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an easy step, more especially when it formed theism of King James-a spiritual republic stripprice of Scottish co operation and assistance.

And now the Westminster Assembly was an inevitable sequence. As it was the parliament that needed the aid and co-operation of the Scots against the king, it was by the authority of the two Houses of Parliament alone that this important assembly was convened. It consisted of 121 divines, to whom twenty-one more were soon afterwards added-four ministers and three lay assessors from Scotland-ten English peers, and twenty members of the House of Commons. The condition of Episcopacy in its present state was mournfully indicated by the presence of about twenty clergymen of the Established church, a small minority, and utterly unfit to stem the tide that was advancing so resistlessly against their cause. But they were speedily saved from such a hopeless struggle; for in consequence of the king's proclamation forbidding the assembly, and declaring its acts illegal, these churchmen retired. The place of meeting was Westminster Abbey, and the sittings commenced on the 1st of July, 1643. The majority of the divines belonging to the Westminster Assembly, although they had received Episcopal ordination, were Presbyterians; and when it was called together for the purpose of settling such a government for the church "as might be most agreeable to God's Holy Word," an intimation was added, "that it should be brought into a nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland and other Reformed churches abroad." Then followed the subscription of England to the Solemn League and Covenant, through its national representatives, in the church of St. Margaret, Westminster, on the 15th of September, 1643. But still, the Presbyterianism thus established was not the Presbyterianism of Scotland. The distinguishing feature of the latter was its independence of the civil power, and its sacred right of self-goverument as managed by sessions, presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies. As Andrew Melvil had distinctly announced to King James, Christ alone was head of the church, and in it his majesty was neither a king, nor a head, nor a lord, but a member. On this account, every question of the church was settled, and every law for its government enacted, by the church courts alone, while the General Assembly was the highest and last court of appeal. In England, a similar frame-work was to be set up, consisting of four church courts, termed the parochial, classical, provincial, and national. But what was to be the last tribunal of appeal? Here the parliament stepped in, and claimed for itself the full right to decide and terminate, let the church courts deliberate and decree as they might. Thus, it was nothing better than the shackled Presbyterian

ped of its independence, and subject to state control. But independently of this symptom of its insufficiency and feebleness to brave the storms that were gathering around it, there was another circumstance from which its speedy decay and downfall might have been easily predicted. It was not the spontaneous growth of the English soil, nor even the object of its affectionate adoption. The Scottish nation, in consequence of its primitive Culdee teachers, had possessed a Presbyterianism of its own from the earliest introduction of Christianity. In this its childhood and youth had been nursed, and from this it had mainly derived that heroic independence of spirit which formed for ages such a striking feature of the national character; and when the Reformation arrived, it was not otherwise to be expected, than that Scotland should at once embody it in the congenial Presbyterian form. Thus the subscription of the Covenant in the church of Greyfriars', Edinburgh, was a very different deed from the subscription of the same Covenant in St. Margaret's, Westminster. In the former, it was the rising of a whole people for the recovery of that which they valued more than life-a new Bannockburn for something nobler than mere political liberty; while in the latter case, it was a confession of weakness, and badge of national humiliation and submission. In these considerations alone we see cause enough for the weakness of English Presbyterianism, and the facility with which it was overthrown.

The state of parties into which the Westminster Assembly was divided is explanatory, not only of the reluctant assent which was given to the present decision, but also of the discordance of its future sittings. These parties were originally four in number, but after the secession of the Episcopalians they were reduced to three, viz., Presbyterians, Independents, and Erastians. Of these the Presbyterians were by far the most numerous, and might be considered as the representatives of English Puritanism through all its preceding stages. In the words of Fuller, "they either favoured the Presbyterian discipline, or in process of time were brought over to embrace it." The nature of that discipline has been sufficiently explained already in our various notices of the Scottish church. Among their leaders in the assembly were those learned and eloquent divines, Calamy, Gataker, Hildersham, Sperstowe, Corbet, and Vines; while, in the House of Commons, their political influence was strong in Waller, Denzil Hollis, Clotworthy, and other leading members of the day. The Independents, who were but a small party compared with their rivals, whom they were so soon to overthrow, were supposed, at the time, to be nearly assimi

