of the most dangerous innovations; many having taken no orders, yet were recommended by members of either house to parishes; and when mechanic persons have been brought before them for preaching in churches, and have confessed the same, they have been dismissed without punishment, and hardly with reprehension. All persons of learning and eminency in preaching, and of sober and virtuous conversation; of great examples in their lives, and even such as among these men had been of greatest estimation, and suffered somewhat for them, were discountenanced, and such men cherished who boldly preached against the government of the church, against the Book of Common Prayer, against our kingly lawful power, and against our person. Farther, a licence even to treason is admitted in pulpits, and persons ignorant in learning and understanding, turbulent and seditious in disposition, scandalous in life, and unconformable in opinion to the laws of the land, are imposed upon parishes, to infect and poison the minds of our people."

What character the parliament-divines had for learning, for orthodoxy of doctrine, and sobriety of manners, will appear hereafter. The commons in their reply to his majesty's declaration, denied the whole of this charge, and averred, "that they were careful in their inquiries into the learning and morality of those whom they recommended; that they were not for encouraging faction and schism, but for preferring those who were for a parliamentary reformation in church and state. That they had shewn their resentments against mobs and tumults, and against the preaching of laymen;" for when they were informed that Mr. Robinson, Spencer, Banks, Durant, and Green, being mere laymen, had presumed to preach publicly, they sent for them [June 7], and reprimanded them by their speaker in these words; "The house has a great distaste of your proceedings; and if you offend at any time in the like kind again, this house will take care you shall be severely punished."

Far be it from me to apologize for the furious preachers of these times; though it will appear hereafter, that the complaints of the royalists are very much exaggerated. It was certainly a great disadvantage to the parliament's cause,

*Nalson's Coll. vol. 2. p. 265. 270.

that they could not get a good supply of learned and able preachers, the keys of admission into holy orders being at this time in the hands of the bishops, who were very strict in their examination into the political principles of those they ordained; this reduced the committee to the necessity of admitting some few who came well recommended from New England or Scotland, and had been only ordained by presbyters; and such young students, who, producing their testimonials from the universities, were allowed to preach for some time as candidates. They were under the like disadvantage as to presentations or inductions, most of them being in the hands of the king and the bishops.

The archbishop of Canterbury continued to ordain clergymen of his own principles in the Tower; whereupon the house of lords ordered [October 28], that his jurisdiction should be sequestered, and administered by his inferior officers, till he should be acquitted of the charge of high treason that was against him. His grace often admitted such clergymen to livings as were obnoxious to the two houses, insomuch that the lords found it necessary to enjoin him to acquaint their house with the names of such persons as he nominated to any ecclesiastical benefice, promotion, or dignity, within his disposal, to be approved of first by the house, before they were collated or instituted. On the other hand, when a minister was chosen by the parishioners, and recommended to his grace for admission, if he did not like his principles and character, he would either except against him, or suffer the living to lapse to the crown. This created him new enemies, and kept alive the resentments of the commons. At length the archbishop acquainted the king with his case, who sent him a peremptory letter, requiring him "that as often as any benefice, or other spiritual promotion, should become void within his gift, to dispose of it only to such persons as his majesty should nominate; and that if either or both houses should command him otherwise, he should then let it fall in lapse to the crown." As soon as the houses were acquainted with this, they published an order of their own, requiring the archbishop to dispose of no benefice or spiritual promotion that should become void at any time before his trial, without the leave and order of the two houses at Westminster. Such was the struggle between the king and parliament for the

pulpits! It being thought of great consequence on both sides, to fill them with men of their own principles, who would be zealous in the cause in which they were severally engaged.

All the bishops were under a cloud, and in no degree of favour either with the parliament or people, except the bishop of Lincoln, who, having some years been in prison, had no share in the late innovations. This prelate, in the recess of parliament, visited his diocess; and exhorted the people in his sermons to keep to their lawful minister, and not go after tub-preachers in conventicles. He acquainted them with the laws, and told them that no power could protect them from the penalty of statutes unrepealed. "Look back (says his lordship) from the beginning of queen Elizabeth. Can the gospel stand better against the church of Rome, than it has done under the bishops, liturgy, and canons? Therefore don't abandon the good old way, for another which you do not know how much evil may be in it." But his rhetoric had very little effect; nor did the parliament approve of his conduct, at a time when his majesty was out of the kingdom, and when it was resolved to attempt some considerable alterations in the hierarchy.

