The History of the Puritans, Vol. 3 of 5: Or, Protestant Nonconformists; From the Reformation in 1517, to the Revolution in 1688: Comprising an ... in the Church; Their Sufferings; And the - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from The History of the Puritans, Vol. 3 of 5: Or, Protestant Nonconformists; From the Reformation in 1517, to the Revolution in 1688: Comprising an Account of Their Principles; Their Attempts for a Farther Reformation in the Church; Their Sufferings; And the Lives and Characters of Their Most Conside

The Westminster assembly was the parliament's grand council in matters of religion, and made a very considerable figure both at home and abroad through the course ofthe civil war, till they dis, pated the power of the keys with their superiors, and split upon the rocks of divine right and covenant-uniformity. The records of this venerable assembly were lost in the fire of London; but I have given a large and just account of their proceedings, from a manu script of one of their members, and some other papers that have fallen into my hands, and have entered as far into their debates with the Erastians, Independents, and others, as was consistent with the life and spirit of the history.

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Excerpt from The History of the Puritans, Vol. 3 of 5: Or, Protestant Nonconformists; From the Reformation in 1517, to the Revolution in 1688: Comprising an Account of Their Principles; Their Attempts for a Farther Reformation in the Church; Their Sufferings; And the Lives and Characters of Their Most Conside

No period of civil history has undergone a more critical examination than the last seven years of king Charles I. which was a scene of such confusion and inconsistent management between the king and parliament, that it is very difficult to discover the motives of action on either side: the king seems to have been directed by secret springs from the queen and her council of Papists, who were for advancing the prerogative above the laws, and vesting his majesty with such an absolute sovereignty as might rival his brother of France, and enable him to establish the Roman-Catholic religion in England, or some how or other blend it with the Protestant. This gave rise to the unparalleled severities of the star-chamber and high-commission, which, after twelve years triumph over the laws and liberties of the subject, brought on a fierce and bloody war, and after the loss of above a hundred thousand lives, ended in the sacrifice of the king himself, and the subversion of the whole constitution.

Though all men had a veneration for the person of the king, his ministers had rendered themselves justly obnoxious, not only by Setting up a new form of government at home, but by extending their jurisdiction to a neighbouring kingdom, under the government of distinct laws, and inclined to a form of church-discipline very different from the English: this raised such a storm in the north, as distressed his majesty's administration; exhausted his treasure; drained all his arbitrary springs of supply; and (after an intermission of twelve years) reduced him to the necessity of returning to the constitution, and calling a parliament; but when the public grievances came to be opened, there appeared such a collection of ill-humours, and so general a distrust between the king and his two houses, as threatened all the mischief and desolation that followed. Each party laid the blame on the other, and agreed in nothing but in throwing off the odium of the civil war from themselves.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.