wrote to the same effect and so the matter was composed with some moderation Thus Dr. Heylin And many more Non-conformities the Dr. complains of too long to rehearse The fourth Remark is the History of Non-conformity in Q. Elizabeth's Reign who had bravely repulsed Temptations of turning Papist in Q. Mary's time with saying My Soul is the Lord's and as to my Faith as I cannot change it so neither will I dissemble it This good Queen finding all the Land lay fallow and over-grown with the Brambles of her Sister's Popery was forced to this Resolve Not to reform all at once but by little and little This slow progress therein brought up and introduced a Medley of Calvinists as Dr. Heylin styles the Non-conformists at that time in his Hist of Reform p 115. saying Those Ministers that had been banish'd in the Reign of Q. Mary and had followed beyond Sea the Platform of Geneva returned so disaffected to Episcopal Government and to the Rites and Ceremonies here by Law established as not long after filled the Church as he expresseth it with sad Disorders On which account he saith we find the Queen's Professor at Oxford to pass among the Non-conformists though somewhat more moderate than the rest and Cartwright at Cambridge he doth not call him Doctor nor so much as Master Cartwright who proved saith he an unextinguishable Fire brand to the Church of England beside him there was Whittington the chief Ring-leader of the Frankford Schismaticks preferred to the Deanry of Durham and from thence encouraging Knox and Goodman in setting up Presbytery in the Kirk of Scotland and Sampson was advanced to the Deanry of Christ's-Church but turned out again for an incorrigible Nonconformist as likewise Hardiman one of the first twelve Prebends of the Church of Westminster who was soon after deprived for throwing down the Altar and defacing the Vestments of the Church c. The fifth Remark Dr. Heylin proceeds in his Complaints pag. 124. saying The Queen having setled Ecclesiastick Affairs the same Settlement of the Church of England might have longer continued had not her Order been Confounded by some Factious Spirits as he calls them who having had their Wills at Frankfort or otherwise Ruling the Presbytery when they were at Geneva thought to have carry'd all before them with the like facility when they were in England And again pag. 131 132. Some friends they had about the Queen and Calvin was Resolved to make use of all his Power both with the Queen and with Cecill as appears by his Letters to both to Advance their Ends and he was seconded by Peter Martyr who thought his Interest in England to be greater than Calvin's though his Name was not so eminent in other places but the Queen had fixed her self to keep up some outward Splendour of a Church c. No sooner those Schismaticks of Frankfort saw Episcopacy setled and the Liturgy impos'd c. but they Revive the quarrels raised in King Edward's time c. Grindal the new Bishop of London was known to have a great Respect for Calvin and they two by the help of their friends they had about the Queen got liberty for a French Church as John Alasco had in King Edward's time But what was this saith he but setting up Presbytery to confront Episcopacy and a Common-wealth in the midst of a Monarchy or as the phrase is now Imperium in Imperio Calvin gives Grindal thanks for this favour upon which many French and Dutch repaired into England planted themselves in Sea-Towns as well as in London openly professing the Reformed Religion Again pag. 144 he goes on saying Now nothing would satisfie our Non-conformists at Home being thus encourag'd with that liberty thus procured for those abroad but the Nakedness and Simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Frankfort and the Presbyteries at Geneva and they drove on so fast upon it that they took down the Steps where the Altar stood and brought the Table into the midst of the Church in some places they laid aside God fathers and God-mothers in Baptism and Lent they look'd upon as Superstition and Festival days c. This Faction saith he pag. 154 could not touch Episcopacy nor Liturgy because established by Law but Caps Tippets Rochets Lawn-sleeves and Surplices c all having no better foundation than Supersritious Custom or some old Popish Canon c. they Assaulted And when the book of the Thirty-nine Articles was publish'd they boggl'd at the Twentieth about the Authority of the Church and at the Thirty-sixth about the Consecration of Arch-bishops c. the book of Homilies they call'd beggarly Rudiments and other things not consisting with their Independency The Doctor proceeds Of this factions Number none so much Remarkable as Father John Fox the Martyrologist c. it was thought by the Conformists that the Opinion which was had of his Parts and Piety might much Advance Conformity if the Heads of the Church could cause him to come over to them and subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles hereupon he was Summon'd for his Subscription He appear'd before the Bishop with his New-Testament