ascertain what Scripture can be made to say, but what the Lord our God actually means. But for this, Ultra-protestants denounce us as papistical and call our Church the Church of the Traditioners. They therefore are ex hypothesi excluded from this mode of arguing. We rejoice to find that they agree with us whenever they do agree. But we marvel when we hear them joining with us in censuring "Unitarianism" as a heresy.

NOTE I, p. 21.

PERSECUTION BY ULTRA-PROTESTANTS.

A violent and popular outcry has often been raised against the Church because, at the Restoration, those of the clergy who refused to conform were ejected from their benefices. But it will be well to see how the case really stands. Seven thousand English clergy men, having refused to take the Covenant at the great Rebellion, were ejected from their livings, their places being supplied by dissenting teachers. This most honourable testimony to the clergy of the Church of England at that period ought never to be forgotten.

At the Restoration it was required that all those persons who had thus become possessed of the property of the English Church should either conform to the regulations of the Church or resign. Of all the Puritan clergy then in possession, only two thousand thought fit to resign rather than comply. And these two thousand

were ejected froin what? From their rights? No, but from their usurpations. Five thousand conformed and still retained possession of the Church property, so that many of the previously ejected clergy of the Church of England who hoped, at the Restoration, to be restored to their own, were sorely disappointed and cruelly used. The treatment of the English clergy by the Presbyterians is worthy of notice.

"The taking of the Covenant was now press'd close through all the parliament quarters, which brought a terrible persecution upon the loyal clergy. Those who refus'd to comply were turn'd out of their houses, and not suffer'd to compound either for personal or real estate. This rigour forc❜d great numbers of the clergy to quit their benefices, and retire to places under the King's protection. These vacancies were partly supply'd by those Presbyterians who had formerly been lecturers or chaplains; partly by young unqualify'd students from the Universities. To which we may add, some refugees from Scotland and New England; who came in for their share of preferment. And some of those Puritans, who had formerly declaim'd so much against pluralities, were now reconcil'd to the holding two or three livings. As to the honest clergy, who refus'd to joyn the rebellion, or revolt from the church, they were sequester'd and imprison'd; and almost every way harass'd and undone. From the year 1641 to six years forward, there were an hundred and fifteen clergymen turn'd out of their livings within the bills of mortality; most of these were plunder'd, and their wives and children set in the streets. By these barbarities at London, the reader may conjecture the greatness of the calamity in the rest of the kingdom.

"They had another way of reaching the orthodox clergy beside the Covenant: Some of them were sequester'd and ejected upon pretence of scandal and immorality. But to shew the iniquity of their proceedings upon this head, it may be observ'd first, that some of the crimes charg'd upon them were capital:

and therefore, since the forfeiture of their lives was not taken, we may reasonably believe the proof was defective. Secondly, the depositions against them were seldom taken upon oath, but bare affirmation went for evidence. Thirdly, many of the complainants were apparently factious men who had deserted the Church, and profess'd an aversion to the hierarchy. Fourthly, many of these pretended criminals were ignorantly if not maliciously charg'd with delivering false doctrine: For instance, some were prosecuted for preaching that Baptism washes away original sin: And lastly, many were outed for malignancy; that is, for being true to their allegiance. In short, 'tis observ❜d there were more turn'd out of their livings by the Presbyterians in three years, than were depriv'd by the Papists in Queen Mary's reign; or had been silenc'd, suspended, or depriv'd by all the bishops from the first year of Queen Elizabeth to the time we are upon. Collier ii. 828.

The Independents, who burned some hundreds for witchcraft, and hanged the Quakers in Massachusets, "proposed more massacres than they executed. There was one of all the Royalists or Presbyterians in the true Marat style of taking two hundred thousand heads off at one stroke."— D'Israeli's Charles I. iii. 295.

I do not refer to these things to revive angry and useless disputes; and I am perfectly aware that no Dissenters, whether Romish or Protestant, would wish to revive a spirit of persecution, now that the principle of toleration is fully understood, but when attempts are so frequently made, by stating only one side of the question, to make it appear that Dissenters were hardly used by Churchmen in times past, it becomes necessary to shew that we have it in our power, by an appeal to history, to exhibit the other side of the picture, and to make it known, that the little finger of an Ultra

protestant is thicker than a Churchman's loins. I believe the first declarations in favor of a toleration are to be found in Chillingworth and Jeremy Taylor.

NOTE K, p. 22.

THE OXFORD TRACTS.

That the simplification of our principle, alluded to in the text, has sometimes tended to narrow the mind, and that men have been inclined to support the Church of England on grounds and with feelings purely sectarian, may be lamented but can scarcely be denied. But still, generally speaking, the simplicity of our principle has worked well, and in every controversy its tendency is to bring Churchmen to an agreement. For instance, at the commencement of the last century, the tendency of Ultra-protestantism was to Socinianism. The Ultra-protestant sects in Germany and even in Geneva, had become Socinian. Under the influence of Hoadley and the then liberal party in England, an attempt was made to gain a footing for this God-denying heresy in the English Church. To believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, to worship the Saviour, or to regard the sacraments as any thing more than mere ceremonies, was represented as "flat Popery"; to condemn those who protested against these doctrines was considered "a renunciation of the fundamental principles of the Reformation." But the attempt failed, for every

man endowed with common honesty could understand the argument, "You may, if you like it, leave the Church, but you cannot, as an honest man continue to act therein as a minister, if you deny the truth of her doctrines, and it is impossible to doubt as to what her doctrines are with reference to the Holy Trinity and the Deity of our Lord." However liberal a man may be in the present day, he would not dare to avow Socinian opinions, (knowing them to be such,) and retain any official situation in the Church.

The tendency of the principle mentioned above to promote unanimity and concord among Churchmen, may be seen in another instance. In the middle of the last century it is not to be denied that a religious apathy prevailed, both in the Church and among the Sectarians, to a very considerable extent. We know both from their writings and their biographies, that there were a vast number of orthodox clergymen steadily performing their duty in their respective cures, but from a variety of circumstances, there was a vast number also, too inactive. Discipline, too, had relaxed. Bishops had been appointed whose political sentiments accorded ill with those of the great body of the Clergy, by whom they were regarded with suspicion and jealousy. The episcopal government is paternal, and where, from any cause, it cannot be administered with a paternal spirit, any legal powers with which our Bishops may be invested, as they cannot be exercised