English nonconformity

Front matter

WORKS PUBLISHED BY

JACKSON, WALFORD, & HODDER,

18, ST. PAUL'S CHUEOHYAED.

Preface

The Exodus of nearly two thousand ministers from their cures in the Church of England, as an act of fidelity to conscience in 1662, was an event fraught with weighty lessons to the Christian, and which should not be without interest to the Philosopher and the Statesman.

In the autumn of last year the Committee of the Congregational Union of England and Wales resolved to convene an assembly of pastors and delegates from the different parts of the kingdom, to deliberate on what should be done in commemoration of that event. One decision of that assembly was, that a volume should be issued on that chapter in our national history, considered in its relation to our earlier ecclesiastical annals, and to our modern Nonconformity. The present publication owes its origin to that decision.

But it is proper to state that the responsibility of the Committee appointed to carry that resolution into effect is restricted to their having entrusted this service to my hands. No one besides myself is in the slightest degree accountable for any statement or expression iv

Preface.

that will be found in these pages. The volume, I believe, expresses opinions and feelings which are common among English Congregationalists, but no individual is bound by anything I have written.

Our spiritual forefathers may not have been perfect men, but my impression is, that, take them for all in all, neither the world nor the church has seen such men elsewhere in modern times. No small effort has been made of late to detract from their just claim on our gratitude and admiration. If I have written somewhat largely in their defence, the reason will be obvious.

It is with a full foresight of the hostile criticism to which the results of my labour may be exposed that I commit them to the press. But in the battle of opinion, the place of a book is generally determined according to its merit. The man who is not prepared calmly to abide that issue should not challenge it. It must suffice for me to say, that I have endeavoured to acquit myself honestly towards the dead, and usefully towards the living.

Robert Vaughan.

St. John's Terrace, Regent's Park, Oct. 4, 1862.

CHAPTER I. Religious Life in the Early Church

Christianity and the individual conscience — The old pagan faiths came from public authority — Specialty of the Hebrew government — Spirituality of the Christian Dispensation — Church and State — Effect of secular pretensions in regard to religion— The two forces face to face — Sources of spiritual power in the early Church — -The assemblies of primitive believers — Manifestation of spiritual life in the early Church — Simplicity of usage in the early Church — Early British Christianity— Early religious life among the Anglo-Saxons — Purpose of this chapter.

Page I

CHAPTER II. Religious Life in the Middle Age

The institute of the Christian ministry is unique — Priests and philosophers in heathendom— Religious teaching among the Hebrews : the priest ; the prophet ; the synagogue — Historical position of the Christian ministry — Impress of its intelligence on the Middle Age — Restoration of State-religion and its effect — Disputes concerning patronage and power — Growth of sacerdotal theories — Track of light through the darkness — Spiritual life in the Religious Orders — Medieval voluntaryism— The voluntary controversy in the fifteenth century — Wycliffe and the Lollards — Free opinions among the clergy — Summary. Page 19

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Contents.

CHAPTER III. ■Religious Life under the Tudors

"Ntw relations of the State to the Church from the time of the Reformation — Sum of the Reformation effected by Henry VIJI. — Growth among the people of a Protestant party — The Reformation under Edward VI. — The first Book of Common Prayer — The doctrine of the Euchaiist — Second revision of Book of Common Prayer — Acts of Uniformity a Protestant innovation — Character of Edward's Second Book — Accession of Elizabeth — Her Book of Common Prayer — Penalties attached to the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity — Court of High Commission — Rise of the Nonconformist controversy — Strength of Puritanism — Policy of the Queen — Points at issue between the Court, the Clergy, and the Puritans — Progress of the Controversy — The Mar-Prelate tracts — Origin and growth of Separatism — Principle of the controversy — The divine right of conscience and the divine right of kings ...... Page 37

CHAPTER IV. ■Religious Life in England from the Death of Elizabeth to the Death

of Cromwell.

