Meeting of Sixty Ministers out of Essex Cambridge and Norfolk was Held at Cork-hill where Knewstubbs was Minister May the 8th in the Year 1582. and the like Meeting was Held at Cambridge c. After this saith he their book of Discipline being published was nowhere more welcom than in London the Wealth and Pride of which City was never wanting to support such c. pag. 213. The several Churches they had in the City they Reduced into one general Classis in which either Cartwright or Egerton or Travers were for the most part Moderatours This was their chief Tribunal and supreme Consistory they held for the whole Nation But in the Country none appear'd more forward than those of Northampton Daventry and Nottingham and the Device as he calls it is taken up in most parts of England but especially in Warwick-shire Suffolk Norfolk Essex c. In these Classes they Determined Points of Doctrine Interpreted hard places of Scripture Delivered their Resolution in such Cases of Conscience as were brought before them Decided Doubts and Difficulties touching Contracts of Marriage c. And whatsoever was coucluded by such as were present yet still with Reference to the better Judgment of their London-brethren became forthwith binding to the Rest none being admitted into any of the aforesaid Classes before he had promised under his Hand that he would Submit himself and be Obedient unto all such Orders and Decrees as were set down by the Classis to be observed At these Classes they enquired into the Life and Doctrine of all that had subscribed unto them Censuring some and Deposing others as they saw occasion Unto every Classis there belonged a Register who took the Heads of all that passed and saw them carefully entred into a Book for that purpose that they might remain upon Record This is Dr. Heylin's Relation in full of the progress of Presbytery in this Nation Moreover Dr. Heylin observes that in Q. Elizabeth's 7th Year of her Reign the Calvinists began first to be called Puritans and in her 8th Year the Government of the Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops was Confirmed which when the Presbyterians saw setled they began saith he to play their Game and the more because the Presbyterians prevailed now in Scotland I have been the larger in Quoting Dr. Heylin because the Testimony of an Adversary to Non-conformists is always look'd upon as a double and so the strongest Testimony The seventh Remark take here in few words Sir Richard Baker's Testimony also who saith That in the Eleventh Year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign there arose a Sect openly Condemning the Received Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops This Sect saith Baker so mightily encreased that in the Sixteenth Year of her Reign the Queen and whole Kingdom were extreamly troubled with them And again in a Parliament held the 26th Year of her Reign the Puritan Party laboured to have Laws made in order to the Destroying of the Church of England and the setting up of their own Sect And again in her 28th Year the Queen gave a Special Charge to Whitgist Arch-bishop of Canterbury to settle an Uniformity in the Ecclesiastical Discipline which now almost lay a gasping and at this time the Sect of Brownists derived from one Robert Brown who Patroniz'd the most Rigid sort of Separation from the Church of England did much oppose the National Church Again in her One and Thirtieth Year the Puritan flames brake forth again and in her Thirty-sixth Year the severity of the Laws were executed upon Henry Barrow and his Sectaries for Condemning the Church of England as no Christian Church Thus Sir Richard Baker c. The eighth Remark is This Severity of the Conformists against the Non-conformists in Depriving them of their Benefices and other Preferments in the Church beside their later Cruelty to them went as Alarming news flying both into France and Scotland Hereupon saith Dr. Heylin in his History of Presbytery pag. 252. both Beza out of France and Knox with his Comrades out of Scotland interpose themselves in behalf of their Brethren As to Knox saith he a Letter was wrote by him and sent in the Name of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland wherein the Church-Vestments are call'd Trifles and Rags of Rome c. But Beza saith he writes with more Authority from France as being the greater Patriarch unto Grindal of greater Matters than Caps and Surplices but complains of Suspending these Men from their Ministry for not Subscribing to some new Ceremonies impos'd upon them and that the Bishops had too much power and excepts against many other things So good a foundation saith he being laid the Building could not chuse but go on a-pace In the Course of which Fabrick they have continually a Recourse to this Beza as to their Master Workman answering all their Scruples And the Dr. adds the Presbyterians had many powerful Friends at Court as the Earl of Leicester Lord North Knolls and Walsingham which so encourag'd them that they met together in Houses Woods Barns and common Fields where they kept their Conventicles pag. 252 259 262 263. until at last saith he pag. 271. They resolved against the Episcopal and endeavour'd to erect the Presbyterial Government concluding their Vote thus Whereas divers Books have been written and sundry Petitions have been exhibited to her Majesty the Parliament and their Lordships to little purpose every man should therefore labour by