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THE

PRAYER BOOK UNDER KING CHARLES THE FIRST.ARCHBISHOP COMPILATION OF A BOOK OF

LAUD. THE

CANONS AND A PRAYER BOOK FOR THE SCOTTISH CHURCH.THE PRAYER BOOK DURING THE REBELLION.

DR ABBOT, Archbishop of Canterbury, died in the year 1663. He had been very remiss in upholding the discipline of the church, and great laxity prevailed. In consequence of this, it was a hard task for his successor to set to rights again what Abbot had pulled down, and the endeavour to do this created a dislike to Archbishop Laud, who was appointed to succeed Abbot. Not only had Abbot allowed the discipline of the church to relax, but he had also taken no care that the material churches themselves should be kept in decent repair; and the endeavours of Dr. Laud to re-establish good order in the former, and to obtain money for restoring the latter, made him an object almost of dislike to a people who for so long had been under no restraint. Such was the state of things in England when Dr. Laud was chosen to fill the see of Canterbury. Laud was a man of great learning and piety, and

devotedly attached to the ritual and discipline of the church in England. King Charles I. was no less attached to the English church; and it was alwayshis eager desire to introduce it into Scotland, his native land. It was for this purpose principally that he visited that country in 1633, the year of Abbot's death.

IN THE year 1635, a book of canons for the use of the Scottish church was published. The Liturgy was first used in Scotland in 1637. The book of canons displeased the Scotch people, and, so prejudiced their minds, that they were quite determined not to like the Liturgy which was being compiled, whatever it might be. This Liturgy was compiled principally from the first Prayer Book of King Edward the Sixth. Some few deviations however were made: the principal were as follow :

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THE WORD Presbyter was substituted for priest-this was a weakness, for, (as a good poet, but not so good a churchman or subject, said,) "new Presbyter's but old priest writ long." In the communion and baptismal offices some important alterations were made. The use of the Apocryphal books was entirely left off, with one exception, and two of the lessons appointed for All Saint's day. Some Scotch and Irish Saints were added to the kalendar. The new Translation of the Bible only was to be used: and some few others.

ON THE twenty-third day of July, 1637, the Scotch Liturgy was first used. Such disturbances were occasioned by the madness of the infuriated mob, that the Service was with difficulty performed; and the bishops and clergy had not a little trouble in reaching their homes in safety. Thus was the Liturgy received in Scotland: and thus was the way paved for the terrible Rebellion which ended in the Martyrdom of King Charles. Not long after, the Scotch army invaded England, the Covenant, or Puritanical oath to abolish what these fanatics called " Popery and Prelacy" was taken, and the

first seeds of the Rebellion were sown. On the third day of November, 1640, the Long Parliament assembled at Westminster; a Parliament which professed itself to be the advocate of freedom, but which was in reality the handmaid of the basest and most intolerable tyranny. Before this Parliament had been in office two months they commenced their rebellion by fairly charging Archbishop Laud with high treason. Failing however to prove this, they proceeded by way of attainder; and after having subjected Laud to imprisonment and gross insult, they crowned their wickedness by abolishing he church and the Prayer Book-martyring the Archbishop and their anointed King. Before, however, they quite abolished the Prayer Book, the Parliament chose certain persons on the Puritan side and certain members of the church to hold conultation with respect to the church and the Prayer Book. These divines would have made several alterations in the Rubrics, and the ceremonies contained in the Prayer Book, but the whole matter was put an end to by the measure which was brought forward in the House of Commons against Deans and Chapters.

DISTURBANCES and interruptions during the services were now common throughout England; the people being encouraged in these disorders by the example of the Parliament. The lords, (who were altogether very much better affected towards their king and church,) issued a proclamation against these disturbances. This, which should have been issued by the king himself, nevertheless met his warm approval: soon after the lords issued a second proclamation enjoining the use of the Prayer Book unaltered. The House of Commons now made an attack upon the Episcopal Bench, and demanded the exclusion of the bishops from the House of Lords. The mob coincided with them in this measure; and so great was the tumult that the bishops could but with difficulty reach the House. In the early part of the year 1642, the Bill against

the Bishops passed the lords, and the king was pressed upon to give his consent. But the King was too yielding: the more he gave way, the more the Parliament expected, until he was actually a mere nothing, and all his authority and prerogative were taken frem him.

THE BLOODY war between Charles and his rebellious subjects commenced on the twenty-second day of August, 1642. They now commenced a regular attack upon the Book of Common Prayer, and convened what they would fain have called "The Assembly of Divines." Some members of the church were chosen, some very judicious ones, Sanderson, Featly, Usher, &c., but out of the hundred and twenty, one hundred only were friends of the Catholic church. Very few of the members of the church attended; and Sanderson published his reasons against taking the covenant. But their reformation of the Prayer Book turned out to be nothing more or less than reducing the discipline of the Church of England, to that of the sect, which calls itself the Kirk of Scotland. Having done this, they published in the stead of the Prayer Book, " A Directory for the Publique Worship of GOD: " ejected about seven thousand of the regular Clergy: suffered all manner of mechanics and fanatics to occupy their pulpits: sequestered their estates and livings; and, as they thought, destroyed the Church of Christ. But, though oppressed and kept under, the gates of Hell prevailed not quite against her, and in the next reign she was again restored, simultaneously with the king.

THE USURPER Cromwell now gave way to the most revolting tyranny and cruelty, All who used the Prayer Book were sentenced to be ejected from their livings but some nevertheless persisted in retaining it. Amongst these, the most celebrated were Dr. Hackett, and Dr. Sanderson.

F. C. H.

MEMOIR OF DR. ROWLAND TAYLOR, MARTYR. THERE WERE few men at the time of the great Reformation, when our forefathers began to see and feel the iniquitous doings of that Mother of Harlots, the Church of Rome, that were more useful or more industrious in reforming the Church, than was Dr. Rowland Taylor, who had read (which was rare in those days) all St. Augustine's works, S. Cyprian, Gregory Nazianzen, Eusebius, Origen, and divers other fathers. He professed the civil law; and had read over the canon law; as he told the Lord Chancellor Gardiner, when in his scorn and rage together he called him an ignorant beetlebrow. Archbishop Cranmer made use of him in his affairs; and he was one of those who were joined with him in reforming the laws relating to the church, both in the days of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. After serving the church for some time as as a layman, and afterwards as a preacher, he was called in the days of Mary to suffer martyrdom, for that truth which it was his aim and desire to see established throughout the length and breadth of the land; with that cheerfulness of manner which gave offence to some who thought he ought to have been grave and solemn, but as Fuller says; "The same devotion hath different looks in several martyrs, frowning in stern Hooper, weeping in meek Bradford, and smiling constantly in pleasant Taylor." The following memoir is chiefly compiled from the works of Strype, and Foxe's Martyrs.

DR. ROWLAND TAYLOR was born in Northumberland, in the town of Rothbury, but of the year of his birth, and of his early life, I have not been able to get any information. He was bred at Cambridge, and became head of Borden Hostle, near Caius College, where he commenced doctor of laws. While at Cambridge he became acquainted with Dr. Turner,

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