he commended them to the goodness of GoD, requesting them to submit with patience and submission to all that He might think fit to send upon them, and took his leave.

Arrived at the house where the committee were sitting, he was brought before them, and required to answer to such questions as they should put to him. In the first place, sir," observed the president-who with five others formed the committee - 66 'you are required to answer whether or not you make use of that rag of popery, the surplice, in your ministrations in the church?" "I do," answered Mr. Peters. 'Do you bow at the Name of JESUS?" "Yes." "Do you observe Christmas-day, Easter, Whitsuntide, and other days, superstitiously called holy days?" "Yes." "Do you make use of that popish and superstitious book called the Book of Common Prayer?" "Yes."-The president here turning to his companions in committee spoke in an inaudible voice, after which he spoke aloud to their attendant to bring in John Granger. Am I permitted to make any comment upon the answers which I have given?" asked Mr. Peters. None at present," was the reply; "you will perhaps be allowed to speak briefly, after your sentence is made known to you." John Granger was shown in.

Now my readers must know that John Granger was a blacksmith's apprentice, in the parish of Stillby, who for some time had been leading a very depraved and dissolute life, for which Mr. Peters had often, by virtue of his office, severely reprimanded him. John's conduct, however, had become worse and worse, until about a month from the date of these events before us he had been detected in stealing one of the rector's sheep. The rector was a mild man, and always hoped for the best; and in this instance thought, that if he forgave John, he might behave better for the future. This he did, with a very severe reprimand, and telling him at the same time that, if a similar case occurred, he should not deal so leniently with him, but hand him over to the law, and let it take its course. This had rankled in John's breast, and by

way of revenge he had gone to the committee for sequestrations, which was then sitting in the neighbourhood, and had accused the rector to them as a malignant, little knowing, indeed, the meaning of the word, but knowing that the accusation which he brought would probably prove enough to ruin the rector-so notorious was the injustice of this committee.

The prisoner, Mr. Peters, was ordered to be removed to one side of the room, and his accuser, John Granger, to stand forth. The rector was naturally surprised at this turn of affairs, and pondered in his mind what accusation it could be that this man was to bring. He was not suffered to remain long in doubt. "Please your lordships," said John, "I have heard the prisoner, our parson, preach popery, and superstition, and scandal. He wont bury unbaptized children. I have heard him sing malignant psalms, and read ungodly chapters; and say that praying is better than preaching, and that none but bishops can make parsons; and the last time I was in church he came up to me and told me to take off my hat, and when I said I should not do it, for one place was as good as another, he said that I knew nothing about it, for it was not. I've seen him, too, turning towards what he calls the altar at some times in church, and I'm sure that if there had been an image there he would have worshipped it." Such was the accusation which Johnpartly from himself, and partly from the suggestions of others-here made.

That will do," said the president, 'you may sit down; bring the prisoner forward." Mr. Peters stood forth. "You hear," observed the president, "" of what you are accused; which with what you have confessed yourself, is a proof of your delinquency and malignancy, and obliges us to sequestrate your living and property. It is indeed a sad thing, Mr. Peters, that in these enlightened days, you with so many of your brethren should persist in such a course as you do. Well may this poor

distracted land bless GOD that it has now within it an enlightened parliament and a godly ministry. You will

C

be removed from here and placed in custody, where it will be the business of your keepers to take care that you propagate no more of your pestilent and anti-christian doctrines."

