by Mrs. West
CHAP. V.
Scripture was not writ to beget pride and disputation, and opposition to government, but moderation, humility, and obedience, and peace, and piety, in mankind, of which no good man ever did or will repent himself on his death-bed.
Hooker.
The subject of my story embraces a long period of eventful years; I musttherefore imitate the chroniclers of old, and, leaving the Evellinsamong their mountain-fastnesses, return to Ribblesdale, and describe thesituation of Dr. Beaumont.
This worthy divine continued to exercise his pastoral functions inrespectable tranquillity, adorning his station by a happy union ofliterary accomplishments with Christian graces. In these duties he wasassisted by his amiable and beloved wife, who, though endowed with anunusual share of personal beauty, and descended from a noble stock,thought it no degradation to practise the duties which the inspiredApostle requires from the wives of Christian pastors, whom he rightlyconsiders as called to be associates and partners in the ministry. Shewas indeed "grave, no slanderer, sober, faithful in all things, adornedwith a meek and quiet spirit, abounding in good works, and a teacher ofgood things." Preserving the decorous and just superiority of polishedmanners and an enlightened mind, blended with the courtesy, humility,and meekness which result from true religious feeling, this amiablewoman lived beloved and died lamented. A victim to the pestilence whichravaged England about the year 1630, she fell in the prime of life; aproof that length of days and exemption from sorrow are no sure marks ofDivine favour. Her assiduity in ministering to the afflicted, exposedher to the infection which deprived Dr. Beaumont of all his numerousfamily except one daughter; while the household of Sir William Waverly,closely barricadoed by every contrivance which caution could suggest,enjoyed uninterrupted health. The only share he had in the generaldistress arose from his fears that some of the convalescent might passthe barrier he had placed round his park, or that infection might becommunicated through the medium of the bailiff, who was allowed to sellcorn from his granaries to the starving populace, at an exorbitant rate.The Baronet gave himself great credit for this act of generosity andpatriotism, often observing that it would be very hard if it shouldexpose him to the danger of falling a victim to his philanthropy, whichsentiment was re-echoed by those who had the honour of sitting at histable, now more splendidly furnished by these extra profits, to thegreat satisfaction of all his humble retainers.
Dr. Beaumont resigned his wife and children to Him who had bestowedthem, as intrusted blessings, which he had dearly valued, and now astenderly regretted. Resolved to pass the rest of his days in widowhood,he made Mrs. Mellicent superintendant of his household and director ofhis daughter's feminine accomplishments. She also undertook to supplythe place of Mrs. Beaumont in the parish, but in the task of managingthe humours and improving the inclinations of the lower orders,something beside zeal and activity is necessary, even granting (as wasthe case in this instance) that they are guided by right principles.There was an unfortunate degree of rigidity and austerity about Mrs.Mellicent that was less connected with her heart than her manner, unlesswe ascribe it to a latent conviction of her own wisdom and aninclination to govern by its acknowledged superiority rather than byacquired influence. The villagers allowed that the ladies were equallygood; but Madam Beaumont smiled them into a persuasion that she was anangel, and they adored her because they thought she loved them; whileMadam Mellicent chided them for their faults, traced their misfortunesto their imprudence, and instead of trying to persuade them out of theirprejudices, informed them that their capacities and education bestfitted them for the duty of obedience. She was a woman of naturalshrewdness, but not sufficiently conversant with the world to know theadvantage of prudently temporizing, or the usefulness of forbearance.She had not allowed herself to study the temper of the times; she sawnot that the bands of subordination were relaxing, and that thepopulace, leaving the practice of duties, were now busy in ascertainingrights. A change so important and so similar to that to which of lateyears public opinion has again leaned, will justify a few remarks on itscauses, before I describe its effects.