James, I. loses his love of Presbytery — The Puritan petition — Action of the Universities— Conference at Hampton Court — Effect of the king's policy on the Puritans— Persecution — Puritan opinion during James's reign — The king obtains an unconstitutional opinion from the council and judges — New translation of the Bible — 'The Book of Sports' — State of society — Rise of the High Anglican school of churchrnen — The Court party — Puritans and patriots — The Puritan and his Bible — Social position of the Puritans — Uses of this retrospect — Charles's impolicy— Language of his friends — What may be said for the Commons from 1625 to 1629 — Parliaments in abeyance : arbitrary rule — Laud's theory of Church and State — State of public feeling at this time — War inevitable, and why — Religious feeling in the Long Parliament — Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton released — Popular ovation — Committee of inquiry concerning oppressed ministers — Petition from the Londoners against Episcopacy, December, 1640 — The Commons deny legislative power to the clergy — Laud charged with high treason — Opposition to secular functions of the clergy — Bill to abolish the hierarchy — Impeachment of the bishops — The Commons begin their reforms in public worship — The Assembly of Divines — Scotch Alliance : the League and Covenant — -The Covenant modified at Westminster — The Directory for Worship, August, 1645 — Fall of the hierarchy — Proceedings against the Episcopal clergy — Committees and the clergy — Persecution of the Puritan ministers — The Anglo-Catholic clergy neglect and disparage preaching — Social position of parochial clergy in seventeenth century— Cases of immorality before Sir E. Tering's committee — Sum of the evidence adduced — * White's Century of Scandalous Ministers ' — Charles's injunctions ■to the clergy — Position assumed towards the country by the king and by the par-

Contents.

vu liament — Conformity of Episcopalian clergymen — conscientious Nonconformists —

General character of the disaftected clergy — Number of the sequestered clergy — Parliament becomes more Presbyterian and intolerant — Act against heresy and blasphemy — Migration of English Separatists to Holland, to America — Character of the latter — Their grand motive — Their ideal state — New union of Church and State — The New England churches all Congregational— Charge of persecution — Cases of Roger Williams, Mrs. Hutchinson, and the Quakers — Progress of the principle of toleration among the English Separatists — Henry Jacob's petition for liberty of worship, 1609 — The Baptists and religious liberty — Combination against the Independents — Lords Brooke and Say — The non-resistance controversy — Bridge's Reply to Ferne — The Independents and the Westminster Assembly — The Apologctical Narration — Contests between Independents, Presbyterians, and Erastians — Dispute concerning discipline — Presbyterians will not tolerate Independency — Neal on the conduct of the Presbyterians— How the Independents grew strong in the army — Source of the political importance of the Independents — Jealousy of the Covenanters — Circumstances and conduct of Cromwell — He is assailed in Parliament— Proposes the self-denying Ordinance — Position of the Independents after the battle of Naseby — Insincerity of the king — Intolerant schemes of the Presbyterians— Impolicy of the Parliament — Disorders from the Covenanters — England becomes a Commonwealth — Disaffection of the Presbyterians — Commissioners for examination of ministers — Conference about 'Fundamentals' — Cromwell's views on religious liberty — Religion between 1640 and 1660 — England's new social position — Relation of this change to the Independents — England degraded before Europe by James and Charles — The change under the Commonwealth — Outburst of military greatness — Our maritime power — National industry— -Intellectual life .... Page 65

CHAPTER I. Causes of the Restoration

ses of the P>.estoration— Death of Cromwell — Conduct of the army —Long unsettled - nc-ss of the country — Alarm of the Presbyterians — Strength of the Royalists — Royalist promises — Declaration from Breda . . , Page 209 vin

Contents.

CHAPTER II. The Concessions of the Nonconformists in j66o

Agitation preceding the return of the King — Policy of Clarendon — Promises to the Presbyterians — Meeting of the King and the Presbyterians — Proposal for a Conference — Proposals of ministers in 1660 — The Nonconformists and Episcopacy— Usher's ' Reduction of Episcopacy' — The Liturgy — On ceremonies — Presbyterian Concessions ...... Page 223

Chapter III

Unfair and discourteous proceeding of the bishops — Their Answer to the terms of conformity named by the ministers, and Baxter's Rejoinder — The prelates and Usher's 'Reduction' — Baxter's remonstrance — The Liturgy and ceremonies

Chapter IV

Concessions from the King — Declaration from Worcester House.

