1683.
LORD W. RUSSELL.
In prison he devoted most of his time to meditation, receiving his death-warrant with calmness, and anticipating his departure with hope. Six or seven times, upon the last morning of his life (July 21), he engaged in prayer; and, on parting from Lord Cavendish, urged upon that nobleman the importance of personal piety: then, winding up his watch, he remarked—that he had done with time, and was going to eternity. As the mourning coach, which conveyed him to the place of execution, turned the corner by Little Queen Street, he remarked, “I have often turned to the other hand with great comfort (alluding to the proximity of Southampton Square, where he resided), but now I turn to this with greater.” As he saw some persons weeping, and others manifesting disrespect, he appreciated the commiseration of the former, and evinced no resentment at the conduct of the latter. He sang “within himself,” scarcely articulating words, observing, he hoped soon to sing better; and, as he looked upon the dense throng around him, he expressed the hope of soon beholding nobler multitudes. As he entered Lincoln’s Inn Fields, observing it rained, he said to his friends in the coach, “this may do you hurt that are bare-headed;” and as he caught sight of the familiar place he exclaimed, in allusion to his early days, “this has been to me a place of sinning, and God now makes it the place of my punishment.” Having expressed wonder at the crowds assembled, he placed in the Sheriff’s hand a long paper, and declared at the same time, that he had never intended to plot against the King’s life or reign. After praying that God would preserve His Majesty and the Protestant religion, he expressed an earnest wish that all Protestants would love one another, and not by mutual animosities open a way for the re-entrance of Popery. In the paper just mentioned, he avowed his attachment to the Church of England, and expressed a desire that Conformists would be less severe, and that Dissenters would be less scrupulous. He said he had always been ready to venture his life for his country and his religion; and he avowed his sincerity and earnestness in supporting the Bill of Exclusion, as the best means of defending the Crown and the Church: he forgave his enemies, although he thought killing by forms and subtilties of law to be “the worst sort of murder.” When he had knelt down, Tillotson, who with Burnet stood by him on the scaffold, offered intercession on his behalf. The sufferer then unfastened his dress, took off his outer garment, bared his neck, and laid it on the block, without change of countenance. The executioner, to ensure his aim, touched him with the axe, but he did not shrink; and after two strokes Russell’s soul went where vindictive passions could not follow him.[109]
It has been justly remarked that when his memory ceases to be an object of veneration “it requires no spirit of prophecy to foretell that English liberty will be fast approaching to its final consummation;” and we may add, that no less a Christian than a patriot, he has left behind a name as dear to English Christians as it is to English patriots.
We have seen the spirit which prevailed two years before—we have proofs of its continuance in connection with the last days of Lord William Russell. That nobleman tenaciously held the principle, that in some cases it was lawful to resist Government by force. But Churchmen, who, at the Revolution, in practice approved, if they did not in theory uphold the doctrine, condemned it at this early period not only as impolitic, but as irreligious. Tillotson wrote to Russell just before his execution a letter, in which he said that Christianity plainly discountenanced the resistance of authority, that in the same law which establishes our religion, it is declared to be unlawful, under any pretence whatsoever, to take up arms; and that his Lordship’s opinion was contrary to the doctrine of all Protestant Churches. He also pronounced the same opinion to be an offence of a heinous nature, calling “for a very particular and deep repentance.”[110]
1683.
Tillotson, in this letter, committed himself to the doctrine of passive obedience; and its publication, without any subsequent denial or recantation, places him before the world as upholding one main-prop of the Stuart despotism. Burnet also, by his conduct at the time, lent his influence to the same side; for, with characteristic haste, and with that inaccuracy, into which haste so often betrayed him, he rushed from Russell’s cell at Newgate, saying, that he had converted his noble friend, who declared his satisfaction in that point to which Tillotson’s letter relates. Such conduct indicated sympathy at the time with the opinions in the letter now mentioned; and, therefore, it involves Burnet in the same responsibility with Tillotson. Russell, however, soon undeceived both his advisers, insisting that the notion which he had of the laws, and of the English Government, differed from that of the two Divines. He died a martyr to the faith, which placed the Crown of England on the head of the Prince of Orange, whose claims Tillotson and Burnet afterwards vindicated, and whose conduct they ever delighted to eulogize.
When Churchmen, of moderation and liberality, acted in this way, what could be expected from Churchmen of a different order? The University of Oxford having collected from the writings of Puritans, from Independents, and from political philosophers, sentences which plainly, or by implication, justified under certain circumstances resistance to Government, decreed by a vote of Convocation, such propositions to be false, seditious, and impious,—and most of them also heretical and blasphemous, infamous to the Christian religion, and destructive of all good government in Church and State. The books containing such opinions were forbidden to be read, and ordered to be burnt.[111]
CONTROVERSY.
At this juncture it happened that Nonconformists were silent, as respected political and ecclesiastical controversy, except that John Howe published a beautiful sermon on the question, “What may most hopefully be attempted to allay animosities among Protestants, that our divisions may not be our ruin?” Owen had been overtaken by his last illness, and Baxter had become tired of disputation. Many of his brethren were suffering from persecution; and those who were not, could have controverted the political doctrines of the Church only by incurring the risk of losing their property, their liberty, or their life. The Government did everything it could to prevent the expression of liberal opinions. The quiet habits of most Dissenters, the cultivation of calm endurance, especially by Quakers, and by others in a less conspicuous manner, served to promote this remarkable silence—a silence which, compared with the subsequent Revolution, resembles the smoothness of the torrent on the edge of the abyss. Nor should it be forgotten that men who comprehended the dangers of the hour felt, notwithstanding, immense perplexity as to what they ought to say or do; since Charles II. pertinaciously professed the greatest moderation, and declared a love for Parliaments and for the liberties of his country,—thus by cunning and artifice, showing as great a proficiency in king-craft as ever his father had done.