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THE

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS,

OR

PROTESTANT NONCONFORMISTS;

FROM

THE REFORMATION IN 1517, TO THE REVOLUTION IN 1688;

COMPRISING

^11 Account of thrir H^vintipltn;

THEIR ATTEMPTS FOR A FARTHER REFORMATION IN THE CHURCH ; THEIR SUFFERIM08 ; AND THE LIVES AND CHARACTERS OF THEIR MOST CONSIDERABLE DIVINES.

BY DANIEL N E A L, M.A.

REPRINTED

yROM THE TEXT OF DR. TOULMIn's EDITION : WITH HIS LIFE OF THE AUTHOR

AND ACCOUNT OF HIS WRITINGS. REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES

BY JOHN 0. CHOULES, M.A,

^&itfi nine Portraits on ^teeU

IN TWO VOLUMES.

V O L. I.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET.

1848

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843,

By Harper & Brothers,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New- York-

;7

PREFACE.

A THOUGHTFUL man is not only convinced that God has created this world, he is as deeply persuaded that God has a Church in it j that he planted it here, and waters and nourishes it, and exerts in its favour a heavenly influence.

In Revelation we are furnished with a lively emblem of the Church, " a bush burning with fire, and not consumed." — Exodus, iii., 2. The Church has not, however, sustained the conflict in her own strength, but because the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of the covenant, has been in the bush, " either to slack the fire, or to strengthen the bush, and make it incombustible." The history of the Church is a record of sufiering and affliction j she has ever had the cross in her experience j and all who have followed Christ and his apostles have received the Word in much affliction. — 1 Thessalonians, i., 4.

The persecutions of God's people were great under the pagan emperors ; but still the Church has suffered more from Rome papal than Rome pagan. That idolatrous and apostate communion may truly be said to be drunk with the blood of the saints. We talk, and write, and preach about the reformation from popery, and seem almost to imagine that the beast is destroyed ; we for- get too commonly the partial character of the Reformation, the imperfect views of the early champions for truth, and the grasp which popery retained in England through the unsanctified alliance of the Church and State.

Very few are thoroughly informed as to the events connected with the strug- gles for truth in the reigns of the Tudor family. The reformation of Henry the Eighth and the Sixth Edward was certainly a glorious achievement, but can never be regarded as a complete triumph, a perfect work. It was effected by those who only saw men as trees walking, and who just felt that all around them were men still blinder than themselves. Satan, when he cannot destroy a good thing, is content to mar it. Elizabeth was a Protestant but in name j her religion was papistical ; all her sympathies were with external pomp and showy ceremony; she regarded religion as a mere matter of state policy, and the Church as an affair to be governed by her will, expressed by parliamentary statutes. To Christ's sceptre she never bowed — the supremacy of his laws she never recognised — of Christ's headship in the government of the Church she never dreamed. A haughty princess and a proud and persecuting prelacy fash- ioned the Church as it suited their taste and purpose, and they have handed it down to us with so many alterations and additions, that the fishermen of Galilee and the early disciples of Jesus would be unable to recognise it as the " kingdom not of this world."

The power and excellence of the Gospel are never seen to greater advantage than in the days of persecution. It is true that God's children are like stars

Ti PREFACE.

that shine brightest in the darkest skies ; like the chamomile, which, the more it is trodden down, the faster it spreads and grows. The glories of Christian- ity in England are to be traced in the sufferings of confessors and martyrs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries j and it was under the influence of Christian principles, imbibed at this very period, that the Mayflower brought over the band of Pilgrims to Plymouth.

Afflictions and religious persecutions have for a long period been unknown to the happy citizens of these United States, and we have strangely forgotten the times that tried the souls of our fathers.

There is a resurrection in the land at the present time of feelings and prin- ciples which were once generally prevalent, and which so eminently distin- guished our English ancestry. Now, after a long period of carelessness and in- attention to the history of Protestant Nonconformity, the descendants of the Pilgrims have been compelled to fall back upon the history and faith of their fathers, in consequence of the pressing impertinence with which the claims of popery, prelacy, and priestcraft have been urged upon them and their children. God has been building up Zion in all our borders for two hundred years, ma- king our land the praise of the nations ; he has granted the quickening influ- ence of his Spirit to the ministrations of thousands of all religious names, who have published the deathless love of his adorable Son; and yet a comparative handful of our fellow-Christians gravely deny that our solemn gatherings make Christian churches ; that our pastors and teachers have any authority to speak in His name who has so unequivocally blessed them in their labour; and as for Zion's chief and holiest feast, that they stigmatize as " the blasphemous mock- ery of a lay sacrament." We have again to fight the battle for all that we hold dear ; but we enter the contest cheered by the undying renown of the names which illustrate the early history of the struggles for religious freedom. It is as fitting and proper for an American to forget or scorn the names of Lexing- ton and Bunker Hill, Trenton and Princeton, Hancock and Adams, Washing- ton and Jefferson, as for a New-Englander to be unaffected by the utterance of Smithfield, Lambeth Palace, and the ever-honoured names of Rogers and Rid- ley, Hooper, Lawrence, Latimer, and their fellow-martyrs. We should never forget that the prison, the scaffold, and the stake were stages in the march of civil and religious liberty which our forefathers had to travel, in order that we might attain our present freedom.

It is quite clear, that in the United States there is a general attention direct- ed to the subject of Church History, partly arising from the almost total apa- thy which has so long existed, and in a considerable degree owing to the ex- traordinary movement in the Church of England by that party who regard their amputation from Rome as original sin and ac);ual transgression. I have long wished to see Neal's admirable History of the Puritans in the hands not only of the ministry and students, but all private reading Christians, a growing class in this country ; but its very expensive price has been an insuperable bar- rier to general circulation. Consultation with many of our most influential clergy of all denominations interested has induced me to prepare an edition which shall not only be so cheap as to admit of general use, but shall imbody the valuable information which has been garnered up by the writers of the last century. Since Neal finished his work we have had the writings of Towgood

PREFACE. ^

and Toulmin, Wilson and Palmer, Brooks and Conder, Fletcher and Orme and especially the admirable contributions of Drs. Vaughan and Price. The works alluded to, and very many others, have been faithfully and laboriously con- sulted in order to enrich this edition. It may have soine errors in typography which have escaped my notice, but I can assure the reader that it is the most perfect edition extant, and that I have made scores of corrections from the la- test London edition. Not an iota has been altered in the original text of Neal, and every edition of the immortal work has been carefully collated and com- pared. To the Congregational, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist ministry of the land, I beheve these volumes will be welcome, and if our pastors are faithful to their high trust, they will see that they are placed in the hands and houses of their people : should this be the case, we may defy the machinations of Rome, and laugh at the absurdity oi apostolical succession.

I anticipate the happiest results from the wide circulation of this History. It will create an interest in favour of the venerable sufferers in behalf of truth. We shall see that the persecuting party, who had also enjoyed a partial escape from anti-Christian despotism, secured their political ascendency only by acci- dental causes j and we shall see " that in these circumstances, the same con- victions and feelings which had led all the friends of the Reformation to resist the papal tyranny of Rome, determined the consistent advocates of that refor- mation to oppose the Protestant tyranny of the Tudors and the Stuarts. They were anxious to attain a greater degree of simplicity and purity in the admin- istration and ritual of the Reformed Church. When, at a subsequent period, an Act of Uniformity was passed, it was not for the sake of vestments and forms that the successors of the Puritans withheld their acquiescence, but because in the principles which led to their adoption by legislative arrangements there was no recognition of personal and social rights ; no accordance with the lib- erty of the Christian dispensation ; no allowance for weak and tender con» sciences ; no desire for a liberal and enlarged comprehension ; but a system of arbitrary and capricious enactments, independent both of personal and rep- resentative consent, and supported by a usurpation of authority which directly impugned the great principles of the Reformation, and invaded the prerogative of Him who is our ' only Master and Lord !' Not finding a sufficient code for the regulation of their ecclesiastical system in the New Testament, they added an apocryphal book of Leviticus to its canon, and claimed for this appendage of human origin implicit faith and unresisting obedience." Thus originated Non- conformity. Before our children remove their religious connexions, and, en- amoured with a show of pomp and circumstance, embrace a religion which may cause its professor to be greeted in the high places — before they leave the old paths of God's Word, alone sufficient for man's faith, guidance, and sal- vation— before they barter their birthright for a mess of pottage — let us place in their hands this chronicle of the glorious days of the suffering Churches, and let them know that they are the sons of the men " of whom the world was not wor^ thy," and whose sufferings for conscience' sake are here monumentally re- corded.

JOHN OVERTON CHOULES. August 12, 1843.

PREFACE

TO VOLUME I. OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION

The design of the following work is to preserve the memory of those great and good men among the Reformers who lost their preferments in the Church for attempt- ing a farther reformation of its discipline and ceremonies, and to account for the rise and progress of that separation from the national establishment which subsists to this day.

To set this in a proper light, it was necessary to look back upon the sad state of religion before the Reformation, and to consider the motives that induced King Henry VIII. to break with the pope, and to declare the Church of England an independent body, of which himself, under Christ, was the supreme head upon earth. This was a bold attempt, at a time when all the powers of the earth were against him, and could not have succeeded without an overruling direction of Divine Providence. But as for any real amendment of the doctrines or superstitions of popery, any far- ther than was necessary to secure his own supremacy, and those vast revenues of the Church which he had grasped into his hands, whatever his majesty might design, he had not the honour to accomplish.

The Reformation made a quick progress in the short reign of King Edward VI., who had been educated under Protestant tutors, and was himself a prodigious genius for his age ; he settled the doctrines of the Church, and intended a reformation of its government and laws ; but his noble designs were obstructed by some temporizing bishops, who, having complied with the impositions of King Henry VIII., were will- ing to bring others under the same yoke ; and to keep up an alliance under the Church of Rome, lest they should lose the uninterrupted succession of their charac- ters from the apostles. The controversy that gave rise to the separation began in this reign, on occasion of Bishop Hooper's refusing to be consecrated in the popish habits. This may seem an unreasonable scruple in the opinion of some people, but was certainly an affair of great consequence to the Reformation, when the habits were the known badges of popery ; and when the administrations of the priests were thought to receive their validity from the consecrated vestments, as I am afraid many, both of the clergy and common people, are too inclinable to apprehend at this day. Had the Reformers fixed upon other decent garments, as badges of the episcopal or priestly office, which had no relation to the superstitions of popery, this controversy had been prevented. But the same regard to the old religion was had in revising the liturgy, and translating it into the English language ; the Reformers, instead of framing a new one in the language of Holy Scripture, had recourse to the offices of the Church of Rome, leaving out such prayers and passages as were offisnsive, and adding certain responses to engage the attention of the common people, who, till this time, had no concern in the public devotions of the Church, as being uttered in an unknown tongue. This was thought a very considerable advance, and as much as the times would bear, but was not designed for the last standard of the English reformation ; however, the immature death of young King Edward put an end to all farther progress.

Upon the accession of Queen Mary, popery revived by the supremacy's being lodged in a single hand, and, within the compass of little more than a year, became a second time the established religion of the Church of England j the statutes of King Edward were repealed, and the penal laws against heretices were put in execu- tion against the Reformers ; many of whom, after a long imprisonment, and cruel trials of mockings and scourgings, made a noble confession of their faith before many Vol. I.— B

X PREFACE.

witnesses, and sealed it with their blood. Great numbers fled into banishment, and were entertained by the reformed States of Germany, Switzerland, and Geneva, with great humanity ; the magistrates enfranchising them, and appointing churches for their public worship. But here began the fatal division :* some of the exiles were for keeping to the liturgy of King Edward as the religion of their country, while others, considering that those laws were repealed, apprehended themselves at full liberty ; and having no prospect of returning home, they resolved to shake off the remains of antichrist, and to copy after the purer forms of those churches among whom they lived. Accordingly, the congregation at Frankfort, by the desire of the magistrates, began upon the Geneva model, with an additional prayer for the afflicted state of the Church of England at that time ; but when Dr. Cox, afterward Bishop of Ely, came with a new detachment from England, he interrupted the public service by answering aloud after the minister, which occasioned such a disturbance and di- vision as could never be healed. Mr. Knox and Mr. Whittingham, with one half of the congregation, being obliged to remove to Geneva, Dr. Cox and his friends kept possession of the church at Frankfort, till there arose such quarrels and conten- tions among themselves as made them a reproach to the strangers among whom they lived. Thus the separation began.

When the exiles, upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth, returned to England, each party were for advancing the Reformation according to their own standard. The queen, with those that had weathered the storm at home, were only for resto- ring King Edward's liturgy ; but the majority of the exiles were for the worship and discipline of the foreign churches, and refused to comply with the old establishment, declaiming loudly against the popish habits and ceremonies. The new bishops, most of whom had been their companions abroad, endeavoured to soften them for the present, declaring they would use all their interests at court to make them easy in a little time. The queen also connived at their nonconformity till her gov- ernment was settled, but then declared roundly that she had fixed her standard, and would have all her subjects conform to it ; upon which the bishops stiffened in their behaviour, explained away their promises, and became too severe against their dis- senting brethren.

In the year 1564, their lordships began to show their authority, by urging the clergy of their several dioceses to subscribe the liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline of the Church ; when those that refused were first called Puritans, a name of re- proach derived from the Cathari, or Puritani, of the third century after Christ, but proper enough to express their desires of a more pure form of worship and discipline in the Church. When the doctrines of Arminius took place in the latter end of the reign of James I., those that adhered to Calvin's explication of the five disputed points were called Doctrinal Puritans ; and at length, says Mr. Fuller,t the name was improved to stigmatize all those who endeavoured in their devotions to accom- pany the minister with a pure heart, and who were remarkably holy in their conver- sations. A Puritan, therefore, was a man of severe morals, a Calvinist in doctrine, and a Nonconformist to the ceremonies and discipline of the Church, though they did not totally separate from it.

The queen, having conceived a strong aversion to these people, pointed all her artillery against them ; for, besides the ordinary courts of the bishops, her majesty erected a new tribunal, called the Court of High Commission, which suspended and deprived men of their livings, not by the verdict of twelve men upon oath, but by the sovereign determination of three commissioners of her majesty's own nomination, founded, not upon the statute laws of the realm, but upon the bottomless deep of the canon law ; and instead of producing witnesses in open court to prove the charge, they assumed a power of administering an oath ex officio, whereby the prisoner was obliged to answer all questions the court should put to him, though never so prejudi- cial to his own defence ; if he refused to swear, he was imprisoned for contempt ; and if he took the oath, he was convicted upon his own confession.

* Fatal division ; i. e., on account of the animosities it created, and the miseries in which it involved very many persons and families ; but in another view, it was a happy division, for it hath been essentially ser- viceable to civil as well as religious liberty, and, like other evils, been productive of many important good efifects; as the author himself points out, p. xi.— Ed. + Church History, b. ix., p. 76, and d. x., p. 100.

PREFACE. ad

The reader will meet with many examples of the high proceedings of this court in the course of this history ; of their sending their pursuivants to bring ministers out of the country, and keeping them in town at excessive charges ; of their interroga- tories upon oath, which were almost equal to the Spanish Inquisition ; of their exam- inations and long imprisonments of ministers without bail, or bringing them to a trial ; and all this not for insufficiency, or immorality, or neglect of their cures, but for not wearing a white surplice, for not baptizing with the sign of the cross, or not subscri- bing to certain articles that had no foundation in law. A fourth part of all the preachers in England were under suspension from one or other of these courts, at a time when not one beneficed clergyman in six was capable of composing a sermon. The edge of all those laws that were made against popish recusants, who were con- tinually plotting against the queen, was turned agamst Protestant Nonconformists ; nay, in many cases, they had not the benefit of the law, for, as Lord Clarendon* rightly observes. Queen Elizabeth carried her prerogative as high as in the worst times of King Charles I. " They who look back upon the council-books of those times," says his lordship, " and upon the acts of the Star Chamber then, shall find as high instances of power and sovereignty upon the liberty and property of the subject as can be since given. But the art, order, and gravity of those proceedings (where short, severe, constant rules, were set, and smartly pursued, and the party felt only the weight of the judgment, not the passion of his judges) made them less taken no- tice of, and so less grievous to the public, though as intolerable to the person."

These severities, instead of reconciling the Puritans to the Church, drove them far- ther from it ; for men do not care to be beat from their principles by the artillery of canons, injunctions, and penal laws ; nor can they be in love with a church that uses such methods of conversion. A great deal of ill blood was bred in the nation by these proceedings ; the bishops lost their esteem with the people, and the num- ber of Puritans was not really lessened, though they lay concealed, till in the next age they got the power into their hands and shook off the yoke.

The reputation of the Church of England has been very much advanced of late years by the suspension of the penal laws, and the legal indulgence granted to Protestant dissenters. Long experience has taught us that uniformity in doctrine and worship enforced by penal laws is not the way to the Church's peace ; that there may be a separation from a true church without schism, and schism within a church without separation ; that the indulgence granted by law to Protestant Non- conformists, which has now subsisted above forty years, has not been prejudicial to Church or State, but rather advantageous to both ; for the revenues of the Established Church have not been lessened ; a number of poor have been maintained by the Dis- senters, which must otherwise have come to the parish ; the separation has kept up an emulation among the clergy, quickened them to their pastoral duty, and been a check upon their moral behaviour ; and I will venture to say, whenever the separate assembhes of Protestant Nonconformists shall cease, and all men be obliged to wor- ship at their parish churches, that ignorance and laziness will prevail among the clergy ; and that the laity in many parts of the country will degenerate into supersti- tion, profaneness, and downright atheism. With regard to the state, it ought to be remembered that the Protestant Dissenters have always stood by the laws and Consti- tution of their country ; that they joined heartily in the glorious revolution of King William and Queen Mary, and suffered for their steady adherence to the Protestant succession in the illustrious house of his present majesty, when great numbers that called themselves churchmen were looking another way ; for this, the Schism Bill and other hardships were put upon them, and not for their religious differences with the Church ; for if they would have joined the administration at that time, it is well known they might have made much better terms for themselves ; but as long as there is a Protestant Dissenter in England, there will be a friend of liberty and our present happy Constitution. Instead, therefore, of crushing them, or comprehending them within the Church, it must be the interest of all true lovers of their country, even upon political views, to ease their complaints, and to support and courtenance their Christian liberty.

* Vol. i., p. 72, 8vo.

Tii PREFACE.

For, though the Church of England is as free from persecuting principles as any es- tablishment in Europe, yet still there are some grievances remaining, which wise and good men of all parties wish might be reviewed ; not to mention the subscriptions which affect the clergy, there is the act of the twenty-fifth of King Charles 11. for preventing dangers arising from popish recusants, commonly called the Test Act, " which obliges, under very severe penalties, all persons [of the laity] bearing any office or place of trust or profit (besides taking the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribing a declaration against transubstantiation) to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the usage of the Church of England, in some parish church, on a Lord's Day, immediately after Divine service and sermon, and to deliver a certificate of having so received it, under the hands of the respective ministers and church-wardens, proved by two credible witnesses upon oath, to be recorded in court." It appears by the title of this act, and by the disposition of the Parliament at that time, that it was not designed against Protestant Nonconformists ; but the Dissent- ers in the house generously came into it, to save the nation from popery ; for when the court, in order to throw out the bill, put them upon moving for a clause to except their friends, Mr. Love, who had already declared against the dispensing power, stood up, and desired that the nation might first be secured against popery, by pass- ing the bill without any amendment, and that then, if the house pleased, some re- gard might be had to Protestant Dissenters ; in which, says Mr. Echard, he was sec- onded by most of his party.* The bill was voted accordingly, and another brought in for the ease of his majesty's Protestant dissenting subjects, which passed the Commons, but before it could get through the Lords, the king came to the house and prorogued the Parliament. Thus the Protestant Nonconformists, out of their abun- dant zeal for the Protestant religion, shackled themselves, and were left upon a level with popish recusants.

It was necessary to secure the nation against popery at that time, when the pre- sumptive heir of the crown was of that religion ; but whether it ought not to have been done by a civil rather than by a religious test, I leave with the reader. The obliging all persons in places of civil trust to receive the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper, seems to be a hardship upon those gentlemen whose manner of life loudly declares their unfitness for so sacred a solemnity, and who would not run the hazard of eating and drinking unworthily, but that they satisfy themselves with throwing off the guilt upon the imposers. Great Britain must not expect an army of saints, nor is the time yet come when all ner officers shall be peace, and her ex- actors righteousness. It is no less a hardship upon a great body of his majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, who are qualified to serve their king and country in all offices of civil trust, and' would perform their duty with all cheerfulness, did they not scruple to receive the sacramem after the usage of the Church of England, or to prostitute a sacred and religious institution as a qualification for a civil employment. I can see no inconvenience either to Church or State, if his majesty, as the common father of his people, should have the service of all his subjects who are willing to swear allegiance to his royal person and government ; to renounce all foreign juris- diction, and to give all reasonable security not to disturb the Church of England, or any of their fellow-subjects, in the peaceable enjoyment of their religious or civil rights and properties. Besides, the removing this grievance would do honour to the Church of England itself, by obviating the charge of imposition, and by relieving the clergy from a part of their work, which has given some of thetn very great uneasi- ness ; but I am chieffy concerned for the honour of religion and public virtue, which are wounded hereby in the house of their friends. If, therefore, as some conceive, the sacramental test be a national blemish, I humbly conceive, with all due submis- sion, the removal of it would be a public blessing.

