Thus it appears that Alleine was most industriously and faithfully employed, in the exercise of those faculties with which he was blessed, and in the dissemination of those holy truths which he prized above life, when the happy and successful labours of his public ministry were suspended by the operation of the Act of Uniformity. This Act, so closely connected with the subject of the present memoir, forms one of the most striking features in the history of the church; and, next after the great work of the Reformation, may be considered as leading to the most important events i the history of England, and consequently in the highest degree affecting that of the United States. The Act of Uniformity sowed the seeds of the revolution in Great Britain, and peopled the wilds of America with a population, in whose minds were immoveably fixed the principles of civil and religious liberty. The operation of this odious Act, by the persecutions which attended its enforcement, roused the spirit of liberty thoughout the British empire; and, while thousands fled to the continent and to America, for the enjoyment of that religious liberty which was denied them in England, there remained numbers sufficient to stem the overbearing torrent of tyranny. After long struggles between the opposing parties, the matter was brought to issue in the reign of Charles I. That monarch, in the pride of power, urged to an excess what he deemed his prerogatives; the people opposed them; the government was overturned, and the country revolutionized. And although excesses were committed in this course of violence, yet the general result was favourable to the happiness and liberties of the people. Of this measure, so important in its effects, and so intimately connected with the history of Alleine, a sketch in the present place will not be inappropriate.

As a political measure, it marks the spirit of that age when despotic power was to be sustained by the iron hand of intolerance; when the principle was assumed and acted upon, that government is founded in power and must be upheld by force and oppression, instead of that system which now prevails, at least in our own happy country, that government is founded on the rights and happiness of the people, and must be upheld by public opinion. Then religion was made a cloak, under which arbitrary power could urge its highest claims; and the church of Christ was converted, not by christians, but by politicians, into an engine of oppression. But the days of darkness are fast fleeing away, the word of God begins to be spread abroad, and light follows in its track. Christian education is rapidly gaining ground, and mankind are at length brought to see that ignorance is the safeguard of despotism, and that the light of divine truth is not only the surest guide to heaven, but the strongest and safest defence against the encroachments of tyranny. It is only when the Knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, that mankind may expect to enjoy the full blessings of liberty, peace, and happiness. And the fact is too well established to be denied, that those have ever been the best friends of public liberty, who knew, and loved, and practised best the principles of the gospel, and who sought most sedulously to promote the free circulation of truth, unshackled by the inventions of men. To the influence of christianity, open and undisguised, are we most indebted for that civil liberty we now enjoy, and the assurance we feel against the recurrence of such acts of oppression as that now to be detailed. And thanks be to those christian men, who, with Alleine, in the strength of God, withstood its rude assaults, and suffered in the cause of Christ and of humanity.

On the accession of Elizabeth to the throne of England, it was an early object with her to establish the Protestant religion, just struggling for existence, against the darkness and oppression of popery.

The principles of the reformation were introduced into England during the reign of the capricious tyrant, Henry VIII.; who, although he earned by his opposition to it, for himself and his descendants, the title of "Defender of the Faith," yet, in the pursuit of his own ambitious views and indulgences, became most instrumental in destroying that very faith for which he had lately been the most honoured and redoubted champion.

The pious Edward succeeded Henry the VIII., and greatly advanced the cause of the reformation. During the reign of his successor and sister, the bigoted Mary, the fires of persecution were kindled against the devoted protestants, and no efforts were left untried, to restore to its fullest domination the Romish church. Happily the bloody horrors of this reign were short, and Mary was succeeded by her sister Elizabeth, whose views were in favour of the principles of the reformation. Submission or opposition to the church of Rome formed, at that time, the grand point on which the principles of government, as well as of religious faith, turned. Elizabeth took her side decisively, and the first parliament called by her, repealed the acts of the former reign, and declared the queen to be the governess of the church; and in order to establish her power more completely, and to bring to one point the discordant feelings of the people, a law was passed, called the Act of Uniformity. The object of this law was to compel all churches and ministers to use one form of religious service, and the same set of ceremonies. The queen’s chapel was to be the model. Elizabeth ascended the throne in November, 1558, and this celebrated Act was passed by the parliament soon after its meeting, in the April following. The queen was far from being a woman of piety, though she engaged with much zeal in religious matters. Her sole object was power, her ruling passion ambition, and to promote her views; nay, even to maintain her dangerous elevation, a control over the clergy was necessary. As the possession of power and not the prosperity of the church, was the great object of Elizabeth, she sought the former at the expense of the later. Her desire was to suppress the Romish religion, because the security of her throne was thereby affected; but being excessively attached to parade and pomp of every kind, she was greatly inclined to the imposing ritual of that church; and in organizing a plan for the church, it was with difficulty she was induced by Cecil, her chief adviser, to suppress the use of images, prayers to the saints, and prayers for the dead. The forms established were offensive to many pious and zealous persons, whose views of propriety and abhorrence of popery inclined them to adopt the utmost simplicity in religious affairs. These deemed it a matter of conscience not to conform to the various forms, ceremonies and dresses, which suited the pleasure of the queen, the use of which, it was her will to enforce upon all.