all means possible to bring the Reformation into the Church and 't was then and there resolved That for the better bringing on of the said Holy Discipline they should not only as well publickly as privately teach it but also by little and little as well as possible they could draw the same into practice Hereupon a Presbytery was erected at that small Village in Surry called Wandsworth as is aforesaid and Grindal being translated from the See of York unto that of Canterbury gave great hopes to the Presbyterians who soon found how plyant he was like to prove unto their expectation which happen'd accordingly for he sought in all things to promote their Designs and made great Alterations in the Church of England c. The 8th Remark The Commissaries Court that had been so severe against the Nonconformists all along began to learn more mildness in the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign as appeareth by that instance of Mr. Richard Sedgwick the Minister at Battersey in Surry who was persecuted by one Mr. King Churchwarden of the place and was presented by him into the Bishops Court and cited to answer there the Articles he had to object against him principally for his exclaiming against those Corruptions that then were in the Church of England the good Minister couragiously appeared to defend what he had preached but appearing before the Commissary beyond his expectation he me with courteous Usage and was friendly dismissed The Reason is rendred because those
kind of high flown persecuting Conformists feared some remarkable change to be brought in by K. James's coming to the Crown who had been train'd up by the Kirk of Scotland in the Presbyterial way See Mr. Rich. Sedgwick's Life writ by Mr. Clark pag. 397. in Fol. N. B. Thus might I carry on this History of Nonconfermity both through K. James the First and K. Charles the First yea and Charle the Second and James the Second but this would make a Volume All that can be contain'd here is the History of the Infancy of it in the first Reformers CHAP. III. Remark 1st UPon K. James's Reign in the year 1605. at Hampton-Court he calls an Assembly of Divines to confer about the Liturgy and Church Government where he told them that his End of calling them together was not to make any Alteration which was not requisite seeing he found all things so well setled already but like a wise Physician he would search into the supposed Diseases and remove the occasion of Complaints whereupon the Prelates of his Privy Council were dismissed and the Monday after he calls in the complaining Doctors telling them he meant not to alter the Church Government so well setled already but to settle Vniformity and Vnity c. Dr. Reynolds the Foreman reduceth their Grievances to these four Heads First For preserving true Doctrine Secondly For placing Good Pastors Thirdly For sincere Church-Government And Fourthly For explaining some passages in the Service-Book Of this Conference c. I must refer my Reader to Mr. Fuller's Church History who according to his Name gives a fuller Account than this small Treatise is capable of Some brief touches make Remark the Second Mr. Fuller saith that Dr. Barlow then an opposite to the Nonconformists doth not give an impartial Relation of this Conference Whereupon he wittily saith If the Israelites be forced to whet their Tools with the Philistims no wonder if the Thilistims set a sharper edge on their own and a blunter upon their enemies Weapons he was a Party and so was partial in favouring the Conformists c. But Mr. Fuller Cent 17. Book 10. pag. 21. c. Saith here was great odds only these four Reinolds Knewstubbs Spark and Chaderton called to cope with 8 Bishops 8 Deans and two Doctors beside the King and his Privy Council Nor were they called to have their Scruples satisfyed but his Pleasure propounded the King call'd them not that he might know what they could say but that they might know what he would do in the matter For tho they petition'd for a full Reformation of Church-Service Livings Ministers and Discipline and that with a Millenary Petition subscribed with about a thousand Ministers hands yet got they not the Kings Ear but he cryed to them No Bishop no King and as they dealt with my mother so would they deal with me I 'le make you conform or banish you c. But he order'd a new Translation of the Bible differing from that of Geneva charging the Translators to keep the old Ecclesiastick words as Church and not Congregation and Easter c. and not to make any marginal Notes as were in the Geneva Bibles against which he much exclaimed and more especially its Notes upon Exod. 1.19 which allows Disobedience to Kings and on 2 Chron. 