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    constituted a province , tu the former , the qlergy , continued their meeting * till the year 1659 . In the province of Lancaster , where the fierce

    contentions between the Presbyterians and Independents seem to have been but little felt , the discipline , as relates to the meetings of the classes , was maintained with considerable rigour till the accession of Charles the Second .

    Dr . Whitaker , in his History of the Parish of Whalley , says , that none of the proceedings of the Presbyteries are extant , but those of the second classis , which comprised Bury , Bolton , Middleton , Rochdale , Radcliffe and

    Deane . In this , however , there is an error , as the original book of the first classis 9 containing the parishes of Manchester , Piestwich , Ouldham , Flixton , and Ashton-underXine , is still in existence , and affords , perhaps , the most authentic record of the history

    and customs of the Presbyterians any where to be met with , for a series of years- This curious document is preserved in the chapel of Cross Street , Manchester . As it has already been brought before the notice of your

    readers by a valuable Manchester correspondent , I shall now only refer those who wish to peruse the extracts made from it , to the Monthly Repository , Vol . XVI . p . 387 , and succeeding numbers .

    The same book likewise contains part of the proceedings of the Provincial Synod , which comprehended delegates from all the classes . The first Provincial Meeting of Lancashire was held at Preston , on 14 th November , 1648 , when a code of laws was drawn

    up , for the regulation of the classes , the ordination and conduct of the ministers and elders , and the direction of the people and congregations . Meetings of the Provincial Assemblies were held in the church of Preston on the 5 th May , and on the 18 th and 19 th September , 1649 , when farther

    instructions were given to the churches in various matters . Little seems to have passed on subjects merely doctrinal ; probably no great diversity of opinion existed then , and at a later

    period it appears that an equal silence was observed on such points . There is , however , reason to believe that very crude notions on the subject of private judgment existed among the Lancashire Presbyterian divines , for no

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    sooner were they seated ia pa ^ # j ; , find in possession of the p&rhh chnmhm , than * in the true spirit of ifeihe&ta blishments , they are found writing with their London brethren in interdicting all liberty of conscience U ^ yond their own immediate pale .

    Uader the usual pretences , the latte ( r * in 1648 , published a catalogue of i Er ~ rors in Religion , " with a protest against Toleration , and eighty-four of the ministers of Lancashire recorded their bigotry , by signing what was termed " The harmonious consent of the Lancashire Ministers with their Urethren in London . " To establish their

    character still farther for ignorance and intolerance , we find them in the same year vigorously employed in op . posing a paper tendered to the consideration of the nation by the officers of the army , chiefly because it asserts

    the rights " ot all who profess fait ]* in God , by Jesus Christ , hovvever differing in judgment from the doctrine , discipline and worship publicly held forth , to be protected in the profession of their faith , and exercise their

    religion according to their conscience , so as they abuse not this liberty to the civil injury of others , or the dis < turbance of the public peace /* In the year 1650 , an inquisition , by order of the Commonwealth , was held

    in Lancashire , relative to the state of many of the parochial vocations , when several changes were recommended . The MS . of this inquisition is still to be found in the Archiepiscopal Palace at Lambeth , though the measure * therein proposed were not adopted

    There appears no ground whatever ror the supposition of Dr . Whitaker , that " the Presbyterian seems now ta have been superseded by the Independent or Congregational plan . " On the contrary , we find that meetings ot

    the classis are recorded till the 14 th August , 1660 , which was the hundred and sixty-third meeting . The ne * t assembly was ordered for the second Tuesday in September , but did not take place . The events that occurred on the restoration of Charles II .,

    sufficiently account for the abrupt tefr ^ ruination of the meetings of the Predk ** byterians , who - % goun after felt the weight of that barbarous persecution which swept away every vestige o * religious freedom . Little is known of the Presbyterian

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    176 History of Presbyteriamim in Lancashire .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1826, page 476, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2551/page/32/