And here I shall make a stop; and, that the Reader may the better judge of what follows, give him a character of the times and temper of the people of this nation, when Mr. Hooker had his admission into this place; a place which he accepted, rather than desired:  and yet here he promised himself a virtuous quietness, that blessed tranquillity which he always prayed and laboured for, that so he might in peace bring forth the fruits of peace, and glorify God by uninterrupted prayers 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 thus it continued too long; for those very people that had enjoyed the desires of their hearts in a Reformation from the Church of Rome, became at last so like the grave, as never to be satisfied, but were still thirsting for more and more; neglecting to pay that obedience, and perform those vows, which they made in their days of adversities and fear:  so that in short time there appeared three several interests, each of them fearless and restless in the prosecution of their designs:  they may for distinction be called, the active Romanists, the restless Non-conformists,—­of which there were many sorts,—­and the passive peaceable Protestants.  The counsels of the first considered and resolved on in Rome; the second both in Scotland, in Geneva, and in divers selected, secret, dangerous Conventicles, both there, and within the bosom of our own nation:  the third pleaded and defended their cause by established laws, both Ecclesiastical and Civil:  and if they were active, it was to prevent the other two from destroying what was by those known Laws happily established to them and their posterity.