honour of assisting in so great an action, as the ruin of the Church, and the subversion of the present government of the realm of England.* In reference whereunto, they were to be employed from time to time, as occasion was, to stir up the people of the Counties for which they served, to rise and arm themselves against the King, under colour of their own defence, as appears plainly by the order of the tenth of August. And that they might be looked upon with the greater reverence, they maintain a constant intercourse, by letters, with their brethren of Scotland, the Churches of the Netherlands, the French and Switzers; but chiefly, with Geneva itself. In which they laid such vile reproaches on his Majesty and the Church of England, the one, for having a design to bring in Popery, the other for a readiness to receive the same,-that his Majesty was necessitated to set out a manifest in the Latin tongue, for laying open the imposture to the Churches of all foreign nations. Amongst the rest of this assembly, Dr. Dan. Featly,+ not long before made Chaplain in ordinary to the King, must needs sit for one; whether to shew his parts, or to head a party, or out of his old love to Calvinism, may best be gathered from some

**The most part of them were such as had preached and cried down, with great show of zeal, the avarice and pluralities of bishops and prelates; that one cure of souls was a full employment for one spiritual pastor how able soever, if not a charge rather above human strength. Yet these conscientious men (ere any part of the work done for which they came together, and that on the public salary,) wanted not boldness, to the ignominy and scandal of their pastor-like profession, to seize into their hands, or not unwillingly accept, (besides one, sometimes two or more, of the best livings,) collegiate masterships in the Universities, rich lectures in the City, setting sail to all winds that might blow gain into their covetous bosoms: by which means these great rebukers of non-residence, among so many distant cures, were not ashamed to be seen so quickly pluralists and non-residents themselves, to a fearful condemnation doubtless by their own mouths. "The main doctrine, for which they took their pay, and insisted upon with more vehemence than Gospel, was but to tell us in effect, that their doctrine was worth nothing, and the spiritual power of their ministry less available than bodily compulsion; persuading the Magistrate to use it, as a stronger means to bring in conscience, than evangelical persuasion: dis trusting the virtue of their own spiritual weapons, which were given them, if they be rightly called, with full warrant of sufficiency to pull down all thoughts and imaginations that exalt themselves against God. They taught compulsion without conviction, which not long before they complained of as executed unchristianly against themselves. They endeavoured to set up a spiritual tyranny by a secular power, for the purpose of advancing their own authority above the Magistrate, whom they would have made their executioner to punish church-delinquencies."-MILTON'S Prose Works.

This Calvinistic divine was one of Archbishop Abbot's chaplains and wrote the Life of that Prelate's brother. In 1626, he wrote PELAGIUS REDIVIVUS, or Pelagius raked out of the ashes by Arminius and his scholars, in answer to Dr. Richard Mountagu's APPELLO CESAREM. Featly's production was quite a text-book to Prynne in his Anti-Arminianism, and to other bitter writers of that party. Like many of the Episcopal Calvinists, he seems to have entertained an idea, that, when he had assisted in the destruction of Arminianism, he would be permitted by his Predestinarian colleagues to retain his affection for Episcopacy without molestation: But in this expectation he and other hot spirits were grievously disappointed; LIBERALITY and TOLERATION, however frequently they might be found in the mouths of

speeches which he made and printed. But he was theirs in heart before, and therefore might afford them his body now, though possibly he may be excused from taking the covenant, as the others did. An exhortation whereunto, was the first great work which was performed by these masters in Israel, after their assembling; the covenant taken by them in most