The Protestant Nonconformists observe with pleasure the right reverend fathers of the Church owning the cause of religious liberty, " that private judgment ought to be formed upon examination, and that religion is a free and unforced thing." And we sincerely join with the Lord-bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the preface to his excellent Vindication of the Miracles of our Blessed Saviour,! " in congratulating

* Echard's Church History, ad ann. 1672-3. t Pre!., p. viiL

PREFACE xiii

our country on the enjoyment of their civil and ecclesiastical liberties within their just and reasonable bounds, as the most valuable blessings," though we are not fully satisfied with the reasonableness of those bounds his lordship has fixed. God forbid that any among us should be patrons of open profaneness, irreligion, scurrility, or ill-manners to the established rehgion of the nation; much less that we should countenance any who blasphemously revile the founder of it, or who deride what- soever is sacred ! No ; we have a fervent zeal for the honour of our Lord and Mas- ter, and are desirous to " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints" with all sorts of spiritual weapons ; but we do not yet see a necessity of stopping the mouths of the adversaries of our holy religion with fines and imprisonments, even though, to their own infamy and shame, they treat it with indecency : let scan- dal and ill-manners be punished as they deserve, but let not men be terrified from speaking out their doubts, or proposing their objections against the Gospel revelation, which we are sure will bear a thorough examination ; and though the late ungener- ous attacks upon the miracles of our blessed Saviour may have had an ill influence upon the giddy and unthinking youth of the age, they have given occasion to the publishing such a number of incomparable defences of Christianity as have confirmed the faith of many, and must satisfy the minds of all reasonable inquirers after truth.

Nor do we think it right to fix the boundaries of religious liberty upon the degree of people's differing from the national establishment, because enthusiasts or Jews have an equal right with Christians to worship God in their own way ; to defend their own peculiar doctrines, and to enjoy the public protection as long as they keep the peace, and maintain no principles manifestly inconsistent with the safety of the government they live under.

But his lordship apprehends he has a chain of demonstrable propositions to main- tain his boundaries: he observes,! "1. That the true ends of government cannot subsist without religion, no reasonable man will dispute it. 2. That open impiety, or a public opposition made to, and an avowed contempt of the established religion, which is a considerable part of the Constitution, do greatly promote the disturbance of the public peace, and naturally tend to the subversion of the whole Constitution." It is here supposed that one particular religion must be incorporated into the Consti- tution, which is not necessary to the ends of government ; for religion and civil gov- ernment are distinct things, and stand upon a separate basis. Religion in general is the support of civil government, and it is the office of the civil magistrate to protect all his dutiful and loyal subjects in the free exercise of their religion ; but to incor- porate one particular religion into the Constitution, so as to make it part of the com- mon law, and to conclude from thence that the Constitution, having a right to pre- serve itself, may make laws for the punishment of those that publicly oppose any one brapch of it, is to put an effectual stop to the progress of the Reformation through- out the whole Christian world : for by this reasoning our first reformers must be con- demned ; and if a subject of France, or the ecclesiastical states, should at this time write against the usurped power of the pope, or expose the absurdities of transub- stantiation, adoration of the host, worshipping of images, &c., it would be laudable for the legislative powers of those countries to send the writer to the galleys, or shut him up in a dungeon, as a disturber of the public peace, because popery is supported by law, and is a very considerable part of their constitution.

But to support the government's right to enact penal laws against those that opposed the established religion, his lordship is pleased to refer us to the edicts of the first Christian emperors out of the Codex Theodosianus, composed in the fifth century, which acquaints us with the sentiments of that and the preceding age, but says nothing of the doctrine of Scripture, or of the practice of the Church for three hun- dred years before the empire became Christian. His lordship then subjoins sundry passages out of a sermon of Archbishop Tillotson, whom he justly ranks among the greatest of the moderns. But it ought to be remembered, that this sermon was preached at court in the year 1680, when the nation was in imminent danger from the Popish Plot. His lordship should also have acquainted his readers with the arch- bishop's cautious introduction, which is this : " I cannot think (till I be better in-

» Pref. p. ix., I.

xiT PREFACE.

formed, which I am always ready to be) that any pretence of conscience warrants any man that cannot work miracles to draw men off from the established religion of a nation, nor openly to make proselytes to his own religion, in contempt of the magis- trate and the law, though he is never so sure he is in the right."* This proposition, though pointed at the popish missionaries in England at that time, is not only incon- sistent with the Protestant Reformation (as I observed before), but must effectually prevent the propagating of Christianity among the idolatrous nations of the Eastern and Western Indies, without a new power of working miracles, which we have no ground to expect ; and I may venture to assure his lordship and the world that the good archbishop lived to see his mistake, and could name the learned person to "whom he frankly confessed it after some hours' conversation upon the subject.! But human authorities are of little weight in points of reason and speculation.

It was from this mistaken principle that the government pressed so hard upon those Puritans whose history is now before the reader, in which he will observe how the transferring the supremacy from the pope to the king united the Church and State into one body under one head, insomuch that writing against the Church was construed by the judges in Westminster Hall a seditious libelling the queen's government, and was punished with exorbitant fines, imprisonment, and death. He ■will observe, farther, the rise and progress of the penal laws ; the extent of the regal supremacy in those times ; the deplorable ignorance of the clergy ; with the oppo- site principles of our church-reformers, and of the Puritans, which I have set in a true light, and have pursued the controversy as an historian in its several branches, to the end of the long reign of Queen Elizabeth ; to all which I have added some short remarks of my own, which the reader will receive according to their evidence. And because the principles of the Scotch Reformers were much the same with those of the English Puritans, and the imposing a liturgy and bishops upon them gave rise to a confusion of the next age, I have inserted a short account of their re- ligious establishment, and have enlivened the whole with the lives and characters of the principal Puritans of those times.

A history of this kind was long expected from the late reverend and learned Dr. John Evans, who had for some years been collecting materials for this purpose, and had he lived to perfect his design, would have done it to much greater advantage ; but I have seen none of his papers, and am informed that there is but a very small matter capable of being put in order for the press. Upon his decease, I- found it necessary to undertake this province, to bring the history forward to those times when the Puritans had the power in their own hands ; in examining into which, I have spent my leisure hours for some years ; but the publishing those collections will depend, under God, upon the continuance of my health, and the acceptance this meets with in the world.

I am not so vain as to expect to escape the censures of critics, nor the reproaches of angry men, who, while they do nothing themselves, take pleasure in exposing the labours of others in pamphlets and newspapers ; but as I shall be always thankful to any that will convince me of my mistakes in a friendly manner, the others may be secure of enjoying the satisfaction of their satirical remarks without any disturbance from me.

I have endeavoured to acquaint myself thoroughly with the times of which I write ; and as I have no expectations from any party of Christians, I am under no tempta- tion to disguise their conduct. I have cited my authorities in the margin, and flatter

♦ Abp. Tillotson's Works, vol. i., fol., p. 320, 321.

+ The learned person to whom Mr. Neal refers, I conceive, was Mr. Howe : the purport of the conver- sation he had with the bishop, on the proposition contained in his sermon, was given to the pubUc by Dr. Calamy, in his Memoirs of Mr. Howe, p. 75, 76. The fact was, that the bishop was sent for, out of his turn, to preach before the king, on account of the sickness of another gentleman, and had prepared his discourse in great haste, and impressed with the general fears of popery : the sentiment above quoted from it was the occasion of its being published from the press. For the king having slept most part of the time while the sermon was delivered, a certain nobleman, when it was over, said to him, " 'Tis pity your maj- esty slept, for we have had the rarest piece of Hobbism that ever you heard in your Ufa." "Odsfish, he shall print it, then," replied the king. When it came from the press, the author sent a copy, as a present, to Mr. Howe, who freely expostulated with Dr. Tillotson on this passage, first in a long letter, and then in a conversation which the doctor desired on the subject, at the end of which he fell to weeping freely, and said " that this was the most unhappy thing that had of a long time befallen him."

PREFACE. ^^

myself that I have had the opportunity of bringing many things to light relating to the suffermgs of the Puritans, and the state of the Reformation in those times, which have hitherto been unknown to the world, chiefly by the assistance of a large manu- script collection of papers, faithfully transcribed from their originals in the University of Cambridge, by a person of character employed for that purpose, and crenerously communicated to me by my ingenious and learned friend. Dr. Benjamin Grosvenor ; for which I take this opportunity of returning him my own and the thanks of the public. Among the ecclesiastical historians of these times, Mr. Fuller, Bishop Bur- net, and Mr. Strype, are the chief; the last of whom has searched into the records of the English Reformation more than any man of the age ; Dr. Heylin and Collyer are of more suspected authority, not so much for their party principles, as because the former never gives us his vouchers, and yet the latter follows him blindly in all things.

Upon the whole, I have endeavoured to keep in view the honesty and gravity of an historian, and have said nothing with a design to exasperate or widen the difter- ences among Christians ; for, as 1 am a sincere admirer of the doctrines of the New Testament, I would have an equal regard to its most excellent precepts, of which these are some of the capital, that " we love one another ; that we forgive ofl'ences ; that we bear one another's infirmities, and even bless them that curse us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us." If this spirit and temper were more prevalent, the lives of Christians would throw a bright lustre upon the truth and excellence of their Divine faith, and convince the atheists and infidels of the age, more than all their arguments can do without it.

I would earnestly recommend this temper to the Protestant Nonconformists of the present age, together with a holy emulation of each other in undissembled piety and sanctity of life, that while they are reading the heavy and grievous suff'erings of their ancestors from ecclesiastical commissions, spiritual courts, and penal laws, for con- science' sake, they may be excited to an humble adoration of Divine Providence, which has delivered them so far from the yoke of oppression ; to a detestation of all persecuting principles ; and to a loyal and dutiful behaviour to the best of kings, un- der whose mild and just government they are secure of their civil and religious lib- erties. And may Protestants of all persuasions improve in the knowledge and love of the truth, and in sentiments of Christian charity and forbearance towards each other, that, being at peace among themselves, they may with greater success bend their united forces against the common enemy of Christianity ! , _, „. , Daniel Neal.

London, Feb. Ut, 1731-3.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO VOLUME I. OF DR. TOULMIN'S EDITION.

More than half a century has elapsed since the work now again offered to the public made its first appearance. The author gave it a second edition in 4to. In 1755 it was printed at Dublin, on the plan of the first impression, in four volumes octavo. The English editions have for a number of years been scarce, and copies of the work, as it has been justly held in estimation by dissenters, have borne a high price. Foreigners also have referred to it as a book of authority, aflTording the most ample information on that part of the English history which it comprehends.*

A republication of it will, on these accounts, it is supposed, be acceptable to the friends of religious liberty. Several circumstances concur to render it, at this time, peculiarly seasonable. The Protestant Dissenters, by their repeated applications to Parliament, have attracted notice and excited an inquiry into their principles and history. The odium and obloquy of which they have recently become the objects are a call upon them to appeal to both,in their own justification. Their history, while it brings up to painful review scenes of spiritual tyranny and oppression, connects itself with the rise and progress of religious liberty, and necessarily brings forward many important and interesting transactions which are not to be met with in the gen- eral histories of our country, because not falling within the province of the authors to detail.

The editor has been induced, by these considerations, to comply with a proposal to revise Mr. Neal's work. In doing this, he has taken no other liberty with the original text than to cast into notes some papers and lists of names, which appeared to him too much to interrupt the narrative. This alteration in the form of it prom- ises to render it more pleasing to the eye, and more agreeable to the perusal. He has, where he could procure the works quoted, which he has been able to do in most instances, examined and corrected the references, and so ascertained the fairness and accuracy of the authorities. He has reviewed the animadversions of Bishops Maddox and Warburton, and Dr. Grey, and given the result of his scrutiny in notes ; by which the credit of the author is eventually established. He has not suppressed strictures of his own, where he conceived there was occasion for them. It has been his aim, in conducting this work through the press, to support the character of the diligent, accurate, and impartial editor. How far he has done this he must leave to the candid to determine.

Whatever inaccuracies or mistakes the eye of criticism may discover, he is con- fident that they cannot essentially affect the execution of the design, any more than the veracity of the author. The remark, which Mr. Neal advanced as a plea in his own defence, against the censure of Bishop Maddox, will apply with force, the edi- tor conceives, to his own case, as in the first instance it had great weight. " The commission of errors in writing any history of times past," says the ingenious Mr. Wharton, in his letter to Mr. Strype, " being altogether unavoidable, ought not to de- tract from the credit of the history or the merits of the historian, unless it be ac- companied with immoderate ostentation or unhandsome reflections on the errors of others."!

The editor has only farther to solicit any communications which may tend to im- prove this impression of Neal's History, or to furnish materials for the continuation of the History of the Protestant Dissenters from the Revolution, with which period Mr. Neal's design closes, to the piresent times, as he has it in contemplation, if Providence favour him with life and health, to prepare such a work for the press.

Taunton, 13th June, 1793.

* Mosheim, Dictionnaire de Heresies, and Wendebom.

t Mr. Wharton discovered as many errors in Mr. Strype's single volume of Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer as filled three sheets ; yet Mr. Strype's collections were justly entitled to the commendations of posterity, as a work of great utility and authority.— See Neal's Review, p. 6. 8vo.

MEMOIR

OF THE

LIFE OF MR. DANIEL NEAL, A.M.*

Mr. Daniel Neal was bom in the city of Loudon, on the 14th of December, 1678. "When he was very young, his parents were removed by death, and left him, their only surviving child, in the hands of a maternal uncle, whose care of his health and educa- tion was faithful and affectionate, and was often mentioned by his nephew with grati- tude.

He received his classical education at Merchant Tailors' School, to which he was sent when he was seven or eight years of age, and where he stayed till he was head scholar. In this youthful period he gave a proof of the serious and conscientious prin- ciples by which he was governed ; for, an exhibition to St. John's College in Oxford being offered to him, out of a foundation belonging to that school, he declined it, and chose an education for the ministry among the Protestant Dissenters.

About the year 1696 or 1697 he removed from this seminary to a dissenting acade- my, under the direction of the Reverend Thomas Rowe, under whose tuition several eminent characters were, in part, formed.f To this gentleman Dr. Watts addressed his animated ode, called " Free Philosophy," which may, in this view, be considered as an honourable testimonial to the candid and liberal spirit with which Mr. Rowe con- ducted the studies of his pupils.

Mr. Neal's thirst after knowledge was not to be satisfied by the limited advantages of one seminary, but prompted him to seek farther improvement in foreign universi- ties. Having spent three years with Mr. Rowe, he removed to Holland, where he prosecuted his studies for two years, under the celebrated Professors D'Uries, Greevius, and Burman, at Utrecht ; and then one year at Leyden.

About the middle or latter end of 1703 he returned to England, in company with Mr. Martin TomkinsJ and Mr. (afterward the eminent Dr.) Lardner, and soon after appear- ed in the pulpit.

* This narrative is drawn up chiefly from the memoir of Mr. Neal's life in the funeral sermon by Dr. Jen- Tiings. and a MS. account of him and his works by his son, Nathaniel Neal, Esq., communicated by his grandson, Daniel Lister, Esq., of Hackney.

f Among others, Dr. Watts, Dr. Hort, afterward Archbishop of Tuam, Mr. Hughes the poet, Dr. John jEvans, Mr. Grove, and Dr. Jeremiah Hunt.

t This gentleman was settled with a dissenting congregation at Stoke Newington. In the year 1718, Mr. Asty, the pastor of a congregation in Ropemaker's Alley, Moorfields, on making an exchange with Mr. Tomkins for one Lord's day, thought fit to alarm his people with the danger of pernicious errors and dam- nable heresies creeping in among the Dissenters ; and particularly referred to errors concerning the doc- trine of Christ's deity. Mr. Tomkins, to counteract the ill tendency of this discourse, and of the censures it conveyed, preached the succeeding Lord's day from John, xx., 21-23, on the power of Christ to settle the terms of salvation. The inference which he deduced from the discussion of his subject was, "that no man on earth, nor body of men, no, nor all the angels in heaven, have power to make anything necessary to salvation but what Christ hath made so." In the conclusion of his discourse, he applied this general principle as a test by which to decide on the importance of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, and of the deity of Christ. Here he entered into a particular survey of the various passages in the historical and epis- tolary books of the New Testament connected with this point, and gave at large his reasons why he did not apprehend the orthodox notion concerning the deity of Christ to be a fundamental doctrine of Christi- anity. This sermon, though the preacher neither denied nor intimated any doubt of the truth of the orthodox doctrine, gave much disgust, and made a great noise. The minds of his people were irritated, and every attempt which Mr. Tomkins used to calm them and restore harmony proving unsuccessful, he resigned his pastoral connexion, after ten years' services among them. Prejudice rose so high against him, that he was afterward denied the communion of the church, in which he had been many years before ; when, on being disengaged from stated ministerial functions, he desired to return to it.

Mr. Tomkins did not again settle as the pastor of a congregation, but did not wholly lay aside the char- acter, or drop the studies, of the Christian minister ; for he occasionally preached, and published several val- Bable theological tracts. The first, about the year 1723, was " A Sober Appeal to a Turk or an Indian con- cerning the plain sense of Scripture, relating to the Trinity : being an answer to Dr. I. Watts's late book, enti- tled ' The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity ; or, Father, Son, and Spirit, three Persons and one God, asserted and proved by plain evidence of Scripture, without the aid and encumbrance of human schemes.' " This piece was drawn up in terms of decency and respect, and in the language of friendship towards that excel- lent and eminent person, to whose tract it was a reply ; and the whole was written in an exemplary strain of moderation and candour. In the year 1748 it came to a second edition: to which were added, 1. Ke- .marks on Dr. Watts's three citations relating to the doctrine of the Trinity, published in 1724. 2. A sober

Vol. L— C

XTiii MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF

It was not long before his furniture and abilities attracted notice ; and, in the next year, he was chosen assistant to Dr. John Singleton,* in the service of an Independent congregation in Aldersgate-street ; and, on the doctor's death, in 1706, he was elected their pastor. In this relation he continued for thirty-six years, till about five months before his decease. When he accepted the pastoral office, the church, though some persons of considerable fortune and character belonged to it, was very small as to numbers ; but such acceptance did his ministry meet with, that the place of worship became, in a few years, too strait to accommodate the numbers that desired to attend on Mr. Neal's preaching, which obliged them to remove to a larger house, in Jewin- street.

He fulfilled the duties of his character with attention and diligence : statedly preach- ing twice every Lord's day, till the three or four last years of his life, and usually de- votnig two or three afternoons in a week to visiting his people. He pursued his stud- ies with so close an application as to reserve little or no time for exercise ; though he was assiduous m his preparations for the pulpit, he gave liimself some scope in his lit- erary pursuits, and particularly indulged in the study of history, to which his natural genius strongly led him. " He still," observes Dr. Jennings, " kept his character and profession in view as a Christian divine and minister."!

The first fruits of his literary labours appeared in 1720, under the title of " The His- tory of New-England : being an impartial account of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country, with a new accurate map thereof: to which is added an appendix, con- taining their present charter, their ecclesiastical discipline, and their municipal laws," in two volumes 8vo. This work contains an entertaining and instructive narrative of the first planting of the Gospel in a foreign heathen land ; and, besides exhibiting the rise of a new commonwealth, struggling in its infant state with a thousand difficul- ties, and triumphing over them all, it includes biographical memoirs of the principal persons in Church and State. It was well received in New-England ; and the next year their university honoured the author with the degree of master of arts, the high- est academical title they had power to confer.

