name of Jesus not ralling in the Communion-Table not setting it Altarwise not reading the second service at it with many more such things which were brought into practice by Archbishop Laud Bishop Wren and others One great pretence of keeping up many of these things was to avoid the scandal of the Papists and to intice them to our Religion c. We have now seen the effects of this in the experience of an hundred years which have been too sad to particularize it were easie to make a Book of Acts and Monuments twice as big as Mr. Foxes with the sufferings of holy and good men upon these accounts in that time What manner of persons the Dissenters are the experience of twenty years since his Majesties Restauration hath sufficiently informed the world What have the most fiery of their adversaries to object against them except in the matters of their God What kind of friend the Popish party hath been hath been also made sufficiently evident I humbly leave it to the judgment of his Most Excellent Maejesty and his Parliament whether seeing confessedly it may be without offence to the Divine Majesty The taking away of those things which alone make the Partition-wall betwixt Protestants and Protestants be not as politick as pious considering the History of Conformity from the first unto this very day which might possibly have appeared more reasonable if I would have inserted the lamentable stories of the sufferings of good men on this account of which I have a plenty but I had rather they should be forgotten most of the Authors of them before this time have given up their account and know whether they did good or evil and if any be alive I hope all good men will say Father forgive them for they knew not what they did Only let it be the Religious care of our Superiors to prevent any further complaints of this nature in our Streets for the Lord most certainly heareth the crys of the Innocent and oppressed The History of Conformity or a Proof of the Mischief of Impositions from the experience of an Hundred years THE notion of Conformity with us in England hath always signified a compliance with and obedience to such commands of Superiors in matters of Doctrine Worship and Government of the Church as are no where expresly originated in the Word of God but supposed to be there left to liberty and being neither there commanded nor forbidden are presumed to be matter of Superiors just commands The power of Superiors to command in things which the parties commanded do agree indifferent was never yet disputed by the generality of Nonconformists But there being many things which Superiors call indifferent which the Inferiors verily believe to be unlawful the difference hath chiefly been about these and still is so to this day Upon the Reformation of this Nation from Popery in the days of K. Edw. the 6th in the year 1552 which was 6 Edw. 6th there were Articles of Faith agreed on and in the 2. 3 Edw. 6. cap. 1. 5. 6 Edw. 6. cap. 1. two Acts were made referring to two Common-Prayer-Books made in the short Reign of that excellent Prince It must be known that before this time in the time of K. Hen. 8. there were great foundations for Reformation laid in the suppression of Monasteries taking away the Popes Supremacy destruction of Appeals to Rome Printing the Bible in English but there was no Reformation in Doctrine Worship or Discipline For the Doctrine it appeareth to have been Popish by the six Articles the first of which yet was so penned as though it established a corporal presence of Christ in the Supper yet it seemed to leave it indefinite whether in the Popish or Lutheran sense which possibly gave Archbishop Cranmer who as well as Latimer and other good men at that time were Lutherans a latitude to be an agent in Lamberts condemnation The other five articles against giving the Cup to the Laity and for Private Masses and Monkish Vows Auricular Confession and Priests Marriages were perfectly Popish So as in that time no Nonconformist appear'd but as to Doctrine of which Lambert the Martyr was one and so were all those that suffered upon the account of the six Articles together with multitudes who fled into other Countries to avoid that Persecution The Worship of those days was the Mass only some parts of it were in English The Government of the Church was also in the same method for though three Acts had been made to authorize K. H. 8. to call together 32 persons to make a Book of new Canons yet for ought appeareth to us it was not done And possibly a due consideration that several of our greatest Reformers were Lutherans at first may satisfie us as to the first establishment of our Liturgy in the method it was and retaining of some Ceremonies the Saxon Churches having before reformed in that method keeping as much as they could both of the Old Prayers and Ceremonies And it is very likely that when after Queen Maries time the Reformation came to be re-setled some of those who had a great hand in it were possessed of the Lutheran Principles as to the Corporal Presence Forms and Ceremonies or at least had a very great Reverence for Cranmer Latimer and others who were then dead as Martyrs and chose to fix things according to their sentiments in these matters without so due weighing things as the matter required or having not so early a prospect of the evils which experience hath since let us see following thereupon In the first Parliament of King Edw. 6. the first Statute tells us that before that time in the times of Popery they had several Forms one used at Sarum another at Bangor c. and the whole Ministry of the Nation were just come out of Popery and neither fit to Pray nor Preach which was the reason both of that establishment and also of the Book of Homilies and of the Original cause of that Imposition on the Ministry not to preach without license For the truth is hardly one of an hundred of the Priests newly proselyted from Popery were fit to Preach at all which made our Rulers restrain Preaching only to such as should be licensed Besides that there was just reason to fear that those Priests but for such a Law and such a Book would have returned to their former Mass-service To prevent which the Book was provided 2 3 Edw. 6. and corrected 3 4 Edw. 6. And all Ministers injoin'd by Statute to read those Prayers and all the people to bear them There was before that time no Nonconformist to direct the Act against only Papists But upon the second Edition of the Common-Prayer there appeared a considerable party who opposed themselves to it Three years before Bishop Hooper and Mr. Rogers had declared themselves against some Rites and Ceremonies But the last year of Edw. 6. was the first time we read of any opposition to
