956 League and Covenant" upon their de luded countrymen at the commencement of the great rebellion. P" That the Lord “might be one, and his name one in the ff three kingdoms," they proceeded to destroy all existing establishments, and remove every barrier which had been erected to preserve the purity and the unity of the faith. They swept the national Church with the besom of destruction;" they abolished her Liturgy and her discipline; they drove her clergy from their cures; and sanctioned the rhapsodies of every fanatical preacher, who was willing to pervert the Scriptures to the purposes of faction, and teach the abettors of rebellion, sacrilege, and murder, that they were doing God service, and promoting the establishment of his kingdom. The consequences of such a system may bros concholy an a ogo See Note CXXXIX. Appendix. See Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, b. vii. vol. 2. p. 287. folio. q Isaiah xiv. 23. r See Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, part list s See Note CXL. Appendix..: be best set forth in the language of those, who, after labouring long and zealously in its support, lived to see and to confess their error. One of them thus proclaims the. result of his own observation.ʻAso in commonwealths, where the bands and "sinewes of civil government are cut ❝asunder, and no conjunction or associ "ating of a people into or under govern “ment, politicians say, that in such times, "every man is at warre with every man, 66. every man is an enemy to every man; so "the Lord for our sinnes hath poured "this evill upon us, that we lye in confu❝sion, almost every man is divided from "every man, and so deepe hath the mas "lady taken root, that many are in love "with it, and like their very divisions; "and as it is in popular tumults, no man " will heare any man, but still the confused "noise goes on; so in truth is it with us, "we are not willing to heare of agreement, "he is almost an enemy, who would la "bour a pacification or reconciliation !?t Stephen Marshall's Spittle Sermon, April 1652. See also Note CXLI. Appendix. * Such then was the effect of this great effort to restore unity, peace, and concord, by removing ancient landmarks, and confounding the distinction between truth and error, in order to prevent the disputes they had occasioned. The remedy indeed was powerful, but in its operation it was found to be far more fatal than the disease for which it was prescribed; and they who had blindly concurred in the work of destruction soon found, that, by abolishing the apostolic form of Church government, they had exposed the faith itself to the assaults of its worst enemies; and that instead of promoting peace by their indisereet and unwarrantable concessions, they had justified discontent, and legalized re sistance. It might have been supposed, that the miseries and horrors which attended this attempt to gather together in ones those, whom differences of opinion upon fundamental points rendered wholly irreconcileable, would have taught wisdom to succeeding generations. They might have learned from the sufferings of others, how truly it was said, that "the cheating noise "and name of unity hath been the great die vider of the Christian world; and instead of being deluded by a mere outward shew of harmony, they might have known, that no religious union can be permanent or beneficial, unless it be established upon the basis of "one Lord, one faith, and "one baptism." Then would they have ceased from vain endeavours to gather, where no harvest was prepared; to unite, where no affinities existed; and they would never have hazarded the best interests of that Church, which they had solemnly pledged themselves to support, by fruitless projects to conciliate those, whose conduct had already proved, that they would be satisfied by nothing less than her destruction. [The remembrance of the y" bitter envy"ings, and strife," and divisions, which ensued among themselves, when the only bond of their union was broken by the downfall of that Church which they had X Baxter's Cure for Church Divisions, p. 276. * Ephes. iv. 5. associated to overthrow, might have in structed the wiser and more moderate of the dissenters also to study the things that make for peace, rather than to seek for the preeminence at the risk of utter destruc tions and when the Church was once more restored to her ancient supremacy, to be contented with the tranquil shelter of that toleration which she was ever ready to afford them. The rest however, which would have resulted from such discriminating prudence on the part of her own members, and such a wise forbearance in those who had separated from her communion, the Church has not hitherto been permitted to enjoy. Scarcely was she emancipated from the grinding tyranny of those whom "the so"lemn League and Covenant" had armed against her; scarcely had she seen her prelates reinstated in their dignities, and her clergy recalled to the discharge of their pastoral office; scarcely did her churches again resound to the hallowed strains of her venerable Liturgy, and her members were once more fed with the and un pure |