the heathen to the Lord; nor turn from idols to the true God; nor join themselves unto Him in the fellowship' of the gospel; nor have any communion together for their mutual edification and comfort, till some vagrant priest from Rome, or England, be sent unto them, to begin their church-matters with his service-book? And yet this would not serve the turn either, for he would be unto them a barbarian,' and they barbarians unto him. I Cor. xiv. 11. Some years must be spent before each could understand the other's language. Nay, if this were a true ground, That church-matters might not be begun without officers, it were impossible that such a people should ever either enjoy officers, or become a church; yea, I may safely add, that ever there should be in the world, after the universal visible apostacy of Antichrist, any true either church or officers... 'No man takes his honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as Aaron.' Heb. v. 4. Now, God calls no man, ordinarily, but by the church; for I suppose you will not deny but that the choice of officers is a church-matter, and not a matter of the world. And the church must choose none but such as of whose 'knowledge, zeal, and utterance, they have taken trial by the exercise of his gifts,' as you truly affirm elsewhere; and you will not say but this exercise of his gifts, after this manner and for this end, is a churchmatter. Whence it followeth, that both church-matters, yea, and churches also, may, and in cases, must be begun without officers. Yea, even where officers are, if they fail in their duties, the people may enterprise matters needful, howsoever you will have the minister the only primum movens, and will tie all to his fingers !"a One of Bernard's "Reasons" against "Popularity," but as is remarked, “in truth against Christian liberty," is-"It is most apparent that Christ ascending up, gave gifts' for preaching, administration of sacraments, and government, unto sorts of men, who are set out there, Eph. iv. 11, 12, and plainly distinguished from the other saints, the body of the church." Robinson answers at large, "Against this, hitherto, I take no great exception; though the apostle's meaning may be better laid down thus, That Christ Jesus, the King and Lord of his Church, hath set in it certain sorts and orders of officers, rightly fitted, and furnished with graces, for the reparation of the saints, and edification of his body, to the world's end.-This we affirm as loud as you, and with more comfort... You, in bringing it, have only lighted a candle whereby to discover your own nakedness.-You would conclude, . . That therefore no brethren out of office, may meddle with the reparation and edification of the saints, or church. I do acknowledge that only apostles, prophets, &c. by office, and as works of their ministry, are to look to the reparation and edification of the body; but, that the brethren, out of office, are discharged of those duties, I deny, any more than the rest of the servants' were of watching, though out of office, because 'the Porter' alone was, by office, to watch,' Mark xiii. 34, 37. Yea look, what is laid upon the officers in this place; after a more special manner, by virtue of their office,-that also is laid upon the rest of the brethren elsewhere, in the same words, to be performed in their places as a duty of love, for which they have not only liberty, but charge a P. 139. learning and abilities; was extremely dogmatical; and treated those who differed from him in opinion with much rudeness and scurrility: though some allowance must be made for the age in which he lived, in which that mode of writing was much more common among Divines and Scholars than it is at present."a A character of an opposite description in all respects to Broughton's, next claims our notice; and himself will, in pursuance of our plan, be made his own best narrator. We introduce, then, "The Recantation of a Brownist, or a Reformed Puritan. Written by one that hath altogether been led in the same erroneous Opinions for many years together; and thereupon banished this Realm: And now, since his Conversion, hath and doth approve the Holy Discipline by the Ancient Pastors, Doctors, and Elders,-which Disciplinarian Malecontents would obtrude upon our Church, -and hath found it far shorter than the Discipline used either in the Primitive Church, or in this our Church of England.-Lond. 1606." 4to. pp. 55, but not paged. This long, confused title, is followed by a dedication to Lord Charles Howard, by his "Lordship's most dutiful suppliant, Peter Fairlambe." He writes, "It may seem strange unto you, Rt. Hon. Lord, that I who, some eighteen years past, dwelling in Deptford Strand, was divers times brought before your Lordship for my contempt of our Church and the Discipline thereof, should now present unto you my Defence of the same; especially, considering how strongly I was that way seduced, for I was so peremptorily pursuaded that my Mother, this Church, was an harlot, that I could not be withdrawn in many years, although I conferred oft with divers Ministers in divers parts of England, as also, in my travels, with the best Ministers, in Dantzic and Denmark, and in the Dutch and French Churches in the Low Countries. "But our God. . did at last take those fogs and scales from my eyes,.. blessed be his Name for it: after I had returned into England