by Mrs. West
CHAP. XXVI.
A good man should not be very willing, when his Lord comes, to be found beating his fellow-servants; and all controversy, as it is usually managed, is little better. A good man would be loth to be taken out of the world reeking hot from a sharp contention with a perverse adversary; and not a little out of countenance to find himself, in this temper, translated into the calm and peaceable regions of the blessed, where nothing but perfect charity and good-will reign for ever.
Tillotson.
During the turbulent era that immediately followed the death ofCromwell, obscurity was the only asylum for integrity and innocence. Therespective demagogues contended for mastery; and the nation gazed ontheir contests as on so many prize-fighters, whose uninteresting warfareregarded only themselves. Weary of confusion and discord; aware thatfaction had broken every promise and frustrated every hope; that thevisions of freedom had been the harbingers of despotism; and thatpretensions to moderation, disinterestedness, and purity, were but thedisguise of rapacity, pride, and selfishness, the nation longed for therestoration of a lineal Sovereign, a regular government, and determinatelaws. Even those who first signalized themselves by opposition to thelate King, acknowledged that his government was preferable to theoligarchy and military tyranny that followed; and the Presbyterians felttheir horror of Episcopacy abate while contrasting the temperance ofestablished supremacy with the violence of the numerous sects who strovefor superiority as soon as the hierarchy was overthrown. The easy goodhumour and affable manners of the exiled King were enlarged upon, andperhaps honoured with too much celebrity. Offenders in generalanticipated forgiveness; and those who were adroit and dexterousanticipated rewards. To assist in restoring the regal power was deemednot merely a rasure of past crimes, but a qualification for trust andemployment; and those who now sought the shelter of royalty as aprotection from their late co-partners in rebellion, seemed, by the highvalue which they put on their present services, to overlook, with equalcontempt and injustice, the claims and the wrongs of the Loyalists, whohaving never changed their principles, had much to be repaid, andnothing to be forgiven.
In the struggles which immediately preceded the Restoration, whileMonk's designs were wrapped in mystery, the cruelty of the regicidesincreased with their ambition, and the jails were successively crowdedwith every party, as the unsettled government alternately vibrated fromthe rump to the fanatical faction. Within the walls of the same prison,suffering the same restraint, and, like himself, the victim of aconscience which would not temporize, Dr. Beaumont met his worthy friendBarton. They congratulated each other on having thus far weathered thepolitical tempest without deserting their principles, or impugning theirhonour. The Doctor learned from Barton the particulars of LadyBellingham's death, and the claims of Monthault on her fortune, which,by the turbulence of the times, were still kept in abeyance. LordBellingham was yet alive, poor and wretched, courting every faction,trusted by none, and so universally despised as to endure the odium ofmore crimes than he had even dared to commit. He was allowed a smallstipend out of his vast possessions, the income of the remainder beingstill paid into the public treasury; while Morgan, now become a man ofconsequence, and a commissioner for compounding forfeited property, wasenabled amply to glut his rapacity, and resided at Bellingham-Castle ina style of the grossest sensual indulgence. Monthault had joined thearmy of Lambert, against whom General Monk was now marching fromScotland; and as the King had given reiterated commands to all hisfriends to remain passive, and wait the event, it seemed as if he hadsome private intelligence with Monk's party, to whom, therefore, eachhonest Englishman wished success.
Barton believed this effervescence would terminate in a happy calm--amild but energetic government; and he looked forward to prosperoustimes, when the remembrance of past misfortunes should correct nationalmanners, and produce a general improvement in the minds and feelings ofmen. Neville was always sanguine; and Dr. Beaumont confessed that allthings seemed to tend to the restoration of monarchy; yet, with theprescience of a man long accustomed to calamity, he doubted whether eventhat desired event would speedily repair the deep wound which Englandhad sustained.
