6 5

MATTHEW VV R E N, D. D.

with the Consent of those Bishops who brought them from i Scotland, re-turn’d them to the King ; and his Majesty impatient to fee the good Work en-ter'd upon, without any other Ceremony (after having given his Royal Ap-probation) istiied out his Royal Proclamation for the due Observation ofthetin within his Kingdom of Scotland .

It was a fatal Inadvertency, that these Canons, neither before, nor afterthey were sent to the King, had been ever seen by the Assembly, or anyConvocation of the Clergy, which was so strictly obliged to the Observationof them ; nor so much as communicated to the Lords of the Council of thatKingdom ; it being almost impossible, that any new Discipline could be in-troduced into the Church, which would not much concern the Governmentof the State, and even trench upon, or refer to the municipal Laws of theKingdom.

It was, in the next Place, as strange, that Canons should be publiffi’d be-fore the Liturgy was prepared, (which was not ready in a Year after, orthereabouts) when three or four of the Canons were principally for the Ob-servation of, and punctual Compliance with the Liturgy; which all theClergy were to be sworn to submit to, and to pay all Obedience to whatwas enjoyn'd by it, before they knew what it contained. Whereas if theLiturgy had been first; publish’d with all due Circumstances, it is possible,that it might have found a belter Reception, and the Canons have been lessexamined.

■ It was -about the Month of July, in the Year 1637, that the Liturgy (afterit had been sent out of Scotland , and perused by the three Bishops in Eng-land [Laud, Juxton, and Wren, ] and then approval and confirm’d by theKing) was publiffi’d and appointed to be read in all the Churches. And inthis Particular, there was the lame affected and premeditated Omission, ashad been in the Preparation and Publication of the Canons ; the Clergy not atall consulted in it, and, which was more strange, not all the Bishops ac-quainted with it; which was less censured afterwards, when some of them re-nounced their Function, and became ordinary Presbyters, as soon as they sawthe Current of the Time. The Privy-council had no other Notice of it,than all the Kingdom had, the Sunday before, when it was declared, " That“ the next Sunday the Liturgy should be read;” by which they were the lessconcern’d to forelee, or prevent any Obstructions which might happen.

On the Sunday Morning appointed for reading the Liturgy, it was receivedin the Cathedral of Edinburgh, with Riot and Disorder, in Defiance of allAuthority ; and it fared no better in the other Churches of the City, but wasentertained by the seditious Rabble, with hollowing and Outcries; andthreatening the Men whose Office it was to read it, with bitter Execrationsagainst Bishops, and Popery.

The first Actors in these Tumults, and Confusions, were really of theDregs of the People, but soon after, more considerable Persons, and atkngth, some of the best Quality declared themselves of the Party againstthe Bishops ; united themselves by subscribing a Covenant; raised an Army,under the Obligation thereof, and commenced a Rebellion ; and this wastfie fitss Alarm England received towards any Trouble, -after it had enjoy’d* or so many Years the most uninterrupted Prosperity, in a full and plentifulPeace, that any Nation could be blessed with.

The Arch-biffiop of Canterbury , makes this Memorial in his Diary on RusliworthV

April 2g, 1638.-" The Tumults in Scotland, about the Service-book W 1 - Co! - Par >

u to be brought in, began July 23, 1637, and, continued increasing 'j®/

by Fits, and hath now brought that Kingdom in Danger. No Question,but there is a great Concurrence between them (meaning the Scotch Co-

S venanters)