character, and upon whose most solemn treaties no reliance could be placed. Again was the Parliament subjected to military force; upwards of forty of the Presbyterian members were cast into confinement; above one hundred and sixty were excluded from the House; and none were suffered to sit and deliberate but the most determined Sectarians, in all not exceeding sixty. This violent invasion of parliamentary rights is commonly termed "Pride's purge," from the name of Colonel Pride, the person who commanded the military detachment by which it was perpetrated; and the parliamentary section which was allowed to remain, is known by the designation of the Rump Parliament.

The republican revolution now swept onward with great rapidity and irresistible force. It was resolved that the king should be brought to trial, as guilty of treason against the people of England, before what was termed a Court of Justice. The House of Lords refused to give their consent; and the Commons voted the concurrence of the Lords to be unnecessary, the people being the source of all just power. The unfortunate king was brought before the Court of Justice, and accused of treason. He declined their jurisdiction, and defended himself with great dignity and courage. But all his defences were overruled, the dread sentence was pronounced; and on the 30th of January, 1649, he perished on the scaffold, the victim of an inflexible attachment to superstitious observances and despotic principles, and of an incurable perseverance in the arts of dissimulation, yet in his last moments displaying a degree of personal intrepidity, firmness of character, and Christian-like calmness and elevation of mind worthy of a better cause.

No sooner had the tidings of the ill-fated monarch's tragic end reached Scotland than it called forth a burst of intense sorrow and indignation from the heart of every true Presbyterian Covenanter in the kingdom. Arrangements were instantly made for placing the young prince on the Scottish throne, and supporting him there by force of arms, if necessary, provided he would subscribe the Covenant. To this Charles was unwilling to consent, if he could otherwise obtain his purpose; and with this design held the Scottish commissioners in terms, while conduct

ing a private treaty with Montrose, in the hope of securing the kingdom by his means without any stipulation. But while in this he showed proofs of hereditary dissimulation, when Montrose failed, he consented to swear the Covenant which he never intended to keep, in this respect committing a crime darker far than any with which his father's memory is chargeable; for though Charles I. seems to have regarded dissimulation as allowable in diplomacy, which perhaps statesmen in general may be thought also to do, he reverenced an oath, and would not on any account have sworn what he did not intend to perform. But Cromwell was not disposed to permit the establishment of the royal power in Scotland, by which his own supremacy might be endangered. He therefore marched northwards at the head of his veteran army, invaded Scotland, and after a series of military movements, in which he was fairly matched by David Leslie, he gained a decisive victory near Dunbar. The Scottish army rallied and took up a strong position near Stirling; but their flank being turned, and their resources cut off, the young prince adopted the daring enterprise of marching into England, hoping to be joined by the Royalists in that country. His hopes were disappointed, that party being thoroughly broken and dispirited; and being overtaken by Cromwell, a final struggle took place at Worcester, which ended in the total route and dispersion of the royal army. After encountering many perilous adventures and narrow escapes, Charles fled to the Continent, and Cromwell returned to London to con-solidate that power in which he had now no rival but the degraded Rump of the Long Parliament. As he no longer needed the services of that faction, he fostered, or at least encouraged a quarrel between the army and Parliament, and taking part with the former, he hastened to the House of Commons, assailed the astonished members with a torrent of violent invectives, ordered the mace," that bauble," to be taken away, called in the military to eject the dismayed but struggling members, and having locked the door put the key in his pocket, and returned to Whitehall. So fell the English Parliament beneath the power of military usurpation; and at the same moment terminated the Westminster Assembly.

