for your own sakes, lest you be guilty of a greater fault than CHARLES Moses reproved in Joshua for envying for his sake. "Indeed you err through the mistake of the Scriptures: approbation is an act of conveniency, in respect of order; not of necessity, to give faculty to preach the Gospel. II. "Your pretended fear lest error should step in is like the man who would keep all the wine out of the country lest men should be drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deny a man the liberty he hath by nature, upon a supposition he may abuse it. When he doth abuse it,- Id. p. 458. judge." Perfect He Some few days after the victory at Dunbar, the governor of Edinburgh-castle charged Cromwell and the Westminster juncto with falling off from their first principles, and not being true to the ends of the covenant; and, secondly, he objected, that, in England, men of secular employments had usurped the office of the ministry, to the scandal of the reformed Kirks. In answer to the first part of this expostulation, Cromwell p. 476, &c. desired to know, whether their bearing witness to themselves purges himself from was good evidence of their having prosecuted the ends of the farther imputation of covenant, and whether their own affirmation is sufficient to being false to the ends of justify their conduct? He tells them, that to infer this, is to the covenant. have too favourable an opinion of their own judgment and impartiality; that their doctrines and practice must be tried by the touchstone of God's Word; that other people must have a liberty of examining them upon these heads; and, where there is a right to try the cause, there must be a liberty allowed for giving sentence. the preaching of lay justifies the As to the charge of indulging the use of the pulpit to the laity, Cromwell replied in these words: "Are ye troubled," He defends saith he, "that Christ is preached? Does it scandalize the reformed Kirks, and Scotland in particular? Is it against the men, and covenant? Away with the covenant, if it be so. I thought reasoning the covenant and these men would have been willing that any should speak good of the name of Christ: if not, it is no covenant of God's approving; nor the Kirk you mention so much, the spouse of Christ. "In answer to the witness of God upon our solemn appeal,” continues Cromwell," you say you have not so learned Christ, as to hang the equity of a cause upon events. We could wish from events. Id. that blindness had not been upon your eyes to those marvellous dispensations which God hath lately wrought in England. But did not you solemnly appeal and pray? Did not we do so too? And ought not we and you to think with fear and trembling of the hand of the great God, in this mighty and strange appearance of his, and not slightly call it an event? Were not your expectations and ours renewed from time to time, whilst we waited on God to see how he would manifest himself upon our appeals? And shall we, after all these our prayers, fastings, tears, expectations, and solemn appeals, call these bare events? The Lord pity you !" This canting logic sufficiently showeth the fallacy of reasoning from success. Thus, Cromwell argued closely ad hominem against the Scotch Covenanters, and turned their own artillery upon them. This fortunate campaign in Scotland raised the spirits of the independent party at Westminster, and made them more hardy in executing their scheme; and now, to recommend themselves farther to the populace, and draw all the sectaries to their interest, they passed a repeal of several penal statutes for not coming to church. The preamble sets forth, that, "by the said acts, divers religious and peaceable people, well affected to the prosperity of the commonwealth, have not only been molested and imprisoned, but also brought into danger of abjuring their country, or, in case of return, Dissenters to suffer death as felons, to the great disquiet and utter ruin repealed. of such good and godly people." 2 1 Eliz. cap. 23 Eliz. cap. 1. 35 Eliz. cap. 1. Sept. 27. Penal sta tutes against Scobel's Collect. of Acts, &c. fol. 131. The Scotch king, and crown him at Scone. This year, George Fox, an ordinary mechanic, preached his "new light," and began the sect of the Quakers. The defeat the Scots received at Dunbar brought the apply to the Covenanters to some temper, and recovered them towards duty to the government; and, for a proof of their recollection, they invited the king to return from the Highlands, and Hist. of In- crowned him at Scone, with the customary ceremony and dependents, magnificence'. part. 4. 1 It is to be regretted that Collier's History of the Reign of Charles II. is so much shorter and less elaborate than his account of the reigns preceding. What we might have expected and desired is precisely the reverse; for the historic notices of our monarchs, and the affairs of the Church, ought to grow and expand the nearer they approach to our own times. But whether Collier's health and patience were exhausted, or whether, finding himself treading on dangerous ground,-in suppositos cineres,-he indulged a degree of timidity and diffidence, which were foreign to his nature and his usual conduct, we know not; but certain it is, that his reign of Charles II. is the least II. law books At Westminster, the house had a warm debate upon a bill CHARLES for turning all law-books and proceedings in courts of justice into English. To make way for the bill, Whitlock, a member An argument for of the long-robe, declared he did not think it reasonable the turning the generality should implicitly depend upon the skill of others, into English. nor altogether rely upon foreign integrity; and that, since the lives and fortunes of the people are governed by law, and subject to it, he thought it should be penned in the mothertongue, and lie open to common view. To support this opinion, he observes that Moses read the law to the Jews in the Hebrew tongue; that God commanded him to write and explain this public provision in the language of the country; that they were deeply concerned to know where their rights, their privileges, were settled, where the forfeitures were marked out; and not be kept in ignorance of the rule by which their interest was directed. The laws of the Eastern nations (continues this gentleman) were in their mother-tongue. The laws at Constantinople were in Greek; at Rome, in Latin; and in France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and other places, their laws stand published in their native language. As for your own country (saith he), everybody, that can read