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 Redrefsof 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 maymake that a Grievance which now is none. 6. And they faid it was a$ainh thePriviledges of Parliament, that fuch anOath fhould bedevifed 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 nòDivifion : and fome few were for the.Oath, but more againit ir. This put me upon deeper Thoughts of the Point ofEpifcopacy, and of the EngliJh frame ofChurchGovernment 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,(áGentleman of Shrewsbury) fent meGerfomwBree. rawhis Differtatio de Gubernatione Ecclefiee, and Didoclaves Altare Damafcenum; and fhortlyafter 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 ofChurches and Miniftry, and of the ruineof the true Church Difcipline, and fubftituting an heterogeneal thing in its Read. And thus theErc.erera Oath, whichwas impofed on us for the unalterablefub- je&ingof us to Diocefans, was a chiefmeans to alienate me and many others from it. For nowour 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 theBishops alone, were rowzed bythe terroursofan Oathto look about us, and underhand what we did. § z;. This Oath alfo furredup the differingParties ( who before were all one Party, even quiet Conforms) to fpeak more bitterly againfi one another thanhere- 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 toPresbytery) a new Common-Prayer Book ( that is, the EnglsJh onewith force few Alterations) was framed, and impofedon 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 thePrieh; and others imitated her prefently, and drove him out of theChurch; and this little Spark fet all Scotlandquickly in a Flame. Infomuch that other Places taking as much diftafte at the Common Prayer,and at the .Bifhops alfofor its fake,andfor fear ofthe 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 andReformation. 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, calledSbip-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 overthrowof the Fundamental Laws or Conftisution of the Kingdom , andof Parliaments, and of all Propriety. They Paid that theSubjella Propriety in hisEflate; and the Being of Parliaments, and that noLaws be made, norMoneys taken from the Subje&s, but by the Par- liaments Confenr, are partof theConhitution of the Republick or Government. And
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