Chap. VII. The HI ST 0 RY of the PuRIT AN·s . met agai n at Sion College J une r 9· and being a little more fubmiffive, pub- 1(. Charles I. 111hed certam co'!fideratiom and cautiom according to which they agree to ~ put the prejbyterial governmmt in praC!ice, according . to the preji!llt eftab- Cautions. lifhment. Here they declare, " that the power of church cenfures ought " to be in church officers, by the will and appointment if Jifus Chrift, but " then they are pleafed to admit, that the mag!ftracy ought to be fatisfied " in the truth of the government they authorize ; and though it be not ' ' right in every particular, yet church officers may aB: under that rule, " provided they do not acknowledge the rule to be right in all points. " T herefore though they conceive the ordinances of parliament already " pu bl ilhed, are not a compleat rule, nor in all pointsJatiifaCiory to their " confciences, yet becaufe in many things they are fo, and provilion being "made to enable the elderlhips, by their authority, to keep away from " the Lo rd's (upper all ignorant -and fcandalous perfons ; and a further de- " claration being made, that there {hall be an addition to the fcandalous " offences formerly enumerated, therefore they conceive it their duty to " put in practice the prefent fettlement, as far as they conceive it corref- '' pondent with the word of God; hoping that the parliament will in due " time, fupply what is lacking, to make the government entire, and rec- " tify what £hall appear to be amifs." With fo great reluB:ance did thefe gentlemen bend to the authority of the parliament! The kingdom of E ngland, infiead of fo many diocefes, was now di- Clajjical di– vided into a certain number of provinces, made up of reprefentatives from vijion_ of tht the feveral claJfes within their refpeetive boundaries ; every parilh bad a t~~;r;:~.of congregational, or parochial preibyrery for the affairs of the parilh; the parochial preibyteries were combined into clqffes ; thefe returned reprefentatives to the provincial q/fombly, as the provincial did to the national; for example, the ,province of London being compofed of twelve clalfes, according to the following divifion, each claffis ohofe two minill:ers, and four lay-elders, to reprefent them in a prvvincial ajfembly, which received general appeals from the parochial, .and clafiica!l preibyteries, as the national af!embly did from the provincial. • The DivisioN of the Province of London. The firft cla.Jlis to contain the following parifh~s I Allhallows Breadflreet 2 St. Andrews War,drop~, 3 Bennet Paul's Wharf, ·4 Faith's, 5 St. Gregory, VoL. II. ·6 St. John Evangelift, 7 M argaret Mofes, 8 St. Martin Ludgate, 9 St: Anne Black Fria.rs, I o St. Aufiin's Pari'lh, G g JI St.
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