15.16 saying Asa should have kill'd the Queen and not deposed her only Remark the Third Mr. Fuller says further when Dr. Reynolds wâ—… complaining against Arminian Doctrine lazy Ministers bad Goverâ—…ment of the Church and Common Prayer c. saying It was tâ—… cry of the People Such a Church c. will bring the Souls of thâ— Nation into a faint and feeble condition having no warm meet provided for them save only the cold Homilies and the Starve-us-Book â—… Bishop Bancroft at this Hampton-Court Conference answered only with urging that old Canon Schismatici contra Episcopos non sunt audiendi Schismaticks ought not to be heard in their complaining against the Bishops and said He was beholden to the King to suffer him thus to speak against the Laturgy contrary to the Statute in the first year of Q. Elizabeth and that probably he was of the same mind with Mr. Cartwright who would conform in Ceremonie rather to the Turks than to the Papists Book 10. pag 11. Cent. 17. And the same Bishop Bancroft bade K. James remember the Speech of the French Ambassador Rognee who said That if the Reformed Church in France had kept the same Order both in Service and in Ceremonies there would have been a thousand more Protestants than there be in that Land intimating That if the Protestants there had embraced the same Service and Ceremonies with the Prelates in England which they could not do but differed from them the Popish Party in France would have been pleased with them and their Conformity would have prevenâ—ed the Parisian Massacâ—e pag. 15. The same Bishop said likewise That in a Church newly planted Preaching is most necessary but it is not so in a Church long established as ours is whereby his Design was to thrust out Sermons as unnecessary by the more necessary Service-Book pag. 15. Remark the Fourth But the Lord Chancellor said at that same Hampton Court Conference that Church-Livings at that time wanted rather Learned-men than Learned men any Church livings Many such pining for want of Places through their Nonconformity and to this Complaint he added That he wished every Learned man were supplyed with a single Coat to wit one Church-Benefice before that others be thatched on with double and treble Coats in their Pluralities c. p. 16. Mr. Knewstubb the Nonconformist at the same Conference said Put the case That the Church hath Power to add any significant Signs it may not add them where Christ hath already ordered them This derogates from the Authority of Christ as much as if any should presume to add any thing to the Great Seal of England c. These few instances I have inserted in this small Tract out of Mr. Fuller who was a famous Episcopal Divine c. Remark the Fifth Tho King James was look'd upon by the Prelates as no better than an Arrant Puritan when he came first to the Crown of England and was the first King that ever was proclaimed K. of Great Britain France and Ireland yet Cluverius testifies of him That he left the Church of England as he found it at the Death of Q. Elizabeth without any Reformation or Redress of Grievances therein insomuch that some severely enough describing his Court and Character discover much of his King craft even such as were Eye witnesses or Ear-witnesses thereof and so making good his own Motto Qui nescit dissimulare nescit Regnare He that cannot Dissemble ought not to Reign Mr. Fuller tells us That in his time Archbishop Abbot's stiffness about the Earl of Essex's Divorce c. though it was to his eternal Honour in not complying with the Bawdy Bishops yet the
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRESBYTERY AND INDEPENDENCY From their first Original to this Time SHEWING I. Wherein and the Reasons why they Separate from the Church of England II. Wherein they differ from each other WITH Some Remarks on the late Heads of Agreement Assented to by the United Ministers of both PERSWASIONS Written at the Request and for the Satisfaction of a Private Friend and now made publick for General Information LONDON Printed for Edward Faulkner 1691. A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRESBYTERY AND INDEPENDENCY c. CHAP. I. TO give a full History of Nonconformity to the Church of England since the first Reformation is both impracticable and impossible in so small a Treatise take here only an Essay to it in a Compendious Epitome Begin we with that Reformation transported from that of Luther's in Germany unto our King Edward the VI. into England Remark 1. He is truly styled a second Josiah whom Cardan though a Papist yet had so much of a Philosopher in him as to Admire for a None-such in Accomplishments saying in a Transport of him Not only England but the World has reason to lament the loss of such an hopeful Blossom so early Blasted Whereas a Prelatical Doctor of our Country and a pretended Protestant seem'd to rejoyce at it rather than bewail it as an Infelicity That he was so soon Succeeded by Q. Mary a Bloody Popish Queen Characterizing him as one ill principl'd in himself and easily inclin'd to embrace such Counsels as would have proved pernicious to the Church so slanders him with Sacriledge c. Heyline Hist of Ref. Preface pag. 131. c. no Reason can be rendred why Cardan should out shine Heylin in Admiring this Young King but because such a Spirit of Reformation began to bud in him as if it had blossom'd and become Fruit would in all probability have Reformed the Church throughly according to her primitive Pattern and so dear was the Diana of the Churches Splendour and worldly Pomp in that Day that a Popish Queen who would Establish it was more welcome than such an hopeful King whom they feared would Reduce it to the first Institution Non erat sic ab Initio It was not so from the Beginning though such profound Piety shone forth in this Illustrious Prince in so convincing a lustre as Mother-Church her self could not bribe that Popish Foreign Philosopher but he was constrained to afford this Royal Enemy his due Encomium Yet his Regal Dignity or Innocent Piety cannot secure him from Severe Censures out of the Mouths of English Divines under a Tincture of Prelacy Nor was this all but that King 's Godly Uncle the Duke of Somerset did suffer hard things and at last Death it self by such as were sowred by the like Leaven In both which cases the venom of a Persecuting Spirit had a preposterous Operation working upwvrd both against a Pious Prince and against a Pious Protector They both were Spew'd upon by Men of this Brann whereas when there is a possession of Power in their hands then this poysonous Principle is for working Downward casting forth Cart Loads of Excrements upon such as under their power as the Sequel will sufficiently demonstrate c. Remark 2. 