LAMBETH PALACE AT THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION IN 1688. Duint in Tamhath Palace Library)

Long Parliament, and had recently followed Shaftesbury, Russell, and Algernon Sidney.

Was it strange that its exiled members should think it their duty to make an effort to rescue the lands of Wiclif and of Knox from the fate that had befallen those of Huss and Calvin? The Earl of Argyle undertook to lead the attempt in Scotland, the Duke of Monmouth the greater effort in England.

The story of both these enterprises is a melancholy one. With the exception of the rebellion in Kent and Essex in the days of Richard II., and that in Norfolk in the days of Edward VI., there has never been an insurrection which so took hold of the heart of the people as that in the Western counties in 1685. The vast bulk of the population threw themselves into the rising, or gave it aid and sympathy, its soul and mainstay being the godly people of every denomination: Church of England, Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist. In the contemporary minute-books of the Independent Church at Axminster it is recorded: "A great number of sober and pious men marched forth with the army." "Divers of the brethren belonging to the church marched with them." And special reference is made to the deaths of two members of the Axminster church who fell in battle. Macaulay speaks of the numerous puritan ministers in arms against the Government, and describes them as praying and preaching in red coats and huge jack-boots, with swords at their sides. The joy with which Monmouth was received in Taunton reads like a page from Bunyan's description of the entry of Emmanuel into Mansoul. Every door and window was wreathed with flowers, and every man in the street wore a green sprig in his hat. A train of young girls presented him with a royal standard that female hands had embroidered. And the lady who headed the procession offered "England's Darling" a Bible of great price, which he reverently accepted, saying, "I come to defend the truths contained in this book and to seal them, it may be so, with my blood." Now Taunton was the very town where Joseph Alleine had lived, laboured and suffered.

But if we would form a true idea of the spirit of the men who were willing to give their lives rather than England should fall into the condition of the Jesuitised countries of the continent, we ought not to forget the histories which have been preserved of the last hours of the Hewlings. These two young men were the sons of a Turkey merchant in the city of London, and grandsons of William Kiffen, the pastor of the Baptist church in Devonshire square. The younger, not twenty years of age, who was pursuing his studies in Holland, came over with Monmouth; his elder brother Benjamin, aged twenty-two, joining the duke's army subsequently in England. After the great disaster at Sedgemoor, they sought to escape in a boat, but being driven back to land, were obliged to surrender. Taken to Exeter, they were conveyed in a frigate to London and thrown into Newgate, and after being in that prison three weeks, they were led, loaded with heavy chains, to Dorchester; the keepers who went with them being filled with admiration at

the grave, serious, and Christian carriage of such young men.

At Salisbury a friend found them very cheerful and resigned, stating that they were in a more happy condition than ever in their lives, from the sense they had of the pardoning love of God in Jesus Christ to their souls, expressing themselves thus: "Anything what pleaseth God, what He sees best, so be it;' "We know He is able to deliver, but if not, blessed be His name, death is not terrible now, but desirable." And Benjamin Hewling added: "O, God is a strong refuge, I have found him so, indeed."

While the friend who narrates their last hours was waiting with William Hewling the issue of his trial, the young prisoner told him "how God by His Holy Spirit did suddenly seize upon his heart when he thought not of it, in his retired abode in Holland, as it were secretly whispering in his heart, Seek ye My face,' enabling him to answer His gracious call, and to reflect upon his own soul, showing him the evil of sin and the necessity of Christ, from that time carrying him on to a sensible adherence to Christ for justification and eternal life. Hence he found a spring of joy and sweetness beyond the comforts of the whole earth. He also said that he could not but admire the wonderful goodness of God in so preparing him for what He was bringing him to, which then he thought not of; giving him hope of eternal life before He called him to look death in the face, so that he did cheerfully resign his life to God before he came, having sought His guidance; and that both then and now, the cause did appear to him very glorious, notwithstanding all he had suffered in it, or what he farther might suffer, although for our sins God hath withheld these good things from us."

Sentence being passed, he was only allowed one day before his execution; nevertheless, his friend found him in a most joyful state of mind. At dinner, just before going to Lyme, where he was to die, he dropped many expressions of inward joy, and sent his particular recommendations to all his friends, saying that he advised all to make sure of an interest in Christ, for He is our only comfort when we come to die.

As he passed through the sympathetic crowds who followed him and his fellow sufferers with great lamentations, his discourse was exceedingly spiritual, and when he got into the country he said: “This is a glorious creation, but what then is the Paradise of God to which we are going!"

At Lyme, just before they went to die, he consoled one of his companions thus: "Here is a sweet promise for us-'I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you'-Christ will be with us to the last." To each friend who bade him farewell he gave some encouraging word. Then he prayed with the greatest fervency for three-quarters of an hour, offering earnest petitions for the peace of the church and of these nations in particular, so that many persons were melted into pity and wept.