This Act, which was designed for the suppression of popery, raised up another class of opponents, who, from their high principles and great nicety in religious affairs, were called puritans; a name which has grown into disrepute, rather from the wickedness of the world, and its enmity to God and holiness, than from the characters of those who bore it, and far less from the virtue indicated by the word - purity - a perfection of God which we are commanded to imitate. The ruling party in the church overstepped the zeal even of the queen and the bishops, who also acted as civil magistrates, under cover of this Act, and carried on a severe persecution against those who scrupled to adopt the established rites. On the doctrines of faith the church seemed to be undivided, and but one opinion prevailed. The doctrinal articles of the church of England met the general support of all; but on the subjects of ceremonies there were differences, and those who would not conform were expelled the church.

During the later part of the reign of Elizabeth and that of James I., the divisions became more decisively marked. The intolerant spirit of one party, acting against the persevering zeal of the other, was hastening to a crisis that state of public feeling which marked the convulsive reign of Charles I. This overbearing monarch, whose views were prompted or seconded by the intemperance of archbishop Laud, soon brought forth into full and violent action the slumbering spirit of liberty. The archbishop and the king both became the victims of their own misdeeds. The tyranny of the king and his advisers, yielded to the power of the people, and that firm and unsubdued spirit of liberty, which had been long fostered among the puritans, by the severities of persecution, at last burst forth and carried destruction in its way. To this same spirit which, in America, has grown with progressive strength, too remote from the seat of royalty and of church power to be disturbed by their oppressions, are we, at the day, indebted for the freedom we enjoy. The same class of men who were the bulwark of English liberty, were they who crossed an unknown ocean, and took up their habitation among savages, for the sake of enjoying liberty of conscience. To recount their hardships and trails, their dangers, their triumphs, and their sufferings, is the part of the historian. To cast reproach upon their memories, may become the servile flatterers of tyranny; but surely not those who are the descendants of those worthies, or who owe to their invincible courage and holy piety the dearest possessions on earth, liberty and a free conscience.

The restoration of royalty, after the turbulent existence of the commonwealth, revived the operation of the Act of Uniformity. Charles II. ascended the throne with promises of protection, but they were soon violated under the plea of expediency, and this odious Act was revived and put into operation with more severity than before. The sufferings of the church, under the reign of this profligate king, were great, and urged to an extent unknown in the persecutions under the reign of Elizabeth. The law reviving this Act, was passed in May, 1662, and was to go into operation on the 24th August following, the feast of St. Bartholomew. by it the terms of conformity were rendered more difficult, and raised higher than before the civil wars. By it, contrary to the manner of proceeding in the times of Elizabeth and Cromwell, who both reserved for the support of the ejected minister one-fifth of his benefits, no provision was made for those who should be deprived of their livings. The efforts that were made by the king, and seconded by the puritan party to bring about an amicable arrangement, by which the church, then undivided in doctrine, might retain all its members in communion, were all overthrown by the successful maneuvering of the earl of Claredon and others. The "declaration of the king," a formal proclamation, which was pacific, and under which bishoprics were presented to Baxter, Calamy, and other zealous men of their party, was rejected by parliament, and not passed into a law; but, on the contrary, this exterminating Act was revived. By this law, the book of common prayer having been revised and may alterations made in it, was fixed as the standard of religion; no person could use any other form of prayer in public, nor could any person without episcopal ordination administer the sacrament; nor could any one lecture or teach, who had not taken certain oaths in favour of the book of common prayer, and the thirty-nine articles of the church, as then established - all under severe penalties. However great may be the excellencies of this composition, and whatever might have been the merit of these alterations, the evil was not lessened in the view of the opposite party. Acquiescing freely in the doctrinal articles, they were unwilling to be bound to the observance of forms which they disapproved. The alteration then made, however necessary in the opinion of their authors, so far fro conciliating the puritans, rendered the system more objectionable to them, and fixed more firmly their decided opposition to the compulsory measures adopted by the ruling party. The severity of the Act left them no alternative between entire submission and total abandonment of their stations.

The non-conforming ministers had only three months to provide for themselves and their families, and all who were not ready to renounce their ordination, and give their full assent and consent to every thing in the book of common prayer, were, on the fatal day of St. Bartholomew, thrown out upon the world. About two thousand ministers abandoned their situations in the church, and gave this great proof of their sincerity, embracing poverty, disgrace, and want, rather than comply with what their consciences disapproved. The operation of a similar Act under queen Elizabeth, reduced to this distress only about two hundred persons.

Among those whose sufferings have cast reproach on the age in which they lived, while their virtues, talents, and piety, have claimed the admiration and respect of all future times, were Milton, Baxter, and William Penn, Calamy, Owen, the pious Flavel, and Joseph Alleine.

The particulars of the future life of Alleine, his sufferings, his exemplary piety, his heroic and christian fortitude, are related with so much feeling and simplicity by her who knew and loved him best, that we leave the narration as she presents it; praying the reader to give it that candid and serious consideration which it so justly deserves.