"form of government" adopted by the Assembly and established by the Parliament, shows clearly enough, what principles they held on this subject. The only extraordinary thing in regard to them is, that having all been educated Episcopalians, there should have been such an agreement among them, respecting the Scriptural form of church government. The fact furnishes a strong argument in favour of this plan of ecclesiastical polity; and an argument of the same kind, but of greater force, may be derived from the agreement of nearly all Protestant churches, in all countries, in the same principles, at the era of the Reformation. For even the English reformers can scarcely be said to form an exception; for Episcopacy was retained by them, not so much from conviction of its Scriptural origin, as from external and political circumstances, which they had no power to control. It is true, that the intolerant and domineering conduct of the bishops, under James and Charles I., had produced in the minds of both clergy and laity, an unfavourable impression, in regard to the Episcopal office; but when the Assembly met, their views of reformation extended, as has been said, no further than to diminishing the authority of bishops, and reducing the system to that form, which was believed to have been prevalent in the times immediately after the apostles, when bishops were poor, pious, and laborious men. Two reasons may be assigned for the general consent of the members of this Assembly, to the Presbyterian form of church government; the first was, that after the arrival of the Scottish commissioners, there was a full and extended discussion of the subject, in which these Scottish divines took a large share; and they possessed the advantage of having thoroughly studied the subject, in relation to their own kirk, and were, therefore, fully prepared to defend the cause of presbytery. It is a remarkable fact that the young Scot, Gillespie, was, on this subject, more than a match for all the learned Erastians and Independents in the Assembly. Many of the English divines, it is probable, had come to the Assembly,

without any determinate opinions on church government, and were now convinced of the just claims of presbytery, from the arguments which they heard; others had come to the same conclusion previously, by the careful study of the Scriptures.

But a second consideration, which might have influenced a number who were not convinced of the divine right of presbytery, was, that unless they adopted the Presbyterian polity, there was no prospect of uniformity in religion with the church of Scotland, which was one great object of calling the Assembly, as is set forth in the ordinance of Parliament, heretofore inserted; and it was evident, that the kirk of Scotland would never agree to any form of Episcopacy, however modified. They had recently discarded, utterly, their own bishops, and solemnly excommunicated most of them, in the General Assembly of 1638; and it would have been as easy at this time to introduce popery, as prelacy, into the church of Scotland.

There is one other consideration, which ought to be mentioned, in accounting for the almost unanimous adoption of Presbyterian principles by the Westminster Assembly. The bishops, and high-toned Episcopalians, had generally sided with the king, in the dispute between him and the Parliament. This would very naturally create a prejudice against that form of church government which was so zealously defended by his majesty and his adherents. Parliament were more and more tending towards republican principles; and it is easy to see, that Presbytery is more in accordance with such principles, than high church Episcopacy.

The

When the Assembly came to determine the point of the jus divinum of Presbytery, most of the Erastians and the Independents withdrew from the body, and returned no more; but of this we shall speak in another place.

CHAPTER VI.

Correspondence with Foreign Divines.

THE Assembly were naturally led to wish to receive the countenance and aid of foreign churches, and of the most learned and esteemed theologians in the foreign Protestant universities. They therefore addressed the following circular :

"To the Belgic, French, Helvetian, and other reformed churches.

"Right reverend and dearly beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ,

"WE, the assembly of divines, and others, convened by the authority of both houses of Parliament, with the commissioners from the general assembly of the church of Scotland, do heartily salute you in the Lord. We doubt not, but the sad reports of the miseries under which the church and kingdom of England do bleed, and wherewith we are ready to be swallowed up, is long since come to your ears; and it is probable, the same instruments of Satan and Antichrist have, by their emissaries, endeavoured to represent us as black as may be among yourselves.And we sometimes doubt whether we have not been wanting to our own innocence, and your satisfaction, in being thus long silent; but pardon us, dear brethren, if this cup of trembling wherewith our spirits have been filled to amazement, and our wrestling with extreme difficulties ever since our meeting, has hindered from that which was our duty; and give us leave now a little to ease our grief, while we relate the desolation made by the antichristian faction, who are for hindering the work of reformation, and for intro

ducing and cherishing Popery; and are now arrived to that strength, that if the Lord do not speedily help us, we shall be altogether laid waste by them.

"How great a hand they [the prelates] have had, in the miseries of other reformed churches, in the destruction of the Palatinate, in the loss of Rochel, are so fully known and felt by you all, that we need not speak any thing of them. And we suppose their inveterate hatred against you all is sufficiently manifest, in that multitudes of them have refused to acknowledge any of you for churches of Christ because you are not prelatical, and thereby, as they conceive, want a lawful vocation of ministers. Sure we are, that among ourselves, scarce one thing can be thought of which may be supposed an argument of their design to advance Popery, that has not been attempted.

The laws against popery have been suspended; judges forbid to proceed against condemned priests; Jesuits set free; houses of superstition in Ireland and England have been set up and not discountenanced; notorious Papists harboured about the court and preferred; many released from legal penalties, and their prosecutors discountenanced; agents have been sent into Italy, and nuncios from Rome received, while the most zealous Protestants have been persecuted; many prelates and clergymen have publicly preached, and endeavoured to leaven the people with all points of Popery, except the supremacy, and introduced abundance of corrupt innovations into the worship of God; for noncompliance with which many have been forced to fly for refuge to the remote parts of the world.

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They imposed upon the kingdom of Scotland a new Popish service book and canons, to which, when that nation would not submit, they prevailed with his majesty to proclaim them rebels, and raise an army against them, to which all the Papists, and those who were popishly affected, contributed; and had not the Lord, by his blessing on the Scots' arms, and by the calling of this Parliament, prevented it, the two nations had been imbruing their hands in each other's blood.

"But though we hoped through the goodness of God, and his blessing upon this Parliament, whose hearts were inclined to a more perfect reformation, that our winter had been past, yet, alas! we find it to be quite otherwise. We know our sins have deserved all, and if we die and perish, the Lord is righteous; to his hand we submit, and to him alone we look for healing. The same antichristian faction not being discouraged, by their want of success in Scotland, have stirred up a bloody rebellion in Ireland, wherein above one hundred thousand Protestants have been destroyed in one province, within a few months. They have alienated the heart of his majesty from his Parliament, and prevailed with him to withdraw and raise an army, which at first pretended only to be made up of Protestants-but soon after Papists were armed by commission from the king; many great Papists were put into places of public command, and the body of all the Papists have joined his majesty with all their might; they profess and exercise their religion publicly in several parts of the kingdom, and go up and down plundering, murdering, and spoiling of their goods, all such as adhere to the Parliament, and to the cause of religion. Nor has the Parliament been able, by their petitions and remonstrances, to recover his majesty out of their hands, or bring these men to deserved punishment, but the sword rages in almost every corner of this woful land.

"And to complete our miseries, they have prevailed with his majesty so far to own the rebels in Ireland, as not only to call them his Roman Catholic subjects now in arms, but to grant them a cessation of arms for a year, and to hold what they have gotten, with liberty to strengthen themselves with men, money, arms, ammunition, &c., whereby they are enabled not only to destroy the remnant of Protestants in Ireland, but to come over hither (as many of them are already) to act the same butchery upon us.

"In the midst of these troublesome times the two houses of Parliament have called this assembly, to give them our best counsel for the reformation of the