furnished with Instructions to perswade the People from praying to Saints or for the Dead from adoring Images from Vse of Beads Ashes and Processions from Mass Dirges praying in unknown Languages and from some other like things whereunto a long Custom had wrought a Religious Observation and for defect of Preachers Homilies were appointed to be publickly read in Churches aiming to the very same End Some other offering to maintain these Ceremonies were either punished or forced to recant Edmond Boner Bishop of London was committed Prisoner to the Fleet for refusing to receive these Injunctions Stephen Gardiner was likewise committed first to the Fleet afterwards to the Tower for that he had openly preached that it were well these Changes in Religion should be stayed until the King were of Years to govern by himself This the People apprehending worse than it was either spoken or meant a Question began to be raised among them whether during the King's Minority such Alterations might lawfully be made or no. For the like Causes Tonstal Bishop of Duresm and Heath Bishop of Rochester were in like sort committed to Prison All these being then and still continuing famous for Learning and Judgment were dispossessed of their Bishopricks but no Man was touched in Life Hereupon a Parliament was held in the first Year of the King Thus far Sir John a learned and religious Knight Doctor of Law and a wise and wary Historian This Parliament was summoned to meet Nov. 4. 1547. when now had passed but nine Months and some odd Days of this King's Reign And all this while could there be no Convocation because no Parliament Therefore all this which was a considerable Advance to the Reformation was done without the Consent of a lower House of Convocation for there was none either higher or lower called But it may be said Sir John writes liker a Civil than Ecclesiastical Historian putting things of the same Nature together but not punctually concerning himself as to their respective Date We will take therefore next the eldest of the Ecclesiastic Historians which report the Transactions of this Reign namely Fox and from him we have these Steps of Proceeding in the Reformation First saith he By the single Authority of King and Council was appointed a general Visitation by certain learned discreet and worshipful Personages his Commissioners in that Behalf divided into several Companies assigned to the several Diocesses appointing to every Company one or two learned Preachers which at every Session should in their Preaching instruct the People in the true Doctrine of Christ The Order for this Visitation issued Sept. 1. 1547. Secondly That these Commissioners might be more orderly in their Business there were delivered to them by the same Authority certain Injunctions and Ecclesiastical Orders drawn out by the King 's learned Council which they should both enquire of and also in his Majesty's Behalf command to be observed by every Person to whom they did severally appertain within their Circuits This saith Dr. Heylin the King might do by his own Authority as his Father had done c. An. 1536. In those Injunctions to omit Matters of less Moment it is required that every Ecclesiastical Person having Cure of Souls should take down and destroy all such Images as had heretofore been abused by Pilgrimage or Offerings that they should not suffer any Lights or other idolatrous Oblations to be made before any Image that on every Holy-day having no Sermon in their Church they should immediately after the Gospel read distinctly in the Pulpit the Lord's Prayer the Belief and the Ten Commandments in the English Tongue And although the Mass was then still by Law retained yet was it enjoined that at every High Mass the Sayer or Singer thereof should openly and distinctly read the Gospel and the Epistle in English and on every Holy-day and Sunday at Mattins one Chapter of the New Testament in English also That for avoiding Contention Processions should be laid down and the Priests and Clerks should kneel in the midst of the Church and there distinctly sing or read the Letany in English set forth by the Authority of King Henry the VIIIth And further that they should see provided and set up in some most convenient and open Place of every their several Churches one great Bible in English and one Book of the Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Gospels in English Also that the People might reverently without any Argument or Contention read and hear the same at such times as they listed And to mention no more of the Injunctions Homilies set forth by the King's Authority were enjoined the Curates to be read every Sunday and when the Homily was read the Prince and Hours to be omitted Thirdly Besides these general Injunctions for the whole Estate of the Realm there were also certain others particularly appointed for the Bishops only by the Commissioners in their Visitations to be committed to the said Bishops with Charge to be inviolably kept and observed upon Pain of the King's Majesty's Displeasure And this Visitation was held and the Injunctions