A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

IV. We shall also, with all faithfulness, endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be incendiaries, malignants, or evil instruments, by hindering the reformation of religion, dividing the king from his people, or one of the kingdoms from another, or making any faction or parties amongst the people, contrary to this League and Covenant; that they may be brought to public trial, and receive condign punishment, as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve, or the supreme judicatories of both kingdoms respectively, or others having power from them for that effect, shall judge convenient.

V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed peace between these kingdoms, denied in former times to our progenitors, is, by the good providence of GOD, granted unto us, and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments; we shall each one of us, according to our place and interest, endeavour that they may remain conjoined in a firm peace and union to all posterity; and that justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof, in manner expressed in the precedent article.

VI. We shall also, according to our places and callings, in this common cause of religion, liberty, and peace of the kingdoms, assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant, in the maintaining and pursuing thereof; and shall not suffer ourselves, directly or indirectly, by whatsoever combination, persuasion, or terror, to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed union and conjunction, whether to make defection to the contrary part, or to give ourselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the glory of GOD, the good of the kingdom, and honour of the King; but shall, all the days of our lives, zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition, and promote the same, according to our power, against all lets and impediments whatsoever; and, what we are not able ourselves to suppress or overcome, we shall reveal and make known, that it may be timely prevented or removed: All which we shall do as in the sight of God.

And, because these kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against GOD, and his Son Jesus Christ, as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers, the fruits thereof; we profess and declare before GOD and the world, our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins, and for the sins of these kingdoms: especially, that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the gospel; that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof; and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts, nor to walk worthy of him in our lives; which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us: and our true and unfeigned purpose, desire, and endeavour for ourselves, and all others under our power and charge, both in publick and in private, in all duties we owe to GOD and man, to amend our lives, and each one to go before another in the example of a real reformation; that the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation, and establish these churches and kingdoms in truth and peace. And this Covenant we make in the presence of ALMIGHTY GOD, the Searcher of all hearts, with a true intention to perform the same, as we shall answer at that great day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed; most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end, and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people, and encouragement to other Christian churches, groaning under, or in danger of, the yoke of antichristian tyranny, to join in the same or like association and covenant, to the glory of GOD, the enlargement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and the peace and tranquillity of Christian kingdoms and commonwealths.

LECTURER. Long prior to the Reformation persons were appointed to read lectures, chiefly on the schoolmen, before the universities. Hence they were called lecturers. From the universities they passed into monasteries, and eventually into parishes: either upon the settlement of a stipend to support them, or upon voluntary contribution of the inhabitants under the licence of the bishop. The lecture in parish churches was nothing more than a sermon, extra ordinem, as being no part of the duty of the incumbent, and therefore delivered at such times as not to interfere with his ministrations. Although lecturers were continued after the Reformation, and we read of Travers being evening lecturer at the Temple in the reign of Elizabeth, the first injunction respecting them is in the canons of James I. In the year 1604 directions for their conduct were issued by Archbishop Bancroft; and in 1622 the Primate Abbot enjoined that no lecturer “should preach upon Sundays and holy-days in the afternoon, but upon some part of the catechism, or some text taken out of the creed, Lord’s Prayer, or ten commandments.” At this period they do not appear to have been numerous; but, about the year 1626, their numbers were much increased by twelve persons having been legally empowered to purchase impropriations belonging to laymen, with the proceeds of which they were allowed to provide parishes, where the clergy were not qualified to preach, with preaching ministers, or lecturers. The power thus granted to the feoffees of the impropriations, ostensibly for the good of the Church, was soon abused, and made a handle of by Puritanism in the appointment of unorthodox preachers. Dr. Heylyn, in an act sermon, preached at Oxford, first pointed out the evil of this new society. Accordingly, in 1633, Archbishop Laud procured a bill to be exhibited by the attorney-general in the Court of Exchequer against the feoffees, wherein they were charged with diverting the charity wherewith they were intrusted to other uses, by appointing a morning lecturer, a most violent Puritan, as Clarendon also witnesses, to St. Antholin’s church, London, where no preacher was required; and generally nominating nonconformists to their lectureships. These charges having been established, the court condemned their proceedings, as dangerous to the Church and State, at the same time pronouncing the gifts and feoffments made to such uses illegal; and so dissolved the same, confiscating the money to the king’s use. But this judgment does not appear to have had the desired effect; since we find the bishop of Norwich, three years afterwards, (1636,) certifying that lecturers were very frequent in Suffolk, and many of them set up by private gentlemen, without either consulting the ordinary, or observing the canons and discipline of the Church. The lecturers in the country were also said to run riot, and live wide of discipline. In 1637, therefore, Laud proceeded with increased rigour against them, and obtained the king’s instructions for prohibiting all lecturers preaching, who refused to say the Common Prayer in hood and surplice—a vestment which, being considered by them as a rag of Popery, they refused to wear. So there seems every reason to coincide with the bishop of London in his charge of 1842, wherein he assigns the origin of the disuse of the surplice in preaching to these lecturers. They also introduced the afternoon sermon, and thus, according to Archbishop Wake, were the first to bring into disrepute the venerable custom of catechising. When in 1641 the revenues of archbishops and bishops, deans and chapters, were confiscated, the advowsons and impropriations belonging to them were employed in providing lecturers, who, under the garb of superior sanctity, “turned religion into rebellion, and faith into faction.” For these, their innovations, their avarice, and their faction, lecturers have been somewhat roughly handled by Selden in his Table Talk.

After the Restoration their evil influence was sufficiently guarded against by the Act of Uniformity, which enacts that no person shall be allowed or received as a lecturer, unless he declare his unfeigned assent and consent to the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Book of Common Prayer, and to the use of all the rites, ceremonies, forms, and orders therein contained. It is further enacted, that prayers shall always be said before a lecture is delivered. Archbishop Sheldon (1665) issued the last orders concerning lectures and lecturers. The incumbent may at any time prevent a lecturer preaching by occupying the pulpit himself. Lecturers of parishes are now generally elected by the vestry or principal inhabitants, and are usually afternoon preachers. There are also lecturers in some cathedral churches, as the divinity lectureship at St. Paul’s, now a sinecure, (see Prælector,) and several lectureships have been founded by private individuals, such as Lady Moyer’s, Mr. Boyle’s, the Bampton at Oxford, and the Hulsean at Cambridge. The act 7 & 8 Vict. c. 59, intituled “An act for better regulating the offices of lecturers and parish clerks,” authorizes the bishop, with the consent of the incumbent, to require a lecturer or preacher to perform such clerical or ministerial duties, as assistant curate, or otherwise, within the parish, &c., as the bishop, with the assent of the incumbent, shall think proper. The following papers are to be sent to the bishop by a clergyman to be licensed.

1. A certificate of his having been duly elected to the office, or an appointment under the hand and seal of the person or persons having power to appoint; on the face of which instrument it should be shown by whom and in what manner the office had been vacated.

2. A certificate signed by the incumbent of the church, of his consent to the election or appointment.

3. Letters of orders, deacon, and priest.

4. Letters testimonial, by three beneficed clergymen. (See form No. 3, for Stipendiary Curates, adding “and moreover we believe him in our consciences to be, as to his moral conduct, a person worthy to be licensed to the said lectureship.”)