of seating themselves at the same table. Another disputed point was, with regard to the power of the minister to exclude ignorant or scandalous persons from communion. The debates on these points occupied the Assembly from the 10th of June to the 10th of July. The directory for the sacrament of baptism was also the subject of considerable debate, continued from the 11th July to the 8th of August. The directory for the sanctification of the Sabbath was readily received; and a committee was appointed to procure a preface for the completed directory for public worship. This committee consisted of Messrs. Goodwin, Nye, Bridge, Burgess, Reynolds, Vines, Marshall, and Dr. Temple, together with the Scottish ministers. The appointment of so many of the Independents was for the purpose of avoiding any renewal of the protracted contentions in which they had so long held the Assembly, as we learn from Baillie.* This part of the Assembly's labors received the ratification of Parliament on the 22d of November, 1644; with the exception of the directions for marriage and burial, which were finished on the 27th of the same month, and soon afterwards the whole received the full ratification of Parliament.

It will be remembered that the Assembly of Divines, when required by Parliament to prepare a new form of government and discipline, attempted at first to begin and proceed with their task in a manner strictly systematic and logical, commencing with Christ, the Divine Head of the Church, who possesses all power and all offices by way of eminency in Himself; from that they proceeded to mention the various kind of Church-officers who are named in the Scriptures, and to define the nature of their official powers and duties, intending to complete this part before undertaking any other. But they were turned aside from the systematic course of procedure, partly by the urgency of the Parliament's desire to obtain a directory for ordination to supply vacant charges; and partly by their own wish to avoid the discussion of controverted topics till they should have agreed on as many as possible. Even in these preliminary steps, however, they came into contact with several points which led to keen debates between the Independent and the Presbyterian parties, proving but too

* Baillie, vol. ii. p. 242.

plainly, that a full agreement was scarcely to be expected. For a time the Scottish commissioners strove to act the part of peace-makers, and repeatedly moved to avoid disputable topics, and to direct their attention chiefly to those on which all might be united. As the subjects on which they were engaged advanced, this became impracticable, and all parties prepared for the struggle. On the 19th of January, 1644, Dr. Burgess reported from the first committee, who were to draw up the propositions concerning Presbytery in the following terms:-"1. That the Scripture holdeth out a Presbytery in a Church, 1 Tim. iv. 14; Acts xv. 2, 4, 6. 2. That a Presbytery consisteth of ministers of the Word, and such other public officers as have been already voted to have a share in the government in the Church."*

The subject having been thus brought forward in the Assembly in the due order of procedure, the Scottish commissioners prepared a book containing an outline of the Presbyterial form of Church government, as it already existed in Scotland, and caused a copy of it to be given to each member of Assembly. They also prepared a paper containing a brief statement of the chief heads of Church government, which having been laid before the Grand Committee, was by them transmitted to the Assembly for their consideration. It was to the following effect:"Assemblies are fourfold, 1. Elderships of particular congregations; 2. Classical Presbyteries; 3. Provincial Synods; 4. National Assemblies. Elderships particular are warranted: 1. By Christ's institution, Matt. xviii. 17; 2. By the common light of nature; 3. By unavoidable necessity. Classical Presbyteries are warrantable: 1. By Christ's institution, Matt. xviii. 17; 2. By the example of the Apostolic Churches--instancing in the Church of Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, &c." These propositions were given to the committee which was intrusted with the preparation of all matters connected with Presbytery, as the proper channel through which they might again be brought forward in the Assembly; not, however, without some opposition, both from the Independents and from Selden. This took place on the 25th of January; and on the 27th of the same month, Lord Wharton report* Lightfoot, p. 115. † Lightfoot, p. 119.

ed from the House of Lords, that a person named Ogle, formerly a royalist officer, at that time a prisoner, had been detected holding correspondence with Lord Bristol, expressing his hopes that a large party of the Parliament's adherents might be induced to join the king, "if the moderate Protestant and the fiery Independent could be brought to withstand the Presbyterian."* His Lordship produced, at the same time, letters from the Earl of Bristol, encouraging the scheme of bringing in the Independents to the support of the royal cause. In this plot the Independents in the Assembly do not appear to have been directly implicated; for Nye and Goodwin assisted in its detection, by obtaining permission to hold private intercourse with Ogle, and to seem to consent to his proposals, with the view of ascertaining their full extent and nature. Although the Assembly Independents were vindicated from participation in this plot, yet a certain amount of suspicion rested on the party in general, which, together with the points of dif ference already stated, and those on the brink of being brought forward, seem to have induced them to adopt a course which proved exceedingly pernicious, so far as regarded the prospect of arriving at ultimate unanimity.

