been compelled to resort to first principles, retreating upon the New Testament, the only common ground of Protestants. There we make our stand, for there we find Congregational churches "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."a To confirm this, we rejoice at being able to draw our materials from the writings of that pre-eminent son of the Establishment already cited, Dr. Isaac Barrow, whose subsequent words and argumentation show clearly the very constitution of Independent churches, and whence we challenge the affinity of their discipline to be far more accordant to Scriptural institution, and therefore far more apostolical, than that of any ecclesiastical system which has ever been incorporated into, or allied, in any way, to secular governments. Yes, we cannot but rejoice that the pen of a divine of such a" large and comprehensive mind," should have been providentially made subservient to a faithful exhibition of truly primitive Christianity; and still more, as it is entirely free from suspicion of collusion or designed accommodation. Having brought his argument to the point before us, this profound scholar continues by saying, "The question is, Whether the Church is necessarily, by the design and appointment of God, to be, in way of external policy, under one singular government or jurisdiction of any kind; so as a kingdom or commonwealth are united under the command of one monarch or one senate ?" He then contends for the negative side of this proposition, premising, "That the Church is capable of such a union, is not the controversy; that when, in a manner all Christendom did consist of subjects to the Roman empire, the Church then did arrive near such a unity, I do not at present contest; but that such a union of all Christians is necessary, or that it was ever instituted by Christ, I cannot grant, and for my refusal of that opinion, I shall assign divers reasons. 1. "This being a point of great consideration, and, trenching upon practice, which every one were concerned to know; and there being frequent occasions to declare it; yet the Holy Scripture doth nowhere express or intimate such a kind of unity; which is a sufficient proof that it hath no firm ground. We may say of it as St. Austin saith of the Church itself, I will not that the holy church be demonstrated from human reasonings [documentis], but [from] the Divine Oracles. St. Paul particularly, in divers epistles, designedly treating about the unity of the Church, together with other points of doctrine neighbouring thereon, and amply describing it, doth not yet imply any such unity then extant, or designed to be. He doth maintain and urge the unity of spirit, of faith, of charity, of peace, of relation to our Lord, of communion in devotions and offices of piety; but concerning any union under one singular visible governinent or polity he is silent. He saith, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all ;'e not one monarch, or one senate, or one sanhedrin; which is a pregnant sign that none such was then instituted, otherwise he could not have slipped over a point so very material and pertinent to his discourse. 2. By the apostolical history it may appear, that the apostles in the propagation of Christianity, and founding of christian societies, had no meaning, did take no care, to establish any such polity. They did resort to several places, whither Divine instinct, or reasonable occasion, did carry them; where, by their preaching, having convinced and converted a competent number of persons, to the embracing christian doctrine, they did appoint pastors to instruct and edify them,.. this is all we can see done by them. 3. "The Fathers, in their set treatises, and in their incidental discourses, about the unity of the church,.. do make it to consist only in those unions of faith, charity, peace, which we have described, not in this political union... 4. The constitution of such a unity [as the question imports] doth involve the vesting some person, or some number of persons, with a sovereign authority (subordinate to our Lord),.. but of these things, in the apostolic writings, or in any near those times, there doth not appear any footstep or pregnant intimation. . . 5. The primitive state of the Church did not well comport with such a unity. For, Christian Churches were founded in distant places, as the apostles did find opportunity, or received direction to found them; which therefore could not, without extreme inconve nience, have resort or reference to one authority any where fixed. Each Church, therefore, separately did order its own affairs, without recourse to others, except for charitable advice or relief, in cases of extraordinary difficulty or urgent need. Each Church was endowed with a perfect liberty and a full authority, without dependence or subordination to others, to govern its own members, to manage its own affairs, to decide controversies and causes incident among themselves, without allowing appeals or rendering accounts to others. This appeareth by the apostolical writings of St. Paul and St. John, to single Churches; wherein they are supposed able to exercise spiritual power for establishing decency, removing disorders, correcting offences, deciding causes, &c. 6. "This avrovouía and liberty of Churches, doth appear to have long continued in practice inviolate; although tempered and modelled in accommodation to the circumstances of place and time. . . 