executed according to Order Fourthly During the Time says Fox that the Commissioners were occupied abroad in their Circuits about the speedy and diligent Execution of these godly and zealous Orders and Decrees of the King and his Council his Majesty caused a Parliament to be summoned Nov. 4. in the same first Year of his Reign wherein all the bloody Laws in point of Religion were repealed And here according to Dr. Burnet comes in a Convocation which Hist of Refor Par. 2. p. 27 c neither Mr. Fox nor Sir John Hayward nor Sir Richard Baker nor any other Historian that I have seen mentioneth but I most readily admit for Truth what the reverend Person reports Let us see then according to this exacter Historian what the Convocation did as to the Reformation or otherwise First The lower House of Convocation presented four Petitions to the Bishops That according to the Statute made in the Reign of the late King there might be Persons impowered for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws Secondly That according to the antient Custom of the Nation and the Tenor of the Bishops Writ to the Parliament the inferiour Clergy might be admitted again to sit in the House of Commons or that no Acts concerning Matters of Religion might pass without the Sight and Assent of the Clergy Thirdly That since divers Prelates and other Divines had been in the late King's time appointed to alter the Service of the Church and had made some Progress in it that this might be brought to its full Perfection Fourthly That some Consideration might be had for the maintenance of the Clergy the first Year they came into their Livings in which they were charged with the first Fruits to which they added a Desire to know whether they might safely speak their Minds about Religion without the Danger of any Law Thus Dr. Burnet As to the first of these Petitions all
I find done was that at some Distance of time several Attempts and Proceedings pass'd in order to it and Extracted out of Dr. Burnet at length the Work was finish'd by divers Committees successively but those neither of the Convocation nor named by the Convocation Indeed Cranmer was the principal Person and who else were imployed therein may be seen in Dr. Burnet's 2d Part p. 196 197. But before it received the Royal Confirmation the King died and the Work fell with him says my Author As to the second I do not observe any Notice was taken of it either by the Bishops then in Power or by the Parliament And I conjecture the Reason to be for that it was known full well to the Reformers that the Generality of the Clergy were at that time Papists in See Dr. Burnet Part 2. p. 96. their Hearts which hindred the Church of many Powers and Privileges that otherwise might have been granted to her And however many of them for that time complied yet in Q. Mary's Days when Popery came to be resettled by Parliament all of them save 177 if we may believe See his Journal pag. 23. Part 2. p. 50. Sir Simon D' Ewes turned about again or became I apists As to the third It was resolved saith Dr. Burnet that many Bishops and Divines should be sent the same who afterwards compiled the Liturgy saith Dr. Heylin were sent to Windsor to labour in the Matter of the Communion-Service but that required so much Consideration that they would not enter into it during a Session of Parliament However it was finish'd and publish'd with the King's Proclamation March 8 1547 8 as Dr. Heylin tells us And for the fourth what Answer was given to it doth not appear Thus the Reverend Doctor However most certain it is that neither were these Bishops and Divines named by the lower House of Convocation but by the King and Council as will by and by appear nor the Alterations by them made ever brought before that House What further Dr. Burnet records done by this Convocation upon the Bishops sending down to the lower House a Declaration concerning the Sacrament to be received in both kinds and the Marriage of the Clergy to the former of which all consented and to the latter most I need not report What I have faithfully thus represented from him is the Sum of that Account which he says is all he could recover of that Convocation Pag. 50. And what shall the Man do that comes after him Despairing therefore of more touching this Convocation we will go on with Fox and others in the Proceedings of the Reformation made without them Not only the Communion was enjoyned by Act of Parliament to be ministred in both kinds to which it may be said the Convocation consented but by the same Parliament solitary Communion of the Priest or private Masses were put down of which that we find the Convocation had never been consulted and to which that lower House for many Reasons would never have consented and the Curates required at least one Day before the Communion to exhort all Persons that should be present to prepare themselves for receiving Fifthly After this most godly Consent of the Parliament continues my Author making no mention of a Convocation for that now was broke up with the Parliament The King being no less desirous to have Fox p. 1183. the