In the year 1666, happened the memor able fire of London, a calamity so great and humiliating, that the rancour of bi gotry and persecution was somewhat abated by it. This heavy judgment taught the persecutors some useful lessons of righteousness, and the despised Presby terians were for a time connived at. They built wooden tabernacles to preach in, and their places of worship were crowded with penitent and devout auditors. In two years, however, after the fire of Lon don, their persecutions were revived, and their private assemblies were dissolved. Drs. Patrick and Parker, afterwards bi shops, wrote bitterly against them ; but Parker met with a formidable, though a sarcastic, antagonist in the famous An drew Marvel. In 1670, the conventicle act was revived, by which the Presbyte rians again suffered the most cruel and vexatious persecutions.
The last penal statute against the Pres byterians, was the Test Act, for the repeal of which there was, a few years ago, a very warm but unsuccessful petition from the united body of Protestant Dissenters in England. This offensive act, which was passed in the year 1673, imports, that every person, in office or employment, shall take the oaths of allegiance and su premacy ; " receive the sacrament in some parish-church befiRe competent wit nesses," and subscribe a declaration, re ' nouncing all belief of the real presence in the eucharist. From this period to the year 1681, various attempts were made, by the successive parliaments, for the to leration of Dissenters, and for putting in force the laws against Popish Recusants ; and many books and pamphlets were pub fished in their defence : but all in vain ; . the court and the papists contrived, to the 0 end of the reign, to oppress the Presbyte. rians in every possible way. In February 1685, died the thoughtless, the merry, the dissolute Charles II. and with him all ' hopes of redress or justice on the part of the Dissenters : for whatever were the er rors in this prince's conduct, and the ble mishes in his character, he was personally beloved by his people, who were over whelmed with grief and astonishment at his death. Ile died in the communion of the church of Rome, having received, just before his death, the sacrament at the hands of a Roman Catholic priest.
James, Duke of York, brother to the late King, was crowned, with his Queen, on the 23d of April, 1685. He commenced his reign by disclaiming arbitrary princi ples, and, at the same time, declaring he would abide by and maintain the religion established by law. James soon gave the
nation to understand what he meant by toleration on the one hand, and an adhe rence to established usages on the other. By toleration, he meant to encourage the principles and the practices of Popery, and by his support of the established reli gion, he meant the support of the doctrines of passive obedience, and non-resistance. In these principles and determinations he found himself supported by the articles of the English creed, and the importunities of numerous hot-headed Jesuits, by whose influence he suffered himself to be almost invariably guided.
Notwithstanding the plausible preten ces of James II. of granting a free tolera tion to the Dissenters, his drift was easily seen through ; and the Dissenters, much to their credit, as we have already re marked, joined with their persecutors of the established church, generously giving up their private resentments,however just, to their fears of Popery and slavery, which were making large strides towards the destruction of civil and religious liberty, of which the dispensing power, and the declaration for liberty of conscience, were to be the principal engines. This wise conduct of the Dissenters certainly saved the church and state. Thus an end was put to the prosecution of the Protestant Dissenters by the penal laws ; though the laws themselves were not legally re pealed, or suspended, till after the Revo lution, m 1688. From this happy period of English history, the condition of the Presbyterians, and other Dissenters, gan gradually to improve. William and Mary, who succeeded to the throne of England, after the abdication of it by James II. were favourable to the Protes tant religion, and the rights of conscience. Notwithstanding the violent opposition which William met with from the high church party, who were a numerous and powerful body, he succeeded, in many points, to soften the rigours, and abate the national prejudice against the Dissen ters. Little else has occurred, since the happy era of the Revolution, but fruitless attempts for a repeal of the corporation and test acts. It is to be hoped, that the time is not far distant, when these, and some other statutes of an oppressive na ture, will be repealed, and Englishmen, of whatever religious persuasion, shall feel and acknowledge, that no difference of opinion can divide their interests as Britons, nor disunite their affections as Christians.