y resisted. It could
scarcely be hoped that the Protestant Nonconformist, separated from
his countrymen by a harsh code harshly enforced, would be inclined to
dispute the validity of a decree which relieved him from intolerable
grievances. A cool and philosophical observer would undoubtedly have
pronounced that all the evil arising from all the intolerant laws which
Parliaments had framed was not to be compared to the evil which would be
produced by a transfer of the legislative power from the Parliament to
the Sovereign. But such coolness and philosophy are not to be expected
from men who are smarting under present pain, and who are tempted by the
offer of immediate ease. A Puritan divine, could not indeed deny that
the dispensing power now claimed by the crown was inconsistent with
the fundamental principles of the constitution. But he might perhaps
be excused if he asked, What was the constitution to him? The Act of
Uniformity had ejected him, in spite of royal promises, from a benefice
which was his freehold, and had reduced him to beggary and dependence.
The Five Mile Act had banished him from his dwelling, from his
relations, from his friends, from almost all places of public resort.
Under the Conventicle Act his goods had been distrained; and he had
been flung into one noisome gaol after another among highwaymen and
housebreakers. Out of prison he had constantly had the officers of
justice on his track; he had been forced to pay hushmoney to informers;
he had stolen, in ignominious disguises, through windows and trapdoors,
to meet his flock, and had, while pouring the baptismal water, or
distributing the eucharistic bread, been anxiously listening for the
signal that the tipstaves were approaching. Was it not mockery to
call on a man thus plundered and oppressed to suffer martyrdom for the
property and liberty of his plunderers and oppressors? The Declaration,
despotic as it might seem to his prosperous neighbours, brought
deliverance to him. He was called upon to make his choice, not between
freedom and slavery, but between two yokes; and he might not unnaturally
think the yoke of the King lighter than that of the Church.

While thoughts like these were working in the minds of many Dissenters,
the Anglican party was in amazement and terror. This new turn in affairs
was indeed alarming. The House of Stuart leagued with republican and
regicide sects against the old Cavaliers of England; Popery leagued with
Puritan