themselves by Petition to the Queen and to particular Lords of the Council then to the Queen and the whole Council Particularly Dunmow in Essex sent a Supplication to my Lord Rich. The Parishioners of Aldermary in London to the Earl of Leicester The Ministers of the Diocess of Peterborough to another Lord. Many addressed to the whole Council viz. The Gentlemen of Norfolk the Ministers in Norfolk the Ministers of Essex the Ministers of Lincolnshire Essex Oxfordshire the Isle of Ely and many other Counties and places I have by me all the Copies I shall only transcribe that of the Ministers of Lincolnshire The Supplication of the Ministers of Lincolnshire to the Lords of the Council Forasmuch Right Honourable as the Lord of heaven and earth hath substituted your Honours next under her Majesty to procure passage to his Gospel beauty to his Church and glory to his Kingdom in which business of the Lord to the great joy of all those which pray heartily for the peace of Jerusalem hitherto you have happily proceeded We whose names are underwritten whom the same Lord hath in mercy placed over some of his people here in Lincolnshire as Pastors and Preachers to feed them with the word of truth do humbly beseech your Honours to regard the pitiful and woful estate of our Congregations and people in these parts which being destitute of our Ministry by the means of a Subscription generally and strictly urged now of late by the Bishops Officers do mourn and lament It is well known to all your Lordships that an absolute Subscription is required throughout the whole Province of Canterbury to three Articles The first concerning her Majesties Supreme Authority The second to the Book of Common-prayer with that of consecrating Bishops and ordering Priests and Deacons The third concerning the Book of Articles As touching the first we offer our sevles to a full Subscription as always heretofore we have done as also to the Articles of Religion I presume here must be meant as in the rest generally is exprest so far as they concern matters of Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments and cannot be accepted herein without an absolute Subscribing to the other unto which we dare not condescend being as yet many of us not fully acquainted with the Book of confecrating Bishops and ordering Priests and Deacons and all of us unresolved and unsatisfied in our Consciences in many points of the Common-Prayer May it please your Lordships also favourably to consider that in refusing an absolute Subscription we do it not out of any arrogance or singularity but only for that we have no sufficient resolution which we have earnestly desired of some doubts about divers weighty matters and points in the same Book which requests of ours sith we could not obtain we desired that at the least in our Subscription we might make exceptions of the things whereof we doubted which they have utterly denied us for which causes Right Honourable we fearing to Subscribe so absolutely as we were urged we are all suspended from executing the function of our Ministry amongst our people to the great danger of their souls and danger of losing the fruit of our former poor labours which we have by Gods Grace imployed upon them wherefore we humbly crave of your Honours our Cause being as we are perswaded the Lords own Cause and his Churches that it may be considered And that since we can neither be impeached of false Doctrine nor of contempt of her Majesties Laws nor of refusing of the exercising of the Book of Common-Prayer in our charges nor of breeding contention and sedition in the Church And again that Papists her Majesties enemies with Atheists to the corrupting of Religion in Doctrine and Manners do daily multiply and increase we may be restored to our flocks and people in such sort as with all peace of Conscience we may go forward with the Lords Work in building up his house in several places Thomas Fulkeck Hugh Tuke John Daniel Richard Allen. Anthony Hunt Reinold Grome Thomas Tripler Shepheard Henry Nelson Mat. Tomson Thomas Bradly Joseph Gibson James Worship Charles Bingam John Munning Humfrid Travers John Pryer John Summerscales John Wintle Richard Holdsworth Richard Kellet These are enough for specimens of several sorts of Supplications There were others more particularly directed to the Queen and to some great persons all much to the same sense This last means had some little effect of which the Author of the Book called The unlawful practices of Prelates giveth us this account c. 4. Hence became the subscription to be somewhat more tolerable and further time was granted unto divers in divers Countreys and retaining that which pertained to the Civil State and in the Ecclesiastical that which concerned doctrine with protestation to use the Book of Common-prayer the Archbishop suffered himself to be entreated to require no more of many To this many were drawn the peace of the Church the compassion of their flocks the weariness of turmoils brought many to it that yet did it some with tears some with so great heaviness of conscience long after as they were never quiet till their dying day So great a desire of unity was in sundry men that stood herein Others satisfying themselves with a protestation of an holy and godly resolution