CHAP. VI.

PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE PURITANS.-IMPROVEMENT OF CHURCHES.-LAUD'S LETTER TO SIR KENELM DIGBY. IN SCOTLAND.

-EXCITEMENT

INCREASE OF THE PURITANS.-THEIR SUCCESSES.-SUMMARY OF EVENTS.

NUMBERLESS were the instances of oppression committed at this time, and for which it seems scarcely possible to frame an apology, drawn from the principles or constitution of the Church itself. But the injuries inflicted on individuals were not the only evils to be deplored. There are some pious minds which, though neither weak nor ill instructed, easily yield to provocation, and especially when it is on the side of brotherly kindness and sympathy. The austerity of Laud afforded the puritans the best argument they possessed in relation to men of this class. However bad their reasoning when properly tested, it served for the purpose in view. The Church was becoming popish; its chiefs were animated by the gloomy spirit of intolerance; and the clergy who shone most conspicuously as champions of orthodoxy, were well paid for their zeal by rapid and high preferment. Such were the statements urged on the attention of the earnest and pious men who, though as yet faithful to the Church themselves, could not but grieve over the sufferings of those who, for apparently insufficient reasons, were punished as its enemies. It can create little surprise, considering the common movements of human feeling, that many were persuaded to believe that the persecuted were right, and the persecutors wrong, forgetting to make the distinction which would have shown them that, though men may be persecuted wickedly, it may be neither wise nor virtuous to adopt their notions or follow their example.

But in this way the Church lost a large number of earnest and devout labourers in the vineyard of Christ. It could ill spare, at this time, any of the warm blood of evangelical zeal. When bishops themselves were perpetually obliged to bend the knee to despicable court favourites; when the rest of the clergy were every moment in danger of being called either before the House of Commons to account for their churchmanship, or before some political prelate to apologize for their love of the gospel, there ought surely to have been on the side of the Church in general a more cautious course of proceeding. It was not the compromise of its rights, the sacrifice of its power, or the changing of its articles, which was called for, in order to give it the ability to exercise moderation; all, at this particular season, needed, was the repressing, on the part of some few prelates, of a zeal for things with which the Church itself had nothing to do.

That much was lost by the expulsion of some of those ministers whom the leaders of the Church party, at this time, deprived of their livings, is strikingly shown in the annals of the times. Those annals, it is true, may have been written by nonconformists; they may contain some things false, and others may have been extenuated, or set down in malice; but the whole must be false,false, that is, in every material fact, to excuse the conduct of Laud and his coadjutors. That such is the case, no reader of history, who has common fairness, is likely to aver. But should it be insisted, that nothing ought to be received as honest evidence which an opponent has written, far more must be suffered on the part of Laud than on that of his adversaries; for by an order of the Star-chamber, it was decreed, " that no book be printed, unless it be first licensed, with all its titles, epistles and prefaces, by the archbishop or bishop of London, for the time being, or by their appointment, and within the limits of the university, by the chancellor or vice-chancellor, on pain of the printer's being disabled from his profession for the future, and to suffer such other punishment as the high commission shall think fit." Moreover, "that before any books imported

from abroad be sold, a catalogue of them shall be delivered to the archbishop or bishop of London, to be perused by themselves or their chaplains; and if there be any schismatical or offensive books, they shall be delivered up to the bishop, or to the high commission, that the offenders may be punished." Again, it is directed, "That no person shall print beyond sea any English book or books, whereof the greatest part is English, whether formerly printed or not; nor shall any book be reprinted, though formerly licensed, without a new license." Lastly, "That if any person that is not an allowed printer shall set up a printing-press, he shall be put in the pillory, and be whipped through the streets of London."