7. "This political unity doth not well accord with the nature and genius of the evangelical dispensation. Our Saviour affirmed that his kingdom is not of this world;'d and St. Paul telleth us, that it consisteth in Spiritual influence upon the souls of men, producing in them virtue, Spiritual joy, and peace. It disavoweth and discountenanceththe elements of the world,'f by which worldly designs are • Χειροτονήσαντες αὐτοῖς πρεσβυτέρους κατ ̓ ἐκκλησίαν' Acts xiv. 23. Apoc. ii. and iii. 1 Cor. xiv. 40. 1 Thess. v. 14. 1 Cor. v. 12; vi. 1. d John xviii. 36. Col. ii. 20. e Rom. xiv. 17. Gal. iv. 3. 9. b 6 carried on, and worldly frames sustained. It requireth not to be managed by politic artifices or fleshly wisdom,' but by simplicity, sincerity, plain dealing; as every subject of it must lay aside all 'guile' and dissimulation, so especially the officers of it must do so, in conformity to the apostles, who had their conversation in the world,' and prosecuted their design in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God; not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully,' &c.d It needeth not to be supported or enlarged by wealth and pomp, or by compulsive force and violence, for God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty; base, despicable things, &c. that no flesh should glory in his presence:' and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God,' &c. It discountenanceth the imposition of new laws and precepts, beside those which God hath enjoined, or which are necessary for order and edification; derogating from the liberty of Christians, and from the simplicity of our religion.s The government of the christian state is represented purely spiritual; administered by meek persuasion, not by imperious awe; as an humble ministry, not as stately domination; for the apostles themselves did not lord it over men's faith,' but did co-operate to their joy; they did not preach' themselves, but Christ Jesus' to be 'the Lord;' and themselves their servants for Jesus.' It is expressly forbidden to them to domineer over God's people. They are to be qualified with gentleness and patience; they are forbidden to 'strive,' and enjoined to be gentle towards all, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. They are to convince, to ' rebuke,' to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.'" They are furnished with no arms beside the Divine panoply; they bear no 'sword' but that of the Spirit,' which is the word of God;'P they may teach, reprove, they cannot compel. They are not to be entangled in the cares of this life.' 'm "But supposing the Church was designed to be one, in this manner of political regiment, it must be quite another thing; nearly resembling a worldly state, yea, in effect, soon resolving itself into such a one... The Christian Church is averse from pomp, doth reject domination, doth not require craft, wealth, or force, to maintain it; but did at first, and may subsist without such means.' At this place, our author feels it expedient to protect himself from the charge of betraying the Church of England; yet he nevertheless concedes to truth all that fidelity and conscience seemed to him to require, by adding in these words, "I do not say that an ecclesiastical 14 HISTORICAL MEMORIALS [ELIZ. society may not lawfully, for its support, use power, policy, wealth, in some measure, to uphold or defend itself; but, that a constitution needing such things is not divine; or that so far as it doth use them, it is no more than human."a Here, then, before the whole Christian world, and especially in the face of the Church of England, we make our hallowed boast, that INDEPENDENT, or CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES acting out their own principles fully, are the "best" b constituted Churches in Christendom : for who shall successfully controvert what has been advanced in our cause by such a relator and advocate as Isaac Barrow ? Seeing, hence, that Independency is grounded on Scripture alone, and may not, therefore, be abrogated or abandoned, we shall pursue the project of giving some account of its advancement in our own country. CHAP. II. THE IMPLANTATION AND GROWTH OF INDEPENDENCY IN ENGLAND THE Reformation had spread itself, in 1560, over Flanders and the Netherlands; when a sharp persecution commenced, on which, numbers