med to authorise, and which were scarcely unfrequent
even in the days of Heylyn and Cosin, they were not disposed to insist
upon what would in their day be considered as innovations in the
direction of Rome. Better to widen that breach rather than in any way to
lessen it. So, too, with men of a different tone of mind, who, so far as
their own tastes went, disliked all ceremonial and thought it rather an
impediment than a help to devotion, and who would have been glad if the
Church of England had approximated more closely to the habits of
Presbyterians and Independents. They, too, in the early part of the last
century felt, for the most part, they must be cautious, if they would be
loyal to the communion to which they had yielded allegiance. If they
indulged in Presbyterian fancies, they might perchance bring in the
Presbyterians, an exchange which they were not the least prepared to
make. The Dutch propensities of William, the ratification of Scotch
Presbyterianism in the reign of Anne, the frequent alarm cry of Church
in danger, made it seem quite possible that if civil dissensions should
arise, Presbyterianism might yet lift up its head and find a wealthier
home in the deaneries and rectories of England. And so they were more
inclined to control their sympathies in that direction than they might
have been under other circumstances. It may be added, the extreme
vehemence, not to say virulence of party feeling, in ecclesiastical as
in political matters, which prevailed in England so long as a decisive
and universally recognised settlement was yet in suspense, obliged both
High and Low Churchmen to keep tolerably close to the strict letter of
the Act of Uniformity. When so much jealousy and mutual animosity were
abroad, neither the one nor the other could venture, without raising a
storm of opprobrium, to test to what extreme limits its utmost
elasticity could be strained.

Notwithstanding such considerations, differences in religious opinion
within the Church, especially as to those points which the Puritan
controversy had brought into prominence, did not fail to find expression
in the modes and usages of worship. Something has been already said on
this point, in speaking of the furniture of churches, the decoration of
the sanctuary, and the observance of fasts and festivals. What has now
to be added relates rather to varieties in the manner of conducting
services.

The rubric which occupies so prominent a place in our