of the king. But the great work of the Westminster Assembly-and one for which all its errors and shortcomings, were they even as great and many as its enemies allege, might be forgivenwas the drawing up of the Confession of Faith, that clearest and ablest compend of Christian doctrine which has ever yet been presented, and which still continues to be the revered standard of the Kirk of Scotland. After the Confession of Faith was finished, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms were constructed on its model, for private and family religious instruction; and although the Larger, which was intended for adults, has been gradually lost sight of amidst the more attractive voluminous treatises of modern theology, the Shorter Catechism is still the text-book, not only of the religious education of the young in Scotland, but among many of the Dissenting communities of England. But notwithstanding its intrinsic worth, the Confession of Faith, which was completed in 1646, did not secure, even for

lated in their form of church government to the Presbyterians; but it is too well known how such a resemblance, among different sects of religionists, instead of producing concord and brotherly affection, more commonly leads to jealousy, hatred, and strife. Abandoning the name of Brownists, they had now adopted the name of Independents, thus changing it from that of their founder to the principle by which their church was regulated. This was, that every separate congregation has the entire right of government within itself, under the management of its own elders. They admitted, indeed, a connection with the other congregations of their community in judging of the offence committed by any individual church; but all that their collective ecclesiastical power could effect, in the way of punishing the offending congregation, was to exclude it from their communion, and allow it, thus isolated, to follow its own devices. The third party, that of the Erastians—who derived their title from their founder, Dr. Erastus, a physician of Germany-its doctrinal parts, the concurrence of the whole held, in opposition both to Presbyterians and Independents, that no form of ecclesiastical government is laid down in the Divine Word-that the minister is simply a lecturer or teacher of religion, and nothing more-and that all offences, ecclesiastical as well as civil, are punishable by the magistrate alone. Thus, in their eyes, the church was but the creature of the state, and the minister, even in his spiritual capacity, the subject of the civil ruler. Their sentiments in the Westminster Assembly, where they were chiefly represented by these learned Oriental scholars, Coleman and Lightfoot, and the lay assessors, Selden, Whitelock, and St. John, although equally disapproved by the two other parties, were in high favour with the statesmen and the House of Commons, whose authority they enforced and aggrandized.'

The assembly continued its sittings, with occasional interruptions, till 1649, a space of six years, after which it was changed into a committee that met weekly, for the trial and examination of ministers; but we can only give a brief enumeration of the chief of its manifold proceedings. It adopted the English metrical version of the Psalms by Mr. Rous, as the authorized version for the Churches of England and Scotland; and though this translation was soon disused in the former country, it has continued in the latter to our own day. It drew up the Directory for Public Worship, to serve instead of the Book of Common Prayer, which was suppressed. This Directory, while it was sanctioned by the parliament, and the use of it in the churches enforced by heavy fines, was prohibited by a proclamation Neal's History of the Puritans: Baxter, Life; Hetherington's

Hist. West. Assem.

assembly; and in the state of parties we can
easily perceive that such an unanimity of religious
opinion was impossible. But their discord was
at the height upon the important question of the
form of discipline and government for the Eng-
lish church. The Presbyterians and Indepen-
dents were agreed that the form of a church was
laid down in the New Testament, but this the
Erastian party stoutly denied.
Again, while the
Erastians agreed with the Presbyterians that the
form of church government proposed by the lat-
ter was the fittest to be established by the civil
power, they denied its claim to Divine origin and
authority, in which denial they were, of course,
joined by the Independents. Presbyterianism
was thus adopted only by a majority in the as-
sembly; but while its claim to Divine right was
supported by the common council and the city
ministers of London, it was refused by the par-
liament, which also retained to itself the right to
judge and punish in ecclesiastical offences. An-
other trying subject was the question of tolera-
tion. Several years earlier not less than eighty
congregations, of different sectaries, had been
enumerated by Bishop Hall in the House of
Lords, and since that period they had been on
the increase throughout the kingdom. And what
course were they to adopt with these formidable
recusants? By the subscription of the Covenant,
they were bound to labour for the extirpation of
Popery, prelacy, superstition, heresy, schisms,
and profaneness; and they had promised to dis-
cover all malignants and incendiaries who should
hinder the reformation of religion, divide the
king from his subjects, or excite any factions
among the people, contrary to the League and
Covenant, and bring them to public trial and

Roman Catholics, and especially their priests and the Jesuits, were still exposed to persecution, but it was as the friends of a foreign ecclesiastical despotism; and the Protestant bishops and Episcopal clergy were closely watched, and harshly treated, as the adherents of monarchical rule. Atheism was punished, and all persons were required to attend some place of worship. Every outrage against religion was also punished, such as profanity, vice, blasphemy, and the holding of opinions that tended to dissolve society; and trading, travelling, or frequenting of taverns on the Sabbath, were made punishable by fine or imprisonment.

