think fit." When the lords had gone through the book, the lord chancellor Hyde, by order of the house, gave the bishops thanks, March 15, for their care in this business;|| and desired their lordships to give the like thanks to the lower house of convocation, and acquaint them, that their amendments were well received and approved, though some of them met with a considerable opposition. From the lords they were sent down to the commons, and inserted in the act of uniformity, as will be seen under the next year. But before this famous act had passed either house the presbyterians were reduced to the utmost distress. In the month of March, 1661-62,* the grand jury at Exeter found above forty bills of indictment against some eminent nonconformist ministers for not reading the common prayer according to law. They likewise presented the travelling about of divers itinerant preachers, ejected out of sequestered livings, as dangerous to the peace of the nation. They complained of their teaching sedition and rebellion in pri vate houses, and other congregations, tending to foment a new war. They also presented such as neglected their own parish churches, and run abroad to hear factious ministers; and such as walked in the church-yards, or other places, while divine service was reading; all which were the certain forerunners of a general persecution. In Scotland the court carried their measures with a high hand; for having got a parliament to their mind, the earl of Middleton, a most notorious debauchee, opened it, with presenting a letter of his majesty to the house; after which they passed an act, declaring all Leagues not made with the king's authority illegal. This struck at the root of the covenant made with England in 1643. They passed another act rescinding all acts made since the late troubles, and another empowering the king to settle the government of the church as he should please. It was a mad, roaring time, (says the bishop) and no wonder it was so, when the men of affairs were almost perpetually drunk. The king hereupon directed that the church should be governed by synods, presbyters, and kirk sessions, till he should appoint another government, which he did by a letter to his Kennet's Chron. p. 638. Id. p. 642, 3. Kennet's Chron. p. 617. S Burnet, vol, i. p. 161, &e. Burnet, p. 166. council of Scotland, bearing date Aug. 14, 1661, in which he recites the inconveniencies which had attended the pres. byterian government for the last twenty-three years, and its inconsistency with monarchy. Therefore (says he) from our respect to the glory of God, the good and interest of the protestant religion, and the better harmony with the government of the church of England, We declare our firm resolution to interpose our royul authority for restoring the church of Scotland to its right government by bishops, as it was before the late troubles. And our will and pleasure is, that you take effectual care to restore the rents belonging to the several bishoprics; that you prohibit the assembling of ministers in their synodical meetings till our further pleasure; and that you keep a watchful eye over those, who by discourse or preaching endeavor to alienate the affections of our people from us or our government.-" Pursuant to these directions the lords of the council ordered the heralds to make public proclamation at the market cross in Edinburgh, Sept. 6, of this his majesty's royal will and pleasure. In the month of December a commission was issued out to the bishops of London and Worcester* to ordain and consecrate, according to the rites and ceremonies of the church of England, Mr. James Sharp, archbishop of St. Andrews, Mr. Andrew Fairfoul, archbishop of Glasgow, Mr. Robert Leighton, bishop of Dunblain, and Mr. James Hamilton, bishop of Galloway.A very bad choice, says bishop Burnet. Sharp was one of the falsest and vilest dissemblers in the world. Fair foul was next akin to a natural. Leighton was an excellent prelate; but Hamilton's life was scarce free from scandal. He had sworn to the covenant, and when one objected to him, that it went against his conscience, he said, Such medicines as could not be chewed must be swallowed whole. The English bishops insisted upon their renounc Ibid. 191, 192. * Burnet, p. 133, 134. § It is, as Dr. Grey remarks, that Mr. Neal has here strangely confounded two characters; ascribing to bishop Hamilton what bishop Burnet has applied to bishop Fairfoul. It is singular that Dr. Grey has, in the next paragraph, committed a similar mistake; for quoting Mr. Neal's account of the death of Mr James Guthrie, who, on the authority of Burnet, he says, "spoke an hour before his execution, with great composedness," he admits the correctness of this passage: ing their presbyterian orders, which they censented to, and were, in one and the same day, ordained, first deacons, then priests, and last of all bishops, according to the rites of the church of England. Bishop Burnet says, that though the king had a natural hatred to presbytery, he went very coldly into this design; nay, that he had a visible reluctancy against it, because of the temper of the Scots nation, and his unwillingness to involve his government in new troubles; but the earl of Clarendon pushed it forward with great zeal; and the duke of Ormond said, that episcopacy could not be established in Ireland, if presbytery continued in Scotland. The earls of Lauderdale and Crawford indeed opposed it, but the council of Scotland not protesting, it was determined; but it was a large strain of the prerogative for a king by a royal proclamation to alter the government of a church established by law, without consent of parliament, convocation or synod of any kind whatsoever; for it was not until May the next year that this affair was decided in parliament. Some of the