by the Archbishop and other of the Bishops in certain points as they supposed by the example of certain learned men in the like case did not refuse to subscribe as the Ministers of Sussex and such like Again some other special men were admitted in divers places with more favour as the Ministers of Leicestershire Buckinghamshire and somt other places and some such others chiefly such whose authority would have brought discredit to their too too severe proceedings without any subscription at all Hence of the multitude that held out at first seemed not so great tho in truth in respect of the men and the times they were too too many and their subscription laid with their sundry exceptions in a manner no subscription at all But with the credit of these shewing only the subscriptions in one paper and retaining their Protestation in another many were drawn also as unawares birds into the net by the chirping of birds first taken From the colour of these last forms of subscriptions sprang bruits as tho all things were well in the Orders and Liturgy of the Church of England all things subscribed unto that all had yielded that whosoever mouths were open had subscribed But how far these differ frow that which was at first tendered I suppose no man is ignorant As again how little difference there is between the latter and that which all men did freely and frankly offer at the first Nothing that did pertain to her Excellent Majesty was struck at nothing that concerned doctrine or the substance of our faith Nothing that in the Statutes was set down touching Subscription The most that was excepted against at first and
THE HISTORY OF Conformity Or a PROOF of the MISCHIEF OF IMPOSITIONS FROM THE EXPERIENCE Of more than One Hundred Years LONDON Printed by A. Maxwell and R. Roberts 1681. To the READER by way of INTRODUCTION Christian Reader WHAT was in a great measure proved before the Committee of Parliament in the year 1666 that London was burned by the treachery of Papists and hath withal been suspected a long time by our wise and discerning Patriots that a Plot was by them laid to subvert the Government of the Nation and introduce the Popish Religion hath been so fully proved by a variety of Evidence before the greatest Courts of Judicature in England since the first discovery of the late Hellish Plot and that with this advantage to convince us of the Villany and danger of that party That they had upon it grafted a design for the hastening of the other to assassinate his most Sacred Majesty and several eminent Peers and by a Popish army to massacre all Protestants as none can deny it with any degree of modesty And if any had any inclinations to it the murther of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey and Assassination of Mr. Arnold the manifold lyes perjuries subornations which have been proved against them the device of the Meal-tub Plot c. to spoil the credit of the manifold proofs against them have been such convictions as none hath been able to outface unless such as have dreamed of a liberty yea and a merit too for and in doing any thing for the reputation of the Catholick Church as they nickname the Synagogue of Rome It is as evident that the design of the Popish faction was to have cast the Odium of these actions upon the Protestants The Odium of Sir Edmondbury Godfreys death should have been cast upon Debauches of that Religion had it not been unluckily discovered that he was murthered within the Walls of Sommerset House But that of the Kings Death could they have effected it should have been thrown on the Presbyterians a name under which of late they have comprehended all Dissenters This should have engaged our credulous and furious men to have helped them to have destroyed the Dissenters while they should have got their Catholick Army in a capacity at last to have destroyed them also This restless party having had this long in their design no doubt wonderfully influenced some to procure such a settlement of Religion upon his Majesties Restauration as should produce Dissenters enough nor is it reasonable to think that all the latter severe Acts against Dissenters were not the fruits of their counsels considering how conducive they were to make a great number of Protestants willing for their own ease to have had an Vniversal Toleration which though nothing is or can be more contrary to Popish Principles would admirably have served their design giving an undisturbed liberty to their Priests and Jesuits who can never have an abode in any place without contriving the ruin of those they call Hereticks in our own bowels to have contrived our ruin Or if this failed as indeed it did yet they knew that this way they should employ all our Courts of Judicature against Protestants so as they should not look after them and besides raise a mighty odium and prejudice in the hearts of Protestants one against another so as whatever Villany they should have effected it would have been easie to have charged it upon Dissenters and there had been a party of Protestants in name ready prepared to give credit to it It is now evident to all who will not wilfully shut their eyes how near they were to have accomplished their design But God in infinite mercy hath prevented the accomplishment After all this one would reasonably think that there should not be one Protestant in England who should not think it high time for our Superiors to unite all Protestants A thing the more easie and reasonable because it is apparent that it may be done without the least offence to God or scandal to the generality of Reformed Churches and by the abatement only of some things which being abated we shall be much more like all Reformed Churches than we are But against this some make a mighty outcry out of what design God knoweth For it is a little mysterious that those men who all along have been great pleaders for a reconciliation betwixt us and the Church of Rome and the true Disciples of those Bishops who to prevent