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-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
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-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
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-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