Many suffered the time limited for taking the oaths to elapse, and yet officiated afterward contrary to law. They threatened the church with a new separation, which terrified the moderate clergy, and put a stop to all amendments of the liturgy for the ease of dissenters, lest the nonjurors should gain over great numbers of the laity, by pretending to abide by the old liturgy, in opposition to the reformed one. Thus the Nonconformists were sold to the jacobites, by the timidity of their real friends; for the high-church party discovered an irreconcilable enmity to an accommodation, and seemed only to wish for an occasion to renew old severities. Those who had moved for a comprehension, and brought the bill into the house of lords, acted a very disingenuous part, says Burnet, for while they studied to recommend themselves, by seeming to countenance the bill, they set on their friends to oppose it, representing the favourers of it as enemies to the church.

When the king came to the house, March 16, he made the following speecht:

66

My lords and gentlemen,

"Now I have occasion of coming hither to pass these bills, I shall put you in mind of one thing which will conduce much to our settlement, as a settlement will to the disappointment of our enemies. I am, with all the expedition I can, filling up the vacancies that are in the offices and places of trust by this late revolution. I hope you are sensible there is a necessity of some law to settle the oaths to be taken by all persons to be admitted to such places. I recommend it to your care to make a speedy provision for it; and as I doubt not but you will sufficiently provide against Papists, so I hope you will leave room for the admission of all Protestants that are willing and able to serve. This conjunction in my service will tend to the better uniting you among yourselves, and the strengthening you against your common enemies." It appears by this, that king William was for taking off the test, and abrogating the penal laws, as far as related to dissenting Protestants, though the parliament were of another

mind.

When a bill was brought into the house of lords, for abrogating the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and framing other oaths in their stead, a committee was appointed to insert a clause to take away the necessity of receiving the sacrament in order to make a man capable of enjoying any office, employment or place of trust; but when the clause was reported to the house, it was rejected by a considerable majority, the earls of Stamford and Chesterfield, the lords Lovelace, Delamere, North and Grey, Wharton, and Vaughan, entering their protests.

• Burnet, vol. 3. p. 303.

† Gazette, No. 2436.

The protests of the dissentient peers were grounded on the following reasons: "that a hearty union amongst Protestants is a greater security to the church and state, than any test that could be invented: that this obligation to receive the sacra

After this another clause was offered, by which it was provided, that such should be sufficiently qualified for any office, who, within a year before or after their admission, did receive the sacrament, either according to the usage of the church of England, or in any other Protestant congregation, and could produce a certificate under the hands of the minister, and two other creditable persons, members of such a congregation. The question being put, whether this clause should be a part of the bill, it passed in the negative; the lords Oxford, Lovelace, Wharton, Mordaunt, Montague, and Paget, entering their protests*.

It was proposed farther, in a committee of the house of lords, to dispense with kneeling at the sacrament; but when the question was put, whether to agree with the committee in leaving out the clause, the votes were equal, and so according to the usage of the house it passed in the negativet. The like fate attended the motion about the cross in baptism, and explaining the words assent and consent in subscription. Thus the several attempts for alterations in the church-service, at a time when the legislature was in a temper for accommodating lesser differences, were frustrated by a rising party of jacobites and tories, who threatened the new government with a revolt unless they were humoured; and, for fear of them, all promises of accommodation with the dissenters were of no avail.

Soon after a bill for toleration of Protestant dissenters was brought into the house, and had an easy passage; though some

ment is a test on Protestants rather than on Papists: that so long as it continued, there could not be that hearty and thorough union amongst Protestants as has always been wished, and is at this time indispensably necessary and lastly, that a greater caution ought not to be required from such as were admitted into offices, than from the members of the two houses of parliament, who were not obliged to receive the sacrament to enable them to sit in either house." A Complete Collection of Protests, p. 62, 63; and Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 170, 171.-ED.