the offence of that Church took upon them in the time of King Charles the first to expunge passage out of the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book and to bring us as near as possible to them erected Altars brought in Tapers and twenty things more should now that they see the effect of those endeavours for and favours to Papists not be willing for the reconciling of all Protestants to abate those things which themselves own no where specially commanded by God and this too at a time when the Popish bloody Knives are at all our Throats Especially considering that the true cause of retaining our Ceremonies at the first and forming our Common-Prayer-Book in the method it is was originally a desire so far to commend our Worship to the Papists whose Religion lyes all in Ceremonies and Set-forms that they might be proselyted to us and the effects we have seen after an hundred years and upwards is but the hardning of Papists and the alienating infinite numbers of Protestants from us I am aware that a late Author in his Book call'd The Vnreasonableness of Separation hath given us an account of three other reasons of the first Imposition of the Ceremonies upon the Reformation 1. A due reverence to Antiquity 2. To manifest the justice and equity of the Reformation by letting the Papists see we did not break communion with them for things meerly indifferent 3. To shew our consent with other Protestant Churches But he had better have said nothing For will some say How have we reverenced Antiquity in retaining three of their ceremonies and leaving out twenty more of greater antiquity if we may believe the Books we have than the Surplice and kneeling at the Sacrament two of the three we have retained can pretend unto Besides that all the account we have of antiquity is from Books Printed within 200 years for Printing is very little older from Manuscripts which if they bear date three hundred years after Christ must be 1100 years old when they were Printed If we stretch antiquity to 600 years after Christ they must be 800 years old and all that time generally kept in the hands of the known depravers of all Books that ever came in their hands where was any thing not for the purposes of their Church Now what reverence is due to any such worm-eaten Records of antiquity let any men of sense judg His second reason is as invalid for what need was there of our keeping two or three Ceremonies to testifie we did not differ from them for meer
the Common Prayer and the contest was quickly at an end by the coming in of Q. Mary The business of Church-Government as to the rules of it was left by King Edward undetermined for he died before he had given his Royal sanction to that Systeme of Ecclesiastical Laws which was drawn up by Archbishop Cranmer and others by vertue of his Commission directed to them in the fifth year of his Reign In all his time no Subscription was required by Statute or Canon that I can find established by his authority under the broad Seal either to the Articles of Faith or to the Book of Common-Prayer c. nor do I read of one Minister silenced or suspended upon any such account or any people vexed for Nonconformity Our prudent Reformers knowing they had to do with a people who were Papists the other day in their first Common Prayer Book varied as little as they could from the Popish Missal and kept as many of the Ceremonies as they conceived were consistent with any degree of Reformation In the second Common-Prayer-Book they varied more but yet we are assured by Dr. Fuller in his Church History Lib. 7. that the party now disaffected to the Liturgy became very considerable This was in the very beginning of the Reformation Anno 1553. Queen Mary succeeding put an end to all these contests in England for the whole time of her Reign which was but five years To avoid her Persecution multitudes fled beyond the Seas fixing some at Basil some at Geneva some at Strasburgh some at Embden some at Francfort and other places We have no account that I know how those governed themselves as to Religious matters who fixed at any of those places save only at Francfort and Geneva those at Geneva followed the Order of that Church so did those at Francfort using the order at Geneva from June 27 1554 to Mar. 13. 1555 when Dr. Cox one of those who had compiled our English Common Prayer Book and was mightily in love with his own labours came over with a new party from England and by his arts got admission into the Church at Francfort and brought in the English Book amongst them nor did this satisfie him but he must also turn out their Pastor Mr. Knox and that not from his charge only but out of Francfort procuring him by some of his party to be accused to the Senate for a Sermon he had two years before Preached in Bucking hamshire here in England in which he had some passages reflecting upon the Emperour of Germany as an Idolater c. which made some of the Senate advise him to leave the City because the Imperial Court was then at Ausburgh and if this malicious party had carried an accusation against him thither and the Emperour should require the City to deliver him as a Traytor to him they could not refuse him Which made Mr. Knox and a considerable party of that Church remove to Geneva This was the first fruits of the conformable mens kindness to poor Dissenters though at that time they were both parties voluntary Exiles in a strange Land for the common Cause of Religion So that Dr. Cox who was afterward Bishop of Ely and Horne who was afterwards made Bishop of Winchester were left in possession of that Church and there performed their Devotions by the English common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book which at that time had had but the establishment of one year before it was thrown out for the Mass in England Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown Three years after this in the year 1558. Upon which the banished from all parts returned both those who had fled from