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VIII.

WEALTH,

A D. 1653.

CHAPTER of impure lives their hypocrisy was indeed detestable. And while the morals of some were impeached, the COMMON- claim of others to be considered in any sense religious men was utterly denied. Cromwell familiarly called them "the gentiles." Sir Henry Vane obscured what notions of religion he possessed beneath a cloud of mysticism. Sir James Harrington, the author of the Oceana, was an infidel and theorist in religion as in politics. Some were charged, perhaps unjustly, with atheism; but upon the whole few practised the ancient religion of the puritans. They had begun to make use of it, as statesmen have so often done, as a contrivance for amusing or governing the people. The nation discovered the imposition, and as the commonwealth fell into contempt religion shared in the disaster.

3. During the commonwealth it was that mannerism and a tedious formality arose to its height amongst the puritans. Their religious services were often of a wearisome length. Bishop Burnet mentions six sermons preached upon a fast day without intermission. "I was there myself," says the devout author of the Pastoral Care, "and not a little weary of so tedious a service."* The wisest men fell into these absurdities. Howe, Cromwell's domestic chaplain, is said to have conducted the service upon fast days, which were frequent in those times, in this manner: He began at nine o'clock with a prayer of a quarter of an hour, read and expounded scripture for about three quarters, prayed an hour, preached another, then prayed half an hour, the people then sung about a quarter of an

* Own Times, p. 73.

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A.D. 1653.

hour, during which he retired and took a little CHAPTER refreshment: he then came into the pulpit again, prayed an hour more, preached another hour, and COMMONthen with a prayer of half an hour concluded the service.* The violent emotions of a civil war gave an unnatural interest, and with it an extraordinary power of attention, to the hearers; but when the war and its alarms ceased, their jaded spirits flagged, and, instead of fervour, coldness and a monotonous formality prevailed. There are seasons of unusual depth and power, times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,† when it would seem almost an act of violence to interrupt the devotions of a congregation at the usual hour. And there is no reason why a sermon more than an oration upon law, or literature, or politics, should not sometimes be of extraordinary length. But in general, good sense and the comfort of the hearers must apply the rule. Religious services of intolerable length mark, in short, the decay of manly and healthy piety. When the mind is full, language is at controul and superfluous words are few. Long prayers and sermons, with rare exceptions, prove the want of preparation, that is, the want of earnestness and sincerity, in the minister rather than the exuberance of his holy zeal. From the days of Chrysostom to those of Latimer, and, later still, of Wesley and Whitfield, the most effective have been short: the burning torrent rushed by, but its traces were indelible. The puritans however were not alone to blame. Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding, a churchman of the Laudian school in the days of Charles,

* Calamy's Lives, &c., vol. i. p. 81.

† Acts iii. 19.

CHAPTER attached a chapel to his house in which the worship VIII. incessantly went on. The family was divided, like COMMON- the priests in the temple, into courses, succeeding WEALTH, each other at intervals of three hours, day and

A.D. 1653.

night, without intermission. The song of praise was never silent; at least the organ never ceased; for he must know little of the gospel of Jesus Christ who can mistake these acts of superstition for the offering of a free heart which rises acceptable to God. The perfection of this system is indeed to be found in the church of Rome; in monasteries where the service of the lips is incessant and the heart averse or profoundly unconcerned.

4. It was no advantage to religion that every state paper and ordinance of the parliament spoke in the language of the pulpit or of a religious tract. Religion suffered greatly in consequence; and puritanism, if possible, still more. A devout recognition of the hand of God, and an humble acknowledgment of his goodness, are the duty of a christian nation; but the obtrusion of a religious phraseology is out of place in state papers, and the incessant recurrence of scripture language is profane. At the close of the Scotch campaign, and again after the battle of Worcester, national thanksgivings were commanded by the parliament through public "ordinances." The first of these recites, in the following words, "the grounds and reasons" for the act. "If any nation in the world hath at this day upon them mighty and strong obligations unto the Lord for his peculiar manifestations of mercy and goodness unto them, it is the parliament and people of England; in the midst of whom the Lord

VIII.

WEALTH,
A.D. 1653:

has walked most eminently for these ten years past. CHAPTER It is the duty of all people in this commonwealth, especially those who fear the Lord, to observe these COMMONhis marvellous and gracious dispensations, and be taught by them not only to submit unto and close with the actings and appearances of the Lord who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will, but to be enlarged in rejoicings and thankful acknowledging, and to trust him in like straits for the time to come. It is to be considered," they say, "that this is given as a seal and confirmation from heaven of the justice of our cause, and of the sincerity of his servants that are his unworthy instruments in the carrying of it on." The preamble concludes with calling upon the nation to observe "how suddenly the Lord turned himself against their enemies, and rose as a giant refreshed with wine."* The ordinance for a day of thanksgiving after the battle of Worcestert opens in these words: "The works of providence, by which the Lord hath pleaded the cause of this parliament and commonwealth in the sight of the nations round about, are glorious, and will be sought out by all those that have pleasure in them; and therefore must not pass under the common title of events and chances of war: the Lord having so done this marvellous work, for time and place, with a concurrence of all other remarkable circumstances, that it ought to be had in everlasting remembrance, both by ourselves and by the generations which shall be

An act for setting apart a day of thanksgiving, &c., Sept. 17, 1650. † An act for setting apart, &c., 26th Sept. 1651. The parliament had now returned to the ancient usage, and style their ordinances acts.

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CHAPTER born; as will eminently and convincingly appear by this brief ensuing narrative." After an official COMMON- narrative of the battle, they add these words: WEALTH, "Thus was our gracious God pleased to appear as the Lord of hosts (which was our word in this and the battle of Dunbar) with and for his people in destroying this desperate and insolent enemy, and working a glorious salvation for us." The ministers of every parish in England were required to publish the act, and the narrative which prefaced it, in their churches. How many of them, though puritans, would much rather have read the book of sports itself! The impressions upon the hearers would of course be various. The simple-minded, awed by the solemnity of the language, would acquiesce. A few political fanatics might exult. But what would be the feelings of the great body of the nation, of the cavaliers and presbyterians, and more especially of their children now rising into manhood? Were the rulers of the day then, indeed, the chosen vessels of God? Were the victories won so clearly just and righteous, and were the vanquished, all of them, so vile? Or was the Almighty the patron of a faction, not a Being whose tender mercies were over all his works? And were the ministers of religion, as one man, throughout England abetting this vast iniquity-this treason against the attributes of the Most High-and offering hypocritical thanksgivings for the slaughter of presbyterians at Dunbar, and of church of England royalists at Worcester ? And if so, what was religion but a state machine, to be worked for the advantage of those in power? Wise and experienced men might grieve, but they, it

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