John Stoughton

“ Between the poor rural clergy, with equally indigent chaplains and curates on the one hand, and the richly-beneficed and dignified members of the order on the other, a broad distinction must be drawn in point of attainments and eloquence, if not in point of original ability. In London, in the Universities, and in the high places of the Church, there were men, especially towards the close of the period under our review, who for scholastic learning, and ministerial capacity, were illustrious ornaments of their sacred profession. ”

“ Independents, Baptists, and Quakers, to mention no others—I speak of them all generally—did anything but keep "the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace." The apostolic warning betokened evil to Puritan Christendom in England—"If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." Yet those whose eyes are open to discern the defects in principle and temper of the ecclesiastical organizations of the Long Parliament and the Commonwealth, can also see that Puritanism has bequeathed to English Christendom a precious legacy of religious freedom. ”

“ There were individuals, as amidst the plague of Athens, "who spent their days in merriment and folly—who feared neither the displeasure of God, nor the laws of men—not the former, because they deemed it the same thing whether they worshipped or neglected to do so, seeing that all in common perished—not the latter, because no one expected his life would last till he received the punishment of his crimes;" ”

“ The Presbyterians were led by Baxter—an acute metaphysician, a keen debater, subtle and fertile in mind, in character honest, and open as the day—possessing at all times in abundance the silvern gift of speech—rarely, if ever, showing the golden gift of silence. He lacked that sobriety of judgment, that patience under contradiction, that employment of means for attainable results, and that common-sense acquaintance with men and things, which are essential to success in all deliberations. Calamy does not appear as a speaker in the Conference, but he played an active part in Committees. ”

“ We cannot but think that during the infinitely momentous weeks which made up that month of May, such men would have little heeded the voting of jewels to Royal messengers, and decisions respecting State beds and State coaches—things which occupied the Houses for some time—but would rather have thrown themselves heart and soul into the work of building up some safe and sure defence against the return of arbitrary government and ecclesiastical intolerance. ”

“ This was an extraordinary speech to an English Parliament. It can bear no construction but that of being a plea for a dispensing power. The Houses having framed a law, Clarendon would have it left to the Royal wisdom to temper its administration, and to distinguish between the tenderness and the pride of conscience,—as if the power of discerning spirits were a gift to kings. ”

“ Should any one ask, why were these people in the West so differently treated from Englishmen in His Majesty's home dominions—the answer is, that the power and the temper of the colonists were such that it would have been dangerous to the Imperial rule of Great Britain to have denied them the utmost toleration which they asked. Most of the emigrants had fled the shores of England, because of their Nonconformity, to seek a home in the New World, where they might worship God; and for defence of the refuge which they had gained at the cost of exile, they were willing to lay down their lives. ”

“ The heedless, folly-loving prince takes himself quite out of the range of our sympathies, and leaves us to condemn the breach of his plighted faith, and all the intolerance incident to his return. A useless controversy was once carried on as to whether he was really a Papist at the time of the Restoration. It is idle to dispute respecting the theological opinions of a man so utterly destitute of religious feeling and thoughtfulness. That he was not a Protestant at the time—meaning by the word a person attached to the Reformed faith—is plain enough from what is said by those who knew him best. ”

“ With these various materials before me, I have entered much more fully than previous historians have done into several subjects—especially the re-establishment of the Episcopal Church by the Act of Uniformity. In our time, when the question of Establishments has been so earnestly and so practically taken up, as to work out already the greatest ecclesiastical change since 1662, surely a full account of what was accomplished in that memorable year, with its immediate results,—results far from having spent their influence,—must be reckoned amongst the most desirable portions of history. ”

“ The arguments adduced in its favour were to the effect—that without a Bill the Declaration would be ineffective; that it was fitting to alter many things in the Liturgy; that the present business was of the highest concernment to the glory of God and the peace of the nation; that the ceremonies of the Church were not of such importance as to justify another war; that some indulgence ought to be granted to those who "ventured their lives for the good of all;" and that the passing of the measure would not vex the Bishops at all, because they were with the King at the framing of the Declaration. ”

