C t31 :treated with Lenity, but Favour,. So far in Queen Elizabeth's Reign as the Year 1586. Mr. N. allows, there was N's History a very confiderable Number preferr'db 484. in the Church. For near five Hundred Pages in his Book we hear of little elfe, but dreadful Severities againft the Pu- ritans, Exclufions, Sufpenfions Depri- vations, Imprifonments, " The very Ibid. p. 163, " Bread of Life taken from the People,27,8' 27,s' " they perith'd for lackof Knowledge, 565, 367, cc while Ien that ,were capable of in- & alibi. " ftruting them were kept out of the " Church, at leafs deniedall Preferment " in it ; not :afew Mechaniçkswere pre- " ferr'd toDignities and Livings, while " others, ofthe firft Rank for Learning, " Piety, and Ufefulnefs in their Fundi- on, were laidafide. TheBifhops were " feniible of the Cafe ; but inftead of " opening the Door a little wider, to " let in fome of thepore confcientious " and zealous Reformers, they admit- cc the pmean.eft and molt illiterate " that would come up to the Terms of " the L.aw ; the Bithops ordain'd fuch " as offer'd themfelves, how meanly " foever qualified, while others who " had fume Scruples about Conformity cc flood by asnprovided for. Such In- " jun.ions had been framed, as had never been heard of in a Proteftant K. z" "King-
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