60 INTRODUCTION. they were men eminent for piety, devotion, and zeal in the cause of Christ. The suspensions and deprivations of this long reign are said to amount to several thousands.. But, while the nonconformists were thus harassed, the church and the nation were in a most deplorable state. Great numbers of churches, in all parts of the country, were without ministers ; and among those who professed to be ministers, aboutthree thousandwere mere readers, who could not preach at all. And under pretence of maintaining order and uniformity in the church, popery, immorality, and Ungodliness were every where promoted : so that while the zealous prelates pretended to be building up the church of England, they wereevidently undermining the church of God.t- SECT. III. From the Death of Queen Elizabeth, to the Death of King James I. KING J_kIIES was thirty-six years old when he came to the crown of England, having reigned in Scotland from his infancy. His majesty's behaviour in Scotland had raised too high the expectations of the puritans : they relied upon his education, his subscribing the'covenant, his professed kindness for the suffering nonconformists, and his repeated declarations. He had declared in the general assembly at Edinburgh, with his hands lifted up to heaven, 44 That he praised God that he was born to be kina ' of the purest kirk in the world. As for our neighbour kirk of England," said he, " their service, is an evil-said mass in English. They want nothing of the mass but the liftings."1. The king had given great offence to the English bishops, by saying, " that their order smelled vilely of popish pride ; that they were a principal branch of the pope, bone of his bone, and 'flesh of his flesh ; that the Book of Common Prayer was the English mass-book ; and that the surplice, copes, and ceremonies were outward badges of popery."§ The expectations of the puritans were, therefore, highly 40 Neal's Puritans, vol. i. p. 511.-The number of clergy suspended and deprived for nonconformity was, according to Hume, very great, and comprehended at one time a third of all the ecclesiastics in the kingdom! ! -Hist. of Eng. vol. v. p. 537. + MS. Remarks, p. 411. Calderwood's Hist. of Scotland, p. 256. § MS. Remarks, p. 535.
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