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16
The
LIFE
of
the
Y.
I B.
I.
g.
They
faid
that
it
was
againfl
the Subjeas
Liberty
;
which alloweth them
fb-
berly to Petition the King
and
Parliament for a Redrefs
of
any Grievance.
And
if
now
a
Lay
-
Chancellor's ufe
of
the Keys,
C.
g. were no burden
to the
People,
we
know
not
how God may
make fuch Alterations
by
his
Providence,
as
may
make
that
a
Grievance which
now
is
none.
6. And they faid
it
was
a$ainh the
Priviledges
of
Parliament,
that
fuch
an
Oath
fhould be
devifed and
impofed upon
the Snbjeds, without a Law,
or the
Parlia-
ments confent.
Thefe and other
Reafons were pleaded againft
it
:
(
And
afterward when
the
Parliament
took
it
into confideration,
it was
Condemned on
thefe and
other
Ac.
counts).
The
Minters
of
the Country met together at
Bridgnorrb
to Debate this
Bulinefs,
that they might
have
nò
Divifion
:
and fome
few were
for
the.
Oath,
but
more againit
ir.
This put
me upon deeper Thoughts
of
the
Point
of
Epifcopacy,
and
of
the
EngliJh
frame
of
ChurchGovernment than
ever
I had
before
:
and now
I
had the opportunity
of
feting
fome Books,
which
I
never had
before.
My
very
dear Friend,Mr:Wiliam
Rowley,(á
Gentleman
of
Shrewsbury)
fent me
Gerfomw
Bree.
raw
his
Differtatio
de
Gubernatione
Ecclefiee,
and
Didoclaves
Altare
Damafcenum;
and
fhortly
after
I
had
Parker
de
Polit. Ecckf.
and
Baynes's DioceJanes
Trial
;
and
I
received
Bifhop Downbam, and
compared
his
Reafons
with
Bracers,
Didoclaves,
&c..
And
though
I
found not fuflicientEvidence to prove
all kind
of
Epifcopacy unlawful
,
yet
I
was
much
fatisfied
that the
Engli(h
Dioeefan
frame,
was
guilty
of the Cor-
ruption
of
Churches and
Miniftry, and of
the ruine
of
the true Church Difcipline,
and fubftituting an heterogeneal thing in
its
Read.
And
thus
theEr
c.erera
Oath, which
was impofed on
us
for the unalterablefub-
je&ing
of
us
to Diocefans,
was a
chief
means
to
alienate me
and many others from
it. For now
our
drowfie
mindlefnefs
of
that fubjeïl
was
11
aken
off
by
their
vio-
lence
; and
we that thought it belt to follow our
bnlinefe,
and
live
in
quietnefs,
and let the
Bishops
alone, were rowzed bythe terrours
of
an
Oath
to
look about
us,
and underhand what we did.
§
z;.
This Oath
alfo
furred
up
the differingParties
(
who before were
all
one
Party,
even
quiet
Conforms)
to
fpeak
more bitterly againfi one
another
than
here-
tofore
:
And the dilfenting
Party
began
to think better
of
the
Caufe
of Noncon-
formity,
and to honour the Nonconformifts more than they had done. And
it
fell
out that at the
fame
time when we were
thus
rowzedup in
England,
or
a
little
before, the
Scots
were
alfo
awakened
in
Scotland:
For when
all was
quiet there
under
a
more moderate Epifcopacy than we had then in England, ( though
that
Nation
had been ufed to
Presbytery)
a
new Common-
Prayer
Book
(
that
is,
the
EnglsJh
onewith force few Alterations)
was framed,
and impofed
on
the
People
of
Scotland
;
who having
not
been
ufed
to that way
of
Worfhip, one Woman
in
E.
denburgh
cried out in
the
Church,
Popery, Popery,
and threw herStool at
the
Prieh;
and
others
imitated her prefently, and drove him out
of
the
Church;
and
this
little
Spark
fet
all
Scotland
quickly in
a Flame.
Infomuch
that
other
Places
taking as
much
diftafte
at
the
Common Prayer,and at the
.Bifhops alfo
for
its
fake,andfor
fear
of
the
Silencing
of
their Minihers,
and force Minifters increafing
their diftafte, the
Lòrds prefently were
divided
alfo ;
infomuch
that
the King
was
fain to inflruét
the
Earl ofTrequaire,
as
his
Commiffìoner, to
fupprefs
the Malecontents
:
But
in
a
lhort time
the
number
of
them
fo,encreafed, that the
King's Commiffsoners
could do no good
on
them, but they got the power of all the
Land,
becaufe
the
far greateft part
of
the Nobility with the Miniftry
*ere
conjoyned.
Hereupon
they
all
entered into
a
National Covenant, to the
fame purpofe
as
formerly
that
Nation
had done,
but they
did
it without the
King's Authority.
The Oath or
Covenant
was
againh Popery
and Prelacy and Superhision, and
to
uphold the
Gofpel
and
Reformation.
The
Aberdeen
Doctors diffented from
the Covenant, and
many Writings pall
on both
fides
between the Covenanters and them,
till
at lait
the
enfuingWars did
turn the
Debates
to another
Brain.
§
24. It fell
out unhappily
that
at
the
fame
timewhile
the
Scots
were
thus
dif.
contented, the King had impofed
a
Tax
here, called
Sbip-money,as
forthe
hrength-
ping
of the Navy
;
which being done without Content of Parliament, made a
wonderful murmuring
all
over
the Land ,.efpecially among the Country
No-
bility and
Gentry;
for they took
it
as
the overthrow
of the Fundamental
Laws
or
Conftisution
of
the Kingdom
,
and
of
Parliaments, and
of
all
Propriety.
They
Paid
that
the
Subjella Propriety
in
hisEflate;
and the
Being
of
Parliaments,
and
that
no
Laws
be
made,
nor
Moneys taken from the
Subje&s,
but by
the
Par-
liaments Confenr, are
part
of
the
Conhitution of
the Republick
or Government.
And