674 ?he HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. VIII. K. Charles I. criminals but with the confent of their.prefbyters, and upon the teftimo- 1640. ny of feveral witneffes ; whereas ours proceed by an oathex jjcio, by. which men are obliged to accufe themfelves ; the primitive bithops had no lordly titles and dignities, no lay- chancellors, commiffaries and other of- ficials, nor did they engage in fecular affairs &c. After feveral comps_ rifons, of this kind, they recapitulate the late feverities of the bithops in their ecclefiaftical courts ; and conclude- with a humble petition to the high court of parliament, That if epi/copacy be retained in the church it may be reduce to its primitive frmplicity; and if they muff have a " liturgy, that there may be.a.confultation ofdivines to alter and reform " the prefent; and that even then it may not be impofed upon the,clergy, " but left to the difcretionof the minifter, howmuch of it to read 'when " there is_a fermon." Rernarts. By this reprefentation it appears, that the controverfy between thefe.di- vines might have, been cotnpromifed, if the reft of the clergy had been of the fame fpirit and temper with. bifhop Hall; but the court bops would abate nothing, as long as the crown could fupport them; and as the parliament encreafed in power, the puritan divines ftiffened in . their demands, till methods of acconiodation, were imprac`tieable. judgment of While this controverfy was debating at home, letters were feet. from foreign di- both liides to obtain the judgment ,of foreign divines, but moil of them SWIM were fo wife as to be filent. Dr. Plume in the life of bifhop Hacket, writes that Blondel, l2 is, Hornbeck, andSalma¡aus,. were fent to by the king's friends in vain ; Blondel publifhed a very learned treàtife on the pu_ ritanfìde; but. Deodate fromGeneva, and Amyraldus, from France, with- ed an accommodation, and (as Plume lays) were for epifcopal govern- ment. The papifts triumphed, and had railed expeEtations; from theft differences, as appears by a, letter of 9 White a roman catholic, to the lord vifcount Gage at Dublin, dated Feb. i2. 5639. in which are there Foxes and words; " We are in a fair way to affwage herefy and her epifcopacy; firebrands, " for EXETER'$ book has done more for the catholics, than they could " have done themfelves, he having ,written, that epifcopacy in office p. 81. " and jurifdidion isabfolutely. JuRE Divaxo, (which was the old guar- " rel between our bithops and king Henry VIII. during his herefy) which " book does not a little trouble our adverfaries, who declare this tenet of " Exeter's to be, contrary, to the laws of this land All is like to prof- " per here, fo I hopewith you there." However 'tis certain, the bo- dy of foreign protefiants were agáinit the bifhops for this reafon among others, becaufe they had difowned.tbeir ordinations; and could it be fup- pofed they fhould compliment away the validity of their adminiftrations,- to a let of men that had difowned their communion, and turned the frenchand dutch congregations out of, the land? No they wifked they might
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