarge upon the other mistakes into which he has fallen on this subject; but only observe, that if so eminent a writer, and one so well acquainted with the English nation, has pronounced such an unjust sentence against this sect, we may the more easily excuse an inferior set of authors, who have loaded them with groundless accusations.

Their sentiments of religion, according to Rapin, were highly absurd, since he represents their principles as entirely opposite to those of all other religious communities: "As to religion, (says he,) their principles were contrary to those of all the rest of the world." With respect to this accusation, it may be proper to observe, that there are extant two Confessions of Faith, one of the English Independents in Holland, and another drawn up by the principal members of that community in England. The former was composed by John Robinson, the founder of the sect, and was published at Leyden in 1619, under the following title: "Apologia pro Exulibus An- It will, however, be alleged, that, whatever may glis, qui Browniste vulgo appellantur:" the latter have been the religious sentiments and discipline of appeared at London, for the first time, in 1658, and the Independents, innumerable testimonies concur was thus entitled: "A declaration of the Faith and in proving, that they were chargeable with the death Order owned and practised in the Congregational of Charles I., and many will consider this single circhurches in England, agreed upon, and consented cumstance as a sufficient demonstration of the imunto by their elders and messengers, in their meeting piety and depravity of the whole sect. I am well at the Savoy, October 12, 1658." Hornbeck gave, in aware, indeed, that many of the most eminent and 1659, a Latin translation of this Declaration, and respectable English writers have given the Indepensubjoined it to his Epistolæ ad Duræum de Independents the denomination of Regicides; and if, by the dentismo. It appears evidently from these two pub- term Independents, they mean those licentious relic and authentic pieces, not to mention other wri-publicans, whose dislike of a monarchical form of tings of the Independents, that they differed from government carried them to the most pernicious and the presbyterians or calvinists in no single point of extravagant lengths, I grant that this denomination is any consequence, except that of ecclesiastical go- well applied. But if, by this term, we are to undervernment. To put this matter beyond all doubt, we stand a religious sect, the ancestors of those who have only to attend to the following_passage in Ro- still bear the same title in England, it appears very binson's Apology for the English Exiles, p. 7, 11, questionable to me, whether the unhappy fate of the where that founder of the Independent sect expresses worthy prince above mentioned ought to be imputed his own private sentiments, and those of his com- entirely to that set of men. They who affirm that munity, in the plainest manner: "Profitemur coram the Independents were the only authors of the death Deo et hominibus, adeo nobis convenire cum eccle- of king Charles, must mean one of these two things, siis reformatis Belgicis in re religionis, ut omnibus either that the regicides were animated and set on et singulis earundem ecclesiarum fidei articulis, prout by the seditious doctrines of that sect, and the viohabentur in harmonia confessionum fidei, parati si- lent suggestions of its members; or that all who mus subscribere.-Ecclesias reformatas pro veris et were concerned in this atrocious deed were themgenuinis habemus, cum iisdem in sacris Dei commu- selves Independents, zealously attached to the religious community now under consideration. Now it ed, together with their situation under the reign of may be proved, with the clearest evidence, that neiCharles I. when the government was unhinged, ther was the case. There is nothing in the doctrines when affairs were in great confusion, when the of this sect, so far as they are known to me, that minds of men were suspended upon the issue of the seems in the least adapted to excite men to such a national troubles, and when the eager spirit of par-horrid deed; nor does it appear from the history of ty, nourished by hope, made each faction expect that those times, that the Independents were a whit more the chaos would end in some settled system, favour- exasperated against Charles, than were the Presbyable to their respective views, sentiments, and pas- terians. And as to the latter supposition, it is far sions; we may be induced to think, that the Inde- from being true, that all those who were concerned pendents, at that time, were much more tumultuous in bringing this unfortunate prince to the scaffold and republican than the sect which bears that deno- were Independents, since we learn from the best mination in our times. The reader who would form English writers, and from the public declarations of just ideas of the matter of fact, must examine the Charles II, that this violent faction was composed relations given by the writers of both parties. See of persons of different sects. That there were Indeparticularly the histories of Clarendon, Neal, Burnet,pendents among them may be easily conceived. Afand Hume.

ter all, this matter will be best unravelled by the