only." Tyranny is contrary to nature. Wrong cannot always maintain its throne. Humanity will not be always oppressed and down-trodden. It will rise. It will vindicate itself. Perhaps it may avenge its injured rights; and if it be not sanctified and controlled by superior principle, it undoubtedly will. Sooner or later the day of reckoning and recompence will come. "Righteousness" alone "exalteth a nation." And till it be exercised, and till it gain the ascendancy, suffering may be great, and the sufferers many; but we may be assured of this, that in proportion to their integrity, their purity of conscience, their moral worth and religious feeling, will be their power of endurance, the firmness with which they oppose oppression, and the fervour and determination with which they throw it off at last.

These remarks would receive ample and abundant confirmation by a glance at that period of our history which intervened between the decease of the celebrated daughter of Henry the Eighth, and the consummation of that Act which has rendered the 24th of August, 1662, for ever memorable in our national and ecclesiastical affairs.

James the First, a weak and unprincipled monarch, held possession of the reins of power for about twenty-two years, as if on purpose to show to mankind how little honour a royal name could acquire, and how much evil the union of superstition, duplicity, and kingcraft could inflict on a nation unhappily subject to its sway. Charles ascended the throne with all the graces of person and the promises of youth on his side, but it was soon to throw these and all other advantages away by union with a Popish queen, a dissolute minister, and an ambitious ecclesiastic for his primate; and to prove to the world, that whatever other causes conspired, or whoever were the individuals employed to bring about his sad catastrophe and tragic end, for that dishonoured fate he had in reality none to blame so much as himself; nor to any cause can the philosophy of history so justly assign it, as to his own prevarication, obstinacy, and illegal impositions. The British people were not to be trifled with as Charles supposed. The human conscience is not to be fettered as he and his ambitious minister Laud imagined; nor are the spiritual rights of a whole people to be confiscated by one fell sweep of the pen of tyranny, like that which, in the reign of his son, signed, against protests the most reasonable and promises the most sacred, the celebrated "Act of Uniformity," the iron rule of the State-church Establishment within these realms.

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The mighty Oliver was no more. The civil wars had passed away. That awful period of England's struggle against prerogative and misrule, with all the bitter feuds it engendered, the prevarication on the hand, and the noble principles on the other which it displayed, had come to an end, and the nation had settled down to a state of comparative repose, as much so at least as reascended arbitrary power would permit it to do. Tired of bloodshed, strife, and woe, the great parties of the land were happy to be at peace, and so would gladly have continued, had not the unsubdued spirit of pride, tyranny, and

falsehood still prevailed in high places. A second Charles filled the throne, who, untaught by all his father's misfortunes, and unimpressed by all the mournful events which yet cast their shadows over him, indulged in every kind of lasciviousness and excess, and left the affairs of state to take care of themselves as best they might. With these predilections and tastes, he had brought, however, the insatiable love of power, and inherent regard to Popery, and an avowed determination to be revenged on all those who, by their principles or by their conduct, were supposed to have approved of the doings of the liberal party in the late reign, or suspected of an inclination towards a more spiritual religion than he and his courtiers preferred. Mea

sures of the utmost severity were therefore concocted and proposed against the Dissenters and Puritans of the day; and however righteous and innocent they were, condemnation and confiscation shortly awaited them. Haughty ecclesiastics combined to harass them. The most rigorous statutes were enforced against them. The magistrates, for the most part men of a sycophant spirit, were but too eager to carry these statutes into effect. The gaols were consequently soon crowded with prisoners. And "among the prisoners," says Macaulay, "were some of whose genius and virtue any Christian society might well be proud."

A few steps more, and the consummation was attained! This was the construction of a Bill, and its introduction into parliament, at the instigation of the King, and the high Episcopalian party, to enforce uniformity in every punctilio of the worship and discipline of the church of England; so minute that none could evade it, and so stringent that no room was left for liberty of conscience or judgment in the matter. Its object was to narrow the door of entrance to ecclesiastical privileges, and to take care that none should come at the possession of them, or be permitted to exercise their ministry, who would not in all things acknowledge the divine right of the King to invade the boundaries of conscience, and prescribe in what terms, and by what rules, homage should be rendered to the Great Supreme. The most frivolous ceremonies were solemnly enacted by law.