King Hen 8. persecution for the Six Articles who if any of them returned before were driven back again and those who fled from Queen Maries persecution from 1553. to 1558. These if we may believe Bishop Bancroft and Dr. Fuller having beyond Sea sucked in the Protestant principles for Worship as well as Discipline were the Fathers of Nonconformity in England But these were either many more than I could ever find registred or else under both persecutions multitudes must lye hid in England And indeed some make the cause of the different apprehensions in Protestants at that time to lye here That those most favourable to Conformity and promoters of it were such as had never been abroad but during both those persecutions weathered the storm in England and the Nonconformists such as had been abroad and seen the Worship Order and Discipline of the Churches in Suitzerland and Germany and at Geneva But this is not Universally true for both Dr. Cox and Mr. Horne were at Francfurt yet high en ough for our Conformity both during their abode there and after their return into England In the first year of Queen Elizabeth several Acts passed which revived the Reformation Uniting the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown Repealing Queen Maries Act of Repeal and reviving several Statutes for the Reformation made in the time of Hen. 8. and Edw. 6. establishing Vniformity of Prayers And it is to be noted that these Acts passed without the assent of one Bishop there were at this time but Fourteen present and they were all Papists and notorious Dissenters from all Acts of this nature This by the way may let my Reader understand the Popish design of a party amongst us for whom it is not enough that the Clergy be owned as one of the Three Estates of the Realm of which the King is the Head but they will also have them to be one of the Three States in Parliament which if they be no Law can be of force that wants the consent of some of them So that if that notion were yeilded all our Acts for Reformation must be concluded Nullities It was the second year of the Queen before we had a set of Protestant Bishops It was her Majesties interest at that time so to govern her self as to caray an equal hand to all Protestants accordingly she fill'd up the Bishopricks partly with men that during the late persecutions had staid in England partly of such as had fled beyond the Seas 1. Mathew Parker Archbishop of Canterbury he had lived a private life in England These if no more had been Exiles 2. Edward Grindall Bishop of London 3. Robert Horne Bishop of Winchester 4. Richard Cox Bishop of Ely 5. Edward Sands Bishop of Worcester 6. John Jewel Bishop of Salisbury 7. Tho. Beatham B of Coventry and Litchfield 8. John Parkhurst Bishop of Norwish Whether these had been beyond Sea during the persecution I cannot tell 9. Rowland Mecreek Bishop of Bangor 10. Nicholas Bullingham Bishop of Lincoln 11. Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids 12. Richard Davyes Bishop of Asaph 13. Gilbert Barclay Bishop of Bath and Wells 14. Edmond Guest Bishop of Rochester 15. William Alley Bishop of Exeter 16. Edmond Seamler Bishop of Peterborough 17. Richard Cheyney Bishop of Glocester 18. Thomas Young Archbishop of York 19. James Pilkington Bishop
of Durham 20. John Best Bishop of Carlisle 21. George Downham Bishop of Chester The other Bishopricks were either detained in the Queens hands or held in Commendam These men were all of them Conformists but some of them knew the heart of Sufferers for their consciences towards God for themselves had been such indeed they generally had been so though in different degrees This temper of these Bishops gave that party much quiet for several years who could not agree to the Liturgy and Ceremonies I find a very large Petition presented by multitudes to the Queen Anno. 1561. which was the Third year of her Reign in Three or Four Sheets M. S. where they complain of insufficient and scandalous Ministers of Pluralists and Non-residents and Lawyers being Ministers but I find not the least complaint of any suspended deprived c. Yet even at the first I find Mr. Coverdale refusing to be restored to his Bishoprick of Exeter and Reverend Gilpen refusing the Bishoprick of Carlisle But no Subscription was yet required to any thing by any Legal Authority nor was the use of all the Common-Prayer-Book or an exact observance of the Ceremonies generally urged This kept all in quiet some years the people enjoyed the labours of their godly Ministers the Ministers at that time scrupled not to use some parts of the Common-Prayer the Bishops did not exact their use of the more offensive parts of it nor of the Ceremonies some particular Officials were a little busie and some few very few men were sufferers by them but the body of the Nonconforming Ministers and people were much quiet until not only Arch-Bishop Parker was dead but Bishop Grindall also who succeeded him in that who died about 1583. about the 25th of the Queen In the year 1583. Dr. John Whitgift came to be Archbishop of Canterbury The first I read of as to Subscriptions and Nonconformity was when the Subscription to the 39. Articles which were made by the Convocation 1562. but not confirmed by Parliament until the year 1572. which was the 13th Eliz. and then only required to be subscribed by such as were to be admitted to Livings and that no further than so far as concerned matters of Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments was exacted from all Ministers After the agreement in them by the Convocation 1562. several Bishops without any Authority from Parliament imposed a Subscription to the whole number of them upon all Ministers in their Diocesces the refusal of which caused the sufferings of seveaal particular men John Fox being required to Subscribe pulled out his Greek Testament and plainly told the Archbishop he would Subscribe to nothing but that but yet such was the gravity of the man such his Eminency for his service to