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the division of chapters be not altered; that when a word has divers significations, that be kept which has been most commonly used by the fathers; no marginal notes, but for the explication of a Hebrew or Greek word, marginal references may be set down." As some died after their appointment, only forty-seven engaged in the translation. These were divided into six companies. The first translated from Genesis to the first book of Chronicles; the second, to the prophecy of Isaiah; the third translated the four greater Prophets, with the Lamentations and twelve smaller Prophets; the fourth had the Apocrypha; the fifth had the four Gospels, the Acts and the Revelation, and the sixth, the Canonical Epistles. The whole being finished and revised by learned men from the two universities, was published by Bishop Wilson and Dr. Smith, with a dedication to king James, A. D. 1611.*

James was succeeded by his son, Charles I. This prince Pursued the same policy as his father, and laboured with the whole power of his kingdom to subject England, Scotland, and Ireland to his bishops, and to extirpate Puritanism and Calvinism. His primate and chief counsellor, was archbishop Laud, a man who is said to have gone as far as he could go toward Rome without being a papist, and who laboured with all his might to bring the nation to receive Arminianism, and to submit to absolute despotism. But to Popery, Arminianism, and arbitrary power, the nation were hostile; and the king and archbishop found themselves involved in inextricable difficulties with parliament. The king published a declaration like his father, encouraging sports on the Lord's day, and archbishop Laud introduced new and pompous ceremonies, that the English might be like the Gallican church. The Lord's supper had been celebrated at a table in the midst of the house. This, Laud removed, and placing an altar against the east wall, he fenced it round with a rail way, to keep the profane laity at a respectful distance. He required the people to pay great reverence

* The books of the Old and New Testaments were originally written without any division into chapters and verses. In the thirteenth century of the Christian era, Cardinal Hugo divided them into chapters for the purpose of forming a concordance. These chapters he subdivided into sections, to which he affixed the letters of the alphabet. In 1445, Nathan, a Jew, refined upon him, and divided the Old Testament into verses. These however, were marked in no printed Bible, until 1661. But in 1551, Robert Stephens printed the New Testament, and divided it into verses which are now used. Though the division is in some respects useful, the scriptures should always be read without any reference

to it.

CHAP. 18. ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES AT WESTMINSTER

327

on entering and leaving consecrated buildings, to bow to the altar, the only place, he said, where God resided, and to pay great homage to the priests. Against all noconformists, he exercised the most awful severities;* driving multitudes into exile. During twelve years of Laud's administration, four thousand emigrants passed to America. "The sun," said they, "shines as pleasantly on America as on England, and the Sun of righteousness much more clearly. We are treated here in a manner which forfeits all claims upon our affection. The Church of England has added to the ceremonies and habits of Popery the only marks of Antichrist which were wanting, corruption of doctrine and a bloody persecution of the saints. Let us remove whither the providence of God calls, and make that our country which will afford us what is dearer than property or life, the liberty of worshipping God in the way which appears to us most conducive to our eternal welfare."

Those that remained behind were far from being submissive. A spirit of religious liberty is not to be confined or suppressed. A sense of right, and a conviction of duty will disregard despotism, with its bars and bolts. The Puritans felt that their cause was the cause of God. Their teachers were experimental, serious, learned, affectionate, and faithful. Their people were exemplary. In general they had no objection to royalty.They feared God and honoured the King. But they detested heirarchy and the laws which required conformity to the episcopal rites. The severities of the High Commission Court, and the contumely and reproach of Laud, exasperated them to the highest degree. Their numbers greatly increased. Parliament and the sword of the nation passed into their hands.— An assembly of divines was convened by Parliament at Westminster by whom a directory of worship was framed which superceded the prayer book, the famous Assembly's catechism was formed, and other acts were passed, destructive to the old

* One Dr. Leighton, a Puritan, was condemned in the Star Chamber, at Laud's instigation, for publishing an appeal to the Parliament against prelacy. When sentence was pronounced, the archbishop pulled off his cap and gave thanks. This is his own cool record of its execution : "Nov. 6. 1. He was severely whipped before he was set in the pillory. 2. Being set in the pillory, he had one of his ears cut off. 3. One side of his nose was slit up. 4. He was branded on the cheek with a red hot iron, with the letters S. S. On that day, sen'night, his sores upon his back, ears, nose and face, not being cured, he was whipped again at the pillory in Cheapside, cutting off the other ear, slitting the other side of his nose, and branding the other cheek." He was then imprisoned with peculiar severity for about eleven years, and when released by the Parliament, he could neither hear, see, nor walk.

establishment. Laud was accused of treason, and brought to the block. Episcopacy was abolished throughout the kingdom. Every thing dear to the church party was swept away. And the king himself, amazing to tell! expiated his attachment to unlimited civil and religious power on a scaffold, January 30, 1648.

Three weeks after the king's death the Assembly of divines at Wesminster was terminated. It had continued 5 years, 7 months, and 22 days, and had had 1163 sessions. It was originally composed of ten lords, twenty commoners, and one hundred and twenty one divines; seven only were independents. Ten of the episcopal divines who were appointed attended, and such as did soon withdrew, for the king, by his royal proclamation had forbidden its convening. Richard Baxter who knew most of them, says, those who transacted its business were men of eminent learning, godliness, ministerial abilities and fidelity."

