scheme itself, different views may be entertained. But there is little room for variety of opinion as to the bad spirit displayed by the narrower but noisier Church faction that strove to defeat the measure, and that succeeded in rendering any plan of "Comprehension" at this favourable juncture entirely abortive.

II.

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THE CELEBRATED ENQUIRY," 1691.

WHILE these and other ecclesiastical debates were occupying the public mind, and very much on account of them, a young Presbyterian layman, nephew of John Locke, was busying himself with a careful study, at first hand, of the early Christian Fathers, with the view of satisfying his own mind on some of the points. which were so much in discussion, respecting the Church of the first centuries. The result of his researches he gave to the world in a compact volume consisting of two parts, the first being issued in 1691, and the other a short time afterwards. The whole treatise, which was published anonymously, was entitled, "An Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, that flourished within the first three hundred years after Christ. Faithfully collected out of the extant writings of those ages. By an Impartial Hand."

The book is a noticeable one in the history of Presbyterianism in England, as being a stout defence, from an historical point of view, of some of the chief Presbyterian positions.1 It acquired much fame in its own day; and though small in compass, it has often been resorted to as a quarry by later writers, inasmuch as it is really a compact dictionary of carefullyselected quotations from the earlier Fathers on all the subjects in dispute, digested under convenient heads, and commented on with judicial calmness and candour. "For the clearer demonstration of my faithfulness," says the author in his preface, "I have taken care to print in the margin the original words of

This was the book which converted John Wesley from his original prelatic and high-episcopal views, and made of him a thorough and determined Presbyterian, as we shall afterwards see. By the instrumentality of this book, the entire Methodist movement was directed along Presbyterian lines.

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all the passages, together with the very pages whence I fetched them, that so the reader, turning to the pages mentioned in those editions that I use (which editions I shall set down at the end of this preface), and finding it according to my quotations, may the more readily be persuaded that throughout the whole tract I have been every way honest and unbiassed."

The temper of this book is admirable. It is really what it purports to be" An Enquiry"; and the inquiry is conducted in a spirit of much soberness and impartiality, "avoiding all words or speeches that might seem to carry the least sharpness,

since my design," says the author in the preface," is not to defend a party, but to search out the truth." And considering the book was written by a young Dissenter of twenty-two years of age, at a time of heated debate, and in the midst of a strongly-biassed polemical epoch, it is to his credit that he manages to preserve, throughout, a firm yet conciliatory tone. He is really in earnest on behalf of union and comprehension, pleading his cause with Christian dignity and simplicity. The following is a specimen :

"With these two considerations (viz., the urgent necessity, and the providential facility, for a scheme of union), let us remember those solemn vows and engagements which we made to Almighty God, and to one another in the day of our late distress; how we then vowed and promised, that if God would be pleased to rescue and deliver us, we would forget our differences, and mutually condescend and abate of our rigour and severity; wherefore now, since God hath so wonderfully saved us, let us not be so perfidious and faithless as to neglect to perform what we then obliged ourselves unto. Wherefore let my entreaties be prevalent with you to endeavour for a mutual compliance and comprehension, as you have any regard to the honour of God and the credit of religion; as you would hinder the growth of damnable errors and abominable debaucheries, and do what in you lies to prevent the ruin and damnation of multitudes of poor souls."

These appeals, as we all too well know, were not destined to meet with success. In a few years, the services rendered by the Protestant Dissenters towards the safety of the State were forgotten. There set in the tremendous Tory reaction, which culminated in the triumph of that party in the general elec

tion of 1701, with the popular cry of, "The Church in danger! Down with the Dissenters!" while, with the accession of the High-Church Queen Anne, the last hopes of any measure towards comprehension very speedily faded away, the Toleration Act itself being scarcely safe; and illiberal measures against religious Nonconformity-such as the infamous "Schism" Bill --deepened those lines of division between Church and Dissent which continue so painfully marked in English life to the present day.

