Mary, he fled to Frankfort, where we have seen him struggling for what he deemed purity of worship. After his removal to Geneva, he received the grateful news, that the friends of reformation had begun to introduce their religion into his native country. He rushed from his peaceable retreat to contend amidst the storm, and laboured with a zeal, rude, boisterous, and irresistible as his northern clime, to establish presbytery beyond the Tweed. His eloquence, which was suited to those rugged times; his courage, which delighted in dangers; and his diligence, which knew no intermission, soon secured him a decided majority among his countrymen. Roused by the voice of Knox, the Scots burst, like an inundation of the ocean, upon the territories of Rome; stripped the churches of their ornaments; demolished the objects of ancient adoration; and often insulted, with unchristian violence, the adherents of the established religion. In the latter part of the year one thousand five hundred and sixty was held the first general assembly of the church of Scotland. As the reformation had not yet been diffused through all parts of the country, many important places sent no delegates; so that their numbers were small, and few of them were considerable for rank or talents. This assembly, however, voted the introduction of that discipline, which was afterwards established in Scotlands. Knox presented to a convention of the states, which was held in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-one, the first book of discipline, which he had composed. With some variations, Robertson's History of Scotland. which circumstances seemed to demand, it was a faithful copy of the regimen of Geneva. Whatever zeal the states discovered in establishing presbytery, they were determined not to restore to the new establishment the church lands, which they had seized. Every proposal, which the ministers made for this restitution, was treated as " a devout imagination." Thus the presbyterian church of Scotland was, from its birth, doomed to comparative indigence. The house of Stuart was engaged in almost incessant attempts to overthrow the presbyterian establishment of their country, which they despised as deficient in splendor, and hated for its excessive purity and rigour. The violent and arbitrary attempts of the first Charles, to force episcopacy upon his countrymen, though so fatal to himself, were imitated by his profligate son. Some of the best men whom Scotland, or any other country has ever known, were, in pursuit of this mad project, driven to exile, prisons, and death. When, at length, the Stuarts were finally hurled from the throne, Scotland acquired by the revolution, the peaceable enjoyment of its beloved presbytery. The history of the presbyterians in England was necessarily interwoven with our introduction. Though the puritans were, from their rise, partial to the discipline and service-book of Geneva, they, at first, aimed only at exemption from some habits and ceremonies of the English establishment. But when all hopes of lenity or moderation from the court and hierarchy had vanished, they made a bold application to parliament for a legal alteration in the discipline of the church. Several ministers, who were decidedly presbyte rians in their judgment, agreed to present to the legis lature what they entitled "an admonition to parliament." It contained the plan of a presbyterian church, the manner of electing ministers, their duties and their equality in government. The corruptions of the hierarchy were exposed, with all the severity of language which is characteristic of those times. A letter from Beza to the earl of Leicester, and one from Gualter to a bishop, recommending a reformation in the discipline of the English church, were annexed to the admonition. They conclude with a petition to the legislature, praying for a reformation in the establishment, by which it might be rendered "more consonant to the word of God, and to the foreign reformed churches." The authors of the admonition, who presented it to the parliament themselves, were for their boldness committed to Newgate, October the second, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy two1. A second admonition by Mr. Cartwright, and an elegant Latin apology by the prisoners, procured them no redress. The hopes of legislative sanction, which the presbyterians had indulged, being now extinguished, they determined to erect at once a presbytery. As Mr. Field, lecturer of Wandsworth, a village about five miles from London, was a warm patron of the plan, the first presbyterian church in England was formed at Wandsworth, November the twentieth, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-two, Eleven elders were chosen, and their offices inscribed in a register, entitled the orders of Wandsworth', h Pierce's Vindication of the Dissenters, p. 84. i Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. I. p. 266. Other presbyteries were erected in most parts of England; but especially at Northampton, Kettering, Daventry, and in Warwickshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex. A dialogue published in Eliza-. beth's reign, represents the number of the presbyterians as amounting to a hundred thousand. The separate presbyterian churches celebrated the Lord's supper according to the manner of the foreign pro testants. But the intolerance of the government through several reigns, drove the presbyterians from their native land. They followed the independents across the atlantic, and established, in the wilds of America, the system of ecclesiastical discipline, which they deemed consonant to the divine word, and essential to their religious prosperity, From the commencement formed by these refugees, have arisen six or seven hundred presbyterian congregations. This communion prevails most in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Tenessee'. In the reign of James the first, the presbyterians established themselves in Ireland also, where they have ever since formed an important body. The ministers of the English establishment, well accommodated at home, declined the more arduous labours to which they were invited among the colonies planted by the citizens of London, in the province of Ulster. The persecuted puritans were glad to enter and cultivate this neglected field. The Scots were, by their vicinity, led to the north of Ireland, where they formed churches upon the presbyterian model. The bishops k Heylin's History of the Presbyterians. Adams's View of Religions. |