One reason on which the lords protested, was, "that mysteries of religion and divine worship are of divine original, and of a nature so wholly distinct from the secular affairs of public society, that they cannot be applied to those ends: and therefore the church, by the law of the gospel, as well as common prudence, ought to take care not to offend either tender consciences within itself, or give offence to those without, by mixing their sacred mysteries with secular interests." A Complete Collection of Protests, p. 64, 65.-ED.

+ Burnet, p. 155.

"The act of toleration (remarks a late writer) was another interference of the state to check the power of ecclesiastics, but without altering the constitution of the church. Laymen had before declared what should be deemed heresy in the spiritual courts; they now exempted some descriptions of dissenters wholly from their jurisdiction, while all others, and oppugners of the Trinity by name, were expressly reserved for the persecuting spirit of the church to operate upon." How truly then might Mr. Locke, writing to Limborch (Locke's Works, vol. 4. p. 406), soon after the passing of this act, say, "Tolerantiam apud nos jam tandem lege stabilitatem, te ante hæc audiisse, nullus dubito. Non ea forsan latitudine quâ tu et tui similes veri, et sine ambitione vel invidiâ, Christiani optarent. Sed aliquid est prodire tenus. His initiis jacta spero sunt libertatis et pacis fundamenta, quibus stabilienda olim erat Christi ecclesia." High-Church Politics, p. 66. In English thus: "I doubt not before this you have heard, that toleration is at last established here by law. Not indeed with that latitude that you, and other Christians like you, unambitious and unprejudiced, and lovers of truth, might wish. But it is a great point to proceed so far. In these beginnings, I hope, are laid those foundations of liberty and peace, on which the church of Christ will be finally established.”—ED,

proposed that the act should be only temporary, as a necessary restraint, that the dissenters might so demean themselves as to merit the continuance of it, when the term of years first granted should expire; but this was rejected.-Bishop Burnet* says, that his zeal for this act lost him his credit with the church-party, by which it appears they did not much like it. It is entitled, "An act for exempting their majesties' Protestant subjects dissenting from the church of England, from the penalties therein mentioned." But the corporation and test acts were not inserted in this act, and therefore remain in full force: there is an exception likewise of such as deny the doctrine of the Trinity; and Quakers are excused taking the oaths to the government, upon their making a solemn declaration therein mentioned. This act excuses all Protestant dissenters from the penalties of the laws therein mentioned, for not coming to church, provided they take the oaths, and subscribe the declarations therein mentioned. And dissenting ministers are tolerated on the like conditions, and on their subscribing the doctrinal articles of the church of England. But this being the basis and boundary of their present liberty, I have inserted the act in the Appendix, No. XIII.

While the bill for a toleration was depending, a motion was made in the house of lords for a comprehension, which was received, and some progress made towards effecting it; but a proviso being offered, and pressed with great earnestness by some temporal lords, that in imitation of the acts passed in the reigns of king Henry VIII. and Edward VI. a number of persons, both of clergy and laity, might be empowered to prepare materials for such a reformation of the church as might be fit to offer the king and parliament, it was warmly debated, and at length rejected by a small majority. Bishop Burnett was against the proviso, for fear of offending the clergy, who would look upon it as taking the reformation out of their hands; but adds, "I was convinced soon after that I had taken wrong measures, and that the method proposed by the lords was the only one like to prove effectual." Dr. Tillotson, being of the same mind with Burnet, advised the king to refer the affair to a synod of divines, whose determinations he apprehended would stop the mouths of Papists, who reproached our reformation as built chiefly on parliamentary authority, and would be better received by the body of the clergy+.

Accordingly it was agreed in council, that a select number of learned divines should be appointed by the royal mandate, to meet and consult about the most proper methods of healing the wounds of the church; that their determinations should be laid before the convocation, and from thence receive the sanction of parliament. Agreeably to this resolution the king issued out a commission to thirty divines, of which ten were bishops, whose names were,

History, p. 14. + Burnet, vol. 4. p. 14. Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 179.

