as for your prebendaries, they cannot attend to apply for making of good cheer. And as for your twenty children in grammar, their master and their usher be daily otherwife occupied in the rudiments of grammar, than that they have fpace and time to hear the lectures. So that to thefe good lectures is prepared no convenient auditory. And therefore, my lord, I pray you let it be confidered, what a great lofs it will be to have fo many good lectures read without profit to any, faving to the fix preachers. Farther, as concerning the reader of divinity and humanity, it will not agree well, that one man fhould be reader of both lectures: for he that ftudieth in divinity, must leave the reading of prophane authors, and fhall have as much to do as he can, to prepare his lecture to be fubftantially read: and, in like manner, he that readeth in humanity had not need to alter his study, if he should make an erudite lecture. And there, in mine opinion, it would be officefor two fundry learned men. Now concerning the dean and others to be elected into the college, I shall make a bill of all them that I can hear of in Cambridge, Oxford, or elsewhere, mete to be put into the faid college, after my judgment. And then of the whole number the king's highness may chuse the most excellent. Affuring you, my lord, that I know no man more mete for the dean's room, in England, than Dr. Crome, who, by his fincere learning, godly conversation, and good example of living, with his great foberness, hath done unto the king's majefty as good fervice, I dare fay, as any priest in England. And yet his grace daily remembreth all others that do him fervice, this man only except; who never had yet, befides his gracious favour, any promotion at his highness's hands. Wherefore, if it will please his majesty to put him in the dean's room, I do not

doubt

doubt but that he fhould fhew light to all the deans and masters of colleges in this realm: for I know that when he was but prefident of a college in Cambridge, his houfe was better ordered than all the houfes in Cambridge befides. And thus, my lord, you have my final advice concerning the premises, which I refer unto the king's grace's judgment, to be allowed or difallowed at his highness's pleasure. Sending unto your lordship, herewithal, the bill again, according to your request. Thus, my lord, moft heartily fare you well.

At Croyden, 29th day Your own ever assured, of Nov. [1539.]

T. CANTUARIEN.

But to proceed: We are now come to this pafs, that if the law of the land permit us, we feem to have hardly any notion left of a law of Chrift, that may forbid us any thing whatsoever. For a specimen of this, I must tell a melancholy ftory of my own knowledge. When I was once talking with the lord chief juftice King, one brought up among the diffenters at Exeter, under a moft religious, chrifftian, and learned education, we fell into a debate about figning articles, which we did not believe for preferment; which he openly juftified, and pleaded for it, that We must not lose our usefulness for fcruples. [Strange doctrine in the mouth of one bred up among diffenters! whofe whole diffent from the legally established church was built on fcruples.] I reply'd, that I was forry to hear his lordship fay fo; and defired to know, whether, in their courts, they allowed of fuch prevarication or not? He answered, They did not allow of it. Which produced this rejoinder from me, "Suppofe God Almighty should be as juft in the next world, as my lord chief juftice is in this, where are we then ?' To which

he

he made no anfwer. And to which the late Queen Caroline added, when I told her the ftory, Mr. Whifton, no anfiver was to be made to it.

Nay farther, if the remarks on a part of a bill brought into the houfe of lords, by the earl of Nottingham, 1721, and intituled, Bill for the more effectual Suppreffion of Blafphemy and Profanenefs, fuppofed to be written by the bishop of London, be not quite mistaken, That those of the clergy, who are understood to be favourers of the "Arian doctrines, (for that was the blafphemy and profaneness here principally meant) will fubfcribe "the Teft therein mentioned against Arianifm, is "most certain; because the Teft is part of the "thirty-nine articles: and it is an avowed prin"ciple among them, that thofe articles may law