The coercive system of government, which, during the arbitrary reigns ofthe Tudor family, wore the dignified aspect of prescriptive authority,was submitted to by a people grateful to that popular house, whoseaccession healed the wounds of a long protracted civil war; but whencontinued by what England esteemed a race of foreign Kings, it wasstigmatized by the name of tyranny. The favours and privileges whichHenry the Seventh bestowed on the commons, and the stratagems heemployed to reduce the power of those barons who had been the makers andunmakers of Kings, had, during the course of five reigns, created a neworder of men, whose power and influence in the commonwealth were yetunknown to the advisers of the crown. The long internal peace of acentury and a half, added to the stimulus which commerce had receivedduring the reign of Elizabeth, introduced a vast influx of wealth. Thereligious disputes, which were the only contests that disturbed thisrepose, engrafted a sour spirit of theological controversy on the warmdevotional feelings that distinguished the age immediately succeedingthe reformation. This temper was fomented by the clerical disputantsamong their respective flocks; the pulpit became a stage for spiritualattack and defence, and the most illiterate congregations were crazedwith discussions of metaphysical divinity, or inflamed with rancoroushatred against the opponents of their peculiar preacher, who might betruly said to preach his own doctrine and defend his own cause, and notthe doctrine or cause of his master. Thus the great mass of thecommunity had their attention diverted from that important part of theChristian covenant which consists in practice, and were taught to resttheir hopes of salvation on speculative points, to the disbelief ofwhich were annexed those dreadful anathemas that entirely destroyed thespirit of Christian charity, and made the professors of the samereligion enemies from principle, instead of brothers in love, united "byone faith, one hope, one baptism."
This religious intoxication was increased by those confused, undefineddiscussions about civil privileges, which, considering the alteredcircumstances of the community, it would have been wise for the Crownnot to have provoked. There would, on the contrary, have been morepolicy in permitting some claims, not authorized by precedent, to havestolen in by connivance, and a few obnoxious institutions to havesilently died away. The parsimonious frugality of Elizabeth was apowerful support to her prerogative, while the prodigal grants of KingJames to his favourites paved the way to his son's ruin. The disputesbetween King Charles and his three first parliaments induced him to haverecourse to measures for raising supplies which were unconstitutional,and though the sums thus procured did not amount to a moiety of whatwould have been granted in the shape of taxes, the people murmured atforced loans, ship-money, and other unhappy expedients, when they wouldcheerfully have paid much larger sums if granted as subsidies. The houseof Commons during the reign of Henry the Eighth were frowned and menacedinto the most abject subjection; and Elizabeth, with no less authority,but superior address, awed them into non-resistance; but ever since theaccession of the house of Stewart they felt their importance, as bearersof the public purse. Their decrees as well as their debates breathed aspirit at once alarming and displeasing to Princes educated in theopinion of their own Divine right, and succeeding a Queen who, thoughwisely intent on the public good, was as despotic a Sovereign as everfilled the English throne. A want of attention to the change which hadrendered his situation different from that of his predecessors, and atoo sanguine confidence in the affections of his people, which hisvirtues and abilities richly deserved, hurled the unhappy Charles fromhis throne. He wanted those pre-monitory lessons which his ownsubsequent misfortunes afforded. The eventful scenes which Europe hasexhibited these last twenty years have awefully multiplied suchwarnings: May they act on the minds of Englishmen, and on those of theirrulers, till the last great day of general audit which shall terminatethe existence of this island with that of the earth!
The same good intentions and mistaken methods that distinguished theadministration of the Sovereign, marked Mrs. Mellicent's superintendanceof Ribblesdale. She was a politician of the school of Elizabeth, verywilling to do good to her inferiors, but positively requiring that theyshould obey her. Prescription and authority, docility and respect, oldprinciples and old manners, were her favourite topics; and in preachingsubmission to all superiors from the King to the village constable,precedence and decorum were her constant texts. Her notions were perhapsurged too far, but this was an age of extremes; the minds of the peoplewere kept in a continual ferment, every object was distorted, and thecalamities which ensued, in many instances, proceeded more fromill-directed zeal than positive malice; from fanaticism rather thanhypocrisy. At least a bewildered imagination seems at first to haveactuated the majority of the most eminent commonwealth's men to supportwhat they deemed a righteous cause, though in their subsequent actionsparty-spirit urged them to do what they knew to be sinful, and toattempt to gloss it with those false colourings which make us now justlycombine the names of hypocrite and fanatic, and hold them up as areproach to the age in which they passed for saint and patriot.