"We shall," said he, "receive with our Prince the inestimable blessingsof our old laws and form of government; but as our troubles have servedrather to show us the necessity, than to prevent the abuse, of theprerogative, its limits continue undefined, and we shall still too muchdepend on the personal character of the King. It were well if thesituation in which we now stand would allow us to propose suchconditions as would make the duties of King and subject plain and easy,before we invite our Prince to resume the sceptre of his ancestors, asit would prevent the mistakes into which his father fell, from amisconception of the bounds of sovereign power, derived from thearbitrary precedent set by the House of Tudor. But our divisions preventus from claiming those advantages which would result from wisdom,moderation, and unanimity. We fly to the King as to a healer of ourdissensions. A keen feeling of our sorrows and offences has raised thesensibility of the nation to such a pitch, that it will sooner makeconcessions than propose restraints, and rather throw its libertiesbefore the throne than suggest an abridgement of its splendour. We shalltherefore depend, I fear, upon his mercy for the existence of the sacredinheritance whose very shadow was so pertinaciously defended from theapproaches of his father. I trust his personal virtues are what hisfriends report. He has been educated in adversity, a good school; butare not his advisers men who have endured too much to be dispassionateand liberal? They have suffered in a good cause: if, when restored topower, they abstain from indulging any vindictive propensity, they willbe saints as well as confessors; but, considering their long andgrievous provocations, is not this requiring too much of human frailty?
"Consider too, my dear friends, (and let the reflection allay yoursanguine expectations of another golden age,) that the King to whom welook forward has been bred a foreigner. From his own country he hashitherto met with nothing but severe injuries. The impression he hasreceived of the character of his future subjects is repulsive anddisgusting; and the heart of a King of England, as well as his manners,should be completely English. He will return loaded with debts ofgratitude, which he never can discharge, to those who supported hisfather, as well as those who restore him; to the surviving friends ofall that have bled in unsuccessful conflicts, and to those who will rideby his side in triumph; to those who spent their fortunes in hisquarrel, and to those who hope to gain or preserve fortunes by votingfor his return. What course are men apt to pursue when they findthemselves in a state of inextricable insolvency? Do they not endeavourto forget their creditors in general, and think only of taking care ofthemselves and their personal friends. Royalty does not extinguish humanfeelings. Let us consider its difficulties, and palliate while weanticipate its errors.
"Are these all the remaining evils which the crimes of the last twentyyears have entailed upon us and our posterity? Call me not a prophet ofevil if I foresee general laxity of principle arising out of these sadvicissitudes and deplorable contests. You, my good Barton, will notdeny, that the extravagance, absurdity, and hypocrisy of many lowfanatics, who sheltered themselves under that unbounded liberty ofconscience which you Dissenters (I think unwisely, as well, aserroneously) claim, have made every extraordinary pretension to pietysuspicious. The nation has been whirled in the vortex of enthusiasm,perplexed with the discordant pretensions and controversial clamour ofvarious sects, till it has begun to consider indifference to religion asa philosophical repose; and its contempt for hypocrites is increasedtill it has generated a toleration, if not a partiality oflicentiousness and immorality. Infidelity (a sin unknown to ourforefathers) has lately appeared among us, not like a solitary, restlesssceptic, affecting a wish for conviction, nor in the bashful form of anuntried novelty, cautiously stealing upon public favour--but under thelicence long allowed to opinions however blasphemous or immoral, a partyhas arisen, callin
g themselves free-thinkers, who not only deride everyecclesiastical institution, and publicly insult religion in itsministers, but even make the word of God an object of profane travestyand licentious allusion. This never could have happened, the manlyfeeling and good sense of Englishmen would never have permitted suchaudacity, had not trifling, malicious, ignorant, and ridiculousmisapplications of the sacred writings, sunk, in too many minds, theveneration in which they were formerly held; and thus benumbed whatought to have been the natural sentiments of indignation at theblasphemies of deism.
