their even-song; this, for the first lesson; that, for the second: whereby they banish and reject a great part of God's Word out of their Church, never to be read there. Their abuse of that they read; as the Scripture called 'The Lord's Prayer,' five times said over at their matins, and used at all their assaies, marrying, churching, visiting, burying, sacraments. Their rending and shredding Scriptures, to make their 'epistles and gospels' upon their idol days, &c. Their reading 'apocrypha' in place of canonical Scriptures, in the Church. Their stinted, erroneous, unseasonable, and unreasonable prayers; their conjuring Christ, in their Litany,' &c. These trumperies have I briefly, and barely, recited unto the reader."a "In this stuff, he shall find the Foreign Churches to have no harmony' with the Church of England; nor yet, in these, shall he find us to have any consimilitude with the Donatists"!"

Having dismissed his "Few Observations," Barrowe penned a small piece, headed, "That it might be seen to all men, how constantly Mr. Giffard holdeth and thoroughly pursueth his purpose, to deface and utterly to disgrace us, from the beginning to the end of his book; he hath here suffixed, and to that end published, certain defamatory 'Articles,' by himself observed and collected out of our writings: With what equity, truth, and conscience, remaineth to be examined; &c." The only passage adapted for our information is where he tells his opponent, who had charged him with speaking "profanely of singing Psalms," that he has not "there spoken against that most comfortable and heavenly harmony of singing psalms, but against the rhyming and paraphrasing the Psalms as in your Church: nor yet in that place, so much against that, as against the apochrypha erroneous ballads in rhyme sung commonly in your Church instead of the Psalms and holy Songs of the canonical Scriptures. And, as to your confuse assemblies, I speak of them but as the Holy Ghost doth, Rev. xviii. 2., allegorically, according to the type, Levit. xi."d

Thus, the productions of one of the most remarkable men that ever engaged in religious controversy in the worst of times have passed in review. There still remains another, which was published in 1593, the year of Barrowe's untimely death: this last tract is intitled, A Platform, which may serve as a Preparative to drive away Prelatism." It was reprinted in the next reign, and from that edition we learn that, "A gentleman, of a good house," told the publisher, “ that Queen Elizabeth asked the learned Dr. Raynolds, what he then thought of those two men, Henry Barrowe and John Greenwood? He answered her Majesty, That it could not avail any thing to show his judgment concerning them, seeing they were put to death. And being loth to speak his mind further, her Majesty charged him upon his allegiance to speak; whereupon he answered, That he was persuaded, if they had lived, they would have been two as worthy instruments for the Church of God, as have been raised up in this age. Her Majesty sighed, and said no more: but after that, riding to a Park near the place where they suffered death, called again to mind b 246. Alluding to" Brief Discov." p. 180.

a P. 244.

d P. 254.

Hyde Park.

their suffering of death, and demanded of the Earl of Cumberland, who was present when they suffered, what end they made? He answered, A very godly end; and prayed for your Majesty, the State, &c.'" a

CHAP. IV.

FURTHER ACCOUNT OF GREENWOOD.—THE CASE OF PENRY.

"C

JOHN GREENWOOD commenced A.B. in 1580. He was chaplain to Lord Rich; was married, and had “ a young son. The first intination of his being imprisoned is November, 1586, when he was confined in the Clink, Southwark. If it were on the same occasion, he was apprehended, then at least, unlawfully, at midnight, and removed from a city prison to this, on the day following.d

It will have been seen in our account of Barrowe, his fellow-collegian, and companion in tribulation, what length of time Greenwood endured persecution; and that, like his friend, he underwent examination upon interrogatories. On this occasion, the Commissioners sat at the bishop of London's palace, called London House, Aldersgatestreet. To the questions, "If he were a minister?" and, "Who had degraded him ?" he replied, "I was one according to your orders ;" and, "I degraded myself, through God's mercy, by repentance." On their proceeding to entrap him into admissions concerning the Book of Common Prayer, he said, "I have been long a close prisoner, and therefore desire you will show me wherefore I am treated thus, and not entangle me by your law. I see you go about to bring me within the compass of your law, by making me accuse myself." When questioned, "What say you of the Church of England; Is it a true established church of God?" he remarked, that "The whole Commonwealth is not a church;" but being asked, "Do you know any true established church in the land ?" he replied, "If I did, I would not accuse it unto you!" And, on the question being put in this third form, "Is not the whole land, as now ordered, a true church?" he answered emphatically and truly, "No!"

