From the Restoration of 1660 to the Revolution of 1688 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904. Excerpt: ... VII THE REVOLUTION AND THE TOLERATION ACT SENTIMENTS such as those with which the Duke of Buckingham made his appeal to the House of Lords on behalf of justice and liberty sounded like idle tales in the ears of the bigoted zealots who swayed the councils of England in the closing years of Charles's reign. Again and again we find the penal laws against Dissent vigorously executed. The prisons continued to be filled, and men like Richard Baxter--godly, consecrated men, the very salt of the earth--were still being arrested under the Five Mile Act of 1665; had to stand in the dock to be brow-beaten by Jeffreys with his coarse brutality, and then linger on in prison hoping for better days. At length the King himself was called away from his crown and kingdom to stand at the highest tribunal of all. An able writer of our own time has thus summed up the character of the man: "His guide was not duty; it was not even ambition; but his guide was self; it was ease and amusement and lust. The cup of pleasure was filled deep for him, and he grasped it with both hands. But pleasure is not happiness. There is no happiness for him who lives and dies without beliefs, without enthusiasms, and without love."1 James II. succeeded to the throne of England in 1685. He was then a man over fifty years of age, and ten years before, by resigning his office as Lord High Admiral, under the requirements of the Test Act, had publicly avowed himself a Roman Catholic. A conscientious man after a sort, but obstinate and wrong-headed, the one thing above all others on which he had set his heart was to substitute the Roman Catholic faith in place of the Protestant as the Established religion of the country. He was not long in setting about his purpose. Proclaimed in February, the next East...