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of goods, and directed to the constables of the hundred, and the church-wardens and overseers of the parish. In the month of June the distresses were made. From Richard White, fined 31. 15s. they took value 101. 13s. From John Tabret, fined 21. 14s. they took a cow. From Walter Brett, a grocer, fined 67. 5s. they took two casks of sugar which cost him 157. From Thomas and Richard Barnard, fined 117. 10s. they took 6 cows, upon which the dairy-maid told them she believed they would have a store of Syllabubs, having taken so much sugar from Mr. Brett! From Thomas Tourle, fined 5 shillings, they took a horse, and another from Richard Mantle for a like fine. From others for similar fines they took bacon, cheese, kitchen furniture, wearing apparel, and other goods, to about treble the amount of their fines. The cattle and other property taken from the said several sufferers, were publicly sold for about half their value.

On the aforesaid 29th of May, a meeting of baptists was held in Brighthelmstone at the house of Mr. William Beard, who was fined 20. for which fine the constable of the place and two assistants took sixty-five bushels of Malt, and sold it for twelve shillings per quarter!

At Chillington, 3 Miles from Lewes, Mr. Nicholas Martin was convicted of having a meeting at his house, and fined 201. for which fine the officer of injustice took from him 6 cows, 2 young bullocks, and a horse, being all the stock he had, all of which he recovered again, but not till he had taken a great deal of trouble, and been at more than 231. expense.

The magistrates at Doyer began early to shew their unrighteous zeal against the baptists. Many of them were violently taken from their meeting houses, committed to prison, and detained in confinement, to the ruin of their circumstances, and great distress of their families. These hardships urged them to petition the King and Duke of York for redress, but no relief was given them. At Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, the justices endeavoured to revive the old practice of punishing heretics with death. By virtue of a dormant statute made in the reign of queen Elizabeth, Mr. Stephen Dagnal, pastor of a baptist congregation that met at Aylesbury, and eleven of his people, being taken at a meeting, were sentenced to be hanged, and as soon as Sentence was passed against them, officers were sent to their several houses to seize their goods, and whatever effects of theirs .could be found; which order was executed immediately, and great havock was made of what possessions they had; but powerful intercession being made for them at Court, the king

granted them a pardon, and some time afterwards they were all set at liberty again. *

Great were the sufferings of the baptists in Gloucestershire, particularly in the neighbourhood of Fairford, Bourton on the water, Stow, and some other places. The most eminent cavaliers, embittered persécutors, rode about armed with swords and pistols, ransacked their houses and abused their families in a most violent manner."

June 3, 1660, B. Collett and B. Collings, gifted brethren from Bourton on the water, and many other baptists from thence and from Stow and elsewhere, met at Brockington in the said county. The Clerk's daughter whose mother had been a violent persecutor attended the meeting with her mother. When they came, B. Collet was preaching from Jude 14, 15, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, &c. While he was in his sermon, the clerk's daughter gave a sudden shriek, and fell down dead be fore them all. As some were carrying her corpse out, an officer of the country troop, with a party of his men, came in, charged, B. Collet and B. Collings, with the death of the young womans and was about to take them away prisoners, saying, they had killed her. But B. Collings replied, "Nay, we have not killed her, but the Most High hath done it, in whose hand is both your breath and ours." After he had pulled the speakers towards the door, and spoke more to them, he and the soldiers left them. The clerk afterwards spoke well of the baptists, saying, "these are the people of God." +

In the country of Wilts, and Diocese of Salisbury, our bre thren were persecuted with great severity. Bishop Ward often disturbed their meetings in person, and encouraged his clergy to follow his example. Informers were every where at work, and having crept into religious assemblies in disguise, levied great sums of money upon ministers and people. Soldiers, broke into honest farmer's houses, under pretence of searching for conventicles, and where ready money was wanting, plundered their goods, drove away their Cattle, and sold them a great deal under value. Many of these sordid creatures spent their profits in ill houses, upon lewd women, and then went about again to hunt for more prey.

The baptist church at Calne suffered much; having been often disturbed when they assembled in their meeting house, in order to avoid fresh troubles they sometimes met at a Mill called + Ibid, si

* Crosby, Vol. ii, p. 181.

Moss's Mill, a little distance from the Town, and at other times under a large white-thorn bush upon the brow of a hill, in a field called sheepfield, about two miles from the Town. The bush has ever since been called Gospel Bush, but only some very small branches of it remain.

The baptists in Lincolnshire were persecuted with savage rage. Not less than one hundred of them were imprisoned, some for hearing, and others for preaching the word of God. They endured not less than three hundred levies for fines. Some for two-pence a week, others for 10, 20, 40, and 60%. whereby many were reduced to great poverty, and others driven from home. Presentiments and excommunications, they had several hundreds, and indictments at the assizes and sessions upon the statute for two-pence per week, and twenty pounds a month, not less than a thousand.