Just as he was departing out of the world, he said with a joyful countenance: "Oh, now my joy and comfort is that I have a Christ to go to," and so resigned his spirit to Christ on

2th September, 1685. No notice was given of is burial, yet when the body was brought into yme two hundred came to accompany it, several young women of the best families in the town aying him in his grave in Lyme churchyard.

Great exertions were made to save his brother; trong interest being brought to bear on Judge Jeffreys, who was believed to have the power in is hands. But in this case it was the king who was responsible for the carrying out the sentence. Hannah Hewling went to James personally, and besought him to pardon her brother, but found him, as Lord Churchill had warned her, as hard as marble. Benjamin suffered on the 30th of September with such courage that the very soldiers around the gallows joined in the lamentations. Asked if he would pray for the king, he replied, "I pray for all men.' Then he requested that they might sing a hymn. The sheriff told him that it must be with the ropes round their necks, which they cheerfully accepted, and sung with such heavenly joy and sweetness that many who were present said it both broke and rejoiced their hearts.

Macaulay's chapter, descriptive of the Western Insurrection, gives a faint idea of the horror of which the doings of the king's judges at the Bloody Assize that followed must have caused throughout the western counties. Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys hanged three hundred and twenty persons on this circuit alone. In every spot where two roads met, in every market place, on the green of every large village where Monmouth's followers had been provided with food, there ironed corpses, clattered in the wind, or human heads and quarters stuck on poles, terrified the miserable people; hideous reminders of the ruin of the cause they loved. "Very few of the convicts," says Macaulay "professed any repentance for what they had done." Their dying words were carefully remembered, and their farewell letters preserved as sacred treasures.

The authorities feared the widespread sympathy with the rising more than they did the efforts of the insurrectionists themselves. Two women were actually condemned to be burnt to death for no greater offence than sheltering fugitives. Lady Alice Lisle's sentence was finally commuted into decapitation, but Mrs. Elizabeth Gaunt was left to suffer her fate. Bishop Burnet says, "She rejoiced that God had honoured her to be the first that suffered by fire in this reign, and that her suffering was a martyrdom for that religion which was all love. Penn, the quaker, told me that he saw her die. She laid the straw about her speedily, and behaved herself in such a manner that all the spectators were melted in tears. She was executed at Tyburn, October 23, 1685; within a few days of the signing of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In a paper she wrote and delivered to the keeper of Newgate, she said that she heartily and freely forgave the cruelty as against herself, whether committed by the furious judge,' the unrighteous jury,' the pitiless jailer, or the

779

great one of all (James II.), by whose power all these and multitudes more of cruelties are done,' but as it was done in an implacable mind against the Lord Jesus Christ, and His righteous. cause and followers, she left it to Him who is the avenger of all such wrong, and who will tread upon princes as upon mortar, and be terrible to the kings of the earth."

It was a dark time for all who sympathised with people like the Hewlings and Elizabeth Gaunt. Never were their persecutors more on the alert. Such people had to perform their worship in the night or at break of day. Yet their spirit was not broken. A justice of the peace coming with a strong force on one of the nocturnal prayer-meetings held in a gravel pit about two miles from London, seized the preacher and broke up the meeting; but the congregation, numbering about two hundred, turned on their assailants, rescued their pastor, and put the constables to flight.

Many nonconformists gave up England in despair and left the country, among others the greatest of their divines, John Howe.

To

In the autumn of 1685 the power of James II. reached its zenith. The Parliament was devoted to him, the corporations were filled with his creatures, the judges were his tools, the established Church professed unlimited obedience to his authority. He accordingly set about carrying out the dream of his life-to become an autocrat like Louis XIV. and to make the Roman Catholic religion the dominant power in the land. accomplish these things he relied on the "loving Commons" to abolish the Habeas Corpus Act, to give him means to keep up a standing army, and to repeal the Test Act. But at this moment Providence opened the eyes of all Protestants not wilfully blinded. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes gave Englishmen a startling lesson on the nature of the despotism into which they were drifting, a lesson they could not avoid applying, when they learnt that the Bishop of Valence as the representative of the Gallican clergy had told Louis XIV. that "the pious sovereign of England looked to him for support against an heretical nation." The bishop's harangue was much talked of in London, and members of the House of Commons were especially eager to see a copy. To counteract the effect, James opened a subscription for the Huguenot refugees, subscribing towards their relief from his privy purse.

Though alarmed for a moment, he was soon again at his favourite work. He published the fact that the late king had lived and died a Roman Catholic, and producing two papers Charles II. had written in defence of that religion, he challenged Archbishop Sancroft to reply to them. The archbishop discreetly declined, but the revelation must have produced an effect upon him analogous to that which Shaftesbury experienced when he was made privy to the shameful designs of Charles II. to force Catholicism on England by aid of a French army.

James, seeing that he had awakened suspicion and opposition, determined to give up all thought of becoming powerful in Europe, and to concentrate

his energies on the work of forcing Catholicism on England. "It is my resolution," he said to the Spanish Ambassador, "to establish my authority at home, and do something for my religion." And instead of attempting to rival Louis XIV., he determined to work with him and under his protection. Accordingly when Jeffreys tried to deter him from ordering a book on the sufferings of the Huguenots written by the pastor, Jean Claude, to be burnt at the Royal Exchange, he said, "One king should always take another's part, and I have particular reasons for showing this respect to the King of France." And for this end he, who wished the repeal of the Test Act, ordered that no Huguenot should receive any aid from the vast offerings the English people had made on their behalf, unless he first of all took the sacraments according to the rites of the Church of England.

Two prerogatives inhered in the royal authority, both undefined; the dispensing power and supreme authority in the church. By the use of the first, James hoped to remove all obstacles to appointing Catholics to places of trust, military, civil, and ecclesiastical; and by means of the second to compel the Protestant Church of England to become the accomplice in its own destruction. To obviate a doubt raised by the distinct surrender of the dispensing power by Charles II., it was determined to obtain a decision from the judges in the king's favour, and this was done by the dismission of four judges not to be relied on.

By virtue of this reclaimed prerogative of dispensing with the laws, Roman Catholics were now introduced into the Privy Council, and clergymen permitted to retain ecclesiastical benefices after having become Roman Catholics. One such pervert was the master of University College, Oxford, who was not only allowed to retain his position, but to introduce a Jesuit as chaplain into the college. The next step was to prefer Roman Catholics to high ecclesiastical office, and the deanery of Christ Church becoming vacant, it was bestowed on a papist. James did not dare yet to appoint Roman Catholics as bishops, but he appointed men whom he could rely on to support his designs. Meanwhile he kept the sce of York vacant, evidently intending it for a papist when the favourable moment arrived. James II. meant to play the part of Henry VIII. only to reverse the performance. The Act of Supremacy, by which that redoubtable monarch had separated the Church of England from the Holy See, was now to be used to reunite her to Rome.

But the power of the crown over the church had been greatly lessened by the abolition of the Court of High Commission by the Long Parliament. James now determined to revive this formidable tribunal. In July, 1686, the country was startled by the news that James had placed the Government of the Church of England in the hands of seven commissioners; they were to be fettered by no rules, and were to be both prosecutors and judges. The accused were to be allowed no copy of the charge for which they were indicted; they might be subjected to any amount of examination; they could be suspended, ejected,

and rendered incapable of holding any office wha:ever; they could be excommunicated, deprived of all civil rights and imprisoned for life, and, b the weight of the costs thrown upon them, reduce! to poverty. The chief commissioner was the furious and brutal Lord Chancellor Jeffreys; and with him were appointed the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Keeper, the Chief Justice, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishops of Durham a Rochester: Sancroft refused to sit, pleading L health. The court at once proceeded to busines by citing before its bar the Bishop of Londo... for neglecting the royal order to suspend th rector of St. Giles for preaching a discourse against the pretensions of the See of Rome. The Lord Treasurer, the Chief Justice and the Bishoy of Rochester were for his acquittal: but the firs named-Lord Rochester-being offered his choice, a verdict of guilty, or dismissal, chose the former alternative, and thus Dr. Compton was found guilty, and suspended from his office as Bishop of London.

James was anxious to renew diplomatic rela tions with the Roman See, but Innocent XI. was not at all disposed to look with favour on his proceedings in England. This pope was a Jansenist, and he doubtless knew that James was under the influence of the Jesuits. At the instigation of the Jesuit Petre, whom he had made clerk of the closet, James dismissed his Franciscan confessor, and took a Jesuit in his place. Towards the end of 1687, the King advanced Petre to a place in the Council, and he, Jeffreys, and Sunderland, became the King's chief advisers. James sent Lord Castlemaine as ambassador to the pope, but Innocent would hardly see him, always pretending to be ill. However, his master was determined not to be offended. James caused the papal Nuncio in England to be conveyed in state to Windsor Castle, and on one occasion he fell down on his knees before him in the presence of the whole court and implored his blessing.

That a Catholic king should wish to annul the cruel and terrible laws against his coreligionists was natural, and James could not have been blamed had he used all his influence to bring about their abolition legally, or even had he freely used his prerogative of mercy to prevent cruel sentences from being carried out. But it suited his temper better to suspend the whole mass of legislation on the subject by the simple exercise of his royal will. Accordingly, Londoners soon began to stare with wonder at the unwonted sight of Franciscans, Carmelites, and Benedictines in their respective garbs moving about the streets, and were not a little discontented to find them founding houses in various parts of the town. In the Savoy, for example, the Jesuits opened a school where they soon had four hundred boys, half of whom were of Protestant parentage. Riots broke out, and the train-bands sent for in order to suppress them, cried out, “We cannot in conscience fight for popery." Upon which the king, determined to have his way, formed a camp at Hounslow. However, the crowds who came to look at the soldiers, corrupted their loyalty, and the army was soon as little to be depended upon as the train-bands.