The .King becomes a church reformer — New Declaration- — How received by the ministers — The Meeting at Worcester House — Difficulty as to the word ' consent,' and as to toleration — The Revised Declaration — The offer of the bishoprics — The London Ministers thank the King for the Declaration — The Declaration a failure — Popular feeling — Scandals among the clergy . Page 245

Chapter V

Case of the Nonconformists in the Conference at the Savoy in 1661.

Preliminaries to the conference — The Commission' — The prelates take the same course as in 1660 — Baxter dissents from his brethren — His exceptions to the Book of Common Prayer — The joint 'Exceptions' from the ministers — The Nonconformists on ancient liturgies — Exceptions to vestments, to the intoning of the Lessons, as to pastoral discipline, preaching, kneeling at communion, baptism, the catechism, confirmation, visitation of the sick, the burial service — Summary — Baxter's liturgy — ' The Petition for Peace ' . . Page 259

Contents.

IX

Chapter VI

Policy of the Bishops in the Conference at the Savoy in i66\ ; and its Exposure by the Nonconformists.

Reply of the prelates to the Exceptions of the ministers — The ministers' Rejoinder— Their view as to the asserted past utility of the liturg)' — The bishops will rescind only what is proved unlawful — Their further objections against liturgical reform — Uses of this summary — The ministers press for a personal conference — Discussion to be by written papers — Personal altercations — Bishop Cosins's paper — Conclusion of the Conference — Address to the king . . . Page 279

CHAPTER VII. Convocation and the Prayer Book

The Episcopalians in the Savoy Conference — The Parliament of 1 66 1 — Hesitation as to summoning Convocation — Policy of Charles and Clarendon — Convocation summoned — Parliament orders the public burning of the League and Covenant — A Convocation summoned by the Archbishop of York — The revision of the Prayer Book in 1662 — Summary . . . . • Page 303

CHAPTER VIII. Parliament and the Act of Uniformity

The ecclesiastical question in the Convention Parliament — The Convention Parliament and the King's Declaration — Venner's insurrection, and its uses to the Government— The election for the City of London ; defeat of the Government — Meeting of the pensionary parliament — The bishops restored to their seats in parliament — Action of parliament in respect of the Liturgy — The session of 1662 — The King's new policy — The Act of Uniformity — Summary . Page 316

Chapter IX

The Independents in relation to the Act of Uniformity.

The 'moderate' Independents — 'Humble petition and advice' from the parliament to Cromwell, 1657 — Meeting of the Independents at the Savoy, 1658 — Their opinion on the duty of the magistrate with respect to religion — Their liberality — Milton and the Independents — The consistent Independents — Milton on the civil power in ecclesiastical causes — The Independents and Presbyterians — Odium on the former under the Restoration, and why — Ejected Independents

X

Contents.

CHAPTER X. Church and State before the Exodus

Misgiving of the Government not without reason — Pacific conduct of the Independents after the Restoration — Are watched by Government spies — The Government affects great alarm — The Corporation Act — Restraint on the press— Fate of the regicides — Case of Sir Harry Vane — Sanguinary policy of the restored dynasty — Character of Charles — The Protector's court and Charles's — The Commonwealth not to blame for the excesses of the Restoration — Influence of court manners on the country — Known habits of the king before the ejectment of 1662 — Conduct of the clergy and of the new House of Commons — Relation of this retrospect to the great event of 1 662 ...... Page 357

CHAPTER XI. August, 1662

Publication of the revised liturgy — The main terms of conformity were known before —Provision against hasty ejectment — Interval after the passing of the Act — The mental struggle- — The sequestered and the ejected — Conscience in past and present — The 17th of August— Farewell sermons — Baxter — Dr. Jacomb — Dr. Bates — Calamy — Lye — ^Sclater — Collins — Evening of the 17th of August— Circumstances of the ejected — Divided judgment among the Nonconformists — Conformists— Nonconformists — Ritualism in history . . . Page 377

CHAPTER I. Bad Treatment and a Good Confession

Charles is not satisfied — Another Declaration, how a failure — Repudiated by Parliament— Spies and informers still— The Conventicle Act — The Five-mile Act — The Nonconformists and the sufferers from the plague — Sufferings of the Nonconformists — Instances from the persecution — Nonconformists' testimony.

