At length Charles, under whom they had suffered twenty years of bitter persecution, died by poison, according to bishop Burnet. To this prelate we are indebted for an account of his character and death. There is strong evidence that he became a papist before he was the champion of the church of England, and the enemy of dissenters; but to us it appears a ever the dissenters might at first think of the indulgence, they saw now that they were only to be tools to advance the Romish religion; therefore alderman Love, a city member, and a leading presbyterian, spoke against it with great zeal, and said, that they would rather go without their desired liberty, than have it in a way so detrimental to the nation. The house of commons, which had for ten years been loading them with penal laws, were so wrought upon by this sacrifice of their liberty to the interest of the nation and religion, that they ordered a bill to be brought in to take off the penalties of the act of uniformity, and require only the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. It passed in the commons, but being detained for amendments in the lords, the parliament was prorogued before it was ready for the royal assent. But the king having, at the remonstrance of the commons, revoked the indulgence, and promised to pass any bill they should present to him for the security of religion; they took him at his word, and passed a bill to prevent dangers which may happen from popish recusants; requiring all persons, in any office under government, to take the sacrament in the church of England. When this bill, which has since been called the Test Act, was brought into the house the court endeavoured to prevent it, by dividing the protestant church party, with a proposal for some regard to the protestant dissenters. But alderman Love, seeing the project, stcod up again, and said," he hoped the clause proposed in favour of dissenters, would occasion no intemperate heat: that he should move for passing the bill, which was such a barrier against popery, without any alteration, without interposing any thing till it was finished; the dissenters choosing rather to lie under the severity of the laws for a time, than clog a more necessary work." This defeated the scheme of the court; and as no money-bill could be obtained without, the king gave his assent. Though the protestant religion stood in need of the united strength of all its professors nugatory question to ask, what was the religion of a graceless debauchee; for he used to come from the bed of his harlots to church and to sacrament. He was not cruel in his own disposition, but as he was ever ready to sacrifice the non-conformists for money to pursue his guilty pleasures, they suffered as much from him as if he had been a Nero. If we may believe James, his successor on the throne, he died in the communion of the church of England. Truly that must be a holy holy mother church which could esteem itself honoured by such a son as Charles the second. His last moments present an awful scene: sitting up in the bed, with one of his mistresses, who treated him as her husband, he recommended his other harlots to the care of his successor, but said not one word of his wife, or his people, or his debts, though he had saved ninety thousand guineas, which should have paid them. The bishops of the church of England were excluded, and a popish priest called in, who gave him the consecrated wafer, which, from the languor of his frame, he could not swallow, without a glass of water to wash it down*. Thus he passed to a tribunal, before which our imagination shudders to behold him. The duke of Yorke, who now ascended the throne against popery, and of all the civil securities which could be given for the church and state, yet I presume to say, that it is not only a great prostitution of the sacrament, to make it a qualification for civil offices and employments, but an infatuation to suppose it can be any security for our religion. The zeal, however, of this house of commons against popery, inclined both churchmen and dissenters to pass the act and it has ever since continued, much to the disbonour, I think, of our holy religion." Warner, vol. II. p. 619–620. *Burnet's Own Times, vol. II, p. 606-9. by the title of James the second, began his reign with an honest avowal of popery*. The dissenters were persecuted with tenfold fury; for, availing himself of Monmouth's rebellion† to crush the enemies of popery, and arbitrary power, the king turned his realm into a slaughter-house; of which judge Jeffereys was the grand butcher ‡. After his western circuit, the quarters of several hundred persons were hung up all over the country, for fifty or sixty miles. This fiery persecution produced an effect supremely honourable to the sufferers, for several ministers of the establishment forsook it, as unworthy the name of a church of Christ, since it was stained with the blood of the saints, the dye of the scarlet whore. This new band of non-conformists had the glory of taking up the cross, when it crushed many to death. But the king advanced so rapidly in the road to Rome, that the clergy took the alarm, and began to tremble for their livings, and their consequence in the state. James, irritated at this, wheeled round and courted the dissenters, pretending that he had always wished to favour them, but the clergy had opposed, offering rather to yield to the papists, provided they might be allowed to crush the dissenters. The penal laws were now suspended, and the meetings which had for years been maintained with great secresy and hazard were publicly held§. The high party which had betrayed the liberties of the country, for the vile price of their enemies' blood, now became wonderfully patriotic. Both the church and the king courted the dissenters. This terminated the prosecutions for non-conformity; for although the penal statutes still * Warner, p. 630. + Ibidem, p. 631. existed* they lay dormant, till by the act of toleration they were annulled. The dissenters wisely improved their liberties, without inquiring what was the design of the robber, in restoring to them their own, and justly concluding, that if they could preach the Gospel, and render men Christians, this was the most effectual way to prevent their becoming papists. But when James tempted them to active concurrence with his measures for introducing popery and arbitrary power, he found them so determined against sacrificing their country's liberties, that he said," they were an ill-natured set, who could not be gained t." When the king published his royal declaration for liberty of conscience, and commanded it to be read in all the churches, the clergy were greatly embarassed. Several of the bishops having ventured to address his majesty against this declaration, which was founded on the illegal claim of a power to suspend the laws, were sent to the tower‡, where they were kindly visited by the dissenters, whom they had hunted into prisons. After a long trial in Westminsterhall, they were nobly acquitted, and seemed so much improved by their sufferings, that even Sancroft became an advocate for kindness to those, whom he now deigned to call his protestant dissenting brethren. But James, pursuing his infatuated councils, provoked the nation to invite over William, prince of Orange, who had married his daughter, in order to rescue the church and the liberties of England. The church party expressed their approbation of the Dutch invasion in such terms, that James was surprized and confounded, after all their declarations that passive † Ibidem, p. 639, 640. Ibidem, p. 264. * Warner, vol. II. p. 264. obedience, and non-resistance was the doctrine of the church of England, and that resistance to kings on any pretence was damnable*. But this was good and wholesome doctrine no longer than the application was confined to their enemiest; for as soon as James gave them to feel the weight of it upon their own persons, they rose and drove from the throne the unhappy monarch, who had learned from them to believe himself the inviolate king of a nation of slaves, and whose eyes were opened time enough to see himself ruined. With all their accusations, they could never bring such proofs of rebellion from puritan ministers, as were now displayed by the clergy. Compton, bishop of London, like a true son of the church militant, girded on the armour, and with a red coat and sword, assisting Anne to desert her father and king, fled with her to meet the invading prince. Burnet, who was afterwards bishop of Sarum, had carried on the negociation in Holland, and having come over with William, was a chaplain in his army. Yet who will charge the established clergy with more hypocrisy, than will ever be found under the profession of such political principles§? As a doctrine of religion, abstinence from all political interference, and non-resistence of injuries, may be sincerely maintained. But by whom? The gay student in the elegant retreat of academic groves? Or by the pampered dignitary," clothed in purple and fine linen and faring sumptuously every day? Certainly not. But by those whose superior regard for eternity has sacrificed the friendship of the world, who, every day * Warner, p. 630. ↑ Burnet's Own Times, vol. II. p. 699. Warner, p. 647. § Ibidem, p. 643. |