In this way Presbyterianism had commenced the battle of civil and religious liberty, achieved the overthrow of Episcopacy, and established itself in the room of the gorgeous church which it had supplanted. But in a great national revolution it frequently happens, that those by whom it has been effected are succeeded by actors still more violent and impetuous, by whom the change is pushed to an extreme, and the country pre

Presbyterianism in England, of which a very few years witnessed the triumph and the downfall. In the great strife between the two rival parties, the political moderation of the Presbyterians was out of season, and in the question which was narrowed to despotism or a republic, their views of a limited monarchy, which were afterwards to form the base of the British constitution, were regarded as pusillanimous and tame. More thorough-going men and fiercer ex

condign punishment. But the right of persecuting every sect opposed to Presbyterianism, and subduing their recusancy by the sword, was opposed in the Westminster Assembly by the Independents and Erastians, and decisively rejected by the parliament. As yet, the great principle of toleration was but beginning to dawn upon the Christian world, and the sect that had been persecuted to-day were as ready to become the persecutors of to-morrow, when their own hour had arrived. From this general charge, indeed, the Independents were beginning to be an honourable exception; and in the notices of Baillie, who was one of the commissioners to the assembly from the Church of Scotland, we find how greatly the Presbyterians were annoyed by this new phase of Christian liberality. "While Cromwell is here," he writes on one occasion, "the House of Commons, without the least advertisements to any of us, or of the assembly, passes an order that the grand committee of both houses, assembly and us [the Scottish Presbyterians], shall consider of the means to unite us and the Indepen-pared for a reaction. And such was the fate of dents; or, if that be found impossible, to see how they may be tolerated. This has much affected us. These men have retarded the assembly these twelve long months." And again: "But their greatest plot, wherewith we are wrestling, is an order of the House of Commons, contrived by Mr. Solicitor (Oliver St. John) and Mr. Marshall, which they got stolen through to the committee of lords, commons, and divines, which treated with us to consider of differences in point of church government which were among the mem-tremes were in greater accordance with the spirit bers of the assembly, if they might be agreed; of the age and the character of the struggle, and or if not, how far tender consciences might be these accordingly were found in the Indepenborne with, which could not come up to the com- dents, and the wild sects which Independency mon rule to be established, that so the proceedings had produced. It was by the army and its of the assembly might not be retarded. This matchless leader that Presbytery as well as moorder presently gave us the alarm; we saw it was narchy was overthrown; and the change of the for a toleration of the Independents, by act of army from Presbyterian to Independent can be parliament, before the Presbytery or any com- easily traced in the history of the day. At first, mon rule were established." In another passage the soldiers were men of the Covenant, and they Baillie acknowledges the liberal forbearance of fought merely for a rational limitation of the these Independents, but only to condemn it: kingly power, not its absolute extinction. Each "They plead," he writes, "for a toleration to other regiment also had its Presbyterian chaplain, who sects, as well as to themselves; and with much marched to the field with his parishioners. But ado could we get them to propose what they de- after the battle of Edgehill and the re-modelling sired to [for] themselves. At last they did give of the army, when wild sectaries were poured us a paper requiring expressly a full toleration into the ranks and more decisive measures adoptof congregations, in their way everywhere sepa-ed, these clergymen, finding themselves out of rate from ours." Thus, though the Presbyterian church government was established, it was not without a long struggle, and with it was established what it had so zealously opposed-the toleration of every class of Nonconformists. Even where exceptions were made, it was rather in reference to the political perversity, than the religicus errors of those who were excepted. The

place, retired to their peaceful cures. "This fatal accident," the historian of Puritanism observes, "proved the ruin of the cause in which the parliament were engaged; for the army being destitute of chaplains, who might have restrained the irregularities of their zeal, the officers set up for preachers in their several regiments, depending upon a kind of miraculous assistance of the

Divine Spirit, without any study or preparation; and when their imaginations were heated, they gave vent to the most crude and undigested abcurdities. Nor did the evil rest there; for, from preaching at the head of their regiments, they took possession of the country pulpits where they were quartered, till at length they spread the infection over the whole nation, and brought the regular ministry into contempt." The military successes of such an army soon turned the scale in the House of Commons, where the Independents acquired a large majority; and as a political power, Presbyterianism may be said to have terminated its existence in England with the execution of the king.

