HISTOKY OP ENGLAND,

proclaiming that it was a violation of Christian sincerity todesignate a single person by a plural pronoun, and that itwas an idolatrous homage to Janus and Woden to talk aboutJanuary and Wednesday. His doctrine, a few years later,was embraced by some eminent men, and rose greatly in thepublic estimation. But at the time of the Restoration theQuakers were popularly regarded as the most despicable offanatics. By the Puritans they were treated with severityhere, and were persecuted to the death in New England.Nevertheless the public, which seldom makes nice distinc-tions, often confounded the Puritan with the Quaker. Bothwere schismatics. Both hated episcopacy and the Liturgy.Both had what seemed extravagant whimsies about dress,diversions, and postures. Widely as the two differed inopinion, they were popularly classed together as cantingschismatics; and whatever was ridiculous or odious in eitherincreased the scorn and aversion which the multitude feltfor both.

Before the civil wars, even those who most disliked theopinions and manners of the Puritan were forced, to admitthat his moral conduct was generally, in essentials, blame-less; but this praise was now no longer bestowed, and, un-fortunately, was no longer deserved. The general fate ofsects is to. obtain a high reputation for sanctity while theyare oppressed, and to lose it as soon as they become power-ful: and the reason is obvious. It is seldom that a man inrollshimself in a proscribed body from any but conscientiousmotives. Such a body, therefore, is composed, with scarcelyan exception, of sincere persons. The most rigid disciplinethat can be enforced within a religious society is a veryfeeble instrument of purification, when compared with a little'sharp persecution from without. We may be certain thatvery few persons, not seriously impressed by religious con-victions, applied for baptism while Diocletian was vexing