It may be stated here, that all these proposals took the form of a direct address to His Majesty; and in reference to ceremonies, the memorialists heartily acknowledged His Majesty "to be Custos utriusque tabulæ, and to be supreme governor over all persons, and in all things and causes as well ecclesiastical as civil." After this they besought him to consider, as a Christian magistrate, whether he felt not obliged, by the apostle's rule, touching things indifferent, to act so as not to occasion an offence to weak brethren. They therefore prayed that kneeling at the sacrament, and such holydays as are of human institution, might not be imposed; and that the use of the surplice, the cross in baptism, and bowing at the name of Jesus, might be abolished.[129] Objections to these practices had become traditional. They had been urged throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth—they were specified in the Millenary Petition presented to King James. It should be added, that neither in this paper, nor in any of the conferences which followed, did the ministers plead for the establishment of Presbyterianism. "I leave it here on record," says Baxter, "to the notice of posterity, that to the best of my knowledge, the Presbyterian cause was never spoken for, nor were they ever heard to petition for it at all." All they sought was a reduced Episcopacy.[130]
THE PRELATES' ANSWER.
When Baxter and his friends attended the next meeting with the King, expecting to find the Episcopalians prepared with some concessions, he "saw not a man of them, nor any papers from them of that nature." Still Charles showed himself gracious, promising, after all, to bring the Bishops together, and get them to yield something; at the same time expressing gratification with the Presbyterians' address, especially with their expressed willingness to adopt a Liturgy.[131] Instead of the desired conference being granted, a written answer came from the prelates, to the chaplains.[132] In this answer we find that the prelates begin by turning to their own advantage the concessions of the Presbyterians. The Presbyterians agreed with the Episcopalians in doctrine. Why should they be so scrupulous about minor matters? Such is the tone of the paper, and it is the habitual Episcopalian temper throughout, even in its least unfriendly moods. Professing a willingness to reform what had been objectionable in time past, or what might be inconvenient for the future, the Bishops defended the constitution and usages of their own Church before the Wars, and treated "Ussher's Reduction," so called, as inconsistent with other discourses of the learned prelate. After extolling the Liturgy, they remarked—"nor are ministers denied the use and exercise of their gifts in praying before and after sermon, although such praying be but the continuance of a custom of no great antiquity." Had this sentence meant, that scope should be given for free, as well as for liturgical, worship—that clergymen should be allowed to pray at Church extempore, as well as read prayers, the concession would have been most important; subsequent events, however, show that such was not the meaning, and also that the following passage, which might be construed as granting much, signified little, or nothing—"If anything in the established Liturgy shall be made appear to be justly offensive to sober persons, we are not at all unwilling that the same should be changed." With regard to ceremonies, they now seemed to concede what they afterwards refused to allow. "How far forth, in regard of tender consciences, a liberty may be thought fit to be indulged to any, His Majesty, according to his great wisdom and goodness, is best able to judge."
1660.
The Presbyterians were not slow in offering a defence of their own proposals, and a remonstrance against the replies. Some of Baxter's companions were for giving up further attempts in despair; but he, although not sanguine, determined to persevere, for reasons which deserve to be remembered. After calling to mind that Christians were commanded, if possible, to live peaceably with all men;—that failure in the negotiations going on was not inevitable;—and that no political apprehensions need be entertained respecting Nonconformists, because even if they were far more numerous than they really were, yet they abhorred "all thoughts of sedition and rebellion,"—he ended the vindication of his policy in the following noble words:—"I looked to the end of all these actions, and the chief things that moved me, next the pleasing of God and conscience is, that when we are all silenced and persecuted—and the history of these things shall be delivered to posterity—it will be a just blot upon us if we suffer as refusing to sue for peace; and it will be our just vindication, when it shall appear that we humbly petitioned for and earnestly pursued after peace, and came as near them for the obtaining it as Scripture and reason will allow us to do, and were ready to do anything for peace except to sin and damn our souls."[133] "Let God be judge between you and me," had been Oliver's words when he dismissed his last intractable Parliament, thus appealing to Heaven and posterity. To the same tribunal Baxter was prepared to remit his own controversy with his Anglican brethren.
THE CONTROVERSY.