'T is well observed that the shortness of K. Edward's Life prevented him of an opportunity for a thorough Reformation Notwithstanding the high Places were not yet Remov'd as 't is oft said in the Books of Kings and Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and Judah Mr. Martin Luther hath this Passage in his History c. p. 283. That Edward VI. was a Storm that tore up Popish Prelacy by the Roots yet a top Root remain'd entire with the Stock which bare of the old Soil of Papacy yet transplanted into the new Mold of Royalty began to flourish again c. and may it not be said that he had not time nor opportunity to do little more than to lop off the Branches of Popery because he dyed when but Sixteen Years old so leaving the Root it presently sprung up again when his Sister Mary Succeeded him in the Throne Remark 3. Dr. Thomas Fuller an Episcopal Divine in his History of this Edward the VI. hath this Passage For this Young King to Reform all at once had been the ready way to Reform nothing at all but now saith he there is more Light more number of Protestants less fear of Papists therefore a thorough Reformation may now be more probable and practicable instead whereof shall we still run back to Rome Hinc illae lachrimae c. Remark 4. 'T is true King Henry the VIII broke the Ice for his young Son by Injoyning the Lord's Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments to be translated into the English Tongue and to be taught unto the Parishioners by all the Parsons and Vicars Even this small step cost a Rebellion at Lincoln York Hull c. Tanta molis erat Romanam condere gentem The Work of Reformation is a Work of great difficulty Remark 5. Pass we over Queen Marys Reign which was a Reign of Deformation c. and come to the Reign of our English Deborah Famous Queen Elizabeth who renew'd and reviv'd K. Edward's Reformation again but so retarded she was by so many Remora's in her Reforming Work that she could not step up to the Pattern in the Mount the Sacred Scriptures the Word of God which is Regula Regulans Regulata the Rule Ruling as well as the Rule Ruled 'T is Index sui obliqui giving the truest Indication both of its own straightness and of others crookedness But alas Prudentials and Politicks of State then prevailed against that weaker Royal Sex the over-toping Vogue was then New Wine must be gently poured into old Bottles least the strength of the Liquor being advantag'd by the violence of the Infusion break the Vessel c. Reformation cryed the Grandees of that Day must be made by degrees and State-Politicians must deal with the Body-Politick when sick and swollen with Distempers as the Skilful Chyrurgeon dealeth with an Hydropick Person whose Body is almost drown'd with a Deluge of Water the Cure is done by degrees some Tap or Sluce must be opened yet not to let go all at once least the violent Effluvium or flowing forth of the natural Spirits together with the Peccant Morbisick Humour constantly consequent should destroy the Patient and endanger him upon dry ground more than in those almost drowning Waters but the Method is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the opening of a small Tap or Hole in the Skin which may so run as to drain the Body gradually of its Dropsie and by insensible degrees drawing out not above a Pint at a time and never more at once though many Gollons be designed for Evacuation So Politicians will not make over large leaps at once Remark 6. 'T is an excellent Observation of Famous Mr. Fuller concerning these first Reformers whom he compareth to the Patriarch Jacob who would not
wrote to the same effect and so the matter was composed with some moderation Thus Dr. Heylin And many more Non-conformities the Dr. complains of too long to rehearse The fourth Remark is the History of Non-conformity in Q. Elizabeth's Reign who had bravely repulsed Temptations of turning Papist in Q. Mary's time with saying My Soul is the Lord's and as to my Faith as I cannot change it so neither will I dissemble it This good Queen finding all the Land lay fallow and over-grown with the Brambles of her Sister's Popery was forced to this Resolve Not to reform all at once but by little and little This slow progress therein brought up and introduced a Medley of Calvinists as Dr. Heylin styles the Non-conformists at that time in his Hist of Reform p 115. saying Those Ministers that had been banish'd in the Reign of Q. Mary and had followed beyond Sea the Platform of Geneva returned so disaffected to Episcopal Government and to the Rites and Ceremonies here by Law established as not long after filled the Church as he expresseth it with sad Disorders On which account he saith we find the Queen's Professor at Oxford to pass among the Non-conformists though somewhat more moderate than the rest and Cartwright at Cambridge he doth not call him Doctor nor so much as Master Cartwright who proved saith he an unextinguishable Fire brand to the