And blest the cot where every pleasure rose,
And kiss'd her thoughtless babes with many a tear,
And clasp'd them close, in sorrow doubly dear;
While her fond husband strove to lend relief,
In all the silent manliness of grief."
Some persons can allow no excuse for Puritans who conformed. Because Nonconformity under the circumstances appears to these persons a plain obligation, they suppose it must have appeared equally plain to everybody entertaining evangelical views like their own. But if we exclude all Puritan Conformists from the benefit of charitable allowance, on the score of temptation; if we dismiss all thought of the medium through which, owing to circumstances, they were likely to contemplate their own case,—then we diminish our estimate of the clear-sighted judgment, the unprejudiced resolves, and the self-sacrificing heroism of those Puritans who in a crisis of extraordinary difficulty, pursued the course they did. When Nonconformists discover considerations which mitigate the censure of some who conformed, they must all the more admire those who, rising above motives which spring from self-interest, from example, from persuasion, and from prejudice, were, through a sense of duty, led to sacrifice so much which they held dear.
THE BARTHOLOMEW EJECTMENT.
The ejected differed from each other in many respects: not more unlike are cedars and firs, oaks and ashes, the elm and the ivy. Some were bold and stern, of rugged nature and robust strength; others were gentle and dependent, relying on friends for counsel and example. Some were rigid and ascetic; others frank and genial. They included Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and not a few whom it would be difficult to reduce entirely under any of those denominations; also, Calvinists and Arminians, with other Divines scarcely belonging to either of those schools. As to learning, eloquence, reasoning, and imagination, the men varied; but under all their peculiarities lay a common faith—of no ordinary character, a faith of that rare kind which makes the confessor. They believed in God, in Christ, in truth, in Heaven; and in the controversy which they carried on, they regarded themselves as fighting for a Divine cause. People may think some of these ministers made too much of wearing a surplice, using the sign of the cross, and bowing at the name of Jesus; but such things were considered by them as having a significance beyond themselves. They were, by the ejected, judged to be signs of a corrupted Christianity—the banners of an adverse army—flags of which the importance did not consist in the silk, the crimson, and the gold, but in the import of the emblazoned device. What might seem trifles to others, were in their estimation the marks of a ceremonial, as opposed to a spiritual, of a legal as opposed to an evangelical Christianity. They believed that, in the defence of the Gospel, they were acting as they did. A strong evangelical faith upheld their ecclesiastical opinions, like the everlasting rocks which form the ribs and backbone of this grand old world.
1662.
The Church of England suffered no small loss when she lost such men. So far as extreme Anglo-Catholics on the one hand, and extreme Presbyterians on the other were concerned, union was impossible; but it should be remembered that in the conferences at Worcester House and the Savoy, nothing more was sought by the Puritans than a moderate Episcopacy; and, as already noticed, Baxter declared, that to the best of his knowledge the Presbyterian cause was never spoken for, nor were they ever heard to petition for it at all. There can be no question that there were amongst the ejected many exemplary ministers, who would have been perfectly satisfied with such concessions, as moderate Episcopalians might have conscientiously sanctioned.