This cruel injustice obliged the ejected ministers, and their friends, to set up separate congregations; and occasioned such a division from the established church, as will, I hope, ever remain, to witness against the tyranny of those times, and the reverend authors and promoters of that act, to maintain the spirit and practice of serious religion, and as a public protestation for the civil and religious liberties of mankind, till time shall be no more; or till the church shall do herself the justice and honour to open wide her gates, for the reception of all into her communion and ministry, who are not rendered incapable of either, by Jesus Christ the great shepherd and bishop of souls. But however, measures were then soon taken to disturb their meetings. In 1664, the bill against frequenting conventicles passed, the first offence made punishable with five pounds, or three months imprisonment; the second offence with ten pounds, or six months imprisonment; and the third with banishment to some of the foreign plantations; sham plots being fathered on the dissenters, to prepare the way for these severities.
But some of the bishops, such as Sheldon, Ward, Wrenn, &c. did not think these hardships enough; and therefore, notwithstanding the devastations of the plague, and though several of the ejected ministers shewed their piety and courage, in staying and preaching in the city during the fury of it, the five mile act was passed against them the next year at Oxford; by which all the silenced ministers were obliged to take an oath, that it was not lawful, on any pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the king, or any commissioned by him; and that they would not, at any time, endeavour an alteration in the government of church and state. Such who scrupled the oath were forbid to come within five miles of any city or parliament borough, or of the church where they had been ministers, under penalty of forty pounds, or six months imprisonment, for every offence.
After these things, several attempts were set on foot for a comprehension, but rendered ineffectual by the practices of the bishops; and particularly by Ward, bishop of Salisbury, who had himself taken the solemn league and covenant: But having forsaken his first principles, it is no wonder he became a bitter persecutor. In the year 1670, another severe act was passed against them: by which it was provided, that if any person, upwards of sixteen, should be present at any conventicle, under colour of exercising religion in any other manner than according to the practice of the church of England, where there were five persons or more, besides those of the said household, the offenders were to pay five shillings for the first offence, and ten shillings for the second; and the preacher to forfeit twenty pounds for the first, and forty pounds for the second offence, and those who knowingly suffered any such conventicles in their houses, barns, yards, &c. were to forfeit twenty pounds. The effect of these acts was, that great numbers of ministers and their people were laid in jails amongst thieves and common malefactors, where they suffered the greatest hardships and indignities; their effects were seized on, and themselves and families reduced to almost beggary and famine.
But at length this very parliament, which had passed these severe bills against protestant dissenters, began themselves to be awakened, and justly grew jealous of their religion and liberties, from the increase of popery: and therefore, to prevent all dangers which might happen from popish recusants, they passed, in 1673, the test act; which hath since been, contrary to the original design of the law, turned against the protestant dissenters, and made use of to exclude them from the enjoyment of those rights and privileges which they have a natural claim to. In the year 1680, a bill passed both houses of parliament, for exempting his majesty’s protestant dissenting subjects from certain penalties; but when the king came to the house to pass the bills, this bill was taken from the table, and never heard of more; And though this parliament voted, that the prosecution of protestant dissenters, upon the penal laws, was grievous to the subject, a weakening the protestant interest, an encouragement to popery, and dangerous to the peace of the kingdom; yet they underwent a fresh prosecution, their meetings were broken up, many ministers imprisoned, and most exhorbitant fines levied on them and their hearers.
In the beginning of King James’s (II.) reign, these rigorous proceedings were continued, but as the design of that unhappy bigotted prince was to subvert the religion and laws of these kingdoms, he published in the year 1687, a declaration for a general liberty of conscience to all persons, of what persuasion soever; not out of any regard or affection to the protestant dissenters, but for the promoting the popish religion and interest. He also caused an order of council to be passed, that his declaration of indulgence should be read, in all churches and chapels, in the time of divine service, all over England and Wales. But though the dissenters used the liberty which was thus granted them, and had several opportunities to have been revenged on their former persecutors; yet they had too much honour, and regard to the protestant religion and liberties, ever to fall in with the measures of the court, or lend their assistance to introduce arbitrary power and popery. And as the divines of the church of England, when they saw King James’s furious measures to subvert the whole constitution, threw off their stiff and haughty carriage towards the dissenters, owned them for brethren, put on the appearance of the spirit of peace and charity, and assured them that no such rigorous methods should be used towards them for the future; things that never entered into their hearts whilst they were triumphant in power, and which nothing but a sense of their own extreme danger seems then to have extorted from them; the dissenters, far from following their resentments, readily entered into all measures with them for the common safety, and were amongst the first and heartiest friends of the revolution, under King William III. of glorious and immortal memory.
Soon after the settlement of this prince upon the throne, an act was passed for exempting their majesty’s protestant subjects, dissenting from the church of England, from the penal laws; and though the king, in a speech to the two houses of parliament, told them, “That he hoped they would leave room for the admission of all protestants that were willing and able to serve him;” agreeable to which, a clause was ordered to be brought into the house of lords, to take away the necessity of receiving the sacrament to make persons capable of offices; yet his majesty’s gracious intentions were frustrated, and the clause rejected by a great majority. Another clause also that was afterwards added, that the receiving the sacrament in the church of England, or in any other protestant congregation, should be a sufficient qualification, met with the same fate as the former: so that though the dissenters were freed from the penal laws, they were left under a brand of infamy, and rendered incapable of serving their king and country. And the Lord’s Supper laid open to be prostituted by law to the most abandoned and profligate sinners; and an institution designed for the union of all christians, made the test of a party, and the means of their separation from each other; a scandal that remains upon the church of England to this day. It is indeed but too plain, that when the established church saw itself out of danger, she forgot her promises of moderation and condescension towards the dissenters, who readily and openly declared their willingness to yield to a coalition. But as the clergy had formed a resolution of consenting to no alterations, in order to such an union; all the attempts made to this purpose became wholly ineffectual. Indeed, their very exemption from the penal laws was envied them by many; and several attempts were made to disturb and prosecute them in this reign, but were prevented from taking effect by royal injunctions.
