Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

THE REFORMATION IN 1517, TO THE REVOLUTION IN 1688;

COMPRISING

An Account of their Principles;

THEIR ATTEMPTS FOR A FARTHER REFORMATION IN THE CHURCH, THEIR SUFFERINGS,
AND THE LIVES AND CHARACTERS OF THEIR MOST CONSIDERABLE DIVINES.

BY DANIEL NEAL, M. A.

A NEW EDITION, IN THREE VOLUMES.

REPRINTED FROM

THE TEXT OF DR. TOULMIN'S EDITION;

WITH HIS LIFE OF THE AUTHOR AND ACCOUNT OF HIS WRITINGS.

REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG AND SON, 73, CHEAPSIDE;

R. GRIFFIN AND CO., GLASGOW; T. T. AND H. TEGG, DUBLIN ;

ALSO J. AND S. A. TEGG, SYDNEY AND HOBART TOWN.

LONDON:

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS,

WHITEFRIARS.

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

PART IV.

CHAPTER IV.

THE INTERREGNUM FROM THE DEATH OF OLIVER CROMWELL TO THE RESTORATION OF KING CHARLES II. AND THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 1659.

UPON the death of the protector, all the discontented spirits who had been subdued by his administration resumed their courage, and within the compass of one year revived the confusions of the preceding ten. Richard Cromwell, being proclaimed protector upon his father's decease, received numberless addresses from all parts *, congratulating his accession to the dignity of protector, with assurances of lives and fortunes cheerfully devoted to support his title. He was a young gentleman of a calm and peaceable temper,but had by no means the capacity or resolution of his father, and was therefore unfit to be at the helm in such boisterous times. He was highly caressed by the Presbyterians, though he set out upon the principles of general toleration, as appears by his declaration of November 25, entitled, "A proclamation for the better encouraging godly ministers and others;" and for their enjoying their dues and liberties, according to law, without being molested with indictments for not using the Common Prayer-book.

The young protector summoned a parliament to meet on the 27th of January 1658-9. The elections were not according to the method practised by his father, but according to the old constitution, because it was apprehended that the smaller boroughs might be more easily influenced than cities and counties; but it

Of these addresses, Dr. Grey says, "nothing ever exceeded them in point of flattery, except those canting addresses of the dissenters to king James upon his indulgence:" and he gives several at length, as specimens of the strain of adulation in which they were drawn up, from different corporations: from which the reader will see that mayors, recorders, and aldermen, of that day could rival the Independent ministers, whom the doctor reproaches as "most foully guilty," in their effusions of flattery. In truth, all were paying their devoirs to the rising sun.-ED.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »