after conviction upon a fair trial, were executed. The rest of the natives, who were called Tories, were shut up in the most inland counties, and their lands given partly in payment to the soldiers who settled there, and the rest to the first adventurers. Lord Clarendon relates it thus "Near one hundred thousand of them were transported into foreign parts, for the service of the kings of France and Spain; double that number were consumed by the plague, famine, and other severities exercised upon them in their own country; the remainder were by Cromwell transplanted into the most inland, barren, desolate, and mountainous part of the province of Connaught, and it was lawful for any man to kill any of the Irish, that were found out of the bounds appointed them within that circuit. Such a proportion of land was allotted to every man, as the protector thought competent for them; upon which they were to give formal releases of all their titles to their lands in any other provinces; if they refused to give such releases, they were still deprived, and left to starve within the limits prescribed them; out of which they durst not withdraw; so that very few refused to sign those releases, or other acts which were demanded. It was a considerable time before these Irish could raise any thing out of their lands to support their lives; but necessity was the spring of industry." Thus they lived under all the infamy of a conquered nation till the restoration of King Charles II. a just judgment of God for their barbarous and unheard-of cruelties to the Irish protestants!

To return to England: the body of the presbyterians acted in concert with the Scots, for restoring the king's family upon the foot of the covenant; several of their ministers carried on a private correspondence with the chiefs of that nation, and instead of taking the engagement to the present powers, called them usurpers, and declined praying for them in their churches; they also declared against a general toleration, for which the army and parliament contended.

When lieutenant-general Cromwell was embarking for Ireland, he sent letters to the parliament, recommending

Carrington's Life of Cromwell, p. 155. Clarendon, p. 158.

the removal of all the penal laws relating to religion; upon which the house ordered a committee to make report concerning a method for the ease of tender consciences, and an act to be brought in to appoint commissioners in every county, for the approbation of able and well-qualified persons to be made ministers, who cannot comply with the present ordinance for ordination of ministers.*

Aug. 16, General Fairfax and his council of officers presented a petition to the same purpose, praying "that all penal statutes formerly made, and ordinances lately made, whereby many conscientious people were molested, and the propagation of the gospel bindered, might be removed. Not that they desired this liberty should extend to the setting up popery, or the late hierarchy; or to the countenancing any sort of immorality or profaneness; for they earnestly desired, that drunkenness, swearing, uncleanness, and all acts of profaneness, might be vigorously prosecuted in all persons whatsoever." The house promised to take the petition into speedy consideration, and after some time passed it into a law.

But to bring the presbyterian clergy to the test, the engagement which had been appointed to be taken by all civil and military officers within a limited time, on pain of forfeiting their places, was now required to be sworn and subscribed by all ministers, heads of colleges and halls, fellows of houses, graduates, and all officers in the universities; and by the masters, fellows, school-masters, and scholars of Eaton college, Westminster, and Winchester schools; no minister was to be admitted to any ecclesiastical living, no clergyman to sit as member of the assembly of divines, nor be capable of enjoying any preferment in the church, unless he qualified himself by taking the engagement within six months, publicly in the face of the congregation.†

Nov. 9, it was referred to a committee, to consider how the engagement might be subscribed by all the people of the nation of eighteen years of age and upwards. Pursuant to which a bill was brought in, and passed, Jan. 2, to debar all who should refuse to take and subscribe it, Ibid. p. 404. † Walker, p. 146.

* Whitlocke, p. 405. VOL. IV.

5

from the benefit of the law; and to disable them from suing in any court of law or equity.

This was a severe test on the presbyterians, occasioned by the apprehended rupture with the Scots; but their clergy inveighed bitterly against it in their sermons, and refused to observe the days of humiliation appointed by authority for a blessing upon their arms. Mr. Baxter says,t that he wrote several letters to the soldiers, to convince them of the unlawfulness of the present expedition and in his sermons declared it a sin to force ministers to pray for the success of those who had violated the covenant, and were going to destroy their brethren. That he both spoke and preached against the engagement, and dissuaded men from taking it. At Exeter, says Mr. Whitlocke, the ministers went out of town on the fast-day, and shut up the church doors; and all the magistrates refused the engagement. At Taunton the fast was not kept by the presbyterian ministers; and at Chester they condemned the engagement to the pit of hell; as did many of the London ministers, who kept days of private fasting and prayer, against the present government. Some of them (says Whitlocke) joined the royalists, and refused to read the ordinances of parliament in their pulpits, as was usual in those times; nay, when the Scots were beaten, they refused to observe the day of thanksgiving, but shut up their churches and went out of town; for which they were summoned before the committee and reprimanded; but the times being unsettled, no further notice was taken of them at present.

