thereof, according as it is set down in the eleventh of [the first Epistle to the] Corinthians, the 24th verse. Being demanded, Whether they used to make a collection or gathering among them? said, That there is a gathering of money among them. The which money is delivered to the deacons, to be distributed according to their directions, to the use of the poor. And, he heard say, That they did use to marry in their congregation. And further, refuseth to come to the church, and obey the Form of Service, which is used in the Book of Common Prayer; because there is not a reformation according to the Word of God-Signed, Rich. Young."a

What Independent, or Congregationalist, of the present day, will not have read this document with peculiar interest? Strype, through an allowable ignorance here, perhaps finding the original instrument so indorsed, calls this "a meeting of Brownists." If that annalist had adverted to one of his documents, headed January 18th, but subscribed the 8th, 159[3]-4; he would have seen that Johnson disclaims the title, where, speaking of himself and another, he says they are "falsely called Brownists.'"b And in his "Answer" to Jacob, he writes thus," For the name Brownists,' by which we are reproached, . . Mr. Browne, from whose name this by-word was first taken up, is a member and minister of Mr. Jacob's church, not of ours; yet holding, as we hear, in his judgment, the truth we profess, but for his practice standing in the apostacy and false worship wherein they are. So that not we, but Mr. Jacob, and such like, may fitly be called 'Brownists,' inasmuch as in their judgment they hold the things we stand for to be good, yet in their practice, like Browne, are other men, walking with the Church of England in her evil way."

"C

Reverting to Buck's testimony, we have various points of desirable information. As, His conscientious objection to judiciary oaths. From which we see that the Society of Friends, or Quakers, are not the first who practically protested against this mode of adjuration; though Johnson did not, himself, object to oaths" as simply unlawful

a We are able to add to the interest of Buck's statement of particulars, from a very rare Tract of but six pages quarto, printed in 1641, under the title of The Brownist's Synagogue: Or, a late Discovery of their Conventicles, assemblies, and places of meeting, where they preach, and the manner of their praying and preaching; &c." The anonymous writer, a bitter enemy, says, "In that house where they intend to meet, there is one appointed to keep the door, for the intent, to give notice if there should be any insurrection, warning may be given them. They do not flock together, but come two or three in a company; any man may be admitted thither; and all being gathered together, the man appointed to teach stands in the midst of the room, and his audience gather about him. He prayeth about the space of half an hour; and part of his prayer is, that those which came thither to scoff and laugh, God would be pleased to turn their hearts; by which means they think to escape undiscovered. His sermon is about the space of an hour, and then doth another stand up to make the text more plain; and at the latter end, he entreats them all to go home severally, lest, the next meeting, they should be interrupted by those which are of the opinion of the wicked. They seem very steadfast in their opinions, and say, 'rather than they will turn, they will burn.'" p. 5.

Ann. vol. iv. p. 134.

not, hitherto, given unto any so much as a copy either of yours or our own; providing, what we could, for your credit, yea, so as we neglected our own selves, and were traduced by others, as now, by this book published, will appear unto all. But, perhaps, in this matter you purposed one thing, he another. Whatsoever it were, now you cannot but see how the prelates and priests of our country do so interpret your Letters as if they had been written against the truth of the gospel of Christ, which we profess, and for defence of the antichristian apostacy and tyranny wherein they persist. Which thing we leave unto you, to be weighed seriously before the Lord.

"Neither is it to be omitted, that your private Letters are set forth in public: yours, we say, who took it so ill that the Confession of Faith' of this whole church should be made public; who, in these very Letters of yours, wrote so much of the public view; of publishing the wounds of the church indiscreetly; many weak ones, before so many deadly enemies of God and the church :-of not offending any one of Christ's disciples-of not provoking churches— of every one abounding in their own sense, &c.!' It is marvel if your translator turn not your own words upon yourself, and tell you that a Christian, an humble and godly mind, ought to be otherwise affected; and, setting aside the respect of their own private regard, &c. :' but this the more unjustly, if he made your Letters public without your knowledge. Which we indeed at first did suspect; till we saw your second epistle come forth somewhile after the other. Neither could we well think otherwise of the matter, especially seeing you wrote unto us that we might rend the Letters: and, that you also would 'conceal it.' Know, moreover, that in the edition of your Letters, there be certain clauses wherein the translation is not made answerable to yours in Latin sent unto us; which we by your original, amend in our edition now ready to be published.