In the same year there came from Mr. Neal's pen, " A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Fran- cis Hare, Dean of Worcester, occasioned by his reflections on the Dissenters, in his late visitation-sermon and postscript," Svo.J

In 1721, he published " The Christian's Duty and Interest in a time of public danger, from Ezekiel, ix., 4. A sermon preached at the Rev. Mr. Jennings's meeting-place ia Wapping, on Friday, October 27, being a time of solemn prayer on account of the plague. "<j This discourse is preserved in the library of Queen's College, Cambridge. |[

Appeal to all that have read the New Testament, whether the reputed orthodox are not more chargeable with preaching a new Gospel than reputed Arians? 3. A Reply to Dr. Waterland's Animadversions upon some passages in the " Sober Appeal." To neither of the editions of this treatise was the author's riame affixed. In 1732, I\Ir. Tomkins published, also without his name, a piece which gained him great reputa- tion, entitled "Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Man ; an Advocate for us with the Father, and a Propitiation for the Sins of the World." A new edition of this work appeared in 1761. He published, in 1738, " A Calm Inquiry whether v^e have any warrant from Scripture for addressing ourselves, in away of prayer or praise, directly to the Holy Spirit : humbly offered to the consideration of all Christians, par- ticularly of Protestant Dissenters." This piece has seriously impressed the minds of many, and has, un- doubteilly, contributed very much to the disuse of the Trinitarian doxology among the Dissenters. Mr. Toinkins himself, so far back as the time when he was minister to the congregation at Stoke Newington, had forborne it, because he could find no instance of it in Scripture. All Mr. Tomkins's pieces are proofs of the candour of his spirit, and of the clearness and strength of his judgment. Long since his death, there has appeared, in the Theological Repository, vol. iii., p. '257, "A Letter from him to Dr. Lardner, in reply to his letter on the Logos, in defence of the Arian hypothesis." In this enumeration of his publications, it had almost escaped me to mention another, and that the lirst in order of time, viz., " The Case of Mr. Mar- tin Tomkins, being an Account of the Proceedings of the Dissenting Congregation at Stoke Newington, upon occasion of a sermon preached by him July 13, 1718." This piece bears on it all the marks of being a fair and impartial, as it is an instructive, narrative. The character of candour and piety which he sup- ported, and with which his writings are impressed ; the simplicity and integrity with which he bore his tes- timony to Scriptural worship. Christian moderation, and the Divine unity ; and the weight and influence of his publications in the Trinitarian controversy, have justly entitled Mr. Tomkins to this particular mention. * Dr. John Singleton was a student in the University of Oxford ; from whence, after he had been there eight years, he was turned out by the commissioners in 1660. He then went to Holland, and studied physic, but never practised it any farther than to give his advice to particular friends. His settlements were various. Residing some time with Lady Scott in Hertfordshire, he preached then to some Dissent- ers at Hertford. He was afterward pastor to a congregation in London. When the meetings were gener- ally suppressed, he went into Warwickshire, and lived with his wife's brother, Dr. Timothy Gibbons, a physician. Upon King James giving liberty, he preached first at Stretton, a small hamlet, eight miles from Coventry, and then became pastor to the Independent congregation in that city. From whence he was again called to London, to succeed Mr. T. Cole.— Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. i., p. 170. There is a sermon of Dr. Singleton's in the Morning Exercises, t Funeral Sermon for Mr, Neal, p. 33.

t The title of this sermon was " Church Authority Vindicated." This discourse also attracted the no tice of Bishop Hoadiey, who published an answer to it.

^ () It then raged at Marseilles, in France, being brought thither from the Levant ; and eighteen thousand died of it. II Cooke's Index to Sermons, vol. ii., page 241, article Neal.

MR. DANIEJ. NEAL. nx

Mr. Neal gave to the public, in 1722, " A Narrative of the method and success of in- oculating the smallpox in New-England, by Mr. Benjamin Colman ; with a reply to the objections made against it from principles of conscience, in a letter from a minis- ter at i]oston. To which is now prefixed an historical introduction." On the appear- ance of this piece, her royal highness Caroline, princess of Wales, sent foi- him to wait on her, that she might receive from him farther satisfaction concerning the practice of inoculation. He was introduced by a physician of the royal family, and received by the princess in her closet, whom he found reading " Fox"s Martyrology." Her high- ness did him the honour of entering into a free conversation with him for near an hour on the subject of inoculation ; and afterward on other subjects, particularly the state of the dissenting interest in England, and of religion in New-England. After some time the Prince of Wales, afterward George H., came into the room, and condescend- ed to take a part in the conversation for above a quarter of an hour. Mr. Neal had the honour of kissing the hands of both the royal personages.*

In 1722 he published, at request, a sermon preached to the Societies for Reformation of Manners, at Salters' Hall, on Monday, June 25th. This discourse, grounded on Psalm xciv., 16, is to be met with in the library mentioned before.

In the beginning of the next year the request of the managers of the charity-school m Gravel Lane, Southwark, procured from him the publication of a sermon, preached January 1st, for the benefit of that institution, on Job, xxix., 12, 13, entitled, " The Method of Education in the Charity-schools of Protestant Dissenters ; with the Ad- vantages that arise to the Public from them."

After this nothing of Mr. Neal's appeared from the press for several years, till, in 1726, the death of the Rev. Matthew Clarke, a minister of considerable eminence among the Dissenters of that period, gave occasion for his publishing a funeral sermon for him, from Matt., xxv., 21. This discourse was next year reprinted, and annexed to a volume of sermons upon several occasions, by Mr. Clarke ; of which Mr. Neal was the editor, and to which he prefixed some memoirs of the author.f

At the beginning of this year he printed a sermon, entitled, " Of sorrowing for them who sleep in Jesus," occasioned by the death of Mrs. Anne Philhbrowne, who departed this life February 1st, 1726-7, in the forty-third year of her age. This discourse is also to be found in Queen's College library, Cambridge.

In 1730, the united request of the ministers and the church prevailed with him to publish a sermon, entitled, " The Duty of Praying for Ministers and the Success of their Ministry," from 2 Thess., iii., 1 ; preached at the separation of the Rev. Mr. Rich- ard Rawlin,J to the pastoral office in the church at Fetter Lane, June 24th. A passage in this discourse deserves to be quoted, to show the cathohc and generous sentiments of Mr. Neal. Having referred to the persecutions of the Christians under the Roman emperors, and then to the prevalence of darkness and superstition for a thousand years after Rome became papal, he proceeds, " The hght of the Gospel broke out again at the Reformation ; but, alas ! what obstructions has it met with ever since ! how much blood has been spilled, and how many families ruined, and sent into banishment, for the profession of it ! There is at this tmie a bloody inquisition in Spain ; and the sword of the magistrate is drawn against the preaching of the Gospel in Italy, France, Po- land, in several parts of Germany, and in other popish countries. I wish I could say

* The MS. account of Mr. Neal.

■f Mr. Matthew Clarke, a gentleman of eminence among the dissenting ministers of that period, and the father to Dr. Clarke, a physician of extensive practice, who died not long since at Tottenham, in Middle- sex, was descended from a genteel family in the covmty of Salop. He was the son of the Rev. Matthew Clarke, who was ejected from Harborough, in Leicestershire, and was born February 2d, 1663-4. His lather, who had been an indefatigable student in Trinity College, Cambridge, led Aim through the learned languages. His academical studies were pursued under the learned Mr. Woodhouse, at Sherifhales, in Shropshire, a tutor of eminence in those times. Mr. Clarke, when he had finished his academical course, spent two years in London, for the benefit of conversing with learned m^n, and forming himself on the model of the most celebrated preachers. He began his ministry in 168<^, with great acceptance : so that great additions were made to the church, which his father had formed, at Market Harborough ; and he laid the foundation of several societies of Protestant Dissenters in those parts. Being engaged, when he was on a visit to London, in 1687, to supply the congregation at Sand'vich, in Kent, ibr a lew Lord's days, he was prevailed with to spend two years there, which he did with eminent success. In 1689, he was unan- imously invited to become assistant to the aged Mr. J"ord, the pastor of a congregation in Miles's Lane, which was then reduced to a very low state ; but tbe auditory in a few years became crowded, and seven or eight in a month were added to the communion. In 1697, Mr. Clarke was chosen one of the lecturers at Pinners' Hall. He married, in 1696, Mrs. y\nne Frith, daughter of Mr. Robert Frith, of Windsor, who was repeatedly mayor of that corporation. His pulpit abilities were greatly admired, and his services much sought ; so that he usually preached twice or three times on a Lord's day, and several times in the week. He died March 27, 1 426, aged sixty-two years, much beloved and much lamented, and leaving be- liind him the character of haTiiig been among the best and most useful divines of his age. — Mr. Neat's Me- moirs of his Life.

t Mr. Kawlin was a minister of reputation among the Independents, one of the six preachers of the Mer- chants' lecture at Pinners' Hall, and the author of a volume of sermons on Justification, which met with great acceptance, and passed through more than one edition.

XX MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF

that all Protestant governments were willing the Gospel should have its free course • but our fathers in this nation have drunk of the bitter cup of persecution ; our teachers have been driven into corners, and the mouths of thousands stopped in one day : bless- ed be God that there is now a more open door ! Let us pray that all penal laws for religion may be taken away, and that no civil discouragements may lie upon Christians of any denommation for the peaceable profession of their faith, but that the Gospel may have free course."

In the year 1732 came out the first volume of Mr. Neal's great work, "The History of the Puritans." The following circumstances gave birth to this publication Dr Edmund Calamy, many years before, had, in his " Abridgment of the Life of Mr Rich- ard Baxter, and the continuation of it," laid before the public a view of the state of non- conformity, and of the characters and sufferings of the principal adherents to it durinff the period that immediately succeeded to the Act of Uniformity in 1662. Dr John Ev- ans,* on this, formed a design of writing " A History of Nonconformity," from the be- ginning of the Reformation to 1640, when the civil wars began. Mr. Neal was re- quested, by several ministers and other persons of considerable figure among the Dis- senters, to take up the history from the year 1640, and to carry it on to the Act of Uni- formity. Dr. Evans proceeded a great way in the execution of his design, by collect- mg, for several years, with great industry and expense, proper materials from all quar- ters, and by filling several quires of paper with references, under each year, to the books he had read on the subject. He had gone so far as to have written out fairly about a third part of the two folios he intended to fill. But his constant employment as a minister, the multiplicity of public affairs which passed through his hands, ill health, and various disappointments and troubles in his own concerns, greatly inter- rupted his close application to the work : and his death, in the year 1730, put a final period to the design, which was left in an unfinished state. In the mean time, Mr Neal had prosecuted his work with so much application and spirit, that he had com- pleted his collections, and put them in order for the press, some length of time before the doctor's decease. This event obstructed his immediate progress, and opened to him a new field of study and investigation : for he now found it necessary to take up himself the long period of history from the Reformation to the commencement of the civil wars, that his own collections might be published with more acceptance, and ap- pear with greater advantage, than he apprehended they could have done if the doctor's province had been entirely neglected. f

The approbation which followed the publication of the first volume of " The History of the Puritans" encouraged him to prosecute his design, and the next year, 1733 produced a second volume of that work. ' '

Between the appearance of this and the subsequent parts of his history, we find Mr. Neal engaged with some of his respectable brethren in carrying on two courses of lectures : one at Berry-street, the other at Salters' Hall. The former was preached at the request and by the encouragement of William Cow-

* Dr. John Evans, the author of two volumes of judicious and admired sermons on the Christian temper and of many single sermons, was the son of Mr. John Evans, of Bahol College, Oxford, and ejected by the Act of Unifonnity from Oswestry. He was born at Wrexham, in the year 1679. His mother was the daugh- ter of the eminent Colonel Gerard, governor of Chester Castle. He received his education first under Mr. 1 homas Rowe, of London ; and afterward under Mr. Richard Frankland, at Rathmill, in Yorkshire He enjoyed great advantages under both, and made a singular proficiency in all the parts of rational and polite literature. His first settlement was in the family of Mrs. Hunt, of Boreatton in Shropshire, relict of Koland Hunt, ii.sq and sister ol Lord Paget, ambassador to the Ottoman court. In this retirement he read over entire Mr. role k Latm Synopsis, in five volumes folio, which laid the foundation of his great .skill in i^''^?^" T® criticism, anO. all the Christian writers of the first three centuries, under the direction of the learn- ed Mr. James Owen. His first settlement as a minister was in the place of his nativity ; from whence he removed to London, to be assistant to Dr. Daniel Wilhams, pastor of a congregation in Hand Allev Bishopsgate-street ; which a&.erward remo\-ed to New Bond-street, Petty-France. Dr. Evans, after sev^ era! years, was by Dr. Willmnn's desire made copastor with him, and succeeded him at his death. On takmg the whole charge of the congregation, he spent a week in solemn retirement and in extraordinary exercises of devotion. He was one of the six preachers of the Merchants' lecture at Salters' Hall, and for several years concerned in the Lord's 4ay evening lecture in that place. Besides the sermons mentioned above, tie pubhshed a small volume addi^ssed lo young persons, which has been reprinted within these few years, and a tract or two on the "Importance ot Scripture Consequences," drawn up in a masterly way with great clearness and judgment, sobriety and decency. Both the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen without Ins Knowledge and in a most honourable manner, conferred on him their highest academical hon- our. A complication of distempers broke down his constitution, and deprived the world of his abilities and labours, at so early a period as the fifty-first year of his age, May 23, 1730. He excelled in the several vir- tues of integrity, greatness and generosity of mind ; in compabsion and tenderness, in a catholic temper and a pubhc spirit, and in a steady, regular piety. His solidity of jadgment united with vivacity, his industry and prudence, were distinguishmg and superior to most others. Among the Krtinent, devout, and excellent sentiments he dropped in the course of his illness, when he looked upon hisbody swollen with distemper, he would often say with pleasure, " This corruptible shall put on incorruption— Oh, glorious hope '»— i?/ Hams s J'uneral Sermon for Dr. Evans, in his Funeral Discourses, p. 285-296

■K, i ?''• ^^^""P^'f Tv?""^-''^^ Sermon for Dr. Evans, in his volume of Funeral Discourses, p. 289, 290 ; and the MS. Account of Mr. JNeal. '

MR. DANIEL NEAL.

xxi

ard, Esq., of Walthamstow. It consisted of fifty-four sermons on the principal heads of the Christian rehgion, entitled " Faith and Practice." Mr. Neal's associates in this service were Dr. Watts, Dr. J. Guise, Mr. Samuel Price, Mr. John Hubbard, and Dr. David Jennings.* The terms on which Mr. Neal complied with Mr. Coward's request', made through a common friend, to take part in this service, are proofs of the independ- ence and integrity of mind whicii he possessed, and was determined to maintain. His requisitions were, that he would draw up the dedication, write the preface, and choose his own subjects, in which Mr. Coward, though they were not very pleasing to a gen- tleman of his known humour and fondness for adulation and control, acquiesced, rath- er than the lecture should lose the advantage and reputation that it would derive from Mr. Neal's abilities and name.f The subjects handled by him were " The Divine au- thority and perfection of the Holy Scriptures," from 2 Tim., iii., 16. " Of God, as the Governor and Judge of the moral world, angels, and men," on Daniel, iv., 35. " The in- carnation of Christ as the promised Messiah," the text Gal., iv., 4, 5. " Effectual call- ing, with its fruits, viz., regeneration and santification by the Holy Spirit," from 2 Tim., i., 9. " Confession of sin, repentance, and conversion to holiness," on Acts, iii., 19! " Of fearing God and trusting m him," Psalm xxxi., 19. " The sacrament of the Lord's Supper," on 1 Cor., xi., 23, 36. " The love of our neighbour," the text John, in., 34, 35 ; and " The pleasure and advantage of vital religion," from Rom., vii., 22. These, with the discourses of the other preachers, were, after the course was finished, published in two vols. 8vo, in 1735, and have passed through several editions. Dr. Doddridge, Avhen speaking of them, says, " I cannot recollect where I have seen a set of impor- tant thoughts on such various and weighty subjects more judiciously selected, more naturally digested, more closely compacted, more accurately expressed, or, in a few words, more powerfully enlbrced, than L have generally found in those sermons."]: Without determining whether this encomium be exaggerated or not, it may certainly be pronounced, that the practical strain in which the discourses are drawn up, and the good temper with which the subjects of greatest controversy are here handled, without any censure or even ilhberal insinuation against others mingling with the representa- tion of their own views on the points discussed, do great honour to the heart and spirit of the authors.

The other course of lectures, in which Mr. Neal was engaged, arose from an alarm concerning the increase of popery, which prevailed about the end of the year 1734. Some eminent dissenting ministers of the day, of the Presbyterian denomination, in conjunction with one of each of the other persuasions, agreed to preach a set of ser- mons on the main principles and errors, doctrines and practices, of the Church of Rome, to guard Protestants against tlie efforts of its emissaries. The gentlemen who engaged in tins design were Mr. John Barker, Dr. Samuel Chandler, Mr. George Smith, Dr. Samuel Wright, Dr. William Harris, Dr. Obadiah Hughes, Dr. Jeremiah Hunt Mr Joshua Bayes, Mr. John Newman, Dr. Jabez Earle, Mr. Moses Lowman, Dr. Benjamin Grosvenor, Mr. Thomas Leavesly, Mr. Joseph Burroughs, a minister of the Antipaedo- baptist persuasion,^ and Mr. Neal, who was an Independent. The subject which fell

* It is needless to say anything here of the first name on this list, Dr. Watts, whose fame by his various writings has been so universally diffused.

_ Mr. Samuel Price, the uncle of the late Dr. Richard Price, served forty-five years in the ministry of the Uospel, with Dr. Watts, as assistant or copastor. He was a man of exemplary probity and virtue, of sound and solid sense, a judicious and useful preacher, eminent for his gift in prayer, and for wisdom and prudence in the management of afifaus He was a native of Wales, received his academical learning under Mr. Tim- othy JoUie, at Atterchffe, and died in 1756.

Dr. John Guise was well known as a popular preacher, and as the author of a paraphrase on the New 1 estament, in three vols, quarto.

Mr. Hubbard was minister of a congregation at Stepney, and about three years before his death was chosen tutor of a seminary for educating young men for the ministry. He filled both capacities with con- siderable reputation, and is said to have had so e.'ctensive and familiar an acquaintance with the Scriptures as to supersede the use ot a concordance, which had no place in his library.

^ Dr David Jennings has left behind him "An Introduction to the Use of the Globes and Orrery," "An introduction to the Knowledge of Medals," and " Jewish Antiquities," as monuments of his genius and learn- ing, b or many years he was at the head of the seminary endowed by Mr. Coward's munificence, and for forty-four years pastor ot a congregation in Old Gravel Lane, Wapping. He was a pleasing and pathetic preacher, an early riser, very methodical and punctual in the arrangements of his studies and business, and, notwithstanding that he lived much in his study, his conversation was lively and instructive, and his ad- dress easy and atfable. He [lublished several sermons, and was the author of several other pieces besides the above. He died September 26, 1762, in his seventy-first year.

t From private information. f Dotldridge's Ten Sermons, 13mo. Preface, p. ix.

6 Mr. John Barker was lor a number of years a preacher of popular talents and great eminence, first at Hackney, and then at Salters' Hall. Many single sermons came from his pen, and he published a volume of discourses in his lifetime, which was succeeded by a second volume after his death in 1763.

Dr. Samuel Chandler is well known as rising superior to most, either within the pale of the establishment or out ot it, in learning and abilities.

Mr George Smith officiated to the society of the Gravel-pit meeting. Hackney, for thirty years, as a preacher excelled by none and equalled by lev/. He died May 1, 1746, aged fifty-seven, looked upon by his

xxw MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF

to his lot to discuss was, " The supremacy of St. Peter, and the bishops of Rome, his successors." These discourses were separately pi-inted_ immediately after each was preached, and when the lecture was closed, were collected together, and formed two volumes 8vo.*

own brethren as holding the first rank in merit among them ; and not less honoured and valued by those of the establishment who knew him.

Dr. Samuel Wright, the author of many single sermons and several valuable practical works, was distin- guished by pulpit talents. He was thirty-eight years pastor of the congregation which originally met for rehgious worship in Blackfriars, and then, greatly increasing under his preaching, which was serious and judicious, solemn and striking, removed to Carter Lane. He died in his sixty-fourth year, 1740.

Dr. William Harris, who was upward of forty years pastor of a congregation in Crutched Friars, was a very acceptable preacher, and the author, besides many single sermons, of a volume of discourses on " The principal Representations of the Messiah throughout the Old Testament," arid of another called "Funeral Discourses, in two Parts: containing, 1. Consolation on the Death of our Friends; and, 2. Preparation for our own Death." His compositions were laboured and finished. It was among the excellences of his character, that he was scarce ever seen to be angry, was a very great patron and friend of young ministers, and had a concern in many great and useful designs of a public nature. He died, high in reputation and usefulness, May 25, 1740, aged sixty-five.

Dr. Obadiah Hughes " was many years minister of a congregation in Southwark, from which he re- moved to Westminster. He was an acceptable preacher, and printed some occasional sermons." — Dr. Kippis's Life of Dr. Lardner.

Dr. Jeremiah Hunt, of Pinners' Hall, was a most respectable character, a man of extensive learning and profound knowledge of the Scriptures ; he pubhshed many occasional sermons, and " An Essay towards explaining the History of the Revelations of Scripture." He died 5th of September, 1744, aged sixty-seven.

Mr. Joshua Bayes was pastor of the congregation in Hatton Garden.