The patristic learning displayed in the "Enquiry" is certainly remarkable, especially when we consider that it was the production of a young man whom his father, worthy Jerome King, had engaged in his own business of wholesale and retail grocer and salter in Exeter, till the youth, who had been studying hard in private, made it manifest that he was fit for higher things.

According to the usual story, his maternal uncle, John Locke, when on a visit to the family, was astonished at the self-acquired attainments of young Peter King, and opened his way to one of the learned professions.

Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors, says :

"Instead of going to a public school or University in England, where his past occupations would have been known and foolishly made a reproach to him, by the kind and judicious advice of his uncle, he was sent to the University of Leyden, rarely frequented by Englishmen, but which, for its excellent Professors and for its cheapness, continued the resort of Scottish youths down to the time of James Boswell, the biographer of Johnson. Here young King continued some years, and addicted himself to the studies of the place with an ardour and perseverance of which there are few examples. Besides perfecting himself in classical lore, he ran round the whole circle of the sciences as there taught; but theology was still his favourite pursuit, and under a Calvinistic Professor of Church History, he thoroughly established himself in the belief that in the New Testament and in the earliest ages of Christianity, the words 'ЕníσкоTоs and Пpeoẞúrepos are used indiscriminately, and that those to whom the terms were applied formed one and the same grade in the Church. He was very orthodox in concurring in all the doctrine of the Church of England, and did not consider it sinful that there should be a separate order of Bishops; but he preferred the Genevese model of Church government, founded on Presbyterian parity; and, strongly denying the necessity for

Episcopal ordination, he maintained that the Sacraments from the hands of a Presbyter, ordained by Presbyters, were equally efficacious as if administered by one who could prove his ecclesiastical pedigree through a succession of Bishops from the Apostles. He therefore warmly supported the plan which had been promised by Charles II. in his declaration from Breda,-which Clarendon for a time pretended to sanction, and which there had been a renewed attempt to carry at the Revolution,—for a revision of the Articles and Liturgy of the Church, whereby Presbyterians as well as Episcopalians might be comprehended within her pale. With this view he wrote, and on his return to the country published a most learned and profound treatise on the subject, entitled 'An Enquiry into the Constitution and Discipline of the Primitive Church.' This work made a great sensation, passed through several editions, and called forth many able and learned answers.'

Such, then, is the origin and natural history of what is commonly designated, Lord King's famous book on the Primitive Church-for to the position of Lord Chancellor did the modest and anonymous author ultimately rise. Some brief notes of his life may be here given.

A year after returning from Leyden, he was entered as a student of law at the Middle Temple; and after keeping terms for seven years, was called to the Bar in 1698. In this choice of a profession, and in the place he secured among his contemporaries, he amply sustained the traditional credit of his native county. Speaking of Devonshire, old Thomas Fuller says: This county seems innated with a genius to study law, none in England (Norfolk alone excepted) affording so many legal men. Cornwall, indeed, hath a family, but Devonshire makes a feast of such, who by the practice thereof have raised great estates."

The chief points in King's career may be learned from the inscription on the handsome monument to him as Baron of Ockham, by Roubiliac:—

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1 The Enquiry was republished, we believe, in 1712, 1713, and 1719; and has been issued again more recently in 1839 and 1843. It led, shortly after its appearance, to a correspondence between Mr. Edward Elys and the author, which was published by the former in 1694. The edition of 1713, which was called forth by the discussion on the "Schism" Bill, evoked a reply from a Presbyter of the Church of England," who, in an appendix to a book entitled The Invalidity of the Dissenting Ministry, professed to give "An impartial view and censure of the mistakes propagated for the ordaining power of Presbyters in a celebrated book, Enquiry," etc. The writer is commonly supposed to have been William Sclater, a nonjuring clergyman, who certainly is known to have issued, under the same signature, a more elaborate treatise in 1717, entitled, An Original Draught of the Primitive Church, in answer to a discourse entitled, An Enquiry, etc. This, like the Enquiry, has passed through several editions, one so late as 1840, and, as has been truly remarked, "The two works seem to exhaust the subject" on either side of the controversy.