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CENT. put in execution, and the face of the church was XVI. changed and reformed by new rules of discipline, PART II and purer forms of public worship, the famous

SE T. III.

Act of Uniformity was issued forth, by which all her subjects were commanded to observe these rules, and to submit to the reformation of the church on the footing on which it was now placed by the queen, as its supreme visible head upon earth. The Puritans refused their assent to these proceedings; pleaded the dictates of their consciences in behalf of this refusal; and complained heavily, that the gross superstitions of popery, which they had looked upon as abrogated and abolished, were now revived, and even imposed by authority. They were not, indeed, all equally exasperated against the new constitution of the church; nor did they in effect carry their opposition to equal degrees of excess. The more vio

lent demanded the total abrogation of all that had been done towards the establishment of a national religion, and required nothing less than that the church of England should be exactly modelled after that of Geneva. The milder and more mo

derate

zabeth had formed a pure, rational, and evangelical plan of re-
ligious discipline and worship. It is, however, certain, that, in-
stead of being willing to strip religion of the ceremonies which
remained in it, she was rather inclined to bring the public wor-
ship still nearer the Romish ritual*, and had a great propensi-
ty to several usages in the church of Rome, which were justly
looked upon as superstitious. She thanked publicly one of her
chaplains, who had preached in defence of the real presence;
she was fond of images, and retained some in her private cha-
pelt; and would undoubtedly have forbid the marriage of the
clergy, if Cecil, her secretary, had not interposed ‡. Having
appointed a committee of divines to review King Edward's li-
turgy, she gave them an order to strike out all offensive passa-
ges against the pope, and to make people easy about the corpo-
ral
presence of Christ in the sacrament §.

Heylin, p. 124.

107. 108. 109.

fld. ibid.
Strype's Life of Parker. p.
§ Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 13.

XVI.

derate Puritans were much more equitable in CENT. their demands, and only desired liberty of con-, SECT. III. science, with the privilege of celebrating divine PART II. worship in their own way. The queen did not judge it proper to grant to either the object of their requests, but rather intent upon the suppression of this troublesome sect (as she was used to call it), permitted its enemies to employ for that purpose all the resources of artifice, and all the severity of the laws. Thus was that form of religion established in Britain, which separated the English equally from the church of Rome on the one hand, and from the other churches which had renounced popery, on the other; but which, at the same time, laid a perpetual foundation for dissension and feuds, in that otherwise happy and prosperous nation [m].

ments and

tans.

XVIII. The incident that gave rise to these The sentiunhappy divisions, which were productive of so doctrine of many and such dreadful calamities, was a matter the Puriof very small moment, and which did not seem to affect, in any way, the interests of true religion and virtue. The chief leaders among the Puritans entertained a strong aversion to the vestments worn by the English clergy in the celebration

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[m] No writer has treated this part of the Ecclesiastical History of Britain in a more ample and elegant manner than Daniel Neal, in his History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists, in four volumes 8vo. The first part of this laborious work was published at London, in the year 1732, and the latter part in 1738. The author, who was himself a Non-conformist, has not indeed been able to impose silence so far on the warm and impetuous spirit of party, as not to discover a certain degree of partiality in favour of his brethren. For, while he lates, in the most circumstantial manner, all the injuries the Puritans received from the bishops, and those of the established religion, he, in many places, diminishes, excuses, or suppresses, the faults and failings of these separatists. See also, for an account of the religious history of these times, Strype's Lives of the archbishops of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth, viz. Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift.

re

CEN T. bration of divine worship. As these habits had XVI. been made use of in the times of popery, and PART II. seemed to renew the impressions that had been

SECT. III.

