ABSTRACT
The first proposals on church government which the Assembly submitted to Parliament took the form of a Directory for Ordination. This was incorporated into a draft ordinance which laid down interim arrangements for ordaining ministers or Presbyters in the city of London. The Commons now proceeded to consider the proposed replacement for the Book of Common Prayer. On the face of it, the Directory of Worship was likely to receive a much easier passage than any proposals for the establishment of a Presbyterian system of government since it provided for a much plainer form of public worship than the existing liturgy while at the same time allowing some measure of discretion to the minister. For every man drives his own private way of Reformation and strives to hinder all other ways that are opposite to his way.’ Even the godly themselves had ‘lost much of the power of godliness in their lives.