flocked to the coast-towns of England. sighted are mere politicians, that her Majesty, queen Elizabeth, was But, so shortadvised to issue a proclamation, commanding "the Anabaptists, and such like heretics," to depart the realm within twenty days. Five years after, the great confederacy against the Protestants abroad was instituted; when the nobility of the United Provinces formed themselves into an association the following year; but though thus prepared, the notorious Duke of Alva arrived from Italy with a body of Spanish veterans, and commenced, in 1568, a methodized plan of confiscation, imprisonment, torture, exile, and death; a complication of cruelty, oppression, insolence, usurpation, and persecution! Numbers had, happily, found shelter, secretly or otherwise, in our own country. These disseminated here the knowledge of their arts and manufactures together with the principles of their Religion; and when the bishops resolved, but vainly, to make the attempt to extirpate those principles, A Discourse concerning the Unity of the Church. By Isaac Barrow, D.D. late Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. 1680. 4to. p. 21-33. "As to matter and manner of Divine worship, the great thing controverted in the world, among the many ways professed and practised, is, Who can lay the best claim to Divine authority? And hence it is that we, pretending also to the like claim, do here, not only declare what we hold in this weighty point, but make our plea for the best right to Divine authority for the worship of God in Congregational Churches." The Divine Institution of Cong. Churches, &c. By Isaac Chauncy, M.A.. 1697. 12mo. p. iv. Camden's ELIZ. p. 48. ed. 1648. they found that the counties of Norfolk and of Suffolk, and others adjacent, had imbibed them with avidity, and would maintain them with resolution. Fifty thousand Protestants, at least, were put to death in the United Provinces alone, which induced those provinces to revolt in 1572; and the next year they established, triumphantly, the Reformed Religion, with a universal toleration, though on secular grounds, of all sects; except the admission of Papists to offices of the State. And early in 1578, these wise statesmen strengthened themselves by an alliance with England.a That Independency, without the name, was growing up, both at home and abroad, simultaneously, is indubitable. Penry tells queen Elizabeth, in a paper dated Edinburgh, April 30th, 1593, "That, in all likelihood, if the days of your sister, queen Mary, and her persecution, had continued unto this day, the Church of God in England had been far more flourishing than at this day it is." And Strype quotes him, where he says, "It is well known that there was then in London, under the burden, and elsewhere in exile, more flourishing churches than any now tolerated by your authority."c The Council of Trent had despatched, for reasons loosely assigned by Strype, two emissaries from Rotterdam, in the year 1549, "who were to pretend themselves Anabaptists," and to "preach up re-baptizing, and a Fifth-Monarchy upon earth." In May the council forwarded a communication from Delft to two bishops, "whereof Winchester [Gardiner] was one," signifying that they should " cherish" the emissaries, "and take their parts, if they should chance to receive any checks;" telling those bishops "that it was left to them to assist in this course, and to some others, whom they knew to be well affected to the Mother-Church. Let it be remembered," Strype adds, "that about this time Winchester was appointed with Ridley bishop of Rochester, to examine certain Anabaptists in Kent."d e We learn, too, from Fox, that " upon New-year's day, anno 1555-6, at night following, certain men and women of the city, to the number of thirty, and a minister with them, named Master Rose, were taken as they were in a house in Bow-Church-Yard, at the communion; and, the same night, they were all committed to prison. And on the Thursday following, being the third day of January, Mr. Rose was brought before the Bishop of Winchester, being Lord Chancellor; and from thence, the same day, he was committed to the Tower." And, in another place, that Mr. John Rough, having left Scotland, his native country, in search of the Gospel, arrived November 10th, 1557, in London. "Where, hearing of the secret society and holy congregation of God's children there assembled, he joined himself unto them; afterward, being elected their minister and preacher... The twelfth day of December, he, with Cuthbert Sympson and others, through the crafty and traitorous suggestion of a false, hypocritical, and dissembling brother a Mosheim, and Hume, passim; with Heylyn's Hist. Presb. lib. iii. sect. 50. b Ephraim Pagitt's Heresiography, p. 272. ed. 1662. 12mo. Life of Whitgift, p. 411. Mem. of Cranmer, bk. ii. ch. xv. p. 207. • Acts and Monuments, vol. iii. p. 114. ed. 1641. fo. |