made upon the people by the Romish priests, they appeared to the Puritans in no other light than as the ensigns of Antichrist. The spirit of opposition, being once set on foot, proceeded, in its remonstrances, to matters of superior moment. The form of ecclesiastical government, established in England, was one of the first and main grievances of which the Puritans complained. They looked upon this form as quite different from that which had been instituted by CHRIST, the great lawgiver of the church; and, in conformity with the sentiments of CALVIN, maintained, that, by the divine law, all the ministers of the gospel were absolutely equal in point of rank and authority. They did not indeed think it unlawful that a person, distinguished by the title of a bishop, or superintendant, should preside in the assembly of the clergy, for the sake of maintaining order and decency in their method of proceeding; but they thought it incongruous and absurd, that the persons invested with this character should be ranked, as the bishops had hitherto been, among the nobility of the kingdom, employed in civil and political affairs, and distinguished so eminently by their worldly opulence and power. This controversy was not carried on, however, with excessive animosity and zeal, as long as the English bishops pretended to derive their dignity and authority from no other source than the laws of their country, and pleaded a right, purely human, to the rank they held in church and state. But the flame broke out with redoubled fury in the year 1588, when BANCROFT, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, ventured to assert, that the order of bishops was superior to the body of presbyters, not in consequence of any human institution, but

by

XVI. SECT. III:

by the express appointment of God himself [2]. CENT. This doctrine was readily adopted by many, and, the consequences that seemed naturally to flow PART II. from it in favour of episcopal ordination, hap-" pened in effect, and gave new fuel to the flame of controversy. For they who embraced the sentiments of BANCROFT, considered all ministers of the Gospel, who had not received ordination from a bishop, as irregularly invested with the sacred character; and also maintained, that the clergy, in those countries where there were no bishops, were destitute of the gifts and qualifications that were necessary to the exercise of the pastoral office, and were to be looked upon as inferior to the Roman-catholic priests.

XIX. All these things exasperated the Puritans, whose complaints, however, were not confined to the objects already mentioned. There were many circumstances that entered into their plan of reformation. They had a singular antipathy against cathedral churches, and demanded the abolition of the archdeacons, deans, canons, and other officials, that are supported by their lands and revemies. They disapproved of the pompous manner of worship that is generally observed in these churches, and looked, particularly, upon instrumental music, as improperly employed in the service of God. The severity of their zeal was also very great; for they were of opinion, that, not open profligates, but even persons whose piety was dubious, deserved to be excluded from

[n] See Strype's Life and Acts of John Whitgift, archbishop -of Canterbury, p. 121. The first English Reformers adinitted but two orders of church-officers to be of divine appointment, viz. bishops and deacons; a presbyter and a bishop, according to them, being but two names for the same office; but Dr Bancroft, in a sermon preached at Paul's cross, January 12, 1588, maintained, that the bishops of England were a distinct. order from priests, and had superiority over them jure divino.

XVI.

CENT. from the communion of the church [0]; and Ser..they endeavoured to justify the rigour of this dePART II cision, by observing that the church, being the

congregation of the faithful, nothing was more incumbent on its ministers and rulers, than to watch against its being defiled by the presence of persons destitute of true faith and piety. They found, moreover, much subject of affliction and complaint in the rites and ceremonies that were imposed by the order of the queen, and the authority of her council [p]; among these were the festivals

[o] The Puritans justified themselves in relation to this point, in a letter addressed from their prison, to queen Elizabeth, in the year 1592, by observing, that their sentiments concerning the persons subject to excommunication, and also concerning the effects and extent of that act of church discipline, were conformable to those of all the reformed churches, and to the doctrine and practice of the church of England in particular. They declared more especially, that, according to their sense of things, the censure of excommunication deprived only of spiritual privileges and comforts, without taking away either liberty, goods, lands, government private or public, or any other civil, or earthly commodity of this life; and thus they distinguished themselves from those furious and fanatical anabaptists, who had committed such disorders in Germany, and some of whom were now making a noise in England,

[] By this council our author means, the High Commission Court, of which it is proper here to give some account, as its proceedings essentially belong to the Ecclesiastical History of England. This court took its rise from a remarkable clause in the act of supremacy, by which the queen and her successors were empowered to choose persons" to exercise, under her, all "manner of jurisdiction, privileges and pre-eminences, touch"ing any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the realms "of England and Ireland, as also to visit, reform, redress, or"der, correct and amend all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts, offences, enormities whatsoever. Provided that 66 they have no power to determine any thing to be heresy, but "what has been adjudged to be so by the authority of the ca"nonical scripture, or by the first four general councils, or any "of them; or by any other general council, wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of ca"nonical scripture, or such as shall hereafter be declared to "be heresy by the High Court of Parliament, with the as

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