So far from these things moving James, he penly expressed his joy to the French Ambasador at finding himself in a situation to strike bold strokes, declaring that he would not flinch. And the 4th of April, 1687, saw one of these bold strokes, when he published a Declaration of Indulgence, in which, by his sole authority, he anaulled a long series of statutes, and suspended the penal laws against all classes of nonconformists. Henceforth they were to be permitted to worship publicly, and no religious test was to be imposed as a qualification for any civil or military office. What did this indulgence mean Simply this:

781

Indulgence to fill the Army and Navy with believers in the idea of absolute authority, indisputable and indefeasible. Indulgence to fill the judicial bench with men imbued with such a belief of divine right inherent in supreme authority, that their very idea of law was the will of the king. Indulgence to rule England by the aid of the wild Irishry and French dragoons. Indulgence to fill the Royal Council with Jesuits, and the country with monks and friars. In fine, Indulgence for a hundredth part of the nation to suppress the rest.

R. HEATH.

EA-SNIPE.-We have on our coral reefs a

Species of sea-snipe, called from its cry

"Kuri." When not on the wing, it is always dodging about in shallow water pecking at molluscs and small crustaceans. In allusion to the habit of this bird, Tuārae said, “Let the professors of the Gospel cultivate a calm, trustful spirit, content to feed on the promises. Do not be like the ever-restless wandering Kuri, ever on the move in quest of some new thing."

SANCTIFICATION.-The same preacher went on to say: "We have not seen the process of silverrefining referred to in the Scriptures, but we all understand about the cooking of kape (a species of Caladium, so acrid that the mouth of wild hogs biting the raw stem drips with blood), upon which in winter we mainly subsist. One, two, three, or even four cookings are needful, according to the sort of kape, to render it fit for eating."

"God's children may be compared to this acrid but valuable plant. We all need to be placed in the oven of affliction to purify our natures. With some the process is speedy; with others it must be repeated. Some again have such perverse dispositions that it would seem as if the needful purification would never be accomplished. It will eventually; for we are in the hands of One who is infinitely wise and patient."

"THE BRANCH" (Zech. iii. 8.)-Angene lived on the western side of Rarotonga, under the ridge of hills (of slate) known as Tuoro, believed to be the track of ghosts on their route to spiritworld. It behoved him to be very careful not to offend the eyes, nostrils, or ears of the numerous gods ever hovering about that fatal district. But the impious fellow defiantly threw the refuse of his food before and behind his dwelling. On one occasion, when asked by Great Tangaroa, the tutelar god of Rarotonga, what he was eating, he insultingly replied, "The legs of little (i.e. insignificant) land and sea gods

(=crabs). Tangaroa resolved to make an example of this impious man. At his bidding a stage was quickly extemporised, and Angene placed upon it, the major gods carrying him off with a mighty shout of triumph to a neighbouring marae (at Nikao), to be cooked and eaten. Ä troop of minor gods followed exultingly.

On the road to death, Angene passed under a tall hibiscus tree, to a stout branch of which he clung whilst the empty stage was borne to the marae. For in their joy the major divinities did not hear the voice of the minor gods as they chanted these words:

Angene is safe in a tree;

Angene clings to the branch.
"Tis but a bundle of sticks,

An empty stage, that you bear on!

On depositing their burden within the sacred precincts, great was the chagrin of the major gods at discovering how they had been outwitted by a mortal and deprived of a feast.

But what about Angene meanwhile? As soon as the gods were out of sight, he dropped to the ground and ran as fast as his legs could carry him to Avarua, where he lived in peace, and where his descendants still dwell.

Thus runs the ancient myth, so well known at Rarotonga. Native preachers descanting on Zechariah iii. 8, never fail in a few well-chosen words to allude to it. Of course Angene represents the impenitent sinner hurried away at last to unquenchable fire. Jesus is the strong Branch, clinging to which he may escape the malice of his spiritual foes. An impassioned native orator will break out thus: "Oh, Angene, you are on your way to destruction. Do you not see the yon Branch,' strong enough to bear the weight of you and your many sins. Cling to it -your only chance-and live!'

The family of Angene believe this myth of their ancestor to be true. Like the early Christians in Europe, our Polynesian converts regard the divinities anciently worshipped to be veritable evil spirits under the control of Satan. Hence the horror with which they regard the idols worshipped by their ancestors.

W. WYATT GILL.