be present at that action Possibly it had been less exposed to scandal if instead of them two or three Ministers had so joined and the end as well obtained but surely this was a far lesser evil than the admitting of all to the Sacrament that could but rehearse the Creed Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments there was nothing in this action but any pious Ministers who are the stewards of the mysteries of God might answer with a safe conscience for of Stewards it is required that they should be faithful saith the Apostle and I believe any Bishop would have judged his Steward unfaithful if he had dealt out his Master's goods contrary to his Master's order The Ministers Master's order is plain enough that the holy Sacrament belongs not either to ignorant or scandalous persons All the Churches of God in all Ages agree this our own Church in her principles agreeth it yet in practice all Ministers were tyed to give the Sacrament as in times of Popery to all such as could but rehearse the Creed the Pater Noster and the Ten Commandments and confessed in Lent those eminent persons who were commissionated by Edw. 6. to draw up a new body of Ecclesiastical Laws though that excellent Prince lived not long enough to set his Hand and Seal to it so as what they had done had no legal force had expresly determined Tit. de Sacramentis Cap. 5. We will have none admitted to the Table of the Lord until in the Church he hath made profession of his faith What should good Ministers do in this case they could act but precariously it seems at Wandsworth in Surry there was a people that voluntarily submitted to this what harm was this to the Bishops But the truth is this business of discipline came into very little debate before 1584. after that Subscription had been so fatally imposed In several Diocesses I perceive there were some circumstantial variations in the forms of Subscriptions To let my Reader therefore know what it was I will give it him as it lieth in the 36th Canon 1603. when it first received any thing like a legal confirmation which was at least 25. or 26. years after it was first devised and full 30. years after it was so rigorously pressed 1. Art That the Queens Majesty under God is thē Supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highnesses Dominions and Territories as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal and that no forreign Prince Person State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority or Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within her Majesties Realms Dominions or Countries 2. Art That he alloweth the Book of Articles agreed on by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London 1562. and that he acknowledgeth All and Every the Articles therein being in number 39. besides the Ratification to be agreeable to the Word of God 3. Art That the Book of common-Common-Prayer and of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God and that it may lawfully be used and that he himself will use the form in the said Book prescribed in publick Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and no other This Engine was first formed by the Archbishop Whitgift and was one of those 16. Proposals he offered to the Queen for the setling of the Church a Copy of which in M. S. with two Answers to them I have read some little difference there was in the Arch-bishops form His first Article was 1. Art That the Authority which is given her Majesty in Causes Ecclesiastical by the Laws of the Land is lawful and according to the Word of God The Second Article was his Third andran thus 2. Art That he allowed the Book of Articles of Religion agreed on by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London 1562. and set forth by her Majesties Authority and that he agreeth the Articles therein contained to be agreeable to the Word of God 3. Art Which was the Archbishops Second was word for word the same This Motion of the Archbishops put the Queen upon adding force to the Imposition which indeed had been by some Bishops began before but now in most Diocesses it was rigorously pressed The issue of this is told us by the Author of the unlawful practices of Prelates in these words Whatsoever was required in Civil Causes either that concerned her Majesty or the State was by the Ministers embraced wholly and freely In Ecclesiastical Causes also whatsoever concerned Doctrine or otherwise was expresly required by Statute for Subscription Thus far at the first all men with protestation offered but to yeild to this thing so strange and new without any Law in streighter sort than ever was required That all things were agreeable to Gods Word and not against it not only tollerable but allowable both in the Book of Common Prayer and in the Book of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons This was refused divers of the Ministers were suspended multitudes were thrust out How many godly able painful Ministers were outed all over England I cannot tell but ex ungue Leonem I have seen a M. S. which gives an account of the names of Sixty odd in Suffolk Twenty one in Lincolnshire Sixty four in Norfolk Thirty