1

ing up the Degrees and Estates allowed in his Time, could not find in the Church of Chrift. And I affure you, my Lord, that it will better ftand with the Maintenance of Chriftian Religion, that in the Stead of the fame Prebendaries were twenty Divines, at ten Pound apiece, like as it is appointed at Oxford and Cambridge, and twenty Students in the Tongues and French, to have ten Marks apiece. For if fuch a Number be not there Refident, to what Intent fhould fo many Readers be there? And furely it were great Pity, that so many good Lectures fhould be there read in vain. For as for your Prebendaries, they cannot attend to apply for making of good Cheer. And as for your twenty Children in Grammar, their Mafter and their Ufher be daily otherwife occupied in the Rudiments of Grammar, than that they have Space 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 Lois 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 muft leave the Reading of profane 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 fhould make an erudite LecAnd there, in mine Opinion, it would be Office

ture.

Office for two fundry learned Men. Now concerning the Dean and others to be elected into the College, I fhall 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 hole Number the King's Highnefs may chufe the moft 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 Soberness, hath done unto the King's Majefty as good Service, I dare fay, as any Prieft in England. And yet his Grace daily remembreth all others that do him Service, this Man only except; who never had yet, befides his gracious Favour, any Promotion at his Highness's Hands. Wherefore if it will pleafe his Majefty to put him in the Dean's. Room, I do not doubt but that he fhould fhew Light to all the Deans and Minifters 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 Premifes which I refer unto the King's Graces Judgment, to be allowed or difallowed at his Highness's Pleasure. Sending unto your Lordship, herewithall, the Bill again, according to your Requeft. Thus, my Lord, moft heartily fare you well.

At Croyden, the 29th Day of November [1539.]

M

Your own ever affured,

T. CANTUARIEN.

But

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 Story of my own Knowledge. When I was once talking with the Lord Chief Justice King, one brought up among the Diffenters at Exeter, under a moft Religious, Christian, 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 Scruples. [Strange Doctrine in the Mouth of one bred up among Diffenters! whofe whole Diffent from the legally eftablished Church was built on Scruples.] I reply'd, that I was forry to hear his Lordship say 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, "Sup

pofe God Almighty fhould be as just in the next "World, as my Lord Chief Juftice is in this, "" where are we then?" To which he made no Anfwer. And to which the late Queen Caroline added, when I told her the Story, Mr. Whifton, no Anfwer 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, A Bill for the more effectual Suppreffion of Blafphemy and Profanenefs, fuppofed to be written by the Bishop of London, be not quite miftaken, " That thofe of the 68 Clergy,

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"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 "moft certain; because the Teft is Part of the thirty-nine Articles: And it is an avowed Prin

66

ciple among them, that those Articles may lawfully and confcienciously be fubscribed in any "Senfe, in which they themselves, by their own Interpretation, can reconcile them to Scripture; "without Regard to the Meaning and Intention,

either of the Perfons who firft compiled them, "or who now impofe them.-'Tis alfo faid here, "That this Method of Subfcribing 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 professedly maintain "in their common Converfation: That feveral of "them have actually subscribed, 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 "Subscribe." Now tho' this is faid in much too general a Manner, and both Mr. Emlyn and myself always, and Dr. Clarke and Mr. Jackson after fome Time, have refused all Preferments that require that Subfcription: Not to name others within my 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,

M 2

Practice, to approve of the Lord King's grand Expedient; Not to lose their Ufefulness for Scruples.

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 muft have run through myself, before I could have been poffefs'd of the Living of Penfebürft, 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 Parfons Counsellor, printed 1676, Chap. vi. as follows.

"The fixth Chapter fhews what a Clerk is to "do before, at, and after his Admiffion, Inftitu"tion, and Induction, to make him a compleat› "Parfon.

"No Man at this Day, fays the Author, is ca

pable to be a Parfon, Vicar, &c. before he is at "Prieft in Orders; which he cannot be before he "is twenty-four Years of Age, as has been faid; "" and if any Perfon fhall be Admitted, Inftituted,. " and Inducted into any Living, before he is in Holy Orders, his Admiffion, Institution, and "Induction are void, by the late Act of Unifor"mity. Secondly, he muft make his Subfcrip"tion [to the thirty-nine Articles, &c.] accord

ing to the faid Act; and have a Certificate from. "the Bishop, &c. under his Hand and Seal, "that he hath fo done; and then, within two "Months after he is Inducted, he muft, upon "fome Sunday or Lord's Day, during Divine "Service, (that is, after fome Part of the Divine

"Service