Chap. II. The HISTORY of the PURITANS. 53 át thofe whom they could not fairly come at any other way. But notwith- K :'rag Edward VI. ftanding thefe and fome other miftakes, they were great and good men, rand and valiant in the caufe of truth ; as appears by their afterwards fealing it tMl with their blood. They made as quick advances perhaps in reftoring reli- gion towards its primitive fimplicity, as the circumftances of the times would admit ; and 'tis evident they defigned to go further; and not make this, thedaft ftandard of reformation. Indeed queen Elizabeth thought her brother had gone too far, by (tripping religion of too many ornaments ; and therefore when the came to the crown, was hardly perfuaded to reflore it to the condition in which he left it. King names I. king Charles I. archbi- Ihop Laud, and all their admirers, inftead of removing further from the fu- perflitious pomps of the 'church of Rome, have been for returningback to them, and have appealed to the feulement of queen Elizabeth, as a perfect ftandard. But the reformers themfelves were of another mind, witnefs the fermons Further Pre- of Latimer, Hooper, Bradfordand others; and the letters of Peter Martyr, geed in- Martin Bucer, and Yohn a Lafos, who in his book deOrdinatione Ecclefia- Voce Etti. rumperegrinarum in .dnglia, dedicated to Sigii roundking of Poland, r 555. Poi. lib, 2. fays, " That king Edward defired that the rites and ceremonies ufed under cap. 6. " popery fhould be purged out by degrees; that it was his pleafure, that Part I. " (trangers fhould have churches to perform all things according to apoftoli- p 42r.. " cal obfervation only, that by this means the Engles churches might be ex- cited to embrace apoftolical purity, with the unanimous confent of the " ftates of the kingdom." He adds, " That the king was at the head of " this project, and that Cranmer promoted it, but that fome great perfons flood in the way." As a further evidence of this, a paffage was left in the preface of one of their fervice books to this purpofe ; That theyhadgone Pierce'sPind. asfar as they could in refòrming the church, confidering the times they lived in, p' rr' r2.. and hoped they that came after them would, as they might, do more. King Edward in his diary laments, that he could not reftore the primitive difci- K. Edward pline according to his heart's defire, becaufe feveral of the bithops, fome for Remains, age, force for ignorance, force for their ill name, and force out of love to Number 2, . popery, were unwilling to it. And the church her felf, in one of her pub- lick offices, laments the want of a godly difcipline, even to this day. Martin Bucer, a German divine, and profefíor of divinity in Cambridge, Bucer'i Sen- a perfon in high efteem with the young king, drew up a plan, and prefented Ciments. it to his majefty, in which he treats largely of ecclefiaftical difcipline. The Hitt." Refor: king having read it, let hirnfelf to write a general difcourfe about reforma- tion, but did not live to finifh it. Bucer propofed, that there might be aP. 5 ftriit difcipline, to exclude.fcandalous livers from the facrament; that the old popifh habits might be laid afide. He did not like the half office of com- munion, or fecond fervice, to bePaid at the altar, when there was no facra-. ment.
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