The distractions in the state were no less threatening than those of the church. The plague was in the city of London, which dispersed the members, so that they could hardly make a house. The disbanding the army infested the roads with highwaymen, insomuch that is was hardly safe to travel from one town to another. The officers (many of whom were Papists) crowded to London, and took lodgings about Covent-garden and Whitehall, under pretence of receiving the remainder of their pay; these behaved with unusual insolence, and struck terror into minds of the people. The mob was frequently up in one part of the town or another; one while they threatened the pope's nuncio, and another while the queen-mother, upon which they retired out of the kingdom; but the queen herself stood by her friends; she had a convent of capuchins in her court, and protected great numbers of the king's subjects and others, from the sentence of the laws. The lord-mayor was commanded to bring in a list of Popish recusants about London; and all the Papists in the several counties were ordered to be disarmed;" which though it had little or no

effect (says lord Clarendon*), served to keep up fears and apprehensions in the people of dangers and designs ;" which will appear presently not to have been groundless. This was the melancholy state of the nation, when on a sudden it was thunderstruck with the surprising news of one of the most barbarous massacres of the Protestants in Ireland, that the records of any age or nation can produce.

Lord Clarendon is of opinion, that the parliament, instead of adjourning, should now have broken up and returned home, since the principal grievance of church and state had been redressed, and the constitution secured by the act for triennial parliaments. But not to trouble the reader with affairs of state; what religious grievances were actually redressed? except the shortening the power of the spiritual courts, by the acts for abolishing the court of high-commission and star-chamber? not one of the late innovations was abolished by law; nor was there any alteration in the liturgy, or form of church-government. The sole power of the bishops in ordination and jurisdiction remained to be regulated; nor was there any reformation of deans and chapters; all which the Puritans hoped for and expected. In short, the whole government of the church remained entire, notwithstanding the fierce attacks of the commons against it. The act for triennial parliaments will appear not to have been a sufficient security to the constitution, if we consider how many acts of parliament the king and his arbitrary ministers had broke through the last fifteen years; that his majesty had still the same principles, and was likely to be in the same hands upon the dissolution of this parliament. Besides, it was said that these laws had been extorted form him by force, and therefore were not binding; and if a parliament should be called after three years, that it was dissolvable at pleasure; so that in all probability things would have returned to the old channel if the parliament had now dissolved themselves. Supposing therefore, but not admitting, that the principal grievances of church and state had been redressed, I leave it with the reader, whether in the present situation of affairs, a mere redress of past grievances was sufficient without some security against the return of the like in time to come.

* Vol. 1. p. 290.

Among the remarkable divines who died about this time was Dr. John Davenant bishop of Salisbury, born in London, and educated a fellow-commoner in Queen's college, Cambridge, of which he was afterward master, and lady Margaret professor in the same university. He was a celebrated Calvinist, and one of those divines appointed by king James to represent the church of England at the synod of Dort, where he behaved with great prudence and moderation; and upon his return to England was preferred to the bishoprick of Salisbury; but in the beginning of the reign of king Charles he became obnoxious to the court, for venturing to preach on the doctrine of predestination, contrary to his majesty's declaration, and was forced to make his submission before the privy-council. He was a quiet and peaceable prelate, humble and charitable, a strict observer of the sabbath, an enemy to the pomp and luxury of the clergy, and one who lamented the high proceedings of the court. He had a great reputation in foreign parts for profound learning, and an unblemished life; and after he had enjoyed his bishoprick about twenty years, ended his days in peace and honour, April 20, 1641, a little before the beginning of the troubles that afterward came upon the church and kingdom.* He died of a consumption, and a few hours before his death prayed pathetically for a quarter of an hour, "blessing God for his fatherly correction, forasmuch as his whole life having been full of mercy, he had been ready to doubt, whether he was a true child of God till this last. sickness."+

Dr. Richard Montague, bishop of Norwich, was a divine of a different character; he was born in Westminister, educated in Eaton-college, and afterward fellow of King's college. Mr. Fuller says he was a celebrated Grecian, and church antiquary, well read in the fathers, but a superstitious admirer of church-ceremonies. He was a thorough

* Fuller's Worthies, b. 2. p. 207; and Church History, b. 11. 176.

+ This eminent and worthy prelate was a benefactor to Queen's college in Cambridge; giving to it the perpetual advowsons of the rectories of Cheverel-Magna and Newton-Tony in Wiltshire, and a rent-charge of 31l. 10s. per annum for the founding of two Bible clerks, and buying books for the library in the same college. Biogr. Britan. vol. 4. second edit. p. 631.-ED.

Faller's words, as Dr. Grey observes, are, "but all his diocess being not so well skilled in antiquity as himself, some charged him with superstitious urging of ceremonies." He is allowed to have urged ceremonies; but according to Fuller and Dr. Grey, that is not superstition, though they be unauthorized by Scripture, if they be sanctioned by antiquity.-ED.