Mr. John Newman was for many years one of the most celebrated preachers in the city of London, who delivered, to crowded audiences, long and laboured sermons without any assistance of notes. He was firs'" assistant to Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, and then copastor with Mr. William Tong, at Salters' Hall ; appearing in the same place for five-and-forty years, with great credit and comfort, and died while he was esteemed and beloved, in full reputation and usefulness, much missed and lamented, in his sLxty-iifth year, July 25, 1741

Dr. Jabez Earle, a classical scholar, remarkable for a vivacity and cheerfulness of temper, which nevei forsook him to the last, was for near seventy years a noted minister in London. He preached to the last Sunday in his Ufe, and died in his chair without a groan or sigh, aged ninety-two. He was pastor of a con- gregation at Long-acre, and one of the Tuesday lecturers at Salters' Hall. He printed, besides several ser- mons, a little tract called Sacramental Exercises ; and in the second edition of the " Biographia Britannica," under the article Amory , there is a small copy of verses which he sent to his friend Dr. Harris, on their both receiving diplomas from a Scotch university.

Mr. Moses Lowman, more than forty years minister of a congregation at Clapham, Surrey, to a great character for general literature added a thorough acquaintance with Jewish learning and antiquities. His treatise on the civil government of the Hebrews, another on the ritual of that people, and a commentary on the Revelations, have been held in liigh estimation. A small piece drawn up by him, in the mathematical form, to prove the unity and perfections of God a priori, was called by Dr. Chandler a truly golden treatise, and asserted to be a strict demonstration. After his decease there appeared from the press tlii-ee tracts on the Shechinah and Logos, published from his MSS. by Dr. Chandler, Dr. Lardner, and Mr. Sandercock. He reached the age of seventy-two, and died May 3, 1752.

Dr. Benjamin Grosvenor was a minister in London, of distinguished reputation, upward of fifty years. A singular acumen, lively imagination, and warm devotion of heart, characterized his discourses, which were deUvered with a graceful utterance. He was born in London, 1st January, 1675; was chosen minister to the congregation in Crosby Square in 1704, which he soon raised into a flourishing church and crowded au- ditory ; and in 1716 he was elected one of the six preachers at the Merchants' lecture at Salters' Hall. In 1749 he retired from all public services, and died August 27th, 1758, in the eighty-third year of his age. He published many single sermons; the most distinguished of which was one on " The Temper of Jesus towards his Enemies," which was reprinted at Cambridge so lately as the year 1758 ; it was a transcript of his own heart and life ; " An Essay on Health," and an excellent treatise entitled " The Mourner," both of which have passed through several editions, and will contmue to be memorials of liis genius, learning, and spirit. Of the latter the following passage in his diary is an amiable specimen : " I thank God," says he, "for that temper of mind and genius which has made it natural for me to have an aversion to bigotry. This has improved constantly with my knowledge ; and the enlarging my mind towards those who differ from me has kept pace with my illumination and intellectual improvements. 'Agree to differ' is a good motto. The reason and loveliness of such a friendly disposition would recommend it, and I am persuaded people would almost take it of themselves, if it were not for the several arts used to prevent it."

Mr. Thomas Leavesly was for some years minister of the Old Jewry in London.

Mr. Joseph Burroughs was a learned and judicious divine ; of which, not only the sermon in the above collection, but a volume of sermons published in 1741, and "A View of Popeiy," taken from the creed of Pope Pius IV., afford ample proof He was also the author of several single sermons, and of " Two Dis- courses relating to Positive Institutions," which brought on a controversy between him and the worthy Dr. Caleb Fleming on the mode and subject of baptism. He was fifty-two years connected with the gen- eral Baptist congregation in Barbican, London, first as an assistant to the Rev. Richard Allen, and from the year 1717, as pastor, to November 23, 1761, when he died, in the seventy-seventh year of his age ; having supported, through so long a life, the character of the steady friend to liberty and free inquiry, of a zealous advocate for the importance of the Christian revelation, and of the strenuous promoter of every scheme that tended to advance the common interests of religion, as well as those which were particularly calculated for the benefit of Baptist societies ; while through the greatest part of this period he had as a minister served the church with which he was united with the greatest lidehty, affection, and zeal.

The length of this note might appear to require an apology, were not the names to whose memory it is devoted too eminent in their day to be passed over without some respectful notice. Several of the prece- ding gentlemen, viz., the Drs. Grosvenor, Wright, and Evans, and Mr. Lowman, were engaged in the years 1716, 1717, 1718, with Dr. Avery and Mr. Simon Brown, in a valuable pubhcation, entitled, " The Occa- sional Paper," a work sacred to the cause of religious liberty, free inquiry', and charity.

* It is proper to add, that this defence of Protestantism did not terimnate with the delivery of the ser-

.MR. DANIEL NEAL. xxiii

In the year 1736 came out the third volume of the History of the Puritans ; and Mr.

Neal's design was completed by the publication of the fourth, in the year 1738, which brought down the history of Nonconformity to the Act of Toleration by King William and Queen Mary, in the year 1689. This and Mr. Neal's other historical works spread his name through the learned world, and justly secured to him great and permanent reputation. Dr. Jennings, speaking of them, says, " I am satisfied that there is no ju- dicious and unprejudiced person that has conversed with the volumes he wrote, but will acknowledge he had an excellent talent at writing history. His style is most easy and perspicuous ; and the judicious remarks which he leads his readers to make upon facts as they go along, make his histories to be not only more entertaining, but to be more instructive and useful, than most books of that kind."*

While this work was preparing for and going through the press, part of his time was occupied in drawing up and publishing an answer to Dr. Maddox, bishop of St. Asaph, who wrote a pretty long " Vindication of the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Church of England, established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from the Injurious Reflections (as he was pleased to style them) of Mr. Neal's first volume of the History of the Puritans." This answer was entitled, "A Review of the Principal Facts ob- jected to the first volume of the History of the Puritans." It was reckoned to be writ- ten with great judgment, and to establish our historian's character for an impartial re- gard to truth. And it was reasonably concluded, from this specimen of his powers of defence, that, if his declining state of health had permitted him, he would have as thor- oughly vindicated the other volumes from the animadversions afterward published against them by Dr. Zachary Grey.

The pleasure Mr. Neal had in serving the cause of religious liberty had carried him through his undertaking with amazing alacrity. But he engaged in it at an advanced age, and when his health had begun to decline : this, joined with the close application he gave to the prosecution of it, brought on a lingering illness, from which he never re- covered. He had been all his life subject, in some degree, to a lowness of spirits, and to complaints of an indisposition in his head. His love of study, and an unremitting attention to the duties of his office, rendered him averse to the frequent use of any ex- ercise that took him oft' fi'om his books. In the end, repeated strokes of the palsey, first gentle and then more severe, which greatly enfeebled all his powers both of body and mind, baffled the best advice, the aids of medicine, and repeated use of the Bath

mons from the pulpit at Salters' Hall. Dr. Chandler pursued his subject in "A second treatise on the notes of the Church," as a supplement to his sermon at that place on the same subject. And Dr. Harris Ibl- lowed up his sermon on transubstantiation with " A second discourse, in which the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel is particularly considered: preached at the Merchants' lecture at Salters' Hall, April 22, 1735," which was reckoned to possess pecuUar merit. Mr. Burroughs farther showed himself an able wri- ter, in the cause for which the sermons were preached, by his "Review of Popery." The course of lec- tures had not gone on a month, when a gentleman or two being in company with a Romish priest at the Pope's-head tavern in Cornhill, they became the subject of conversation ; and the latter objected, in par- ticular, against some passages in Mr. Barker's sermon, as what could not be supported by proper vouchers. This brought on, by appointment, " Two conferences on the ~th and 13th of February, 1734-5, at the Bell tavern in Nicholas Lane, on the blasphemy of many popish writers in giving, and of popes in receiving, the title of Our Lord God the Pope ; on the doctrines of substantiation ; praying to saints and angels ; and of denying the use of the Scriptures to the laity." At the first of these conferences twenty were present, and the dispute was supported by the Romish priest. Dr. Hunt, and a divine of the Church of England ; at the second the debate lay between the former Catholic gentleman, Mr. Morgan, accompanied by Mr. Vaughan, supposed to be a priest, and Dr. Hunt, Dr. Chandler, and Mr. John Eames, well known to the world for his integrity and learning : Dr. Talbot Smith was chosen chairman, and the whole company con- sisted of thirty. A statement of these disputations was soon published by an anonymous author, entitled, "Two Conferences held," &c. The Catholic party also gave a representation of them to the public in a pamphlet entitled, " The two Conferences, &c., truly stated." This brought out from the pen of Dr. Chan- dler, "An account of the Conference held in Nicholas Lane, February 13th, 1734-5, between two Romish priests and some Protestant divines, with some remarks on the pamphlet," &c. The doctor's account is confined to the second conference, because he was not present at the first.

Soon after these Salters' Hall sermons were published, there appeared a pamphlet in 1735, which m 1736 ran to a third edition, entitled, "A Supplement to the Sermons lately preached at Salters' Hall against Popery : containing just and useful remarks on another great corruption therein omitted." The author of this tract was Mr. G. Killingworth, a respectable lay-gentleman of Norwich. The design of it was to show that the reasoning of the gentlemen who preached those sermons aftected, not only the pa- pists, but themselves, in rejecting the baptism of adult persons, and substituting in the room thereof the sprinkling of infants. The author, with this view, besides stating from the New Testament the evidence in favour of his own sentiments, shrewdly applied a great number of passages from'the sermons, somewhat in the way of a parody, to estabUsh his own conclusion ; and to prove that, if those gentlemen practised or beheved anything as a part of the religion of the Holy Jesus which could not be plainly and clearly proved from the New Testament (as he conceived that they did in the matter of sprinkling of infants), they must look upon themselves as self-condemned, their own arguments being a full confutation of them. Mr. Kil- lingworth showed himself an able writer by other pieces in favour of the sentunents for which he was a strenuous advocate ; and published also " An Answer" to the late very respectable Mr. Micajah Tow- food's tract, entitled, " Infant Baptism a Reasonable Semce," by way of appendix to an examination of Dr. Forster's " Sermon on Catholic Communion." In one of liis pieces, he likewise replied to the argu- •lents of Mr. Emlyn's previous question. * Funeral Sermon, p. 32.

xxiv MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF

waters, brought him to his grave, perfectly worn out. in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He died April 4th, 1743.

During the declining state of his health, Mr. Neal applied to the excellent Dr. DokI- dridge to recommend some young minister as an assistant to him. A gentleman was pointed out, and appeared in his pulpit with this view ; and a letter, which on this oc- casion he wrote to Dr. Doddridge, and which the doctor endorsed with this memoi-aa- dum, " Some wise Hints," affords such an agreeable specimen of Mr. Neal's good sense, candour, and prudence, as cannot fail, we think, to render it acceptable to our readers.

" Dear Sir,

" Your letter, which I received yesterday, gave me a great deal of agreeable enter- tainment, and made me almost in love with a person that I never saw. His character is the very picture of what I should wish and pray for. There is no manner of excep- tion that I can hear of, but that of his dehvery, which many, with you, hope may be conquered, or very much amended. All express a very great respect and value for

Mr. and his ministry, and are highly pleased with his serious and affectionate

manner. And I am apt to think, when we have heard him again, even the thickness of the pronunciation of some of his words will in a great measure vanish ; it being owing, in a great measure (according to my son), to not making his under and upper lip meet together ; but, be that as it will, this is all, and the very worst that I know of, to use your own expression.

" I wish, as much as you, that the affair might be speedily issued ; but you know- that things of this nature, in which many, and those of a different temper, are concern- ed, must proceed with all tenderness and voluntary freedom, without the least shadow of violence or imaginary hurry. Men love to act for themselves, and with spontane- ity ; and, as I have sometimes observed, have come at length cheerfully and volunta- rily into measures which they would have opposed if they had imagined they were to be driven into them.

" I don't mention this as if it was the present case, for I can assure you it is not ; but to put you in mind that it may possibly not always be for the best to do things too hastily ; and therefore I hope you will excuse the digression. I am exceedingly ten- der of Mr. 's character and usefulness, and therefore shall leave it to your pru- dence to fix the day of his coming up ; and you may depend upon my taking all the prudential steps in favour of this affair that I am master of. I hope the satisfaction will be general, but who can answer for it beforehand 1 It has a promising appear- ance ; but, if it comes out otherwise, you shall have a faithful account.

" I am pleased to hear that Mr. is under so good an adviser as yourself, who

cannot but be apprized of the great importance of this affair, both to your academy, to myself, and to the public interest of the Dissenters in this city ; and I frankly declare I don't know any one place among us in London where he can sit more easy, and en- joy the universal love and affection of a good-natured people, which will give him all fitting encouragement. We are very thankful to you, sir, for the concern you express for us, and the care you have taken for our supply. I hope you will have a return from above of far greater blessings than this world can bestow, and you may expect from me all suitable acknowledgments.

" Pray advise Mr. , when you see him, to lay aside all undue concern from

his mind, and to speak with freedom and ease. Let him endeavour, by an articulate pronunciation, to make the elder persons hear, and those that sit at a greater distance, and all will be well. He has already got a place in the affections of many of the peo- ple, and I believe will quickly captivate them all. Assure him that he has a candid audience, who will not make a man an offender for a word. Let him speak to the heart and touch the conscience, and show himself in earnest in his work, and he will certainly approve himself a workman that needs not be ashamed. I beg pardon for these hints. Let not Mr. impress his mind too much with them. My best re- spects attend your lady and whole family, not forgetting good Mr. , etc.

I am, sir, in haste, your affectionate brother and very humble servant,

" Daniel Neal.*

"London, Saturday evening, May 12, 1739.

" Brethren, pray for us !"

Disease had, for many months before his death, rendered him almost entirely mca- pable of public service. This induced him to resign the pastoral office in the Novem- ber preceding. The considerate, as well as generous manner in which he did it, wiU appear from the following letter he sent to the church on that occasion :

* The above letter was very obligingly communicated by the Rev. Thomas Stedman, vicar of St. Chad's^ Shrewsbury.

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XXIV

MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF waters, brought him to his grave, perfectly worn out, in the sixty-fifth year of his aa^e-

tJ„ ^: 1 A ^,.;i A*\^ i-^^o

ii

I

il

..u.<.., Kja.vuiuiiy evening, May 12, I my.

" Brethren, pray for us !"

Disease had, for many months before his death, rendered him almost entirely mca- pable of public service. This induced him to resign the pastoral office in the Novem- ber preceding. The considerate, as well as generous manner in which he did it, will appear from the following letter he sent to the church on that occasion :

* The above letter was very obligingly communicated by the Rev. Thomas Stedman, vicar of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury.

■EhgraviH bj iri>nf>^r ftrtu an Ori^inaL.

WA^Z'^hwij) '%i\Ki%%, h.m

MR. DANIEL NEAL. xxv

" To the Church of Christ meeting in Jewin-street, London. " My dear Brethren, and beloved in the Lord,

" God, in his all-wise providence, having seen meet for some time to disable me in a great measure from serving- you in the Gospel of his Son, and therein to deprive me of one of the greatest satisfactions of my life, I have been waiting upon him in the use of means for a considerable time, as I thought it my duty to do. But, not having found such a restoration as might enable me to do stated service, it is my duty to acquiesce in his will ; and, having looked up to him for direction, I think it best, for your sakes, to surrender my office of a pastor among you.

" Upon this occasion it becomes me to make my humblest acknowledgments to the blessed God for that measure of usefulness he has honoured me with in the course of my labours among you ; and I render you all my unfeigned thanks for the many affec- tionate instances of your regard towards me.

" May the Spirit of God direct you in the choice of a wise and able pastor, who may have your spiritual and everlasting welfare at heart. And, for that end, beware of a spirit of division ; be ready to condescend to each other's infirmities ; keep together in the way of your duty, and in waiting upon God for his direction and blessing ; remem- ber, this is the distinguishing mark of the disciples of Christ, ' that they love one an- other.' Finally, my brethren, farewell ! Be of good comfort, and of one mind ; live in peace ; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

'' I am your aifectionate well-wisher and obedient, humble servant,

" Daniel Neal."*

From the first attack of his long illness, it appears he had serious apprehensions how it would terminate ; and a letter written from Bath, in April, 1739, to a worthy friend,! shows the excellent state of his mind under those view^..

" My greatest concern," he says, " is to have rational and solid expectations of a future happiness. I would not be mistaken, nor build on the sand, but would impress my mind with a firm belief of the certainty of the future woi'ld, and live in a practical preparation for it. I rely very much on the rational notions we have of the moral perfections of God, not only as a just, but a benevolent and merciful Being, who knows our frame, and will make all reasonable allowances for our imperfections and follies in life ; and not only so, but, upon repentance and faith in Christ, will pardon our past sins, though never so many or great.

" In aid of the imperfection of our rational notions, I am very thankful for the glori- ous truths of Gospel revelation, which are an additional superstructure on the other: for, though we can believe nothing contrary to our reason, we have a great many ex- cellent and comfortable discoveries built upon and superadded to it. Upon this double foundation would I build all my expectations, with an humble and awful reverence of the majesty of the great Judge of all the earth, and a fiducial reliance on the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. In this frame of mind, I desire to fear God, and keep his commandments."

In all his sensible intervals, during his last illness, he enjoyed an uncommon seren- ity of mind, and behaved becoming a Christian and a minister.^

This peaceful state of mind and comfortable hope he possessed to the last.i^ About a month before his death, he appeared to his fellow-worshippers, at the Lord's Supper, with an air so extraordinarily serious and heavenly as made some present say, " He looked as if he were not long for this world."

The preceding particulars and his writings will, in part, enable the reader to form for

* From the MS. account.

t This friend was Dr. Henry Miles, an eminent Dissenting minister at Tooting, in Surrey, and a respect- able member of the Royal Society, who died February 10, 1763, in the sixty -fifth year of his age. He was a native of Stroud, in Gloucestershire. His knowledge in natural history, botany, and experimental philos- ophy, for which he had a remarkable taste, occasioned liis being elected a member of the Royal Society in 1743, in the transactions of which appear several papers from his pen ; and Dr. Birch, in the preface to his fine edition of Mr. Boyle's works, handsomely says, that the conduct and improvement of that edition were chiefly to be ascribed to the great labour, judgment, and sagacity of the learned Mr. Miles, and that to him the puplic owed considerable additions never before pubhshed. Besides this, he could never be prevailed upon to publish more than a single sermon, preached at the Old Jewry, on occasion of a public charity, in 1738. He was a hard student. His preparations for the pulpit cost liim incessant labour ; and, for a course of thirty years, he constantly rose, two days in the week, at two or three o'clock in the morning, to com- pose his sermons. He lived like an excellent Christian and minister : his behaviour was on all occasions that of a gentleman ; the simplicity of his spirit and manners was very remarkable ; his conversation in- structive and entertaining ; his countenance was always open, mild, and amiable ; and his carriage so con- descending and courteous, even to his inferiors, as plainly discovered a most humane and benevolent heart. He was the friend of Dr. Laidner and Dr. Doddridge ; and, in the correspondence of the latter, published by the Rev. Mr. Stedman, there are several of his letters. See also Dr. Furneaux's Funeral Sermon for Dr. Miles. % Letters to and from Dr. Doddridge, 1790, p, 358.

^ Dr. Jennings's Funeral Sermon, and the MS. account.

Vol I.— D

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

Page

Editorial Preface v

Preface to Vol. I. of the Original Edition . ii Advertisement to Vol. I. of Dr. Toulmin's Edi- tion xvi

Memoir of the Author xvii

PART I.

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. TO THE DEATH OF QOEEN ELIZ- ABETH, A.D. 1509-1602.

CHAPTER I, Reign of Henry the Eighth, A.D. 1509-1547 . 29

CHAPTER n.

Reign of King Edward the Sixth, A.D. 1547-1553

43

CHAPTER m. Reign of Queen Mary, A.D. 1553-1559

'CHAPTER IV. From the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign to the separation of the Protestant Noncon- formists, A.D. 1558-156G ....

CHAPTER V.

From the separation of the Protestant Noncon- formists to the death of Archbishop Parker, A.D. 1566-1575 \ .

CHAPTER VI. From the death of Archbishop Parker to the death of Archbishop Grindal, A.D. 1575-1585

CHAPTER VII.

From the death of Archbishop Grindal to the Spanish invasion in 1588 ....

CHAPTER VIII. From the Spanish invasion to the death of Queen Elizabeth, A.D. 1588-1602

57

71

106

139

156

188

Pjreface to Vol. II. of the Original Edition Advertisement to Vol. II. of Dr. Toulmin's Edi- tion

pArt II.

219 225

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS FROM THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR IN THE YEAR 1642.

CHAPTER 1. From the death of Queen Elizabeth to the death of Archbishop Bancroft, A.D. 1603-1610 227

CHAPTER H.

From the death of Archbishop Bancroft to the death of King James I., A.D. 1610-1625

Stat

256

CHAPTER HI. From the death of King James I. to the dis- solution of the third Parliament of King Charles I. in the year 1628 .... 278

CHAPTER IV. From the dissolution of the third Parliament of King Charles I. to the death of Archbishop Abbot, A.D, 1628-1633 297

CH.A.PTER V.