"We must admit that the return of the King is likely to introduce aninflux of foreign manners, and that the long-suspended festivities of acourt will foster an exultation bordering on extravagance. How willthose who seek advancement, approach a Prince who has been long groaningunder the injustice of mean and cruel hypocrites? Is it not likely thatridicule will aim at the gross, distorted features of preachingmechanics, and praying cut-throats, till the ministers, who areconsecrated to serve at the altar, will find some of the missile shaftsfall on their vestments? The perversions of Scripture I have justmentioned will be so scrupulously avoided, that an apposite and piousquotation will be termed puritanical; and we shall seldom hear thesacred volume referred to but to point a jest. Elegant literature, thefine arts, and dramatic amusements, have been long reprobated as Pagandevices. But so natural is our desire for innocent enjoyments, that,remove the interdict, and the public inclination will rush to thesedelights with the avidity resulting from constrained abstinence, whichwill give to pleasure an undue preponderance: Wit has been too muchdiscountenanced. I simply argue on the tendency of the human mind toextremes, when I suspect that it will be indulged till it degeneratesinto indecorous levity. May the evils I foresee exist only in my fears;but if they are realized, much of the guilt, much of the blame must belaid on those who deluged us with spiritual pride, cant, austerity, andoppression; who bent the necks of Englishmen to the yoke of slavery, didtheir utmost to exterminate the Christian sentiments of moderation andcharity, wrought the nation into a ferment, and then expected good toresult from the chaos of virulent passions."
Mr. Barton admitted all the evils which had resulted from overstrainedrigidity, but expressed the hopes his party entertained that Episcopacywould not be considered as a necessary adjunct to monarchy; or, in caseof its revival, that it might be re-instated in its primitive form, andthat the objectionable parts of the Liturgy, the articles, and thecanons, might be so modified as to satisfy all parties. He spoke of theobligations which the King would owe to the Dissenters; who he trustedwould be rewarded by being placed on an equality with the Church.
Dr. Beaumont argued, that if these late services cancelled their formertransgressions, the Dissenters would have no just cause of complaint atbeing replaced in the situation which they held previously to therebellion. He much feared that the vindictive feelings of those who hadbeen despoiled, ridiculed, plundered, imprisoned, and deprived of everyearthly blessing, would produce some measures, which, though they mightbe supported by the pretence of preventing further mischief, he shouldlament and blame, but never justify. As to jointly establishingEpiscopacy and Presbytery, or simply tolerating both, he could neverconsent to either plan politically, because he conceived one establishedreligion was necessary to preserve national piety; and the Church hadtoo many claims on the King's gratitude, and was too intimatelyconnected with the laws and manners of the people to be laid aside, orreduced to the level of her opponents; and, considered as a point ofconscience, he was so firmly convinced of her conformity, in doctrineand discipline, to apostolical institutions, ancient customs, and, aboveall, to Scripture, that, though he would be the last man in the kingdomto consent to persecute those who, through conscience, refused toconform, he would be the first to defend her pre-eminence. As to givingthe Church a more primitive dress, by which he supposed was meant,depriving her of her endowments, it must be remembered, that when theministers of the Gospel lost miraculous gifts, they became dependant ontemporal support. Though the apostles appeared as mendicants, yet whilethey could heal diseases with a touch, they inspired reverence. But inthe present times men showed more observance to those who could bestowalms than to those who required support. It should likewise beremembered that an injunction was given to the bishops of the firstcentury "to use hospitality," a proof that the primitive church was notin all respects clad in sackcloth.
Dr. Beaumont farther declared his doubts of the good effects of aconference between the Episcopalian and Presbyterian clergy. He waswilling to sacrifice non-essentials to peace; but personal disputationswere more apt to confirm than to remove prejudices. One party would betoo querulous, the other too tenacious. Personal considerations wouldmix in the dispute; difficulties would be started; objections raised,when none, in fact, existed; and, in the heat of debate, realimprovements would be rejected, which, in the calm seclusion of thecloset, would be allowed to be important. Declaimers, conscious of theirown powers, would seek distinction rather by acuteness andfastidiousness than by candour and placability. The enemies of theChurch would argue rather with a view to her destruction than to herpurification; and, on the other hand, her friends would gloss over herimperfections through fear that her opponents had some latent hostility,which the least concession on their part would bring to maturity.
