LAUD, the direction of both houses of parliament; and in case any of Abp. Cant. the members died before such dissolution, the two houses were to nominate the persons for supplying the places of those deceased. And lastly, it is provided, that this assembly shall not exercise any jurisdiction, or ecclesiastical authority, excepting what is particularly expressed in this ordinance.

General rules for the assembly. Jovis, 6

Julii, 1643.

There were some farther general rules given these divines, by the lords and commons in parliament.

"1. That two assessors be joined to the prolocutor, to supply his place in case of absence or infirmity.

"2. Two scribes to be appointed to set down all proceedings, and these to be divines, who are not members of the assembly, viz., Mr. Henry Rowberry and Mr. Adoniram Byfield.

"3. Every member at his first entrance into the assembly shall make a serious and solemn protestation not to maintain any thing but what he believes to be truth, and to embrace truth in sincerity, when discovered to him.

"4. No resolution to be given upon any question on the same day wherein it is first propounded.

66 5. What any man undertakes to prove as necessary, he shall make good out of the Scriptures.

"6. No man to proceed in any dispute after the prolocutor hath enjoined him to silence, unless the assembly desire he may go on.

"7. No man to be denied to enter his dissent from the assembly, and his reasons for it in any point after it hath been first debated in the assembly; and thence (if the dissenting party desire it) to be sent to the houses of parliament by the assembly (not by any particular man or men in a private way), when either house shall require it.

"8. All things agreed on, and prepared for the parliament, to be openly read and allowed in the assembly, and then offered as the judgment of the assembly, if the major part assent; provided that the opinion of any persons dissenting, and the reasons urged for it, be annexed thereunto (if the dissenters require it), together with solutions (if any were) given in the assembly to those reasons."

Now follows the oath.

"I, A. B., do seriously and solemnly, in the presence of

I.

Almighty God, declare that (in this assembly whereof I am a CHARLES member) I will not maintain any thing, in matters of doctrine, but what I think in my conscience to be truth, or in point of discipline, but what I shall conceive to conduce most to the Dugdale's Short View, glory of God, and the good and peace of his Church.”

p. 908.

meeting.

The summoning this assembly by the two houses was a new The king provocation to his majesty, and an unprecedented encroachment forbids their upon the prerogative royal. And over and above the illegality of the meeting, it was mostly made up of persons disaffected to the Church; and which was a farther reason for just exception, the divines were intermixed with secular men, and in case of any difference, the two houses were the last judges of the controversy. Upon these considerations, the king published his proclamation before the sitting of this extraordinary synod, prohibiting all persons mentioned in that pretended ordi- June 22. nance the assembling for that purpose; declaring the assembly illegal; that no acts done by them ought to be received by the subject; and that the allowing the assembly-men wages by a tax upon the public was an unheard-of presumption."

66

Biblioth.

Notwithstanding this proclamation, sixty-nine of the persons Reg. p. 328. nominated were so hardy as to meet at the time and place appointed; but of the episcopal men very few appeared, and scarcely any of them continued with the assembly, excepting Dr. Featly.

Upon the 1st of July, pursuant to the ordinance, these divines met in king Henry VII.'s chapel. The assembly was opened with a sermon preached by their prolocutor, Dr. Twisse, both houses of parliament being present. The clerks or actuaries were Henry Roborough and Adoniram Byfield. And now the city preachers prayed for a blessing upon their debates, and books were dedicated to them in the style of the "Most Sacred Assembly1."

One of their first public acts was a petition to both houses for a solemn fast. The matter and expression in this address being somewhat extraordinary, I shall lay it before the reader.

A very interesting and somewhat pungent parallel might be drawn between the synod of Dort and this assembly of divines. It is remarkable that these divines, in their zeal for religion, forgot that loyalty is its indispensable correlative: but the sin of rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft.

825.

VOL. VIII.

S

LAUD, Abp. Cant.

The assembly petition the two houses for a

fast.

"To the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament.

"The humble petition of divers ministers of Christ, in the name of themselves and of sundry others,

"Humbly sheweth,

"That your petitioners, upon serious consideration, and deep sense of God's heavy wrath lying on us, and hanging over our heads and the whole nation, and manifested particularly by the two late sad and unexpected defeats of our forces in the north and in the west, do apprehend it our duty, as watchmen beaten in the for the good of the Church, to present to your religious and king; and prudent consideration these ensuing requests, in the name of lord Fairfax Jesus Christ, your Lord and ours.

July 19.
Waller

West by the

in the North

by the earl of

Newcastle.