From the death of Archbishop Abbot to the beginning of the commotions in Scotland in the year 1637 310

CHAPTER VI.

From the beginning of the commotions in Scot- land to the Long Parliament in the year 1640 334

CHAPTER VII. The character of the Long ParUament.— Their arguments against the late convocation and canons.— Impeachment of Dr. William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury. — Votes of the House of Commons against the promoters of the late innovations 350

CHAPTER VIII. The antiquity of liturgies, and of the episco- pal order, debated between Bishop Hall and Smectymnuus. — Petitions for and against the hierarchy.— Root and branch petition. — The ministers' petition for reformation. — Speeches upon the petition. — Proceedings against papists 363

CHAPTER IX.

From the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford to the recess of the Parliament upon the king's progress into Scotland, A.D. 1640^1 374

CHAPTER X.

From the reassembling of the Parliament to the king's leaving his palace of Whitehall, January 10, 1641-2 395

CHAPTER XI. From the king's leaving V^Tiitehall to the be- ginning of the civil war, A.D. 1642 . . 409

CHAPTER Xn.

The state of the Church of England.— Reli- gious character of both parties.— Summary of the ground of the civil war . . . 423

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

CHAPTER I.

REIGN OF HENRY VIII.

King William the Conqueror, having got pos- session of the crown of England by the assist- ance of the See of Rome, and King John hav- ing afterward sold it in his wars with the bar- ons, the rights and privileges of the English clergy were delivered up into the hands of the pope, who taxed them at his pleasure, and in process of time drained the kingdom of immense treasures ; for, besides all his other dues, arising from annates, first-fruits, Peter-pence, &c., he extorted large sums of money from the clergy for their preferments in the Church. He ad- vanced foreigners to the richest bishoprics, who never resided in their diocesses, nor so much as set foot upon English ground, but sent for all their profits to a foreign country ; nay, so cov- etous was his holiness, that, before livings be- came void, he sold them provisionally among his Italians, insomuch that neither the king nor the clergy had anything to dispose of, but every- thing was bargained for beforehand at Rome. This awakened the resentments of the Legisla- ture, who, in the twenty-fifth year of Edward ni., passed an act, called the stafute of provi- sors, to establish " that the king and other lords shall present unto benefices of their own, or their ancestors' foundation, and not the Bishop of Rome." This act enacted " that all forestall- ing of benefices to foreigners shall cease ; and that the free elections, presentments, and colla- tions of benefices, shall stand in right of the crown, or of any of his majesty's subjects, as they had formerly enjoyed them, notwithstand- ing any provisions from Rome."

But still the power of the court of Rome ran very high, for they brought all the trials of titles to advowsons into their own courts beyond sea ; and though by the seventh of Richard H. the power of nomination to benefices, without the king's license, was taken from them, they still claimed the benefit of confirmations, of translations of bishops, and of excommunica- tions ; the Archbishops of Canterbury and York might still, by virtue of bulls from Rome, as- semble the clergy of their several provinces, at what time and place they thought fit, without leave obtained from the crown ; and all the can- ons and constitutions concluded upon in those synods were binding, without any farther ratifi- cation from the king ; so that the power of the Church was independent of the civil govern- ment. This being represented to the Parlia- ment of the sixteenth of Richard H., they pass- ed the statute commonly called prcemumre, by ■which it was enacted, " that if any did purchase translations to benefices, processes, sentences of excommunication, bulls, or any other instru- ments from the court of Rome, against the king or his crown ; or whoever brought them into

England, or did receive or execute them, they were declared to be out of the king's protection, and should forfeit their goods and chattels to the king, and should be attached by their bodies, if they may be found, and brought before the king and council to answer to the cases aforesaid ; or that process should be made against them, by ■pramunirc facias, in manner as it is ordained in other statutes of provisors ; and other which do sue in any other court in derogation of the regality of the king."* From this time the arch- bishops called no more convocations by their sole authority, but by license from the king ; their synods being formed by writ or precept from the crown, directed to the archbishops, to as- semble their clergy, in order to consult upon such affairs as his majesty should lay before them. But still their canons were binding, though con- firmed by no authority but their own, till the act of submission of the clergy took place.

About this time flourished the famous John WicklifTe, the morning-star of the Reformation. He was born at WicklifTe, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, t about the year 1324, and was edu-

* Fuller's Church History-, book iv., p. 145-148.

t See the very valuable Life of WicklifTe, pubUsh- ed by the Rev. Mr. Lewis, of Margate, which begins thus : " John de WicklifTe was born, very probably, about the year 1324, in the parish of WicklifTe, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, and was first admitted com- moner of Queen's College, Oxford, then newly found- ed by Robert Egglesfield, S.T.B.,but was soon after removed to Merton College, where he was first pro- bationer and afterward fellow. He was advanced to the professor's chair, 1372. It appears by this inge- nious writer, as well as by the Catalogus Testium, that WicklifTe was for 'rejecting all human rites, and new shadows or traditions in religion ; and with regard to the identity nf the order of bishops and priests in the apostolic age,' he is very positive. Unum au- dacter assero, one thing I boldly assert, that in the primitive Church, or in the time of the Apostle Paul, two orders of clergy were thought sufficient, viz., priest and deacon ; and I do also say, that in the time of Pa.\l[,fuit idem presbyter atque episcoptis, a priest and a bishop were one " and the same : for in those times the distinct orders of pope, cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, officials, and deans were not invented."

Mr. Neal's review of the first volume of the Histo- ry of the Puritans, subjoined to the quarto edition of this history, vol. i., p. 890.— En.

To Mr. Neal's account of WicklifTe's sentiments, it may be added, that he advanced some tenets which not only symbolize with, but directly led to, the pe- culiar opinions of those who, called Baptists, have in subsequent ages formed a large body of dissenters, viz., " that wise men leave that as impertinent which is not plainly expressed in Scripture ; that those are fools and presumptuous which affirm such infants not to be saved which die without baptism ; that bap- tism doth not confer, but only signify grace, which was given before. He also denied that all sins are abolished in baptism ; and asserted that children may be saved without baptism ; and that the baptism of water profiteth not, without the baptism of the Spir

30

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

cated in Queen's College, Oxford, where he was divinity professor, and afterward pastor of Lut- terworth in Leicestershire. He flourished in the latter end of the reign of King Edward III. and the beginning of Richard II., about one hundred and thirty years before the Reformation of Luther. The'University gave this testimonial of him af- ter his death : " That, from his youtli to the time of his death, his conversation was so praisewor- tliy, that there was never any spot or suspicion noised of him; that in his reading and preach- ing he behaved like a stout and valiant champion of the faith ; and that he had written in logic, philosophy, divinity, morality, and the specula- tive arts, without an equal." While he was di- vinity professor at Oxford, he published certain conclusions — against transubstantiation and against the infallibility of the pope; that the Church of Rome was not the head of all other churches ; nor had St. Peter the power of the keys any more than the rest of the apostles ; that the New Testament, or Gospel, is a per- fect rule of life and manners, and ought to be read by the people.* He maintained, farther, most of those points by which the Puritans were afterward distinguished ; as, that in the sacra- ment of orders there ought to be but two de- grees, presbyters or bishops and deacons ; that all human traditions are superfluous and sinful ; that we must practise and teach only the laws of Christ ; that mystical and significant cere- monies in religious worship are unlawful ; and that to restrain men to a prescribed form of prayer is contrary to the liberty granted them by God. These, with some other of Wickliffe's doctrines against the temporal grandeur of the prelates and their usurped authority, were sent to Rome and condemned by Pope Gregory XL, in a consistory of twenty-tliree cardinals, in the year 1378. But the pope dying soon after, put a stop to the process. Urban, his successor, wrote to young King Richard II. and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the University of Oxford, to put a stop to the progress of Wickliflism; accordingly, Wickliffe was cited before the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his brethren, the prelates, several times, but was always dismissed, either by the interest of the citizens of London, or the powerful interposi- tion of some great lords at court, or some other uncommon providence, which terrified the bish- ops from passing a peremptory sentence against him for a considerable time ; but at length his new doctrines, as they were called, were con- demned, in a convocation of bishops, doctors, and bachelors, held at London by the command- ment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1382, and he was deprived of his professorship, his books and writings were ordered to be burned and himself to be imprisoned; but he kept out of the way, and in the time of his retirement wrote a confession of his faith to the pope, in which he declares himself willing to maintain his opinions at Rome, if God had not otherwise visited him with sickness and other infirmities : but it was well for this good man that there were two anti- popes at this time at war with each other, one at Rome, and the other at Avignon. In Eng- land, also, there was a minority, which was fa-

it."— Fuller's Church History, b. iv., p. 130. Trialo- gus, lib. iv., cap. i. — Ed.

* Fox's Martyrol. Pierce's Vindicat., p. 4, 5.

vourable to Wickliffe, insomuch that he ven- tured out of his retirement, and returned to hia parish at Lutterworth, where he quietly depart- ed this life, in the year 1384. This Wickliffe was a wonderful man for the times in which he lived, which were overspread with the thickest darkness of anti-Christian idolatry; he was the first that translated the New Testament into English ; but the art of printing not being then found out, it hardly escaped the inquisition of the prelates ; at least, it was very scarce when Tyndal translated it a second time in 1526. He preached and published the very same doctrines for substance that afterward obtained at the Ref- ormation ; he wrote near two hundred volumes, all which were called in, condemned, and order- ed to be burned, together with his bones, by the Council of Constance, in the year 1425, forty- one years after his death ; but his doctrine re- mained, and the number of his disciples, who were distinguished by the name of Lollards, in- creased after his decease,* which gave occasion to the making sundry other severe laws against heretics.

The clergy made their advantage of the con- tentions between the houses of York and Lan- caster ; both parties courting their assistance, which they did not fail to make use of for the support of the Catholic faith, as they called it, and the advancement of their spiritual tyranny over the consciences of men. In the primitive times there were no capital proceedings against heretics, the weapons of the Church being only spiritual ; but when it was found that ecclesi- astical censures were not sufficient to keep men in a blind subjection to the pope, a decree was obtained in the fourth Council of Lateran, A.D. 1215, "that all heretics should be delivered over to the civil magistrate to be burned." Here was the spring of that anti-Christian tyr- anny and oppression of the consciences of men which has since been attended with a sea of Christian blood : the papists learned it from the heathen emperors, and the most zealous Prot- estants of all nations have taken it up from them. Conscience cannot be convinced by fines and imprisonments, or by fire and fagot ; all attempts of this kind serve only to make men hypocrites, and are deservedly branded with the name of persecution. There was no occasion for putting these sanguinary laws ia execution among us till the latter end of the fourteenth century; but when the Lollards, or followers of Wickliffe, threatened the papal pow- er, the clergy brought this Italian drug from Rome, and planted it in the Church of England.

In the fifth year of Richard II., it was enacted " that all that preached without license against the Catholic faith, or against the laws of the land, should be arrested, and kept in prison till they justified themselves according to the law and reason of Holy Church. Their commitment was to be by writ from the chancellor, who was to issue forth commissions to the sheriffs and other the king's ministers, after the bishops had

* Knighton, a canon of Leicester and a contempo- rary of Wickliffe, tells us that in the year 1382 " their number very much increased, and that, starting Uke saplings from the root of a tree, they were multiplied, and filled every place within the compass of the land."— i)r. Vaughan's Life of Wickliffe, vol. ii., p 154» 2d edition. — C.

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

31

returned the names of the delinquents into the Court of Chancery.

When Richard II. was deposed, and the crown usurped by Henry IV., in order to gain the good- will of the clergy, it was farther en- acted, in the second year of his reign, " that if any person were suspected of heresy, the ordi- nary might detain them in prison till they were canonically purged, or did abjure their errors; provided, always, that the proceedings against them were publicly and judicially ended within three months. If they were convicted, the dio- cesan, or his commissary, might imprison and fine theoi at discretion. Those that refused to abjure their error, or, after abjuration, relapsed, were to be delivered over to the secular power, and the mayors, sheriffs, or bailiffs, were to be present, if required, when the bishop, or his commissary, passed sentence, and after sen- tence they were to receive them, and in some high place burn them to death before the peo- ple." By this law the king's subjects were put from under his protection, and left to the mercy of the bishops in their spiritual courts, and might, upon suspicion of heresy, be imprisoned and put to death, without presentment or trial by jury, as is the practice in all other criminal cases.

In the beginning of the reign of Henry V., who was a martial prince, a new law passed against the Lollards or Wickliffites,* "that they should forfeit all the lands they had in fee-sim- ple, and all their goods and chattels to the king. All state officers, at their entrance into office, were sworn to use their best endeavours to dis- cover them, and to assist the ordinaries in prosecuting and convicting them." I find no mention, in any of these acts, of a writ or war- rant from the king, de hczretico comburcndo ; the sheriff might proceed to the burning of heretics without it ; but it seems the king's learned counsel advised him to issue out a writ of this kind to the sheriff, by which his majesty took them, in some sort, under his protection again ; but it was not as yet necessary by law, nor are there any of them to be found in the rolls before the reign of King Henry VIII.

By virtue of these statutes, the clergy, accord-

* It marks the profaneness, as well as cruelty of the act here quoted by Mr. Neal, that it was not di- rected merely against the avowed followers of Wick- liffe, as such, but against the perusal of the Scrip- tures in English : for it enacted, " that whatsoever they were that should read the Scriptures in the mother tongue (which was then called Wideue's learning), they should forfeit land, catel, lif, and godes, for theyr heyres forever, and so be condemp- ned for heretykes to God, enemies to the crowne, and most arrant traitors to the lande." — Emhjn's Complete Collection of Stale Trials, p. 48, as quoted in Dr. Flemming's Palladium, p. 30, iiote.

So great an alarm did the doctrine of Wickliffe rai.se, and so high did the fear of its spread rise, that by the statute of 5 Rich. II. and 2 Hen. IV., c. 15, it was enacted, as part of the sheriff's oath, "that he should seek to redress all errors and heresies, com- monly called Lollards." And it is a striking instance of the permanent footing which error and absurdity, and even iniquity gain, when once estabhshed by law, that this clause was preserved in the oath long after the Reformation, even to the first of Charles I., when Sir Edward Coke, on being appointed sheriff of the county of Buckingham, objected to it, and ever since it has been left out.— TAe Complete Sheriff, p. 17.— Ed. ^ ■"

«

ing to the genius of the popish religion, exer- cised numberless cruelties upon the people. If any man denied them any degree of respect, or any of those profits they pretended was their due, he was immediately suspected of heresy, imprisoned, and, it may be, put to death ; of which some hundreds of examples are upon record.*

Thus stood the laws with respect to religion, when King Henry VIII., second son of King Henry VII., came to the crown ; he was bora in the year 1491, and bred a scholar: he under- stood the purity of the Latin tongue, and was well acquainted with school divinity. No sort of flattery pleased him better than to have his wisdom and learning commended. In the be- ginning he was a most obedient son of the pa- pacy, and employed his talents in writing against Luther in defence of the seven sacraments of the Church. This book was magnified by the clergy as the most learned performance of the age ; and upon presenting it to the pope, his holiness conferred upon the King of England, and his successors, the glorious title of de- fender OF THE F.iiTH ;t It was voted in full consistory, and signed by twenty-seven cardi- nals, in the year 1531.t

At the same time, Cardinal Wolsey, the king's favourite, exercised a sovereign power over the whole clergy and people of England in spiritual matters : he was made legate in the year 1519, and accepted of a bull from the pope, contrary to the statute of prcemunire, empowering him to su- perintend and correct what he thought amiss in both the provinces of Canterbury and York, and to appoint all officers in the spiritual

* Thus, in the reign of Edward IV., John Keyser was committed to jail, by Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, on the suspicion of heresy, because, having been excommunicated, he said " that, not- withstanding the archbishop or his commissary had excommunicated him, yet before God he was not excommunicated, for his corn yielded as well as his neighbours.' " Thus, also, in the reign of Henry VII., Hillary Warner was arrested on the charge of heresy, because he said " that he was not bound to pay tithes to the curate of the parish where he lived."

Coke's Institutes, 3 inst., p. 42, quoted in a treatise on heresy as cognizable in the spiritual courts, p. 22, 23.— Ed.

t Mr. Fox observes, that though "this book car- ried the king's name in the title, it was another who ministered the notion and framed the style. But, whoever had the labour of the book, the king had the thanks and the reward." — Acts and Monuments of Martyrs, vol. ii., p. 57. It has been said that the jester at the court, seeing Henry overcome with joy, asked the reason ; and when told that it was because his holiness had conferred upon him this new title, he replied, "My good Harry, let me and thee defend each other, and let the faith alone to defend itself." " If this was uttered as a serious joke," says a writer, " the fool was, undoubtedly, the wisest man of the two."— C.

X " The extravagant praises which he received for this performance," observes Dr. Warner, "meeting with so much pride and conceitedness in his nature, made him from this time impatient of all" contradic- tions on reUgioiis subjects, and to set up himself for the standard of truth, by which his people were to regulate their belief." — Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 228. We are surprised, in the event, to see this prince, who was now " the pride of popery, become its scourge." Such are the fluctuations in human characters and affairs, and so unsearchable are the ways of Providence ! — Ed.

32

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

•courts.* The king also granted him a full pow- er of disposing of all ecclesiastical benefices in the gift of the crown ; with a visitatorial power over monasteries, colleges, and all his clergy, exempt or not exempt. By virtue of these vast powers a new court of justce was erected, called the legate's court, the jurisdiction where- of extended to all actions relating to conscience, and numberless rapines and extortions were committed by it under colour of reforming men's manners ; all which his majesty connived at, out of zeal to the Church.

But at length, the king, being weary of his Queen Katharine, after he had lived with her almost twenty years, or being troubled in con- science because he had married his brother's wife, and the legitimacy of his daughter had been caUed in question by some foreign princes, lie first separated from her bed, and then mo- ved the pope for a divorce ; but the court of Rome having held his majesty in suspense for two or three years for fear of offending the em- peror the queen's nephew, the impatient king, by the advice of Dr. Cranmer, appealed to the principal universities of Europe, and desired their opinions upon these two questions :

1. " Whether it was agreeable to the law of God for a man to marry his brother's wife 1

2. " Whether the pope could dispense with the law of God?"

All the universities, and most of the learned men of Europe, both Lutherans and papists, ex- cept those at Rome, declared for the negative of the two questions. The king laid their de- terminations before the Parliament and convo- cation, who agreed with the foreign universi- ties. In the convocation of English clergy, two hundred and fifty-three were for the divorce, and but nineteen against it. Sundry learned books were written for and against the lawful- ness of the marriage ; one party being encour- aged by the king, and the other by the pope and emperor. The pope cited the king to Rome, but his majesty ordered the Earl of Wiltshire to protest against the citation, as contrary to the prerogative of his crown ; and sent a letter signed by the cardinal, the Archbishop of Can- terbury, four bishops, two dukes, two marquis- es, thirteen earls, two viscounts, twenty-three barons, twenty-two abbots, and eleven common- ers, exhorting his holiness to confirm the judg- ment of the learned men, and of the universi- ties of Europe, by annulling his marriage, or else he should be obliged to take other meas- ures. The pope in his answer, after having ac- knowledged his majesty's favours, told him that the queen's appeal and avocation of the cause to Rome must be granted. The king seeing himself abused, and that the affair of his mar- riage, which had been already determined by the most learned men in Europe, and had been argued before the legates Campegio and Wol- sey, must commence again, began to suspect Wolsey's sincerity ; upon which his majesty sent for the seals from him, and soon after com- manded his attorney-general to put in an in- formation against him in the King's Bench, be- cause that, notwithstanding the statute of Rich- ard II. against procuring bulls from Rome un- der the pains of a prcEmunire, he had received

* Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. i., p. 8.

bulls for his legatine power, which for many years he had executed. The cardinal pleaded ignorance of the statute, and submitted to the king's mercy ; upon which he was declared to be out of the king's protection, to have forfeited his goods and chattels, and that his person might be seized. The haughty cardinal, not knowing how to bear his disgrace, soon after fell sick and died, declaring that if he had ser- ved God as well as he had done his prince, he would not have given him over in his gray hairs.

But the king, not satisfied with his resent- ments against the cardinal, resolved to be re- venged on the pope himself, and accordingly. September 19th, a week before the cardinal's death, he published a proclamation forbidding all persons to purchase anything from Rome under the severest penalties, and resolved to annex the ecclesiastical supremacy to his own crown for the future. It was easy to foresee that the clergy would startle at the king's assu- ming to himself the pope's supremacy ; but his majesty had them at his mercy, for they having acknowledged Cardinal Wolsey's legatine pow- er, and submitted to his jurisdiction, his majes- ty caused an indictment to be preferred against them in Westminster Hall, and obtained judg- ment upon the statute of pramunire, whereby the whole body of the clergy were declared to be out of the king's protection, and to have forfeit- ed all their goods and chattels.

