To return to the parliament. It has been observed, that one of their first resolutions was to reduce the powers of the spiritual courts. The old Popish canons, which were the laws by which they proceeded (as far as they had not been controlled by the common law or particular statutes), were such a labyrinth, that when the subject was got into the commons he knew not how to defend himself, nor which way to get out. The kings of England had always declined a reformation of the ecclesiastical laws, though a plan had been laid before them ever since the reign of king Edward VI. But the grievance was now become insufferable, by the numbers of illegal imprisonments, deprivations, and fines levied upon the subject in the late times, for crimes not actionable in the courts of Westminster-hall; it was necessary therefore to bring the jurisdiction of these courts to a parliamentary standard, but, till this could not be accomplished by a new law, all that could be done was to vote down the late innovations, which had very little effect; and therefore on the 23d of January the house of commons ordered commissioners to be sent into all the counties to demolish, and remove out ofchurches and chapels, all "images, altars, or tables turned altarwise, crucifixes, superstitious pictures, and other monuments and relics of idolatry," agreeably to the injunctions of king Edward VI. and queen Elizabeth. How far the house of commons, who are but one branch of the legislature, may appoint commissioners to put the laws in execution, without the concurrence of the other two, is so very questionable, that I will not take upon me to determine.

The university of Cambridge having complained of the oaths and subscriptions imposed upon young students at their matriculation, as subscribing to the Book of Common Prayer, and to the thirty-nine articles, the house of commons voted, "that the statute made twenty-seven years ago in the university of Cambridge, imposing upon young scholars a subscription, according to the thirty-sixth canon of 1603, is against law and the liberty of the subject, and ought not to be imposed upon any students or graduates whatsoever." About five months forwards they passed the same resolution for Oxford, which was not unreasonable, because the universities had not an unlimited power, by the thirtysixth canon, to call upon all their students to subscribe, but

only upon such lecturers or readers of divinity whom they had a privilege of licensing; and to this I conceive the last words of the canon refer; "If either of the universities offend therein, we leave them to the danger of the law and his majesty's censure."

And it ought to be remembered, that all the proceedings of the house of commons this year, in punishing delinquents, and all their votes and resolutions about the circumstances of public worship, had no other view, than the cutting off those illegal additions and innovations, which the superstition of the late times had introduced, and reducing the discipline of the church to the standard of the statute law. No man was punished for acting according to law; but the displeasure of the house ran high against those, who, in their public ministrations, or in their ecclesiastical courts, had bound those things upon the subject which were either contrary to the laws of the land, or about which the laws were altogether silent.

CHAP. VII.

THE ANTIQUITY OF LITURGIES, AND OF THE EPISCOPAL 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 PETITIONS. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST PAPISTS,

THE debates in parliament concerning the English liturgy and hierarchy engaged the attention of the whole nation, and revived the controversy without doors. The press being open, great numbers of anonymous pamphlets appeared against the establishment, not without indecent and provoking language, under these and the like titles; Prelatical Episcopacy not from the Apostles. Lord Bishops not the Lord's. Bishops. Short View of the Prelatical Church of England. A Comparison between the Liturgy and the Mass-book. Service Book no better than a Mess of Pottage, &c.-Lord Brook attacked the order of bishops

in a treatise of the "Nature of episcopacy," wherein he reflects in an ungenerous manner upon the low pedigree of the present bench, as if nothing except a noble descent could qualify men to sit among the peers. Several of the bishops vindicated their pedigree and families, as, bishop Williams, Moreton, Curle, Cooke, Owen, &c. and archbishop Usher defended the order, in a treatise entitled, "The apostolical institution of episcopacy ;"* but then by a bishop his lordship understood no more than a stated president over an assembly of presbyters, which the Puritans of these times were willing to admit. The most celebrated writer on the side of the establishment, was the learned and pious bishop Hall, who, at the request of archbishop Laud, had published a treatise entitled, Episcopacy of Divine Right, as has been related. This reverend prelate, upon the gathering of the present storm, appeared a second time in its defence, in "An humble remonstrance to the high court of parliament;" and sometime after, in "A defence of that remonstrance,” in vindication of the antiquity of liturgies and of diocesan episcopacy.

The bishop's remonstrance was answered by a celebrated treatise under the title of Smectymnuus, a fictitious word made up of the initial letters of the names of the authors, viz. Stephen Marshal, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow. When the bishop had replied to their book, these divines published a vindication of their answer to the "Humble remonstrance;" which, being an appeal to the legislature on both sides, may be supposed to contain the merits of the controversy, and will therefore deserve the reader's attention.