fully and confcientiously be fubfcribed in any "fenfe, in which they themselves, by their own "interpretation, can reconcile them to fcripture; "without regard to the meaning and intention, "either of the perfons who firft compiled them, "or who now impose them.-'Tis alfo faid here, "That this method of fubfcribing has been occa"fionally mentioned as a very lawful and regular "way, in many other of the Arian books; and "is what they all openly and profeffedly maintain "in their common converfation: that feveral of "them have actually fubfcribed, and received pro"motions fince they fell into thefe opinions, and "became advocates for them. And the author fays, he had not known or heard of any one "man among them, who has declin'd the offer of "promotion, on account of his not being able to "fubfcribe." Now the' this is faid in much too general a manner, and both Mr. Emlyn and myfelf always, and Dr. Clarke and Mr. Jackfon after fome time, have refufed all preferments that require that fubfcription: not to name others within my

acquaint

་

acquaintance, because their cafes are not fo well known yet are fuch examples, to be fure, very rare among us; and the generality feem, by their practice, to approve of the lord King's grand expedient; Not to lose their usefulness for fcruples.

Now that the reader may fee, in fhort, what a circle a poor clergyman of the church of England is to run through, before he can be legally poffeffed of a living at this day and which I must have run through myfelf, before I could have been poffefs'd of the living of Penfehurst, fome time fince offered me, had I accepted it, of which hereafter, take this doleful catalogue, in the words of Sir Simon Degg, in his Parfon's Counsellor, printed 1676, chap. vi. as follows.

"The fixth chapter fhews what a clerk is to do "before, at, and after his admiffion, inftitution, and "induction, to make him a compleat parfon.

ἐσ

"No man at this day, fays the author, is ca"pable to be a parfon, vicar, &c. before he is a prieft in orders; which he cannot be before he "is twenty-four years of age, as has been faid; "and if any person fhall be admitted, instituted, "and inducted into any living, before he is in

holy orders, his admiffion, inftitution, and in"duction are void, by the late Act of Uniformity. "Secondly, he muft make his fubfcription [to the "thirty-nine Articles, &c.] according to the faid "act; and have a certificate from the bishop, &c. "under his hand and feal, that he hath fo done; "and then, within two months after he is in"ducted, he muft, upon fome Sunday or Lord's"Day, during divine fervice, (that is, after fome 66 part of the divine fervice of the church for that day appointed is read, and before the whole is "finished,) read the thirty-nine Articles of Religion, "in the parish church, &c. into which he fhall

be inducted, and declare his unfeigned affent

" and

"and confent to all that is therein contain'd; and "he muft likewife, within two months actual' "poffeffion of fuch benefice, &c. (which is in"tended within two months of induction, or in«ftallation, &c.) read The Book of Common-Prayer

(that is, the whole fervice of the church ap"pointed for that day, as it is there appointed,) "and likewife declare his affent and confent to all' "the matters and things therein contained, in thèse' "words, I A. B. do declare my unfeigned affent "and confent to all and every thing contained in "and prescribed, &c. by the book intituled, The "Book of Common-Prayer, and Adminiftration of "the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of "the Church, according to the Ufe of the Church of "England; together with the Pfalter or Pfalms of "David, pointed as they are to be fung or faid in "Churches, and the form or manner of making, "ordaining, and confecrating of bishops, priests, " and deacons.

"And if any parfon, vicar, &c. fail in the "doing of any of these things beforementioned, "or any of those be neglected, the church be"comes void; and the clerk that makes fnch fai"lure, in cafe he fhall fue for his tythes, or any

other church duty, or other thing belonging "to the church; if the defendant infift upon it, "must prove the doing of all these things

"And it is to be obferved, that the parfons, vicars, "&c. muft, upon the acceptance of every new "living or ecclefiaftical preferment, within this "law, repeat all these things; for the perfor"mance of all these things, upon the taking of 66 one living, will not fatisfy for any other.

"I fhall give my reverend clergymen there"fore this caution, if any of them have accepted <c any ecclefiaftical preferments, and have negli"gently omitted any of these things, and that 66 thereby