In this condition they were glad to submit upon the best terms they could get, but the king would not pardon them but upon these two conditions : (1.) That the two provinces of Canterbury and York should pay into the ex- chequer £1 18,840, a vast sum of money in those times. (2.) That they should yield his majesty the title of sole and supreme head of the Church of England, next and immediately under Christ. The former they readily complied with, and promised for the future never to assemble in convocation but by the king's writ ; nor to make or execute any canons or constitutions without his majesty's license ; but to acknowl- edge a layman to be supreme head of an eccle- siastical body, was such an absurdity, in their opinion, and so inconsistent with their alle- giance to the pope, that they could not yield to it without an additional clause, as far as is agreeable to the laws of Christ. The king ac- cepted it with the clause for the present, hut a year or two after obtained the confirmation of it in Parliament and convocation without the clause.

The substance of the act of supremacy* is as follows : " Albeit the king's majesty justly and rightfully is, and ought to be, supreme head of the Church of England, and is so recognised by the clergy of this realm in their convocations ; yet, nevertheless, for confirmation and corrobo- ration thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion within this realm of England, &c., be it enacted by the authority of this pres- ent Parliament, that the king, our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England ; and shall have and enjoy, annexed

* 26 Henry VIII., cap. i.

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

33

and united to the imperial crown of this reahn, as well as the title and style thereof, as all lion- ours, dignities, immunities, profits, and com- modities, to the said dignity of supreme head of the said Church belonging and appertaining; and that our sovereign lord, his heirs and suc- cessors kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which, by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction, ought or may be lawfully reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained, or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty God, and increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conversation of peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm ; any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescription, or anything or things to the contrary notwith- standing."

Here was the rise of the Reformation. The whole power of reforming heresies and errors in doctrine and worship was transferred from the pope to the king, without any regard to the rights of synods or councils of the clergy, and Without a reserve of liberty to such consciences as could not comply with the public standard. This was undoubtedly a change for the better, but is far from being consonant to Scripture or reason.

The Parliament had already forbid all appeals to the court of Rome, in causes testamentary, matrimonial, and in all disputes concerning di- vorces, tithes, oblations, &c., under penalty of a prccmunire* and were now voting away an- nates and first-fruits; and providing " that, in case the pope denied his bulls for electing or consecrating bishops, it should be done without them by the archbishop of the province ; that an archl)ishop might be consecrated by any two bishops whom the king should appoint ; and be- ing so consecrated, should enjoy all the rights of his see, any law or custom to the contrary not- withstanding." All which acts passed both hous- es without any considerable opposition. Tiius, while the pope stood trifling about a contested marriage, the king and Parliament took away all his profits, revenues, and authority in the Church of England.

His majesty having now waited six years for a determination of his marriage from the court of Rome, and being now himself head of the Church of England, commanded Dr. Cranmer, lately consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury,! to call a court of canonists and divines, and pro- ceed to judgment. Accordingly, his grace sum- moned Queen Katharine to appear at Dunstable, near the place where she resided, in person or

* 24 Henry VIII., cap. xu.

t Cranmer's elevation look place in 1533. " He appears to have accepted the distinction with reluc- tance, and the best friends of his reputation must re- gard his compliance with some degree of regret. He was destitute of that fortitude and determination of mind which so high a station required. He was timid and vacillating; honest in his purposes, but irreso- lute in his conduct. In a private station, or in a calmer age, he would have maintained an irreproach- ahle character ; but at present he needs all the syiii- l)a(hy which his martyrdom inspires to retain for him a high place in the respect of impartial men." — Dr. Price's History of Nonconformity, vol. i., p. 8. — C. Vol. I.— E

by proxy, on the 20th of May, 1533, but her ma- jesty refused to appear, adhering to her appeal to the court of Rome : upon which the archbishop, by advice of the court, declared her conlumax, and on the 23d of the same month pronounced the king's marriage with her null and void, as being contrary to the laws of God. Soon after which his majesty married Anne BuUen, and procured an act of Parliament for settling the crown upon the heirs of her body, which all his subjects were obliged to swear to.

There was a remarkable appearance of Di- vine Providence in this atfiiir ; for the French king had prevailed with the King of England to refer his cause once more to the court of Rome, upon assurances given that the po[)e should de- cide it in his majesty's favour within a limited time ; the pope consented, and fixed a time for the return of the king's answer, but the courier not arriving upon the very day, the Imperialists, who dreaded an alliance between the pope and the King of England, persuaded his holiness to give sentence against him ; and accordingly, March 23d, the marriage was declared good, and the king was required to take his wife again, otherwise the censures of the Church were to be denounced against him.* Two days after this the courier arrived from England with the king's submission under his hand in due form, but it was then too late, it being hardly decent for the infallible chair to revoke its decrees in so short a time. Such was the crisis of the Reformation !

The pope having decided against the king, his majesty determined to take away all his profits and authority over the Church of England at once : accordingly, a bill was brought into the Parliament then sitting, and passed without any protestation, by which it is enacted " that all payments made to the apostolic chamber, and all provisions, bulls, or dispensations, should from thenceforth cease; and that all dispensa- tions or licenses, for things not contrary to the law of God, should be granted within the king- dom, under the seals of the two archbishops in their several provinces. The pope was to have no farther concern in the nomination or confirm- ation of bishops, which were appointed to be chosen by congt d'elire from the crown, as at present. Peter's-pence and all procurations from Rome were abolished. Moreover, all religious houses, exempt or not exempt, were to be sub- ject to the archbishops' visitation, except some monasteries and abbeys which were to be sub- ject to the king."t Most of the bishops voted against this bill, but all but one set their hands to It after it was passed, according to the cus- tom of those times. Thus the Church of Eng- land became independent of the pope, and all foreign jurisdiction.

Complaints being daily made of the severe proceedings of the ecclesiastical courts against heretics, the Parliament took this matter into consideration, and repealed the act of the second of Henry IV., above mentioned, but left the stat- utes of Richard II. and Henry V in full force, with this qualification, that heretics should be proceeded against upon presentments by two witnesses at least ; that they should be brought to answer in open court ; and if thry were found

* Burnet's Hist. Kef., vol. i., p. 135. t 25 Henry VIII., cap. xx., xxi.

34

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

guilty, and would not abjure, or were relapsed, they should be adjudged to death,' the king's writ de hctrelko combnrendo being first obtained.* By this act the ecclesiastical courts were lim- ited, heretics being now to be tried according to the forms of law, as in other cases.

Towards the latter end of this session, the clergy, assembled in convocation, sent up their submission to the king to be passed in Parlia- ment, which was done accordingly : the con- tents were, " that the clergy acknowledged all convocations ought to be assembled by the king's writ ; and promised in verba sacerdolii, that they would never make nor execute any new canons or constitutions without the royal assent ; and since many canons had been re- ceived that were found prejudicial to the king's prerogative, contrary to the laws of the land, and heavy to the subjects, that, therefore, there should be a committee of thirty-two persons, sixteen of the two houses of Parliament and as many of the clergy, to be named by the king, who should have full power to revise the old canons, and to abrogate, confirm, or alter them, as they found expedient, the king's assent being obtained."

This submission was confirmed by Parlia- ment; and by the same act all appeals to Rome were again condemned. If any parties found themselves aggrieved in the archbishops' courts, an appeal might be made to the king in the Court of Chancery, and the lord-chancellor was to grant a commission under the great seal for a hearing before delegates, whose determination should be final. All exempted abbots were also to appeal to the king ; and the act concluded with a proviso "that, till such correction of the canons was made, all those which were then received should remain in force, except such as were contrary to the laws and customs of the realm, or were to the damage or hurt of the king's prerogative." Upon the proviso of this act all the proceedings of the commons and other spiritual courts are founded ; for the can- ons not being corrected to this day, the old ones are in force, with the exceptions above men- tioned ; and this proviso is probably the reason why the canons were not corrected in the fol- lowing reigns, for now it lies in the breast of the judges to declare what canons are contrary to the laws or rights of the crown, which is more for the king's prerogative than to make a collection of ecclesiastical laws which should be fixed and immovable.

Before the Parliament broke up they gave the annates or first-fruits of benefices, and the yearly revenue of the tenth part of all livings, which had been taken from the pope last year, to the king. This displeased the clergy, who were in hopes of being freed from that burden ; but they were mistaken, for by the thirty-second of Henry VIII., cap. xlv, a court of record is ordered to be erected, called the court of the first-fruits and tenths, for the levying and gov- ernment of the said first-fruits forever.

The session being ended, commissioners were sent over the kingdom to administer the oath of succession to all his majesty's subjects, accord- ing to a late act of Parliament, by which it appears that, besides renewing their allegi-

* 25 Henry VIII., cap. xiv.

ance to the king, and acknowledging him to be the head of the Church, they declared, upon oath, " the lawfulness of his marri.ige with Queen Anne, and that they would he true to the issue begotten in it. That the Bishop of Rome had no more power than any other bish- op in his own diocess ; that they would submit to all the king's laws, notwithstanding the pope's censures ; that in their prayers they would pray first for the king as supreme head of the Church of England ; then for the queen [Anne], then for the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the other ranks of the clergy." Only Fish- er, bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, lord-chancellor, refused to take the oath, for which they afterward lost their lives.

The separation of the Church of England from Rome contrii)uted something towards the reformation of its doctrines, though the body of the inferior clergy were as stiff for their old opinions as ever, being countenanced and sup- ported by the Duke of Norfolk, by the Lord- chancellor More, by Gardiner, bishop of Win- chester, and Fisher of Rochester; but some of the nobility and bishops were for a farther reformation : among these were the new queen, Lord Cromwell, afterward Earl of Essex, Dr. Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Shaxton, bishop of Salisbury, and Latimer of Worcester. As these were more or less in favour with the king, the reformation of religion went forward or backv/ard throughout the whole course of his reign.

The progress of the Reformation in Germa- ny, by the preaching of Luther, Melancthon, and others, with the number of books that were published in those parts, some of which were translated into English, revived learning, and raised people's curiosity to look into the stato of religion here at home. One of the first books that was published was the translation of the New Testament by Tyndal, printed at Antv^erp, 1526.* The next was the Supplication of the

* Of this edition, which consisted of fifteen hun- dred copies, only one is supposed to exist; that copy is preserved in the library of the Baptist Col- lege, Bristol, England. The scarceness of this edi- tion is easily accounted for : " The book that had the greatest authority and influence was Tindal's translation of the New Testament, of which tha bishops made great complaints, and said it was full of errors. But Tonstal, then Bishop of London, be- ing a man of invincible moderation, would do no- body any hurt, yet endeavoured, as he could, to get their books into his hands ; so, being at Antwerp in the year 1529, he sent for one Packington, an Eng- hsh merchant there, and desired him to see how many New Testaments of Tindal's translation he might have for money. Packington, who was a se- cret favourer of Tindal, told him what the bishop proposed. Tindal was very glad of it; for, being convinced of some faults in his work, he was design- ing a new and more correct edition ; but he was poor, and the former impression not being sold off, he could not go about it ; so he gave Packington all the copies that lay in his hands, for which the bishop paid the price, and brought them over, and burned them publicly in Cheapside. This had such a hate- ful appearance in it, being generally called a burning of the Word of God, that people from thence coiiclu-- ded there must be a visible contrariety between that book and the doctrines of those who so handled it ; by which both their prejudice against the clergy, and their desire of reading the New Testament, were in- creased. So that next year, when the second edition

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

35

Beggars, by Simon Frith of Gray's Inn, 1529. It was levelled against the begging friars, and complains that the common poor were ready to starve, because the alms of the people were in- tercepted by great companies of lusty, idle fri- ars, Avho were able to work, and were a burden to the commonwealth. More and Fisher an- swered the book, endeavouring to move the people's passions by representing the supplica- tions of the souls in purgatory which were re- lieved by the masses of these friars. But the strength of their arguments lay in the sword of the magistrate, which was now in their hands ; for while these gentlemen were in power the clergy made sad havoc among those people who were seeking after Christian knowledge ; some were cited into the bishops' courts for teach- ing their children the Lord's Prayer in Eng- lish ; some for reading forbidden books ; some for speaking against the vices of the clergy ; some for not coming to confession and the sac- rament ; and some for not observing the Church fasts ; most of whom, through fear of death, did penance and were dismissed ; but several of the clergy refusing to abjure, or after abjuration falling into a relapse, suffered death. Among these were the Rev. Mr. Hitton, curate of Maidstone, burned in Smithfield, 1530 ; the Rev. Mr. Bilney, burned at Norwich, 1531 ; Mr. Byfield, a monk of St. Edmondsbury ; James Bainham, Knt. of the Temple ; besides two men 'andawoman,atYork. In theyear 1533,Mr. John Frith,* an excellent scholar of the University of Cambridge, was burned in Smithfield, with one Hevvet, a poor apprentice, for denying the corpo- real presence of Christ in the sacrament ; but upon the rupture between the king and the pope, and the repeal of the actofKing Henry IV. against heretics, the wings of the clergy were clipped, and a stop put to their cruelties for a time.

None were more adverse to the Reformation than the monks and friars : these spoke openly against the king's proceedings, exciting the peo- ple to rebellion, and endeavouring to embroil his affairs with foreign princes; the king, there- fore, resolved to humble them, and for this pur- pose appointed a general visitation of the mon- asteries, the management of which was com- mitted to the Lord Cromwell, with the title of visiter-general, who appointed other commis- sioners under him, and gave them injunctions and articles of inquiry. Upon this, several ab- bots and priors, to prevent a scrutiny into their conduct, voluntarily surrendered their houses

vvas timshed, many were brought over, and Coiistan- tine (a coadjutor of Tindal) being taken in England, the lord-chancellor, in a private examination, prom- ised him that no hurt should be done him if he would reveal who encouraged and supported him at An- twerp ; which he accepted of, and told that the great- est encouragement they had was from the Bishop of London, who had bought up half the impression. This made all that heard of it laugh heartily, though more judicious persons discerned the great temper of that learned bishop in it." — Burnet's Reform., i., 260.— C.

* Mr. Frith wrote a tract, published with his other works, London, 1573, entitled " A Declaration of Baptism."

Sir James Bainham seems, from his examination before the Bishop of London, Dec. 15, 1531, to have been an opposer of mfanl baptism. — Crosby's Hist, of the English Baptists, vol. i., p. 31.

Fox's Martyrs, vol. ii., p. 227, 241, 256, 445.— C.

into the king's hands ; others, upon examination, appeared guilty of the greatest frauds and im- positions on the simplicity of the people : many of their pretended relics were exposed and de- stroyed, as the Virgin Mary's milk, showed in eight places ; the coals that roasted St. Law- rence ; and an angel with one wing that brought over the bead of the spear that pierced our Sav- iour's side ; the rood of grace, which was so contrived, that the eyes and lips might move upon occasion ; with many others. The images of a great many pretended saints were taken down and burned, and all the rich offerings made at their shrines were seized for the crown, which brought an immense treasure into the exchequer.

Upon the report of the visiters, the Parliament consented to the suppression of the lesser mon- asteries under £200 a year value, and gave them to the king to the number of three hundred and seventy-six. Their rents amounted to about £32,000 per annum : their plate, jewels, and furniture, to about £100,000.* The churdres and cloisters were for the most part pulled down, and the lead, and bells, and other materials, sold. A new court, called the Court of Augmentations of the King's Revenue,! was erected, to receive the rents and to dispose of the lands, and bring the profits into the exchequer. Every religious person that was turned out of his cell had 45s. given him in money, of which number there were about ten thousand ; and every governor had a pension. But to ease the government of this charge, the monks and friars were put into benefices as fast as they became vacant ; by which means it came to pass that the body of the inferior clergy were disguised papists and enemies to the Reformation.

The lesser religious houses being dissolved, the rest followed in a few years : for in the years 1537 and 1539, the greater abbeys and monas- teries were broken up, or surrendered to the crown, to prevent an inquiry into their lives and manners. This raised a great clamour among the people, the monks and friars going up and down the country like beggars, clamouring at the injustice of the suppression. The king, to quiet them, gave back fifteen abbeys and six- teen nunneries for perpetual alms ; but several of the abbots being convicted of plots and con- spiracies against his government, his majesty resumed his grants after two years, and obtained an act of Parliament, whereby he was empow- ered to erect sundry new cathedral churches and bishoprics, and to endow them out of the prof- its of the religious houses. The king intended, says Bishop Burnet, to convert £18,000 a year into a revenue for eighteen bishoprics and ca- thedrals ; but of them he only erected six, viz., the bishoprics of Westminster, Chester, Peter- borough, Oxford, Gloucester, and Bristol. This was the chief of what his majesty did for reli- gion, which was but a small return of the im- mense sums that fell into his hands : for the clear rents of all the suppressed houses were cast up at £131,607 6.5. 4rf. per annum, as they were then rated, but were at least ten times as much in value. Most of the abbey lands were given away among the courtiers, or sold at easy rates to the gentry, to engage them by interest against the resumption of them to the Church.

«■ Burnet's Hist. Ret'., vol. i., p. 223. t 27 Henry VHI., cap. xxvii., xxviii.

36

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

In the year 1545, the Parliament gave the king the chantries, colleges, free chapels, liospitals, fraternities, and guilds, with their manors and estates. Seventy manors and parks were alien- ated from the archbishopric of York, and twelve from Canterbury, and confirmed to the crown. How easily might this king, with his immense revenues, have put an end to the being of Par- liaments !

The translation of the New Testament by Tyndal, already mentioned, had a wonderful spread among the people ; though the bishops condemned it, and proceeded with the utmost severity against those that read it. They com- plained of It to the king ; upon which his majes- ty called it in by proclamation in the month of June, 1530, and promised that a more correct translation should be published : but it was im- possible to stop the curiosity of the people so long ; for, though the bishops bought up and bujned all they could meet with, the Testament was reprinted abroad, and sent over to mer- chants at London, who dispersed the copies privately among their acquaintance and friends.

At length, it was moved in convocation that the whole Bible should be translated into Eng- lish, and set up in churches ; but most of the old clergy were against it They said this "would lay the foundation of innumerable here- sies, as it had done in Germany ; and that the people were not proper judges of the sense of Scripture : to which it was replied, that the Scriptures were written at first in the vulgar tongue ; tiiat our Saviour commanded his hear- ers to search the Scriptures ; and that it was necessary people should do so now, that they might be satisfied that the alterations the king had made in religion were not contrary to the Word of God. These arguments prevailed with the majority to consent that a petition should be presented to the king, that his majesty would please to give order about it.

But- the old bishops were too much disincli- jied to move in it. The Reformers, therefore, were forced to have recourse to Mr. Tyndal's Bible, which had been printed at Hamburg, 1532, and reprinted three or four years after by Grafton and Whitchurch. The translators were Tyndal, assisted by Miles Coverdale, and Mr. John Rogers, the protomartyr : the Apocrypha was done by Rogers, and some marginal notes were inserted to the whole, which gave offence, and occasioned that Bible to be prohibited. But Archbishop Craniner, having now reviewed and corrected it, left out the prologue and notes, and added a preface of his own ; and because Tyndal was now put to death for a heretic, his name was laid aside, and it was called Thomas Matthew's Bible, and by some Cranmer's Bible ; though it was no more than Tyndal's transla- tion corrected.* This Bible was allowed by au- thority, and eagerly read by all sorts of people.

* "Craniner began with the New Testament, an English copy ot which he divided into eight or ten parts, and sent to the most learned men of his day for their correclion. These were returned to Lambeth at the aniiointed time, with the exception of the Acts of the .\|)oslles, which had been intrusted to Stokes- ley, bisho|) of London, who wrote to Cranmer, 'I marvel what my Lord of Canterbury meaneth, that he thus abuseth the people, m giving thein Uberty to read the Scriptures, which doth nothing else but

The fall of Queen Anne Bullcn, mother of Queen Elizabeth, was a great prejudice to the Reformation. She was a virtuous and pious lady, but airy and indiscreet in her behaviour : the jiopish party hated her for her religion ; and having awakened the king's jeajousy, put him upon a nice observance of her carriage, by which she quickly fell under his majesty's displeasure, who ordered her to be sent to the Tower, May 1. On the 15th of the same month she was tried by her peers for incontinence, for a pre- contract of marriage, and for conspiring the king's death ; and though there was little or no evidence, the lords found her guilty, for fear of offending the king ; and four days after she was beheaded within the Tower, protesting her inno- cence to the last. Soon after her execution the king called a Parliament to set aside the succes- sion of the Lady Elizabeth, her daughter, which was done, and the king was empowered to nomi- nate his successor by his last will and testament ; so that both his majesty's daughters were now declared illegitimate ; but the king having power to settle the succession as he pleased, in case of failure of male heirs, they were still in hopes, and quietly submitted to their father's pleasure. Complaint being sent to court of the diversity of doctrines delivered in pulpits, the king sent a circular letter to all the bishops, July 12 [1535], forbidding all preaching till Michaelmas; by which time certain articles of religion, most catholic, should be set forth. The king himself framed the articles, and sent them into convo- cation, where they were agreed to by both hous- es. An abstract of them will show the stale of the Reformation at this time.