The mode of divine worship was required to be as uniform as that in which the military shoulder or ground their arms on parade, or offer the appointed salute if royalty be passing by. Doctrines the most contradictory, and declarations the most heterogeneous, were affirmed to be equally true; and by solemn oath was every one required to avow that all and every thing contained in a book of human composition, written by various authors, compiled at different times, abbreviated from the Popish missal, or handed down by uncertain tradition from some of the fathers, was literally, strictly, and universally in conformity with the revealed will of God. All this, moreover, was imposed at the bidding of an earthly monarch, a fellow mortal, sitting in the temple of God, and acting as God; presiding over worship, regulating the offerings of broken and contrite hearts at the footstool of the Eternal, enacting in what terms the suppliants of His mercy should pour forth

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their desires at His throne, and by what rules His messengers were to proclaim His word. The gifts and graces of Christ's servants were thus to be laid aside, or measured and gagged by human law: the worship of the sanctuary was thus to be hewn and shaped, not cording to the pattern shown in the mount," but to that proposed and enjoined in Pilate's hall; and the offers of the "great salvation" propounded to a guilty world, only in unison with the prescribed formulas and mandates of an intruding and unlawful power. Was it to be endured? Were the honour and glory of a heavenly sovereign, and His right to bestow upon His servants what qualifications He pleased for the exercises of His worship, and the edification of His people, thus to be laid at an earthly monarch's feet?

It was resisted. There were two thousand men in Israel who would not bow down to Baal, or worship the golden image which an earthly power had set up. Liberty of conscience and liberty of worship were too precious to be sacrificed at the shrine of expediency, or to be parted with for any compensation whatever which worldly patronage could secure. They were willing, therefore, to suffer the loss of all things, and resign the dearest comforts and enjoyments of the present life, rather than defile their conscience, or unworthily betray that sacred trust which

a greater than Solomon" had committed to their care. They honoured Him. They placed Him above all earthly sovereigns. They had studied the laws of His spiritual kingdom, and saw that these would be utterly violated and set at nought by compliance with the unrighteous demands now made upon them. They were men whose love for their country, whose knowledge of its constitution, whose obedience to its civil laws, whose regard to its interests, and whose prayers for its welfare were known and patent to all, admitted even by their adversaries, and questioned by none. In all things temporal and secular they were most willing to obey the Majesty of these realms, to comply with all that he and his parliament should impose, and to defenu the rights of their king and country to the very utmost of their power. But when he intruded so far beyond his province, and claimed to be acknowledged as legislator and ruler in the house of God, by restraining, ordering, and regulating all parts of His worship, they could no longer forbear. The liberties of man were not to be trifled with; the rights of Jehovah were not to be postponed. Resistance was a duty; freedom a right; suffering, should it follow in such circumstances, an honour. And they nobly said,

"Let Cæsar's due be ever paid

To Cæsar and his throne;

But consciences and souls were made
To be the Lord's alone."

be taken to the language he employs. That it was fatal and injurious to the church of England, her subsequent history is more than sufficient to prove; but that it was so to the interests of "religion," of pure and vital godliness, may be questioned, nay, probably, will not be questioned by any, but the reverse admitted by all. In proof and illustration of which we might properly adduce, in connexion with Locke's testimony, the remarks of another sagacious writer of the same period. "Had all the ministers conformed, people would have thought there was nothing in religion; and that it was only a thing to be talked of in the pulpit, and serve a State design, while the ministers turned and changed any way with the State. But these men giving up their livings, and exposing themselves and their families to outward evils rather than conform to things imposed, not agreeable (as they apprehended) to the Gospel they preached, have convinced men that there is a reality in religion, and given a check to atheism." How could it be otherwise? Was anything ever more calculated to give to impiety a check in this, or in any land? Did the 66 reality of religion"-its deep, solemn, unutterable reality-ever receive greater confirmation by human hands, and human doings, than now? Two thousand true and noblehearted men, probably, we might say, without partiality, and without fear of contradiction, of the very best sons of the Establishment in those days, renounced their status in society, their ecclesiastical privileges, their comfortable homes and pleasant vicarages, and lucrative livings, rather than retain them with a guilty conscience, and on terms dishonourable to Him who bought them with His blood. Amongst them were the Henries and Howes, the Owens and Charnocks, the Baxters and Mantons, the Flavels and Bateses of the day, men" of whom the world was not worthy," and who by their heroic decision at that time, their holy lives and character, their precious writings, and their bright example, have bequeathed a legacy to the church of God and the world ever since, in which both have reason to rejoice, and by which they

being dead yet speak" for the honour of Christ, for the spiritual interests of His kingdom, and for the good of the souls of men. Where shall their equals be found? When have they appeared? What church, what land has ever been blest with their superiors? Trained up in the universities, when great men were almost the order of the day, and illustrious among them, versed in "all the wisdom of Egypt," endowed with exalted genius and vast capacities, renewed and sanctified by the grace of Christ in an eminent degree; largely blest with gifts and graces "for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," and the ingathering of souls unto Him; laborious "in season and out of season;" preachers in large spheres of usefulness in the city, in the town, and in the village; writers of ponderous volumes which contain the cream of British theology, and the most lucid illustrations of divine truth which ever came from uninspired pens; how can we but revere their memory, honour their names, and "glorify God in them ?"