the sectarian Calvinists, did not enter into their administration of affairs ecclesiastical. I shall embrace another opportunity, to shew the manner in which Bishop Hall and some of his colleagues on the Episcopal Bench avoided this infamy, and refused to lend themselves to the levelling measures of their quondam friends. Featly perceived his mistake when it was too late, and began to retrace his steps; but that retrograde course gave deeper umbrage to the party, than if he had never belonged to it: How merciless the dominant Calvinists were towards those of their brethren who retained their long-cherished affection for Episcopacy, may be estimated by the various extracts which I have given from Bishop HALL's Hard Measure. One good office Dr. Featly performed, while he was a member of this Assembly. It is thus related by Dr. Parr, in his Life of Archbishop Usher : "The Committee for Delinquents' Estates made an order for seizing a study of books of a considerable value, which the Primate had either brought over with him, or bought here, or left behind in Chelsea College; which were seized accordingly, and had been sold by them had not Dr. Featly, who was then in some favour with them, by reason of his being one that sat in the Assembly of Divines, (though otherwise orthodox and loyal,) made an interest with them by the means of Mr. Selden, (a member of the House as also of the Assembly,) to obtain those books for his own use, either as a gift or by laying down some money for them; and so got them into his hands, and secured them for my Lord Primate's use,-at least, as many of them as were not embezzled or stolen away whilst they were in their custody; as, amongst other things, divers papers and collections of his own writing, with all his letters either to or from his learned friends which he had left behind him there, were then plundered."

The following is part of LLOYD'S account of him, in his Worthies: "Dr. Featly's value of good men endeared him to many good people. After a disputation in Southwark, Oct. 17, 1642, wherein he overthrew the Anabaptists: -taking a good method, catechising them first, to discover their ignorance in the grounds of religion, before they disputed to shew their opinions in the controversies of it; and adding to his arguments against them, (what was indeed the shrewdest argument,) an history of them ;-and after several speeches in the Assembly, in which he was against the covenant and other extravagancies of those times, this good man was sequestered, plundered, and (upon a letter he sent to Bishop Usher in Oxford, subscribed ▲ that is, FIDELITY, as they interpreted it, giving an account of his shrewd argument against the covenant,) was imprisoned as a spy; and, upon his declaring before the committee that he could not be of another mind, continued in Peter-house, (notwithstanding his great assistance to the Assembly in the comment on St. Paul's epistle, undertaken by him in bonds, where they were most written, upon an humble letter written to him from the whole Assembly,) till a little before he died he was removed to Chelsea-College, whereof he was the third and last provost.

"He had his barns burned, chancel defaced, and his rails torn at Acton, Nov. 1642; some of his congregation killed, and all frighted out of the church at Lambeth, Feb. 19, 1642; [the mal-contents] threatening to cut the doctor for keeping to his PORRIDGE, (for so they called the Common-Prayer,) as small as herbs to the pot; who (escaping them then with their seven articles) was committed prisoner with Sir George Sonds, Sir Jo. Butler, and Mr. Nevile, to Peterhouse Sept. 30, 1643, and his house, goods, library, estate, and livings seized on, to the great scandal of all the reformed divines, among whom he was deservedly famous, and died confessing his faith, and asserting the doctrine, discipline, and worship of our church, to Dr. Leo Chaplain to the Dutch Ambassador."

solemn manner at St. Margaret's in Westminster, on the 25th of September, the exhortation* voted to be published on the 9th of February.

* Further to illustrate the spirit of these_covenanting Calvinists, it may be necessary to give a brief extract from this EXHORTATION, which was delivered before the Members of the House of Commons, and the Divines of the Assembly, by Mr. Philip Nye, before he read the Covenant to them which they were about to take:

:

"What do we covenant? What do we vow? Is it not the preservation of religion where it is reformed, and the reformation of religion where it needs? Is it not the reformation of three kingdoms, and a reformation universal in doctrine, discipline and worship, in whatsoever the word shall discover to us? To practise, is a fruit of love; to reform, a fruit of zeal; but so to reform, will be a token of great prudence and circumspection in each of these churches And all this to be done according to God's word, the best rule, and according to the best reformed churches, the best interpreters of this rule. If England hath obtained to any greater perfection in so handling the word of righteousness, and truths that are according to godliness, as to make men more godly, more righteous: And if, in the churches of Scotland any more light and beauty in matters of order and discipline, by which their Assemblies are more orderly: Or, if to any other church or person it hath been given better to have learned Christ in any of his ways than any of us, weshall humbly bow,and kiss their lips that can speak right words unto us in this matter, and help us into the nearest uniformity with the word and mind of Christ in this great work of reformation. This oath is swearing fealty and allegiance unto Christ, the King of kings; and a giving-up of all these kingdoms which are in his inheritance, to be subdued more to his throne and ruled more by his sceptre, upon whose shoulders the government is said to be, and in the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end.' Yea, we find this very thing, in the utmost accomplishment of it, to have been the oath of the greatest angel that ever was, who, setting his foot upon two of God's kingdoms, the one upon the sea, the other upon the earth, lifting up his hand to heaven, as you are to do this day, and so swearing. (Rev. x.) The effect of that oath you shall find to be this, that the kingdoms of the world 'become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever.' (Rev. xi.)