the Church that he was let alone The famous Laurence Humfry and Anthony Gilby and some others appeared Nanconformists Betwixt 1563. and 1583. also especially in the latter part of that time the Bishops began to press a Subscription to Two Articles more the one to acknowledg the Queens Supremacy that none denied or as good as none the other was that the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book the Books of Homilies and the Book of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons contained in them nothing contrary to the Word of God To this day there is no Book of Canons confirmed by Parliament that requireth any such thing but I cannot find that there was any Canon about these things that had King Edward's or Queen Elizabeths assent notified under the Broad Seal so as it could pretend to any Legal establishment But the Bishops of that Age were adventuring to establish these things upon their own Authority directly contrary to the Statute 25. Henry 8. which restrained them from putting any Canons in use to be made after that time unless they first had the Kings Assent The Oath of Supremacy was indeed established by Act 1st Eliz. but a Subscription was not The use of the Common-Prayer was commanded by an Act 1st Eliz. but a Subscription that that there was nothing in it nor in the Homilies nor in the Book of Ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons contrary to the Word of God under a penalty of suspension or Deprivation was not And the question so often put to them by the Bishops Will you use that which you will not subscribe to that it contains nothing repugnant to Gods word is easily answered There was a great part of the Book viz. the Rubricks that were not to be used in God's Worship Nor did they use it all but some part of it which was not offensive to them and other good people But altho' many suffered upon this new imposition after Whitgift came to be a considerable figure in the Church yet the great shock was after that he came upon the death of Grindal to be Arch-bishop of Canterbury which was about the year 1583. and the first considerable Nonconformity of Ministers in England is to be dated from this time Some separation there was before this time For Bishop Bancroft in his Dangerous Positions tells us That within the ten or eleven first years of the Queens reign many of the people separated meeting in woods and fields But their numbers were not valuable nor their persons much considerable they were generally as sheep without a Shepherd few or no Ministers being amongst them at least of any note or authority to give them any great name or repute The Author of the Book entituled The unlawful practices of the Prelates which was wrote about that time tells us That as to Protestant Dissenters the Queen had a most peaceable Government for the first twenty four years of her reign Towards some particular good men some hard dealings were shewed here and there by the instigation of some ignorant and half Popish persons for lack of judgment and knowledg That which possibly gave occasion to this activity of the Bishops were two sorts of Dissenters which they observed amongst the Ministers Some who only dissented as to the Common-prayer-book and Ceremonies of which number were Mr. Field Mr. Wilcox Mr. Standon Mr. Boxham Mr. Saintcloe Mr. Clare Mr. Edmonds Others that were also for the Reformation of Discipline amongst whom were Mr. Clark Mr. Travers Mr. Barber Mr. Gardner Mr. Chestou Mr. Crook Mr. Egerton who were all betrayed by one Mr. Johnson who was wont to meet with them and many of them most miserably treated in the High Commission upon it A great noise was made of the election of a Presbytery at Wandsworth in Surry the meaning of which was no more than this The Queens and the Bishops Orders extending no further to the trial and fitness of Communicants than if they could say the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments all which might be done by one so ignorant that no Minister who regarded what he did could administer the Lords Supper unto some Ministers did agree of a stricter examination and the people made choice of ten or eleven persons to
qualified 1. In the Church Service That the Cross in Baptism Interrogatories ministred to Infants Confirmation as superfluous may be taken away Baptism not to be administred by Women and so explained The Cap and Surplice not urged That Examination may go before the Communion That it may be administred with a Sermon That divers terms of Priests Absolution and some others used with the Ring in Marriage and other such like in the Book might be corrected The longsomeness of Service abridged Church-songs and Musick moderated to better edification That the Lords day be not profaned The rest upon Holidays not so strictly urged That there may be an Vniformity of Doctrine prescribed No Popish opinion any more taught or defended No Ministers charged to teach the people to bow at the Name of Jesus That the Canonical Scriptures only be read in the Church 2. Concerning Church Ministers That none hereafter be admited into the Ministry but able and sufficient men and those to preach diligently and especially upon the Lords day That such as be already entred and cannot Preach may either be removed and some charitable course taken for their relief or else to be forced according to the value of their Livings to maintain Preachers That non-Residency be not permitted That King Edwards Statute for the lawfulness of Ministers Marriages may be revived That Ministers be not urged to subscribe but according to the Law to the Articles of Religion and the Kings Supremacy only 3. For Church-livings and Maintenance That Bishops leave their Commendams some holding Prebends some Parsonages some Vicarages with their Bishopricks That double beneficed men be not suffered to hold some two some three Benefices with Cure and some two three or four Dignities besides That Impropriations annexed to Bishopricks and Colledges be