Contents.

XI

CHAPTER II. Progress of Religious Liberty

The Parliament becomes free-spoken — Effect of the free spirit in the Commons — Fall of Clarendon — Buckingham affects the liberal — The Commons will be intolerant — Romanists the great impediment to toleration — Comparative liberty of the Nonconformists — Comprehension and toleration scheme attempted — The great storm raised by it — Sheldon and Parker — Owen — Andrew Marvel — Revival of all the Conventicle Act — Trial of Penn and Mead — Charles issues his Declaration of Indulgence — Nonconformists avail themselves of it — Three thousand places licensed for worship — Parliament condemns the Indulgence, but will favour the dissenters — The Commons deceive the Nonconformists — Defrauded of their Relief Bill — Grand Debate on the non-resisting test — The Popish Plot and the Catholic Exclusion Act — The Succession and the Exclusion Bill — Revolution in public feeling since 1660 — James II. — Persecution of the Nonconformists — The new parliament — Monmouth's Rebellion — The king suspends the Test Laws — The king, resisted by the church, courts the Nonconformists — His Declaration for liberty of conscience — Conduct of the Nonconformists — Second Declaration of Indulgence — William and Mary — Act of Toleration . . Page 420

CHAPTER III. The Progress of Religious Life

Ejectment supposed impossible, and why — Religion left in the Established Church after 1662 — What was to have been expected — What really came — How spiritual life was nurtured — The Comprehension Bill, why a failure — Retrocession under Anne — New relations of Church and State — The age of light without life — Nonconformity suffers from declension in the Established church — A Methodist controversy — Trouble from Antinomianism — The Arian controversy — Decline of the Presbyterians — Nonconformity before the rise of Methodism — Special mission of Methodism — Retrospect ..... Page 455

Appendix

BOOK I.

Religious Life in Kn gland before 1660.

— ^- CHAPTER I.

I^eltstous iLtfe in t|je ISarIg Cljurd).

HE religion of Christ is eminently a religion of book i. conviction. It addressed itself at first, not to Christianity the men by whom multitudes are governed, ^"dividual but to the individuals of whom multitudes are «^°"s<:'«nce. composed. It isolated the conscience of each man, and said to the man thus placed apart, ' Receive our ' message, and thou shalt live ; to reject it will be to ' perish.' It ever pointed toward things to be done from conviction ; to nothing as to be done by proxy or by constraint. If it affected multitudes or communities, it was by reaching them through the con sciences of persons, not through the laws of princes. Its starting point was from the base upwards, not from the summit downwards. Nations are great only as they are intelligent and virtuous. So churches were to be great only as they should be made to consist of instructed, convinced, and regenerated men.

BOOK I. Pj.qj^ (-j^jg circumstance the religious life of the early

The old

pagan ftiths church bccame a life of its own order. The nations pub'n/^°'" had seen nothing like it before. All religions, indeed, authority, vvere supposed to be grounded in faith, and the people were all supposed to act from conviction. But priests and magistrates had not been wont to wait, after the Christian manner, until faith should be voluntarily embraced, and conviction should come as the natural outgrowth of instruction. Over the great domain of heathendom, princes accounted it a most important part of their function to suppress all religions supposed to be false, and to uphold the religion supposed to be true. In the discharge of this supposed duty, their great instrument was the sword. Every religious act, accordingly, was an act of obedience, not only to a divinity, but to a priest and to a magistrate. The inward conviction might be present or absent, but the outward obedience was imperative.

Speciality of Hebrcw kings, also, were to uphold the true religion, govern- and to suppress the false. But their mission was special.

"VVe find no credentials like theirs either in the past or the present. When modern princes can trace their office to a special revelation, attested by miracles, men may safely bow to their authority after the old Hebrew manner. It is clear that the first preachers of the Gospel regarded their message as a message which they were bound to promulgate, without waiting for the authority of law from the prince, or for synodical action in their favour from the priest. 'And they called them, and ' commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the * name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said ' unto them. Whether it be right in the sight of God ' to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.