a

"These, and many other things which yet we conceal, seem unto us to be of some moment. But we are deceived, perhaps, in our own cause! and therefore you, and your translator would, omitting all confutation, that others should have the judgment thereof: you, in delivering, he, in publishing your Letters. But why, then, did you not vouchsafe to give us any knowledge thereof? At least, why did you not so provide as that Letter of ours, which was in your hands, should also be translated and published? Did you think that he which is first in his own cause is just?' Why, then, did you not also mind, that his neighbour coming after him will make inquiry of him, that so both parties being heard, judgment may be given according to truth and equity? For which cause, though we have hitherto borne this, yet will we, hereafter, meet with such dealing by the best and fittest means we can. Neither doubt we, but all these things, howsoever now they stand, will at length fall out for good both to us and to all other which love Christ, with all his ordinances, and hate antichrist, with all his abominations. . .

Concerning the differences, whereof you write again in your Letters, which are between us and the Dutch church of this city, it

"due

Council, in one of their Supplications, telling them that, upon examination" of the Holy Scriptures, they find the English hierarchy "not to belong unto, or to have any place or use, or so much as mention," in Christ's Church; and they find God's absolute commandment" that all who believe the Gospel should walk in Christ's holy faith and order, which he has "appointed, and whereby he only is present, and reigneth in his Church;" wherefore, in his reverent fear and love, they had joined themselves together," and subjected their souls and bodies to those holy laws and ordinances ;" and chosen to themselves" such a ministry of pastor, teacher, elders, and deacons, as Christ hath given to his Church here on earth, to the world's end;" waiting, they add, the promised assistance of his grace, "notwithstanding any prohibition of men, or what by men can be done unto us." They remind their Lordships, that beside such of them as were undergoing "miserable usage" in the Fleet prison, some of their fraternity were" laden with as many irons as they could bear" in Newgate; others were confined" among the most facinorous and vile persons; where it is lamentable to relate how many of these innocents have perished within these five years, and of these, some aged widows, aged men, and young maidens, &c.;" others had been " grievously beaten with cudgels" in Bridewell, and cast into a place there, called Little Ease, for refusing to attend their chapel-service." Upon none," they continue, thus committed by the Prelates, and dying in their prison, "is any search or inquest suffered to pass, as by law in like case is provided.' About a month since, their pursuivants, late in the night, entered, in the Queen's name, into an honest citizen's house upon Ludgate-hill; where, after they had, at their pleasure, searched and ransacked, all places, chests, &c. of the house, they there apprehended two of our ministers, Francis Johnson, without any warrant at all, and John Greenwood; both of whom, between one and two of the clock, after midnight, they, with bills and staves, led to the Counter in Wood Street; taking assurance of Edward Boys, the owner of this house, to be true prisoner in his own house, until the next day that he were sent for; at which time the archbishop [Whitgift], with certain doctors his associates, committed all three to close prison... Since this, they have cast into prison Thomas Settle and Daniel Studley, lately taken, and Nicholas Lane, upon a Lord'sday, in our assembly, by Mr. Richard Young."e

Another of their petitions was addressed to the Council thus, "The humble, most earnest, and lamentable Complaint and Supplication of the persecuted Church and Servants of Christ, called Brownists :'" and it embodies these words; "The Most High God, Possessor of Heaven and Earth, bringeth, at this present, before your Lordships and Wisdoms, Right Honourable, his own cause, his own people; and, his own sworn and most treacherous enemies; together with the most Boys was sent nineteen months to one prison, and then transferred to another. Brook, vol. ii. p. 39.

If the "and" here, be not a misreading for "in," it might be that either Walter Lane, or Nicholas Lee (see above, p. 85,) two of the sufferers named in another document, was intended. See Strype, Ann. vol. iv. p. 93, and p. 175.

Ibid. pp. 93–96.

shameful usage of his truth and servants, that ever hath been heard of in the days of Sion's professed peace and tranquillity.

"His Cause and People, He offereth unto your consideration and defence, in our profession and persons; His Enemies and their outrage against his truth and servants, in the persons and bloody proceedings of the Prelates of the land and their Complices.