eight in Essex which though they seem comparatively few yet are a great many when we consider that in Essex at that time there was an account given of 163. Ministers that never Preach'd only read Prayers and Homilies and 85. more Pluralists Non residents or persons most notoriously debaucht This was the first fruit of that Archbishops preferment and a fair offer at the rooting out of the reformed Religion as soon as planted which never did nor ever will live and flourish in any place under the conduct of an ignorant debauched unpreaching Ministry such a Ministry much better serving Popish than Protestant purposes What the Ministers that were suspended or deprived did to prevent their misery or to get this severity a little mitigated and allayed at this time in the years 1583 1584 1585. I shall inform the world from the worthy Author of the Book aforementioned wrote at that very time and often quoted by Bishop Bancroft His words are these The Cause was general means were made Ministers presented Doubts Protestations Supplications they were repulsed reviled threatned the Ministers did indure sustained with a good Conscience but their miserable flocks were subject to all disorders spoils havock Good men mourned evil men prevailed License possessed all places nothing was reserved whole to civil and modest life These things Gentlemen of all sorts took to heart they lamented their own estate and the estate of the people they pitied their Ministers their Wives and Children Gods Cause moved them the honour of the Gospel drew them yea the safety
that generally were the Ceremonies The reading the Apocryphal Books The ill translation of the Scriptures used The Rubricks Very many things in the Book of ordaining Bishops Priests and Deacons and several passages in the prayers The number was not many who refused to use a set-set-form of prayer to be constantly used in their Ministry It was but twenty five years since the whole Nation came out of Popery where they knew nothing else and it could not be expected that in that time should be a discovery of all that was truly blameable in Worship or Government of the Church Yet there were some that in those days refused this Bishop Bancroft in his Dangerous Positions p. 84 tells us that Mr. Field in a Letter to Mr. Asker 14. Ap. 1585. tells him I preach every Sabbath-day if no other that cometh by chance doth supply the place having nothing to do at all with the former Book of common-Common-prayer c. This was the first division of godly Ministers into such as were purely Nonconformists 2. Conforming Nonconformists The latter were the greater number who had subscribed to use the common-Common-prayer but not to read it fully and in all parts and this with protestations that their subscriptions should not oblige them to do any thing contrary to the word of God c. there were several forms of it Twenty Ministers of the Diocess of Chichester thus subscribed with exception to all the Rubricks the Book of Ordination and I know not how many limitations Here the great and infinite wisdom of God was seen governing the failers of his servants to his own wise ends and glory By this means a preaching Ministry was preserved in England which had the Bishop kept to his first severity and all the Ministers that at first refused absolutely persisted in their refusal had before the Reformation was 28. years old been destroyed throughout England at least the greatest part of it But saith our Saviour He that will save his life shall lose it Very many of these good men were afterwards suspended deprived indited imprisoned wearied out of their lives by troubles in the High Commission though not for not subscribing for which was no Law yet for not wearing the Surplice not using the Cross in Baptism not keeping Holydays not reading all the Prayers or some such like things Thus was our state from 1583. till 1603. when King James came to the Crown Hitherto I have shewed my Reader the first Impositions in England and the woful mischief wrought by them not only to multitudes of particular Families but to the interest of the Gospel and Reformation in general I shall now proceed to a second period which will take up the whole time of King James his Reign from 1603. to 1625. Whitgift was in the beginning Archbishop and Bancroft Bishop of London Their Writings sufficiently testifie how zealous both of them were against Nonconformists The Convocation this year established the three Articles which 20 years before had made such a confusion by a Canon it is their 36 Canon which Canons were confirmed by King James but never since brought to a Parliament or confirmed by them I am not concerned to enquire how valid they are as Laws obligatory to the subject till confirmed by Parliament that belongeth to Lawyers to argue and dependeth upon the Kings Prerogative and the terms used in the Act of 25 Hen. 8. I am only concerned to note how Conformity improved upon these Canons and also what the effect of these new Impositions was For the first let the Canons themselves speak Subscription to the three Articles was now enjoined by Canon 36. Bowing at the name of Jesus was enjoined Can 