' For we cannot but speak the things which we have ^"j^- '■ * seen and heard.'*

So clear was it that the kingdom of Christ was not a Spirituality kingdom of this world. It was a kingdom founded Christi.i n wholly on moral forces. It claimed no alliance with fiX""" secular law. It simply prayed to be let alone. Its empire was in the mind. It meddled not with body or goods. It left care on such matters to Caesar, to whom it rightly pertains.

But that one expression, "empire in the mind," 3^'^^'^'^'' ^"'^ reveals the secret of mu^h that was to follow. Religion |i was the great influence by which sovereigns brought ID mind, as well as body, into subjection to their sway. " The magistrate might destroy the body, but after that there was no more that he could do. But by means of religion and of the priest he might destroy both body and soul in hell. The sword gave him rule over the material and the present ; but superstition was made to extend his dominion over the spiritual and the future. It was no small matter to be able to move this world by the terrors of the next. Hence the man who was the great ruler of the Roman Empire in that day was its great priest — its Pontifex Maximus. Hence, also, to affirm that the authority of Cssar might be good in such matters as buying and selling, but that it could not be good as extended to religion, was construed as an attempt to deprive that potentate of half his empire, and of much the most important half. To make light of his laws in secular matters was declared to be sedition, or it may be treason. To make light of his laws in religious matters was declared to be both treason and impiety. It was natural that a proscribed religion * Acts iv. 18-20.

B 2

BOOK I. should be denounced as the greatest of crimes, inasmuch as the authority to which it was opposed was assumed to be the most momentous and the most sacred.

Conflict Looking at these positions of Church and State,

between the . . ° i i i r • \ • •

secular and positions SO Clearly before us m the early Christian

the spirit- ... ' i r i •

uai. centuries, it is easy to see that rrom this source contentions of the gravest description would come. Conviction in Christian souls is sure to show itself more or less self-reliant and independent ; and the love of power elsewhere is sure to be such as to spare no pains to

{discountenance such self-reliance, and to crush such independence. In looking at the ecclesiastical proceedings of 1662, in our history, in their relation to these causes, we shall meet with many sad illustrations of the antagonism which has never ceased to spring from this source.

The two Within the walls of ancient Rome, and in that part %<ifzo fac" of the vast inclosure where the ruins of the ancient city stand apart, and crumble into deeper ruin in comparative solitude, there is one structure which rises higher than the rest, and is more gigantic than the rest. Several of the hills, so memorable from the incidents connected with them in Roman history, slope down towards the level on which that edifice rests. The form of the building is circular, the outward surface rising in one upward line from the base to the summit. There are many ways of entrance. Passing through one of those arched passages, you reach an even floor in the interior, forming a vast circle. Walls rise to the height of some twenty feet around the edge of that circle, and from that elevation benches range off, each higher, wider, and more distant than the former, until the vast basin marks its outline on the open sky, and presents

Religious Life in the Early Church.

s sitting room in the nearer, or standing room on the chap. further circles, for some seventy or eighty thousand persons. There were occasions when around on those front seats might be seen the emperor and his family, the patrician nobles, constituting the senate of Rome, and the ambassadors of foreign countries. Beyond were men and women splendidly attired, in the next gradation of rank and opulence ; and beyond those you might see a mass of heads from the busy life of Rome, terminating with the lowest class, who press upon each other on the standing room upon the highest and outer curve of the edifice. Such was the appearance of the interior of the Colosseum on a Roman holiday.

But for what were all these persons brought together — brought together day after day, and sometimes week after week The answer to this question is not to the honour of Roman civilization. That multitude has come into that place in search of pleasure, and the pleasure they seek is to see the strongest and most ferocious animals let loose upon each other down upon that central floor, or to see men wrestle to death there with men, or with infuriated beasts. Between the successive exhibitions of this nature, the spectators eat and drink, and joke and laugh. Should the excitement flag, from the repetition of these scenes, you may hear the cry raised — " The Christians to the lions ! " And if that cry becomes sufficiently general, officers are sent to the prisons, and a supply of Christians is furnished. The modern Christian can hardly stand for the first time on that floor, at the base of that huge structure, and look up at those now mouldering benches, and not picture to himself his brother Christian who was made to stand there, long centuries ago, that he might furnish

BOOK I. amusement to that pitiless multitude by doing battle with the hungry lion before him. Was it a marvel that the ancestors of such a people should have been described as suckled by a wolf? Or that the mildest of the apostles shoyld have spoken of that Roman " world" as " lying in wickedness ?"

