PRE 



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times one sixth. It has been proposal), 

 by Mr. Ben.iham, to make forfeitures 

 of land supply, in some measure, the 

 place of taxes, and to restrain the pow- 

 er of bequest of land to certain de- 

 grees of kindred only, Blackstone and 

 others, however, though they approve of 

 the statute of Anne to prevent the im- 

 properly granting- aw;-.y crown lands, 

 consider the great diminution of the 

 landed demesnes of the crown well ex- 

 changed by the subject for the lighter 

 burthen of taxes, since, had things re- 

 mained as at the 'conquest, the King 

 would, by forfeiture and otherwise, have 

 possessed all the land in the kingdom. 

 The observation is short-sighted enough, 

 for no people would ha\e tolerated it. 

 William possessed all the lands by force, 

 only to parcel them out like a robber 

 among his troops, and had lie not 

 speedily parted with them, he and they 

 must have found that he who grasps all 

 loses all. See REVEM-E. 



PRERORATIVE court, the court wherein 

 all wills are proved, and all administra- 

 tions taken, which belong to the Arch- 

 bishop by his prerogative ; that is, in 

 cases where the deceased had goods of 

 any considerable value out of the diocese 

 -wherein he died ; and that value is ordi- 

 narily 51. except it be otherwise, by com- 

 position, between the Archbishop and 

 some other Bishop, as in the diocese of 

 London it is Wl. 



PRESBYTERIANS. This denomina- 

 tion of Protestant Dissenters has been 

 called by different names at different pe- 

 riods of lime. In their first attempts for 

 a further reformation of the church, they 

 were, by way of reproach, termed Puri- 

 tans, a name derived from the Catkarior 

 Pwiiini of the third century. But re- 

 proachful names have not been the only 

 species of persecution they have at vari- 

 ous times suffered. The cruel persecu- 

 tions they suffered in the reigns of Eliza- 

 beth, James 1. and the two Charleses, 

 will ever reflect disgrace upon the memo- 

 ry of those princes. 



The reformed exiles who were driven 

 to Franckfort, to avoid the cruelties of 

 Mary I. and who afterwards set up con- 

 gregations at Basil and Geneva, were first 

 called Puritans, as their opponents ob- 

 tained the name of Conformists. From 

 the Puritans sprung the Presbyterians, 

 whose form of church discipline was first 

 established and is still followed by the 

 Kirk of Scotland. The first Presbyteri- 

 an church in England was erected at 

 "YVandsworth, a village near London ; 



and, on the 20th of November, 1572, 

 eleven elders were chosen, and their 

 offices described in a register, entitled 

 The Order of Wandsworth. Other 

 churches, notwithstanding proclamations 

 for uniformity, &c. were soon erected in 

 other counties, though with the ut- 

 most privacy and secrecy. But we are 

 compelled by our limits to omit many 

 important particulars in the history of 

 the Presbyterians, during the periods 

 oftheir alternate sufferings and triumphs. 

 Their history, like that of other nume- 

 rous and powerful bodies of men, exhibit 

 a melancholy picture of the instabili- 

 ty of the human mind, and the evil 

 tendency of religious prejudice, when 

 combined with human power and au- 

 thority. For who could have thought, 

 that the very men, who had suffered 

 every species of privation, who had 

 been exiled for conscience sake, who 

 had borne the most cruel persecutions 

 at home, and the contumely of the Lu- 

 therans abroad, with the courage and 

 the constancy of martyrs, that these very 

 men, when armed by the same species 

 of power that before had we'll nigh crush- 

 ed them to atoms, should themselves 

 imbibe the principles and follow 7 the 

 practices of their most cruel persecu- 

 tors ? It is hardly credible, but it is 

 nevertheless a melancholy fact, that an 

 Ordinance against blasphemy and heresy 

 was passed in May, 1648, by the influ- 

 ence of the Presbyterians then in parlia- 

 ment, in which it was decreed, " that all 

 persons who shall willingly maintain, 

 publish, or defend, by preaching or 

 writing," " that the Father is not God, 

 that the Son is not God, that the Holy 

 Ghost is not God ; or that these three are 

 not one eternal God ; or that Christ is 

 not God equal with the Father," " shall 

 upon complaint or proof, by oath of two 

 witnesses, before two justices of the 

 peace, be committed to prison, without 

 bail or mainprize, till the next gaol-deli- 

 very; and in case the indictment shall 

 then be found, and the party upon his 

 trial shall not abjure the said error, and 

 his defence and maintenance of the same, 

 he shall suffer the pains of death, as in 

 case of felony, without benefit of clergy ; 

 and if he recant or abjure, he shall re- 

 main in prison till he find sureties that 

 he will not maintain the said heresies or 

 errors any more; but if he relapse, and 

 is convicted a second time, he shall suf- 

 fer death, as before." There were about 

 seven other real or supposed heresies, 

 besides that which we have just instanc- 



