June 10. 1830
Southey’s Life of Bunyan — Laud — Puritans and Cavaliers — Presbyterians, Independents, and Bishops
Southey’s Life of Bunyan is beautiful. I wish he had illustrated that mood of mind which exaggerates, and still more, mistakes, the inward depravation, as in Bunyan, Nelson, and others, by extracts from Baxter’s Life of himself. What genuine superstition is exemplified in that bandying of texts and half texts, and demi-semi-texts, just as memory happened to suggest them, or chance brought them before Bunyan’s mind! His tract, entitled, “Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners”1 is a study for a philosopher.
Notes
1 “Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners, in a faithful Account of the Life and Death of John Bunyan, &c.” Is it not, however, an historical error to call the Puritans dissenters? Before St. Bartholomew’s day, they were essentially a part of the church, and had as determined opinions in favour of a church establishment as the bishops themselves.
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Laud was not exactly a Papist to be sure; but he was on the road with the church with him to a point, where declared popery would have been inevitable. A wise and vigorous Papist king would very soon, and very justifiably too, in that case, have effected a reconciliation between the churches of Rome and England, when the line of demarcation had become so very faint.
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The faults of the Puritans were many; but surely their morality will, in general, bear comparison with that of the Cavaliers after the Restoration.
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The Presbyterians hated the Independents much more than they did the bishops, which induced them to cooperate in effecting the Restoration.
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The conduct of the bishops towards Charles, whilst at Breda, was wise and constitutional. They knew, however, that when the forms of the constitution were once restored, all their power would revive again as of course.