Chap. IX. The HISTORYof the PURXTANS 697 vernment or hierarchy of the church ; but it was refolved and declared byR. Çharles r. the haute, that by thofe words was and is meant, only the public doctrine ' 4 proffed in thefaid church, fofar as it is oppoñteto popery andpopiijh innova- tions; and that thefaidwords are not to extend- to the maintenance ofany form ofworfhip, difciplineorgovernment, nor of rites andceremonies. With- Ruthw. in two days theproteflation was taken by eighty temporal lords, feventeen Vol. IV.' bifhops, nine judges, and four hundred and thirty -eight of the houle oft 259 commons. Next day it was printed and Pent to the Sheriffs and juftices of peace in the feveral counties of England, to be taken by the whole nation, with the followingdirections. --- That it be taken in the afternoon of force Lord's day after Ordered is to " fermon, before the congregation be difmiffed, by all mafters of fami_ taken allover " lies, their tons that are of a proper age, and men fervants, in the man- England. " ner following. Firft, that notice be given to the minifter by the church-wardens of the intention. Secondly, That the minifter ac- quaint the people in his fermon of the natureof the prote/lation. Thirdly, That the minifter fiat take it himfelf, reading it diftinétly " with an audible voice, that all prefent may hear it ; then the affembly " !ball take the writing in their hands, Paying with a diftin .t and au- " dible voice, I A. B. do in theprefence of Almighty God vow and pro.. " to thefame, which the leading perfon that reads it did, naming the per fin, " Fourthly, The names of all that take it (hall be fubfcribed in a !e regifter ; and the- names of thofe that refufe fhall be entered." The citiesof Londonand We/tminßer obferved thefe direhtions, but the But f:revent- remoter counties were complained of for negleft ; upon which the houle ed. ofcommons paffed a bill to oblige all perlons to take it throughout the king- dom ; which was loft in the houle of lords, the whole bench of bithops oppofing it ; whereupon the commons came to this refolution, that who- /sever would not take the ptooteation, was unfit to bear oces in the church or commonwealth. This was carrying matters to a very extraordinary length; there had Remarks, -been a parliamentary affociation in the reign of queen Elizabeth, which her majefty confirmed, and a folemn league and covenant in Scotland, which the king had complied with ; but the enforcing a prote/lation or vow upon his majefty's fubjelts without his content, was affirming a power, which even this dangerous cries of affairs, and the uncommon authority with which this parliament was invefted by the late at of con- tinuance, can by nomeans fupport or juftify. The odium of putting a ftop to the prote/lation fell upon the bench of bifhops, who were already finking under their own weight; and his majefty's not interpofing in this affair at all, was afterwards made ufe of as a precedent for impofing the folemn league and covenant upon the whole kingdom without his concurrence. Vol.. I. 4 U The
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