desirable blessings are in reserve for this nation, must be left to the determination of an all-wise Providence. In the mean time, may Protestant dissenters express their gratitude for the protection and ease they enjoy at present, by an undissembled piety towards God! by a firm and unshaken loyalty to his majesty's person and wise administration! by avoiding every thing that tends to persecution or censoriousness for mere differences in religion! and by the integrity of their own lives and manners! And while they think it their duty to separate from the national establishment, may they distinguish themselves by the exercise of all social virtues, and stand fast in the liberty wherewith the providence of God has made them free! By such a conduct they will preserve their characters with all sober persons, and will transmit the blessings of the present age to their latest posterity. London, March 1, 1737-8. DANIEL NEAL. CONTENTS OF THE FOURTH VOLUME. CHAP. I. From the death of king Charles I. to the corona- CHAP. II. From the coronation of king Charles II. in Scot- land to the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell CHAP. III. From the beginning of the protectorship of Oliver CHAP. IV. From the death of the protector to the restora- CHAP. V. From the restoration of king Charles II. to the CHAP. VI. From the Savoy conference to the act of uniformity 293 CHAP. VII. From the act of uniformity to the banishment CHAP. VIII. From the banishment of the earl of Clarendon to the king's declaration of indulgence in the year 1672 378 HISTORY OF THE PURITAN S. CHAP. I. FROM THE DEATH OF KING CHARLES I. TO THE CORONATION OF KING CHARLES II. IN SCOTLAND. 1648. * UPON the death of the late king, the legal constitution was dissolved, and all that followed till the restoration of king Charles II. was no better than a usurpation under different shapes; the house of commons, if it may deserve that name, after it had been purged of a third part of its members, relying upon the act of continuation, called themselves the supreme authority of the nation, and began with an act to disinherit the prince of Wales, forbidding all persons to proclaim him king of England, on pain of high-treason. The house of lords was voted useless; and the office of a king unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous. The form of government for the future was declared to be a free commonwealth; the executive power lodged in the hands of a council of state of forty persons,† with full powers to take care of the whole administration for one year; new keepers of the great seal were appointed, from whom the judges received their commissions, with the name, style, and title, of, custodes libertatis Angliæ authoritate parliamenti; i. e. keepers of the liberties of England by authority of par According to Echard, not above a fifth part of the commons were left. On account of the reduced and mutilated state of the house, they were called the Rump Parliament. This name was first given to them by Walker, the author of the History of Independency, by way of derision, in allusion to a fowl, all devoured but the rump; and they were compared to a man "who would never cease to whet and whet his knife, till there was no steel left to make it useful." Dr. Grey, and Rapin.-ED. According to Whitelocke, who gives their names, the council consisted of thirtyeight persons only.-ED. |