206

HISTOKY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

VIII.

1688 .

Iiis ships, the very sentinels who guarded his palace. The■ names of Whig and Tory were for a moment forgotten. Theold Exclusionist took the old Abhorrer by the hand. Epis-copalians, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, forgottheir long feuds, and remembered only tbeir common Pro-testantism and their common danger. Divines bred in theschool of Laud talked loudly, not only of toleration, but ofcomprehension. The Archbishop soon after his acquittalput forth a pastoral letter which is one of the most remarkablecompositions of that age. He had, from his youth up, beenat war with the Nonconformists, and had repeatedly assailedthem with unjust and unchristian asperity. His principalwork was a hideous caricature of the Calvinistic theology.*He had drawn up for the thirtieth of January and for thetwenty-ninth of May forms of prayer which reflected on thePuritans in language so strong that the government hadthought fit to soften it down. But now his heart was meltedand opened. He solemnly enjoined the Bishops and clergyto have a very tender regard to their brethren the ProtestantDissenters, to visit them often, to entertain them hospitably,to discourse with them civilly, to persuade them, if it mightbe, to conform to the Church, but, if that were found im-possible, to join them heartily and affectionately in exertionsfor the blessed cause of the Reformation. **

Many pious persons in subsequent years remembered thattime with bitter regret. They described it as a short glimpseof a golden age between two iron ages. Such lamentation,though natural was not reasonable. The coalition of 1688

* The Fur Praideslinatus.

** This document will be found in the first of the twelve collectionsof papers relating to the affairs of England, printed at the end of 1688and the beginning of 1689. It was put forth on the 26th of July, notquite a month after the trial. Lloyd of Saint Asaph about the same timetold Henry Wharton that the Bishops purposed to adopt an entirely newpolicy towards the Protestant Dissenters; “Omni modo curaluros utecclesia sordibus et corruplelis penilus exuerelur; ut sectariis re-formalis reditus in ecclesiae sinum exoptati occasio ac ratio concedere-tur, si qui sobrii etpiiessent; ut pertinacibus interim jugum levaretur,extinctis penitus leglbus mulctatoriis.” — Excerpta ex Vita H. Wharton.