Their commission was as follows:

"Whereas the particular forms of divine worship, and the rites and ceremonies appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable, and so acknowledged, it is but reasonable that upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigencies of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made therein, as to those that are in place and authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient.

"And whereas the book of canons is fit to be reviewed, and made more suitable to the state of the church; and whereas there are defects and abuses in the ecclesiastical courts and jurisdictions; and particularly, there is not sufficient provision made for the removing of scandalous ministers, and for the reforming of manners, either in ministers or people; and whereas it is most fit that there should be a strict method prescribed for the examination of such persons as desire to be admitted into holy orders, both as to their learning and manners;

"We therefore, out of our pious and princely care for the good order, edification and unity of the church of England, committed to our charge and care, and for the reconciling as much as is possible of all differences among our good subjects, and to take away all occasion of the like for the future, have thought fit to authorise you, &c. or any nine of you, whereof three to be bishops, to meet from time to time as often as shall be needful, and to prepare such alterations of the liturgy and canons, and such proposals for the reformation of the ecclesiastical courts, and to consider of such other matters, as in your judgments may most conduce to the ends above mentioned."

The committee having assembled in the Jerusalem-chamber, a dispute arose about the legality of their commission; Sprat bishop of Rochester, one of king James's ecclesiastical commissioners, being of the number, they pretended to fear a premunire, though there was not so much as a shadow for such a pretence, the king's supremacy, if it means any thing, empowering him to appoint proper persons to prepare matters for the legislature: however, upon this debate, Mew bishop of Winchester, Sprat of Rochester,

* Life of Archbishop Tennison, p. 10, &c.

with Dr. Jane and Dr. Aldridge, withdrew. Some of them declared plainly they were against all alterations whatsoever; they thought too much would be done for the dissenters, in granting them an act of toleration, and they would do nothing to make conformity easier. They said farther, that altering the customs and constitutions of the church, to gratify a peevish and obstinate party, was likely to have no other effect than to make them more insolent*. But was it ever tried? Did the convocation or parliament make a single abatement from the year 1662 to this time? If the experiment had been tried, and proved ineffectual, the blame might have been cast upon the dissenters; but to call them peevish and obstinate, without offering them any even the smallest concessions, deserves no better a name than unjust calumny. Was there no obstinacy and peevishness on the side of the church in retreating from so many promises without a single offer? But it was said farther, that the church, by proposing these alterations, seemed to confess that she had hitherto been in the wrong, and that the attempt would divide them among themselves, and lessen people's esteem for the liturgy, if it appeared that it wanted correction. Such were the reasonings of these high divines, if they deserve the name, some of whom but a few months before had made the warmest pretences to a spirit of moderation!

It was alleged on the other side, that if a few corrections or explanations were allowed, there was reason to hope it would bring over many of the people, if not the teachers themselves; at least, if the prejudices of the present dissenters were too strong, it might have a good effect on the next generation; nor could it be any reproach to the church, since the offers were made only in regard to their weakness. Ritual matters were of an indifferent nature, and became necessary in virtue only of the authority that enjoined them, therefore it was an unreasonable stiffness to deny any abatements, in order to heal the church's divisions. Great changes had been made by the church of Rome in her rituals; and among ourselves since the Reformation, in the reigns of king Edward VI., queen Elizabeth, king James, and king Charles II., and it seemed necessary at this time to make the terms of communion as large as might be, that so a greater number might be brought over, since, by the act of toleration, they might dissent with safety.

But while these matters were debating, the jacobite party took hold of the occasion to inflame men's minds against the government. It was pretended the church was to be pulled down, and presbytery established: the universities took fire, and declared against alterations, and against all who promoted them, as men who intended to undermine the hierarchy. Severe reflections were cast on the king himself, as not being in the interest of the episcopacy, for the cry of the church's danger was raised by the