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The season of trouble in England was used by the Jesuits in Ireland to suppress the Protestants. Under the labours of Archbishop Usher, Bishop Babington, and others, these had flourished greatly. But the Jesuits infused into the minds of the Catholics the most ferocious feelings towards them; and the moment when the troops were employed in the contest between the King and Parliament, they rose in mass and with savage fury massacred above 200,000 Protestants. The day on which this awful scene was transacted was the 23d of October, 1641. The innocent objects of hellish rage rose from their beds in perfect ignorance of the dread design. Astonishment seized them as they beheld their nearest neighbors, with whom they had lived in friendly intercourse, approach them armed with the weapons of death; not to threaten and terrify, but deliberately to execute upon every age, sex, and condition, the most horrid assassinations. Pleas, resistance, flight, all were vain. If they escaped from one, the next Catholic who' met them was sure to knock out their brains or plunge a dagger in their bosom. As the power of the Catholics increased, they delighted in inventing new modes of torture. Not only the weaker sex, but the very children entered into the measure, and plunged the knife into the breasts of their playmates, or the dead carcasses of the massacred Protestants. Yea, the cattle of the Protestants were destroyed, as tainted by the religion of their owners, and their habitations levelled in the dust, as unfit to be occupied again by human beings. The province of Ulster, where they chiefly resided, was nearly depopulated. Thus did they shed the blood of the saints. But

CHAP. 18.

EPISCOPACY ABOLISHED.

329

in the year 1648, Cromwell subdued the Catholics, and brought them into a subjection from which they have never been able to rise.

The assembly of divines pulled down episcopacy without preparing any thing as a substitute; and the door being wide open, the country was inundated with a great variety of religious sects. In 1649, parliament declared presbyterianism the established religion of the country; but they passed an ordinance abolishing all penal statutes for religion, and permitting every one to think and act as he pleased on the subject of religion. The Presbyterians became very lordly under their triumph, and would have established a system of religious tyranny, if they could. For the principles of correct religious toleration were understood by none in that age. Every party insisted upon uniformity of worship, and upon the propriety of calling in the sword to support and enforce its own forms. They were therefore exceedingly grieved with this ordinance of parliament, and still more by finding that Cromwell and the parliament, who had grown jealous of them, now took under their patronage the Independents, and brought them up to be a large and important class of Christians.

The episcopal clergy, as might be expected, felt the heavy hand of oppression. The bishops were not only deprived of their dignities, but were, in many cases, abused: 7000 clergymen were rejected from their livings, but one fifth of the living was reserved for the use of their suffering wives and children. Such as continued to officiate, conformed to the new establishment, but used as far as they could, the old forms of prayer, though they might not read the liturgy under severe penalties. Every thing peculiar to the old establishment, was broken down by the rude hand of violence. A rage for uniformity prevailed among the presbyterians, as much as it had in the old establishment, and painted windows, cathedral carvings, statues, organs, monuments, all, all were swept away by the besom of destruction.

As the revolution was professedly religious, every thing was done under the garb of religion. The most ambitious spirits, who could wade through seas of blood to obtain wealth and power, were found using the language of the children of God, and professing to wield the sword of Jehovah. But if these were hypocrites and the others fanatics, there was never so much genuine piety in the kingdom, as at that period. Among all ranks was an unusual portion of religious knowledge.Prayer was the regular business of most families. The Lord's day was sacredly observed. The leading divines, Owen, Bax

ter, Manton, Goodwin, Howe, Poole, Bates, Flavel, have, perhaps, never been surpassed in solid learning, theological acumen, and popular eloquence. They were men who understood the Gospel, and who preached it with power. Under their preaching, thousands were convinced of sin, and converted to God. The general attention given to religion, may be learned from the fact that the army under Cromwell, which went to subdue the Catholics in Ireland, observed before their embarkation, a day of fasting and prayer. After three ministers had prayed, Cromwell and his colonels expounded Scripture to the troops. Not an oath was to be heard throughout the whole camp; the soldiers spending their leisure hours in reading their Bibles, or singing psalms, and religious conferences. Many, unquestionably, were held under restraint against their wills, but it was the spirit of the age that restrained them. The chaplains of the Protector, were some of the most able and faithful ministers of Jesus Christ. For his own personal religion, he stands or falls in the judgment, like the rest of men. What appears in him fanatical expressions, were the language of the day, common to him before he touched the sword of state. No man was more hated by the Papists, or did more toward breaking down the spirit of superstition, in England. He made provision of 10,000 pounds a year, to be

used in the conversion of the Heathen.

The triumph of the Puritans was short. When Cromwell, their master-spirit was no more, every thing ran into confusion. The nation had become republican in feeling, but the officers of the army wrested the sceptre, and in 1660, placed Charles II. upon the throne.

The tide now set as strong against the Puritans, as it had before against the Episcopalians. They had hoped for better things, especially the Presbyterians, who had been active in recalling Charles, and who in fact, were never much concerned in bringing his father to the block. But even their expectation perished. All the lavish promises of Charles toward them, were soon forgotten. Episcopacy was fully re-established, and an observance of all its forms, was most rigorously required. On St. Bartholomew's day, August 24, 1662, the act of uniformity was passed. It required every clergyman to take the following oath on penalty of losing his cure, living or preferment.

"I, A. B., do hereby declare my unfeigned assent and consent, to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the book entiled the book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the church of England, together with the psalter or psalms of David, ap

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