PURITANS. 



than the liturgy of Edward feemed to them to be. Upon 

 the accefiion of queen Ehzabetli, the exiles returned to 

 England, where each party ilroveto advance the reformation 

 according to their own llandard. Tlie queen, with thofe 

 who had weathered the ilorm at home, were only for 

 refloring king Edward's liturgy ; but the majority of the 

 exiles were tor the worfliip and difcipline of the foreign 

 churches, and refufed to comply with tiie old eftablifhment, 

 declaiming loudly againft the popifh habits and ceremonies. 

 However, the queen's party prevailed ; and in 1559 a com- 

 mittee of divines was appointed to review king Edward's 

 liturgy, who were inltrufted to ftrike out all offcnfive 

 pafTages againft the pope, and to make people eafy about 

 the belief of the corporal prefencc of Ciirift in the facra- 

 mcnt. But no alterations were made in favour of thofe who 

 now began to be called Puritans, from their attempting a 

 purer form of worfhip and difcipline than had yet been 

 eftabhlhed ; and whofe ientiments in many points were 

 agreeable to thofe maintained by John Wickliffe, the lirll 

 reformer. For they agreed with him in opinion, that in the 

 lacrament of orders there ought to be but two degrees, 

 prefbyters or bifhops, and deacons ; that all human tra- 

 ditions are fuperfluous and finful ; that we muft pradlife 

 and teach only the laws of Chriil ; that myilical and figui- 

 ficant ceremonies in religious worfliip are unlawful j and 

 that to rellrain men to a prefcribed form of prayer is con- 

 trary to the liberty granted them by God. The old feftivals, 

 with their eves and the popifli habits, were continued as they 

 were in the fecond year of king Edward VI. In 1558 the 

 aft of fupremacy was pafled, in which there is a remarkable 

 claufe, that gave rife to the court of high-commiflion, 

 which proved afterwards fo oppreffive ; and in 1559 was 

 pafled an aft for the uniformity of common prayer, and 

 fervice in the church, and adminiftration of the facraments. 

 The Puritans remonftrated againft thefe proceeding's, and 

 complained, that the grofs fuperftitions of popery, which 

 they had looked upon as abrogated and aboliflied, were 

 now revived, and even impofed by authority. Some re- 

 quired nothing lefs than that the church of England fliould 

 be exaftly modelled after that of Geneva ; others only de- 

 fired liberty of confcience, with the privilege of celebrating 

 divine worfhip in their own way ; but neither party ob- 

 tained the objeft of their wifhes. The queen, intent upon 

 the fuppreflion of this troublefome feft (as flie was ufed to 

 call it), permitted its enemies to employ for that purpofe all 

 the refources of artifice, and all the feverity of the laws. 

 The court reformers pleaded, that every prince had authority 

 to correft all abufes of doftrine and worfhip within his own 

 territories ; the Puritans, on the other hand, whilft they 

 difowned all foreign authority and jurifdiftion over the 

 church, could not admit of that extenfive power which the 

 crown claimed by the fupremacy ; apprehending it un ■ 

 reafonable, that the religion of a tvhole nation fhould be at 

 the difpofal of a fingle lay perfon. However, they took the 

 oath, with the queen's exphcation in her injunftions, as 

 reftoring her majefty only to the ancient and natural rights of 

 fovereign princes over their fubjefts. 



Farther, the court reformers allowed, that the church of 

 Rome was a true church, though corrupt in fame points of 

 doftrine and government ; that all her miniftrations were 

 valid, and that the pope was a true bifliop of Rome, though 

 not of the univerfal church. But the Puritans affirmed the 

 pope to be antichrift, the church of Rome to be no true 

 church, and all her miniftrations to be fuperftitious and ido- 

 latrous ; they renounced her communion, and durft not 

 fufpend the validity of their ordinations upon an uninter- 

 f lipted line of fuccefiion from the apoftles through her hands. 