in Greek holding it in his hand he said Unto this book I will Subscribe and if this will not Serve take my Prebendary at Salisbury the only Preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it doe you But notwithstanding this Refractory Answer saith the Doctor so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his Resolution and his Prebendary together This was more favour than is shewn to any Non-conformist in this our Days And to this the Doctor adds That those Genevians as he styles them for the greater Countenancing of their Non-conformity stirred up the most Eminent Divines of the French and Zuinglian or Helvetian Churches to Declare in favour of their Doings c. The sixth Remark is the Doctor tells us many long Stories too large to transcribe After his Invectives against the Puritans so called he saith for pretending to a greater Purity in God's Worship and against Geneva Notes upon 2 Chron. 8.15 16 c. and against the Sawciness of Knox and the bold Activities of Beza for upholding this Puritan Faction He comes to Cartwright against whom he exclaims for sowing his Seed of Non-conformity in Cambridge it self and so that it could never be Rooted out to this Day Who exceeded he saith in Acting more than any of the Puritan Faction He preached All the Fellows and Scholars of his Colledge out of their Surplices c. Heylin's Hist of Presbytery pag. 263. He set up a Presbyterial Church at Wandsworth by the Water side near London Novemb. 20. in the Year 1572. He introduced his Discipline into the Islands of Jersey and Gernsey and in the English Church at Middleburgh in Zealand and in the Dutch Church here in London yea he prevailed so far with the Assistance of the Earl of Leicester Lord-Treasurer Burleigh c. that a
kind of high flown persecuting Conformists feared some remarkable change to be brought in by K. James's coming to the Crown who had been train'd up by the Kirk of Scotland in the Presbyterial way See Mr. Rich. Sedgwick's Life writ by Mr. Clark pag. 397. in Fol. N. B. Thus might I carry on this History of Nonconfermity both through K. James the First and K. Charles the First yea and Charle the Second and James the Second but this would make a Volume All that can be contain'd here is the History of the Infancy of it in the first Reformers CHAP. III. Remark 1st UPon K. James's Reign in the year 1605. at Hampton-Court he calls an Assembly of Divines to confer about the Liturgy and Church Government where he told them that his End of calling them together was not to make any Alteration which was not requisite seeing he found all things so well setled already but like a wise Physician he would search into the supposed Diseases and remove the occasion of Complaints whereupon the Prelates of his Privy Council were dismissed and the Monday after he calls in the complaining Doctors telling them he meant not to alter the Church Government so well setled already but to settle Vniformity and Vnity c. Dr. Reynolds the Foreman reduceth their Grievances to these four Heads First For preserving true Doctrine Secondly For placing Good Pastors Thirdly For sincere Church-Government And Fourthly For explaining some passages in the Service-Book Of this Conference c. I must refer my Reader to Mr. Fuller's Church History who according to his Name gives a fuller Account than this small Treatise is capable of Some brief touches make Remark the Second Mr. Fuller saith that Dr. Barlow then an opposite to the Nonconformists doth not give an impartial Relation of this Conference Whereupon he wittily saith If the Israelites be forced to whet their Tools with the Philistims no wonder if the Thilistims set a sharper edge on their own and a blunter upon their enemies Weapons he was a Party and so was partial in favouring the Conformists c. But Mr. Fuller Cent 17. Book 10. pag. 21. c. Saith here was great odds only these four Reinolds Knewstubbs Spark and Chaderton called to cope with 8 Bishops 8 Deans and two Doctors beside the King and his Privy Council Nor were they called to have their Scruples satisfyed but his Pleasure propounded the King call'd them not that he might know what they could say but that they might know what he would do in the matter For tho they petition'd for a full Reformation of Church-Service Livings Ministers and Discipline and that with a Millenary Petition subscribed with about a thousand Ministers hands yet got they not the Kings Ear but he cryed to them No Bishop no King and as they dealt with my mother so would they deal with me I 'le make you conform or banish you c. But he order'd a new Translation of the Bible differing from that of Geneva charging the Translators to keep the old Ecclesiastick words as Church and not Congregation and Easter c. and not to make any marginal Notes as were in the Geneva Bibles against which he much exclaimed and more especially its Notes upon Exod. 1.19 which allows Disobedience to Kings and on 2 Chron. 