The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His TimeMasson, David
Religion
The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time
Masson, David
Milton, John, 1608-1674; Poets, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography
Baillie, II 226, 229, 231, and 236, 237, and Commons Journal, Sept 13,
1644.]
After the check of this Accommodation Order of Sept. 13, 1644, the
Presbyterians of the Assembly seem to have proceeded somewhat more
temperately. Not that they gave up the fight. Their preachers before
Parliament still followed in the strain of Hill and Palmer. In a Fast-day
Sermon before the two Houses on Sept. 12, the day before the Order, the
Smectymnuan, Matthew Newcomen, had again had a slap at Toleration; on
Sept. 25 Lazarus Seaman was again at it, and actually named in his sermon
four dangerous books for Liberty of Conscience, including Goodwin's and
Williams's--the burning of which lest did not seem enough to the Rabbi,
for "the shell is sometimes thrown into the fire when the kernel is
eaten;" the respected Calamy, also a Smectymnuan, is at it again, Oct.
22, telling the Parliament that, if they do not put down Anabaptism,
Antinomianism, and Tolerationism of all religions, then _they_ are
the Anabaptists, the Antinomians, the Tolerationists; Spurstow, a third
of the Smectymnuans, is not done with it on Nov. 5. [Footnote: My notes
from a volume of the Parliamentary Sermons of 1644, kindly lent me by Mr.
David Laing] In the Assembly itself also the question of heresy,
blasphemy, and their suppression, occasionally turned up. Oct. 17, for
example, there was officially before the Assembly the case of a John
Hart, who had been making a reputation for himself in Surrey by this
hideous joke:--"Who made you? My Lord of Essex.--Who redeemed you? Sir W.
Waller.--Who sanctified and preserved you? My Lord of Warwick." This led
to a conversation in the Assembly on the increase of blasphemy, and to a
new remonstrance to Parliament on the subject.[Footnote: Lightfoot's
Notes at date named] Again, on the 22nd of November, there was a report
to the Assembly of some fresh "damnable blasphemies," more of the
doctrinal kind, and savouring of Mortalism and Clement Wrighter.
[Footnote: Lightfoot's Notes at date named.] Nor had the Assembly agreed
to let even ordinary Anabaptism and Antinomianism alone; for they had
again memorialized Parliament on the subject, and had had a rather
satisfactory response from the Commons, Nov. 15, in the form of a promise
to consider the whole matter, and an order meanwhile that no person
should be permitted to preach unless he were an ordained minister in the
English or some other Reformed Church, or a probationer intending the
ministry and duly licensed by those authorized by Parliament to give such
licence. [Footnote: Commons Journals, Nov. 15, 1644.] On the whole,
however, from September 1644 onwards through October and November, to the
end of the year, there was rather an abatement of the inquisitorial zeal
of the Assembly.
PROGRESS OF THE ASSEMBLY'S MAIN WORK: PRESBYTERIAN SETTLEMENT VOTED BY
PARLIAMENT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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