It looked at first as if the Presbyterians had really made some impression on their opponents; at least Clarendon was willing, that just then, they should think so. On the 4th of September he sent them the draft of a Royal Declaration of Indulgence. It did not satisfy Baxter; and he, therefore, wrote an elaborate reply, which was altered at the suggestion of some of his friends.[134] The reply took the shape of a petition to the King; yet it was such an immoderately long dissertation that the idea of Charles reading it through is perfectly amusing. No man except a guileless one could have written the paper, but the paper betrayed an utter want of tact and judgment.
1660.
THE CONTROVERSY.
An opportunity had arisen in the history of the Church of England for healing a wound which had been bleeding ever since the Reformation. A moment had arrived, calling upon the two great parties, into which that Church had been so long divided, to look at their differences in the light of wisdom and charity. But the history of mankind presents so many misimproved conjunctions of circumstances, that students of the past become familiar with lost opportunities, and are almost hardened against the sorrow which they inspire in the bosoms of more benevolent but less experienced persons. It is useless to speculate upon the probable issue, at the period under review, if the settlement of affairs had been approached in another kind of spirit. It is more practical to endeavour to understand how things really stood; and it will enable the reader to follow the controversy better, if we here pause for a moment to look distinctly at deep differences which lay around narrow discussions, and to show what were some of the salient points which presented themselves in relation to the larger question. The Presbyterians, with great confidence, carried their cause before the tribunal of Scripture, and showed from their own point of view, that for their fundamental doctrine of the official equality of all Christian ministers they had on their side the law of the New Testament; for they maintained that on its pages the terms Bishop and Presbyter are interchangeably used, and that no traces of a clerical hierarchy are to be found in the inspired records. Turning to Church history, from the third century to the seventeenth, they easily gathered proofs and illustrations of the growth of ecclesiastical usurpation; of the change of primitive Episcopacy into an elaborate system of spiritual despotism; of the rise of Archbishops and Patriarchs; of the pride, the power, the ambition, and the wealth of prelates; of the tyranny they exercised over civil society; of the corruptions of all kinds which gathered round the perverted institute; and of the tendency from bad to worse, which exists in all cases where men are not careful to preserve the simplicity of Christ. The state of England in the time of Archbishop Laud was a subject upon which they were able to dwell with great force. They showed the cruel oppression endured by holy men, at the hands of prelates, who sought to revive in this country the ceremonies renounced, and the doctrines condemned at the Reformation; and they insisted upon the obvious fact that the Church was then in danger of becoming thoroughly Romanized, under the pernicious culture of superstitious teachers. The Revolution accomplished by the Long Parliament, the Presbyterians were prepared to defend as a political and ecclesiastical necessity, arising out of previous corruptions; whilst they pointed, with satisfaction and thankfulness, to the progress of spiritual religion under the Commonwealth, in spite of sectarianism, and the other evils of the times,—all of which they condemned, and deplored quite as much as any of the Episcopalian clergy could do. Ecclesiastical discipline in the parishes of England—for attempting which they had been so much blamed—the Presbyterians could show, rested on a principle conceded by Prelatists; and though it failed to produce all the fruits which its administrators could wish, yet it had turned many a town and village from a wilderness into a garden of the Lord. And when they contended against the Prelacy of former days, and protested against its restoration they distinctly stated, as we have seen, that they had no objection to a modified Episcopacy, to the rule of a Bishop, with his co-Presbyters, over dioceses of such dimensions as would admit of careful oversight and efficient rule; nor did they condemn all liturgies—not even the Book of Common Prayer, if certain things in the formularies and the rubric, which they and their Puritan fathers had complained of as superstitious, were now altered. The Presbyterian party, moreover, professed the most affectionate loyalty to the Crown, and the warmest attachment to the English Constitution; and in support of that profession could point to valuable services rendered by them at the Restoration. Lastly, they were in possession of incumbencies, to which they had been introduced according to the law of the land, some of them before the late troubles began. They had been educated at the Universities, had been many of them episcopally ordained, had led quiet lives in their respective parishes, had preached the Gospel for many long years, and had gathered round them large and affectionate congregations. Hence they urged, that for them now to suffer expulsion, to be turned adrift on the wide world without subsistence, to be silenced, and to have an end put to their spiritual influence, would be, in the sight of the world, of the Church, and of God, a burning shame.
1660.
THE CONTROVERSY.