fied on any pretence whatsoever; and it was the more inexcusable in this case, because Mr. Baxter admits *, that the Presbyterian zeal was in a great measure the occasion of it. Before we leave the assembly for this year, it will be proper to take notice, that it was honoured with the presence of Charles Lewis, elector-palatine of the Rhine, eldest son of Frederick, &c. king of Bohemia, who married king James's daughter, and lost his territories by the fatal battle of Prague in 1619. The unhappy Frederick died in 1632, and left behind him six sons and five daughters, among whom were prince Rupert, prince Maurice, and the princess Sophia. The young elector and his mother often solicited the English court for assistance to recover their dominions, and were as often complimented with empty promises. All the parliaments of this reign mention with concern the calamitous condition of the queen of Bohemia and her children, and offer to venture their lives and fortunes for the recovery of the Palatinate, but king Charles I. did not approve his sister's principles, who, being a resolved Protestant, had been heard to say, if we may believe L'Estrange, that rather than have her son bred up in idolatry at the emperor's court, she had rather be his executioner. And Mr. Echard adds +, that the birth of king Charles II. in the year 1630, gave no great joy to the Puritans, because, as one of them declared, "God had already provided for them in the family of the queen of Bohemia, who were bred up in the Protestant religion, while it was uncertain what religion king Charles's children would follow, being to be brought up by a mother devoted to the church of Rome." When the war broke out between the king and parliament, the elector's younger brothers, Rupert and Maurice, served the king in his army, but the elector himself being in Holland took the covenant, and by a letter to the parliament testified his approbation of the cause in which they were engaged. This summer he made a tour to England, and was welcomed by a committee of the two houses, who promised him their best advice and assistance; to whom the prince made the following reply: "I hold myself much obliged to the parliament for their favours, and my coming is to express in person what I have often done by letter, my sincere affections to them, and to take off such jealousies, as either the actions of some of my relations, or the ill effects of what my enemies might by my absence cast upon me. My wishes are constant for the good success of the great work you have undertaken, for a thorough reformation; and my desires are to be ruled and governed by your grave counsels §." The parliament ordered an apartment to be fitted up for the Baxter's Life, p. 103. + History, p. 449. Bishop Warburton thinks it apparent, from many circumstances, that the elector had his eye on the crown: matters being gone too far for the king and parliament ever to agree.-ED. § Oldmixon's History of the Stuarts, p. 268. * a year prince at Whitehall, and voted him 80007. for his maintenance, and 10,000l. for his royal mother, till he should be restored to his electorate t. While he stayed here, he frequently attended the assembly in their debates, and after some time had a pass for himself and forty horse into the Low Countries. His sister princess Sophia, afterward married the Duke of Brunswick and Hanover, whose son, upon the decease of queen Anne, succeeded to the crown of Great Britain, by the name of George I.; the numerous posterity of king Charles I. being set aside as Papists, and thus the descendants of the queen of Bohemia, electress-palatine, and daughter of king James I., came to inherit the imperial crown of these kingdoms, as a reward for their firmness to the Protestant religion::-and may the same illustrious family continue to be the guardians of our liberties, both sacred and civil, to the end of time! Religion was the fashion of the age: the assembly was often turned into a house of prayer, and hardly a week passed without solemn fasting and humiliation, in several of the churches of London and Westminster; the laws against profaneness were carefully executed; and because the former ordinances for the observation of the Lord's day had proved ineffectual, it was ordained, April 6, that all persons should apply themselves to the exercise of piety and religion on the Lord's day, “that no wares, fruits, herbs, or goods of any sort, be exposed to sale, or cried about the streets, upon penalty of forfeiting the goods. That no person without cause shall travel, or carry a burden, or do any worldly labour, upon penalty of ten shillings for the traveller, and five shillings for every burden ‡. That no person shall, on the Lord's day, use, or be present at, any wrestling, shooting, fowling, ringing of bells for pleasure, markets, wakes, church-ales, dancing, games, or sports whatsoever, upon penalty of five shillings to every one above fourteen years of age. And if children are found offending in the premises, their parents or guardians to forfeit twelvepence for every offence. That all May-poles be pulled down, and none others erected. That if the several fines above mentioned cannot be levied, the offending party shall be set in the stocks for the space of three hours. That the king's declaration concerning lawful sports on the Lord's day be called in, suppressed, and burnt. This ordinance shall not extend to prohibit dressing meat in private families, or selling victuals in a moderate way in inns or victualling-houses, for the use of such who cannot otherwise be provided for; nor to the crying of milk before nine in the morn ing, or after four in the afternoon §." It was ordered October 1645, but Dr. Grey quotes authority to prove that it was ill paid. Vol. 2. Appendix, No. 50.—ED. + Oldmixon's History of the Stuarts, p. 279. "And for every offence in doing any worldly labour or work."—Ep. § Sobell's Collect. p. 68. The solemn league and covenant was in such high repute at this time*, that by an order of the house of commons, January 29, 1634, it was appointed, "that, on every fast-day and day of public humiliation, the covenant should be publicly read in every church and congregation within the kingdom; and that every congregation be enjoined to have one of the said covenants fairly printed, in a fair letter, in a table fitted to hang up in some public place of the church to be read." Which was done accordingly, and they continued there till the restoration †. But that which occasioned the greatest disturbance over the whole nation, was an order of both houses relating to Christmasday. Dr. Lightfoot says, the London ministers met together last year to consult whether they should preach on that day; and one of considerable name and authority opposed it, and was near prevailing with the rest, when the doctor convinced them so far of the lawfulness and expediency of it, that the question being put it was carried in the affirmative with only four or five dissenting voices. But this year it happening to fall on the monthly