The debate was upon these two heads;

1. Of the antiquity of liturgies, or forms of prayer. 2. Of the apostolical institution of diocesan episcopacy. 1. The bishop begins with liturgies, by which he under

*Nalson, in his Collections, vol. 2. p. 279, 280, and after him, Collyer, Ecclesiastical History, vol. 2. p. 808, have abridged the arguments of this piece; but these abstracts do not shew, as Dr. Grey would intimate, the extent of jurisdiction, or the nature of the power, according to bishop Usher's idea, exercised by the primitive bishops. They go to prove only a superiority to elders: and by a quotation from Beza, it should seem that this prelate, as Mr. Neal says, meant by a bishop only a president of the presbytery of a place or district. The Presbyterians are charged with misrepresenting the bishop's opinion, and with printing a faulty and surreptitious copy of his book. If this were done knowingly and designedly, it must rank with such pious arts as deserve severe censure. Dr. Grey.-ED,

stands "certain prescribed and limited forms of prayer, composed for the public service of the church, and appointed to be read at all times of public worship." The antiquity of these, his lordship derives down from Moses, by an uninterrupted succession, to the present time. "God's people (says he) ever since Moses's day, constantly practised a set form, and put put it ever to the times of the gospel. Our blessed Saviour, and his gracious forerunner, taught a direct form of prayer. When Peter and John went up to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer, we know the prayer wherein they joined was not of an extempore and sudden conception, but of a regular prescription: and the evangelical church ever since thought it could never better improve her peace and happiness, than in composing those religious models of invocation and thanksgiving, which they have traduced unto us, as the liturgies of St. James, Basil, and Chrysostom, and which, though in some places corrupted, serve to prove the thing itself."

Smectymnuus replies, that if there had been any liturgies in the times of the first and most venerable antiquity, the great inquiries after them would have produced them to the world before this time; but that there were none in the Christian church is evident from Tertullian in his Apology, cap. 30, where he says, the Christians of those times, in their public assemblies, prayed “sine monitore quia de pectore," without any prompter except their own hearts. And in his treatise of prayer, he adds, there are some things to be asked "according to the occasions of every man." St. Austin says the same thing, ep. 121. "It is free to ask the same things that are desired in the Lord's prayer, aliis atque aliis verbis, sometimes in one manner of expression, and sometimes in another." And before this, Justin Martyr in his Apology says, & potσTs, the president, or he that instructed the people, prayed according to his ability, or as well as he could. Nor was this liberty of prayer taken away till the times when the Arian and Pelagian heresies* invaded the

It is to be wished that Mr. Neal had used the word opinions instead of heresies. It was indeed the style of the times, when he wrote, and of many preceding ages: but the application of the term conveys not only the idea of error, but of error accompanied with malignity of mind and guilt. There may be great errors, without any of that criminality, which the word heresy, in the Scripture-meaning of it, implieth. Besides pronouncing opinions, heresies is rather the language of authority and infallibility, than of the inquirer after truth, and prejudices the mind.-ED.

church; it was then first ordained, that none should pray "pro arbitrio, sed semper easdem preces;" that they should not use the liberty which they had hitherto practised, but should always keep to one form of prayer. Concil. Laod. can. 18. Still this was a form of their own composing, as appears by a canon of the council of Carthage, anno 397, which gives this reason for it, "ut nemo in precibus vel patrem pro filio, vel filium pro patre nominet, et cum altari adsistitur semper ad patrem dirigatur oratio; et quicunque sibi preces aliunde describit, non iis utatur nisi prius eas cum fratribus instructioribus contulerit;" i. e. "that none in their prayers might mistake the Father for the Son, or the Son for the Father; and that when they assist at the altar, prayer might be always directed to the Father. And whosoever composes any different forms, let him not make use of them till he has first consulted with his more learned brethren." It appears from hence, that there was no uniform prescribed liturgy at this time in the church, but that the more ignorant priests might make use of forms of their own composing, provided they consulted their more learned brethren; till at length it was ordained at the council of Milan, anno 416, that none should use set forms of prayer, except such as were approved in a synod. They go on to transcribe, from Justin Martyr and Tertullian, the manner of public worship in their times, which was this; first the Scriptures were read; after reading, followed an exhortation to the practice and imitation of what was read; then all rose up and joined in prayer; after this they went to the sacrament, in the beginning whereof the president of the assembly poured out prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people said Amen; then followed the distribution of the elements, and a collection of alms. This was Justin Martyr's liturgy or service, and Tertullian's is the same, only he mentions their beginning with prayer before reading the Scriptures, and their lovefeasts, which only opened and concluded with prayer, and were celebrated with singing of psalms. Although the Smectymnuans admit that our blessed Saviour taught his disciples a form of prayer, yet they deny that he designed to confine them to the use of those words only, nor did the primitive church so understand it, as has been proved from St. Austin. The pretended liturgies of St. James, Basil,