62

HISTOEY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

VII.

1581.

ceive any laceration of the affections for which a place or apension would not be a full compensation.*

That section of the dissenting body which was favourableto the King’s new policy had from the first been a minority,and soon began to diminish. For the Nonconformists per-ceived in no long time that their spiritual privileges had beenabridged rather than extended by the Indulgence. The chiefcharacteristic of the Puritan was abhorrence of the peculiari-ties of the Church of Rome. He had quitted the Church ofEngland only because he conceived that she too much re-sembled her superb and voluptuous sister, the sorceress ofthe golden cup and of the scarlet robe. He now found thatone of the implied conditions of that alliance which someof his pastors had formed with the Court was that the religionof the Court should be respectfully and tenderly treated. Hesoon began to regret the days of persecution. While thepenal laws were enforced, he had heard the words of life insecret and at his peril: but still he had heard them. Whenthe brethren were assembled in the inner chamber, when thesentinels had been posted, when the doors had been locked,when the preacher, in the garb of a butcher or a drayman,had come in over the tiles, then at least God was trulyworshipped. No portion of divine truth was suppressed orsoftened down for any worldly object. All the distinctivedoctrines of the Puritan theology were fully, and evencoarsely, set forth. To the Church of Rome no quarter wasgiven. The Beast, the Antichrist, the Man of Sin, themystical Jezebel, the mystical Babylon, were the phrasesordinarily employed to describe that august and fascinatingsuperstition. Such had been once the style of Alsop, ofLobb, of Rosewell, and of other ministers who had of latebeen well received at the palace: but such was now their styleno longer. Divines who aspired to a high place in the King’sfavour and confidence could not venture to speak withasperity of the King’s religion. Congregations thereforecomplained loudly that, since the appearance of the Declara-

* Kiffin's Memoirs; Luson’s Letter to Brooke, May 11. 1773, in theHughes Correspondence.