Excerpt from The History of England, Vol. 11 Thirdly, The independents, of whom this houfe was chiefly compofed, were diflinguilhed by two principles, one relating to the civil, the 'other to the ecclefiafiical governfi ment. By the firl't, they alierted, that the republican go vernment was not only the molt perfee}, but alfo abl'olutely necellitry for England, after (0 many oppreflions from her kings, who had changed the government into a real tyranny With regard to religion, though they called themfelves pro tefi'ants, their principle was, that every particular church was independent, and might be governed as the members thought proper. Their norions concerning the vocation of the minifiers of the gol'pel, were alfo very lingular, as they believed that, without any other call, every man was free to difcharge the office of minifter, and ufe the talents given him by God. The other feaaries, who had joined the indepen dents becaufe they found in that partya full toleration, were united with them in the firfi of thefe principles, and had 66. Elated for a rcpublicah government. But with refpeet to religion, there were between them fome differences, which the independents regarded the lers, as they wanted to in creafe their adherents, and befides, believed that in matters of religion, toleration was abfolutely necell'ary. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.