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But although the triumph of Independency had been so signal, its reign was brief. Its history, however, is so fully impersonated in that of the Commonwealth, that the subject may be wound with a few brief notices. Toleration was the order of the day during the protectorate; and this principle was the more easily observed, that no exclusively established church existed. In the present state of things, indeed, such an establishment would have been impossible, where the superior numbers and wealth of the Presbyterians were counterpoised by the military strength and political influence of the Independents. The parish churches therefore throughout England, although occupied in greatest measure by Presbyterian incumbents, were also, in many cases, held by Independent ministers, or even by sectaries of a less orderly description, while several were still retained by their old Episcopal possessors. Even gifted laymen, who were supposed either by themselves or others to possess in an especial degree the powers requisite for teachers of religion, found the pulpits open to their entrance. The evils of this state of things, however, were so obvious, that in March, 1653, Cromwell appointed a "Board of Triers," consisting of thirtyeight members, and composed of Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, to limit the assumption and correct the abuses of the ministerial office, by testing the qualifications of those who held it. This board continued in office until the death of Cromwell, when it was annihilated at the Restoration; and although much ridicule was afterwards thrown upon the institution, yet the services of these triers were of substantial and lasting benefit. This we learn from the impartial testimony of Baxter, who disowned their commission, and was regarded by them as an enemy. "The truth is," he says, "that though their authority is null, and though some few over-busy and over-rigid Independents among them were too severe against all that were Arminians, and too particular in inquiring after evidences of 1 Neal, ii. 356.

sanctification in those whom they examined, and somewhat too lax in their admission of unlearned and erroneous men that favoured Antinomianism or Anabaptism, yet, to give them their due, they did abundance of good to the church. They saved many a congregation from ignorant, ungodly, drunken teachers-the sort of men that intended no more in the ministry than to say a sermon as readers say their common prayers, and to patch up a few words together to talk the people asleep with on Sunday, and all the rest of the week to go with them to the ale-house, and harden them in their sin; and that sort of ministers that either preached against a holy life, or preached as men that never were acquainted with it. All those who used the ministry but as a common trade to live by were never likely to convert a soul: all these they usually rejected; and in their stead they admitted any that were able, serious preachers, and lived a godly life, of what tolerable opinion soever they were. So that, though there were many of them somewhat partial for the Independents, Separatists, Fifth Monarchy Men, and Anabaptists, and against the Prelatists and Arminians, so great was the benefit above the hurt which they brought to the church, that many thousands of souls blessed God for the faithful ministers whom they let in, and grieved when the Prelatists afterwards cast them out again.”

Hitherto we have confined our notice chiefly to the Presbyterians, and their rivals the Indepen dents, the two leading forms in which the Eng lish Puritanism was manifested when the great struggle for civil and religious liberty had commenced. It was impossible, however, when the spirit of inquiry was abroad, that it would content itself with such limitations; and although the sectaries were numerous, they were also comparatively little known, until the re-modelling of the army called them from obscurity, and the universal toleration gave them full liberty of action. One of the wonders of the age was, that an army composed of such strange and discor dant elements, could be so coherently and firmly united; that preaching generals and praying or expounding captains could be such wise effective leaders, and brave chivalrous warriors; and that such mystagogues as Vane, Cromwell, and others, whose religious views were apparently incomprehensible, and their rhapsodies unintelligible even by themselves, should yet have seen so clearly, and acted so wisely and calmly, when great political interests were at stake. But the history of the sectarianism of the period is too important as well as too multifarious for a passing notice, and may therefore be deferred to the period of the Restoration, in which it still continued in active exercise.

2 Reliquia Baxteriana: London, 1696.

CHAPTER XIX.-HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. (A.D. 1603), TO THE RESTORATION (A.D. 1660).

