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tianity, that the Institutions of Christ may be almost forgotten. And these human inventions, may be so different and discordant, as to promote innumerable contentions and divisions among that flock of Christ, which should hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Add to this, that men who undertake to make additions to the word of God, or to do what is the same in effect, to enforce terms of communion, and make certain things to be duties, and matters of conscience, which have no foundation in the Scriptures, ought to produce some clear and satisfactory proof that the Lord has invested them with authority so to do. To be able to do this, merely by reproaching, fining, imprisoning, and otherwise afflicting their opponents, will furnish no proper evidence of their divine authority, at least to those who have so learned Christ as to bring every thing to the Law and the Testimony. But of these things, it is probable, I shall have occasion, and that more than once, in the course of this little production, to state my sentiments.

During the reigns of James the First, and Charles the First, the Puritans increased in number and influence, notwithstanding their discouragements and persecutions. The more moderate of the Puritans, wishing to steer a middle course, between a total separation from the established Church, and an undeviating conformity, were attacked by some of the Bishops with this argument: -"All who wilfully refuse to obey the King, in all things indifferent, and to conform themselves to the Church authorized by him, not contrary to God's word, are Schismatics, enemies to the King's Supremacy and the State, and are not to be tolerated in the Church or Commonwealth." To this the Puritans answered, "All those who freely and willingly perform to the King and the State, all

obedience, not only in things necessary but indifferent, commanded by law, and that have always been ready to conform to every order of the Church authorized by him, not contrary to the word of God, are free from all Schism, friends to the King's Supremacy and the State, and do not deserve to be thus molested in Church or Commonwealth. But there are none of us, (said they,) who have been deprived or suspended from our ministry, but who have ever been ready to do all this; therefore we are free from Schism, friends to the Kings supremacy, and therefore not deserving of the molestations which we suffer."

The rigorous proceedings of the Bishops, served to alienate the Puritans from the Church, some of them declaring it to be unlawful to hold commuion with it, because it was not only a corrupt but persecuting Church. Meantime, some of the Divines of the Church, and especially the young ones, who preached for preferment, abused those who separated, calling them Fanatics, Schismatics, Heretics, and enemies to God and the King; using the very same language which the Papists had done against the first Reformers.

The Puritans very properly asked their adversaries, what they had done contrary to Christianity: "Have we," said they, "raised any tumult? Has the state been put into any hazard through us? Manifold disgraces have been put upon us, and we have endured them. The liberty of our ministry has been taken from us, and we have sustained it, though with bleeding hearts. We have been cast out of our houses, and deprived of our ordinary maintenance, yet have we blown no trumpet of sedition." They complied to the utmost extent of their consciences, and when they could not go to the full length required, they submitted to sufferings. What

Their

genuine Christian, who has formed any just ideas of the rights of men in a civil and religious sense, does not feel his heart warm to these men, and at the same time to rise with holy indignation against their protestant-papist persecutions. And the memory of these worthy men is the more interesting, as they and their posterity were the chief causes, under God, of all the civil and religious liberty which is to be found in the whole world. painful and long continued struggles against the civil and ecclesiastical tyranny of the Stuarts, obtained the portion of liberty for which England has been so much celebrated, and by which it has been so much benefited. And the civil and religious liberty with which the United States of America are favoured, may be traced to the same venerable sources. For while America was little better than a desert, and which for ages after continued to be to England what Botany Bay, or New South-Wales is now, that is, a receptacle for such criminals as the mother country refused to harbour any longer: as far back as the reigns of the James's and the Charles's, great numbers of persecuted Puritans, left the land which persecuted them, and literally fled into the wilderness. And the principles which enabled them thus to endure as seeing him who is invisible, they taught to their offspring, and that so impressively, that these again instilled the same into their descendants. They were the cradle and nursery of all the liberty, civil and religious, which is in America, And as the chief

part of the notions of liberty, which exist on the Continent of Europe have been taken from England or America, we may say, that nearly all the liberty, and all the ideas of liberty, which are in the world, may be traced back to the ancient English Puritans. Yea as 1

pass along, and hasten to a nearer approach to them, let me suggest to the Methodists, that all the liberty and protection, with which they have been favoured, and also the Gospel-light which they enjoy, was in a great measure, procured for them by the hardships, imprisonments, and other sufferings, of these same Puritans. It may be proper to notice that though these observations may appear to be considerably remote from the avowed subject of this Book, they are more nearly connected with it than may at first sight appear. I undertake to write the Life of Dr. COKE, chiefly with regard to his connexion with religion, and its promotion in the world. Religion cannot be extended without some measure of religious liberty. Besides, there is a wide difference between a corrupted superstitious religion, and the pure unadulterated truth as it is in Jesus. And as the Puritans had such an ample share in promoting both purity of religion, and true religious liberty, and as religious and civil liberty are very closely connected, it would have been almost criminal not to have taken the notice of these which I have.

There seems to have been a general and deep sense of Religion in England, and still more so, perhaps, in Scotland, before the war broke out between Charles the First and the Parliament. Some pious people espoused his cause, while the majority of them took the other side. And that their motives for making this choice were pure, at least as to the generality of them, I think there can be little doubt. However correct or incorrect their views might be, in a political point of view, they wished to promote that cause which they thought would tend the most to promote the cause of truth and holiness, or,

that would at least, do the least injury to real Christianity.

If any further evidence was wanting upon this point, that evidence might soon be furnished. But I proceed to observe, that when the licentious Monarch, Charles the Second, ascended the Throne of his Ancestors, the pious of the land were immediately persecuted, afflicted, and tormented. Even Mr. Wesley remarks, in his journals, after mentioning his reading an account of the sufferings of the church of Scotland during this reign, that he was far worse than bloody Queen Mary. Not less than eight thousand, it is confidently affirmed, died in prison, whose conscientious conduct had brought them thither, during his reign. And great multitudes who were immured in jail, were released, sooner or later; vast multitudes were more or less impoverished by the persecution of the times; while many more, as before mentioned, crossed the Atlantic ocean, and sought for an asylum in the woods of the New World. The Act of uniformity, which took place on the black and memorable Bartholomew Day, 1662, was the most fatal stroke that was ever given to true piety in England. By this act, nearly two thousand of the most pious, able, and faithful ministers in the land. were cut off from the Church of England in a single day. The act was such, and required such sacrifices and compliances, that very few truly conscientious ministers could comply with it. This lamentable event, made the pious and useful Mr. Richard Baxter exclaim,

O! that we had but the gift of tongues, to enable us to proclaim the gospel in other lands; for then I should be satisfied!" And there cannot be a doubt, that if there had then been such openings for foreign Missions as we have lived to see, many of these good and eminent ministers of Christ,