follow; but Bancroft, being informed that great numbers were preparing to embark, obtained a proclamation prohibiting them to transport themselves to Virginia, without a special licence from the king; a severity hardly to be paralleled! nor was it ever imitated in this country, except by archbishop Laud.

The isles of Guernsey and Jersey having enjoyed the discipline of the French churches without disturbance, all the reign of queen Elizabeth, upon the accession of the present king, addressed his Majesty for a confirmation of it ;* which he was pleased to grant by a letter under the privy seal, in these words:

"WHEREAS we have been given to understand, that our dear sister queen Elizabeth did permit and allow to 'the isles of Jersey and Guernsey, parcels of the dutchy of Normandy, the use of the government of the reformed churches of the said dutchy, whereof they have stood pos'sessed till our coming to the crown; for this cause, as well as for the edification of the church, we do will and ordain, that our said isles shall quietly enjoy their said liberty in the use of ecclesiastical discipline there now estab'lished; forbidding any one to give them any trouble ' or impeachment, so long as they contain themselves in our 'obedience.

Given at Hampton-Court, August 8th, in the first year of our reign, 1603.

* Dr. Grey quotes here Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 705, in contradiction to Mr. Neal, and to charge the puritans as "addressing 'king James with a false suggestion, that the discipline had been allow'ed by queen Elizabeth." Dr. Grey's stricture would have been superseded, if he had attended to Mr. Neal's state of the business; who says only, that "the discipline of the French churches had been enjoyed without disturbance all the reign of queen Elizabeth ;" without asserting whether this indulgence were owing to connivance, or to an express grant. Heylin, however, says, that the "Genevan discipline had been settled by queen Elizabeth." Hist. of Presb. p. 395. And Collier himself owns, that though the queen allowed only one church to adopt the model of Geneva, and enjoined the use of the English liturgy in all others; yet it was soon laid aside by all the churches, and the Geneva plan adopted by the decree of synods, held under the countenance of the governors of Guernsey and the neighboring isles. These authorities fully justify Mr. Neal's representation. ED.

;

But Bancroft and some of his brethren the bishops, having possessed the king with the necessity of a general uniformity throughout all his dominions, these islands were to be included; accordingly Sir John Peyton,a zealous churchman, was appointed governor, with secret instructions to root out the Geneva discipline, and plant the English liturgy and ceremonies.* This gentleman, taking advantage of the synod's appointing a minister to a vacant living, according to custom, protested against it, as injurious to the king's prerogative, and complained to court, that the Jersey ministers had usurped the patronage of the benefices of the island that they had admitted men to livings without the form of presentation, which was a loss to the crown in its firstfruits; that by the connivance or allowance of former governors they exercised a kind of arbitrary jurisdiction; and therefore prayed that his majesty would settle the English discipline among them.† The Jersey ministers alledged in their own defence, that the presentation to livings was a branch of their discipline; and that the payment of the firstfruits and tenths had never been demanded since they were disengaged from the see of Constance. They pleaded his majesty's royal confirmation of their discipline, which was read publicly in a synod of both islands in the year 1605. But this pious king had very little regard to promises, oaths, or charters, when they stood in the way of his arbitrary designs; he ordered therefore his ecclesiastical officers to pursue his instructions in the most effectual manner. cordingly they took the presentations to vacant livings into their own hands, without consulting the presbytery; they annulled the oath, whereby all ecclesiastical and civil officers were obliged to swear to the maintainance of their discipline; and whereas all who received the holy sacrament were required to subscribe to the allowance of the general form of church government in that island, the king's attorney-general and his friends now refused it. Their elders likewise were cited into the temporal courts, and

Ac

Heylin's Hist. Presb. p. 396, and Collier's Eccles. Hist. p. 705. + Heylin's Hist. Presb. p. 396.

stripped of their privileges; nor had they much better quarter in the consistory, for the governor and jurats made the decrees of that court ineffectual, by reversing them in the Town-hall.

Complaint being made to the court of these innovations, the king sent them word, that to avoid all disputes for the future, he was determined to revive the office and authority of a dean, and to establish the English common-prayer book among them, which he did accordingly ;* and ordered the bishop of Winchester, in whose diocese they were, to draw up some canons for the dean's direction in the exercise of his government; which being done, and confirmed by the king, their former privileges were extinguished. Whereupon many left the islands and retired into France and Holland however others made a shift to support their discipline after a manner, in the island of Guernsey, where the episcopal regulations could not take place.

