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    it mil , he walkingpeaceably , without the prejudice * of others , under another form , it is a debt due to God and Christ , and he will require it , if he may not enjoy this liberty . " If a man of one form will be trampling upon the heels of another form ; if an Independent , for example , mti despise him under baptism , and will revile him , and reproach , and provoke him , I will not suffer it in him . If , on

    the other side , those on the Anabaptists shall be censuring the godl y ministers of the nation , that profess under that of Independency , or those that profess under Presbytery snail be reproaching or speaking evil of them , traducing and censuring ot them , as I would not be willing to see the day on which England shall be in the power of the Presbytery to impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in Christ , so I will not indure any to reproach them . But Goa give us hearts and spirits to keep things equal ; which , truly , I I must profess to you hath been mv temper . must proiess to you hath been my temper .

    " I have had boxes and rebukes on one hand ; and on the other , some envying me for Presbytery ; others , as an inletter to all the sects and heresies in the nation . I have born my reproach ; but I have , through God ' s mercy , not been unhappy in preventing any one religion to impose upon another ; and , truly , must needs say , I speak it experimentally . "—Pp . clxvi—clxviiL Whatever indulgence , however , the more established Christian sects might be disposed to concur with the Protector in affording to each other , few were

    prepared to extend any sort of mercy to those whom they considered as interlopers ;^ nd Quakers , Ranters , Blasphemers , &c , were driven in one herd as the victims of relentless persecution . On the 5 th of Dec , 1656 , a report having been made by a committee of the extravagances of Nayler , the question arose what was the House to do thereupon ; the general inclination being obviously to declare his offence " horrid blasphemy , '' and then to vote a sentence either of death or the most severe castigation for the crime . We shall commence with the report of the speech of the first mover on this occasion , and then extract some

    of the most interesting of the other speeches made during the discussion , which lasted many days . "Major-General Skippon . I do not marvel at this silence . Every man is astonished to hear this report . I am glad it is come hither ; I hope it will mind you to look about you now . It is now come to your doors , to know how you that bear witness of Christ , do relish such things . God ' s displeasure will be upon you if you do not lay out your especial endeavours in the things of God ; not to postpone them . You are cumbered about many things , but I may truly say this , unum necessarium .

    "It has been always my opinion , that the growth of these things is more dangerous than the most intestine or foreign enemies . I have often been troubled in my thoughts to think of this toleration ; I think I may call it so . Their * great growth and increase is too notorious , both in England and Ireland ; their principles strike both at ministry and magistracy /*—Pp . 24 , 25 . " Mr . Downing . This man , in short , makes himself God ; only distinguisheth by the visible and invisible . God is invisible , as in his own being . This distinction is threadbare .

    * ' The heathen , they worship not the stock and stone as visible , but as invisible , e 8 t Dem in coelis . Christ himself . never said that the flesh was God . " Here is no liberty of conscience in this case , for he ( Nayler ) makes himself God himself . Our God is here supplanted . If he be God , then we must worship him . He is our God as well as the women ' s God . If a devil , is it lit he should live ? Then you will have two Gods . " You know what the Parliament did with a Stratford in civil cases , and

    * " Designing , no doubt , tlic Quakers . "

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    Review . —Burton * * Diar ) fi 385

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1828, page 385, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2561/page/25/