1. " All preachers were to instruct the people to believe the whole Bible, and the three creeds, viz., the Apostles', the Nicene, and Athanasian, and to interpret all things according to them.

2. " That baptism was a sacrament instituted by Christ ; that it was necessary to salvation ; that infants were to be baptized for the pardon of original sin ; and that the opinions of the Anabaptists and Pelagians were detestable her- esies. [.\nd that those of ripe age, who desired baptism, must join with it repentance and con- trition for their sins, with a firm belief of the articles of the faith ]

3. " That penance, that is, contrition, confes- sion, and amendment of life, with works of char- infect them with heresy. I have bestowed never an hour upon my portion, nor ever will. And there- fore my lord shall have this book again, for I will never be guilty of bringing the simple people into error.'* So perverted were the views of the dignitaries of the Church, and so determined the opposition whicti Cranmer encountered in his labours tor its reforma- tion. His personal sense of the value of the Scrip- tures, and deep conviction of their importance, led him to persevere in his design, and secured his ulti- mate success." — Dr. Price's Hist, of No>ico?iformily, vol. 1., p. 49.— C.

* Wlien Cnuiiner exjiressed his surprise at the conduct of Stukesley, wu are tuld that Mr. Thuuias Lawney. who stood by, reaiarked, ■' I can tell your grace why njy Lord of Loudon will uot bestow any laljour or pains this way. Your grace knoweth well that his portion is a piece of the New Testament ; but he, being persuaded that Christ had bequeathed bun nothing in his Testament, thought it mere mailness to bestow any labour or pains where no gain was to l)e gotten. And, besides this, it is the Acts of the Ajkis- tles, which were simple, poor fellows, and therefore my Lord of London disdained to have to do with aiiy of them." — Strt/pe's Cranmer, vol. i., p. 48, 49, 59, 82 — C

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

3T

ity, was necessary to salvation ; to which must be added, faith in the mercy of God, that he ■will justify and pardon us, not for the worthi- ness of any merit or work done by us, but for the only merits of the blood and passion of Jesus Christ ; nevertheless, that a confession to a priest was necessary, if it might be had ; and that the absolution of a priest was the same as if it were spoken by God himself, according to our Saviour's words. That auricular confession was of use for the comfort of men's consciences. And though we are justified only by the satis- faction of Christ, yet the people were to be in- structed in the necessity of good works.

4. " That in the sacrament of the altar, under the form of bread and wine, there was, truly and substantially, the same body of Christ that was born of the Virgin.

5. " That justification signified the remission of sins, and a perfect renovation of nature in Christ.

6. "Concerning images : that the use of them was warranted in Scripture ; that they served to stir uj) devotion ; and that it was meet they should stand in churches ; but the people were to be taught that, in kneeling or worshipping be- fore them, they were not to do it to the image, but to God.

7. " Concerning honouring of saints, they were to be instructed not to expect those favours from them which are to be obtained only from God, but they were to honour them, to praise God for them, and to imitate their virtues.

8. " For praying to saints : that it was

good to pray to them to pray for us and with us.

9. " Of ceremonies. The people were to be taught that they were good and lawful, having mystical significations in them ; such were the vestments in the worship of God, sprinkling holy water to put us in mind of our baptism and the blood of Christ ; giving holy bread, in sign of our union to Christ ; bearing candles on Can- dlemas day, in remembrance of Christ, the spirit- ual light ; giving ashes on Ash Wednesday, to put us in mind of penance and our mortality ; bearing palms on Palm Sunday, to show our desire to receive Christ into our hearts as he entered into Jerusalem ; creeping to the cross on Good Friday, and kissing it, in memory of his death ; with the setting up of the sepulchre on that day, the hallowing the font, and other exorcisms and benedictions.

Lastly. " As to purgatory, they were to de- clare it good and charitable to pray for souls de- parted ; but since the place they were in, and the pains they suffered, were uncertain by Scrip- ture, they ought to remit them to God's mercy. Therefore, all abuses of this doctrine were to be put away, and the people disengaged from believing that the pope's pardons, or masses said in certain places, or belbre certain images, could deliver souls out of purgatory."

These articles were signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, seventeen bishops, forty abbots and priors, and fifty archdeacons and proctors of the lower house of convocation : they were published by the king's autiiority, with a preface in his name requirmg all his subjects to accept them, which would encourage him to take far- ther pains for the honour of God and the wel- fare of his people. One sees here the dawn of the Reformation ; the Scriptures and the an-

cient creeds are made the standards of faith without the tradition of the Church or decrees of the pope; the doctrine of justification by faith is well stated ; four of the seven sacraments are passed over, and purgatory is left doubtful. But transubstantiation, auricular confession, the worshipping of images and saints, still remained. The court of Rome were not idle spectators of these proceedings ; they threatened the king, and spirited up the clergy to rebellion ; and when all hopes of accommodation were at aa end, the pope pronounced sentence of excom- munication against the whole kingdom, depri- ving his majesty of his crown and dignity, for- bidding his subjects to obey him, and ail foreign princes to correspond with him ; all his leagues with them were dissolved, and his own clergy were commanded to depart the kingdom, and his nobility to rise in arms against him. The king, laying hold of this opportunity, called a Parliament, and obtained an act requiring all his subjects, under the pains of treason, to swear that the king was supreme head of the Church of England ; and to strike terror into the popish party, three priors and a monk of the Carthu- sian order were executed as traitors for refu- sing the oath, and for saying that the king was not supreme head under Christ of the Church of England ; but the two greatest sacrifices were John Fisher, bishop of Pvochester, and Sir Thom- as More, late lord-chancellor of England, who were both beheaded last year, within a fortnight of each other. This quieted the people for a time, but soon after there was an insurrection in Lincolnshire of twenty thousand men, head- ed by a churchman and directed by a monk ; but upon a proclamation of pardon, they dis- persed themselves : the same year there was another more formidable in the North, but after some time the rebels were defeated by the Duke of Norfolk, and the heads of them executed, among whom were divers abbots and priests. These commotions incensed the king against the religious houses, as nurseries of sedition, and made him resolve to suppress them all.

In the mean time, his majesty went on boldly against the Church of Rome, and published cer- tain injunctions by his own authority, to regu- late the behaviour of the clergy. This was the first act of pure supremacy done by the king, for in all that went before he had the concur- rence of the convocation. The injunctions were to this purpose.

1. " That the clergy should twice every quar- ter publish to the people that the Bishop of Rome's usurped power had no foundation in Scripture, but that the king's supremacy was according to the laws of God.

2, 3. " They were to publish the late articles of faith set forth by the king, and likewise the king's proclamation for the abrogation of cer- tain holydays in harvest-time.

4. " They were to dissuade the people from making pilgrimages to saints, and to exhort them to stay at home and mind their families, and keep God's commandments.

5. " They were to exhort them to teach their children the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and Ten Commandments, in English.*

* "And every incumbent was to explain these, one article a day, until the people were instructed in them."— Maddox's Vindic, p. 2U9.— Ed.

38

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

6. " They were to take care that the sacra- ments were reverently administered in their parishes.

7. " That the clergy do not frequent taverns and alehouses, nor sit long at games, but give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and a ' good life.

8. " Every beneficed person of £20 a year that did not reside, was to pay the fortieth part of his benefice to the poor.

9. " Every incumbent of £100 a year to main- tain one scholar at the university ; and so many hundreds a year so many scholars.

10. " The fifth pait of the profits of livings to be given to the repair of the vicarage house, if it be in decay."

Thus the very same opinions, for which the followers of WicklifTe and Luther had been burned a few years before, were enjoined by the king's authority.

This year a very remarkable book was print- ed by Batchelor, the king's printer, cum privile- gio, called " The Institution of a Christian Man." It was called the " Bishop's Book," because it was composed by sundry bishops, as Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Stokeley of London, Gardiner of Winchester, Sampson of Chiches- ter, Reps of Norwich, Goodrick of Ely, Latimer of Worcester, Shaxton of Salisbury, Fox of Hereford, Barlow of St. David's, and some other divines. It is divided into several chap- ters, and contains an explanation of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Seven Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the Ave Maria. Justifica- tion, and Purgatory. " The book maintains the local descent of Christ into hell, and that all ar- ticles of faith are to be interpreted according to Scripture and the first four general councils. It defends the seven sacraments, and under the sacrament of the altar, affirms that the body of Christ that suffered on the cross is substantial- ly present under the form of bread and wine. It maintains but two orders of the clergy, and avers that no one bishop has authority over another according to the Word of God. The invocation of saints is restrained to interces- sion, forasmuch as they have it not in their own power to bestow any blessings upon us. It maintains that no church should be conse- crated to any being but God. It gives liberty to work on saints' days, especially in harvest- time. It maintains the doctrine of passive obe- dience. In the article of justification, it says we are justified only by the merits and satisfac- tion of Christ, and that no good works on our part can procure the Divine favour or prevail for our justification."*

This book was recommended and subscribed by the two archbishops, nineteen bishops, and the lower house of convocation, among whom were Gardiner, Bonner, and others, who put their brethren to death for these doctrines m the reign of Queen Mary ; but the reason of their present compliance might be, because all their hopes from the succession of the Prin- cess Mary were now defeated. Queen Jane be- ing brought to bed of a son October the 12th, 1538, who was baptized Edward, and succeeded his father.

The translation of the Bible, already mention-

* Strype's Mem. of Cranmer, p. 51.

ed. was this year printed and published. Crom- well procured the king's warrant for all his maj- esty's subjects to read it without control ; and, by his injunctions, commanded one to be set up publicly in all the churches in England, that the people might read it. His majesty farther en- joined the clergy to preach the necessity of faith and repentance, and against trusting in pilgrimages and other men's works ; to order such images as had been abused to superstition to be taken down, and to tell the people that praying to them was no less than idolatry ; but still, transubstantiation, the seven sacra- ments, the communion in one kind only, pur- gatory, auricular confession, praying for the dead, the celibacy of the clergy, sprinkling of holy water, invocation of saints, some mtiages in churches, Mith most of the superstitious rites and ceremonies of the popish church, were re tained.

Here his majesty made a stand ; for aftei this the Reformation fluctuated, and, upon the whole, went rather backward than forward ; which was owing to several causes, as (1.) To the unhappy death of the queen in childbed, who had possession of the king's heart, and was a promoter of the Reformation. (2.) To the king's disagreement with the Protestant princes of Germany, who would not put him at the head of their league, because he would not abandon the doctrine of transubstantiation and permit the communion in both kinds. (3.' To the king's displeasure against the arch- bishop and the other bishops of the new learn- ing, because he could not prevail with them to give consent in Parliament that the king should appropriate all the suppressed monasteries to his own use. (4.) To his majesty's unhappy mar- riage with the Lady Anne of Cleves, a Protest- ant ; which was promoted by the Reformers, and proved the ruin of the Lord Cromwell, who was at that time the bulwark of the Reformation. (5.) To the artifice and abject submission of Gardiner, Bonner, and other popish bishops, who, by flattering the king's imperious temper, and complying with his dictates, prejudiced him against the reformed. And, lastly, To his maj- esty's growing infirmities, which made him so peevish and positive that it was dangerous to advise to anything that was not known to be agreeable to his sovereign will and pleasure.

The king began to discover his zeal against the Sacramentaries [and Anabaptists*] (as those were called who denied the corporeal presence of Christ in the eucharist), by prohib- iting the importing of all foreign books, or

* In the articles of rehgion set forth in 1536, the sect of Anabaptists is mentioned and condemned. Fourteen Hollanders, accused of holding their opin- ions, were put to death in 1535, and ten saved them- selves by recantation. In 1428, there were in the diocess of Norwich one hundred and twenty who held that infants were sufficiently baptized if their parents were baptized before them ; that Christian people be sufficiently baptized in the blood of Christ, and need no water; and that the sacrament of baptism used in the Church by water is but a light matter, and of small effect. Three of these persons were burned alive. Long before this, it was a charge laid against the Lollards that they held these opin ions, and would not baptize their new-born children. —See Fox as quoted by Crosby, vol. i., p. 24, 40, 41 —Ed.

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

39

printing any portions of Scripture till they had been examined by himself and council, or by the bishop of the diocess ; by punishing all that denied the old rites, and by forbidding all to argue against the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, on pain of deatb. For breaking this last order, he condenmed to the flames this very year that faithful witness to the truth, John Lambert, who had been minister of the English congregation at Antwerp, and after- ward taught school in London ; but hearing Dr. Taylor preach concerning the real presence, he offered him a paper of reasons against it : Taylor carried the paper to Cranmer, who was then a Lutheran, and endeavoured to make him retract ; but Lambert, unhappily, appealed to the king, who, after a kind of mock trial in Westminster Hall, in presence of the bishops, nobility, and judges, passed sentence of death upon lum, condemning him to be burned as an incorrigible heretic. Cranmer was appointed to dispute against him, and Cromwell to read the sentence. He was soon after executed m Smithfield in a most barbarous manner; "nis last words in the flames were, "INone but Christ ! None but Christ !"*

The Parliament that met next spring disserv- ed the Reformation, and brought religion back to the standard in which it continued to the King's death, by the act [31 Hen. VHL, cap. xiv] sommonly known by the name of the bloody statute, or the statute of the six articles : it was entitled. An act for abolishing Diversity of Opin- ions in certain Articles concerning Christian Heligion. The six articles were these :t

1. " That in the sacrament of the altar, after the consecration, there remains no substance of bread and wine, hut under these forms the nat- ural body and blood of Christ are present.

2. " That communion in both kinds is not ne- cessary to salvation to all persons by tiie law of God, but that both the flesh and blood of Christ are together in each of the kinds.

3. " That priests may not marry by the law of God.

4. " That vows of chastity ought to be observ- ed by the law of God.

5. " That private masses ought to be contin- ued, which, as it is agreeable to God's law, so men receive great benefit by them.

6. "That auricular confession is expedient and necessary, and ought to be retained in the Church."

It was farther enacted, that if any did speak, preach, or write against the first article, they should be judged heretics, and be burned with- out any abjuration, and forfeit their real and personal estate to the king. Those who preach- ed, or obstinately disputed against the other ar- ticles, were to suffer death as felons, without

* Lambert having heard Dr. Taylor preach on the presence of Christ in the sacrament, he sought an interview with him. and stated his objections to the received doctrine, which he afterward committed to writing. Taylor showed this paper to Dr. Barnes, a Lutheran, and they reported the matter to Cranmer, who summoned Lambert into the archiepiscopal court. It is deserving of notice that Cranmer, Tay- lor, and Barnes, the chief agents in Lambert's death, were themselves brought to the stake as heretics ! — Dr. Price's Hist, of Nuncon., vol. i., p. 49, 50. — C.

t Cranmer alone had the courage to oppose the passing these articles.— W.

benefit of clergy ; and those who, either in word or writing, declared against them, were to be prisoners during the king's pleasure, and to for- feit their goods and chattels for the first offence, and for the second to suffer death. All ecclesi- astical incumbents were to read this act in their churches once a quarter.

As soon as the six articles took place, Shax- ton, bishop of Salisbury, and Latimer of Wor- cester, resigned their bishoprics, and being pre- sented for speaking against the act, they were imprisoned. Latimer continued a prisoner to the king's death, but Shaxton, being threatened with the fire, turned apostate, and proved a cruel persecutor of the Protestants in Queen Mary's reign. Commissions were issued oirt to the archbishops, bishops, and -their commissaries, to hold a sessions quarterly, or oftener, and to pro- ceed upon presentments by a jury according to law ; which they did most severely, insomuch that in a very little time five hundred persons were put in prison, and involved in the guilt of the statute ; but Cranmer and Cromwell obtain- ed their pardon, which mortified the popish cler- gy to such a degree, that they proceeded no far- ther till Cromwell fell.

Another very remarkable act of Parliament, passed this session, w"as concerning obedience to the king's proclamations. It enacts, that the king, with advice of his council, may set forth proclamations with pains and penalties, which shall be obeyed as fully as an act of Parliament, provided they be not contrary to the laws and customs in being, and do not extend so far as that the subject shoidd suffer in estate, liberty, or person. An act of attainder was also passed against sixteen persons, some for denying the supremacy, and others without any particular crime mentioned ; none of them were brought to a trial, nor is there any mention in the rec- ords of any witnesses examined.* There never had been an example of such arbitrary proceed- ings before in England ; yet this precedent was followed by several others in the course-of this reign. By another statute, it was enacted that the councillors of the king's successor, if he were under age, might set forth proclamations in his name, which were to be obeyed in the same manner with those set forth by the king him- self I mention this, because upon this act was founded the validity of all the changes of reli- gion in the minority of Edward Vl.f

Next year [1540] happened the fall of Lord Cromwell, one of the great pillars of the Refor- mation. He had been lately constituted the king's vicegerent in ecclesiastical affairs, and made a speech in Parliament, April 12th, under that character. On the 14th of April the king created him Earl of Essex, and Knight of the Garter ; but within two months he was arrested at the council-table for high treason, and sent to the Tower, and on the 28th of July was behead- ed by virtue of a bill of attainder, without being

* Burnet's Hist. Rcf, vol. i., p. 263.

t In this year sixteen men and fifteen women were banished for opposing infant baptism . they went to Delft, in Holland, ami were there prosecuted and put to death as Anabaptists ; the men being beheaded, and the women drowned. Among other injunctions issued out in 1539, was one against those who em- braced tFie opinions, or possessed books containing the opinions, of Sacramentarians and Anabaptists. — Crosbi/, b. i., p. 42. — Ed.

40

HlSTORi' OF THE PURITANS.

brought to a trial, or once allowed to speak for himself. He was accused of executing certain orders and directions, for which lie had very probably the king's warrant, and, therefore, was not admitted to make answer. But the true cause of his fall* was the share he had in the king's marriage with the Lady Anne of Cleves, ■whom his majesty took an aversion to as soon as he saw her, and was, therefore, determined to show his resentments against the promoters of it ; but his majesty soon after lamented the loss of his honest and faithful servant when it ■was too late.

Two days after the death of Cromwell there was a very odd execution of Protestants and papists at the same time and place. The Prot- estants were Dr. Barnes, Mr. Gerrard, and Mr. Jerome, all clergymen and Lutherans ; they were sent to the Tower for offensive sermons preach- ed at the Spittle in the Easter week, and were attainted of heresy by the Parliament without being brought to a hearing. Four papists, viz., Gregory Buttolph, Adam Damplin, Edmund Brindhojme, and Clement Philpot, were by the same act attainted for denying the king's suprem- acy, and adhering to the IBishop of Home. The Protestants -A^ere burned, and the papists hang- ed : the former cleared themselves of heresy by rehearsing the articles of their faith at the stake, and died with great devotion and piety ; and the latter, though grieved to be drawn in the same hurdle with them they accounted heretics, de- clared their hearty forgiveness of all their ene- mies.

About this time [1543] was published a very remarkable treaties, called A Necessary Erudi- tion for a Christian Man. It was drawn up by a committee of bishops and divines, and was af-

* Dr. Maddox remarks on this statement of the cause of Cromwell's fall, that it is expressly contra- dicted by Bishop Burnet, who, speaking of the king's creating' him Earl of Essex, upon his marriage with Anne of Cleves, adds, "This shows that the true causes of Cromwell's fall must be founded in some other thing than his making up the king's marriage, who had never thus raised his title if he had intend- ed so soon to pull him down." — Hist. Ref., vol. i., p. 275.

In reply to this, Mr. Neal says, " Let the reader judge : his (i. e.. Bishop Burnet's) words are these : ' An unfortunate marriage, to which he advised the king, not proving acceptable, and he being unwilling to destroy what himself had brought about, was the occasion of his disgrace and destruction.' — Vol. iii., p. 172. If his lordship has contradicted this in any other place (which I apprehend he has not), he must an- swer for it himself"

It may be observed, that these two passages stand in a very voluminous work, at a great distance from one another, so that the apparent inconsistency might escape the bishop's notice ; while his remark in the first can have little force, when ap|ilied to the con- duct of a prince so capricious and fluctuating in his attachments as was Henry VIII., ;ind who soon grew disgusted with his queen. It is with no propriety that Mr. Meal's accuracy and fidehty are, in this instance, impeached : it justifies his representation, that nearly the same is given by Fuller in his Church History, b. v., p. 231. " Match-makers," says he, "bet'vvixt pri- vate persons seldom find great love for their pains ; betwixt princes, often fall into danger, as here it proved in the Lord Cromwell, the grand contriver of the king's marriage with Anne of Cleves."