Change produced in England by the Reformation-Rise of Puritanism-Twofold character of English society at this period through religious diversities-Effects of Puritanism upon the military spirit-Contrast between the Puritan and royalist soldiers at the close of the Civil war-Slow progress of English commerce-Trading companies of the period-Banking-Postage and post-offices-Agriculture-Rural life-Rapid increase of the London population-Causes of the increase-Attempts to check it-Growth of London-Population of its different districts-Great resort of St. Paul's Walk-Other places of public concourse-Places of private assignation and festivity-Coarseness and discomfort of metropolitan life-Hackney coaches-Complaints against them-Fashionable life in London-Its style illustrated by Lady Compton's letter-Attendants and retinues of noble families-Dress-Costume of gentlemen-Extravagant dresses of the royal favourites-Love-locks-Beards—Ornaments-Military foppery-Patches introduced by military pretenders-Coxcombry -Contrast to the prevalent fashions in the dress and manners of the Puritans-Effects of London fashions on the rural gentry-Receipt for converting a country squire into a town gentleman-The mercantile community -Their manners and mode of living-Their martial spirit at the commencement of the Civil war-Alsatians and bullies-Highwaymen of the period-London thieves and cut-purses--Onerous duties of the London magistrates-Domestic life of the period-Cookery-Increase of intemperance in drinking-A state banquet and masque of James I. and the King of Denmark--Sports of the period-Aversion of King James to military sports-Masques-Active sports-London ainusements-Games of the lower orders-Cromwell's encouragement of manly sports-Commencement of coach-driving as an English amusement-Introduction of the regular drama into England-London play-houses-Their rude and naked condition-Their days and hours for meeting-A play-house audience of the period-Criticism of the theatre and mode of its expression-EducationStudy of philosophy added to that of languages-Cultivation of the fine arts promoted by Charles I.-Military exercises a part of education-Education finished by travelling-Restrictions imposed on English touristsProgress of the national literature-Dramatic poetry-Early dramatic writers-Marlow-Shakspeare-Chief events in his life-The Mermaid Club-Ben Jonson-Beaumont and Fletcher-Massinger-Webster-Heywood -The stage suppressed by the Puritans-Puritan poets-Cavalier poets-Literary and scientific men of the period-Eminent churchmen-Distinguished Scotchmen of the period-Sir William Drummond-Napier of Merchiston-David Calderwood-Robert Baillie-Alexander Henderson, &c.

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S we have already seen, the ad- | try, feudal tyranny, and regal oppression, were vent of the Reformation, which so all successively overtaken by the irresistible ongreatly changed the political and set; and each in turn was compelled to yield, moral aspect of Europe, had an or submit to be crushed and exterminated. especially powerful effect upon the needed, indeed, no peculiarly prophetic sagacity condition of England. There it to foresee such a consequence, let the teachers, found a congenial soil, and soon took root and legislators, and rulers of the nation be what they flourished. The character of the people-so re- might, or act as they pleased. The first step in flective and stable-so intrepid in investigation this great march of emancipation was the reand so eager for progress-was better adapted jection of Peter's-pence; the last, that of shipfor the doctrines of Luther and the Reformers money; and the latter act was nothing more than than even the countries in which they had ori- a natural consequence of the former. The king ginated; and hence England quickly became, as might easily have guessed that he scarcely could it has ever since continued to be, beyond all succeed where even a pontiff had failed. others, a Protestant country. In such a condition, something more than merely the religious faith of the people was certain to be changed and improved. The ardent spirit of inquiry, now fully aroused, instead of confining itself to theological investigations, advanced into the principles of government, law, literature, and social progress; and in each of these departments the effete or the time-honoured corruptions of past ages, were assailed by the same mighty outburst that had shaken the seven-hilled City to its foundation, and swept its dominion from our island. Monastic superstition, medieval pedan

The most important episode in this general progress is formed by the history of English Puritanism. At the commencement of the Reformation in England, the royal power that would have been inadequate to arrest the movement, more wisely resolved to head it, and both Henry VIII. and his illustrious daughter stood forth as the crowned and anointed champions of Protestantism. This support, however, was not to he vouchsafed for nought, and, accordingly, in formulating the new Protestant church in England, the reforming sovereigns took care of their own interests by moulding it into a monarchy of which

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