Defeated in this earlier effort, Laud postponed, but did not aban- don, his purpose. He soon found a pretext. As was observed before, Sibbes was a man of beneficent action as well as of beneficent words ; and holding as he did that the church was for the nation, and not the nation for the church, — that the ministry was for the preaching of the gospel, — he joined hand and heart in counter- working those schemes, that, by quenching every ' golden candle- stick ' within which burned the oil of the sanctuary, sought to bring back the darkness and superstitions of the worst of popish times. Things had come to the crisis of endurance. If Laud and his myr- midons would ' deprive,' ' out,' ' silence,' ' persecute ' the humble, faithful, godly preachers of salvation by grace, who were bearing the * heat and burden ' of work, and would intrude men, from the bishop to his humblest curate, wlio enforced a thinly-veiled popery in * 'Bowels Opened,' pp. 84-5.
MEMOIR OF EICHAED SIBBES, D.D. Ixxi
practice, and imscriptural, ani^iscriptural teaching in doctrine, something was demanded that should neutralise such doings. What was devised is matter of history. ' Feoffees ' were appointed — the sacred ' twelve ' in number — to raise funds, and buy in from time to time such ' impropriations ' as were in the hands of laymen, when they could be purchased, and then to appoint therein as lecturers those who would really do the work of preaching. Superadded was the appointment of similar lecturers in the more neglected regions where lay-impropriations were not purchasable. Years before Sibbes had expressed his earnest wish that a ' lecturer ' were in every dark corner of England.* It was a noble enterprise, and was nobly responded to. The best and wisest, the purest and holiest men of the age, took their part in the undertaking. I hesi- tate not to avouch, that there was scarcely a man whose name is now remembered for good, but was found subscribing amply and co-operating zealously for its accomplishment. The national heart was stirred, and it was found to beat in the right place. Sibbes, along with his old friends and coadjutors, Davenport and Gouge, was appointed one of the 'Feoffees.' It needs not to be told how this drew down the vengeance of Laud. The scheme had been more or less hindered from its inauguration in 1626, but not till 1632-3 (coincident with Sibbes's defences of 'The Re- formation from Popery ') was open action taken. The delay was caused by no relenting, much less forgetfulness. But events in the interval had transpired to ' give pause.' James had died, and his son reigned in his stead. The plague had passed over the metro- polis in 1625, and there was 'lamentation and woe' in tens of thousands of households, again returning dolefully in 1630. There were political movements, also, that whitened to pallor the proudest cheek. One ' Mr Cromwell ' had come up to Parha- ment in 1627-8. Besides 'the Petition of Right,' and the ex- torted and memorable Soit fait comme il est desire, and the ' Declaration,' most uncourtly words fell from Masters Pym and Hampden and Ehot, and many others. But very especially was there plain-speaking, in his own stammering but forcible and resolute fashion, by ' Mr Cromwell ' about increase of ' popery.' The House of Commons resolved itself into a Committee of Re- ligion. Let Thomas Carlyle, tell the issue. ' It was,' says he, ' on the 11th day of February 1628-9, that Mr Cromwell, member for
* His words are memorable : ' If it were possible, it were to be wished that there were set up some lights in all the dark corners of this kingdom, that might shine to those people that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.' — (Saint's Safety, p. 331 of the present volume.)
Ixxii MEMOIR OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D.
Huntingdon (then in his thirtieth year), stood up and made his firsts speech, a fragment of which has found its way into history, and is now known to all mankind. He said : " He had heard by relation from one Dr Beard (his old schoolmaster at Huntingdon) that Dr Alabaster (prebendary of St Paul's and rector of a parish in Herts) had preached flat popery at Paul's Cross ; and that the Bishop of Winchester (Dr Neile) had commanded him, as his diocesan, he should preach nothing to the contrary. Mainwaring, so justly cen- sured in this House for his sermons, was, by the same bishop's means, preferred to a rich living. If these are the steps to church- preferment, what are we to expect ? " ' * We shall probably not greatly err if we conclude that even the ' red face' of Laud blanched under that question of ' Mr Cromwell,' knowing as he well did that the facts named were only two out of many, and knowing also the ' stuff ' of which the men were made who were upon the inquisition. Then came ' remonstrances ' and ' declarations ' stronger still, and they who drew them up meant to have what they demanded. True, the chief speakers were ' indicted ' in the Star-Chamber, and ultimately sent to the Tower, ' Mr Cromwell,' and ' Mr Pym,' and ' Mr Hampden ' alone excepted (marvellous and suggestive excep- tions). There lay Denzil Holies and Sir John Eliot, John Selden, Benjamin Valentine, and William Couton, Sir Miles Hobart and William Longe, William Strode and Sir Peter Hayman. For eleven years it was decreed to be penal so much as to speak of assembling another Parliament. There were ' wars and rumours of wars,' too. Every one who at all knows the time can see that a constraint which could not be disregarded was put upon Laud in the matter of his persecuting for religion. He durst not go in the teeth of the unmis- takeable menaces of the last memorable Parliament. He noted down everything, and certainly would not fail to note down what Rous and Pym, Eliot and Selden, had said. Let us hear a little of what was said. Francis E-ous, trembling like an old Hebrew prophet with his 'burden,' had denounced that 'error of Arminianism which makes the grace of God lackey it after the Avill of man,' and called on the House to postpone questions of goods and liberties to this question, which concerned ' eternal life, men's souls, yea, God him- self.' Sir John Eliot re2)udiatcd the claim that ' the bishops and clergy alone should interpret church doctrine ; and, professing his respect for some bishops, declared that there were others, and two especially, from whom nothing orthodox could come, and to em- power whom to interpret would he the ruin of national religion! John Selden, grave and calm, referred to individual cases in which * Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 3d edition, i. 29.