How numerous and affecting were their

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sufferings, and how bitter the ingredients of that cup of which many of them were now called to drink! Husbands and wives, parents and children, ministers of the faithful word, and pastors of affectionate flocks, severed from each other, and forbidden to meet again in the same happy homes, or in the same loved sanctuaries in which they had often taken "sweet counsel," and met to worship their common God and Saviour! "Their hardships," says the candid historian of their wrongs, were numerous and great." They were not only silenced, but had no room left for any sort of usefulness, and were in a manner buried alive. Not only were they excluded from preferments, but turned out into the wide world without any visible way of subsistence. Not so much as a poor vicarage, not a blind chapel, not a school was left for them." They wandered about, bereft, destitute, without a dwelling, without a home. Philip Henry was ejected from Worthenbury; Baxter from Kidderminster; Bates and others from the Metropolis; Flavel from Dartmouth; and in the circumstances of one who resided in Wiltshire we have an instance of the privations endured, and the remarkable providence displayed. "Not long after the year 1662," says the Nonconformist Memorial, "Mr. Grove, a gentleman of great opulence, whose seat was near Birdbush, upon his wife's lying dangerously ill, sent to his parish minister to come and pray with her. When the messenger arrived, he was just going out with the hounds, and sent word he would come when the hunt was over. At Mr. Grove's expressing much resentment against the minister for choosing rather to follow his diversions than attend his wife under the circumstances in which she then lay, one of the servants said, 'Sir, our shepherd, if you will send for him, can pray very well; we have often heard him at prayer in the field.' Upon this he was immediately sent for; and Mr. Grove asking him whether he ever did or could pray, the shepherd fixed his eyes upon him, and with peculiar seriousness replied, God forbid, Sir, I should live one day without prayer.' Hereupon he was desired to pray with the sick lady, which he did so pertinently to her case, with such fluency and fervour of devotion, as greatly to astonish the husband, and all the family, who were present. When they arose from their knees, the gentleman addressed him to this effect: 'Your language and manner discover you to be a very different person from what your present appearance indicates. I conjure you to inform me who and what you are, and what were your views and situation in life before you came into my service.' Whereupon he told him he was one of the ministers who had lately been ejected from the church, and that having nothing of his own left, he was content for a livelihood to submit to the honest and peaceful employment of tending sheep. On hearing this, Mr. Grove said, Then you shall be my shepherd;' and immediately erected a meeting-house on his own estate, in which Mr. Ince preached, and gathered a congregation of Dissenters, which continues to this day."

More to this brief narration we need not add. Time and space would fail to tell of all

the sufferings and wrongs, the privations and "deaths oft" which these righteous men endured, and their families with them, during the remainder of their lives. The "FiveMile Act," which was afterward passed, forbidding them to reside within that distance of any market town; and the "Conventicle Act," which prohibited their assembling together in any place for worship, added greatly to their loss of religious privileges and domestic comforts, and embittered almost all the little which their oppressors had left them. Many were the sighs and cries, which could find no vent in human ears, but ascended upward to the throne of the Omniscient, from pious hearts and weeping homes, because of the ruthless hand which had made them desolate, and of the Lord's sanctuary, which was now laid waste; and as the ejected ministers took their farewell of listening multitudes on the Sabbath preceding that on which the Act was to come into force, it was as when "the noise of the shouts could not be discerned from the noise of the weeping," or rather like that affecting scene which took place on the shore of Miletus, when "he kneeled down and prayed with them all; and they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him; sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no

more.

With the parting address of one of them, and the last words of another, we conclude.

"And now, beloved hearers," said Mr. Galpine, in his sermon from Luke xii. 32, "give me leave to trespass a little more on your patience, seeing this is like to be the last opportunity I shall have to speak to you from this place, being prohibited to preach, unless upon such terms as I confess my conscience dares not submit to. Being, therefore, enforced to lay down my ministry, I thought good to let you know that it is neither out of singularity, nor stubbornness in opinion, which many, it may be, may conjecture; but because the things required are such as my conscience cannot close withal. Could I see a sufficient warrant from the word of God for these ceremonies, and other things that are eroined, I should readily submit to them; for 1 can take the great God to witness with my conscience that nothing in this world grieveth me a hundredth part so much as to be hindered from the work of the ministry, and to be disabled from serving my great Master in that employment. But seeing I cannot find my warrant thence, I dare not go against my conscience, and so do evil that good may come thereby. Those strict prohibitions recorded in Deuteronomy iv. 2, and xii. 32, Proverbs xxx. vi., and in other Scriptures, wherein we are forbidden to make any additions to God's own institutions in His worship; and the terrible threatenings pronounced against those that shall transgress in this particular, have made such impression on my heart, that I dare not give my assent nor consent to any thing in God's worship which is not warranted by His word; but I think it the lesser evil of the two to expose myself to sufferings in this world, rather than to undergo the checks and reproaches of a wounded and grieved conscience."

