liberty upon a supposition he may abuse it. When he doth abuse it, judge. If a man speak foolishly, ye suffer him gladly because ye are wise; if erroneously, the truth never appears by your conviction of him. Stop such a man's mouth by sound words which cannot be gainsayed. If he speak blasphemously, or to the disturbance of the public peace, let the civil magistrate punish him; if truly, rejoice in the truth. And if you will call our speakings together since we came into Scotland, to provoke one another to love and good works, to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and repentance from dead works; and to charity and love towards to and mourn for you, and for your bitter returns to our love of you, and your incredulity of our professions of love to you, of the truth of which we have made our solemn and humble appeals to the Lord our God, which he hath heard and borne witness to;-if you will call these things scandalous to the kirk, and against the covenant, because done by men of Civil callings, we rejoice in them, notwithstanding what you say."

pray you,

These passages from Cromwell's correspondence are the more important, inasmuch as they convey the sentiments of the party of which he was the head. The principles they develop were those of the Independents, whether regular ministers, or officers in the army. It is not true to affirm that they made it an object to convert the presbyterians by the same weapons with which they had beaten their armies; but they were anxious, having taken possession of their country on lawful grounds, to teach them how they regarded their past acts of oppression towards all who

* Carlyle, ii. 238-240.

dissented from their presbyterian system, and how determined they were that all such oppressions should cease. The invasion of Scotland, therefore, although disastrous in a military point of view, was attended with most beneficial consequences. A religious liberty which had never been known before, followed in the wake of a military dictatorship. The gospel began to be preached with new fervor and unwonted success. The interval between the subjugation of Scotland by Cromwell and the Restoration, proved one of the most auspicious periods in the history of that nation. Not only were the people "kept in great order," the wild Highlanders "wonderfully tamed," and "vice suppressed and punished;" but "substantial justice was done," and "those eight years of usurpation" were afterwards regarded by Cromwell's enemies as a period of" great peace and prosperity." Before that time there had been much of the form with little of the power of religion. With few exceptions the clergy were destitute of genuine piety, while the majority of the people had no religion at all. "Nine parts of ten" in their flocks, were "not sheep, not fit for civil, much less for spiritual privileges." +

Testimonies might be multiplied on this point, and that too not from enemies, but friends of the established kirk of Scotland. The testimony of Rutherford is explicit." Our work," he writes, "in public, was too much in sequestration of estates, fining and imprisoning, more than a compassionate mournfulness of spirit towards those whom we saw to oppose the work. In our assemblies we were more to set up a state opposite to a state; more upon forms, citations,

* Burnet's Own Time, Book I. Carlyle, II. 346, 347.
† Lockyer's "Little Stone out of the Mountain," 1652.

leading of witnesses, suspensions from benefices, than spiritually to persuade and work upon the conscience with the meekness and gentleness of Christ. The glory and royalty of our princely Redeemer and King was trampled on, as many might have seen in our assemblies. What way the army, and the sword, and the countenance of nobles and officers seemed to sway, that way were the censures carried. It had been better had there been more days of humiliation and fasting, and far less adjourning commissions, new peremptory summonses, and new drawn-up pro

Although Cromwell put down the assemblies, and curbed the spirit of intolerance which had been so long rampant, he interfered with none of the true rights of the church. The effect produced by his measures was soon apparent. "I remember well," says Burnet, "of three regiments coming to Aberdeen. There was an order and discipline, and a face of gravity and piety among them, that amazed all people. Most of them were Independents and Anabaptists: they were all gifted men, and preached as they were moved. But they never disturbed the public assemblies in the churches but once." "The

power of the church was reduced within a narrower compass; for though it had liberty to excommunicate offenders, or debar them the communion, it might not seize their estates, or deprive them of their civil rights and privileges. No oaths or covenants were to be imposed, but by direction from Westminster; and as all fitting encouragement was to be given to ministers of the established church; so others, not satisfied

* Rutherford's "Testimony," &c., 1713.

with their form of church government, had liberty to serve God after their own manner. This occasioned a great commotion among the clergy, who complained of the loss of their covenant and church discipline; and exclaimed against toleration as opening a door to all kinds of error and heresy: but the English supported their friends against all opposition." *

Yet more explicit is the testimony of Kirkton, one of the ministers of the established church at Edinburgh. "They did indeed," he writes, "proclaim a sort of toleration to dissenters among protestants, but permitted the gospel to have its course, and presbyteries and synods to continue in the exercise of their powers; and all the time of their government, the gospel prospered not a little, but mightily. It is also true, that because the generality of Scottish ministers were for the king upon any terms, therefore they did not permit the General Assembly to sit. And in this I believe they did no bad office; for both the authority of that meeting was denied by the protesters, and the assembly seemed to be more set upon establishing themselves, than promoting religion. . . . Errors in some places affected some few; yet were all these losses inconsiderable in regard of the great success the word preached had in sanctifying the people of the nation. And I verily believe there were more souls converted to Christ in that short period of time, than in any season since the Reformation, though of triple its duration. Nor was there ever greater purity and plenty of the means of grace than was in their time. Ministers were painful, people were diligent; and if a man had seen one of their solemn communions,

*Neal, iv. 54; Orme's Life of Owen, pp. 99, 100.

where many congregations met in great multitudes; some dozen of ministers used to preach, and the people continued as it were in a kind of trance (so serious were they in spiritual exercises,) for three days at least, he would have thought it a solemnity unknown to the rest of the world. . . . At the king's return, every parish had a minister, every village had a school, every family almost had a Bible, yea, in most of the country all the children could read the scriptures, and were provided with Bibles, either by their parents or their ministers." * Facts like these, and so well authenticated, are sufficient to vindicate the character and conduct of the Independents in Scotland from all the aspersions of mere partizans, whether royalist or presbyterian. Fruits so excellent, could not come from a tree altogether corrupt.

It seems appropriate in this place to state a few particulars respecting the history of Independency in Scotland, from the time of Penry to this period. Little has reached us in the shape of well-authenticated fact respecting the results of Penry's mission in that country. And And it is probable that in after periods, in consequence of the oppression alternately exercised by the ruling English party on the one hand, and the presbyterians on the other, there was little opportunity for the introduction, much less the advancement, of congregational principles in any of the districts of Scotland. The earliest account of any Independent movement after that period, relates to the year 1642, at the commencement of the Long Parliament. It appears, that at that time Othro Ferrendail, an Irishman, was in the habit of preach

*Kirkton's History of the Church of Scotland. pp. 54, 55-64.