PRESBYTERIANS. 
in the history of the Presbyterians, during 
the periods of their alternate suflFerings 
and triumphs. Their history, like that of 
other numerous and powerful bodies of 
men, exhibits a melancholy picture of the 
instability of the human mind, and tiie evil 
tendency of religious prejudice, when com- 
bined with human power and authority. 
For who could have thought, that the very 
men, who had suffered every species of 
privation, who had been exiled for con- 
science sake, who had borne the most cruel 
persecutions at home, and the contumely 
of the Lutherans abroad, with the courage 
and the constancy of martyrs, that these 
very men, when armed by the same species 
of pow'er that before had well nigh crushed 
them to atoms, should themselves imbibe 
the principles and follovv the practices of 
their most cruel persecutors? 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 influence of the Presbyterians then in 
parliament, 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 notone eternal God; 
or, that Christ is not God equal with the Fa- 
ther,” — “ shall upon complaint or proof, by 
oath of two witnesses, before two justices 
of the peace, be committed to prison, with- 
out bail or mainprize, till the next goal- 
delivery ; 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 remain in prison 
till he find sureties that he will not main- 
tain the said heresies or errors any more ; 
but if he relapse, and is convicted a second 
time, he shall suffer death, as before.” There 
were about seven other real or supposed 
heresies, besides that which we have just in- 
stanced,whicli were all and every one of them 
thus punishable by fine, imprisonment, and 
death. Such was the spirit which at that 
time influenced those who had caused the 
press to groan with publications about per- 
secution, liberty, and tlie rights of private 
judgment! The clamours, however, about 
the divine right of Presbytery at length 
ceased, and the rights of conscience began 
to be better understood and more generally 
allowed. 
Oliver Cromwejl, though he, in some de- 
gree, favoured the Presbyterians, disarmed 
their discipline of its coercive power. Their 
church censures consequently lost their force, 
and at length were in a measure discon- 
tinued. When Richard Cromwell had re- 
signed the protectorate, the period of their 
sufferings again, commenced. Duped by 
General Monk, and deceived by Charles II. 
whose restoration they had effected, and 
the life of whose predecessor they had 
endeavoured to save from the cruelty of 
the Independents, they were made to dis- 
cover that their expectations concerning 
the establishment of a Presbyterian govern- 
ment were to be cut off. Although when 
the King came to Whi tehall teir of them were 
made his chaplains, before the expiration 
of the year 1660, many of the parochial 
clergy were prosecuted for not ttsing the 
book of Common Prayer ; the justices and 
others insisting tliat the laws returned with 
the King. The sequestered clergy came 
out of their hiding places, and took posses- 
sion of their former livings, by which some 
hundreds of the Presbyterian clergy were 
at once dispossessed; in short, the Church 
of England was restored to its former power, 
except only the peerage of the bishops. 
Now it was that the nation became as 
completely deluged with licentiousness as 
it had just before been by enthusiasm and 
bigotry. The virtues of the Puritans were 
forgotten or despised, and a torrent of vice 
and irreligion issued from the court, and 
overwhelmed the people. Ancient reli- 
gious ceremonies were revived, and an evi- 
dent leaning towards popery manifested 
itself. “ To appear seiious,” says Neale, 
“ to make a conscience of one’s words and 
actions, was the way to be avoided as a 
schismatic, a fanatic, or a sectarian. They 
who did not applaud the revived ceremo- 
nies were marked out for Presbyterians, and 
every Presbyterian was a rebel.” The 
vindictive spirit of the restored bishops 
manifested itself against tliese unhappy 
people in every possible way. They 
were alternately elated with hopes of 
peace and liberty, and sunk to despair by 
disappointment and abuse. The doctrines 
of passive obedience and non-resistance 
were revived, and an open and flagrant per- 
secution of the Presbyterians was com- 
menced, which continued to increase until 
the triumph of episcopacy was completed by 
the Act of Uniformity, which began to be 
in force on St. Bartholomew’s day, in the 
year 1662. By this act two thousand of 
the worthiest and most learned men of the 
time were ejected from their livings, and 