"We profess the same faith and truth of the Gospel which her Majesty and your Honours, the whole Land, and all the Reformed Churches under Heaven, this day do hold and maintain; we go beyond them,-being our only fault, even in the judgments of our tyrannical and most savage enemies,—in the detestation of all Popery, that most fearful anti-christian religion; and draw nearer, in some points, by our practice, unto Christ's holy order and institution. This is our Faith, this is our Cause in our sinful hands; and for the profession and maintenance of which Faith, the fore-named Enemies of God detain in their hands within the prisons about London,-not to speak of other gaols throughout the land,-about threescore and twelve persons, men and women, young and old, lying in cold, in hunger, in dungeons, in irons! Of which number they have taken the Lord's-day last past, being the third of the fourth month, 1592, about some fifty-six persons, hearing the Word of God truly taught, praying, and praising God for all his favours showed unto us, and unto her Majesty, your Honours, and the whole land; desiring our God to be merciful unto us, and to our gracious Princess and country: being employed in these holy actions, and no other, as the parties who disturbed us can testify. They were taken in the very same place where the persecuted Church and martyrs were enforced to use the like exercise in Queen Mary's days. The former number, are now unbailably committed by the Prelates, or Bishop of London, into close-for the most, in several-prisons; as Bridewell, the Clink, the Gatehouse, the Limbo or dungeon in Newgate, the Fleet, the Marshalsea, the Counter, the White Lion: wherein we willingly acknowledge the lot and inheritance, in this life, of our forefathers and brethren, and holy martyrs of the former age; and the entailed 'Aceldama,'a or blood-succcession of the See of London, and that whole lineage! . . Purposing, belike, to imprison them unto death, as they have done seventeen or eighteen others, in the same noisome gaols, within these six years... Their unbridled slanders; their lawless privy-searches; their violent breaking open and rifling our houses; their lamentable and barbarous usage of women and young children in these hostile assaults, and ever robbing and taking away whatsoever they think meet from us: . . their dealing this way towards us, is so woful, Right Honourable, as we may truly demand with grief of heart, whether the foreign enemy, or our own native countrymen, do possess and bear rule over us in our dear and native country! . . Bishop Bonner, Story, Weston, dealt not after this sort; for those whom they committed close, they brought them, in short space, openly into Smithfield, to end their misery, and to begin their never-ending joy; whereas Bishop Elmor [Aylmore], Doctor Stanhope, and Mr. Justice Young,

d Acts i. 19.

with the rest of that persecuting and blood-thirsty faculty, will do neither of these...

"There are many of us, by the mercies of God, still out of their hands:..we have as good warrant to reject the ordinances of Antichrist, and labour for the recovery of Christ's holy ordinances, as our fathers, in Queen Mary's days...

"Are we malefactors? Are we anywise undutiful to our Prince ? Maintain we any errors? Let us, then, be judicially convicted thereof, and delivered to the Civil Authority. But let not these bloody men both accuse, condemn, and close murder us, after this sort; contrary to all law, equity, and conscience; where, alone, they are the plaintiff, the accusers, the judges, and the executioners of their most fearful barbarous tyranny! They should not, by the laws of the land, go any further, in cases of Religion, than their own Ecclesiastical Censures, and then refer us to the Civil Powers. Their forefathers, Gardener, Bonner, Story, dealt thus equally; and we crave but their equity. Oh, let her excellent Majesty our Sovereign, and your Wisdoms, consider and accord unto us this our just Petition...

"We crave for all of us, but liberty either to die openly, or to live openly in the land of our nativity. If we deserve death, it beseemeth the Magistrates of Justice not to see us closely murdered;..if we be guiltless, we crave but the benefit of our innocency, that we may have peace to serve God and our Prince, in the place and sepulchres of our fathers.

"Thus protesting our innocency; complaining of violence and wrong; and crying for Justice on the behalf, and in the name of that Righteous Judge--the God of Equity and Justice, we continue our prayers unto Him for her Majesty, and your Honours."a

66

Young, named in both the Supplications, was one of those tools of power of which every age affords numerous examples. Strype has again served us, by perpetuating an " Inscription" for a member of this church, which he says was brought with a coffin, with much pomp, to receive the body of a martyr for the Cause! a Barrowist, who died in Newgate this year, 1592.b And, from Baker, we learn that it was paraded before Mr. Young's door." "This is the corpse of Roger Rippon, a servant of Christ, and her majesty's faithful subject; who is the last of sixteen or seventeen which that great enemy of God, the archbishop of Canterbury, with his High Commissioners, have murdered in Newgate within these five years, manifestly for the testimony of Jesus Christ. His soul is now with the Lord; and his blood crieth for speedy vengeance against that great enemy of his saints; and against Mr. Richard Young, who, in this and many the like points, hath abused his power, for the upholding of the Romish antichrist— prelacy and priesthood!"

When he departed, no more to return to his native country, Johnson, with his friends, directed their course to Holland. A very different series of events attended him there, most of which events are more or less so implicated with the history of the individual of whom we are a The original is contained, “word for word," in "More Work for the Dean," sup. p. 15-19. b Ib. p. 93, 174, and 133. MS. Coll. vol. xv. p. 112.