The new lights, as they were termed, had begun to set England in ablaze, and two of their burning torches were greeted in Ribblesdale inthe persons of Morgan and Davies, the latter the village-schoolmaster,the former a low-minded money-scrivener, who had amassed a large fortunein "the godly city of Gloucester"; and retired to spend it in his nativetown, where he purchased an estate, acted as justice of the peace, andstyled himself gentleman. Both were illuminated apostles of the newdoctrines, but each had a peculiar department in the work ofreformation; one wishing to batter down the spiritual abominations ofthe church, while the other confined his zeal to destroying the bands oftyrannical rulers, and "calling Israel to their tents." Davies labouredunder the pressure of poverty. He had displeased Dr. Beaumont by hisseditious and impertinent behaviour, and the inhabitants withdrew theirchildren from his school; but as his means of living decreased, hisopinion of his own deserts enlarged; he mistook the cravings of want forspiritual illumination, and so perplexed his mind by reading thescurrilous libels of the day, as to be firmly persuaded that the Kingwas the Devil's bairn, and Archbishop Laud the personal antichrist. Adescription of church ceremonies thrilled him with horror, and in everyprosecution of a contumacious minister his ardent fancy saw a revival ofthe flames of Smithfield, while his confused notions of right andjustice convinced him, that if the arm of the spirit failed, that of theflesh must be exerted, to throw down these strong holds. He had longbelieved himself equal to Dr. Beaumont in learning, and fancied that theunction of gifts and graces, with which he was favoured, gave him adecided preference over man's ordination. He continued to attend thechurch, but not in the capacity of an humble learner. By coming late, heavoided the zeal-quenching liturgy, which, as it avowedly retainedancient prayers, he considered as Babylonish and idolatrous, and heexercised his Christian liberty of choosing his religion by listening tothe sermon, with a design of cavilling at the preacher, whom he soonfound to be a mere legal teacher, descanting on the doctrine of worksexploded by the new covenant.
Morgan had less zeal than Davies, and more foresight. Though equallyanxious to pull down and destroy, he was not so certain that thefragments would re-edify themselves into a habitable fabric; and as heliked the comforts he enjoyed in the present state of things, he was notinclined to lay the foundation of a republic, till he was certain ofgetting a good apartment in it himself. He saw that the aspect of thetimes forboded extraordinary changes; but as he could not divine whichof the numerous sects that opposed the church would acquire theascendancy, he left his religion to future contingences. He found Daviesan able assistant, and therefore determined to keep him hungry anddiscontented, in order to make him the more active in recommending thesovereign panacea, that was to cure all the national disorders. Thisrecipe was no other than the covenant promulgated in Scotland, and whichwas called "a golden girdle to tie themselves to Heaven, a joining andglueing themselves to the Lord, a binding themselves apprentice toGod[1]." These terms were applied to an agreement which made those thatentered into it, if in a public station, break their oath of allegiance,(for the covenanters were bound to overturn the ecclesiastical branch ofthe constitution,) and which though it affected loyalty by professingdeference for the person of the King, yet maintained the independenceand paramount power of the parliament, and denounced the King's friendsas malignant incendiaries and evil instruments, who prevented hisreconciliation with his people. The pretext of separating the royalperson from the free exercise of his functions, was too gross to deceivethe most short-sighted. Equally palpable was the falsehood of pretendingto promote peace and unity by an instrument, which, in the form of areligious sacrament, forbade concession, and solemnly denounced eternalenmity to all who held different opinions. Such mockery could beequalled only by that of the popish inquisitors, who intreat the secularpower to be merciful, even in the warrant by which they virtuallyconsign their victims to the flames.
