them; but others treated them roughly. As soon as the late queen heard of this, she did, by her letters and proclamations, encourage those good designs, which were afterwards prosecuted by the late king. Other societies set themselves to raise charity schools for teaching poor children, for clothing them, and binding them out to trades; many books were printed, and sent over the nation by them, to be freely distributed : these were called Societies for Propagating Christian Knowledge by this means, some thousands of children are now well educated and carefully looked after. In many places of the nation, the clergy met often together, to confer about matters of religion and learning; and they got libraries to be raised for their common use. At last a corporation was created by the late king, for propagating the gospel among infidels, for settling schools in our plantations, for furnishing the clergy that were sent thither, and for sending missionaries among such of our plantations as were not able to provide pastors for themselves. It was a glorious conclusion of a reign begun with preserving our religion, thus to create a corporation for propagating it to the remotest parts of the earth, and among infidels: there were very liberal subscriptions made to it by many of the bishops and clergy, who set about it with great care and zeal *."

William having 66 incorporated these societies" by a peculiar charter, the chief directors of which were the archbishops, bishops, nobility, &c., much of the religious spirit in which they originated was lost, and the chartered society, governed chiefly by the Tory clergy, soon sunk into comparative uselessness, while the small voluntary associations of devotional persons altogether declined. Indeed, the religion of the most eminent of the clergy in this period, with a few exceptions, was of a less orthodox and evangelical character, than that of the fathers of the church of England. But on this subject an eminent episcopal divine shall testify. "The state of religious instruction at this period may be known from the writings of Tillotson, Sharp, Atterbury, Sherlock, &c. If as writers they were superior to the divines of the former age, in the manner

* Ibid, vol. v, p. 90-92.

and philological beauties of their discourses, in doctrine and matter they were far inferior. Though able advocates for the church of England against popery, and for revelation against infidelity, and most eminent as moral instructors, yet they afforded but a very infrequent, faint, and cold exhibition of those peculiar truths of the gospel which the Reformation had restored. This age produced, however, and saw advanced to the episcopal bench, a Stillingfleet and a Beveridge *."

CHAPTER II.

DISSENTERS IN ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY.

Condition of Dissenters - They gather churches and build chapels — Dissenting tutors Presbyterians Independents clergy-Archbishop Tillotson intolerant

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Baptists- Quakers - Opposed by the · Generous mind of the king.

DISSENTERS from the church of England polity and ceremonies, shielded from violence in worshipping God, arose in the reign of William and Mary to make provision for their religious assemblies. Difficulties necessarily attended their operations, as they were barely tolerated, and their liberty was limited by several degrading restrictions. Most of the two thousand ejected ministers, during the course of twentysix years from the Restoration, had been translated to their heavenly rest; Dr. Owen had recently departed to behold the "Glory of Christ," "Discourses on which he died writing; and most of the survivors had been grievously injured by their long-continued sufferings under antichristian persecution.

Nevertheless, the Dissenters, blessed with liberty to worship God without fear of prison, now gathered congregations, and erected numerous meeting-houses throughout the country, rejoicing in the observance of the ordinances of Christ their Lord and Saviour; and though many of their infant churches declined and became extinct, for want of a sufficient supply of educated successors to their deceased pastors, they continued to increase in most parts of the kingdom.

* Church History, by the Rev. John Fry, B. A. p. 583.

Several of the most eminent of the ejected ministers undertook the preparation of pious young men for the ministry, establishing academies in different parts; and the names of Frankland, Jollie, Warren, Tallents, James Owen, Philip Henry, Benion, Spademan, and Chauncey, will be honoured as the Dissenting tutors of this period.

Four denominations appeared at this time; concerning whose peculiar principles it will be necessary to make a few remarks for the better information of our readers.

1. PRESBYTERIANS: so called from the Greek TрeσBUTEрos, a senior, or elder, are those whose societies are governed by the elders of the churches. They affirm, with truth, that the New Testament calls the same persons presbyters or elders, and bishops, or overseers, pastors, shepherds, and ministers, they having no superiority one over another. Such is the national church of Scotland; and such were most of the Dissenters in England at the Revolution. Their chief ministers at this period were Dr. Bates, Dr. Calamy, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Flavel, and Mr. Marshal.