Under regulations so stringent as these, but little opportunity was left for that liberty of expression on the side of complainants, which the party of Laud deemed so necessary for the defence of its views and designs. If allowance, therefore, is to be made for the unfairness of party statements, such allowance will not prejudice, in the eyes of an honest historian, the accounts given by the puritans only. It will be confessed, that if the documents on one side have a suspicious air, so have those on the other, but that both have enough of truth in them to enable a candid inquirer to form a tolerably correct notion of the points disputed. The commonest of the circumstances reported are, indeed, sufficient for this. Every year crowds of emigrants left their native shores, animated solely by religious zeal, or the desire of preserving themselves from the inflictions with which they were perpetually threatened. Heylyn,"* says Neal," acknowledges that the severe pressing of the ceremonies made the people in many trading towns tremble at a visitation; but when they found their striving in vain, and that they had lost the comfort of the lecturers, who were turned out for not reading the second service at the communion table in their hoods and surplices, and for using other prayers besides that of the fifty-fifth canon, it was no hard matter for those ministers to persuade them to transport themselves into foreign ⚫ Cyprian. Anglic., part 11., p. 344.

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parts. The sun,' said they, shines as comfortably in other places, and the sun of righteousness much brighter. It is better to go and dwell in Goshen, find it where we can, than tarry in the midst of such Egyptian bondage as is among us. The sinful corruptions of the Church are now grown so general, that there is no place free from the contagion; therefore, go out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her sins.'"*

Among those who most readily obeyed this call were men of the sincerest piety, and of dispositions in which Christian humility and patience might be easily traced, notwithstanding the trials to which they were exposed. It is impossible, without a violation of charity, to read unmoved the fervent language of these men as they prepared themselves for exile. "We covenant with our Lord," they said, "and one with another. We bind ourselves, in the presence of God, to walk together in all his ways, according as he is pleased to reveal himself to us in his blessed word of truth, and do profess to walk as follows, through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We avouch the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be his people, in the truth and simplicity of our spirits. We give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the word of grace, for the teaching, ruling and sanctifying us in matters of worship and conversation.” Again: "We promise to walk with our brethren with all watchfulness and tenderness, avoiding jealousies, suspicions, backbitings, censurings, provokings, secret risings of spirit against them; but in all offences to follow the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to bear and forbear, give and forgive, as he hath taught us. In public or private we will willingly do nothing to the offence of the Church, but will be willing to take advice for ourselves, and ours, as occasion shall be presented. We will not in the congregation be forward, either to shew our own gifts and parts in speaking, or scrupling, or in discovering the weaknesses or failings of our brethren; but attend an ordinary call thereunto, knowing how much the Lord may be dishonoured, and his gospel, and the profession of it, slighted by our dis

• Neal, vol. II., p. 289.

tempers and weaknesses in public. We bind ourselves to study the advancement of the gospel in all truth and peace, both in regard of those that are within or without, no way slighting our sister churches, but using their counsel as need shall be; not laying a stumbling-block before any, no, not the Indians, whose good we desire to promote, and so to converse as we may avoid the very appearance of evil. We do hereby promise to carry ourselves in all lawful obedience to those that are over us in church or commonwealth, knowing how well pleasing it will be to the Lord that they should have encouragement in their places, by our not grieving their spirits by our irregularities. We resolve to approve ourselves to the Lord in our particular callings, shunning idleness as the bane of any state; nor will we deal hardly or oppressingly with any, wherein we are the Lord's stewards; promising, also, to the best of our ability, to teach our children and servants the knowledge of God, and of his will, that they may serve Him also; and all this, not by any strength of our own, but by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood we desire may sprinkle this our covenant made in his name."*

To the body of exiles which expressed these sentiments on their departure, another was soon after added, whose "humble request," issued in the name "of his majesty's loyal subjects, the governor and company lately gone for New England, to the rest of their brethren in and of the Church of England, for the obtaining of their prayers, and removal of suspicions and misconstructions of their intentions," contained this passage, addressed particularly to the heads of the clergy: "You are not ignorant," it is said, "that the spirit of God stirred up the apostle Paul to make a continual mention of the Church of Philippi, which was a colony from Rome. Let the same spirit, we beseech you, put you in mind, that are the Lord's remembrancers, to pray for us without ceasing; and what goodness you shall extend to us, in this or any other Christian kindness, we, your brethren in Christ, shall labour to repay *Neal, vol. 11., p. 183.