Form of the Administration of the Sacrament truly reduced to the right Rule of the Scripture and first Use of the Primitive Church than he was to establish the same by his own Regal Laws appointed certain of the most grave and learned Bishops and others of his Realm to assemble together at his Castle at Windsor and there to argue and intreat upon this Matter and conclude upon and set forth one perfect and uniform Order according to the Rule and Use aforesaid Here was made the then new English uniform Order of the Communion Sixthly In the mean while that these learned Persons were thus occupied about their Conferences the Lord Protector and the rest of the King's Council farther remembring that the time of the Year approaching wherein were practised many superstitious Abuses and blasphemous Ceremonies against the Glory of God and Truth of his Word and determining the utter abolishing thereof directed their Letters unto the Godly and Reverend Father Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury requiring him that upon the Receipt thereof he should will every Bishop within his Province forthwith to give in Charge to all the Curates of their Diocesses that neither Candles should be any more born upon Candlemas-day neither yet Ashes used in Lent nor Palms upon Palm-Sunday which was done accordingly And one of the Letters may be seen in my Author expresly saying All this was done by my Lord Protector 's Grace with the Advice of other the King's Majesty's most honourable Council dated Jan. 28 1547 8 at which time the King had reigned one Year compleat Seventhly Contention and Strife arising amongst the common People in divers Places of the Realm about Images what of these had been idolatrously abused and what not and consequently what should be pulled down and destroyed what left the Lords of the Council by one Advice thinking it best of good Experience for the avoiding all Discord and Tumult that all manner of Images should be clean taken out of Churches and none suffered to remain did thereupon again write their Letters unto the Archbishop of Canterbury to that Effect The Copy of the Letters bearing Date Feb. 11 1547 8 with Boner's Letters in Obedience to the Archbishop's Mandate thereupon may be seen at large in Fox Eighthly By this time the uniform Order for the Communion in English being finished Letters missive from the Council are issued forth to the Bishops of the Realm concerning the Communion to be administred according to the Tenour of the said Book Which Letters also may be read in the same Author p. 1184. bearing Date at Westminster March 13 1548. Ninthly Notwithstanding all these Orders to proceed through the perverse Obstinacy and dissembling Frowardness of many of the Priests who therefore never consented hereto in Convocation there arising a marvellous Schism and Variety of Fashions in celebrating the Common Service and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church the King's Council having good Intelligence hereof did by their prudent Advices again appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury with certain of the best learned and discreet Bishops and other learned Men to draw and make one convenient and meet Order Rite and Fashion of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacrament to be had and used within the Realm which was accordingly done and the Book which was the first of the two in his Reign was by the King exhibited to the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament about Nov. 4 1548. in the second Year of his Reign in which Parliament it pass'd with the Assent
of the said Lords and Commons But that it ever came before the Convocation cannot be proved When even eight Bishops in the House of Lords protested against it no one can believe that it would then have pass'd a Convocation and therefore no doubt it was never brought before them And thus proceeded the two first Years of King Edward the Sixth his Reformation as far as I can collect from my afore-mentioned Authors which two Years broke the Ice and made way for perfecter Work For by these Proceedings the Eyes of the Clergy no less than of the People who had both need enough began to be opened many of both sorts got a Taste of the Truth and took a Relish of the Reformation which by the Vigilance of the Government and indefatigable Diligence of the Reformers but chiefly by the prevailing and victorious Power of the Truth and the Influence of God's Spirit daily grew and advanced insomuch that a happy Forwardness towards a Settlement presented it self in the succeeding Part of this Reign But I may truly say Had not the Reformers taken Time by the Forelock and they not begun with the Dawn of the Day Had the King Council and the immortal Archbishop staid for such a Convocation which would have approved their Reformation in all likelihood we had had little or as I affirmed no Reformation at all in King Edward's and God only knows whether in the second following Reign For how the next of all might have strengthned Popery as Bones broke and once well knit again are they say the