2. INDEPENDENTS: so called from their holding, as it is said in an article in the church of England, that every "church is a congregation of faithful men," &c., perfectly independent of all civil or ecclesiastical power in the government of their religious affairs. Such they maintained were the first Christian churches, until they were corrupted by worldly ambition. Their chief ministers were Dr. Owen, Dr. Chauncey, Mr. Howe, Mr. Philip Henry, and his son Matthew.

3. BAPTISTS: these also were Independents in church polity, differing only in the rejection of infant baptism, and performing that only by submersion; and their principal ministers were Dr. Veil, Mr. Keach, Mr. Stennet, and the famous Mr. Bunyan.

4. QUAKERS: these were most decided Independents: distinguished also by their rejecting baptism and the Lord's supper. Their chief leaders were William Penn and Robert Barclay.

Protection, under certain hard conditions, the Dissenters enjoyed but they were exposed to the resentment of the

high church party, from whom they experienced much opposition. Bishop Burnet will be the most unobjectionable witness in this case. He says, "There were two different parties among the clergy: one was firm and faithful to the present government, and served it with zeal; these did not envy the Dissenters the ease that toleration gave them: they wished for a favourable opportunity of making such alterations, in some few rites and ceremonies, as might bring them into the church. Others took the oaths indeed, and concurred in every act of compliance with the government; though not only cold in serving it, but always blaming the administra. tion at the same time, they showed great resentments against the Dissenters, and were enemies to the toleration. The bulk of the clergy ran this way, so that the moderate party was far outnumbered. Profane minds had too great advantages from this, in reflecting severely on a body of men, that took oaths, and performed public devotion, when the rest of their lives was too public and visible a contradiction to such oaths and prayers *."

Intolerance was cherished even by some of the moderate of the prelates and the names of the learned Stillingfleet, and the amiable Tillotson, both educated by the nonconformists, were influenced in a measure by that antichristian disposition. Archbishop Tillotson condemns Mr. Frankland, an eminent dissenting tutor of that age, in his letter to Dr. Sharp archbishop of York concerning him, for "first, his setting up a school where a free school is already established: and then his instructing of young men, in so public a manner, in university learning, which is contrary to his oath to do, if he have taken a degree in either of our universities; and, I doubt, contrary to the bishop's oath to grant a license for the doing of it ↑.”

Happily, however, for the Dissenters and the nation, the king was far more tolerant than his clergy. By his authority, as head of the church, their flaming zeal was in a great measure quenched; and by his enlarged and liberal mind, and his upright example and influence, public opinion was

*Life and Times, vol. iv, p. 312, 313.

+ Birch's Life of Archbishop Tillotson, p. 296, 297.

carried forward to a surprising degree. And though the British crown was not without thorns on the head of this great monarch, through the virulence of party spirit as above described by Burnet, his principles and virtues were an unspeakable blessing to the nation, and Dissenters especially revere the memory of William III.

CHAPTER III.

SCOTLAND UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY.

The episcopal clergy insulted

The bishops oppose William Convention of the States-"Claim of Right" — Prelacy denounced Carstairs advises the kingPrelacy abolished — Endeavours to restore prelacy-Religion and education prosper.

SCOTLAND, immediately on the accession of William and Mary, engaged the attention of their majesties, to terminate the miseries of persecution, and emancipate the profession of religion. The prelates in Scotland dreaded the enlightened principles of the Prince of Orange, and opposed his being advanced to the throne.

Dr. Cook remarks, “In the north of Scotland, where from the prudence and mildness of the bishops, or from the inclinations of the people, there had been little persecution, the prospect of a change in the ecclesiastical polity excited no ferment; but in the south and west, where there had been a long succession of the most grievous sufferings, and where the established clergy had taken an active part against the Presbyterians, the hope of seeing the restoration of that form of church-government which they revered, led some of the Cameronians to insult the episcopal ministers. They carried them round their parishes in mock procession, reproached them for their past conduct, required them no longer to preach, and frequently concluded by burning their gowns. Improper as were these excesses, how light were they when put in the balance against the enormities which under prelacy had been perpetrated; for no personal violence, no tortures, no murders, disgraced a sect which had been borne