These were the pestiferous principles of the intermeddlers, whodisturbed the tranquillity of Ribblesdale, and alienated the minds ofthe people from their good pastor. The doctrine of Davies was mostpopular, for Morgan cut only the fifth commandment and its dependantduties out of the decalogue, while Davies, by always insisting on thefreedom of grace, led his hearers, who were unskilled in theologicalsubtilties, to think he meant to limit duty to the simple act of belief.From the period of their opposition to Dr. Beaumont, a marked change wasvisible in the manners of the villagers; their time was devoted tocontentious disputation, which is in truth the most dangerous sort ofidleness, and as they became in their own ideas more enlightened, theybecame more miserable; a sullen morose gloom usurped the frank hilarityof satisfied rusticity, which formerly animated their countenances.Athletic exercises and cheerful sports were renounced as sinful, and thegreen became the resort of conceited politicians, who, withmisapplications of Scripture in their mouths and newspapers and libelsin their hands, boasted their renunciation of the sensual vices, yetcherished as graces the baneful passions of pride, malice, andstubbornness, which the Scriptures assure us are most odious in thesight of God.
Dr. Beaumont was not an inactive spectator, while he beheld hisparishioners thus exchanging the infirmities of the flesh for spiritualcontumacy; but the evil had spread beyond the reach of lenient remedies.It is possible to instruct the ignorant, and reform a conscious culprit,but who shall teach those who are wise in their own eyes, or convince anoffender, who, while he condemns righteousness as filthy rags, boasts ofhis freedom from the power of sin. The church was deserted, orfrequented only by the Doctor's most inveterate opponents, who came notto reform their lives, but to impugn the doctrine of one, whom they hadpreviously denounced, as not preaching the gospel, and what withomissions, transpositions, inuendoes, and insertions, they took care soto disguise his discourses in their reports, as to make him appear tomaintain what he had uniformly controverted.
As his ministerial credentials were thus discredited, even while hestood by the mercy-seat, as priest of the Most High, so when heperformed the social part of his pastoral functions, his visits to hisflock exposed him to derision and insult. The smile of respectfulaffection, and the salute of humility and gratitude, no longer greetedHis Reverence; his charity was received as a right, and the legalmaintenance which the law allowed him was grudgingly paid, orvexatiously withheld from him, being deemed a pledge of servitude to apreacher whom the people had not chosen, and who fed them with garbageinstead of wholesome food. Even his own tithe-holder, farmer Humphreys,was led away by the delusion. He was a man of rough manners and gloomyunsocial disposition, but he had hitherto never ventured to rebel,farther than occasionally to absent himself from church, on the Sundayafter every admonition which Dr. Beaumont from time to time privatelygave him to abstain from too free indulgence at market. He would havethought it sacrilegious as well as impudent to question th
e lawfulendowment of the church, and he reproved his wife for being piqued atMrs. Mellicent's blaming her passion for high-crowned hats, ruffs, andfarthingales, which the sage spinster thought indecorous for yeomen'swives, though very suitable to Lady Waverly. He silenced the good dame'sremarks on Mrs. Mellicent's interfering disposition, by reminding her ofthe value of that lady's green ointment, adding that though she was aptto be domineering and outrageous, she was ever a true friend, and moreuseful in sickness than the great Doctor at Lancaster. But Humphreys'sopinions were totally changed, since he had the honour of joining theclub at Squire Morgan's, and heard the evening lectures which Daviesgave in the schoolroom. He now found that man was born equal and free,that he had a right to choose by whom and how he would be governed ortaught, that tithes were a Jewish ordinance, and therefore carnal; andthat as he was nearly as rich as his pastor, it was lording it over theLord's heritage for Dr. Beaumont to be called Your Reverence, whilehimself was only Goodman Humphreys. As to the Doctor's superior share ofvirtue and wisdom, he had reason to doubt whether he really possessedthem, because he never heard him say he did, but he knew Squire Morganwas wiser, and Master Davies more godly than other people, for they toldhim so every day. And they made such fine speeches, and uttered suchlong prayers, that he knew they wished him well. Some things indeed,that they said about free grace, and agrarian laws he did not quiteunderstand, but he believed these dark sayings meant, that when he cameto be one of the elect, he should get to Heaven without any trouble; andthat if church and King were overthrown, he should occupy the glebewithout paying any rent. Be this as it would, the right of choosing hisown pastor, which Davies peremptorily insisted on as thefoundation-stone of the reformation, secured him from the mortificationof continually hearing Dr. Beaumont insist on duties he had noinclination to practice, and condemn faults he did not like to renounce.It is no wonder, therefore, that Humphreys wrought himself into a mostpatriotic resolution, no longer to submit to tyranny and priestcraft,and to vow that the next time the Doctor admonished him, he would retortwith "Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi."