"First. That you would be pleased to command a public and extraordinary day of humiliation this week, throughout the cities of London, Westminster, the suburbs of both, and places adjacent within the weekly bills of mortality, that every one may bitterly bewail his own sins, and cry mightily unto God, for Christ his sake, to remove his wrath, and to heal the land, with professed and new resolutions of more full performance of the late covenant for the amendment of our ways.

"Secondly. That you would vouchsafe instantly to take it into your more serious consideration how you may most speedily set up Christ more gloriously in all his ordinances within this kingdom, and reform all things amiss throughout the land, wherein God is more specially and more immediately dishonoured: among which we humbly lay before you these particulars :

"1. That the brutish ignorance and palpable darkness possessing the greatest part of the people, in all places of the kingdom, whereby they are utterly unfit to wait upon God in any holy duty, (to the great dishonour of the Gospel and the everlasting endangering of their poor souls,) may be remedied by a speedy and strict charge to all ministers constantly to catechize all the youth and ignorant people (they being commanded to be subject to it) and all sorts to be present at it, and information to be given of all persons who shall withstand or neglect it.

259

I.

2. That the grievous and heinous pollution of the Lord's CHARLES supper, by those that are grossly ignorant and notoriously profane, may be henceforth with all Christian care and due circumspection prevented.

"3. That the bold venting of corrupt doctrines directly contrary to the sacred law of God and religious humiliation for sin, which open a wide door to all libertinism and disobedience to God and man, may be speedily suppressed everywhere; and that in such manner as may give hope that the Church may be no more infected with them.

"4. That the profanation of any part of the Lord's-day, and the days of solemn fasting, by buying, selling, working, sporting, travelling, or neglecting of God's ordinances, may be remedied by appointing special officers in every place, for the due execution of all good laws and ordinances against the

same.

5. That there may be a thorough and speedy proceeding against blind guides and scandalous ministers, by whose wickedness people either lack or loathe the ordinances of the Lord, and thousands of souls perish; and the removal of the ark from among us is (to the trembling of our hearts) evidently threatened. And that your wisdoms would find out some way to admit into the ministry such godly and hopeful men as have prepared themselves, and are willing thereunto, without which there will suddenly be such a scarcity of able and faithful ministers, that it will be to little purpose to cast out such as are unable, idle, or scandalous.

"6. That the laws may be quickened against swearing and drunkenness, with which the land is filled and defiled, and under which it mourneth.

"7. That some severe course be taken against fornication, adultery, and incest, which do greatly abound, especially of late, by reason of impunity.

be

"8. That all monuments of idolatry and superstition, but more especially the whole body and practice of popery, may totally abolished.

"9. That justice may be executed on all delinquents, according to your religious vow and protestation to that pur

pose.

"10. That all possible means may be used for the speedy relief and release of our miserable and extremely distressed

s 2

LAUD, brethren who are prisoners in Oxford, York, and elsewhere, Abp. Cant. whose heavy sufferings cry aloud in the ears of our God; and it would lie very heavy upon the kingdom should they miscarry, suffering, as they do, for the cause of God.

"That so God, who is now by the sword avenging the quarrel of his covenant, beholding your integrity and zeal, may turn from the fierceness of his wrath, hear our prayers, go forth with our armies, perfect the work of reformation, forgive Rushworth's our sins, and settle truth and peace throughout the kingdom.

Hist. Coll.

part 3.

P. 344.

826.

The king's

church in

Oxford.

"And your petitioners shall ever pray, &c."

This petition was well approved; a public fast was ordered upon Friday following; and both houses agreed to take the other particulars into speedy consideration.

To proceed amongst other calumnies upon the king, the rebels misrepresented his religion, and reported him inclined to popery. This, they knew, would prove a significant aspersion, and disincline the people to his service. His majesty, therefore, to undeceive his subjects in this particular, made a solemn declaration of his belief: for, being ready to receive the holy eucharist from the hands of the lord primate Usher, he rose from his knees, and, giving the archbishop a sign for a short pause, spoke these words:

"MY LORD,

"I espy here many resolved Protestants, who may declare protestation at Christ's to the world the resolution I do now make. I have, to the utmost of my power, prepared my soul to become a worthy receiver and may I so receive comfort by the blessed sacrament, as I do intend the establishment of the true, reformed, Protestant religion, as it stood in its beauty, in the happy days of queen Elizabeth, without any connivance at popery. Id. p. 346. I bless God, that in the midst of these public distractions, I have still liberty to communicate and may this sacrament be iny damnation, if my heart do not join with my lips in this protestation."

That this purgation was no more than seasonable, may, to mention nothing farther, be collected from a pamphlet lately published by one Saltmarsh, a Puritan minister, where, amongst