“ Our religion, in its best forms, is no doubt essentially a genial social power, healing, constructive, conservative—such we believe it will prove itself to be in the Church of the future—but in the Church of the past, it has shown itself purest and strongest when contending against opposition, when passing through scenes of suffering, when grappling with the evils of society, and when informing and animating individual souls. Persecution has been to piety what the furnace is to the potter's clay ”

“ And I do fear you will find it a harder matter to satisfy those that call themselves your friends, and those who really are so than all those who have been against your Majesty." "Next, Sir, if you come to your crown as freely as you are born to it, how will you settle Church-government at first to please the old true Protestants? And how the Presbyterians, who now call you in, when all other interests [55] have failed to do it? And how the Papists, who do hope for a toleration? How satisfy the Independents, the Congregation, and all the several sorts of violent Sectaries? ”

“ I have too much faith in the English spirit of the seventeenth century, in the generosity which mingled with the High Churchmanship of the best of the Cavaliers, and in the thorough conscientiousness of many of the Conformists, to believe that they could have acted towards Dissenters as they did, unless they had been hood-winked by people who persuaded them, that Dissenters were not true-hearted Englishmen, but only so many wretched rebels. ”

“ In contrast with our conscious security twenty years ago, and our reliance upon the stability of the Constitution at a moment when political changes were sweeping over Europe, as rapidly as the shadows of the clouds chase each other over the corn-fields, our fathers, in the latter part of the year 1659, felt they had no political constitution whatever in existence, except as it might be preserved in lawyers' books, and in people's memories. ”

“ It laid hold on thousands, not only by simple methods of religious worship which commended themselves to the plain understanding, and the unsophisticated taste of Anglo-Saxon people,—but by its emphatic exhibition of the truths of Christianity as a redemptive system, full of the love of God to sinful men, commending itself to humble and sorrow-stricken hearts. ”

“ A mischievous policy had been pursued by the Puritans towards the old Church of England. Laud's execution yielded a harvest of revenge. The extirpation of Episcopacy, and the suppression of the Prayer Book, kindled an exasperation which kept alive a resentful intolerance down to the period of the Revolution. I am aware of the excuses made for Puritan despotism, and am ready to allow some palliation for wrong done under provoking circumstances, but I must continue to express indignation at the injustice committed ”

“ The Anglican law was prescriptive; the Puritan prohibitive. But there is involved in all this a general resemblance between the two. Neither appears thoroughly straightforward; each is exceedingly intolerant; and both aim at doing one thing, under pretence of doing something else. Yet let it not be forgotten, that while there is little to choose between them in point of principle, the extent to which persecution was carried, under Charles and his brother James, immensely exceeded anything reached under the Long Parliament, or under Oliver Cromwell. ”

“ The following passage on Nonconformity from Clarendon's pen is equally deficient in charity and wisdom:—"Their faction is their religion: nor are those combinations ever entered into upon real and substantial motives of conscience, how erroneous soever, but consist of many glutinous materials, of will, and humour, and folly, and knavery, and ambition, and malice, which make men inseparably cling together, till they have satisfaction in all their pretences, or till they are absolutely broken and subdued, which may always be more easily done than the other."—Life of Clarendon by Lister, ii. ”

“ SAVOY CONFERENCE.
Baxter drew up an answer, in which he maintained the principal part of these proposals "to be rational, regular, and Christianlike." After going over much of the old ground, and referring to the Convocation in no unfriendly spirit, he says: "We are resolved faithfully to teach the people, that the division of the Church is worse than inexpedient:" and, "We conclude with the repetition of our more earnest request, that these wise and moderate proposals may be prosecuted, and all things be abated us, which we have proved or shall prove to be contrary to the Word of God." ”

“ The Breda Declaration had bound Charles to be considerate in dealing with religious matters, to show respect for tender consciences. Comprehension, toleration—he stood pledged to promote. But how were the problems to be solved? [73] He was a Constitutional King. He was to rule through Parliaments. Should bigotry arise and carry all before it in the Commons' House, as elsewhere, what was he to do? Should his Ministers differ from him, how then? Such possibilities gazed at by a thoughtful man might well have made him anxious, if not alarmed. ”