One fact will prove, to every man who regards "Christ crucified as the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation," that the Church of England was at this time in the most wretched condition imaginable, both moral and spiritual. Of nine thousand four hundred clergymen, of all grades, then beneficed in that Church, and all, of course, Papists, being the incumbents of Mary's reign, only one hundred and ninety-two, of whom only eighty were parochial, resigned their livings; the rest, as much Papists as ever, and now, in addition, unblushing hypocrites, who subscribed what they did not believe, and submitted to what they could not approve, remained in their cures, and became the ministers of the Protestant (?) Church of England.* We should do these nine thousand two hundred and eight who remained in their cures, an honour to which they have no claim, were we to compare them to the most ignorant, scandalous, and profligate priesthood at present in Europe. Many of them did not understand the offices they had been accustomed to "mumble" at the altar. Some of them could not sign their names, or even read the English liturgy. Yet into the hands of these men did Elizabeth and her prelates commit the immortal souls of the people of England. And if at any time the people, shocked at the immoralities and papistry of their parish priest, attended ordinances under some more Protestant minister in the neighbourhood, they were compelled, by fines and imprisonment, to return to their own parish church.

When in the course of a few years, several of these papistico-protestant priests had died, and others of them had fled out of the kingdom, there were no properly qualified ministers to replace them. Patrons sold the benefices to laymen, retaining the best part of the fruits in their own. hands. Thus the parishes remained vacant. Strype, speaking of the state of the diocese of Bangor in 1565, says, "As for Bangor, that diocese was much out of order, there being no preaching used." And two years afterwards the bishop wrote to Parker, that "he had but two preachers in his whole diocese," the livings being in the

* The following is Strype's list of those who resigned,―viz., 14 bishops, 18 deans, 14 archdeacons, 15 heads of colleges, 50 prebendaries, 80 rectors, 6 abbots, priors, and abbesses, in all 192. Annals, i. 106. Burnet, ii. 620, makes them only 189. Collier, vi. p. 252, following, as is his wont, Popish authorities, when they can add credit to their own Church, makes them about 250.

hands of laymen.* In 1562 Parkhurst of Norwich wrote Parker, in answer to the inquiries of the privy council, that in his diocese there were 434 parish churches vacant, and that many chapels of ease had fallen into ruins. Cox of Ely, in 1560, wrote the archbishop, that in his diocese there were 150 cures of all sorts, of which only "52 were duly served,"--many of them, of course, only by readers, -34 were vacant, 13 had neither rector nor vicar, and 57 were possessed by non-residents. "So pitiable and to be lamented," exclaims Cox, "is the face of this diocese; and if, in other places, it be so too," (and so it was,) "most miserable indeed is the condition of the Church of England," We never can think of the condition of England,-when thus darkness covered the earth, and thick darkness the people, and when, emphatically, the blind led the blind,-without admiring gratitude to that God who did not altogether remove his candlestick, and leave the whole nation to perish, through the crimes of their rulers, civil and ecclesiastical.

In order to keep the churches open, and afford even the semblance of public worship to the people, the prelates were compelled to license, as readers, a set of illiterate mechanics, who were able to read through the prayers without spelling the hard words.§ The people, however, could not endure these immoral, base-born, illiterate readers; and then, as if the mere act of ordination could confer upon them all the requisite qualifications, "not a few mechanics, altogether as unlearned as the most objectionable of those ejected, were preferred to dignities and livings."|| The scheme, however politic, failed, through the indecorous. manners, and the immoral lives, and the gross ignorance, of these upstart priests. And then an order was issued to the bishop of London to ordain no more mechanics, because of the scandals they had brought upon religion ;** but the necessity of the case compelled the provincial bishops still to employ lay readers, and ordain mechanics to read the prayers.

Such was the condition of England when Parker, partly goaded on by the queen, and partly by his own sullen despotism, commenced a course of persecutions, suspen

* Strype's Parker, i. 404, 509. Strype's An. i. 539, 540. Strype's Parker, i. 143, 144.

** Strype's Grindal, 60.

§ Strype's An. i. 202, 203. Collier, vi. 264.

¶ Strype's Parker, i. 180. Collier, vi. 313.

sions, and silencing against the Puritans, who were the only preachers in the kingdom. In January 1564, eight were suspended in the diocese of London. It was hoped that this example would overawe the rest, and three months afterwards the London clergy were summoned again to subscribe to the canons, and conform to all the usages of the Church of England; but thirty refused, and were, of course, suspended.* A respité of eight months was given to the rest; and then in January 1565 they were cited, and thirty-seven having refused to subscribe, were suspended. These, as we may well believe, were, even in the estimation of Parker himself, and, indeed, as he acknowledged, the best men and the ablest preachers in the diocese. The insults offered, and the cruelties inflicted upon these men, would, had we space to detail them, intensate the indignation of our readers against their ruthless persecutors.

