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
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-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-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-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
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
qualified 1. In the Church Service That the Cross in Baptism Interrogatories ministred to Infants Confirmation as superfluous may be taken away Baptism not to be administred by Women and so explained The Cap and Surplice not urged That Examination may go before the Communion That it may be administred with a Sermon That divers terms of Priests Absolution and some others used with the Ring in Marriage and other such like in the Book might be corrected The longsomeness of Service abridged Church-songs and Musick moderated to better edification That the Lords day be not profaned The rest upon Holidays not so strictly urged That there may be an Vniformity of Doctrine prescribed No Popish opinion any more taught or defended No Ministers charged to teach the people to bow at the Name of Jesus That the Canonical Scriptures only be read in the Church 2. Concerning Church Ministers That none hereafter be admited into the Ministry but able and sufficient men and those to preach diligently and especially upon the Lords day That such as be already entred and cannot Preach may either be removed and some charitable course taken for their relief or else to be forced according to the value of their Livings to maintain Preachers That non-Residency be not permitted That King Edwards Statute for the lawfulness of Ministers Marriages may be revived That Ministers be not urged to subscribe but according to the Law to the Articles of Religion and the Kings Supremacy only 3. For Church-livings and Maintenance That Bishops leave their Commendams some holding Prebends some Parsonages some Vicarages with their Bishopricks That double beneficed men be not suffered to hold some two some three Benefices with Cure and some two three or four Dignities besides That Impropriations annexed to Bishopricks and Colledges be demised only to Preachers incumbent for the old Rent That the Impropriations of Lay-mens fees may be charged with a sixth or seventh part of the worth to the maintenance of the â—reaching Ministers 4. For Church-Discipline That the Discipline and Excommunication may be administred according to Christs Institution or at the least that enormities may be redressed as namely That Excommunication come not forth under the names of Chancellors Lay-persons Officials c. That men be not Excommunicated for trifles twelve peny matters That none be Ecommunicated without consent of his Pastor That the Officers be not suffered to extort unreasonable fees That none having Jurisdiction or Registers places put out the same to farm That divers Popish Canons as for restraint of Marriage at certain times be reversed That the longsomeness of Suits in Ecclesiastical Courts which hang sometimes 2 3 4 5 6 7 years may be restrained That the Oath ex Officio by which men are forced to accuse themselves be more sparingly used That Licenses for Marriage without Banes asked be more cautiously granted These with such other abuses yet remaining and practised in the Church of England we are able to shew to be not agreeable to the Scriptures if it shall please your Highness further to hear us or more at large to be informed or by conference amongst the Learned to be resolved And yet we doubt not but that your Majesty without further process of whose Christian judgment we have received so good a taste already is able of your self to judg of the equity of this cause God we trust hath appointed your Highness our Physician to heal these diseases and we say with Mordecai to Esther Who knoweth but you are come to the Kingdom for such a time Thus your Majesty shall do that which we are perswaded shall be acceptable to God honourable to your Majesty in all succeeding ages profitable to his Church which shall be thereby increased comfortable to your Ministers which shall be no more suspended silenced disgraced imprisoned for mens traditions and prejudicial unto none but those who seek their own credit quiet and profit in the world Thus with all dutiful submission referring our selves to your Majesties Pleasure for your Gracious answer as God shall direct you We most humbly recommend your Highness to the Divine Majesty whom we beseech for Christ his sake to do herein what shall be for his glory the good of his Church and your endless comfort Your Majesties most humble Subjects the Ministers of the Gospel who desire not a disorderly Innovation but a due and Godly Reformation How his Majesty resented this Petition is variously reported But sure it is saith Fuller it ran the Gantlop through all the Prelatical party every one giving it a lash some with their Pens more with their tongues and the dumb Ministers as they term it found their speech most vocal against it How many the number of those was who joined in this and several other Petitions at the same time and were suspended deprived imprisoned c. I cannot tell but a great division arose which held during the Archbishop Bancrofts time Bishop Abbot who succeeded him in the Archbishoprick of Canterbury was much calmer Several Books were wrote at this time against the Nonconformist by Mr. Hutton Mr. Rogers Dr. Lovel and Dr. Spark who had himself been a Dissenter but in the year 1607 1608 they were learnedly answered by a Book of three parts call'd A Defence of the Ministers Reasons for refusal of Subscription The first part was concerning the holy Scriptures the ill Translation of several Texts The second concerning the Holy Scriptures and Apocrypha The third was about kneeling at the Sacrament Several able Ministers left the Nation many others with their Families were undone in it Thus Conformity stood till the time of King Charles the First some Bishops being more some less rigid in pressing the Canons But when Archbishop Laud came to be Archbishop of Canterbury who succeeded Abbot he made a new Edition of Impositions to which he required Conformity saying second Service at the Table setting that at the East end of the Church Altarwise commanding the Communion Table to be railed in and all people to come up thither to receive the Communion kneeling enforcing the bowing at the Name of Jesus Forbidding Lectures and Afternoon-Sermons Pressing the Book of Sports on the Lords day Not injoining but commending bowing toward the East-end c. and twenty more things What havock hese things made is yet within the memory of many and what disturbance Bishop Wren made in Suffolk and other places as several other Bishops that were his Creatures did in other Diocesses many alive know multitudes of Ministers were again deprived and suspended Many undone in the High Commission At last in the Convocation 1640 an Oath with c. was devised which had perfected the business in rooting out all Puritan Preachers had not a Parliament came and spoil'd that design Scarce any is ignorant what numbers of Godly Ministers and people left the Nation upon this account betwixt 1630. and 1640. so many as to make one of the noblest Colonies at this day in the world that
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