Most of the sectarian party (says Mr. Baxter*) swallowed the engagement; and so did the king's old cavaliers, very few of them being sick of the disease of a scrupulous conscience some wrote for it, but the moderate episcopal men and presbyterians generally refused it. Those of Lancashire and Cheshire published the following reasons against it:

+ Life, p. 64, 66.

Lord Grey, at the desire of some who were zealously attached to the parliament, complained, in a letter to the lord president of the council of state, of the neglect of the ministers, in Leicestershire and another county, in this instance: and urged the importance of noticing their contempt of the thanksgiving day, expressed by their non-observance of it. Dr. Grey's Appendix, No. 8. ED.

* Life, p. 64, 65.

(1.) "Because they apprehended the oath of allegiance,and the solemn league and covenant, were still binding. (2.) "Because the present powers were no better than usurpers.

(3.) "Because the taking of it was a prejudice to the right heir of the crown, and to the ancient legal constitution." To which it was answered, "that it was absurd to suppose the oath of allegiance, or the solemn league and covenant to be in force after the king's death; for how could they be obliged to preserve the king's person, when the king's person was destroyed, and the kingly office abolished; and as to his successor, his right had been forfeited and taken away by parliament." With regard to the present powers, it was said, "that it was not for private persons to dispute the rights and titles of their supreme governors. Here was a government de facto, under which they lived; as long therefore as they enjoyed the protection of the government, it was their duty to give all reasonable security that they would not disturb it, or else to remove." The body of the common people being weary of war, and willing to live quiet under any administration, submitted to the engagement, as being little more than a promise not to attempt the subversion of the present government, but many of the presbyterian clergy chose rather to quit their preferments in the church and university, than comply; which made way for the promotion of several independent divines, and among others, of Dr. Thomas Goodwin, one of the dissenting brethren in the assembly, who by order of parliament, Jan. 8. 1749-50, was appointed president of Magdalen college, Oxford, with the privilege of nominating fellows and demies in such places as should become vacant by death, or by the possessors refusing to take the engagement.*

The parliament tried several methods to reconcile the presbyterians to the present administration; persons were appointed to treat with them, and assure them of the protection of the government, and of the full enjoyment of their ecclesiastical preferments according to law; when this could not prevail, an order was published, that ministers in their pulpits should not meddle with state affairs. * Whitlocke, p. 453.

After this the celebrated Milton was appointed to write for the government, who rallied the seditious preachers with his satyrical pen in a severe manner; at length, when all other methods failed, a committee was chosen to receive informations against such ministers as in their pulpits vilified and aspersed the authority of parliament, and an act was passed, that all such should be sequestered from their ecclesiastical preferments.‡

The presbyterians supported themselves under these hardships by their alliance with the Scots, and their hope of a speedy alteration of affairs by their assistance; for in the remonstrance of the general assembly of that kirk, dated July 27, they declare, that "the spirit which has acted in the councils of those who have obstructed the work of God, despised the covenant, corrupted the truth, forced the parliament, murdered the king, changed the government, and established such an unlimited toleration in religion, cannot be the spirit of righteousness and holiness. They therefore warn the subjects of Scotland against joining with them, and in case of an invasion to stand up in their own defence. The English have no controversy with us, (say they) but because the kirk and state have declared against their unlawful engagement; because we still adhere to our covenant, and have borne our testimony against their toleration, and taking away the king's life."* But then they warn their people also against malignants, "who value themselves upon their attachment to the young king, and if any from that quarter should invade the kingdom, before his majesty has given satisfaction to the parliament and kirk, they exhort their people to resist them, as abettors of an absolute and arbitrary government."

"But

About two months after this, the parliament of England published a declaration on their part, wherein they complain of the revolt of the English and Scots presbyterians, and of their taking part with the enemy, because their discipline was not the exact standard of reformation. we are still determined (say they) not to be discouraged in our endeavors to promote the purity of religion, and the liberty of the commonwealth; and for the satisfaction of our presbyterian brethren, we declare, that we will conWhitlocke, p. 387. Vol. Pamph. No. 34, p. 6. Ibid. No. 34.