demised only to Preachers incumbent for the old Rent That the Impropriations of Lay-mens fees may be charged with a sixth or seventh part of the worth to the maintenance of the â—reaching Ministers 4. For Church-Discipline That the Discipline and Excommunication may be administred according to Christs Institution or at the least that enormities may be redressed as namely That Excommunication come not forth under the names of Chancellors Lay-persons Officials c. That men be not Excommunicated for trifles twelve peny matters That none be Ecommunicated without consent of his Pastor That the Officers be not suffered to extort unreasonable fees That none having Jurisdiction or Registers places put out the same to farm That divers Popish Canons as for restraint of Marriage at certain times be reversed That the longsomeness of Suits in Ecclesiastical Courts which hang sometimes 2 3 4 5 6 7 years may be restrained That the Oath ex Officio by which men are forced to accuse themselves be more sparingly used That Licenses for Marriage without Banes asked be more cautiously granted These with such other abuses yet remaining and practised in the Church of England we are able to shew to be not agreeable to the Scriptures if it shall please your Highness further to hear us or more at large to be informed or by conference amongst the Learned to be resolved And yet we doubt not but that your Majesty without further process of whose Christian judgment we have received so good a taste already is able of your self to judg of the equity of this cause God we trust hath appointed your Highness our Physician to heal these diseases and we say with Mordecai to Esther Who knoweth but you are come to the Kingdom for such a time Thus your Majesty shall do that which we are perswaded shall be acceptable to God honourable to your Majesty in all succeeding ages profitable to his Church which shall be thereby increased comfortable to your Ministers which shall be no more suspended silenced disgraced imprisoned for mens traditions and prejudicial unto none but those who seek their own credit quiet and profit in the world Thus with all dutiful submission referring our selves to your Majesties Pleasure for your Gracious answer as God shall direct you We most humbly recommend your Highness to the Divine Majesty whom we beseech for Christ his sake to do herein what shall be for his glory the good of his Church and your endless comfort Your Majesties most humble Subjects the Ministers of the Gospel who desire not a disorderly Innovation but a due and Godly Reformation How his Majesty resented this Petition is variously reported But sure it is saith Fuller it ran the Gantlop through all the Prelatical party every one giving it a lash some with their Pens more with their tongues and the dumb Ministers as they term it found their speech most vocal against it How many the number of those was who joined in this and several other Petitions at the same time and were suspended deprived imprisoned c. I cannot tell but a great division arose which held during the Archbishop Bancrofts time Bishop Abbot who succeeded him in the Archbishoprick of Canterbury was much calmer Several Books were wrote at this time against the Nonconformist by Mr. Hutton Mr. Rogers Dr. Lovel and Dr. Spark who had himself been a Dissenter but in the year 1607 1608 they were learnedly answered by a Book of three parts call'd A Defence of the Ministers Reasons for refusal of Subscription The first part was concerning the holy Scriptures the ill Translation of several Texts The second concerning the Holy Scriptures and Apocrypha The third was about kneeling at the Sacrament Several able Ministers left the Nation many others with their Families were undone in it Thus Conformity stood till the time of King Charles the First some Bishops being more some less rigid in pressing the Canons But when Archbishop Laud came to be Archbishop of Canterbury who succeeded Abbot he made a new Edition of Impositions to which he required Conformity saying second Service at the Table setting that at the East end of the Church Altarwise commanding the Communion Table to be railed in and all people to come up thither to receive the Communion kneeling enforcing the bowing at the Name of Jesus Forbidding Lectures and Afternoon-Sermons Pressing the Book of Sports on the Lords day Not injoining but commending bowing toward the East-end c. and twenty more things What havock hese things made is yet within the memory of many and what disturbance Bishop Wren made in Suffolk and other places as several other Bishops that were his Creatures did in other Diocesses many alive know multitudes of Ministers were again deprived and suspended Many undone in the High Commission At last in the Convocation 1640 an Oath with c. was devised which had perfected the business in rooting out all Puritan Preachers had not a Parliament came and spoil'd that design Scarce any is ignorant what numbers of Godly Ministers and people left the Nation upon this account betwixt 1630. and 1640. so many as to make one of the noblest Colonies at this day in the world that