The cause of Cromwell's disgrace is more fully and judiciously investigated by Dr. Warner, in his Eccle- siastical History, vol. ii., p. 197, 198. — Ed.

terward read and approved by the iDrds sniritual and temporal, and the lower house of Parlia- ment. A great part of it was corrected by the king's own hand, and the whole was published by liis order, with a preface in the name of King Henry VIIL, dedicated to all liis faithful sut^ jects. It was called the King's Book, and was designed for a standard of Christian belief.* The reader, therefore, will judge by the abstract below, of the sentiments of our first Reformers in sundry points of doctrine and discipline,!

* Burnet's Hist. Ref , vol. i., p. 286.

t It begins with a description of Faith, " of which (says the book) there are two acceptations. (1 .) It is sometimes taken for ' a belief or persuasion wrought by God in men's hearts, whereby they assent and take for true all the words and sayings of God re- vealed in Scripture.' This faith, it it proceeds no far- ther, is but a dead faith. (2.) Faith is sometimes considered in conjunction with hope and charity, and so it signifies ' a sure confidence and hope to obtain whatsoever God has promised for Christ's sake, and is accompanied with a hearty love to God, and obe- dience to his commands.' This is a lively and effect- ual faith, and is the perfect faith of a Christian. It is by this faith that we are justified, as it is joined with hope and charity, and includes an obedience to the whole doctrine and religion of Christ. But whether there be any special particular knowledge, whereby men may be certain and assured that they are among the predestinate, which shall to the end persevere in t^eir calling, we cannot find either ia the Scriptures or doctors ; the promises of God being conditional, so that, though his promise stands, we may fail of the blessing for want of fulfilling our ob- ligation."

After the chapter of Faith follows an excellent par- aphrase on the twelve articles of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria, or the salutation of the angel to the blessed Virgin, and the Ten Commandments ; and here the second commandment is shortened, the words ' for I the Lord thy God,' &c., being left out, and only those that go before set down. Images are said to be profitable to stir up the mind to emulation, though we may not give them godly honour ; never- theless, censing and kneeling before them is allowed. Invocation of saints as intercessors is declared law- ful ; and the fourth commandment only ceremonial, and obliging the Jews.

Then follows an article of Free-will, which is de- scribed, " 'A certain power of the will joined with reason, whereby a reasonable creature, without con- straint in things of reason, discerneth and willeth good and evil ; but it willeth not that that is accept- able to God unless it be holpen with grace, but that, which is ill it willeth of itself Our wills were per- fect in the state of innocence, but are much impaired by the fall of Adam ; the high powers of reason and freedom of will being wounded and corrupted, and all men thereby brought into such blindness and in- firmity that they cannot avoid sin except they are made free by special grace, that is, by the supernat- ural working of the Holy Ghost. The light of rea- son is unable to conceive the things that appertain to eternal life, though there remains a sufficient freedom, of will in things pertaining to the present life. 'With- out me,' says the Scripture, 'you can do nothing;' therefore, when men feel that, notwithstanding their diligence, they are not able to do that which they de- sire, thev ought with a steadfast faith and devotion to ask of him, who gave the beginning, that he would vouchsafe to perform it. But preachers are to fake care so to moderate themselves, that they neither so preach the crace of God as to take away free-will, and make God the author of sin, nor so extol free- will as to injure the grace of God."

In the article of Justification, it asserts, " that all th^ posterity of Adam are born in original sin, atsd are hereby guilty of everlasting death and damnation; but that God sent his own Son, being naturally Goiftf

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

41

which then constituted the established doctrine of the Church of England ; for by the statute of 33 Hen. VIII., cap xxvi., it is enacted " that all decrees and ordinances which shall be made

to take our nature and redeem us, which he could not have done but by virtue of the union of his two natures." It then speaks of a twofold justiHcalion: the tirst is upon our believing, and is obtained by re- pentance and a lively faith in the passion and merits of our blessed Saviour, and joining therewuh a full purpose to amend our lives for the future. The sec- ond, or final justification at death, or the last judg- ment, impbes, farther, the exercise of all Christian graces, and the foilowinff the motions of the Spirit of God in doing good works, which will be considered and recompensed in the day of judgment. When the Scripture speaks of justification by faith without mentioning any other grace, it must not be under- stood of a naked faith, but of a lively, operative faith, as before described, and refers to our first justifica- tion thus we are justified by free grace ; and, what- ever share good works may have in our final justifi- cation, they cannot derogate from the grace of God, because all our good works come of the free mercy and grace of God, and are done by his assistance ; so that all boasting is excluded."

This leads to the article of Good Works, '' which are said to be absolutely necessary to salvat'on ; but they are not outward corporeal works, but inward spiritual works ; as the love and fear of God, patience, humility, &c. Nor are they superstitious works of men's invention ; nor only moral works done by the power of reason, and the natural will of man, without faith in Christ ; which, though they are good in kind, do not merit everlasting life ; but such outward and inward good works as are done by faith in Christ, out of love to God, and in obedience to his commands, and which cannot be performed by man's power without Divine assistance. Now these are of two sorts : (1.) Such as are done by persons already justified; and these, though imperfect, are accepted for Christ's sake, and are meritorious towards the attaining ever- lasting life. (2.) Other works are of an inferior sort, as fasting, alms-deeds, and other fruits of penance, which are of no avail without faith. But, after all, justification and remission of sins is the free gift of the grace of God ; and it does not derogate from that grace to ascribe the dignity to good works above mentioned, because all our good works come of the grace of God."

The chapter of Prayer for Souls Departed leaves the matter in suspense : " It is good and charitable to do it ; but because it is not known what condition departed souls are in, we ought only to recommend them to the mercy of God."

In the chapter of the Sacraments, "all the seven sacraments are maintained, and in particular the cor- poreal presence of Christ in the eucharist."

In the sacrament of Orders, the book maintains no real distinction between bishops and priests ; it says that " St. Pa\il consecrated and ordered bishops by imposition of hands ; but that there is no certain rule prescribed in Scripture for the nomination, election, or presentation of them ; this is left to the positive laws of every country. That the office of the said ministers is to preach the word, to minister the sac- raments, to bind and loose, to excommunicate those that vvill not be reformed, and to pray for the univer- sal Church; but that they may not execute their of- fice without license from the civil magistrate. The sacraments do not receive efficacy or strength from the ministration of the priest or bishop, but from God ; the said ministers being only officers, to administer wiih their hands those corporeal things by which God gives grace, agreeably to St. Ambrose, who writes thus: 'The priest lays his hands upon us, but it is God that gives grace ; the priest lays on us his be- seeching hands, but God bles.seth us with his mighty hand.' "

Concerning the order of Deacons, the book says, Vol. I.— F

and ordained by the archbishops, bishops, and doctors, and shall be published with the king's advice and confirmation, by his letters patent, in and upon the matters of Christian faith, and lawful rights and ceremonies, shall be in every point thereof believed, obeyed, and performed, to all intents and purposes, upon the pains there- in comprised ; provided nothing be ordained con- trary to the laws of the realm." How near the book above mentioned comes to the qualifica- tions of this statute, is obvious to the reader. It is no less evident that by the same act the king was in a manner invested with the infalli- bility of the pope, and had the consciences and faith of his people at his absolute disposal.

By this abstract of the erudition of a Chris- tian man,* it appears, farther, that our reformers

" Their office in the primitive Church was partly to minister meat and drink, and other necessaries, to the poor, and partly to minister to the bishops and priests. Then follows this remarkable passage : ' Of these two orders only, that is to say, priests and deacons, Scripture maketh express mention, and how they were conferred of the apostles by prayer and imposi- tion of hands ; but the primitive Church afterward appointed inferior degrees, as sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists, &c. ; but lest, peradventure, it might be thought by some that such authorities, powers, and jurisdictions, as patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and metropolitans now have, or heretofore at any time have had, justly and lawfully over other bishops, were given them by God in Holy Scripture, we think it expedient and necessary that all men should be ad- vertised and taught, that all such lawful power and authority of any one bishop over another, were and be given them by the consent, ordinances, and posi- tive laws of mm otiti/, and not by any ordinance of God in Holy Scripture ; and all such power and au- thority which any bishop has used over another, which have not been given him by such consent and ordi- nance of men, are in very deed no lawful power, but plain usurpation and tyranny."

To the view which Mr. Neal has given of the doc- trinal sentiments contained in this piece, which was also called the bishop's book, it is proper to add the idea it gave of the duty of subjects to their prince. Its commentary on the fifth commandment runs thus : " Subjects be bound not to withdraw their fealty, truth, love, and obedience towards their prince, for any cause, whatsoever it be." In the exposition of the sixth commandment, the same principles of pas- sive obedience and nonresistance are inculcated, and it is asserted " that God hath assigned no judges over princes in this world, but will have the judgment of them reserved to himself" — Ed.

Though the Institution of a Christian Man is a book now disused, the same sentiments, connected with the idea of the jure divino of kings, still run through the homilies, the articles, the canons, and the rubric of the Church of England, and have been again and again sanctioned by the resolutions and orders of our convocations. Bishop Blake, on his deathbed, sol- emnly professed " that the religion of the Church of England had taught him the doctrine of nonresist- ance and passive obedience, and that he took it to be the distinguishing character of that church."— High-Church Politics, p. 75, 89, and the note in the last page. — Ed.

It is not easy to say what sincere or complete alli- ance there can be between the Church and State, when the dogmas of the former are in such glaring repugnance to the constitution of the latter; when the former educates slaves, the latter freemen ; when the former sanctions the tyranny of kings, the latter is founded in the rights of the people. In this re- spect, surely, the Church needs a reform. — Ed.

* Dr. Warner observes, on this performance, that there were so many absurdities of the old religion still retained, so much metaphysical jargon about the

42

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

built pretty much upon the plan of St. Austin, with relation to the doctrines of justification and grace. The sacraments and ceremonies are so contrived as to be consistent with the six arti- cles established by Parliament. But with re- gard to discipline, Cranuier and his brethren were for being directed wholly by the civil magistrate, which has since been disting-nish- ed by the name of Erastianisin. Accordingly, they took out commissions to hold their bishop- rics during the king's pleasure, and to exercise Iheir jurisdiction by his authority only.

But notwithstanding this reformation of doc- trine, the old popish forms of worship were continued till this year [1544], when a faint at- tempt was made to reform them. A form of procession was published in English, by the king's authority, entitled An Exhortation to Prayer, thought meet by His Majesty and his Clergy to be read to the People ; also a Litany, with Suffrages to be said or sung in the Time of the Processions. In the litany they invocate the blessed Virgin, the angels, archangels, and all holy orders of blessed spirits ; all holy patri- archs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and all the blessed company of heaven, to pray for them. The rest of the litany is in a manner the very same as now in use, only a few more collects were placed at the end, with some psalms, and a paraphrase on the I>ord's Prayer. The preface is an exhortation to the duty of prayer, and says that it is convenient, and very acceptable to God, to use private pray- er in our mother-tongue, that, by understanding what we ask,* we may more earnestly and fer- vently desire the same. The hand of Cranmer was, no doubt, in this performance, but it was little regarded, though a mandate was sent to Bonner, bishop of London, to publish it.t

But Cranmer's power was now very much weakened ; he strove against the stream, and could accomplish nothing farther, except a small mitigation of the rigorous prosecution of the six articles ; for by the thirty-fifth of Henry VIII., cap. v., it is enacted "that persons shall not be convicted upon this statute but by the oaths of twelve men ; that the prosecution shall be within a year ; and that, if any one preaches against the six articles, he shall be informed against within forty days." This rendered the prosecution more difficult ; and yet, after all, several were burned at this time for denying the doctrine of transubstantiation, as Mrs. Anne Askew, Mr. Belenian, Adams, Lascels, and oth- ers. The books of Tyndal, Frith, Joy, Barnes, and other Protestants, were ordered to be burn- ed ; and the importation of all foreign books re- lating to religion was forbid, without special li- cense from the king.

Upon the whole, the Reformation went very much backimrd the three or four last years of the king's life, as appears by the statute of 35

merit of good works, about the essential parts and consequences of faith, about free-will and grace, that this book, instead of promoting the Reformation, visi- bly put it back. — Ecdes. Hist., vol. ii., p. 205.

This work was reprinted by Bishop Lloyd, in 1825, under the title of Formularies of Faith put forth by au- thority in the reign of Henry VIII. — C.

* Burnet's Hist. Eef., vol. i., p. 331, and the Rec- ords, b. iii.. No. 28.

+ Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. in., p. 164.

Henry VIII., cap. i., which leads the people back into the darkest parts of popery. It says "that recourse must be had to the Catholic and apostolic Cliurch for the decision of controver- sies ; and therefore all books of the Old and New Testament in English, being of Tyndal's false translation, or comprising any matter of Christian religion, articles of faith, or Holy Scripture, contrary to the doctrine set forth by the king [in the six articles], 1540, or to be set forth by the king, shall be abolished. No per- son shall sing or rhyme contrary to the said doctrine. No person shall retain any English books or writings against the holy and blessed sacrament of the altar, or other books abolished by the king's proclamation. There shall be no annotations or preambles in Bibles or New Tes- taments in English. The Bible shall not be read in English in any church. No woman, or artif- icers, apprentices, journeymen, serving-men, husbandmen, or labourers, shall read the New Testament in English. Nothing shall be taught or maintained contrary to the king's instruc- tions. If any spiritual person shall be convicted of preaching or maintaining anything contrary to the king's instructions already made, or here- after to be made, he shall for the first offence recent, for the second bear a fagot, and for the tlurd be burned.

Here is popery and spiritual slavery in its full extent. Indeed, the pope is discharged of his jurisdiction and authority, but a like authority is vested in the king. His majesty's instruc- tions are as binding as the pope's canons, and upon as severe penalties. He is absolute lord of the consciences of his subjects. No bishop or spiritual person may preach any doctrine but what he approves, nor do any act of govern- ment in the Church but by his special commis- sion. This seems to have been given his maj- esty by the act of supremacy, and is farther confirmed by one of the last statutes of his reign [37 Henry VIII., cap. xvii], which declares that " archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical persons, have no manner of juris- diction ecclesiastical, but by, under, and from his royal majesty ; and that his majesty is the only supreme head of the Church of England and Ireland ; to whom, by Holy Scripture, all authority and power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of causes ecclesiastical, and to correct all manner of heresies, errors, vices, and sins whatsoever, and to all such persons as his majesty shall appoint there- unto."

This was carrying the regal power to the ut- most length. Here is no reserve of privilege for convocations, councils, or colleges of bish- ops ; the king may ask their advice, or call them in to his aid and assistance, but his majesty has not only a negative voice upon their proceed- ings, but may himself, by his letters patent, pub- lish injunctions in matters of religion, for cor- recting all errors in doctrine and worsliip. His proclamations have the force of a law, and all his subjects are obliged to believe, obey, and profess according to them, under the highest penalties.*

* " When the religion of a people is made to depend on the pleasure of their rulers, it is necessarily sub- jected to a thousand infusions foreign from its nature. The kingly or magisterial office is essentially poiiti-

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

43

Thus matters stood when this great and ab- solute monarch died of an nicer in his leg, being so corpulent that he was forced to be let up and down stairs with an engine. The humour in his leg made him so peevish, that scarce any- body durst speak to him of the atTairs of his kingdom or ot another life. He signed his will December 30, 1516, and died January 28th fol- lowing, in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, and the fifty-sixtli of his age. He ought to be ranked (says Bishop Burnet) among the ill prin- ces, but not among the worst.*

cal. Its power may be wielded by an irreligious, im- moral, or profane man ; a despiser of Christianity, or a blasphemer of God. What, therefore, can be more monstrous than to attach to such an ollice a control- ling power over the faith and worship of the Church ; to constitute its occupant the supreme head of that body, which is represented as a congregation of faith- ful men ( The Christian faith addresses men individ- ually, soliciting an cvaimnalion of its character, and demanding an intelligent and hearty obedience. But where the pleasure ot a king is permitted to regulate the faith of a nation, authority is substituted lor rea- son, and the promptings of fear supplant the percep- tions of evidence, and the conlidmg attachment of an enlightened piety. This is the radical delect of the English Reformation. The people were prohibited from proceeding farther than the king authorized. They were to believe as he taught, anil to worship as he enjoined. Suspending their own reason, e.\lin- guishing the light divine within them, they were to follow their monarch, licentious and bloodthirsty as he was, in all matters pertaining to the moral gov- ernment and eternal welfare of their souls." — Dr. Price s Hist. Nonconformity, vol. i., p. (J3, 64. — C.

* " The policy of the king continued to vacillate to the close of his hie, which happened on the 2bth of January, lo47. Of his character little need be said. In early life, his personal qualities were brilliant and imposing, and the contrast he furnished to his pru- dent and parsimonious father attached an unwonted degree of popularity to the commencement of his xeign. But his temper grew capricious, and his dis- position cruel, as he advanced in years. Casting aside the tenderness of his youth, he became fero- cious and bloodthirsty , the indiscriminate persecu- tor of all parties, according as his humour or policy might suggest. His claim to our attention is tound- ed on the religious revolution heetfected. The part he acted in this great change invested him with a false glory, which has misled the judgment and per- verted the sympathies of his countrymen. His inti mate connexion with the first movements of ecclesi- astical reform has obtained him credit for religious principles of which he was wholly destitute. The adulatory style in which he was addressed by the contending religionists of his day has been mistaken for the sober e-vpressions of truth; and his name, in consequence, has passed current as a reformer of re- ligion, a purifier of the temple of God. A veil has thus been cast over the enormities of his life, which has preserved him from the execration to which he is so justly obnoxious. The motives by which he was actuated, in his separation from the papacy, were anything but religious. The divorce which he caused Cranmer to pronounce in 1533, as it was designed to make way for his own gratitication, so it precipitated him into a course of measures, from the s[)iritual bearings of which his heart was utterly estranged. He sought only the satisfaction of his own evil pas- sions. The man who could profane with blood the sanctuary of domestic joys ; who could win, with flattering speech, the confiding attachment of the female heart, and then consign the beautiful form, in whose best atfections he was enshrined, to the block ; who could raise talent from obscurity, avail himself of its services, and then, with brutal indifterence, re- ward them with a public execution, retained so little

CHAPTER II.

EEIGM OF KING EDWARD VI.

The sole right and authority of reforming the Church of England were now vested in the crown ; and, by the Act of Succession, in the king's council, if he were under age. This waa preferable to a foreign jurisdiction ; but it can hardly be proved that either the king or his council have a right to judge for the whole na- tion, and impose upon the people what religion they think best, without their consent. The reformation of the Church of England was be- gun and carried on by the king, assisted by Archbishop Cranmer and a few select divines. The clergy in convocation did not move in it but as they were directed and overawed by their superiors ; nor did they consent till they were modelled to the designs of the court.

Our learned historian. Bishop Burnet,* en- deavours to justify this conduct, by putting the following question, " What must be done when the major part of a church is, according to the conscience of the supreme civil magistrate, in an error, and the lesser part is in the right 1" In answer to this question, his lordship ob- serves, that " there is no promise in Scripture that the majority of pastors shall be in the right ; on the contrary, it is certain that truth, separate from interest, has few votaries. Now, as it is not reasonable that the smaller part should depart from their sentiments because opposed by the majority, whose interests led them to oppose the Reformation, therefore they might take sanctuary in the authority of the prince and the law." But is there any prom- ise in Scripture that the king or prince shall lie always in the right ! or is it reasonable that the majority should depart from their sen- timents in religion because the prince, with the minority, are of another mind 1 If we ask what authority Christian princes have to bind the consciences of their subjects, by penal laws, to worship God after their maimer, his lordship answers. This was practised in the Jewish state. But it ought to be remembered that the Jewish state was a theocracy ; that God himself was their king, and their chief magistrates only his vicegerents or deputies ; that the laws of Moses were the laws of God ; and the penalties annexed to them as much of Divine appointment as the laws themselves. It is therefore absurd to make the special com- mission of the Jewish magistrates a model for the rights of Christian princes. But his lord- ship adds, " It is the first law in Justinian's code, made by the Emperor Theodosius, that all should everywhere, under severe pain, follow that faith that was received by Damasius, bish- op of Rome, and Peter of Alexandria. And why might not the king and laws of England give the like authority to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York!" I answer. Because Theodosius's law was an unreasonable usur- pation upon the right of conscience. If the Apos- tle Paul, who was an inspired person, had not dominion over the faith of the churches, how came the Roman emperor, or other Christia&

of the image of humanity, as to be infinitely removed from the spirit and temper of Christ." — Doct. Price's Hist. Nonconformity, vol. i., p. 60, 61. — C. * Hist. Ref , vol. ii., in preface.

44

HISTORY OF THE PURITANS.

princes, by such a jurisdiction, which has no foundation in the law of nature or in the New Testament I

His lordship goes on, " It is not to be ima- gined how any changes in religion can be made by sovereign princes, unless an authority be lodged with tlieai of giving tlie sanction of a law to the sounder, tluuigh llie lesser part, of a