Richard Baxter made up his mind to leave the Establishment within a week of the time when the Act of Uniformity received the Royal assent. He preached on the 25th of May, and then gave as reasons for his early silence, that he considered the Act at once put an end to the liberty of his lecturing in parish churches, and that he wished his brethren to understand he had fully made up his mind not to conform. He thought if he "stayed to the last day," some might be led to suppose he meant to submit, and so might be drawn into an imitation of his supposed example.
EFFECTS OF THE ACT.
Baxter's course in this respect was peculiar. The Presbyterians generally remained in the Church, as long as they could, although they had quite made up their minds as to what they should do when the decisive feast of St. Bartholomew arrived. Philip Henry spent days of prayer for Divine direction, and sought advice from friends at Oxford and Chester. He objected to be ordained, and could not, after being a Presbyter for years, declare himself moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon himself the office of Deacon. The difficulty in his case was increased by the demand of Hall, Bishop of Chester, that the Presbyterians whom he ordained should explicitly repudiate their previous orders.[357] Henry could not give his assent and consent to things in the Prayer Book which to him were not true. He felt the force of the exceptions taken at the Savoy Conference, and did not believe in the power of any company of men to impose a yoke of ceremonial law upon the necks of their brethren. He disapproved of kneeling at the Lord's table as a practice unwarranted by Scripture; unsuited to the celebration of a supper; "grossly abused even to idolatry;" the imposition of which was a violation of Christian liberty. He objected particularly to kneeling at the rails, as smelling "rank of Popish superstition:" the indiscriminate Communion of the Episcopalian Church he could not reconcile with his notions of discipline; and, though he had never taken the Covenant, he would not condemn those who had done so. He approved of Archbishop Ussher's scheme of Episcopacy; and "thought it lawful to join in the Common Prayer in public assemblies, and practised accordingly, and endeavoured to satisfy others concerning it."[358] It is curious to learn that he believed his views of spiritual religion formed the basis of his objections to conformity: and that when Dr. Busby, to whom as his friend, he owed his deep evangelic convictions, said once, "Prythee child, what made thee a Nonconformist?" Henry replied to his much-loved schoolmaster, "Truly, sir, you made me one; for you taught me those things that hindered me from conforming."[359]
1662.
In the mind of Philip Henry there existed a strong disposition to conform, and the case was the same with Joseph Alleine, and others. Many, who had been episcopally ordained, were prepared to do everything required, except one thing—giving an unfeigned assent and consent to all the contents of the Prayer Book.[360]
John Howe felt more difficulties than one; he had not received Episcopal orders, but had been ordained at Winwick, in Lancashire, by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery; on which account, he used to say, that few had so primitive an ordination as himself. After the Act had passed, Dr. Wilkins expressed his surprise that a man of Howe's latitude should have stood out; to which he replied, that he would gladly have remained in the Establishment, but his latitude was the very thing that made him and kept him a Nonconformist. He said also, "that he could not by any means he fond of a Church, that in reality had no discipline at all, and that he thought that a very considerable objection against the Establishment." In these respects his difficulties were similar to those of Philip Henry. On another occasion, when asked by Seth Ward, then Bishop of Exeter, "Pray, sir, what hurt is there in being twice ordained?" he replied, "Hurt, my lord,—it hurts my understanding; the thought is shocking; it is an absurdity, since nothing can have two beginnings."[361]
EFFECTS OF THE ACT.
We can enter into the struggles which agitated the clergy during the three months before St. Bartholomew's Day. As the corn ripened, and the country Rector sat with his wife in their little parlour,—as they looked out of the latticed window on the children chasing the butterflies in the garden, or picking up daisies on the glebe,—there came the alternative—"we must conform, or leave all this next August;" and, as that necessity stared the Incumbent in the face, it would require, in some cases, a woman's quieter fortitude to reinforce a man's louder resolve.[362] Nor can it be denied, that means of usefulness to some had brighter attractions than home comforts; and that it proved the hardest wrench of all to break the bond between the Christian shepherd and his flock. These men had hearts as well as heads; but in the conflict the victory came from their judgments, not their affections. I remember visiting Scotland more than a quarter of a century ago, just on the eve of the great disruption, and spending an evening at a pleasant manse inhabited by an able minister and his accomplished wife, both of whom were pondering the question of "going out," or "remaining in;" and never can I forget the look of anguish with which they alluded to the impending crisis. The memory of that visit brings vividly to mind many an English parsonage in the year 1662.
1662.
It required much effort in the minds of Puritan clergymen to brace themselves up to meet what was at hand. One prepared for the crisis by preaching to his congregation four successive Sundays from words to the Hebrews: "Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance." Another, who had a wife and ten children—"eleven strong arguments," so he said, for conformity—remarked, that his family must live on the 6th of Matthew, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." A third, when asked what he would do with his family, replied, "Should I have as many children as that hen has chickens," pointing to one with a numerous brood, "I should not question but God would provide for them all."[363]