"application is the very life of preaching. The fcenes of dragooning and perfecution, of which he had been a witnefs, made him an enemy to subscriptions to human articles of faith; and gave him a lively conviction of the neceffity of maintaining the great proteftant principle,-the right of private judg Mr. Cotton died in 1730. ment. In the "Memoirs" of his travels, written for his own use, he related many affecting scenes of this kind, of which he was a spectator at Ludun, Poitou, and Saumure. At Poitou, in particular, he was exceedingly moved with the vast numbers at their last public worship, and the great difficulty with which the minifter pronounced the bleffing, when all broke out into a flood of tears. The laft religious affembly on a lecture-day at Saumure, Mr. Cotton could never recollect without lively emotions: the congregation all in tears, the finging of the laft pfalm, the pronouncing of the bleffing, and afterwards all the people paffing before their minifters to receive their benedictions, were circumstances he wanted words to describe. The minifters and profeffors were banished; and he attended them to the veffel in which they failed. The affecting fight of the vaft affemblage which formed the church at Charenton, and of fuch numbers devoted to banishment, flavery, and the most barbarous deaths, was a fpectacle that overpowered the mind. The ftay at Saumure had been very pleafant, and the agreeable acquaintance they had formed in that town invited their continuance in it, till it be tame a scene of great danger and affliction; especially after an order was iffued to require all ftrangers, particularly the English, to accompany and affift the fevere proceedings against the proteftants. When the governor received authoritative directions to fee their church demolished, the tearing down of that temple was extremely diftreffing; the very graves were opened, and the utmost ravages committed. The destruction of it was attended with a remarkable occurrence, which Mr. Cotton recorded as an inftance of the contradictory interpretations which the fame act of Providence may receive, according to the different principles of thofe who pafs their opinion on it. A perfon who was ambitious to have his daughter pull down the first stone of the church, had her taken from him a few days after by death. The parent and others of his These historical gleanings concerning the academical inftitutions of the first Nonconformists, few and imperfect as they may be deemed, are fufficient to expose the iniquity and folly of the times. The neceffity of fuch institutions arose from the spirit of intolerance, which had excluded from the church, and from the univerfities, fo many men of learning and talents. The vexatious and continued profecutions which pursued them into the retirements of science and literature, fhewed a virulence and malignity of temper. It was great injustice to debar men from the honourable and pacific employment of their acquirements, genius, and intellect: an employment highly useful to the community, and in many inftances neceffary to the fupport of themselves and their families, as well as affording a folace, when filenced, as minifters. It] heightened this injustice, done not to them only but to the whole body of diffenters, that the law made the universities the property of one perfuafion; and rendered private perfuafion looked upon her death as a speedy call to heaven, in reward of fo meritorious an act; the perfecuted proteftants regarded it as a juft and very affecting judgment. On his journey from Poitou, Mr. Cotton was deeply impressed by the agitations of mind and the expreffions of an old gentleman who came into an Inn nearly at the fame inftant with him, who stood leaning on his ftaff, and fhaking his head, and weeping, cried out, " Unhappy France! It I "and mine were but now entering into fome country of refuge and "fafety, where we might have liberty to worship God according ❝to our confciences, I should think myself the happiest man in the world, though I had only this ftaff in my hand." This perfon was found to be the eldest son of a very confiderable family, and poffeffed of a large estate.--Dr. Wright's Sermon on the death of the Rev. Thomas Cotton, p. 34-3, noter. academies neceffary for the youth, who were excluded by the Act of Uniformity from being candidates for the degrees and preferments of those feminaries, and from the advantages of being students in them, but on the condition of conformity. This conduct was in reality repugnant to the fpirit and defign of the Act of Toleration. The diffenters were allowed by that act the juft liberty of worshipping GoD according to their own confciences; and in the first inftance the benefit of a miniftry of their own choofing; but these severities, by which the education of their youth was obftructed, if not abfolutely prevented, went to preclude them from the enjoy ment of a fucceffion of minifters of learning and ability. With great inconfiftency the end was granted, but the means of attaining the end were denied to them. As in all cafes, fo in this, the measures dictated by a fpirit of perfecution were not only unjust but im politic. The evil and mischief was not confined to the diffenters; it affected the interefts of the nation, on which it had an unfavourable afpect, by obliging the more opulent, at a great expence, and at the risk of imbibing fentiments not congenial to the English manners and conftitution, to fend their youth abroad for education. It affected the interefts of literature. Where a competition of religious parties exifts, there is a rivalship in the means of giving fupport to and reflecting honour on each. "While the pro"teftant religion was publicly profeffed in France, "learning flourished there. After the revocation "of the edict of Nantz, literature declined. The . priefts having none to expose their ignorance, grew lazy and fenfual. Where a ftrict uniformity has been required, and no diffenters tolerated, "it has been observed, learning is at a low ebb, as "in Italy and Spain."* . SECTION II. The different Sects of Dissenters at the THE name at first given to the diffentients. from the Church of England, after the re-establishment of the Reformation from Popery, in the reign. of Queen Elizabeth, was that of Puritans. It was bestowed by way of reproach; though it arose from a laudable defire in them to advance the Reformation, both as to the forms of worship and the difcipline of the church, to a purer standard than was agreeable to the views of the dominant party of proteftants, and to the taste and principles of the queen. Num, bers of them were refugees, who, to escape the fury of perfecution in the preceding reign, had fled into foreign countries, particularly to Frankfort. There Moderation, a Virtue. By James Owen. ad part, p99. they imbibed fentiments, which they brought into their native land, on their return to it under the aufpices of a proteftant princefs's acceffion to the throne, and which involved them in thofe contests and divifions that gave rife to the name, and eventually terminated in a feceflion from the church. In early periods of the Reformation, feveral questions that were not confiftent with the received principles and practices, had been started. The fcrupulofity of the venerable Dr. Hooper, on being appointed to the fee of Glocefter, brought on the controversy concerning the lawfulness of the facerdotal vestments, which had been in ufe during the popish establishment. Several had avowed antitrinitarian fentiments. Some had adopted and advanced opinions repugnant to the practice of infant baptifm. But the questions concerning vestments and ceremonies, and ecclefiaftical government, conftituted the principal and leading polemics of the age; and for years all other names were loft in that of Puritans. The state of things were changed, when the Prince of Orange came to the throne. He found the diffentients from the establishment divided into feveral bodies, each refpectable for number and influence; and which, during the civil wars and in the reign of Charles II. had rifen to importance, and afferted their diftin&t claims to weight in the ftate, and to the protection of government. These were Prefbyterians, Indepen dents, and Baptifts. To them was added a fect of recent origin, but who have fince commanded peculiar respect, and attracted the regards of the politician |