People who resolve to speak their minds, seldom wait long for anopportunity. Farmer Humphreys's zeal for the holy covenant, which he wasassured confirmed these privileges, not only induced him to take ithimself, but to insist on his carter, Jobson's, subscribing to it also.Not that he intended the blessed panacea should work a similar change inthe situation of Jobson, who, he discovered, was predestined to hardwork and hard fare; but, as the good cause might want an arm of flesh inits defence, the muscular strength of the ploughman, like that of theox, would help to drag the new ark into the sanctuary. For this purpose,he carefully concealed from Jobson the latent privileges and immunitiesthat were vested in these cabalistical words, nor did he think it anyinfringement of his principles to inforce by his own behaviour theabominable doctrine of passive obedience, and to insist that Jobsonshould either become a covenanter, or quit his service, and forfeit hiswages. Jobson had once heard the _rigmarole_, as he called it, readover, and by a strange perverseness of understanding, fancied theseindentures of faith and unity, to be no other than binding himself tothe Devil, to pull down the church and curse the King, and he preferredpersecution and poverty to such servitude. As he resisted all Davies'sattempts to enlighten him, and met his master's threats with astedfastness which these friends to liberty called contumacy, thealternative was dismissal from his present service, without anyremuneration for his past.
He applied to Justice Morgan for redress, who, anxious to disprove thesuspicions that were circulated of his disposition to favourdisorganizing principles, enjoined Jobson to obey his master, andreproved him for thinking that his soul could be endangered by followingthe example of so many great men, who had taken the covenant. Itinopportunely happened, that at this moment Jobson recollected a sermonof Dr. Beaumont's, against the sin of following a multitude to do evil,in which every man's responsibility for his own offences, and theattention of Omniscience to individual transgressions, were illustratedby proofs drawn from the minute watchfulness of Providence, whichsuperintends the heedless flight of the sparrow, and adorns the liliesof the field with more than regal magnificence. In reply to Morgan'senumeration of the Dukes, Marquisses, Lords and Squires, Godly Ministersand staunch Common-wealth men, who had taken the covenant, Jobson shookhis head, and said, none of them would answer for his soul. "I heard,"said he, "last Sunday in church, that all the Princes of a great nationworshipped a golden image, and three men would not, so every body wentagainst these men, and threw them into a burning furnace. But the menwere right after all in the end of the story; and so, please YourWorship, I'll not sign the Devil's bond for any body."
Davies, who was present at the examination, now remarked that Jobson hadnot only forfeited his wages as an hireling, by his disobedience to abelieving master, but deserved to be committed for slandering the holycovenant; and Morgan, though he knew this had not yet been made anoffence by statute, yet relying on the temper of the parish, theignorance of the culprit, and the protection he would be sure to meetfrom a faction, whose violence had driven the King from his capital, andusurped the government, made out a Mittimus. Some remaining sense ofjustice, and a dislike of oppression when exercised against one of theirown rank, induced the peasants to shew their disapprobation. A crowdcollected around Morgan's door, determined to exercise their rights andto rescue the prisoner. The tears and cries of his wife and children hadjust roused them to the assumption of that summary mode of vengeance, sogratifying to an English mob, when the appearance of Dr. Beaumontsuspended their fury. The long-formed associations of habitual reverencewere not so intirely abrogated as to allow them to continue theirriotous conduct under the influence of that mild eye, which had oftensilently reproved their faults, or that benevolent countenance, whichhad pitied their wants, and confirmed their virtues; they stood insuspence, involuntarily waiting for his opinion.
