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be well if he would remember Lord Chatham ' s memorable words , " There was ambition , there was sedition , there was violence ; but no man shall per-, suade me that it was not the cause of liberty on one side , and of tyranny on the other *" It might be expected that Mr . Lawson would make much of the imaginary triumph of refuting the charge brought against Laud by his Puritan
adversaries , that he was the advocate , open or concealed , of Popery . After all , the controversy on this head is a war of words , those who had so lately seen the battle of the Reformation fought , were not likely to be satisfied with a mere renunciation of Papal supremacy , coupled with a revival , under another name , of many of the same abuses for which they had thrown off the yoke . It was the thing and the principle with which they were likely to war , and ( to use Warburton ' s authority once more against Mr . Lawson ) if thoroughly
convinced that " Laud was an enemy to a pope at Rome , " they knew that he was not so " to a pope at Lambeth . ' * Was it no ground for suspicion of even a closer adherence to the principles and interests of Popery , that the reformers of England saw the monarch devoted to the caprices of a woman openly professing and supporting , with the aid of a Nuncio , the religion which they dreaded ; that woman ' s character being one which her subsequent infamy shewed to have been properly estimated;—that an open enmity
to the doctrine and discipline of all the other reformed churches was avowed and acted upon to the extent of denying community of religion , as in the case of the reformers of the Palatinate ;—that observances inseparably associated in the minds of the people with the Catholic religion , and even the profanation of the sabbath , were rigorously insisted upon at the risk of total ruin ;—and that the Catholics , as persons most likely , from their position , to favour arbitrary power , were conciliated and protected , while a shade of difference in Protestant doctrine or discipline was an unpardonable crime ?
But our observations have already run to an extent disproportionate to the subject , and we hasten to a conclusion , not omitting , however , two quotations from our author ' s summary of his hero's character . The first describes him in a few words somewhat as he in fact was—a good hater , a furious partizan , who met with his match and had the worst of thd battle . ( t The distinguishing feature of his public character was his opposition to
the Puritans . * He hated them heartily , and he was no less heartily hated by them . His great business was to check their extravagant , absurd , and dangerous notions , which in that age could not be accomplished without some acts of severity . If , however , he carried himself too far against them , they ampl y retaliated by bringing him to the block . His grand object was uniformity—a measure unquestionably impracticable " This is a curious confession as to the objects of the policy of a man who is eulogized as a Christian statesman , at the same time that it is admitted
* One of the distinguishing marks of the folly of Laud and his associates , both hi spiritual and temporal affairs , consisted in the pains which were always taken to class all shades of disaffection together , and to give strength to the extreme of faction or discontent by driving every one to desperation who had any conscience at all , or in the slightest degree resisted the pleasure of Government . Sir Benjamiu Rudyard ' s speech in the House illustrates thia policy strongly .
" They have so brought it to pass that , under the name of Puritans , all our religion is branded i and , under a few hard words against Jesuits , all Popery is countenanced . Whosoever squares his actions by any rule , either divine or human , he is a Puritan ; whosoever would be governed by the King ' s laws , he is a Puritan ; he that will not do whatsoever other men would have him do , he is a Puritan . "
Untitled Article
490 Life and Times of Archbishop Laud *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 490, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/42/
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