15.16 saying Asa should have kill'd the Queen and not deposed her only Remark the Third Mr. Fuller says further when Dr. Reynolds wâ—… complaining against Arminian Doctrine lazy Ministers bad Goverâ—…ment of the Church and Common Prayer c. saying It was tâ—… cry of the People Such a Church c. will bring the Souls of thâ— Nation into a faint and feeble condition having no warm meet provided for them save only the cold Homilies and the Starve-us-Book â—… Bishop Bancroft at this Hampton-Court Conference answered only with urging that old Canon Schismatici contra Episcopos non sunt audiendi Schismaticks ought not to be heard in their complaining against the Bishops and said He was beholden to the King to suffer him thus to speak against the Laturgy contrary to the Statute in the first year of Q. Elizabeth and that probably he was of the same mind with Mr. Cartwright who would conform in Ceremonie rather to the Turks than to the Papists Book 10. pag 11. Cent. 17. And the same Bishop Bancroft bade K. James remember the Speech of the French Ambassador Rognee who said That if the Reformed Church in France had kept the same Order both in Service and in Ceremonies there would have been a thousand more Protestants than there be in that Land intimating That if the Protestants there had embraced the same Service and Ceremonies with the Prelates in England which they could not do but differed from them the Popish Party in France would have been pleased with them and their Conformity would have prevenâ—ed the Parisian Massacâ—e pag. 15. The same Bishop said likewise That in a Church newly planted Preaching is most necessary but it is not so in a Church long established as ours is whereby his Design was to thrust out Sermons as unnecessary by the more necessary service-Service-Book pag. 15. Remark the Fourth But the Lord Chancellor said at that same Hampton Court Conference that Church-Livings at that time wanted rather Learned-men than Learned men any Church livings Many such pining for want of Places through their Nonconformity and to this Complaint he added That he wished every Learned man were supplyed with a single Coat to wit one Church-Benefice before that others be thatched on with double and treble Coats in their Pluralities c. p. 16. Mr. Knewstubb the Nonconformist at the same Conference said Put the case That the Church hath Power to add any significant Signs it may not add them where Christ hath already ordered them This derogates from the Authority of Christ as much as if any should presume to add any thing to the Great Seal of England c. These few instances I have inserted in this small Tract out of Mr. Fuller who was a famous Episcopal Divine c. Remark the Fifth Tho King James was look'd upon by the Prelates as no better than an Arrant Puritan when he came first to the Crown of England and was the first King that ever was proclaimed K. of Great Britain France and Ireland yet Cluverius testifies of him That he left the Church of England as he found it at the Death of Q. Elizabeth without any Reformation or Redress of Grievances therein insomuch that some severely enough describing his Court and Character discover much of his King craft even such as were Eye witnesses or Ear-witnesses thereof and so making good his own Motto Qui nescit dissimulare nescit Regnare He that cannot Dissemble ought not to Reign Mr. Fuller tells us That in his time Archbishop Abbot's stiffness about the Earl of Essex's Divorce c. though it was to his eternal Honour in not complying with the Bawdy Bishops yet the
King and Court were his Foes for it ever after and above all Bishop Laud whom he calls Filius ante diem sets himself against him and as if not content to succeed him he endeavour'd to supplant him as if a falling Tree stood in need of felling he being now exceeding old Fuller Ch. Hist Cent. 17. B. 11. p. 128. CHAP. IV. BUt leaving K. James as he lest his Throne to K. Charles the First a few Remarks upon his Reign As First Mr. Fuller tells us how Bishop Laud that grand Master of Ceremonies c. had entred into his Diary that the Parliament in the fourth year of Charles the First Anno Dom 1628. did earr estly endeavour his Destruction Cent. 17. Book 11. pag. 132. In which Parliament Mr. Pryn charges Dr. Manwaring that he taught The Consciences of Subjects are bound to obey illegal Commands c. yea and damns them in case of Disobedience c. Relating likewise how Dr. Cozens set up in Durham a marble Altar with Cherabims which cost Two thousand Pound and he made a Gaudy Cope with the Trinity Embroider'd upon it whereon was God the Father in the figure of an Old Man and another with a Crucifix and Christs In age having a Red Beard and a Blew Cap upon his Head c. And how this same Dr. lighted two hundred Wax Candles about his Altar upon Candlemass-Day And how he forbad singing of Psalms but Commanded Anthems to be Sung and among the Rest an Anthem of the three Kings of Colain Gaspar Belthazar and Mclchior c. And how this Dr. procured a Consecrated Knife wherewith to cut his Sacrament Bread c. Ibidem pag. 173. The 2d Remark Is that of Mr. Fuller's saying those high Prelates call the Bp. of