"That which the Apostles and primitive times did so much and so long pray for, though never long with much quietness enjoyed; that which our fathers, in the latter times, have fasted, prayed, and mourned after, yet attained not; even the cause which many dear saints, now with God, have furthered by extremest sufferings, poverty, imprisonment, banishment and death, even ever since the first dawning of reformation : That and the very same is the very cause and work that we are come now, through the mercy of Jesus Christ, not only to pray for, but swear too. And surely it can be no other but the result and answer of such prayers and tears, of such sincerity and sufferings, that three kingdoms should be thus born (or rather new-born) in a day; that these kingdoms should be wrought about to so great an engagement, than which nothing is higher. For to this end kings reign, kingdoms stand, and states are upheld. This covenant is a way in all probability most likely to enable us to preserve and defend our religion against our common enemies and possibly a more sure foundation this day will be laid for ruining Popery and Prelacy, than as yet we have been led into in any age.It will not be unworthy your consideration, whether, seeing the preservation of Popery hath been by leagues and covenants, God may not make a league or covenant to be the destruction of it. The Lamb can unite kings and kingdoms, and give them one mind also to destroy the whore, and be her utter ruin. And may not this day's work be a happy beginning of such a blessed expedition ?-Prelacy is another common enemy, that we covenant and swear against. You remember with what cunning industry they intended lately a more public, solemn and universal engagement than, since Popery, this cause of theirs was ever maintained or supported by. And, questionless, Ireland and Scotland also must at last have been brought into this holy league with England. But, blessed be the Lord, and blessed be his good hand the Parliament, that, from the indignation of their spirits against so

:

"Now to begin the blessed reformation which they had in hand, the Houses were resolved upon exterminating all external pomp, and comely order, out of the worship of Almighty God. And to this end, upon the humble motion of these divines of the Assembly, and the solicitation of some zealous lecturers, who were grown very powerful with them; or to ingratiate themselves with the Scottish covenanters, whose help they began to stand in need of; or finally, out of the perverseness of horrid a yoke, have dashed out the very brains of this project, and are now this day present before the Lord to take and give possession of this blessed ordinance, even an oath and covenant as solemn and of as large extent as they intended theirs, uniting these three kingdoms into such a league and happy combination as will doubtless preserve us and our reformation against them, though their iniquity in the mysteries of it should still be working among

us.

"That we may all, who take the covenant this day, not start aside, or give back, or go on uncomfortably, there is a two-fold grace or qualification to be laboured after: (1.) We must get courage, spirits that are bold and resolute. The work of God's house, reformation-work especially, is a stirring work. Read stories; you find not any where reformation made in any age, either in doctrine or discipline, without great stir and opposition. The like you find in the apostles' times; the truth being preached, some believed, others did not. (Acts xvii.) Here beginneth the stir, Those that believed not, took unto themselves certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar,' and, when they had done so, complained of the brethren, to the rulers, as men that turned the world upside down.' In such a work, therefore, men had need be of stout, resolute and composed spirits, that we may be able to go on in the main, and stir in the midst of such stirs, and not be amazed at any such doings. It may possibly happen, that, even among yourselves, there will be outcries. Sir, you will undo all,' saith one. You will put all into confusion,' saith another. If you take this 'course,' saith a third, we can expect nothing but blood.' But a wise statesman, like an experienced seaman, knoweth the compass of his vessel, and, though it heave and toss, and the passengers cry out about him, yet, in the midst of all, he is himself, turneth not aside from his work, but steereth on his course. If you mean to do any such work in the house of God as this is ; if you mean to pluck up what many years ago was planted, or to build up what so long ago was pulled down, and to go through with this work and not be discouraged, you must beg of the Lord this excellent spirit, this resolute stirring spirit, otherwise you will be outspirited, and both you and your cause slighted and dishonoured.-(2.) On the other hand, we must labour for humility, prudence,, gentleness, meekness. A man may be very zealous and resolute, and yet very meek and merciful: Jesus Christ was a lion and yet a lamb also. In one place he telleth them, He cometh to send fire on the earth, and, in another place, rebuketh his disciples for their fiery spirits. There was the like composition in Moses and in Paul; and it is of great use, especially in this great work of reformation. Let us be zealous, as Christ was, to cast out all, to extirpate and root out every plant his Heavenly Father hath not planted; and yet let us do it in an orderly way, and with the Spirit of Christ, whose servants we are. We solemnly engage this day our utmost endeavours for reformation: Let us remember this, that too much HEAT, as well as too much COLDNESS, may harden men in their ways and hinder reformation."

