Note 25 — SPECIMEN OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE. (continued 2)

In 1603, when the king heard, at Hampton-Court, the bishops’ dispute against Dr Reynolds, Dr Sparks, Mr Knewstubs, and Mr Chadderton, James, infinitely better skilled in the subtleties of polemical divinity, than in the arts of ruling a great kingdom, threw his influence into the scale of episcopacy with such ingenuity, that even the pious Whitegift, then primate of England, did not hesitate to avow his persuasion, that “the king spoke by the very spirit of God.” It was therefore no wonder, that Dr Thomas Sparks, although so learned as to be called the Pillar of Puritanism, and so zealous a despiser of forms, as to appear in a Turkey merchant’s gown at the conference, instead of canonicals, should be so melted and overcome by the king’s eloquence and argument, as to become, in future, a strict conformist. He died in 1616, after having experienced the favour of James, which indeed was due to a proselyte of his own making. Sparks wrote several tracts in favour of the establishment; as, “A Brotherly persuasion to Unity and Uniformity,” &c.