Hiflory ofthe Puritans, examin'd. 263 Neal, Ibid. Their Lordfhips indeedwould have in- terpreted thofe Words, the true Reformed Proteflant Religion, expreffed in the Dorine of the Church of England, to have included the Government and Hier - archy of the Church. And they had good reafon fo to do ; for Lord Clarendon obferves , ' That well-aife&ed Perfons, who were jealous of no other Deign than the AI- ' teration of the Government of the Church,thought they had obliged thofe rigid Reformers from any fuch Attempt, when they had once bound them- ' felves, f6 To maintain and defend the Protej'ant 44 Religion, exprefs'd in theDotrineof the Church " of England, there being no other Scheme of the " Dotrine of the Church of England, than the « thirty -nine Articles ; ofwhich one is, to preferve " the Government of the Church by Bifliops." Neal, p. 443. But both Houfes declared, that by thefe Words was and is meant, only the publick Doc-- trine profiled in the Paid Church, &c. and that the faid Words are not to extend to the maintenance ofany FormofWorfhip, Difcipline, or Government, or Rites and Ceremonies. Lord Clarendon, one cf his Authorities, contra- dins this t; and Pays, ' This Explanation being thus procured in the HouleofCommons, without ever advifing with the Houfe of Peers, who had like- ' wife taken the fame Proteftation, and in truth fo contrary to the Intentions of moft that took it.' So that both Houfes did not declare, &c. as Mr. Neal here afferts. Neal, p. 444. The Odium of putting a flop to the Proteftation, fell upon the Benchof Bifhops, who were already finking under their own Weight. * Lord Clarendon's Hi(}. Vol. I. P. r9á. f lb. p.199. 4 This
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