Can we wonder at the terrific power of the Popish priesthood, and at the abject submission in which they hold the souls of their votaries, when such a doctrine concerning priestly prerogatives is put forth in the very bosom of Protestant Christendom; while the great author of such a scheme of despotism and superstition continues to be held in the highest reverence, and retains for two centuries, and more, the epithet of " The Judicious," given him by one of England's worst, weakest, and meanest kings?

Hooker's biographer notices with becoming exultation, that when Hooker's work was first printed, one of the Cardinals at Rome declared to Pope Clement VIII., "That though he had lately said he never met with an English book whose writer deserved the name of author, yet there now appeared a wonder to them, and it would be so to his Holiness, if it were in Latin; for a poor obscure English priest had writ four books of laws of Church Polity, and in a style that expressed so grave and such humble majesty, with clear demonstration of reason, that in all their reading they had not met with any that exceeded him." And the Pope, when he had heard the books of Hooker read, declared that "this man deserves indeed the name of authornothing is too hard for this man's understanding." It is to us no matter of wonder that Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity should meet with such favor at Rome.

It is well known how much Rome thinks of such "Holy mortifications" as fastings, flagellations, going barefoot, and wearing sackcloth. In some austerities of this sort Hooker also seems to have engaged to some purpose; for his biographer records, as one of the things for which Hooker is to be had in veneration, that "his body was worn out, not with age, but with study and holy mortifications."

Nor did Hooker seem to be altogether freed from all ideas of the efficacy of Auricular Confession and priestly Absolution. His biographer records, that " About one day before his death, Dr. Saravia, who knew the very secrets of his soul (for they were supposed to be confessors to each other), came to him, and after a conference of the benefit, necessity, and safety of the CHURCH'S ABSOLUTION, it was resolved that the Doctor should give him both that and the Sacrament the day following. To which the Doctor came, and after a short retirement and privacy, they returned to the company." Thus died Hooker, enveloped still in the fogs of the "necessity and safety" of auricular confession and priestly absolution! We wonder still less that Hooker should be in such esteem at Rome.

ed for us" (these Italics are his own), "and consequently we may not join ourselves to it" and he adds, "If they are right, we have corrupted this Holy ordinance; but if we are right, they have lost sight of its true nature."

These principles both of Church Polity and of doctrinal faith, were the principles against which the Puritans of that day were called to stand. They are the principles which are now once more raising their front, and with honied accents striving to win their way once more to the reverend acceptance of the world. Happy will it be, if the friends of freedom and of Christ, warned by the sad lessons of days that are past, take the alarm and stand manfully for the truth and for freedom before it shall be too late.

X.

KING JAMES I., AND THE GOING TO HOLLAND.

Change of James' Principles on his accession to the English throne. Hampton Court Conference. Hundred and forty-one Canons. Extrajudicial decision of the twelve Judges. Gathering of the Pilgrim Church. Flight to Holland.

KING JAMES, of Scotland, came to the throne of England, A. D. 1603. The prelates dreaded his accession, and spoke of it with apprehension as the coming of the "Scotch Misi." The Puritans entertained hopes of relief; for King James was not only a Presbyterian, but he had subscribed the solemn League and Covenant. He had, often and solemnly, declared his full conviction of the pre-eminent purity and excellence of the Church and worship of Scotland. Once standing in the General Assembly at Edinburgh, with his bonnet off and his hands lifted up to Heaven, he praised God that he was born in the time of the true light of the Gospel, and in such a place as to be king of such a Church, the sincerest [purest] kirk in the world. "The Church of Geneva," said he, "keep Pasche and Yule" [Easter and Christmas], "what have they for them? They have no institution. As for our neighbor kirk of England, their service is an evil said Mass in English; they want nothing of the Mass but the liftings. I charge you, my good ministers, doctors, elders, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to exhort the people to do the same."

While James was making these professions, he was at that very time "carrying on a correspondence with the English nobles and bishops, and promising to continue that very Liturgy which he derided as an ill-said Mass. The whole character of James was that of a false and lying prince: and he used to glory in his double dealing as the art and mystery of "kingcraft." After his arrival in England, he sank into drunkenness and low debauchery; and would yet from time to time with tears express his hopes, that " God would not impute unto him his infirmity." Queen Elizabeth and her courtiers saw through this shallow *Bogue and Bennett, p. 52.

monarch, and discovered "that he was either inclined to turn Papist, or to be of no religion."* Such was the man who was

now made head of the Church of England.