18. Bidding of prayer by another Canon with a multitude of other things too long to be here recited for which I refer my Reader to the Book of Canons The first fruit of this was a Petition with a thousand Ministers hands presentad to the King 1603 4. saith Dr. Fuller Indeed Dr. Fuller saith the hands were but 750. I believe he taketh his intelligence from the abridgment of that Book which the Ministers of Lincoln Diocess delivered to his Majesty 5. December 1604. I find them there mentioned to be 752. out of 23. Counties Dr. Fuller saith 25. which are but half the Counties of England and Wales hardly so much Their numbers are thus countd Oxfordshire 9. Stafordshire 14. Dorsetshire 17. Nottinghamshire 20. Surry 21. Norfolk 28. Wiltshire 31. Buckinghamshire 33. Sussex 47. Leicestershire 57. Essex 57. Cheshire 12. Bedsordshire 16. Somersetshire 17. Darbyshire 20. Lancashire 21. Kent 23. London 30. Lincolnshire 33. Warwickshire 44. Devon and Cornwall 51. Northampton 57. Suffolk 72. These make 752 Here are none reckoned of any County in Wales nor any of Yorkshire Barkshire and many others I know no reason any hath to doubt but that there were a 1000. hands to this Petition the Petitioners in the body of their Petition say they were more than a thousand and they would not have told a Lye to a King which so little labour as counting them would have proved to be such But the matter of the Petition is very considerable to let my Reader know both to what height Impositions were grown 77. years since and what Oppositions they met with from our fore-fathers Dr. Fuller in his Church-History assures us he has got the true Copy I will therefore transcribe it from him as I find it in the 10th Book p. 22. Most Gracious and Dread Soveraign Seeing it hath pleased the Divine Majesty to the great comfort of all good Christians to advance your Highness according to your just Title to the peaceable Government of this Church and Common-wealth of England We the Ministers of the Gospel in this Land neither as factious men affecting a popular parity in the Church nor as Schismaticks aiming at the dissolution of the State Ecclesiastical but as the faithful Servants of Christ and loyal Subjects to your Majesty desiring and longing for a Redress of divers abuses of the Church could do no less in our obedience to God service to your Majesty love to his Church than acquaint your Majesty with our particular griefs for as your Princely Pen writeth tâ— The King as a good Physician must first know what peccant humours his Patient naturally is most subject unto before he can begin his Cure And although divers of us that sâ—â— for Reformation Subscribe to the Book some upon Protestation some upon Exposition given them some with Condition rather than the Church should have been deprived of their labour and Ministry yet now we to the number of more than a thousand of your Majesties Subjects and Ministers all groaning as under a common burden of humane Rites and Ceremonies do with one joint consent humble our selves at your Majesties feet to be cased and relieved in this behalf Our humble suit then unto your Majesty is that these offences following some of them may be removed some amended some
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-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-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-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
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-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-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
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
people rooting out all private Meetings enforcing people to come to hear the Common-Prayer and to conform to the Ceremonies and hear their Parish-Ministers and receive the Sacrament with them 2. The Second is by taking off these Impositione which all agree to be of things not in their own nature necessary but such as the Magistrate may if he pleaseth relax For the first method to unite us it is a strange one it aims only at uniting by destroying and purchases such a Church-Vnity as the Papists boast of who by destroying of hundred thousands of righteous men at last made all of one mind in appearance The experience of more then 100 years hath taught us that multitudes are neither to be argued nor cudgelled into their conformity The multitude of Nonconformists hath increased all a long in stead of abateing even from the first beginning of the difference at Francfurt to this day and he is very ignorant that knoweth not that since the fire of London they have been almost doubled to what they were before Nor hath the warmth of many Clergymen of late in decrying the Plot or lessening it and indeavouring to make people believe it was a Nonconformist Plot a little contributed to let the world know what they are and would be at Would any have these impositions still inforced what can they pursue but the old design of Reconciling us and the Church of Rome in which the Papists will listen to them till they have ripen'd a design to cut their throats as well as other mens but those are mightily ignorant of Popish