who reduced all religion to a very few precepts inculcated by reason and the light of nature, gathered themselves a company, been exclusively in the hands of the Presbyterians: but Cromwell, in March, 1654, appointed a board of thirty Tryers, composed of Presbyterians and Independents, with two or three Baptists, to examine and license preachers throughout England. The same year he appointed lay commissioners in every county, with full power to eject scandalous, ignorant, and incompetent ministers Both these ordiand schoolmasters. nances were confirmed by parliament. Such was the state of the English Presbyterians during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. On the accession of his son, Richard Cromwell, the Presbyterians, seeing no prospect of the restoration of the solemn League and Covenant, or of their obtaining ecclesiastical dominion over England, under the existing form of government, formed a coalition with the royalists, in 1659, in order to restore the king. The remains of the long parliament were resuscitated, and placed over the nation. The members, excluded from it in 1648, were recalled, and took their seats: and thus it became more than half Presbyterian. This parliament in 1660, voted that the concessions offered by the king in the negotiations at the Isle of Wight in 1648, were satisfactory; restored Presbyterianism completely, together with the solemn League and Covenant, appointed a new council of state, ordered that a new parliament should be chosen, and then dis solved. After five the Scotch refused to acknowledge it, months, these new representatives re- All sects of Christians, except Papists and The Presbyterians, who now had the whole power of the country in their own hands, were so zealous to prevent the election of republicans to the new parliament, that when it met, it was decidedly in favour of a monarchy. Parliament now recalled the king, without making any stipulations with him respecting the religion of the country. He very soon restored Episcopacy; and then would grant no toleration to any class of dissenters. The Presbyterians, who had the most to lose, were the greatest sufferers. Some hundreds of their ministers were immediately displaced, to make way for the old Episcopal incumbents. And in 1662, the act of uniformity made it criminal to dissent from the established or Episcopal church; and of course exposed all dissenters to persecution. A number of the Presbyterian ministers with impunity, under their leaders Sidney, Henry Neville, Martin, and Harrington." 8 § 23. During this period also arose, among the Presbyterians, the party called Antinomians, or enemies of the law; which has continued to our day, and has caused at times no little commotion. The Antinomians are over rigid Calvinists, who are thought, by the other Presbyterians, to abuse Calvin's doctrine of the absolute decrees of God to the injury of the cause of piety. Some of them (for they do not all hold the same sentiments) deny that it is necessary for ministers to exhort Christians to holiness and obedience to the law; because those whom God has from all eternity elected to salvation, will of themselves, without being admonished and exhorted by any one, perform good and holy deeds, under a divine influence, and an impulse of overpowering grace; while those who are destined by the divine decrees to eternal punishment, though admonished and entreated ever so much, will not obey the law; nor can they obey the divine law, since divine grace is denied them: it is, consequently, sufficient, in preaching to the people, to hold up the Gospel and faith in Jesus Christ. But others merely9 hold, that the elect, because they cannot lose the divine favour, do not truly commit sin and break the law, although conformed, in order to retain their places; but more than 2000 ministers, most of them Presbyterians, were turned out. And during this and the succeeding reign, or till the accession of William and Mary, in 1688, the Presbyterians, equally with the other dissenters, suffered persecution. For though the kings, after the year 1672, were inclined to give toleration to all, in order to advance popery, yet parliament and the bishops resisted it. When the revolution in 1688 placed a tolerant sovereign on the throne, and thus relieved the English Presbyterians from persecution, they were comparatively an enfeebled and humbled sect; and being no longer strenuous for the solemn League and Covenant, and for the jus divinum of Presbyterianism, they were willing to have friendly intercourse and fellowship with Independents, and soon became as catholic in their views, as most of the other English dissenters. See Heylin's History of the Presbyterians; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans; Bogue and Bennet's Hist. of Dissenters; Baxter's Hist. of his own 5 Gilb. Burnet's Hist. of his own Times, vol. i. p. 67. Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. iv. ch. v. p. 113. 343, &c. Tr.] 6 [Dr. Mosheim seems to have taken it for granted, that the English Baptists of this age, because they were called Anabaptists, resembled the old Anabaptists of Germany; whereas they were Mennonites, and though illiterate, and somewhat enthusiastic, they were a people in whom was not a little Christian simplicity and piety. Tr.] Dan. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 87. [ed. Boston, 1817, p. 112, 113. Tr.] 8 See Jo. Toland's Letter to Le Clerc; in the Bibliothèque Universelle et Historique of the latter, tom. xxiii. p. 505, &c. Jo. Hornbeck's Summa Controversiar. p. 800. 812, &c. they should go contrary to its precepts and do wicked actions; wherefore, that they are under no necessity to confess their sins, or to grieve for them: that adultery, for instance, in one of the elect, appears to us, indeed, to be sin or a violation of the law, yet it is no sin in the sight of God; because one who is elected to salvation, can do nothing displeasing to God, and forbidden by the law.1 arms. § 24. Certain wise and peace-loving persons, moved by the numerous calamities and sufferings of their country arising from want of moderation in religious disputes, felt it to be their duty to search for a method of uniting in some measure such of the contending parties as would regard reason and religion, or at least of dissuading them from ruinous contentions. They, therefore, took middle ground between the more violent Episcopalians on the one part, and the more stiff Presbyterians and Independents on the other; hoping, that if the contentions of these could be settled, the minor parties would fall by their own The contests of the former related partly to the forms of Church government and public worship, and partly to certain doctrines, particularly those on which the Reformed and the Arminians were at variance. To bring both classes of contests to a close, these mediators laboured to draw the disputants off from those narrow views which they had embraced, and to exhibit a broader way of salvation. And hence they were commonly called Latitudinarians. In the first place, they were attached to the form of church government, and the mode of public worship established by the laws of England, and they recommended them exclusively to others: yet they would not have it believed, that these were of divine institution, and absolutely necessary. And hence they inferred, that those who 2 it is strange Dr. Mosheim should say of it," Alii vero tantum statuunt," others merely hold. Tr.] Other tenets of the Antinomians, kindred with this, and the more recent disputes, occasioned by the posthumous works of Tobias Crisp, (a distinguished Antinomian preacher,) in which Jo. Tillotson, Baxter, and especially Daniel Williams, (in his celebrated work, Gospel truth stated and vindicated,) vigorously assailed the Antinomians, are stated, though with some errors, by Peter Francis le Courayer, Examen des Defaults Théologiques, tom. ii. p. 198, &c. Amsterd. 1744, 8vo. [See also Bogue and Bennet's Hist. of Dissenters, vol. i. p. 399, &c. and Hannah Adams' Dictionary of all religions, art. Antinomians. One of the chief sources of Antinomian opinions was, the received doctrines of substitution. If Christ took the place of the elect, and in their stead both obeyed the law perfectly, and suffered its penalty, it was hard for some to see what further demands the law could have upon them, or what more they had to do with it. Tr.] Gilbert Burnet's History of his own Times, book ii. vol. i. p. 186, &c. approved other forms of church government, and other modes of worship, were to be tolerated, and to be treated as brethren, unless they were chargeable with other faults. In the next place, as to religion they chose Simon Episcopius for their guide; and in imitation of him maintained, that there are but few things, which a Christian must know and believe, in order to be saved. Hence it followed, that neither the Episcopalians, who embraced the sentiments of the Arminians, nor the Presbyterians and Independents, who adopted the sentiments of the Genevans, had just reason for contending with so much zeal and animosity: because their disputes related to unessential points, which might be explained variously, without the loss of salvation. The most distinguished of the Latitudinarians were the eminent John Hales and William Chillingworth, whose names are still in veneration among the English. With them were joined Henry More, Ralph Cudworth, Theophilus Gale, John Whichcot, John Tillotson, and various others. The first reward for their labour which these men received, was to be called Atheists, Deists, and Socinians, not only by the papists, but also by the English dissentients. But on the restoration of the English monarchy under Charles II. they were advanced to the highest stations, and received general approbation. And it is well