CHAPTER VII.

DEMOCRATIC FORM OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT.
ITS EFFECTS ON POLITICAL OPINIONS.

Different course pursued by the Church and Dissenters at the Reformation-Difference between Presbyterians, Independents, and Puritans-Three kinds of PuritansTheir doctrines and form of ecclesiastical government— Singular valedictory address of the Puritans to the members of the Church of England-Extraordinary union of Church and State among the former-Cause of present political unity of action between Dissenters and Romanists.

WHILE the people on the continent of Europe were engaged in the work of reformation, the Church of England, with equal zeal and more discretion, set herself about the great task of restoration. She had never voluntarily submitted to Rome, nor fully admitted her authority over her. She had been previously encroached upon from time to time, owing to the imbecility or

contentions of her princes, but had never failed either to resist or protest, to assert her exclusive jurisdiction, or to claim the exercise of her ancient

usages.

If not anterior to that of Rome, the Anglican Church was at least coeval with it, being founded, as there is substantial ground for believing, by one of the Apostles. At a very early date, it had its orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, and subsisted, as independent in its action as it was isolated in position, for a period of nearly six hundred years, before the grasping and aspiring spirit of Rome attempted to seduce or force it into an acknowledgment of her supremacy. At the close of the sixth century, about the year 596, Gregory I. sent Augustine the monk to demand the submission of the English prelates, who, with their flocks, had gradually been driven westward by the barbarians that had invaded the island; and as these successful emigrants were heathens, he was at the same time instructed to Christianize them, if possible. In the first object of his mission he wholly failed, having received a decided refusal from the seven bishops, who assembled in Worcestershire to hear his proposition. In the latter (the conversion of the conquerors) he was more successful, and immediately assumed jurisdiction over his proselytes. The Papal power having thus obtained a footing, never afterwards

ceased its endeavours to enlarge it upon every practicable occasion, or plausible pretence.*

To shake off the errors and corruptions of Romanism, and preserve what was sanctioned by the usage of the apostolic age, was a work of great labour, and at the same time great delicacy. The task of the Church, unlike that of the impetuous and headstrong body of innovators who called themselves Protestant Reformers, was not to pull down and reconstruct, but thoroughly to repair and completely restore the ancient edifice in all its beauty, simplicity, and proportion. Nobly was this arduous and important duty performed. Search was made for the forms of the olden time, before the irruption of the Roman priesthood, for the prayers in all the ancient sees were not alike, as each bishop had, according to primitive custom, the power of regulating the liturgy of his own diocese. From these authentic sources was compiled with great labour and infinite patience the Book of Common Prayer, which has extorted from one of the most learned and eminent Dissenting divines of this century this extraordinary eulogium: "That it is by far the greatest uninspired work extant."†

Romanists themselves, when permitted to exer

* Bennet on Common Prayer. Theophilus Angli

canus.

† Hall.

cise an independent judgment, admitted its unexceptionable character and great beauty, and joined in its use for more than twelve years. Two of the Popes, Paul and Pius IV., went so far as to offer to sanction it if Queen Elizabeth would acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope. Upon her refusal she was excommunicated, in 1569, and from that period British Papists became schismatics.

The English Dissenting Reformers, though not so ignorant as those of the continent, were, with some distinguished exceptions, in general violent and vulgar fanatics. They were but little acquainted with the history or antiquity of their own primitive church, and cared still less about it; all they knew was, that even when purified and restored, it still resembled that of Rome too much to please them. As they had rejected the Pontiff, they saw no reason to obey a bishop; and it was obvious to the meanest capacity, that if the regular clergy were abolished, tithes would necessarily cease also. So convenient and so unscrupulous a party were soon seized upon by politicians to advance their own ends. They were told then, as their descendants are informed to this day, by the leading Liberals of England, who view with no friendly eye such a Conservative body as the Church, that it was the child of the Reformation, the offspring of chance, and the result of a com

VOL. I.

Q

promise between Royal prerogative, Papal pretension, and popular rights; that it had neither the antiquity of the old nor the purity of the new faith, and that it was behind the enlightenment of the age. In fact, it was stigmatized as deriving its origin from no higher authority than an Act of Parliament. Macaulay has lent his aid to perpetuate this delusion, and the innovating propensities of the Whigs may well be imagined from the fact, that even history is not safe in the hands of a reformer.

As this dissentient body, at a subsequent period, furnished the pioneers who settled in New England, it is necessary to take a cursory view of their position, divisions, and political and religious principles, that we may understand the character and temper of the people we have been treating of.

There were at that time three great parties of Nonconformists in the parent country—the Presbyterians, the Independents, and the Puritans. There were some points in which they all agreed, but there was a broad line of distinction among them in others. They concurred in a thorough hatred of Popery and prelacy, which they effected to consider nearly synonimous terms, and united in a desire to restrain the regal authority, but different in degree. The Presbyterians, from the habit of mingling politics with their religious discourses, often gave vent to violent and seditious