He reminded Barton that as a body the Dissenters could not complain attheir being expelled from the situations in which they were placed by anunlawful and usurped authority. He trusted that wise and moderate menwould, by conformity, avoid this evil, and prefer the true praise ofsacrificing their scruples at the shrine of peace and unity, to thefalse glory of courting reputation, by first exciting and then enduringpersecution. He spoke of schism as an evil the most afflictive; the mostopposite to the spirit of the Gospel, and to the commands of its DivineFounder, and as the greatest impediment to its universal promulgation.He exhorted Barton to use his influence with his friends, persuadingthem to acquire the only triumph over the church in their power, byrenouncing their own prejudices, when they could not make theiropponents subdue theirs, and thus prove themselves to be the truestdisciples of the Prince of Peace. "Let the contest," said he, "be onlywhich shall serve our common master best, by leading a life ofunpretending holiness. Schism does infinitely more harm by the enmity itengenders, than it does good by the zeal it kindles. Controversialardour is rather the death than the life of piety."
Mr. Barton replied, that he was become much more sensible of the evilsattendant on a separating humour, on the gathering of parties andforming sects from the church; their effects had proved them to bemischiefs. He confessed that until he had imbibed prejudices against theLiturgy, he had joined in it with as hearty fervency, as he afterwardsdid in other prayers, and felt, from its imperfections, no hinderance inhis devotions. He said, that he had lost his relish for controversy, andnow took most delight in what was fundamental, the Creed, the Lord'sPrayer, and the Ten Commandments, furnishing him with matter formeditation equally acceptable and abundant. That he less admired giftsof utterance, and bare professions of religion, than he once did, and nolonger thought that all those who could pray movingly and fluently, andtalk well of religion, were of course saints. That he was convinced mostcontroversies had more need of right stating than of debating, and thatmany contenders actually differed less than they supposed[1]. But stillif the conditions of conformity should require him to acknowledge theinvalidity of his present ordination, he could not consent to admit thathe had hitherto been an Uzzah, touching the ark with unhallowed hands.In that case he would submit to the rod of chastisement, instead ofreceiving the staff of pastoral cure, and if he were forbidden toinstruct others, he would discipline himself. For the sake of peace hewould attend the services of the church, in which, though he saw muchthat might be improved, he discerned nothing absolutely sinful. Topreserve a Christian spirit in himself and others, he would avoiddwelling on the restraints he suffered; but instead of repining, bethankful for the liberty he enjoyed. And he tho
ught such behaviour wouldbe the best way of enlarging that liberty, or, if that could not bedone, of healing, in the next generation, those breaches which furiousanimosity had made in the present[2].
He concluded by saying, that whoever had seen the ill-will engendered bycontroversy, and the miseries incident to civil war, must think peacecheaply purchased by any sacrifice short of conscience; and that, forhis own part, no private injuries, disappointments, or harsh treatment,should make him obtrude his wrongs upon the public, so as to exciteclamour against the government. He had seen how soon clamour brings oninsurrection, and how partial commotion leads to universal confusion.During such scenes, inconsiderate, daring, and worthless men, acquire anascendancy, and bring, by their extravagance, disgrace upon their party.Yet, proudly ascribing their influence to a superiority of desert, theyreject the counsels of prudence, while their inordinate passions leadthem to subdue the restraints of conscience. To preserve the nation fromsuch misrule, he protested that he ardently wished to see the reins ofgovernment again in the hands of prescriptive authority.
[1] See Baxter's reflections on his early religious opinions.
[2] The behaviour of Barton is copied from the conduct of Philip Henry, a non-conformist divine.