Poor Mr. Peters listened to all that had been said as patiently and as resignedly as he could; he remembered his blessed LORD's example, and although he felt himself unworthy to compare his own with it, still it gave him comfort in the trying circumstances in which he was placed. Silently praying for strength, he enquired whether he might now speak for himself. "Yes," observed the president, "you may speak; but it will make no alteration in the sentence which has been passed upon you." "It is not of my sentence, considered in itself, that I wish so much to speak," said Mr. Peters, as to unburden myself, and discharge my conscience of that duty which I owe to my God, my Church, my king, and my country. I stand here condemned to punishment, and for what? Because I have done my duty consistently with those vows which I have solemnly taken upon myself. I am, sir, neither a papist nor a rebel. I adhere to the doctrines and customs of the Church Catholic, as they have ever been taught from the beginning, and not as they have been corrupted in later years by the papists. I believe in the divine right of bishops, and hold that none but one lawfully ordained can properly administer the sacraments, or minister in the congregation. I do not bury unbaptized children, because I bury none but those who are Christians. I bow at the Name of JESUS, sing the psalms of David, wear the surplice, and do such other things as I am accused of, because the Church tells me to do so, and I believe that she has 'power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith ;' * and that, therefore, I am bound to obey her. Scripture texts I might adduce, which would prove that I am acting according to God's Word in these things, but such texts I know you would declare malignant, as also

*Art. xx.

that you would put an interpretation upon them different from that which I do; on this ground I shall not argue with you on the principles of private judgment, but shall place myself under cover of the Church, and simply say, that I do those things of which I am accused because the Church orders me to do so, and I feel myself bound to obey her. On this head I would only add, that I feel perfectly convinced that the Branch of the Catholic Church to which I belong, and of which I am an unworthy minister, teaches nothing but what is in strict accordance with God's Holy Word.

"Respecting my preaching, which this young man states is popish and superstitious, I can offer no remarks, unless I know what are the specific popish and superstitious tenets to which he alludes. Methinks, gentlemen, you are taking a strange part in condemning a priest of the Church, of heterodoxy, on the bare accusation of an unlearned and simple rustic. Whether he or I be the better able to understand points of divinity, judge ye. I would not boast, but with all allowance for my own imperfections, must think that some more competent person than the one before you should have been found, ere on such evidence I was condemned of error. One other point I would shortly touch upon, one which, perhaps, had better have been spoken of at first, as it would have saved further explanation; I mean the authority of this committee; which is now assuming to itself a power which I, as a priest of the Church, cannot admit. I have ever been, GOD knows it, a peaceable and quiet subject, most willing at all times to submit to the laws of the land, when those laws did not interfere with the laws of GOD. Hitherto I have never been placed in a position where such an interference took place; but now the case is otherwise. The Church, gentlemen, is a spiritual kingdom-an ordinance of GOD, to be governed by spiritual officers, to whom CHRIST Himself has committed this power. Those officers are the bishops, and to them, and them alone, under GOD, can I admit that I am amenable for the doctrines which I preach, and the discipline in church which I practise.

The State has her sphere of duty-the Church has hers and, in my opinion, it would be just as lawful for the Church to interfere with the province of the State, as it is for the State to interfere with the province of the Church. You are, gentlemen, a committee of laymen, assuming to yourselves the right of deciding what is orthodoxy, and what is not. You are, in my opinion, assuming a power which does not belong to you, and to which, however much I suffer, I cannot submit. I have done; I ask not

from you mercy. Were I to ask any thing it would be justice; but that at your hands, after what has passed, I do not expect. I have striven, alas! the ALMIGHTY knows with how many imperfections, to do my duty to Him, my Church, my king, and country; and to Him I look for that mercy which I do not expect elsewhere; to Him I commit my wife and children, and myself; may He do with us as seemeth Him best, and teach us under all trials that may come upon us, contentedly to submit, and from the heart to say,-Not my will, but Thine be done.'

Mr. Peters here stopped; the committee were much annoyed at many parts of his speech, but did not think fit to interrupt him during its delivery, nor to make any remark at its conclusion; they knew that he was in their power, and that was enough. They therefore gave order that he should be taken out, and kept in safe custody, until removed to the prison which in that part of the country had been appropriated for malignant ministers, that is, ministers who were accused and sentenced as malignants upon such evidence, and by such authority, as Mr. Peters was.

On the same day on which these events occurred at Weavham a still more painful scene was going on at Stillby. Some six or seven servants of this committee for sequestrations, attended by about a dozen soldiers, appeared at the rectory towards the evening, and, scarcely allowing Mrs. Peters and her children time to pack up the few necessaries which in their charity they permitted her to take, turned them out of the house, leaving them