Mr. Robert Parker, a puritan minister already mentioned, published this year a very learned treatise of the cross in baptism. But the bishops, instead of answering it,persuaded the king to issue a proclamation, with an offer of a reward for apprehending him, which obliged him to abscond. A treacherous servant of the family having informed the officers where he had retired,they came and searched the house, but by the special providence of God he was preserved, the only room they neglected to search being that in which he was concealed, from whence he heard them quarrelling and swearing at one another; one saying, they had not searched that room, and another confidently asserting the contrary, and refusing to suffer it to be searched over again. Had he been taken, he had been cast into prison, where without doubt (says my author) he must have died. When he got into Holland, he would have been chosen minister of the English church at Amsterdam, but the magistrates being afraid of disobliging king James, he went to Doesburgh, and became minister of that garrison, where he departed this life, 1630.

* Collyer, vol. ii. p. 706. Heylin's Hist. Presb. p. 398-9.

+ Pierce, p. 171.

This year died the famous Dr. John Raynolds, king's professor in Oxford, at first a zealous papist, while his brother William was a protestant, but by conference and disputation the brothers converted each other, William dying an inveterate papist, and John an eminent protestant.* He was born in Devonshire, 1549, and educated in Corpus-Christi college, Oxford, of which he was afterwards president. He was a prodigy for reading, his memory being a living library. Dr. Hall used to say, that his memory and reading were near a miracle. He had turned over all writers profane and ecclesiastical, as councils, fathers, histories,&c. He was a critic in the languages;† of a sharp wit and indefatigable industry; his piety and sanctity of life were so eminent and conspicuous, that the learned Cracanthorp used to say, that to name Raynolds was to commend virtue itself. He was also of great modesty and humility. In short, says the Oxford historian, nothing can be spoken against him, but that he was the pillar of puritanism, and the grand favorer of non-conformity. At length, after a severe and mortified life, he died in his college May 21, 1607, ætatis 68, and was buried with great funeral solemnity in St. Mary's church.

Soon after died the famous Mr. Thomas Brightman, author of a commentary, upon the Song of Solomon, and the Revelations: he was born at Nottingham, and bred in Queen'scollege, Cambridge, where he became a champion for nonconformity to the ceremonies. He was afterwards presented by Sir John Osbourne to the rectory of Haunes in Bedfordshire, where he spent the remainder of his days in hard study, and constant application to his charge, as far as his conscience would admit. His life, says Mr. Fuller, was angelical, his learning uncommon; he was a close student, of little stature, and such a master of himself, that he was never known to be moved with anger. His daily discourse was against episcopal government, which he prophesied would shortly be overthrown, and the government of the * Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 477. Wood's Ath. vol. i. p. 290. Church History, b. x. p. 50.

"How" asks bishop Warburton, "would the historian have us understand this? As a true prophecy to be fulfilled, or a false prophet VOL. II

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foreign protestant churches be erected in its place. He died suddenly upon the road, as he was riding with SirJohn Osbourne in his coach, by a sudden obstruction of the liver or gall, Aug. 24, 1607, ætatis 51.

The king having given the reins of the church into the hands of the prelates and their dependants, these in return became zealous champions for the prerogative, both in the pulpit and from the press. Two books were published this year, which maintained the most extravagant maxims of arbitrary power; one written by Cowel, LL. D. and vicar-general to the archbishop, wherein he affirms, 1. That the king is not bound by the laws, or by his coronation oath. 2. That he is not obliged to call parliaments to make laws, but may do it without them. 3. That it is a great favor to admit the consent of the subject in giving subsidies. The other, by Dr. Blackwood, a clergyman, who maintained that the English were all slaves from the Norman conquest. The parliament would have brought the authors to justice, but the king protected them by proroguing the houses in displeasure; and to supply his necessities began to raise money by monopolies of divers manufactures, to the unspeakable prejudice of the trade of the kingdom.

This year died the famous Jacobus Arminius, divinity professor in the university of Leyden, who gave birth to the famous sect still called by his name. He was born at Ou

confuted ?" The reply is, Mr. Neal is to be understood as his author. Mr. Fuller, from whom he quotes. Neither meant to ascribe to Mr. Brightman a prophetic inspiration, but only to relate his sentiments and apprehensions. To which, however the bishop may sneer, the events of the next reign bore a correspondence. The clause" and the 'government of the foreign protestant churches, &e." as Dr. Grey observes, is not in Fuller; who, however, says, that Mr. Brightman gave offence by resembling the church of England to lukewarm Laodicea, praising and preferring the purity of foreign protestant churches." He always carried about him a Greek testament, which he read through every fortnight. Ed.

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↑ Rapin says, as Dr. Grey observes, "the king interposed, and frus'trated the parliament's design, by publishing a proclamation, to forbid the reading of these books, and to order copies to be delivered to the 'magistrates. But such proclamations are usually ill obeyed, espe'cially when it is not the king's interest to see them strictly executed." So that by these measures the king screened the persons of the authors. Ed.