About the end of January, or the beginning of February, 1644, they published a treatise, termed "An Apologetical Narration, humbly submitted to the Honorable Houses of Parliament, by Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye, Sidrach Simpson, Jeremiah Burroughs, William Bridge." The date on the title-page is 1643; but the Parliamentary year commenced on the 25th of March, according to the English computation; and Baillie mentions this treatise as newly published, in a letter dated the 18th of February, 1644, he dating the beginning of the year from January, as had been the custom in Scotland from the year 1600. The language of Baillie is very pointed respecting this production. "At last," says he, "foreseeing they behoved ere long to come. to the point, they put out, in print, on a sudden, an Apologetical Narration of their way, which long had lain ready beside them, wherein they petition the Parliament, in a most sly and cunning way, for a toleration; and withal lend too bold wipes to all the reformed Churches, as imperfect yet in their reformation, till their new model be emLightfoot, p. 126. † Baillie, vol. ii. p. 137.

braced."* Baillie further insinuates, that the appearance of the treatise was "by some men intended to contribute to the very wicked plot at that same instant a-working, but shortly after discovered almost miraculously." If this conjecture be correct, the intercourse of Nye and Goodwin with Ogle may have been for the purpose of concealing their own connection with the plot, rather than to aid in its complete detection. We are not, however, desirous to fix upon them a larger amount of criminality, as conducting dark and treacherous intrigues, than can be maintained by the clearest and most irresistible evidence, and therefore shall not at once adopt the suggestion of Baillie. The publication of this treatise, the "Apologetical Narration," by the Independents, tended greatly to prevent the probability of any amicable arrangement in which all parties might agree. Till that time nothing had been done which foreclosed the possible adjustment of at least all minor differences; and the Scottish divines, in particular, had striven to avoid the premature determination of points disputed by the Independents. But when they had thus carried the controversy away from the Assembly to the Parliament, and had, by publishing this work, laid it before the world, it became almost morally impossible that any accommodated adjustment could take place, each party feeling bound in honor to make out its own cause, and to adhere pertinaciously to the views thus publicly declared. It may be remarked also, that the Scottish commissioners had always caused their publications to be laid before the Assembly, so as to render them fairly the subjects of discussion; whereas the Independents addressed their production to the Parliament, and published it to the community, without formally giving copies to the Assembly; so that, whatever might be thought, the subject could not, without violation of order and propriety, be taken up and debated there. This, of course, led to the publication of a series of answers, in which, as usual, each disputant was more eager to confute his antagonist than to promote peace and harmony. From that time forward the contest between the Independents and the Presbyterians became one of irreconcilable rivalry, to which the utter defeat of the one or the other was the only possible termination. And his* Baillie, vol. ii. p. 130.

torical truth compels us to say, that as this bitter warfare was begun by the Independents, they are justly chargeable with all the consequences of the fatal feud.

The "Apologetical Narration" is, in many points of view, a remarkable production. Though it extends to no more than thirty-one pages of small quarto, it contains a very plausible account of the history of the five Independent divines, the peculiar tenets of Church government which they held, and their objections against the Presbyterian system, so expressed as both to convey a highly favorable view of themselves and their opinions to Parliament, and to the public, and to serve as the vehicle of skilfully constructed adulation to Parliament itself. The treatise begins by complaining of the accusations which were generally urged "(though not expressly directed against us in particular, yet in the interpretation of the most reflecting on us)," by which they had been awakened and enforced to anticipate a little that discovery of themselves which otherwise they had resolved to have left to time and experience, of their ways and spirits. They present themselves, therefore, "to the supreme judicatory of this kingdom, which is and hath been in all times the most just and severe tribunal for guiltiness to appear before, much more to dare to appeal unto; and yet, withal, the most sacred refuge and asylum for mistaken and misjudged innocence.' They then mention that most of them had enjoyed stations in the ministry ten years before, which they had been constrained to abandon in consequence of the corruptions in the public worship and government of the Church. Having been compelled first to look at the dark part, as they term it, or the actually existing evils, which forced them to exile, they next began to inquire into and examine the light part, or the positive part of Church worship and government, as stated in the apostolic directions, and the examples of the primitive New Testament Churches. "In this inquiry," say they, "we looked upon the Word of Christ as impartially and unprejudicedly as men made of flesh and blood are like to do in any juncture of time that may fall out."-"We had no new commonwealths to rear, to frame Church government unto (a hint for the Erastians), whereof any one piece might stand in the other's light, to cause the least variation by us from the primitive pattern;