I mean of New-England besides those who fled into Holland and Ireland Many staid at home and were miserably treated by Courts Some lived privately others in some quiet parts of the Nation kept their Station How little the Conformable Interest gained by this though that Party ruined multitudes of godly people and their Families quickly appeared in the year 1641. when the Parliament began to espouse their Cause and give them liberty The number of Ministers favouring Nonconformity presently appeared far greater than ever before so as their adversaries had a little satisfied their lusts and malice but not in the least promoved their Cause The people were more imbitter'd against them and more enamoured upon painful godly Ministers And the Bishops restraint of Preaching did but inflame people with the desire of it Several Noblemen and Worthy Gentlemen in all parts of England began to be awakened as may appear by many of their excellent Speeches in the beginning of the Parliament 1641. They plainly saw that through these extravagant actings We lost many of our Eminent Ministers multitudes of our most sober people were removed into other Countries The Trade of the Nation was altered much of it carried elsewhere the people in many places turned ignorant brutes for want of Preaching many turned Papists many Doctrines of Popery were Published Colledges were fixed for Romish Priests and Nuns fixed c. a Plot laid by them against the King and Nation they judged it high time to put an end to those practices which had caused those disorders and had this advantage to do it because their Conformity whether old or new had no further Statutable Authority than was given it by the Act of Conformity 1 Eliz. and the Stat. 13 Eliz. c. 12. about the Articles of Faith Upon his Majesties happy Restauration Anno 1660. all promised themselves a freedom from these evils which had troubled the Church very near 70. years from the 13 Eliz. to the year 1640. though indeed in no great degree from the 13th to the 25th of Eliz. but for about 19. years of Queen Elizabeths Reign and the whole time of King James his Reign which was 21. years and 16. years of King Charles his Reign these Impositions were the cause almost of all the evils under which this Nation groaned We had reason to promise our selves this immunity from his Majesties Declaration at Bredah and his first Declaration about Ecclesiastical affairs in the year 1660. Whether the wisdom of his Majesty or that party of the House of Commons who then opposed the passing of it into an Act were greater let the experience now of Twenty years more determine which for the most part have been years of confusion and disorder as to matters of Religion That failing Impositions were augmented Upon this last attempt for settlement Ministers were not only left to the Bishops power to have exacted upon them 1. A Subscription to the 3. Articles in the 36th Canon 2. The Oath of Canonical obedience which though ancient as established by Canons in times of Popery yet we read not of all the time of Queen Eliz. But 3. They must be ordained by Bishops though before ordained according to the Ordination of all other Reformed Churches which in Queen Eliz. time the Statute 13 Eliz. cap. 12. dispensed with and made needless 4. They must assent and consent to all and every thing in the Common-Prayer as now Printed 5. They must declare renounce and abjure all this over and above being tyed to the personal reading of the Common-Prayer and use of the Ceremonies c. The effect was the laying aside of more than 2000. Ministers Besides the Congregations which depended on these good mens Ministry the number of Quakers who had no Ministers and of Pastors of Congregational Churches who had no Livings but were maintained by their people together with the people that depended on them and the Antipaedobaptists were not small who all had an equal if not a greater prejudice to the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book and Ceremonies c. What could by any wise men be expected but what we have seen that in all places people should gather into separate Congregations Could it be expected that such a vast number of Ministers not half of which had any thing to live on but their labours to maintain themselves Wives and Families should quietly have sate still and never Preached if they could have imagined that this humane Law could have discharged them from any previous obligation to God especially being importuned by the people whom God had committed to them If any had such fancies they were very wild ones In publick Temples they must not Preach what remained but their own or others hired houses What would be the event of this was quickly seen and an Act provided against Conventicles making the punishment Fines Imprisonment Banishment c. What a stir this made is sufficiently known This commenced 1664. and being a temporary Act determined 1667 or 1668. Soon after this 1665. passed the Act prohibiting Noncon Ministers to inhabit in Corporations And the Act about Conventicles being expired another Act was made which took place Anno 1670. How many sober Ministers and people in Eight years time had been undone by proceedings against them in the Ecclesiastical Courts Indictments at Sessions and Assizes and by putting the first Act against Conventicles in Execution is sufficiently known and too large and sad a story to relate The new Act against Conventicles and such a one as never before passed a Parliament of England with respect to Magna Charta and the fundamental liberties of the subject passed about 1670. Ministers and people were again prosecuted to incredible degrees almost in all places until his Majesty gave a Writ of ease by his Declaration of Indulgence 1672. that lasted but two years and in 1674. the storm began again as fierce as ever but gradually abated till the year 1677. about which time the Parliament began to have a scent of a Plot to bring in Popery indeed they scented it first in 1673. Our worthy Patriots from that time stood upon their watch something they discerned to be in hand and that the project was deeply laid but on what persons to charge it they knew not and were wholly in the dark as to the methods and particulars of it till God in the year 1678. inclined Dr. Oates to do that never to be forgotten service to his Country at one time saving the Life of his Soveraign the Government of the Nation and the Protestant Religion from a total extirpation and all good Protestants from a Massacre The eyes of all Sober persons are at length opened to see that an Vnion of Protestants is necessary The Question is which way it shall be effected for my own part I should say any way by which it is practicable There are but Two that can fall within the comprehension of any man of sense 1. The First is by continuance of the Impositions on Ministers and