Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/129

 catechising; (2) that we shall in like manner endeavour the extirpation of &hellip; Church government by Archbishops, Bishops &hellip; and all other ecclesiastical officers depending on their hierarchy; (3) we shall, with the same sincerity &hellip; endeavour &hellip; to preserve the rights and privileges of the Parliaments and the liberties of the Kingdoms, and to preserve and defend the king's majesty's person and authority &hellip; that the world may bear witness with our consciences of our loyalty." Here they stated deliberately, you see, two things. First, that they would utterly destroy the Church of England. God did not allow them to succeed. Secondly, that they would preserve the king's person. But they murdered him.

It was from the death of Charles I., 1649, to the year 1660 that the Puritans had full swing in England, and did with it what they willed. But before that time what dissensions there were among them! They had long ago split themselves into two parties, and each one was almost as much opposed to each other as they both were to the Church of England. Their internal discord was only lessened by one of their parties proving the stronger. The Independents governed England and our Church. It was during this reign of the Puritans under Cromwell that we are given an idea of what our land would have been if they had succeeded in destroying the Church of England. There would have been no religion in our land. The nation became heartily sick of the Puritan rule. It longed for the return of the exiled king. It desired with a strong desire the old worship in the Parish Churches, and it rebelled against the desecration to which our Churches had been put by the Puritan leaders. The