Scots ministers preached boldly against this change of government; and among others, Mr. James Guthrie minister of Stirlin, for which, and some other things, he was convicted of sedition and treason. Bishop Burnet,s who saw him suffer, says that he expressed a contempt of death; that he spoke an hour upon the ladder with the composure of a man that was delivering a sermon rather than his last words; that he justified all he had done, exhorting all people to adhere to the covenant, which he magnified highly. He was executed June 14, 1661, and concluded his dying speech with these words, "I take God to record upon my soul, that I would not exchange this scaffold with the palace or mitre of the greatest prelate in Britain. Blessed be God, who hath shewed mercy to such a wretch, and has revealed his son in me, and made me a but adds, that Burnet, but two pages before, said, that Mr. Guthrie spoke for half an hour with great appearance of serenity; and observes "so consistent was this great man with himself in the compass of two pages." Now the inconsistency is in Dr. Grey, and not bishop Burnet, who speaks in the first place not of Mr. Guthrie, but of the Marquis of Argyle, vol. i. p. 179. Ed. *Hist. p. 130-31. 6 Hist. of the Stuarts, p. 144. Kennet's Chron. 577. minister of the everlasting gospel; and that he has designed, in the midst of much contradiction from satan and the world, to seal my ministry upon the hearts of not a few of this people, and especially in the congregation and presbytery of Stirlin." There was with him on the same scaffold, young captain Govan, whose last words were these, "I bear witness with my blood to the persecuted government of this church, by synods and presbyteries. I bear witness to the solemn league and covenant, and seal it with my blood. I likewise testify against all popery, prelacy, idolatry, superstition, and the service book, which is no better than a relic of the Romish idolatry-"* Soon after this the rights of patronages were restored, and all the presbyterian ministers silenced, though the court had not a supply of men of any sort to fill up their vacancies. The account that bishop Burnet gives of the old Scots presbyterian ministers, who were possessed of the church livings before the Restoration, is very remarkable, and deserves a place in this history. "They were (says he) a brave and solemn people: their spirits were cager, and their temper sour, but they had an appearance that created respect; they visited their parishes much, and were so full of scripture, and so ready at extempore prayer, that from that they grew to practise extempore sermons; for the custom in Scotland was, after dinner or supper, to read a chapter in the bible, and when they happened to come in, if it was acceptable, they would on a sudden expound the chapter; by this means the people had such a vast degree of knowledge, that the poor cottagers could pray extempore. Their preachers went all in one tract in their sermons, of doctrine, reason, and use; and this was so methodical, that the people could follow a sermon quite through every branch of it. It can hardly be imagined to what a degree these ministers were loved and reverenced by their people. They kept scandalous persons under severe discipline; for breach of the sabbath, for an oath, or drunkenness, they were cited before the kirk sessions, and solemnly rebuked for it; for fornication they stood on the stool of repentance in the church, at the time of worship, for three days, receiving admonition, and making profes * Barnet, p. 152-53. sions of repentance, which some did with many tears, and exhortations to others to take warning by them; for adultery they sat in the same place six months covered with sackcloth. But with all this (says the bishop) they had but a narrow compass of learning, were very affected in their deportment, and were apt in their sermons to make themselves popular, by preaching against the sins of princes and courts, which the people delighted to hear, because they had no share in them."* The bishops and clergy, who succeeded the presbyterians, were of a quite different stamp; most of them were very mean divines, vicious in their morals, idle and negligent of their cures; by which means they became obnoxious to the whole nation, and were hardly capable of supporting their authority through the reign of king Charles II. even with the assistance of the civil power. Bishop Burnet adds, that they were mean and despicable in all respects; the worst preachers he ever heard; ignorant to a reproach, and many of them openly vicious; that they were a disgrace to their order, and to the sacred functions, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. The few who were above contempt or scandal were men of such violent tempers, that they were as much hated as the others were despised. In Ireland the hierarchy was restored after the same manner as in Scotland; the king by his letters patent, in right of his power to appoint bishops to the vacant sees, issued his royal mandate to Dr. Bramhall, archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. Taylor bishop of Down and Connor, by virtue of which they consecrated two archbishops, and ten bishops, in one day. His grace insisted on the re-ordination of those who had been ordained in the late times without the hands of a bishop, but with this softening clause in their orders: Non annihilantes priores ordines (si quos habuit) nec validitatem aut invaliditatem eorundem determinantes, multo minus omnes ordines sacros ecclesiarum forinsecarum condemnantes, quos proprio judicio relinquimus: Sed solummodo supplentes quicquid prius defuit per canones ecclesiae Anglicana requisitum i. e. "Not annihilating his former orders (if he had any) * Burnet, p. 226-27. § Page 229. + Kennet's Chron. p. 440, 441. |