Moreover, it was agreed by all, that the holy fcriptures 

 were a perfeft rule of faith ; but the bifliops and court re- 

 formers did not allow them to be the ftandard of difcipline 

 or church government ; affirming that our Saviour and his 

 apoftles left it to the difcretion of the civil magiftrate, in 

 thofe places where Chrittianity fliould obtain, to accommo- 

 date the government of the church to the policy of the ftate. 

 But the Puritans apprehended the holy fcriptures to be a 

 ftandard of church difcipline as well as of doftrine ; at leaft 

 that nothing fliould be impofed as neeefTary but what was 

 exprefsly contained in, or derived from them by neceflary 

 confcqucnce, and, befides, they maintained that the dif- 

 cretionary power was not lodged with the civil magiftrate, 

 but with the fpiritual officers of the church. Farther, the 

 court reformers maintained, that the praftice of the primitive 

 church for the firft four or five centuries was a proper 

 llandard of church government and difcipline, and in fome 

 refpeftsa better than that of the apoftles, which (according 

 to them ) was only accommodated to the infant ftate of the 

 church while it was under perfccution, whereas theirs was 

 I'uilcd to the grandeur of a national eftablifliment. Whereas 

 the Puritans were for adhering to the bible in the main prin- 

 ciples of church government, and for admitting no church 

 officers or ordinances, but fuch as are herein mentioned ; 

 and they apprehended, that the apoftles, in eftablifliing the 

 firft Chriftian church on the ariftoeratical plan then obferved 

 in the Jewifli fanhedrim, defigned it as an unchangeable 

 model to be followed in all times and places. The court 

 reformers alfo maintained, that things indifferent in their 

 own nature, which are neither forbidden nor commanded in 

 the holy fcriptures, fuch as rites, ceremonies, habits, &c. 

 might be fettled, determined, and made neceffary by the 

 command of the civil magiftrate, and that in fuch cafes it 

 was the indifpenfible duty of all fubjefts to obferve them. 

 But the Puritans infifted, that thofe things which Chrift had 

 left indifferent, ought not to be made neceflary by any 

 human laws, and that fuch rites and ceremonies as had been 

 abufedto idolatry, end had a manifeft tendency to lead men 

 back to popery and fuperifition, were no longer indifferent, 

 but to be rejefted as unlawful. Neverthelefs, both parties 

 agreed too well in aflerting the neceffity of an uniformity 

 of pubhc worfliip, and of calling in the fword of the 

 magiftrate for the fupport and defence of their feveral prin- 

 ciples ; which they made an ill ufe of in their turns, as they 

 could grafp the power into their hands. The ftandprd of 

 uniformity, according to the bifliops, was the queen's 

 fuprem.acy, and the law of the land ; according to the 

 Puritans, the decrees of provincial and national fynods, 

 allowed and enforced by the civil magiftrate ; but neither 

 party was for admitting that Uberty of confcience, and free- 

 dom of profeflion, which is every man's right, as far as is 

 confiftent with the peace of the government under which he 

 lives. 



In the year 1564, upon a report that the habits, enjoined 

 on the clergy, were generally neglefted, and alfo of inat- 

 tention to other impofed forms, the queen direfted the 

 ecclefiaftical commiflioners to confult fome proper methods 

 to reduce them to an exaft uniformity ; upon which they 

 agreed on certain adverlijements (as they were called), partly 

 for due order in preaching and adminiltering the facraments, 

 and partly for the apparel of ecclefiaftical perfons. To 

 thefe advertifements certain proteftationa were annexed, to 

 be made, promifed, and fubfcribed by fuch as fliould here, 

 after be admitted to any office or cure in the church. The 

 queen, though flie would give no authority to the advertife- 

 ments, which had occafioned muoli remonftrance and com- 

 plaint, iflued out 3 proclamation in 1565, peremptorily re- 



E 1 auirin<?- 



