EGERTON. 289 STEPHEN EGERTON, A. M.-This excellent divine was incorporated in both universities, and afterwards for many years the learned, zealous, and faithful minister of Black- friars, London. He was a thorough nonconformist, a zealous promoter of a further reformation of the church, and an avowed advocate for the Presbyterian discipline. He was a member of the presbytery erected at Wandsworth in Surrey, and frequently united with his brethren in their associations, when he was commonly chosen to the office of moderator. In the year 1584, he and Mr. John Field were suspended for refusing subscription toWhitgift's three articles. After receiving the censure of° this tyrannical prelate, they assigned their reasons for not subscribing to the second article, viz. " That the Book of Common Prayer, and the Book of Ordination, containeth in it nothing contrary to the word of God."-" We cannot subscribe to this article," say they, " because the book alloweth a mere reading and insufficient ministry ; and, what is still more intolerable, it containeth many things tending to harden obstinate papists, and to encourage ignorance and supersti- tion among the common people. All this is apparent, seeing most of the things contained in the book are trans- lated out of the popish portuis, with little or no alteration. We cannot consent that certain parts of the apocrypha should be used in public 'worship, and some parts of scripture omitted. In the burial of the dead, every wicked man must be committed to the ground in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life. The book maketh confirmation, the cross in baptism, and matrimony, to be sacraments. In one of the collects, it is said, Give us those things which we dare not ask.' The book main- taineth the offices of archbishops, bishops, &c. as being different from that of ministers." In addition to these ; they assign many other reasons.* It does not appear how long Mr. Egerton remained under the above ecclesiastical censure. We find, however, that about this time he united with his brethren in subscribing the " Book of Discipline. "s In the year 1590, during the imprisonment of Mr. Barrow and Mr. Greenwood, our pious divine and other puritan ministers were sent by the Bishop of London to confer with them. Though he was deemed unworthy of the public ministry, the persecuting MS. Register, p. 46O-465. i" Neal's Puritans, vol. i, p. 425. VOL. II. LT
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