THE

HISTORY

OF THE

PURITAN S.

PART II.

CHAP. I.

From the demise of Queen ELIZABETH to the death of Archbishop BANCROFT.

THE Royal House of the Stuarts has not been more calamitous to the English church and nation, in the male descendants, than successful and glorious in the female : The four kings of this line, while in power, were declared enemies of our civil constitution; they governed without law, levied taxes by the prerogative, and endeavored to put an end to the very being of parliaments. With regard to religion, the two first were neither sound protestants nor good catholics, but were for reconciling the two relig ions, and meeting the papists half way; but the two last went over entirely to the church of Rome, and died professedly in her communion. The female branches of this family being married among foreign protestants, were of a different stamp, being more inclined to puritanism than popery; one of them [Mary, eldest daughter of King Charles I.] was mother of the great King William III. the glorious deliverer of these kingdoms from popery and slavery; and another [Elizabeth daughter of King James 1.] was grandmother of his late majesty King George I. in whom the protestant succession took place, and whose

numerous descendants in the person and offspring of his present majesty, are the defence and glory of the whole protestant interest in Europe.

King James was thirty-six years of age when he came to the English throne, having reigned in Scotland from his infancy. In the year 1589, he married the Princess Anne, sister to the king of Denmark, by whom he had three children living at this time, Henry Prince of Wales, who died before he was nineteen years of age [1612] Elizabeth married to the Elector Palatine 1613; and Charles. who succeeded his father in his kingdoms. His majesty's behavior in Scotland raised the expectations and hopes of all parties; the puritans relied upon his majesty's education; upon his subscribing the solemn league and covenant; and upon various solemn repeated declarations, in particular one made in the general assembly at Edinburgh 1590; when standing with his bonnet off, and his hands lifted up to heaven, "He praised GOD that he was born in the time of the light of the gospel, and in such a place, 'as to be king of such a church, the sincerest [purest] kirk in the world. The church of Geneva (says he) keep 'Pasche and Yule, [Easter and Christmas] what have they for them? They have no institution. As for our 'neighbor kirk of England, their service is an evil-said mass in English; they want nothing of the mass but the liftings. I charge you, my good ministers, doctors, eld'ers, nobles, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your puri'ty, and to exhort the people to do the same; and I, for'sooth, as long as I brook my life, shall maintain the same.'* In his speech to the parliament 1598, he tells them, “That 'he minded not to bring in papistical or anglicane bishops." Nay upon his leaving Scotland, to take possession of the crown of England, he gave public thanks to *Calderwood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland, p. 256. lbid. p. 418.

† James, when settled on the English throne, talked a different language. Dr. Grey quotes different passages to this purport, with a view to invalidate Mr.Neal's authority. The fact is not, that Calderwood falsified, and Mr. Neal, through prejudice, adopted his representations: but that James was a dissembler; and, when he wrote what Dr. Grey produces from his works, had thrown off the mask he wore in Scotland. See Harris' Life of James I. p. 25-29. Ed.

God in the kirk of Edinburgh, "That he had left both 'kirk and kingdom in that state which he intended not to 'alter any ways, his subjects living in peace." But all this was kingcraft, or else his majesty changed his principles with the climate. The Scots ministers did not approach him with the distant submission and reverence of the English bishops, and therefore within nine months af ter he ascended the throne of England, he renounced presbytery, and established it for a maxim, No Bishop, no king. So soon did this pious monarch renounce his principles (if he had any) and break through the most solemn vows and obligations! When the long parliament addressed King Charles I. to set up presbytery in the room of episcopacy, his majesty objected his coronation oath, in which he had sworn to maintain the clergy in their rights and privileges; but King James had no such scruples of conscience; for without so much as asking the consent of parliament, general assembly, or people, he entered upon the most effectual measures to subvert the kirk discipline which he had sworn to maintain with hands lifted up to heaven, at his coronation, and had afterwards solemnly subscribed with his queen and family, in the years 1581 and 1590.† The papists put the king in remembrance, that he was born of Roman-catholic parents, and had been baptized

+ Calderwood, p. 473.