Owen, a few years after, in the near

approach of death, on the 23rd of August, dictated a note to a beloved friend, in which he says, "I am going to Him whom my soul has loved, or rather who has loved me with an everlasting love, which is the sole ground of all my consolation. I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm; but while the great Pilot is in it, the loss of a poor underrower will be inconsiderable. Live, and pray, and hope, and wait patiently, and do not despond; the promise stands invincible, that He will never leave us nor forsake us.' The morrow after was the anniversary of the rejection of his two thousand brethren. That morning a friend called to tell him that he had sent to the press his "Meditations on the Glory of Christ." There was a momentary gleam in his languid eye, and he answered, "I am glad to hear it. But, oh! Brother Prynne, the long wished-for day is come at last, in which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever done, or was capable of doing in this world." A few hours of suffering followed, and then that glory was revealed.

Such were the men whom an earthly monarch rejected, but whom the King of heaven delighted to honour. M. C.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR.

To the Editor of the Christian Witness. SIR,-Will you allow me a brief space in your magazine, to call the attention of your readers to the "Bicentenary celebration," which during the past year has been conducted?

On the 16th January, 1863, the first of the three years over which it was arranged subscriptions should extend, will have closed; and it is therefore appropriate, in prospect of that date, that a review should be taken of past action, in reference to future progress.

In taking such a retrospect many particulars occur. Let me notice a few of them.

No one, I think, can have marked the doings and sayings of the past year of celebration, without acknowledging that a great amount of earnestness has been called forth in reference to the subjects under discussion.

It may with some be a question how far that earnestness has been pure, high-minded, or wisely-directed, but of its existence none can doubt. On either side of the controversy, earnest minds have prompted earnest lips and pens; and the thoughtful part of the community, at least, has been stirred up to inquiry, both as to facts and principles, which otherwise would not have existed.

This in itself is no small benefit. Anything is better than stagnation; and though, in this age there may be little danger of it on some subjects, there is on others, and those the most vital and important.

Then, too, a noble tribute has been paid during this year to the memory of the sainted dead.

So long as their writings remained, indeed, they never could have been forgotten by us; but their history, and especially their noble conscientiousness, might have been partially so. This, however, has been afresh rescued from oblivion, and forcibly presented as the great central fact of the period celebrated, the

great example we are called to imitate, we have felt more than ever that "our fathers were right-minded men, who nobly kept the faith;" and that, whatever their imperfections, they paid homage to the great regal power of the soul, and "reverenced their conscience as their king." It has been something to hold up this fact this year, and to illustrate it by such noble examples. Instances of the opposite spirit and conduct are rife among us, and seem multiplying. It is believed that on thousands of minds the demoralizing effect of these has been checked, and the spirit of conscientiousness braced, by the discussions and instructions of the year.

Instructions! and this suggests another result the extent to which information has been diffused on our national and ecclesiastical history; of course, the leading facts of this history were known previously; but it is not too much to say that the minds of multitudes, both young and old, ministers and laymen, are better furnished on these subjects than almost ever before. Our "spiritual heroes," "the times of the Stuart dynasty," are more familiar to us now, than but for this year's teaching they would perhaps ever have been, and it will be our shame and loss if we again allow them to be forgotten.

This

It surely is a further valuable result of the year's celebration that the great principles of our Nonconformity have been so ably expounded. and vindicated. It is true that in connexion with such vindication some irritation has been occasioned, and even animosity enkindled in the minds of those who differ from us. we regret, nor does any one justify all that in the heat of controversy has been spoken or printed. Making allowance for all this, however, who but must rejoice that our principles as English Nonconformists-principles which we believe lie at the base of all national greatness, and which are every day becoming better understood-should have received so great an impulse during the past year, and been so forcibly illustrated. If those principles are worth anything, they are worth exposition and enforcement on all fitting occasions, and such an occasion the past year has most appropriately furnished.

Then we cannot overlook the noble liberality which has been evoked. The past year, as we all know, has been one of peculiar pressurea pressure as magnanimously borne, as magnificently relieved; yet it has been during this year that £152,000 has been raised by the Congregational body as a thank-offering to God for the liberties they enjoy, and as an expression of their admiration of those through whose sufferings they were won.

This fund has been or will be appropriated to the erection of a Memorial Hall in London, Chapel Building, British Missions, Education, Pastoral Aid, the removal of Chapel Debts, Religious Publications, and other denominational objects selected by the donors. The contributions in all cases being reported to the committee as "special and extra.'

It may be well to observe, however, that this sum has not passed through the hands of the committee; on the contrary, they have scarcely seen a fraction of it, and no fear need be entertained, therefore, of any centralized pecuniary power. They have simply been