The Long Parliament, who were exhorted in this style to "deeds of death," have been called “a body of as pure and excellent legislators as any nation ever saw ;" but this character of them has been given by men who had to deduce their own conclusions from such untrue premises. Nye's harangue, of which the preceding extract is only a small part, was delivered in 1643, soon after the commencement of the Civil Wars; and since the members of the Lower House of Parliament could listen with complacency to such exhortations as this, and could pass a vote of thanks to such hypocritical and blood-thirsty declaimers, they certainly cannot be absolved from the

their own cross humours, they published an ordinance on the 28th of August, 'For the utter demolishing, removing, and tak'ing away all monuments of superstition and idolatry,' &c.

"But yet, to make sure work of, it, this ordinance was reinforced and enlarged by another of the 9th of May, in the year next following; wherein, besides the particulars before recited, they descend to the taking away of all coaps, surplices, and other superstitious vestments, (as they pleased to call them ;) as also to the taking away of all organs, and the cases in which they stood, and the defacing of the same; requiring the same course to be also taken in the removing and defacing of roods, rood-lofts, and holy-water-fonts, (as if any such things had been of late erected or permitted in the Church of England, as indeed there were not:) whereupon followed the defacing of all glass windows, and the demolishing of all organs within the compass of their power;* the transposing of the holy table from the the place of the altar, into some other parts of the church or chancel; the tearing and defacing of all coaps and surplices, or otherwise employing them to domestic uses; &c.

charge of dreadful criminality in affording public encouragement to these levelling and unscriptural doctrines. Adopting the words of the Republican Dr. John Owen, which have been quoted, (page 268,) we may justly say concerning those statesmen: "It was all the vengeance of the Lord and his temple-a Davidical preparation of their paths in blood, that they might for ever reign in righteousness and peace."

The most cursory and inattentive reader cannot fail of being amused, when he sees a Calvinistic divine of that age deliberately comparing the covenant of his own party, to the leagues and covenants of the Papists. No explanation of Nye's phraseology will be required, by those who know the Calvinistic application of the several terms which he employs, and the interpretation which they bore in those days of anarchy and fanaticism.

* "Another while, the sheriff Toftes, and alderman Linsey, attended with many zealous followers, came into my chapel to look for superstitious pictures, and relics of idolatry, and sent for me, to let me know they found those windows full of images, which were very offensive, and must be demolished! I told them they were the pictures of some ancient and worthy bishops, as St. Ambrose, Austin, &c. It was answered me, that they were so many popes; and one younger man amongst the rest (Townsend, as I perceived afterwards,) would take upon himself to defend, that every diocesan bishop was pope. I answered him with some scorn, and obtained leave that I might, with the least loss and defacing of the windows, give order for the taking off that offence; which I did by causing the heads of those pictures to be taken off, since I knew the bodies could not offend.

"There was not that care and moderation used in reforming the cathedral church bordering upon my palace. It is no other than tragical to relate the carriage of that furious sacrilege, whereof our eyes and ears were the sad witnesses, under the authority and presence of Linsey, Toftes the sheriff, and Greenewood. Lord! what work was here, what clattering of glasses, what beating down of walls, what tearing up of monuments, what pulling down of seats, what wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves! what defacing of arms, what demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not any representation in the world, but only of the cost of the founder, and skill of the mason! what tooting and piping upon the destroyed organ pipes, and what a hideous triumph on the market day before all the country, when, in a kind of sacrilegious and profane procession, all the organ pipes, vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross, which had been newly sawu down from over the