the best for the interests of civil and religious liberty, and that he thought himself justifiable in using every method to secure its triumph; and even succeeded in persuading himself that those methods were right, although they involved a violation of the Solemn League and Covenant, which he had sworn to maintain. "He was a great politician," says Neal; and there is scarcely anything which a great politician cannot persuade himself to believe,-scarcely any course which he cannot persuade himself to adopt,-if they seem fitted to promote his political designs. But it is not by great politicians that religious liberty has ever been promoted, nor by their deep schemes that its maintenance has been secured. Had Nye been less of a politician, there is reason to believe that neither a revived Laudean Prelacy nor a resuscitated Popery would ever again have endangered the liberties, both civil and religious, of Britain; and it will be well if, in the conflict which must still be waged against both of these hostile powers, the defenders of these priceless blessings avoid all courses that "great politicians" may recommend, and act openly, boldly, and firmly, without intrigue or compromise, in accordance only with the strong principles of the Word of God.

It may be thought by some that we have applied the term Presbyterian in several instances, when the term Independent or Congregational would have been more appropriate. We do not wish to dispute about a mere word; but a brief statement of the reason why the word Presbyterian had been used in relation to events which others ascribe to the Independent party, may here be given. Before the Long Parliament had resolved to abolish Prelacy, and summon an Assembly of Divines to deliberate on the system to be adopted in its stead, the Puritan ministers had begun to form themselves into presbyteries. Numbers more of them looked not to Scotland only, but also very specially to Holland, where the Presbyterian form was in full order, for a model into some conformity with which the English Church might be advantageously moulded. When the Assembly met there were only five of its members avowedly Independents, and they never amounted to more

than ten or eleven. During the deliberations of the Assembly, Nye and Goodwin almost alone maintained the strictly distinctive element of Congregationalism,-in some instances Nye alone. That distinctive and even separatist, or individualising element, while the defending of it kept Nye at the head of all the innumerable forms of Sectarianism in the army and throughout the kingdom, and rendered him so useful to Cromwell, was never adopted and maintained in the same manner by even those men who came to be regarded as the leading Independents. Neither Owen nor Howe were ever Independents according to Nye's system, but approached indefinitely near to the Presbyterian system, as it existed in Scotland and Holland, and could readily have joined with these Churches. We therefore include them, and all such liberal-minded men, in the general designation of Presbyterians. For the same reason we regard the noble band of Nonconformist Puritan divines who were ejected on St Bartholomew's Day as Presbyterian Puritans, or rather as Puritan Presbyterians; that is, we regard them as a noble band of sincere, self-denying Christian ministers, whose scriptural tenets were those which have been designated Puritan, and who were not only prepared to adopt the Presbyterian system of church government, but preferred it, as both founded upon and most agreeable to the Word of God, and as most conducive to a nation's welfare. Ample evidence might easily be procured from the writings of an overwhelming majority of these high-principled men, to prove that we have not mis represented their sentiments, and that we have given them the designation which most correctly describes them, and by which they ought to be known-the Nonconformist Puritan Presbyterians. To them, to the Churches of Scotland and Holland, and, above all, to the sacred truths and principles which they all drew from the Holy Scriptures, we ascribe the glory of the declaration and defence of religious liberty; and neither to the Long Parliament, to the army Sectarians, to Cromwell, to Philip Nye, nor to any or all of those who, in proclaiming a "boundless toleration," did their utmost to break down all distinctions between truth and

error, and thereby to plunge the human mind into the wild whirlpool of mental, moral, and religious anarchy. I have no wish to disparage either the Dissenting Brethren of the Westminster Assembly, or the Independent ministers or systems of any period; but I feel it to be my duty to assert historical truth, and to vindicate the character of the Westminster Assembly, and of the true Presbyterian divines, Church, and system, in doctrine, government, and discipline, as most successfully embodying and defending the principles of Religious Freedom.

NOTES.

A. (See page 110).

The three principal committees of the Assembly, as on the roll, at 12th April 1644.

First Committee-Dr Cornelius Burgis, Chairman.

See Minutes of Westminster Assembly, by Drs Mitchell and Struthers, p. lxxxv.

B.-(See page 284).

R. W.

Committee to prepare a Confession of Faith. Notices relative to said committee from the published minutes of the Westminster Assembly.

Sess. 269.-August 20, 1644-Tuesday morning.-A committee to join with the Commissioners of the Church of Scotland to prepare matter for a joint Confession of Faith. R. affirmat. 9 [to be a Committee].

R. neg. 12.

Dr Gouge.
Mr Gataker.

Mr Arrowsmith.

Dr Temple.

Mr Burroughs.

Mr Burges.

Mr Vines.

Mr Goodwin.

Dr Hoyle.

Sess. 278.-September 4th [1644].- Wednesday morning. Report from the committee for the Confession of Faith. They desire an addition of those persons to the said com

mittee.

Ordered-Mr Palmer, Mr Newcoman, Mr Herle, Mr Reynolds, Mr Wilson, Mr Tuckney, Dr Smith, Mr Young, Mr Ley, Mr Sedgwicke, be added to the committee for the Confession of Faith.

In Sess. 434.-May 12, 1645, we have the following: -Report of the Confession of Faith read and debated.