INTERREGNUM.—INDEPENDENTS.
A meeting was held at Norwich, and another in London, respecting which Dr. Owen wrote to Mr. Bridge. The resolutions at which the Yarmouth Church arrived, as they were probably drawn up by the eminent minister, who presided over that community, may be regarded as expressing the opinions of a wider circle than the provincial society which adopted them.
First—"We judge a Parliament to be the expedient for the preservation of the peace of these nations; and withal we do desire that all due care be taken that the Parliament be such as may preserve the interest of Christ and His people in these nations." Secondly—"As touching the magistrate's power in matters of faith and worship we have declared our judgment in our late Confession[28] (by the Savoy Conference); and though we greatly prize our Christian liberties, yet we profess our utter dislike and abhorrence of a universal toleration as being contrary to the mind of God in His word." Thirdly—"We judge that the taking away of tithes for maintenance of ministers until as full a maintenance be equally secured, and as legally settled, tend very much to the destruction of the ministry and the preaching of the Gospel in these nations." Fourthly—"It is our desire that countenance be not given, nor trust reposed in the hands of Quakers, they being persons of such principles as are destructive to the Gospel, and inconsistent with the peace of civil societies."[29]
1659.
Into a miserable state must England have drifted when a congregation of Independents, no doubt containing many worthy people, but certainly not fitted to act as a Council of State, came to be consulted upon the most important public questions, and to give their opinion after this fashion.
What the opinions of Dr. Owen were upon two of the points mooted in these resolutions we learn from a short paper which he wrote at this time, and which is preserved in his collected works. There are three questions, and he gives three answers. The first two relate to the power of the supreme magistrate touching religion and the worship of God. Notwithstanding the haste with which the replies were furnished, they must be considered as expressing the writer's mature judgment, for the interrogatories embody the most pressing questions of the times. To the first query, whether the supreme magistrate in a Commonwealth professing the religion of Christ, may exert his legislative and executive power for furthering the profession of the faith and worship, and whether he ought to coerce or restrain such principles and practices as were contrary to them, Owen replied distinctly in the affirmative. He supported his affirmation by arguments drawn from the law and the light of nature; from the government of nations; from God's revealed institutions; from the examples of God's magistrates; "from the promises of Gospel times;" "from the equity of Gospel rules;" from the confession of all Protestant Churches; and particularly from the Savoy declaration. Owen was asked, secondly, whether the supreme magistrate might "by laws and penalties compel any one who holds the Head Christ Jesus to subscribe to that confession of faith, and attend to that way of worship which he esteems incumbent on him to promote and further." Restricting attention to those described as "holding the Head," the Independent Divine remarks, that though it cannot be proved that the magistrate is divinely authorized to take away the lives of men for their disbelief, "yet it doth not seem to be the duty of any, professing obedience to Jesus Christ, to make any stated legal unalterable provision for their immunity who renounce Him." He decides also that opinions of public scandal ought to be restrained, and not suffered to be divulged, either by open speech or by the press. Subsequently, after premising (to use his own words) that "the measure of doctrinal holding the Head, consists in some few clear fundamental propositions," and that men are apt to run to extremes, he finally concludes upon giving a negative answer to their second question. As to the third, "whether it be convenient that the present way of the maintenance of ministers or preachers of the Gospel be removed and taken away, or changed into some other provision;" Owen vindicates the claim of the ministry to temporal support, and places the payment of tithes upon a Divine basis. He declares that to take away "the public maintenance" would be "a contempt of the care and faithfulness of God towards His Church, and, in plain terms, downright robbery."[30]
INTERREGNUM.—BAPTISTS.
A Church book of the period has thus afforded an insight into certain political relations sustained by Independents in the year 1659. A celebrated historian may next be quoted, in reference to alleged proceedings of a very different nature on the part of Baptists. Clarendon relates a strange story of overtures made to Charles before the death of Cromwell by persons of that denomination. He gives a copy of an address to His Majesty, as Charles is styled, signed by ten such persons, in which address occur violent lamentations over the troubles of the times. Attached to it are proposals "in order to an happy, speedy, and well-grounded peace." The document contains a prayer, that no anti-Christian Hierarchy, Episcopal, Presbyterian, or otherwise, should be created, and that every one should be left at liberty to worship God in such a way and manner as might appear to them to be agreeable to the mind and will of Christ.[31]
1659.