T H E P R E F A C E T O T H E Second Volume of the OCTAVO Edition. THE favourable acceptance of the firft volume ofthis work has en- J couraged me to publifh a fecond, whichcarries the bßory forward to the beginning of the civil war, when the two bouts of parliament wr f ed the fpiritual fword out of the hands of the king and bithops, and affumed the fupremacy to themfelves. There had been a ceffat:on of controverfy for forre time before the death of queen ELIZABETH.; the puritans being in hopes, upon the acce//lon of a king that had been educated in their own principles, to obtain an eafy redrefs of their grievances; and certainly no prince ever had it fo much in his power to compromife the diffirences of the church, as king JAMES I. at the conference of Hampton-court ; but being an indolent and vainglo- rious monarch, he became a willing captive to the bifops, who flattered his vanity, and put that maxim into his head, no bifhop, no king. The creatures of the court, in lieu of the vaflfums of money they received out of the exchequer, gave him theflattering title of anABSOLUTE SOVEREIGN, and to fupply his extravagancies, broke through the conflitution, and laid the foundation of all the calamities of his fon's reign; while himfelf, funk into luxury and eafe, became the contempt of all the powers of Europe. If king James had anyprinciples of religion bfdes what be called seINcs- CRAFT, or diffimulation, he changed then with the climate; for from a rigid calvinift, he became a favourer of arminianifm in the latter part of his reign; from a protefiant of the pure/1 kirk upon earth, a dotïrinal pa- pift ; and from a difguifed puritan, the moll implacable enemy Beth t
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