stronger in that Part we are not able to guess Sure it is could the Body of the Clergy in the Beginning have crushed the Designs of the Reformation they would have done it and by many sad Instances shewed their good Will Wherefore as to the later Years of King Edward and the Corrections and Additions made to the Liturgy near towards the End of his Reign I am not concern'd to speak Only ex abundanti I will Part 2. p. 169. add it appears by Dr. Burnet the making these was the Work of the Reformers not of the Convocation And it is supposed saith Dr. Heylin Hist Reform Anno 1552. pag. 126. the Convocation durst not canvass or alter what was before settled by the King's Authority and Act of Parliament Indeed all Men know that ever since the Submission of the Clergy in Henry the VIIIth's Time the Convocation hath been cut off from meddling with the State of Religion except as they are authorized by the King And had there been any such Authority given no doubt we should have found the Footsteps thereof I do not think it needful to speak more largely on this Point What I have said will sufficiently evince I did not speak without Book in what I hinted If any one else use to do so let him look to it After this Endeavour to expose my Ignorance Mr. Dean intimates his §. 27. Regret that I had not made my compassionate Suit in a severer Age than this the Reign of our merciful and gracious Princes for which Kindness of his I only return my Prayers that he may never feel the Severity of such Hands into which he could be content others should have faln And then he proceeds to tell the World I conclude with a heavy Charge upon himself and Dr. Wallis a greater Person would have said Dr. Wallis and himself that they have receded from the Doctrine taught even in our own Church about the Holy Trinity The whole of this is not true I never charged Dr. Wallis with receding from the Doctrine taught in our Church but rather expresly alledging his Words We mean by Persons in divinis no more but somewhat analogous to Persons I said this has been ever held by all learned Trinitarians All I mentioned which troubled me as to the Doctor 's explaining of the Trinity was an indecent Expression of which I have no mind to speak more But as to Dr. Sherlock I did produce not broken Passages as Mr. Dean stiles them but his intire Definition or Description of a Person in divinis which he gives in his Vindication of the Trinity and as I have said the Sum of his Hypothesis in his very own Words which I read in and transcribed from his Book And I do now expresly avow though I did not then do it so directly that he has receded herein from the Doctrine formerly taught not only in our Church but in the whole Christian World in this Point And I think I have already made it out as far as is consistent with the Brevity I here design But whereas he says that that very Account Pag. 30. which I give of the Trinity out of Mr. Hooker ' s Book is owned and particularly explained by his Hypothesis I must acknowledg he has indeed owned it in his Book but in the same contradicted it both in express Terms and by his Hypothesis And I add 't is impossible by his Hypothesis to explain it He contradicts it in express Terms One Substance and three Properties was Mr. Hooker's Language and whence taken I have shewn Three real substantial Beings which if it signifies not Vind. pag. 47. Pag. 83. three Substances I cannot tell what it signifies and three proper distinguishing Characters had it not been for Affectation of Novelty he might as well have said three Properties are Mr. Dean's Terms And these I take to be Contradictions For one Substance and three Substances that is three Substances and not three because only one Substance with three Properties is a Contradiction if any in the World His Hypothesis contradicts that is destroys it For his Definition or Account what we are to mean by a Person in the Holy Trinity is part of his Hypothesis But that makes the three Persons three real substantial Beings Vind. p. 47 48 49 50 c. three distinct infinite Minds three uncreated Spirits that is immaterial Substances three intelligent Beings having each Vnderstanding Will and Power of Action Now this as before made out is contradictious to the Doctrine brought by Mr. Hooker And because his Hypothesis in the very first fundamental Point of it namely the Definition he gives of a Person contradicts the former Explication of the Trinity therefore 't is impossible to explain that by his However we will take the other Part of his Hypothesis and try whether we can find therewith any more Consistency As he supposes these three uncreated Spirits to be distinct by Self-consciousness so to be one numerically one Essence or one God by mutual Consciousness But by the former Part of his Hypothesis each Person had and to use his Words knew and felt himself to have an Vnderstanding Will and Power of Action of his own Now though the Supposal of mutual Consciousness may in some measure explain how each thereby may have or be possess'd of one anothers Knowledg or Vnderstanding yet that any can have or be