it, observing the high hopes and aims, the diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and reasonings in the pursuance of truth and freedom,—but that he would cry out as Pyrrhus did, admiring the Roman docility and courage; if such were my Epirots, I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted to make a church or kingdom happy. Yet these are the men cried out against for schismatics and sectaries, as if, while the temple of the Lord was building,-some cutting, some squaring the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should be a sort of irrational men, who could not consider there must be many schisms and many dissections made in the quarry and in the timber, ere the house of God can be built. And when every stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, it can be but contiguous in this world: neither can every piece of the building be of one form; nay rather the perfection consists this, that out of many moderate varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportional, arises the goodly and the graceful symmetry that commends the whole pile and structure. Let us therefore be more considerate builders, more wise in spiritual architecture, when great reformation is expected."

"Neither is God appointed and confined, where and out of what place these his chosen shall be first heard to speak; for he sees not as man sees, chooses not as man chooses, lest we should devote ourselves again to set places and assemblies, and outward callings of men; planting our faith one while in the old Convocation house, and another while in the chapel at Westminster; when all the faith and religion. that shall be there canonized, is not sufficient without

plain convincement, and the charity of patient instruction, to supple the least bruise of conscience, to edify the meanest Christian, who desires to walk in the spirit, and not in the letter of human trust, for all the number of voices that can be there made; no, though Harry the Seventh himself there, with all his liege tombs about him, should lend their voices from the dead to swell their number." *

It would have been well for that and succeeding ages, if the noble sentiments embodied in these passages had been generally received. Freedom of thought and speech-a perfect tolerance of differing opinions-a charitable construction of the motives and aims even of those who may be considered in error—are essential preliminaries to all real agreement and union amongst the followers of truth. But bigotry too often prevails over justice and charity; and believers in the patient process by which the God of truth advances the spiritual interests of the human race, have always been comparatively few. The opinions of Milton and his coadjutors prevailed only to a limited extent, and have yet to be inculcated with a world-wide diffusiveness, before the prospect of permanent liberty, civil and religious, can be realized.

The thorough Independents might have succeeded in securing religious freedom for their country, but for the existence of factions deeply pledged to certain traditionary forms of opinion-the prelatists on the one hand, who were ever watching their opportunity to restore the abolished hierarchy; and the presbyterians on the other, who were determined not to relinquish the adventitious position they had acquired.

* See note on page 15. Milton confirms Shakspeare's account of the Jerusalem Chamber.

The latter, in particular, were especially intent on the prosecution of their designs. It is difficult to say which predominated, their zeal for the presbyterian polity, or their hostility to toleration. Their perseverance, notwithstanding the manifest injustice of their exclusive claims and the innumerable obstacles that opposed them, is even yet a matter for wonder. Every method, likely or unlikely,—every kind of instrumentality, worthy or unworthy, was employed to further their projects. Led on by the "Scots Commissioners," who never forgot to turn to the best account their relation to the estates, assemblies, and army of Scotland; emboldened by their numerical strength in the synod of Westminster, where they could always command overwhelming majorities; encouraged by their influential position in the city, whose rich lectureships and livings they had secured, almost without exception; they were resolutely bent on procuring the establishment of their polity and worship, on the ruins of all others. Their success was vastly disproportionate to their efforts. They hoped to see the "two nations" brought to "the nearest possible agreement." It was their thought by day, their dream by night, to bring every village, town, city, county, in England, under the coercive sway of their “parochial, classical, presbyterial, and provincial assemblies," and thus to have had the moulding of the entire British mind.* To accomplish this, their

"The Perfection of Justification maintained against the Pharisee: The Purity of Sanctification against the Stainers of it: The Unquestionablenesse of a Future Glorification against the Sadducee: In several Sermons. Together with an Apologetic Answer to the Ministers of the New Province of London, in Vindication of the Author against their Aspersions. By John Simpson, an unworthy Publisher of Gospel-truths in London. 1648."

attendance in the Westminster synod was most exemplary, and their votes were given with great prudence and judgment; the London press was constantly occupied by the Rutherfords, Baillies, Edwardses, and Walkers of their party; the reformed churches of the continent were corresponded with, and urgently solicited to aid them by letters confirmatory of their doctrine and polity, while their great men-their Moulins, Forbeses, Voetiuses, Spanheims, Drelincourts, Apolloniuses, and L'Empereurs--were pestered with solicitations to write down Independency; members of parliament were watched, followed, courted, and all but won over to espouse their interests, and the most strenuous efforts were made to fill up vacancies in the representation of the country, by members who held their own views. In addition to this, they endeavoured to bribe the "dissenting brethren," by offers of the best livings in England, with assurance of a personal dispensation to them for their whole life, if they would leave but that one intolerable tenet of separation." But their expectations were too sanguine. After many delays, they had the bitter mortification of finding that they were not to be trusted. Their directory of worship, their confession of faith, and their metrical version of the Psalms, received at last the sanction of parliament; but their presbyterian system was considered as of too questionable a character to be adopted, except in a limited and experimental manner, and was never established as the religion of the country. In March, 1646, they obtained an ordinance for setting up a presbytery in London and in Lancashire; but it was considered "so defective,"

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*Baillie's "Dissuasive from the Errors of the Time, etc." 1646. p. 105; Hanbury, iii. 146.

that the city, and the assembly, and the London ministers of their order petitioned against it. They might meet in synodical form at Sion College; they might appoint examiners or triers, to pronounce on the fitness or unfitness of candidates for the ministry; they might, as far as the metropolis was concerned, arrange the churches according to their system, appoint elders in all the congregations, hold church-services in every parish, set up twelve presbyteries, and turn London into a presbyterial province.* And in doing all this, they might occupy for a season a position of favour and patronage, and conduct a petty persecution against anabaptists, antinomians, Independents, and so called sectaries. But the ordinance gave no power of "rigorous enforcement," and prescribed no "penalty" on

* Baillie; Letter 148.

"The Perfection of Justification, etc.," Epistle Dedicatory, and The Second Epistle. In this work, which seems scarce, we have an insight into the system. The Second Epistle is dedicated" to the two and fifty parish ministers within the new province of London, who have subscribed unto that pamphlet, which is wickedly and unjustly called by them; A Testimonie to the truth of Jesus Christ, and to our solemn League and Covenant." In the body of the Epistle we find the following: "It seemeth that the strange and hidden virtue of your presbyterian-government hath suddenly turned our famous citie into a province, and made you ministers of this presbyterian province. Did ever Christ or his apostles turne free cities or countreyes into provinces by bringing in any ecclesiastical government upon those who were converted to the faith? What is any province, to speak properly, but a region or country subdued by force of armes, and kept under jurisdiction by a lieutenant sent thither, with commission to governe; as the schoole-boys know very well, who know the meaning of that phrase in Cæsar's Commentaries, -in provinciam redigere,

etc."