a "More Work for the Dean," (Dr. Stillingfleet), by Thomas Wall. 1681. 4to. p. 6.-The Puritan temper towards the Separatists is exemplified in the prejudice they produced even in the mind of John Cotton, who writes, "This I can say, from the testimony of holy and blessed Mr. Dod, who speaking this of Mr. Barrowe, saith he, . . 'As his spirit was high and rough before his reformation, so was it after, even to his death. When he stood under the gibbet, he lift up his eyes and-Lord,' saith he, 'If I be deceived, Thou hast deceived me:' and so being stopt by the hand of God, he was not able to proceed to speak any thing to purpose more.' Reply to Williams, p. 117; see hereafter, under Penry. Wall suggests, p. 2, that Barrowe might be appropriately quoting Jer. xx. 7.

b Masters, p. 227.
c Ibid. p. 228.
See under Johnson; hereafter.

During the prosecution of their interrogatories, he told the Reverend Inquisitors that " Every Congregation of Christ ought to be governed by that presbytery which Christ appointed; a pastor, teacher, and elder;" and, that " Though the Prince forbid them to correct vice by the censure of the Word, they must nevertheless do what God commands." Being asked, If he approved of the oath of supremacy?" which they said, "meant the order, and government, with all the laws in the church, as it is now established,”—“ Then," said he," I will not answer to approve of it."a

This is another instance of resistance of oppression, by a courageous and enlightened mind. When rulers unduly stretch their prerogatives beyond the limits of equity, arbitrarily to direct and control matters above their province, the Holy Scriptures become the safest counsellor; and he degrades the hallowed name of Christian, who is ashamed or afraid, under all circumstances, to declare what he knows of the will of God. The Christian has often been made to suffer most grievously for what he holds to be his Divine Master's cause; but he is considered to be more or less than a Man, who "endures" without complaining; and complainants suffering anguish, whether bodily or mental, rarely select the choicest or mildest terms in which to characterize their grievances. To reproach such, inconsiderately, is therefore a reproach against our common nature. The charge of want of charity, comes with the worst possible effect from parties, how exalted in worldly rank soever, who arrogate to themselves to be the sole judges and purveyors of that virtue, debasing its nature, and denying its very existence in more lowly bosoms, which yet beat as high as any, with the love of God himself, the only source of that love which is the fulfilling of his law. "I shall beg to propose," wrote George, Duke of Buckingham, "Whether there be any thing more directly opposite to the doctrine and practice of Jesus Christ, than to use any kind of force upon men in matters of Religion? And, consequently, Whether those that practise it, let them be of what Church or Sect they please, ought not justly to be called Antichristian ?'"'e

Four years prior to being sacrificed by a blood-guilty Protestant hierarchy, Greenwood published his "Answer to George Giffard's pretended Defence of Read Prayers and Devised Liturgies; with the ungodly Cavils and wicked Slanders comprised in the first part of his Book, intituled, A Short Treatise against the Donatists of England." 1590. He styles himself "Christ's poor afflicted prisoner in the Fleet, at London, for the Truth of the Gospel."

We have exhibited Barrowe's sentiments concerning the Puritans, and their position in the Establishment. We are now about to produce

■ Exam. ut sup.

We are aware of Whitgift's armorial motto, Vincit qui patitur, (Paule, sect. 38,) and refer for its illustration, in him, to our note (,) p. 38.

C

"I have brought you some fine biscuits, baked in the oven of Charity, and carefully conserved for the chickens of the Church!" Serm. at St. Mary's Oxford. 1569. Fuller, bk. ix. p. 65.

d Rom. xiii. 10.

• The Reasonableness of Men's having a Religion. 1685. Phenix, vol. ii. p.525.

Greenwood's representation respecting them. It may, indeed, be truly said that these sentiments were entertained alike by the two companions in tribulation; for they seem to have acted in unison, with a determination to oppose Giffard; and inay be considered, therefore, the organs or representatives of all the Separatists, in conveying their judgment upon the half-way measures of the Puritans;a of whom, we lament to have fallen upon the following description; but of whom we entertain, nevertheless, undiminished reverence for their exertions, so far as they went, in the righteous cause of civil and religious liberty. We are not, happily, required to avouch or to deny the correctness of the statement; we give it, among other reasons, and, as we have intimated elsewhere, because such representations account for the extreme soreness of the Puritans against the uncompromising Separatists; who had discovered wherein they were vulnerable, trimming as they did between the arrogant "mother" and the rebellious "daughter." We would fain hope that the picture before us is overcharged, since Giffard had so greatly provoked his opponents, whose resentment betrays itself conspicuously.