principles that can so much as fancy a possibility of reconciliation with them so long as we maintain the Kings Supremacy or a married Clergy so that in truth a reconciliation to the Church of Rome is a thing not to be thought on by a married Clergyman unless he be weary of his wife and children nor by a Loyal Subject that understands sense The Vnion must therefore be effected by taking off these impositions which now for an hundred years have produced so ill effects in this Nation It is easy to see how great the good of this would be We should all then be known by the single name of Protestants and be hearty as one man in opposition to all Popish designs Our Civil and Ecolesiastical Courts might possibly then be at leisure to execute the power with which they are betrusted against Papists and profane persons Sober and industrious men would be encouraged to push out in trading to their utmost There would be no complaining in our streets for want of the Ordinances of God so administred as that concientious people might freely partake of them without so much as a fancy that might make them call out Death is in the pot and sit at the Lords feasts without so much as a jealousy of a Divine Sword hanging over their heads spoiling their Spiritual appetite In short it would restore us to one of the greatest pieces of Christian liberty To serve the Lord without fear either of offending God whom they know in matters of Worship to be a jealous God or of being undone in their temporal concerns for the exercise of a tender conscience towards God All good men should rejoice under the shadow of the King and Parliament and unite their Prayers with chearfulness for both What would be the Evil of it The foundations of Archbishop Whitgift and Archbishop Laud and my Lord Chancellor Hide the buildings upon which hath hitherto been kept up with no less guard than the trouble of all the Courts of Judicature in England would be something shaken and our foundations laid upon the word of God which surely is far better the credit of some men who have laid all the stress of Religion upon a common-prayer-Common-prayer-book and some Ceremonies would be thought a little impaired the Magistrate should do nothing displeasing to God who never required the imposition of these things at his hands and doubtless hath been highly displeased at a great deal of force used which hath not been good for the enforcing of them It is as I have said before more than an hundred years since these impositions have been the cause of so much evil in these Nations and that not only to particular families and persons but even to the whole Nation Though our Civil Wars were bottomed upon Questions and Grievances of a Civil Nature yet it is hardly imaginable the common people should have been so inflamed had they not before been wounded in so tender a part as that of their Consciences towards God By reason of these contests Papists have been connived at and gained a great deal of Reputation so much that till within these 2 years it was dangerous for Protestants to vie with them for Loyalty or Religion We see the issue while they have been thus neglected yea credited they have been hatching the most hellish Plot that was ever heard of hardly to be parallel'd by any story The Plot hath in the bowels of it been discovered so full of Blood and Cruelty and Ingratude to his most Sacred Majesty and in the defence of themselves from the imputation of it they have been found guilty of so many Lies so much Perjury and Subornation so much ungodliness and unrighteousness that they cannot but see their Catholick Cause is wounded under the fifth rib and their pretended Religion not like to recover its reputation until there be none left of this Geration They have nothing to do but to wait a time when they may fight out their way with some probable hope of prevailing It is certainly now high time to restore all Protestants be their persuasions what they will to a just liberty in the things of God than the want of which nothing can more dispirit good men in their duty as to a common watchfulness and defence for what spirit can be in them who know they shall be ruin'd by one hand or another I surther offer it to the consideration of our grave Senators who come up from the several parts of the Nation and must best know the complexion of it Whether those who are most against the taking of these Impositions be not I do not say all but forty for one the persons whom several Proclamations of his Majesty and several votes of two Parliaments declaring it and the several judgments upon some of the Traytors given by our Courts of Justice have not been able to convince That there is any Popish Plot but in all their converse they have made it their business to deny or lessen the Plot to defame and vilify the Kings Evidence to impose upon people that it was a Plot of the Nonconformists to make the dying words of the Jesuits creditable In short by all manner of ways to turn the whole Popish Plot into Ridicule I do know some few very few others zealous for these Impositions have born a Testimony against the Papists and freely declare their Judgments about the