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and by one of their own writers , " Princes derive their power and prerogative from the people , are invested with authority for the people ' s benefit , and must be so restrained that they may not violate the people ' s liberty / ' * The novelty of these opinions was constantly urged against their
defenders - , % to deny the divine right of kings , was to insult the orthodoxy of ages . —Thus did civil liberty league itself with Puritanism and dissent , tiJl to deny the ecclesiastical authority of the monarch , and to £ Jaim the political rights of the subject , became one and the same thing .
The reign of Elizabeth was little friendly to the cause of truth and freedom ; § but truth and freedom still made silent and steady progress . The liberal and the learned had before begun to recognize the right of private judgment , and Tindall had said , " The New Testament of Christ will
not suffer any law of compulsion , but only of counsel and exhortation ; 'j [ " but now , " Sir John Hayward affirms , " all the best writers of the age declare that religion is of power sufficient for itself , that it must be persuaded , not enforced . " f [
Where can contempt find * words to do justice to Elizabeth ' s successor ? Proud , pharisaical , „ insolent , intolerant , a solemn , self-complacent fool , without true dignity or generous virtue . High hopes were , indeed , excited when he came to the throne , but the
day had not yet arrived which Hooper had so fondly and so vainly welcomed half a century before , " when persecution in matters of religion should cease , and the first and chief right of human nature , that of following the dictates of conscience in the service of
God be secured to all men > our country freed ( and for ever ) from that worst part of popery , the spirit of persecu * tion . " ** . * Jus Populi . C . i . ii . J Liehfield , B . iv . C . 19 . Field , B . v , G . 30 An
^ interesting * debate igious toleration may be found in Strype ' s Annals , pp . 259— -275 . I ) Fox's Acts and Mon . Old edition , p . 1338 . *[[ Answer to Dolman , C . 9 . ** Exhortation to Peace and Union , 1 > . 27 .
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A general conviction pervaded the nation of the necessity of going on with the work of Reformation $ and I have no doubt that the enthusiasm and rejoicings which welcomed James to his kingly inheritance , * were excited by the expectation that he would
listen favourably to the prayers of the Puritans . He had applied to Elizabeth for the release of Cartwright and other Puritan ministers , and had often railed most intempeiately against English Episcopacy 3 J but things were altered now . He had discovered that
church authority is the best . and safest ally of civil despotism . The Puritans were not disposed to feed his vanity by the sacrifice of their principles , and he even took a decided part against them . " No bishop , no king ; " became his favourite state maxim .
The Stuarts have been singularly unfortunate in all their systems of church government . The attempt of James to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland , caused his influence thereto totter ; and his intolerance to the Puritans served only to increase the tide
of Nonconformity , which ere long overwhelmed his family . He might , no doubt , have easily conciliated the majority of the Puritans , who , in the millenary petition , declare they '' Neither as factious men affect a popular party in the church , nor as schismatics aim at the dissolution of the state
ecclesiastical : " § but he chose to pursue and to recommend a different system , and the consequence was , ( to use Dr . Fuller ' s words , ) that " Nonconformity , which was born at Frankfort , in the reign of Queen Mary , under Queen Elizabeth was in its
childhood , grew in King James ' s time to be a good tail stripling , and under Charles the First , it became so strong a man as to unhorse its opposite , prelacy , and to get into the saddle . " * Speed , p . 1221 . Hume , C . xlv .
J Neal , Vol . II . C . i . pp . 2 , 3 , CalderwoocTs History , p . 257 j where he gives a long- speech of James ' s to the Scotch Presbytery , in which our royal polemic thanks heaven that he was u King of the
sincerest church in the world ; " and his hearers were so delighted , that nothing " was heard for half an hour , but praising God and praying for the king . " § See also , What th ^ Independents would have . * ' P . 2 .
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116 On the Opinions of the Puritans respecting Civil and Religious Liberty .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1818, page 116, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2473/page/36/
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