"b

6

"And now to the stipendiary Preachers' let us, for example, insist upon Mr. Giffard's own ministry. He writeth himself, Minister of God's holy Word, in Maldon.'.. He hath not in Maldon the credit or room, so much as a Curate; the pastor there supplying his own office; but is brought in by such of the parish as having itching ears,' get unto themselves a heap of new-fangled Teachers, after their own lusts; disliking and watching the ministry that is set over them; to which, notwithstanding, in hypocrisy, and for fear of the world, they join in prayer and sacraments, pay tithes and maintenance, as to the proper minister. To such people, being rich and able to pay them well, these sectary, precise Preachers' run for their hire and wages: but chiefly, for vain-glory and worldly ostentation. And there, teach and preach, this people, for the most part, under some dumb or plurified pastor; from whom, as from unsufficient and blind guides, they withdraw not the people, showing them the will of God in that or any other point, be it never so odious and abominable, that might bring peril. Yet, for their own estimation, advantage, and entertainment, they will, by all subtle means, underhand, seek to alienate the hearts and minds of this forward and best inclined people from these their pastors, and slily to draw them unto themselves.f

Long it were, to relate their arts and engines, whereby they hunt and entangle poor souls; their counterfeit shows of holiness, gravity, austereness of manners, preciseness in trifles, large conscience in matters of greatest weight, especially of any danger; straining at a gnat, and swallowing a camel; hatred, and thundering against some

a "This have I heard reported of him,.. that if he could have been sundered from Mr. Barrowe, he was tractable to have been gained to the truth.'" Cotton: Reply to Williams, p. 118. See sup. p. 62, and inf. Penry.

See the motto of Barrowe's "False Church," back, p. 39.

c 2 Tim. iv. 3.

e Acts xx. 27. Gal. vii.

d Rom. xvi. 18. Phil. iii. 18, 19.

f Gal. iv. 17. 1 Thess. ii. 3-6. Ezek. xiii. 18. Jer. xxx. 30. Matt. xxiii.

sin,-tolerating, yea colouring some other, in some special persons; cunning insinuating into, and never offending the rich; not regarding the poor; holding and withholding the known truth of God, in respect of times, places, and persons,-dissembling, hiding, withholding it in their public ministry and doctrines, where it may draw them into any trouble or trial; yea, balking, if not perverting, the evident Scriptures as they arise against any public enormity of the time, under the colour of peace, Christian policy, and wisdom! Whereby these Scorpions so poison and sting every good conscience; so leaven them with hypocrisy, and teach them to halt with the times; dissembling with God and their own conscience, that such proselytes, as are won unto them, become "twofold more the children of hell' than they were before. Yea, so is their whole auditory entangled with their snares, as scarce any of them, -without the special mercy of God,- -are ever recovered, brought to any soundness, stability, or upright walking; to any conscience, true faith, or fear of God.

"Hence ariseth these Schisms and sects in the Church of England; some, holding with these 'Preachers,' which make show as though they sought a sincere Reformation of all things, according to the Gospel of Christ, and yet both execute a false ministry themselves, and they, together with all their hearers and followers, stand under that throne of Antichrist-the bishops, their courts, and accomplices, and all those detestable enormities which they should have utterly removed, and not reformed. And these are, hereupon, called 'Precisians,' or Puritans,' and now lately, Martinists.' The other side, are the Pontificals,' that, in all things, hold and jump with the true, and are ready to justify whatsoever is or shall be, by public authority, established. And with these hold all the rabble of Atheists,' dissembling Papists,' cold and lukewarm Protestants;''Libertines;' dissolute and facinorous persons, and such as have no knowledge or fear of God: even that ancient Sect of the Pharisees and Sadducees; the one, in preciseness, outward show of holiness, hypocrisy, vain glory, covetousness, resembling or rather exceeding the Pharisees: the other, in their whole religion, and dissolute conversation like unto the Sadducees; looking for no resurrection, judgment, or life to come; confessing God with their lips, and serving him after their careless manner, but denying him in their heart, yea, openly in their deeds, as their whole life and all their works declare.

Long it were, and not to the purpose, in this place, to show how these Pharisee-Sectary-Teachers, these stipendiary roving Predicants, that have no certain office or place assigned them in their Church; but, like wandering stars, remove from place to place, for their greatest advantage and best entertainment, in the error of Balaam poured out for wage, seduce and distract the people of the land; drawing them from their own churches and ministry, some to this, some to that 'Preacher,' by heaps; each one, as he standeth affected, to him that best fitteth his humour."

b

a Gal. vi. 12.

b Jude, 11-13.

c P. 135;-p. 142, contains a similar argumentum ad hominem.

F