Upon the death of King William, and the succession of Queen Anne, the hatred of the clergy towards the dissenters, that had lurked in their breasts, during the former reign, immediately broke out. Several sermons were preached to render them odious, and expose them to the fury of the mob. A bill was brought in and passed by the house of commons, for preventing occasional conformity, imposing an hundred pounds penalty upon every person resorting to a conventicle or meeting, after his admission into offices, and five pounds for every day’s continuance in such offices, after having been present at such conventicle: but upon some disagreement between the Lords and Commons, the bill dropped for that time. The same bill, with some few alterations, passed the house of commons the two next sessions, but was rejected by the lords. During this reign several pamphlets were published, containing bitter invectives against the dissenters, and exciting the government to extirpate and destroy them. Several prosecutions were also carried on against them for teaching schools, &c. with great eagerness and malice. In 1709, an open rebellion broke out, when the mob pulled down the meeting-houses, and publicly burnt the pews and pulpits. Sacheverell was trumpet to the rebellion, by preaching treason and persecution; and the parliament that censured him, was hastily dissolved. The parliament that succeeded, 1711, was of a true tory spirit and complexion; and, in its second session, passed the bill against occasional conformity. The next parliament, which met in 1714, was of the same disposition, and passed a bill to prevent the growth of schism; by which the dissenters were restrained from teaching schools, or from being tutors to instruct pupils in any family, without the license of the archbishop or bishop of the diocese where they resided; and the justices of the peace had power given them finally to determine in all cases relating thereto. Another bill was also intended to be brought in against them, to incapacitate them from voting in elections for parliament men, or being chosen members of parliament themselves.
But before these unjust proceedings had their intended effect, the protestant succession, in his late majesty king George I. took place; Queen Anne dying on the first of August, the very day on which the schism bill was to have commenced; which, together with that to prevent occasional conformity, were both repealed by the first parliament called together by that excellent prince. And I cannot help thinking that if the church of England had then consented to have set the dissenters intirely free, by repealing the test and corporation acts; it would have been much to its own honour and reputation, as well as a great strength and security to the national interest. But the time was not then come. We still labour under the oppression of those two acts; and notwithstanding our zeal for his majesty’s person and family, must sit down as easy as we can, with the inclination to serve him, whilst by law we are denied the opportunity and power.
The sentiments of his late majesty, of glorious memory, with respect to moderation, and the tolerating of dissenters[dissenters], were so fully understood by the whole nation, as kept the clergy in tolerable good order, and from breaking out into many outrages against them. But a controversy that began amongst themselves, soon discovered what spirit many of them were of. The then bishop of Bangor, the now[[357]] worthy and reverend bishop of Winchester, happened in a sermon before his majesty, to assert the supreme authority of Christ as king in his own kingdom; and that he had not delegated his power, like temporal lawgivers, during their absence from their kingdoms, to any persons, as his deputies and vicegerents. Anno 1717. He also published his preservative; in which he advanced some positions contrary to temporal and spiritual tyranny, and in behalf of the civil and religious liberties of mankind. The goodness of his lordship’s intentions to serve the family of his present majesty, the interest of his country, and the honour of the church of God, might methinks have screened him from all scurrilous abuses. But how numerous were his adversaries, and how hard the weapons with which they attacked him! Not only the dregs of the people and clergy opened against him; but mighty men, and men of great renown, from whom better things might have been expected, entered the lists with him, and became the avowed champions for spiritual power, and the division of the kingdom between Christ Jesus and themselves. His lordship of Bangor had this manifest advantage upon the face of the argument. He pleaded for Christ’s being king in his own kingdom: his adversaries pleaded for the translation of his kingdom to certain spiritual viceroys. He for liberty of private judgment, in matters of religion and conscience: they for dominion over the faith and consciences of others. He against all the methods of persecution: they for penal laws; for corporation and test acts, and the powerful motives of positive and negative discouragements. He with the spirit of meekness and of a friend to truth: they with bitterness and rancour, and an evident regard to interest and party.
However, the lower house of convocation accused and prosecuted him, for attempting the subversion of all government and discipline in the church of Christ, with a view undoubtedly of bringing him under a spiritual censure, and with impeaching the regal supremacy in causes ecclesiastical, to subject him to the weight of a civil one. Of the bishop it must be said, to his everlasting honour, that the temper he discovered, under the opposition he met with, and the slanders that were thrown on him, was as much more amiable than that of his adversaries, as his cause was better, his writings and principles more consistent, and his arguments more conclusive and convincing. But notwithstanding these advantages, his lordship had great reason to be thankful to God that the civil power supported and protected him; otherwise his enemies would not, in all probability, have been content with throwing scandal upon his character, but forced him to have parted with SOMETHING, and then delivered him unto Satan for the punishment of his flesh, and made him have felt the weight of that authority, which God made him the happy and honourable instrument of opposing; especially if they were all of them of a certain good archdeacon’s mind, who thought he deserved to have his tongue cut out.