Armagh Dr. Vsher D. Morton Dr. Hall Dr. Sanders Dr. Brownrigg Dr. Holdsworth all those famous Doctors a Company of Puritanical Bishops that were Doctrinal tho' not Disciplinary Puritans who said that the Doctrine of the Council of Trent was preached by these Bishops Fuller Ch. Hist pag. 174.175 Remark the third Mr. Fuller relateth how the grievances of Arch-Bishop Williams did much hasten if not chiefly cause the Suppression of that Ecclesiastick Court the Star Chamber the two Arch-Bishops being therein engaged against each other pag. 159. and likewise how the Convocation in the Year 1640. had full Commission from King Charles the 1st either to alter the old Canons or to make new ones which Royal Power had not been granted for many Years before Fuller ibidem pag. 168. And how after that Parliament was dissolved the Convocation still sate wherem to fewer than thirty six of themselves were Dissenters among them but their Oath obliged them that none should ever give consent to the altering of the Church Government which Oath seemed to Abridge the Liberty and Authority of both King and Parliament who had a power of alteration when they saw cause for it Beside this Oath saith he had a Windy Et caetera in it a Cheverel word which like a Cheverel point might be stretched out at pleasure This same figure c. in the Oath the Witty Poet Cleveland my Contemporary in the University call'd the Curled Lock of Anti-Christ And tho time was given for Conforming to this Et caetera Oath until the twenty ninth of September to deliberate upon it yet some over active Bishops saith Mr. Fuller did presently press the Oath upon some Ministers yea and to take this Bishop's Oath kneeling which is a Ceremony saith he that is never exacted nor observed in taking the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King pag. 171. And how Dr. Turner in his Convocation Sermon blamed some Bishops for their being too meek and moderate and bidding them that with equal strictness they would press forward an Vniversal Conformity And indeed they did as he bad them pushing End-ways this matter of Conformity until they set all the Kingdom into a Flame in the late Civil Vncivil Wars c. Remark the Fourth By all the aforesaid tho' it be not the Tenth part of what Mr. Fuller saith c. It cannet be wordred at that so many Nonconformists both of the Presbyterial and Congregational Judgment have separated themselves from such a Church of England so Characterized not only by Dr. Ames in his fresh suit against Ceremonies and Mr. Robinsons Justification of a separation from the Church of England and the Remonstrance of Mr. Cartwright Subscribed by a thousand Ministers here in England beside Zarchy's Epistle to the Queen at large all which and many more Authors of that Subject I have by me To say nothing of Calvin Beza c. This Mr. Fuller being an Episcopal Divine tells Tales enow out of his Church for which doing he could rise no higher than a poor Preb ndary Let him be Instar omnium c. Remark the Fifth If any enquire more after the particular Reasons of the Nonconformists Separation from the Church of England take this brief Account as this Tract will admit of c. Reason the 1st Upon the same ground that the Church of England separateth from Rome do we separate from them Dr. Stillingsteet in his Dialogue for justifying their Separation from home saith pag. 165. We think the Requiring of doubtful things for certain false for true new for old absurd for Reasonable is ground enough for us not to embrace communion with that Church unless it may be had upon better terms Now let the Mouth of this battering Cannon be but turn'd against the Church of England as 't is there against the Church of Rome it will assuredly give as loud a Report and do as much Execution for us in justifying our Separation as well as theirs Seeing there are Imposed on us Doubtful things for certain c. And we think this is ground enough for us as well as for themselves not to Embrace the Communion of such a Church Why may not our we think so be as good as their we think so Why may not our Rouland be as good as their Oliver What is good Sawce for a Goose may be as good Sawce for a Gander c. Reason the 2d A Comparison betwixt the Primitive and the Present English Church The Nonconformists find a great many Humane Inventions in the latter that were never Divine Institutions in the former Such as Cathedral Musick with Organs Chancellours Commissaries Officials Pompous Prelates with sole Power of Ordination and Excommunication Calling of Ministers without the express consent of the Congregations over which they are placed Ministers going to Law for their Places Pluralities Non Residents Dumb Curates Simony Prophane Contemners of Religion made Members of the Church Carnal proceedings in Spiritual Courts Bribes for Ordinations Citations Absolutions and many more such Additionals of the same Brann whereof there was not the least shew or shadow allowed in the Primitive Church Now the Noncons Argue with their Lord and Master Non erat sic ab initio nec