Mr. Robert Shalder, of Croft, in the said county, was long confined in prison, and dying soon after his release from it, was interred in the common burying ground amongst his ancestors. The same day he was buried, certain of the inhabitants of Croft, opened his grave, took up his corpse, and dragged it upon a sledge to his own gates, and there left it unburied! *

In short, there was not a protestant dissenting congregation in the kingdom but were grievously harassed, not a zealous baptist but had a double mess of persecution. After a variety of other incongruous proceedings, the king in 1681, in a very hasty manner dissolved his fifth and last parliament, and after this, ruled according to his own sovereign will, or rather the more sovereign pleasure of his mistresses and their clerical and political abettors. After a wicked reign of 25 years, a stroke of the palsy shook the diadem from his head, and obliged him to give up his guilty ghost, April 6, 1685, aged 54.

He was succeeded by his addle-pated brother, James 11. James was a papist, and went publicly to mass, three days after his accession. The parliament met May 12th, and the king assured them he was determined to maintain Church and state according to law, but secretly did all in his power to subvert both, and bring in popery and slavery. To cover his dark designs, he destroyed the impruduent duke of Monmouth with implacable revenge; and sent judge Jefferies and general Kirk against his ill-advised followers, who like two tygers, "tore them limb from limb to death, with blood and groans and tears." Loyal protestant dissenters were also persecuted with fero

* Crosby, vol, ii, p. 239.

cious cruelty, but finding that by oppressing peaceable nonconformists, he could not forward his wishes in favour of popery, he presently in an illegal manner, suspended the penal laws and published liberty of conscience to all persons of all persuasions! Popish books were spread through the realm, papists promoted to places of trust and confidence, and it was imagined, that in order to the full establishment of popery in the land, he intended to impose upon his people a spurious heir to his throne !

He

These proceedings alarmed the nation, and occasioned a correspondence between the Prince of Orange and some of the principal men in the country. His highness was solicited to come to England and settle the troubles of the nation. came, landed at Torbay, November 4, 1688, and was joyfully received. The king hectored a little at first, but presently lost his courage, fluttered to and fro, like a bird of night in the sun, and in short time, leaving three kingdoms behind him, made flight across the channel, took refuge among the old buildings at St. Germains, and lived and died a pauper in France.

**On January 22, 1689, the parliament assembled at Westminster and resolved that their most dreadful sovereign, and terrible defender of their faith, king James, having left them as sheep without a shepherd, had thereby abdicated both his sceptre and mitre, and therefore on February 13th, they promoted William Prince of Orange, and Mary his princess to the vacant throne.

May 24, 1689. The royal assent was given to the Toleration Act, and the protestant dissenters after long and painful wrestling against spiritual wickedness in high places, sat down under their vines and fig trees with sacred pleasure. From the restoration to the revolution, a space of 29 years, more than sixty thousand people suffered for religion, were plundered of two millions of money, and 8 or 10 thousand of them died in Goal. Very many of the sufferers were baptists, but they chearfully endured the cross, despising the shame, stood fast in the Lord, and served God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Calne.

I. T.

Vol. III.

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Delight in God's Ordinances.

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. PSA. IXV, 1.

The rich variety of divine subjects, and the fervent piety which distinguish the book of Psalms have rendered it an unfailing source of instruction and joy to the people of God. Here are the undissembled breathings of a devotional mind under all the varied circumstances of the believer's life. By these we behold, as in a mirror, the movements of the Psalmist's mind in seasons of sorrow and joy, hope and fear, security and danger. The genuine and habitual tendencies of the heart are a true criterion. of character. Men vainly imagine. that what dwells in their thoughts, or merely occupies their minds has in a manner no existence-that it goes not at all to constitute their real character. But we are in fact that be-fore God, which we are in the habit of our hearts. The book of Psalms with infallible precision most clearly discloses the latent motions, temper and tendencies of the human mind, both of the righteous and the wicked, and both under greater variety of circumstances, than perhaps any other distinct and separate book of Scripture. By it alone we may not only ascertain the state of our Souls before God, but by the same unerring standard of truth and piety, may the Christian discover his excellencies and defects; his declensions or his attainments in the divine life.

The Psalms of David are likewise inimitable models of devotion, and of believing experience. But that which more immediately claims our notice is the high estimation in which the Psalmist held the public ordinances of divine worship; the affection he discovers to, and the supreme delight he experienced in them. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!

ven.

Let us briefly enquire on what accounts did David make this divine declaration? First, and doubtless, from a believ ing view of the origin, the nature, and the design of the public institutions of divine worship. Their origin is from heaGod himself is the author of those religious ordinances, in which men as social and dependent beings, should express their public homage and gratitude to their Creator. When Moses was about to build the tabernacle, he was admonished of God to see that all things might be done according to the pattern that was shewed him in the mount.. Heb, vi, 1-5. There was not to be the slightest deviation from that pattern,