Church of England beside him there was Whittington the chief Ring-leader of the Frankford Schismaticks preferred to the Deanry of Durham and from thence encouraging Knox and Goodman in setting up Presbytery in the Kirk of Scotland and Sampson was advanced to the Deanry of Christ's-Church but turned out again for an incorrigible Nonconformist as likewise Hardiman one of the first twelve Prebends of the Church of Westminster who was soon after deprived for throwing down the Altar and defacing the Vestments of the Church c. The fifth Remark Dr. Heylin proceeds in his Complaints pag. 124. saying The Queen having setled Ecclesiastick Affairs the same Settlement of the Church of England might have longer continued had not her Order been Confounded by some Factious Spirits as he calls them who having had their Wills at Frankfort or otherwise Ruling the Presbytery when they were at Geneva thought to have carry'd all before them with the like facility when they were in England And again pag. 131 132. Some friends they had about the Queen and Calvin was Resolved to make use of all his Power both with the Queen and with Cecill as appears by his Letters to both to Advance their Ends and he was seconded by Peter Martyr who thought his Interest in England to be greater than Calvin's though his Name was not so eminent in other places but the Queen had fixed her self to keep up some outward Splendour of a Church c. No sooner those Schismaticks of Frankfort saw Episcopacy setled and the Liturgy impos'd c. but they Revive the quarrels raised in King Edward's time c. Grindal the new Bishop of London was known to have a great Respect for Calvin and they two by the help of their friends they had about the Queen got liberty for a French Church as John Alasco had in King Edward's time But what was this saith he but setting up Presbytery to confront Episcopacy and a Common-wealth in the midst of a Monarchy or as the phrase is now Imperium in Imperio Calvin gives Grindal thanks for this favour upon which many French and Dutch repaired into England planted themselves in Sea-Towns as well as in London openly professing the Reformed Religion Again pag. 144 he goes on saying Now nothing would satisfie our Non-conformists at Home being thus encourag'd with that liberty thus procured for those abroad but the Nakedness and Simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Frankfort and the Presbyteries at Geneva and they drove on so fast upon it that they took down the Steps where the Altar stood and brought the Table into the midst of the Church in some places they laid aside God fathers and God-mothers in Baptism and Lent they look'd upon as Superstition and Festival days c. This Faction saith he pag. 154 could not touch Episcopacy nor Liturgy because established by Law but Caps Tippets Rochets Lawn-sleeves and Surplices c all having no better foundation than Supersritious Custom or some old Popish Canon c. they Assaulted And when the book of the Thirty-nine Articles was publish'd they boggl'd at the Twentieth about the Authority of the Church and at the Thirty-sixth about the Consecration of Arch-bishops c. the book of Homilies they call'd beggarly Rudiments and other things not consisting with their Independency The Doctor proceeds Of this factions Number none so much Remarkable as Father John Fox the Martyrologist c. it was thought by the Conformists that the Opinion which was had of his Parts and Piety might much Advance Conformity if the Heads of the Church could cause him to come over to them and subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles hereupon he was Summon'd for his Subscription He appear'd before the Bishop with his New-Testament in Greek holding it in his hand he said Unto this book I will Subscribe and if this will not Serve take my Prebendary at Salisbury the only Preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it doe you But notwithstanding this Refractory Answer saith the Doctor so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his Resolution and his Prebendary together This was more favour than is shewn to any Non-conformist in this our Days And to this the Doctor adds That those Genevians as he styles them for the greater Countenancing of their Non-conformity stirred up the most Eminent Divines of the French and Zuinglian or Helvetian Churches to Declare in favour of their Doings c. The sixth Remark is the Doctor tells us many long Stories too large to transcribe After his Invectives against the Puritans so called he saith for pretending to a greater Purity in God's Worship and against Geneva Notes upon 2 Chron. 8.15 16 c. and against the Sawciness of Knox and the bold Activities of Beza for upholding this Puritan Faction He comes to Cartwright against whom he exclaims for sowing his Seed of Non-conformity in Cambridge it self and so that it could never be Rooted out to this Day Who exceeded he saith in Acting more than any of the Puritan Faction He preached All the Fellows and Scholars of his Colledge out of their Surplices c. Heylin's Hist of Presbytery pag. 263. He set up a Presbyterial Church at Wandsworth by the Water side near London Novemb. 20. in the Year 1572. He introduced his Discipline into the Islands of Jersey and Gernsey and in the English Church at Middleburgh in Zealand and in the Dutch Church here in London yea he prevailed so far with the Assistance of the Earl of Leicester Lord-Treasurer Burleigh c. that a