The silencing of such preachers, and the consequent desolation in the Church excited the attention of the nation. All men who had any regard for the ordinances of God, were shocked at the proceedings of the primate, and bitter complaints were made of him to the privy council. Elizabeth herself ordered Cecil to write him on the subject. Parker sullenly replied, that this was nothing more than he had foreseen from the first, and that when the queen had ordered him to press uniformity, "he had told her, that these precise folks would offer their goods, and even their bodies to prison, rather than they would relent."§ And yet Parker, who could anticipate their conduct, could neither appreciate their conscientiousness, nor respect their firmness.

The persecutions commenced in London soon spread over the whole kingdom. We have already seen the most destitute condition of the diocese of Norwich, in which four hundred and thirty-four parish churches were vacant, and many chapels of ease fallen into ruins. Will it be credited, that in these circumstances thirty-six ministers, almost the whole preaching ministers in the diocese, were, in one day, suspended, for refusing subscription to the antichristian impositions of the prelates? This is but a specimen of what took place. throughout the kingdom. when the people, having no pastor to teach them, met

* Strype's Grindal, 144, 146. + Strype's Parker, i. 429.

And

together to read the Scriptures, forthwith a thundering edict came down from the primate, threatening them with fines and imprisonment if they dared to pray together or read the word of God. In a certain small village a revival took place, under the ministrations of a reader, so illiterate that he could not sign his own name. As always happens under such circumstances, the people formed fellowship meetings. No sooner was this known than they were summoned to answer for such violations of canonical order. In a simple memorial, which would melt a heart of stone, these pious peasants stated to the inquisitors, that they only met together in the evenings, after the work of the day was over, to devote the time they formerly misspent in drinking and sin, to the worship of God and the reading of his word. Their judges were deaf to their petitions and representations, and forbade them absolutely to meet any longer for such purposes, leaving it to be inferred, by no far-fetched deductions, that a man might violate the laws of God, with impunity; but woe be unto him that should break the injunctions of the prelates.*

And what was the crime for which these Puritans were suspended, sequestered, fined, imprisoned, and some of them put to death? Simply because they would not acknowledge that man, whether prelate, primate, or prince, has authority to alter the constitution of God's Church, to prescribe rites and modes of "will-worship," and administration of sacraments, different from what He had appointed in his word. Nothing but gross ignorance, or grosser dishonesty, will lead any man to say, as has been said, and continues to be said down to this day, and that not by ministers of the Church of England alone, but by others of whom better things might be expected,† that the Puritans refused to remain in their ministry merely because of the imposition of" square caps, copes, and surplices;" or even, which are of higher moment, because of the "cross in baptism," and kneeling at the communion; these things being considered simply in themselves. What they condemned and resisted was the principle, that man has authority to alter the economy of God's house. "Considering, therefore," said the ministers of London, in 1565, in a defence they published of.their own conduct, “con

* Strype's Parker, ii. 381-5.

See Orme's Life of Owen, commented on by Dr. McCrie in his Miscellaneous Works, pp. 465, 466.

sidering, therefore, that at this time, by admitting the outward apparel, and ministering garments of the Pope's Church, not only the Christian liberty should be manifestly infringed, but the whole religion of Christ would be brought to be esteemed no other thing than the pleasure of princes, they (the London ministers) thought it their duty, being ministers of God's word and sacraments, utterly to refuse" to submit to the required impositions. But if the prelates were determined to proceed in their infatuated career, then these enlightened servants of God professed their willingness "to submit themselves to any punishment the laws did appoint, that so they might teach by their example true obedience both to God and man, and yet to keep the Christian liberty sound, and show the Christian religion to be such, that no prince or potentate might alter the

When Sampson and Humphreys were required to subscribe and submit to the prescribed impositions, they refused upon the following, among other accounts:“ If,” they said, "we should grant to wear priests' apparel, then it might and would be required at our hands to have shaven crowns, and to receive more Papistical abuses. Therefore it is best, at the first, not to wear priests' apparel." It was the principle involved in these impositions they opposed. And well are we assured, that had it not been for the resistance to the first attempts to enslave the conscience, which were made by these glorious confessors and martyrs, other and still more hateful abuses of Popery would have been perpetuated in the Anglican Church. Only grant the principle, that man has the right to make such impositions, and where is the application of the principle to find its limit?

And as to the stale objection, that these men relinquished their ministry for frivolous rites and habits, it is enough to reply, that the objection is not founded upon truth.

"As touching that point," (the habits,) says Cartwright, "whether the minister should wear it, although it be inconvenient; the truth is, that I dare not be author to any to forsake his pastoral charge for the inconvenience thereof, considering that this charge (the ministry) being an absolute commandment of the Lord, ought not to be laid aside for a simple inconvenience or uncomeliness of

*

Apud Strype's An. ii. 166, 167. † Strype's Parker, i. 340.