Dr. Beaumont severely condemned their misconduct in taking justice intotheir own hands, and assured them he would use all proper means for theliberation of Jobson. A confused murmur arose, as he entered the house.Some wondered if he knew that Morgan was his enemy, supposing that, ifhe did, he never would have objected to their breaking his windows;others said that the Doctor and Davies would now have it out. Davies hadoften said the Doctor was a Babylonish trafficker in works, an Alexanderthe copper-smith; and they wondered what names the other would invent.All were amazed how he dared venture among them, as they wantedsomething on which to accuse him to the new government.
Personal safety, and a regard to his own peculiar contests, were thelast things that suggested themselves to the mind of Doctor Beaumont.Forgetful of the injuries and insults he had received, he addressed hisopponents with graceful manners, and in conciliatory language. Herequested to know what was Jobson's offence, expressing a hope that itwas of such a nature as to admit of his urging the extenuating plea ofhis former good conduct.
Many voices spoke at once. Humphreys exclaimed, that he had disobeyedhis orders, and was an eye-servant. Davies said, that he had dared tospeak slanderously of the holy covenant. Dr. Beaumont declared himselfan enemy to slander and disobedience, but in order to afford a pretextfor the commitment of Jobson, Humphreys must shew his commands werestrictly lawful, and Davies that the covenant was holy.
Both answered at the same time. The powerful lungs of Humphreys enabledhim to thunder out, that the time was now past when he cared for theDoctor, that he knew he was as good as he, would do as he liked, and erelong meant to shew him he had the best right to the glebe, where hewould no longer moil and toil for a caterpillar, that fattened on hislabours. The shrill pipe of Davies issuing from his meagre form in astill higher key, insisted that the covenant was our only defenceagainst malignant men, and evil counsellors, Arminians and Jesuits, andthat if this godly bond was trampled on, the nation would be overrunwith popery and formality.
When his antagonists, in striving to drown each other's voices, hadmutually exhausted th
eir powers of utterance, Dr. Beaumont answered,that since temporal endowment was no essential mark of a true church,but rather an adjunct springing out of a right feeling in the public fortheir spiritual advisers, the depriving him of his emoluments by thestrong arm of power, would not degrade him from the office to which hehad been divinely appointed. "It will, therefore," said he, "friendHumphreys, be always my duty to advise and assist you, and if youviolently deprive me of what the most ancient of our laws has made mine,the necessity of my interference to convince you of your fault willbecome more evident. As for the wonderful efficacy which our neighbourDavies attributes to what I consider as a mere party-engagement, I mustobserve that popery received a blow from the labours of our firstreformers, which would ere now have proved mortal, had not the divisionsand subdivisions, the schisms and sects, that have originated in theimportunate spirit of puritanical objectors, afforded leisure andsecurity for the Hydra to heal her deadly wounds. In the early part ofthe reign of our late Queen of glorious memory, the Papists generallyattended their several parish-churches, listened to our Liturgy andservices with devotion, and seemed in a fair way to be won over by themoderation and decency of our worship. But the intemperance of thosewho, for the merest trifles, quarrelled with the establishment, whorejected even apostolical usages, because they had been practised by thecatholics, who, instead of allowing Rome to be a church in error, deniedthat its followers could be saved, and thus raised the dark cloud ofschism against the sun of the reformation; their rashness,uncharitableness, and fastidious scruples, in purifying what they ownedto be non-essentials, have, I say, imped the dragon's wings, and placedthe scarlet abomination, as ye call it, in a tower of strength, whichthe artillery of your covenant, lighted as it is by the flame of treasonand civil commotion, can never overthrow.--The champions of these sectsin the reign of Elizabeth, countenanced by that most flagitious courtierand tyrannical governor, the Earl of Leicester, accused Hooker, thegreat bulwark of the Protestant cause, of leaning towards popery,because he refused to consign the souls of our ancestors to perdition;and a most uncharitable outcry was raised against a Bishop for the samebias, because he trusted that the grandmother of our good King wouldexperience the mercies of our Saviour, on whose merits, in her lastmoments, she declared she relied.--Thus did these ill-advised persons,by a breach of that charity and unity, which Scripture every whereenjoins, prevent the Protestant church from exhibiting the surest marksof Christian verity. Instead of alluring people to come out of themystical Babylon, these most lamentable divisions and controversiesabout trifles have driven thousands into the perilous labyrinths of apersuasion, which admits no difference of opinion, or into the yet moredreary dungeons of Atheism, whose most formidable objection to ourfaith, is the ill blood which it foments. Never have these enemies toGod and man made such progress, as since the time when spiritual pride,turbulence and ambition, united under the name of perfect reformation,to pluck down an edifice constructed in moderation, defended by thedoctrines, beautified by the labours, and cemented by the blood of itsfounders."
