The HISTORY of the PuRITANS. VoL. II. K. Charles I. examination, liberty was given in that time to make exceptions to their ~6430 charaCters; if nothing was objeCted they were examined by the commit- "'V" tee, or any five of them, who reported their qualifications to the houfe, upon which each candidate received a certificate fi·om the aifembly to the foilowing effeCt: Death of Mr. Chil– lingworth. u A CCORDING to an order bearing date-from the committee of « the houfe of commons for plundered minifiers, to the commit– " tee of divines for the examination of A. B. concerning his fitnefs to be " admitted to the benefit of the fequeftration of the church of---, " in the county of---, and fo to officiate in the cure t!-lereof, thefe " are to ceJtify the faid committee of plundered minifters, that upon "examination of th·e faid A. B. and fome trial of his gifts and abili– " ties, we conceive him fit to officiate in the cure of---, in the " cou nty aforefaid. In witnefs whereof we have hereunto fubfcribed " our names." The fcribes of the qffembly were ordered to keep a record of all orders and certificates concerning minill:ers recommended to fequeft– rators, and to enter them in a regifi:er book. This continued for a– bout a year, till the new direCtory and form of church government took place. Towards the latter end of this year died William Chillingworth, A.M. whom I mention not as a puritan, but as a witnefs againft fome of thofe hardfhips the prifent dijfenters complain of; he was born at Oxford, 1602. and educated in Magdalen-College, of which he became fellow in June 1628. He afterwards turned romon catholic, and went to the jefuits col– lege at St. Omers, where not being thor~ughly fatisfied in fome of their principles he returned to England, 163 I. and having embraced the reli– gion of the church of England, publifhed an excellent treatife, entitled 'Ihe Religion of Protiflants a Jafe Way to Salvation, ·for which he was preferred to the chancellodhip of the church of Sarurn, and made maf– ter of Wy·gjlon hqjpital in Leicdfer. He was inferted in the lift with other loyalifl s to be created D. D. in the year 1642.. but came not thiChill. Life, ther to receive that honour. It was the general Dpinion of the times that p. 370. he was a ficinian, but in his !aft letter at the end of his works, heap– Chill. letter pears an Arian. 'Tis very certain he refufed to fubfcribe the thirty-nine to Dr. She!· articles for-fome years after his converfion, (1.) Becaufe he did not be– don, a~;he lieve the morality of the fourth commandment. (2.) Becaufe he did not e;::, 11 f ;~'5• agree to the damnatory cla fes in the athanajian creed, and therefore ' . could not read the common-prayer. He objected alfo to the twentieth article,
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