THE KING GRANTS A COMMISSION FOR REFORMING CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

All the clamour that was raised against the king could not divert him from prosecuting the scheme of comprehension. He granted a commission under the great seal to ten bishops and twenty dignitaries of the church, authorizing them to meet from time to time in the Jerusalem chamber, to prepare such alterations of the liturgy and the canons, and such proposals for the reformation of ecclesiastical courts as might most conduce to the good order, edification, and uniting of the church, and tend to reconcile all religious differences among the protestant subjects of the kingdom. A cry was immediately raised against this commission, as an ecclesiastical court illegal and dangerous. At their first meeting the authority of the commission was questioned by Sprat, bishop of Rochester, who retired in disgust, and was followed by Mew of Winchester, and the doctors Jane and Aldrich. These were averse to any alteration of the forms and constitution of the church in favour of an insolent and obstinate party, which ought to have been satisfied with the toleration they enjoyed. They observed that an attempt to make such alteration would divide the clergy, and bring the liturgy into disesteem with the people, as it would be a plain acknowledgment that it wanted correction. They thought they should violate the dignity of the church by condescending to make offers which the dissenters were at liberty to refuse; and they suspected some of their colleagues of a design to give up episcopal ordination—a step inconsistent with their honour, duty, oaths, and subscriptions.