The fiery zeal of Davies would not permit Dr. Beaumont to finish hisharangue. "And ye planted in your edifice," said he, "a poisonous scion,an abominable branch of the tree of evil; but our friend Humphreysspeaks not unadvisedly, or at peradventure. Your Anti-christian bishopsare all sent to prison; they are caged vultures, jackdaws stripped oftheir Babylonish trappings, their robes and square caps, their lawnformalities, their hoods and scarfs, and mitres, and crosiers, andthrones, by which these Diotrepheses lorded it over the faithful, andmade the land stink with idolatries which Scripture forbids. But theblood of that Popish inquistior, Laud, will soon flow on the scaffold,and be a cleansing stream over a foul garment; and with him episcopacyshall be coffined up and buried without expectation of a resurrection."
"It is strange," observed Dr. Beaumont, "that the Papacy should rejoiceat his degradation, and consider his present sufferings as a judgmentupon him for composing a treatise which exposed their fopperies with astrength of reasoning to which their most able divines know not how toreply."
Morgan here interposed, and, with a smile of condescension, advised Dr.Beaumont to reflect on his own situation, and consider his temporaladvantages and personal security. He spoke in praise of his learning,benevolence, and inoffensive conduct, and desired him, by a timelyconformity to the prevailing doctrines, to avoid being implicated in theruin of a falling church.
"A true branch of the Catholic church," replied the Doctor, "may beshaken, but cannot fall, because it has the promise of resisting theattacks of the powers of darkness to the end of the world. But youmistake me, Sir, if you suppose that policy was the schoolmaster whotaught me my creed, or that I will desert that Church in adversity whofed me with her bread, and graced me with her ministerial appointments.The pastoral office she intrusted to me may be wrested from my grasp byforce; my body may be imprisoned, my goods confiscated; you may drag meto the flames, like Ridley, or to the scaffold, like Laud, but youcannot change truth into falsehood, or make that right, which, thoughsuccessful, is intrinsically wrong. Whether the doctrines of the Churchof England be branded as those of a declining sect, or set by the throneas a light to guide our hereditary Princes, they must be tried by othercriterions than popularity, I mean, by reason, Scripture, andapostolical usage. I trust she will ever have sons equal to the task ofdefending her, men uncorrupted by sensuality when she basks in sunshine,undaunted by danger when tempests threaten her destruction. And with allyour boasts of making this land a Zoar and a Zion, I will tell you thatyou will never make it the Jerusalem which is at unity with itself andtherefore meet for the residence of the Holy One, until it shall please'God to bless the common people with sense to see that there is such asin as schism, and that they are not judges what schism is.' Peace isnot promoted by yielding to captious objections, but by subduing thespirit, which is more prone to dispute than to obey. Those who dissentfrom us say they only crave liberty, but when the church is overthrownthey will find that it is the spirit of domination which they mistookfor zeal in the cause of freedom. This will make every sect strive forpre-eminence, and the hatred they now shew us will, if we are subdued,be diverted from a superior whom they cease to fear, to equals whom theywish to depress; the anarchy and discord they will then experience willlead the moderate and well-informed to remember with regret the mildgovernment of the deposed church."