the Saxon character, may find the laws of your ancestors in the English tongue. Pursuant to this regulation, William, duke of Normandy, commanded the laws to be proclaimed in English, that none might pretend ignorance. And, to reinforce these authorities, he takes notice, that 36 Edward III. it was ordered in parliament that pleadings should be made in English; and in the reigns of those times, when our statutes were enrolled in French, the sheriffs were Whitlock's obliged to proclaim them in English. In this speech, this Memorials, member endeavours to disprove the English laws being intro- deinc. duced by the Conqueror: and here his reasoning seems to Hist. pt. 1. satisfactory of the series. It consists of no more than forty-four pages, though it should have been extended to six times as many; and is defective in that compass of conception and minuteness of detail, for which its author's other works are celebrated. The plan of this edition will not permit me to add those large stores of valuable matter, which might be selected from other sources, to illustrate the text. But should the public favour my design of composing a continuation of Collier's History (a design, the execution of which depends on the encouragement of subscriptions), I shall endeavour to make the reign of Charles II. a far more complete and inclusive work. Nor shall I be less careful to make the ecclesiastical records of his successors as full of useful facts and reflections as my opportunities of study shall permit. 865. p. 460. et See Eccles. under the reign of William the Conqueror. pose. fail. But this argument, having been already considered in the first part of this work, needs not be repeated. As for the bill, the house passed it in the form following: A bill passed "The parliament have thought fit to declare and enact, and for this pur- be it declared and enacted by this present parliament, and by the authority of the same, that all the report-books of the resolutions of judges, and other books of the law of England, shall be translated into the English tongue: and from and after the first day of January 1650, all report-books of the resolutions of judges, and all other books of the law of England, which shall be printed, shall be printed in the English tongue only. Nov. 22, Scobel's Collect. fol. 148. April, A. D. 1651. "And be it farther enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the first return of Easter term, which shall be in the year one thousand six hundred fifty and one, all writs, process, and returns thereof, and all pleadings, rules, indictments, inquisitions, certificates, and all patents, commissions, records, judgments, statutes, recognizances, rolls, entries, and proceedings of courts-leet, courts-baron, and customarycourts, and all proceedings whatsoever in any courts of justice within this commonwealth, and which concerns the law and administration of justice, shall be in the English tongue only, and not in Latin, or French, or any other language than English, any law, or custom, or usage, heretofore to the contrary notwithstanding. And that the same, and every of them, shall be written in an ordinary, usual, and legible hand and character, and not in any hand commonly called court hand. "And be it lastly enacted and ordained, that all and every person and persons offending against this law, shall for every such offence lose and forfeit the full sum of twenty pounds of lawful English money; the one moiety thereof to the use of the commonwealth, and the other moiety to such person or persons as will sue for the same in any court of record, by action of debt, suit, bill, plaint, or information; in which no wager of law, essoyn, or other delay, shall be admitted or allowed." About four months forward, an act passed for referring the translation of law-books and forms of process to the speaker, the commissioners of the great seal, the two chief justices, and the chief baron. And what was agreed by these, or any two of them, was to pass for an authentic translation, and have the II. great seal fixed to it. And here a proviso was thrown in, that CHARLES these acts were not to extend to the courts of admiralty; but that the proceedings there might pass and be certified in Latin, according to ancient usage. Id. fol. 154. treason, cuted. Mr. Love, who had preached seditiously against the late Love tried king at Uxbridge, fell under the displeasure of those at the for high helm, and was tried for high-treason. He confessed himself and exeprivy to a design for concerting with the Scots, and was sentenced to lose his head. Upon the day fixed for his execution, a petition was presented to the pretended parliament by several London ministers, requesting, that in case it was not thought proper to grant a pardon, they might at least prevail for a reprieve. This address procured a month's respite, after which he was beheaded on Tower-hill. Whitlock's Memorials, an army land, and The Scotch Royalists and Covenanters, being now tolerably p. 468. 471. reconciled, the king appeared at the head of a considerable et alib. army in that country; and, after having tried his fortune to some disadvantage with Cromwell, entered England by way of The king Carlisle. Massey, who had signalized himself at Gloucester marches with against the late king, was now returned to his duty, and into Engtrusted by his present majesty. This gentleman being an is defeated officer of character, and an eminent Presbyterian, was detached with some troops, and ordered to keep about a day's march before the army; his business was to give notice of the king's approach, prepare the gentry to attend him, and bring in those of his own party. This expedition, though not the worst concerted, is said to have been ruined by entertaining a committee of Scotch ministers in the army. These divines observed, that after the king's entrance into England, those about his majesty grew cooler in their regards for the covenant. Upon this shocking discovery, they sent an express to Massey, without acquainting the king with such an extraordinary freedom. This messenger was furnished with letters and a declaration, which Massey was required to publish. The instrument set forth "the king's and the whole army's zeal for the covenant, and their resolution to prosecute the true intent of this engagement; they likewise forbid him entertaining any soldiers, excepting such who would subscribe the same obligation." The king, who had quickly notice of this dispatch, sent a countermand to Massey but, before this order was received, the business took VOL. VIII. се at Worcester. |