THE PETITION OF THE INHABITANTS OF Istleworth in the county of Middlesex, against William Grant, Minister of the said Parish: whereunto is added one and twenty Articles against the said Minister by his Parishioners, presented to the Honourable House of Commons.  
London printed. 1641.   

TO THE honourable THE KNIGHTS, CITIZENS, AND burgesses OF THE House of Commons.  
The humble Petition of the Parishioners of the Parish of Istleworth in the county of Middlesex.  
Sheweth,  
THat the Parish of Istleworth aforesaid is very populous, and full of Gentry and Citizens, and hath for these forty yeares last past had several Lecturers there maintained at their own charge. And of late one Master William Iemmet, Chaplen to the right Honourable the earl of Northumberland, a learned Divine, and of approved life and conversation, who hath been for these fourteen yeares licenced by the chancellor for our Lecturer, and accepted for such by reverend learned doctors, Prebends of Windsor, successively Vicars of Istleworth aforesaid, until of late one Master William Grant, Chaplen to the Bishop of gloucester, by the procurement of the Archbishop of Canterbury is become the Vicar there, who hath put out the said Master Iemmet, and in his place employed one Master Bisield, a man of a very scandalous life to be Lecturer there, until he heard the Parishioners were preferring a Petition to the Parliament against them both. The said Master Grant, being also a man erroneous in opinion, scandalous in life, an exactor of undue Fees, wholly unfit for that sacred Function, as will appear in the following particulars, here humbly offered to your grave considerations, All which your Petitioners are ready to make good.  

And do therefore most humbly pray, that the said Master Grant may be removed, and such order taken, that a faithful Ministry may be again established amongst us, as formerly: which we humbly conceive will not be so long as he continueth Vicar there, no faithful or worthy Minister being willing to be Lecturer under him: the redress of which we humbly crave of this honourable Assembly: And for it shall humbly pray, &c.    

FIrst, that Master Grant hath ever since the Faste-day in july last, put out the said Master Iemmet from being Lecturer, though himself confesseth that he hath nothing against his life and conversation, but that he did it that he might root out the Puritans there: and notwithstanding that the same Master Iemmet hath many small children, most of them bread in the same Parish.  
2. That Master Grant did promise Master barrel( being Churchwarden)( in the word of a Priest) that if the said Master barrel would promise to pay him ten pounds a year( which accordingly was done) then the said Master Iemmet should be received again to be Lecturer, and added this Execration, Let this wine never pass through me, taking the glass, and drinking it off, if I make not good this promise: yet nevertheless he put him out as aforesaid within six or eight weeks after that promise and execration.  
3. That Master Grant putteth holinesse in places, and therefore threatened to present the said Master barrel, being Churchwarden, for coming once within the Rail about the Communion Table, for to receive the money which was collected at the Sacrament, and to put it into the poores Box, according to the rubric, saying, none must come there but the Priest, for that it was holy ground.  
4. That the said Master Grant boweth to the Table when he goeth to it to say his second Service, and at all other times, as often as he goeth by it, and also when the word Iesus is name, though his face be towards the West( when his Curate names that word) yet he then turns to the Table, or to the East, and boweth himself.  
5. That being desired by the Churchwardens to forbear reading the second Service at the Communion Table, he answered he would not do it to please the Puritans, and that he dares not do otherwise, for if it should be  told the Archbishop, all the friends he had should not be able to persuade the said Archbishop but that he was a favourer of the Puritans.  
6. That he hath affirmed, that the marrying of the Clergy, is the undoing of the Clergy.  
7. That he hath said, that it will never be well with the Church of England until Confession be set up in it.  
8. That he hath spoken against the Doctrines of Predestination.  
9. That he hath affirmed that Pictures are Lay-mens books, and that it is lawful to have them in Churches and chapels, and hath desired the Churchwarden to set up the Picture of a Saint in the chancel, and that he carrieth to Church with him a Testament full of Crucifixes and Pictures.  
10. That he hath affirmed that he had rather hear an Organ( ten to one) in the Church than singing of psalms, which scoffingly he called Hopkins his jigges, and commanded the clerk not to read them in the Church, so that the unlearned could not sing, and further threatened to present the Churchwarden, if he would not present one who on Sunday red the psalm to one that stood nere him.  
11. That he useth very unbecoming speeches in his Sermons, as speaking of some Popish tenants, he said, mary as good lucke is, we have the Scripture against them; and at an another time, of the devils temptations, mary as good lucke was, God was stronger than the devil.  
12. That he calleth the book of Martyrs, A book of lies.  
13. That he said, that all good fellowship was laid aside in the Parish, but he will bring it in again, and maintain it, and would have Wine and Tobacco for all that would come to his vicarage house on sundays after Prayers, and he doth make it good, harbouring there at such times, the deboist sort tippling.  
14. That he hath said, That the Sabbath day is no more than another day, and that Christmas day is an higher day than the Sabbath day, and that it is a greater day than all the Sabbaths in the year, and he also maintains the book of sports.  
15. That he will not suffer any to pray for the sick in the Pulpit, but useth the prayer appointed for visiting the sick.  
16. That he is an ordinary Gamester at Cards, sitting up until two or three of the clock in the morning.  
17. That when one preaching there reproved soul-murdering Ministers, the said M. Grant said, That if he had been as nere the Pulpit as the Bishop of lincoln was to Doctor Heylin, he would have pulled him out of the Pulpit.  
18. That we shall have no Lecturer if we will not take such a man as he will put in, and that if we will not be so contented, we shall be content with one Sermon in a month, that he will preach.  
19. That he takes away part of the Clerkes wages, and gives it to a boy that rubs his Horses heels.  
20. That he exacts money for attendance upon Funerals, and other undue Fees, four or five times as much as hath been within these seven years, challenging and taking by force money which is due to the Churchwardens for the time being, for Burials in the Church and Church-porch.  
21. That and receiveth the money collected at the Sacrament, and saith, That it is money offered, and therefore doth belong to him being Priest there.  
FINIS.