"How, Sir?" said Morgan; "do you defend a church that has ever been adetermined enemy to liberty, an ally to tyrants; a church that hasvindicated forced loans and ship-money, and asserted those popishdoctrines, passive obedience in the subject, and infallibility in thesovereign, dividing mankind into despots and slaves? All men are bornfree and equal; and he, who taxes my fortune, restrains my conscience,or confines my person without my leave, or, which is the same thing,against those laws to which I or my representative have consented; is myenemy and a tyrant, whom I may treat as Jael did Sisera. But youEpiscopalians say, 'Oh no, the persons of Kings are sacred, and they cando no wrong;' so it follows that subjects are slaves whom they maycrush, and trample, and grind as they please."
"Part of these doctrines," replied the Doctor, "are not held merely bythe Church, but form a branch of that ancient constitution of thekingdom which no subsequent acts of the whole legislature can change,without, at the same time, endangering the safety and property of everyindividual. Much less can they be legally infringed by a packed junto ofmen, calling themselves the House of Commons, but in which, according toyour own system, not a tenth of the nation is nominally represented. Asto the inference you draw from what I call the fundamental principles ofour government, prove that the Anglican church holds them, and I willallow her to be an ally of despotism; but you shall bring your proofsfrom her canons, articles, and liturgy, not from the servants ofcourt-chaplains, or the flatteries of those who forget the priest in thesycophant. Wolves and worldlings creep into every church. The apostolicage had its Demas, and ours has its Williams. Remember it has itsAndrews too.
But since your principles of freedom will be bestexemplified by your practice, I trust you will recollect the case ofJobson. He has neither by himself, nor by his representatives, consentedto the Covenant; and his equal and free rights allow him to reject it.No ordinance has yet made it law; and the liberty of conscience yourequire for yourself will not allow you to force it upon him as gospel,seeing he cannot think it so."
Davies, whose extravagance had been checked by the admonitory frown ofMorgan, took advantage of the dilemma to which Dr. Beaumont'sapplication of his own principles had reduced him, and renewed hisdeafening declamations, to which (as neither argument nor fact wereregarded, and the length of the harangue depended on his bodilystrength,) the attention of his hearers might be dispensed with.Humphreys endeavoured to impress his neighbours with an idea of theadvantages that would result from supporting the Covenant. "It wasbetter than the law," he said, "because if any one came upon them fortaxes they had only to go to a brother-covenanter, and be he a peer orparliament-man, he was bound to support them." Davies, in the mean time,turning up the whites of his eyes, raved against so carnalizing aspiritual bond as to apply it to the protection of temporal goods."This," he said, "was making the gospel a post-horse to ride their ownerrands; stopping the entrance of an oven with a King's robe royal; andmaking a covenant with Heaven a chariot and stirrup to mount up to theheight of carnal and clay projects. By the Covenant," added he, "I amenabled to preach the true gospel in spite of my persecutor in asurplice, who would starve the lambs with formality, and forbid me tofeed them. He that opposeth me hath in his dwelling idols of wood andstone, and painted symbols of men and women whom Antichrist made saints,and Pagan books treating of false gods, and moral treatises without oneword of saving faith in them, and musical instruments, and Jewishcontrivances; and he goes into his study, not to wrestle with theSpirit, but to consult the evil one; and then he goes into thesteeple-house, and, instead of the milk of the word, pours ladles-fullof leaden legality among ye, till ye all look like his own dumb idols,instead of faithful souls overflowing with illumination."
This specimen of Davies's oratory is sufficient. The tumult he excitedallowed Morgan to put in practice a safer plan than that of committingJobson to prison, namely, to remove him privately to Hull, where SirJohn Hotham was raising men for the service of Parliament, and hethought the threat of sending him to the plantations would prevail onhim to enlist. Affecting, therefore, to be convinced that the liberty ofa brother-man should be respected, he tore the warrant for Jobson'scommitment, and ordered that he should be set at liberty. Jobson,however, could not be found. It was suggested that he had probably runaway during the confusion; and Dr. Beaumont returned home, hoping hisinterference had been of some use.
[1] Several passages in this and the next chapters are extracted from fanatical sermons on public occasions.