An ordinance of parliament was also made; by which every minister that should use the common prayer, in church or family, was to forfeit five pounds for the first time, ten pounds for the second, and to suffer a year’s imprisonment for the third. Also every minister, for every neglect of the directory, was to pay forty shillings; and for every contempt of it, by writing or preaching, to forfeit, at the discretion of those before whom he was convicted, any sum not under five pounds, nor above fifty pounds. The parliament also appointed elderships to suspend, at their discretion, such whom they should judge to be scandalous, from the sacrament, with a liberty of appeal to the classical eldership, &c. They set up, also, arbitrary rules about the examination and ordination of ministers by Triers, who were to be sound in faith, and such as usually received the sacrament. And in these things they were quickened by the Scots, who complained that reformation moved so slowly, and that sects and errors encreased, and endeavours were used for their toleration. Great restraints also were put upon the liberty of the press, by several ordinances made for that purpose. And, to say the truth, when they once got presbytery established, they used the same methods of suspensions, sequestrations and fines, that the prelatical party had done before, though not with equal severity; and were as zealous for uniformity in their own covenant and discipline, as the bishops were for hierarchy, liturgy, and ceremonies. [356]But the triumphs of the presbytery and covenant were but short. Upon the restoration of the “royal wanderer,”Charles II. prelacy immediately revived, and exerted itself in its primitive vigor and severity. In his majesty’s first declaration to his loving subjects, he was pleased to promise “a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion; and that he would consent to an act of parliament for the full granting that indulgence.” But other measures soon prevailed. In the second year after his restoration, the act of uniformity was passed; by which all ministers were to read, and “publicly declare unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in, and prescribed by the book of common prayer,” before the feast of St. Bartholomew then ensuing, under the penalty of immediate and absolute deprivation. The consequence of this act was, that between two and three thousand excellent divines were turned out of their churches; many of them, to say the least, as eminent for learning and piety as the bishops, who were the great promoters of this barbarous act; and themselves and families, many of them, exposed to the greatest distress and poverty. ----- Footnote 356: Charles II. -----