and praises. For this he always thirsted and prayed: but Almighty
God did not grant it; for his admission into this place was the very
beginning of those oppositions and anxieties, which till then this
good man was a stranger to; and of which the Reader may guess by what
follows.

[Sidenote: Character of the times]

[Sidenote: Hopes under Elizabeth]

In this character of the times, I shall by the Reader's favour, and
for his information, look so far back as to the beginning of the reign
of Queen Elizabeth; a time, in which the many under pretended titles
to the Crown, the frequent treasons, the doubts of her successor, the
late Civil War, and the sharp persecution for Religion that raged to
the effusion of so much blood in the reign of Queen Mary, were fresh
in the memory of all men; and begot fears in the most pious and wisest
of this nation, lest the like days should return again to them, or
their present posterity. And the apprehension of these dangers, begot
a hearty desire of a settlement in the Church and State; believing
there was no other probable way left to make them sit quietly under
their own vines and fig-trees, and enjoy the desired fruit of their
labours. But time, and peace, and plenty begot self-ends: and these
begot animosities, envy, opposition, and unthankfulness for those very
blessings for which they lately thirsted, being then the very utmost
of their desires, and even beyond their hopes.

[Sidenote: Three parties]

This was the temper of the times in the beginning of her reign; and