individual, writes against the names of some who did not appear, "Absent, and holden as confest. Deprived"[1] This second list contains the names of one hundred and eighty-four Clergymen, besides the twenty names in the preceding list: and all of them were deprived in the summer of 1689. These acts were perpetrated at the commencement of the Revolution: and, as considerable numbers actually submitted to the Government, the Presbyterians themselves prove most incontestably, as I have already shewn, that their Church was set up, not because it was the best and purest system, or because the majority wished it; but because, on political grounds, it suited King William's interests. They cannot boast, therefore, that Presbytery was established for its own sake; but they must admit that William would have sanctioned Episcopacy in the Church, if the Bishops and Clergy could have sanctioned the change in the government of the State. Such was the origin of the Presbyterian establishment in 1689, though its advocates affect to believe, that it was owing to the express voice and wish of the nation. It originated
- ↑ It should be mentioned that the Churches, from which the Clergy had been expelled by the rabble, were declared vacant, "from the date of the rabbling." Representation, &c. p. 16. Somers' Tracts, xv. 133, 136. The causes to which the abolition of Episcopacy must be attributed, have been already stated: but it remains to be mentioned that many difficulties were experienced in planting Presbyterian ministers in many parishes, the people being Episcopalians. The Convention abolished patronage, or the difficulties would have been still greater, since almost all the gentry, to whom the advowsons belonged, would have refused to present Presbyterians. But the dominant parties were exceedingly inconsistent with their own principles: for finding that the people were opposed to them, they placed the calling of ministers in the hands of the Presbytery, and not in the parishes, though they had pretended a jure Divino for popular suffrage.