It will be remembered, that London and its immediate

vicinity had been formed into twelve Presbyteries, constituting the Provincial Synod of London. This Synod continued to hold regular half-yearly meetings till the year 1655, without encountering any direct obstruction from Cromwell, but receiving no encouragement. They then ceased to hold regular meetings as a Synod, but continued to meet as Presbyteries, and to maintain, as far as possible, every other point of Presbyterian Church government and discipline. It is probable, or rather certain, that their ceasing to act as a Synod was caused by the conduct of Cromwell in regard to religious matters. When, upon the death of the king, the government of England was changed to a commonwealth, an ordinance was passed appointing an engagement to be taken, first by all civil and military officers, and afterwards by all who held official situations in the universities; and at last it was further ordered that no minister be capable of enjoying any preferment in the Church, unless he should, within six months, take the engagement publicly before the congregation. The consequence of this was, that while the engagement was readily taken by all the Sectarians, and by many Episcopalians of lax principles, it was refused by great numbers of the Presbyterians, several of whom were in a short time ejected from the situations to which they had been appointed by the Parliament. Cromwell and his Council, carrying into full execution this course of procedure, certainly not that of toleration, immediately placed Independents in the situations thus rendered vacant by the ejection of the Presbyterians, prohibited the publication of pamphlets censuring the conduct of the new government, and abolished the monthly fasts, which had continued to be regularly kept for about seven years, and whose sacred influence had often been deeply and beneficially felt by both Parlia ment and Assembly. The Rev. Christopher Love was beheaded for being engaged in, or cognisant of, a correspon dence with Scotland for the purpose of supporting the interests of Charles II. Not long afterwards, in the year 1654, an ordinance of council was issued, appointing a new committee of thirty-eight persons, nine of whom were laymen, to examine and approve all who should be presented, nominated, chosen, or appointed to any benefice with cure of souls, or to any public settled lecture in Eng

land or Wales. Of this new committee, commonly called Triers, some were Presbyterians, a large proportion Independents, and a few were Baptists. Any five were sufficient to approve; but no number under nine had power to reject a person as unqualified. In this manner, although the Presbyterian Church government was not formally abolished by Cromwell, its power was transferred to the hands of the committee of Triers, and consequently the Synods ceased to hold meetings which could no longer exercise any authority. This committee continued to exercise its functions till the Protector's death in 1659, when it was discontinued.

Another ordinance appointed commissioners, chiefly laymen, for every county, with power to eject scandalous, ignorant, and insufficient ministers and schoolmasters. This also superseded the previous arrangements which had been made by the Long Parliament for a similar pur pose, and tended to bring every ecclesiastical matter under the direct control of the civil power, and in a great measure under the superintendence of the Protector himself and his council. By this ordinance, as well as by that of the Parliament, it was appointed that ample time should be allowed to the ejected person for his removal, and the fifths of the benefice were reserved for the support of his family. When the Prelatic party silenced and deposed the Puritans and Nonconformists of other days, no such generosity was shown to them or their families; but neither the Presbyterians nor the Independents were so forgetful of the principles of Christianity as to requite evil with evil, but showed kindness to their former calumniators and oppressors.

The Independents were now raised to the enjoyment of a large measure of power and favor, though the Protector managed to reserve to himself the reality without the name of ecclesiastical supremacy. They felt accordingly that they might now safely adopt a course on which nothing had hitherto been able to induce them to enter,-the preparation, namely, of some public document of the nature of a Confession of Faith. To this they had been often urged by the Westminster Assembly, but in vain. They were aware that a full and explicit statement of their principles would deprive them of the support of a large

proportion of the numerous sects who viewed them as the leading Sectarian party, and might thereby so reduce their influence as to render their hopes of promoting their own system exceedingly feeble. But the Presbyterians were now depressed and overborne; some of the most dangerous of the sects had been forcibly suppressed, such as the Levellers, Fifth Monarchy men, &c.; and they might now promulgate their own views without incurring the danger of losing valuable adherents. Some of the leading men among them accordingly met in London, and having agreed upon the propriety of framing a Confession of Faith, as had been done by other Churches, they requested permission from the Protector to hold an Assembly for that purpose. This was granted with some reluctance, and their Assembly was appointed to meet at the Savoy, on the 12th of October, 1658.

They opened their meeting with a day of fasting and prayer; and after some deliberation, resolved to keep as near as possible to the method and order of the Westminster Assembly's Confession of Faith, in framing a similar document for themselves. A committee was chosen to prepare the outline, consisting of Drs. Goodwin and Owen, Messrs. Nye, Bridge, Caryl, and Greenhill. In the short period of about eleven or twelve days they finished their work, which was soon afterwards published under the title of "A Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised in the Congregational Churches in England, agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy." The speed with which they completed their task contrasts very strongly with the manner in which they contrived to retard the progress of the Westminster Assembly, but may be readily explained. They followed the Assembly's Confession very closely, to which indeed their leading men had already assented; they omitted all the chapters which relate to discipline, thus avoiding the discussion of disputed topics; and they had now no object to serve by delay, but many a motive to induce them to make haste. At the end of their work there is a chapter of discipline, consisting of five sections, and giving a brief statement and assertion of the main points in which their system differed from that of the Presbyterians, respecting the power of single congrega