On

+ Bishop Warburton censures Mr.Neal for not giving here, the provocation which the king had received from-what he stiles "The villanous and tyrannical usage of the kirk of Scotland to him." this censure it may be observed, that had Mr. Neal gone into the detail of the treatment the king had met with from the Scots clergy, besides the long digression into which it would have led him, it would not have eventually saved the reputation of the king. For Mr. Neal must have related the causes of that behavior. It arose from their jealousy, and their fears of his disposition to crush them and their religion: founded on facts delivered to them by the English ministry, and from his favoring and employing known papists. The violation of his solemu reiterated declarations, when he became king of England, shewed how just were those suspicions: and proved him to have been a dissembler. To these remarks it may he added, what provocation constrained him to give the public thanks and promise, with which he left Scotland? See Dr. Harris' Life of James I. p. 25-31, and Burnet's History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 5, Edinburgh edition, in 12mo. Ed.

according to the rites and ceremonies of the church of Rome; that his mother, of whom he usually spoke with reverence, was a martyr for that church; and that he himself, upon sundry occasions, had expressed no dislike to her doctrines, though he disallowed of the usurpations of the court of Rome over foreign princes; that he had called the church of Rome his mother church; and therefore they presumed to welcome his majesty into England with a petition for an open toleration.§

But the bishops of the church of England made the earliest application for his majesty's protection and favor. As soon as the queen was dead, archbishop Whitgift sent Dr. Nevil, dean of Canterbury, express into Scotland, in the name of all the bishops and clergy of England, to give his majesty assurance of their unfeigned duty and loyalty; to know what commands he had for them with respect to the ecclesiastical courts, and to recommend the church of England to his countenance and favor.* The king replied, that he would uphold the government of the church as the queen left it; which comforted the timorous archbishop, who had sometimes spoke with great uneasiness of the Scotch mist.

Upon his majesty's arrival all parties addressed him, and among others the Dutch and French churches, and the English puritans; to the former his majesty gave this answer, "I need not use many words to declare my good-will 'to you, who have taken sanctuary here for the sake of relig'ion; I am sensible you have enriched this kingdom with 'several arts and manufactures; and I swear to you, that if any one shall give you disturbance in your churches, upon your application to me, I will revenge your cause ;

§ That the expectations of the papists were not disappointed, though Dr. Grey controverts Mr. Neal's representation, there is ample proof given by Dr. Harris in his life of James I. p. 219, 226. “It is certain,” says Dr. Warner, "that he had on several occasions given great room to suspect, that he was far from being an enemy to the Roman-catholies. Amidst all their hopes," he adds, "each side had their fears : whilst James himself had, properly speaking. no other religion, than 'what flowed from a principle which he called kingeraft."

Warner's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 476, 77. Ed.

Life of Whitgift, p. 559.

and though you are none of my proper subjects, I will maintain and cherish you as much as any prince in the world." But the latter, whatever they had reason to expect, met with very different usage.

Notwithstanding all the precautions that were taken to secure the elections of members for the next parliament, the archbishop wished he might not live to see it, for fear of some alteration in the church; for the puritans were preparing petitions, and printing pamphlets in their own vindication, though by the archbishop's vigilance (says Mr. Strype*) not a petition or a pamphlet escaped without a speedy and effectual answer.

While the king was in his progress to London [April 1603] the puritans presented their millenary petition, so called, because it was said to be subscribed by a thousand hands, though there were not more than eight hundred out of twenty five counties. It is entitled, The humble petition of the ministers of the church of England, desiring reformation of certain ceremonies and abuses of the church; the preamble sets forth, "That neither as factious men affecting a popular parity in the church, nor as schismatics "aiming at the dissolution of the state ecclesiastical, but as "the faithful ministers of Christ, and loyal subjects to his ma'jesty, they humbly desired the redress of some abuses. 'And though divers of them had formerly subscribed to the 'service-book, some upon protestation, some upon an ex'position given, and some with condition; yet now they, to the number of more than a thousand ministers, groaned 'under the burthen of human rites and ceremonies, and 'with one consent threw themselves down at his royal feet 'for relief in the following particulars:

1. In the church service. "That the cross in baptism, 'the interrogatories to infants, baptism by women, and con'firmation, may be taken away; that the cap and surplice may not be urged; that examination may go before the communion; that the ring in marriage may be dispensed with; that the service may be abridged; church songs, 'and music, moderated to better edification; that the Lord's

Strype's Annals vol. ult. p. 187.

Clark's Life of Hildersham, p. 116, annexed to his General Mar

tyrology.