fast, so that either the fast or the festival must be omitted, the parliament, after some debate, thought it most agreeable to the present circumstances of the nation to go on with fasting and prayer; and therefore published the following order: "Die Jovis 19 Dec. 1644. "Whereas some doubts have been raised, whether the next fast shall be celebrated, because it falls on the day which heretofore was usually called the feast of the nativity of our Saviour; the lords and commons in parliament assembled do order and ordain, that public notice be given, that the fast appointed to be kept the last Wednesday in every month ought to be observed, till it be otherwise ordered by both houses; and that this day in particular is to be kept with the more solemn humiliation, because it may call to remembrance our sins, and the sins of our forefathers, who have turned this feast, pretending the memory of Christ, into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights, being contrary to the life which Christ led here on earth, and to the spiritual life of Christ in our souls, for the sanctifying and saving whereof, Christ was pleased both to take a human life, and to lay it down again ‡. The royalists raised loud clamours on account of the supposed impiety and profaneness of this transaction, as what had never before been heard of in the Christian world, though they could not but know, that this, as well as other festivals, is of ecclesias * Dr. Grey gives various passages from the sermons of the day to prove in what extravagant estimation it was held, and to shew what high encomiums were passed on it.-ED. + Lond. Min. Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ, p. 26, Rushworth, vol. 5. p. 817. tical appointment*; that there is no mention of the observation of Christmas in the first or second age of Christianity; that the kirk of Scotland never observed it since the Reformation, except during the short reign of the bishops, and do not regard it at this day. Some of the most learned divines among the Presbyterians, as well as Independents, were in this sentiment. Mr. Edmund Calamy, in his sermon before the house of lords on this day, has these expressions: "This day is commonly called Christmas-day, a day that has heretofore been much abused to superstition and profaneness. It is not easy to say, whether the superstition has been greater, or the profaneness. I have known some that have preferred Christmas-day before the Lord's day; some that would be sure to receive the sacrament on Christmas-day, though they did not receive all the year after. Some thought, though they did not play at cards all the year long, yet they must play at Christmas, thereby, it seems, to keep in memory the birth of Christ. This, and much more, hath been the profanation of this feast; and truly, I think the superstition and profaneness of this day are so rooted into it, that there is no way to reform it, but by dealing with it as Hezekiah did with the brazen serpent. This year, God, by his providence, has buried this feast in a fast, and I hope it will never rise again. You have set out, right honourable, a strict order for keeping of it, and you are here this day to observe your own order, and I hope you will do it strictly. The necessities of the times are great, never more need of prayer and fasting. The Lord give us grace to be humbled in this day of humiliation, for all our own and England's sins, and especially for the old superstition and profaneness of this feast. About Midsummer this year died doctor Thomas Westfield bishop of Bristol, born in the isle of Ely 1573, educated in Jesuscollege, Cambridge, and afterward rector of Hornsey, and of St. Bartholomew the Great, London, and archdeacon of St. Albans. In the year 1641, he was advanced to the see of Bristol, which he accepted, though he had refused it, as is said, twenty-five years before +. He was a gentlemen of great modesty, a good preacher, an excellent orator. The parliament had such an esteem for him, that they named him one of the assembly of divines, and he had the goodness to appear among them for some time. Upon the bishop's complaint, that the profits of his bishoprick were detained, the committee ordered them to be restored, and gave him a pass to go to Bristol to receive them, wherein they style him a person of great learning and merit. He died in possession of his bishoprick, June 25, 1644, aged seventy-one, and composed his own epitaph, one line of which was, Senio et moerore confectus. Dr. Grey says, that the observation of Christmas was appointed by statute 5 and 6 Edward VI. c. 3.-ED. + Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 3. And another: Episcoporum infimus, peccatorum primus. Dr. Calibute Downing was born of an ancient family in Gloucestershire, about 1616; he was educated in Oriel-college, Oxford, and at length became vicar of Hackney near London, by the procurement of archbishop Laud; which is very strange, if, as Mr. Wood says, he always looked awry on the church. In his sermon before the Artillery-company, September 1, 1640, he maintained, that for the defence of religion and reformation of the church, it was lawful to take up arms against the king, if it could be obtained no other way. For this he was forced to abscond till the beginning of the present parliament. He was afterward chaplain in the earl of Essex's army, and a member of the assembly of divines; but died before he was forty years of age, having the character of a pious man, a warm preacher, and very zealous in the interest of his country. CHAPTER V. ABSTRACT OF THE TRIAL OF ARCHBISHOP LAUD, AND OF THE TREATY OF UXBRIDGE. NEXT day, after the establishment of the Directory, Dr. William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, received sentence of death. He had been a prisoner in the Tower almost three years, upon an impeachment of high treason by the house of commons, without once petitioning for a trial, or so much as putting in his answer to the articles; however, as soon as the parliament had united with the Scots, it was resolved to gratify that nation by bringing him to the bar; accordingly, serjeant Wild was sent up to the house of lords, October 23, with ten additional articles of high treason, and other crimes and misdemeanours; and to pray, that his grace might be brought to a speedy trial. We have already recited the fourteen original articles under the year 1640. The additional ones were to the following purpose: 1. That the archbishop had endeavoured to destroy the use of parliaments, and to introduce an arbitrary government. 2. "That for ten years before the present parliament, he had endeavoured to advance the council-table, the canons of the church, and the king's prerogative, above law. 3. That he had stopped writs of prohibition to stay proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, when the same ought to have been granted. 4. That he had caused sir John Corbet to be committed to the Fleet for six months, only for causing the petition of right to be read at the sessions. |