THE SABBATH. 23 



from the act. 'The precise clergy, as Hallam calls 

 them, refused in general to comply, and were suspended 

 or deprived in consequence. 'But,' adds Hallam, 

 6 mankind loves sport as little as prayer by compulsion ; 

 and the immediate effect of the king's declaration was 

 to produce a far more scrupulous abstinence from diver- 

 sions on Sundays than had been practised before.' 



The Puritans, when they came into power, followed 

 the evil example of their predecessors. They, the 

 champions of religious freedom, showed that they could, 

 in their turn, deprive their antagonists of their benefices, 

 fine them, burn their books by the common hangman, 

 and compel them to read from the pulpit things of 

 which they disapproved. On this point Bishop Heber 

 makes some excellent remarks. 'Much,' he says, 'as 

 each religious party in its turn had suffered from perse- 

 cution, and loudly and bitterly as each had, in its own 

 particular instance, complained of the severities exer- 

 cised against its members, no party h id yet been found 

 to perceive the great wickedness of persecution in the 

 abstract, or the moral unfitness of temporal punishment 

 as an engine of religious controversy.' In a very dif- 

 ferent strain writes the Dr. Bownd who has been already 

 referred to as a precursor of Puritanism. He is so sure 

 of his « doxy ' that he will unflinchingly make others 

 bow to it. ' It behoveth,' he says, c all kings, princes, 

 and rulers, that profess the true religion to enact such 

 laws and to see them diligently executed, whereby the 

 honour of Grod in hallowing these days might be main- 

 tained. And, indeed, this is the chiefest end of all 

 government, that men might not profess what religion 

 they list, and serve Grod after what manner it pleaseth 

 them best, but that the parts of God's true worship 

 [Bowndean worship] might be set up everywhere, and 

 all men compelled to stoop unto it.' 