But if the Colosseum multitude was representative of the people and power of Rome, so that Christian man thrust before them was also a representative — a representative of Christianity and of Christ. He might be the image of weakness to the outward sense, but he was the reality of power from the spiritual influences which were embodied in him. The two great forces which were to try their strength against each other in the world of the future, were there face to face. We know that in this struggle, the force which was apparently so much the weakest, was to prove the strongest. The great religious and social system, shadowed forth in that Colosseum multitude, is to be unwoven and displaced, almost to its last shred, and the man on that blood-stained floor is the presence of the power by which that work is to be done. Even the Roman eagles are to submit to the might of the Cross.

Sources of But whcncc Came this strength beneath so much powertn apparent weakness ? Partly from a Divine power which Church^ we Can comprehend but imperfectly, and partly from moral causes which it is not diflicult to understand. The old religions of the world had lost much of their influence, and man is not made to live without a religious faith of some kind. Christianity proclaimed itself as adapted to this sense of want — as the new, the higher, the nobler manifestation of which the world

Religious Life in the Early Church.

was so much in need. There was much also in the credentials of the new faith to secure attention.

There was the evidence in its favour derived from history. The first preachers of the Gospel were careful to show that Christianity was no mere accident in the story of the world. It was, in their apprehension, the fulfilment of a purpose as old as the beginning. With the entrance of sin came the proclamation of redemption. Nay, more : what was done in the fulness of time was done in accordance with doctrines older than the foundation of the world. If they preached to Jews, a great part of their argument was that they taught no other things than Moses and the prophets did say should come. If they preached to Gentiles, they were careful to affirm that the God who had sent his Son . into the world to teach and save it, was the God who had made all nations of one blood, who had never ceased to rule over them, and had filled their hearts from age to age with food and gladness. They felt the advantage of being able to look to Christianity as thus rooted in the past. An antique grandeur was thrown about it as it was thus made to hold its place as a part, and in reality as the most significant part, in the great scheme of the world's creation, government, and history. The Hebrew Scriptures, from which these conceptions were derived, had been watched over and preserved, as sacred writings, with a singular care. There were no writings of that age claiming such antiquity, and none so well attested. Not to believe in the history of the Hebrews was not to believe in remote history at all. If the past of the world, as reported in those writings, was not to be credited, then the world could scarcely be said to have a past that could be known to the present.

Throughout those writings, coming from so many different men, and through so many centuries, there was one special note of -prophecy^ declaring that the time would come when a greater than the prophets — a greater even than Moses himself, would appear, to become a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel. It is said of our Lord, that ' beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex- '■ pounded in all the scriptures the things concerning 'himself.'* The apostles made appeals of this nature constantly, in the hearing both of Jews and Gentiles.

Next came the evidence from miracles. In the Old Testament the supernatural was seen to be interwoven with the natural, showing that the voice which spoke from those oracles was the voice of God. The miracles of the New Testament are distinguished, for the most part, by some strong characteristics, from those of the Old Testament. They are not like those recorded by Moses, Joshua, or Daniel — great physical miracles, wrought in the sight of whole communities and nations. They are nearly all miracles of healing and of mercy. They are signs, not more of power than of pity. They come upon us without noise and without observation, like the dew, and like it, they are everywhere beautiful and refreshing. The circumstances under which they present themselves are most natural. The effects described as resulting from them are no less natural. The world in that day was full of pretension to the supernatural. But of all impostors the pretenders to such power are the most easily detected. It is not given to them to know where to stop. We see this strikingly in the legends of the Romanists. Everything in the Christian * Luke xxiv. 27.