known, that the English church at the present day [1753,] is under the direction, for the most part, of such Latitudinarians. Yet there are some among the bishops and the other clergy, who following rather in the steps of Laud, are denominated the High Church and Ecclesiastical Tories.1 An accurately written life of the very acute John Hales, was published in English, by Peter des Maizeaux, London, 1719, 8vo. A Latin and more full history of the life of Hales, we have ourselves prefixed to his History of the Synod of Dort, Hamb. 1724, 8vo. A French life of him, not entirely correct, is in the first volume of Chillingworth's book, immediately to be noticed, p. 73, &c. A life of Chillingworth, in English, was composed by the same Des Maizeaux, and published, London, 1725, 8vo. A French translation of it is prefixed to the French version of his very noted work, The religion of Protestants a safe way of salvation, printed at Amsterdam, 1730, in 3 vols. 8vo. Such as would ac quaint themselves with the regulations, doctrines, and views of the Church of England in later times, should acquaint themselves with these two men, and in particular, should carefully study the above-named work of Chillingworth. Rapin-Thoyras, Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories; in his History of England, [French edition,] vol. x. p. 234. [" See an admirable defence of the Latitudinarian divines, in a book entitled, The Principles and Practices of certain moderate divines of the Church of England (greatly misunderstood) truly represented and defended, London, 1670, 8vo. This book was written by Dr. Fowler, afterwards bishop of Gloucester." Macl.] § 25. On the restoration of Charles II. to the throne of his father in 1660, the ancient forms of ecclesiastical government and public worship returned also, and the bishops recovered their lost dignities. Those who preferred other forms, or the Nonconformists as they are called in England, expected, that some place would be assigned to them in the church: but their hopes were quickly disappointed. For Charles again placed bishops over the Scotch, who were so religiously attached to the Genevan discipline; and likewise over the Irish. And afterwards, in the year 1662, all those who refused to subject themselves to the rites and institutions of the English church, were by a public law separated wholly from its communion. From this period till the times of William and Mary, the Nonconformists experienced various fortune, sometimes more pleasant, and sometimes more sad, according to the disposition of the court and the government; but at no time were they so happy as not either to feel or fear persecution. But in the year 1689, William III., by an express act of parliament, freed all dissenters from the established church, (except Socinians,) from all liability to the penalties to which they were by law exposed.❜ He also permitted the Scottish nation to live under their Genevan regulation, and delivered them from the jurisdiction of bishops. This, therefore, may be regarded as the commencement of that liberty and freedom from molestation which are 5 Dan. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 358. [ed. Boston, 1817, p. 396, &c.] Rapin-Thoyras, Histoire d'Angleterre, tom. ix. p. 198, &c. David Wilkins, Concilia Magna Britanniæ et Hiberniæ, tom. iv. p. 573. [This was the famous Act of Uniformity, which required all clergymen, not only to use the liturgy, but also to swear to renounce and condemn the solemn League and Covenant, Presbyterian ordination, and all efforts for changing the present establishment. In consequence of this act, about 2000 ministers, chiefly Presbyterians, were turned out of their churches, because they could not conform to the law. At the same time, all the old laws against conventicles, neglect of the parish churches, &c. were revived; and these made all Non-conformists liable to civil prosecution. Tr.] Daniel Neal treats particularly of these events in the fourth volume of his History of the Puritans. This act, which is called The Toleration Act, is subjoined to Dan. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. iv. ed. Boston, 1817, vol. v. p. 386, &c. By it all dissenters from the church of England, except Papists and Antitrinitarians, by taking an oath of allegiance, and subscribing to the doctrinal part of the 39 Articles, (or if Quakers, making equivalent affirmations,) are exempted from all the penalties prescribed by the acts which enforce uniformity; and are allowed to erect houses of worship, have their own preachers, and to meet and worship according to their own views, provided they do not when met lock or bolt their doors. They are not however exempted from tithes, and other payments for the support of the established churches ; nor are they excused from the oaths required by the Corporation and Test Acts, which exclude Nonconformists from all civil offices. Tr.] |