Chap. VII. The HISTORY.afthe PURITANS. 321 year, t. That every parfon should have abible in Latin and Englifh. 2. That Queen they should have Bullinger's Decads. 3. That they should have a paper Ehzzbeth, book, and write in it the quantity ofa fermon every week. 4. That fuch r 86, as could not preach themfelves, thould be taxed at four purchafed fermons Life óf Ayt a year. What a miferable slate ofthings was this! when many hundreds mer, p. 728. of pious and confcientious preachers were excluded the church, and ftarv- ing with their families for want of employment. With thefupplication andfurvey above-mentioned, a bill was offered to B;iiforfur-. the houfe ofcommons for a further reformation ; wherein after a recital ther refar- of their grievances, they pray that the book hereunto annexed, entitled, a mattsn. book oftheform of Common prayer, &c. and every thing thereincontained, may be from henceforth authorizedand put in ufe and praëtice, throughout all her majefty's dominions, any former law, cuftom, or ftatute to the con- trary, in any wife notwithftanding. Thebook contained prayers before and L. a fWhir - after fermon, but left a liberty for variation if it was thought proper. The gift, p. 25a. minister was to pray and give thanks in the words there prefcribed, or soch like. In the creed it leaves the articleof Chri/l's defcent into hell more at large. It omits three of the thirty -nine articles (viz.) the 34th, 35th and 36th. It takes the jurifdié1ion of the church out of the hands of the spiritual courts, and places it in an affembly of minitters and elders in every fhire, who (hall have power to examine, approve, and prefent mini- sters, to the several parifhes for their eleaion, and even to depofe them with the content of the bifhop, upon their mifbehaviour. At the fame time a pamphlet was difperfed without doors, entitled, a Repo a- requeß of all true chrislians to the honourable houfe ofparliament. It prays, garnft cathe- " That every parish church may have its preacher, and every city its ft-draá. « perintendent, to live honeftly but not pompoufly." And to provide for this, it prays, " That all cathedral churches may be put down, where M.S. p. 814.. " the fervice of God is grievoufly abufed by piping with organs, Aging, " ringing, and trawling ofpsalmsfrom onefide of the choir toanother, with " thefqueaking of chantingchangers, difguifed (as areall the re/1) in white " surplices ; fome in corner caps andfilthy copes, imitating the fashion and " manner of antichriß the pope, that man offin, and child ofperdition, " with his other rabble of mfcreants and fhavelings. Thefe unprofitable " drones, or rather caterpillars of the world, confume yearly fome two thoufand five hundred pounds, fome three thoufand pounds, fotne more, fome lefs, whereof no profit cometh to the church of God. They are ", the dens of idle loitering lubbards ; the harbours of time-ferving " hypocrites, whole prebends and livings belong fome to gentlemen, " fome to boys, and tome to ferving-men and others. If the, reve- " nues of there houfes were applied to augment the maintenance of Vol.. I. T t " poor,
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