While James was on his way to take possession of the throne, a petition was presented to him, called the Millenary petition from being subscribed by nearly one thousand ministers ;-desiring the reformation of certain ceremonies and abuses of the Church. The University of Oxford came out against the petition. "Look," said they, "upon the reformed church abroad: whenever the desires of the petitioners take place, how ill it suits with the state of monarchy." They commended the present church establishment to the sovereign, as the great support of the crown, and calculated to support unlimited subjection. The heads of the University of Cambridge wrote a letter of thanks to the Oxonians; and bade the "poor pitiful Puritans" (whom they style homunciones miserrimi) "to answer their almost a thousand books in defence of the hierarchy, before they pretend to dispute before so learned and wise a king." The truth was, that the Puritans desired nothing more than a fair field to discuss the pretensions of the hierarchy; but if they wrote, their books were stopped by the censorship of the press; if they were suspected of uttering anything against the hierarchy, they were imprisoned or banished; and for an unpublished manuscript found in his possession, Penry had been hanged.

The king, however, to furnish himself with some pretext for his own apostasy from principles which he had so often avowed and so solemnly subscribed, or to give some color of regard to the millenary petition, and possibly to indulge himself with an opportunity of displaying his own theological lore, appointed a conference between himself and the two parties, at Hampton Court. James himself nominated nine bishops and about as many other dignitaries, and four Puritan divines to conduct the conference for their respective parties.

The first day of the conference, was between the king and bishops and deans alone; the Puritans being excluded. The king made a speech in commendation of the hierarchy of the Church of England, and congratulated himself that he was now come into the promised land; that he sat among grave and reverend men, and was not a king as formerly without a State. He assured them, that he had not called this assembly for any innovation; and declared, "That howsoever he had lived among the Puritans, yet since he was ten years old, he ever disliked their opinions; and as Christ said, though he lived among them, he was not of them."

At the next day's conference, four Puritan ministers were *Bp. Burnet, in Bogue and Bennett.

admitted. When Dr. Reynolds petitioned that the ground for confirmation might be examined, Bancroft fell upon his knees, and begged the king to stop the Doctor's mouth, according to an ancient canon, that schismatics are not to be heard against their bishops. The king at last settled the question by repeating his now favorite maxim, "No bishop, no king." With regard to the garments, the Puritan ministers ventured to express a doubt "whether the power of the Church could bind the conscience without impeaching Christian liberty." The king interrupted them at once : "As to the power of the Church in things indifferent," said his majesty, "I will not argue that point with you; but answer as kings in parliament, Le Roi s'avisera"-the king shall think of that "but as to liberty in ceremonies, I will have none of that; I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion, in substance and in ceremony; never speak more to that point, how far you are bound to obey."*

The Puritans desiring that the clergy might have liberty for assemblies once in three weeks, and that in rural deaneries they might have the liberty of prophesying [conference meetings], "the king broke out into a flame, and told the ministers they were aiming at a Scots' Presbytery: which," says he, "agrees with monarchy as well as God with the devil." Turning to the bishops, he put his hand to his heart, and said, "My lords, I may thank you that these Puritans plead for my supremacy; for if once you are out and they are in place, I know what would become of my supremacy; for-no bishop, no king." Then turning to Dr. Reynolds, and rising from his chair, the king said, "If this be all your party have to say, I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land, or else hang them, that is

Throughout the conference, the Puritan ministers were treated with brow-beating and insult. As the king grew hot against the Puritans, the bishops cheered him on with flatteries so gross as to have disgusted any other than one so weak and vain as King James. They broke out into exclamations of wonder at his wisdom; called him the Solomon of the age. Bancroft fell on his knees and said, "I protest my heart melteth for joy, that Almighty God of his signal mercy has given us such a king as from Christ's time has not been." The lord chancellor said, "He had never seen the king and priest so fully united in one person." The king was equally well pleased with himself, and wrote to a Scotsman, that he "had soundly peppered off the Puritans."

The third day of the conference, was between the king and the bishops and the dignitaries alone. The king defended the court of High Commission, the subscription to the Prayer-Book, and

*Neale.