from Barbary, and submitted myself to the Governors of our Church, who did use me more kindly than either I had deserved, or did expect. For the Rt. Rev. Father in God, Richard Bancroft, being then newly consecrated Lord Bishop of London, did show himself most loving and liberal to me: as did the father,' in the Gospel, to the lost sheep his son.' And the Rt. Worshipful Sir Edward Stanopd did forthwith give me a discharge, under seal, from all former warrants gone out for my apprehension. "Then I presently returned again into Barbary, not only to seek maintenance for my family, but also to see if God would use me as a means to draw from that Schism, either such as were in it before I first came there, or such as partly by my means were drawn into it. And I praise God, I failed not of my expectation. After this, came a "Chalmers' Gen. Biog. Dic., art. Broughton. b"As touching the Title of the book, it may well minister occasion unto Momus, with Æsop's dog to snarl at the shadow, but sure I am he cannot bite the substance; in which respect I deem you happy that could so cunningly deceive him." The Printer to the Author. • Luke xv. 22-24. d Stanhope; and see p. 160. thither this reverend Preacher with whom I had this dispute; in other respects, a most honest, religious, and worthy man he was;-for I am not, I praise God, like those stinging wasps that if a man descend [dissent] from them in any point, with never so good a reason, they straight brave him with the name of an apostate, an enemy to their truth; nay, it is well if he be not reputed an atheist!.. Now this gentleman, Master Bernhere, brought me commendations and a letter from some that had, before that, been my good friends. The effect was to assist him in setting up the Genevan or Scottish Presbytery; but when I made known to him my utter dislike of that kind of Discipline, as that which had given the Brownists their hold, then he drew me by Letters, from time to time, to this dispute; which so soon as it was made known I lost most of my old friends, to my utter undoing as it is fallen out since,-except God be more merciful to me than men have yet been;-for I being, even from my first looking after religion, drawn to affect that trouble-church device of New Discipline, did wholly associate myself with men of that mind, and was well employed by them: but since I left shooting in their bow, they have, at least some of them, not only withdrawn their own favour from me, but persuaded others to detest me. So that in truth I have just cause to give God thanks that, at this last change of Princes, their device did not prevail; for had it, I am persuaded, by things which I have observed, that the Courts of bloody Bonner, and Stephen Gardiner, might have given place to some of them. For to defame his quiet neighbour, the sooner should he have obtained an Elder's gown to cover all his precise hypocrisy: for, to borrow a speech of his most excellent Majesty, whom God preserve, I protest before the great God, that one shall not, or hardly, find among those that of late were called highland' or border-thieves" greater ingratitude, and more lies and vile slanders, than with these fanatic-spirited Reformers.'a "I did never purpose to publish this dispute; but because they have given out, in all places of this land, and out of it too, that I have so abused this Minister as did not become any Christian, and all that affect that Cause believed it,—I was advised both by an honorable personage, and by divers, no small friends to the New Discipline, to print it, who, having heard it, pitied to have heard me so oft abused for it, yet they are in mind that it will recover my credit again with all indifferent men, even of that sort. For, I do confess that many who have, and yet do, well affect that Discipline, deserve not the name of Puritans; for I am persuaded that thousands of them have honest hearts to God and man, although for a time, as I did, they stumble at this unhappy stone. I would some among them could so charitably conceive of such as withstand their weak device, and sometimes, for distinction' sake, use that name: but it is not so; for not long since, I heard an angry Preacher, out of a pulpit, affirm that whosoever called any of God's children Puritans, should be saved,'-what the devil was saved,—a hard sentence against the ancient and the present a King James's Works. Basilicon Doron. Bk. ii. p. 161. Churches of God, if a man might believe him; but, by his leave, it was the froth of a malecontent's zeal! "Now I most humbly beseech your Lordship to shroud this discourse under your honorable protection... I shall never forget to praise God, and be thankful to your Honor, for your exceeding Christian compassion towards me when I did deserve your Lordship's hard censure... From my house at Ratcliff, this 4th of October, 1606." Fairlambe's Epistle to the Christian Reader, begins thus; "Having been, heretofore, right courteous and friendly Reader, led into the Schism of Brownists, or Donatists, of England, by following and believing certain of our Preachers, who drew many into a course, under pretence of extraordinary zeal; the grounds whereof drove us into another far worse, God knows, namely, to that Separation from the Church of England:-being taught by the first sort, commonly called 'Puritans,' that the Ministry and Discipline of our Church is [are] antichristian; which, whosoever believeth, having a good conscience, cannot choose but fall into that Separation, as I did; and continue therein, until the grounds set forth by the first sort of Teachers be showed to be weak and unsound. .. Now I being, by the great mercy of God, after many miserable days spent in these courses, both by sea and land, and divers very hard imprisonments, as I deserved, to my great impoverishing,-brought into the bosom of this Church again :-I was well esteemed of by divers great favourites of the pretended Holy Discipline,a as a man fit to grace that human device. For they knew that I then could,—and yet can, if I would, as some do, dissemble for my belly's sake,--say as much for that device, as the most unlearned Artificer in this land could or can do. But I, not having learned their art, and the Jesuits', of Equivocation and Dissimulation, did plainly make known unto them that I utterly disliked that Discipline, as which had given the poor Brownists their hold; as I have proved, in the treatise following, very plainly.-I had no sooner made known my resolution, but I was censured by busy Reformers, who became my utter and cruel enemies; seeking to disgrace me, both at home and abroad, by all unlawful means and slanders;-as 'tis their use to deal with all them that, touching disciplinary courses, change their mind, and begin to have any liking of the present government established in our Church. 66 Travelling into Barbary, to seek maintenance for my wife and seven children, thither they sent word, that I had articled against two Churchwardens, for suffering certain Brownists to live in the parish with their children unbaptized, and that they were undone by me; which was, with the rest, a malicious untruth. For I, with a Preacher of mine acquaintance, searched all the offices in London, Alluding to Bancroft's "Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline, &c." 1593. Fairlambe has made much use of it in his Letter dated April, 1599; and has drawn his main positions out of Bancroft, with some force indeed as applied to Puritans; but wholly misapplicable, as an argumentum ad hominem, to Brownists. and could not find either Brownists or Churchwardens of the parish of Stepney in any trouble at all. "As for the Brownists, I was so far from troubling them, or causing their trouble, being honest simple people, that when they were, by the Officers, discovered, I went twice to that Rt. Rev. and worthy Father, Archbishop Whitgift, in their behalf; who did easily condescend that their children, being some years of age, should be as privately baptized as might be; and that, in the Church; and they no further troubled: as may appear by a Letter written by Sir Edward Stanop, at my Lord's appointment, unto Mr. Thomson the Minister, and the Churchwardens, of the said parish of Stepney. Howbeit, some of them have railed upon me in the open streets of London, with most opprobrious speeches; bidding me, Go, tell their antichristian holinesses the Bishops, my new masters, that they were enemies to the Truth of God and all good preachers! Though these impure railers do submit themselves to all the Orders of our Church as I do: with what conscience, let the wise judge. It is not unknown to many in the parish, what cruel hatred that sort hath laboured to bring me into; even to the undoing of my wife and seven poor children in the time of the last Plague, and ever since, for showing my private dislike of certain seditious doctrines delivered at that time, in the Church of Stepney, by one who for divers horrible, beastly, and notorious misdemeanors, was suspended and silenced. They, most slanderously, charged me to be the cause of his troubles; and so contrived plotting my overthrow by such shameless means as accounting me worse than Julian the apostate; maliciously beating my children in the streets, not shaming to say that they hoped to see my children seek their bread out of the dirty channels in the streets; for driving,' as they said, that 'good man' away: who, since that time, hath cleared me of their accusations, publicly, in the Pulpit; and washed his hands, that were so filthy before: though his flatterers give out, that he recanted for fear; only to keep himself within the safety of the Ministry from irregularity; yea, albeit he subscribed most largely, and would have done more than that, if he had been urged. What should I speak of their worse than Turkish, and more than savage cruelty, in dissuading my neighbours from my society? What should I speak of their pride, in comparing with, yea, preferring, some of their fanatical Preachers and many of their ownselves, before the ancient Fathers; yea, above St. Peter the apostle?.. Their cursed threatenings, in a short space after, took such effect, that their strong venomous breath, which I could not endure, drove me and mine household into the country; where my poor wife and children moistened their bread with tears, and their drink with weeping, as chased by these tyrants, by sea and land, into places unknown to them and me: which I pray thee, O Lord, bring not unto their charge, but forgive their sins, and relieve our distresses. "Marvel not, I pray you, ne [nor] be not offended at me, that I thus ease my sorrows by relating them unto your Christian compassionate ears. My poor maintenance of a just quarrel, in a See back, p. 157. |