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XII.

May 8.

vaded, never loft fight of the liberty of the fubject, LETTER but maintained the happy medium between high prerogative and licentious freedom. The new parlia- A. D. 1661. ment was of a very different complexion. The royalifts, feconded by the influence of the crown, had prevailed in most elections. Not above seventy members of the Prefbyterian party obtained feats in the house of commons; and thefe not being able either to oppofe or retard the measures of the court, monarchy and epifcopacy were now as much exalted as they had formerly been depreffed.

An act was immediately paffed for the fecurity of the king's perfon and government, containing many fevere clauses; and as the bishops, though restored to their spiritual authority, were still excluded from parliament, in confequence of a law paffed by Charles I. immediately before the civil wars, that act was now repealed, and they were permitted to refume their feats in the house of lords. But what moft remarkably manifefted the zeal of the parliament for the church and monarchy was the Act of Uniformity, and the repeal of the Triennial Act. Instead of the exact ftipulations of the latter, a general claufe provided, that parliaments should not be interrupted above three years at moft. By the Act of Uniformity it was required, that every clergyman, capable of holding a benefice, fhould poffefs epifcopal ordination; fhould declare his affent to every thing contained in the Book of Common-Prayer; fhould take the oath of canonical obedience, abjure the Solemn League and Covenant, and renounce the principle of taking arms against the king, on any pretence whatfoever 7,

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PART II

THUS was the church reinftated in her former

A. D. 1662. power and splendour; and as the old perfecuting laws fubfifted in their full rigour, and even new claufes of a like nature were now enacted, all the king's promifes of toleration and indulgence to tender confciences, in his declaration from Breda, were thereby eluded and broken. The more zealous of the Prefbyterian clergymen, however, refolved to refuse the fubfcription, be the confequences what they might; though there is no doubt but they flattered themselves, that the bishops would not dare to expel fo great a number of the most popular preachers in the kingdom. But in this hope they were deceived. The church anticipating the pleasure of retaliation, had made the terms of fubscription rigid, on purpose to difguft all the fcrupulous Prefbyterians, and deprive them of their livings; and the court beheld, with equal fatiffaction and astonishment, two thousand of the clergy, in one day, relinquish their cures, and facrifice their interest to their religious opinions.

THIS meafure, which united the Proteftant diffenters in a common hatred of the church, and roufed in the church a spirit of intolerance and per-fecution, was peculiarly impolitic and imprudent, as well as violent and unjuft; more especially as the opportunity feemed fair for taking advantage of the refentments of the Prefbyterians against the republican fectaries, and to draw them, without perfecuting the others, by the cords of love into the pale of the church, instead of driving them back by fevere ufage into their ancient confederacies. fmall relaxation in the terms of communion would certainly have been fufficient for that purpose. But 8. Buruet, vol. i, book .

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LETTER

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the royal family and the Catholics, whofe influence was great at court, had other views, with which the nation was then unacquainted, and which it must now A.D. 1662. be our bufinefs to unfold.

CHARLES, during his exile, had not only imbibed ftrong prejudices in favour of the Catholic religion, but had even been fecretly reconciled in form to the church of Rome 9. His brother, the duke of York, however, was a more fincere convert. James had zealously adopted all the abfurd and pernicious principles of popery; and as he had acquired a great afcendant over the king, by his talent for business, the feverities in the Act of Uniformity had been chiefly fuggefted by him and the earl of Bristol, alfo a zealous Catholic and a favourite at court. Sensible that undifguifed popery could claim no legal indulgence, they inflamed the church-party against the Prefbyterians: they encouraged the Presbyterians to ftand out; and when, in confequence of thefe artifices, they law fo numerous and popular a body of the clergy ejected, they formed the plan of a general toleration, in hopes that the hated fect of the Catholics, might pafs unobferved in the crowd, and enjoy the fame liberty with the reft.

THE king, who had this measure more at heart than could have been expected from his feeming indifference to all religions, accordingly iffued a declaration, under pretence of mitigating the rigours contained in the Act of Uniformity. After mentioning the promises of liberty of confcience contained in his declaration from Breda, he added, That although, in the first place, he had been zealous to fettle the 9. Burnet, book i.

uniformity

A.D. 1662.

PART II. uniformity of the church of England, which he fhould ever maintain; yet in regard to the penalties upon those who do not conform thereunto, through fcruple of confcience, but modeftly and without fcandal perform their devotions in their own way, he fhould make it his fpecial care, fo far as in him lay, without invading the freedom of parliament, to incline the members to concur with him in framing fuch an act for that purpose, as might enable him to exercise with more univerfal fatisfaction that dispensing power, which he conceived to be inherent in him 10. The parliament however, alarmed at the idea of a dif penfing power in the crown, and having a glimpse of the object for which it was to be exercised, came to a refolution, That the indulgence propofed would prove most pernicious both to church and state; would open a door to fchifm, encourage faction, difturb the public peace, and difcredit the wisdom of the legiflature". And the court, having already gained fo many points, judged it neceffary to lay afide for a time the project of toleration. In the mean time the ejected clergymen were profecuted with unrelenting rigour; fevere laws being enacted, not only against conventicles, but against any non-conforming teacher coming within five miles of a corporation.

THE Prefbyterians in Scotland did not experience more favour than those in England. As Charles had made them no promises before his reftoration, he refolved to pursue the abfurd policy of his father and grandfather, of establishing epifcopacy in that kingdom. In this refolution he was confirmed by his antipathy against the Scottish ecclefiaftics, on account of the infults which he had received while 10. Kennet's Regifter, p. 850. 11. Parl. Hift. vol. xxiii. amongst

XII.

amongst them. He therefore replied to the earl of LETTER Lauderdale, with more pertness than judgment, when preffed to establish prefbytery, that, "it was not a re- A, D. 1662. ligion for a gentleman!" and he could not agree to its farther continuance in Scotland. Such a reason might have fuited a fop in his dreffing-room, or a jolly companion over his bottle, but was very unworthy of the head of a great monarchy. The confequences were fuch as might have been foreseen. A valt majority of the Scottish nation looked up with horror to the king and his minifters, and expofed them, felves to the most severe perfecutions rather than relinquish their form of worship'.

CERTAIN political measures confpired with those of religion to diminish that popularity which the king had enjoyed at his restoration. His marriage with Catherine of Portugal, to which he was chiefly prompted by the largeness of her portion 4, was by no means agreeable to his fubjects, who were defirous, above all things, of his marrying a proteftant princefs. The fale of Dunkirk to France, in order to fupply his prodigality, occafioned universal disgust's; and the Dutch war, in which he is faid to have engaged with a view of diverting part of the parliamen12. Burnet, vol. i. book ii. 13. Id. ibid. 14. He received with her five hundred thousand pounds sterling, the fettlement of Bombay in the East Indies, and the fortress of Tangier on the coast of Africa.

15. The fale of Dunkirk, though stigmatized as one of the worst measures of Charles's reign, was more blameable as a mark of meannefs in the king than on account of its detriment to the nation. The charge of maintaining that fortrefs was very great, and the benefit arifing from it fmall. It had then no harbour to receive vessels of burden; and Lewis XIV. who was a judge of fuch acquifitions, and who first made it a good fea-port, thought he had made a hard bargain, when he paid four hundred thousand pounds for it. D' Efrades' Letters.

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