CHARLES L

4i

pbservable, that the church of Rome and that chap.of England , being, both of them, lovers of form Ln>and ceremony and order, are more friends to 16 j 7 .prayer than preaching ; while the puritanicalsectaries , who find that the latter method ofaddress, being directed to a numerous audiencepresent and visible , is more inflaming andanimating, have always regarded it as the chiefpart of divine service. Such circumstances ,though minute, it may not be improper to trans-mit to posterity; that those, who are curious oftracing the history of the human mind, mayremark , how far its several singularities coincidein different ages.

Certain zealots had erected themselves intoa society for buying in of impropriations, andtransferring them to the church ; and great sumsof money had been bequeathed to the society forthese purposes. But it was soon observed, thatthe only use, which they made of their funds,was, to establish lectures in all the considerablechurches; men, who, without being subjectedto episcopal authority , employed themselvesentirely in preaching and spreading the fire ofpuritanism. Laud took care, by a decree, whichwas passed in the court of exchequer, and whichwas much complained of, to abolish this society,and to stop their progress ". It was, however,still observed , that , throughout England, the

" Rustiworth, vol. ii. p. i$o, 15 r. Whitlocke, p. 15.

History of the life and fuffessngs of Laud, p. j; 1, 313.