Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/137

 heathen are come into Thine inheritance. Thy Holy Temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem an heap of stones."

Notice, in the next place, how they used our pulpits. It seems that everyone was allowed to preach in them. Discipline was a thing unknown to them. Evelyn, in his diary, wrote, "Going this day (December 4th, 1653) to Our Church, I was surprised to see a tradesman&mdash;a mechanic&mdash;step up" to the pulpit. "I was resolved to stay and see what he would make of it. His text was from 2 Samuel xxiii. 20. 'And Benaiah went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of snow.' The purport was that no danger was to be thought difficult when God called for shedding of blood, inferring that now the saints were entitled to destroy temporal governments."

Evelyn gives us further important information about these times. On December 25th he wrote, "No Churches or public assembly. I was fain to pass the devotions of that Blessed Day (a Sunday) with my family at home." In 1655 he wrote, "On Sunday afternoon he had frequently to stay at home to catechise and instruct his family," because the clergy were forbidden to catechise the children. On Christmas Day of that year he said, "There was no more notice taken of Christmas Day in Churches." The proclamation had gone forth that it should be observed as a fast day. "The Lord Jesus pity our distressed Church," he wrote, "and bring back the captivity of Zion." "The parish Churches," he writes, "were filled with sectaries of